title: Xi Zhongxun

text: His official obituary described him as "an outstanding proletarian revolutionary," "a great communist soldier," and "one of the main founders and leaders of the revolutionary base areas in the Shaanxi-Gansu border region."


title: Vani Ganapathy

text: She started performing when she was seven, and has travelled across the world for her performances. She lives in Bangalore, where she set up Sanchari, a dance academy.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Jake Steinfeld (born February 21, 1958) is an American actor, fitness personality, entrepreneur, and producer. He develops businesses through the "Body by Jake" brand.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Born in the Sea Gate neighborhood of Brooklyn, Steinfeld was raised in Baldwin, New York. He attended the State University of New York College at Cortland before dropping out and moving to Los Angeles.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Steinfeld develops brands and businesses as chairman and CEO of Body by Jake. Previously, Steinfeld created "FitTV", a 24-hour fitness lifestyle network, which he later sold to News Corp. Following the sale of FitTV, Steinfeld launched ExerciseTV, a fitness on-demand television network, with partners Comcast, New Balance, and Time Warner.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Steinfeld co-founded Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the first professional outdoor lacrosse league, in 2001. MLL has six franchises in North America; the championship trophy is named the Steinfeld Cup.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Steinfeld is also the founder of the World Series of Youth Lacrosse which provides (U13) youth players a lacrosse experience like that of a professional. This event features teams from the U.S., Europe, Canada, Israel, Iroquois Nation and others competing to play in the championship game aired live on ESPN2 on the Fourth of July.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Teaming with Universal Music Enterprises (UMe), a division of Universal Music Group, Steinfeld formed a music label called Body by Jake Music.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Steinfeld became chairman of the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006 and served until 2011 under Governor Jerry Brown. He was named chairman of the National Foundation for Governors' Fitness Councils in 2012. Through the cooperation of public and private partnerships, the NFGFC rewards "Don't Quit" fitness centers to elementary and middle schools who show innovative ways to promote fitness and nutrition in their schools and communities across the United States.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Steinfeld was an official Olympic torch bearer for the 2012 Summer Olympics. He served as honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades from 2013 to 2016.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Steinfeld started as a personal trainer with clients including Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford, whom he trained for "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Later, he starred on a sitcom on the Family Channel called "Big Brother Jake". Other television credits include "King of the Hill", "Movin' Mountains", "Dream On", "The Tracey Ullman Show", "Shaping Up" and "Simon & Simon". In addition, Steinfeld appeared in the fourteenth season of "Hell's Kitchen" as a guest in episode 12's dinner service.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Steinfeld made his film debut in the 1979 film "Americathon". He had the lead role of the killer in the early slasher film "Home Sweet Home" (1981). Other film roles include "Cheech and Chong's Next Movie" (1980), "Into the Night" (1985), "The Money Pit" (1986), and "Coming to America" (1988). He supplied the voice of Git, a lab rat in the Disney animated feature "Ratatouille" and as the Fish Seller in the 2011 English version of "From Up On Poppy Hill".


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Steinfeld is executive producer of the film "The Grizzlies", which won the DGC award for Best Director in Feature Film as well as Audience Awards in Calgary, Minneapolis, and Palm Springs Film Festivals.


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Steinfeld is a "New York Times" and "Wall Street Journal" best-selling author. He has authored and co-authored books including "Body by Jake" (1984); "Don't Quit; Get Strong! Body by Jake's Guide to Building Confidence, Muscles and a Great Future for Teenage Guys" (2002); "I've Seen a Lot of Famous People Naked and They've Got Nothing on You!" (2005); and "Take A Shot!, A Remarkable Story of Perseverance, Friendship, and a Really Crazy Adventure" (2012).


title: Jake Steinfeld

text: Steinfeld and his wife have four children. He is of Jewish descent and is the uncle of actress/singer Hailee Steinfeld.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integrated stand-alone unit, all the way to a highly complex configuration of numerous components controlled by a central computer. Regardless of configuration, modern DAWs have a central interface that allows the user to alter and mix multiple recordings and tracks into a final produced piece.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: DAWs are used for producing and recording music, songs, speech, radio, television, soundtracks, podcasts, sound effects and nearly any other situation where complex recorded audio is needed.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Early attempts at digital audio workstations in the 1970s and 1980s faced limitations such as the high price of storage, and the vastly slower processing and disk speeds of the time.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: In 1978, Soundstream, who had made one of the first commercially available digital audio tape recorders in 1977, built what could be considered the first digital audio workstation using some of the most current computer hardware of the time. The "Digital Editing System", as Soundstream called it, consisted of a DEC PDP-11/60 minicomputer running a custom software package called DAP (Digital Audio Processor), a Braegen 14"-platter hard disk drive, a storage oscilloscope to display audio waveforms for editing, and a video display terminal for controlling the system. Interface cards that plugged into the PDP-11's Unibus slots (the Digital Audio Interface, or DAI) provided analog and digital audio input and output for interfacing to Soundstream's digital recorders and conventional analog tape recorders. The DAP software could perform edits to the audio recorded on the system's hard disks and produce simple effects such as crossfades.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: By the late 1980s, a number of consumer-level computers such as the MSX (Yamaha CX5M), Apple Macintosh, Atari ST and Commodore Amiga began to have enough power to handle digital audio editing. Engineers used Macromedia's Soundedit, with Microdeal's Replay Professional and Digidesign's "Sound Tools" and "Sound Designer" to edit audio samples for sampling keyboards like the E-mu Emulator II and the Akai S900. Soon, people began to use them for simple two-track audio editing and audio mastering.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: In 1989, Sonic Solutions released the first professional (48 kHz at 24 bit) disk-based non-linear audio editing system. The Macintosh IIfx-based Sonic System, based on research done earlier at George Lucas’ Sprocket Systems, featured complete CD premastering, with integrated control of Sony's industry-standard U-matic tape-based digital audio editor.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Many major recording studios finally "went digital" after Digidesign introduced its Pro Tools software in 1991, modeled after the traditional method and signal flow in most analog recording devices. At this time, most DAWs were Apple Mac based (e.g., Pro Tools, Studer Dyaxis, Sonic Solutions). Around 1992, the first Windows-based DAWs started to emerge from companies such as Innovative Quality Software (IQS) (now SAWStudio), Soundscape Digital Technology, SADiE, Echo Digital Audio, and Spectral Synthesis. All the systems at this point used dedicated hardware for their audio processing.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: In 1992, Sunrize Industries released the AD516 soundcard for big-box Amiga computers. This allowed up to 8 tracks of 16-bit 48KHz direct-to-disk recording and playback using its Studio 16 software. It could also integrate directly into Blue Ribbon Soundworks' Bars & Pipes Pro MIDI software or NewTek's Video Toaster, thus providing a complete package of MIDI sequencing and/or video synchronization with non-linear hard disk recording.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: In 1993, the German company Steinberg released Cubase Audio on Atari Falcon 030. This version brought DSP built-in effects with 8-track audio recording and playback using only native hardware. The first Windows-based software-only product, introduced in 1993, was Samplitude (which already existed in 1992 as an audio editor for the Commodore Amiga).


title: Digital audio workstation

text: In 1994, a company in California named OSC produced a 4-track editing-recorder application called DECK that ran on Digidesign's hardware system, which was used in the production of The Residents' "Freakshow" [LP].


title: Digital audio workstation

text: An integrated DAW consists of a digital signal processing, control surface, audio converters, and data storage in one device. Integrated DAWs were popular before commonly available personal computers became powerful enough to run DAW software. As personal computer power and speed increased and price decreased, the popularity of costly integrated systems dropped.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: "DAW" can refer to the software itself, but traditionally, a computer-based DAW has four basic components: a computer, a sound card or other audio interface, audio editing software, and at least one user input device for adding or modifying data. This could be as simple as a mouse and keyboard or as sophisticated as a piano-style MIDI controller keyboard or automated audio control surface for mixing track volumes.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: The computer acts as a host for the sound card, while the software provides the interface and functionality for audio editing. The sound card typically converts analog audio signals into digital form, and digital back to analog audio when playing it back; it may also assist in further processing of the audio. The software controls all related hardware components and provides a user interface to allow for recording, editing, and playback.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Computer-based DAWs have extensive recording, editing, and playback capabilities (and some also have video-related features). For example, they can provide a practically limitless number of tracks to record on, polyphony, and virtual synthesizers or sample-based instruments to use for recording music. DAWs can also provide a wide variety of effects, such as reverb, to enhance or change the sounds themselves.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Simple smartphone-based DAWs, called mobile audio workstation (MAWs), are used (for example) by journalists for recording and editing on location.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: As software systems, DAWs are designed with many user interfaces, but generally, they are based on a multitrack tape recorder metaphor, making it easier for recording engineers and musicians already familiar with using tape recorders to become familiar with the new systems. Therefore, computer-based DAWs tend to have a standard layout that includes transport controls (play, rewind, record, etc.), track controls and a mixer. A waveform display is another common feature.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Single-track DAWs display only one (mono or stereo form) track at a time. Multitrack DAWs support operations on multiple tracks at once. Like a mixing console, each track typically has controls that allow the user to adjust the gain, equalization and stereo panning of the sound on each track. In a traditional recording studio additional rackmount processing gear is physically plugged into the audio signal path to add reverb, compression, etc. However, a DAW can also route in software or use audio plug-ins (for example, a VST plugin) to process the sound on a track.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Perhaps the most significant feature available from a DAW that is not available in analog recording is the ability to undo a previous action, using a command similar to that of the undo function in word processing software. Undo makes it much easier to avoid accidentally permanently erasing or recording over a previous recording. If a mistake or unwanted change is made, the undo command is used to conveniently revert the changed data to a previous state. Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo are familiar and common computer commands and they are usually available in DAWs in some form. More common functions include the modifications of several factors concerning a sound. These include wave shape, pitch, tempo, and filtering.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Commonly DAWs feature some form of mix automation using procedural line segment-based or curve-based interactive graphs. The lines and curves of the automation graph are joined by or comprise adjustable points. By creating and adjusting multiple points along a waveform or control events, the user can specify parameters of the output over time (e.g., volume or pan). Automation data may also be directly derived from human gestures recorded by a control surface or MIDI controller.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: MIDI recording, editing, and playback is increasingly incorporated into modern DAWs of all types, as is synchronization with other audio or video tools.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: There are many free and open-source software programs that perform DAW functions. These are designed to run on a variety of operating systems and are usually developed non-commercially.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Jim Miller was the star of the NAMM show in 1983 presenting his "Personal Composer" running under MS DOS 2.0 including a MIDI sequencer, synth editor (such as Yamaha's DX7), universal librarians and a score editor. The software was later released as Personal Composer System/2 (1988).


