Shortly after witnessing the murder of his mother during the Fereldan Rebellion, while fleeing for his own life, the eighteen years old Maric encountered the young outlaw Loghain Mac Tir. Loghain offered to let him stay at his father's rebel camp, unaware of his heritage. Bann Ceorlic's men, in pursuit of Maric, discovered the rebel camp and slaughtered most of the rebels. Maric was able to escape with Loghain into the Korcari Wilds. While traveling through the Wilds, Loghain and Maric were captured by a clan of Dalish elves who turned them over to the Witch of the Wilds. The Witch helped Maric in exchange for his making an unknown promise that he must fulfill at a future date. He could not reveal what this promise was to anyone. She also gave two warnings to Maric: that a Blight would one day occur in Ferelden, and that Loghain would betray Maric if the young king kept him close, "each time worse than the last".

Maric was able to find the remainder of the rebel army and his betrothed Rowan who fought with them. He spent years with the army and eventually helped lead them to victory at Gwaren. Here he met and fell in love with Katriel, who unbeknownst to him, was a spy for Severan, a mage and servant of the usurper King Meghren. Based on her false information, Maric's rebel army was nearly routed at the battle of West Hill and Maric only narrowly escaped with the aid of Rowan, Loghain and Katriel, who had genuinely fallen in love with him and came to regret her treachery. Unable to return to Gwaren to regroup with the rest of the army safely due to the usurper's army blocking the roads leading to Gwaren on the surface, they journey underground through the Deep Roads, a route suggested by Katriel who, as a bard, knew of the whereabouts of an entrance.

Journeying through the Deep Roads with help from Katriel and the Legion of the Dead, they narrowly survived attacks by Corrupted spiders and darkspawn, and managed to returned to Gwaren to reunite with the now greatly reduced remaining army. After a successful defense of Gwaren during another attack by the usurper's army, Loghain informed Maric that he and Rowan had conspired to spy on Katriel, and thus learned of her dealings with the usurper's mage. Goaded into a blind rage, Maric confronted Katriel and unthinkingly ran her through with his sword. Only later did he learn that Katriel had truly loved him and severed ties with Severan--a fact that Loghain had known from his spies' reports, and deliberately withheld from Maric. Maric would forever regret his part in Katriel's death, as well as never giving her the chance to tell her side of events.

Eleven years after freeing Ferelden from the Orlesians, and fourteen years after last venturing into the Deep Roads, Maric is approached by Genevieve, Commander of the Grey Wardens in Orlais. Genevieve's brother, Bregan, has been captured by the darkspawn and, she believes, is being held near Ortan Thaig: Bregan possesses knowledge of where the Old Gods are buried, knowledge the darkspawn could use to trigger a Blight in Ferelden. Maric and Loghain are the only two living people to have ventured that way and Maric, tired of the responsibilities of a ruler, despondent with grief following his wife's death, fleeing from what he sees as his failure as a father to his five-year-old son, Cailan, and remembering the witch's prophetic warning of a coming Blight, volunteers to guide the Grey Wardens into the Deep Roads. Thus, he comes to travel with a band of Wardens including a young Duncan and an Orlesian elven mage named Fiona, to confront The Architect, an unusually intelligent darkspawn emissary with a very disturbing plan.

They encounter many horrors of the Deep Roads, among them being demons, a High dragon and never ending darkspawn. Many of the Grey Wardens they traveled with perish in the Deep Roads.

On the journey, Maric remarks to Duncan that he did not regret killing Katriel, although this is later revealed to be false. While the group are imprisoned in the Fade by a demon, Maric is shown a dream where he is reunited with Katriel as his queen and Loghain and Rowan are happily together. Maric is content, but he realizes it is not real and sets out to rescue Fiona. He resents the Ferelden throne and his past mistakes. Maric and Fiona become romantically involved, both having dark, troubled pasts. The two share their secrets with one another and care deeply for each other even though their relationship is short-lived. He invites Fiona to live with him in Denerim, but Fiona refuses as she has other duties.