#Red inuksuk

[lairofdragonagelore]

Arbor Wilds: Temple of Mythal - Part 3

Main Quest: What Pride Had Wrought

The Temple of Mythal was a place of justice, where petitioners walked religious rites of passage in order to have their pleas for justice heard by Mythal. According to some, it is also the site of some mysterious religious artefact called the vir'abelasan.

This post contains the following sections

Entrance to the Temple

The Rituals

Ancient Crypts: Red Templar's way

[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]  

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

Entrance to the Temple 

The entrance to the temple is enormous. Its door is waiting for activation via the rituals/puzzles. At its sides there are two gigantic, decayed mosaics of Mythal. In the small corridor of the door, there are four Dragon Myhtal statues. In the corridor, we find this curious vallaslin ink object that we had only seen it before in the The Lost Temple of Dirthamen.

The Rituals [Puzzles]

In this post, Diirthata-ma shows the name of the game files [I’m unable to have access to these by myself] which represent the puzzles. I thought it could potentially give us some hints about the statues used in them. So, the name of these ritual I use here were given by the game files.

Elgar'nan Ritual

The first puzzle, the easiest and shortest one, is named Elgar'nan ritual. It's decorated with archer statues [that by now I suspect we can consider them as Shadow Sentinels], and on a rail of one of the stairs that lead to the puzzle, we find a small Red inuksuk. So far, I still keep the interpretation that these objects are related to sacrifice and blood.

The entryway to this puzzle is decorated with a Sylaise's golden mosaic. I feel this is very fitting, since Elgar'nan is fury of great power [read the codices in the Temple of Mythal and in Vir Dirthara related to him]  while Sylaise is as brutal as him considering the only non-Dalish codex we have: Song to Sylaise. Both figures are entities of fury, fire, and wrath in some degree. Sylaise seems to be a bit envious or competitive even. 

Fen'Harel's ritual

The second puzzle, with a lever, is Fen'Harel's ritual. It’s a puzzle with two potential interpretations: One, ironically, is that this puzzle needs you to be trapped in order to solve it [as a meaning to represent how he sealed the others gods, including himself (Cole says the wold chew his own leg to escape), to save the world], probably a poetic twist implemented by the Devs than something that the original Elvehan would have considered in the creation of this ritual. Another interpretation [more in-game and more “Evanuris”] is that this is the trickiest puzzle because the lever, and thus it represents Fen’Harel in the sense that you need cunning to solve it. [Unlike what wiki says, you don’t need to fail first to solve it. It has several different ways to be solved without failing it, it’s just a matter of tricks.]

To no one's surprise, it has several statues of Fen'Harel, in sitting and howling position.

Dirthamen's ritual

This is the longest one, which needs you to jump across different levels of the puzzle. It starts in the part of the chamber decorated with Elven Owl statues, and finishes in the one decorated with Elven hart statues. Due to the fact this is a puzzle that represents Dirthamen, gods of knowledge and secrets, it seems to present a duality [owl and hart] as usually Dirthamen/Falon’Din seem to exist in the iconography. 

That the owl is present here, seems to have some reason: we have read in the game a codex saying that the owl could be considered the messenger animal of Dirthamen [as well of Andruil], but the hart seems to be a curious association. We know that the unreliable Dalish Tales relate hart figures with Ghilan’nain [for example, Ameridan did it in the DLC], and in the The Lost Temple of Dirthamen (Part 2), we find a red mosaic of Ghilan’nain [this association a bit more trustworthy].  In the codex Ancient Elven Writing [detailed and analysed in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal], there is a subtle relationship between Ghilan’nain and a servant of Dirthamen. 

Therefore, Dirthamen and Ghilan’nain may have had some particular kind of relationship which is not clear to define with the information we have in game. It could have been an alliance or a rivalry of some kind. Honestly, considering Dirthamen’s dual existence with Falon’Din, I would have expected this puzzle to have more visuals of Falon’Din, as all things related to Dirthamen have and vice-versa.

The entryway to Dirthamen’s puzzle is decorated with June's golden mosaic, which triggers the codex The Mystery of June, detailed and analysed in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal.

The only reason I can find to explain why two of these puzzles have entryways with mosaics of June and Sylaise, is because both of them have a portfolio of crafting in common. In the codices Vir Dirthara: Raising the Sonallium and in Song to Sylaise [detailed in Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara and in  Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal] we can see that Sylaise is also dedicated to some aspect of the arts of crafting or related to architecture. Both of them may have been responsible of the construction of many of these buildings, in my opinion. 