title: Digital audio workstation

text: In 1996, Steinberg introduced a revamped Cubase (which was originally launched in 1989 as a MIDI sequencing software for the Atari ST computer, later developed for Mac and Windows PC platforms, but had no audio capabilities until 1993's Cubase Audio) which could record and play back up to 32 tracks of digital audio on an Apple Macintosh without the need of any external DSP hardware. Cubase not only modeled a tape-like interface for recording and editing, but, in addition, using VST also developed by Steinberg, modeled the entire mixing desk and effects rack common in analog studios. This revolutionized the DAW world, both in features and price tag, and was quickly imitated by most other contemporary DAW systems.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Digital audio applications for Linux and BSD fostered technologies such as Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA), which drives audio hardware, and JACK Audio Connection Kit. JACK allows any JACK-aware audio software to connect to any other audio software running on the system, such as connecting an ALSA- or OSS-driven soundcard to a mixing and editing front-end, like Ardour or Rosegarden. In this way, JACK acts as a virtual audio patch bay, and it can be configured to use a computer's resources in real time, with dedicated memory, and with various options that minimize the DAW's latency. This kind of abstraction and configuration allows DJs to use multiple programs for editing and synthesizing audio streams, or multitasking and duplexing, without the need for analog conversion, or asynchronous saving and reloading files, and ensures a high level of audio fidelity.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Other open-source programs include virtual synthesizers and MIDI controllers, such as those provided by FluidSynth and TiMidity. Both can load SoundFonts to expand the voices and instruments available for synthesis and expand the ports and channels available to synthesizers.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Members of the Linux Audio Development (LAD) mailing list have contributed to development of standards such as the LADSPA, DSSI and LV2 plugin architectures. The Virtual Studio Technology (VST) plugin standard is supported by some programs.


title: Digital audio workstation

text: Sequencers offer a subset of DAW functionality. Several open-source sequencer projects exist, such as:


title: Digital audio workstation

text: There are countless software plugins for DAW software, each one coming with its own unique functionality, thus expanding the overall variety of sounds and manipulations that are possible. Each have their own form of generating or manipulating sound, tone, pitch, and speed of a simple sound and transform it into something different. To achieve an even more distinctive sound, multiple plugins can be used in layers, and further automated to manipulate the original sounds.


title: Video game genre

text: A video game genre is an informal classification of a video game based on how it is played rather than visual or narrative elements. This is independent of setting, unlike works of fiction that are expressed through other media, such as films or books. For example, a shooter game is still a shooter game, regardless of where or when it takes place. A specific game's genre is open to subjective interpretation. An individual game may belong to several genres at once.


title: Video game genre

text: Early attempts at categorizing video games were primarily for organizing catalogs and books. A 1981 catalog for the Atari VCS uses 8 headings: Skill Gallery, Space Station, Classics Corner, Adventure Territory, Race Track, Sports Arena, Combat Zone, and Learning Center. ("Classics", in this case, refers to chess and checkers.) In Tom Hirschfeld's 1981 book "How to Master the Video Games", he divides the games into broad categories in the table of contents: "Space Invaders"-type, "Asteroids"-type, maze, reflex, and miscellaneous. The first two of these correspond to the still-used genres of fixed shooter and multidirectional shooter.


title: Video game genre

text: Within the personal computer space, two publications established a small number of categories based on the best-selling software in the early 1980s; "Softalk", which ran its Top Thirty list from 1980 to 1984 with the genres of strategy, adventure, fantasy and arcade; and "Computer Gaming World" ("CGW"), which had a "Reader Input Device" that drew from reader input. "CGW" initially only ran with three categories in 1981, Arcade, wargame, and adventure, but by 1989, had expanded its genre list to strategy, simulation, adventure, role-playing adventure, wargames, and action/arcade. Comparisons between computer and console games showed that players on computers tended to prefer more strategic games rather than arcade.


title: Video game genre

text: Chris Crawford attempted to classify video games in his 1984 book "The Art of Computer Game Design". Crawford primarily focused on the player's experience and activities required for gameplay. He wrote, "the state of computer game design is changing quickly. We would therefore expect the taxonomy presented [in this book] to become obsolete or inadequate in a short time."


title: Video game genre

text: Nintendo, in bringing its Famicom system into the North American market as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, looked to avoid the issues with loss of publishing control that had led to the 1983 video game crash and to prevent unauthorized games from being released for the system. To solve this, Nintendo required approval of all games for the NES. To support this, Nintendo classified games into eight major series: Adventure, Action, Sports, Light-Gun, Programmable, Arcade, Robot, and Educational; the series description appeared on early "black box" covers and subsequently used in the "NES Player's Guide". By the time of the Game Boy and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo had retired the Arcade, Light-Gun, Robot, Programmable, and Educational series, but added in classifications for RPG & Simulation and Puzzle games.


title: Video game genre

text: Consoles manufacturers that followed the NES followed similar behavior in requiring licenses to develop games for their systems. To assure they would get these licenses, console developers tended to stay with gameplay of previously published games for that console, thus causing groups of games within the same genre to grow. Subsequently, retailers displayed games grouped by genres, and market research firms found that players had preferences for certain types over others, based on region, and developers could plan out future strategies through this.


title: Video game genre

text: With the industry expanding in the 1990s and budgets for video games began growing, large publishers like Electronic Arts began to form to handle the marketing and publication of games, both for consoles and personal computers. Targeting high-value, low-risk video game genres were key for some publishers, and small and independent developers were typically forced to compete by abandoning more experimental gameplay and settling into the same genres used by larger publishers.


title: Video game genre

text: As hardware capabilities have increased, new genres have become possible, with examples being increased memory, the move from 2D to 3D, new peripherals, online functionalities, and location-based mechanics. Experimental gameplay from indie game development drew more attention in the late 2000s and 2010s aided by independent digital distribution, as large publishers focused on triple-A titles were extremely risk-averse. Through indie games, a revival of experimental gameplay had emerged, and several new genres have emerged since then.


title: Video game genre

text: Due to "direct and active participation" of the player, video game genres differ from literary and film genres. Though one could state that "Space Invaders" is a science fiction video game, author Mark J.P. Wolf wrote that such a classification "ignores the fundamental differences and similarities which are to be found in the player's experience of the game". In contrast to the visual aesthetics of games, which can vary greatly, it is argued that it is interactivity characteristics that are common to all games.


title: Video game genre

text: Like film genres, the names of video game genres have come about generally as a common understanding between the audience and the producers. Descriptive names of genres take into account the goals of the game, the protagonist and even the perspective offered to the player. For example, a first-person shooter is a game that is played from a first-person perspective and involves the practice of shooting. Whereas "shooter game" is a genre name, "first-person shooter" and "third-person shooter" are common subgenres of the shooter genre. Other examples of such prefixes are real-time, turn based, top-down and side-scrolling.


title: Video game genre

text: Genre names may evolve over time. The platform game genre started as "climbing games", based on Steve Bloom's 1982 book "Video Invaders", as they were inspired by games like "Donkey Kong" with ladders and jumping. The same term was used by the US and UK press in 1983, including magazines "Electronic Games" and "TV Gamer". First-person shooters were originally known as ""Doom" clones" in the years following 1993's "Doom", while the term "first-person shooters" became more common by around 2000.


title: Video game genre

text: New genres emerge continuously throughout the history of video games, often due to the cross-pollination of ideas borrowed from different games into new ones. For example, the seminal text-based adventure game "Colossal Cave Adventure" directly inspired the Atari VCS game "Adventure", but incorporating joystick control as in an action game rather than typed commands. "Adventure" served as the prototype of the action-adventure game genre that would be popularized by "The Legend of Zelda".


title: Video game genre

text: The target audience, underlying theme or purpose of a game are sometimes used as a genre identifier, such as with "Christian game" and "serious game" respectively. However, because these terms do not indicate anything about the gameplay of a video game, these are not considered genres.


title: Video game genre

text: Video game genres vary in specificity, with popular video game reviews using genre names varying from "action" to "baseball". In this practice, basic themes and more fundamental characteristics are used alongside each other.


title: Video game genre

text: A game may combine aspects of multiple genres in such a way that it becomes hard to classify under existing genres. For example, because "Grand Theft Auto III" combined shooting, driving and roleplaying in an unusual way, it was hard to classify using existing terms. The term "Grand Theft Auto" clone has been used to describe games mechanically similar to "Grand Theft Auto III". Similarly, the term roguelike has been developed for games that share similarities with "Rogue".


