#dragon age black codex

[thedaswolves]

More of Black Codex by Matt Rhodes! ❤️

They really did let Solas do all the heavy lifting, and than carry all the guilt. 😭

part 1 | part 3

[thekingofwinterblog]

So we got some artwork for a section of the black codex, the original full history of what actually happened in Thedas history.

I just thought i would go over it.

So we get some insight into how the war between the Elves and titans looked, and how an actually awake titan looked like.

We also learn that though the Elves modelled themselves on Humans, they actually got the inspiration for wanting bodies by looking at the Dwarves.

Also i honestly dont get why Solas was so obsessed with burning everything in Veilfire to restore the old elvhen empire, pre-veil Thedas looks pretty chill.

Certainly nothing like the hell Cory tried to unleash by keeping the worlds sorta half connected.

Also Early dwarves werent just drones, but seems to have lacked the true spark of individuality, just tending to the titans.

Most importantly, as we'll cover below, All The titans power was sealed in a little black box.

So... This shot. Here we learn a lot of things.

Firstly if you finished Origins, you will recognize the aura around the square containing the Titans power.

Though it looks calmer, it's the same energy as what explodes out from Urthemiel's corpse after you slay the archdemon at the end of origins, a massive wave of power that surges through the sky.

It recontextualizes the energy that was building up before the explosion. It was the power of the titants finally being unleashed back into the world.

Which in turn explains why the titan under Ferelden began to awaken again, finally getting jolted back up after the breach. The energy was finally free, from from the box, free from the blight.

Secondly we finally get an explanation of how the dwarves ended up underground, and why they shunned the surface so much, having literarily fleed it so long ago to live in the corpses of their creators.

Thirdly... Well it turns out that the people who speculated that the golden/black city was Arlathan wasn't entierly off... Cause it seems that whatever the hell the city actually was, the seat of the maker, a relic of some older civilization, or actually made by the Elves after all, the city's original location was in the aky ABOVE Arlathan.

Meaning the city of Arlathan was founded BELOW the place where the Evanuris kept the box.

That is... interesting.

What i also find interesting is that there is a clear disconnect between the buildings we see here, and the buildings of actual ancient elvhen architecture we see everywhere else.

Clearly there was a MASSIVE shift at some point.

From this, I can see two possibilities.

1. If the Golden city was indeed made by the ancient elves, then it remained as a monument of this early style, a more "primitive" and experimental style that the elves eventually abandoned, but remained in the great prison in the sky.

2. If the Golden city existed before them, and they choose to found Arlethan underneath it as they put the box here for safeguarding, then it is perfectly logical to assume that the Elves innitially modelled their first building style after this monument of power that predated even them, which they may, or may not have known the origins of.

If so, they eventually abandoned the Golden City's architectural style entierly.

Regardless, as Solas notes in Inquisition, the Elves did indeed build palaces in the sky as we see in Veilguard with this entierlg seperate floating city, so it is entierly possible they created the entire thing themselves.

The only question that remains is the chicken or the egg. Did the elves make the golden city and model their future floating cities on it, or did they find it preexisting, and model their later creations on it?

So here we get an actual explanation of how the blight actually began.

Blood magic.

It wasn't just the anger and souls of the titans becoming twisted that created the Blight.

It was the Evanuris, who wanted more power, who used blood magic to enhance the already incredibly mighty and volatile power of the Titans to even greater heights.

THIS was what created the blight as we know it.

What turned the Golden city from a center of power to a prison, but the power was not yet unleashed.

It adds a lot of context to the Evanuris not yet embracing the blight at first, and innitially being weary of it.

They first was terrified... Then eventually decided they needed this power to defeat Solas once and for all.

And the rest is history.

Then next, we get a look into why Solas disliked blood magic.

Turns out the whole binding the Evnaruis and creating the veil wasn't just a blood magic ritual that used their own power to trap them and make the veil... But it also used his own.

And as we see here, whatever the origins of the Golden City, it was THIS ritual, the creation of the Veil, that turned the city black as his little black cube presumably blew up, releasing all the power of the Titans into the now prison of his fellow gods.

The final art piece isnt as interesting, but it does give us some context into the first meeting between tevinter and the Elves.

History of course remembers the Tevniters as the bloodthirsty, slaver imperials that would subjugate the elves... But as we see here, that wasn't quite how it started.

Rather than attacking and enslavging the Elves of this nameless city, the ancient Vints look... Kinda sad.

