Commander Levine stood solemnly under the shadow of the Tower of Ishal, in the same place that the wardens of the Fifth blight had over two hundred years earlier. He had sent out over thirty new recruits from the Ferelden area, however Levine had decided that the time had come for him to find some to accompany him, so tonight he'd gathered the most promising recruits he could find from all across the country. He had just blown his battle-horn and was waiting for the recruits to gather, they'd been told that to come to his location as soon as they'd heard the noise. He had tried to make the place as regal as possible, torches lit on all sides, the moon directly above and vines growing majestically around the stone arches made it look nice, but it felt more like a place you'd bring a lover rather than a hardened soldier. It would serve. Just as we serve, Marc thought honestly.

His only fears rested with the Half Elf, Val. Val seemed the least likely to survive the joining ritual, but then again he'd seen weaker people go through it and be fine. These were, after all, his most promising recruits. It was odd that he hadn't found any humans to accompany him but he had played it off as having sent the best ones out of the country already, perhaps it was due to a slight tinge of racism that even Marc was unaware that he'd had inside of him or perhaps it was true. All that really mattered was getting these fine people through the joining. Then they could be counted among the wardens and start to serve a purpose rather than live by their own selfish needs and wants.

The joining had fallen far from the graceful ritual that it had been several centuries ago, mostly due to the fact that you couldn't make a baby go out and kill a darkspawn. Though Marc had tried his best to recreate the ceremony based on what he had learned about it. Tonight he wouldn't be sending the recruits out to do their own killing though. He'd done it himself. He knew that most of them had encountered Darkspawn before and all of them could fight so it seemed like a waste of time. The goblet stood ready for them, as soon as they arrived.