title: Video game genre

text: Elements of the role-playing genre, which focuses on storytelling and character growth, have been implemented in many different genres of video games. This is because the addition of a story and character enhancement to an action, strategy or puzzle video game does not take away from its core gameplay, but adds an incentive other than survival to the experience.


title: Video game genre

text: In addition to gameplay elements, some games may be categorized by other schemes, such are typically not used as genres:


title: Video game genre

text: According to some analysts, the percentage of each broad genre in the best-selling physical games worldwide is broken down as follows.


title: Video game genre

text: In the last decade, puzzle games have declined when measured by sales, however, on mobile, where the majority of games are free-to-play, this genre remains the most popular worldwide.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Death Wish is a 1974 American neo-noir vigilante action thriller film loosely based on the 1972 novel of the same title by Brian Garfield. Directed by Michael Winner, the film stars Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey, an architect who becomes a vigilante after his wife and daughter are attacked during a home invasion with his wife dying from her wounds. This was the first film in the "Death Wish" film series; it was followed eight years later with "Death Wish II" and other similar films.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: At the time of release, the film was criticized for its apparent support of vigilantism and advocating unlimited punishment of criminals. Allegedly, the novel denounced vigilantism, whereas the film embraced the notion. The film was a commercial success and resonated with the public in the United States, which was experiencing increasing crime rates during the 1970s.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Paul Kersey is a successful, middle-aged architect and family man who lives happily in Manhattan with his wife, Joanna. One day, Joanna and their grown daughter, Carol—who is married to Jack Toby—are followed home from D'Agostino's by three thugs. The trio invade the Kersey apartment by posing as deliverymen. Upon finding that Carol and Joanna only have $7 on them, the thugs assault beat Joanna and rape Carol before fleeing. Upon arriving at the hospital, Paul is devastated to learn that Joanna has died from her injuries. Shortly after his wife's funeral, Paul has an encounter with a mugger in a darkened street. Paul fights back with a homemade weapon, causing the mugger to run away, while Paul is shaken and energized by the encounter.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Paul's boss sends him to Tucson, Arizona, to see Ames Jainchill, a client with a residential development project. A few days later, Paul is invited to dinner by Ames at his gun club. Ames is impressed with Paul's pistol marksmanship at the target range. Paul reveals that he was a conscientious objector during the Korean War, when he served as a combat medic. He had been taught to handle firearms by his hunter-father, but after the senior Kersey was mortally wounded by a second hunter (who mistook Paul's father for a deer), Paul's mother made him swear never to use guns again. Paul is successful in helping Ames plan his residential housing development. Ames drives Paul back to Tucson Airport and presents Paul with a gift for his work on the development, which he places into Paul's checked luggage.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Back in Manhattan, Paul learns from Jack that Carol's mind has snapped due to the traumatic rape and her mother's death; Carol is now catatonic, and an elective mute. With Paul's blessing, Jack commits Carol to a mental hospital. Paul learns that Ames has given him a nickel-plated Colt Police Positive revolver and a box of ammunition. He loads it and takes a late-night walk during which he is mugged at gunpoint. Paul fatally shoots the mugger and, in a state of shock, runs home and vomits. The next night, Paul walks through the city looking for dangerous and violent criminals; sure enough, he kills several muggers over the next few weeks, either luring them into a confrontation by presenting himself as an affluent victim, or when he sees them attacking other innocent people.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: NYPD Inspector Frank Ochoa investigates the vigilante killings. His department narrows it down to a list of men who have had a family member recently killed by muggers, and/or are war veterans. Ochoa soon suspects Paul and is about to make an arrest when the district attorney intervenes and tells Ochoa that "we don't want him." The district attorney and the police commissioner do not want the statistics to get out that Paul's vigilantism has led to a drastic decrease in street crime; they fear that if said information becomes public knowledge, the whole city will descend into vigilante chaos. If Paul is arrested, he will surely be labeled a martyr. Ochoa does not like the idea, but relents and opts for "scaring him off" instead.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: One night, Paul shoots two more muggers before being wounded in the leg himself by a third. Paul pursues the mugger and corners him at a warehouse. He challenges the mugger to a fast draw, Wild West-style, only to faint because of blood loss while the mugger escapes. Paul's gun is discovered by young patrolman Jackson Reilly, who hands it to Ochoa, who orders him to forget that he found it. Ochoa visits Paul at the hospital where he's recovering, and agrees to surreptitiously dispose of Paul's revolver in exchange for Paul's leaving NYC permanently. Paul takes Ochoa's deal, and his company agrees to transfer him to Chicago, while the press is informed that Paul is just another mugging victim.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Paul arrives in Chicago Union Station by train. Being greeted by a company representative, he notices a group of hoodlums harassing a young woman. He excuses himself and helps the young woman. As the hoodlums make obscene gestures, Paul just smiles while making a finger gun at them.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Saul Rubinek played the greaser who slashes Paul Kersey's newspaper, while John Herzfeld played the train mugger who watches the door. Robert Miano had a minor role as a mugger in the film. Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, who later co-starred on the television show "Welcome Back, Kotter", had an uncredited role as one of the Central Park muggers near the end of the film. It has been rumored that Denzel Washington made his screen debut as an uncredited alley mugger since in a long shot, the actor shown appears to resemble him, but Washington stated that not to be true. Actress Helen Martin, who had a minor role as a mugging victim who fights off her attackers with a hatpin, subsequently appeared in the television sitcoms "Good Times" and "227". Christopher Guest made one of his earliest film appearances as a young police officer who finds Kersey's gun. Marcia Jean Kurtz, who played the receptionist at Paul's office, has appeared in multiple roles on the TV series "Law & Order". Sonia Manzano, who played Maria on "Sesame Street", had an uncredited role as a supermarket checkout clerk. The film also marked Jeff Goldblum's screen debut, playing one of the "freaks" who assaults Kersey's family early in the film.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: The film was based on Brian Garfield's 1972 novel of the same name. Garfield was inspired to use the theme of vigilantism following incidents in his personal life. In one incident, his wife's purse was stolen; in another, his car was vandalized. His initial thought each time was that he could kill "the son of a bitch" responsible. He later considered that these were primitive thoughts, contemplated in an unguarded moment. He then thought of writing a novel about a man who entered that way of thinking in a moment of rage and then never emerged from it. The original novel received favorable reviews but was not a bestseller. Garfield sold screen rights to both "Death Wish" and "Relentless" to the only film producers who approached him, Hal Landers and Bobby Roberts. He was offered the chance to write a screenplay adapting one of the two novels, and chose "Relentless". He simply considered it the easier of the two to turn into a film. Wendell Mayes was then hired to write the screenplay for "Death Wish". He preserved the basic structure of the novel and much of the philosophical dialogue. It was his idea to turn police detective Frank Ochoa into a major character of the film. His early drafts for the screenplay had different endings from the final one. In one, he followed an idea from Garfield. The vigilante confronts the three thugs who attacked his family and ends up dead at their hands. Ochoa discovers the dead man's weapon and considers following in his footsteps. In another, the vigilante is wounded and rushed to a hospital. His fate is left ambiguous. Meanwhile, Ochoa has found the weapon and struggles with the decision to use it. His decision is left unclear.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Originally, Sidney Lumet was to have directed Jack Lemmon as Paul and Henry Fonda as Ochoa. Lumet bowed out of the project to direct "Serpico" (1973), requiring a search for another director. Several were considered, including Peter Medak who wanted Henry Fonda as Paul. United Artists eventually chose Michael Winner, due to his track record of gritty, violent action films. The examples of his work considered included "The Mechanic" (1972), "Scorpio" (1973), and "The Stone Killer" (1973). The film was rejected by other studios because of its controversial subject matter and the perceived difficulty of casting someone in the vigilante role. Several actors were considered, including Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Burt Lancaster, George C. Scott, Frank Sinatra, Lee Marvin and even Elvis Presley. Winner attempted to recruit Bronson, but there were two problems for the actor. One was that his agent, Paul Kohner, considered that the film carried a dangerous message. The other was that the screenplay then followed the original novel in describing the vigilante as a meek accountant, hardly a suitable role for Bronson. "I was really a miscast person," Bronson said later. "It was more a theme that would have been better for Dustin Hoffman or somebody who could play a weaker kind of man. I told them that at the time." Winner was firstly anxious about his decision to cast Jill Ireland, Bronson's real life wife for the role of Paul Kersey's wife, Joanna Kersey. After Winner told this to Bronson, he said, "No. I don't want her humiliated and messed around by these actors who play muggers. You know the sort of person we want? Someone who looks like Hope Lange.", to which Winner replied, "Well, Charlie, the person who looks most like Hope Lange is Hope Lange. So I'll get her.". Ireland would later go on to play Kersey's love interest in, Death Wish II. The film project was dropped by United Artists after budget constraints forced producers Hal Landers and Bobby Roberts to liquidate their rights. The original producers were replaced by Italian film mogul Dino De Laurentiis. De Laurentiis convinced Charles Bluhdorn to bring the project to Paramount Pictures. Paramount purchased the distribution rights of the film in the United States market, while Columbia Pictures licensed the distribution rights for international markets. De Laurentiis raised the $3 million budget of the film by pre-selling the distribution rights. With funding secured, screenwriter Gerald Wilson was hired to revise the script. His first task was changing the identity of the vigilante to make the role more suitable for Bronson. "Paul Benjamin" was renamed to "Paul Kersey." His job was changed from accountant to architect. His background changed from a World War II veteran to a Korean War veteran. The reason for him not seeing combat duty changed from serving as an army accountant to being a conscientious objector. Several vignettes from Mayes' script were deemed unnecessary and so were deleted.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Winner himself asked for several revisions in the script. Both the novel and the original script had no scenes showing the vigilante interacting with his wife. Winner decided to include a prologue depicting a happy relationship and so the prologue of the film depicts the couple vacationing in Hawaii. The early draft of the script had the vigilante being inspired by seeing a fight scene in the Western film "High Noon". Winner decided on a more elaborate scene, involving a fight scene in a recreation of the Wild West, taking place in Tucson, Arizona. The final script had the vigilante making an occasional reference to Westerns. While confronting an armed mugger, he challenges him to draw (Kersey tells him to "fill your hand," the same challenge issued by Western movie icon John Wayne to his main opponent in the climactic shootout in 1969's "True Grit"). When Ochoa tells him to get out of town, he asks if he has until sundown to do so. The killing in the subway station was supposed to remain off-screen in Mayes' script, but Winner decided to turn this into an actual, brutal scene. A minor argument occurred when it came to a shooting location for the film. Bronson asked for a California-based location so that he could visit his family in Bel Air, Los Angeles. Winner insisted on New York City and De Laurentiis agreed. Ultimately, Bronson backed down. "Death Wish" was shot on location in New York City during the winter of 1973–1974. "Death Wish" was first released to American audiences in July 1974. The world premiere took place on July 24 in the Loews Theater of New York City. During the whole production, the crew members had to wear face masks, due to the freezing temperatures that would make the water in their eyes freeze.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Multiple Grammy award-winning jazz musician Herbie Hancock produced and composed the original score for the soundtrack to the movie. It was his third film score, after the 1966 movie "Blow-up" and "The Spook Who Sat By The Door" (1973). Michael Winner said, "[Dino] De Laurentiis said 'Get a cheap English band.' Because the English bands were very successful. But I had a girlfriend who was in "Sesame Street", a Puerto Rican actress (Sonia Manzano), who played a checkout girl at the supermarket [in "Death Wish"], and she was a great jazz fan. She said, 'Well, you should have Herbie Hancock. He's got this record out called "Head Hunters".' She gave me "Head Hunters", which was staggering. And I said, 'Dino, never mind a cheap English band, we'll have Herbie Hancock.' Which we did."


