#chickenlich

Lyrium/Red Lyrium and the Stone

Its kinda a given that red lyrium will have a huge impact on da:i, as it is featured in concept art/screenshots/demos; and its interesting that while we have seen its effects we dont know a thing regarding what it is or how can it even come to be. plainly, i have no idea about what the fuck it is but literally the final battle in da2 is directly influenced by it.

a theory: lyrium is the stone; the place where dwarven souls go. Knowledge of this has been lost to the dwarves (they mostly think of it “the stone” as a metaphor for the foundations of future civilizations, and not an actual, specific thing)

Red lyrium, as a counterpart, could be where 'corrupted' souls go (tainted souls, maybe? darkspawn and their victims?). Both Cole and Kristoff mention how lyrium sings to them; sings beautiful songs mortals cant hear; while the red lyrium sings for everyone.

The lyrium/red lyrium could be a physical aspect of the fade (lyrium/the power of the fade going to mages. For the dwarves, exposure to this 'physical' fade erradicates actual spiritual fade connection,ergo, theyre unable to be mages or dream. Dwarves don’t enter the fade because they’re anchored to the lyrium); meaning that the red lyrium could have appeared when the magisters stepped into the golden hall.

If the Stone is a heaven for the dwarves, and the """"actual heaven"""" (the Fade) is tainted and broken apart; so could theirs.

If we believe this, and red lyrium is a 'tainted' stone, a 'tainted' magic, could be used by such creatures without suffering its effects?

as mat put it:

also: there are genlock emissaries. like, mages? so like… /how/. can dwarves do magic once their “souls”, the essential essence of their personality, are ripped from them/never been there? or is darkspawn magic a whole different thing from the magic of the untainted?

Basically, a small tear in the veil, with time, catches souls that should go elsewhere in the lyrium; traps that raw power.

Religious Counterparts and Afterlife

While theres no evidence for a 'splitted' afterlife in dwarven religions, if we agree that the lyrium is the stone we can see it is in a sense, divided by a right/wrong morality; not much different from the Maker, the Golden/Black City and the Tevinter Imperium/Andraste

Dalish religion has also this black and white view of life, divided this time by the Blight Wolf Fen'Harel (this spirit could be the andrastian Maker, separating right from wrong?)

If we look at the facts, maybe a ripped spiritual world isnt that strange.

Souls and Magic

if we believe this (again, these are only several theories put together) the ""magic"", the connection lyrium has to the fade is that it leaks spiritual power by having... souls.

magic is being powered by life forces - so, smaller spells deplete a mage’s energy, but larger spells require lyrium or blood or an agreement with a demon. lyrium seems like the outlier, unless you subscribe to the theory that it literally contains dwarf souls, in which case: all magic outside the innate capabilities of a mage requires the offering of some sort of life force to the fade. 

whiCH IS TERRIBLE IS THIS SUPOSSED TO MEAN THAT EVERY TIME I MADE MY AMELL DRINK LYRIUM SHE WAS DRINKING THE SOUL OF A DWARF

So far its my favourite/more possible theory (and it even has the Law of Equivalent Exchange thing going on), but then again: we never get to see "souls" (in the religious sense of the word) when we visit the fade. In the mage origin we saw Niall, trapped there by a sloth demon; or Feynriel, lulled to the fade by a desire demon. we never saw "actual" dead people there, like Duncan or Leandra.

Or maybe the the Black City is only Golden for people who deserve it.

Magic Power and Tranquility

disclaimer i havent read asunder yet so feel free to correct me

A theory, closely related to magic powered by life forces: spiritual magic as a first step of power (mind rules the body) blood magic as a second step (body rules power) and soul magic (basically ripping immortal souls away from other people) as a third step.

Key word here: other people. When a mage turns into an abomination, they willingly give their soul to a spirit. When a Spirit or hell, the Anvil of the Void do that shit they forcefully take the soul from someone as fuel

[side note: oh how the Anvil sang songs to Branka]

The red lyrium is an example of the ~third step~ using not mortal, but immortal fuel to get power. For example: what Merrill did, the platonic relationship with a spirit; vs what Anders did, sharing a body and a soul with a spirit, eliminating the chance for both to be different beings again.

If so, mages use their own souls/lyrium (which could or could not be other souls trapped in a physical form of the fade) to boost their powers. And there is where this gets interesting.

if im not mistaken keeper marethari says that killing feynriel in the fade is "close to" making him tranquil. Since then i wondered if something akin to it was what templars did to make people tranquil, and if so, templars are making more than a lobotomy; theyre taking someone's soul away

When mages turn into abominations, the price they pay is their soul: templars take away souls in order to give tranquil mages nothing to bargain with, which leaves them tranquil (and so, they rank as low as empty husks for spirits)