This wasn't an army that had come to conquer and destroy, probably just an expedition that stumbled unto a massive and brutal slaughter in the Elves civil warring, and looking over a pointless slaugther.

There is a sense here that the Tevinter Imperium didn't necessarily have to go down the path they did... Of course that is not what happened, but it does add some much needed bit of depth to the ancient vints beyond moustache twirling villains.

They CHOOSE to later go down the path of slaver based empire. But it was just that. A choice.

Other than that, there is what we already know, cory and the rest found the city blighted.

All in all though, it's a rather facinating dew pages.

[thenevarranaccord]

From the Black Emporium

Dearest Rook,

We at the Black Emporium value your patronage, and it is with heavy heart that we write to you now, to alert you to the miserable behavior of some of your companions.

The Mourn Watcher refused to lure the wisps of your Lighthouse into a contraption of my invention, to be preserved for eternity. I believe he went so far as to sabotage my device. It is now completely useless.

The Grey Warden refused to part with the griffon for what we consider to be a generous sum, and told me where I could shove my gold. Did you know? I had a magister standing by, ready to miniaturize the creature, and had to send him away. The magister required a hefty deposit for his time, which I was unable to recoup.

And the little redhead was the worst. I had only begun to suggest she allow me a look at the famed crossbow, Bianca, when she pulled out a cheese-knife and threatened to pry me from my chair and toss me into the harbor. In a weighted sack.

Please speak with them. I should hate to see our business relationship suffer as a result of their uncivil manners.

Yours, Xenon.

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

if we could manage to get some of those War Thunder guys into Dragon Age i bet we'd have the Black Codex files within a fortnight

[housecantori]

Every day I wake up and think about how badly I want to read the Black Codex until it makes me shake like a chihuahua and then I go about my day

[sophohno]

former DA writers/devs leak the black codex challenge 2025

[miriani-lavellan]

Shame DA doesn't use an engine like Bethesda's does. The mods and the fan games would be off the charts.

[sailwiththedragonsatdawn]

I’m sorry I just don’t understand the dragon age fandom’s obsession with the Viper, he’s such a nothing character?? “He looks cool!” he looks like a final fantasy character, go play that instead you’ll probably find a lookalike 100 times more interesting than him “He’s played by Matt Mercer!!” also go play final fantasy, they got him playing cooler characters there too 😭😭😭

[lathbora-virann]

I was just going to put this in the tags and then it got too long lol but I literally actually called this months ago???? Like in December??

I think it was just in the tags on a random post, but I straight up said that I thought the darkspawn were actually 'working' for the Titans the entire time. They're connected to the collective maddened Titan dream hivemind—consciously/deliberately working to free them, while unconsciously being physical manifestations of their madness, rage and vengeance.

I'd love to know the specifics of how the very first ones came to be and if the Titans chose to make them or if it was something like a number of ancient dwarves somehow getting blighted and reconnected to those mad dreams? But the darkspawn have been essentially functioning as replacement dwarves, but probably without the level of intelligence and strategy needed to break into the Fade—at least in the beginning. We know from how they were presented in Origins that they did display intelligence and and signs of culture, but they also needed leadership and direction to be able to organise effectively #joinyourunion

So the Titans then went to the early humans because they could only communicate through dreams while trapped in the Fade, and the dwarves were cut off from theirs. I assume the elves would have been seen as the 'enemy' and the kossith/qunari wouldn't have been in Thedas at that point, so neither were a feasible option for the Titans. They were able to use the dragons who became the Archdemons as conduits to communicate, which leads to a thousand other questions.

Both the dragons and the Titans have been referred to as “the blood of the world”, with so much of everything ultimately coming back to lyrium and dragon blood—and we do see here in the art and screenshots that both the Titans and dragons were literally being used as power sources by the Evanuris. Some of the other newly released concept art shows a lot of dragons flying around inside a Titan at “the centre of Thedas”, so at one point we were clearly supposed to explore what the hell the connection is between the two.

There seems to be enough evidence to suggest that at some point in the worldbuilding the Archdemons were originally ancient dragons connected to different Titans, but as guardians? Allies? Enemies? More children somehow? Maybe there was something in the whole shared blood of the world connection that was needed to free the Titans' trapped souls and reconnect them with their physical forms?

That idea could still work with those ancient dragons ending up being conquered and bound by the Evanuris as part of their war with the Titans, so Solas wouldn't be lying—just omitting massive pieces of information which is his usual MO. And speculating wildly, but maybe when the spirits were first becoming the ancient elves, they did initially view the Titans as primordial gods.

