Anwer Cadash

Anwer Cadash, often referred to as the Inquisitor or the Herald of Andraste, was the leader of the Inquisition and the man who sealed the Breach and stopped Corypheus' plans to become a god.

## Overview

### **Personality**

Anwer is generally very stoic and reserved. However, underneath that gruff exterior lies a kind and compassionate man who cares about people and wants nothing more than to restore order to the world.

### **Talents and Skills**

Anwer is a very talented warrior, having spent most of his life fighting for the Carta. He also underwent training to become a Champion under Chancer de Lion.

## Biography

### **History**

Anwer was born on 4 Firstfall, 9:03 Dragon in Ostwick. At the time, his grandfather, Gotrek Cadash, commonly referred to as the Old Rock, was the Head of House Cadash. Still, as the son of Gotrek's heir, Anwer was in line to lead House Cadash.

Anwer was the oldest of four siblings, with his younger brothers Faren and Edric and his sister Natia being born several years after him.

From the day he could walk, Anwer was trained to fight, to become an elite enforcer for the Carta.

In 9:16 Dragon, at the age of 12, Anwer had killed his first man in a bloody fight.

By the time Anwer was 18, he already had a reputation as viscious fighter in the Carta. Most Carta dwarves trembled at the mere mention of his name and believed that where he walked, only blood and dust remained.

In 9:24 Dragon, another Carta dwarf, Getha, challenged Anwer to a duel. Getha was also a renowned fighter in the Carta with a reputation for being unbeatable. Anwer was all too happy to accept. Their duel lasted hours, with neither dwarf giving the other and inch. When their weapons were worn down, they discarded them. When their armor was misshapen, they removed it. By the time it was over, the two dwarves were beating each other in their smallclothes. In the end, the two decided to continue their duel in private. By the end of the night, they decided that it was a draw.

In 9:25 Dragon, Anwer and Getha were married. The two were viewed as the power couple of the Carta, rumored that they would elevate House Cadash to even greater heights than the Old Rock had.

Unfortunately, in 9:29 Dragon, their bright future would come to a sudden and tragic end. Getha had gotten pregnant with their first child, so Anwer had to go on most assignments alone. While he was out on a mission to hunt down a couple runaway smugglers, Getha went into labour. Unfortunately, there complications during childbirth. Both Getha and the child died. When Anwer got the news, he was devastated. Feeling that he had abandoned his family when they needed him most, Anwer resigned as an enforcer and instead took a desk job under the Dasher, buying and selling smuggled goods.

In 9:30 Dragon, the Hero of Ferelden killed Beraht and the Jarvia later on, along with a sizeable portion of the Carta in Orzammar.

In 9:31 Dragon, several Carta members took this, as well as Anwer's melancholy, as a chance to stage a coup. They began assassinating several senior members of the Carta, including the Old Rock and Anwer's parents. Due to Anwer's mood, they assumed he would be just as easy to kill. They were wrong. Seeing his family murdered reignited the fire within Anwer, who led the remainder of House Cadash against the conspirators and slaughtered them to a man.

By the time the coup had been crushed, all that remained of House Cadash were Anwer, his siblings and their cousin, Mirinda. Afterwards, Anwer went back to his desk job.

In order to ensure the continuation of their house, Anwer had both of his brothers married to young women from merchant's guild families.

In 9:41 Dragon, the Dasher sent Anwer to the Conclave. The Mage-Templar War had thrown the lyrium trade into chaos, so Anwer was supposed to spy on the peace talks so they would know where their lyrium sales would be most profitable.

### **In-game**

After the explosion of the Conclave and the appearance of the Breach, Anwer appeared from a Fade Rift with a strange Mark on his hand. Cassandra Pentaghast, who had been the Divine's right hand, thought him responsible for the explosion and held him prisoner. However, in a desparate bid to seal the Breach, she released him and accompanied him to the Temple of Sacred Ashes, where he managed to close the Breach, but couldn't fully seal it. Afterwards, he was offered a place in the Inquisition and happily accepted, eager to restore order.

Due to the circumstances, people began referring to Anwer as the Herald of Andraste. As a devout Stone worshipper who didn't believe in Andraste or the Maker, he rejected the title.

In order to seal the Breach for good, Anwer required the help of either the mages or the templars. However, because the Inquisition was considered a heretical group of rebels, neither group was willing to even speak with them. Instead, Anwer ventured to the Hinterlands of Redcliffe in Ferelden in order to meet with a Chantry Mother, Giselle. Giselle advised that the Inquisitor go to Orlais to try and appeal to the Chantry clergy.

In Val Royeaux, Anwer found several Chantry members attempting to turn the people against the Inquisition. When the templars then appeared, people initially thought they had come to the Chantry's aid. Instead, Lord Seeker Lucius, who led the templars, denounced the Chantry and the Inquisition and had the templars abandon Val Royeaux. In addition, Grand Enchanter Fiona, leader of the mage rebellion, approached Anwer and invited him to Redcliffe to discuss possible aid from the mages.

