In the darkspawn armies, the few toughest and most intelligent of the darkspawn become alphas, the commanders and generals of the darkspawn armies. Of these alphas, a few become Emissaries, the spellcasters of the darkspawn with abilities similar to Blood Magic. However, these emissaries rarely appear outside of a Blight, when they appear to see to that the generals and commanders of the darkspawn armies serve the archdemon's interests and not their own.