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lairofdragonagelore · 1 year

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Murals in DAI: Red Lyrium Idol

This mural has been shown in Dragon Age Official Teaser Trailer - 2018 Game Awards.

[This post is part of the series “ Murals in DAI ”]

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

The context of this mural is unknown to us. We don’t truly know if it was Solas who painted it. We can only guess it was he because it’s a piece of Nick Thornborrow who usually draws Solas’ murals, and because in general the context of the game allows us to assume so. We don’t know where it’s located either.

The Background

As we saw in Murals in DAI: Basics, the inverted triangle seems to be used to represent the Fade, and it’s the symbol we see in the majority of the places in this piece that are not burning. I imagine that this may represent 1) the destruction of the Veil [or the barrier that surrounds the Black City), or 2) the “surface” of the Sphere of Fire [The Death of a Titan] that has been contained with vines which have worn-out over time. In any case, the fire is what overtakes the image, putting the Fade symbol on a secondary plane.

There is also a line in the background that seems to suggest that there is a mountain, and what we are seeing is happening at the feet of a mountain. This could also mean a metaphor to link this image with the one related to the sphere of Fire in “The Death of a Titan“ [remember that the right side of that mural shows mountains that may suggest connection with the Waking World or even with The Horror of Hormak].

The Panels

Here, we find a scene that I think is happening in the Fade and against the barrier that isolates the Black City. The background, beyond the fire, shows inverted triangles in a greenish-grey plain colour. The place is set on fire, potentially connecting this scene with the fire sphere in “The Death of a Titan” or simply implying Solas is destroying this danger enclosed in the barrier of the Black City.

I can’t say if this mural shows one or two panels. All the elements are so well integrated that I think the wolf, the elvhen, and the tree are in the same space than the white sphere with the idol inside. The whole scene seems to be a big allegory of what is going to happen. I was not sure if we should consider the white sphere as an independent panel, since the wolf and the elvhen seem to be focused on the white sphere. So, instead of trying to understand this mural in “panels”, I will explore each of the elements in it and see how they integrally connect each other at the end.

The Vhenadahl

The vhenadahl is a tree with a lot of mystery in the DA games. It’s naively presented as a cultural element kept by the city elves to remember Arlathan and the “Old Ways”. These trees are, curiously, painted in red with white lines and swirls raising up from their roots, which has a strange interpretation for the player who knows about the codex of “The Death of a Titan”: Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads.

In DA2, Marethari Talas has a very focused cinematic when she enters the alienage and looks at the vhenadahl, which is a bit strange. It can be considered as a scene that shows how the city elves respect her as a Dalish, but it’s curious that so many seconds of a cinematic were given just for that, in a game that has cut a lot of content with more plot relevance.

In The Masked Empire, Felassan makes a very brief comment about this tree too:

Felassan paused as they came to a great tree in the market square. The vhenadahl was decorated with ribbons, and the dirt around it was marked with sticks stuck into the earth and decorated with bits of bright cloth hung as offerings. “The tree of the People,” Briala said. “Your people.” “And yours.” Felassan looked away. “Though you don’t think so.” “It’s a nice tree,” Felassan said. “Let it just be a nice tree.”

It’s not clear the implication of such comment, although I think it’s not a good one for an elvhenan. He seems to imply these tree are “not nice” at all for the ancient elvhen but they are “the Tree of the people”, understanding “the people” as the city elves. This means the elves who came after the fall of Arlathan, the mortal elves, the elves that ended up rescuing a slave culture thinking it was their original elvhenan one. If the Aravels were ships to transport slaves to centres of experimentation [The Horror of Hormak ], and the Vallaslins were the brands of the noble elvhen over their slaves, there is a big chance that this tree has another horrifying meaning that has nothing to do with the original culture of the elves [or maybe, ironically, it is another representation of the “old ways”, like the aravels and the vallaslins are]. Personally, I think it’s related to the vines that covered the “fire sphere”, but I will talk about it later.

