The Brecilian Forest questline in Dragon Age Origins presents one of the game’s most morally complex secondary situations: a village of werewolves, a clan of Dalish elves, and an ancient curse that connects them. The surface conflict is between the werewolves attacking the elves and the elves requesting the Warden’s help. The truth requires investigation.
Zathrian, the Dalish Keeper who requests help, created the curse himself. Centuries ago, humans destroyed his family. He bound a forest spirit to a werewolf leader named Witherfang, creating an immortal creature capable of spreading the curse through bites, and used it to punish the descendants of those who had wronged him. He has been maintaining the curse for two hundred years because he cannot let the anger go.
The resolution options: kill the werewolves, or find Witherfang and confront Zathrian with evidence of his creation. If confronted, Zathrian can be persuaded to release the curse — an act that requires his death, because the curse is bound to his life. The werewolves were people before the curse. Releasing it returns them to mortality and death simultaneously.
BioWare wrote the questline knowing that the most sympathetic resolution required players to confront their employer with his own guilt. The questline has no option where Zathrian continues and the curse ends. His longevity is the problem’s cause. The only good ending costs him his life, and he must choose to pay it.
The amount of craft that went into hiding this detail is remarkable. Pure game design artistry.
The level of craft hidden in the background of this game is genuinely moving. They made it for someone.