History NightmareFuel / DragonAgeOrigins

** Golems in ''Franchise/DragonAge'' are made of equal parts lyrium and FridgeHorror. Sure, Caridin was a genius. He probably exhausted every scheme for golem-making that seemed even remotely feasible, before finally settling on that not-very-nice one. Still, he ultimately decided to stick one of his fellow dwarves in a ten-foot-tall suit of armor and pour liquid lyrium into the joints until the subject stopped screaming. That the dwarves would elevate him to Paragon after he did something like that enough times to create an army pushes them from a DecadentCourt into "Good God, what the hell is ''wrong'' with you people!?" Caridin himself comes off even worse, if possible: by his own account, he failed to appreciate the full horror of his procedure until he himself became a golem. Leaving aside for the moment the moderate to severe sociopathy that such a failure implies, who made Caridin a golem? And what happened to that person, and their knowledge of golem creation?

** The fact that Connor is possessed by a [[HornyDevils Desire Demon]] creates a bad enough [[PaedoHunt subtext]], but facing her in the Fade and hearing just how possessive she is of her host is ''creepy.''

[[/folder]]

* The [[LegionsOfHell Darkspawn]] are NightmareFuel and {{Squick}} already, but one survivor's description of what happened at Ostagar is pure undiluted horror. Darkspawn everywhere, captives being eaten alive, the very ground literally rotting underfoot like fetid meat. It's like {{Mordor}}, but ''[[UpToEleven even worse]]''. You don't get to see it, but the veteran's account is more than enough to give the player nightmares. The ''Stone Prisoner'' DLC, however, gives you a firsthand look at what happens to towns that fall to the darkspawn.

-->'''Child:''' [[KnifeNut That's a nice dagger!]] I wonder if my dad will let me have it later?

* Codex entries about Abominations and Revenants. They're mentioned killing the Templars sent to slay them, and the Abominations are barely even ''human'' now. They're all mutated and swollen, now merely vessels for the demons that have inhabited the body of a poor, luckless mage.
** One Templar recalls looking right at an Abomination who was blasting a town apart trying to keep the Templar and his men from getting into sword's reach of said Abomination, and suddenly understanding that the no-longer-human mage wasn't luckless: the Templars had already been hunting him for using forbidden magic, and the mage realized he wasn't powerful enough to win without letting himself turn into an Abomination.

* There is a Blood Magic spell which can control any living thing with as a marionette by moving its blood. And the victim will suffer horrendous body damage in the case of resistance.
** Even more terrifying after they've used it on your party once, so you know what's going to happen when combat suddenly stops and everyone around you gets friendly. There's nothing you can do before you and your party are suddenly frozen in place and turned into gushing fountains of blood that all flows toward the enemy blood mage. Anyone who survives to fight will be near death, while the blood mage is replenished.

** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', you meet some Tal'Vashoth. While some of them are willing to kill humans on sight, there are also reasonable ones with good points. Sten is honorable to the ends of his fingertips, but that doesn't mean he's always [[UnreliableNarrator reliable]].
* GiantSpiders are pretty prevalent in the game, creeping in from overhead or behind, which is ParanoiaFuel, however what seals them as this is their overwhelm ability. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As stated]] they overpower your character, pin them to the ground and bite them to pieces. The dark red blood that flows out is [[OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank off the scale.]]
** The way their models ''move'' is uncanny as well. They're ''way'' too big and have disgusting JigglePhysics. Is it any wonder there are popular mods to model swap them into things that are less repulsive?
** And the noise. Oh god. The noise. There's nothing like the distinctive "shhhk-hiss" of a horde of spiders descending from the ceiling of whatever arena you're fighting through to make a player's bones chill.
* Something about the way that Tamlen vanishes, screaming, in the Dalish Elf origin is more than shiver-worthy. Getting ambushed by what remains of him later in the game is just the icing on the cake.
** In addition, in the moments leading up to this, you can say "Get away from it, Tamlen...." in an attempt to warn him away. Despite the order only appearing in text, the context and the atmosphere of the scene makes the line practically ''ooze'' uneasiness despite it being completely un-voiced.
** Also, think about the implications of not playing a Dalish Elf. The [=PC=] likely turned into a Ghoul like Tamlen, which means there's a high chance they met their death at your hands.
* The implications of not playing ''any'' of the backgrounds is pretty Nightmare Fuelish: the Human Noble is slaughtered at the hands of their family's "oldest friend"; the City Elf might be raped if female and even if they still managed to kill Vaughan, prison ''won't'' be kind to a ''[[FantasticSlurs knife-ear]]'' who killed an arl's son; the Dwarf Commoner is executed; and the most fun of all, the Dwarf Noble is sent out to die in the Deep Roads. Worse, if that noble is a princess, it's ''very'' likely she wound up becoming a Broodmother.
** If you ask Harrowmont about Endrin's death, the conversation leads to the events of the aborted Dwarf Noble origin, in which Harrowmont confirms the Noble was a prince. And the Dwarf Commoner found their way back into the carta's custody, rather than being executed. [[YankTheDogsChain They then went on a hunger strike and died.]]