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Hancock's theme for the film was quoted in "Judge, Jury and Executioner," a 2013 single by Atoms for Peace.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: The film was first released on VHS, Betamax and LaserDisc in 1980. It was later released on DVD in 2001 and 2006. A 40th Anniversary Edition was released on Blu-ray in 2014.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: "Death Wish" received mixed reviews upon its release because of its support of vigilantism, but it affected US audiences and began widespread debate over how to deal with rampant crime. The film's graphic violence, particularly the brutal rape scene of Kersey's daughter and the explicit portrayal of Kersey's premeditated slayings, was considered exploitative but realistic in the context of the US atmosphere of rising urban crime rates.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Many critics were displeased with the film, considering it an "immoral threat to society" and an encouragement of antisocial behavior. Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" was one of the most outspoken writers, condemning "Death Wish" in two extensive articles. Roger Ebert awarded three stars out of four and praised the "cool precision" of Winner's direction but did not agree with the film's philosophy. Gene Siskel gave the film two stars out of four and wrote that its setup "makes no attempt at credibility; its goal is to present a syllogism that argues for vengeance, and to present it so swiftly that one doesn't have time to consider its absurdity." Charles Champlin of the "Los Angeles Times" called it "a despicable motion picture... It is nasty and demagogic stuff, an appeal to brute emotions and against reason." Gary Arnold of "The Washington Post" described the film as "simplistic to the point of stasis. Scarcely a single sensible insight into urban violence occurs; the killings just plod [along] one after another as Bronson stalks New York's crime-ridden streets." Clyde Jeavons of "The Monthly Film Bulletin" wrote, "Superficially, it's not all that far removed from a Budd Boetticher revenge Western ... The difference, of course, is that Michael Winner has none of Boetticher's indigenous sense of allegory or his instinct for what constitutes a good folk-mythology, let alone his relish for three-dimensional villains."


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: Garfield was also unhappy with the final product, calling the film "incendiary" and stated that the film's sequels are all pointless and rancid since they advocate vigilantism unlike his two novels, which make the opposite argument. The film led him to write a follow-up titled "Death Sentence", which was published a year after the film's release. Bronson defended the film and felt that it was intended to be a commentary on violence and was meant to attack violence, not romanticize it.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: "Death Wish" was a watershed for Bronson, who was 53 years old at the time, and who was then better known in Europe and Asia for his role in "The Great Escape". Bronson became an American film icon, who experienced great popularity over the next twenty years.


title: Death Wish (1974 film)

text: In March 2016, Paramount and MGM announced that Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado would direct a remake starring Bruce Willis. In May, Keshales and Papushado quit the project, after the studio failed to allow their script rewrites. In June, Eli Roth signed on to direct. The film was released on March 2, 2018.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: The Jeep Cherokee is a line of SUVs manufactured and marketed by Jeep over five generations. Originally marketed as a variant of the Jeep Wagoneer, the Cherokee has evolved from a full-size SUV to one of the first compact SUVs and into its current generation as a crossover SUV. Named after the Cherokee tribe of North American Indians, Jeep has used the nameplate in some capacity since 1974.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: The Cherokee was a rebadged reintroduction of a two-door body style Jeep Wagoneer, with a redesigned greenhouse that eliminated the car's C-pillar. Instead the Cherokee sported a much wider D-pillar and a single, long fixed rear side window with an optional flip-out section. Previously, a two-door version had been available in the Jeep Wagoneer line (from 1963 to 1967), although this had the same pillar and window configuration as the four-door Wagoneer. The Cherokee replaced the Jeepster Commando, whose sales had not met expectations despite an extensive 1972 revamp. The Cherokee appealed to a younger market than the Wagoneer, which was regarded more as a family SUV.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: The Cherokee was marketed as the "sporty" two-door variant of Jeep's station wagon that went beyond the CJ-5 in room with off-road ability. The term "sport(s) utility vehicle" appears for the first time in the 1974 Cherokee sales brochure. A four-door was not added to the lineup until 1977. Other than the base model, the trim levels of the Cherokee included the S (Sport), Chief, Golden Eagle, Golden Hawk, Limited, Classic, Sport, Pioneer, and Laredo.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: While the Wagoneer continued in production for another eight years as the Grand Wagoneer, the Cherokee nameplate was moved to a new platform for 1984. Without a traditional body-on-frame chassis, the Cherokee instead featured a light-weight unibody design.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: This generation Cherokee would eventually be well-known as an innovator of the modern SUV, as it spawned competitors as other automakers began to notice that this Jeep design began replacing regular cars. It also began to supplant the role of the station wagon and "transformed from truck to limousine in the eyes of countless suburban owners." The XJ is a "significant link in the evolution of the 4x4."


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: It would prove to be so popular that the second generation Cherokee's replacement was released as a separate vehicle altogether as the Jeep Grand Cherokee, itself starting a successive line of vehicles as Jeep's flagship vehicle.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: The third generation, marketed as the Jeep Liberty in North America to differentiate it from the Grand Cherokee, was introduced in April 2001 for the 2002 model year. It was sold as the Jeep Cherokee in markets outside of North America.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: The Cherokee was priced between the Wrangler and Grand Cherokee. It remained the smallest of the 4-door Jeep SUVs up until the crossover-based 4-door Compass and Patriot arrived for 2007. The Cherokee featured unibody-construction. It was assembled at the Toledo North Assembly Plant in the United States, as well as in other countries including Egypt and Venezuela.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: It was the first Jeep vehicle to use rack and pinion steering. It was also the first Jeep to use the two then-new "PowerTech" engines; the 2.4 L straight-4, which was discontinued in 2006, and the 3.7 L V6. However, the Cherokee was not the first Jeep vehicle to use an independent front suspension, as the Wagoneer first used it in the 1963 model. But, that independent front suspension was limited to four wheel drive versions and, even then, was a short lived option.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: Still using the Jeep Liberty name in North America, the Cherokee was redesigned in 2008. For the first time, a rebadged version of a Jeep model existed, as Dodge sold this version of the Cherokee as the Dodge Nitro during the same time period as the fourth-generation Cherokee. It was eventually discontinued both due to slow sales as well as Sergio Marchionne wanting to avoid duplicated vehicles with Dodge and Jeep (as well as Chrysler) sharing the same sales network.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: With the smaller Patriot and Compass now available to cater to MPG-conscious buyers, the four-cylinder engine was dropped from the Cherokee's offerings. The iron-block, aluminium-head V6 was the only engine available for 2008. Towing capacity was . Jeep discontinued the Cherokee's CRD for the American market because it couldn't meet tougher 2007 emissions standards for diesel engines. Transmission choices were both carry-overs: a six-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. Standard equipment included electronic stability control with roll mitigation, traction control, and anti-lock brakes with brake assist. New Features included standard side airbags. Optional features are rain-sensing wipers, Sirius Satellite Radio, Bluetooth, a navigation system, and the MyGig entertainment system, complete with a 30GB hard drive.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: For the fifth generation, the Cherokee nameplate returned to North America as the vehicle was converted to a crossover and grew to midsize in order to make room for the Jeep Renegade below the Cherokee and Compass. It was introduced for the 2014 model year at the 2013 New York International Auto Show and the sales started in November 2013. The Cherokee is the first Jeep vehicle to be built on the Fiat Compact/Compact U.S. Wide platform, co-developed by Chrysler and Fiat. The Jeep Cherokee is built at Belvidere Assembly Plant in Belvidere, Illinois.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: The Cherokee has a highway fuel economy rating of and a 45% better fuel economy rating than the Liberty/Cherokee it replaced.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: In 2018 the front end was updated and a new 2.0-litre turbo engine became available, with 270 hp and 295 lb.ft. of torque, complementing the 3.2-litre V-6 and 2.4-litre inline-four.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: For the 2021 model year, Jeep added more standard comfort and convenience features on each trim, as well as introduced the Latitude Lux and related 80th Anniversary trims.


title: Jeep Cherokee

text: In February 2021, Chuck Hoskin, Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation called for Jeep to change the name of the vehicle. “I think we’re in a day and age in this country where it’s time for both corporations and team sports to retire the use of Native American names, images and mascots from their products, team jerseys and sports in general." “I’m sure this comes from a place that is well-intended, but it does not honor us by having our name plastered on the side of a car.” "The best way to honor us is to learn about our sovereign government, our role in this country, our history, culture, and language and have meaningful dialogue with federally recognized tribes on cultural appropriateness."


