헐록

천상을 무력으로 가지고자 한 이들은
그로서 천상을 부수고 말았나니
한때 황금이며 순수한 것들은
검어지고 말았으매 한때 마법사 군주로서
가장 총명하다 하던 이들은
더는 인간이 아니며 단지 괴물이 되고 말았음이라

—비탄의 송가 12:1

인류가 저지른 죄악은 세계에 어둠의 피조물을 불러왔다. 매지스터들은 황금 도시에서 떨어졌고, 그들의 운명이 곧 우리의 운명이 되었다. 그들은 혼자가 아니었기에.

어둠의 피조물이 어디서 오는지 정확히 아는 사람은 없다. 그들은 조롱이라도 하듯 인간을 약간 비튼 듯한 생김새를 하고, 마치 메뚜기떼가 옮기는 역병처럼 가장 어두운 곳에서 번성해나가며 그 수를 늘린다. 이들은 전투에서 인질을 잡아 희생자들을 산 채로 지하 가도로 끌고 가며, 많은 증거로 미루어 보아 이들을 잡아먹었을 것으로 추정하고 있다. 마치 거미처럼, 어둠의 피조물은 살아 있는 먹잇감을 선호하는 듯하다. 어쩌면 그들은 단순히 어둠에서 태어나는 것일지도 모른다. 우리가 확실히 아는 것은 이 사악한 것들이 그들의 존재를 이어나가는 데 아무 문제가 없다는 것뿐이다.

가장 최근의 대재앙은 쌍탑의 시대에 발생했다. 테빈터의 심장부는 다시 한번 공격받았고, 남쪽의 올레이와 동쪽의 자유 동맹까지 침략당했다. 역병은 페렐던까지 퍼졌지만, 토양의 타락은 국경을 넘지 않고 그쳤다. 따라서 이곳에서 어둠의 피조물은 전설 속의 존재에 불과하다. 그러나 북쪽 땅, 특히 테빈터나 앤더펠스에서는, 어둠의 피조물이 내륙지역을 갉아먹으며 외곽에 있는 마을과 농부들을 위협한다고 한다.

—성가회 학자 페트린 수녀 저, 페렐던: 설화와 역사에서 발췌

 

Those who had sought to claim

Heaven by violence destroyed it. What was

Golden and pure turned black.

Those who had once been mage-lords,

The brightest of their age,

Were no longer men, but monsters.

 

—Threnodies 12:1

 

Sin was the midwife that ushered the darkspawn into this world. The magisters fell from the Golden City, and their fate encompassed all our world's. For they were not alone.

 

No one knows where the darkspawn come from. A dark mockery of men: in the darkest places they thrive, growing in numbers as a plague of locusts will. In raids, they will often take captives, dragging their victims alive into the Deep Roads; most evidence suggests these are eaten. Like spiders, it seems darkspawn prefer their food still breathing. Perhaps they are spawned by the darkness. Certainly, evil has no trouble perpetuating itself.

 

The last Blight was in the Age of Towers, striking once again at the heart of Tevinter, spreading south into Orlais and east into the Free Marches. The plagues spread as far as Ferelden, but the withering and twisting of the land stopped well beyond our borders. Here, darkspawn have never been more than the stuff of legends. In the northern lands, however, particularly Tevinter and the Anderfels, darkspawn haunt the hinterlands, preying on outlying farmers and isolated villages, a constant threat.

 

—From Ferelden: Folklore and History by Sister Petrine, Chantry scholar