Dragon Age Meta Nexus

(So over a year ago I was trying to dig as deeply in to the Dragon Age lore as I could having beaten the first two games after their release. In the process I searched high and low for a timeline that put every bit of media in to chronological order as that was how I wanted to tackle it and to help see the big picture. I found one that was out of date and inaccurate so I ended up making one of my own and updated it as I checked out everything first hand. So after using it for my own reference for quite some time I decided to put it on here. This is what I've managed to come up with so far. Any suggestions or questions are welcome. I'll update this as new information comes forward. This includes all related media that I could find, and goes off of the most recent official information that I can gather in game and out.)

Upon asking for preferences between me working on a post about chevaliers or the Right of Annulment, the selling point for me was that someone said they don't really know a lot about the chevaliers. And I can get that, because while there actually is a fair amount of information about them, it's all spread out in bits across media. Some of it paints a very romantic picture of knights in shinning armour, ready to rescue princesses from dragons. But it wouldn't be part of upper class Orlesian culture if there wasn't shit underneath all that armour polish now, would it?

So we probably meet our first Fen'Harel agent before the Fifth Blight. Back in Leliana's Song DLC. Sketch. Another elven apostate. Who may have also once been a slave.

Layers of Cullen's armour, illustrated individually, with all the parts named.

In case you missed the tiny bear in the Black Emporium. Screenshots of bear and all related comments from Xenon.

Sources: The Stolen Throne, The Masked Empire, World of Thedas Vol. 1, Dragon AGE: Tabletop Set 1, Dragon AGE: Tabletop Set 2, Dragon Age 2 (Legacy DLC), Dragon Age Codex Entries (e.g. Uthenera, Falon'Din, etc.)

Q: How much canon knowledge is there about Anders' escape attempts and his punishments? I don't seem to be able to find much and WOT isn't 100 % accurate, right? Your thoughts? Actually World of Thedas is the most reliable source so far, but you are right: it's written in the perspective of a Chantry scholar and therefore has Chantry prejudice, especially towards Anders (as you would expect). Here is what I do know though: Anders made a total of 7 escape attempts.

Firesprites are tiny, winged creatures living in the deep marshes of the Korcari Wilds. They're named for the soft orange or yellow glow they give off, flickering in the dark marshes like fireflies.

Basically a very quick guide to known territories in Ferelden and who last owned them (as far we know) or currently owns them, as far as we know. Which basically means, the leaders of these territories could have changed in between meeting them and Post-Trespasser time.

I never realized how ambiguous Cole's reveal is. when you go to hunt down the thing blocking his amulet and it turns out to be the ex-templar that killed him (well the real Cole). I mean you know Cole died of starvation, but it doesn't really tell you how. I think it is mentioned in a codex, maybe?

I genuinely think he meant the puzzles for the Inquisitor bc the entire DLC is Solas trying to subtly communicate with you as the player, he'd want you to be prepared for the future as much as you are worthy (you must engage with the situation/puzzles/elven area to get extra information and gold and weapons). It's all for the Inquisitor. You're there because you're being tested as the only person in Thedas who could understand his situation. if you solve his puzzles, then maybe you'll give him some hope that you can stop him too.

Q: hey! i've recently been discussing royal succession in ferelden and would love to hear your thoughts (if you want to)! we wondered who would be the next ruler if/when alistair and/or anora died without issue. if cousland was co-ruler then any future children of fergus' would probably be in line but otherwise the only obvious candidates (to us) are eamon and teagan who also have no viable heirs. who else do you think would be in line and what process might be used to negotiate this do you think?

Q: I don't know enough about Grey Warden or Blight lore to have much of an opinion on that post, but aren't both Leliana and Wynne referred to as Heroes of the Fifth Blight (Leliana when introduced at the Winter Palace, and Wynne when she's introduced at the White Spire in Asunder)? And that would mean seeing someone referred to as the Hero of the Third Blight wouldn't necessarily mean they were even at the Archdemon fight. How common it is to use the term "hero" for someone who fought the Blight? I searched all the print text available, including the codices of all three games, the books, and comics. I found some interesting results. Calling someone a "Hero of the Blight" is actually quite rare.

It turns out that more elvhen masks were hidden in plain sight in the DAO credits. We only see June and Elgar'nan's mask in Origins, and I mistakenly labeled the effigy on the right as being the elvhen All-Father and resident vengeance monger.

Honestly, we don't think she is much of a 'deep connection' kind of person. At least, not anymore. Consider her personal story: In the time of Elvhenan, Mythal seems to have been a fairly active goddess/leader, taking steps to prevent the other evanuris from doing massive damage to the elven people (looking at you, Elgar'nan and Falon'Din, in particular). She, and apparently her priests, knew the secret greeting to gain access to Fen'Harel's rebel bases, thus implying that she supported their efforts to some degree (along with her being bff-ish with Solas). Mythal may have been working towards some kind of slow revolution while not totally undermining the old order (for good or ill).

i'm playing the mission where you sneak the qunari mage out of the city and hearing anders comment "i had never thought of the plight of the mages among the qunari. it seems they are even more oppressed than we are."

how does magic word in da? does it only come from a mage's hands? so if a mage was an amputee without their hands they wouldn't be able to perform any magic at all? No, a mage amputee could absolutely still perform magic!

Offhand Dragon Age Fact #8: Orlesian masks are designed to show who's noble family you are a part of/work for. In The Masked Empire, Briala gives the example of if a lord's house mask was a lion carved from ivory and inlaid with onyx and gold, his servants' masks would be lions as well, painted black and lined with brass.

Just like our world, there is the human race, and then within the human race are different racial/ethnic backgrounds, coming from different parts of the world. This is a Cole's Notes-type post about the humans of Thedas.

There's something suspicious about Solas being agnostic but also talking about "great (religious) rituals" and that you should "tread lightly, this is sacred ground" in a reverent voice - what is up with that? Why are rituals worthy of respect to him when he hates the evanuris and finds modern religious organizations to be bad, and he doesn't think gods are real?