Dragon Age Meta Nexus

Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls. From these emerald waters doth life begin anew. Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you. In my arms lies Eternity. -Canticle of Andraste, 14:11 The notes on this page mention a passage from The Calling: In Dragon Age: The Calling Maric Theirin explains this fragment of the Chant to Fiona as follows: "It's where Andraste goes to speak to the Maker for the first time. It's where she convinces him to forgive mankind. It was supposed to be this beautiful temple deep under the earth surrounded by emerald waters."

Which is to say, is Eleni Zinovia precognitive by her own talents, and if not, is that statue actually Eleni or is it the spirit who fed her the prophecies? Because that thing sounds like Cole, all the time.

Ok, so from Note: The Gates of Segrumar: - Terrible, to sacrifice one's own child with a lie. I preyed on perfectly trusting faith, but how could I explain my desperation? The Deep Roads wind in deceitful spirals, concealing the sigil from casual observance. I could not discern its true pattern until I stood in the Fade and gazed down upon the vast malevolent engraving. Its artist remains unknown, but its horrifying intent was all too clear - as was my necessity. I only wish it had not cost you, my only child. I could not build the locked barriers that would carve the marks and break the sigil. You alone could save us all, but only by destroying yourself. And I let you do it. Forgive me. Compare that to the note about the streets of Kirkwall, above. What keeps coming to me is that dwarves don't generally enter the Fade, so this is… maybe not a note from dwarf. The codex text also lacks any indication of being difficult for the Inquisitor to read, because of the language - unlike ancient Elvhen inscriptions. I can only assume that means it's written in Common.

So, canonically, 'Cadash Thaig' was built on the ruins of 'Cad'halash Thaig' - with almost the same name. Or, perhaps, the name just stayed with the place and changed. (After all, there's still elven artefacts there, even though the city was destroyed for sheltering elves, so the reconstruction couldn't have been that heavy.) I bring to you the names of two other thaigs, only one of which we have a proper location for, and I venture in light of the one above that these two may also be the same place

The varghest is now known to be a distant relative of wyverns and dragons, but in ancient times, it was believed to be a spirit manifest in the world. Ciriane legend says that the varghest hunts those who have committed great wrongs against their own kin, and when the creature finds its quarry, it drags the guilty party to the gods for judgment. This is perhaps due to the beast's hunting habits: varghest prefer to bring prey still living to their nests to feed their young. -From A Study of the Southern Draconids by Frederic of Serault, published in the University of Orlais I venture that all of these things are true.

So, there's this cave in JoH that comes into use in the quest 'Loss of a Friend'. It's where you find Scout Grandin. But, it's really clearly some part of a former Tevinter installation, despite not being connected to anything else in the ruins. I just can't figure out what the fuck the purpose of the space would've been, besides being designed for some kind of drainage - which, again, weird because it's not near any of the major ruins. There's still water drizzling out of the ceiling into the middle of the grate, though, so it's coming from… somewhere.

So, I've been like 'WHY IN THE FUCK WOULD TEVINTER BE BUILDING AN ENTIRE GODDAMN CITY THIS FAR SOUTH'. Welp. There's the answer. -If the Imperium has fallen, we shall build it anew. -This citadel shall be a new Minrathous, and we who serve the Twisted Path shall be its Magisterium -Praise be to Razikale - may our raised voices reach her and bring her back to us at last.

NOW, the Frostback Basin, which is in the Frostback Mountains, in southern Ferelden, is snow-free. There are parrots. There are guys running around in tiddy armour. The trees are a rich green and the rivers run freely. At first, I thought this was a mistake. Haha, oh god, someone wasn't paying attention to the lore again. And then I took a better look around. Let's start at the most recent settlers and work back.

Q: Well, one assumes the Architect etc. can reincarnate like Corypheus. But like, what would the Watchman's powers be? What role did he have in the Fade breach? How exactly did they do it, for that matter, beyond killing a lot of people and using a lot of lyrium? And bioware's never going to tell us any of this, because they're shits and don't care if the lore more than just barely sorta works.

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.