Why would the Warden disappear without telling anyone?

Leliana probably lied, like Varric about Hawke.

Does the Warden have to let anyone know? As popular as she/he is, I would do the same to get away from everyone to have some peace and quiet.

Well if they are in command of the project at Vigil's Keep, you'd think they would have let the First Warden know and also, out of courtesy, the monarch of Ferelden, since this was meant to have been authorised by them and was effectively a collaboration between the secular ruler and the Grey Wardens.

Of course they ignore this in the DAI codex from Clarel to Arl Teagan and later when Teagan references Sophie Drydan as his explanation for why they don't like outside organisations running their Keeps. After the 5th Blight, the precedent has been set for the monarch of Ferelden collaborating with an outside organisation for the good of their people. According to Last Flight Vigil's Keep is still operational as a Grey Warden stronghold but you wouldn't know that from the plot in DAI. We have to go hunting for Blackwall to find out what is up with the Grey Wardens in Ferelden, when the obvious course of action would be to apply to Vigil's Keep. Then we have Grey Wardens hunting Hawke's contact in Ferelden on behalf of Clarel, when it is not under her jurisdiction. We are told that all the southern Grey Wardens are hearing the false calling but in Last Flight it is confined to Orlais. Why would they think all of them hearing the Calling was a disaster and they needed immediately to go in search of the last two Old Gods, when a simple enquiry of their fellow Grey Wardens in northern Ferelden, the Freemarches and at Warden HQ would show that it was only them?

A romanced Leliana has obviously been keeping in touch with the Warden because when they reply to your letter they know about the death of Justinia. If they had headed off into the far west before the events of DAI, how would they know about this if someone hadn't informed them?

Here is the thing, though. "Disappeared" usually is a word you use when you have no clue about what happened to that person.

Okay, let me spell it out for you:

WHY DISAPPEAR AT ALL?

Clearly this was just a way of expressing the fact that the Warden was no longer in Ferelden or anywhere near the action in DAI. Obviously they didn't break off all contact with people they knew. As I pointed out, they knew that Justinia had been killed, and both Leliana and Morrigan know where to contact them if romanced. Not sure what Alistair says if you encounter him as the Warden contact but it would seem odd if he didn't know how to contact the love of his life, so whatever he says he is probably just protecting them. If they romanced Zevran then we learn from their letter to the Inquisitor that he is with them and since we can have war table missions involving him, it would seem he also was being kept appraised of where he could find them.

Bottom line is that they wanted to avoid having the HoF (if still alive) involved in the Grey Warden plot, so they just came up with this rather lame excuse for their absence. It doesn't make a lot of sense and really doesn't tie up properly with the epilogue of DA2 but clearly that didn't bother the writers as much as it does us.

Like some others, I also reckon that Hawkes warden friend was supposed to be the HoF and the original choice was supposed to be which of your beloved characters do you want to leave to certain death player?

Then, perhaps anticipating the potential shitstorm they had on their hands (WTF BIOVAR? MY WARDEN DOESNT SOUND LIKE THAT!!!1!) they decided to scrap that idea and instead we’re left with a slightly puzzling and unsatisfactory “gone west for reasons” note.

Ehh. Doesn’t overly bother me though. Just means that my warden finding a cure for the calling and settling down with Leliana headcannon now has some ground in canon!

You mean Avernus?

Well in some World States Avernus would be dead, yet HoF goes west regardless to look for a cure. I suppose they could have used his research notes but it would be interesting to know why exactly Avernus or HoF thought that the cure could be found in the far west, in other words beyond the borders of Orlais? Was it yet unchartered territory off the normal map or simply the deepest reaches of the Tirashan? The latter would make sense given the strange elves that have been sighted there and the likelihood it does conceal ancient secrets. The only problem with that is they would still be in range of the false calling but I suppose if they kept their wits about them, it could be feeling the false calling was what promoted the urgency of their mission.

You should. Many characters from the books are in DAI and the next games probably will include those from the comics too.

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