** Even more terrifying was the entire concept of the Right of Conscription, even if it only really exists in the game as a glorified ButThouMust to keep the story going. So, basically a Warden can just pick you off the streets and ''force'' you to become a recruit for any reason they see fit. Result? A) Death from poison, B) death from ''instant murder'' if you try and back out upon realizing that you've been shanghaied/misled, or C) the solid gold Kewpie doll: you survive, but are still almost guaranteed a violent and premature death from fighting. I am having so many Jedi flashbacks right now, only with 90% more dying.
** And even if you don't die in the line of duty, eventually you'll have to commit suicide by darkspawn horde to avoid dying a slow horrible death, or going insane and subsequently ending up as part of said horde.
** The Battle of Ostagar's latter half. You light the signal, and surely the armies led by the renowned war hero Loghain Mac Tir will swoop in to save the day, right? Nope! Loghain turns tail and runs, and what follows next is nothing short of a massacre. King Cailan and Duncan - and indeed, most of their troops on the field of battle - are swiftly overrun and wiped out, with some of the last scenes before the darkspawn attack and overwhelm Alistair and the Warden (who are only saved because of Flemeth) showing a helpless Duncan watching as what little remains of Ferelden's once-mighty army is downright ''murdered'' at the hands of the darkspawn.

* Lothering fits many of the "first town" tropes, complete with helpful people surprisingly quick to join you on your deadly adventure, monsters described as tough but really aren't, and side quests requiring absurdly low-level skills. And then you leave, and the icon turns into a skull and crossbones. The Blight hits Lothering, and literally wipes it off the map. Excepting recruited party members and a father-and-son merchant duo, you never see any of the people there ever again, despite having lengthy conversations with a dozen or so of them. Count the [=NPCs=] on your next playthrough, and remember that excepting one family (if you're nice to them) and one child (if you talk with him), you never saw anyone leave. Another exception is made in the second game--the Hawke family lived in Lothering, and most of them escape, but they're full-on hero types.
** Hawke does get letters from other survivors of Lothering. Some (like Old Barlin) are people the Warden met, while others they didn't. A letter sent to Leandra notes that the survivors are starting to put their lives back together.

** While on the subject of Redcliffe, one militia member's description of what happened to his friend is this trope. One of the devouring corpses, a dead body possessed by a demon of hunger, got on him and started eating his face. He screamed and tried to push it off, but couldn't.
** Also in Redcliffe, kids speaking with regular adult voices are creepy enough. Kids speaking with otherworldly demonic booming voices with a superimposed kid voice on top? That's just mean, Bioware.

* Not a very bad one, but it can still give a case of the creeps. If you angle your camera just right at the suits of armor in the Redcliffe Castle, they have visible eyes and faces. They don't move, don't blink, but it makes the little fight with them a tiny bit creepier.
** Also the fact that the suits of armor are completely harmless ''until'' you walk into the room they're in, at which point they jump off their pedestals and attack you. Admittedly, it's a bit mitigated by the fact that there are only six of them, so they're not ''that'' hard to beat; and if they're still around, Ser Perth and his knights will rush to your rescue (not that you'll likely need it). Still, going exploring around a castle you've supposedly reclaimed and being ''jumped'' as you wander about the premises would warrant at least a sharp breath or two.

* The Tranquil. Despite being benevolent - as benevolent as a soulless walking mannequin can be, anyway - they make you want to hug your pillow and cry, just to remind yourself that ''you still can.''

** This is mitigated somewhat by the fact that, regardless of their lack of emotions, the Tranquil are not just {{Empty Shell}}s and still have free will. Many of the ones you talk to agree that making themselves useful to the Chantry and living peacefully is more preferable than falling to demonic possession (which is a real threat for mages), meaning they still have enough motivation and purpose to do things beyond mindless obedience. One of them, Owain, even points out that his lack of emotions doesn't make him any less a person than the party he's talking to. This is further proven by the presence of Pharamond in the novel ''Dragon Age Asunder''; he's a Tranquil researcher who was sent by Justinia V to study the Rite of Tranquility and perhaps find a way to reverse the process that would allow mages to keep their minds without their power.
** However, ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' reveals firsthand what being Tranquil is like, seeing the world devoid of [[FateWorseThanDeath all colour and music]]. Having briefly regained his sense of self due to Justice's presence and feeling himself slipping once more, Karl immediately begs Anders [[MercyKill to kill him]] while he's [[DyingAsYourself still himself]].
** Fortunately, ''Inquisition'' reveals that Tranquility is reversible: The Seekers are all made Tranquil and restored by communing with Spirits of Faith, a ritual that renders them immune to further possession and grants them AntiMagic powers similar to Templars.
** [[HumanResources Unfortunately]], all of those Oculara scattered in the world were made out of Tranquil skulls by Venatori. The companion reactions to this (it's in a locked house in Redcliffe in ''Inquisition'' [[SchmuckBait if you're curious]]) are sad.
** In the ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' quest "Dissent," the Templar Ser Alrik makes female mages tranquil in order to [[RapeIsASpecialKindofEvil have his way with them]]. Imagine rejecting the advances of a lecherous authority figure, then being lobotomized so that you can't say no.
--->'''Alrik:''' That's right. Once you're Tranquil, you'll do anything I ask.

* The whole section where you get [[LotusEaterMachine trapped]] in the Fade by a sloth demon is NightmareFuel. The music doesn't help, nor does the convoluted, frustrating and claustrophobic nature of the missions in the dreamscape.
** The sloth demon itself, between its gravelly voice and attacking you in your nightmares, is a reasonably good {{Expy}} of [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]]. Now imagine Freddy Krueger possessing a mage.
* Abominations are pretty scary, yes, but what ''really'' plunges the player into uncontrollable terror is watching a guy get twisted into one. He screams horribly and starts glowing and floating and then he's gone, and in his place there is a deformed, twisted monster who doesn't even remotely look human anymore. The fact that the Abomination models have faces that look ''melted'' doesn't help.
** Even creepier when Uldred offers to turn ''you'' into one as well and ''genuinely thinks he's offering you a great thing.'' It just goes to show how ''twisted'' the man's become.

