#Deep Roads

[halla-hunts-the-wolf]

I just wanted my mutuals to know my unpopular opinion and it's that I love the Deep Roads. As a place and as a concept. I love when the stories and games take the protagonists to the literal darkest and most abandoned places in Thedas, full of spooks and questionable lore that we never quite get to the bottom of.

[sparemoon]

These idiots live in my head rent free

[igorlevchenko-blog]

Dragon Age: The Dwarves of Orzammar

Digital paintings. Late 2018—2019. Portrait of Kardol (bottom left) was made in late 2022 amid the advent of AI, promptly rendering such portraiture largely a pointless endeavour.

P.S: Feel free to repost, reupload etc.

[lavendarr00]

Portraits of my Inquisitor Lana Lavellan

And some Solas 🤍

[oflorelei]

when i tell you all i'm so NOT back for the deep roads!! 🗣️🗣️🗣️

(Text goes "you'll visit meticulously crafted biomes and beautiful regions, some that you've only heard whispers about in Dragon Age lore, including Rivain, Weisshaupt, Arlathan, Minrathous, and the Deep Roads." - from the newest blog of DAV)

[crestwood-survivor]

Mythal in the Deep Roads Pt. 2: Trespasser DLC

Everyone who has played through the Trespasser DLC already knows that the ancient elves were in the deep roads, but I noticed some things in my most recent playthrough that I haven’t seen discussed. Mainly, the coffin room:

But let’s go through the area first. We exit the Eluvian and find ourselves in this weird combination of elven-dwarven ruins beneath Thedas. One of the things that stood out to me about this area is how Evanuris symbols we find (or at least I could find) are Mythal’s and Fen’Harel’s. There are two giant Mythal statues in this section, one is near the Eluvian we enter:

And the other is deeper into the area:

There's this one:

And finally two handing over the "coffin room" at the very back of this area:

There's also lots of wolf statues, some framing the eluvian:

Or caved in hallways:

On the path leading through the area:

And framing the "balcony" overlooking the coffin room:

Notice what there isn’t? Any statues for the other gods.

All the other elven ruins we’ve seen have had multiple gods portrayed in them, even in temples dedicated to one specific god. For example, the Temple of Mythal had a whole separate area depicting the other gods as well as hart and owl statues. The Temple of Dirthamen also had hart statues and statues of Mythal and Fen’harel. But in the deep roads? It’s only Mythal and Fen’harel. This to me implies that whatever operation was going on the deep roads, it was Mythal’s project.

Let’s go over some of the comments companions make in the area.

Cole has a few things to say. The first thing he’ll say is: “Songs screaming far away. It wants to wake up but can’t remember how.  No one should be here.”

This immediately made me think that Cole was referring to a Titan. Lyrium, the blood of the titans, is frequently described as singing. Cole makes similar comments if you take him through the deep roads in The Deep Descent DLC. Valta also describes what she hears from the Titan as a song, but she also tells us something else that’s important: Titans do not stir lightly. The Titan from the Deep Descent was asleep for a thousand years, and only woke up and started causing trouble because the breach disturbed it. Cole says that the songs are screaming far away, so it’s possible that this is a dormant titan that is near the area we are in.

Dorian will say: “It shouldn’t be this dark. Dwarven buildings are lit by molten rock. That doesn’t just go out.”

I’m not sure what to make of this comment, but it seemed odd to me. Maybe someone else has thoughts on this?

Further in, Cole will make a comment about the Qunari and Lyrium: “The stone sings. The song scares them. It’s the wrong song, the wrong blood. They don’t know how we stand it.”

Is this suggesting that Qunari have a greater sensitivity to Lyrium? What does the “wrong blood” mean? Is it referring to the Lyrium, the titan’s blood, or the Qunari’s blood? If Cole is referring to the Qunari’s blood, this wouldn’t be the first time someone has commented on their blood in the game. Kieran can comment on the Qunari Inquisitors blood at Skyhold if he has the Old God soul:

Kieran: You're the Inquisitor. You're very tall. Mother didn't say you were a Qunari.

Inquisitor: Oh? I'm told it's the first thing one notices about me.

Kieran: I noticed your blood. It doesn't belong to your people.

Here’s where things might get a little tin-foily.

When we get to the end of this area, the part looking over the coffin room, Cole will say:

“They’re all singing. Coffers, coffins, corpses that aren’t dead. A song crying out in the dark.”

The type of coffins/tombs we see in this area can be found in other parts of the main game. Here is an up-close screenshot of the tombs in this area:

And here is an example of the same type of tomb from the Solasan Temple, which is also associated with elves:

Based of Cole’s comment, I think the tombs we see in this room may contain ancient elves that are in uthenera. The “corpses that aren’t dead” part is what really makes me think this is the case. Uthenera is described as an alternative to dying for the ancient elves. When they didn’t want to be a part of the world anymore, they went into uthenera. It sounds similar to a coma. Abelas calls it the blissful sleep that never ends. The Mythal statues poised above the tombs, looking down on them/watching over them, makes me think that these are some of her people that have been put into Uthenera.

I’m not done with this topic yet; I still want to discuss the notes left behind by a dalish Qunari, but this post is already stupid long so it will have to wait.

