- For the character from Dragon Age II, see Roderick.
“Mock if you will. I'm certain the Maker is less amused.”
Roderick Asignon is the Grand Chancellor of the Chantry.
Background
Roderick is a bureaucrat responsible for communicating the Divine's will to the rest of the Chantry. He also handles correspondence for the Divine, spreads her word to Thedas and is her advisor on mundane matters.[1]
As such, despite his relatively low position in the Chantry hierarchy compared to the clergy, he enjoys a considerable amount of influence. Following the eruption of the Breach and the destruction of the conclave between the mages and templars, every Chantry official who outranked Roderick was killed, leaving him the de facto head of the organization while the surviving grand clerics convene the Grand Consensus to elect a new Divine.
Involvement
Roderick is first encountered just after the Breach erupts in Haven. He is stationed at the forward camp and immediately distrusts the Inquisitor, as well as Cassandra Pentaghast and Leliana for supporting them. He advocates sending the Inquisitor to Val Royeaux for a trial, believing them responsible for the Breach. With the chain of command in chaos, Roderick attempted to assert his authority to force a retreat, but Cassandra chose to defer to the Inquisitor and the party pressed towards the Temple of Sacred Ashes.
Three days later, while the Inquisitor was unconscious, Roderick was arguing with Cassandra in Haven's Chantry, the Chancellor still convinced of the Inquisitor's guilt despite the fact that they managed to stabilize the Breach, believing they intended it that way. However, Cassandra believed that the Inquisitor and the mark on their hand were the key to resolving the crisis and invoked a writ by the late Divine Justinia V, declaring the reformation of the Inquisition, and declared that they will find the perpetrators behind the Breach and restore order, with or without Roderick's approval. Subsequently, Roderick used his influence to have the surviving clerics brand the fledgling Inquisition heretics for harbouring the Inquisitor, who had been labeled the Herald of Andraste.
Shortly after the Inquisition gains the power to address the clerics in Val Royeaux, Roderick returns to Haven in the middle of a dispute between the Inquisition's mages and templars, of which Cullen had to diffuse. The chancellor offers nothing but pessimism to the Inquisition's efforts.
When Haven is attacked by Corypheus, Roderick is mortally wounded in the attack, having attempted to fight off a Venatori or Red Templar in order to save a nearby villager. With what little strength he had left, Roderick revealed the existence of a secret pathway for the Inquisition to escape. Before parting ways with the Inquisitor, he expresses his change in opinion of them. When the Inquisition makes it to safety, Roderick passes away in their makeshift camp.
Quotes
- (Believing the Inquisitor is responsible) "As grandmaster of the Chantry, I hereby order you to take this criminal to Val Royeaux to face execution."
- (After sealing the Rift at the Temple) "Have you gone completely mad? The prisoner failed, Seeker. The Breach is still in the sky. For all you know, he/she intended it this way.)
- (Before the Inquisitor travels to Val Royeaux) "Better ready yourself for the blame you will be rightly assigned."
Gallery
See also
Codex entry: High Chancellor Roderick
References
- ↑
Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, vol. 2, p. 257.