#this is..... a lot

[jazzmckay]

after much discussion with friends, a lot of wiki and codex reading, throwing spaghetti at the wall, and arranging details in spreadsheet format, i have some up with an approximate headcanon for everything that happened in thedas' ancient history. some aspects im still on the fence about / don't have a strong enough inclination one way or the other to be steadfast in my thoughts, so there's definitely room for adjustment.

spoilers for just about everything, as what little we know canonically is sprinkled throughout. since we know so little and almost none of it comes from a 100% reliable source, all of this is purely headcanon and what i personally think seems viable AND cool. it's not intended to be a hard statement for what i think is the truth

in as close to a coherent order as i can manage:

the titans, the evanuris, and the forgotten ones all come into existence close enough together that there isn't much hierarchy in who was first

the titans are the denizens of the physical world, the others are denizens of the spiritual. the evanuris and the forgotten ones are all spirits of some nature to start with, then make physical forms for themselves -- much like cole did. they have features of both spirits and (im)mortals, and are capable of shapeshifting

magic is EVERYWHERE, including below the ground, where the titans reside, their blood acting as a magical foci

the titans create dwarves. the dwarves have magic

solas is a spirit of wisdom and pride, simultaneously

mythal is a spirit of justice and vengeance, simultaneously

the evanuris lean towards the "spirit" side, while the forgotten ones lean towards the "demon" side, which is not a dichotomy of good and bad, as the evanuris can be corrupted, and the forgotten ones can be righteous. an individual is more balanced when tapping into both aspects. solas is the most balanced, his wisdom and pride tempering and guiding each other

the evanuris are the most powerful elvhen as they were formed from spirit essence itself, while those descended from them have magic but are not usually so attuned to the source of it (ghilan'nain has a remarkably unique power that eventually earns her a place among the evanuris)

there is conflict between the evanuris and the titans, because the titans cause earthquakes that destroy elvhen settlements. the evanuris and the forgotten ones disagree on how to handle this, about the evanuris wanting to dominate all others, and potentially about what applications of magic are "acceptable"

the forgotten ones release their physical forms to become fully spirits again and descend into the void

solas remains somewhat neutral in the conflict. he agrees with the forgotten ones that the evanuris have no right to exert their will over other beings, but he does not agree with some of the practices of the forgotten ones either. he remains, determined to show the evanuris the error of their ways. the forgotten ones still respect him as one of them, and solas gains mythal's favour. he can walk among both groups

mythal strikes down the titans. the evanuris decide to harvest titan blood for their magical use. this has a drastic effect on the dwarves -- losing close contact with the titans muffles the stone and silences their magic. the evanuris use the dwarves to harvest lyrium

(jumping forward a loooot of time, the breach in the veil awakens a titan as it feels its magical connection strengthening. valta comes into contact with this titan and gains magic)

solas tries and fails to sway the evanuris entirely. mythal hears him, and a couple others go back and forth, but it isn't nearly enough to change things for the better, which leads to the all-out war and rebellion. during this, andruil has been hunting the forgotten ones in the void, becoming more fractured from it, and other members of the evanuris have been becoming more corrupt, adding tension especially between mythal and the others as she has to temper them

the last straw: the evanuris "kill" mythal, and solas loses his balance. he puts up the veil, trapping the evanuris in the fade, and the forgotten ones in the void. arlathan -- the golden city -- falls into the void and becomes corrupted with the taint. the elves on the other side of the veil become mortal and no longer inherently magical, experiencing something similar to what happened to the dwarves.