Once the puzzles are finished, the main door to the temple glows in blue and we are granted the access to the Petitioning Chamber.

Ancient Crypts: Red Templar's way

If we follow the hole on the ground left by the Red Templars, we have access to something that the game names “Ancient Crypts”. When we ask Morrigan’s opinion on this place, she says that it looks more like a fortress than a Temple.

The crypts present the most creepy murals from the post Nation Art: Elvhen

This place has decorations and structures similar to Dirthamen’s Temple or in general, similar to any elvhen crypt [like Dinan’Hanin]. As all elvhenan crypts, they are made with rough stones, and less decorated door frames and arcs.

The walls have these typical paintings. The only one I didn’t find is the Armoured figure from Nation Art: Elvhen.  We even find these reptilian drawings in the Temple of Mythal. This repetition in so many elvhen places makes me consider this as part of a lore we don’t understand yet, and not just a Bioware joke about krogans. 

From dozen and dozen of screenshots we see most of the object we have seen in crypt-like scenarios like the Lost Temple of Dirthamen: different inuksuit, urns, Elvhen funerary lid, generic dead bodies, and some Red inuksuk [I kept this cute one, so small].

It’s in the crypts where we find Untranslatable Elven Writing which is Abelas’ confession about how he and his people at the temple endure their duty.  Details in the post Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal.

Ahead, we find another: Unreadable Elven Writing, which narrates about a unique and brutal weapon developed by Andruil, a golden spear. It’s not clear if this is like a codex that represents the main rival of Mythal. We can imagine that Andruil may have had a lot of resentment towards Mythal since they both fought and Mythal erased her memory of how to access to the Void [codex Elven God Andruil, detailed in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal].

One of the many chambers of this crypt has a pair of Fen’Harel statues with the painting of the elves in battle. This makes me strengthen the idea that this mural painting represents a Rebellion more than a battle. 

Next chamber, we find a broken Dragon Myhtal statue, with the painting of the dragon on the wall [which in several other situations seems to be a dragon that guides the painting of the elves ridding into battle] and in another section of the wall, we find the slaved elves, without face and heart.  There are more snuksuit and more paintings of elves with vallaslin.

In one of the darkest chambers, we find an isolated statue of a hart. 

Arbor Wilds: Temple of Myhtal - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

[barkingbonzo]

https://mpodger.redbubble.com

[flagzworld]

Flag of Canada

The national Flag of Canada, which is at times called the "Maple Leaf" was embraced as such in 1965. The chief flag related with Canada was apparently the St. George's Cross conveyed by the explorer John Cabot when he showed up at Newfoundland in 1497. The last district had at first been fundamental for the Northwest Spaces until 1999. Nunavut got its flag in 1999, and the flag has white and gold fields isolated by a red inuksuk or Inuit land marker.

https://theomnibuzz.com/flag-of-canada/

[raventroll80]

Heads up This is about spiders,

Ok so a few years ago my English(I think it was English) class was outside doing work and my group was sitting in this like rock drainage bed. I was doing work when out of the corner of my eye I saw something bright. It was a little red and blue jumping spider, thing is I’m in Canada we don’t have bright metallic red and blue spiders here.

I would show a picture but I couldn’t get one since one of my classmates was freaking out trying to kill it even though she was the farthest from it, and knocked over a little Inuksuk in the process, she got in trouble for it.

What I want to know is what kind of jumper it was. It looked like a zebra jumping spider but the stripes were bright metallic blue and the inside was a metallic red. Was it an escaped pet somehow? Colour mutation? If anyone knows let me know!

[rvexillology]

The official flag of Nunavut was proclaimed on 1st April 1999, along with the territory of Nunavut in Canada. It features a red inuksuk—a traditional Inuit land marker—and a blue star, which represents the Niqirtsuituq, the North Star, and the leadership of elders in the community.

from /r/vexillology Top comment:

[virlath]

environmental lore ~ Dirthamen and Falon’Din

Part 1 - origins and the four armed statues Part 2 - their alliances Part 3 - the origins of humans

=== 

Part 1, origins and the four armed statues

Dirthamen and Falon’Din are two of the most mysterious and interesting elven gods to me, because a lot of foreshadowing and storytelling around them can be found in the game’s environmental design.

