The world of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Age is rich and varied, if a tad Euro-centric at times. That said, the series has found a way of twisting its inspirations in a wider world filled with a genuinely detailed, believable history. And what's more eye-catching than an organisation of assassins running a country?

This of course refers to the Antivan Crows, a less-than-clandestine group of professionally trained assassins. While Antiva itself has not been depicted within the Dragon Age games, the Crows have had plentiful appearances. Now let's figure out what they are exactly. Besides assassins, obviously.

The Foundation Of The Antivan Crows

To understand anything to its fullest extent, you need to know where it started, and the Antivan Crows have a truly unexpected origin. While one might expect underhand dealings, they instead started as a military, if secluded, arm of the Antivan Chantry.

The specific tale of their origins recalls that a duke of ill-repute lived in the hills of Treviso whom members of a local Chantry abbey took upon themselves to remove. Using toxins from the various plants and herbs they grew in their garden, they assassinated him, and in doing so established the leitmotif and primary tool of the Antivan Crows - poison.

As time went on, these early assassins diverged from the Chantry and spun off into their own order. After all, a renowned group of assassins could hardly be seen as associated with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a divine religious order. Indeed, one of the earliest major assassinations of what would become the Antivan Crows was to murder the higher-up Templars of the Antivan Circle of Magi after it was discovered their Knight-Commander had invoked the Right of Annulment to hide his own massacre. And of course, it was through a poisoned cake that this retaliatory assassination took place.

From this point onwards, the Crows only grew in power and prominence, becoming a full-fledged organisation in their own right, independent of any masters but their own. As they currently stand, they are the de-facto rulers of Antiva, with nothing that goes in the country being compl♛etely devoid of the💎ir influence. It can be hard to run a country when your opponents are a house of ancient assassins.

Antiva does not actually have a standing army but is so incredibly wealthy that the Antivan Crows operate as a stand-in for one.

To the credit of the Antivan Crows, they have remained incredibly stable for the long period in which they have existed, though such bountiful heaps of gold are likely a strong incentive to remain in such a job. Job prospects likely aren't great for ex-assassins, and few could pay as well as the Crows' clients.

How Do The Crows Operate?

The Antivan Crows, as the name likely reveals, are 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:headquartered in Antiva, smack dab in the capital. They are also feared across the entire length of Thedas, making them a fearful group for anyone to bear witness to. So while Antiva is their base of operations, it is not the only place in which they operate. Anyone with the wealth to afford them the world over can avail of their services.

Of course, Antiva is the most prominent of their locales for assassination. The Crows are such a prominent part of Antivan society that many issues are solved by hiring them, while others make sure not to step on the toes of anyone rich enough to hire them. It's a cushy life for them, provided they survive the training.

Recruitment

While the Crows are a group of assassins, their prominence within society means that they're not quite as secluded as you might expect. While their assassinations are done as covertly as one might hope, their actual presence is less an open secret and more an unspoken rule of society. Yet even with such high respect within Antiva, one can't apply to be an assassin. So how exactly do they acquire such a continent-spanning group of extremely talented assassins?

Recruitment occurs in two ways for the Crows: The first involves finding and training children from youth, and even birth if possible, to form blood-letting as part of their base belief. Turning human life into its weight in gold is essential to crafting the ideal assassin for them. The second involves the purchase of slaves. This is where the bulk of their recruits come from as with the Crows, there is a chance of a kind of freedom. They still value those who are 🌟young so that they can shape their worldv🉐iew, however.

The Crows hold morals in light regard and are willing to hire recruits based purely on superficial traits if they feel like they can fine-tune them into a specific ki🦹n🥀d of assassin.

The Crows are rather cruel in how they train their young recruits, forcing them all into tight living conditions to build close bonds before ultimately getting many of them to murder their own peers♛. Eventually, these youths must perform an assassination all by themselves to prove their worth. Should they fai✃l, the Crows will simply kill them. No redemption. One failure is enough to bring down the reputation of the Crows.

Those that prevail, however, all become highly respected. Anyone who can survive those gruelling trials and come out the other side unfazed is the lifeblood of the Crows and is rewarded as such.

