#like. red lyrium. for instance.

[sunlight-shunlight]

one interesting thing about the solas crestwood catastrophe is that:

if we look at the relationship from solas' perspective, he knows he's already... permanently altered lavellan with his magic, in a way that they didn't consent to/fully understand the ramifications of. oops! that was accidental, and he didn't even know them then, so presumably he manages to get over the guilt enough to have somewhat of a normal relationship afterwards.

but then, let's assume that he did stick to his plan to tell the truth... then he essentially:

altered their physical body with magic.

lied a LOT by omission.

drew them in with friendship/affection before dropping a Huge Moral Burden onto them.

can't REMOVE the magic in his current state, until he gets the orb back.

if the explanation goes badly, and lavellan ends up hating him/disagreeing with his plan, they wouldn't even be able to tell him to fuck off permanently. bc the anchor is still slowly killing them.

if lavellan agrees with his plan in theory, then... they still have to accept the deaths of most people they knew and cared about. which even if they're ok with for the Greater Good™, will horrifically change their personality and ruin their life.

if lavellan agrees to help with the plan, then... they're basically solas' agent afterwards, and will have to personally bloody their hands even more. and the power differential only gets Worse.

so he's... a bit mythal-esque in his approach, by accident, isn't he? RIP! mythal is of course, the Best Of The Evanuris™ and a girlboss, but that's presumably unsettling to him when he realizes it. it seems like he had thought his confession through up to the point of "hm, maybe if i explain it really well, they'll accept me as the dread wolf, and the necessity of my plan? and we'll be together :)" without planning any further steps fhsjsgjf

so then he goes "oh, fuck. nevermind. what if i just stay as solas the Normal Apostate™ a bit longer. but, i need SOME pretext about why we're even here, or what 'the truth' is that i'm telling them. uhhhh... the vallaslin are... removable?" out of reflex.

then that's, once again:

lying, and with the expectation that he'd have to keep lying even longer.

encouraging lavellan to change an integral part of themselves, when they trust him deeply.

which is STILL very mythal-esque, or possibly dread wolf vs his foes type of behaviour, and it's towards someone that he loves! even when he's trying to be solas the Normal Apostate™. incredible. then solas either takes off the vallaslin, and realizes that he's altered lavellan further on false pretenses; or lavellan refuses, and he realizes that he's asked them to change themselves, still on false pretenses. and then he decides that it's Joever and there's no way to remain in the relationship that preserves his ethics. presumably, the fact that he killed felassan for showing 2% of this emotional bias towards mortals, is also weighing on him throughout.

BUT. then he does say afterwards that "everything will be made clear once corypheus is defeated". which is a pretty douchey thing to say if he expects to take the orb, and then for lavellan to like... die in the veilfall immediately? hdjsjfhsf. so to me, that seems like he had an intention to retake the anchor, and then tear down the veil and reveal his identity, and expected lavellan to still be alive afterwards to see it. and then they would no longer be magically attached to him, so at least that would equalize the situation a bit.

but then the orb breaks too! so, he has to slink off with 0 additional clarity to lavellan beyond saying "ough... what we had was real 🥺" before going to kill mythal himself. absolute trainwreck of a breakup.

[trulycertain]

I've seen this idea that during In Hushed Whispers, Dorian is showboating and saying whatever comes into his head, and nothing else. No, I really don't think so. There's a lot of principle and empathy under all that.

He's so damn crestfallen - "Once, [Alexius] was a man to whom I compared all others. Sad, isn't it?" Even if you opt for saying that back in the present, Alexius still might be reasoned with, Dorian's response is a quiet, "I suppose that's true" - not as if he believes you, but as if he wishes he could. (Back in Haven, one of the first things he says if you ask him about whether he's seen Alexius is that the man is to be judged soon, and perhaps we can show him mercy? Said like he knows it's a vain hope and he's leaving it in the Inquisitor's hands, but interesting to note. It matches very much with his later-game approvals and dialogue, where he's upset by loss of - non-Venatori or red templar - life and collateral damage in any form.)

He's also not fully confident in his abilities, trying not to promise too much, and honest about that; sure, he makes that half-joke about "I'm here. I'll protect you," but when Fiona expresses excitement about him maybe being able to get himself and the Inquisitor back in time, he points out gravely, "I said maybe."

He's also horrified by what's happened to the world, he's just trying to put it aside. (Look at his response to realising that red lyrium is growing out of people, for instance - or when he finally lets himself think about what's happened to Alexius and Felix, and has to pull himself back together a little; he's clearly not sure how much he can afford to let the Inquisitor see of his vulnerability, and sidesteps it, but it's there. Leliana correctly points out that he's just talking to fill the silence, which suggests he's nervous/disturbed as hell, offhand jokes about the Venatori's taste in draperies and light reading or not. The jokes and the questions to try and get his head around things are clearly how he deals with those nerves.)

There are also some lines that suggest Dorian is very, very wary of the Inquisition but wants very badly to believe in it (which, looking at his dad and Alexius, every time he's put his trust in an idealist/s it's ended badly). When you talk about recruiting the mages, he has a sharply pointed line about how Alexius chucked the mages into indentured servitude, but "the Inquisition will be different. …The Inquisition is different, yes?" And heck, even when he gets to Haven... note how he's found the quietest, most shadowed position where he can be less harassed, but keep an eye on comings and goings; he does the exact same at the Winter Palace. He's taking the Inquisition's measure.

He was trying to impress at first, so he was in a position to help and you wouldn't kill him. He's pretending to have foot-in-mouth with occasional genuine (rather than constant) slips into it... but he's principled, careful and scoping out the Inquisition for a trap as much as they're doing the same to him. And as he says himself: "[My people] care, deeply." I think anyone saying otherwise is getting distracted by the flashy stuff, precisely as he wants you to be.

[nightingaletrash]

why Davrin didn't die killing the Archdemon

we see Ghilan'nain draw this essence out of Razikale numerous times over the course of the boss fight, using it to alter her dragon and transform it - presumably this is the portion of her power imbued in the dragon that makes her immortal

when Davrin kills the archdemon, this is what we see

the usual transfer of essence that occurs when an archdemon dies directs away from Davrin and into Ghilan'nain, similar to how killing the Red Lyrium Dragon triggers the transfer of its infused power back into Corypheus

in past Blights, the Warden who kills the archdemon dies because its essence transfers into a nearby blighted creature, and the priority has always been Warden > Darkspawn. But in past Blights, the Evanuris that was tied to their respective archdemon wasn't present, whereas Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan were when their archdemons died. So in this instance, we can presume the order of priority for this essence transfer is Evanuris > Warden > Darkspawn, all of which are Blighted creatures. So Davrin likely survived because Ghilan'nain was present to re-absorb her essence, and she superseded him in order of priority.

So my question is, what causes this order of priority? It's most likely that Evanuris are at the top because it's their essence, and naturally it would seek to rejoin its owner once it was disembodied, except 5/7 times, the owner was absent and it had to find another host else where. So why does it try to enter a Warden rather than a Darkspawn? Maybe it's because a Warden has a soul, whereas a Darkspawn doesn't? The presence of a soul combined with the Taint could maybe 'fool' the essence into believing the Warden is the Evanuris host, so it attempts to rejoin its progenitor, only to clash with the Warden's soul and cause the mutual destruction of both.

But then what does that make the soul of an Old God, really? Is it a fragment of the Evanuris the dragon belonged to? Does that mean that Kieran is actually in possession of a fragment of one of the Evanuris, separated from the original god it belonged to? These are the questions I need answers to 👀

[mllemaenad]

I had a thought about your Tranquility/casteless meta - this similarity might also go some way to explaining the logic behind the concept art ending option where Solas Tranquilises himself. It seemed very weird and illogical when I first saw it, but if we assume he's trying to cut himself off from the Titans for some reason (perhaps to make it easier for them to heal) then perhaps it makes more sense?

I ... caved and bought the art book, because it turns out I am much more interested in the games we didn't get than I am in the one we did.

First thing I notice: this game used to have a lot of fail states, whereas now it basically has none; you are going where you are going no matter what you do. Look at all these interesting plotlines! I recognise that there's no case where everything from an early draft makes it into the final game but ... ohhhhhh the drama, the politics, the betrayals ...

Second thing ... there are a lot of interesting images within a few pages here. There's a variation on the same idea a few pages on where Solas first makes Ghilan'nain Tranquil, and then himself. There's also an instance where you find "the body" of Lusacan, which suggests in this scenario the archdemon has died in some unexpected way. There's also a scene where "Kal-Sharok dwarves perform a ceremony in the grip of an ancient titan". What they're performing a ceremony on looks like it has to be either a really dead guy (possibly one of the deader evanuris?) ... or a darkspawn.

So I think this might be a fail state (or one of multiple fail states) where you have not managed to achieve a balance with the titans and the blight and drastic action has to be taken to save the world.

I think we can say with ... reasonable confidence that fixing the Tranquility of the titans is conceptually the same as fixing it in an elf or human. It's just from the opposite direction: you get a spirit to touch the mind of a human or elf; you get dwarves to touch the mind of a titan. We see both in both Valta and Harding the titan having a tremendously positive response to connecting even with one dwarf.