I'll end by adding that it felt to me like once the Evanuris became blighted it acted like a parasite or that zombie fungus that takes over ants and moves them to stand where the fungus can spread its spores over the rest of the colony and infect them all. So ironically, once they were blighted, the Evanuris were being manipulated to want what the Titans wanted and do what the Titans needed (i.e. freeing themselves by ripping open the Veil and blighting the world), while unable to see it themselves, believing that they were genuinely creating a beautiful and better world (i.e. another glorious empire for them to rule over again).

Edit to clarify that I do still very much think that the Evanuris could have still been the ones to reach out to the Magisters Sidereal with those dragons as was originally assumed, but that they wouldn't have realised they were doing so on behalf of so much more than just their own self-interest to escape.

Matt Rhodes posted the final concept art of the Black Codex. But the most interesting thing is the notes that go with it.

The false gods decide to release the full power of the titan souls, which have become twisted with madness in their captivity. Solas tries to stop them.

Unable to stop them, Solas instead creates a Veil between the physical world and the magical. He binds the Veil to the blood of the false gods, turning them into the locks on their own prison.

Early humans discover the ruins of the elven empire. Using knowledge scavenged from the ruins, Tevinter spreads across Thedas as a crude copy of the elven empire.

From their prison in the Veil, the spirits of the titans lure power-hungry Tevinter magisters into the Fade to release them. Instead of a city of gold, they find a Black City. The first Blight is released.

So the magisters were originally lured to the Black City not by the evanuris, but by the spirits of titans?

Because this version is different from what Solas told Rook.

[thedaswolves]

Thedas Creation 🥰 Black Codex by Matt Rhodes

I think this was always clear to those who payed real attention to lore and explored lore and all the hints more deeply, not just on surface level of game story. still so fascinating to see it all spelled out like this, this artwork is STUNNING!!!!! man what I would give for a game set in creation days of Thedas and Titan War and early Arlathan 😭 But only if it was done by all the original devs and writers ofc. so yeah... we can dream.

part 2 | part 3

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard spoilers under cut. (Concept art by Matt Rhodes)

Matt Rhodes: "Black Codex (2015) - 1/3 Dragon Age had an unreliable history by design. People had an imperfect view of the events that have shaped their world. However, from the very beginning of Dragon Age, there was a secret document refered to as The Black Codex. It held the true history of Thedas. This helped to steer the half-truths, misunderstandings, and lies that shaped the world. The story of the Veilguard was going to reveal so much actual truth, it meant the Black Codex could no longer be a secret. This series of illustrations was a way to explore the major events of Thedas' history, so that we could easily refer to them when designing murals, costumes, architecture, etc... Beat boards like this were meant to be "single frame storyboards" to quickly communicate a big idea. 1) Titans watch over their peaceful garden 2) Dwarves tend to the Titans, like helpful bacteria. The spirits begin to envy their form. 3) The first spirits use Titan material to craft bodies for themselves, becoming the first elves. 4) The titans and elves wage terrible magical war against each other. It only ends when Solas finds a way to tranquilize the titans, severing their spirits from their bodies." [source]

Art by Matt Rhodes.

ArtStation filenames: Image 1 - Black Codex 1 - in the beginning Image 2 - Black Codex 2 - spirits desired corporeality Image 3 - Black Codex 3 - spirits made bodies Image 4 - Black Codex 4 - Solas tranquils Titans

[source]

[gotham-at-nightfall]

Successor Chapter Masters

Black Dragons The Black Dragons is one of the Loyalist Space Marine Chapters created during the “Cursed” 21st Founding; its gene-seed is suspected of having originated with the Salamanders. It was censured by the Inquisition due to the mutation of the Black Dragons’ gene-seed, which causes certain Astartes of the Chapter to develop blade-like outgrowths of bone on the head and forearms.

Exorcists The Exorcists are a highly unusual Loyalist Chapter of Space Marines created during the 13th Founding, the so-called “Dark Founding” which occurred sometime between the 35th and 36th Millennia, before the start of the Age of Apostasy. The true identity of their progenitors are known only to the highest-ranking members of the Ordo Malleus, and details of their creation have been placed under Inquisitorial seal, though it is widely accepted that they were raised from the genetic lineage of Rogal Dorn, and share many of the stoic traits of other Imperial Fists successors.

