#daometa

but very simply put: what we as dragon age players know has no relationship to what the characters know, and this is explicitly intentional

as players we gain access to a wealth of specific knowledge. but even we, as players, are not given hard truth all the time - the codices throughout all the games are written with a deliberate in-world bias

like the one codex that states that sexism does not exist in thedas, and then ppl getting upset because it obviously does? well.... gestures at our world.... bet you anything you could find countless modern articles saying that sexism does not exist/does not exist anymore/does not exist here, wherever 'here' is to the writer

have your feelings about it! but i'm just saying that the codices are deliberately written with bias. DAO literally gives you different codices depending on your race. treating them as Absolute Truth is going to lead to personal frustration when they are inevitably revealed to be limited, biased, and sometimes entirely wrong

the way the crows are written and talked about through the series vs. what we hear from one single character (zevran my beloved) who remains loyal to the crows while also trying to leave them while ALSO not wanting to display vulnerability vs. what we see from (one) particular house in veilguard so many in-game years after DAO... the way qunari are written about and how variable it is ("they're monsters" vs. "they have a real culture")... the way the grey warden order is discussed... the way that knowledge and opinion of magic varies wildly... the way that certain cultures handle their mages and magic being better, but other cultures not knowing or even deliberately suppressing that knowledge...

again, ppl will have their feelings about all of this and that's fine. but using a codex or something we as players learn from a prior game/dlc to point out a seeming "retcon" is not really engaging with some of the underlying themes of these games. the biases have been confirmed repeatedly. this was a real intent right from the inception of this series

and hey, it's natural! we literally play as the warden, as hawke, as the inquisitor, and now as rook. it's hard to set aside our knowledge from prior games. but in-game, within the narrative itself, those characters don't have deep knowledge of what the other characters do/have done. hawke certainly knows of the warden, but cannot recount every battle, every codex, every conversation the warden had with people. thus, hawke cannot make use of every bit of knowledge the warden - and we as players - gained through that game. further, hawke's understanding of what the warden did is colored by biased recountings and an emphasis on certain story beats over others

in DAI, in early conversation with cassandra, she tells the inquisitor about the time she "single-handedly" slayed a dragon... and how twisted that story had become over its retellings. and, i mean, solas' everything. the evanuris. but i like referencing cassandra in this because this is something that happened in a single lifetime, yet has already grown into a fanciful tale that discounts a huge amount of what actually happened

she knows that mages helped save the day and protect the divine. we know that, too. but the world of thedas? the vast majority of those who know the story do not know that mages helped. and, again, this was within one lifetime. many who know the story were alive when the real event took place. but it doesn't matter! because they weren't there, and they're hearing about it from other people, who heard about it from other people, and so on, and at various points things were dropped or added

bc i wanna talk about clocks n shit

Mechanical Clocks - canon

There is a modern mechanical clock in the Winter Palace, also extracted from the game’s files called the “Maid Clock.” Gaider has also confirmed that clocks indeed exist, though not universally owned. The technology is dwarven-made and thus difficult to come by. Also, there are clocks that are in Orlais, and one could reasonably assume that perhaps there might be a public clock in a city square or in the Winter Palace or a rich noble’s estate.

Sundials  - canon

You can find sundials around in Origins, for example in the Circle Tower, which is slightly ironic since one would have to be outdoors to get direct sunlight, and outside Orzammar’s gates. Also consider how sundials may not be the most useful in cloudy places in Thedas or in places that do not get much direct sun light dense forests. Or at night...

Moondials - likely canon but not useful

If there are sundials, it’s believable that moondials (or lunardials) exist as well. However, they’re only correct on the night of a full moon. However Thedas has two moons (though only seen together on certain nights) so light being cast from two different angles would most likely make the reading near impossible. So once the sun goes down, one could reasonably say that telling time becomes considerably more difficult.