But titans are big and complex, so to really solve the problem you probably need to connect them to a lot of dwarves. Which may or may not be a good thing in their current state. And if, as you theorise, dragons are the anchors of the Fade, then reconnecting the titans en masse to the dwarves without also properly re-establishing their connection to the dragons would likely be ... problematic on the grand scale.

The Maker titan seems to be in pretty good shape, at least arguably because Mythal interacted with it differently than the other evanuris did theirs, but we're not dealing with that titan. We're in Kal-Sharok with a very different titan in very different circumstances – and if the dwarves of Kal-Sharok have a Joining-esque ritual, meaning they are linked to the blight, and that titan is linked to a blighted archdemon and that titan has red lyrium and we have somehow connected all the dwarves to the titan ... we might have just tipped the balance of power from the "titan" part to the "blight" part of that being. I cannot imagine this would be a good thing.

In this scenario the archdemons seem to be dead (either by the player's hand or through other circumstances – both scenarios seem to be there) so ... you don't have any immediate option for fixing that situation.

Except Solas. If we assume that what he took from Mythal was her "dragonness" – her immediate connection to the titan – then in doing so he functionally promoted himself from second generation elf to first generation elf. While he would be most intimately connected to his titan, the whole point of isatunoll is that it's universal, so he'd have a connection to all titans.

The big issue with his original prison was it wasn't actually that secure: the evanuris remained connected to their dragons, and thus to the titans; likewise, the blight was present in archdemons, the evanuris and red lyrium, so it was nowhere near as contained as he thought it was.

If, in this scenario, you were somehow able to contain all that blight (possibly he's working from within the Kal-Sharok titan?) ... and reasonably, if there were no archdemons the blight itself might be attracted to Solas as the only possible being to fulfil that function ... If Solas then made himself Tranquil it would effectively cut off his access to the titan, and therefore the blight's access to either a "dragon" or a titan.

Do I think this is a good idea? Oh, no. Like I said: pretty sure this is part of a fail state. It would probably fuck up the Maker titan, for a start, and do who-knows-what to the Fade. But it might be preferable to a "the blight rules the titans" scenario.

And like – where is the soul of Urthemiel in all this? No idea! But that's part of the reason why I think this is a fail state. You can't back yourself into this corner if you've still got a dragon soul to work with.

[wardencallings]

Little Harding drabble I wrote based on her romanced combat callout. It's a little suggestive but nothing too crazy. Male dwarf warrior Rook and brief Neve/Lucanis mention! Enjoy :)

The ogre charges, but Rook is ready for it. He launches himself upward, thrusting his shield in front of him to deflect the incoming blow. Using the momentum from the collision, he pushes himself upward and into the air, driving his axe into the ogre’s head on his way down. With a roar of pain, the ogre collapses to its knees. Rook removes the axe from the beast’s skull, its dark blood splattering onto his armor. The ogre groans once more, then dies.

“I knew I liked you for a reason,” a voice teases from behind him. Harding lowers her bow and smiles at Rook, her cheeks flushed from the fight. The way the sun illuminates her face, her braids slightly undone and messy, the sweat dripping down her temple and onto the embroidered collar of her shirt…Rook is briefly rendered immobile by the sight. His breath catches in his throat when he remembers that she’s his to admire, but he forces himself to recover as smoothly as he can. He isn't so foolish to evade an opportunity to flirt with such beauty, after all.

“Oh, is that why you like me?” Rook asks, leaping off of the ogre and landing gracefully in front of Harding as she returns her bow to her back.

“Well, there are other reasons,” Harding replies, twirling a strand of red hair around her finger. Her blush intensifies until her freckles are almost entirely masked by the rosy color.

“Is that right?” Rook replies. “I wouldn't mind hearing a few of these 'other reasons.'”

As Rook approaches, sauntering slowly toward her, Harding giggles, backing up until her spine presses against the rocks of a nearby cliff. Rook stops just a few inches in front of her. He places a hand on the stony surface behind Harding, leaning in until their faces are almost touching.

“Uh,” Lucanis interjects, wiping the Darkspawn blood off his knife with a handkerchief. He looks at the taint and the couple with the same expression etched on his face: apprehension. “Is this really the time to-”

“Hmm, well I guess I love how attentive you are,” Harding answers, either not hearing or ignoring the Crow -- more likely the former. “You always listen to me, and you make me feel safe. You’re sweet and strong and so handsome. And however rough you are with the monsters we fight, you’re so gentle with me, at least when I want you to be.”

Rook traces a finger up the side of Harding’s neck, landing on her jaw. He tilts her head up so that she’s looking into his eyes. Goosebumps rise on the shorter dwarf’s skin, and her fingers interlock, twitching in anticipation. She takes a deep breath, steadying herself to prevent her lyrium from manifesting and soiling the moment.

“And you are smart and capable and beautiful. I could count all your freckles ten times over and still not tire of looking at you. I’ve never met someone so kind, so resilient, so…you,” Rook replies. There are a few more moments where the pair can't stop looking into each other’s eyes, and then Harding grabs the gold necklace hanging from Rook’s neck, pulling him into a passionate kiss.

“Hello?” Lucanis says, waving a hand. “Hi. Your ally Lucanis here. Remember me? Can we get going?”

Rook wraps his arms around Harding’s waist and fully mends the distance between their bodies. Their hips collide, and Rook's hands move up and down Harding's back, teasing the hem of her shirt with his index fingers each time he finds it. On one such instance, he traces the hem around to Harding's stomach.

Suddenly, Harding pulls back with a wince. 

“What is it?” Rook asks, unable to stifle the fear that wavers his voice.

“I had a close call when that ogre threw his boulder,” Harding admits. She tugs at the bottom of her shirt, right where Rook's fingers had been a moment before, and pulls it up to reveal a bruise across her ribs. 

“Lace,” Rook whispers. He hovers a hand over the wound. “That looks nasty.”

“It isn’t so bad,” she lies, but Rook doesn’t buy it. He can see the tears perched in her eyes, the way she grits her teeth, how she can't look into his eyes anymore.

“You’re a bad liar, love. Some of those ribs are definitely broken. We need to get you to Emmrich.”

“We’re on a mission, Rook,” she protests, and he frowns in response.

He knows if he tells Harding he’s worried about her ability to fight Darkspawn in this condition, she’ll become defensive. He doesn’t want to appear as if he’s underestimating her tenacity or her skill with a bow, but he knows putting his partner in more danger isn’t the correct solution. So, he tries for a different – yet still honest – approach.

“If we keep looking for the Darkspawn nest, I’ll be too worried about you to do any good with my blade. Besides, Davrin will want to be here for this fight. He’ll already be mad at me that we killed some without him.”

Harding chews at her lip, deep in thought. Her gaze bounces from her bruise to Rook. 

“Fine, but I’m going back out in the field as soon as I’m feeling better. Deal?”

“Deal,” Rook replies, relieved. 

“Alright, let’s go then,” she says, but before she can step away from Rook, he carefully scoops her into his arms and presses her against his chest. “Rook!” she shouts, punctuated with a giggle. She wraps her arms around his neck, holding onto him tightly.

“You think I’m going to let you walk home like this? I’ll carry you the whole way home. After all, these muscles aren't just for show, Lace. Lucanis, scout ahead for danger,”

“Mierda,” Lucanis swears, shaking his head in exasperation but following the order. “Are Neve and I this bad?”

[explodingchantry]

I have a video essay planned for my opinions on the confused (not confusing, but confused) politics of dragon age and it will be like 7 hours long with only 3 views but it will be the best essay I'll ever write. As part of it I want to include sth interesting I've realized in my da2 replay: that of the different ways the qunari conflict and the mage conflict are written.

See, both conflicts are meant to be nuanced but actually have a pretty clear answer based on our own real life liberal ideals. For the qunari conflict, the ideal is "don't be fucking racist": characters who are openly bigoted against the qunari such as sister petrice are ridiculed by the narrative, which is obvious in the framing of all quests in which she takes part and in the dialogue and within the game itself; the enemies you fight which aid her are called "fanatics" and "mob" within the game. It is nuanced in that the qunari aren't exactly... Friendly, and they have a history of colonialism of their own, but the narrative is actually still pretty black and white. They remained peaceful for 4 years in spite of numerous provocation, until their literal most important cultural and religious artifact was refused to them which led them to violence to retrieve it. It's nuanced because it isn't "the qunari are fully innocent" but also isn't "the qunaris are cunts and the racism was warranted". The qunaris are people with flaws that deserve criticism outside of the fact that they're qunaris. The narrative is very clear that those who hate qunaris on principle are bigoted idiots.