In the elven folklore that barely survived, we have some city elf songs that may still have some weak connection with the truth of the real function of these trees for the Elvhenan:

In the original song of Where Willows Wail, the presence of the words vhenadahl seems to be related to the loss of immortality and the loss of the ability to dream into the Fade. The translation is quite rough to understand it, but it seems to have an elvhen slave origin [it speaks of trying to lead despite the worn-out brands of the vallaslin] and a conflicting relationship with their freedom [they are committed to it, but they describe this freedom as inevitable and troubling]. This way of speaking about freedom makes me think in Abelas and his people: servants of Mythal are more than mere slaves, they worked hard to become her servants, so they embrace this submission to Mythal as a duty, as a purpose, and as a service, so only in this case I can see why freedom may be troubling. This interpretation also makes sense to some degree since the original song has been found in the Temple of Mythal, therefore it must have been written by Abelas’ people, after all.

If we see the original song, the first line use a negative structure [Tel’, Bana] with the name of the tree. The line translates, in my opinion, something closer to “never again the tree” [bellana= forever, banal=never]. They also speak of “abel revas” [abel= sorrowing, revas=freedom]. This encourages the idea of a freedom that has caused more sadness than anything: we know this applies for the Mythal’s servants who had suffered since she died. Maybe the tree is related to this event of losing Mythal too, so they say “never again the tree”. If we combine this with the codex Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads, there are three elements that seem to be connected: the death of Mythal, the appearance of the vhenadahl, and the danger unleashed by the Evanuris that was the last straw for Solas. [Explaining my thinking process: Solas says to the Inquisitor that the Death of Mythal was the reason that made him banish the Evanuris; the codex seems to imply it was something else, more horrifying, and probably, connected with her death. Then, the Mythal’s servants suffer their freedom--because Mythal is dead--while sharing some mid-negative sentiment towards the vhenadahl. Hence, maybe the vhenadahl is also connected with her death and the “horrifying thing” that the Evanuris did. This is why I kind of connect these three events with one another]

The most curious detail in the song is that the last part of it is translated using the word "war”, but the original lines does not use the same word at all for that [in fact, we can’t detect any words that may mean “war”], so I feel there is something wrong in this translation or something tricky. The glory and the people were not lost to the war, but to something else which is not a word that can be repeated in both lines. And this “something else” that made lost the people and the glory is related to the “winning/failure” of the Wolf.

I imagine the fact that the translation of win/fail is so extremely ambiguous because the elven language uses a very ambiguous word on purpose, since the creation of the Veil--the only solution that the “wolf” found--caused a situation that was a win and a loss at the same time. But I still have my doubts about the “war” part. Sadly, DA series tends to be a bit inconsistent in their elven language and they do not provide much vocabulary about it to have a better guess. Maybe is “am” war? Unlikely, it should be an independent word.

There is another iconic tree in DAI related to the irony of a peace tree turned into a war table. There is not much said about it than this. We can assume it may have been related to the Elvhenan simply because Skyhold was part of a series of fortress under the command of Fen’Harel, so far we can guess, but the construction of this table may have happened at any moment of the history of Skyhold, which has been handed over other races such as dwarves and humans. The symbols we see in the book Art of Inquisition suggest little.

The tree symbol on this stone can loosely be related to Vallaslins such as Mythal’s [which is too asymmetrical to be related to this one] or the superior part of the vallaslin of Falon’Din [which is symmetrical, but makes no sense for it to be here]. In general, I hardly see any historical link with the elvhenan and a supposed truce [so far, we were not informed that such a thing ever existed]. Plus, if this stone is related to the time of the Elvhenan, it should be related to Fen’Harel, who seemed to have used this fortress as part of his network of operations all over the Waking World and the Fade in his opposition to the Evanuris. So, in general, there is little to say with respect to this tree and I will proceed to discard it from now on when talking about the vhenadahl.

Another connection that I can make with trees and Elvhenan is the disturbing codex A Flowering Imago, which doesn’t show a tree but a vine. Through the codex found on the mural of “The Death of the Titan” [Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads], we know that a “sphere of Fire” was contained by using vines. I’m not sure how much these vhenadahl can be considered “vines” [or maybe its roots can be described as such], but maybe through them and in combination of both previous codices, we may be hinted a subtle connection between Uthenera [which seems to be connected with the vines via A Flowering Imago], and a power to control or restrain a danger underground. Of course this concept is super loosely for my taste, but it’s impossible to say more than this without turning it into a wild speculation.

