I,m not sure that Calian really was driven by lust for glory, but that there were more subtle struggles going on that we were aware of in Ostagar alone. We know now that he knew the battle could not be won, and so took measures to protect the royal effects to survive his possible death, and that prior to this he was working hard in secret to set up a lasting peace with Orlais in order to be able to more effectively face the darkspawn. However, he knows due to his Orlesian paranoia that Loghain would not abide by this, and due to his power in Ferelden Calian was working around him and with Duncan on this. When the battle is joined at Ostragar and Loghain shows that he will not accept any aid at all from Orlais Calian is forced to work around this, and so he places himself on the front lines (this in itself is not that major a thing, many great kings of ancient and medieval times fought right on the front lines often, to bolster the morale of their men, Alexander, Richard I, Alfred the Great, Julius Ceasar etc) but here it's to try and ensure that Loghain does not abandon the 'foreign' Wardens which I think he suspects Loghain might do. I now get the strong impression in these scenes that there are undercurrents and plots and counter-plots flying around Ostragar, and Calian by putting himself on the front-line is attempting to force Loghain to keep to the plan, gambling that he would not abandon the King of Ferelden, and his best friend's son to death (but in this gamble he seriously misjudged Loghain and his paranoia).
But he did sense that it could go wrong which is why Calain I think specifically ordered that Alistair accompany the Warden, we know for elsewhere that he knew who Alistair was. And so requests you, a new Warden who is definitely unconnected with the plotting going on at Ostragar, to come to the final battle planning to apparently just casually have you take up the lighting of the beacon (something he already knew about since he had gone over this plan with Loghain previously, as he mentions) and insists, apparently in passing, that Alistair go with you on this rather he he thinks safe mission largely out of harms way. I think he does this to protect his only living heir and therefore the Therin bloodline, which is more important to Ferelden (as he sees it) then even his own life if necessary. He does his best, alone with his instructions to his aid about the royal armour, the letters and Maric's sword, to protect Ferelden's royal legacy if all goes wrong and Loghain does still betray him by doing his best to insure Alistair's survival.
As for his talk of glory when you met him, this I view as largely an act to bolster the morale of his men (it is very important for soldiers, particularly at this time, to see their leaders as confident and indeed larger then life, so the good ones hid there doubts and act as if victory is certain), as we know for RtO that Calian didn't actually believe this.
With this view, I actually think Calian is allot more canny the many give him credit for in Origins, though this is my opinion from the story of course :-)
Modifié par Curlain, 23 mars 2010 - 02:24 .
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