* Just the Deep Roads are freaky ''enough''.
** To expand, initially, the Deep Roads seem like Bioware's take on the mines of Moria, with Darkspawn standing in for the orcs as you hack your way through Caridin's Cross and the Aeducan Thaig, which come across as your standard ruined underground cities, not unlike say, Fallout. And then you start venturing further into areas like Ortan Thaig and the Dead Trenches, which is where the true nightmare fuel begins. The music shifts from an intrepid, if heroic theme to something out of Resident Evil, with eerie wailing and faint chanting taking over, all the while as you continue traversing locations that are slowly being ''corrupted'', giving you a definitive line of where exactly the Blight truly begins.

*** Caridin never told the court or the general public the true horror of the golem crafting technique, and it is implied by information found on the [=DLCs=] that he isn't its original creator. The dwarves were desperate and there was no shortage of volunteers in the face of the encroaching darkspawn. Then the king at the time, Valtor, decided to turn casteless, criminals, and his political enemies into golems. Caridin objected, and that's when he was turned into a golem himself.
*** Also alleviating it some what was the fact that all the original golems, such as Shale, were volunteers as already mentioned. Presumably, they knew the process would be extremely painful, but were willing to undergo it to give their people a fighting chance against the darkspawn. The real horror only came when the King started throwing everyone he didn't like onto the anvil and forced Caridin to create the control rods to rob the golems of their free will. Caridin trying to oppose the King in these decisions is what got him turned into a golem himself. Until that point you could almost view the golems as the Dwarven equivalent of a SuperSoldier.
* A low-key example from Ortan Thaig: You've been harassed by spiders since you entered the place, and now you have to go deeper into the bowels of the earth. Oh look, more spiders in the tunnel. Except, in violation of all video game monster etiquette, they're not attacking you: they're pulling back. Nothing about their behavior suggests fear. It's more like a controlled retreat where they only stick around long enough to make sure you're following them deeper - and of course, the way they're heading is the way you ''have'' to go. It's a nice and unexpectedly creepy touch.
** And in case you're wondering where they're leading you? Right to their queen, a FlunkyBoss who cheerfully retreats every quarter of her health you damage, summoning even more spiders to aid her in the fight. And even worse, there are two Darkspawn mages right outside her lair, and if you don't kill them before confronting the queen, they'll run in to aid her and it ''won't'' be pretty, not that it ever was.
*** And in ''some'' cases, after the Queen is dead and her minions are slain, reading Branka's journal (a mandatory task) may summon ''more'' spiders, just when you thought the battle was over. Nothing like thinking you've won the fight, checking off the mandatory plot item - and then getting jumped by a horde of enemies immediately afterwards, like some last ditch attempt to avenge the boss you just slew.

** Golems in ''Franchise/DragonAge'' are made of equal parts lyrium and FridgeHorror. Sure, Caridin was a genius. He probably exhausted every scheme for golem-making that seemed even remotely feasible, before finally settling on that not-very-nice one. Still, he ultimately decided to stick one of his fellow dwarves in a ten-foot-tall suit of armor and pour liquid lyrium into the joints until the subject stopped screaming. That the dwarves would elevate him to Paragon after he did something like that enough times to create an army pushes them from DeadlyDecadentCourt into "Good God, what the hell is ''wrong'' with you people!?" Caridin himself comes off even worse, if possible: by his own account, he failed to appreciate the full horror of his procedure until he himself became a golem. Leaving aside for the moment the moderate to severe sociopathy that such a failure implies, who made Caridin a golem? And what happened to that person, and their knowledge of golem creation?

[[/folder]]
----

* Cullen is found cowering on his knees and. hands on his head, and trapped in a [[GoMadFromTheIsolation magical prison by himself.]] He's the SoleSurvivor of a group of Templars that were being repeatedly MindRaped [[PersonalHell with their darkest thoughts.]] until they died. He himself had [[StarCrossedLovers his feelings for a female Mage Grey Warden used against him.]] He anguishes about always [[EroticDream seeing illusions of her.]] [[LustObject ''Very'' vivid illusions of her.]]

* Cullen is found cowering on his knees and. hands on his head, and trapped in a [[GoMadFromTheIsolation magical prison by himself.]] He's the SoleSurvivor of a group of Templars that were being repeatedly MindRaped [[PersonalHell with their darkest thoughts.]] until they died. He himself had his feelings for a female Mage Grey Warden used against him. He anguishes about always seeing illusions of her.

* Cullen is found cowering on his knees and. hands on his head, and trapped in a [[GoMadFromTheIsolation magical prison by himself.]] He's the SoleSurvivor of a group of Templars that were being repeatedly MindRaped [[PersonalHell with their darkest thoughts.]] until they died. He himself had his feelings for a female Mage Grey Warden used against him, blurting out that he keeps seeing her.

* Cullen is found cowering on his knees and. hands on his head, and trapped in a [[IsolationMakesYourGoCrazy magical prison by himself.]] He's the SoleSurvivor of a group of Templars were being repeatedly MindRaped with their darkest thoughts.

