Always wondered this. All the blights before it lasted nearly a century at least, but the 5th ended in a little over a year. Was Urthemiel's invasion just a Blight Lite, or was the Warden just more badass than any other Warden leader beforehand and stopped it in record time?
Seeing as it was just the Architect's botched experiment more or less, I'm leaning to the former.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
I think it's a real Blight. I think there's 3 main things that made it short. We've learned from the past, for one. Early blights didn't see the threat until later. Also, the Warden probably is super-badass. Also, Flemeth pretty much changed everything. It could've been a lot worse without her.
Well, it was pretty much ended before it could even begin, so it probably could have become just as bad as the last ones if the Warden wasn't, well, awesome. Especially when you consider the fact that him/her and Alistair were essentially the only Wardens around for most of it.
The Warden was flukey.
I think the main difference was in fact that the resistance was unusually weak, and thus the Archdemon exposed itself recklessly.
Always wondered this. All the blights before it lasted nearly a century at least, but the 5th ended in a little over a year. Was Urthemiel's invasion just a Blight Lite, or was the Warden just more badass than any other Warden leader beforehand and stopped it in record time?
Seeing as it was just the Architect's botched experiment more or less, I'm leaning to the former.
The Blights have grown progressively easier to defeat as time rolled on. Where the first one lasted 2 centuries, subsequent ones took less time to beat with the 4th one taking only about a decade or so IIRC.
The Warden managed to defeat it easily through a combination of 1) not letting politics hamper his quest, 2) skill, 3) a massive crapload of luck, and 4) the Archdemon being rather stupid near the end when it was actually doing pretty well beforehand.
So it's a real Blight.
Guest_StreetMagic_*
The Blights have grown progressively easier to defeat as time rolled on. Where the first one lasted 2 centuries, subsequent ones took less time to beat with the 4th one taking only about a decade or so IIRC.
The Warden managed to defeat it easily through a combination of 1) not letting politics hamper his quest, 2) skill, 3) a massive crapload of luck, and 4) the Archdemon being rather stupid near the end when it was actually doing pretty well beforehand.
So it's a real Blight.
I knew the bights were gradually getting easier, but didn't know the last one cut down to a decade. I think they lost the first land it spread in though, unlike Ferelden in this game. That would have happened again, without Flemeth.
I knew the bights were gradually getting easier, but didn't know the last one cut down to a decade. I think they lost the first land it spread in though, unlike Ferelden in this game. That would have happened again, without Flemeth.
The Blight also started in the Wilds, which were poorly populated by Ferelden and so less likely to be missed.
I believe the best description of this blight is 'stillborn.' It was ended before it could cause truly catastrophic amounts of damage: a reflection of growing recognition and early awareness (Maric, fool that he was, brought in the Wardens early which led to recruitment) and a crapton of luck.
Guest_Faerunner_*
I think it's more like the Warden just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and gather the right amount of support to end the Blight before it got too out of hand. I'm not sure Wardens in past Blights were "less awesome" (Garahel certainly led an army against an army of darkspawn that devastated most of the known world and singled-handedly defeated the Archdemon in one-on-one combat!), but they likely didn't notice a problem or weren't able to rally enough support to deal with them until the Blights were too big to put down quickly enough.
They were mainly just lucky. Riorden and Flemeth basically gave the Warden one shot at the Archdemon and they took it. If they hadn't killed Urthemiel then the darkspawn would have won the Battle of Denerim and spread to the rest of Thedas.
It's a real Blight, you were just able to stop it before it spread out of Fereldan and into the rest of Thedas.
Guest_Magick_*
Either people overly exaggerated it or other factors played at the right time that we aren't fully aware of yet which benefited us. I'm pretty sure the blight was the least of everyone's concern everywhere else...except hawke..nobody liked hawke or the amell family so they got left behind forming DA2.
Duncan managed to get opposition started early before it could gather much steam, and the Warden was able to rally allies while in these early stages.
It was a real Blight.
The Fifth just got defeated before it could really get rolling by a combination of Flemeth's intervention, skill on the parts of the Warden and Riordan, and a whole lot of luck.
A real blight. In other Blights I believe the Darkspawn were initially ignored by the major nation in the area for a time, (or in the case of the First Blight) were simply taken by surprise and were unable to muster any kind of major resistance. In the Fifth Blight, the very purpose for Duncan finding the Warden was because he was searching for more Wardens and men to bolster the King's army at Ostagar. Showing that Ferelden took Blights a bit more seriously than others previously had. Which is strange considering that during the Fourth Blight, Ferelden was not touched at all, yet they took this Blight seriously enough to send majority of Highever and many other major armies to Ostagar despite tensions with Orlais. That was a major turning point I believe, and the fact that the Architect was messing around and "freeing" some of the Darkspawn probably had another serious affect in keeping the Fifth Blight in check.
