#black codex

They really did let Solas do all the heavy lifting, and than carry all the guilt. 😭

When I first played the game and there was the big reveal, I assumed that he was unconscious the whole time, but I've seen theories where he's only partially awake or like in a very conscious coma and I'm now unsure what works best.

He has a whole spy network (supposedly) in The Masked Empire or at least he has Felassan who made it through 1000 years without a nap? Or he just found Solas asleep and just... joined him? They're both Dreamers/Somniari so perhaps?

I guess also the circumstances of his nap are in question as well. I assumed that he confronted the Evanuris and made the veil, but Skyhold (or Tarasyl'an Te'las "the place where the sky is held up") is both Solas' rebel base and where the Veil was created. Did he trick the Evanuris to show up and cast it? Did they attack? Or is it a remote spell thing?

But when I was seeing some of the concept art on pinterest (from a Veilguard book? Idk never seen this before) about the Black Codex -- it looks like the gods were about to end everything by tapping into the Blight and Solas was forced to stop them (and it looks like in person). So at Skyhold? Why were they at his base? Unless maybe he had this "blight cube" and they were attempting to steal it back (sounds like a fun story there!)

But then we arrive to him, drained, exhausted, and alone. Somehow he survived (for a thousand years while Skyhold was torn down and rebuilt (where is his body??)), but he is weak and I've warmed up to the idea that he wakes every so often. He can't really do much since he is weak in body and spirit (Fade has been severed) and he's healing slowly because as a Somniari (or maybe even because he's a First gen elf) he could draw sustenance from the Fade, but with it being severed, it wasn't easy.

Perhaps Felassan found him and helped care for him in his weakened state (I bet that's already a thing and Solas x Felassan shippers are all over it. Lol if you know a good one please recommend it) but I guess -- i'm wondering all this because he has a lot of historical knowledge especially with modern Tevinter and Orlais. Was Felassan giving him updates? Ssving him newspaper clippings? Or - like in his dialogue with Varric about his lack of knowledge of dwarves - was he slipping in and out of dreams of others and getting glimpses of the world through their eyes?

I'm curious what other people's theories are. I kind of want to give him a sort of "Sherlock Holmes" esque knowledge where if it involves spirits or magic (Tevinter magisters, Riviani spirit rites, Nevarran possessions) he has intimate knowledge, but like when it comes to Dwarven smithing or fashion trends or famous political assassinations he has absolutely no clue and refuses to care. He has priorities lol.

I just thought i would go over it.

So we get some insight into how the war between the Elves and titans looked, and how an actually awake titan looked like.

We also learn that though the Elves modelled themselves on Humans, they actually got the inspiration for wanting bodies by looking at the Dwarves.

Also i honestly dont get why Solas was so obsessed with burning everything in Veilfire to restore the old elvhen empire, pre-veil Thedas looks pretty chill.

Certainly nothing like the hell Cory tried to unleash by keeping the worlds sorta half connected.

Also Early dwarves werent just drones, but seems to have lacked the true spark of individuality, just tending to the titans.

Most importantly, as we'll cover below, All The titans power was sealed in a little black box.

So... This shot. Here we learn a lot of things.

Firstly if you finished Origins, you will recognize the aura around the square containing the Titans power.

Though it looks calmer, it's the same energy as what explodes out from Urthemiel's corpse after you slay the archdemon at the end of origins, a massive wave of power that surges through the sky.

It recontextualizes the energy that was building up before the explosion. It was the power of the titants finally being unleashed back into the world.

Which in turn explains why the titan under Ferelden began to awaken again, finally getting jolted back up after the breach. The energy was finally free, from from the box, free from the blight.

Secondly we finally get an explanation of how the dwarves ended up underground, and why they shunned the surface so much, having literarily fleed it so long ago to live in the corpses of their creators.

Thirdly... Well it turns out that the people who speculated that the golden/black city was Arlathan wasn't entierly off... Cause it seems that whatever the hell the city actually was, the seat of the maker, a relic of some older civilization, or actually made by the Elves after all, the city's original location was in the aky ABOVE Arlathan.

Meaning the city of Arlathan was founded BELOW the place where the Evanuris kept the box.

That is... interesting.

What i also find interesting is that there is a clear disconnect between the buildings we see here, and the buildings of actual ancient elvhen architecture we see everywhere else.

Clearly there was a MASSIVE shift at some point.

From this, I can see two possibilities.