* The implications of not playing ''any'' of the backgrounds is pretty Nightmare Fuelish: the Human Noble is slaughtered at the hands of their family's "oldest friend"; the City Elf might be raped if female and even if they still managed to kill Vaughan, prison '''won't'' be kind to a ''[[FantasticSlurs knife-ear]]'' who killed an arl's son; the Dwarf Commoner is executed; and the most fun of all, the Dwarf Noble is sent out to die in the Deep Roads. Worse, if that noble is a princess, it's ''very'' likely she wound up becoming a Broodmother.

** In the novel Asunder, after a demon used her memories of this battle (Archdemon included), Wynne puts some reality to another character saying that, yes, the forces of good win the fight, [[WarIsHell but the Battle of Denerim was bloody, nightmarish, and claimed a lot of lives in the process.]]

** Also, think about the implications of not playing a Dalish Elf. The [=PC=] likely turned into a Shriek like Tamlen, which means there's a high chance they met their death at your hands.

!! Main Game

!! DLC

!Per wiki policy, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.

[[folder: General]]

[[folder: Ostagar]]

[[folder: Lothering]]

[[folder: Circle of Magi]]

[[folder: Orzammar]]

[[folder: Redcliffe]]

* Redcliffe Village becomes a ghost town if you leave during the quest to prepare it for the impending little ZombieApocalypse. NothingIsScarier indeed. No wait, the really scary part is seeing some of the now undead villagers later in Redcliffe Castle.
** While on the subject of Redcliffe, one militia member's description of what happened to his friend is this trope. One of the devouring corpses, a dead body possessed by a demon of hunger, got on him and started eating his face. He screamed and tried to push it off, but couldn't.
** Also in Redcliffe, kids speaking with regular adult voices are creepy enough. Kids speaking with otherworldly demonic booming voices with a superimposed kid voice on top? That's just mean, Bioware.
** The fact that Connor is possessed by a [[HornyDevils Desire Demon]] creates a bad enough [[PaedoHunt subtext]], but facing her in the Fade and hearing just how possessive she is of her host is ''creepy.''
* Not a very bad one, but it can still give a case of the creeps. If you angle your camera just right at the suits of armor in the Redcliffe Castle, they have visible eyes and faces. They don't move, don't blink, but it makes the little fight with them a tiny bit creepier.
** Also the fact that the suits of armor are completely harmless ''until'' you walk into the room they're in, at which point they jump off their pedestals and attack you. Admittedly, it's a bit mitigated by the fact that there are only six of them, so they're not ''that'' hard to beat; and if they're still around, Ser Perth and his knights will rush to your rescue (not that you'll likely need it). Still, going exploring around a castle you've supposedly reclaimed and being ''jumped'' as you wander about the premises would warrant at least a sharp breath or two.
* The entire sequence that plays out if you decide to kill Connor instead of entering the Fade. It bounces back and forth between NightmareFuel and TearJerker and doesn't know when to stop.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Haven]]

[[folder: Denerim]]

[[folder: Warden's Keep]]

[[folder: The Darkspawn Chronicles]]

[[folder: Golems of Amgarrak]]

[[/folder]]

** In addition, in the moments leading up to this, you can say "Get away from it Tamlen...." in an attempt to warn him away. Despite the order only appearing in text, the context and the atmosphere of the scene makes the line practially ''ooze'' uneasiness despite it being completely un-voiced.

* The implications of not playing ''any'' of the backgrounds is pretty Nightmare Fuelish: the Human Noble is slaughtered at the hands of their family's "oldest friend", the City Elf might be raped if female and even if they still managed to kill Vaughn, prison '''won't'' be kind to a ''[[FantasticSlurs knife-ear]]'' who killed an arl's son, the Dwarf Commoner is executed and the most fun of all, the Dwarf Noble is sent out to die in the Deep Roads. Only if that noble is a princess, it's ''very'' likely she wound up becoming a Broodmother.

* The first time you see a Joining it's pretty creepy. The guy stumbles back moaning in pain, then suddenly his eyes go ''completely blank'' (or roll up so that the pupils aren't visible, which is ''even worse''). Then, because he's one of the many unlucky ones who don't survive the Joining, he starts choking to death right before your eyes. No wonder Jory freaked out.

** And even if you don't die in the line of duty, eventually you'll have to commit suicide by Darkspawn horde to avoid dying a slow horrible death, or going insane and subsequently ending up as part of said horde.
** The Battle of Ostagar's latter half. You light the signal, and surely the armies led by the renowned war hero Loghain Mac Tir will swoop in to save the day, right? Nope! Loghain turns tail and runs, and what follows next is nothing short of a massacre. King Cailan and Duncan - and indeed, most of their troops on the field of battle - are swiftly overrun and wiped out, with some of the last scenes before the Darkspawn attack and overwhelm Alistair and the Warden (who are only saved because of Flemeth) showing a helpless Duncan watching as what little remains of Ferelden's once-mighty army is downright ''murdered'' at the hands of the Darkspawn.

* Lothering fits many of the "first town" tropes, complete with helpful people surprisingly quick to join you on your deadly adventure, monsters described as tough but really aren't, and sidequests requiring absurdly low-level skills. And then you leave, and the icon turns into a skull and crossbones. The Blight hits Lothering, and literally wipes it off the map. Excepting recruited party members and a father-and-son merchant duo, you never see any of the people there ever again, despite having lengthy conversations with a dozen or so of them. Count the [=NPCs=] on your next playthrough, and remember that excepting one family (if you're nice to them) and one child (if you talk with him), you never saw anyone leave. Another exception is made in the second game--the Hawke family lived in Lothering, and most of them escape, but they're full-on hero types.
** Hawke does get letters from other survivors of Lothering. Some the Warden met, some they didn't.

