The Call

Transmission & Vectors

through the taint

Affected Groups

all races

History

All darkspawn constantly hear the call of the slumbering Old Gods and search for them. When they find one, they corrupt it and it becomes an Archdemon, proceeding to unite them into a horde and unleash a new Blight. Hence many believe that with the death of all Old Gods the Blights will end.
At some time after their Joining, Grey Wardens also start hearing this call. As known since the First Blight, this is the actual Calling and the moment when Grey Wardens know they must descend into the Deep Roads to find their death in battle. Otherwise they become fully tainted, nothing more than ghouls who feel compelled to join the darkspawn horde.
The call of the Old Gods becomes physically audible when close to one of their prisons.
Bregan describes the call of the Old Gods as a sound of "terrible beauty" and "awful yearning", while the Architect considers darkspawn pursuit for the ancient dragons as a never-ending aspiration towards a perfection they can never have, as it is corrupted in the instant they touch it. A Grey Warden wrote that the music is "almost a voice, at once unearthly and beautiful" that instigates a sense of a "presence watching and calling", if not the Maker. Cole hears the call in the Western Approach and feels that it has "an urgency that sped his heart" and is different from the song of lyrium.

Type

Magical

Parent

The Taint

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Uncommon

Affected Species

• Old Gods