Hello and welcome back to my own personal Dragon Age universe. First off let me say that if you haven't read 'Rise of the Wardens' then I would strongly advise you to do so before starting on this. Next let me say that while all six of my Wardens from the previous story will reappear in this one, Eebon, Kylae, and Dharr are going to be minor characters and will probably only appear a couple times. This story is mainly focused on Endrin, Roaran, and Tylis.

As for secondary characters, Oghren won't be in this story either… sorry Oghren fans, but I never liked him. Some of the support characters from the game, such as Varel, the Glavonak brothers, and Woolsey are going to be heavily downplayed, if they even appear at all. There will also be several OC's to appear.

Finally let just say that this is a pretty busy time for me right now. I'm going to be moving in less than a month, going on vacation for another month, and then I'll have to get resettled at my new place. So with that in mind, updates might be pretty slow at first. Please be patient with me, I promise I'm not going to abandon this story.

Well, that's enough from me… I'll let Dharr pick it up from here.

Dharr Aeducan, Grey Warden, Paragon, and one of the Heroes of Ferelden stomped through the city streets of Orzammar, his blank targe on his left arm, the war axe that he'd carried on his year long quest tucked into his belt. His face was still scarred and hairless from his battle with the Archdemon, and now it was stained with blood, both the black blood of the darkspawn he'd been fighting, as well as his own red blood. Many of the dwarven citizens bowed in respect to him, others jumped out the way as he stormed past them. On his right side was Gorim, struggling to keep up with his ruined leg and crutch. On his left side was Sigrun, a new recruit in the Legion of the Dead and a promising scout, the black and red blood that covered her face as well also covered her casteless brand.

The veteran warrior, Dharr, threw open the inner doors of the Assembly chamber. "Harrowmont!" He yelled, ignoring any title that the dwarven king might claim. The deshyrs immediately halted in their most recent debate and looked towards the Grey Warden.

"Harrowmont!" Dharr yelled again.

On the far side of the room, King Pyral Harrowmont stood up from his stone hewn throne. As Dharr stomped into the center of the room he let his scarred shield slide off his arm and fall heavily to the floor. "Where are the Ferelden troops that were promised?!" Dharr demanded.

"They were not needed." Harrowmont answered, remaining at the top of the steps in front of the throne, forcing Dharr to look up at him, symbolism that was not lost on Dharr.

"Yes they were!" Dharr shouted. "The entire strategy to reclaim the thaig was dependent on their arrival!" He took out a rolled piece of paper from his belt and threw it at Harrowmont's feet. "That is a list of the lads and lasses who were killed when the spawn discovered us and we were forced to retreat… every one of their deaths is on your hands!" Dharr glared around at the rulers of Orzammar and growled, "You will allow the human soldiers into the city… or you will face me!" He turned towards Gorim and said in a much more gentle voice. "Stay here and make sure that it's done." Then he picked up his shield and spun on his heel to leave, Sigrun following him.

"We're stronger alone!" Harrowmont called at his back. "We Dwarva have always stood alone! It is the only way for us to continue!"

Dharr Aeducan slowly turned to glare hatefully at the older man who had once been his friend and mentor. "You are a fool!" Dharr shouted back. "Our empire has fallen! And what little we have managed to maintain is slowly being lost, both to the darkspawn and to traditionalist stoneheads like you! If I learned anything from the blight it was that no one can stand alone against the spawn! This is not a request, this is an order from your Paragon. Do as I say… or the next Proving will be fought to the death between Aeducan and Harrowmont!"

The Chamber of the Assembly was deathly quiet as Dharr stomped back out into the streets with Sigrun in tow.

"I think that went well." Sigrun said cheerfully as the two of them stepped back outside into the streets of the Diamond Quarter.

Dharr only growled as he made his way towards the Grey Warden compound. Although he was the only Warden in Orzammar, the compound was used as something of military headquarters, and since the dwarves had been at war with the darkspawn for countless lifetimes, it made sense that they would make their headquarters with the Grey Wardens.

"At least our assault on the thaig wasn't a complete failure." He finally spoke. "We found the location of Kal Hirol… and I think we should break away from our current operations and make that our primary target. I'll be in the Shaperate for probably the next few days researching everything I can on it, I need you to report back to your scouting unit and get me a report on Kal Hirol, what kind of condition it's in, the number of spawn inhabiting it, and so on. Just be sure that you keep all that selfless sacrifice in death to a bare minimum… I'll be needing the Legion when we assault the lost city."

"As you wish, Paragon!" Sigrun said, and turned to leave.

"One more thing." Dharr called after her, and the Legionnaire stopped and turned back towards her. "Be extra careful out there… with the Archdemon dead the darkspawn should have fallen into infighting and become even more primitive and less intelligent. But for some reason they're displaying a level of organization and sophistication that I haven't seen in the spawn before… even during the blight. There's something going on with them."

"As you wish, Paragon." Sigrun repeated.

I remember in the epilogue texts for DA:O that if Harrowmont is made king, he essentially weakens Orzammar by further isolating it, and turning back the promised Ferelden aid. But now Dharr is living in Orzammar, and as a Paragon he outranks and overpowers even the king. I thought that a power struggle between the two of them would be interesting, and I may have to come back to that later.