Hourglass - canon

You can also see these in various spots in the games, though they are not nearly as useful to the average person as a clock or sundial. It’s rare even now to find an hourglass that measures more than one hour, and it would have to be manually turned to use as a time-telling device versus a time-tracking device.

Water clocks - canon

Varric mentions one. Water clocks, though they can be made with other viscous materials like sand, are like hourglasses but can be made to measure more than one hour at a time. They rely on water moving from one pot or bucket to another slowly but steadily, with each mark in the receiving bucket denoting an hour has passed. It functions just as an hourglass would, though could not give the time of day, just how long has passed since it was started. Also, these can freeze, so they’re not great to be used everywhere.

Candle clocks - likely canon

Candle clocks are candles that are made from certain slower-burning wax where notches or marks are made for every hour that the candle burns. It’s by no means exact, but it’s reasonable for a character who often uses the same type of candles to look at how far it has burned and estimate “it’s been about an hour and a half.” It’s a casual time-tracking system, for certain, but not a time-telling one. Not a clock but a timer, like a water clock and an hourglass.

Extra: thoughts about Public Time-Keeping via Bell Towers

under the cut are the ppl who want to be @'d in my meta! lmk if u ever want to be added to this list btw~

let's address the elephant in the room, shall we? i love mythal. i am fascinated by her, and i have a deeply sympathetic view of her. mythal alone, mythal as an aspect within flemeth, mythal as the watcher in the crossroads, and mythal as an aspect within morrigan, all of them

at the same time, she was undeniably abusive towards morrigan. there is no sugarcoating the ways she harmed, manipulated, controlled, and abused morrigan

but i do believe there is a context underlying flemythal's behavior towards morrigan that is interesting to explore, and that's going to be my focus here

in veilguard, watcher!mythal, the aspect that exists in the crossroads, speaks of the elves - modern and ancient alike - in a way that has some maternal elements to it. but this is not a soft, warm maternalism: she is protective, but not gentle; compassionate, but not kind. i think that is part of what the aspect carries forth

we never meet flemeth alone, so any interpretation of who she was and what exactly she brings to flemythal is uncertain, but there is smth recognizably of mythal alone in how flemythal treats morrigan

at the same time... it is a long series of misdirects. she let morrigan find her grimoire, a grimoire where she laid bare the "truth" of what she would have of morrigan...

except, that wasn't the truth. not the way it was presented

she's far too experienced, intelligent, aware, savvy, and controlling to let such vital information be found. so, no, it was a red herring. but why the red herring?

with morrigan believing that flemeth raised her only to claim her body, to erase morrigan's personhood and superimpose her own in her daughter's flesh, of course she did not return - except to (possibly) face flemeth and (supposedly) destroy her

for the why, let's consider mythal's past

mythal was murdered by those she had ruled alongside. betrayed - as she (understandably!) saw it - by solas, the person she was closest to, her love, her beloved, her oldest friend. mythal knew, intimately, the need to stand on one's own, the need to possess your own power, to not be subject to another's will or whims

flemeth knew this, too

parenthood is never simple. there are always big questions of how to raise your child. and what is most important to the parent is often reflected in some way in how they raise their child. in flemythal's case, i think she was trying to teach morrigan the risk of trust

it is a cruel, twisted lesson, especially to push onto a child. but i think that is the underlying context of it all. to teach morrigan that she cannot entirely trust even those she has been with the longest. to teach her that anyone - even the mother who has raised her - can have an ulterior motive. to teach her to doubt, and to question, and to push, and to discover for herself what truth is

and she also emphasized power. that morrigan had to hone her own power. flemythal told her how to strengthen that power in a deeply fucked up way, which was another tool she provided her daughter with

"here," flemythal says without saying, "is who to trust: no one"

