The Legion of the Dead (A Lore Video!)

I don’t think any has been provided.

I got the sense that the original idea might have been to have the Legion of the Dead more broadly focused on achieving glorious death in battle rather than being very Darkspawn specific. Maybe the dwarven surface taboos weren’t as much of a thing at the time he was writing either.

I thought I'd just mention that besides the anomaly in the novel concerning the Legion of the Dead, there is also the backstory behind one of the DAMP characters, Korbin. Not only does that not strike me as a terribly dwarven sounding name but he told the Inquisition when he joined them that he was formerly of the dwarven Warrior Caste who voluntarily joined the Legion of the Dead. When Josephine did a bit of digging through her diplomatic contacts she discovered that he was sentenced to the Legion for killing a noble, so that seems normal enough. Then Leliana poked around a bit more and discovered that it was possible he had taken responsibility for a crime committed by another, so his assertion that he had joined the Legion voluntarily was partly true as he voluntarily allowed himself to be sentenced for another person's crime. That's as far as they got with researching his background.

Now what struck me as odd about this story was that no reason was given as to why he left the Legion and came topside. If he didn't want to remain in the Legion and it was that easy to get to the surface, why didn't he do so before? How did he even know about the Inquisition? (I suppose you could argue he joined after the events of the Descent). The Legion is answerable to the King, so wouldn't you have to get permission to leave? Or is he simply a deserter? Did the King ask for volunteers to be sent to aid the Inquisition? It seemed strange enough that any dwarf from Orzammar would have voluntarily exiled themselves to the surface to serve the Inquisition but for someone to abandon the Legion does seem odd. Any ideas on that one?

Good question.  I’m not sure if there are any specifics as to when the MP characters join up, but if it came after Corypheus revealed himself that may explain it.  The dwarves might not buy into the story of the magister’s becoming the first darkspawn, but if they start getting reports of a darkspawn mage threatening the surface (and their vital supply lines) they may feel the need to the address the issue.  Hence Korbin may have received permission to go to the surface for that reason, given that darkspawn killing is usually the only reason such permission is given.