#high speculation

Flemeth and Mythal

If Kieran doesn't exist, the Inquisitor who drank from the Well will stop Morrigan from attacking Flemeth when she appears. However, if Kieran exists, Flemeth claims in this situation: "You will endanger the boy" meaning that this power she is planning to use may hurt him. It's hard to know if this is just a comment she does, a display of Mythal's motherhood, or simply a way to piss Morrigan off.

In another fragment of this scene, we have a cryptic explanation of how Flemeth can contain Mythal:

“Once I was but a woman, crying out in the lonely darkness for justice. And she came to me, a wisp of an ancient being, and she granted me all I wanted and more. I have carried Mythal through the ages ever since, seeking the justice denied to her. […] She is a part of me, no more separe than your heart from your chest." [...] "But what was Mythal? A legend given name and called a god, or something more? Truth is not the end, but a beginning.”

It's fair to question if this "ancient being" could not be a demon, as the Inquisitor says at some point. However, the voices of the Well say that Flemeth speaks the Truth. So, can we be [more or less] sure that Flemeth is not possessed by a demon? I personally have some issues about the accuracy and the reliability of the voices of the Well, because we know they are controlled by Mythal herself [read section below].

Flemeth also gives us room to wonder about who and what Mythal was. The fact she is cryptically telling us that Mythal was more than any other Evanuris makes me suspect and support the theory that Mythal is the one with double nature [instead of Fen'Harel], she is Evanuris and Forgotten One, and the Forgotten Ones were dragons that Evanuris and Elvhenan worshipped before claiming Divinity for themselves [details in Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History  or in The Missing]

Flemeth: A herald, indeed. Shouting to the heavens, harbinger of a new age. As for me, I have had many names. But you... may call me Flemeth. Inquisitor: Flemeth appears in other legends, helping heroes for reasons of her own F: I nudge history, when it’s required. Other times, a shove is needed.  [chuckles]

These pieces of information also tell us and reinforce what we saw in DAO and DA2: Flemeth meddles with human history so the events go to a direction she wants. It's not clear what goal is behind all this, but I think it's fair to conclude she is preparing what she promised to Mythal: avenge her, a reckoning that will shake the very heavens.

When Morrigan claims that Flemeth "prolongs her unnatural life by possessing the bodies of her daughters" Flemeth answers

Flemeth: That's what you believe, is it? Morrigan: I found your grimoire, and I am no fool, old woman Flemeth: [chuckles] Yet here you stand, bound into my service. My daughter ran from me long ago. I've let her be... until now, it seems.

Again, we have no clear answer about the process that allowed Flemeth to live so much or if it is this body the one that lived for centuries, but considering the piece of information we obtained from Yavanna in the comic The Silent Grove, I think it's fair to assume that is not Flemeth who is living through different bodies, but Mythal, who is so entangled with Flemeth's soul that now they are one single entity. Flemeth told us before that Mythal and herself are one thing. This concept is also reinforced when we speak with Anders in DA2 about his possessed condition: It's impossible to determine when Anders finishes and Justice starts. They are one now. However, this brings into account a sharp observation: we don't see this same condition in Kieran.

Do Flemeth and Kieran suffered similar possession condition? If Kieran has the power of an Old God, he will be called by Mythal in dreams, activate the Eluvian by his own, and walk into the Fade [The Fade - Flemeth: Part 1, Part 2]. Morrigan will say "To direct the eluvian here would require immense power". This fact shows us that Flemeth/Mythal shares similar powers to Urthemiel [the soul inside Kieran] since she is in the Fade by herself. This would support a little bit the idea I've been exploring long ago about the Forgotten Ones being dragons, and Mythal being one of them; the actual real Evanuris who is Evanuris and Forgotten One at the same time [and not Fen'Harel, as the unreliable Dalish Legends repeat] since in the comic Until We Sleep we learn that the Great Dragons had absolute control of the Fade [dreamer/somniari's powers-like].

Kieran: I'm sorry mother. I heard her calling to me. She said now was the time . Morrigan [to Flemeth]: Then what is it you want? Felemeth, looking at Kieran: One thing and one thing only. Kieran: I have to go, mother. Flemeth: He carries a piece of what once was, snatched from the jaws of darkness. You know this. Morrigan: He is not your pawn, mother. I will not let you use him. Flemeth: Have you not used him? Was that not your purpose, the reason you agreed to his creation? Morrigan: That was then. Now he... he is my son. [Flemeth tilts her head, curious, as if she was surprised of a response she was not expecting]

From this exchange we see again how Mythal is deeply related to the Old Gods. Even though we don't know the reason why she calls Urthemiel nor why or for what there is no time, we can see that Mythal has some level of command over Urthemiel.

We also see once more the concept of "Darkness", as a metaphoric word to mean "The Blight".

And finally, the whole scene seems to encourage the suspicion that Flemeth has been testing Morrigan's sense of motherhood, which again makes some sense: thanks to the Dev's notes in Somewhere in the Crossroads, The Silent Grove comic, and Kieran's words about the inheritor of a new age, we know Flemeth has been raising Morrigan to become the next Inheritor. We can assume it means she will be the inheritor of Myhtal's godhood, who may need some sense of motherhood in her willingly host, maybe?

Morrigan: Flemeth extends her life by possessing the bodies of her daughters'. That was the fate she intended for me. I thwarted her, and now she intends to have Kieran instead. Inquisitor: The way she talked about Kieran... Flemeth: I am not the only one carrying the soul of a being long thought lost. Morrigan: He is more than that, Mother. Flemeth: As am I, yet do you hear me complain? Our destinies are not so easily avoided, dear girl. [...] Inquisitor: If Kieran is so special, why did you wait until now to come for him? Flemeth: I did not know where he was. Morrigan cleverly hid him from me... until now Morrigan: T'was the well... Flemeth: Always grasping beyond your reach, despite all what I taught you.

Flemeth seems to compare herself to Kieran in nature and destinies: souls of old creatures that were considered gone, that remain entangled with the soul of the body they inhabit, and have a particular destiny to fulfil [which is unknown to us].

Another curious thing: even though Flemeth has enormous power, specially in the Fade, she was unable to locate Kieran for a long time. Only when someone drank from the Well she was able to do so. We know that Morrigan lived with Kieran in the spaces in-between for a long time [the Crossroads], so we can assume that these spaces are not connected to the Fade and certainly Evanuris can't perceive it. Again, we learnt about the nature of these spaces in-between in The Crossroads [DLC Trespasser]: Elven Mountain Ruins, where the freed slaves tried to recover and hide from the Evanuris while gathering strength against them.

Inquisitor: You're... going to steal the body of a young boy? Flemeth: If my daughter believes it, that it must be so. [...] My daughter struggles. I expected no less of her.

Again, we see Mythal cannot care less to explain, and lets Morrigan to believe whatever she wants to. This coincides with what Flemeth told us in a previous scene: humans don't want the truth, and that's the true nature of their hearts. So, her approach is always “I will let you believe what you want to believe” and does nothing to make you change of opinion. In DAO, however, we find that she claims that the only wise attitude is to doubt about everything [Read DAO section in Part 1].

Mythal and the Well of Sorrows

If Morrigan drank from the Well of Sorrows:

Inquisitor: This meeting was not accident, was it? Flemeth: Clever lad/lass Morrigan: The voices.... came from you? Flemeth: The price of the Well seemed no dire thing when you saw so much gain, hmn?

If the Inquisitor drank from the Well of Sorrows:

Inquisitor: This meeting was not accident, was it? The voices from the well directed me here, and you direct them. Flemeth: Clever lad

This is also an important piece of lore: the Well of Sorrows, which gathers all the knowledge of all the high priests that served Mythal, and left their "will" in it [read Abelas' words about the concept of "will" that he lets transpire in Temple of Mythal-Part 5], are also controlled by Mythal. So this Well is not entirely a reliable independent source of information, it's as reliable as Flemeth wants it to be.

Inquisitor [If they drank from the Well]: So must I serve you now because I drank from the Well? Flemeth [chuckles]: Is that how you see yourself? A servant? I have no command for you. Not yet. Inquisitor [If Morrigan drank from the Well]: did you come here to make Morrigan serve you? Flemeth: [laughs] oh, what a servant she would make.

This piece continues supporting Abelas' words about Mythal's followers not being slave/servants against their will. Flemeth is amused to see how heavily the Inquisitor sees this position towards her, she jokes and laughs about it, and claims that there is no commands for the inquisitor. "Not yet", since she is also Flemeth, who will avenge Mythal, and will use any tool she can use to do so.

Flemeth: I wished to see who drank from the Well of Sorrows. It has been a very long time. [chuckle, if Morrian drank from it] Imagine my surprise to discover it was you. [if the Inquisitor drank it] Now I have, and he/she is free to go. Morrigan: and that's all? Flemeth: A soul is not forced upon the unwilling, Morrigan. You were never in danger from me.

This again shows how Mythal is not really fond of unwilling servants. She lets Morrigan/the Inquisitor free. And then, she claims that souls cannot be forced upon the unwilling. This line, as cryptic as anything that Flemeth says, seems to imply two things: Mythal never wanted slaves, but loyal followers. And if it's true that Flemeth's long life is because she transferred Mythal to her daughters, it should not be a process forced upon an unwilling host. Thanks to Yavanna in The Silent Grove, we suspect that Flemeth wanted Morrigan to be the next carrier of Mythal's fragment. Due to the Dev's note in Somewhere in the Crossroads, we confirm that Flemeth wanted this, and we suspect it is what she places in the Mirror before being consumed by Solas. Although if Solas took that piece of power/godhood, makes little sense to assume the same fragment was placed on the mirror, unless Mythal can divide that divine power [which is something she can do to some extent according to all what she told us about being a fragment of a whole]. In any case, we also know that Flemeth lets Morrigan/the Inquisitor free because she knows she will die soon at the hands of Solas [as the Dev's note in Somewhere in the Crossroads seems to confirm].

In the next scene, when the Inquisitor controls the dragon guardian of the altar, we see that, visually speaking, they use the same power that Flemeth cast on the one who drank from the well. So it seems to imply that the Inquisitor can control this dragon like Flemeth can control anyone who drank from the well.

Flemeth and the music:

It’s in DAO when we start seeing that Flemeth has a soft pattern of a music theme in her speech. When you find Flemeth for a second time, due to Morrigan’s personal quest, she speaks of “Morrigan’s music” as if it were a metaphor for Morrigan's manipulation. This image also brings us an analogy with the Blight and its sweet song, which manipulates blighted creatures into looking for Archdemons to awaken them [or most likely, to open the gates that keep trapped the entity in the Black City, the true origin of the song, according to Avernus in Soldier’s Peak]

Flemeth sounds very “done with” this potential assassination of her, again. This repeated situation where she sees that the ones she helped once return to kill her, may have given Mythal a bad taste in her mouth. In fact, she adds “It’s an old, old story [that Flemeth] even told. It’s a dance poor Flemeth knows well”, referring to Mythal’s. Back then, when we were playing DAO, it was impossible for us to understand the underlying meaning of these words even though we could notice there was something else. Now, thanks to DAI, all these lines are much clearer.

She doesn’t say the truth behind all this situation even if we ask her to do so simply because she knows the heart of humans: they do not want the Truth [this line was said in DAI], and she knows they prefer the comfort of the lies instead. “We believe what we want to believe”. Flemeth, then, turns into a Dragon and fights us if we choose that option. Only when we pick this option we can be sure she becomes a dragon. Up to that moment, we were hinted by Morrigan that Flemeth had polymorphed into a big unspecified creature and grabbed the Warden and Alistair in her talons.

Another reference to music that Flemeth uses appears in DAI:

Flemeth: You seek to preserve the powers that were, but to what end? It is because I taught you, girl, because things happened that were never meant to happen. She was betrayed as I was betrayed - as the world was betrayed! Mythal clawed and crawled her way through the ages to me, and I will see her avenged! Alas, so long as the music plays, we dance.

And considering the post Songs and elements that sing and whisper in DA Lore, we can agree that this line seems pretty curious and it almost allows us to link Flemeth's incoming avenge of Mythal with the Blighted song, specially if we explore all the hypothesis that sprouted in Speculations about the Vinyl Art.

Flemeth, Mythal, and Motherhood

The concept of Motherhood in Flemeth is controversial at best. Without going into a deep judgement of her character, we need to remember particular bits of lore and concepts we know about Mythal.

Mythal was always related to motherhood. It's not only something that is present in the unreliable Dalish legends, it's something we see clearly in the Temple of Mythal, and in her Mosaic [read Myhtal's section in the post Evanuris] and in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal or Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara.

In DAO, Flemeth--as the owner of a fragment of Mythal--is presented too explicitly as a witch that will possess Morrigan, questioning her genuine sense of motherhood. I think DAO had a poor presentation of a "misinterpretation", clarified later in DAI, simply because in DAO, at the end of Morrigan's Quest, there are two questionable items: Flemeth's Grimoire and "Robes of Possesion",

The grimoire doesn't say anything relevant in its description and all what we learn about it comes from Morrigan's perspective, who understands it very wrongly. But the robe has a straightforward description:

"The original intent of these robes is clear: a "welcome home" present from Flemeth, designed to sap Morrigan's will and ease the ancient sorceress's possession of her daughter. With Flemeth dead, these robes no longer pose a danger to Morrigan--but Maker help those who get in her way."