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: Dragon Age: Origins is a 2009 role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. It is the first game in the "Dragon Age" franchise. Set in the fictional kingdom of Ferelden during a period of civil strife, the game puts the player in the role of a warrior, mage, or rogue coming from an elven, human, or dwarven background. The player character is recruited into the Grey Wardens, an ancient order that stands against monstrous forces known as "Darkspawn", and is tasked with defeating the Archdemon that commands them and ending their invasion. The game is played from a third-person perspective that can be shifted to a top-down perspective. Throughout the game, players encounter various companions, who play major roles in the game's plot and gameplay.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: BioWare described "Dragon Age: Origins" as a "dark heroic fantasy" set in a unique world, and a spiritual successor to their previous "Baldur's Gate" and "Neverwinter Nights" franchises. Its setting was inspired by "The Lord of the Rings" and "A Song of Ice & Fire", and was described by BioWare as a mix between high fantasy and low fantasy. Development of the game began in 2002 and BioWare employed more than 144 voice-actors, and hired Inon Zur to compose the game's . The development of the game's console versions was outsourced to Edge of Reality. "Origins" was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in November 2009, and for Mac OS X in December 2009.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: "Origins" received critical acclaim upon release, with praise mostly directed at its story, setting, characters, music and combat system. It sold more than 3.2 million copies and 1 million pieces of downloadable content. It won multiple year-end accolades including Game of the Year and Best Role-playing awards from several gaming publications, and has widely been considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made. BioWare released several instances of downloadable content after the game's initial launch, an expansion pack for the game titled "" in March 2010, and two sequels, "Dragon Age II" and "", were released in 2011 and 2014 respectively.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: "Dragon Age: Origins" is a role-playing game played from a third-person perspective. The player is a Grey Warden, part of an order of elite fighters, whose task is to defeat the and save the world from a disastrous event called the Blight. Players create their own , customizing gender and appearance as well as choosing a race and class. The available classes are warriors, who perform strong physical attacks; rogues, who carry out stealth attacks and steal items from other characters; and mages, who cast spells on enemies, create combo spells, and support other party members. The three choices of race are human, elf, and dwarf. The combination of class and race determines which of six different origin stories the player experiences: Dalish Elf, Dwarf Commoner, City Elf, Mage, Human Noble, or Dwarf Noble. This affects the way other in-game characters perceive the player's character; for instance, a Dwarven Commoner would receive hatred and discrimination from other dwarves. However, all classes follow the same plot after the completion of the origin story.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: During gameplay, the player encounters a variety of enemies, including giant spiders, Darkspawn, ghosts, walking trees, and dragons. They also recruit companions, who accompany them and provide assistance in battle. These companions are normally controlled by artificial intelligence, with behaviour that the player can adjust through the "Tactics" menu, but the player also has the option to switch between characters and is able to issue orders to them in real-time or pause the game to queue up actions. The player and any companions in their party engage in combat with the weapons they have equipped when the player targets or is noticed by a hostile enemy. Players can swap weapons and perform special attacks during combat, but most of these attacks have a recharge time. The point of view can be shifted from the third-person view to a top-down view, where friendly and hostile units are labelled with different colours to distinguish them. At the end of a battle the characters' health and stamina, which powers a character's skills, are automatically refilled. When an enemy is defeated, the player collects any items or loot from its corpse. Companions who are not in the player's active party stay in the base camp, a hub where the player can talk to their party members as well as purchase new weapons, armour, and gear. In addition to the main story, the player can learn more about the world of Thedas by collecting the codexes scattered throughout the game.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The player can level up their Warden character by earning experience points through completing quests and defeating enemies. Each time the player levels up, they receive three points to spend on the character's six attributes. Strength inflicts more damage, dexterity helps evade attacks more often, willpower increases stamina, magic increases spell damage or magic defence, cunning improves combat tactics, and constitution helps withstand attacks. Special skills, which are divided into four different aspects for each class, and specialization options, which offer class-specific skills, can also be unlocked by levelling up.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The player can talk and interact with both party members and other non-playable characters. A dialogue tree offers several dialogue options for the player to select. Through conversation, the player can unlock unique quests and dialogue revealing the lore of "Dragon Age". It can also be used to persuade or intimidate other characters. The player often must choose between morally ambiguous options, which result in consequences that affect the game's world and progression and can even lead to the death of a potential companion. Companions react to the player's choices through an "approval system". When they dislike or object to the player's decisions, their approval drops, which can result in a companion leaving the party or even attacking the Warden. Approval points can also be influenced by gifts, which will improve any companion's approval but are each intended for a specific companion. Some gifts, if given to the right character, start a cutscene and can even unlock a quest. A high approval rating improves a companion's morale and gives bonuses to their combat abilities. A significant approval rating also makes it possible for the Warden to pursue a romantic relationship with certain companions. The game's "interaction reactivity" system means that the way a player treats one companion affects the approval rating of other companions as well.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The game is set in Ferelden, one of several countries in the fictional world of Thedas. Savage creatures called the Darkspawn dwell within the Deep Roads, an underground highway system created by the dwarves long ago, deep beneath the surface of Thedas. Every few hundred years, the Darkspawn swarm the surface world in a movement known as a Blight. Ever since the first Blight, Thedas has relied on the legendary order of warriors known as the Grey Wardens to drive the Darkspawn back. "Dragon Age: Origins" begins on the eve of Thedas's fifth Blight.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: Thedas is a world in which race and class combine to determine social class and political dynamics. Elves are often viewed as second-class citizens by humans, while human nobles are treated with respect. Mages, on the other hand, are cloistered by the Chantry: they have access to the Fade, the unconscious realm that is the home of spirits, and a single lapse in vigilance could cause them to be possessed by demons. Apostate mages, who live outside the Chantry's control, are considered extremely dangerous, and the Chantry has a military wing, the Templars, to seek out and subdue them by any means necessary. Dwarves live in the Deep Roads; their kingdom a shadow of what it once was before the first Blight, and their society is rooted in tradition and a rigid caste system. Dalish Elves live a nomadic lifestyle away from most cities, proudly attempting to preserve and reclaim the ancient Elven heritage that was mostly wiped out long ago when the Elven empire that ruled most of the lands mysteriously collapsed.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: Two prequel novels released in 2009, "" and its direct sequel "Dragon Age: The Calling", provide context for the game's lore as well as the backstories of several characters and their relevant conflicts in "Origins".


