Character Shale
Class:	Warrior
Location:	Village of Honnleath
Quests:	A Golem's Memories A Paragon of Her Kind
Voice:	Geraldine Blecker
Appearances:	Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne Dragon Age: Origins - The Stone Prisoner Dragon Age: Asunder Dragon Age II(mentioned) Dragon Age Legends

Shale is a potential party companion who can be recruited from the town of Honnleath. Shale's character (and associated quests) have been the subject of much discussion; originally intended to be a joinable NPC in the shipped game, Shale was cut by developers who wanted to concentrate on further polishing the game prior to release in 2008. When the game release date was pushed back to Q4 2009, developers spent time re-integrating Shale back into the game. Although still not included in the shipped version of the game, Shale is available as free Day One DLC to all purchasers of either the Standard or Collector's Edition of Dragon Age: Origins who download The Stone Prisoner. For those who obtain a second-hand copy of the game, The Stone Prisoner is available for purchase for US$15. There was originally an expiration date on this offer but people who have used the Xbox Live, PSN or PC code past the expiration date have had no problems downloading it.

Shale does not use the usual armor and weapons, but, much like Dog, has specialized equipment--in its case, taking the form of crystals. Shale may equip Small Crystals (classified as weapons in the inventory) that grant a bonus to attack damage, as well as converting all damage to that type, and Large Crystals (classified as armor in the inventory) that can grant a defensive bonus and resistance to certain types of damage.

Background

Shale is one of the last dwarven war golems. The knowledge to create such golems was presumably lost after the invasion of the darkspawn and the sealing of the Deep Roads. She is extremely proud of being a golem and hates the villagers of the town of Honnleath, citing the expression that "familiarity breeds contempt", and that after 30 years of watching them, it has become very familiar with them. Its hatred of the townsfolk may also come from their habit of dressing the golem up in festive garb during holidays or the fact that they spread bird seed around the golem's inert body, which brought near her most dreadfully hated enemies, the birds.

Shale may be present in Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne under the command of Wilhelm, as Wilhelm and a golem served under Maric to help him regain his throne. Wilhelm also served Moira the Rebel Queen. When she was killed, the golem and Wilhelm stayed with the rebel army and awaited for Maric to come back.

“We now have a dog and Alistair is still the dumbest one in the party.” — Morrigan This article contains spoilers for Dragon Age: Origins. Click here to reveal them.

If Shale is a party member when the Warden arrives at the Anvil of the Void, it is revealed that Shale was once a female dwarf known as Shayle, and she belonged to the House of Cadash. The then-she was one of the first volunteers to become a golem as well as the only female to do so. After becoming a golem, it stayed with Caridin, fighting at his side until the very end, when she was sent away out of mercy. More information is also available through its personal quest (A Golem's Memories).

Involvement

Dragon Age: Origins

“We now have a dog and Alistair is still the dumbest one in the party.” — Morrigan This article contains spoilers for Dragon Age: Origins. Click here to reveal them.

After the Anvil of the Void quest is over, Shale remembers where its thaig might be, and it can be explored. If the Warden decides to side with Branka and take the Anvil of the Void while Shale is in your active party, Shale will side with Caridin and you will be forced to fight and kill it in the ensuing battle. Otherwise, you can let Shale stay in the Camp before Anvil of the Void and then side with Branka, keeping Shale as companion for the rest of the game.

If Shale is in your active party when you reach Orzammar, it will regularly participate in intimidation efforts by adding that it will squish or pop heads. It will also engage in a conversation with the Shaperate, located in the diamond quarter.

Shale cannot accompany you into the Arl of Denerim's Estate to rescue Queen Anora. If you have Shale in your party, Erlina will inform the party that golems can hardly pass for guards and will force a change in the active party. You will then get the party selection screen and be forced to select another party member to accompany you. Shale is also not an option for the Captured! quest, which can result after rescuing Anora.

Dragon Age: Asunder

“I spent my time cleaning. Like a servant.” — Shale This article contains spoilers for Dragon Age: Asunder. Click here to reveal them.

