You can begin the game with six different characters, each one has another origin story. You can choose a Human Noble, a Human Mage, a Dalish Elf, a City Elf, a Dwarf Noble or a Dwarf Commoner.
The Human Noble is the only character who begins his origin story with a Mabari War Dog. This origin story begins with the typical "Kill the rats" quest, but it happens to be everything else than "typical". Oh, and keep an eye on your dog, some people could really hate it when it runs through their food storage...
However, the dog is your best friend and you can give it a name. Later in this origin story you'll meet Duncan who recruits you for the Grey Wardens.
The Human Noble is a warrior and so he gets the normal warrior skills like "Two Weapon Fighter" or "Combat Tactics".
The Human Mage is the only character who will see the fade in his first minutes of the origin story. As a Mage you have to pass a test in the Circle Tower, watched by a guard of the Chantry. You have to go into the fade and stay alive while killing a demon. But in the fade nothing is as it seems and a small talking rat is your key to this strange world. Later you have to make a decision that will lead you through the rest of your origin story and Duncan is still waiting to recruit you for the Grey Wardens.
As Mage you'll get some typical spells like "Flamebolt" right in the beginning. But you can also choose combat skills like "Combat Tactics". The Mage is not so strong as a warrior but with his spells it is possible to kill several monsters in one strike.
The Dalish Elf has to make his first important decision when his origin story starts. Kill the peasants or kill them not? However, you will come across your first ruin in the Brecilian Forest and find the first traps in the game, mostly by walking over them without having seen anything *sigh*. You'll see the Dalish Camp and after a bit smalltalk Duncan is recruiting you for his Grey Wardens and nobody is interested in your feelings. That's your elven destiny.
A Dalish Elf is good with weapons like a bow or even a sword. You can also get some spells later. Skills like "Combat Tactics" are also known to an Elf as to a Human or a Dwarf.
The City Elf may be the most interesting character in the game, at least this origin story is very different from the other stories. You are forced to marry a man (or woman) and you can decide whether you'll like him/her or not. During your marriage a noble Human is killing your better part and you have to flee from the jail without having a simple dagger. Ok, you'll get one later, but for what price! When everything is fine you'll get recruited by Duncan to join his Grey Wardens.
The City Elf is more or less a rogue with warrior skills. Some skills you can get as City Elf are "Stealing", "Combat Tactics" or "Two Weapon Fighter".
You'll start the Dwarf Noble origin story in the city of Orzammar. [...]
The Dwarf Commoner is starting his origin story in Orzammar, but different to the noble Dwarf. The common Dwarves are mostly thieves or robbers and the women are mostly whores. Because of some interesting jobs and a drunken Arena fighter you'll get a fine expensive armor and a good sword, but you have to kill some warriors in the Arena for this. Once you're finished with your origin story you'll get recruited by Duncan to join the Grey Wardens.
The common Dwarf is a warrior and so he fights his way through life with swords, clubs, warhammers and other weapons. The Dwarf gets the normal warrior skills like "Combat Tactics" or "Two Weapon Fighter", he also has rogue skills like "Stealing".
There are several interesting NPC's in Dragon Age: Origins. Some of them can join your group and you have to be careful what you do or say, if you do something wrong the NPC may fight against you or at least leave your group.
Born into a time when his country was under the boot of a foreign tyrant, Loghain and his close friend Prince Maric drove out the occupying forces of the Orlesian Empire. He is more a symbol than a man, representing the Fereldan ideals of hard work and independence. Now with his friend's death, he is left to defend their land with a naive and inexperienced king.
Like many others, Duncan gave up his family name when he joined the ranks of the Wardens: a symbolic gesture of cutting ties. He might say this was a convenience in his case, however. His mother was from the Anderfels, his father from Rivain, and he spent his childhood in the Free Marches and Orlais.
His people were everywhere and his homeland was nowhere. He was given the almost impossible task of leading the Wardens in Ferelden: a kingdom that had thrown the order out two hundred years earlier. Facing local suspicion and hostility, he set about finding recruits.
Son of the legendary King Maric Theirin, Cailan was the first Ferelden king born into a land free from foreign rule in three generations. Now with Loghain's tactical genius and the legendary Grey Wardens at his side, Cailan leads Ferelden's army into the final, glorious battle to crush the darkspawn.
Alistair is a young Grey Warden recruited by Duncan less than six months before the Blight began. Alistair's mother died long ago in childbirth, and after being raised in Redcliffe castle he was turned over to the Chantry for religious instruction. He began the martial training necessary to become a templar of the Chantry's military order that watches over the Circle of Magi and hunts down dangerous apostates.
He was found to be ill-suited to a life of religious devotion, however… Alistair is irreverent at the best of times, and his wry sense of humor often put him at odds with his more serious-minded teachers. When Duncan of the Grey Wardens found him, Alistair had not yet taken his vows and was desperately unhappy.
Sensing that he had a good and loyal heart, Duncan used the Right of Conscription to force the Chantry to hand Alistair over to the Grey Wardens... and Alistair has never looked back since.
In Orlais, bards travel throughout the courts of the land, trading entertainment for the hospitality of the aristocracy while simultaneously plying a more sinister trade: Often, they are secretly spies or assassins. Leliana, however, speaks little of her history as a bard, having left her life in Orlais behind long ago.
She came to the village of Lothering seeking refuge in the Chantry, where she has assumed a life of quiet contemplation and prayer to the Maker, asking him to forgive a life of deeds that her fellow sisters can only guess at. But although it is the last path that Leliana would ever choose for herself, she believes that the time will soon come to take up that old life once again. A higher calling awaits her, and with it a road to true redemption. The Maker has told her this, and she believes.
Morrigan is the daughter of Flemeth, the legendary and frightening Witch of the Wilds. Raised alone by her mother in the most remote corners in the Great Forest, she is an exotic beauty who has come to hold the rest of mankind in contempt. She has watched humanity from afar, hating people for their weakness even as she yearned to explore their world - and keenly aware of the hatred that others would hold for her if they knew what she was.
Morrigan has learned her mother's arts outside the constraints of the supervision of the templars, becoming a mage as well as a shapeshifter, and she will stop at nothing to further her mysterious obsessions.
Wynne is a spirit healer from the Circle of Magi, focusing her magic on the ability to briefly summon protective and restorative spirits from the Fade. She has served the Circle for most of her life and is well-respected for her strong sense of duty and morals.
She believes wholeheartedly in what the Circle stands for and has been a vocal advocate in the College of Enchanters that through discipline and education mages can learn to control their gifts and use them to serve mankind.
The fear of magic is born of misunderstanding, but Wynne cautions mages to never forget that the fear is also a real one: for all the good that a mage's gifts can bring, it will also always attract demons and bring the risk of possession. Too many times in history have possessed abominations wrecked destruction on the lands, and thus every mage has a debt to repay.
"Earn your place," she has said, "and you shall not be reviled." Her peers thought so highly of her that she was asked to become the new First Enchanter of Ferelden's tower. She refused, saying that she had no desire to work in upper ranks of the Circle. When word recently reached the tower of King Cailan's call to arms against the Blight, Wynne readily volunteered to go to Ostagar.