** During the "Broken Circle Quest", in the room where the last statue for "Watchguard of the Reaching" quest is, you're faced by an abomination, 3 undead and possibly 3 shades. If you pay enough attention during the first few moments of the fight, you can see 3 or 4 mages bind in a magical barrier. If you kill the abomination too slowly, they will turn to shades one by one. However, if you get to kill the abomination fast enough to prevent them from being turned, you will notice that they are not mages. They are Tranquil. This indicates that the Tranquil are not immune from demonic possession, even after sacrificing their emotions and their spell casting abilities, which means they are turned into Tranquil for nothing. Add the fact that normally, Tranquil are seen as undesirable by demons, and yet the ones in the Circle decided to possess them. Gives you an idea how bad the situation is. Either that, or the Tranquil are being sacrificed by the abomination to summon the shades. It's disturbing either way.
** This is mitigated somewhat by the fact that regardless of their lack of emotions, the Tranquil are not just {{Empty Shell}}s and still have free will. Many of the ones you talk to agree that making themselves useful to the Chantry and living peacefully is more preferable than falling to demonic possession (which is a real threat amongst mages), meaning they still have enough motivation and purpose to do things beyond mindless obedience. One of them, Owain, even points out that his lack of emotions doesn't make him any less a person than the party he's talking to. This is further proven by the presence of Pharamond in the novel ''Dragon Age Asunder'', a Tranquil researcher who was sent by Justinia V to study the Rite of Tranquility and perhaps find a way to reverse the process that would allow mages to keep their minds without their power.

** [[HumanResources Unfortunately]], all of those Ocularums scattered in the world were made out of Tranquil skulls by Venatori. The companion reactions to this, it's in a locked house in Redcliffe in Inquisition [[SchmuckBait if you're curious]], are sad.
** In the ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' quest Dissent, the Templar Ser Alrik makes female mages tranquil in order to [[RapeIsASpecialKindofEvil have his way with them]]. Imagine rejecting the advances of a lecherous authority figure then being lobotomized so that you can't say no.

** This isn't the worst part. Branka ''deliberately allowed'' her female retinue to be infected, so that their Darkspawn progeny would provide her with a limitless supply of test subjects.

** Golems in ''Franchise/DragonAge'' are made of equal parts lyrium and FridgeHorror. Sure, Caridin was a genius. He probably exhausted every scheme for golem-making that seemed even remotely feasible, before finally settling on that not-very-nice one. Still, he ultimately decided to stick one of his fellow dwarves in a ten-foot-tall suit of armor and pour liquid lyrium into the joints until the subject stopped screaming. That the dwarves would elevate him to Paragon after he did something like that enough times to create an army pushes them from DeadlyDecadentCourt into "Good God, what the hell is ''wrong'' with you people!?" Caridin himself comes off even worse, if possible: by his own account, he failed to appreciate the full horror of his procedure until he himself became a golem. Leaving aside for the moment the moderate to severe sociopathy that such a failure implies, who made Caridin a golem? And what happened to that person, and his knowledge of golem creation?

** The fact that Connor is possessed by a [[HornyDevils Desire Demon]] creates a bad enough [[PaedoHunt subtext]], but facing her in The Fade and hearing just how possessive she is of her host is ''creepy.''

** Also the fact that the suits of armor are completely harmless ''until'' you walk into the room they're in, at which point they jump off their pedestals and attack you. Admittedly, it's a bit mitigated by the fact that there are only six of them, so they're not ''that'' hard to beat, and if they're still around, Ser Perth and his knights will rush to your rescue (not that you'll likely need it), but still, going exploring around a castle you've supposedly reclaimed and being ''jumped'' as you wander about the premises would warrant at least a sharp breath or two.

-->'''Child:''' [[KnifeNut That's a nice dagger! I wonder if my dad will let me have it later?]]
** The altar in one of the houses in Haven: coated with years of dried blood and JUST the right size for an infant or toddler.
* Haven in general, actually. From the moment you arrive, anyone and everyone in the area wants you to leave, and discovering even the most minor of their secrets leads to the entire town attacking you, with mobs of townspeople and soldiers running at you the moment you step out the door. It's not a problem for you, the Grey Warden, and your team of elite warriors, mages and rogues backing you up every step of the way, but for Arl Eamon's knights, or anyone else unlucky enough to have shown up unarmed or without backup? Ouch.

* While conducting the "Rescue the Queen" quest, you can hear ambient dialogue between some of Howe's soldiers, who are talking about how much they hated being sent to Castle Cousland in Highever. They describe the corpses littering the hallways, the unsettling quiet of the place and the sense that, given half the chance, the villagers would happily kill them all in a heartbeat for what they did on Howe's orders. That's bad enough if your Warden comes from any of the other five origins it's not a pretty picture to have in your mind. But if you're playing the Human Noble, remember that your Warden ''knows all those dead people'' and is related to a few. Imagine overhearing a conversation like that about ''your'' childhood home and the people who lived there with you.
* Fort Drakon in general is pretty freaky. A prison where the guards seem to have absolute power, and in a land where your rights are largely determinant on if you can fight off whoever comes after you to take them away? Not a good place to be.
* The Final Battle. The skies are a blood red, black clouds choke the sky, hordes of Darkspawn running around the city killing everyone in sight, and worst of all, the Archdemon soaring high above. Thankfully, you have an army of your own at your back, but it's still freaky to be fighting through Ferelden's capital - now burning, overrun with Darkspawn and bodies littering the streets - in an all-or-nothing bid to kill the Archdemon.