Soul Drinkers The Soul Drinkers were a Renegade Chapter of Space Marines declared Excommunicate Traitoris by the Inquisition because of their extremely high levels of mutation and obvious corruption by Chaos, yet the Soul Drinkers still considered themselves to be loyal to the Emperor of Mankind, if not to His Imperium. The Soul Drinkers originally believed themselves to be a Second Founding Successor Chapter of the Imperial Fists Legion, only for the Chapter’s Astartes to later learn to their shock after an analysis of their gene-seed by the Apothecaries of the Angels Sanguine that they were actually of unknown origin and Founding.

Lamenters The Lamenters are an unfortunate Loyalist Chapter of Space Marines which, perhaps more than any other Chapter of the present era, seems to have been cursed by a dark shadow that has long determined its fate. The Lamenters’ accursed and haunted legacy seems to have tainted much of what they have achieved and their victories often become bitter ashes in their hands.

Wolfspears The Wolfspear is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter comprised entirely of Primaris Space Marines, created from the lineage of the Space Wolves and raised during the Ultima Founding of ca. 999.M41. Like their ancestral Chapter, the Wolfspear do not conform to the dictates of the Codex Astartes, but instead make use of many of the same customs and organisational designations as the Space Wolves. The Wolfspear’s intimidating pack-hunting tactics permeate every strategic strata of their Chapter combat doctrine. Packs of stealthy killers swiftly destroy the enemy’s vanguard, squadrons of swift vehicles encircle macro-cities, and prowling rapid-strike vessels gut larger spacecraft in the void.

Dark Hunters The Dark Hunters is a Loyalist Codex Astartes-compliant Space Marine Chapter descended from the gene-seed of the White Scars during an unknown Founding. The Dark Hunters hail from the Night World of Phobian, and ever since the Dellrond Campaign, where a single Dark Hunters Battle Company held the entrance to the Cathedral of the Emperor Ossified for five Terran years against the Orks of WAAAGH! Nagrut, the Chapter has had a reputation for being particularly hardy and resolute warriors.

Guardians of the Covenant The Guardians of the Covenant is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and a Successor Chapter of the Dark Angels, thus making it one of the Chapters that comprise the Unforgiven. It is not known from what Founding the Guardians of the Covenant came, only that they too are descendants of the original Dark Angels Legion.

Raptors The Raptors is a Loyalist Space Marine Chapter and a Second Founding successor of the Raven Guard. It has been heavily involved in many of the most recent campaigns of the Imperium of Man, including the Badab War, the Third War for Armageddon and the Taros Campaign.

Mortifactors The Mortifactors is a Loyalist, Codex Astartes-compliant Second Founding Successor Chapter of the Ultramarines, making it one of the Ultramarines’ Primogenitors. The Mortifactors recruited from the austere Feral World of Posul, where the sun never rises on its frigid plains and its population of nomadic tribes are constantly in conflict with one another and practice cannibalism.

By L J Koh

[elgar-nyan]

So something in the post is the Black Codex.

It's apparently canon (2015 Black Codex) Elgar'nan had like normal mage power and stole the SOUL of the titans to become "all powerful" and I'd bet it's canon that he made himself bigger for the final battle because he got paranoid about size over himself and his dragon and used the blight in the same manner he recommended Ghil do so. Except he's not as good so he accidentally gave himself tendrils too and now he's mad.

However, much like the bald headcanon, I reject this canon because he is an actual god in my HC. But It's still Elgy so I still love him.

matt rhodes finally posted the uncropped version of this black codex art 😭🙏

[thenevarranaccord]

Xenon the Antiquarian

I left the Black Emporium empty-handed for two reasons. First: most of the items were priced far beyond what I could afford. Second: I spend most of my short time there trying to sate my curiosity about its proprietor. I found myself stealing glances at the Antiquarian from behind piles of books, between shelves, and at one point, over a basket of mismatched socks. There he sat, petrified, in the center of the Emporium, skin of waxy gray over ancient taut sinew, moaning in a voice so dry and brittle it sounded like the snapping of twigs after a drought.

A girl of not more than twelve scurried to and fro to fulfill his numerous requests. Another patron noticed my fascination and told me that the girl--most likely an urchin rescued from the street--was responsible for the needs of the Antiquarian--feeding, washing, and the like. So impossibly old is he and so fragile his skin, he can only tolerate the barest whisper of touches from the smallest and most tender of his servants.

"Only in this way may he come close to his lost youth," said the man.

I was surrounded by objects of legend, yet none fascinated me as did the Antiquarian.