[exhausted-archivist]

The Deep Roads are Complicated, and I am in too Deep...

I've been working on and off at mapping the Deep Roads for a while now and after writing 4 pages explaining my methodology of why I think it is mapped the way I put it and then moving on to orienting the ttrpg thaig map, I realized something while taking notes on the directions mentioned and cross-referencing it to the description of Horrors of Hormak thaig description.

You can't map the Deep Roads from a top-down perspective because sometimes the roads change directions and aren't actually going in a straight line.

They need an orthographic map. Or a map that essentially bisects the mountain. The literal map in the corner of both the Origins and ttrpg maps. The maps... that have increments of depth.

Now, I knew that the deep roads had to change elevation, especially considering how they're described and the way they're supposedly below sea level for most thaigs.

But somehow, despite knowing that, I never considered that thaigs and the roads themselves would essentially be stacked on top of each other. Don't know why that never crossed my mind up until I was checking my notes and the passages of the ttrpg and Horrors of Hormak to confirm directions. To which it finally clicked as they both explain how there are galleries/antechambers and staircases/pathways that change directions.

How do we get to the thaig? This tunnel leads to a series of galleries. Think of them as interconnecting wide flights of stairs linked together and occasionally switching direction. We head down these for a few hours and we’ll be on the outskirts of the thaig.

-- Dragon Age Tabletop RPG, Buried Pasts p. 18

Beside him, Lesha muttered a word and her staff began to glow. She pushed it inside the entrance to the hole, giving light to the darkness within. The edges of the circle cast by Lesha’s spell revealed a small staircase that descended into an antechamber slightly larger than the clearing above, carved with a skill and delicacy that rivaled the works of Orzammar, or even Kal-Sharok. At the other end of the chamber, a doorway and a second staircase beyond that which spiraled into the darkness, the entire space lit by the glow of lyrium. And above the entrance, written in dwarven runes, a single word—Hormok.

-- Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights, Horrors of Hormak (p. 86)

Which then gave me pause and had me rereading and looking back at the map. Because the maps looked like they were straight and didn't initially give the impression of any verticality to them. Until you look in the corner. That's when it clicked for me and the mountains suddenly made more sense.

And now I'm screaming about it here. Because both maps are depicting a small chunk of mountain(s) in the Frostbacks. Which, for reference, my wip of the Deep Roads looked like this.

If you follow BioWare's scale of 1 square = 15 miles / 24 km - if the Deep Roads were in working order the journey to the anvil would only be roughly around 2.5-3 days journey. However, we know to get to the anvil and back to Orzammar is a month-long trip. So, with the darkspawn and collapsed tunnels it becomes a 2-week journey there and 2 weeks back. Which is quite a large jump in travel times.

I have a personal scale based on population size, megafauna, and the fact that it is supposed to take over a week to get to the Circle from Orzammar on the surface, among other travel time increments. Which makes each square 38 mi / 61 km. A 4-5 day journey from the anvil to the void when functioning.

Now, I think this map still holds up in terms of placement considering that mountains can have a wide footprint and the map on the Origins Deep Roads has at least two major peaks and a plateau, whereas the ttrpg just has one major peak and a couple of smaller ones. The ttrpg map also speaks of ravines and such so it fits the geography.

But yeah, long story short I need to revise some of my methodology; and maybe rescale the map, so things aren't super tiny.

[roguetrevelyan]

The Deep Roads.

tap on gifs if they’re showing up blurry

[dalishious]

Aeudcan getting lost in the Deep Roads during Paragon of our Kind

[rhaegar--targaryen]

Deeper than the Deep Roads

[bhaalspawnshitposting]

The contrast between Broodmother, and the fertility to produce an army of soldiers forced against her will, vs the anvil, and the inability to create any manmade life, so it must be stolen. Both are being used for such a twisted purpose, war, slavery, and the exploitation of women and men. The act of creation itself corrupted and done through force, while he true act of creation being based in love and motherhood.

"No mere smith, however skilled, has the power to create life"

Not to mention, Broodmother is entirely organic, as it is, opposite the anvil. The anvil can claim creation, but it is really transmutation. Broodmother can claim creation, but even Hespith calls it the darkspawn *remaking Laryn in their image*

Its just such a good trope that I've never seen in horror, and they make such good foils of each other one immediately after the other, how both darkspawn and greed corrupt even the most holy and well-intentioned acts. It makes sense when you consider the darkspawn are the Golden City's reflection of man's sins.

[vabonesyart]

Lighting test.

[alyce-out-of-wonderland]

I'll never get over the road marker in dao in Caridin's Cross that vaguely mentions a child paragon. I'm terrified but very much intrigued about that story 🤔😭

This is why I love the deep roads what stories are lost here how much is lost 😭 let me find it all 😭 please I'm begging you 😭

[attractthecrows]

Funny as fuck using Ranger abilities in the Deep Roads. "I SUMMON MY WOLF COMPANION!!" * distant, panicked screams as a wolf Barrels through the gates of Orzammar through the Diamond Quarter past all the guards through a long forgotten abandoned thaig to come and bite one (1) genlock *

[teamdilf]

Looks to be an absolutely massive statue of Mythal down here too.