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The chief protagonist of "Dragon Age: Origins" is the player-controlled character, whose biography and combat specialization are determined by the race and class chosen at the start of the game. While the player can choose his or her avatar's first name, the character is usually referred to as "The Warden" by other characters and the game's narration.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: Many of the game's non-player characters (NPCs) are companion characters, who appear throughout the game and may volunteer their services. Companions include Alistair, a reluctantly heroic Grey Warden with a sarcastic wit; Morrigan, a spiteful apostate mage who has little regard for authority or social mores; Leliana, a lay sister of the Ferelden Chantry whose optimistic and virtuous demeanor belies an aptitude for espionage and combat; Sten, a proud but stoic warrior of the deeply regimented Qunari people who often questions the ways of other races; Oghren, an unkempt dwarven warrior whose love of alcohol is only matched by his penchant for physical violence and loyalty to his friends; Wynne, a senior member of the Ferelden Circle of Magi, a maternal figure to the party and a powerful healer; Zevran, a rakish elven assassin who is fond of treasures, sex and innuendo; and a loyal Mabari War Hound, which the player can name and use for scouting and combat. With the DLC "The Stone Prisoner" installed, Shale, a sarcastic Golem with a mild ornithophobia who was a female dwarf in her prior life, is also available as an optional companion.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: Outside of companion characters, NPCs significant to the "Origins" plot include Duncan, the Grey Warden who recruits the player; Arl Eamon Guerrin of Redcliffe, the uncle of Ferelden's naive but courageous King Cailan Theirin; Bann Teagan Guerrin, the brother of Arl Eamon; Queen Anora, Cailan's politically savvy wife, with a commanding personality that is somewhat offset by her ambition and ruthlessness; and Flemeth, Morrigan's mother, who appears to be a harmless old woman, but in truth is an infamous dark witch of Fereldan legend.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The rampaging Darkspawn horde is led by the Archdemon Urthemiel, supposedly one of the Old Gods of the Tevinter Imperium incarnated in the form of a powerful and corrupted dragon with total control over the Darkspawn. The game's other main antagonists are Loghain Mac Tir, Teyrn of Gwaren and father of Queen Anora, a once-respected war hero gone mad with ambition and paranoia; and Rendon Howe, the amoral and corrupt Arl of Amaranthine who allies with Loghain to further his own ambitions.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: One of six predetermined origin stories begins the game, depending on the player character's race and class. Each story ends with the player leaving with Duncan, the commander of Ferelden's Grey Wardens who is seeking new recruits and selects the player as a candidate. The two journey to Ferelden's southern fortress, Ostagar, to join Cailan, the King of Ferelden, and his father-in-law Loghain, a legendary general and close friend of Cailan's late father, King Maric. The three leaders plan to attack the encroaching Darkspawn to stop a new Blight from overwhelming Ferelden. Duncan senses the influence of an Archdemon, a god-like Dragon that commands the Darkspawn, and emphasizes the importance of defeating the Blight before it can threaten the rest of Thedas.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: Duncan initiates the player into the Grey Wardens via a ritual called the Joining, which involves imbibing Darkspawn blood. The recipient, if they survive, is granted the Taint, a connection into the Darkspawn hive mind to sense them. After surviving, the player (now nicknamed "The Warden") and fellow Grey Warden Alistair are tasked with lighting a beacon at the top of the fortress to signal Loghain's men into charging the Darkspawn horde flank. However, upon arriving, Loghain abandons the battlefield, leaving Cailan, Duncan, and their army to be slain by the Darkspawn, who seize control of Ostagar and begin advancing into southern Ferelden.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The Warden and Alistair are saved by Flemeth, a powerful witch who lives in seclusion. Flemeth sends her daughter Morrigan to accompany the Warden and Alistair in gathering a new army to combat the Archdemon and stop the Blight. Using ancient Grey Warden treaties, the Warden travels across Ferelden to enlist the aid of the Circle of Magi, the Dalish Elves, the Dwarves of Orzammar, and soldiers in Redcliffe loyal to Arl Eamon. In addition, Alistair reveals that he is a bastard son of King Maric, making him a contender for the now vacant throne. Meanwhile, Loghain returns to Ferelden's capital city, Denerim, to inform his daughter, Queen Anora, of Cailan's death. Loghain scapegoats the Grey Wardens for the defeat at Ostagar and demands the deaths of any survivors. While Anora inherits her husband's authority, Loghain declares himself her regent and seizes control of the kingdom, becoming a tyrannical ruler determined to retain power. Ferelden's nobility rebel against him, igniting a civil war which ends in an inconclusive stalemate and allows the Darkspawn to advance further into Ferelden unopposed.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: Eamon then calls a Landsmeet among the nobles of Ferelden to rally the kingdom against the Darkspawn, where the Warden or a party member defeats Loghain in a duel. If Alistair defeats Loghain, he will then execute him. Otherwise, the Warden can either have Loghain executed or recruited into the Grey Wardens and the party in place of Alistair (who quits both in turn). Dependent on this and other past decisions, the Warden then settles who assumes Ferelden's throne (Alistair and/or Anora), with the option of marrying the one of opposite gender if a Human Noble.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: Before the final battle, the Warden learns that a Grey Warden must slay the Archdemon to prevent it from releasing a demonic essence which finds a new host in the nearest Darkspawn. The essence will be drawn to the Taint, killing the Warden in the process. Morrigan meets with the Warden and proposes a ritual that will see her conceive a child with a Warden. The Archdemon, upon death, will instead be drawn to the child, born as a demigod with the Taint, sparing the Warden who slays it. Morrigan agrees to conceive the child on the condition that she raise it alone. The Warden can accept Morrigan's offer (if male), convince Alistair/Loghain to take part instead, or refuse the proposal (which causes Morrigan to leave the party).


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The next day, the Warden and the newly assembled army gather in Denerim. They repel the Darkspawn horde and vanquish the Archdemon. If Morrigan's ritual was performed, the Warden slays the Archdemon. If not, they must decide whether they or Alistair/Loghain does so and perishes in the process. The remaining Darkspawn retreat from Denerim, marking the end of the Fifth Blight. The story ends with a ceremony attended by Ferelden citizens, where the Warden and their companions are honoured for saving the kingdom. An epilogue details the ramifications of the Warden's choices, including the future of Ferelden, any rumours, and the fates of his or her companions.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: "Dragon Age: Origins" was created by the Edmonton studio of BioWare, the developer of "Neverwinter Nights" and "Jade Empire". Development of the game's first demo began in November 2002. It was officially revealed at E3 2004 as simply "Dragon Age" and was re-revealed as "Dragon Age: Origins" in July 2008, alongside a new trailer for the game. According to BioWare, they kept any information about the game hidden from the public, to further the game's design and technology. More than 180 people worked on the game, and full-scale production began three years after the game's initial development. The subtitle "Origins" was chosen to represent the six origins storyline, BioWare's return to PC role-playing games, and the beginning of a new franchise. "Origins" is a spiritual successor to "Baldur's Gate" and "Neverwinter Nights", as an attempt to build a similar fantasy RPG without any licensing restrictions or issues. The similarities are mostly present in gameplay elements, such as real-time tactical combat; the game does not share the "Dungeons and Dragons" setting of the "Baldur's Gate" series and is instead set in a period where dragons are prevalent. While the game was initially built with the engine that powered "Neverwinter Nights", the team switched to use the Eclipse Engine midway during the game's development. The shift in engine slowed down the game's development significantly.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: David Gaider, the lead writer for "Origins", built the game's world first before writing the plot. The team chose a "fantasy" setting because Dan Tudge, the game's director, thought that BioWare was at its best in the fantasy genre. In the first draft, there were no Darkspawn or Grey Wardens, and mages were not allowed to use magic in cities. There were twelve different origin stories, including Human Commoner and Avvar, a barbarian origin. However, most of them were scrapped for being "ridiculous", leading to six stories being finalized. Loghain was the first character to be created, while an Ogre, nicknamed "Fluffy", and a human with medium armour were the first enemies designed. The concepts of Alistair and Morrigan were the next to be created, as they play the largest role in the game's plot. Their creation also took far longer than other characters. Morrigan was originally conceived to be similar to Flemeth, speaking whimsically. However, Gaider was not satisfied and decided to completely rewrite her personality. As a result, she was designed as a "blunt" person who always resists her mother. Finding a suitable voice actor for Morrigan took the most time of any character. The game's final version features 68,260 lines of dialogue; the quality assurance testers for the game enabled a cheat to automatically skip these cutscenes and dialogues during test runs. Dragons were added into the game after its title was created using a random name generator.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare, said that the team wanted to try something that would be new but familiar to most players. They hoped that "Origins" would redefine the genre to become "The Lord of the Rings" of video game franchises. Greg Zeschuk, another co-founder of BioWare, described the fantasy of "Dragon Age" as in between the high fantasy of J. R. R. Tolkien's works and the low fantasy of works by George R.R. Martin. The goal was a "dark heroic fantasy" that would suit the taste of any fan of the genre. Thus, while the game has the typical races of human, elf, and dwarf, they are slightly altered from the usual nature of the three races, and a new race called the Qunari was introduced. Some of the alterations they made included flipping how certain races, like elves, are treated in other fictional worlds. While elves are often described as a race of high prestige in fiction, "Dragon Age: Origins" presents them as slaves of humans, labelled as second-class citizens who resent the human race. This extended to the gameplay, where the player can choose to discriminate against other races and can experience discrimination from others based on their choices.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: BioWare recognized that non-linear choices are an element unique to video games in the entertainment industry. Zeschuk called the sheer number of choices in the game "big" and "impactful", and the team designed many of those to be emotional and create a more personal experience for the player. They intentionally avoided adding a karma system, as the choices are designed to be ambiguous, with only the player to judge whether they are good or bad. According to Muzyka, their goal was to make players sympathize with events and characters, connecting with them to feel true emotions. This vision challenged the team to balance many key aspects, such as the amount of dialogue and animation in each cutscene, to create a believable scenario for players. The team also hoped to handle romance in a more "mature" and "complicated" way, with a true reflection on human relationships and reactions rather than "adolescent titillation". The game has sex scenes, but no nudity. Muzyka added that it was an artistic choice and a decision made by the team, not the publisher Electronic Arts.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: While "Origins" is a single-player-only game, Muzyka described it as a "social experience", considering the narrative and its variety of paths as an integral part of the gameplay. The characters a player meets, items they collect, and quests they receive and complete may be different, leading to a completely different experience. He also considered the ways a player explores the world and discovers new areas as an exploration narrative. As each player had a different experience, they hoped that those players would collaborate to expand upon their knowledge of the world. To that effect, the team built a community site as an online social environment for players to communicate. Players could share stats and automatically generated screenshots with the community.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The game features an orchestral soundtrack with a choir, used both in-game and during cutscenes. The soundtrack was recorded by the performance of a 44-piece orchestra, recorded twice and merged to sound like an 88-piece orchestra. The soundtrack was described by a press release issued by Electronic Arts as a collaboration between composer Inon Zur, vocalist Aubrey Ashburn, and BioWare Audio Director Simon Pressey, and performed by the Northwest Sinfonia. According to Zur, he intentionally made most of the soundtrack feel "dark", combining low brass and bass string instruments with ancient drums to express a feeling that is both heroic and demonic. The soundtrack was presented at a panel in the Hollywood Music in Media Interactive Conference in 2009 and was performed as part of the September 26 "A Night in Fantasia 2009" concert in Sydney, Australia, by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra. The song "I Am The One", written by Inon Zur and Aubrey Ashburn and performed by Aubrey Ashburn, won "Best Original Song – Video Game" in the Hollywood Music in Media Awards & Conference show held on November 19, 2009. Pressey also won the 2009 Hollywood Music in Media Award for "Outstanding Music Supervision - Video Game".