In one of the last peeks/trailers that showed some DA:D images, we have seen that it may exist an extra meaning to these tree, since one of them appears in an ominous way.

In that image we can see a tree similar to the ones found in the Exalted Plains, surrounded by some Dwarf with long limbs statues and a lot of funerary urns that were used in Ferelden buildings as well as in Elven ruins. The tree seems to be covered by an ignited vine that reminds us a lot to the codex Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads, where the vines cover a red sphere and the runes worn-out over time [associated with anger and fire] as a way of preventing a disaster.

In our exploration of the Exalted Plains [a place that was supposed to have ancient Elvhen buildings such as the Dead Hand or the Citadelle du Corbeau, but were retaken long ago by ancient Dalish around the time of Halamshiral/before the Exalted March against the Dales], we see many big trees with corpses hanging from them. I’m not so sure how many of them could be considered as consequence of the current War of the Lions [Celene vs Gaspard], or as remnants of the time of the Dalish Kingdom and the Exalted March that separated the elves into city elves and the different Dalish clans. If the ancient Dalish got some symbols right [like the wolves as protectors] maybe their interpretation of these trees could have some hint closer to the truth than the modern city elves have.

As a last link to the vhenadahl, we should not forget that Mythal seems to be related to a tree symbology deeply if we take into account her Vallaslin, so the vhenadahl may be related to her, who represented justice and motherly kindness, but we need not to forget that she also had a clear side of Vengeance and Revenge as we learnt in the Altar of Mythal [A detail that has disturbed me a lot because makes Elgar’nan as another aspect of herself instead of being another Evanuris]. Mythal is also related to the Uthenera Chamber we saw in the Deep Roads, Lower Walkways, so we find another soft link again between Mythal, tree roots=vines, and Uthenera.

So, if we keep in mind all these details, and return to the concept art of the vhenadahl, and use the symbols we have gathered along the games such as the swirls [check Murals in DAI: Basics], one could be inclined to think that these trees represent something that absorbs a red danger underground, maybe even controlling it. This power of control may be related to lyrium or Fade [swirls] which is also compatible with the idea of being related to Uthenera too. Once again, we can see the subtle link between this iconography and a “vine covering a fire sphere” from the codex Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads. All this also seem to be potentially related to Mythal and her death.

Considering all this context, we return to the mural:

The tree we see at the left of the mural looks a bit thorny. If we can link this to a subtle interpretation of a thorny vine we know via Murals in DAI: Basics that this is a symbol related to darkspawn and the Blight.

It’s also true that this tree has no painted trunk, but we need to remember that only city elves paint their vhenadahl. These tree represent something more ominous to any elvhenan elf.

With the details explained above, I’m inclined to think that this tree may be related to containing and controlling a danger described in codices as a “sphere of Fire”. Its roots can be aesthetically interpreted as vines, controlling the danger underground. Via A Flowering Imago, we can relate vines with Uthenera. The vhenadahl may be related to lyrium, Fade, and potentially Uthenera in an unknown way so far. In this mural, it is suggested that the tree is on fire as well, unable to control the “thing that will destroy the world” after aeons passed [Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads]: Its protective power has worn out. Since the vhenadahl may represent the last barrier containing the “big danger”, Solas’ figure steps forwards to take actions.

The Elf and the Wolf

The elvhen figure, who seems to be Solas, has red eyes, same as the black wolf in the mural. Red eyes usually are a representation of anger, which in this case, and inside the context of having absorbed Mythal, could be interpreted as Solas acknowledging and indirectly working to accomplish Mythal’s revenge. I mean, I don’t think his main goal is to avenge Mythal, but his plan of destroying the Veil and fighting the banished Evanuris will have consequences that will fit such revenge.