For mages, and furthermore anders, suddenly the narrative is more muddled. You could argue it's because the situation is more complex, and in some ways you'd be right. But I was shocked upon my replay of how often anders' sanity is put in question. How even a hawke who ROMANCED HIM will call him deeply troubled to defend him, or downright call him crazy... Once again whilst defending him. The latter is admittedly partly due to purple hawke options sometimes just being.... Downright disrespectful and mean, but it remains striking. Even more so when you note how often anders' rejection of templars and the chantry are rejected by other characters, including mages themselves, whilst fenris' vitriolic hatred of ALL MAGES REGARDLESS OF BACKGROUND is only challenged by anders - who, again, gets his sanity questioned several times throughout the game, minimizing the perceived value of his opinions - and potentially hawke, sometimes, in a few dialogue options.

And don't even get me started on the whole blood magic portrayal lol.

You could attempt to say that, well, while the writers wanted the qunari conflict to have a clear answer, they didn't want it to be the case for mages. But.... Did they really? At the end of the game Orsino's stupid blood magic blob monster transformation is very obviously framed as tragic, meanwhile again Meredith's sanity is shown to have been compromised the whole time which puts every one of her previous actions into question. I'm pretty confident in my opinion that the writers likely meant the message to be "the mage/templar conflict in general isn't black and white but in this instance siding with Meredith is obviously wrong" (as a note: it is far more black and white than the narrative pretends it is and mages should be free, obviously.) this is backed up by the fact that, you know, SHE WAS THE FINAL BOSS AND WAS CORRUPTED BY RED LYRIUM.

There's a better, deeper discussion to be had regarding dissecting those two narrative threads and observing how the writers' bias affect both, I think. Because as soon as you try to say the writers write certain characters OOC or show negative bias towards a certain group, like mages, people will try to spin it as it being because the writers want to present a nuanced issue. The thing is that, yes, they are trying to do that - but they are doing it in an imbalanced, biased, and sometimes downright mean spirited way. Because I haven't even touched on how everyone refers to anders, even when they refer to him positively. There's always a but. Even deeply sympathetic characters disapprove of his activism. That sways the balance the writers apparently attempted to have. It sways it pretty fucking badly.

[icharchivist]

something about da4 has been bothering me but i can't find back the post again

in some deleted content there's apparently a codex entry that explains that the Lyrium Knights were created during a war in order to give the "elven people without magic" the "power to control magic"

the Lyrium Knights being the whole process that Fenris went through, is hinted at in the comics to be used to make red lyrium slaves currently (but well. lmao.), and especially, is described in said codex to work in the exact same way as the first step to make a golem (since the steps to make a golem is 1) fill someone with lyriums by their orifices, 2) apply burning metal and stone on the burning body to fixate it on the melting body being changed by lyrium)

but i kept wondering since i read that code but why would there be elves without magic at a time where magic "was as natural as breathing"? before the Veil?

Because it either inherently puts what Solas said back into question or it's a last minute lore change.

I guess i shouldn't overthink deleted content, and like... it's possible Solas wasn't fully honest, but this feels like a stretch to introduce into One Codex that wasn't important enough to make it into the game itself.

But this has been bugging me, especially since there's a whole implication linking back to the science around the Golems, because why would there be people without magic? or is it just very little magic compared to the powerful mages?

I guess it bothers me even more so because it makes this process something the Ancient Elves came up with, rather than the dwarves trying to reconnect with the Stone no matter what. If anything it would have been interesting to learn it was the other way around, that Golems existed during Titans time and the Elves learnt from it. especially since Caridain says "the stone whispered to me how to make Golem", which implies that when Caridain came up with it during the Blights, he learnt it from the Stone itself. (especially since there are others instances of Stone whispering being there to help the people) (which also implies that not all titans were tranquilized imo, or at least not dead, which makes the "the time of the titans is over" even more infuriating)

idk it's making me scratch my head

i really shouldn't overthink scrapped material because by default this isn't an answer they thought to share

but hhhhhhhhhhhh.

[hoboblaidd]

Proficiency in different schools of magic

Arcane - He's familiar with it but not a practitioner. He was never an arcane warrior, but he understands the theory behind arcane magic.

Blight - Solas has an…interesting relationship with the blight. He essentially created it, and we know he can draw blight out of red lyrium to purify it back into lyrium, like drawing blood from a wound. But aside from using it to purify the dagger and maybe some very isolated other instances, he doesn't use it. He can sense it, though.

Blood - He’s never been a practitioner of it. It disconnects you from the Fade and grounds you further in the waking world. I fully subscribe to Elisa’s take on it - blood magic is necessarily earthen magic. It’s pure physicality, based in iron, oxygen, etc. The more grounded you are in the earth/physical, the harder it is to access the ethereal. The few times he has used it were disastrous.

Dreaming - Not exactly a school of magic, but certainly a magical talent. Everything to do with the Fade is Solas' bread and butter, and being a "dreamer" is a huge part of his powerbase. He doesn't just shape dreams, he controls them and can use them offensively.

Elemental - It’s practical and easy to use. He prefers cold attacks over the others. Cold lets him control the battlefield, slowing or freezing a pocket of enemies so he can focus on another, etc.

Fade - (including the rift mage specialization). Expert at this, drawing from the Fade directly. It does take more finesse with the Veil up. In my mind, Fade magic is distinct from spirit magic only because you draw on the Fade directly vs. drawing help from spirits. This is how he stabilized the Inquisitor's anchor.

Healing - He was never very interested in learning it. He was always surrounded others who were more proficient at it. At most, he could count as a 'spirit healer' only because he'd be like 'Compassion can you deal with this while I go do something more important?' He’s familiar with basic healing spells to the same degree as he’s familiar with more mundane ways of dressing combat wounds.

Nature - He’s familiar with it but he’s never been a real practitioner of it. Like healing, it's never interested him.

Necromancy - Genuinely never used it. Its relationship to spirits is too grey-area for him, plus he never saw a need for it. I'm sure Falon'din had some 'army of undead' schitck he used in the Titan wars, but I can't see Solas being a fan.

Shapeshifting - Ratdog. Mythal’s the one who taught him, the same way Flemeth taught Morrigan.

Spirit - There's a reason even Elgar'nan acknowledges his title of 'Spirit-Speaker.' Spirit magic is as much a part of him as blood magic would be part of a person. He doesn't call on spirits for this as much as he just uses his own magic, especially post-Mythal slurpee.

[exhausted-archivist]

Lore: Titans

What we know about titans is little and sparse pre-DA4. Somethings that we do know about them are:

Also known as "the pillars of the earth"

They created the dwarves, they are potentially "The Stone" that dwarves refer to.

Alternatively the titans themselves are children of "The Stone", but created the dwarves. They consider the dwarves to be their children.

Lyrium comes from titans, it is considered to be their "blood".

The titans emanate a song from lyrium, it is different from the Blight.

Titans use earthquakes to shape the earth, they also previously used "Shapers" to carve valleys into the earth.

Their size is so vast it is impossible to describe it according to Valta. They're large enough to support life within themselves, from plants to dwarves like the Sha-Brytol.

Titans enable the dwarves to have a hive mind connection with it and others.

History

At least one titan has been killed by the Evanuris - specifically Mythal. Though it is suggested that it was multiple titans.

Ancient elves mined the bodies of titans' for lyrium, but out of fear, they eventually sealed them with stone and magic. They cited that "what the Evanuris in their greed could unleash would destroy all in its anger."

Before the Dragon Age, the last time a titan was known to be awake was -1170 Ancient. Before the fall of Arlathan and before the First Blight. Both instances were the same titan.

After -1170 Ancient there is no mention of the titans in Orzammar's memories. Though there are two texts that mention titans, they predate the First Blight.

Orzammar became the capital of the dwarven kingdom after the titan awoke in -1170 Ancient.

Known Titans

We only have the confirmed location (specific or general) of two titans.

Heidrun Thaig - it is the focus of the entire Descent DLC

Orlais - It is a super general and non-specified location but it is mentioned on the handle of Tug's axe that "The Stone lives beneath Orlais." It is also mentioned by the Nexus Golem in da2 in the Abandoned Thaig. Given that the stone is a reference to titans, we know there is one somewhere in Orlais.

Theoretical Titans

These are locations for titans that are mostly theory and locations I've seen others in the fandom talk about.

Temple of Sacred Ashes - I have seen this one floating around and I have some doubts. Mostly since we don't really know how big titans are, we can't rule out that it is the same titan as the one under Heidrun Thaig. Which, considering they can cause earthquakes and are described as impossibly vast, more so than a giant or a high dragon, they're erring on the side of large for sure. Coupled with Valta saying she wanders through the body of the titan for an unknown amount of time and hasn't seen all of it, only adds to just how inexplicably large it is. Along with that, if you keep with the scale of Ferelden being the size of England then from the thaig to the temple is only a 16 day journey (240 miles/386.24 km). Adding on the scaling math I have for the depth of Heidrun - being deeper than Mariana's Trench - the Titan could very well stretch that far.

Primeval Thaig - If this was indicative of a titan location, let alone being tainted, I feel that there would have been a discovery of red lyrium so much sooner. We know how infectious that stuff is, how impossible it is to destroy and how rapidly it grows. Not only is the thaig not deep enough to be directly connected to the titan, but it was completely sealed off to prevent it spreading. That said, I do think there is a possible titan under the Vimmark mountains. So far the only titan we have a definite location on is underneath mountains. Considering they cause seismic activity, I can definitely see one slumbering under there.