--From a journal page found in Kirkwall's Darktown, written by an unknown author

[imperator-kahlo]

OK what even is happening with the Crows

I’ve just been trawling through the wiki and World of Thedas for a few hours trying to figure out what we (a) know, (b) can guess, (c) can speculate wildly about the inner workings of the Crows during the Dragon age.

(I am by no means an expert on the lore so please let me know where I have wildly missed the mark).

I'm definitely not trying to propose any kind of fanon consensus, where's the fun in that?! Just trying to figure out a timeline that makes sense to me. Possibly also toying around with a pre-canon Rookanis fic.

Loooong and probably insanely disorganised text post under the cut. I should have been in bed hours ago but I am hyperfixating on this and will not sleep until I hit post.

Spoilers, so many spoilers below: Veilguard, Tevinter Nights, The Silent Grove, Origins, Awakenings, the entire franchise basically.

So, a speculative timeline. Events in black are fairly or very well supported by the lore; events in blue are inconsistent/uncertain in the lore; events in purple are guesses that I can sort of back up; events in red are me throwing a dartboard at the wall.

Note: The wiki puts the events of "Eight Little Talons" in 9:44 Dragon, but I can't find any source for that. I would have guessed a little later, but let's roll with 9:44.

Also, I'm pretty unclear on the guildmaster/grandmaster distinction. I'm just going to say 'head of house' for whoever is in charge of a Crow house, or Talon if they're head of one of the eight Talon Houses.

Blessed Age

8:70 Blessed - Caterina born (she's described as well into her 70s during Eight Little Talons and as around 80 in the data-mined character descriptions for Veilguard, so give or take a couple years this seems right).

9:00 to 9:29 Dragon: House Arainai Shenanigans

9:00 Dragon - Antivan civil war, beginning of the "much maligned" Three Queens era (Codex, History of Kirkwall - Chapter 4). Unclear exactly what happens or over what period of time, but seems like the Crows would be in the thick of things.

9:05 - 9:10 - Caterina maybe reaches Talon status (not First, though). Around 8:98 Blessed would be the absolute earliest she could get there given Teia's holds the record (youngest Talon at 28). But I think Teia was at least three or four years younger than any previous Talon so I'd put it somewhere around here, if not a few years later.

9:12 Dragon - Zevran, aged 7, is purchased from a Rialto brothel by House Arainai. The House is led by First Talon Talav Arainai and described as rolling in coin after the "Three Brides" contract - they purchase 17 other slaves that year, including Taliesen (World of Thedas, vol 2, p. 96). I think based purely on vibes that House Arainai is fairly secure in First Talon position and has been there at least a couple years, probably longer.

9:15ish Dragon - Teia born (she's described as 28 in the data-mined descriptions, but she's already a Talon in 'Eight Little Talons', which says she was the youngest ever to reach the rank at age 28. I'm assuming she got there a year or two before the events of the story. See 9:17.

9:16 Dragon - whoops, sometime over the last four years it all went to shit for Talav Arainai! The House dropped to Second Talon, and he was executed in 9:16 after trying to take back the seat of First. Isadora Arainai takes over, and the House hangs on as Second Talon... for now. Rinna joins House Arainai and immediately works well with Zevran and Taliesen under the mentorship of Eoman Arainai (World of Thedas, vol 2, p. 96). This would be the earliest that Caterina could reach First Talon, but I'm not sure I'd put it this early. I think the latest she could possible reach First would be 9:25ish based on my guesses about House Velardo (see below).

9:17 Dragon - Lucanis born (described as 36 in the data-mined character descriptions. I know I threw out those descriptions for Teia, but I think we can be pretty certain Lucanis is mid thirties).

9:17 Dragon - Teia born. I was going back through Eight Little Talons and my initial read was wrong. Teia is 28 during the events of the story.

9:24 Dragon - House Arainai, having the sort of shitty luck they absolutely deserve, falls entirely out of the rank of Talons when Second Talon Isadora dies. They wallow amongst the cuchillos (minor houses) for a few years (World of Thedas, vol 2, p. 96).

9:22 - 9:27 - House Velardo attempts to usurp First Talon from House Dellamorte? The resulting war kills all of Caterina's children and grandchildren, save Lucanis and Illario. My reasoning here is this: Lucanis says he and Illario would have ended up with Caterina to train, but being orphaned sent them to her younger than anticipated. Zevran was purchased at age 7, so we know Crow training, at least for House Arainai slaves, begins very young. Perhaps the non-slave children of influential house leaders start later, but I would guess not much. So I'm assuming they end up with Caterina sometime between ages 5 and 10?