Again, this vision is after reading the grimoire and trusting Morrigan's interpretation. This item has -1 will, which seems to be very contradictory to what Flemeth claimed in DAI: "A soul is not forced upon the unwilling, you were never in danger from me" which means, in my opinion, three situations happened in all those years in between games:

Or DAO had a different idea about what to do with Flemeth originally and it changed over the years [very likely],

Or this robe is a bad designed red herring [they are lying to the player to avoid spoiling the concept of Mythal in Flemeth]

Or there is a real lore-wise explanation of this that needs a re-interpretation of the grimoire without the biases that Morrigan had acquired along her life. Maybe a re-read of this item with the Well of Sorrow's wisdom may enlighten us differently. However, this is speculation and we can't do it ingame.

We know that Yavanna in the comic The Silent Grove claims that Morrigan doesn't understand what Flemeth is doing, and apparently, what she will receive from her is a "gift", not unwillingly possession.

Kieran, if he has the old soul, will claim that Morrigan is the "inheritor" of the new age, which aligns with what Yavanna implies and the Dev's notes in DAI say: what Flemeth was trying to do is to give Morrigan the "essence of godhood, a gift that Morrigan misunderstood as hostile possession", read  Somewhere in the Crossroads [Ending] for details.

The presentation of this issue in DAO makes us wonder a lot about Flemeth's sense of motherhood. On the other side, thanks to DAI, we know that Mythal was changed in a way that she abandoned her Children [the People she always seems to be so fond of], because "things happened that were never meant to happen". In DA2 and DAI we find that Mythal is also presented and perceived as a goddess that protects, with some degree of Motherhood, but also abandonment [especially in DAI]: She also abandoned Abelas and his people, as the new generations of guardians lose they deep devotion to Mythal [read Untranslatable Elven Writing, from Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal] .

On the other hand, we lack of context. We don't know how Mythal was killed, if it was due to a betrayal from the Evanuris because she trusted them, and why she raised Morrigan harder than she should have.

Even though this Mythal is changed and has a questionable sense of motherhood, we see in DAI a motherhood test: when Morrigan tells Flemeth to leave her son and take her instead, Flemeth takes Urthemiel's fragment and leaves them both alone. Later, Morrigan will claim this was a test she was not sure she had passed.

[Kieran looks at Flemeth] Flemeth: As you wish. [She looks at Morrigan] Hear my proposal, dear girl. Let me take the lad, and you are free of me forever. I will never interfere with or harm you again. Or, keep the lad with you... and you will never be safe from me. I will have my due. Morrigan: I will take my chances. Flemeth: I found you once, girl. What makes you think I will not find you again? Morrigan Take over my body now, if you must. Just let Kieran go. He will be better off without me, just as I was better off without you. [Flemeth seems to make a face of hurt, as if those words reached her. Then, she looks at Kieran, and it seems to look like they can communicate in silence. Then she smiles at him as a blue glow passes from Kieran's body to Flemeth's] Kieran: No more dreams? Flemeth: No more dreams. [As Kieran returns to his mother] A soul is not forced upon the unwilling, Morrigan. You were never in danger from me. Listen to the voices. They will teach you... as I never did. Flemeth: [...] I will have my due. Morrigan: He returns to me. Flemeth: Decided so quickly? Morrigan: Do whatever you wish. Take over my body now, if you must, but Kieran will be free of your clutches. I am many things, but I will not be the mother you were to me. [Flemeth seems to make a face of hurt, as if those words reached her.]

So, what seems to transpire in both scenes is that Flemeth ends up hurt by Morrigan's words about her bad motherhood. Another detail is that those who have ancient beings in their body seem to have "dreams", hard to understand what that means. We can't say if these dreams are, in truth, walks through the Fade, or something else.

Another thing that stands out is that these scenes seem to show that Flemeth has been testing Morrigan's sense of motherhood. And if the player doesn't suspect this earlier, the next scene is explicit about it:

Returning from the Fade: Morrigan: Are you alright, Kieran? You are not hurt? Kieran: I feel lonely. [kieran leaves] Morrigan: she wanted the Old God soul all along. Is it worth reminding myself that perhaps I do not know everything after all? My mother has the soul of an elven goddess—or whatever "Mythal" truly was—and her plans are unknown to me. [...] I knew she kept the truth from me. I even suspected she was not truly human... but this? I always thought the so-called "elven gods" were little more than glorified rulers, now I have doubts. And doubt is... an uncomfortable thing, Inquisitor. Just be thankful you did not drink from the Well. I am evidently tied to my mother for eternity. Inquisitor: So Kieran had... the soul of an Old God? Morrigan: [...], yes. He has never known anythign else. I am uncertain what effect this will have on him. [...] I told you at the temple. The magic of old must be preserved, no matter how feared. Kieran had a destiny, and now it is in Flemeth's hands. I suppose we shall see what she does with it. Inquisitor: For what it's woth, I think you did the right thing. Morrigan: Did I? She was testing me, and I cannot tell whether I passed.

Kieran's sense of loneliness brings immediately to our mind the case of Sigrid Gulsdotten in Frostback Basin [DLC]: Stone-Bear Hold Avvars - Part 1, who did not want to be separated from the being she was possessed by because she would feel lonely. What we can see in this scene is that removing a soul from a possessed body is possible and won't leave them scarred as the Dalish believe [Marethari Talas tells us this in DA2 and in Merril and the Eluvian].

We see that Morrigan continues in keeping and preserving magic of old times, as Flemeth told her to do all her life, and at the end of the scene, we are assured, if we had some doubts up to that moment, that Flemeth has been testing Morrigan in something she doesn't understand. We can suspect it may be related to her sense of Motherhood given the overall scenes, as Mythal is a mother before anything else. Maybe Flemeth is preparing Morrigan to be a better host for Mythal, with a better sense of motherhood, since she is the "inheritor" of a new age [could it mean the inheritor of an age that came after the revenge was taken?].

Artwork of Flemeth

Artwork of flemeth is broad and varied and may hide some extra details about the figure of Flemeth.

One of the pieces that brought my attention the most belongs to the Book of Thedas Volumen 1:

We see Flemeth in her dragon shape. The dragon has a beautiful foreshadowing detail: it has some swirls that we can find in Mythal's dragon shape statue in DAI. This dragon is not only telling us that it's Flemeth in her shapeshifter form, it's also Mythal [not only the shape of the horns is similar to the statue's; it has a central spike, read the Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The single spike].

Then, we find Flemeth in her war attire, depicted with a yellow sphere that coincide with the curvature of her staff. This ball can be interpreted in many ways: a mere design effect to make it look like glow, a sphere that can represent the orb power we see as an asterisk in many murals [Murals in DAI], the symbol of Mythal destroying a Titan [The Death of a Titan], or a sphere related to those red sphere explained in the Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal and Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara. The sphere combined with the shape of her staff also seems to create an effect of an eye, also related to Mythal [at least in concept art]. The extreme of this Staff also appears in DA2, in Merril's loadscreen when we see the eluvian being broken [skim over the post Merril’s Eluvian to find the image].

This staff has a similar shape to the original design of Andraste's helm in her statue version of DAO, and it is also related to Flemeth several times in DA2 [in the background] or in other pieces of art where we see her holding this staff. We find in Patterns and Styles: Tevinter that some concept art seem to show a Tevinter staff inspired in this one, which again, makes a link between Tevinter and their dragon worshipping, with the Evanuris in a very indirect way.

However, this staff never made it into any game; I cannot say it was due to lore-wise reasons or simply it was hard to design in the games.

Finally, we see at the very right corner of the image an old woman with an apron that has a shape of an eye. This eye is the same one we find in the concept art of the Mythal's Temple guardians that did not make it into the game but we can see in the artbook of Inquisition. We can associate Mythal with a deep knowledge of the future that this eye may represent. We know Flemeth has been nudging history and [through the books], we can even suspect she has some foresee ability [read, for example, the meeting with Maric and Loghain in The Stolen Throne, several sections below].

The Eye may also be related to some presence in the dreams/Fade [let's remember that the Fade is a reflection of the Waking World, and you just need to "read and observe" the right way to have the information you need, according to Solas and several unreliable sources of Enchanters' codices]. In posts like Andrastian Design: Stained Glasses, the comic Until We Sleep or in Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The Sun, I've talked about the impressive and yet easy to miss event of an elf in Val Royeaux who claims to have been visited by Mythal in dreams and after that conversation, he has his face burned with her vallaslin [Elven Servant Dreams of Mythal, another videos here]. The fact that Mythal can be related to the symbol of the eyes may show her relationship with foreseen powers and her ability to visit people in dreams and change reality through them. This is, so far we learnt in Feynriel quest [Feynriel - Somniari and Fade], the powers of the dreamers, and thanks to the comics Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep we know these powers also belonged to particularly powerful dragons.

In DA2, Flemeth's art can be found in the game itself in one of the Varric's narrations [Act 1]. In it, she looks like a mountain, with details of veins that make us suspect some relationship with titans and lyrium [design and visual detail discussed in Design of Kirkwall]. It's only in DAI where we learn through the codex and the mural “The Death of a Titan” that she was able to destroy a titan and, probably, took a unique power from it that may have encourage the Evanuris to kill her. It could also be the mere use of lyrium that the Evanuris started to implement in their magic to acquire more power and divine status. We can see in this image that the symbol of her staff is also in the background, cutting her in half: below the mountain, above the humanoid-dragon-like woman.

In this image, we see Flemeth wearing her war attire, which has a lot of parts that reminds us the statues of the Emerald Knights in Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin or in the warrior version of Andraste herself. She is surrounded by dark smoke that reminds me the power that the elvhenan displayed in DAI: Abelas when he is killed by Morrigan, Flemeth when she is summoned as Mythal in her Altar, and Solas when consumes Flemeth's powers. In all these cases, they use dark smoke around them or in their powers. Read Somewhere in the Crossroads [Ending] to see the visual details of this. We see again the importance of the staff placed at the almost centre of the piece of art.

The "yellow mosaic" possesses a strong assumption: it has four shapes at the corners that may represent eluvians or something related to Mythal.

In the mural of “the Temple of Mythal” from  “The actions of the Inquisitor”, we see that Solas draw a particular star of 8 points inside a door frame that resembles this “eluvian outline”, but it’s also the shape of the doors of the Temple of Mythal which represents Mythal herself in her dragon shape. All these symbols seem to reinforce the idea we explored in “The Death of a Titan”: Mythal seems to be related to the core power of a Titan represented by an asterisk that evolves into a golden ring and into a sun. However, it's curious to highlight that the sun was always a symbol related to Elgar'nan.

As I repeated several times in Speculations about the Vinyl Art, at times, we find some hints where stars or balls of fires [also understood as suns] are related to Mythal and Elgar’nan, making us suspect that, maybe, Mythal and Elgar’nan share a nature similar to Falon’Din and Dirthamen’s: apparently, the same creature with two different aspects from them. If this were the case, associating Mythal with the Sun would make sense, and it would also explain why, if Elgar’nan was so central in the Elvhenan culture, there are so few representations and statues of him, while Mythal overwhelms it.

The center of the mosaic displays the Asterisk Symbol [made of 8 points], which may be related to the core of a Titan [asterisk of 8 points too]. The link is immediate when we see that this asterisk is outlined by a shape that looks like a star or a Sun, inside a big ball with triangular-shape ends. This same symbol appears in the Trailer of DA4, behind Solas, when he is presented like an Hermit, mysterious, apostate mage. Around this “sun” we can make out several concentric lines that may refer to a “Golden Ring”.

The Asterik symbol also appears in murals such as  “The Creation of the Veil” or “The Death of a Titan”, which allowed us to relate them with the core of a Titan and its immense power of “making real what you imagine by reinforcing the reality”, but this symbol also appears in a corner of Solas’ tarot card. For more details, read Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The Sun .

Her art in Heroes of Dragon Age shows her more like a chasind mage, with a painted fave [1,2], and a curious staff of an appostate [1,4], which is also depicted, sometimes, in Solas' art. This staff made it into the game, and was reused many times in DA2 making it a bit meaningless. We can clearly see the similar design in her dress as a chasind mage [1,2] as well as in Flemeth's war attire [3]. In [3] we see again the staff that looks like an eye.

The vynil: I made a whole post about the potenciality of understanding the dragon we see in the Vynil as (a fragment of) Myhtal. Since it's a strong hypothesis, I will leave it there, so you can read more about it in Speculations about the Vinyl Art.

Flemeth in the books (or comics)

The Stolen Throne

In this book, we see Flemeth when Maric Theirin and Loghain are captured by Dalish that delivered them to her. As an exchange to leading them out of the Wilds, Flemeth requests Maric to make a promise we don't know about it, as well as giving him the knowledge that a Blight will occur in Ferelden. She also gives him a cryptic warning about Loghain: "Keep him close and he will betray you, each time worse than the last." These details reinforce the idea that she has foreseeing powers that were implied in the art through the symbol of the eye.

Flemeth is presented as a decrepit woman: " She was the very picture of a witch, wild white hair and a robe formed mostly of thick black furs and dark leather. Hanging down her back was a heavy cloak trimmed in fox fur, quite striking and delicately stitched. She carried a basket filled with large acorns and other items wrapped in red cloth".

She also uses sylvans. At some point, Loghan is attacked by a sylvan, what forces Maric to beg forgiveness to Flemeth. She is surprised, and once again, we see that she really appreciates "good manners":

Sweat trickling down his brow, Maric cleared his throat and carefully lowered himself to one knee. “I beg your pardon on behalf of my companion, good lady.” His voice was quiet, but the old woman appeared to be listening, fascinated. “We have been running for days now, and after the Dalish attacked us . . . we expected more of the same, despite the fact that you have offered no provocation. I apologize.” He bowed his head, trying his best to remember the courtly manners so painstakingly taught to him over the years by his mother. To think he had rolled his eyes at those lessons, assuming that he would never have an actual use for them. The witch laughed shrilly. “Manners? My, but that is unexpected.”