We know Flemeth had decided to avenge Mythal, to give her “a reckoning that will shake the very heavens”, but she also agreed to give her power to Solas, because, most likely, she may have known that this revenge would be accomplished nonetheless through his plan as a side effect.

The elvhen figure is wearing a black robe with a symbol [a stylised dagger mark] that looks similar to the one I found in the Dorian’s tarot card. It’s still a bit different to the strange “dagger” symbol from the mural “The Creation of the Veil”. I really can’t guess with some decent justification what this symbol may imply. I didn’t see it in any other context/drawing of Nick Thornborrow.

The red circle behind the elvhen figure seems to be a halo, since it’s centred in his head. It could be a representation of Divinity [in a sense that it’s a halo, which is a symbol always related to sanctification and divinity] but filled with anger [since it’s red] so my guess is that this red halo may represent what Solas has absorbed with Flemeth’s powers: the duty to accomplish Mythal’s revenge alongside his plan of destroying the Veil and get rid of the sealed Evanuris.

The black wolf has red eyes and some parts of his fur show the swirly details that the statue of the Howling Fen'Harel statue displays, so this wolf is Fen’Harel, the guardian/protector.

Due to its grim-looking and the splashes of black ink around him and Solas [very similar to Solas’ last tarot card which shows black tendrils feeding the towering black wolf behind] it can also be associated with the Demon of Regret from the short story Callback from Tevinter Nights. This wolf in the mural can be a representation of Fen’Harel but also of this demon that Solas has been feeding since the day he created the Veil. It has a colossal size because that’s the amount of regret Solas has gathered in his long life.

Curiously, the ground where the elvhen figure is walking on looks like a part of a sphere or piece of land set on fire. Its border seems to show a certain kind of “dashed” line that we can interpret as a worn-out Veil-like barrier that we had talked about in other posts.

What if this piece of ground is a representation of the sphere of fire as well? Solas may be walking on the sphere of Fire that floats in the Fade [metaphorically speaking, this is art after all].

The white sphere and the Red Lyrium Idol

I always made a soft link between Solas’ words at the end of Trespasser with the murals “The Death of a Titan” and its codex Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads: the reason why he banished the Evanuris was “the death of Mythal”, but we also know it was more than that; it was about preventing the “release of something that would put at risk the whole world” [that it is implied in that codex] and that Solas kept in secret so nobody would be tempted to use it ever again [or maybe he kept it in secret so it would not be reflected in the Fade as well, and any reflection may be sealed inside the Black City]. In that sense, the Red Lyrium Idol seems to be the synthesis of both concepts in this image.

Due to the structure of this mural, the dashed border, and all our study of the iconography of the Veil in Murals in DAI: Basics, we can conclude that this white sphere with the idol represents something dangerous, and likely, related to all the symbols we saw that exist inside this kind of barrier in previous murals: Black City, red Lyrium, and Evanuris or pride creatures.

This circle has the same border we saw in other murals [ Murals in DAI: Basics]. It represents a strong barrier, usually the one that forbids the entrance to the Black City, where neither dreamers nor spirits can reach to. This circle contains a danger: the red lyrium idol.

The similarity of this idol with Mythal were explored in the post Red Lyrium Idol, and seems to coincide with Solas’ claim that the Evanuris were banished because the Death of Mythal [idol] and the whisper in the codex Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads [potentially the red lyrium]. We need to highlight that the idol seems to represent the death of Mythal thanks to some common elements both images share like the spiked crown and the presence of a ring that looks like a Golden Ring [Elvhenan symbol].

Since this sphere is white, and it’s behind the wolf figure, it has an extra potential interpretation of a moon, but it’s not clear how much importance this has or how this affects Fen��Harel. The presence of the moon inside the DA lore has never been important, and it’s barely related to Elvhenan so far the games/books showed us. I know that the Dalish have some lore associated with it: Andruil is the sister of the “moon” [Andruil: Goddess of the Hunt], which may mean that the moon is Sylaise: the Hearthkeeper, but like I always say, this is extremely unreliable, and without another source that would guide us to see where the hint of truth lays, it’s usually a waste of time to make speculations only based on these legends.