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: "Origins" contains a large amount of voice acting recorded in the US and the UK. Actors include Tim Russ, Steve Valentine, Kate Mulgrew, Simon Templeman, Mark Rolston, Tim Curry, Adam Howden, Nicola Bertram, and Claudia Black. In total, 144 voice actors worked on the game. A large part of these recordings became the ambient dialogue that takes place between non-player characters in the adventuring party, adding to their backstories and lending more credibility to the characters. Mark Darrah, the executive producer of BioWare, described the cast of characters the largest of any of their games at that time and hoped that using celebrities would add a layer of depth and complexity to the characters. The main protagonist is not voice-acted, as the team hoped that players would "reflect their own inner voice" when making decisions.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: While the game was originally intended for PC, a console version was announced in 2008 by gaming magazine "Game Informer". Prior to the announcement, Zeschuk suggested that the entire franchise has a "console future". The decision was made to bring the game to consoles to introduce it to a wider audience. Mike Laidlaw, the game's lead designer, considered creating the console versions' interface a challenge, as they had to convert the long and complex quickbar from the PC version to a more streamlined interface that could use the same actions with only few button presses. To that end, the team decided to map six different actions together, and allow players to customize the arrangement. Also, the console version does not allow the top-down view possible in the PC version.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The game was originally set to be released in early 2009 for Microsoft Windows, and later for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The team partnered with Edge of Reality to develop the console versions of the game. However, its release date was pushed to the latter half of that year in order to have a simultaneous launch. BioWare announced that the game would be released on October 20, 2009, but pushed it back again to November 6, 2009, as the team wanted additional time to finalize some last-minute decisions. The PlayStation 3 version was at one point delayed to November 17 but did end up launching alongside the other versions. A Mac version of the game, developed by TransGaming, was released on December 21, 2009.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The "Dragon Age Character Creator" was released on October 13, 2009, allowing players to create a character in advance and import it into the full game upon release. BioWare also released a "developer-grade" toolset to allow extensive modification and customization of the game's PC version. Players can use these tools to craft new campaigns, quests, cinematics, and lip-syncing. On November 26, 2009, Electronic Arts announced a competition called "Dragon Age: Warden's Quest". Contestants formed groups of four people and competed to adventure through the game's world, with the winning group receiving $12,500. The representatives from Hungary won the contest. The December 2009 issue of "PC Gamer" was bundled with a DVD copy of "A Tale of Orzammar", a promotional campaign module for "Origins". It explores the actions of a mercenary, the player character of the module, who is contracted by a dwarven nobleman to retrieve a valuable artifact from a ruined thaig within the Deep Roads.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: In addition to the standard version, other editions of "Origins" were made available for purchase. The Collector's Edition came in a SteelBook with different artwork. Like the standard edition, the Collector's Edition included a redemption code to obtain the "Stone Prisoner" and "Blood Dragon Armor" downloadable content (DLC) for free, but also featured three additional exclusive in-game items, a bonus disc containing a making-of documentary, concept art, trailers, the game's original soundtrack, and a cloth map of Ferelden. "Dragon Age: Origins" supports released several DLC packs for the game. The content ranged from single in-game item packs to entirely new plot-related campaigns, which include "The Stone Prisoner", "Warden's Keep", "", "The Darkspawn Chronicles", "Leliana's Song", "The Golems of Amgarrak", and "Witch Hunt". An expansion, titled "", which is set in a new area called Amaranthine and introduces five new party members, was released on March 16, 2010. The "Ultimate Edition", which includes the base game, the "Awakening" expansion pack, and all 9 DLC packs, was released on October 26, 2010.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: On March 9, 2011, Electronic Arts announced that players who pre-ordered "Darkspore" would receive a free copy of "Origins". In 2012, to celebrate the first anniversary of Electronic Arts' own digital distribution software Origin, the game was made free to download alongside "" and "Spore" for a limited time. On October 8, 2015, it became free to download again for a limited time as part of Origin's On the House program.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: "Dragon Age: Origins" received critical acclaim from major video game critics upon its release. While the game is considered to be virtually identical across all platforms, differences in user interface, graphical performance, and online content delivery have led the PC version to be reviewed more favorably than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions; Metacritic ranks the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions of the game with scores of 91, 87, and 86, respectively.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The game's setting was well received by critics. Dave Snider from Giant Bomb thought that the setting felt traditional due to the presence of dwarves and elves, but that the world was beautifully executed. He also appreciated the small touches BioWare added to the world, noting the "French-tinged accent" of the Orlesian Empire humans. He added that the six origin stories and their unique dialogue and referencing throughout the game make the world feel cohesive. Kevin VanOrd from GameSpot made similar comments, stating that the new ideas added to a familiar world make it feel original and new. However, Jeff Haynes from IGN said that the origin stories were inconsistent, with missteps that make the world, while "rich and vivid", feel less believable. Joe Juba from "Game Informer" wrote that the world was well-realized with a deep history, which makes the game addicting, as players can sense their Warden's importance in the world.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The game's story and characters also received praise. Snider said that the story is driven by the characters and that the choices presented in the game were difficult, making him regret some choices for weeks after completing the game. He added that the game's main quest was well written, and its quality boosted by excellent voice acting; he called the performance of Claudia Black as Morrigan one of the best in the game. VanOrd commended the game's story, saying that it was memorable and crafted with care, successfully making players care about the game's world and characters. He added that the deep character development made every choice "momentous". GamesRadar thought that the story and the Warden's appearance felt generic, but that the story became more and more engrossing as it progressed. Nick Tan from Game Revolution liked the banter between companions as a humorous change of pace within the game. Gerald Villoria from GameSpy praised the exclusion of the moral system for making the characters feel more complex. Juba wrote that the story was good but predictable, not straying far from standard fantasy stories. Wesley Yin-Poole from VideoGamer.com called the story memorable, saying that it "leaves an itch in your mind", and has attracted players to return to the game "like an addict seeking a hit of relief." In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of "Origins", Eric Van Allen of "USGamer" observed that companion relationships are more tense in "Origins", and that most of the companions do not follow the Warden out of blind loyalty. Van Allen notes that the underlying tensions resulted in a game that "reveled in the moral grays", encouraging players to make decisions that aligns with their own feelings, unlike in "Mass Effect".


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: As for the game's combat, Snider called it streamlined but said that players who do not want to use the pause mechanic would not be able to appreciate the game, as the combat requires both patience and strategy. He liked the game's third-person view more than the top-down view, saying that being able to view the sky made environments feel more complicated, and praised the high difficulty of boss battles, which task players to manage their stamina carefully. His conclusion was that "Origins" "feels like a real throwback to the good old days of PC role-playing epics." VanOrd said that the combat system was easily recognizable for players who have played other RPGs developed by BioWare. He added that players can have a lot of fun switching between characters, and agreed that the game had created thrilling boss battles. He praised the choice to have health and stamina replenish immediately after battles, as it sped up combat pace and flow. Tan also commended the combat, finding it a better system than other BioWare RPGs, but disliked the fact that characters can't step into water. Juba praised the amount of space for players to experiment with new skills and abilities, adding that the required focus and attention make combat very satisfying.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: The game's graphics received mixed reviews. VanOrd was not impressed, stating that the environments do not look as good viewed from a top-down perspective, but he praised the art style and some of the game's "eye-catching" landmarks. Tan liked that the environments were varied and unique, saying that each level felt "vast" and filled with details. Villoria found its visual quality lacking when compared with that of "Mass Effect 2", adding that the facial animation can feel wooden at times. However, he found the combat animation rewarding and satisfying. He further criticized the sex sequences as "off-putting". Yin-Poole said that the game's graphics were boring and generic, and called the sex scenes "anticlimactic" and poorly-executed. Both Villoria and Yin-Poole felt that the six-year development time was too long, considering the game's mediocre graphics.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: GamesRadar estimated that there are more than 80 hours of content available in the game. Villoria called the world engaging, and its replay value very high, as players can play the story over and over again with a different origin. Juba agreed, as did Yin-Poole, who added that the way companions react to the player's decisions, as well as the six origin stories, significantly expand the game's longevity. John Walker, writing for "Eurogamer", notes that the game's most frequent theme is the line between acculturation and enculturation. He praised the level of depth on display in "Origins", calling it one of the most extraordinary gaming achievements he had seen up to that point.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: "Dragon Age: Origins" topped Steam's sales chart on November 10, 2009. The "Digital Deluxe" version of the game was ranked first place, with the standard edition ranked second. The Xbox 360 version of the game was the ninth-best-selling game in the US according to the NPD Group, selling approximately 362,100 copies. According to John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, the company is very satisfied with the sales of "Origins"; more than 1 million DLC packs for the game were sold before the end of 2009. In February 2010, Electronic Arts announced that more than 3.2 million copies of the game had been sold.


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: "Origins" gained recognition from several gaming publications for its achievements. At the 13th Annual AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards (now known as the D.I.C.E. Awards), the game was named 2009's "Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year", as well as being nominated for 2009's "Game of the Year". At the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards, "Dragon Age: Origins" received the Best PC Game and Best RPG awards. It was chosen as the PC Game of the Year, Best Xbox 360 RPG of the Year, Best Story of the Year, and Best PC Role-Playing Game of the Year by IGN. The game also received Giant Bomb's Best PC Game of 2009 award and Game of the Year 2009 and RPG of the Year awards from U.S. "PC Gamer". In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book "1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die".