9:25 Dragon - King Maric is thought lost at sea, but is in reality being held by Third Talon Claudio Valisti in a Crow prison on behalf of a Tevinter Magister, Aurielion Titus.

Side note: I had the same reaction to finding out the Crows have a super-fun torture prison as I did to finding out Weisshaupt has dungeons. Just... why? That feels like mission creep? Does the assassin skill set at all overlap with the prison guard skill set?

9:26 - 9:28 - Eoman takes over as head of House Arainai. He eliminates House Ferragani, which was Eighth Talon, thus clearing the way for Arainai to claw its way back into power. Unfortunately, he needs the support of Third Talon Claudio Valisti to take over the position. Valisti wants Rinna Arainai dead (cult / royal bastard reasons) and Eoman tricks Zevran and Taliesen, her lovers, into doing it. This was a very stupid decision (WoT vol 2, p. 96).

9:30 to 9:43 Dragon: Zevran's Revenge

9:30 Dragon - Zevran, depressed and angry about Rinna's death, bids for the contract on the Warden's life. House Arainai is said to have accepted this contract because they believed Loghain to be the best person to defeat the blight (WoT vol 2, p. 96).

Side note: This sort of, if you squint, reconciles the contract on the Warden's life in 9:30 with the memento found in Veilguard that says the Crows had treaties with the Wardens to fight the "next blight". But also they tried to kill the Warden-Commander in Awakenings, too. I guess one could argue a new blight was unlikely so soon but like. Come on, guys. Is your word to the Wardens worth anything or not?

9:31 - 9:34 - If Zevran survived, he comes back from Ferelden with a spring in his step and murder in his heart (and possibly a Warden on his arm) and wreaks absolute havoc on House Arainai. Eoman is first to go, then like half a dozen more of their top people. The House loses Eighth Talon and falls once more into obscurity. The Crows call Zevran (or an unnamed assassin if Zevran is dead) the "Black Shadow" and speculate that he has allies among the cuchillos (WoT vol 2, p. 96).

9:34 - 9:43 - Where the fuck is Zevran?

9:37 Dragon - Corypheus is freed (Legacy DLC). The Venatori will start to be a thing in the next few years, so Lucanis is going to pick up his nickname between now and, say 9:50 Dragon. I'd put it between 9:45 and 9:49 because of vibes (and because he talks about not immediately specialising in mages. Crows get started very young, but I dunno. I see him starting on mages in his mid twenties because, again, vibes.)

9:38 - 9:40 - Events of The Silent Grove (comic - I haven't read it in a while but I'm throwing it in here for complete-ish-ness). Alistair, Varric and Isabela break into the Crow archive and Velabanchel prison (which side note is a totally heinous operation). Isabela kills Claudio Valisti (Third Talon passes to Ezio Valisti). This, for me, raises the question again: Where the fuck is Zevran (sob). Valisti was implicated in Rinna's death, so either Zevran never found out or he couldn't get to Valisti while he was cleaning house.

9:44 Dragon - Ongoing: We're Entering Our Freedom-Fighter Era

9:44 Dragon - The events of 'Eight Little Talons'. Briefly: Caterina calls all the Talons together to plan for the imminent invasion of the Antaam, but a whole bunch of murder happens. Turns out that Fourth Talon Emil Kortez made deal with the Antaam and was trying to wipe out the Crows' leadership. He was killed by the survivors and Viago suggests--correctly, I think--that Caterina will wipe out the whole house.

The following Talons are killed but it seems like their houses will probably retain their status, with somebody else taking over as Talon:

Dante Balazar, Second

Lera Valisti, Third

Giuli Arainai, Eighth (having only just managed to lift that fucking house back up to Talonship, shame lol)

In addition to Caterina, Viago, and Teia, Sixth Talon Nero Bolivar survives, but he um, isn't much help. I would guess that Caterina, in a pretty strong alliance with Viago and Teia and with all the other Talons being new, might fuck his shit up and try to get someone more solid in before the Antaam invade?

