Dragon Age Meta Nexus

Cole: They made bodies from the earth. And the earth was afraid. It fought back. But they made it forget.

So, Titans. A life form, of some kind, made of earth and stone. Their blood is lyrium which behaves like a mineral, if not a metal outright, in the form it is mined. Of course its mined form very well might be altered from its normal state for life-function. But at any rate, the thought [personal profile] sarahq and I landed at at one point, whilst musing on various lore, was: blood serves to deliver oxygen. What is oxygen doing? It's delivering electrons to the ATP cycle. Titan blood may not need oxygen or to be liquid, as long as whatever it is can transmit electron flow. You know what fucking transmits electrons really well? Metals. And semi-conductors at the right temperatures.

so, like... dwarves. they were originally some Titan hivemind-y minion-y shit. Mythal separated them from the Stone--how benevolent those reasons were or weren't, welp, debatable. but yeah she basically un-hiveminded them. (almost certainly why certain ancient-ass dwarves revered her!) meanwhile... red lyrium is very probably the original source of the taint, pre-dating the Magisters Sidereal and their dumbfuckery. this is even less explicit than Mythal and the dwarves, but it's pretty supportable from the codices and quests. like, the dwarves believe 'the Stone bears a corruption as old as balance' and the Dalish legends get at this too--and we know that lyrium is Titan's blood, and the difference between a Titan and the earth itself is not... particularly easily discerned. so, yeah, red lyrium. probably the original source of the taint. the Magisters sidereal pulled some really stupid fucking shit and clearly made things *worse* but did not originate that shit, despite what the southern Chantry would have you believe. so here's me connecting those facts with the Architect 'awakening' darkspawn from mindless hivemind drones to thinking individuals... who no longer hear the 'song' of the Calling

Bodahn's rumors aren't in the toolset, which is annoying as heck, because there's an entire political plotline hidden in the endless loop of "that's what I've heard on the road anyhow" and no one wants to deal with that. But I ended up poking at it out of curiousity and woooow there's a lot of stuff here. Each paragraph is a separate rumor soundbite from Bodahn. Originally on Pillowfort, but I thought I should crosspost it back

emynii asked: Do you think the Old Gods/Archdemons are the keys to the Evanuris' prison? And that the grey wardens killing them would have unleashed them? I think it has to be something like that, or he wouldn't get so worked up. But I'm not convinced the Archdemons are imprisoning the Evanuris in particular, cause the Evanuris' prison is the Veil itself, and Solas wants to take down the Veil - he seems to agree that tearing down the Veil would free the Evanuris, but says he 'has plans' for dealing with that. Whereas he gets very upset at the idea of killing the Old Gods and freeing whatever they're holding back.

Red Lyrium Idol from DA2 - with the help of certified wizards @dinah-myles and @padme4000. (Closeup gifset, very detailed.)

But this is what I can see looking back at DA2, and Varric's reflective dialogue in DAI: The idol has weird effects on everyone but it seems to latch onto Bartrand quicker than anyone else. Isabela will even say that it has no appeal beyond being "shiny". Hawke literally picks it up and nothing happens (that we know of)- the magic of the idol sparks and whispers when Hawke approaches but stops almost instantly after they pick it up. Varric goes a bit strange in Act 3 in the mansion, but if you let him keep the piece he ultimately overcomes any influence and locks it away to be studied. This does however imply he was mildly influenced by it.

A discusion for speculating on the new teaser/next game With the new teaser comes a new mural [img] What do you think it represents? The figure on the right looks like The Dread Wolf and the centre dominated by the, or a, red lyrium idol like the one in dragon age 2. The figure on the left could be another representation of solas (wearing a helmet?) or maybe another member of the evanuris?

First thing's first, the elf here is definitely Solas. I know a few people have wondered otherwise, thinking that the figure has hair, but it's just that the shading on his face is darker and with red eyes, mirroring the wolf on the other side of him. (Also, he's wearing robes similar to the ones he wears in his old murals found in Trespasser.) I think this might simply represent the fact that he has dropped his façade; he has again embraced the 'title' of Fen'Harel.

I'm fairly certain it's canon confirmed that the full length of the Imperial Highway predates the first record of Qunari landing on Par Vollen… and I need to re-read about whether or not these sections of highway were built on the bones of preexisting structures or if the Crossing is uniquely Tevinter. Something something horned rulers artifacts in Par Vollen something something temples like the sun…

We know that the evanuris were god-like figures. It is constantly and heavily implied that this status of 'godhood' was beyond simple reverence, it affected their nature. As Solas says 'the first among our people are not killed so easily'. In the canonical comic 'Until we sleep' we learn of a tevinter magister forming a cult of somniari, 'dreamers' with the goal of using the blood of great dragons to shape the minds of dreamers, and subsequently, reality itself.

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?

Recent Wyrd Sister posts have brought some interesting parallels to our attention. In Decima's post, we showed that elves and spirits with a strong connection to the Fade don't need to eat because the Fade sustains them. As long as their connection to the Fade is undisturbed, elves in uthenera "[draw] sustenance from the Fade itself." (The Masked Empire, p. 317) Cole also is 'fed' by the Fade.

The Chant of Light has some interesting passages that suggest that "consulting the stars" was a normal part of worshiping the Maker and perhaps other human religions in ancient Thedas. Several sections from the Canticle of Threnodies 6 describe ancient human rulers employing Oracles or Sages who would seek glimpses of the future in the stars

Features of the Elvhen Cipher: - filter by what kind of word it is, or by how "canon" it is. exclude fanon if you need to! - sources you can hover over - breakdowns/pseudo-etymologies of most words - search box for elvhen words, so you can find words with the same string If there's anything I'm goofing up, please let me know!

It has forever annoyed me that the pop-up text that appears when clicking on the different statues/carvings around the Dalish camp in DA:O appear and disappear so quickly you can't even read them. So I finally got around to taking screenshots of them all.

In Trespasser, if the Inquisitor drinks from the Well of Sorrows they have the option to say a secret greeting used among Fen'Harel's followers. This allows you to avoid fighting the spirits. The words themselves are mostly straightforward, there's less ambiguity than typical for elven. The grammar is atrocious however, so extracting the meaning requires more assumptions!

Since I just cracked open the Temple of Pride today for the second time (because apparently there's nothing I love more than long-winded fetch quests), and am planning on starting my second playthrough of Jaws of Hakkon tomorrow, now seems like as good a time as any to talk about this:It's the short encryption you find within the final sanctuary of Solasan.

The Chasind Wilders descend from the Alamarri, who came into Ferelden from the west. The other Alamarri drove their people into the Korcari Wilds (thus earning the 'Wilders' term) and the Frozen Wastelands, a place where only they are known to explore, and inhabit. The Chasind call this the "Sunless Lands," where the forest breaks off into fields of snow almost all year round, and mountains of ice.

... are apparently hunger demons.