We also can see again Flemeth's foresee abilities:

“So you are he,” the witch said, nodding with approval as she studied Maric. “I knew you would come, and the manner in which you would come, but not the when.” She let out a sharp guffaw and slapped her knees. “Isn’t it marvelous how very capricious magic can be with its information? It’s like asking a cat for directions—consider yourself lucky if it only tells you where to go!” She howled with laughter at her own joke.

This also makes sense with the image of the temple of Mythal and its guardians in the concept art, with eyeball tattoos or armour. We can assume this comes from her ability to present herself in the dreams of some people, as it happened with the elven man in Orlais. This symbol of eyes, also presented in the first art piece of the section of Flemeth Art, can be considered a way to represent her omnipresence due to her ability to visit everyone in dreams, or foreseen powers.

“Fortunes change.” The witch’s gaze shifted to far off in the distance. “One minute you’re in love, so much in love that you can’t imagine anything wrong ever happening. And the next you’re betrayed. Your love has been ripped from you like your own leg, and you swear you’d do anything—anything—to make those responsible pay.” Her eyes focused on Maric, and her voice became soft, caressing. “Sometimes vengeance changes the world. What will yours do, young man?”

This part seems to reinforce the concept that Flemeth and Mythal are allied in order to perform a revenge. Through the tales of Conobar and Osen, we know that Flemeth may have been avenged thanks to the help of Mythal, and now it's the turn of Mythal: for which Flemeth has been changing and modifying the events of the world in order to accomplish this so long-awaited reckoning.

Loghain stepped forward angrily. “Leave him alone.” The witch turned to regard him, her eyes delighted. “And what of yours? You’ve rage enough inside you, tempered into a blade of fine steel. Into whose heart will you plunge that one day, I wonder?” “Maric and I are not friends,” he growled, “but I don’t want him dead.” Her chuckle was mirthless. “Oh, you know what I speak of.” Loghain paled, but regained his composure almost immediately. “That . . . doesn’t matter any longer,” he stated evenly. “Doesn’t it? Have you forgiven them already, then? You no longer remember her cries as they held her down? The laughter of the soldiers as they held you back and made you watch? Your father when he—” “Stop!” Loghain shouted, his voice filled with as much terror as fury. Maric watched in shock as Loghain launched toward the witch as if to strangle her. He lurched to a halt before he reached her, hands clenched tightly into fists as he struggled against his impulse. The trees around the hut seemed to creak in anticipation, like coiled springs. The witch merely rocked and watched him quietly, unconcerned. “You see too much, old woman,” he muttered. “In fact,” her tone was dry, “I see just barely enough.”

We can see here Flemeth's powers: she sees Loghain and can see when he had to watch Orlesians rape and kill his mother in front of him, who was a mere powerless child at the time. She sees into a person and sees the most traumatic events in their past. And probably this is why she can see the future as well. Hence, another reason more why her original concept implied an eyeball.

Loghain also didn’t want to think about what sort of promise the witch had elicited from Maric. He had gone into her hut and had remained there for hours, long enough that Loghain grew concerned. He had been trying to peer in through its one filthy, grit-covered window when Maric walked out the door, alone. The man seemed shaken and quiet and was resistant to even the most casual efforts Loghain made to inquire about what had gone on. So it was to remain a secret, after all.

Later we can suspect that Maric was in shock because Flemeth told him the destiny he had to fulfil in the next book: The Calling.

The hut was empty of everything but dust and rot, as if nobody had lived there for years. They searched about, but there was no sign of the witch. There was also, he noticed, no sign of Dannon’s body or his makeshift grave. It seemed they were free to go. It took them four days’ travel to leave the Wilds. Supposedly, the witch had told Maric they would see the way out once they left her hut, and sure enough, not an hour away a bluebird appeared in the trees before them. It was so out of place, and sang so sweetly, that both Loghain and Maric took instant notice. As they approached, it flitted to the next tree and to the next until Loghain realized it was leading them. So they followed. When it reappeared the next morning, there could be no doubt. The only thing Maric didn’t talk about was the witch.

Loghain and Maric are guided out of the Wild, showing the powers that Flemeth had in the Kocari Wilds.

[As they returned to Ferelden and out of the Wilds] It wasn’t long after leaving the ruins that they encountered wolves again. For the first time, Loghain was truly beginning to believe that the old witch had called on greater magic to aid them than just summoning a bluebird guide. Loghain stood with his bow at the ready, eyeing the wolves warily, while Maric remained breathless beside him. The entire pack, however, maintained its distance and watched, but did not threaten. Loghain and Maric moved cautiously through the trees, with perhaps twenty large wolves sitting and staring at them silently with their feral yellow eyes. Still, nothing happened. As soon as they were out of sight, Loghain let out a long breath. He swore that he never wanted to encounter magic again as long as he lived, and Maric murmured agreement. [...] When the sun went down that day, the bluebird vanished.

Interestly enough, Flemeth also uses the help of wolves to guide Maric and Loghain out of the Wild. The curious detail I liked to highlight is that they all share the yellow eyes, a feature that has been very unique of certain characters: Flemeth and her daughters [Morrigan and Yavanna], Abelas, some Qunari [we can notice this in more detail in the comics], and Titus [a Magister who performed dragon blood drink rituals]. All of them related to Mythal and/or dragons. However, in DAI, the feral wolves always appeared with Fade-like coloured eyes.

Dragon Age: The Calling

Fourteen years later, Flemeth's words inspire Maric, now King of Ferelden, to accompany the Grey Wardens on their expedition into the Deep Roads. He later relays her words to Loghain, who disagrees with them and points out that she may have been deceiving them.

Maric steepled his hands together and considered. He hadn’t wanted to tell Loghain, but it seemed like he had no other choice. “Do you remember the witch we met in the Korcari Wilds?” he began. “Back during the rebellion, when we were fleeing the Orlesians?” Loghain appeared taken aback, as if he hadn’t expected a rational explanation. He hesitated only a moment. “Yes. The madwoman who nearly killed us both. What of her?” “She told me something.” Loghain looked at him expectantly. “And? She babbled many things, Maric.” “She told me that a Blight was coming to Ferelden.” He nodded slowly. “I see. Did she say when?” “Only that I wouldn’t live to see it.” Loghain rolled his eyes and walked a step away, running a hand through his black hair. It was a gesture of exasperation with which Maric was well familiar. “That is a prediction that almost anyone could safely make. She was trying to scare you, no doubt.” “She succeeded.” He turned and glared at Maric scornfully. “Did she not also tell you I was not to be trusted? Do you believe that now, too?” There was a tension in that look, and Maric knew why. The witch had said of Loghain, “Keep him close, and he will betray you. Each time worse than the last.” It was the only one of her pronouncements to which Loghain had been privy, and obviously he remembered it well. Perhaps he thought that if Maric believed one, he believed the other. Loghain had never betrayed him, not to his knowledge. It was something to keep in mind. “You think it’s a coincidence?” Maric asked, suddenly uncertain. “I believe this witch was serving her own purposes, and would lie about whatever she thought convenient. Magic is not to be trusted, Maric.” Loghain closed his eyes and then sighed. He shook his head slightly, as if what he was about to say was madness, but he opened his eyes anyhow and spoke with conviction. “But if you truly believe that the witch’s warning has merit, let me be the one to go into the Deep Roads, not you. Cailan needs his father.” “Cailan needs his mother.” His voice sounded hollow, even to himself. “And he needs a father who isn’t . . . I’m not doing him any good, Loghain. I’m not doing anyone any good here. It will be better if I’m out there, helping the kingdom.” “You are an idiot.” “What you need to do,” Maric ignored him, “is to stay. Look after Cailan. If something happens to me, you’ll need to be his regent and keep the kingdom together.” Loghain shook his head in frustration. “I can’t do that. Even if I believed this cryptic warning, I would not agree that it was worth placing you in the hands of these Orlesians. Not without an entire army to surround you.” Maric sighed and sat back in the throne. He knew that tone. When Loghain believed he was in the right, there was no dissuading him. He would sooner call the guards in here and attempt to have Maric locked up in the dungeon than see him do this. In Loghain’s mind, the Grey Wardens were Orlesian. The First Enchanter was Orlesian. This had to be some manner of plot—not that it would be the first. There had been several assassins over the years, as well as more than a few attempts by disaffected banns to overthrow him, and while Loghain could never prove that the Empire was behind them all, Maric did not disbelieve his theories. Perhaps he was even right about this. But what if he wasn’t? The witch had been crazy, almost certainly, but Maric still found it impossible to discount her words entirely. She had saved their lives, put them on the path out of the Korcari Wilds when otherwise they would have died. He had almost forgotten her warning about the Blight, but the very instant First Enchanter Remille had told him of the Wardens’ request for an audience, he had remembered. The thought of a Blight here in Ferelden was almost too much to bear. [...] Surely such a disaster was worth risking almost anything to avert. Loghain could dismiss the idea, but Maric was less convinced. What if the witch was correct? What if the whole point of receiving such a prophecy was that it gave you a chance to try to prevent it?

Here we have the mystery explained: Maric was told about the incoming Blight and that he would be dead by that time.

[...] “And here I thought it was the Commander’s charm,” Duncan quipped. Maric ignored him. “After my mother died, Loghain and I were lost in the Korcari Wilds trying to get away from the Orlesians,” he began, his voice solemn. “We met an old woman, a witch who saved us. She gave me a warning. She told me that a Blight was coming to Ferelden.” There was something more to his story, Fiona could see it. But he stopped there, snapping his mouth shut. Genevieve pondered the tale, and looked at Maric curiously. “A witch hiding in the Wilds? And you believe what she said?” “There were . . . other things she said that were true.” “Magic cannot see the future, Maric,” Fiona told him. “But there are visions. Mages can see them; you said so yourself.” He let out a long, ragged breath. “I don’t know if I trust her. I paid a high price for the witch’s words, however, and it just seems like too much of a coincidence if it isn’t true.” Fiona saw the shadow behind the man’s eyes. She didn’t know the full story of this witch, but she could see that its implications disturbed him. And he believed in what he had been told. But that was not so incredible, was it? Fiona believed in Genevieve’s vision. They all did. It was not difficult to believe that at the root of these visions lay the Blight, warnings against the coming disaster.

We learn that Maric was disturbed by the warning of the Blight, but also that he had paid a high price to be saved and informed of these things. The only thing I believe he was locked in a promise is what Yavanna says in the comic: He had to awake greater dragons that were sleeping, but somehow, he failed to his promise due to the kidnapping under Titus. Read the details in The Silent Grove .

Dragon Age: The Silent Grove

Flemeth is mentioned by another daughter, Yavanna, the Witch of the Wilds in the Tellari Swamps of Antiva, who reveals that Flemeth made Maric promise to come to the Silent Grove once his children were grown. She also says that Flemeth's ritual of possession that Morrigan feared is, in fact, a "gift."

Yavanna: I had no idea you had met my sister Alitair: Then you'll be shocked to hear how I encountered your mother. Flemeth likes sunsets, turning into things, and talking about how clever she is. I'm also told she possess her daughters. Y: Is that right? Ha! Alistair: What's so funny? Morrigan found out what Flemeth planned and we stopped it Y: That poor, confused child. It is a gift.

This coincide with the notes that Gaider shared few time ago about the planning of the scene of Flemeth's death or with the dev's notes inside the game [read Somewhere in the Crossroads [Ending]].

Conclusions

If we gather all the bits of information along the games, we have a more complete picture of Flemeth, her relationship with Mythal, and some degree of enlightenment about her goals:

She polymorphs into a Dragon [DAO], but we have a good amount of reasons to suspect she is a dragon, and probably one of the Greater Dragons that only are mentioned in the comics [The Silent Grove]. Since we find in Elvhenan ruins her mosaic as a mother of many [see Evanuris] but also as a dragon in the shape of a gate, we can suspect a double nature in her: Dragon and Evanuris/elvhen. This duality is one of the main reasons why we could suspect that the Evanuris who was Forgotten One and Creator [according the unreliable Dalish Legends] was her instead of Fen'Harel [since Solas told us he never was a god, and he has always been this elvhen we see, read Solas sharing Lore: Part 1 - Part 2 for refreshment]

She has a set of beliefs that justify and make her behaviour more understandable:

She believes that we have to doubt all what we know, which makes sense since the repeated theme in DA series is how unreliable history and stories are due to the nature of the political, social, and religious conditions in which they develop. She also reinforces a level of disinterest in trying to push the "truth" onto others. She is so tired and worn-out, and understands the "nature of humans" too deeply, that she knows that they will believe only in what they want to believe. It doesn't matter the truth, hence she does not put energy in sharing it, not even in those who are willingly to stay open minded for it ["They do not want the truth"]. When it comes to the truth, she claims it's not the end, but the beginning.

For her, names are useless. She is known across history by many names, and gives them no importance. This detail may say a lot: elvhenan put their goal and purpose in life in their own name; if she keeps part of this tradition in her Mythal mind, having no name is almost an equivalent of not having purpose.

Bodies are useless too: Mythal can take different bodies and be in different places at the same time. Flemeth has put a fragment of her in an amulet that allowed her to be raised in DA2 after potentially being killed in DAO. When you talk to her, you are informed that bodies are things that annoy her. This makes sense when we think in the shapeless culture that the Elvhenan had long time ago. Flemeth is a piece of a bigger thing, a bit lost and wandering in Thedas, a shadow that dies slowly under the sun, but also a flotsam to cling to in a chaotic storm. All images of someone broken, diminished, tarnished, agonizing, that still tries to survive because has one thing to accomplish: a destiny to fulfil. This terrible change in her was product of “things that happened that were never meant to happen" .