"and here," she says without saying, "is how to defend yourself from everyone, even me"

chantry lay sister who believes herself to be the chosen of the maker and andraste, joins the hof to change the world and fulfill her destiny

close with morrigan, flemeth's daughter

morrigan, who finds her mother's grimoire (*cough* flemeth's deliberate red herring *coughs*) and believes that her mother will steal her body to extend her own immortality

killed by the hof in dao during the andraste's ashes questline; killed at the temple of sacred ashes

she comes back to life, iirc with the aid of a spirit

ends up working for divine justinia, who uses leliana as a weapon (ofc, justinia's position was rough, too; highly polarizing political positions always are rough)

attends justinia's conclave, where the divine - and almost everyone else - is murdered. the divine in particular seems to have been used as a means of unlocking the orb

begins the inquisition at the ruins of the temple of sacred ashes, the place where she was killed and reborn; specifically at haven, where the mythal-dragon-worshippers used to live

works with the herald/inquisitor, who is also seen as "reborn" at the temple

works with solas

works again with morrigan

inky & co. are led through the fade by divine justinia - or a spirit who has become her, in some sense

later, leliana is supported as divine by the inquisitor, and so is chosen

approaches her new position in no small part through emulating andraste, emphasizing love, welcoming non-human races into the fold, etc.

they are facing corypheus, who appears for all intents and purposes to be a man who was led deeply astray by his own fractured faith - traveling to the golden city only to see the throne empty

like leliana, corypheus takes matters into his own hands; like leliana, he forges his own faith; like leliana, he takes center stage within it. both of them are so desperate to believe that they will become the focal point in order to preserve it

flemeth is revealed as flemythal - holding an aspect of one of the ancient elvhen gods; more specifically, a spirit turned flesh, a powerful mage, one of the evanuris

solas is revealed as fen'harel

leliana - who believed herself to be the chosen of andraste and the maker - has been working alongside the ancient elvhen rebel-god-betrayer (depending on the story) and the daughter of mythal, the all-mother, one of the most powerful of the evanuris

morrigan, who later willingly accepts being the next host to mythal's aspect and not losing herself... but still seeming to have more of mythal than "just" her memories, at least by my judgement

solas' ritual ends up going wrong and elgar'nan and ghilan'nain - two of the other evanuris; again, spirits-turned-flesh - rise and wreak havoc across thedas

this happens while leliana is the southern divine...

the amount that leliana's story intersects with faith and also spirits is fascinating to me

the way that leliana and morrigan intersect... the way that morrigan and mythal obviously intersect... the way that leliana and solas intersect... the way that solas and mythal intersect... the way that solas and corypheus intersect... the way that leliana and corypheus do not directly intersect but are nonetheless a kind of mirror of each other...

at all times, leliana is right next to or a step removed from supposed divinity. and what makes a god/dess a god/dess? is it power? is it difference? or is it faith? and the divine - literally, the divine - is what leliana (can!) become

a spy. an assassin. a brutal strategist

a fuller meta post on morrigan because... she's fucked up, absolutely, but i love her so, so much. also this got hella long!

idk all the canon, just learned about witch hunt a few hours ago, etc, but from what I do know:

she grew up in EXTREME isolation in the korcari wilds. she was discouraged if not forbidden from interacting with other people, so the only one there to ease her isolation was flemeth. morrigan also cooks, which you could easily expand to say that she does most if not all of the domestic labor

she's also a shape-shifter, but iirc, even animals were wary of her. so it's not like she could ease her isolation indirectly by becoming an animal and spending time with others of that species

when she stole the mirror - having been spying on the nearby village, just to see how people lived - it was taken away and she was punished. one small trinket from the outside world. one connection to a world beyond the hut she lived in. and remember - flemeth was feared. no one approached, even when the hut was abandoned

her only escape is in learning magic, something she does seem to care about. and judging from flemeth's character, she was likely encouraged to take knowledge by whatever means necessary - while at the same time, flemeth deprived her of contact with the outside world

in a strange way, morrigan and solas mirror each other. both of them emerged warily into a world where everyone else felt like a shadow and had to slowly learn that other people have value

