I finally finished the last of the six origin stories last night. One thing that I found fascinating when comparing them all is how different the circumstances are under which Duncan recruits you, and how this affects the way you'll feel about his offer.
For my city elf, Duncan was nothing short of her personal saviour. She was living in a ghetto, had just witnessed the death of one of her friends and her fiancé, and had followed this up with cutting a path of bloody vengeance through the residence of their murderers. There was nothing left for her in the alienage but the possibility of getting arrested, executed or worse. Duncan's offer to join the Grey Wardens meant freedom from persecution as well as from the generally very unpleasant city life.
My dwarf commoner had similar feelings after all the trouble she had got into, but the thought of leaving her best mate and her sister behind made her hesitate at least a little, because she wasn't sure whether they wouldn't get into even more trouble without her protection. (Maybe it's possible to build similarly strong ties with your city elf friends and family, but I just didn't feel them. Also, at least there was a certain sense of community and of people sticking together in the alienage, whereas it was more or less every casteless dwarf for him- or herself down in Orzammar.)
On my second playthrough of the mage origin I decided not to tattle to the first enchanter about Jowan's plans, which meant that I was in pretty deep trouble when we got caught. I think it would have made sense for my character to follow Jowan and make a run for it, but I guess Irving's expression of disappointment made her feel guilty. As it was she was going to have a lot of problems, though it wasn't entirely clear what the punishment for having helped a blood mage would have entailed. It probably would have been pretty unpleasant, so while Duncan's offer didn't get my character quite as excited as the city elf or dwarf commoner, it was still a welcome escape.
My dwarf noble should have been pretty damn grateful for being rescued by the Grey Wardens as well, but I have to admit the fact that she managed to kill several darkspawn in nothing but a pile of rags and that she had acquired a full set of armour and weapons by the time she met up with Duncan and company kind of took away from the feeling of relief and gratitude. After all, if she was such an awesome fighter, maybe she could have just fought her way out on her own before starting to plot revenge... nonetheless the offer to join the Grey Wardens was appreciated, it just didn't quite feel like a rescue, more like a willingly forged alliance.
The dalish elf origin has Duncan saving your life more than once, but the fact that he was saving my character from a disease she didn't really feel or understand at the time made it very hard to appreciate what he was doing. From a purely rational point of view she understood that he was doing her a favour, but emotionally, being taken away from her beloved tribe felt more hurtful than helpful. And why couldn't he just give her the cure anyway...
On my first playthrough of the mage origin, my character told Irving about Jowan and Lily's plans, even though she regretted it afterwards. However, what made it worse was that she didn't seem to gain anything from it. The fact that she had confessed to the first enchanter and was following his orders should have got her off the hook completely even in Greagoir's eyes. She liked her life in the tower and wanted to stay. Being sent off to the Grey Wardens despite of not having done anything wrong (in her eyes) felt more like an unjust punishment than anything else, and she was quite bitter about it for a while.
Worst of all was the human noble origin however. My character had just gone from being a pampered young noblewoman to having to fight for her life, her whole family had been slaughtered by an ambitious traitor, and even as her father was bleeding to death right in front of her, Duncan had the gall to ask him to give what might be his last surviving child to the Grey Wardens or he wouldn't help her escape. Frankly, that just felt like blackmail to me. My character's father had a few encouraging last words for her about how becoming a Grey Warden would bring honour to the family name, which softened the blow ever so slightly, but nonetheless Duncan seemed unnecessarily callous here, demanding the last child of a dying man or else he would leave her to die as well.
Basically, the different origins bring you into the Grey Wardens with an attitude ranging from pure delight to disgust at their cold-heartedness and anything in-between. However, this is an area where the game feels the need to bring the different choices onto common ground quickly: Those who were glad to join the Grey Wardens find out via the Joining that life in the order is going to be very harsh, and those who hated being forced into it get mollified by the friendly and respectful treatment that they receive from all sides, at least initially. And of course, once it comes down to you being the only one left to save Ferelden, it really doesn't matter anymore what you thought of becoming a Grey Warden at the beginning...
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