A person’s home can shape the man or woman they become later in life. Although a few details about Dragon Age 2′s leading man Hawke have surfaced, taking a look at the places he calls home may give a bit of insight into not only how he might develop, but tell also of some of the challenges he may face. While most of the game seems like it may take place in a new locale across the Waking See in the Free Marches, even the little we know about that land can give some insight into the life of the hailed “Champion of Kirkwall.”

There are three major locales in Hawke’s life that we have some knowledge of: Lothering, the Free Marches, and more specifically, Kirkwall.

Lothering

“There are always people in Lothering, but many are just passing through.” – Leliana

Lothering is a place we have some experience with already and a place that we know the unfortunate end of. We know that Hawke was in the town during the Blight and survived and escaped the approaching darkspawn horde. While we’re not 100 percent sure that Hawke would call Lothering his home (he may have just been there briefly before the Blight), the location can tell us a few things.

Lothering is, first and foremost, a crossroads town. The town sits strategically along West Road and is a place that interacts with the Redcliffe Arling as well as the surface dwarves from Orzammar, according to our handy dandy codex. The town lays  near the major crossroads leading west toward Redcliffe, north toward the Circle Tower and south toward Ostagar. It is seemingly a midpoint between Redcliffe and Denerim.

As Morrigan describes the town to our fledgling Wardens, Lothering is not worth much except for its tavern, which hosts a good deal of information from the many travelers passing through. Also of note, the town also is surrounded by farms and is home to many farmers, adding to its rural identity.

If Hawke had lived in Lothering for many years before the start of his adventure, it is likely that the Lothering lifestyle would paint a good portion of his personality early in the game. He may be more better fed in knowledge of the world not only from the many travelers coming through, but from the chantry as well. But what it means is he likely comes from humble roots – farmers, merchants, soldiers in service to the overseeing bann.

More critically, Lothering is overwhelmed and destroyed after the disaster at Ostagar. It’s not perfectly clear (at least to me) whether Hawke fought his way out of the town, or if he fled before its destruction. Either way, the darkspawn appear to be a force he didn’t want to mess with. Instead of moving elsewhere in Ferelden or joining an effort to fight the darkspawn, Hawke travels across the Waking Sea to the Free Marches.

The Free Marches

While Ferelden has some influence from medieval England, Orlais from France, Tevinter from the Byzantine Empire, Anderfels from the Holy Roman Empire and the qunari from the Seljuks or Ottomons, the Free Marches – somewhat like Antiva – appear to draw influence from the Italian penninsula. Like Italy during the middle ages, the Free Marches consist of several powerful city-states that function as a loose coalition.

What this means is that each city in the Marches fends for its own and there is no centralized government. If we look at Italy as a comparison, city-states would often feud amongst each other and could be breeding ground for dangerous in-fighting. But the other threat of life in a city-state is that being so independent comes with the risk that a city could be overwhelmed and destroyed by another larger, unified nation.

In the early 14th century in Venice, crossbow training among the citizens was compulsory to form a trained, at least semi-competent militia force. A city-state might also employ large numbers of mercenaries for protection as well as enact conscription to defend itself in times of crisis. In Venice, all men of age 17 to 60 years could be called into military service if the need arose.

We also know that Nathaniel Howe squired in the Free Marches for eight years prior to returning for the events of Awakening and specifically spent at least one year in Kirkwall. Assuming he spent a good portion of his adolescent and young adult years there, we can see that life in the Free Marches returned this arl’s son to Ferelden as a somewhat cold but fiercely competent warrior. It took four of the Vigil’s guards to subdue him, he is fit enough both physically and mentally to survive the Joining and is strong enough to keep step with the Warden Commander in the quest to defeat the Mother.

The Free Marches show that life there is not going to be easy for Hawke and that the potential for both danger and adventure is high. The Marches themselves are an excellent place to mold Hawke into a warrior and a man capable of taking on heroics beyond that of normal men.

More on page two …

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