Dirthamen and Falon’Din are linked in Dalish legend as inseparable twin brothers. Scraps of elven stories from after the fall of Arlathan—transcribed into Tevinter and recently lent to our fair University—refer to them as “twin souls” but draw no family connection. The oldest stories never even name them directly, referring to Falon’Din as “Dirthamen’s shadow,” and Dirthamen as “Falon’Din’s reflection.”

The little we understand implies their bond was not romantic, beyond even the strongest friendship. The legends of Dirthamen and Falon’Din may have been an allegory for complex elven relationships we lack context to comprehend.

In DAO, Tamlen recognises a Falon’Din statue in the underground ruins leading to the tainted eluvian, describing it as the “friend of the dead”. 

The most interesting thing about this statue though is that Tamlen suggests the entire architectural style in the ruin is a combination of both human and elven design, meaning that at some point in time humans and elves likely lived together, worked together, and even worshipped the same elven gods.

This particular statue is further seen throughout many areas in Origins, most notably Wilhelm’s basement, the fade, the blood mage den in Denerim, and Vigil’s keep basement in Awakening.

The golden spear in Falon’Din’s hand is notable because it’s not often spears are mentioned or even used at all in DA.

Looking back at this golden spear actually reminds me this codex entry from DAI found at the Temple of Mythal:

Veilfire writing from a ruin in the Arbor Wilds; the script is so ancient it defies translation.

There are whispers from the Well of Sorrows. It's impossible to understand the entire text, but certain parts suddenly reveal a shadow of their original meaning.

"She shook the radiance of the stars, divided them into grains of light, then stored them in a shaft of gold. Andruil, blood and force, save us from the time this weapon is thrown. Your people pray to You. Spare us the moment we become Your sacrifice."

There is a brief image of an elaborate golden spear, glowing with unbearable heat. Then it fades.

According to the codex, Andruil indeed possessed a spear, at least according to the Song to Sylaise...but if she possessed this weapon of immense power why is she known for her bow everywhere else in the lore?

I theorise Falon’Din and Andruil were close allies once (I will elaborate more on this in a separate post) and the spear in Falon’Din’s hand was originally Andruil’s.

Knowing that Andruil became known as the goddess of sacrifice, and that Falon’Din began wars to amass more worshippers, the spear may have been crafted to solidify an aliiance between them, or Falon’Din may have obtained it from Andruil through more sinister means. All of this is wild speculation of course, but given that spears are not a common occurrence in DA I’m inclined to believe there is a link between the two.

The Falon’Din statue in DAO is also mirrored by a similar statue with fuller wings and four arms (above).

Given the fact these statues are so similar yet in many ways different, I believe the statue with four arms represents Falon’Din’s “twin”, Dirthamen, also known as the keeper of secrets. 

These winged statues together may even represent D+F as one being or the opposite sides of the same coin, simply because the sculptures seems akin to a diptych or paired artwork. 

Interestingly, the promo art for DA2 featured a tall, menacing monster in the deep roads which looks eerily similar to either one of these statues.

Creepier still is the fact that a modified version of the Falon’Din statue can be found at the Temple of Sacred Ashes. 

This is the only modified version of the statue in the game as far as I know so I feel like this must be significant, especially since we know for a fact Mythal was also venerated at this location based on the floor mosaic we see when fighting Corypheus. 

Note the slight smile and those teeth. And those eyes... 

 The modified face actually reminds me a lot of the spirit puzzle in the deep roads on the way to find the Anvil of the Void. Coincidence, given the fact Falon’Din was a master of the dark and featured wings of death? hmmm....

Dirthamen and Falon’Din’s separateness and togetherness may also be hinted at through the rather memorable feature of Dirthamen’s four arms which are echoed throughout all three games.

If you subscribe to the theory that Envy and Nightmare are Dirthamen’s twisted, leaderless ravens in DAI, one of Envy’s most prominent features are its four arms. And personally, I think it’s form looks strangely similar to a varterral, a creature crafted by Dirthamen himself.

The four arms are also seen in the buddha-like statues found in DA2 and DAI. The first of these statues are seen at Sundermount where Merrill & party slay Audacity.

The same statue is seen again at the Altar of Dumat in DA2′s Legacy DLC on the way to free Corypheus.  

The same idol is seen again in DAI at the Din’an Hanin or Knight’s Tomb in the Emerald Graves. 