1. If the Golden city was indeed made by the ancient elves, then it remained as a monument of this early style, a more "primitive" and experimental style that the elves eventually abandoned, but remained in the great prison in the sky.

2. If the Golden city existed before them, and they choose to found Arlethan underneath it as they put the box here for safeguarding, then it is perfectly logical to assume that the Elves innitially modelled their first building style after this monument of power that predated even them, which they may, or may not have known the origins of.

If so, they eventually abandoned the Golden City's architectural style entierly.

Regardless, as Solas notes in Inquisition, the Elves did indeed build palaces in the sky as we see in Veilguard with this entierlg seperate floating city, so it is entierly possible they created the entire thing themselves.

The only question that remains is the chicken or the egg. Did the elves make the golden city and model their future floating cities on it, or did they find it preexisting, and model their later creations on it?

So here we get an actual explanation of how the blight actually began.

Blood magic.

It wasn't just the anger and souls of the titans becoming twisted that created the Blight.

It was the Evanuris, who wanted more power, who used blood magic to enhance the already incredibly mighty and volatile power of the Titans to even greater heights.

THIS was what created the blight as we know it.

What turned the Golden city from a center of power to a prison, but the power was not yet unleashed.

It adds a lot of context to the Evanuris not yet embracing the blight at first, and innitially being weary of it.

They first was terrified... Then eventually decided they needed this power to defeat Solas once and for all.

And the rest is history.

Then next, we get a look into why Solas disliked blood magic.

Turns out the whole binding the Evnaruis and creating the veil wasn't just a blood magic ritual that used their own power to trap them and make the veil... But it also used his own.

And as we see here, whatever the origins of the Golden City, it was THIS ritual, the creation of the Veil, that turned the city black as his little black cube presumably blew up, releasing all the power of the Titans into the now prison of his fellow gods.

The final art piece isnt as interesting, but it does give us some context into the first meeting between tevinter and the Elves.

History of course remembers the Tevniters as the bloodthirsty, slaver imperials that would subjugate the elves... But as we see here, that wasn't quite how it started.

Rather than attacking and enslavging the Elves of this nameless city, the ancient Vints look... Kinda sad.

This wasn't an army that had come to conquer and destroy, probably just an expedition that stumbled unto a massive and brutal slaughter in the Elves civil warring, and looking over a pointless slaugther.

There is a sense here that the Tevinter Imperium didn't necessarily have to go down the path they did... Of course that is not what happened, but it does add some much needed bit of depth to the ancient vints beyond moustache twirling villains.

They CHOOSE to later go down the path of slaver based empire. But it was just that. A choice.

Other than that, there is what we already know, cory and the rest found the city blighted.

BioWare. The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Dark Horse Books, 2024.

              Post-Inquisition, p 32-36; “Black Codex”

[There was a top-secret document on BioWare’s network that contained the objectively true history of Thedas called the Black Codex. Each culture had its perspective, its own emphasis and style, and over time more was added and taken away. It was decided to reveal a lot of truth in this game, so early on we wanted to illustrate the Black Codex. This would help to act as a visual guide to the events that formed Thedas as we know it.]

Ask Me About SWTOR NPCs What a great ask! Thank you, @jjjwhovian !

First - for the record - Mako gets the answers she deserves concerning her origins. And not from Izak.

(If I ever actually write Incentive , I'll get into all of that.)

But you were asking about Izak!

In the aftermath of the class stories, the SIS - quite naturally - attempts to capitalize on the Empire's bone-headed decision to dissolve Imperial Intelligence.

Izak was preparing to meet with an Imperial defector on Nar Shaddaa, a Minder who has decided that her fear of working directly for a Sith - where she could be executed or sent on a suicide mission at any moment - was more disturbing than her personal sense of duty and patriotism.

Unfortunately for the Minder - and for Izak - while there are those who might sympathize with her position, they cannot approve of defecting to the SIS.

Both individuals are killed by a sniper, who had become aware of their exchange.

(They really shouldn't have let Gahraath keep the Black Codex. He can do all kinds of nasty things with it. 😅 )

Neither Mako nor Xadya would mourn for Izak.

I think this was always clear to those who payed real attention to lore and explored lore and all the hints more deeply, not just on surface level of game story. still so fascinating to see it all spelled out like this, this artwork is STUNNING!!!!! man what I would give for a game set in creation days of Thedas and Titan War and early Arlathan 😭 But only if it was done by all the original devs and writers ofc. so yeah... we can dream.