Character of the Week - Loghain Mac Tir
Updated: Mar 27, 2020
Loghain Mac Tir is Buck Naked’s Character of the Week! Loghain is the main antagonist of Dragon Age: Origins. The player first sees Loghain in Ostagar where he’s being a massive hard-ass to King Cailan. Loghain is shown to be an enemy in one of the last scenes of Ostagar. When he was supposed to signal support troops to flood in on the blighted horde, he had them retreat. He left all those fighting at Ostagar for dead.
Upon discovering you have lived, Loghain get’s real angry. Many plots are put into motion to make sure the only living survivor of Loghain’s treachery is taken care of. Through many assassination plots, avoiding coercion, prison, and even renegade mages, Loghain’s reach is felt through the whole game.
Loghain has usurped Cailan’s throne by using his military prowess and his daughter’s position as Queen. He’s not keen to give up his power just yet. Denerim is under martial law yet starts to have quite a few problems with gangs and human-elf race relations.
At the end of the game the Warden faces off against Loghain at the Landsmeet. This is where all the support you have garnered is put against all of Loghain’s to see who should really be the Heir of Ferelden. In the fight against him, the player learns that Loghain didn’t betray Cailan for nothing. He believed that the battle of Ostagar would be a failure and the realm needed to come together for a final defense rather than lose two battles.
The reasoning put forth by Loghain actually makes sense. Had everyone come together under Loghain the realm would have been at it’s possible strongest. Fortunately for him you, the Grey Warden, survived. Only a Grey Warden can kill an Archdemon, and this is a true blight.
But I believe that Loghain is just a flawed hero. He thought the only way to save the world was to commit to a series of events, and he committed to them. He’s a true believer of “The ends justify the means.” Even though he committed atrocities he did so in the name of saving Ferelden and it’s people. He believed that the Grey Warden was a boy (or girl) playing at war, and didn’t want anything getting in the way of Ferelden’s salvation. Through better or worse, Loghain’s plans actually worked. The duel between Loghain and The Warden ended up uniting the nation anyway. Loghain can be redeemed by allowing him to live and kill The Archdemon, or you can slay him in the duel at the Landsmeet.
Loghain was a fantastic antagonist as he is not just a one sided bad guy. He has more than one face and has altruistic reasons for his unfortunate decisions. He’s a fantastic Character of the Week as there is more to Loghain than meets the eye. If you haven’t played Dragon Age: Origins, try it out it’s a fantastic RPG with great characters like the Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir himself.