* From this DLC comes the Harvester, a flesh golem. Imagine a gigantic mass of corpses crudely sewn together and driven to kill more people to add to it. The process behind making it was so horrible that even ''Branka'' was [[EvenEvilHasStandards too disgusted to consider using it]].

[[/folder]]
----

* The Pride demon from the Mage's Harrowing. True, you never face it in-game, or at least, not in the first one, but it gets one [[OneSceneWonder HELL]] of an scene.]] Mouse drops all pretense of helping you, and begins his transformation. Suddenly, the camera angle changes, and you're looking down at your character over the shoulder of a HUGE demon who's so tall you can't even see most of him from the angle he's shot at, and then he implies that [[WeWillMeetAgain this isn't over.]]

* The [[LegionsOfHell darkspawn]] are NightmareFuel and {{Squick}} already, but one survivor's description of what happened at [[spoiler:Ostagar]] is pure undiluted horror. Darkspawn everywhere, captives being eaten alive, the very ground literally rotting underfoot like fetid meat; it's like {{Mordor}}, but ''[[UpToEleven even worse]]''. You don't get to see it, but the veteran's account is more than enough to give the player nightmares. The ''Stone Prisoner'' DLC, however, gives you a firsthand look at what happens to towns that fall to the darkspawn.
* Codex entries about Abominations and Revenants. They're mentioned killing the Templars sent to slay them, and the Abominations are barely even HUMAN now. They're all mutated and swollen, now merely vessels for the demons that have inhabited the body of a poor, luckless mage.

* The [[BloodMagic Blood Wound]] spell, which ''boils your target's blood from inside their very veins.'' They just stand there twitching when it works...

** Even more terrifying after they've used it on your party once, so you know what's going to happen when combat suddenly stops and everyone around you gets friendly... there's nothing you can do before you and your party are suddenly frozen in place and turned into gushing fountains of blood that all flows toward the enemy blood mage. Anyone who survives to fight will be near death, while the blood mage is replenished.

* Something about the way that [[spoiler: Tamlen]] vanishes, screaming, in the Dalish Elf origin is more than shiver-worthy. [[spoiler: Getting ambushed by what remains of him later in the game is just the icing on the cake.]]

** Also, think about the implications of not playing a Dalish Elf. The [=PC=] likely [[spoiler: turned into a Shriek like Tamlen, which means there's a high chance they met their death at your hands.]]
* The implications of not playing ''any'' of the backgrounds is pretty Nightmare Fuelish: [[spoiler: the Human Noble is slaughtered at the hands of their family's "oldest friend"; the City Elf might be raped (if female) and even if they still managed to kill Vaughn, prison '''won't'' be kind to a ''knife-ear'' who killed an arl's son; the Dwarf Commoner is executed; and the most fun of all, the Dwarf Noble is sent out to die in the Deep Roads. Only if that noble is a princess, she isn't going to die at all, is she...]] It's never explicitly stated that [[spoiler: the Broodmother you fight is one of Branka's household. It could very well be the dwarven princess that Duncan wasn't there to rescue.]]
** [[spoiler: If you ask Harrowmont about Endrin's death, the conversation leads to the events of the aborted Dwarf Noble origin, in which Harrowmont confirms the Noble was a prince. Luckily for the prince... And the Dwarf Commoner found their way back into the carta's custody, rather than being executed. They then went on a hunger strike and died.]]
** In the ''Witch Hunt'' DLC, [[spoiler:you find out that the Dalish Elf was found and brought back to camp, but never recovered and ended up just dying, luckily spared the same fate as Tamlen. Dying is probably preferable to finding out they've been suffering in pain for months while you've been making good use of your second chance at life/extended death sentence.]]
** [[spoiler: And the mage? The mage is probably taken to Aeonar for helping Jowan, a prison run by the Chantry at the site of an old Tevinter facility. Due to experiments the magisters did there, the Fade is so thin most mage inmates get possessed by demons. If the mage turned on Jowan, they were probably killed or possessed and then killed in Uldred's rebellion.]]
** [[spoiler: Aeonar, possession, or being made Tranquil? Which one is scarier?]]

* Duncan's utter, glacial calm when he [[spoiler: murders Ser Jory]] is this. He doesn't want to do it, he doesn't enjoy doing, but he still does it. If you had any illusions that the Grey Wardens were a purely noble, honorable, good Order of selfless heroes, they are dashed ''hard'' right here.
** Even more terrifying was the entire concept of the Right of Conscription, even if it only really exists in the game as a glorified ButThouMust to keep the story going. So, basically a Warden can just pick you off the streets and ''force'' you to become a recruit for any reason they see fit. Result? A) Death from poison, B) death from ''instant murder'' if you try and back out upon realizing that you've been shanghaied/misled, or C) the solid gold Kewpie doll: you survive... but are still almost guaranteed a violent and premature death from fighting. I am having so many Jedi flashbacks right now, only with 90% more dying.
** And even if you don't die in the line of duty, eventually you'll have to commit suicide by darkspawn horde to avoid dying a slow horrible death, or going insane and subsequently ending up as part of said horde.

