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lairofdragonagelore · 1 year

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Comic: Until We Sleep

This post belongs to the series DA comic. The main intention is to collect the basic story of the comic and highlight any potential lore concept that may be of interest and may be explored later in the game series.

This post has the following points:

Story

Relevant Details

Characters: A bit of Maevaris, Maric, and Varric with Bianca.

Lore

In the Lore section:

Yellow eyes are shown again as a feature in Titus.

The Qunari explanation to the Calenhad's legend: The Tome of Koslun claims that the man was a mere regular human who, under the advice of a Witch [maybe Flemeth?] drank a great dragon’s blood and acquired power that was inherited by his descendants.

Maric, the person who feeds blood to the Magrallen artefact, becomes a Dreamer in the Fade, maybe because he has dragon blood. This establishes that, no matter if you are a mage or not, a person with dragon blood can be as powerful as a dreamer with some assistance of an artefact.

Once again, it's hinted that the Qunari may have dragon blood since it’s said that the dragonfire may have been their “birthright”.

Tevinter Artefact: The Magrallen. This artefact is known for being based on blood magic, and it is a legacy from Tevinter. Its function is unknown, but seems to allow the control of some sections of the Fade if you feed it with [dragon] blood.

There is a soft and weak analogy between the Magrallen’s powers and the red dragon eggs’ in the Eluvian network we explored in the DLC.

Titus is a blood mage who uses dragon blood with the intention to control the Fade. He is well aware that controlling the Fade may alter the reality [a Dreamer's power], this is the true power of Divinity in DA lore, hence he claims he can become an "old god".

Apparently, those who carry great dragon blood may become Dreamers easily and can control the Fade.

Potential explanation to several lore concepts that seem to make more sense if we assume as correct the idea that dragon blooded people have the power of Dreamers.

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

Story

Varric and company reach an isle in the middle of the sea, called Ath Velanis. So far the illustrations go, it’s a Tevinter fortress with a lot of dragon decorations. Varric explains it’s a place where sacrifices to the Old Gods used to be performed. How true this is, coming from Varric’s mouth, is hard to say.

Meanwhile, Sten shares the Qunari suspicion of why Titus wanted Maric and now Alistair: they have blood of great dragons, introducing to us to the story of Calenhad: a drinker of a great dragon’s blood whose power were inherited by his descendants.

Alistair claims that his blood may not be useful since it’s tainted with the Joining. We already commented about how conflicting this fact is in the DA lore in the section “Lore problems” in the post The Silent Grove post. In short, it makes little sense for Alistair to have became a Grey Warden so easily when dragons are naturally resistant to the Blight [read the Josephine result in Learn More about Dragons].

As Varric is exploring Ath Velanis, he rescues Maevaris, who had been tortured, and finds Maric connected to a strange artifact. He has no better idea than to shoot at it.

The explosion of the artefact threw everyone in the fortress into the Fade, even the dwarf. Lore-wise, this is very weird. Only the Inquisitor managed to open a Breach and make Varric fall into the Fade [or pass through a Dalish ritual in DA2 to go to the Fade]. Here, the only thing we saw that caused this was a ball of watered-down dragon blood. This may explain how powerful dragon blood truly is, that can throw a dwarf into the Fade or how carelessly these comics were made and hence my mistrust to them.

The most curious thing of this part, if we ignore the nonsense of throwing everyone into the Fade, is that Varric walks on a terrain that, when looking from afar, is like a gargantuan hand made out of Stone. It gives a strange feeling of being related to Titans, given that it’s a dwarf who is walking on it after being thrown into the Fade. Is this a reflection of what means to be a dwarf? Is this a hint to the Stone? to a Titan? Is this the reflection of that “sense of wanting to connect to Titans” that every dwarf has, according to Cole’s words?

In any case, Varric explores the Fade, gathering his friends in the same fashion we did in the Fade in DAO. He finds Maervaris, who is enjoying the illusion of being with her late husband; Isabela, who is part of the Qun, is living her personal nightmare; and Alistair, who lives his life carelessly as his father is still the King of Ferelden. This Maric we meet is not merely an illusion, it’s the real one, the one connected to the blood-artefact. When Varric and the others inform Maric that he is connected to it, the man takes control of the Fade itself, fights Titus, claims himself being a Dreamer just because his dragon blood [again, how much of these comics can be taken seriously? I wonder] and once everyone returns to real life, they kill Maric out of mercy.