Hierarchy

While they may not be able to operate officially, that doesn't stop the Crows from creating themselves in the image of great dynasties of the past. The Crows split themselves into a series of ranks defined by their Noble House as follows:

• Talon - Eight Talons always comprise the board that manages the Crows as an organisation, with the leader of the most respected houses chosen as their representative. The most prominent currently is Caterina of House Dellamorte.
• Guildmaster - Another high-ranking member of the Crows, typically the leader of another Noble House though not respected enough to be a Talon.
• Master - These are the most respected assassins of the Crows, ones who can choose and enact their own contracts, or relegate them to others.
• Assassin - These form the bulk of the Crows ranks, and are those assigned contracts by Masters. There is, in time, a chance for regular assassins to become Masters.

It is a relatively loose structure, and one held together primarily by the Crow's singular oath - once you accept a contract, you complete it. Failure to complete a contract involves your own life becoming forfeit and expulsion from the Crows. As such,꧒ the only contracts that are taken are those that an assassin is confident they can complete.

All assassins fall into a Noble House of the Crows and take that as their surname꧟ since the majority do not have family names of their own.

While it is a commonly shared tale that the most respected of Masters may ascend to become head of their own house and eventually become a Talon, it is exactly that - a tale. For the vast majority of Crows, Master is the highest rank one will achieve in life. Only Guildmasters hold th🔯e opportunꦓity for their house to ascend enough in prominence to become a Talon.

Are The Crows An Official Part Of Antivan Society?

It is hard to call any group of assassins an official part of society, though the Antivan Crows fit into a fascinating area. While yes, they cannot be openly acknowledged within Antiva as it is a state with a governing system of its own, they are practically the rulers of said society.

After multiple Ages, the Antivan Crows have cultivated a very specific reputation and very rarely do they fail. Seeing as Antiva is such a rich society, it also means that the Crows become the easiest means of solving just about any dispute. As a beneficial consequence of this, it means the Crows do not need to vie for any form of official position. Their legal limbo means they operate what is functionally a society of their own, independent of actual law.

'Ages' is what Dragon Age refers to the current time period as, with each new Age called at prominent points in history. It is currently the Dragon Age.

To the members of the Crows, this affords them great respect. On top of the position itself being incredibly lucrative, much of Antivan society is built to satisfy them. People fall at their feet, no one will deny them service, and they are never in fear of unemployment. So while the Crows are not officially acknow💟ledged, they are as real as air. You may not always think about it, but it is something that undeniably exists.

Renowned Assassinations Of The Crows

Most people would be under the assumption that any good assassin would be basically unheard of. A known assassin is an assassin no longer, after all. With the Crows being the open secret that they are, there's no denying that the majority of assassinations in the world are their doing. This is doubly so because of their most prominent form of assassination, poison, being something of a trademark. Many of their most prominent assassinations are well-catalogued, told as boisterous exploits.

The Crows actually have a literal repository in Antiva City known as The Archive Of The Crows that documents ever♔ything about them, from 🌸history to contracts.

The Warden's Assassination

The most obvious and prominent of the Crow's assassinations would be that of the Grey Warden during the original Dragon Age. Hired by Loghain to remove the Grey Warden and their followers from the equation, this plot ultimately fails, a rarity for the Crows. It is the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:fan-beloved Zevran who headed this assassination and🐭 the ethos of the Crows is proven in his failure. Either he is killed by the Warden, or is hunted down cont✅inuously by his former peers.

Removing The Crows' Talons

While it is rare that the Eight Talons that comprise the Crows' leadership all convene at once, such an event occurred in anticipation of a Qunari invasion of Antiva. Yet during this meeting, a vast number of the Talons are assassinated in quick succession before it is revealed that a fellow Talon was the perpetrator, having been hired by the Qunari to thin their ranks and allow an easier, supposedly peaceful, invasion. With this act, half of the Crows Talons were rem♛oved.

The Talon that called this meeting, Caterina Dellamorte, is the grandmother of Lucanis of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Queen Madrigal And The Blade Of Mercy

One of the most famed tales of the Crows' exploits, this tale involved the famed assassination of Queen Madrigal of Antiva. She was found abandoned in the woods, pierced with a multitude of blades. Amongst these was a replica of the Blade of Mercy, a sword said to have pierced Andraste during her burning. Yet no matter how much the Crows were interrogated in regards to their involvement, not a single one spoke. In many ways, this tale sparked the beginning of the Crow's infamous reputation.

Historically, it is also debated if the assassination was also performed or prophesied by a Witch of the Wilds, and that the Cro🐭ws simply used their accidental involvement to boost their own station.