* Lothering fits many of the "first town" tropes, complete with helpful people surprisingly quick to join you on your deadly adventure, monsters described as tough but really aren't, and sidequests requiring absurdly low-level skills. And then you leave, and the icon turns into a skull and crossbones. The Blight hits Lothering, and literally wipes it off the map. Excepting recruited party members and a father-and-son merchant duo, you never see any of the people there ever again, despite having lengthy conversations with a dozen or so of them. Count the [=NPCs=] on your next playthrough, and remember that excepting one family (if you're nice to them) and one child (if you talk with him), you never saw anyone leave. (Another exception is made in [[spoiler:the second game--the Hawke family lived in Lothering, and most of them escape, but they're full-on hero types]].)
** [[spoiler: Hawke does get letters from other survivors of Lothering. Some the Warden met, some they didn't]].

* The Pride demon from the Mage's Harrowing. [[spoiler:True, you never face it in-game (at least, not in the first one), but it gets one [[OneSceneWonder HELL]] of an scene.]] Mouse drops all pretense of helping you, and begins his transformation; Suddenly, the camera angle changes, and you're looking down at your character over the shoulder of a HUGE demon (most of whom you can't see); And then he implies that [[WeWillMeetAgain this isn't over.]]
* The landscape of the Fade: a twisted, confusing mass of small islands filled with demons and spirits of the dead. And in the center, there's the Black City... always there... always in the center. The city of the Maker, the god who has turned his back on all except those who believe in him.

** Fortunately, ''Inquisition'' reveals that [[spoiler: Tranquility is reversible: The Seekers are all made Tranquil and restored by communing with Spirits of Faith, a ritual that renders them immune to further possession and grants them AntiMagic powers similar to Templars.]]
** [[HumanResources Unfortunately]], all of those Ocularums scattered in the world were made out of Tranquil skulls by Venatori. The companion reactions to this (It's in a locked house in Redcliffe in Inquisition) are sad.
** In the ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' quest Dissent, the Templar Ser Alrik makes female mages tranquil in order to [[RapeIsASpecialKindofEvil have his way with them]]. Imagine rejecting the advances of a lecherous authority figure...then being lobotomized so that you can't say no.

* Abominations are pretty scary, yes, but what ''really'' plunges the player into uncontrollable terror is watching a guy get twisted into one. He screams horribly and starts glowing and floating... and then he's gone, and in his place there is a deformed, twisted monster who doesn't even remotely look human anymore. And the thing's ''gaze''... * shudder*
** Even creepier when Uldred offers to turn ''you'' into one as well.

* The Broodmother and the entire explanation given for it. First off, just the appearance is grotesque. Then, the explanation. To elaborate: [[spoiler:They take some poor group of people, and make one of the females eat most of the rest and taint her. Those that are left over are some of the other females, because seeing ''that'' makes them break more easily when it's their turn. The tainting also involves 'bile and blood' being poured down the subject's throat and... [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil violation]] that turns them into utter BodyHorror, and over the process of a week, they become the Broodmother, who turns out more darkspawn.]]

--->[[spoiler:First day, they come and catch everyone]]
--->[[spoiler:Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat]]
--->[[spoiler:Third day, the men are all gnawed on again]]
--->[[spoiler:Fourth day, we wait and fear for our fate]]
--->[[spoiler:Fifth day, they return and it's another girl's turn]]
--->[[spoiler:Sixth day, her screams we hear in our dreams]]
--->[[spoiler:Seventh day, she grew as in her mouth they spew]]
--->[[spoiler:Eighth day, we hated as she is violated]]
--->[[spoiler:Ninth day, she grins and devours her kin]]
--->[[spoiler:Now she does feast, for she's become the beast.]]
** This isn't the worst part. [[spoiler: Branka ''deliberately allowed'' her female retinue to be infected, so that their Darkspawn progeny would provide her with a limitless supply of test subjects]].
*** That's not the worst part, either. [[spoiler: Hespith, who narrates all of this to you? She was Branka's lover. Branka left her behind anyway, and Hespith's now the last woman alive from the entirety of Branka's noble house. Hespith has seen every last one before her die or corrupted, and she knows what's coming next for her. And she knows that it's happening to her because she fell in love with the wrong person.]]
*** That's STILL not the worst part! You remember the Dwarf Noble origin? You're [[spoiler: sent to be locked in the deep roads. If you're female, then just imagine what would happen if, say, you didn't get rescued by Duncan? You would have become a broodmother. Of course, this doubles with Fridge Horror.]]

** Golems in ''Franchise/DragonAge'' are made of equal parts lyrium and FridgeHorror. Sure, Caridin was a genius. He probably exhausted every scheme for golem-making that seemed even remotely feasible, before finally settling on that not-very-nice one. Still, he ultimately decided to [[spoiler:stick one of his fellow dwarves in a ten-foot-tall suit of armor and pour liquid lyrium into the joints until the subject stopped screaming]]. That the dwarves would elevate him to Paragon after he did something like that, did it enough times to create an army... it pushes them from DeadlyDecadentCourt into "Good God, what the hell is ''wrong'' with you people!?" Caridin himself comes off even worse, if possible: by his own account, he failed to appreciate the full horror of his procedure until [[spoiler:he himself became a golem]]. Leaving aside for the moment the moderate to severe sociopathy that such a failure implies, [[spoiler:who made Caridin a golem? And what happened to that person, and his knowledge of golem creation? Hopefully it didn't fall into the wrong hands]]...