Anvil of the Void - This one does seem a bit plausible to me depending on where you put the thaig. This post by @/wyrdsistersofthedas explains the plausibility quite nicely. It is a bit tinfoil-y as is anything about dwarves and titans at this point. Especially when the source is dao and with how much BioWare has set aside in terms of lore. In essence though, Cariden's anvil is connected and supplied by a massive lyrium vein. His anvil and its location is also the only location where the creation of golems has resulted in functional creations. The rest went wrong or were driven mad in some way. The golems Branka is making from the Casteless in DAI if you give her the anvil are still consistently failing.

Sternann Peak, Anderfel - There is a lyrium mine out here near the town of Geltberg. Which also implies that there is a thaig as well. Whether this is run by Orzammar dwarves or the Carta is unclear.

Beneath the elven crossroads - The lyrium mines in Trespasser might be connected to an entirely different titan or the aforementioned titan beneath Orlais. It is unclear where the the spaces you go through the crossroads even are.

Cryptic Comments From Cole and Keiran

Cole

"It's singing. A they that's an it that's asleep, but still making music."

"Their ancient shapers were mountains drawn of all their wills, walking their memories into valleys of the world".

"They made bodies from the earth, and the earth was afraid. It fought back, but they made it forget."

Keiran

"But you can't be taller. Not without the titans."

Titan Tidbits and Theories

Cole implies that templars have established a connection with the titans through their use of lyrium when asked for his opinion on the templars. Solas also echos this by describing how templar abilities work, that they pull in the reality of the world around them to shut out magic.

Though this doesn't quite explain Seeker abilities, the use of they lyrium brand and the touch of a spirit may forge a different kind of connection.

Cole comments on how "They (ancient elves) made bodies from the earth, and the earth was afraid. It fought back, but they made it forget." This suggests that maybe the original elves who are implied to be originally spirits, made bodies out of the titans (earth) and that this is one thing that instigated the war between titans and the evanuris. Though this is a speculative interpretation of what he means.

In the tabletop it is implied that in the past, the thaigs were carved from living rock - potentially the titans.

The dwarves of the elder days filled the thaigs, large open caverns beneath the earth, living in great cities carved from the living rock.

Adding to the above point, we see two instances where the old gods' prisons were under/nearby dwarven thaigs. In the Shimmer Stone Mine in the Western Approach and the Dead Trenches near the Ortan Thaig where Urthemiel amassed his army. If the oldest thaigs were carved from titans, it brings to question if the old gods were buried before or after the dwarven kingdom started building their thaigs given the "newer" thiags are above the old god prisons, and the prisons are above the titans.

If the old gods were buried after the start of the dwarven kingdom, which would be after the fall of the titans, it brings to question if the old gods are connected to Arlathan and the founding of the dwarven kingdom, and if this was one of the relics of the ancient dwarf and elf emipire collaborations mentioned in the tabletop that was forgotten about. Sandwiching them between titans and thaigs for safeguarding.

[youryesman]

My Veilguard Rewrite Pt. 2

[ Factions and city plotlines ] This one is the most "random complaints" post out of my rewrites, but it was edited at least. tldr where Darkspawn companion, where spirit companion, where tranquil companion...

So first, enough of the random ass choice of Venatori/Antaam teamwork that makes no goddamn sense- You can just have Tevinter have its first successful slave revolt with a sudden wave of elves gaining magical skill. Then have Venatori defectors that leak intelligence to the Qunari which enables them to have a successful invasion of Tevinter. (Much more reasonable instance of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” in comparison to just doing it for no fucking reason and having the Venatori and Antaam send each other reassuring “no trust me bro the offshores will get let go next quarter” texts). Qunari, if they're becoming a conquering presence, should do so in Tevinter, save Antiva for more geographically and culturally relevant stories. If Antiva’s thing is the Crows, make it about the Free Marches collective straining under the weight of Starkhaven and Kirkwalls' beef, and refugees from the shitshow in Kirkwall experiencing the lingering consequences of the Red Lyrium gas leak. How about a shit ton of mages unjustly made tranquil in Kirkwall abruptly regain their consciousness with the Veil breaking? Lucanis’ selling point in terms of practicality should 100% be that he is part spirit and can thus traverse the fade more smoothly than the average person, but instead he’s just a normal assassin with a dumb meme that “XD eats candels le so random!!!” strapped to his consciousness. And fine whatever bring back Meredith like you foreshadowed in Absolution, cowards.

Nevarra’s plot just being one crazy ass woman with a stupid Pixar villain ahhh plan was fucking torture to experience when I’m playing a game where death could hypothetically be erased. Make this plot about spiritual personhood, what they think about Nevarra’s practices. Do they find it acceptable? Could it be an example of compromise between mortals and spirits should the veil go back up? What does a darkspawn think of this? What does someone like Cole think of this? Veilguard ask even one interesting question challenge impossible edition.

If Rivain’s thing is going to be Lords of Fortune, I think they should connect it to a sudden rush of dwarves evacuating to the surface (aha! Artbook reference) and the Lyrium trade (one of the most lucrative financial exchanges in Thedas). There can be a very opportunistic group of fortune hunters who risk contact with the Titans hoping to extract huge amounts of lyrium. Expose some religious history with the use of lyrium. Have a faction of dwarves reject the mass use of lyrium when they learn it’s what their people are made from. Have them realize it’s ridiculous they haven’t taken over the world, as they have this extremely powerful substance that only they are immune to, and they’re taking this chance to do it. Idk get creative. Grey Wardens- I think the darkspawn should be uniquely humanized like in Awakening. This would be an excellent opportunity to bring about conscious / speaking darkspawn and a Darkspawn companion which forces Davrin especially to confront his idea of what counts as a person, and what's worth killing for the sake of "saving" the world you know. (If he gets the opportunity that is, the Darkspawn could prove persuasive and Rook might choose to help the efforts of this newly blossoming people, causing this flank of Grey Wardens to fall). Veiljumpers is cool (besides the psuedo-scifi aesthetic) but could they just be a real collective of dalish clans? LOL. Have them be a minority against a larger grouping of dalish clans that believe this is genuinely the coming of their gods that they've anticipated for centuries. I get that the optics of fighting a bunch of indigenous people isn't great but you cracked that can open as soon as you decided "Ohohoho this oppressed peoples' gods were actually slave owners surprise!" so just fucking commit to telling the story meaningfully, and give the player opportunities to have real conversations with the people they encounter about it. Add persuasion checks like there were for mages in DA2, where Bellara, Merrill, or a Dalish Rook could add legitimacy. Pt. 1 for overarching structure and main goal Pt. 3 for rewritten cameos/previous game tie ins Pt. 4 for endings

[himluv]

DA Review Series: Dark Fortress

<<< Previous Review: Blue Wraith

Title: Dark Fortress Author/Illustrator: Nunzio DeFilippis + Christina Weir/ Fernando Heinz Furukawa Publication Year: 2021 In-World Year: ~9:45 Dragon Verdict: There's a lot to unpack in this graphic novel. We see a new Tevinter city, which also falls to the Qunari. We get another instance of dragons used for blood magic rituals. And we see more connections between red lyrium and the Venatori. But, despite feeling like an ending, this comic offers more questions than answers.

Dark Fortress picks up right where Blue Wraith left off. Vaea, Fenris, and co., are on their way to Neromenian to infiltrate Castellum Tenebris, a fortress owned by House Danarius, and the stakes are higher than ever. They have to sneak in and stop Nenalaeus and Marquette from using the sarcophagus before the Qunari attack.

It's revealed that Danarius (Fenris's former master and all-around piece of shit) had an illegitimate son, who has since reclaimed his father's legacy. And he's eager to prove his worth to the Venatori. So he's teamed up with Nenalaeus (Marius's former master and all-around piece of shit) and Marquette to test the sarcophagus with a red lyrium weapon as a sort of initiation.

But, these are Tevinter magisters we're talking about, and Nenalaeus betrays Danarius, effectively evicting him from his own fortress. Which is unfortunate for him, because that makes him easy for Fenris to find.

After some light torture, things move very quickly. Vaea sneaks into the fortress to open up a secret passage for the rest of the gang to enter through (very reminiscent of Absolution there), and they immediately set about interrupting this ritual.

Thanks to Fenris's quick thinking, they temporarily team up with the invading Qunari, Francesca destroys and hides the sarcophagus, and Nenalaeus is defeated. But not without one notable casualty. Ser Aaron sacrifices himself to ensure the newly made Red Wraith (Fenris's former ally, the Dalish Shirallas) is killed.

The story ends with Vaea vowing to return Aaron's body to his hometown in Ferelden, with Francesca, Autumn (the Mabari), and Fenris joining her. Tessa and Marius go their own way. And then we get a glimpse of Danarius escaping with the red lyrium idol — yes, THE red lyrium idol — only for the panel to pull back and reveal Solas watching Danarius through an eluvian.