Flemeth has a clear goal and purpose, deeply related to the Revenge of Mythal. For that reason, she has been meddling in the History in order to orchestrate a big plan, which we, as players, have no idea about.

Betrayal and Revenge: Flemeth has this concept deeply attached to her persona. It's not only the Betrayal of Mythal by those "who attacked her Temple" and assassinate her, it's also Flemeth and a Betrayal from one of the men she was involved with, according to the unreliable tale of Conobar and Osen. If Mythal changed after the assasination, and her motherhood and Justice purpose were twisted and changed into Revenge, we may have conflicting lore about Elgar'nan and her [both with the same purpose of revenge]. This point is never clear with the games up to DAI.

However, via the Altar scene, we know she used to be called for revenge, even before the assasination, so Myhtal always had this aspect related to her.

"She was betrayed as I was betrayed - as the world was betrayed! " This line, so iconic, and in combination with all the proofs gathered in these posts, makes us suspect that the Betrayal of Myhtal is her assassination [at the hands of those that attacked her Temple, according to Abelas' words]. The Betrayal of Flemeth is also unknown, but we know it is related to a mixture of the several versions of her story with Conobar and Osen. But the betrayal of the world could mean the creation of the Blight that required brutal measures to be contained: hence the creation of the Veil and the destruction of the Elvhenan empire with it.

Flemeth remembers promises: According to Marethari, Flemeth always keeps her word, and has a good memory about those who made a pact and a promise with her. This is confirmed when Flemeth is surprised that Hawke kept their word.

Mythal, the elvhenan goddess: We know that Mythal is the embodiment of motherhood thanks to the unreliable Dalish legends, but also thanks to the only mosaic that shows her as an elvhenan [see Evanuris]. In this mosaic, she is depicted with a flaccid breast and five small creatures in her arms, as a symbol of breastfeeding babies. This version appears in the Temple of Mythal [Part 3], in the Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin, and in the last platform where we fight Corypheus in DAI [Frostback Mountains: Somewhere North, although it's focused only on her elvhenan face]. However, there is another depicture of her: the dragon one, usually present in her Temple where she imparted Justice.

Motherhood and Justice: We know that Mythal represented these two concepts, and they were kept in the unreliable legends of the Dalish, as well as her "terrible" side, related to a certain degree of Wrath. The Dalish seem to justify this side as the "angry mother" side, but as we explore the games and focus on Flemeth, we discover that she always had a Revenge representation. Solas even confirms it in the Altar scene. This Revenge may be an interpretation of Justice, so it would still make sense. But it all depends on the degree of rationality that this revenge has in itself. Otherwise, it would have been crossing the same paths that Elgar'nan [if we can trust the representation that we have of him, since most of it comes from unreliable Dalish sources and elvhenan ones]. However, we always need to keep in mind Solas' words: Mythal was always a complex creature [hence more reasons to suspect her duality as Elvhenan/Evanuris and Forgotten One]

Blight and Grey Wardens: She seems to be aware of all the rituals and treaties related to the Grey Wardens. She also has enough power to always keep the darkspwan away, even when she lives in the place where the main outbreak happened [Kocari Wilds]. This is also implicity seen in Solas`case, in the comic The Missing; thanks to these powers that he absorved from Flemeth, he can hide in the Deep Roads overwhelmed by darkspawn while keeping himself safe from Venatori and other human dangers. This makes us suspect that Flemeth and/or Myhtal have a certain degree of command over the Blight. That Solas and Flemeth have a deep knowledge of the Blight and the Joining ritual of the Wardens is not surprising if we rememeber that these things may have come from the knowledge of ancient Arlathan elves [read Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck for details]. Like Solas, she explicitly says that there is a bigger Evil behind the Blight, and it's what humanity should be worried about, not so much about the darkspwans [DAO].

Magic and powers that once were: Flemeth taught Morrigan a great deal of ancient magic related to forbidden rituals [DAO ending] or blood ancient magic. She encouraged in her daughters to preserve the powers of the Old at all cost [Morrigan] as well as give them the position of guardians of Dragons [Yavanna]. This makes us suspect that a lot of the ancient magic that Flemeth was always interested on preserving is related to ancient Dragons. Maybe this is a potential hint about the Forgotten Ones and the hypothesis that they may have been ancient powerful dragons that ruled the skies once [this was informed by Yavanna in The Silent Grove]

Foreseen powers: She seems to have a certain degree of foreseen powers, letting her know that Maric and Loghain will visit her in the Wilds, that our Warden in DAO was key in the survival of Ferelden, and that Hawke was useful for her due to a potential death at the hands of the Warden. Related to these powers comes the well known line "It's fate or chance? I can never decide". She also foresees a radical, inevitable change of the configuration of the world: "We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss." These powers don’t seem to be triggered at will; it seems she sees it in the moment she interacts with the person. She sees Loghain’s betrayal in the moment she sees him directly, as well as she sees Hawke’s usefulness in the moment she speaks to them face-to-face.

Via small hints in the concept art, we can relate Mythal with eyes that may represent her foreseeing abilites as well as her power of changing reality throuh dreams, giving us a clue that she is a dreamer, powers that we know via the comics Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep were part of the original powerful dragons that ruled the sky in the begining of the times.

Music: Flemeth talks about songs and music as a metaphor of the concept of "manipulation". Morrigan's song is the manipulation of the Warden to kill Flemeth. At other times, the concept of music is merely a metaphor of facts: Flemeth also is "dancing the same song", related to be killed by those who she helped or had some dedree of her trust [this may be a reflection of Mythal's story as well as Flemeth's with Conobar and Osen].

Dalish as the young, bright, and vibrant People: Flemeth, unlike any other elvhenan we saw in the series, has respect for the Dalish. She always claims they are vibrant and young, and they do not need to bend the knee before her [Merril] unless they truly know who she is [Elven Inquisitor].

We also know via Solas that the Evanuris are hard to kill [reason why he trapped them instead of killing them long ago], so we can assume the same characteristic applies to Mythal. If Mythal was “killed”, we can assume that whatever it happened had a big power considering how hard is to kill an evanuris, and even more so a powerful one as Mythal. Maybe this is the reason why she changed so much: death itself or the event that killed her changed her radically because it was too traumatic and extraordinary.

Worshipping of Mythal: Via Abelas, we know that Mythal does not like slaves; serving her has to be an act of volition; the person has to work on in order to acquire the "right to serve her". However, she abandoned her followers after the assassination. It seems that she changed so much that she could not or do not want to answer the prayers of her people [Abelas] nor the Dalish ones [Elven Inquisitor]. Even though it is not explicit, it seems to imply that answering those prayers would have been disastrous because she stopped being the Mythal they believe in, and now she is the embodiment of a terrible thing [maybe Vengeance itself? Maybe corruption? Hard to say]. If it's because she is now too related to Vengenace, it would bring some conflict to the lore and the representation of Elgar'nan. However, we were already warned that Mythal took Elgar'nan's place long time ago to pass judgement upon The People [The judgement of Mythal].

Mythal can use and activate eluvians to walk into the Fade, and this is a testament of her immense power. Apparently, Mythal and Flemeth are the strongest when they are in the Fade, or at least, in that part of the Fade when we meet her with Kieran [DAI]. This could be because the evanuris-elvhenan nature of Mythal, as a creature of the Fade, but it could also be due to her dragon nature. If we remember the comic Until We Sleep, we find out that dragons and their blood had a particular power in the Fade, they are basically Somniari or Dreamers, able to modify the Fade and turn it into reality.

Regrets: Flemeth claims she is so filled with regrets that they poisoned her [DA2]. Unfortunately, there is no more information about this aspect of her in other scenes.

Possession process: Flemeth describes her relationship with Mythal in a similar way that Anders does with Justice: they are one, hard to separate one from the other. We can suspect that the tale of Flemeth using her daughter’s bodies to extend her life may be a lie. Yavanna seems to laugh at that idea, as well as Flemeth does, but following her philosophy of “let them believe whatever they want”, she doesn’t clarify the idea. The strange thing in this piece of lore is that we don’t see this process in Kieran, who has a similar condition, in principle: an ancient being was hosted in his body. In his case, Flemeth is able to remove it without hurting the boy. The only other case we see in lore about de-posessing a person without harm is with the Avvar: the spirit is willing to leave the host without scarring them. Maybe this is what happens with Kieran, and thus his following commet after the process: he feels alone, like in the case of Sigrid Gulsdotten [read Stone-Bear Hold Avvars - Part 1]

Urthemiel piece: it seems that Flemeth has some level of command over Urthemiel to the point to ask him to reach for her in the Fade via the Eluvian. Both of them have a destiny to fulfil, whatever that is. We may suspect it is related to the revenge/justice of Mythal.

[Strong] Chantry Sunburst

The most typical one that appears in DA series is the Sun or Sunburst with wavy rays, repeated so much along the games that we can identify it immediately. It’s the unequivocally symbol of the Chantry. We found it in many versions, and it represents the “dawn” with the idea of hope and “new beginnings”, but also the fire that “purified” Andraste in her pyre to let her ascend to the Maker’s side. In the posts of Andrastian Art [Andrastian Design: Stained Glasses], we also find that “balls of fire” [which can be interpreted as a Sun in another way] are shown to represent the Maker or the Faith in Him.

Andraste’s single spiked helm seems to be inspired in a single sun ray, at least this is what an illustration in the Chant of Light [book of World Of Thedas] seems to suggest.

In general, most of the representations of the Chantry Sun have 16 rays.

The same sun-like symbol appears in its Tevinter version when we see the Imperial Chantry; the only difference with the Orlesian one is that the Tevinter Sunburst has straight rays.

As a detail, in DAO, we had the typical representation of the wavy sunburst present in some strange devices of Tevinter origin, for example, the ones we found in [Brecilian ruins], while the main Church in Denerim, or in Haven, display spikes that, more than resembling a sun, look like thorns or even a thorny vine. This may be a consequence of an original plan in linking, design-wise, the chantry symbology with the thorny vines that represent the Blight or the Darkspawn [As we explained in the section “Non-mural symbol: Thorny vines” from Murals in DAI: Basics], or merely it was a limitation of the design of the game, as we know DAO suffers from.

We also know that tranquils should display this symbol on their foreheads, burnt with lyrium, but as we saw along DAO, none of them had it. Later we were informed that the devs had problems to add this mark on the npc, therefore, it was never shown until DA2. When it comes to this symbol, it is interesting to see that tranquils carry the metaphor of “a Sun burning their minds and emptying them”, which may or may not be related with Dwarves and their fear to the Sun and potential relatinship of Elgar'nar shoving a fire ball into their underground lands [More details of this concept in Deep Roads [DLC Trespasser]: Lower Walkways in particular with the codex  Torn Notebook in the Deep Roads,].

[Strong] Elvhenan Culture: Sun symbol among the Evanuris

Strangely close to the Chantry Sunburst symbol, we find the “half” sun symbol [tagged along the blog as Sun-head creature] in what we suspect was one of the ancient primordial dragon symbols that some Evanuris took over when they claimed Divinity [for more context, read Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History]. It’s hard to say which Evanuris took control of this symbol, but we know there is a clearly sun-like symbol present in the Crossroads of the DLC [as a statue, check The Crossroads [DLC Trespasser]: Entrance] and in the Shattered Library [as an Eluvian, check  Shattered Library; Entrance and Courtyard]. With the release of the Vinyl, we also discovered and reinforced the hypothesis that this symbol belongs to or was co-opted by an Evanuris [read Speculations about the Vinyl Art for details] thanks to the image of an elf wearing a hat with that shape.

A consistent detail of this image is that it’s a half-sun with exactly 7 rays.

[Weak] Elvhenan Culture: Asterisk Symbol and Elvhenan Doors

If we extend this imagery, and check other symbols that may look similar to a sun, we find the ancient Elvhenan Doors [Elven Ancient Shard-based door], which top displays a pointy sun of 8 rays that may or may not be related to the Asterisk symbols [also related to the Titan’s core, which I talked about in the post of Murals  “The Death of a Titan”]. In the way the door gets illuminated when activated also makes us see a “circle” in it that can be loosely related to the “Golden Ring shape”. More details about this ring will be treated below.

This strange sun on the ancient door also makes us think in the Asterisk Symbol [made of 8 points], which lays at the centre of the yellow mosaic, which may be related to the core of a Titan [asterisk of 8 points too]. The link is immediate when we see that this asterisk is outlined by a shape that looks like a star or a Sun, inside a big ball with triangular-shape ends. This same symbol appears in the last Trailer of DA4, behind Solas, when he is presented like an Hermit, mysterious, apostate mage. Around this “sun” we can make out several concentric lines that may refer to a “Golden Ring”.

The Asterik symbol also appears in murals such as  “The Creation of the Veil” or “The Death of a Titan”, which allowed us to relate them with the core of a Titan and its immense power of "making real what you imagine"reinforcing the reality", but this symbol also appears in a corner of Solas’ tarot card.

The yellow mosaic also has some shapes at the four corners that may represent eluvians or something related to Mythal. In the mural of “the Temple of Mythal” from  “The actions of the Inquisitor”, we see that Solas draw a particular star of 8 points inside a door frame that resembles this “eluvian outline”, but it’s also the shape of the doors of the Temple of Mythal which represents Mythal herself in her dragon shape. All these symbols seem to reinforce the idea we explored in “The Death of a Titan”: Mythal seems to be related to the core power of a Titan represented by an asterisk that evolves into a golden ring and into a sun.

As I repeated several times in Speculations about the Vinyl Art, at times, we find some hints where stars or balls of fires [also understood as suns] are related to Mythal and Elgar’nan, making us suspect that, maybe, Mythal and Elgar’nan share a nature similar to Falon’Din and Dirthamen’s: apparently, the same creature with two different aspects from them. If this were the case, associating Mythal with the Sun would make sense, and it would also explain why, if Elgar’nan was so central in the Elvhenan culture, there are so few representations and statues of him, while Mythal overwhelms it.