9:44 - ongoing - WHERE THE FUCK IS ZEVRAN???? He can't have taken control of any of the eight Talon houses, because he's not at the summit in 'Eight Little Talons'-- and however much he damaged House Arainai, they've clawed back some power by 9:44. Is there a breakaway faction of cuchillo houses that Caterina won't even dignify with an acknowledgment? Is he not interested in any kind of Crow power and is just fucking shit up for them - we can assume House Valisti has had a lock on Third Talon since at least 9:28 (Claudio or Ezio Valisti pop up periodically in this position), and my guess is House de Riva have held Fifth a decent period of time, but as far as I can tell we know nothing about Second, Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Talon Houses in this period. So maybe Zev is toppling houses left, right and centre? Seems like that sort of instability might have changed Caterina's approach in 'Eight Little Talons', though...

9:51 - Lucanis imprisoned in the Ossuary.

9:51 - Antaam invasion of Antiva, starting with Treviso. The Antaam rebellion begins in 9:44 and is ongoing; the failure of Kortez in 9:44 delayed the invasion somewhat. I wouldn't have thought it would delay it this much, but I'm pretty sure that it happened while Lucanis was imprisoned, right? So since we free him in 9:52 after a year in the Ossuary, the invasion must have been delayed until 9:51? Maybe very late 9:50?

"Conclusions"

(I haven't read the comics in a bit and I know there's some Crow stuff that goes down in there beyond the Silent Grove... but as best I recall its just Teia and Viago running into Varric and Harding, and some stuff setting up Solas and the Antaam. Please let me know if I'm mistaken!)

I think it's safe to say the Crows are in chaos for pretty much the entire first half of the Dragon age: Arainai are causing chaos from 9:16 to 9:25, then they pass the torch to Velardo, whose war against House Dellamorte must have lasted a few years if it wiped out almost all of Caterina's family. Zevran is on a murder spree at least between 9:31 and 9:34, and possibly (much) longer depending on your headcanon.

After, at very best, a decade's peace, 9:44 sees the plot to wipe out the Crow leadership, which fails but does kill half the Talons and lead to the elimination of at least one, maybe two of the Talon Houses. Half a decade after that the Antaam invades.

I've been completely on board with the critiques of Veilguard's portrayal of the Crows, but I think writing it all out like this has helped me reconcile things a little bit? This is a deeply chaotic network of feuding families, and no single Talon is going to have the secure political power to make sweeping changes. Which isn't to say the child abuse that was definitely still occuring in Houses Dellamorte and de Riva during Rook and Lucanis' childhoods is just fine. But it makes more sense to me now that Houses Dellamorte, de Riva and Cantori could have wildly different ideas about slavery and torture prisons than, say Houses Arainai and Valisti--and have extremely limited power to shift the culture of competing Houses. Even the First Talon's position is deeply precarious.

Whew. Good night!

(Just realised as I was tagging that I haven't slotted The Wigmaker Job in anywhere. I thiiiiink Viago mentions in 'Eight Little Talons' that Lucanis is currently in Tevinter for a job, maybe a sly reference to Wigmaker? But I cannot possibly get sucked in any deeper, my dog is losing her entire mind at me STILL being at the computer.)

***

Waking up and editing to add: At some point in her time as a Talon (probably First but I guess maybe not?), Caterina wiped out another house so completely that Teia doesn't even recognise the name, Gaspari, when Viago mentions it in 'Eight Little Talons'. Given House Velardo was the one that made a play for First Talon, this is a whole 'nother big intra-Crows conflict that slots in somewhere on this timeline. Caterina is ruthless, y'all.

***

Editing again a few days later to report that I was flicking through WoT and spotted a WHOLE-ASS ENTRY on Claudio Valisti that I’d managed to miss. I was… not happy. I’m begging you BioWare, no more information. I cannot reconcile it.

Anyway. World of Thedas, vol 2, p 44, has Claudio Valisti taking over from his father as Eighth Talon in 9:34, quickly getting the house to Sixth Talon and appearing to be going places. This appears to contradict p. 96 of the same, which has a Third Talon Claudio Valisti helping House Arainai in 9:28, as described above.

I thought very carefully about tearing the page out, burning it, and forgetting I ever knew this particular piece of lore.

Instead I have decided fuck it, we have a father-son pair here. Senior helped out Arainai in 9:28. His house later fell to Eighth (in my incredibly unwieldy and underdeveloped headcanon this is partly because helping Arainai really pissed off Caterina). Claudio Senior dies in 9:34, Claudio Junior inherits. By the time Junior dies to Isabela in 9:38-40 he’s got the house properly back on track, so the loss of a leader doesn’t destabilise them too badly.

Ezio Valisti is Third Talon in 9:41, according to the Winter Palace announcer in Inquisition, and the house still holds the third seat in 9:44.