Back in Haven, after discussing their options with the advisors, Anwer decided that the templars would be more useful against the Breach.

So, Anwer travelled to Therinfal Redoubt, where the templars were gathering, with a retinue of nobles at his side. However, soon after arriving, Anwer's party, as well as the templars, were attacked by other templars, who were using a red variant of lyrium. After fighting past the red templars, Anwer encountered the Lord Seeker, who then dragged Anwer into a nightmare within his own mind. There, the Lord Seeker attempted to possess Anwer, but mysterious spirit called Cole helped him overcome Lucius and break free. Back in reality, the Lord Seeker revealed himself to be an Envy Demon. With the help of the templars, under the command Ser Delrin Barriss, Anwer was able to defeat the demon. With the situation under control, Anwer offered Barriss and the templars a full alliance.

With the help of the templars, Anwer was then able to fully seal the Breach. However, his victory would be short lived, as Haven would come under attack. The Elder One, who was revealed to be Corypheus, had corrupted the mage rebellion to join the Venatori, a group of Tevinter supremacists, and were now marching under the command of Calpernia. Even though the Inquisition fought back ferociously, they were ultimately overwhelmed. In a desparate ploy, Anwer chose to distract Corypheus while everyone else evacuated through a hidden pass. After a brief confrontation with Corypheus, Anwer fired a trebuchet at the mountaintop, burying Haven under an avalanche, while barely managing to escape himself.

Despite suffering a defeat, the Inquisition was emboldened by Anwer's survival. Solas guided them to a fortress they could make into their new base, Skyhold. They named him Inquisitor and he declared the Inquisition for order.

In the Envy Demon's nightmare, it had been revealed that Corypheus plans to have Empress Celene assassinated and attack Orlais with an army of demons. In order to preempt this, Varric reached out to his friend, Hawke.

Hawke then led Anwer to Crestwood, where they met with a Grey Warden, Loghain Mac Tir. Loghain revealed that every Warden had begun to hear the Calling, which caused the Wardens to panic. In an effort to uncover the corruption of the Wardens, Anwer, Hawke and Loghain travelled to the Western Approach, where they discovered the Grey Wardens performing a blood ritual to bind demons. However, unbeknownst to them, a Venatori mage, Livius Erimond, was actually using the ritual to enslave the Warden mages. They attacked and Erimond managed to escape. However, Loghain was able to surmise that he escaped to Adamant Fortress and that that was where the rest of the Wardens were. Anwer then gathered the forces of the Inquisition and marched on Adamant. After a grueling battle, he managed to convince the Wardens to turn against Erimond. Warden-Commander Clarel attacked Erimond, but was killed by Corypheus' dragon.

In the fighting, Anwer's party got plunged into a Fade Rift and physically entered the Fade. There, they encountered someone who appeared to be Divine Justinia. As she guided them through the Fade, Anwer was able to recover his lost memories from the Conclave. Corypheus had attempted to sacrifice the Divine in order to enter the Fade, but Anwer interrupted the ritual and took Corypheus' orb, binding the Mark to his own hand. After recovering his memories, Justinia led Anwer to the Nightmare Demon, who was controlling Corypheus' demon army. After beating back the demon, Anwer, Hawke and Loghain attempted to escape, only for the Nightmare to block their path. Anwer chose to leave Loghain behind to hold off the Nightmare while Anwer and Hawke escaped.

Back in the real world, the demons had been dispelled and the Grey Wardens submitted themselves to Anwer's judgment. Anwer chose to let the Grey Wardens stay and rebuild.

With the threat of the demon army removed, Anwer could focus his attention on saving Empress Celene.

Josephine managed to acquire invitations to Halamshiral, where Celene was hosting peace talks to end the civil war under the guise of a ball. There, Anwer's investigation into the assassination plot led him to Florianne de Chalons, Celene's cousin and Gaspard's sister, who was actually plotting to kill Celene for Corypheus, who would let her rule all of Thedas in return. Anwer publicly confronted Florianne, turning Celene, Gaspard and the entire court against her. After Florianne was dealt with, Anwer convinced Celene that Gaspard, with Briala's help, was also planning on staging a coup against the Empress. With the evidence he'd gathered in the palace, Celene was able to convict Gaspard and Briala and sentenced them both to death, thus securing her throne. In addition to her support, Celene also pledged the services of her arcane advisor, Lady Morrigan, to Anwer.