[Weak] Elvhenan Culture: Golden Ring

During the last trailer of DA4, we see Solas turns into the Black Dread Wolf as a sun in the background becomes a moon [single golden circle] and later, it separates itself into concentric rings, that may or may not be related to the “Golden Ring” so deeply entangled with Elvhenan culture. Thanks to this imagery, we may relate the Sun to the Golden Ring [specially if we consider that the mural presented in Nation Art: Elvhen displays the yellow ring in a position that may be considered “the sun”, but also the "authority/power above"]

We need to remember that the Golden Ring’s presence is always associated with control, power, and occasionally to Mythal and Dirthamen. In the mural of the “zombie elves”, it’s above all of them, and due to this position, it could be interpreted like a “sun” or moon upon the controlled, zombified elves. But I’m not too convinced in this interpretation, since we already explored in posts such as: Nation Art: Elvhen, Exalted Plains: Ghilan’nain’s Grove and the Dead Hand, DLC: Jaws of Hakkon - Frostback Basin, Elvhen Tomb, Ancient Elven codices; Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins, The Crossroads [DLC Trespasser]: Elven Mountain Ruins; Vine-covered Tower, Murals in DAI: The Death of a Titan, and Speculations about the Vinyl Art that this ring was more related to control, power, or even forced change/shape in some cases. Due to its power or potential knowledge, it's also associated to Dirthamen Owl [which also could be Andruil's owl according some inconsistencies in the same Unreliable Dalish legends].

On the other hand, it’s never clear if this symbol may have morphed into a sun along the ages with the loss of memory that the Elves had throughout generations when they lost their immortality. However, I tend to consider that this Golden Ring may have changed into a Sun when it entered in contact with human groups, in the same way that I see the story of Fen'Harel gave enough context for humans to create the Maker myth based on him, potentially during the time of Halamshiral [for more details, read The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light]

This ring also appears in the last scene of DAI, when we defeat Corypheus, showing Mythal inside it, as bits of red lyrium sprout around it. This can be related to many speculations done in Speculations about the Vinyl Art, where we can conclude that another fragment/part of Mythal is still trapped in the Black City, corrupted, and contained by an immense power that may have been used before by the rest of the evanuris to control their own people.

The Golden Ring has also been seen enclosing Elven Tree Statues and Elven Orbs, implying its relationship with elvhenan power and/or Mythal’s [after all, we know that Mythal took the power from a Titan from which elvhen orbs were developed, and trees are also her symbol, according her vallaslin]. It's worth noting that the only working orb we saw in the game was Mythal’s, so far.

[Weak] Elvhenan Culture: Crappy Sun

There is also a strange symbol that I called “crappy sun” in the ancient tablet we find at the entrance and deep into the tomb of Forbidden Oasis: Solasan Temple [along this blog I’ve tagged it as “Stone in Razikale-Ceremony-style”]. It’s hard to say if it represents a sun or a breach. It may be related to a sun similar to the one of the Elven Ancient Shard-based door that, later, Tevinter co-opted to turn into the several versions of pointy suns we see in Tevinter Pre-blight ruins, [let’s remember they were not Andrastian yet, and still they had this symbology in their buildings and elements because it may have been related to ancient dragons, or taken from another elvhen symbology during the time of the Dreamers since there are some proofs, such as the Tevinter Mosaic [Invasion], that may show that Tevinter had a better relationship with elves back then].

Maybe the original symbol was related to Elgar’nan, as we see in his mosaic, where he shoves down the sun into the earth, and its rays are wavy and a bit “crappy”. If this relationship is correct, maybe what Elgar'nan shoved into the Earth to destroy the dwarves/Titans was not a sun but a breach? Again, a very unlikely hypothesis.

This “crappy sun” also has 8 rays.

[Strong] Elvhenan Culture: Elgar’nan and Sylaise

Elgar’nan’s mosaic was interpreted in the post Evanuris, and basically shows an elf shoving down a Sun of wavy rays into the Earth. It’s easy for us to relate this image to the unreliable Dalish legend of Elgar’nan [read Elgar'nan: God of Vengeance]. Elgar’nan is presented here as the son of the Sun itself, who tried to burn all life on the Land out of Jealousy, so Elgar’nan vowed vengeance against his Father’s cruelty, and his rage won against the fire of the Sun. Then, “Elgar'nan threw the sun down from the sky and buried him in a deep abyss created by the land's sorrow.”

This story can be followed later in the post Emprise du Lion: Pools of the Sun, where we find another unreliable Dalish legend claiming that this place has spring waters because it was here where Elgar’nan shoved the sun into the Earth. I also made a link to Sylaise considering the Elvhenan arenas we can see in this region, the presence of Sylaise’s Shrine, and her thirst for being always competing with someone. These details can make us suspect that this Sun could have been Sylaise [so deeply related to fire, the sun, and also as angry as Elgar’nan according the Song to Sylaise].

It’s very worth noting that these two legends, said by different clans, claim that Elgar’nan pushed the Sun into the Abyss. Another detail we have to assume is that "Abyss", "Beyond the Deep Roads" and "The Void" seem to be one thing related to the places where the Titan sleep [or even inside the Titan themselves] instead of a strange dimensional pocket we never saw before. This links the Elvhenan with the Dwarven in what we speculated in Murals in DAI: The Death of a Titan.

With this relationship, we see again the Sun as a weapon of destruction and control.

[Weak] Elvhenan Culture: Murals

Murals present a red sphere with rays that may imply a Sun .

In the mural “The Creation of the Veil” [1], we find a red sphere inside a black one, making us suspect it’s the big evil released by the Evanuris that Solas isolated with the creation of the Veil. Around it, there are seven “bubbles” with similar “rays” in grey and golden colours that may imply “gates” that would allow us the access to the central “sun” or red sphere.

In the mural “The Death of a Titan” [2] we talked extensively about the asterisk symbol, its representation of a Titan’s heart and all that power associated with it, as well as with Golden Rings. The codex in here speaks of a red sphere that contains fury, and maybe all of this can be related to a sun, or better said, the other way around: a Sun as a sphere of fire, related to fury, and buried below underground to contain its destruction. This also brings us some similarities with the unreliable Dalish legends about Elgar'nan.

In the mural  “Red Lyrium Idol” [3] we also commented how the image looks as if Solas were walking on a sphere of fire. It may be related to the red lyrium idol too. Here, we keep linking this idea of a “sphere of fire” as a potential Sun.

In the murals of “The actions of the Inquisitor” [4], we see several times that the red sphere associated with the big evil isolated behind the thick, impenetrable barrier of the Black City seems to be positioned in places that may allow a soft interpretation as a “sun”in the sky.

These symbols seem to gather more importance as we analysed the Vinyl Art, where we find the concept of the Eclipse [as an ominous symbol of Fen’Harel that covers and hides the Sun] and a lot of iconography of stars, which can be interpreted as “suns”.

[Weak] Tevinter Culture: Green Star

Pre-Blight Tevinter art has a “star” symbol that may be interpreted as a sun, specially if we consider that the inside of this green star displays the symbol of the elvhenan Golden Ring in red colour. However, it seems more likely to be a symbol representing the power that one can extract from the Breaches. The green colour helps in this interpretation and puts it a bit farther away from a sun interpretation than other symbols. However, it keeps linking the Golden Ring with the power of creating a Breach.

[Confusing] Tevinter Culture: different decorative elements

The rest of the symbols in Tevinter objects may have some relationship with the Sun. For example, we find doors, boxes, and columns decorated with an 8-pointed star [1] but we also find another one with 6 points in something that looks like a box [2]. The shape of an “hexagonal” sun of 8-pointy rays can be found as well in objects like the “scrying orb” [4].

Among the outfits, we find a 3-ray comb used by Tevinter women [3], which may be related to the sun-based symbol of an Old God [and potentially related to the corresponding Evanuris associated with it]. This symbol is a lot closer to the "Sun-head creature" we found among Elvhenan objects.

As a curious one, I will always point out the strange, hidden Sun figure that belongs to the Free Marches decoration that can be found at the entrance of the Inner Sanctum in Western Approach: The Still Ruins, Viridis Walk and Inner Sanctum.

I think it’s clear and safe to say that most of the sun-based symbols present in Tevinter culture [and previous to their conversion to Andrastian religion] may have been originated from the contact with the Elvhenan [during the Dreamer time where we can see less repulsion to Elvhen according the Tevinter Mosaics] or [most likely] with the dragons that may have been related to the Elvhenan, as I made the connection in the comic post The Missing.

[Weak] Dwarven Culture: Fairel and Dwarven art

The Dwarves, at least the ones in the Fairel’s ruins, may have some link with the Sun as well. In these ruins we find the same exact stone tablet we find in the Ancient Elvhenan tombs [1], which displays the “crappy sun” I commented above. Once again, it could be a sun but also a breach, so there is no much sense to keep focusing on it.

Another symbol to relate the Sun to the Dwarves may or may not be an old “Dwarven stone-paintings” we saw since DAO, which basically shows a dwarf working the stone [3]. Based on symmetry, we could assume that the triangles on the background are stalagmites, but if we stretch-out this interpretation, they could even be seen as a sun with its rays. It’s very unlikely, since it seems to be more a design resource to highlight the scene of the stone-painting, but for completion’s sake I think it’s worthy to keep it commented here.

However, this simple design allows us to interpret it in different ways: the spikes we see can be pieces of rock protruding from the ground and the Dwarf in it is mining them [as its original codex in DAO seems to imply], but also it could be understood as a quarter of a Sun peeking through the corner of the image as a Dwarf works tirelessly.

Later in DAI we are introduced to another piece of art of similar characteristics [2]. The building was never possible to be identified unequivocally, and in posts like “Architecture of Kirkwall : Gallows and Lowtown/Darktown” I related it to representations of Kirkwall or cities that may be similar to Kirkwall where the runecraft mastery of dwarves was used [and probably, it was a source of pride for these clans, who may have kept the achievement immortalised in a piece of art reproduced among the noble dwarven families]. This piece also shows a background very similar to the one in [3] that may be a representation of stalagmites or a sun, if it’s stretched-out enough.

Another strange symbol in the dwarven furniture is the one presented in some stone-seats: an elaborated metal image that shows thorny vines on or over a sun [4]. This symbol appears in many other parts of the game where there are dwarven rooms, but also in Arbor Wilds :Cradle of Sulevin where we can read the Vir Tanadhal, However, in this case, the symbol is not completely the same one than in the Hissing Wastes: Fairel tomb.

It’s hard to suspect if this is a mere reuse of assets, it has a lore-related meaning, or it’s just a reflection that the Dwarves and the Ancient Elvhen had a relationship quite ancient [as it shows the Elvhen tree and its dwarven, more geometrical style, that I’ve been pointing out since DAO in Orzammar]. We have to remember that the Ancient Elvhenan saw the dwarves as soulless creatures, workers of the “pillars of Earth” and worthless. However, I always claimed it was never clear if this was a reference to ancient Dwarves that were linked to the Titan deeply to the point that they became Sha-Brytol after the break of the link, or were related to more independent dwarves as the ones we see now, who have a sense of Stone, but can’t understand the Titan with the exception of some gifted ones [such as Valta].

Finally, the dwarves have an additional aspect related to the Sun in the very unreliable codex called Torn Notebook in the Deep Roads, Section 2. I wrote about this codex in a more integral way in Deep Roads [DLC Trespasser]: Lower Walkways. But basically an ex-Dalish elf [now a Qun converted] relates Elgar’nan’s fire [which another unreliable Dalish legend, Elgar'nan: God of Vengeance, claims he shoved the Sun into the Earth] to the fear to the Sun that Dwarves experience [Read the section Elgar’nan and Sylaise above]. This may have been a Dev’s choice to makes us aware that there exists a relationship between the Sun and the dwarves, even though there is no lore material that can make it clear enough.

[Strong] Ferelden Culture: The Sun Face and the geometrical Sun

In the Tryptich presented in Andrastian Design: Tapestry and Tryptich, we find three symbols on top of each part of the scene: the six-snakes that represent Tevinter, the golden city above all the image representing the Maker or the Chantry Religion, and over the section of Ferelden/Orlais chantry, a 8-pointed sun which rays look like triangles. Once again, the resemblance of this symbol with the elvhenan sun in the mural “Temple of Mythal” is remarkable [check the Temple of Mythal in “The actions of the Inquisitor”] or the sun shape in the elvhenan yellow mosaic or in the background of Solas in the Trailer of DA:D. This could come from different roots:

1- An Orlesian root, considering how much of the elvhenan influence it had during the time of the Halamshiral and the coexistence of humans and elves in the Dales for some years [to the point where inter-racial families were made, as it was hinted all over the Exalted Plains]. I spoeculated how the idea of the Maker may have been developed during this time in the post The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light

2- Another potential root is related to the Alamarri root, and therefore, linked to the Avvar: this sun may be a representation of the Lady of the Sky for the same reasons I will explain below in the Section Avvars and the Sun.

We can find similar icon in the book World of Thedas, where they show a unique Ferelden Tryptich [3], which top displays this symbol with a sun that even may have a shape of a Golden Ring within it. In either case, we know that this symbol later was part of the Ferelden Chantry, which sun is very pointy, as DAO showed it [see the first section in this post: Chantry Sunburst].