Where I felt Blue Wraith tried to tell too big a story, Dark Fortress moves very quickly through some seriously action-packed sequences that I wish we could have lingered in. But this graphic novel did leave me stewing on a few things... I want to know more about the role of dragons in Thedas. I wonder about red lyrium and its connection to the Venatori. And WHY is Solas hunting every magical artifact in Thedas!?

Hopefully we'll get some answers to these questions in Veilguard.

[felassan]

Some snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from a Mark Darrah on Games YouTube video where he is livestreaming playing Dragon Age II -

On Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and sort've like, the franchise in general:

A comment in chat asked "What do you think about the recent DA:D leaks?" Mark replied that he doesn't really think that there is much in those leaks.

A comment in chat mentioned the possible 2 companions setup from the leaks. Mark said "honestly, I think the 2 companions is probably better for storytelling than 3, because you're able to have a more consistent banter setup, as opposed to having someone [else] there just hanging on".

Chat asked if he was worried about the quality of writing in DA:D. He replied "I'm not worried about the quality of writing in Dreadwolf at all, no".

Chat asked "What are your thoughts on the Dreadwolf leaks as far as the Dragon Age gameplay moving towards hack'n'slash vs cRPG?" He said that DAII and DA:I are both action RPGs, it's just that what action RPGs are has changed over the last while. He said he thinks DA:D is continuing to try to be an action RPG, and that "I don't think they're trying to be God of War, in spite of what the rumors say. Though if you're making an action RPG these days you have to at least be influenced by God of War. Dragon Age has always had to be, it's always been in this problem of not being able to be itself within EA, so it's always having to change."

Chat asked "Why God of War, and not, say, Dragon's Dogma?" Mark explained that when looking for previous other games as comparison points/inspiration points etc, devs have to be careful not to go too far back into the past (& that Dragon's Dogma is a great game, but from quite a while ago now).

When talking about primer and detonator tactics like grease and fireball, he observed that the series generally has been moving away from this type of tactics. Grease/fireball for instance requires a certain degree of targeting that he thinks is a bit impractical, but things like mana clash are things which could continue to exist.

Red Hawke-style options in terms of metrics are the least picked by players, same as Renegade options in Mass Effect. (while Blue Hawke is likely the most chosen) They're there to simply be there more than they are to be the most-picked choice. There could be an opportunity here for devs to spend less resources in development on evil or mean choices in future, but they still need to be there.

Varric is pretty much the only true non-quantum companion from DA:I. Mark noted that if a character's quantum state isn't dead/not dead but is rather recruited/not recruited, they can always write it such that the character survived. (He also mentioned as an example that Isabela's quantum "collapsed" and was "undone" in DA:I).

He also mentioned that he will probably do livestreams playing DA:D as he has done with DA:O and is doing with DAII, but thinks it's unlikely that he will be done with streaming DA:I by then, so at that point he'll likely set DA:I aside, do DA:D and then come back to DA:I.

On Dragon Age: Absolution:

Chat asked what he thought about Meredith coming back in the show. "I don't have a problem with Meredith coming back because as revealed, it looks like she's basically almost entirely embedded in red lyrium or maybe is some kind of lyrium ghost, so I think it's certainly beyond plausible."

[source]

He also talked more generally about DAII and the previous games in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length:

Regarding DAII's overkill, he said that the goal of DAII is to make the game "look like something", as DA:O doesn't really "look like something". The overpowered, Varric-embellished introduction to the game anchors this

Cassandra's hair isn't supposed to seem light-colored during the Varric interrogation sequence, this was probably a lighting issue

He commented that he feels Varric's voice has changed quite a bit from DAII to DA:I

Mages are super overpowered in DA:O in a very D&D way

DA:O is more difficult on PC than on consoles. He doesn't think this is the case for DAII and DA:I though

DA:O was trying to be a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate (at least, that's what was said out loud). But Neverwinter Nights snuck in there a few times as DA:O bounced in and out of Multiplayer. So DA:O has some fingerprints on it which look like NWN. Also, it was originally built using some of its code, which ended up in the engine, Aurora

In the MET, because it's a trilogy and Shepard is the PC in each game, every single choice you made still mattered going forwards, whereas with DA, a lot of the more personal choices can be washed away game to game. That's an advantage in terms of responding to choices (as devs can set aside what they want to set aside, whereas ME3 was really bogged down by the weight of 2 games of previous choices)

On Flemeth's appearance in DAII, as a voice actor Kate was really "chewing the scenery" there and allowed to do so (to chew the scenery means to play a role in a very energetic, emotional or dramatic way); it got too expensive with Orange is the New Black to keep Kate in a big role going fowards

The slave statues at the entrance to Kirkwall are huge and probably magic

He mentioned that he thought Freddie Prinze Jr. was awesome as he was one of the most active voice actors that they had in terms of talking about his experience and how much he loved it

A comment in chat said "I just wish we had black stones in Kirkwall. any reason they made the stone white in this media only? books, animation, and codex say it's a pitch black stone city" and he explained that this is because black is almost incredibly hard to do in this engine, and that pitch black is not a good choice for level art in a video game

Chat asked "Do you feel DAII was too narratively ambitious at the start?" and Mark replied "Yeah probably, the writers have always had some difficulty keeping their ambitions in check"

Chat asked "Was it known since DA:O what Flemeth's story was?" and he replied that he thinks they always knew Flemeth was Mythal, but can't remember for sure

DAII is the most character-focused game, partially because during its development everything else had to get stripped away, but also because it laid the seeds of the devs finally admitting what BioWare are about

Chat asked "Was it ever discussed, bringing a Warden Hawke sibling to Nightmare in DA:I?" He said that he thinks it was discussed but the problem of bringing in the Warden sibling is that only one of them is alive, so they would have been dealing with quantum. They already were dealing with quantum, so they could have brought them, but only a small group of people would have the attachment to each character, because half of people would care about one and half about the other

Chat asked "Was DA:O or DA:I considered more of a success by BioWare?" DA:I sold better and has more awards, but it's hard to be down on DA:O as it was the first game and set up the IP

He feels that in a weird way, DA kind of ends up being in a similar weird place as Star Wars, in that the trilogy a fan likes best is often the one they saw when they were a child. There are people for whom Clone Wars is the pinnacle of SW, and people for whom the prequels are. Similarly, with DA, the one a player got introduced to first is often their favorite one

Mark mentioned that they probably switched to Welsh accents for Dalish elves in DAII because they liked how the accent sounded. The dwarves were always intended to sound American

Were he to remaster DA:I he'd like to push the Power requirements down a bit, so that players can go through the gates to the main storyline pieces quicker

He discussed a bit around remakes vs remasters in the context of things that have aged badly (in terms of what's politically/socially acceptable now and what isn't, compared to back then) and said that if you remake a game, you have to re-address those issue, whereas with a remaster you get away with not doing so

If they were to remake/remaster DAII they would probably only do it because they were remaking/remastering DA:O

A comment in chat said "hear me out, a VR remake of DA:O" and he replied that VR still remains pretty niche, and that making VR work well requires a certain smoothness that is missing from DA:O

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context)

[source]

[lairofdragonagelore]

The Strange Idol [analysis]

A compilation of what we know and what we can speculate about the old “Strange Idol”.

[This post belongs to the series “Analysis and speculation of Statues”]

This is a mysterious statue that has appeared in DA2 and DAI in different contexts. In DA2, we find it in three places:  The Harimann’s house basement, atop of the Sundermount, and inside Dumat’s Temple. Its resemblance in style  [shape of limbs, decoration, lines, material] to the Red Idol is worth noting. I already wrote an extensive post about “DA2: The Strange Idol” but I wanted to make a summary here with brief speculations supported by the knowledge of the recent published comics. To understand the context of the idol in DA2 in detail, I suggest reading that post. As I always repeat, DA lore adds a lot when you have the context in which it appears [and also helps you not to go deep into wild theories].

Where do we find this statue in DA games?

It appears for the first time in Merril’s Quest [read Merril and the Eluvian], inside a cave atop of the Sundermount.

In Sebastian’s Quest, placed in the Basement of Harimann’s mansion which turned out to be an ancient Tevinter Ruin. Thanks to Tevinter Nights book we know that having buildings undergrounf was/is a Tevinter costume that keeps existing in Mintharous.  We also know that Kirkwall, historically, has a lot of ruins and chambers below the city itself. This allowed Tevinter mages to do forbidden research or unsafe magic or have cult activities without the authorities’ knowledge.

In a humble temple deep into the Deep Roads, at the base of the tower-prison where Corypheus is held.

It also appears several times in the Black Emporium of DA2, behind and over the mirror of transformation. 

It appears in a cave that you have access by following the Old Chantry Trail Sign, in Western Approach. In there, we learn it’s warm to the touch and has a pulse.

His face appears in some walls along Din'an Hanin, and it’s the central statue in the Elandrin’s Tomb.

