When the Tevinter magisters were said to open a gate to the Golden City with blood magic in -395 Ancient, the result was catastrophic. The city turned black, the Old Gods were lost, and the magisters found themselves cast out as the first darkspawn. Eventually, these darkspawn found and corrupted the Old God Dumat with the taint, freeing and transforming him into the first Archdemon.
The darkspawn attacked en masse, concentrating at first in the underground Deep Roads used by the dwarves. As the thaigs fell, the darkspawn used the Deep Roads to travel under all points of the continent. All of the Imperium came under seige. It was chaos.
The people of Tevinter turned to the remaining Old Gods for help against Dumat, but received only silence. Believing themselves betrayed, many in the Imperium abandoned worship of the Old Gods.
After ninety years of fighting, the Grey Wardens were founded. The Order, formed primary from veterans of darkspawn battles, dedicated themselves to stoping the Blight at all costs. A fortress was built at Weisshaupt in the Anderfels, a region not as hard hit by the darkspawn but strategically close to Tevinter. There the Wardens undertook the experimental Joining ritual for the first time, giving them the power to sense the darkspawn. The hardened Wardens and their griffons pushed into the continent quickly, building fortress at strategic points and recruiting more into the Order.
The Wardens gathered a formidable force made up largely of Tevinter, Rivain, and Ciriane soldiers to battle Dumat in -203 Ancient. The titanic clash in the southern reaches of Tevinter is known as the Battle of the Silent Plains, where Dumat was destroyed and the darkspawn were routed. Though the darkspawn forces remained large in number and the battle across Thedas persisted, they were pushed underground without Dumat to command them.
The Wardens used the victory to sign contracts with the nations of Thedas, ensuring their rights and solidifying their authority. They preached constantly about the possibility of another attack, should a second Old God awaken. Most however were reluctant to listen.
The Second Blight began in the Anderfels with the rousing of Old God Zezikel, shortly after the start of the Divine Age. Under Zezikel, the darkspawn organized and once again surfaced in great numbers. The city of Hossberg was hit first, it's people cut down to nearly one man before the Grey Wardens finally got word out.
The darkspawn emerged along the western ridges and moved east, eventually overrunning all corners of the continent. The Tevinter lmperium abandoned the Anderfels in an attempt to better protect itself, a betrayal remembered by the Anders to this day. The Free Marches and Orlais too were hard pressed to defend themselves. There, Grey Wardens and powerful armies under the command of the brilliant Emporer Drakon made the difference. Drakon led Orlais to victory over a massive horde at the Battle of Cumberland in 1:16 Divine but nearly lost the city of Montsimmard nine years latter.
Tevinter meanwhile, was greatly weakened by the darkspawn seige of Minrathous in 1:31 Divine.
The armies of Orlais matched north to Weisshaupt. The Warden fortress was under seige and about to break, but with the help of Orlais, the Wardens fought back the darkspawn and saved their home. The Wardens were so impressed with Drakon that they converted to the Chantry, and together the Wardens and Orlaisans moved further north to salvage what was left of the Anderfels.
Emporer Drakon died of old age in 1:45 Divine, and the empire he had expanded in the middle of the Blight shank under his son. But Chantry influence continued to spread across Thedas as the Blight persisted for fifty more years.
In 1:95 Divine, the last battle of the Second Blight was fought at Starkhaven with a largely human army led by the Wardens. The slaying of Zezikel in the strategic city-state forced the darkspawn back underground. The period that followed is known as the Rebuilding. It was a time when trade, culture, and religion flourished as a generation of Thedosians who only knew life in the Blight finally found themselves free from its grip.
A few ages passed before the next Blight, and many believed the Second Blight to be the last. Then in 3:10 Towers, the Old God Toth awoke. The Third Blight erupted, hitting hard in southern Tevinter and Northern Orlais. The darkspawn surfaced in greater numbers than ever before, spreading north to overwhelm the Tevinter cities of Manrnas Pell, and Vyrantium and south through Orlais from Churneau to Montsimmard. The Grey Wardens in both countries organized, and despite heavy losses in the besieged cites, the darkspawn were pushed back.
The darkspawn pressed east, and by 3:19 Towers, had ravaged the Free Marches, attacking all the bustling city-states along the Minanter River. At first the Orlesians and Imperium did nothing, focusing on rebuilding their own damaged lands, but steady pressure from the Grey Wardens in Weisshaupt convinced both nations to eventually send aid to the beleaguered Marches.
The armies of Orlais and Tevinter met in Hunter Fell and joined the Grey Wardens in the last battle of the Third Blight in 3:25 Towers. There they destroyed Toth and trounced the darkspawn in one of the bloodiest battles in history. Darkspawn carcasses were piled into mounds as high as a hundred feet and then burned, an image that took on a symbolic meaning to the people of the Free Marches.
However the victorious armies of Tevinter and Orlais quickly squandered the goodwill of the Marchers, occupying territories liberated from the darkspawn. Orlais took the city-state of Nevaara, while Tevinter took Hunter Fell. The people fought back, and Hunter Fell broke away from Tevinter in 3:49 Towers, with Nevarra achieving independence from Orlais in 3:65 Towers.
Exalted Marches against the Imperium had been going on since the Black Age when the Old God Andoral woke in 5:12 Exalted, brining a new Blight. Darkspawn surfaced in greater numbers in the northeast and northwest reaches of the continent. The country of Antiva was overrun, and it's entire ruling family was slaughtered. The darkspawn then poured into the Free Marches and Rivain. In the Anderfels, the city of Hossberg once again came under seige.
Orlais and the Tevinter lmperium were attacked by fewer numbers and able to darkspawn within their borders back underground. Despite their success, Tevinter refused to send any aid to the Free Marches or Anderfels, while Orlais only sent token forces.
The Grey Warden Garahel led the Anders and an army of Wardens to the city of Hossberg to break the seige. Garahel then gathered Wardens from Orlais and Anderfels and marched to Starkhaven in 5:20 Exalted. At Starkhaven, Garahel organized an alliance between minor kings of the Free Marches. A united army marched north under the banner of the Wardens.
Antiva was freed from darkspawn, during the infamous battle in 5:24 Exalted at the city of Ayesleigh, where Garahel died striking the killing blow to the Archdemon Andoral. So many darkspawn were slaughtered during this battle that the people of Thedas came to believe the darkspawn would never rise up in something so significant as a Blight.
The effects of the Blight persisted in the Anderfels but were largely ignored by most Thedosians, save for the Grey Wardens. Elsewhere other nations concentrated on rebuilding their own losses.
The griffons went extinct sometime after the Fourth Blight. Their likeness remains the symbol of Warden authority and it decorates all Warden armor.
It had been a long time since the Forth Blight, and few thought the sudden apperence of more darkspawn in Ferelden during the Dragon Age to be anything more than an anomaly. The Ferelden Wardens though few in number, knew better.
Fereldan's Warden-Commander Duncan, rushed to booster his Order's numbers as the darkspawn amassed under the string Old God Utheremiel. Among these recruited was @Alistair Theirin.
The darkspawn first exposed their true numbers in current day of 9:30 Dragon during the Battle of Ostagar. King Cailan's trusted advisor and father-in law, @Loghain Mac Tir, quit the field in the heat of the battle, leaving the king and the assembled Wardens trapped behind darkspawn lines without support. The Wardens, with the exception of @Alistair Theirin,were slaughtered along with the king. As the darkspawn march north to destroy the city of Lothering, Wardens in Orlais attempt to investigate after not receiving contact from their fellow Wardens in Ferelden.