This place was clearly of great significance as references to this statue are everywhere inside the tomb.

Busts of the head can be found on the walls....

..and they also line the inner sanctum paired with dragon statues depicting Mythal.

All of these sets indicate the statue and what it represents was significant to the ancient elves, particularly as it is also often associated to Mythal.

The same statue is also found in a cave in the Western Approach, called The Thing in the Dark.

This statue is oddly warm to the touch and shivers slightly, as though it might have a pulse.

Nearby the statue are elven artefacts and symbols commonly associated with death. 

Set elements in this cave include an elven stone tablet, lit candles, and these red, stacked rocks.

The red stacked rocks are never explained in DAI, but they are similar in form to an inuksuk, a stone landmark used by Inuits for navigation, as a point of reference, a marker for travel routes, fishing places, camps, hunting grounds, places of veneration, drift fences used in hunting, or to mark a food cache.

Interestingly, the word inuksuk means that which acts in the capacity of a human, or in other words, an imitation human. Which is rather creepy in this context. 

Was Falon’Din more spirit like, and Dirthamen bound to mortal flesh which is why they were sometimes unable to follow each other?

The stone tablets are also interesting because it is a symbol also often associated with death. Places it can be found include Unadin’s Grotto in the Exalted Plains, the Dead Hand, and also in front of that Fen’Harel statue in the Temple of Mythal.

While we’re on the topic of Fen’Harel, know where else we can find the creepy buddha-like face? At the elven ruins in Trespasser at the vallaslin removal mural.

In fact, the mural is lined with veilfire braziers, all of which have the same creepy bust behind it. Interestingly, there is only one bust that does not have a brazier in front of it, and that is the one closest to where you examine the mural. HMMMMM...

The swirls/circles on the statue also remind me of the circles we see on the sentinel elves’ armour.

Whether or not this is a design coincidence or link to Falon’Din is wildly speculative, however the fact that these overlapping circles echoes the symbolism found in elven artwork and sculpture makes me think it is somewhat significant.

===

Part 1 - origins and the four armed statues Part 2 - their alliances Part 3 - the origins of humans

[sunbirddtellsstories]

All of the main characters have a motif

Jack’s motifs are monkeys, dragons, blacks, greys, and especially the color red

Jermaine’s motifs are tigers and solar colors like orange, yellow and red. Maybe white too.

Timber’s motifs are ravens, wolves, the colors blue, black and green, and inuksuks.

[animationandmup]

From June 12-15, the MIFA market will run alongside the Annecy animation festival. Here presented are a few projects that will be pitched. For the entire list, visit: https://www.annecy.org/programme:pitch

-  Beyond the Inuksuk (feature film) by Neil Christopher and Taqqut Productions (Canada): a stop-motion film on the magical world described in Inuit myths and legends

- Golem (feature film) by  Lorenzo Ceccotti and LUCKY RED (Italy): based on the comic book by the same name, this film takes place in a child's mind, the place where a dystopian reality and dreams will clash 

- Linda veut du poulet! (feature film) by Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach (France, Italy): a 2D animated film on buying chicken on the day of a general strike.

- Christopher at Sea (short film) by Tom CJ Brown (USA): a transatlantic journey of solitude, fantasy, and obsession

- A Estrangeira (feature film) by Luiz Bolognesi (Brazil): Helena is kidnapped by Yanomami Indians in Amazonia and struggles with the differences between her Catholic upbringing and the Indians' magical cosmology

- Roona and Marvin (TV series) by Ana Laura Cruz Rodríguez (Mexico): this duo explores Mirovia, scavenge through wreckages and look for ancient objects to survive in their aquatic world

- Junk Pilots (TV series) by Isaac Mogajane (South Africa): taking place in a post-apocalyptic world where all forms of modern technology are outlawed

-  Noé fája (TV series) by Peter VACZ (Hungary): puppet animation about a boy who realises that the only way to get rid of the tree growing from his chest is if he learns to express his emotions 