Two of the seven semi-circles in here are still glowing in gold, meaning “divinity alive” or “god-like power” still alive. Inside of them there is an asterisk symbol. This may mean--if all our previous conclusions in murals like “The Creation of the Veil” or “The Death of a Titan” were correct--that the (power of a) "heart” of the Titans/ elvhenan orbs are related to the last archdemons: Moon-head creature and Beetle-head creature.

Thanks to one of the last trailers of DA:D, we see that the two semi-circles which are still active are related to the symbols of the creatures that appeared in the last mural of DA:D : the two remaining archdemons [further explanation about them in the post “The Destruction of the Veil”]

Integral conclusion

If we assume that this scene is happening in the Fade, according the inverted triangles in the background, Solas would be walking, metaphorically speaking, on the fire sphere related to the codex Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads. The vhenadahl seems to represent the worn-out mechanism that was protecting the world [green vines] from the danger inside the fire sphere [we can assume that its roots can also be seen as vines, which are restraining this ancient danger underground]. It’s not clear if the vhenadahl has a relationship with lyrium and Uthenera processes even though there are some codices that may show a soft subtle link to one another.

Solas walks in front of the vhenadahl since this last barrier has fallen and now all depends on Fen’Harel/Solas to fix the world, remove the Veil, and deal with the sealed Evanuris and the biggest danger that the world has ever faced for good.

Solas brings with him the ire of Mythal [red halo] while the black wolf also seems to join efforts against this battle, although it could also be a mere observer as he keeps feeding on Solas’ regrets. It’s not clear what function the big black wolf has in this mural. We can be sure it represents Fen’Harel [thanks to the swirly pattern on its fur] as well as the Regret demon that Solas has been unconsciously feeding since the day he created the Veil [due to the inky splashes around it].

The “big danger” seems to be represented by the white circle that should be containing the Black City. Instead, it has the red lyrium idol in the centre of the white sphere.

This makes a lot of sense when we see the mural “Destruction of the Veil”, where it is revealed that the Black City is contaminated with Red Lyrium too.

This terrible danger is contained inside a dashed lined barrier we have seen before, which has seven gates and/or protectors, where only two are alive now. This reinforces the idea that the contention mechanism of this big danger has been weakened severely. Based on another trailer of DA:D, we can connect symbols to these gates/protectors, which seem to represent the Archdemons shown in the mural “Destruction of the Veil”.

If we contrast this with Solas’ words about the Blight and his disapproval of killing archdemons, it seems to reinforce the idea that the dragons which are considered archdemons during the Blights are part of this mechanism of protection. Hence, there are only two dragons-archdemons protecting the world from this bigger danger.

This white circle also seems to look like a moon. It’s not clear if the moon representation has an important role in Elvhenan lore. We only know based on the unreliable Dalish tales that the moon can be related to Sylaise herself.

The most integral speculation I can make with all these elements is that inside the barrier that forbids access to the Black City even for the spirits, contains something that the Evanuris “unleashed in their lust for power” and it’s related to the death of Mythal. Maybe it’s the very thing that killed her [remember it’s hard to kill an Evanuris, because Solas implies they have some effective immortality going on, but they managed to kill Mythal anyway].

Solas managed to seal this danger, probably with the Evanuris trapped inside too, in order to prevent further spreading, and buried all this underground and under the most cryptic secret so nobody would be ever be tempted to use it, and sealed its reflection in the Fade inside a powerful barrier that keeps Dreamers and spirits away [so, he made a double seal= in the Waking World underground and in the Fade, inside the Black City]. Somehow, all these concepts seem to be represented in the red lyrium idol, which reinforces our suspicion that it pictures the death of Mythal protecting “the people” [further details in Red Lyrium Idol ] and unleashing a disease hard to control, accidentally or on purpose is not clear, as a last gesture of revenge.

#DAI murals #mythal #red lyrium #red lyrium idol #Archdemon #inverted triangles #Vhenadahl #wolf #Solas #fen'harel #veil #the veil #moon head creature #beetle head creature #asterisk symbol #fire sphere #regret demon

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