What is the motivation for "siding" with the werewolves? Is it just me, or is this gratuitously bloodthirsty? It's one of the "persuade" options, so I assume that the werewolves themselves don't actually approve of wiping out the elves. When I play an "evil" character, I'm usually a human-hating city elf or a money and power-hungry dwarf. Neither of these seem to justify the choice. Varathorn can be a little obnoxious, but making the Dalish pay for initial rudeness doesn't seem to cut it either. I'm not complaining about having the option, I'd just like to feel a little less sorry for the Dalish when I choose it. Any thoughts? --rival_graceSPOILER!!!!!!!I am on my 5th playthrough of Dragonage and I have NEVER killed either the Dalish or the Werewolves. You can go through the dialog options and save BOTH! Zathrien and the Lady sort of commit suicide together. The werewolves turn into the people they were before the curse. Its a very, very moving cutsceen. I cannot understand why you would kill either one if you don't have too. There is no consequence to doing this. The elves help fight the archdemon instead of the werewolves. Also, if you don't kill the Dalish you can keep going back to buy elfroot and toxins.Well its true, you "could" be the good guy and save everyone. If however like me you take pride in being completely heartless siding with the werewolves is a fun little option to get back at the stuck up dalish. If you can pass the persausion check it is by far the easiest option of the 3, and pillaging the dead at camp is nothing to turn your nose up at. Yeah...can you tell I dont like elves? --clancrusher131.251.151.123 17:00, April 19, 2010 (UTC)Well evil is often good, but the problem is that army you have in the end, becomes very onesided, dwares=warrior, golems=warriors, redcliff=warriors and warewolfs=worriors, and if you side with templars in towerquest then templars=warriors. An well if you play rogue then you would loose acces to dalish armor, which is very nice both in funktion and if you character is a girl well they will show some skin. I have no problems being the cause of zatherins death, but i would only side with the warewolfs for the sake of the achievement.
you can also side with the elves and kill Witherfang AND Zathrian's selfish ass to loot his body and then Lanaya becomes keeper99.18.173.91 19:54, April 19, 2010 (UTC)
I try not to use the armies in the final battle except against the arch-demon (love my AOE spells), so I'm not too concerned about losing archers. By the way, does anyone know if kills by your army give you experience points? (One of the main reasons I've tried to limit army use)
I like to give my characters a certain mindset when I make them to guide my playthroughs. Ruthless and proud of it might work for my dwarf.
I usually end up playing the good guy (especially for the experience points in Redcliffe), but I'm curious as to what the camp looks like after the werewolf attack and what interactions/dialogue you can have with them. --rival_grace
I've sided with the werewolves once, in a separate save, solely for the achievement - I felt horrid doing it, too. I always save both parties, even if I'm playing a more sadistic character (because I think they will be indebted to me, ahah.)***SPOILER*** When you kill the elves, you can get a few items from Zathrian's body that you cannot get otherwise, a nice mage's staff, and I think maybe a ring or an amulet (I can't remember exactly what it is). --Vavasor 19:40, April 19, 2010 (UTC)
I'll probably ending up with a separate save too. Thanks for all the feedback. --rival_grace
If you side with the Werewolves without a separate save (so you can see some Hurlocks become dog chow in the end) be very careful to have Zev's approval rating high enough to take a big hit if he's in your party (even if he's at camp), or have a high Persuasion score ahead of time. He's normally got a pretty strong Persuasion check - but you need massive Persuasion to be able to side with the WW in the first place. I didn't lose him thanks to boffing him like a regular bunny, fawning all over him routinely, AND persuading the heck out of him, but I suspect if any companion defection could bring about lots of trouble for the team, Zev's would be bad and hostile (no slinking off into the night, just not his style). It might be worth a second separate save just to see what would happen if he did defect; and since he's pretty easy to get approval from, siding with the WW is probably the fastest/easiest way to drop his love and betray you, short of being a complete jerk to him every single convo you have (and he takes a lot of verbal abuse!). -- A Mage Frustrated
Perhaps this is the evil side coming out again but to me army = expendable pawns, and if they are all warriors and decide to rush in and get themselves slaughtered in the crossfire...then thats exactly what happens ;)
A fair point though, and I can understand why people would want the dalish in their army, especially against the archdemon. As someone stated above its more practical in terms of loot to kill off witherfang followed by zathrien, if a little less fun. You get to keep the dalish and all the benefits of varathorns excuse for a shop. Clancrusher 06:58, April 20, 2010 (UTC)
And concerning XP, keeping the elfs alive, alow you to use the elven XP exploit, which you cant if you side with the werewolfs. I prefer to have a level 25 when i play DAW --PeterR 10:49, April 20, 2010 (UTC)
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I know this is quite late reaction, but still .. I can't allow to "kill" Lady of the Forest. Yes, I decided to save one "woman" instead of many others, but I like her and I don't want her to disappear. But it's true - there are not any other solid reasons to choose this path. Sfinx CZ, January 31, 2014
I never saw any point in killing the elves except for the achievement, but when I achieved this, I reloaded the saved file before this genocide and choosed another option.FirstDrellSpectre (talk) 17:41, January 31, 2014 (UTC)
I have to add one more point - I didn't have that choice until now (level of persuade). So I mostly deduced from my gereral knowledge of this topic, but when I saw dialogues, I can see a reason now. SPOILER!! Swiftrunner (?, not sure with eng name) said: they will lift (or break, I don't know) the curse or they will die. Also first line, when you get to their place is "You will lift that curse (one way or another)". - I am not sure about exact words, but meaning was like this ;) So I can see reason now - it's just more violent way to lift the curse and genocide is not their goal. If you side with werewolves, you can bring just that elf and force him or force whole company. Result is maybe unpleasant, but now I can see the reason for this path.
All fault on Zathrian's head - that beautiful Lady used very good arguments and he just hold his stupid opinion. PS: (SPOILER again): It's not really genocide - as Lady said after battle ended, they will just turn into werewolves. I think this is quite good ending - it's not the best for werewolves, but the one, who protected that insane elf will taste his unjustified revenge. Sfinx CZ, January 31, 2014
One of my Wardens sided with them because they made such a big deal during the quest about how they were more than mere beasts. He thought they deserved a chance to build a culture, hopefully using the nearby elf tribe to bolster their numbers(werewolf-children!). Then they charge in in broad daylight and kill a dozen of them instead of the stealthy snatch-and-grab tactics at night he was planning. And naturally everything after that in the prologue and DA2 has them turning into mere beasts again anyway. CLuhrsen (talk) 00:23, February 1, 2014 (UTC) I'm a necromancer!!!