[romanishin]

red lips

the wall took years to raise. a field of dreams flooded with despair, dried under the killing rays - as far as eyes can stretch, rocks are the dominant sight. the man, last lonely man of earth, he took a axe, a weapon left from forest dreams, and started digging in to find a rocket to the nearest star. of course - lovely reader of this epitome of hope - you would expect that the wall is where is ends. he stands inside, awaiting rain but dying of the thirst, surrounded by the shield against the likes of you. he thought: all is safe; no more sprints until he falls and crawling to the horizon ten feet from . god, was he wrong, mistaken to his core: red lips, the spear's tip, it touched the rock in the wall and made it crumble like a kid's inuksuk meant to ward off spirit of love and war. the man realized: the wall was to keep things inside. and you smiled in reddest hue at a man averting eye as to avoid the shame. did you read, in that moment of clearest need, all which you could? this poem was in there, and so were many more. did you see a store, lost behind the dust in the vitrine, where beautiful life's bought with just a touch? it is hard to see on avenue with other stores, where touch buys reflections in the mirror of the shallow men; people touch only as a means to confirm that they are here. yes, you saw, and read, the book of million touches worth a tale, each meant to feed even if the man fades. did you see that inspiration means a sacrifice - a reason to dissipate into the unknown with a smile? maybe, you only saw the lust: - lips to explore as if in virgin lands, - kiss to drink what overwhelms? nothing is "meant to be", it is a tool for weak men to justify their past, but once in a while, some, choose to build from an invasion by the red lips - like men are meant to be - gods. where was this story headed? i do not know. but for the sake of harmony, let it end with tragedy and comic flare: the spear broke the wall and the water which red lips brought flooded his soul. the force with which she entered flung him outside, and he quickly patched the hole with a perfectly fitting rock, so, now, and forever more, he is sitting outside watching her stuck inside his fragile fort; she begs him to let her go, but he won't - desert makes cruel men of us all. - you can leave when an oasis blooms inside these walls.

[nicocathcart]

ᐃᓄᒃᓱᒃ or Inuksuk "that which acts in the capacity of a human" a Canadian Inuit landmarking , and symbol of friendship. Illustration Piece for the #getluckyartshow at @districtlocal in #Vancouver. Gouache, Ink, and gold leaf on paper envelope. Thinking about my country in the cold, and missing friendly faces from home. Might need to paint another one of these in oil. #CANADA #painting #illustration #gouache #inuksuk #goldleaf #red

[lairofdragonagelore]

The Lost Temple of Dirthamen - Part 2

 The Lost Temple of Dirthamen is an ancient temple dedicated to the elven god Dirthamen. It is located in the northeastern Orlais, off the northern coast of the Waking Sea. Along the years many treasure hunters went after the wealth inside it, but they never returned. 

[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]

 Sanctuary

The Sanctuary is a big chamber of the similar dimensions than the petitioning chamber in the Temple of Mythal.

When we enter we see four Humanoid Mythal statue in the centre. The walls at the sides of the entrance display different enigmatic details: a winged, insectoid halla; an elvhen warrior, a lizardman, and two mosaics: a dual mosaic of Falon'Din in a usual green colour, and Ghilan'nain's mosaic in RED.

The Sanctuary is made of two levels, as most elven temples are: on the lower level there is a pool with elven owl statues, where several altars are arranged in a semi circle. The first floor is collapsed and falling apart, impossible to access to.

Let's see each of these walls and the information they contain:

The lizard man painting shows the note of the dead mercenary that I already spoke about.

The wall beside the lizard displays a red mosaic. This mosaic was such a pain in the neck for me. I could not see it in my game due to the darkness of this Temple, and the screenshots were also too dark. Until I realised the reason of its darkness was because the colour itself: unlike the other mosaics which appear in light green, this one is dark red. I had to take a screenshot blindly and then break its saturation and brightness to make it visible at least. That's the reason of the bad quality image above. On the second image, I overlapped the Ghilan’nain's mosaic, to be sure there were no alterations hidden with the darkness. And as it can be seen, there are none, the only odd thing is that the mosaic is too cut off to frame properly the halla.

Behind this mosaic we find the Path of Secrets, where we find another painting of a lizardman marked by an elven owl statue. The implications that Ghilan’nain is hiding a secret of arcane nature, keeps bringing a lot of connections with The Horror of Hormak.