Its face appears in the mural the “Removal of the Vallaslin”, located in Elven Mountain Ruins ,  Forgotten Sanctuary

The raw information

So far, details that are worth noticing about this idol:

It has many limbs: two legs and four arms. Other multi-limbered creatures in DA universe are Varterrals [ read DLC: Witch Hunt and The Missing for more varterral’s information], some demons like the envy one, Xenon [ owner of the Black Emporium], and some creatures related to elvhenan paintings [read Nation Art: Elvhen] which in some instance may or may not be related to The Horror of Hormak [Personal Speculation].

Its face is monkey-like or a bit toad-like. Its mouth is open, its eyes a bit squinted. For this reason, it can be related to Elgar’nan through the codex  Vir Dirthara: Signs of Victory, [“narrowed eyes and its open, snarling mouth”] which was analysed in the post Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara.

Its chest and stomach have swirls. One can associate swirls all over the games with lyrium or, in DAI, with Veilfire/Fade and elvhenan gods [the dragon statue that represents Myhtal as well as the howling wolf statue that represents Fen’harel both have swirls along their body]. For more details on this aspect, read the section “Spirals and branching lines as Fade, magic, and lyrium” in the post Murals in DAI: Basics

Its limbs have long carvings, like canals, from which something red can be seen. Given the context of being perceived as Dumat, or as Elgar’nan who may have accepted blood from his defeated enemies [as his codices imply a ruthless, violent, dominant behaviour], one can suspect it is dried blood drips. It’s very subtle, but the red lines in them have been present in both designs [in DA2 and DAI, in DAI it looks even more like blood]. We also know that the Elvhenan performed blood magic and it’s highly likely that blood magic was originally from Arlathan [hints of this info in Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck]. So, there are several hints that show that elvhenan know how to bind spirits and how to use blood magic.

In Sebastian’s quest, this idol appears in an underground Tevinter ruin, and has a [desire] demon bind to it.

In Merril’s quest, this idol appears inside Elvhen ruins and has a pride demon bind to it. However, given the context, the statue can be Elven or Tevinter, since the battle of Sundermount caused that both sides would “unleash horrors” in the Waking World [the codex is not too reliable, though, since it speaks of a legend, and it’s “recent history” related to Arlathan; details in Sundermount as an elven graveyard]. We also know that a lot of knowledge about Arlathan has been lost or modified due to time and elven mortality, but we also know that these elves were deeply related to blood magic. If we add the binding culture that Elvhenan had according to DAI [for example, read Ancient Elven codices; The Lost Temple of Dirthamen, and The Lost Temple of Dirthamen - Part 2] we can suspect that this demon was bind to this statue for either faction [with defensive purposes if elven or as a gesture of dominance if Tevinter]. Not necessarily it has to be Tevinter-made. What I mean is that we have enough context to know that this may have been Tevinter or Elvhenan doing. In fact, one can speculate that maybe the original knowledge was Elvhenan and Tevinter just took it as its own as it has always done with elvhenan magical knowledge.

In Merril’s quest, Felandaris appears close to this statue, suggesting that the Veil is very thin in the area [this plant only grows around places where the veil is thin and demon presence is expected].

In DA2, this idol is usually close to strange dragon-skull totems  that, due to the lack of codex, is impossible to associate with Tevinter or Elvhenan. In DAI they are used in the ramparts of Exalted Plains, seen as structures that hold barriers around pits where dead arise. So they seem to be related to [demon/undead] summoning rituals that, so far we know in lore, may be Tevinter or Elvhenan alike.

In DA2:DLC Legacy, we find this idol too, but deep into the Deep Roads, at the bottom of Corypheus’ tower-prison in a small structure that has an “altar of Dumat”. Four plates are placed there, where you have to put four items found along the DLC: a sacrificial dagger, a crown, a ritual scroll, and a sacred Urn. If you give the items, a reward is given [chain of the penitent].  If you defile the altar instead, you will fight some shades, which gives us the idea that this idol is related to demons and/or blood magic, thinning the Veil around it [shades are usually the standard shape that demons take when enter the waking world without possessing living creatures].

In DAI, it appears in a cave of Western Approach where you can place your landmark, and it’s called “The Thing in the Dark” [details in  Western Approach: Old Chantry Trail Signs]. The small message we get in it is “This statue is oddly warm to the touch and shivers slightly, as though it might have a pulse”.  In DA2, Merril could feel something in the statue when the demon was bind to it, so this warm shivering effect may be the concept that some spirit/demon is bind to it. Let’s remember that in DAI we found a lot of things that are warm to the touch and have some pulse/shiver/angry feeling to it that may imply a spirit attached to it [read The Taken Shape set for a list of details about warm, pulsing objects]

In DAI, curiously, his face appears in some walls along Din'an Hanin, which is expected since his main tomb is underground of that ruin, but it also appears in the lower section of the mural “Removal of the Vallaslin” in the ancient elven ruins of Fen’Harel. One of these faces appears as the source of Veilfire.

Design-wise may have some distant similarities with Korth, the Father-mountain of the Avvar, which has [dragon?] horns. 

Speculation section

Similarities with the red lyrium idol

When we find similarities between this statue and the red lyrium idol, I’m not saying they are the same, but they may have similar functions in ancient rituals. Among the similarities, we can notice that figures have carvings along the body.

May the red lines inside the carvings of the Strange Idol not be blood but inactivated red lyrium? 

Why would I say this? The Red lyrium idol has shown, specially in the comic Dark Fortress, to look like a piece of wood [as if it were inactivated red lyrium] unless I’ve been understading it too wrongly [the scholar even suspects that the idol, once consumed into the creation of a sword for the Red Wraith, has been rendered useless, and its drawing looks more like a piece of wood/metal than a “red glowing crystal”]. Only in some places we see it red. This visual fact always confused me in DA series. We clearly see that the object is not entirely made of red lyrium, only some parts [specially the roots] look like it. Why so many characters insist in saying it’s completely made of red lyrium?

If we remember, the cinematics in Dragon Age Official Teaser Trailer - 2018 Game Awards shows that the idol glows only along some lines, as if the red lyrium is activating from within its metal/wood material. Which is similar to the red lines we see in the Strange Idol, but in a dormant way. We also know that Red Lyrium sounds angry and feels warm [check the red lyrium section in Songs and elements that sing and whisper in DA Lore]. Since the Strange Idol is warm to the touch too [according to DAI in Western Approach: Old Chantry Trail Signs] and has these red lines barely seen, could it be related to inactivated red lyrium? I really don’t know what to think about it since we know so little about the red lyrium idol [and I suspect it has been retconned a couple of times even along DA2].

Design wise, the red lyrium idol always looked to me like wood+metal, and only its lower part is made of red lyrium, as if it were roots, implying from a design-point-of-view the metaphor that the horror represented in the figure is “fed” on red lyrium [details and speculations in  Red Lyrium Idol ].

Pros and cons of certain speculations related to the Strange Idol:

Speculation 1: “This statue is Elgar’nan”

PRO

Its face coincides with the codex Vir Dirthara: Signs of Victory, which describes Elgar’nan with “ narrowed eyes and its open, snarling mouth”. The general shape of the Strange Idol may look like a mountain, as it is said in the codex that Elgar’nan statue was made of stone as big as a mountain [metaphorically implying how he defeated Titans and created monuments of himself on or with the corpse of his enemies].

It makes sense for it to appear in the Bastion of Elgar’nan in Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin, Elandrin’s Tomb as central icon of the tomb of knights that defended elvhen, considering that Elgar’nan is perceived along the codices as a big leader during the Titan war.

It makes sense for it to be in the Sundermount cave, since we can speculate it was a statue used to bind a demon by the elvhen resisting the war against Tevinter. Let’s remember that Elgar’nan was always related to victory and wars against the Titans in the oldest codices we find about him [read Elgar’nan section in Evanuris].

CONS

If this is an elvhen god/Evanuris, I hardly see it worshipped by Tevinter, who allways had an ancient, deep rejection to elves. It would make no sense to use Elgar’nan as a representation of Dumat either [not consciously, at least]. So it makes no sense for this statue to appear in the Altar of Dumat close to the Corypheus’ prison as well as in Sebastian’s quest, in an underground Tevinter ruin.

It doesn’t have any visual similarity to Elgar’nan mosaic, which displays a bestial arm with claws. There is no similar hint of bestiality in the case of the Strange Idol [read Elgar’nan section in Evanuris]. However, this is not a strong counterargument: we can say the same of Mythal, who has two representations, one as an elf in a mosaic, and another as a dragon [in mosaic and statues too]. Read Mythal section in Evanuris for further details.

Neither con not pro: I can’t speculate why Elgar’nan would appear in the mural of “Removal of the Vallaslin” at the Elven Mountain Ruins, Forgotten Sanctuary. Specially if we think that the previous corridor towards this mural doesn’t have any mosaic of Elgar’nan either. I also can’t explain or speculate why the Forgotten Sanctuary, a place to give shelter to slaves, would have images of the Evanuris on its walls, the ones supporting the slavery system of the moment.  