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: Although the name "Origins" hinted that the game would be a beginning of a new franchise, the team did not expect the game to become successful and had never planned for sequels. Nonetheless, "Origins" spawned a franchise consisting of video games, comics, and novels. The game's sequel, "Dragon Age II", which features a new protagonist and is set in the city of Kirkwall, was released in 2011. Players are able to transfer save data from "Origins" into the sequel; decisions that the player made during the course of "Origins" may impact the narrative of "Dragon Age II". The third installment of the series, "", was released in November 2014. Decisions made in "Origins" are also referenced in "Inquisition"; players may revisit the plot points from "Origins" by selecting their choices on the Tapestry feature on the online application "Dragon Age Keep".


title: Dragon Age: Origins

text: According to "Eurogamer"s Richard Cobbett, "Origins" marked the point at which western RPGs properly moved into the spotlight. He stated that the success of "Origins" proved that "a hardcore, older-fashioned game could still find a devoted audience", and that it "established a new baseline for the genre in much the same way as the original "Baldur's Gate" back in 1998".


title: Christopher Lee filmography

text: With a career spanning nearly seven decades, Lee was well known for portraying Count Dracula in a sequence of Hammer Horror films, beginning with "Dracula" (1958). His other film roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond action film "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974), Count Dooku in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy (2002–2005), and Saruman in "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy (2001–2003) and "The Hobbit" film trilogy (2012–2014).


title: Christopher Lee filmography

text: Lee was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009. He received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011 and the BFI Fellowship in 2013. He considered his best performance to be that of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic "Jinnah" (1998), and his best film to be the British cult film "The Wicker Man" (1973). He frequently appeared opposite his friend Peter Cushing in numerous horror films, and late in his career had roles in six Tim Burton films.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The Aosta Valley ( (official) or (usual); ; ; or ; ) is a mountainous autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is bordered by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France, to the west, Valais, Switzerland, to the north, and by Piedmont, Italy, to the south and east. The regional capital is Aosta.


title: Aosta Valley

text: Covering an area of and with a population of about 128,000 it is the smallest, least populous, and least densely populated region of Italy. The province of Aosta having been dissolved in 1945, the Aosta Valley region was the first region of Italy to abolish provincial subdivisions. Provincial administrative functions are provided by the regional government. The region is divided into 74 "comuni" ().


title: Aosta Valley

text: The official languages are Italian and French, though the native population also speak Valdôtain, a dialect of Franco-Provençal. Italian is spoken as a mother tongue by 77.29% of population, Valdôtain by 17.91%, and French by 1.25%. In 2009, reportedly 50.53% of the population could speak all three languages.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The Aosta Valley is an Alpine valley which, with its tributary valleys, includes the Italian slopes of Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, Gran Paradiso and the Matterhorn; its highest peak is Mont Blanc (). This makes it the highest region in Italy, according to the list of Italian regions by highest point.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The valleys, usually above , annually have a Cold Continental Climate ("Dfc"). In this climate, the snow season is very long, as long as 8 or 9 months at the highest points. During the summer, mist occurs almost every day. These areas are the wettest in the western Alps. Temperatures in January are low, between and , and in July are between and . In this area is the town of Rhêmes-Notre-Dame, which may be the coldest town in the Western Alps and where the winter average temperature is around .


title: Aosta Valley

text: Areas between usually have a Tundra Climate (), where every month has an average temperature below . This climate may be either a kind of more severe Cold Oceanic Climate, with a low summer average but mild winters, sometimes above , especially near lakes, or a more severe Cold Continental Climate, with a very low winter average. Temperature averages in Plateau Rosa, at high, are in January and in July. It is the coldest place in Italy where the climate is verifiable.


title: Aosta Valley

text: In the past, above , all months had an average temperature below freezing, with a Perpetual Frost Climate (EF). In recent years, however, there has been a rise in temperatures. See, as an example, the data for Plateau Rosa.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The first inhabitants of the Aosta Valley were Celts and Ligures, whose language heritage remains in some local placenames. Rome conquered the region from the local Salassi around 25 BC and founded "Augusta Prætoria Salassorum" (modern-day Aosta) to secure the strategic mountain passes, and they went on to build bridges and roads through the mountains. Thus, the name "Valle d'Aosta" literally means "Valley of Augustus".


title: Aosta Valley

text: In 1031–1032, Humbert I of Savoy, the founder of the House of Savoy, received the title "Count of Aosta" from Emperor Conrad II of the Franconian line and built himself a commanding fortification at Bard. Saint Anselm of Canterbury was born in Aosta in 1033 or 1034. The region was divided among strongly fortified castles, and in 1191, Thomas I of Savoy found it necessary to grant to the communes a "Charte des franchises" ("Charter of Liberties") which preserved autonomy—rights that were fiercely defended until 1770, when they were revoked in order to tie Aosta more closely to Piedmont, but which were again demanded during post-Napoleonic times. In the mid-13th century, Emperor Frederick II made the County of Aosta a duchy (see Duke of Aosta), and its arms charged with a lion rampant were carried in the Savoy arms until the reunification of Italy in 1870.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The region remained part of Savoy lands, with the exceptions of French occupations from 1539 to 1563, later in 1691, then between 1704 and 1706. It was also ruled by the First French Empire between 1800 and 1814. During French rule, it was part of Aoste arrondissement in Doire department. As part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, it joined the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861.


title: Aosta Valley

text: French forces briefly controlled the area at the end of World War II, but withdrew under British and American pressure. The region gained special autonomous status after the end of World War II; the province of Aosta ceased to exist in 1945.


title: Aosta Valley

text: For decades, the valley has been dominated by autonomist regional parties such as the Valdostan Union, which represents the interests of the French-speaking population. The last regional election was held in September 2020. On 15 October 2020, Erik Lavévaz of the Valdostan Union was elected president by the region's cabinet.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The population density of Aosta Valley is by far the lowest of the Italian regions. In 2008, 38.9 inhabitants per km were registered in the region, whereas the average national figure was 198.8, though the region has extensive uninhabitable areas of mountain and glacier, with a substantial part of the population living in the central valley. Migration from tributary valleys has now been stemmed by generous regional support for agriculture and tourist development.


title: Aosta Valley

text: Negative natural population growth since 1976 has been more than offset by immigration. The region has one of Italy's lowest birth rates, with a rising average age. This, too, is partly compensated by immigration, since most immigrants arriving in the region are younger people working in the tourist industry. Between 1991 and 2001, the population of Aosta Valley grew by 3.1%, which is the highest growth among the Italian regions. With a negative natural population growth, this is due exclusively to positive net migration. Between 2001 and 2011, the population of Aosta Valley grew by a further 7.07%. , the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) estimated that 4,976 foreign-born immigrants live in Aosta Valley, equal to 4.0% of the total regional population.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The Valdôtain population and their language dialects have been the subject of some sociological research.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The Aosta Valley was the first government authority to adopt Modern French as the official language in 1536, three years before France itself.


title: Aosta Valley

text: Since 1946, Italian and French are the region's official languages and are used for the regional government's acts and laws, though Italian is much more widely spoken in everyday life, and French is mostly spoken in cultural life. Education is conducted evenly in French and Italian, so that anyone who has gone to school in the Aosta Valley can speak French to at least a medium-high level.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The regional language, known as "patoué valdotèn" or simply "patoué" ("patois valdôtain" in French), is a dialectal variety of Franco-Provençal. It is spoken as a native and second language by 68,000 residents, or about 58% of the population according to a sociolinguistic survey carried out by the "Fondation Émile Chanoux" in 2001.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The survey found out that the Italian language was spoken as a mother tongue by 77.29% of respondents, Franco-Provençal by 17.91%, while French by 1.25%. The residents of the villages of Gressoney-Saint-Jean, Gressoney-La-Trinité and Issime, in the Lys Valley, speak two dialects of Walser German, Titsch and Töitschu, respectively. According to the survey, Walser German was spoken as a mother tongue by 207 people, or 17.78%, in these three villages. Nevertheless, it was known to 56.38% of the population.


title: Aosta Valley

text: There are numerous medieval castles and fortified houses in the Aosta Valley, including Châtel-Argent, Saint-Pierre Castle, Fénis Castle, Issogne Castle, Ussel Castle, Sarre Castle, Cly Castle, Verrès Castle, and Châtelard Castle. Savoy Castle in Gressoney-Saint-Jean was conceived in the 19th century and completed in 1904. Since 1990, it has also been home to the Savoy Castle Alpine Botanical Garden.


title: Aosta Valley

text: The cuisine of Aosta Valley is characterized by simplicity and revolves around "robust" ingredients such as potatoes, polenta; cheese and meat; and rye bread. Many of the dishes involve Fontina, a cheese with PDO status, made from cow's milk that originates from the valley. It is found in dishes such as the soup "à la vâpeuleunèntse" (Valpelline Soup). Other cheeses made in the region are Tomme de Gressoney and Seras. Fromadzo (Valdôtain for "cheese") has been produced locally since the 15th century and also has PDO status.


title: Aosta Valley

text: Regional specialities, besides Fontina, are "Motzetta" (dried chamois meat), Vallée d'Aoste Lard d'Arnad (a cured and brined fatback product with PDO designation), Vallée d'Aoste Jambon de Bosses (a kind of ham, likewise with PDO designation), a dark bread made with rye, and honey.


title: Aosta Valley

text: Notable dishes include "Carbonnade", similar to the Belgian dish of the same name consisting of salt-cured beef cooked with onions and red wine served with polenta; breaded veal cutlets called "costolette"; "teuteuns", salt-cured cow's udder that is cooked and sliced; and "steak à la valdôtaine", a steak with croûtons, ham and melted cheese.


title: Aosta Valley

text: Notable wines include two white wines from Morgex ("Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle" and "Chaudelune"), a red wine blend from Arvier ("Enfer d'Arvier") and one from Gamay.