Q:On a semi related note, we still don't know where 5 of the 7 Sidereal Magisters are, just that at least 3 survived, + it seems like the 2 we do have got powers related to their titles (see the wikia pages for the old gods). The Architect has control of physical progression of the Taint + Corypheus (conductor of silence) can mind control Tainted ppl. Sure it's all Blight magic, but schools of magic. Interesting to think what the other titles might be, powers-wise.

Q:This is kind of a joke, but what do you think of the idea that the Grey Wardens and the Calling are basically vampirism? You drink the blood of the thing and slowly turn into the thing, etc (I mean, if the trope fits, and if you bring the Architect into it it really does fit....) Yeah, but you don't CRAVE the blood of the thing or anything else. Wrong trope. To quote a friend, 'It's Siegfried, not Dracula.' But, this is a fairly common thing, in Thedas.

Things I got out of this conversation: - There was once a Grey Warden outpost south of Ostagar in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, but in a totally relevant location, because hey, there's an archdemon right around there. - The chest can only be opened by a Grey Warden. Blood magic. How the fuck else can it tell Wardens from anyone else? - Only Alistair can be trusted to carry the map. Things I didn't get out of this conversation: - When the fuck was this outpost? How long did it last?

I walk the journey to the place of the Dead. … an alternate translation.

I'm gonna talk a little bit about werewolves in Thedas. The most obvious ones, of course, are the ones in the Breclian Forest, that you meet during Origins. They're werewolves because of a centuries-old elven curse laid upon the spirit of the forest.

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this, but there's definitely a history of spirits as instructors of magic all the fuck across Thedas, and I'm really pretty sure it all comes from Elven tradition.

I have thoughts. They may not be good thoughts, but they're thoughts. We don't know when this is happening or how long the soul gem's memory is. Which is to say, we don't know if the elf is an ancient elf or a post-veil elf, but we do know the elf in question - because it is an elf - was around when humans came through Ferelden. We also know the elf was a mage, because this is where you learn the Arcane Warrior spec, if I'm not mistaken.

Q: if the Old Gods are really the Evanuris, are the Blights and getting the Magisters to breach the Fade actually elaborate revenge on humans (+ also the dwarves or they just didn't care about them)? A:The Evanuris have absolutely no reason to give the faintest fuck about humans, except as a means to get out of the Fade. (Assuming they are, in fact, the Old Gods.) Humans have done … nothing to them. [...]

Q:Tbh I'm like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about whether Mouse is the actual spirit of a person, who managed to stay there because he'd been sent into the Fade via the Harrowing, or whether the Mouse you meet is like Cole (perhaps a spirit of confidence or something, who took on Mouse's aspect because it couldn't help him), and just became demonified because of a combination of changed purpose + trauma of the apprentice getting killed + being stuck in the vicinity of the Fade side of Kinloch Hold.

So, I keep circling around Watchguard of the Reaching, because there is so much going on in there. But, I've always been curious exactly what the fuck came back from the Fade, when the traveller's cord turned black. It's not named, just described

So, there's a codex conflict re the reign of Divine Beatrix III, and I think Faustine II was not actually the Divine at the start of the Dragon Age, because, well, Serault.

Florian's mother is from the Anderfels. (Duchess Catrin of Hosberg) I can pretty much promise she's not a Dufayel. Therefore, the relation has to be on the Valmont side, which leaves Emperor Etienne II (assassinated because he sucked eggs) or Grand Duchess Leontine. If dude's using the Dufayel heraldry, it's more likely his father's than his mother's, because what the fuck Orlais, why you so patriarchal. (It's just weird to me that the nation that created the entirely matriarchal Chantry passes titles almost exclusively to male heirs, where possible.)

Okay, so, that tells us something that may not have been immediately apparent. All the Loyalist First Enchanters are dead. The only First Enchanters who survived the rebellion at the White Spire were those who left with Fiona, who would be declared rebels for that alone, if they weren't already - and Vivienne, who was never confirmed as First Enchanter of Montsimmard.

Three codices from priests and acolytes, after their gods fell off the face of Thedas. Three stories with some interesting similarities (although the Dumat one is over the course of like ten minutes, not the presumable years of the others, so it's missing some things). Dirthamen, Dumat, and Razikale.

There is a song that the Maker thinks everyone should be singing. - Titans have a song that's different from lyrium song or blight-song. - Cole says something about 'when everything sang the same' in reference to the time before the veil.

So. Blood magic can create communicable diseases. Ancient elves did blood magic. The Blight is a communicable disease. Red lyrium (which is Blighted) grows in people, probably specifically their blood, since that seems to be the usual magical element. Technically, lyrium is 'blood' too-Titan blood-but I'm really not sure how to factor that here, since it's clearly not at all the same as regular blood (incidentally if lyrium is supposed to be liquid, which is possible, then Thedas as a continent has the most amazing case of gout).

Assuming this is the case, I put forth that Korth, either a titan or the guardian of one, removed 'his heart' - a titan's heart - and moved mountains, a thing we know titans can do, to cover it, because of the elves' hunt for the hearts of titans, which may also explain why the Lady of the Skies does not get directly involved. (As Cole says in Trespasser: "Their ancient shapers were mountains drawn of all their wills, walking their memories into valleys of the world." And I'm pretty sure Valta says something about it in Descent, but I can't find the quote.) Okay, so, having established Belenas/Korth is a titan - possibly a titan and its guardian - it's time to talk about what the fuck happened to that mountain. And for this, I'm going to call upon the legend of Andruil.

Oh lord. Uh. So 'alchemy' is definitely an idea, and still called as such (rather than Natural History or something to suggest a more recent, 'scientific' approach). The search term alchemy brings up quite a few hits you can check out on the wiki.

We are familiar with the standards demanded when trading with the various merchant guilds. Be it a sovereign (Ferelden), a royal (Orlais), a king's guilder (Nevarra), a double griffon (Anderfels), or any of a dozen others, one gold coin is worth one hundred silver coins or ten thousand copper coins. Let us instead concern ourselves with the art of the minter, how coins stand apart, and the more unusual currencies now falling by the wayside.