Along the temple we collect pieces of the codex The Lost Temple of Dirthamen, which explains how a small group of disciples of Dirthamen were informed by their High Priest that Dirthamen was gone. They fear their secrets can be extracted from them, so they despair. Their High Priest tries to comfort them, telling them they are safe as well as their secrets, but they [as disciples of the arts of secrets] can see his deception: apparently, the High Priest wants to perform a ritual using the blood of the disciples to trap them all in this temple [it's our blood he seeks, a sacrifice dark and unholy, a prison of evil to keep us in and all else out]. The next stanza seems to mean that the ritual was meant to remove the secrets that the disciples knew, but they rebelled, performing a counter-ritual in which they dismembered their High Priest and bounded him with them into the dark silence of this temple.  

What I like to highlight here is that there is a repetition of the bounding process all over the game DAI:

It's quite clear that the High Priest and disciples of Dirthamen have a deep knowledge in bounding rituals. They seem to be made out of blood magic as well. 

In the context of DAI, we are presented with another bounding process: the one that the Grey Warden perform via blood magic to raise an army of demons. This knowledge was shared by Corypheus.

That Corypheus knew about it means that he potentially learnt it from elven magic [as we know a lot of Tevinter magical knowledge ended up being a co-opt from elvhen knowledge when the empire was falling apart] 

Recently, in Tevinter Nights: The Horror of Hormak, we have access to information that allows us to speculate that Ghilan’nain was responsible for the magic that transformed creatures into chimeras and bounded creatures with different souls to one body. Therefore, her mosaic in this Temple could potential imply that she also knew the secret of some powerful magic related to a bounding process.

All this means that, potentially, the elvhenan may have always known means to bound people, spirits, and bodies.

So, with all these bits of information and speculations, I like to interpret that, this temple, showing us a dual mosaic of Falon'Din at the entrance of the main chamber where "Dirthamen's wisdom" is hidden could potentially mean that Falon'Din bounded Dirthamen to his own will. This would explain why Dirthamen's favoured animals are blurred with Falon'Din's and why their tales always blend one another. 

Sadly we don't know when this event in the Lost Temple of Dirthamen happened. We know this tragedy was triggered by the disappearance of Dirthamen, which is not clear if it was caused by Solas with the creation of the Veil or before that time. If that were the case, it could also justify the hypothesis that Dirthamen had been bounded to Falon'Din's will long time ago. Why would Falon'Din do that to Dirthamen? Solas told us that Falon'Din’s vanity was enormous, and it was implied that he would take any measure to increase the amount of worshippers [even to challenge Elgar’nan, according to old codices], so maybe acquiring the secrets of Dirthamen could have helped him in that endeavour. However, all this falls in the field of speculation.

Rooms accessible from Sanctuary

Through the Sanctuary we have access to more chambers where we keep collecting the pieces of the High Priest of Dirthamen. Each time we take a piece, we see a Fade-rift effect.

In these extra rooms and corridors, we have access to more chambers that have little difference to all what we have been seeing so far: all funerary, crypt-like chambers behind locked gates.

There are only 2 rooms that have some interesting content, one beside the other:

One of these rooms, called the chamber of torment, is guarded by two sitting Fen’Harel. At their base they have books, an elvhen box, and these white objects with a wing-shaped symbol on it that are presumed to be Vallaslin ink.

The other room is marked with the elven owl statue, where we find the Path of Secrets.

This path is behind the red mosaic: the path of secrets. It’s marked with an elven owl statue. The wall at our right displays the painting of a lizardman.  In front of it, there are inuksuit, including the Red inuksuk. We also see ragged Dalish hide and urns.

If we climb up the stairs, we find another Red inuksuk on the handrail, the Archer statue, and more inuksuit that keep updating the codex of the Lost Temple of Dirthamen. Usually the Archers keep pointing out a place where to go, but in this case they only mark a veilfire brazier. 

Complete the Ritual

Once all the parts of the body are collected we can go to the Sanctuary and place them on the altars.

When we approach the main desk in this ritual configuration, we notice that the desk is made of a dark metal, and has a picture of a pointy tower. Both elements look more like Tevinter style than Elvhen. 

The same object can be found in the Fade, at the sides of the eagles which gives us access to a place with many claws of Dumat and Tevinter objects [For more detail, see the post related to Fade].  

Finally, here we have the last part of Explorers in the Temple (stained notes). It explains that the mercenaries saw Gretien running away from the Temple at night. They assumed it was because the nightmares caused by the “voices”. The same ones he used to dismiss, according to previous notes. Not wanting to waste months of works, the mercenaries attempt to finish the ritual and get money from the treasures in this place. As the codex continues: these mercenaries deciphered Lord Gretien's notes and performed the ritual without him. They also comment that the scholar reached to the conclusion that this ritual was a way to "reassemble" the High Priest. This mercenary clearly is not a specialist in Elven culture, we can agree on that, yet he finds it unsettling that the elves would dismember their own priest. We are seeing a side of ancient elven culture that, curiously, looks like very Tevinter.

