| “ | The time has come to act. There can be no half-measures. There can be no turning back. | „ |
| ~ Anders |
Anders is a human mage and apostate. Initially focused on escaping the Circle of Magi and achieving his own freedom, after being possessed by the spirit of Justice, he becomes determined to liberate all the mages of Thedas.
At the end of Dragon Age II, Anders launches a terrorist attack on Kirkwall's Chantry, starting an armed conflict between Kirkwall's mages and templars that eventually leads to the cross-continent Mage-Templar War.
He is a potential companion in Dragon Age: Origins — Awakening and a companion in Dragon Age II, where he is also a potential friend, rival, or love interest for a male or female player character.
Background[]
Anders was born and raised in a small Ferelden farming village, the son of an immigrant from the Anderfels. When he was twelve years old, he accidentally set the family's barn on fire with magic, leading his father to call the templars to take him to the Ferelden Circle. The only item he was allowed to bring with him was a pillow embroidered by his mother.
Anders refused to speak for months after arriving at the Circle, even to tell the other apprentices his name, leading to his nickname, "Anders," due to his heritage. Less than six months later, Anders made his first escape attempt, which would be the first of many over the years. However, the Circle's First Enchanter Irving believed that Anders posed no real threat and recommended that the templars treat him with kindness.
As an apprentice, Anders befriended an older boy, Karl Thekla, who he would frequently commiserate with over life in the Circle. Eventually, the two fell in love, and Anders made no more escape attempts during their relationship. Shortly after the two had undergone their Harrowings, Karl was transferred from the Ferelden Circle to Kirkwall's Gallows, which devastated Anders. Despite increased templar scrutiny, he escaped again and was captured trying to buy passage to Kirkwall.
After Karl's departure, Anders made several more escape attempts over the years and began being punished with bouts of solitary confinement in Ferelden's Circle Tower. After his sixth attempt, he was made to spend a full year alone in a small cell. Later, Anders would recall one of the tower's mousers, a cat called Mr. Wiggums, as his only companion until the cat was possessed by a demon and killed by templars. However, the Circle has no records of any such cat existing.
Dragon Age: Origins — Awakening[]
During his seventh escape from the Circle, Anders travels to the village of Amaranthine, where he is apprehended by templars. On the way back to the Circle, Anders and his captors briefly stop at the nearby Vigil's Keep, a recently established Grey Warden holding. That night, the Keep is attacked by darkspawn, who kill both of Anders' templar captors, though he manages to fight them off before encountering Ferelden's Warden-Commander.
Though the templars demand Anders be executed for the two templars' deaths, the Warden-Commander saves him by inducting him into the Grey Wardens, where he traveled with them for several months, rebuilding the Grey Warden order. During this time, the templars attempt to recapture Anders by tricking him into trying to steal back his phylactery, but the Warden-Commander once again refuses to hand him over. In the Grey Wardens, Anders meets Justice, a Fade spirit possessing the body of a Grey Warden, who challenges Anders to use his new freedom from the Circle to help other oppressed mages.
Anders (short story)[]
Months after his induction into the Wardens, Justice and Anders are sent on an assignment with several other Wardens, including an ex-templar he suspects was sent by the Chantry to keep an eye on him. On the assignment, Justice offers to possess Anders, allowing Anders to use Justice's powers to fight for mage freedom and giving Justice a living body he wouldn't have to worry about decomposing. Wanting to help Justice and hopeful about the future of the mages, Anders agrees.
The other Wardens witness his possession and decide to execute him, saying they can't harbor abominations. Anders immediately loses control, becoming entirely possessed by Justice, and awakes to find the mangled and cannibalized bodies of his fellow Wardens. Horrified at what merging with Justice has done to the spirit, he flees the scene.
Dragon Age II[]
After fleeing the Wardens, Anders travels to Kirkwall, using his healing abilities to create a free clinic for the onslaught of Ferelden refugees fleeing the Blight. There, he resumes contact with Karl and begins to make arrangements to help him escape the Circle until Karl mysteriously stops responding.
Anders enlists the help of a Ferelden refugee, Hawke, to help him free Karl from the Gallows, but instead discovers that Karl has been made Tranquil and used to lure Anders into a templar trap. Enraged at Karl's fate, Justice takes over Anders once again, exposing himself as an abomination to Hawke and killing the templars. However, being so close to a Fade spirit briefly brings Karl back from his Tranquil state, and he begs Anders to kill him. Once the effect wears off, and Karl is once again Tranquil, Anders stabs him.