(Also edited Teia’s birth year from 9:15 to 9:17; I misread Eight Little Talons. She’s 28 during the events of the story.)

[sha-brytols]

there's this phenomenon i like to talk about in regards to da2 and how i feel like it might shed light on how the game is handled through the writers.

there's banter between bethany and merrill where bethany offhandedly mentions how her father died during the blight.

this banter is talked about a Lot because the clear discrepancy between this line and what we know of malcolm hawke. every other piece of information about him has shown that he died of a mysterious illness before the start of the blight, 3 years before the prologue of dragon age 2. clearly this is a huge oversight from the writers, but How does something that glaringly obvious and wrong even make it to the game? even if we assume that it was just an accident, how do you possibly even write something like that by accident? did the writer behind this line just make up a death for malcolm hawke? why would they do that? and how would this line possibly slip by anyone else who would know that it's wrong and change it?

well. here's what we know about malcolm that is Actually consistent with all the sources:

he came down with a mysterious disease that seemingly came out of nowhere that killed him

no one names or describes this disease

20-30 years prior to this happening, malcolm was involved with the grey wardens, who sent him to the deep roads to help deal with a darkspawn problem

this same darkspawn problem was able to be resolved through the use of malcolm's blood magic.

what i think mostly likely happened is this:

malcolm hawke's "illness" was actually blight sickness that he contracted while helping the grey wardens, and he was able to survive it for the better part of 20 years through the use of blood magic. we know this is possible because of avernus. we also know that malcolm hawke's usage of blood magic Haunted him and he lived with such profound guilt for using it that he beat it over his childrens heads to never ever resort to it under any circumstance.

i bring this up because with this knowledge in mind, that random line that's seemingly out of place suddenly makes a little more sense. suddenly, it's actually a lot more possible to assume that the writer behind this particular banter accidentally mixed up "the blight" with "blight sickness" and everyone who saw it in the writing room or whatever didn't notice because it was still close enough that it didn't register as an inconsistency.

and this lines up with a lot of rumors regarding how lore in dragon age is handled. take this with a grain of salt because i've never seen a source for this, but i've seen it said Lots Of Times in the fandom space everywhere that the lore behind dragon age was never actually written down in one single document (ie that "black codex" that's talked about a lot by the writers is only figurative and not an actual tangible doc LOL), but rather, david gaider just kept it all in his head and was there to consult on lore stuff whenever it came up in the writing process. so this lends to my theory that in the proverbial writers room or whatever, someone said "malcolm hawke died from the blight" which got telephoned to "malcolm hawke died During The Fifth Blight" and slipped by unnoticed.

why am i bringing this up. because i see a Lot of people point to random tiny weird lines from veilguard that don't fit in the larger dragon age canon. like how datv implies humans came first before the other races, or the magic behind the crossroads between elves and everyone else is completely incompatible with how it was presented in trespasser, or how the presentation of harding is very inconsistent from what we've seen from other titan-touched dwarves in previous installments. i think that largely, veilguard is very consistent with dragon age's canon. but because of the way the lore was handled in development combined with how bioware basically nuked half of their writers, the team basically only had their memories of dragon age's lore and the games to draw upon for the creation of veilguard.

as such, a Lot of weird little lore things in veilguard can be chalked up to this, imo, and i can see it from both ways: the player who knows dragon age lore like the back of their hand can look at the little things in veilguard that are weirdly off and it's easy to assume this is another clear symptom of the writers no longer caring about dragon age or its characters. but then you can also look at the weird off lines in veilguard and realize they all make sense when you realize the writers were probably working with only their memory to inform the writing of veilguard, in the same way that a random banter in dragon age 2 can imply a major inconsistency with a character's life, Until you just change a couple words in it.

cus idk as i'm replaying the games again with this new lens of veilguard i suddenly have this thought that, like. a Lot of the stuff veilguard introduces or brings back from the older games has been there all along in one form or another. top of my head: bring alistair with you to the temple in the brecilian forest, and he makes a comment on how it looks oddly dwarven in architecture, despite being clearly an elven ruin. this is an odd detail that never really gets elaborated on or explained, but IMMEDIATELY clicks after playing veilguard and learning about the connection between the first elves and the dwarves. we had that knowledge this whole time, it was just never fully connected until now.

sydney why are you talking about this what the hell does this have to do with anything. i'm glad you asked. absolutely fucking fuckall. i just keep thinking about this as i play through origins and idk maybe someone will read this and we'll all feel a little better about how dragon age ended. who knows.