In DAI, we find in some small towns of Ferelden, a unique strange Sun with a crying face [1]. On it we see a bird and a squirrel. It’s hard to know exactly what this is, [check the post Nation Art: Ferelden], but maybe it can be understood as a representation of Andraste made by Ferelden culture mixed with some local animals and fables created as a mixture of cultures, similar to the tale that related Wyverns to Andraste [check the wyvern section in Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The single spike].

There is also a fish drawn in the DLC of Hakkon on a fisherman shack [2], which displays a pattern that can be related to the “crappy sun” designs on its skin. Not sure what to make about it. The closest is that the Avvar represented this symbol as a way to reflect what they may have seen in the Isle of the Lady, where a big ancient breach have been there, open, since the time of Telana [read about this in “The Veil and the preservation of the Waking World” from the post Frostback Basin [DLC]: Miscellaneous ].

[Strong] Grey Wardens and the Sun

The typical symbol of the Grey Wardens involves a chalice that represents the Joining ritual. It always displays a Sun, and not any sun: it’s one with a strong resemblance to the Sunburst of the Chantry. Let’s remember that the Grey Wardens was and is an independent Order that doesn’t respond to the Chantry, and even more so: it was created before the existence of the Chantry, and before Andraste was born. So any quick explanation that this sun is present in this object due to some potential influence from the Chantry seem unlikely.

However, as I showed in Western Approach: The Still Ruins, Main Chamber and Hall of Silence, there are griffons with this same chalice that belonged to pre-Blight Tevinter, maybe remotely associated with Dumat in some ways [since they appear in a hall called “Hall of Silence”, and Dumat=Silence]. We know that the Joining, as a ritual of blood magic, came from the knowledge of Arlathan elves and Tevinter Mages during the desperate times of the First Blight when nothing seemed to stop the darkspawn and even slaying Dumat did not work the first time. Therefore, this Sun may have some relationship with the elvhenan, the Old Gods, or just the blood magic that allowed the creation of the Joining.

[Curious] Avvar and the Sun

The Avvar have a symbol that I always found very Sun-like due to its design and cultural concept: The Lady of the Sky. It’s not only the concept; the lady of the sky can be any important object in the sky; moons or suns. Since Thedas has two moons, it seems more plausible to think of her as unique as the Sun itself.

In the painting that represents her (found on a wall in the Frostback Mountains) we see a design of an owl which shape looks like a Sun. Even her sculpture in Skyhold displays small spikes around her neck which give her a low-key “sun-like” design, specially if we relate this shape with the “sun” shape we saw in the Ancient Elvhenan Yellow Mosaic or with the star we saw in the “Temple of Mythal” mural [in “The actions of the Inquisitor”] or with the Sun that appears behind Solas in the trailer.

Curiously, her banner displays her eyes in a shape that looks similar to the Golden Ring shape, but in black colour. That the Avvar have an art that may have resemblance with Elvhenan's is not strange for me if we remember that  Tyrdda Bright-Axe Path’s story narrates that her lover was an elf that, as it is hinted, may have been the Lady of the Sky herself. This means that the Avvar always were a culture under the influence of the Elvhenan and the Dwarves [due to the marriages they arranged with the children of the Stone].

[Weak] Flemeth

Flemeth also had a unique concept art that shows all of her nature in one drawing: her dragon shape, Mythal, as the central part of it over a human figure that may be a petitioner; a bit aside and as if she were in a inner ring of a brown sphere, The Witch of the Wild: Flemeth, with a very particular staff inside a yellow circle that may be interpreted as a Sun. And very hidden in the corner, in the core of this sphere, now black, we see her as an "old, old woman" with a big eye drawn on her apron, at the edge of a cliff [potentially representing the fragment of Mythal that lives inside her]. This kind of eye is very similar to the ones that we see in the concept art armours of Mythal’s temple guardians. I assume it has to do with her omnipresence due to the manipulation of dreams [we know that she presented herself in dreams to an elf and marked him with the Vallaslin of Mythal after awakening, check the video]

Mythal also has bland hints related to Elgar’nan symbology, which is related to the sun, fire, and balls of fire with anger [check all this in the posts Speculations about the Vinyl Art and “The Death of a Titan”]. Flemeth ends up being related to all this since she carries a fragment of Mythal in her.

[Strong] Qunari, Par Vollen, and the Solium Constellation

The Qunari have little link with the Sun, but not the land they conquered. In the book World of Thedas we are informed about the existence of the Fex, a race we never saw nor had much information beyond the fact that they exist. May they be related to the Sun or a Sun-base proto religion? We don't know.

In the Codex Constellation: Solium, we learn that this constellation [which looks like a Sun/Star, image above, pretty similar to the Chantry Sunburst I may add] may have been a representation of the Sun or the Moon [or both] for the Neomerian [Ancient Tevinters], however, it could also represent Elgar’nan, since unreliable Dalish legends claim him to be the “eldest of the Sun”.

Another Codex, called  The Pyramids of Par Vollen, tells us that the Jungles of this continent have ancient ruins that doesn’t seem to be tombs but places of scientific purposes. The shape of these ruins fits perfectly with the constellation of Solium, making them, in some way or another, related to the Sun. These pyramids are a great mystery in the DA lore, especially for their total lack of information beyond this codex. We know their walls show images of “intricate sea creatures, shipwrights, musicians, archers, and kings. Odd figures are depicted, tall, horned, always in a position of authority and respect.” It seems that there was no resistance when the Qunari came to conquer this place, so we can suspect that this previous civilization embraced the Qun without much resistance, in part, because the Qunari have horns, and that caused respect and authority. Or the civilisation had been gone long ago when they came. Or it was a civilisation that was developed by or under the authority of the Kossith, the ancient Qunari who had no Qun.

The brief description of these ruins also makes me link it, potentially, with the underground ruins we find in  The Horror of Hormak .

[Confusing] DAO design

This section tries to relate the Sun shape with designs that may make the connection a bit stretched or not truly reasonable, therefore, DAO leads this part, lol.

We find that many places along the game, specially the ones related to puzzles [Honnleath and Enchanter Wilhelm’s basement] or to Tevinter experiments [Ruins of Brecilian Forest] display a platform on the ground with a symbol similar to the Sunburst of the Chantry. I’m not sure why they are there, specially in the Brecilian Forest, since we know this was a fortress probably developed by Tevinter [ which potentially may have co-opted, as usual, an ancient Elvhenan building and claimed it as its own] just to be taken by Dalish and humans later. This Fortress is a mess in terms of design and statues that it displays, so it’s hard, if not impossible, to truly take it seriously. To me it all feels more like a reuse of graphical resources, but just for the sake of completion, I add the present section.

More of these sun-like platforms can be found in the Tower of the Circle of Magi [which could potentially make sense since the tower was made by Avvar and Dwarves, and it may be a representation of the Lady of the Sky, as we saw in the Avvar section of this post] but also in the Temple of Andraste or in Denerim at the Fort Drakon which makes less sense [unless it is taken as a symbol from the Chantry itself]. Again, these inconsistencies make me suspect the reuse of assets in a game that could not afford to have 5 different platforms designs.

[Confusing] Free Marches Rural Areas

Another place where I found a sun-like symbol was in a very disturbing image of the book World of Thedas associated with a cautionary tale told to Free Marches kids. In it, we see that people/children are punished if they go outside a bubble of darkness with small “sun-like” symbols floating around. Each of these kids have a symbol on their belly or head. Curiously, one of these symbols is a small spiral that I’ve brought the attention upon long ago in the post Hinterlands: Statues, paintings, and structures found in the open where we found the alamarri statue I called Eroded dragon skull which has a “G symbol” on its back, which, at the same time, seems similar to the one present in a reiterative way all over the elvhen artefacts and in some dwarven rug designs.

I don't know how to interpret this image, mostly like the big black bubble that contains these klids seems to protect or shield them from the dangers outside. The kids that "behave badly" are dropped outside of it and are consumed by the dragon fire/jaws of the dangers outside. So in a very stretched way, we can interpret this image that the bubble filled with Suns protects people, or at least, it's the right path to follow not to be eaten by those monsters outside.

Conclusions

To put an end to this post, I would like to bring a short conclusion that we may have reached together along it. The Sun in Thedas is an ancient symbol that mostly every culture took to exploit and use in their own representation of gods/power.

This fact alone is not strange, since in anthropology we can see that severals cultures on Earth have developed religious rites or created Gods out of the Sun itself. The Sun is a symbol related to warmth, light, food, life, and security, so it seems reasonable for DA Lore to take it as the main symbol of Thedas civilisations.

The Sun in current Thedas is immediately associated with the Chantry and Andraste: it is a symbol of hope, of dawn, that provide the idea of new beginnings; it’s also the idea of the Maker itself and the Faith people have in him. It's also the fire that purifies in order to grant ascension [Andraste's case].

When it comes to Elvhenan, the Sun is immediately related to Elgar’nan, who was considered, according to the underaliable Dalish legends, the son of the Sun itself, who in order to save the Land shoved the sun into the ground, potentially causing a great damage to Dwarves and Titans.

There is also a symbol of a half-sun in an Eluvian, a statue, and in a hat worn by an elf, that may suggest that an original god, represented by the sun [potentially an ancient Dragon] was worshipped by the Evanuris. Lately, that symbol may have been co-opted by one of the Evanuris when they took divinity and the identity of the ancient gods they worshiped.

Elvhenan also seem to take the symbol of the asterisk as an oversimplification of the Sun, which across the murals, is also related to the heart of Titans, to power, and to the Golden Ring, which is also associated with control. So, for Elvhenan, we may suggest that the Sun represents immense power, if not, Divinity itself, that may end up being related to the core of Titans. The asterisk is also associated to the orb, a big power object.

Since Elvhenan were the first civilisation we know that started in Thedas [besides the Titans and their children], their symbols of power [asterisk, orb, golden ring] may have evolved along time to reach human groups which developed, later, all the sun symbols that ended up in the Chantry’s.

Thanks to Tevinter, we also can suspect that the Sun may have been a representation of an Old God, since they have a lot of sun-related images in their decoration and objects that belong to ancient times in which they were not Andrastian yet [in fact, so ancient times that Andraste herself was not born yet]. This may mean that the Sun symbol cloud have been taken from the Elvhenan or from the Ancient Dragons. Through Tevinter style, we also realise that the Elvhenan Golden Ring may have been used to create Breaches, which again shows and seems consistent with the idea of relating it to power and control. The symbol of Sun in Tevinter culture may be related originally with Elvhenan or with Ancient Dragons that Tevinter used to worship.

Dwarves have little representation of the sun for obvious reasons, but due to the unreliable legend of Elgar’nan and the war with the Titans, we may establish a relationship in which the dwarves endured the Sun [or the Elvhenan power] at some point in their story.

Thanks to the Grey Warden we can relate a sun with the idea of ancient Blood magic or ancient Dragon blood knowledge, since the Joining is represented by a chalice with a Sun on it.

The Avvar also have a low-key representation of the Sun in their Lady of the Sky, which may be just consequence of their deep relationship with the Elvhenan culture.

Flemeth in DAO

When we meet Flemeth for the first time, we know she saved the Warden and Alistair from the massacre of Ostagar. She turned into a creature (later we will know it was a dragon), grabbed each of them in her talons, and returned to her shack where Morrigan nursed them back to health.

When you interact with her, she speaks about her position related to some topics:

Belief: she considers the wisest attitude is to doubt in what to believe. This makes a lot of sense when you see DA series overall: we know that history changed over time due to the inaccuracy that information acquires over generations due to oral transmission or political interests that modify historical records such in the case of the dwarves [more details about this in the post The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light].

She knows all about the Grey Warden business: She knows about the treaties, and the magic that seals those. Since Morrigan knows about the ancient magic that allowed her to protect Urthemiel’s soul by the end of the game, and this was always the original plan of Flemeth, we can assume this knowledge and the mechanics with which Grey Warden deal with the Blight were all well-known by Flemeth too. This makes sense too if we think that a contemporaneous of Flemeth, Solas, also knows a lot of details about how the Blight works and how the Grey Wardens deal with it [for example, read the section Blight and Grey Wardens in Solas sharing Lore: Part 1 - Part 2]. We can assume that part of the Grey Warden’s knowledge may have come from Arlathan, according some small pieces of information that we have from Seekers: Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck].

Mythal [inside Flemeth] knows how to keep the Darkspawn away: This detail is never focused on in her conversations, so it's easy to miss. Flemeth can keep the darkspawn far away from her shack despite being in the zone where the main outbreak happened. This is not minor at all. Later, in the comic The Missing, we learn that Solas has been hiding in places that have enormous populations of Darkspwan and he has never been bothered by them. Since he has absorbed Flemeth's powers at this point of the story, we can suspect that this ability to keep the darkspawn away is something related to Mythal herself.

It’s clear that Flemeth, who has been a figure who has pushed the History of Thedas in a certain direction, had a clear interest in the Warden. Later, we discover her original plan was to keep Urthemiel’s soul [but this depends on the player’s choices after all, and the "canon" Bioware world state is one where Urthemiel’s soul has been destroyed, since the warden dies]. However, it’s hard to ponder the truth in her words. On one side, we know that Mythal was a creature of compassion and love, the embodiment of motherhood. So giving Morrigan to this mission may have truly been a bit worrisome for her. On the other hand, we know she has been rising Morrigan to become, most likely, the next host of Mythal [“the inheritor in the new age”], so she may value her more for this role. Maybe it’s both, because Flemeth/Myhtal are both complex creatures, human and elvhenan, and dragon [this concept was always repeated by Solas in DAI: Mythal is more than just one aspect, she is complex]. What we can see in the overall story is that, certainly, Flemeth saved Ferelden when she saved the Warden: without the Warden, the Blight would have expanded too fast over Ferelden [which had no wardens to fight it back] and when the Wardens of Orlais could have been aware of this situation, the spread may have been too hard to repel. We see this in the DLC "The Darkspawn Chronicles".

