Dragon Age: Semper ad Meliora

What Pride Had Wrought

And as the black clouds came upon them,
They looked on what pride had wrought,
And despaired.
- Canticle of Threnodies 7:10

Arbor Wilds, Orlais, Justinian 9:42 Dragon

Of all the wildernesses that Idhren had been to in his life, the Arbor wilds felt the most untamed. It was like nothing he had ever seen before, incomparable even to the Emerald Graves. The plant life was overgrown everywhere he looked, trees so close together their roots entwined and it was often difficult to find a path through the underbrush. Sometimes he could not see the sky through the branches overhead. The place looked as though it had seen nothing but animal life for centuries, with none of the heavy foot traffic that had created wide paths and avenues through places like the Graves. It was magnificent and wild, awesome and terrifying all at once.

But it was not the ideal place for a battle. In fact, quite the opposite.

The paths through the trees were cramped and twisting, frequently only as wide as one or two men walking abreast. It took several hours of tromping through the untamed jungle for Idhren and his companions to reach the army's base camp, and even that was scattered among several small clearings that had likely been enlarged significantly by the scouts who first arrived to set up. How the army could be expected to move effectively through a place like this Idhren had no idea. But it wasn't as though they had much choice.

Even with all the allies they had gained over the past few months the Red Templars held the Inquisition's forces at bay. They had arrived first, easily entrenched themselves before the Inquisition showed up to stop them and paved the way for Corypheus to get exactly what he wanted.

It was the first time they had not been one step ahead of the monster and his followers. It was almost a fluke that they had arrived here in time to hinder them at all, as their scouts had first been sent here on a hunch. And that left Idhren feeling incredibly frustrated. He did not like playing catch up.

He also did not like fighting Templars.

Even corrupted as they were - some nothing but mindless, crazed monstrosities more lyrium than human - they retained the skills that made them Templars to begin with. Namely, the ability to sever a mage's connection to the Fade.

The feeling no longer crippled Idhren as it had the first time. He could keep his feet, keep his wits about him, keep fighting. It still made him sick to his stomach, though. It still brought back horrible, painful, fearful memories. But there was a blade on the end of his staff for a reason and it saw plenty of blood.

Idhren was winded by the time they finally fought their way to the front lines and beat down the Red Templars' attempt at defense. Before them loomed the crumbling and overgrown facade of an ancient elvhen temple, barely visible through the trees and the vines that grew through the cracks in the stones. Within the clearing that had likely once been an impressive courtyard where a paved road ran up to the temple, it was quiet enough to be almost peaceful, surprisingly easy to forget that there was a war raging at his back. The jungle swallowed up all sound so quickly.

Idhren stared up at the ruin as he caught his breath, leaning against his staff and trying to ignore the ache of fatigue that was already beginning to form in his shoulders. The scouts had spotted Corypheus himself in the area, in addition to his troops. Did the monster that had started this whole mess await them somewhere inside that structure? Is this where he would finally face the thing one last time? That seemed very likely, but Idhren wasn't certain he was prepared for such an eventuality. The underlings that he had taken down so far had been regular people. Not even particularly skilled. Tucked into a pouch on his belt Idhren carried a runed grenade Dagna promised would cripple Samson, and that was small comfort. Whatever strengths he'd been granted, Samson was still a man, and Idhren knew the limits of men. He had not an inkling of the power that Corypheus wielded.