*** Also alleviating it some what was the fact that all the original golems[[spoiler:, such as Shale,]] were volunteers, as already mentioned. Presumably, they knew the process would be extremely painful, but were willing to undergo it to give their people a fighting chance against the darkspawn. The real horror only came when the King started throwing everyone he didn't like onto the anvil and forced Caridin to create the control rods to rob the golems of their free will. [[spoiler:Caridin trying to oppose the King in these decisions is what got him turned into a golem himself.]] Until that point you could almost view the golems as the Dwarven equivalent of a SuperSoldier.
* A low-key example from Ortan Thaig: You've been harassed by spiders since you entered the place, and now you have to go deeper into the bowels of the earth. Oh look, more spiders in the tunnel...except, in violation of all video game monster etiquette, they're not attacking you: they're pulling back. Nothing about their behavior suggests fear. It's more like a controlled retreat where they only stick around long enough to make sure you're following them deeper - and of course, the way they're heading is the way you ''have'' to go. It's a nice and unexpectedly creepy touch.

* Redcliffe Village becomes a ghost town if you leave during the quest to prepare it for the impending little ZombieApocalypse. NothingIsScarier indeed. No wait, the really scary part is [[spoiler: seeing some of the now undead villagers later in Redcliffe Castle]].
** While on the subject of Redcliffe, one militia member's description of what happened to his friend is this trope. One of the devouring corpses, a dead body possessed by a demon of hunger, got on him and started eating his face. He screamed and tried to push it off, but couldn't...

** The fact that Connor is [[spoiler: possessed by a [[HornyDevils Desire Demon]] creates a bad enough [[PaedoHunt subtext]], but facing her in The Fade and hearing just how possessive she is of her host is ''creepy.'']]

* The entire sequence that plays out if you decide to [[spoiler:kill Connor]] instead of entering the Fade. It bounces back and forth between NightmareFuel and TearJerker and doesn't know when to stop.

* Ah, Haven. [[TownWithADarkSecret A friendly little village with peaceful villagers]]. Especially that one little boy who carries a human finger bone and begins [[IronicNurseryRhyme rhyming...]]

** The altar in one of the houses in Haven: [[spoiler: coated with years of dried blood and JUST the right size for an infant or toddler.]]

* The orphanage in the Elven Alienage. A bunch of ripped-apart children's corpses, blood splatters, and plenty of [[IronicNurseryRhyme mysterious voices]] spread through the place give an unholy idea of what's been going on there. Hell, going through there makes one feel like [[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon Alma]] is going to come skipping around the corner any second...
** Take a look at the map. You exit through the back... into the front. Nothing on either map suggests a loop around, and this is AFTER you've 'cleansed' the place.
** And don't forget the fate of poor [[spoiler:Ser Otto, the blind Templar who helps you throughout the whole thing.]]
* While conducting the "Rescue the Queen" quest, you can hear ambient dialogue between some of Howe's soldiers, who are talking about how much they hated being sent to Castle Cousland in Highever. They describe the corpses littering the hallways, the unsettling quiet of the place and the sense that, given half the chance, the villagers would happily kill them all in a heartbeat for what they did on Howe's orders. That's bad enough if your Warden comes from any of the other five origins; it's not a pretty picture to have in your mind. But if you're playing the Human Noble, remember that your Warden ''knows all those dead people'' (and is related to a few). Imagine overhearing a conversation like that about ''your'' childhood home and the people who lived there with you.

* In this DLC, the Warden is brought to Soldier's Peak, the former Warden HQ, by the great-great-grandson of the former Warden-Commander, Sophia Dryden. Upon entering the gates, the Warden and their companions witness the scene of the final battle at Soldier's Peak. Following the cutscene, the Warden is attacked by the [[spoiler: corpses of the former King Arland's men as well as those of former Wardens]]. But perhaps the greatest shock comes on floor two. When the party enters a certain room, someone calls out to them. [[spoiler: It turns out to be the corpse of Sophia Dryden, which is being possessed by an escaped Fade demon. Worse, she is visibly rotting around the eyes and even comes with a very unsettling voice.]]

* The DLC examines an alternate timeline where your character died during their Joining and Alistair was TheHero. You play as a Darkspawn Vanguard during the final assault on Denerim. Along the way, you fight and kill members of your party including [[spoiler: Sten, Wynne, Oghren, and Zevran.]] Lastly, you go up to the top of Fort Drakon to defend the Archdemon from [[spoiler: Alistair, Leliana, Morrigan, and Dog. The end cinematic has Alistair crawling on the ground looking at the dead bodies of the other three companions. Then Alistair is impaled by the darkspawn you control. If you cared about any of your companions, this scene is both NightmareFuel and TearJerker]].
** Also the presence of Morrigan in that battle implies that [[spoiler: Alistair agreed to Morrigan's Dark Ritual. Things must have been so grim that Alistair, who had to be coaxed into agreeing with the ritual in the main game, did so willingly without the influence of your character. BreakTheCutie indeed...]]
** And add to the fact that Leliana is rumoured to have been Alistair's lover in this AU. Meaning that Alistair not only probably [[spoiler: slept with Morrigan to have a chance at a happy life with her after the Blight (against every revulsion he must have had at the thought of doing it),]] but one of the last things he sees is Leliana's mangled body - giving him enough time to react with horror before [[spoiler:getting his head hacked off]]...

* Amgarrak itself. Even before you breach the entryway, it's clear something's not right; the undead attack you right outside the entrance, and you see [[GoddamnBats Deepstalkers]] fleeing in terror from something up ahead. Then you enter the fortress, and things get a whole lot worse. The Harvester scuttles ahead of you at every turn, the grisly research notes from the overseer detail its [[BodyHorror creation]], and the increasingly panicked journal entries from the leader of the recovery party who went in ahead of you, as he realizes that ''something'' is in there with them, make it feel like ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' meets ''Dragon Age''.