morrigan is tactical, selfish, manipulative, and driven. what's interesting about her is both the why and what of her drive: preservation of knowledge. bc think about it: what did she fundamentally lack, as a child growing up in extreme isolation? knowledge. balanced knowledge. instead, she was force-fed a specific narrative that devalued other people and herself, her feelings and needs

what did she feel when she read flemeth's grimoire and found out that her mother was planning to steal her body, whatever the truth of the situation might've been? the only person she'd ever been allowed to depend on, and then she realizes she was always just a vessel. even the magic that flemeth taught her can no longer be seen as the one good thing she did, because now it's really just to give flemeth a good, powerful body to inhabit. there's no love between a mother and a daughter, even twisted as it might've been; instead, morrigan was just a continuation, a part of flemeth's story. her self immaterial. how utterly horrifying

and even before that, she's just... given away. no choice of her own unless the warden specifically asks her. flemeth just hands her off to these two strangers, puts her in an extremely dangerous situation, estranged from the structure of the only life she's ever been allowed to know, and forced to cooperate with non-mages and strangers and just people, full-stop, each of which is a brand new experience for her

so when it happens again in dai, when no matter who you put on the throne morrigan is just handed off to another extremely dangerous situation, that's so... heartbreaking. she's had so few real choices in her life

in fact, I can only think of one decision that's presumably entirely her own: joining the orlesian court. because, dealing with flemeth? the warden decides. the dark ritual? the warden decides. and I get it, narratively, but it's SO fucked that the warden gets to decide whether or not morrigan has a child

and why does she want to do the dark ritual? for power, of course, but also for preservation. the idea of the old god soul being lost distresses her, just as the idea of the well of sorrows being lost distresses her. she's selfish and possessive about knowledge, about magic, but she's also desperate to save it

I've already mentioned her reasons for so doggedly pursuing knowledge, but what of magic? I think with magic, she's absolutely terrified of it fading from the world. not disappearing, just becoming slowly lost, less important... because magic is the only thing she feels confident about wrt herself. gifted child + emotionally abused/neglected child = a desperation to create and maintain a sense of personal value, a strength, which in her case is magic. I think a part of her still feels like her magic is her, that it's all or at least most of her.

it's also why she thinks she's better suited than anyone else to gain this knowledge. she isn't, but she can't accept that. I think a part of her sees this as her fate, her destiny, to preserve and learn, to make use of the way she was abused and the person she was forced to become. it gives meaning to her life. it's not right, it's not healthy, and it's still reliant on the devaluation of others that flemeth taught her, but it does make sense for her

it's also why I find it so, so fascinating to let her have kieran in dai. she doesn't use him. she loves him. genuinely, deeply. she guides him without controlling him, is openly fond of him, and states that she won't have him growing up in a bog deprived of human contact. what's more... at court, she doesn't let herself become associated with him, because she doesn't want to taint his experience or other people's perception of him. she says at skyhold that most people in court just knew him as a quiet, polite boy. she's desperately worried for him when he goes through the eluvian into the fade. i mean, panicked, even leliana states that she's never seen her like that

and when she thinks flemeth is going to take him? morrigan offers herself, her body. the thing she fought against. the thing she was most afraid of. she offers herself to flemeth in order to save kieran. leliana mentions that kieran has changed morrigan, has softened her, and it's true

she still has all these hallmarks of the way flemeth abused her and following the end of dai, has to contend with the fact that flemeth, her mother, was one of the ancient elvhen, some mysterious entity who's lived on through ages. how does she deal with that? can she? she's the child of someone regarded as a god - how will that impact her? how will it impact kieran? she knows they aren't gods, just powerful mages, but as she says of corypheus, it doesn't matter so much whether they're right (re: godhood) as it matters whether theyre capable. flemeth is capable of things that would generally be ascribed to godhood. and morrigan is her daughter. and was taught that her only value is in her magical ability