Thedas Lore

But Antiva is not primarily renowned for its peculiar form of government, nor for its admittedly unparalleled wines. Antiva is known for the House of Crows. Since Antivans are well known for being good at everything but fighting, it is more than a little ironic that Antiva possesses the most deadly assassins in the world. Their fame is such that Antiva keeps no standing army: No king is willing to order his troops to assault her borders, and no general is mad enough to lead such an invasion. The attack would likely succeed, but its leaders would not see the day.

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Not weird at all, interesting actually and this is going on my list of lore I need to make a specific post for. But for now, I will simply answer your question.

Here’s the thing, Lyrium comes in several forms:

Raw

Sand

Dust

Liquid

The list above is categorized most dangerous to least dangerous.

Raw Lyrium is extremely dangerous just to touch and should never be consumed, these are the veins you find throughout the Deep Roads and are only ever mined by Dwarves. So not important to us for now.

Lyrium Sand is very volatile and explosive, it’s lyrium that has been ground course and essentially found as granules of lyrium. Not much use for this by Templars and so again, I’m skipping this for now.

Now Dust and Liquid are the two types of Lyrium you are looking at, which liquid Lyrium is Lyrium Potions. Both Dust and Liquid Lyrium have been processed by Dwarves and to an extent are completely safe for consumption. However, as you would expect Lyrium Dust requires extra preparation before you can consume it. You do not want to just shove powdered Lyrium in your mouth and hope it all makes it down (think about swallowing powdered drink mix…).

This is where a Templar’s philter comes in or as you know it, Cullen’s box of tools. Cullen can use it to at any time or place make Lyrium dust into a Lyrium draught/potion. Templars more often use philters because they are mobile and dust has a longer shelf life than liquid.

When Ser Barris is using the potions, it is 1) because he has and needs immediate access to extra lyrium reserves and 2) because he requires more than his daily dose to amp up the Templar ability they use in the quest.

So basically Barris is only using a potion to quickly supplement his lyrium dosage, while Cullen actually uses the tools in his box to turn lyrium powder into a drinkable form.

The means and usage employed by the templar are far stronger than even the droughts of magi, and are of considerable danger to the uninitiated. It is not something that is introduced in gradual fashion. Rather, it is a great infusion that is daily held in check by ritual maintenance.

• DARKSPAWN •

some believe the legacy of the elves to be a finished thing—a closed ending with no future to bear. but there are questions that have no known answer, arisen from the fragments we call our history. is it truly history if it is not whole? we must have it all, the good, and the bad, even the things the elders do not wish us to remember. we are more than stories. we must be more.