Since these notes have dried blood, it is clearly that they performed the ritual, summoned the demons, and got wounded. By the body found beside the entrance to the Sanctuary, we can be sure that most of them perished or escaped to never come back.

Once the ritual is completed, we see a rift appear, summoning the Highest One, who is now a despair demon. I assume the rest of the demons that come with him are the disciples. They mutually bounded themselves to this Temple.

Anyway, once we kill the demons, we have access to the main chamber of this place [the main door is decorated with two Falon'Din's mosaics].

  This room shows the elements of an Elvhen Temple that I was expecting:  golden elvhen patterns on the door frames and walls, beige mosaics, gigantic imposing golden statues, in this case of a pair of Howling Fen'Harel [I had to modify the brightness of some images to make them a little more visible at the expense of making them look uglier]. There are more inuksuit around [which makes sense if we think in what Solas told us about Falon'Din: He would massacre a lot of people in wars to increase his worshippers out of vanity, so his Temple may look more like crypts. At this point I keep wondering why this temple is called "of Dirthamen". Nothing here makes reference to him, but everything seems related to Falon’Din.

These statues are made of gold. It's strange that the main chamber of the Temple of Dirthamen [or Falon'Din] has central figures of wolves. Would that mean that there are more wolves in the elvhen pantheon than Fen'Harel?

Where the loot lays there is a bigger mosaic on the floor, displaying a sun, surrounded by circles and its centre has a similar asterik-shape to that one found in the Mural of the titans. As if this were the representation of an elven-orb or a titan's heart.

In a corner we find a book with a cover I don't think has much of interest. We find an elvhen box and that strange white item that apparently it's ink, according to the game files.  We also find some Dalish elements [the fence made of hide] that may have belonged to some ancient Dalish explorers.

The loot is a shield called Dirthamen's Wisdom, what the scholar Gretien was looking for. It has a very Tevinter style, and its description says that the power contained in this shield is so great that prevented the item and the temple from falling apart due to decay. This implies that the Temple will fall soon after we remove this item from here.

The loot is a box with a symbol we had seen in the elven funerary lid.

The Lost Temple of Dirthamen: Part 1 - Part 2

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore ]

[barkingbonzo]

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[hoser67-blog]

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[bretkelly-blog1]

PART 2.. Of the ones I never posted from 2016 Best wishes to everyone in the coming year.. If I missed anyone yesterday HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017 🎉 1) From Ontario Place when we got to go for the Mac and Cheese festival.. We got stuck in a ☔ rainstorm.. That's it approaching from the lake 2) One from the subway 🚉 when you get the older train car with the red seats 💺 and no air conditioning on a hot day in July 3) I posted so many sunsets 🌇 but this is one with one of those wind 💨 turbines 4) The Inuksuk from back last January created by an Inuit artist from Nunavut.. (apparently one of the largest in North America) 5) Cute dog 🐶 waiting for its owner.. They are always watching and looking and hoping. 👀 6) Just liked the way the shadows made that shape showing off the 🎨..(there's some really wild & strange graffiti on the walls here) 7) From February. 1 of those pink and purple sky evenings 🌌 .. But your standing outside a dollar 💵 store 🏪 8) From April.. I think I posted the video..but it's a guy petting a dog 🐶 sitting on an E-bike in front of the mall (there's a popular account on here that just makes fun of this mall.. It's not an upscale mall.. it has a diverse group of people & shops.. Why make fun of that .. I dunno?! .. ). . I could probably do several more parts of these from 2016.. But I won't.. Gotta look towards the future and not dwell on the past . 🙌🎉 ______ #symmetrykillers #explore #exploretocreate #justgoshoot #symmetry #dogstagram #inuksuk #thecoolhunter #hotshotz #nofilter #symmetricalmonsters #graffitiporn #streetsoftoronto #city_explore #torontoscenery #6ixwalks #createandcapture #theimaged #sunsetporn #lookup #heatercentral #layout #bestof2016 #collage #themint #views #minimal #minimalism #viewsofthesix #dogs (at Toronto, Ontario)