With his schemes to conquer Orlais foiled, Corypheus marched his forces into the Arbor Wilds. Anwer marshalled the Inquisition's forces and allies and pursued him there. In the Arbor Wilds, they discovered an ancient temple to Mythal, along with a small army of ancient elves who were guarding it. With Morrigan's advice, Anwer was able to perform a sacred rite to Mythal and forge an alliance with the elven sentinels. It was also here that they learned of Corypheus' goal. He wished to claim the Well of Sorrows, through which he could access the local Eluvian and enter the Crossroads, through which he could get into the Fade. With the help of the elves, Anwer made his way through the temple and cofronted Calpernia.

Unbeknownst to Calpernia, Corypheus had planned to bind her with a spell once she took in the knowledge of the Well, turning her into a witless pawn. Once Anwer revealed this to her, Calpernia and her Venatori left peacefully.

With nobody between them and the Well, Anwer let Morrigan drink from it to claim its knowledge. They then escaped back to Skyhold through the Eluvian.

Shortly after returning to Skyhold, Morrigan's son, Kieran, vanished into the Eluvian. Pursuing him into the mirror, they found him with Flemeth, Morrigan's mother, who also revealed herself to be Mythal. After taking Urthemiel's soul from Kieran, she taught Morrigan how to turn into a dragon and left.

While the bulk of the Inquisition's forces were still on their way back from the Arbor Wilds, Corypheus reopened the Breach. Anwer confronted him and, with Morrigan's help, managed to defeat him and seal the Breach.

In the aftermath of the conflict, the Chantry named Leliana the new Divine, giving her the name Victoria.

In 9:44 Dragon, Anwer returned to Halamshiral to determine the future of the Inquisition. However, during the talks, he came across a qunari plot to assassinate the leaders of southern Thedas. While he managed to foil the plot, the Mark had begun to grow increasingly unstable throughout the journey. In the end, his investigation led him to Solas, who was revealed to be Fen'harel. Solas managed to get the Mark under control, though it resulted in Anwer losing his left arm. Solas then revealed that he intended to lift the Veil, causing incomprehensible destruction across Thedas.

Back in Halamshiral, Anwer declared the Inquisition disbanded and turned his attention towards trying to redeem Solas.

### **Post-game**

After the Inquisition was disbanded, Anwer settled his family in Kirkwall and took his seat in the Merchant's Guild, restoring House Cadash's place in proper dwarven society. He also made sure to spend as much quality time as he could with Cassandra.

## **Relationships**

Cassandra Pentaghast

While their relationship started off rocky, Cassandra quickly warmed up to the dwarf. After he helped her track down the Seekers and kill the real Lord Seeker Lucius, he encouraged her to restore the Seekers. After Cassandra confronted Anwer about his romantic advances, he invited her to a romantic night in a glade. There, the two embraced and professed their love for each other, thus beginning their romantic relationship.

Solas

Anwer and Solas had an amicable relationship based on mutual respect. When Solas asked Anwer to help free his friend, Anwer managed to break the summoning circle that bound the spirit, allowing it a final moment of peace.

Varric Tethras

Anwer and Varric were good friends. When Bianca appeared and told them about the source of the red lyrium, Anwer helped put a stop to the mining operation there and supported Varric when they discovered that Bianca had been the one to lead Corypheus to the lyrium. At Halamshiral, Varric managed to acquire a seat in the Merchant's Guild for Anwer.

Iron Bull

When Iron Bull approached Anwer with an offer of an alliance with the Qunari, Anwer accepted and took up the mission. However, when the Venatori went to retake the hill from the Chargers, Anwer had Iron Bull call the retreat, thus making him Tal-Vashoth.

Blackwall

When Blackwall revealed the truth about his identity, Anwer chose to free him from prison and had him go through the Joining to become a real Grey Warden.

Sera

Depsite her chaotic nature, Anwer and Sera actually got along really well. During the confrontation with Lord Harmond, Anwer managed to press him into service to the Inquisition, much to Sera's amusement. When Sera offered him to become a Red Jenny, he preferred to simply be one of her friends.

Vivienne

Anwer got along really well with Vivienne, due to his support of the Circle and Templars. He even managed to acquire the heart of a snowy wyvern for her potion, though it still didn't help save Bastien.

Dorian

When Mother Giselle approached Anwer to arrange a meeting between Dorian and his father, Anwer refused to be secretive about it and told Dorian the truth. When they met with Dorian's father, Anwer encouraged Dorian to hear his father out and try to reconcile.

Cole

When Cole was confronted with his past and tried to find his place in the world, Anwer sided with Solas, who helped Cole rediscover his nature as a spirit.

Josephine

When helping Josephine restore her family's fortunes, Anwer chose to let Leliana's agents destroy the contract with the House of Repose.

Cullen

Anwer supported Cullen's decision to stop taking lyrium and encouraged him to continue down his path, helping him break free from his leash.

Leliana

Over the course of their time together, Anwer encouraged Leliana to be more merciful and kind when dealing with problems. After he convinced her to spare Natalie, she finally managed to overcome her darker nature.