Relevant details

Why the title?: It refers to the concept of reality and truth. In the last page of the comic, we see each of the protagonists returning to their lives: Alistair is in his throne, Isabela seems to abandon her ship, and Varric returns to his life of spymaster/merchant guild-master/author, and all of them keep wondering where the true life exists, here, in the “real world” or in the world of dreams. It’s a title that comes from a final line that closes the comic that questions the nature of the world and reality itself.

Time: The time is the same one than in the previous comic, around 9:38 Dragon, 2032 TE, 3 years before the Breach of Inquisition.

Characters: Maric appears and there is closure to the mystery of his disappearance in the canon. We know a bit more about Maevaris’ backstory, and Varric’s past with Bianca.

Concepts :what this comic can provide in terms of lore?

We keep seeing Titus with yellow eyes in case we were not sure about this in the previous comic.

Calenhad is introduced in this comic with a side story: he was not a gifted hero who made miracles [as Ferelden folktales like to portrait him], but an ambitious man who drank the blood of a dying Great Dragon and acquired powers that were inherited by his descendants. This breaks and reformulates a lot of lore about him that we had read via codices along the games. We also see that a “Witch” suggested him to drink dragon blood. Because this fact has such long-term repercussion in the world of Thedas, I’m pretty sure that this witch was Flemeth or some of her daughters instructed by her. Somehow, keeping the blood of Great Dragons in a powerful human family seems to be a decent precaution to take in a world that destroys what can’t understand [dragons].

That the Qunari know this via the Tome of Koslun is immensely odd to me, but on the other hand, it makes sense since it’s hinted that the Qunari themselves are a crafted race, probably coming from Dragons. At least it makes sense for such a race to keep tales and stories related to those who are involved with dragons too. In DAI it’s even hinted that the Qunari may have dragon blood in their own veins too, but probably from dead dragons? [for more detail, read Frostback Mountains: Somewhere North]. I suspect this due to Corypheus’ shout to a Qunari Inquisitor: “Your blood is engorged with decay. Your race is not a race. It’s a mistake”.

Dragonfire is presented as a brutal fire power, and due to its name, it seems to be the fire breathed by dragons. As the qunari fight in this fort against Titus, he casts this fire, instantly killing/melting the qunari. He claims that such fire may have been the qunari’s birthright, but instead, it kills them. Here it’s hinted once more that the qunari may have been crafted from dragons, and that this detail is known by a Tevinter so knowledgeable in Tevinter History and Fade, it may confirm a bit more that it may have been Tevinters who tried to craft the Qunari as a dragon-based race.

Tevinter Artefact: The Magrallen

This artefact is known for being based on blood magic, and a legacy from Tevinter [but to be honest, considering how all “Tevinter legacy” ends up being a co-opt of Elvhenan magic I would not be surprised if this is a version of an ancient elvhenan artefact].

The artefact shows a serpent-dragon eating its own tail. This is a proper symbol of Ouroboros. Sadly, we can’t say exactly what an ouroboros means since it has been used in real human history by many, many cultures and even though sometimes they shared meaning, in other cases it had different ones: it can represent the eternal return or the concept of cycles. It may also represent life and the concept of time, or the things that never truly disappear, or the transmigration of souls. In the way itis used in DA lore, I don’t think we can pick one. We also know that Tevinter, in general, has a strong symbology with snakes/dragons, so the use of an ouroboros may be an aesthetic choice: just because it’s a Tevinter-made object it’s made in the shape of dragons and snakes.

We already saw an hexagonal artefact/decoration in many Tevinter buildings, where two serpent-dragons eat each other’s tail. This concept seems to be followed by the Magrallen in an aesthetic way; meaning it’s just a single snake eating its own tail. However, I would like to clarify that this symbol with 2 snakes has nothing to do with an ouroboros. Two serpents eating their own tails looks more like a Tevinter symbol of the Magister culture, eating each others in their race for power.

The function of this artefact is not clear. It looks like it consumes or gathers Maric’s blood [which contains Dragon Blood] and allows a complete control of some parts of the Fade. This would mean that Dragons have a unique contol over the Fade. The position of the victim in this thing reminds me to the experiments made out of red lyrium that we read in the book Tevinter Nights: slaves hanging up as they are forced to drink liquid red lyrium. Even though Varric knows nothing about magic, he claims this artefact is more than mere blood magic. I don’t trust this comment since its source [Varric] is highly unreliable.