solas goes into uthenera, disappearing from the world

in time, the chantry will claim that the maker raised the veil because he was disappointed in the spirits, but ended up disappointed in mortals too, and turned away from the world

mythal fuses with flemeth -- i don't have a solid opinion on when exactly in the timeline this happened

the forgotten ones manage to call out to human mages, who summon them out of the fade/void. those who become the dragon gods tevinter worship are now referred to as "old gods" and the rest are "the forbidden ones". the magisters learn blood magic from them, and eventually enter the fade/void to seek out the golden city. it leaves them tainted, and brings about the darkspawn and the blight

additional theory i am still toying with and hammering out: some of the forgotten ones also manage to take physical, elvhen form again, and become the kossith, who create the qunari through blood magic involving either dragon blood and/or archdemon blood once the blights start

andraste's magic is either the cause of or triggered by a traumatic experience with her sister that her sister doesn't survive. from then on, she dreams of the fade, and interprets memories of solas' rebellion against the evanuris as guidance to fight against tevinter -- both the evanuris and the magisters are powerful mages and the leaders of a society with slavery. seeing her 'maker' in elvhen form inspires her to ally with shartan. both the orlesian and the imperial chantries are formed

eventually, solas wakes up to a fucking nightmare ✨

[yeepof]

I understand that tall men are our POV characters, but surely being like a foot taller than everyone around them would have some occasional consequences

[alivingtypo]

you can pry starting sentences with 'and' or 'but' out of my cold, dead hands

[canonkiller]

I just think everyone should take a moment to consider the question "what is your visual shorthand for cruelty?" and then follow it up with a critical "and who taught you that?"

specific examples include but are not limited to

why is an evil timeline character design disabled? (why do the heroes go through equally punishing battles and never lose an arm, a leg, an eye?)

why are the futuristic scifi terrorists uniformly darker skinned? (why are the heroes so much lighter?)

why is the greedy boss fat? (why are the heroes skinny?)

why is the criminal mastermind heavily scarred? (why is the brooding, traumatized hero unscathed?)

why is the predatory creep a bearded person in a dress and makeup? (why are none of the heroes trans women?)

who taught you that this is how things are?

how long do you plan on repeating it?

[magnus-rhymes-with-swagness]

hey reminder that connecting humanity is extremely low on esims rn and desperately needs esim donations and also that there are a lot of cool things you can get in exchange for a donation

[sirompp]

hi. i made some images.

feel free to take them and use for whatever you may need them for. no credit required

[sheepydraws]

The secret Dungeon Meshi sauce that's getting people to eat better is that it's so non-judgmental. Senshi and the rest of the gang never talk about what not to eat besides things that taste bad and literal poison. They don't even talk about "health" that much besides the importance of a balanced diet. It's so much easier to eat well when you think of food simply as something your body needs, and that it's often worth the extra effort to make it taste good, especially when you understand how to connect "things your body needs" with "things that taste good"

[vamprisms]

i feel like a lot of the 'i hate kids' crowd would be more tolerant if they understood that due to a kid's limited experience of the world that 4 hour flight might just be the longest they've ever had to sit still for or that trapped finger might literally be the most pain they've ever felt in their short life or they might not have ever seen a person with pink hair ever so of course they want to touch it or nobody's told them yet that they can't run around the museum and they only just learned cheetahs are the fastest animals so of course they want to put that to the test. how were they supposed to know etc etc.

[brawnie]

*grabbing mlm shippers by the shoulders* guys nobody needs to be the twink. nobody needs to be the sub. nobody needs to be the femboy. they can both be big fat hairy men who bask in each others masculinity or they can both be unspeakable monstrous creatures with inhuman genitalia it’s okay I’m holding your hand. Let me show you the way

[moodsandtenses]

There's something hilarious about how so much subsequent media has positioned Vampires and Werewolves as, like, binary opposite entities, and then you read Dracula (1897) and realize that wolves are that guy's preferred solution to every problem. You'd say something to Dracula about "ah yes, werewolves, vampires' great eternal enemies," and he'd just be like "you mean my subcontractors?"

[dilfsisko]

you there. high quality production youtube channel with a team of people. why are your captions autogenerated.

[marisatomay]

People will claim to be a fan of some thing and then hate all of the themes and motifs and story lines and plot lines and protagonists and antagonists like man I don’t think that you actually like it here

[almondpiglet]

ppl were drawing mikus from all over so heres habesha miku and her lil twin sibs rin and len!!

[eridan-ampora]

baby animals move like theyre playing a new video game & havent figured out the controls yet

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[aimasup]

Favouritism

Bill get a hold of yourself man