Ferelden is under Orlesian occupation, and its Rebel Queen has just been betrayed and killed. Her son Maric, barely more than a boy, escapes with his life and little else. He falls in with Loghain, a young outlaw with no love for nobles, and then with Rowan, the noblewoman he's promised to marry. Together they try to rebuild the rebel army and take the country back.
What this adds if you've played the games
Loghain is the reason to read this. Origins asks you to judge him on very little, and here you meet the young outlaw before he became Ferelden's war hero, alongside Maric, Cailan's father, and the war against Orlais that every Fereldan in the game still talks about. It's David Gaider's first novel and the prose is plain, but the friendship between Maric and Loghain carries it. Read it before Origins and Loghain's choices in the game look very different.
Where it fits
- Read beforeDragon Age: Origins
Set a generation before Origins, during the rebellion that freed Ferelden from Orlais. It's a lead-in, so read it first and Loghain makes far more sense.
- Comes beforeDragon Age: The Calling
Picks up Maric's story some years after The Stolen Throne and makes clear how that rebellion turned out. Read The Stolen Throne first.
Editions
Tor paperback
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