And there is the legendary Warden him/herself, who could have very well taken the Archdemon on by themselves (If the Player's own skill is good enough). Basically, the Blight came to the surface only to find that Humans and Elves were waiting for them. And this time the Darkspawn just couldn't draw as much momentum as they had in Blight's past, even Garahel himself managed to butcher many of the Darkspawn (it took 400 years for there to be enough of them to start the Fifth Blight). I am worried however, that the quick end of the Blight might end up making the Sixth or Seventh Blight that much worse, as I doubt many Darkspawn were slain (in regards to the numbers that they built up over 400 years). You can only do so much in 100 years. But who knows, the Dwarves managed to gain some thaigs after the Fifth and so maybe the Darkspawn are just not as relevant as they use to be in the past.
It simply amazed me that the Archdemon patiently waited for the Wardens to gather all of their allies, before it showed itself. Yay, now we stand a chance to win.
I think Duncan's voice-over after the final battle says it all: the Blight had been defeated before it actually began. So it's a real Blight -but the cost of quelling it was probably a whole lot less than any of the previous four. Which is why it is important that the Wardens remain vigilant between Blights. Caillan marshalling his forces at Duncan's request was probably a solid first blow in keeping the Darkspawn threat slightly more contained. But after Ostagar.... quite flabbergasting that the Archdemon did not seize upon that fateful moment and both unified and galvanized his armies into swift, bloody action. Maybe it was too busy trying to end his penpal relationship with Zevran?
If the Darkspawn can indeed sense the Wardens, initiating a fullbown warcampaign while they lay helplessly in the Sloth Demon's Fade, would have been a masterful stroke. Instead it just seemed to have a general stroke, which paralysed its resolve.
I'm actually surprised that the archdemon showed itself so soon. As long as it remains hidden behind millions of darkspawn and a hundred miles away from the front lines, who can get at it to kill it anyways?
Cailan jumping when Duncan said so was probably a factor. Even if that army got mostly decimated, enough got out (namely the Warden and the treaties) to ensure that the next one could form in time to be useful. I also wonder if the Fifth Blight's location was a large factor in keeping it down. It started in the swampy far end of Ferelden - if you look at some analyses of the Deep Roads map, that's probably past the Dead Trenches. A darkspawn under Rivain or the Anderfels would have a LONG way to walk to get to the bulk of the horde. Some would get killed by Orzammar patrols on the way. The initial horde had to either wade through the frozen swampy wilds and the Hinterlands, face down with the Legion of the Dead, or take the long way around to pop up somewhere like Honnleath and then make the trek across half of Ferelden to meet up with its buddies. Some were likely being converted by the Architect or the Mother as well, and they might even have been fighting each other pre-Awakening. Some might just get lost. The Deep Roads are nasty, and I doubt darkspawn come with a built in GPS.
So there's a lot of factors, really. The approximate Blight schedule on the archdemon's end probably went something like:
Pre-Ostagar: lurk around in the Wilds. Gather army for glorious invasion of surface world.
Ostagar: Crush puny humans! Eeh, did two of those Wardens just escape? Oh well. What harm can they do?
Lothering: Gather more reinforcements.
1st treaty mission: Start marching up from the wilds. Destroy Lothering and kill someone's sibling to create appropriate backstory angst.
2nd treaty mission: ...this is a lot of open space to cover. Gonna need more darkspawn.
3rd/4th treaty mission: Gather Bigger Horde. Where the heck are all my minions? Well, we can conquer the south for now, at least.
5th: Finally, a proper army. It's pillaging time!
Landsmeet: hmm, the Wardens are spending an awful lot of time around this one place....
Final Battle: Let's destroy this city! Wait, is that guy jumping at me? Aaah get it off! *falls onto Fort Drakon* oh crap oh crap *is killed*
Oghren gives a rough estimate that the darkspawn outnumber the Ferelden soldiers (and assorted allies) 3 to 1. That sounds about right for the Blights, since they were supposed to require coalitions of nations. Maybe it's a bit light for that matter, but the Warden still should not have won. (Part of the reason the Warden did win is because the darkspawn did not fight on after Urthemiel's death.)
It was a real blight, just not much of one. Unfortunately this Archdemon was a bit of a ******. (ok the Archdemon was a bit of a dumb idiot)
PCs are always gifted.
True fact, that. Found that out in my first cRPG (Morrowind) and have seen nothing to contradict or disabuse me of that notion in any game I've played since.
True fact, that. Found that out in my first cRPG (Morrowind) and have seen nothing to contradict or disabuse me of that notion in any game I've played since.
From which it follows that you've never played "Kobolds Ate My Baby."
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