17 réponses à ce sujet

[Nykara]

This could be a slightly long post so please bare with me on this one if you can

Okay so in Dragon Age Origins when you learn about the ritual to become a Warden it is mentioned that by drinking Dark Spawn blood you become 'immune' to the taint - assuming it doesn't kill you.

How does one actually become infected with the taint in the first place? Is it blood to blood contact whilst in battle? If that is the case, isn't that essentially exactly the same thing as taking the Warden ritual? When you ingest something it enters your blood stream, albiet slower then it would if you injected it directly.

Does that mean that someone infected with darkspawn blood in combat would also hear the calling that the Wardens hear and be drawn to the deep roads and the darkspawn?

Does it also mean that if a Warden didn't go to the deep roads and enter that one final conflict with the Darkspawn taking out as many as they can before perishing that eventually they would become one themselves due to infection?

OR is Darkspawn taint/corruption contracted another way? If thats the case would one infected directly with darkspawn blood during combat essentally become a Warden or like a Warden and immune if it didn't kill them first?

[Eliastion]

Joining isn't just drinking darkspawn blood. It is based on darkspawn blood, along with Archdemon blood and some blood magic manipulation.

A tainted person does hear the Song afaik, that's part of becoming a ghoul - and yes, becoming a ghoul is the final fate of a warden who didn't die when he should.

[Ranadiel Marius]

I recall reading something on this topic which I believe was from one of the writers. What I recall is that in the Joining ritual, you are essentially taking a highly concentrated portion of the blight all at once to force your body to change. If you survive the high concentrations of the blight, you become a warden. If you don't then your body dies from.....I guess blight poisoning. A person who gets infected from a darkspawn (andI believe it is blood to blood transfer, with Darkspawn weapons regularly having darkspawn blood on them) gets a significantly smaller dose, hence why they don't instantly die from it like a failed Joining. I recall it being mentioned in the thing that I read that a normal darkspawn simply does not have a high enough concentration of the blight in its body to cause a Joining. So a person infected with the blight accidentally will not become a warden, the "best" they can get is to become a ghoul....unless they happened to be fighting an archdemon and happened to get some of its blood in their mouth? Incidently the only cure for getting infected with the blight is to undergo the Joining.

[Bethgael]

A Warden who undergoes the Joining will become tainted--but they also become immune to being killed by the taint as quickly as others (who become ghouls if they don't just die of it). They also connect themselves to the "hive mind" of the darkspawn, and the Archdemon (if one is extant at the time they Join).

 

The Warden Ritual--the Joining--is not the same as catching the Blight and becoming tainted that way, so, no, someone who simply contracts the taint from a darkspawn will not become like a Warden (see, for example, what happens to Tamlen in the dalish origin, and the fact the Dalish must undergo the Joining to survive the taint). This is because the Joining involves preparation of the darkspawn blood, along with a drop of Archdemon blood, some lyrium and a mage doing what is actually, in effect, a blood magic spell to mix all of that together. Then you drink the result. If you survive the Joining, you then become immune to being killed by the Blight in the same way as everyone else would (as heard in a lecture given to soldiers at Ostagar, and the example of the mabari, and also in DA2 where Wesley--and potentially your sibling--is killed by being injured by darkspawn opening a wound and bleeding into it).

 

I'm not sure it only happens from blood--in DA:I what happens at Crestwood seems to indicate that you can catch the Blight from another person like an infectious disease, as well. The original contact with the darkspawn may be blood-to-bood, but it will carry from person to person as well, after that.

 

The warden still eventually succumbs to the Taint and will become a ghoul (see Legacy DLC in DA2 and Larius) if they don't go and get themselves killed when they hear the Calling, as they are supposed to do.

[Nykara]

Okay, with that information in mind ( thanks guys btw! ) Is it possible to do the joining between blights? I know it's not often done because it isn't nessessary but can it be done? ( where do they get the archdemon blood from or do they keep some on-hand for in between joinings? )

[Ranadiel Marius]

Okay, with that information in mind ( thanks guys btw! ) Is it possible to do the joining between blights? I know it's not often done because it isn't nessessary but can it be done? ( where do they get the archdemon blood from or do they keep some on-hand for in between joinings? )

They constantly do Joinings in between blights. We have only seen one Warden who we know joined during a blight (the MC for DAO). Every single other member of the Wardens that we have seen has undergone the Joining when the Blight was not active (okay I suppose some nameless mooks might have undergone it in a different country during the Blight, but they don't count). They harvest the archdemon blood everytime they kill one, and I suspect the ritual can be done without the archdemon blood (simply because I don't think archdemons have enough blood to cover all the Wardens that have to have existed), but the specific details on the ritual are somewhat murky.

[sjsharp2011]

I would imagine so given that I believe if you bring Carver/Bethany into the Deep roads and have Anders with you he savers them from the Darkspawn by performing the ritual. I haven't seen it in the playthrough's I've done as I've not taken them with me but I've read that is something that can happen

[Nykara]

Thanks I am trying to write a fan fiction and wanted to get the details correct. At least what is known.

Someone in the story will be infected with the taint during battle. I was planning on having this discovered when they start having dreams of Darkspawn and a very faint calling song in the background.

And now, thanks to this information I also know how to possibly cure them. At least temporarily until the calling cure is found.

[xJLxKing]

Joining does not require Archdemon blood.