The artefact looks like a ball filled with blood and afixed to a statue of a dragon claw.

The closest thing we saw to this was the polished red dragon eggs in the Shattered Library or in the in-between spaces [more details in Shattered Library; Entrance]. These eggs glowed in red when activated, which seems to suggest some kind of blood magic. And if they truly contain dragon blood, it would mean that dragon power allows the creation of paths in the spaces in-between. This interpretation seems to make sense if we are being said that dragons have a strong control [almost as if they were Dreamers or Somniari] over the Fade.

When Varric finds Maevaris in the Fade, she explains a bit more about this artefact: it is named Magrallen, it belongs to the time of the Dreamers [a time where they also used orbs like Solas’, also stolen from the elvhenan], and it is currently being empowered with dragon blood present in Maric's. Again, the function of this artefact is never explained. Given Titus’ goal of becoming a master of the Fade and control it to modify reality, one can suspect that this artefact may contribute, somehow, to that goal. But throughout all the comic, it is never explicitly said.

When they finally gather everyone in the Fade, Maevaris informs Maric that his mind is in an oneiric suspension state.

Funnily enough, Maric seems to understand and know magic because he knows the name of the artefact, and what it is doing to him. He claims that it’s the only thing that keeps him alive.

When they defeat Titus in the Fade, Alistair frees Maric from the artefact, who decays immediately. The way he does so makes it look as if time had been stopped around him in order to feed the artefact with his blood. As soon as the Magrallen is destroyed, the suspension of time catches up with him. Similar effect was seen with Ameridan in the DLC of Jaws of Hakkon [Frostback Basin [DLC]: Frozen Gate].

So far what we can gather in these panels: Titus is a blood mage involved with Dragon blood whose intention is to control the Fade. He has a series of panels where he claims that the power of the Fade can affect reality, and mages can alter the Fade, and therefore, Reality. This is basically the concept of the Dreamers or Somniari introduced for the first time with Feynriel - Somniari and Fade. Solas also told us about these powers in “Solas sharing Lore: Part 1″.

Through Solas, we know that this power to change reality is truly as strong as Titus claims it to be: With low approval, Solas says that the only way he can save the “elves” is to bring down the Veil, bring the Fade into the Waking World, and reshape reality, which is exactly what he plans to do in DA:D and it’s similar to what Titus is trying to do here [however, in Titus’ plan there is no notion of destroying the Veil first]. The only additional information we have from Titus is that this power seems to come from the “old gods” or the “Dragon gods”. Hence, controlling the Fade in order to change Reality is something that comes from “dragon powers”. Again, we have a reinformcent of the idea that power=divinity. This resignifies the scene where Solas kills Flemeth [a dragon] to have power to bring the Veil down. He opts to do this when his orb, and all the Fade power gathered for a millenia in it, was destroyed after the battle against Corypheus. So, through the end of the game we are also told that dragon power=Fade power gathered for millenia.

By these comments, we also notice that Titus is aware of the places in-between; these planes of existence that the elvhenan used in order to transport themselves far distances in short periods of time: the eluvian network. Via Morrigan we know they are places where the Evanuris cannot track their servants too [for details read The Crossroad].

If we gather all the words used by Titus, we can link the powers of the Dreamers, able to change Reality through the power of the Fade, as an ability that belonged to [Great] Dragons and could be transmitted via blood to others, or using rituals that needed dragon blood.

The connection of Divinity with [great] dragon blood that we have been working along the several posts of DAI and the elvhenan codices, seems to be confirmed with Titus’ words [if Titus is truly reliable, which I don’t think so].

When Maric faces Titus in the Fade, it’s confirmed again that the power of a Dreamer is related to [great] Dragon Blood, since Maric says that Titus is not the dreamer in this place, but himself. Maric, suddenly, seems to be extremely aware of magic and blood stuff related to dragons, lol.

This makes speculations about the Qunari grow wilder: if [great] dragon blood provides this brutal power of becoming a Dreamer [and therefore, controlling the Fade to alter Reality], it would explain why the Tevinter would have wanted to create a pet-race of Dragon blooded creatures as the Qunari: maybe to harvest their blood for rituals or sacrifices, or to force them to do their biddings. In any case, the idea is that someone with [great] dragon blood is a natural dreamer.