When Hawke returns to demand answers, Anders explains how he willingly chose to be possessed by Justice, though he does not mention the fate of the Wardens who saw them merge. He tells Hawke he believes his own anger at injustice has warped Justice into becoming Vengeance.
After Karl's death, Anders becomes active in Kirkwall's mage underground, a covert group helping mages escape the Gallows. He also begins writing a manifesto on the rights of mages in the hopes it will help convert people to his cause. Eventually, he asks Hawke to help him expose the templar Ser Alrik, who he believes plans to turn all of Kirkwall's mages Tranquil. If Hawke agrees to help, they find Alrik harassing a young escaped mage, Ella, threatening her with Tranquility and sexual assault. Justice overtakes Anders once again and continues to maintain control even after the templars are dead. Disturbed, Ella calls him a demon, angering Justice further.
Hawke can either successfully talk Justice down or fail to do so. If they fail, Justice lashes out and kills Ella. Regardless, when Anders regains control, he's horrified by what he's done — or might have done — and questions whether he should fight for mage rights at all, believing himself too much of a monster to be trusted.
However, as years go by, Kirkwall's mage underground is all but eliminated by Knight-Commander Meredith, and Anders becomes convinced that the only hope is to trigger an all-out war between mages and templars. He resolves to build a bomb capable of destroying the Kirkwall Chantry, along with its leader, Grand Cleric Elthina. With Elthina dead, he believes the templars will decide to exercise the Right of Anullment, which Meredith had already been campaigning the Chantry for. If the Right is exercised, the templars will attempt to execute all of the Circle's mages, and the mages will have no choice but to fight back, hopefully igniting further revolutions across Thedas.
To execute his plan, Anders lies to Hawke and asks them for help gathering ingredients for a potion that will separate him from Justice. These are actually ingredients for his bomb, and once they are gathered, Anders asks them to distract the Grand Cleric while he sneaks into the Chantry. If Hawke questions his plans, he'll admit to needing the ingredients for something else but refuses to elaborate on his plans, insisting that Hawke must help him if they care about the freedom of mages.
Whether or not Hawke agrees to help him, Anders blows up the Chantry, killing everyone inside and raining deadly debris over Kirkwall. From there, things go as he anticipated, with Meredith declaring the Right of Annulment and the mages preparing to defend themselves. Both Meredith and Orsino tell Hawke to deal with Anders as they see fit.
If in a rivalry with Hawke, Anders says that Vengeance took him over and begs Hawke to kill him. If in a friendship, he says that he and Justice are one and the same now and he stands by their actions. Hawke can kill Anders, tell him to leave the party, or ask him to stay and fight with Hawke.
If Anders leaves the party and Hawke sides with the mages, he returns to them, asking to let him fight by their side, and leaves if turned away again. If Anders leaves the party and Hawke sides with the templars, he confronts them in the battle against the mages, and Hawke must kill him there.
If Hawke sides with the mages and asks him to stay and fight, he is surprised but eagerly agrees. If he and Hawke are in a romance, he asks Hawke to go on the run with him and live as fugitives once the battle is over. If Hawke sides with the templars and asks him to stay and fight, Anders will refuse unless he is at full rivalry with Hawke, at which point he can be convinced to atone for his actions by fighting with the templars. Before the final battle, he tells Hawke he's horrified by what they're doing and suggests he plans to take his own life after the battle.
Dragon Age: Inquisition[]
If Anders survives and Hawke sided with the mages, Anders flees Kirkwall with the Circle of Magi, but is blamed for their current circumstances and leaves. If Hawke sided with the templars, he tries to stay in Kirkwall to deal with the consequences of the Chantry bombing, but is eventually foced to leave.
If he and Hawke were in a romance, the two have been together ever since Hawke either fled Kirkwall with the mage rebellion or was ousted by the red templars. However, the two are separated when Hawke travels to Skyhold to assist in the fight against Corypheus, worried about Corypheus' effect on Anders as a Grey Warden if he came with them. If Hawke survives Inquisition, Varric speculates that Anders will join them in Weisshaupt if he hasn't lost his mind.