Shale is a character in the novel Dragon Age: Asunder, where she accompanied Wynne to the Adamant Fortress in western Orlais, an abandoned Grey Wardens' outpost overlooking the Abyssal Reach which was known to be regularly plagued by Darkspawn incursions. Their goal was to seek the counsel of an old friend of Wynne's, a Tranquil researcher named Pharamond, who was conducting an experiment authorized by the Divine regarding the possibility of using the Rite of Tranquility in a new manner: to sever a mage's power and connection to the Fade, but without causing the emotional disruption and the loss of the ability to dream, essentially turning a mage into a commoner without magical power. Wynne was open to this idea as well but she also believed that Pharamond's research might prove useful for helping Shale to return to her original female dwarven form (at least that is what she said to the others that came with her). She arrived at the fortress only to find that it was overrun by demon possessed corpses of the keep's original inhabitants, and sensing Pharamond to having become an abomination. She left Shale behind to guard the entrance to the fortress in order to prevent anything from leaving its gates, whilst she returned to Val Royeaux to ask for aid from the Divine to procure the aid of some mages from the White Spire to help her with a ritual to go into the Fade and restore Pharamond's sanity and destroy the demon who possessed him. She ended up recruiting her enstranged son Rhys and his friend Adrian, both of them senior enchanters, despite the protests of the Lord Seeker Lambert who was now in charge of the White Spire. Also accompanied by Knight Captain Evangeline, Wynne, Rhys and Adrian journeyed back to Adamant Fortress and reunited with Shale, and proceeded to go inside the fortress to locate Pharamond's laboratory. They found him trapped by his own accord inside a circle which he had warded with blood magic to prevent himself from escaping should he become possessed, which ultimately happened, becoming a Pride abomination.

Quest

Main article: A Golem's Memories

“We now have a dog and Alistair is still the dumbest one in the party.” — Morrigan This article contains spoilers for Dragon Age: Origins. Click here to reveal them.

One way to get Shale's personal quest is to have it in the party during the culmination of A Paragon of Her Kind. If Shale is not in the party when the Warden speaks with Branka and Caridin or if Shale was collected after A Paragon of Her Kind quest is completed, simply speak to Shale at the Party Camp. It will ask the Warden if Caridin was encountered and will follow with a few questions about Caridin:

If the Warden sided with Caridin: Respond honestly to Shale's questions and it will thank you and give the quest.

If the Warden sided with Branka while Shale wasn't in the party: The quest still can be taken later in the Camp through lying to Shale with a high Coercion skill. Alternatively, you can tell Shale the truth. Depending on your responses, the conversation can wind up causing a significant approval drop but still unlocking Shale's personal quest, cause Shale to leave your party altogether, or even force you to fight Shale to the death.

Return to either Caridin's Cross or Ortan Thaig in the Deep Roads and Shale will automatically make a comment about how the area is familiar and remember a thaig nearby. Agree to see the thaig and it will be available on the Deep Roads map as Cadash Thaig.

The quest consists of taking Shale back to Cadash Thaig to find proof that she was once a dwarf. If this quest is completed, Shale's approval can increase by +23 or more points. Your final destination is the golem monument (marked as a quest location) and a conversation with Shale that ends the quest. If Shale was not with you when you met Caridin, Shale will comment that she wishes that she could have had the chance to speak with him.

Note: If the main character decides to side with Branka for the final part of A Paragon of Her Kind, Shale will side with the golems and attack the main character. Shale becomes hostile and must be killed, and does not reappear later in the game.

Note: In order to get "brilliant" crystals here, the Warden must be at least level 19.

Gifts

Shale has a preference for "remarkable" gemstones. There is an issue with the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions which causes Shale to not give the standard +10 for the first gem; instead you receive +5, which decreases as usual, so that after receiving four of the gems, Shale seems uninterested in the others ("So I'm to keep this then, am I? Fine."), giving only +1 for the rest, giving a measly 18 approval for giving them all to Shale. Therefore, you have to rely on conversation and your actions to get higher approval.

If you have the Feastday Gifts and Pranks DLC, however, you might also compensate for this bug with the thoughtful gifts and sugar cakes available from Bodahn Feddic. No matter how many are given, a Thoughtful Gift is always worth (+10) , and a Sugar Cake, (+5) .

Name	Notes	Description
Remarkable Amethyst	Located: Dust Town	A deep, clear purple stone.
Remarkable Diamond	Located: Orzammar (console only)	A brilliant cut, colorless stone.
Remarkable Emerald	Located: Figor's Store	This dark green gem has murky depths, like an overgrown pond.
Remarkable Greenstone	Located: Village of Honnleath	Blue-green stone with a pattern like a turtle's shell.
Remarkable Malachite	Located: Circle Tower	This stone is patterned with odd bands and ripples of color, like the contents of a witch's cauldron.
Remarkable Ruby	Located: Denerim Alienage and Cadash Thaig	Deep red and nearly indestructible, these are prized by royalty.
Remarkable Sapphire	Located: Orzammar Commons	A star-cut sapphire, almost the color of the night sky.
Remarkable Topaz	Located: Frostback Mountains	A brilliant gem the color of sunshine.

