Dragon Age: Legend of the White Wolf

Part I: Legend of the White Wolf

There was once a human lord who kept a pack of wolves as pets. But, where most people treat their pets with kindness and affection, the lord was mean and abusive toward his animals. The wolves were all afraid of him, and would cower whenever he approached their kennels. They did whatever the lord commanded them to do so as to keep their punishments to a minimum, but he still beat them and starved them no matter how well they performed the tasks he gave them.

Among the pack there was a lone white wolf, and he was the lord's favorite. The lord would always take his beloved white wolf with him wherever he went, showing him off proudly to the other lords of his land. Even so, the poor white wolf was not immune to the abuses the lord inflicted upon his animals. Sometimes, he even got it worse than the others because he was the strongest member of the pack and could take more punishment than the rest.

However, the white wolf wasn't content to sit around and just take the abuse like the others in his pack. He was constantly alert, always looking for the perfect opportunity to escape. Such an opportunity came when the lord was ambushed by bandits one day. The wolf sprang into action, protecting his master as he had been trained to do while the lord ran away to safety. Once the wolf had killed the last of the bandits, he realized that he was alone. His master had run off, and now he finally had the chance to escape he had been waiting for.

The white wolf ran and kept running, knowing that his master would have expected him to stay put like a good little pet and wait for him to return to collect him later. He did not stop running until he was too tired and hungry to go any farther without taking a rest. Luckily, he happened upon a small farm. He feared the people living there might hurt him, so he cautiously approached with his head low to the ground in a submissive manner he was all-too-accustomed to using.

To his surprise, the family living at the farmhouse were not afraid of him. They welcomed him into their home with open arms, fed him more than he had ever been given to eat at any one time in his life, and treated his wounds. They allowed the white wolf to stay with them, and he became a part of their family. For the first time in his life, he felt safe and loved.

But it was not to last. The lord and his scouts had been tracking the white wolf and discovered his new home one day. They surrounded the small farmhouse and demanded that the family turn over the white wolf to them. The family refused, saying that the white wolf was now a part of their family and wished to stay with them. The lord ordered the white wolf to kill the family, and without thinking he turned and ripped out the throat of the youngest child before moving on to each of the other family members in turn.

The lord was pleased. Even after so much time apart, his precious pet still knew his place and obeyed his every command. The white wolf, however, felt shamed by what he had done. His fur – the color of the purest snow – had been stained red by the blood of the very people who had taken him in and treated him with the care and respect he had longed for his entire life. He thought he had been freed of his master's hold on him the day he ran away, but now he knew the truth: there was no place for him. He could not call anywhere 'home' until the cruel lord lay dead at his feet.

Anger rose in the white wolf, and he defiantly turned on his master. The scouts rushed to protect the lord, and the white wolf managed to kill two of them before a third injured his leg. The white wolf turned and ran into the forest, and there he laid in wait until the rest of the scouts came after him. He picked them off one-by-one and then returned to put an end to his master... but his master had fled once more.

Since that day, the white wolf has been running. He has no family, no pack to call his own. His guilt over what happened – what he had done – to that innocent family has kept him from staying in any one place for too long. He knows that, someday, his master will find him once more. When that day comes, he will kill the man who has haunted his nightmares for so long. Only then will he be able to find peace.