This face, if it is truly Elgar’nan’s, is also presented as a source of Veilfire which can be related to Titans through the mural “The Death of a Titan”, where the source of Veilfire is presented in the heart of the Titan. Linking both symbols, one can suspect that maybe Elgar’nan’s victory over the Titans granted him the power of exceptional magic [divinity?], represented in these murals as the source of this particular green fire.

Speculation 2: “This statue is Dumat”

PRO: 

It makes sense to appear close to Corypheus’ prison in an altar to Dumat or in the underground Tevinter ruins from Sebastian’s quest.

It makes sense to appear in Sundermount, so we can assume it was a symbol of dominance from Tevinter when they attacked the resisting elves in this place. They bind a demon there too, and this brings no conflict with the lore; we know Tevinter always had a deep knowledge of binding and using demons in their favour.

CONS: 

It makes no sense for Dumat to appear in the Bastion of Elgar’nan in Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin, Elandrin’s Tomb. If it would have appeared in the first part of the zone, where we find statues of Andraste as the codex of Emerald Knights upgrades, it would have been considered an assimilation from former slaves, but this statue appears in a central position in a tomb that has been sealed long ago, surrounded by many statues of Mythal in her dragon shape.

Besides, why would Dumat appear in the mural of “Removal of the Vallaslin” at the Elven Mountain Ruins, Forgotten Sanctuary? So far we know the “Tevinter” perspective of the Old Gods appeared long time after the Elvhen and the Evanuris, so it’s hardly a contemporaneous concept to the ancient Elvhenan Gods. 

Dumat, understood as the Old God perceived by Tevinter, is a Dragon in shape. Its will may be something else, though, that may be represented in this toad-like figure?.

Speculation 3: “This statue is an ancient god [maybe a Forgotten One?] worshipped by the Evanuris before claiming divinity, and Tevinter adopted it later, believing them as Dragons or The Old Gods”.

PROS: 

This concept makes sense in both scenarios, Tevinter and Elvhenan. Like I said in the lore sections of the posts related to the comics The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak, Until We Sleep, Magekiller, and The Missing; there are some hints that make us speculate that Evanuris worshipped great dragons originally [that may or may not result in the Forgotten Ones]. Mythal should have been one of them as she is a dragon herself, but they stopped worshipping these ancient gods when they took the “divine winged shape” for themselves, claiming divinity. From that moment on, the Evanuris [at least Andruil] hunt these dragon-gods/Forgotten-Ones down, chasing them to the Void [which is more related to the underground lyrium than to a dimensional pocket ala Crossroads]. Mythal stopped her [ and intentionally or not, we don’t know, she protected these entities] by fighting against Andruil and removing her knowledge of how to reach the Void because in the Void there was “Darkness” and madness that Andruil infected with [for a whole detailed analysis of this, check the codex explanation of “Elven God Andruil” in the post Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal].

In this way, it makes sense for Tevinter to end up using similar iconography, ignoring it was the same god that the Elvhenan venerated originally. Tevinter knows that the Old Gods take the shape of Dragons, but they may be something else entirely.

Under this idea, it makes sense for this idol to appear in Tevinter or Elvhenan environments.

CONS:

There are too few hints to support this hypothesis of Forgotten Ones as the original gods that the Evanuris worshipped until they claimed divinity for themselves, and later Tevinter took them in their dragon shape and established the cult of the Old Gods. Most of the hints pointing out this relationship are recent [in the late comics].

We also have a strange potential relationship between the Forgotten Ones and the Forbidden Ones via the Seekers. It may be a red herring done by the devs or a consequence of “unreliable narrators”. Details in “Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck”.

Another con is that this idol has no shape of a dragon when we know that the Old Gods are always represented as Dragons, and we also suspected from the comics that the Forgotten Ones may be dragons instead of elvhen . We also have another potential link with Hakkon as Geldauran, who may be one of them; for more details, read Elvhen Tomb and Ancient Tevinter presence, Speculation.

Neither con not pro but a detail worth noting: this entity has a shape with a distant resemblance to Korth, the Avvar Mountain-Father god [the mouth shape are alike, and the nostrils of the Strange Idol are similar to the Korth’s nose-eyes]. Korth is the oldest and strongest god of the Avvar pantheon. We know the Avvar have always had a much better understanding of the world due to their deep conection with the spirits, whose wisdom is always shared to the Augur of the tribe. With this I mean that this Strange Idol seems to be a very old entity that even the Avvar perceived, reflected later in the shape of Korth. Korth is related to the Mountain, as Elgar’nan is related to it in a dominant way in the codex  Vir Dirthara: Signs of Victory. Elgar’nan’s fury [which destroys everything it touches, according to the codex The Judgment of Mythal or read Elgar’nan section in Evanuris for more details] has some distant similarity to Korth’s cruelty when he lost his heart [read codex The Frostback Mountains] and became a force of anger and destruction. According to the relationships I’ve been trying to connect along this blog, these details seem to me that the same entity has been perceived by Avvar, Tevinters, and Elvhenan, but represented with some differences in order to fit their own purposes [as all DA lore has been showing so far].

[idolbound]

Kept within the confines of the Knight-Commander's office, hidden behind the heavy wooden door and away from small, high windows, the Good Lady draws in her lover without a moment's hesitation. For these moments are rare; certainly, they have the matters that their business arrangement brings, but these moments — the flirtatious and in some ways, romantic — are fleeting, occurring in what little time can be spared for such things. While their own arrangements would have them together in the evenings (until the last late hour when Meredith makes her return to the Gallows, as always), these visits are... a welcome temptation.

"Many things?" Meredith repeats, now lured in; like a sailor to a siren's heeding call, she stands above Amelia just so, pressed as close as she can safely between her skirts and parted thighs hidden within them (an image in which, she takes a moment to avoid looking down, lest she be reminded of what it means to kneel between them, bunching the material to her lover's hips to have her wicked, wicked way). Here, she has half a mind to place a hand upon the desk's edge, to lean in, to kiss her again; but, she refrains for the sake of not cutting such soft fabric and sensitive skin against the edge of her armour. But, here, eager and willing to listen to the Good Lady, she moves first with a strike to an Achille's heel — foot meets the back of her knee beneath her Templar skirts, and air is sharply sucked in through grit teeth. Even through the leather of her trousers, the sensation is enough to return that flush to her face - she knows all too well that Amelia Comstock is not done with her yet.

"Oh... well, of course, my lady. We would not want to have that. I shall... have those to you tonight, no question," Maintaining a straight expression becomes more difficult as Amelia purposely digs in her hold, pressing against that damned spot that she knows sends sensation along the nerves, up the back of her leg, and right between her thighs. She meets her gaze, undoubtedly hungry despite having the demand of business on her sharp, sharp tongue. Beneath the hood of her robe, the tips of her ears tinge just as red as the fabric, and she is thankful, for the moment, not to have them seen. As she continues, though, Meredith's spine straightens, decidedly allowing herself a moment, eyes fluttering shut - the very thought of having her lover, now, against her desk returns, and Maker, her swallow is loud enough to be heard, reverberating against the stone walls of her office.

"And that..." Here, she dares to open her eyes again, tongue still wetting her lips and sliding across her teeth. "I shall consider once I have had a moment to... review the designs. Kirkwall's Circle would better benefit from them."

Still, without breaking her gaze, Meredith reaches out still, not toward Amelia's waist or hip, but to the outline of her curvaceous thigh at the edge of her skirts; daringly, perhaps, her gloved hands come to brace themselves against Amelia's thighs, giving a firm, present squeeze. Leant a little further forward, but still ever careful with her armour, ocean blue meets that of the shade of lyrium, surrounded by the healthy tinge of pink upon pallid skin. Perhaps, in this instance, the Good Lady has won this battle of wills — the easy smile that comes to Meredith's lips says it all, to concede, lest she act upon such profane thoughts, standing between her lover's legs.

"To think I must continue my work here after you have gone..."

She sighs then, still ever so warm beneath her armour.

"Whatever shall I do with you, hm?"

Time will pass slowly, as it always does – a dredge of minutes turned to hours, monotony and repetition. The good lady finds little fault in allowing this – the thrill of it that runs through her; the way every touch, every movement makes her breathless. The end of the week will come, just as the dawn does, just as the stars do the same; and, well – if Meredith is amenable to such a thing; and the good lady is certain she is, does she not deserve a reward after days spent in service and toil? Do they both not? The more scrupulous within the Maker’s flock might call this hedonism. The good lady calls it something else entirely.

How wicked her laughter is; soft – muffled by her hand at the reaction such a simple action elicits. This is a dangerous game; one she has always delighted in playing with such a skilled opponent – to see such a formidable woman flush so, to hear that sound – Maker forgive her, but it strikes her so; old memories and games she had left behind at the Riverside that had never truly been forgotten now made new. Meredith Stannard may command an army and rule a city with an iron fist, but here – she bends to her.

