Evuna

A few things I noticed from the images in the EA Play images:

First, the tree. It’s a vhenadahl. It also resembles the tree in the Dread Wolf Rises trailer. Seems to be saying the elven alienages will be empty or in revolt at the time of the game.

Second, the arch. Someone on my Twitter TL pointed out that it appears to be Skyhold- but it’s surrounded by gaatlok, and the sky suggests that the Veil is already down and the Fade is everywhere.

Last, and most importantly, the red lyrium. It’s surrounding a beating heart- which we know from Trespasser is the heart of a titan, and the source of the foci, the orbs associated with specific members of the elven pantheon.

What I noticed about the heart is that its bottom resembles the bottom of the red lyric idol in the Dread Wolf Rises trailer. The logical jump is that the red lyrium idol was also one of the foci associated with a specific member of the elven pantheon- I would suspect either Mythal (given the crowned figure on the red lyrium idol), or more likely Andruil, who made armor from the void and was brought back to sanity by Mythal.

I suspect that Solas is so depressed at the end of the main game DAI because with his own focus shattered, the only other one he knows to still exist is the red lyrium idol, and it is tainted. If he uses the red lyrium idol to bring down the Veil instead of his own focus, does he somehow taint all of Thedas?

So, taking all these cues and making more inferential leaps, I would suggest that at the time of DA4, the elven alienages across Thedas are in revolt, the Qunari have invaded, the Veil is down, red lyrium is everywhere, and Solas has been tainted by using the red lyrium idol–as has at least one of the remaining titans.

Sounds pretty grim, but I loved Dragon Age Origins!

“The pages of this book—memory?—describe a monument made in a single afternoon by a thousand-thousand toiling servants swarming over a lump of fallen stone as large as a collapsed mountain. By the end of the day, the stern figure of Elgar'nan stares down into a valley, carved out from the foothills of the rock. The slaves have disappeared. Light radiates from the eidolon's narrowed eyes and its open, snarling mouth.”

This makes me think that it isn't just a red lyrium titan heart, but one made from thousands of Elgar’nan’s slaves. Not to mention a normal lyrium titan’s heart seen in Descent looks like lyrium crystal, but this one seems more.... organic. It even beats and moves like a normal heart would. The one in descent just glowed in time to a heart beat.

Also what Cole said also made me believe this

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

This could be referring to Elgar'nan making his own eidolon, the titans fighting back at what he created and shaking the earth in retaliation. And Mythal and Elgar'nan striking down some of the titans, and making them forget so the elvhen could mine their bodies for lyrium.

So my theory is that it is a elvhen made red lyrium titan, converted by sacrificing thousands of elvhen slaves into the heart, as a titan is a collection of minds. The titan heart corrupted by this or from the blight, leading it to become a red lyrium titan.

And a last note. Whispers written in red lyrium found in the fade during the quest Here Lies The Abyss

“We are here. We have waited. We have slept. We are sundered. We are crippled. We are polluted. We endure. We wait. We have found the dreams again. We will awaken”