These lines are hard to determine if they hide a bit of the story of Mythal or the human Flemeth. Men killed for her, and this “determined all what followed”. If we keep in mind the many speculations I crafted in Songs and elements that sing and whisper in DA Lore, one has the impression that the Evanuris wanted a power that Mythal had. They may have tried to extract it from her, killing her in the process. Maybe even corrupting her, as I suggested in Speculations about the Vinyl Art, which is also supported by the story The Horror of Hormak. All the issue of the creation of the Veil and the Blight seems to be related to this original assassination, as Solas told us.

But Flemeth's line may also be related to the story of Conobar and Osen, which I will talk about later in this post. Flemeth became one with Mythal after these events, after "men killed for Flemeth".

She claims that names are useless. And we can see this in her case; in the end we don’t really know her real, human name. We know that some historians in Thedas claim that Flemeth never existed as a girl in Highever, while she has a name among the elves [Asha'bellanar, woman of many years], another among the Chasind [Flemeth], and another when it comes to Mythal. This dismiss about the names can also come from Mythal herself: let’s remember that Elvhen seemed to change their names according to their purpose, following a rule similar to the ones that spirits have. Abelas told us he had a different name before serving Mythal, another when he did, and Abelas when she died. Solas wishes for him to find a new name, aka, a new purpose [read Temple of Mythal, Part 5], so the Elvhenan have a different concept of how names work. If Mythal cares little about her name, could that mean she lost purpose after her assassination?

Unlike Solas, Flemeth seems to recognise the use of the Grey Wardens, but it’s hard to know if these words are just said to convince the Warden she is in favour of them or it’s truly what she believes.

She certainly claims that “men’s hearts hold shadows darker than any tainted creature”, a line that links many others from her monologue in DAI. It also implies the events of Mythal’s assassination: we don’t know how the event transpired, but due to Abelas’ words [Arbor Wilds: Temple of Mythal  - Part 5 ] we know that she was betrayed and killed by those who attacked her Temple. Solas claims it was the Evanuris [Somewhere[DLC Trespasser]: Elven Ruins]. And we also know that Solas has a resentful conversation with the Inquisitor who drank from the Well of Sorrows and supports the idea of sharing the power with “friends”. Solas will disagree, saying that sometimes it’s better to let a single person keep all the power, to prevent the group abusing of it [read the section Evanuris and Worshipping in Solas shares Lore, Part 2]. This conversation, even though it is not explicit, seems to be related to the assassination of Mythal and the desire for the Evanuris to have the power she grabbed, maybe, during the strike of one of the Titans and may have shared with them [read “The Death of a Titan” for details].

A curious line that Flemeth says is that Cailan does not see that the “evil behind the Blight is the true threat”. This may be Flemeth claiming that the Archdemon is the one responsible of the incoming Blight, or [if we compare this with Avernus’ words [read Soldier’s Peak]], it’s the entity trapped in the Black City, the true origin of the Song that blighted creatures hear [I wrote about this speculation in Speculations about the Vinyl Art].

In the DLC, Morrigan starts to speak like Flemeth, and basically says that change is what will make Thedas free. We can assume that a lot of Morrigan’s ways of seeing the world are Flemeth’s teaching. In DAI, Flemeth questions Morrigan’s intent to protect the old knowledge, and she claims that Morrigan is interested in that because she taught her to do it. We can assume, then, that the way Morrigan sees the world is also the way Flemeth’s sees it, although a lot more obscured, since Morrigan has not Mythal’s knowledge.

Conobar and Osen Story

There are two stories about Flemeth that, despite we never know which one is the true one, we can conclude something clear that DA series always repeats to us: stories hide some degree of truth, but most of them have changed across ages, sometimes due to political interests, sometimes as a consequence of co-opting or assimilating different cultures in a region. Stories are unreliable sources of information, and even institutions that record the information to avoid this degradation of the truth, like the Shaperate, are not perfect and they are victims of distortion [more due to conflict of interests than progressive decay of the information caused by oral transmission].

So, this is the first story in DA series that sets our mind to the main topic that DA series is about: every source of information is unreliable to a certain degree; We can’t trust the Shaperate, for the reasons claimed above, we can’t trust Dalish lore either, because it has been changed due to the fragile nature of oral tradition and their slavery, we can’t even trust Tevinter records, because they may have been manipulated to a certain degree to keep the cult of the dragons or they simply had a terrible understanding of other cultures [but I have my doubts, since we never had access to the main library of Miranthous, which archives are only available for magisters and the Archon, which means a lot of hidden truths may be recorded there, but not spread in order to keep the Empire in control]

But returning to the story of Flemeth. The first narrator we have of this legend is the codex Flemeth. This narration has the following characteristics:

Flemeth was born in Highever, was known as a mage, and married to Bann Conobar

She fell in love with a poet called Osen, and both ran away to find shelter in Chasind tribes [in the Wilds].

Conobar sets a trap: he claims to be dying, asking for Flemeth to see him for the last time.

Conobar kills Osen and kidnaps Flemeth, imprisoning her in a castle.

Flemeth summons a spirit of Vengenace and ends up possessed by it. She kills Conobar and flees to the Kocari Wilds.

As the Witch of the Wild, she kidnaps Chasind men to sire her daughters.

This way Flemeth leads a Chasind army to strike the Alamarri tribes.

A Hero called Cormac defeats Flemeth and burns her with her daughters.

Leliana’s version contains the following characteristics, pretty similar to the Codex's:

Flemeth was beautiful, and got the attention of the Lord of Highever: Conobar.

She married Conobar.

Conobar discovered that Flemeth was a mage, and kept it in secret, fearing she would be taken from him.

With his blessing, Flemeth practised magic in secret.

When Osen appears, both of them fall in love. They run away from the lands of Conobar and find shelter in Chasind tribes.

Then, the news of Conobar dying, and wanting to see Flemeth for the last time, convinced her to return to Highever.

When the couple entered the city, Osen was slain in front of Flemeth and she was prisoned a the castle, in order to wait Conobar’s judgement.

Asking for revenge, Flemeth summoned a demon to kill Conobar, but the spell went awry and the demon possessed her. As an abomination, she killed all the people inside the castle, including Conobar.

Then Flemeth flew to the Kocari Wild and sired daughters with the help of Chasind men.

Morrigan’s version, which is what Flemeth told her, contains the following events:

During the time when this land was not even called Ferelden, Flemeth was beautiful and married with the poor poet Osen, and Lord Conobar had been interested in her from afar.

Conobar offered Osen wealth and power in exchange of Flemeth, to which both, Osen and Flemeth, accepted.

However, Conobar did not have this wealth, so he killed Osen in a field apart, in secret.

Then, Flemeth used the spirits to learn about Osen’s fate and swore revenge.

Flemeth used the spirits to kill Conobar and then fled to the Kocari Wilds

Conobar’s allies chased her, so she found a demon in the Wilds that gave her the power to survive.

Morrigan says that Flemeth never rose Chasind armies to invade the lowlanders, and neither she fought Cormac.

According to Morrigan, Cormac led a brutal civil war against his own people, and later he justified it as a means to remove evil. Flemeth was attached to this legend much later [this shows all what I’ve been telling in this blog about how stories evolve along the time and satisfy certain political or social needs, details in The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light].

In DAI, the Inquisitor summarises Flemeth’s tale as:

Flemeth left her husband for a lover,

Her husband tricked her, killed her lover, and imprisoned her

Then a spirit came to grant her revenge: Mythal

Flemeth agrees that this was her tale, which is closer to the standard tale than to the story she shared with Morrigan. But we also know Flemeth: she can care less about what anyone thinks about her life.

What we can conclude is that Flemeth asked for revenge and Mythal granted it in that moment. We can also assume she told Morrigan a different story, to teach her about not trusting men, about how dangerous mages are for them, and how power is all what matters. Teachings that will prevent Morrigan [once she inherited the fragment that Flemeth wanted to] from falling and making the same mistakes that, maybe, cost Mythal's life.

Flemeth in DA2

In case we never fought Flemeth in DAO, DA2 starts by giving us the information about her nature: she is a dragon, or at least, she can polymorph into one. It’s hinted that this part of the game happened at the same time of DAO, after Flemeth rescued the warden, but before her potential fight against them. We can have a conversation with her about this dragon nature, and it’s never clear if she is one or can turn into one. Again, Flemeth and her philosophy of “believe what you want”. Of course, we, as players, can suspect this is the true [or at least one of the both] nature of Mythal thanks to her Dragon mosaic and statues in her Temple.

She meets Hawke family when Lothering is being attacked by hordes of Darkspawn.

She has her line of “It’s fate or chance” here, and it seems it’s in this moment when she foresaw the utility of Hawke as someone who can carry her piece. “It’s fate or chance” to survive once more the assassination that may suffer, again, at the hands of someone she gave some care [care with interests but still yet, she repeats a similar story to Mythal's once more]. Apparently, this is the “music she has to dance” as long as it plays. As usual, it’s hard to find clear meaning in Flemeth’s cryptic words.

She again reinforces the idea that names matter little. She seems to dismiss the legend that claims she steals children and considers herself closer to an apostate.

When she claims that she has an appointment, we know she refers to the second meeting she will have with the Warden. A potential chance of being assassinated again. This comment seems to me that she can foresee the future, or at least, glimpses of potential futures. She knows she has a big chance of dying at the Warden's hands, and therefore she gets interested in Hawke as a carrier of her fragment.

As I wrote in Marethari Talas, Flemeth remembers well who made a pact with her across the ages, and makes uses of them.

When we kill Wesley, Flemeth speaks “Without an end there can be no peace. It gets no easier. ” The implications of this line may or may not have a relevance with the speculation I did in Speculations about the Vinyl Art. If this speculation ends up being reasonable, maybe this line is also related to her fate: she needs to end her own corrupted shape in order to find peace. There must be a radical destruction to build upon the ruins. This concept is repeated over and over in all the lore of DA series, applying the idea of removing civilisations, for example in Par Vollen, or system, such as the Circle of Magi.

When we reach Marethari, we have some hints that she and Flemeth had a deal time ago. I spoke about this in Marethari Talas.

Marethari tells us that Flemeth’s word is valuable, reason why I always keep her words as the ones closest to the truth in the DA series, despite being so cryptic and sometimes, pretty useless due to it. Even in the way Marethari speaks about promises, one can suspect that Flemeth and Mythal are also keeping a promise. Hence, we can infer indirectly, that Mythal and Flemeth are creatures that value promises and words heavily.

It’s also interesting where Flemeth is raised once more: this is a cementery dedicated to Dalish uthenera [and I clarify Dalish one because it seems to be the “wrongly understood” Uthenera, that has nothing to do with the Elvhenan Uthenera, which has been seen in more details in the book The Masked Empire]. In here, we find souls bound to this place to defend it, called shadow warriors which shape resembles Elvhenan: bald elves. Now, this is what the Dalish say about this place. But let’s never forget that the time of Arlathan has been kept in their lore in a very unreliable state, so it’s hard to know if this is truly the case in here. After all, this cemetery has the Strange Idol in it, which is never clear which function had in the ancient Dalish culture. To refresh a bit all the mysteries about this idol, read The Strange Idol.

We reach an altar where Merril sings a part of the song Uthenera, as Flemeth raises from the amulet. The verses that Merril sings are:

emma ir abelas souver'inan isala hamin vhenan him dor'felas in uthenera na revas elder your time is come now I am filled with sorrow weary eyes need resting heart has become grey and slow in waking sleep is freedom

The first thing I notice, that Flemeth repeats with the elven Inquisitor, is her respect and kindness to the Dalish. She calls them “the People”, which is such a curious contrast with Solas, who doesn’t call them “his people”. “So young and bright” is another description she always gives to them, which encourages again my suspicion that the Dalish are not elvhenan turned into mortal ones [since Solas and Abelas and his people seem to retain their ageless nature as well as their baldness] but a product that came after. A transformation? Certainly something related to slavery, shape, and the Vallaslin that we have been hinted in several materials such as The Horror of Hormak [General] and The Horror of Hormak [Personal Speculation], as well as visually in some mosaics such as in the “Lifting of the Vallaslin" in Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins.

Flemeth asks if Merril knows who she is beyond the title of Asha'bellanar, and when Merril claims that she knows little, then Flemeth tells her not to bend the knee. It seems that she prefers those gestures when they come from people who know her as Mythal [she claims that these are “manners” in DAI when an inquisitor bows before her seeing her as Mythal]. This may seem to coincide with what Abelas has told us: Mythal followers are not slaves, but servants on their own volition. In these small details we can see that Mythal was not an Evanuris that asked worshipping unless it was with free will. Same as it happens with the Well of Sorrows, which I covered in the post Temple of Myhtal - Part 5.

Maybe this is minor, but Flemeth appears in the exact line of “in Uthenera we find freedom”, with a shot that seems to imply that Flemeth has everything but freedom or peace, bound to a cycle of assassination at the hands of people's personal interests. This also may be a hint about how Uthenera is something entirely different to what Dalish, and by extension the player, think to believe. I will try to write an Uthenera post eventually.

The amulet had a small piece of her in case the inevitable occur.

“if I know Morrigan, it already has [occurred the inevitable]”, she claims. This line makes me hint that this Flemeth is not truly aware of what happened in her “death” against the warden. This whole situation also seems to imply that Flemeth always dies, even when your Warden makes a deal with her and tricks Morrigan. In which case, there will be 2 Flemeth at the same time in a world state where you don’t kill Flemeth [intended or a small mistake from Bioware devs? I assume the latter]. In case Flemeth died, could it be that this small piece of her keeps the exact same memory that it had at the moment of the creation of this magical amulet? She doesn't know what happened during that last meeting with the Warden?