If this interpretation is correct, we may understand the logic behind several lore concepts:

This would explain why the Saarebas are so brutal in power, if the Qunari are truly a crafted race based on dragons and dragon blood; their magical ability may be the highest that any creature in Thedas can have [Dreamer-like].

If the Qunari were made out of [great] dragon blood, that would explain why they need to have their Saarebas so brutally leashed: most of them, if not all, may be Dreamers. They are able to change reality to their whims if not controlled.

In several ocassions we were informed that the Fade lacks of dwarven presence [reasonable, since they are disconnected from the Fade and can’t dream] but also Qunari [which is rare, since they have mages]. The only way I may explain this is that the Saarebas may pass through a strong chemical leash that prevents them to enter the Fade. We know via Felassan that there are herbs that could allow him to never reach the Fade ever again if they are consumed daily [this is said at the end of the book The Masked Empire, for more details read Felassan and bits of lore]

Dragons in most dnd settings are usually presented as whimsical creatures. In DA series we know little about this aspect of the dragons. High dragons are presented as creatures that follow a normal animal-like cycle: they create a nest, keep their drakes around them, feed, mate, have dragonlings, and then hibernate to repeat the cycle next time. DA series never spoke about Great Dragons with the exception of these comic series, so we know nothing about them. If they are as whimsical as usually dragons are presented in dnd settings, it would make sense why the Qun was forced upon the qunari, since they may be a race made out of dragons that needs roles and purpose in order to control their immense power.

If dragon blood allows control of the Fade and the Reality, it makes sense that the red dragon eggs we found in the in-between spaces have such power to “create” paths that allows travelling big distances. They are affecting Reality and Fade at the same time.

Mythal has appeared in a dream of a tattoo-less elf servant from Val Royeaux [Elven Servant Dreams of Mythal, another videos here]. From that moment on, the npc appears with her Vallaslin [as if she may have taken him as a servant, making effect of whatever happened in the Fade into the Waking World]. This weird situation may be explained if Mythal, who has dragon powers since she is a dragon herself, may have changed reality in this way. Also, during the The Fade - Part 2, Flemeth claims to have more power than anyone of the party when she is in the Fade. This may be caused by a similar mechanics of her having dragon powers.

The constellation codices are, in general, a big mess. They tend to confuse more than to inform us. But what I found curious is that many of them are related to dragons and old elvhen figures. This is a weak proof that ancient Tevinter and Elvhenan may have worshipped the same gods in the begining [until the Elvhenan managed to find a way to control Divinity and “forgot” their original gods to become gods themselves]. Among the several constelations codices, one of them claims that the Old Gods were eight and not seven as we knew for so long [Constellation: Draconis, which states that there is a serpentine old dragon, that may be related to Mythal since she “took the shape of a giant serpent” to fight Andruil in the elvhenan codex Elven God Andruil, which is analysed in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal]. If we also read the codex related to the Astrariums, we find that much of the unaltered constellations information comes from the time of the Dreamers, a group of Tevinter mages that were against the Magisterium system and were into astronomy, a discipline almost forgotten in Thedas. These codices link Ancient Tevinter with Dreamers and dragons, suggesting that the true divinity=power comes from Dragons, and this idea was appreciated not only by Ancient Tevinters, but the Elvhenan too, at least in the begining until the Evanuris took the divinity power for themselves.

Summary of Lore concepts in this comic

Calenhad was not a gifted hero, but a great dragon blood drinker whose powers were inherited by the Theirin family.

It's hinted again that the Qunari are a crafted race made out of dragons.

The Magrallen is an artefact from the time of the Tevinter Dreamers which gathers dragon blood. It's function is not clear.

Great dragon blooded humans have natural Dreamer powers. As Dreamers, they can alter the Fade and therefore, Reality.

It's hinted that the Old Gods may have been Great dragons that shared their power to other mortals, making them Dreamers, and giving them command over the Fade and the Waking World.This may be the origin of the divinity among the Elvhenan, and the Evanuris were their “chosen ones” first. Rememeber the codex Ancient Elven Writing : “His crime is high treason. He took on a form reserved for the gods and their chosen, and dared to fly in the shape of the divine.“

Therefore, Divinity seems to be connected with the power of Great Dragons

#da comic #comic #qunari #blood #dragon blood #dragon #somniari #dreamer #great dragon #magrallen #tevinter artefacts

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