“ A great deal many things, Knight-Commander. Perhaps you may be of help in achieving them. ” Well – at least some of what she wants; simple things, really – small things. Things Meredith would never notice; unlike the things she does not ask of her lover, knowing they will never be given freely. The ability to wake with her still in her arms, the allotment of more time. Instead, she focuses on the now; plush lips pursing, brows raised in thought as she regards the Knight-Commander in her silvery armor, her golden crown – not a picture of devoutness, no; but one of divinity. The line of her body curves as she takes a breath, then another; studying her paramour from her vantage point, holding her gaze intently; hungrily. This is not a game she can win; but this match, perhaps, might go to her; and soft thighs part ever so slightly; the fine silk of her dress to settle between her legs – allowing Meredith to come closer yet. Right where I want you. And for all her pleasure at being chased, there is a sense of satisfaction here that drives her – the Knight-Commander is cornered; on the edge of falling into a pretty trap – and she has yet to realise it. Her own skin is warm, flushed; hypersensitive to the very idea of touch ( Meredith’s hands on her waist, her hips; in her hair, upon her legs ); and decisively does she extend her leg, hooking her foot against a spot she knows so well at the back of Meredith’s knee; tugging her closer yet. “ While I have your attention, I would most appreciate it if you were able to sign and return this month’s invoices by this evening, please; alongside your orders for the next month. I am, after all, drowning in paperwork – and you wouldn’t want to make my week difficult. Would you, my dear? ” Much of her success, after all, can be attributed to the beautiful woman between her legs. To make a point, the foot at the back of her knee moves – pressing in, up and down. “ There are also some new designs for longswords from one of my smiths… You might find them rather wicked. If they do happen to intrigue you, do let me know in four days time – or I will send them to the Circle at Ostwick. ”

[stonesense]

On an academic level, how does Minerva think blood magic works vs your other OCs? Or are they all working from one headcanon? One interpretation of canon? Something else?

oh interesting!!!

minerva is unlearning chantry biases and also figuring out blood magic independently, so she’s having to take a lot of guesses. i wish we had detail on what knowledge a demon actually imparts when they give you blood magic so i know what she’s working from! but based on her own senses informed by my experience playing, and minerva’s very practical way of thinking, it just seems like a different source for the same power, much like lyrium. she makes an effort to practise blood magic minimally and ‘ethically’—for instance she only uses blood sacrifice on animals, only once or twice in her entire life on an actual companion—so she hasn’t really explored the possibilities that go further than that

keir hawke’s blood magic knowledge from malcolm was largely a broad ‘Do Not Touch’ (i imagine from the way bethany talks abt it and malcolm’s obvious dislike for what he did with corypheus, it wasn’t a topic up for discussion, especially in a red hawke’s household) so most of keir’s actual knowledge comes from merrill. he’s more interested and less judgemental on this topic than anyone merrill knows—keir loves magic and could listen to ramblings for hours—and he trusts merrill and doesn’t have anything else to go on so his opinions are essentially just her opinions. sorry anders

[aarongoldenwrites]

Alright. Get ready for a trip. I'm gonna go point by point through this because I'm obsessed with these games, I dig the real world connotations, and the new trailer just dropped and I haven't played any DA since the flood. So...

We need to start with a discussion of Solas in general. He's Fen'Harel, the Dread Wolf. He fought against institutionalized and systemic slavery, freed his people, and fought alone against corrupt being powerful enough to be considered gods (and they are the old gods of the Tevinter Imperium, I believe, but that's a whole other thing). He created the veil and imprisoned the gods, possibly in Black City, and doing so nearly killed him and sent him into a thousand year coma. He didn't understand the consequences of his actions, but he trusted people enough not to mess it up further.

And then he woke up.

Let us start with the Qun. The Qun is fascism. Individual Qunari are fascinating individuals, especially when they are removed from the Qun as a whole – Sten and the Iron Bull being our prime examples. But everything we know about them paints them as fanatics that torture mages and lobotomize anyone that doesn't accept their philosophy. Their entire culture is systemic slavery, which is the very thing Solas opposed. Of course he hates them.

There's two instances that can change his mind: one is a possible Qunari Inquisitor, but your Inquisitor is Vashoth (edit 2020/09/03: as noted by @felassan -- thanks!), someone who was never part of the Qun. He's not been awake long enough to see it, and it shocks him out of binary thinking. He's apologizing badly, because he's personally a social disaster who doesn't know how to people (and we'll get to that). The second is if you choose to save the Chargers; Solas turns around on the Bull instantly, shows genuine concern towards him, and helps him deal with Fade-related PTSD.

In fact, all he ever wants to do is teach. If he comes out and says he's Fen'Harel people are going to assume he's a crackpot, but I think Solas, as a persona, is actually who he is. He jokes with the Bull and Blackwall about his Fade knowledge, and offers them both knowledge on how to kill fade spirits more efficiently. All three of them respect one another as soldiers. He compares knowledge of magic and history with Dorian, Cassandra seeks his opinion on organization and faith, Josephine appreciates his insight, Leliana asks his advice, and Varric and he chatter and shoot the shit.

He constantly tries to teach or learn. The only two people he has issues with are Sera and Vivienne, and even there he tries to offer advice and wisdom as best he's able. Sera can't stand him because she hates elves, and Viv is a victim of the Circle and can't imagine a world without an entrenched power structure, regardless of how many people it hurts.

And I suppose that's a thing a lot of people have trouble with when it comes to Solas: he tells you straight out at the end of Trespasser that he's going to tear down the Veil and destroy the world as we know it. And that's terrible. That's destroying a world state and trying to return thing to how they were, kind of like how the Inquisitor and Dorian reset time in Redcliffe. I mean, that world was a hellscape where everything you ever cared about was dead or corrupted, and fixing it was the right call. It's not at all like how the world Solas wakes up to is a hellscape where everything he ever cared about was dead or corrupted. Fixing it is the right call?

And we could argue that the future that we averted was a monstrous place, but how does Solas see his own world? His people worship the slavers he defeated and die with a terrible frequency. Elves die and face fates that are about as terrible as that faced by mages; he's fucked coming and going. And we know he went to the Dalish and tried to talk to them and they attacked him. Why wouldn't they? He knows about what's happening outside of the Plato's cave that the Dalish are dying in.

His actions are going to kill thousands. His actions are going to save millions. The Dalish are dying in droves and the city elves are going to follow. Giving them a fighting chance at survival means reminding them who they are.

He also tells us that waking up was like “swimming in tranquil”. I think creating the Veil crippled the elves in some way, and he's not trying to give them magic so much as he's trying to heal them of a disease he inadvertently created. And while I know it's hard to take him at his word, it shouldn't be: he lies by omission once (about being Fen'harel, as we've covered the reasons why already), and lies directly twice.

After Orlais, he talks about how much he missed intrigue and court. If you ask him about this, he stumbles and you get disapproval – the only time you get disapproval for asking him a question. He lets his guard down around you and still doesn't know what to do.

The last time is in Crestwood and only happens if you romance him. He's about to tell you who he is and he chickens out and tells you about the slave marks on your face instead. Because – and this is the important thing – he cares. He's viciously selfless; he doesn't believe he deserves happiness and he can't imagine a world where he can save his people and be happy.

Make no mistake: the elves are threatened with extinction with the world as it is. The city elves in Origins are blamed when they react to some of their number being raped and killed by human nobles. The Dalish in Origins can be wiped out by the werewolves. The Dalish in Awakening are wiped out regardless of what you do. The Dalish in DA2 can be wiped out in Act 3. The city elves in Kirkwall are hunted for sport, see their children kidnapped and raped before being murdered, are locked away and left to burn whenever there's any problem at all. Three different Dalish clans can be wiped out in Inquisition, and it's so easy for Lavellen to lose her clan.

The status quo is killing the elves. It is wiping them out. This is an existential threat that no one is doing anything about, except Solas.

He's also lonely.

He says he was derided by his enemies also when he offered to share his knowledge of the Fade. We took this to mean the Dalish before Trespasser, but given who he is, we can speculate that he's talking about the old elven gods. But if his enemies derided them, that means his allies did, too. His old allies still saw him as a madman and a fool, probably because he was one man standing against an empire. He clearly couldn't trust anyone in the old days, and even tells Sera he had to sacrifice some of those closest to him for fear of betrayal.

Consider that the Inquisition was the first time he had friends. No one knows him as anything other than the elven apostate hobo with bad fashion sense and a weird relationship with spirits, but, as mentioned, he has mostly good relationships with everyone. People rely on him. They like him. Lavellan potentially loves him, and he loves her.

You change his mind on the Qunari race (but not their culture). You show him that he was wrong and he accepts that with good grace and moves on; he keeps coming to the Inquisitor afterwards because he respects you and he does not want to do what he sees as the only way to avoid genocide. I don't think he ever stops feeling bad about any of the things he's gotten wrong; he wears his mistakes like a chain and tries to do better, never stops trying to do better, but his perspective and capability are so much greater than anything the Warden, the Champion, or even the Inquisitor currently understands.

And I wouldn't be surprised if we get a chance to fold him back into the party at some point. I think the actual villain of the series lies with the monsters the Evanuris fought against and were corrupted by.

I think the actual villains are the Forgotten Ones, and I think they are the Blight, and I think they are what lies in the corruption we know as Red Lyrium.