Initial statistics

See Companion Strategies for suggestions on how to develop Shale.

See Shale Talents for a list of its talents.

Relative attribute weightings on auto-level: strength 1.4, dexterity 0.25, willpower 0.5, magic 0, cunning 0.145, constitution 1.9

Plot skills

As you befriend Shale and gain its approval, it will gain additional skills:

Note: These approval bonuses do NOT stack. Instead of 13 extra strength, you get 6.

Quotes

Main article: Shale/Dialogue

• (If removed from party) "Pigeon crap."
• "The darkspawn are an evil that must be destroyed, it's true. Though not as evil as the birds... damnable feathered fiends!"
• "I wonder what it is like to float...or drown."
• (Battle cry) "Death to all pigeons!"
• (If given one of the Remarkable Gems) "Oooh, Shiny!"
• (When heavily injured after battle) "Oh look! I think I got chipped after that last fight!"
• "I would appreciate it if it didn't spread around that I said anything. Humans might start to get the wrong idea. They might start thinking their race is not completely hopeless."
• "Now, let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?"

Dialogue

• Shale: "I see it found some augmentation crystals. I was not even aware it knew about them... well done! So? What does it think? They don't make me look any wider, do they? I find I am already too wide as it is."
• The Warden: "No, no, they're quite slimming"
• Shale: "They are, aren't they? I so adore them! I think it should find some more as soon as possible. I want to glitter from ear to ear... so to speak!"

• Leliana: "You aren't all stone, Shale. There is a person inside of you."
• Shale: "If so, it is because I ate him."

Trivia

• Shale has an undying hatred for birds. Apparently, roosting birds frequently left their mark on her during her imprisonment.
  • Shale stomps on a chicken when leaving Honnleath after its release.
  • On Soldier's Peak (after Levi has set up shop), the camp ravens slowly migrate towards Shale and begin to follow her around.
• Since Shale, like Dog, uses no weapons, when Frost Weapons, Flaming Weapons, or Telekinetic Weapons is used, the visual effect is applied to Shale's entire body.
• Shale's dialogue includes an in-joke reference to how the size of the original graphics model caused development issues.
  • Shale mentions that she used to be 10 feet tall, but was shrunk (with a chisel "and a lot of nerve", as Shale puts it) by her mage owner Wilhelm.
  • Originally, her design called for it to be the same size as other golems encountered during Dragon Age: Origins. The reason for the size reduction was that she couldn't fit through doors in the game.
  • You can see a full-sized version of her during her nightmare in the Fade.
• When your companions are wishing you luck before the final battle, if Shale has not been chosen to join you her parting statement will be "Have fun storming the castle." This is a quote from the film The Princess Bride from a scene just before the heroes invade a castle to win the day.
• Shale's sex before she became a golem appears to be a mystery to those who do not know it:
  • For example, if Shale is the Warden's champion at the Landsmeet, Loghain says, "I think the odds might be slightly in his favor at a test of strength." (Another Princess Bride reference)
• The description of Renewed Assault refers to Stona Aura, instead of Stone Aura.
• Shale's character and attitude towards "fleshy creatures" is similar to the hunter-killer droid HK-47, from an earlier Bioware game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. In the latter, HK-47 refers to organics as 'meatbags', and also comments on how they are weak due to their organic nature.
• Shale was originally intended as part of the base game and not downloadable content. The golem was to be found in Redcliffe Village, along with the Golem Control Rod and Wilhelm's Cottage.
• In Dragon Age II, Corff the Bartender in the Hanged Man indirectly mentions Shale when asked about recent news, saying, "The craziest thing. Apparently, the pigeon population has taken a nose dive in Ferelden. Weird, huh? What kind of sick individual preys on those innocent things?"
• During the epilogue of Dragon Age II, a picture of Shale chasing some chickens is also present when Varric is flipping through Cassandra's book.

Gallery

Shale chasing chickens in Cassandra's book

Shale fighting deep stalkers

Add a photo to this galleryAdd a photo to this gallery

See also

• Codex entry: Shale

External links

• Artwork of Shale
• Pigeon Crap - A Shale fan community on LiveJournal