Dragon Age Origins - Darkspawn - Broodmother

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Fantasy game art from Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition (Dragon Age: Origins, the Awakening expansion, and all official Downloadable Content). Broodmothers are how the darkspawn achieve their horde-like numbers during the centuries underground searching for Old Gods. The process of how the Broodmothers themselves come to be is uncovered during the quest A Paragon of Her Kind.

From Codex entry: Broodmother:

It is well-known that darkspawn carry off those captured in their raids to underground lairs. most assume that the prisoners are eaten, or somehow tainted and turned into darkspawn themselves, though this could never account for the sheer numbers of the horde. Forays made by Grey Wardens into the underground have uncovered the answer.
When exposed to the darkspawn taint, men are driven mad and eventually die. Women, however, undergo great pain and gross mutations that cause most of them to perish. Those that survive, however, become the grotesque broodmothers. These giant, twisted behemoths birth many darkspawn at a time; a single broodmother can create thousands of darkspawn over the course of her lifetime. Each type of darkspawn is born from a different broodmother: Humans produce hurlocks, dwarves produce genlocks, elves give birth to shrieks, and from Qunari are born the ogres.

The mad dwarf Hespith recites a poem of her experiences in darkspawn captivity that alludes to the manner in which a female dwarf is forcibly mutated into a broodmother by the darkspawn:

First day, they come and catch everyone.
Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat.
Third day, the men are gnawed on again.
Fourth day, we wait and fear for our fate.
Fifth day, they return and it's another girl's turn.
Sixth day, her screams we hear in our dreams.
Seventh day, she grew as in her mouth they spew.
Eighth day, we hated as she is violated.
Ninth day, she grins and devours her kin.
Now she does feast, as she's become the beast.