[Fireheart]

I would imagine so given that I believe if you bring Carver/Bethany into the Deep roads and have Anders with you he savers them from the Darkspawn by performing the ritual. I haven't seen it in the playthrough's I've done as I've not taken them with me but I've read that is something that can happen

No. If Anders is in the party, he tells you about a group of Grey Wardens who are camped nearby and he gives you the option of going to see them, as the Joining ritual would be the only way to save Carver/Bethany. You go meet Stroud, and he agrees to put your sibling through the Joining, but it's not onscreen. Later, through a letter in your estate, you find out they survived, and they're bitter about practically being forced into being a Warden.

[Bethgael]

Joining does not require Archdemon blood.

 

Yes, it does.

 

Fortunately, I have a bit to hand, here, courtesy of another thread in which we just discussed this, someone asked a similar question so I checked the DA:O toolset for Riordan's exact words on that topic. Just happens to have the info for this thread therein. This is from a bit of a conversation with Riordan just after you rescue him:

 

Warden (after asking about the papers you find and being told it's a copy of the Joining): The joining ritual? Can you induct other Grey wardens?

Riordan: Would that I could, for Ferelden sorely needs them. But for the Joining to work, the recruit not only needs fresh darkspawn blood, but a drop of blood preserved from an Archdemon. Ferelden's supply should have been in the vault, but it is gone. I can only imagine someone took it out and Loghain either confiscated or destroyed it.

 

 

The lyrium is mentioned elsewhere.... I think in a conversation with either Duncan or a deleted-from-Vanilla one with Alistair pre-Joining. Or it might have been Awakening. I can't remember now. But, in any case, the Archdemon blood is, indeed, a required component.

[X Equestris]

Joining does not require Archdemon blood.

Riordan straight up says it does. It also contains some amount of lyrium.

Yes, someone who ingested darkspawn blood, or got it in a cut, without the Joining to protect them would eventually turn into a ghoul and start hearing the Calling,

[Fireheart]

Blights may happen hundreds of years apart, yet people become Wardens and join the order in between all the time. Seeing as, allegedly, you only need a drop of Archdemon blood, it seems pretty plausible. Especially since the Archdemon is so big, it has plenty of blood to spare. Who knows, maybe they drain out all of it. o.o just in case they run out. I mean, centuries is a long time. You gotta make sure you have enough. But that begs the question: what happens to the Archdemon? In DAO, it explodes, or at least that's what it looks like. Does the blood splatter everywhere and they gather the blood off the walls and ground? If not, what do they do with the Archdemon body? Cut it into pieces and burn it? Eat it as part of a victory ceremony? Lol, that last one was just for lols...

[Undead Han]

Blights may happen hundreds of years apart, yet people become Wardens and join the order in between all the time. Seeing as, allegedly, you only need a drop of Archdemon blood, it seems pretty plausible. Especially since the Archdemon is so big, it has plenty of blood to spare. Who knows, maybe they drain out all of it. o.o just in case they run out. I mean, centuries is a long time. You gotta make sure you have enough. But that begs the question: what happens to the Archdemon? In DAO, it explodes, or at least that's what it looks like. Does the blood splatter everywhere and they gather the blood off the walls and ground? If not, what do they do with the Archdemon body? Cut it into pieces and burn it? Eat it as part of a victory ceremony? Lol, that last one was just for lols...

 

Even if the archdemon's body were obliterated I'd imagine there would still be lots of blood to salvage. This is the remains of a deer consumed by wolves in the snow:

 

 

There is not much left but you can still see that a lot of blood has seeped into the snow. And that was only a small deer. They could probably get blood from the soil where an archdemon died. Or in the case of Urthemiel, from the stones of the tower it died on.

[sjsharp2011]

No. If Anders is in the party, he tells you about a group of Grey Wardens who are camped nearby and he gives you the option of going to see them, as the Joining ritual would be the only way to save Carver/Bethany. You go meet Stroud, and he agrees to put your sibling through the Joining, but it's not onscreen. Later, through a letter in your estate, you find out they survived, and they're bitter about practically being forced into being a Warden.

Oh right having not seen it myself yet I wouldn't know.

[MisterJB]

Blights may happen hundreds of years apart, yet people become Wardens and join the order in between all the time. Seeing as, allegedly, you only need a drop of Archdemon blood, it seems pretty plausible. Especially since the Archdemon is so big, it has plenty of blood to spare. Who knows, maybe they drain out all of it. o.o just in case they run out. I mean, centuries is a long time. You gotta make sure you have enough. But that begs the question: what happens to the Archdemon? In DAO, it explodes, or at least that's what it looks like. Does the blood splatter everywhere and they gather the blood off the walls and ground? If not, what do they do with the Archdemon body? Cut it into pieces and burn it? Eat it as part of a victory ceremony? Lol, that last one was just for lols...

Judging by "Dumat's Spine", they make weapons and armour out of the corpse.

[Bethgael]

Just as a side note for the purposes of your fic, just in case you're unaware, there's a letter in DA:I that describes how a mage's phylactery is made (and the blood preserved). I imagine the process would be similar for preserving the rather large amount of archdemon blood available.

 

If you have the game and want to read it, let me know and I'll point you in the right direction to avoid the spoilers.

[Kantr]

Also check out the wiki and the codex entries about the blight and the joining