But we can be sure that Flemeth knows Morrigan well enough to the point to see her future confusion with the possession issue. This makes us understand Flemeth as Mythal who has been raising her as the next inheritor, teaching her to be tough and resilient, and mainly, surviving at any cost. Reasons why Flemeth raised Morrigan so roughly. However, in DAI, it seems that she also tested Morrigan’s sense of motherhood in that scene where she pretends she will keep Kieran to fulfil their destiny [check The Final Piece: Part 2]. This again emphasises that Mythal is not only a goddess of Motherhood and care, but also of Revenge with a terrible, furious side, as Solas said in Arbor Wilds: Altar of Mythal.

From all the companions’ comments when meeting Flemeth, the most interesting ones come from Fenris and Anders.

Fenris has a broad experience in seeing fucked-up creatures made out from blood magic due to his Tevinter background. He claims he can’t perceive Flemeth as an abomination, a spirit, nor a powerful mage. Because she is…. A dragon? A Forgotten One? It’s true Fenris is not the most reliable character we can have to perceive the truth, but maybe this is a hint about Mythal’s true nature.

Anders also gets confused, which is curious, because he is already possessed and has the unique perception of a spirit as well as a mage. It seems that Anders can see the magic in mages [as it has happened if your Hawke is a mage and you pretend not to be one in front of him, he will claim he can see magic power around the player]. So it seems he sees Flemeth’s power around her too, but it’s confusing for him; it’s not of a mage nor an abomination, therefore it may be because Mythal has “dragon magic”? Forgotten Magic? Hard to speculate. But we can be sure that Mythal’s powers are unique, never seen in the average world of Thedas mages. These comments may hint us that Mythal has a unique nature, whether a dragon one or a Forgotten One. Or maybe both, because there are speculations where I suspect the Forgotten Ones are, in fact, special, powerful, ancient dragons [read the series of comics for understanding this].

When she explains her own nature she says these valuable words:

“I’m a fly in the ointment. I am a whisper in the shadows. I am also and old, old woman. More than that you need not know” “Must I be in only one place? Bodies are such limiting things. I am but a fragment cast adrift from the whole. A bit of flotsam to cling to in the storm”.

I like to highlight the tone of these words. She claims to be a "fly in the ointment", someone who bothers the bigger plans or success of someone else. She is something that has happened, that the ones that assassinated her did not expect. Also, beside the expression, why would she use such a comparison for herself? Flies are disgusting creatures, carrion-like. Why the grandiose Mythal would claim herself as a fly? So much has she diminished? Or this is also related to some self-hate to the potential corruption version that may be caged in the Black City as I speculated in the post Speculations about the Vinyl Art? Maybe I am reading too much in an average expression. In DAI, she also uses a similar Metaphor to describe herself: “I’m but a shadow, lingering in the sun”. Once more, it is an image of a diminished creature.

She also reinforces the idea that Mythal can take different bodies, and be in different places at the same time. She describes herself as a "fragment cast adrift", which is an expression that also gives an idea of being lost. A "flotsam to cling to in the storm", which is another metaphor with a more ominous concept that, once again, seem to coincide with the speculations I talked about in Speculations about the Vinyl Art. Flemeth is, in summary, a piece of a bigger thing, a bit lost and wandering in Thedas, a shadow that dies slowly under the sun, but also a flotsam to cling to in a chaotic storm. All images of someone broken, diminished, tarnished, agonising, that still tries to survive.

When we ask about her plans, she remains as cryptic as usual: "Destiny awaits us both", which is a line repeated later with Kieran in The Fade - Flemeth:Part 2: "He [Kieran] has a destiny to accomplish". She claims in that opportunity that creatures like Kieran and her [who contain fragments of ancient entities] have a fate or a destiny, that doesn't care about what they want or what kind of humans they are.

Flemeth's words also speak about a radical, inevitable change of the configuration of the world: "We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into th abyss." As I talked many times along the blog, Abyss and Void seem to be synonyms, and both also refer to the depth of Thedas, deeper than the Deep Roads, and may be related to the Titans. That the world fears the plummet into the abyss, sounds a lot similar to the image that Exaltations 1, in Chant of Light - Part 2, where we can read the prophecy of the world's fate: enormous entities will awake, the world will crumble into the abyss as these entities arise. And this is inevitable. In general I won't consider anything from the Chantry reliable at all, but in this aspect I consider the design choice: these fragments were written by the devs to imply an incoming prophecy of an event that we may see soon.

Not by chance, the cinematic shows in this part the high place where they are, in a mountain. I think there is a potential foreshadowing here about the awakening of the Titans that somehow is related to keep caging the Black City, or containing the evil in it. I also implied in many posts that the Titans may be under a forced Uthenera, and all these elements may be interrelated in a more complicated fashion.

Flemeth speaks about giving Hawke an advice that still it's not entirely clear: a leap to the precipice of change, which translated into DAI it may refer to the leap, or fall, that Hawke and the Inquisitor made in Adamant fortress when they fell into the Fade. In there, they float to prevent death. But all this quest didn't really feel like a "radical change" in the plot. We only recover the Inquisitor's memories that put some perspective to who is Corypheus and the power of the orb, nothing more. It's not like Corypheus is new in that plot, we met him for the first time in the DLC of DA2, after all. So, what does this advice truly mean?

For some reason, I always read this as an advice from Flemeth to keep Hawke in the Fade, because Alistair, or Stout, would be more important later in the fight against the "big evil" behind the Blight. But still, this is mere speculation.

In a more hopeful reading, maybe Hawke was the only one able to survive the Fade, although the last chapter of "Hard in Hightown: Chapter ???" found in the DAI Fade clearly shows that Hawke died, content of fulfilling his destiny with that.

At the end of the encounter, Flemeth gives Hawke her sympathy, which may imply she knows that Hawke will have a complicated future; specially related to their mother, and since Mythal is/was the embodiment of motherhood, this may strike her a bit deeper.

Another small detail is that we are informed that Flemeth regrets a lot to the point she was poisoned. Should we take this literally? Should we understand that she, as Myhtal, even may have changed her name because regrets, and could have picked one that personified another attribute like regret or rage? Or this reget comes from Flemeth, her human shape, and Morrigan's raising? Impossible to say.

Flemeth in DAI

Inquisition has a lot of content and scenes where we can extract bits of information about Mythal, her divinity dominion, and Flemeth. To keep things a bit more organised, I try to gather the scenes more or less according a general topic.

Mythal as an Elvhena Goddess

If we perform the ritual to summon Mythal in her Altar, there are 2 different lines available to do so. In both cases, it starts the same:

"We few who travel far, call to me, and I will come. Without mercy, without fear" "Without mercy? That sounds rather ominous" "Indeed"

However, if the inquisitor drank from the Well, and we have Solas in the party, we have an extra line for the invocation:

Inquisitor: "We few who travel far, call to me, and I will come. Without mercy, without fear" Solas: "Cry havoc in the moonlight, let the fire of vengeance burn, the cause is clear"

Solas' addition shows Mythal as a revenge embodiment in here. I think this is a key piece in the lore: In this scene, we learn something extremely important and which is never again reinforced: this place is not in the Temple of Mythal, because the Temple of Mythal was a place of Justice, while this altar has another objective; only if you bring Solas you learn that this is where you come to ask for revenge. Because Mythal represents Justice [Mythal in Evanuris], but also revenge, a concept that so far, we had always aligned to Elgar'nan, and it was here where I started to suspect that maybe, Mythal and Elgar'nan are two sides of the same entity. However, we also have to remember that due to Elgar'nan's destructive fury, Mythal took his place to pass judgement over the People, according to the codex The Judgment of Mythal, which I analysed in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal. Even though this is the first time we are informed strictly that Mythal could be called for revenge, it is not new for us that Mythal has a terrible side: since DAO and in DA2 [with Merril] we learnt that you don't want to infuriate Mythal because she may be just and the embodiment of motherhood, but she is also terrible with her enemies and those who don't keep their promises.

Morrigan: "You know who I am. From high priest to high priest, I am the last to drink of sorrows. Come to us Mythal. Whatever you are, whatever remains. I invoke your name and your power."

This line is only said by Morrigan, who adds a peculiar unique set of words: From high priest to high priest. It's hard to speculate why she would say that. Is she more prepared to drink from the Well because she was trained, unconsciously, to become a priest by Flemeth? Or this is a mistake from the devs? Is she talking about the entities trapped in the Well of Sorrow, who were all priests of Mythal who left their "wills" in the Well? Or she is talking about Mythal herself, considering her as a priest of another higher entity? For me is hard to decide.

When the Inquisitor drinks from the Well, they don't speak the line "from higih priest to high priest", it's merely "You know who I am, the last to drink from your Well of Sorrows. Come to us Mythal. Whatever you are, whatever remains. I invoke your name and your power."

This detail hardly is useful for any decent speculation. We can only assume that Morrigan is more prepared to handle the power of the Well simply because she is a mage who learnt the ancient magic of "what once was".

When the inquisitor bends their knee before Flemeth, or thanks her for coming, knowing she is Mythal, Flemeth claims that these are manners, and unlike with Merril, she accepts the reverence. Once again this seems to encourage what Abelas explained to us: Mythal doesn't have slaves but servants willingly to worship her. You are not her slave, and you have to earn the right to server her. If you don't want to, she would not force you. This concept of "manners" will be repeated in the book The Stolen Throne, where we see Flemeth appreciating Maric's manners when he bends his knee to her [read section below] respecting her power and wisdom.

If the Inquisitor is disrespectful, Flemeth acts similar to Merril's case

"That's Mythal?" "You invoke that name so easily. I wonder if you know what it means."

This shows to me that she gives a lot the benefit of the doubt, and understands deeply the ignorance of mortal creatures. She has other needs than being worshipped, even though she appreciates it.

When Morrigan is controlled by Flemeth to stop the Inquisitor:

Morrigan: If she did not have this hold over me... Flemeth: Then you would do something even more foolish. In this place, my power is greater than yours. Do not tempt me further.

This is a curious information: in the Fade, or at least, in this part of the Fade, Flemeth's power is greater. This could be because the evanuris-elvhenan nature of Mythal, as creatures of the Fade, but it could also be due to her dragon nature. If we remember the comic Until We Sleep, we find that dragons and their blood had a particular power in the Fade, they are basically Somniari or Dreamers, able to control the Fade and make it into reality. Curiously, in this comic, Titus—who has yellow eyes like Flemeth, Morrigan, and Yavanna—is related to dragon blood rituals that gave him strong powers. In the comic is implied that these powers come from the Old Gods, or Dragon Gods, which again reinforces the assumption that maybe the Forgotten Ones were dragons originally worshipped by the Elvhenan until they claimed divinity as their own and did not need them anymore [further exploration of this concept in Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History].

Mythal as a Changed Goddess

When we learn that we need to summon Mythal, an elven inquisitor will reinforce a concept that has been repeated all over Flemeth's lines:

Elven Inquisitor: "My people believe that Mythal was trapped beyond the Fade long ago. Even if she is not, she has never shown any evidence of being alive, never responded to our prayers."

This shows that despite Mythal is who was once, she also changed deeply, hence she stopped being powerful or being present for The People, even though we always see Flemeth being kind with Merril, or an Elven Inquisitor. There is a dear sentiment for them, but distant.

Inquisitor: I presume you know what we're up against Flemeth: better than you can possible imagine

This part of the dialogue is when the Inquisitor asks her for help about Corypheus. It's hard to know what Flemeth is exactly referring to: Is she talking about magisters? The blight, the red lyrium, or most likely, a mage pretending to ascend to godhood? This last option makes more sense, since Solas told us about Mythal stopping Falon'Din from his uncontrollable desire of being worshipped in mass. So, we can assume that there is a soft confirmation about what Solas told us about Mythal: she fought against people who abused their power to increase their worshipping or tried to acquire godhood. Further details, read Temple of Mythal, What pride had Wrought: Part 2.

When the Inquisitor is non-elven, and claims that Flemeth should tell the truth to the world, she goes:

Inquisitor: If Mythal is within you, why not reveal yourself? Flemeth: And to whom should I reveal myself? I: To the elves? To everyone? F: [Laughs] I knew the hearts of men even before Myhtal came to me. It's why she came to me. They do not want the truth, and I... I am but a shadow, lingering in the sun. I: Why did Mythal come to you? F: For a reckoning that will shake the very heavens.

Morrigan: And you follow her whims? Do you even know what she truly is? Flemeth: You seek to preserve the powers that were, but to what end? It is because I taught you, girl, because things happened that were never meant to happen. She was betrayed as I was betrayed - as the world was betrayed! Mythal clawed and crawled her way through the ages to me, and I will see her avenged! Alas, so long as the music plays, we dance.

We have here, again, the Revenge vibes that Mythal seems to support and encourage in Flemeth. We are told, cryptically once more, that Flemeth had always had a desire to preserve ancient powers or entities. It's maybe not so clear to understand if the preservation of Urthemiel in DAO was Mythal's desire or Flemeth's. But we can be sure that Flemeth wanted to preserve Mythal in herself, as she wanted Morrigan to preserve Urthemiel in Kieran's body. Flemeth has always been interested in preserving ancient entities, specially dragon-like: another example is Yavanna, a daughter she raised specifically to take care of a temple where many ancient dragons hibernate [for details, read The Silent Grove].

"She was betrayed as I was betrayed - as the world was betrayed! " This line, so iconic, and in combination with all the proofs gathered in these posts, makes us suspect that the Betrayal of Mythal is her assassination [at the hands of those that attacked her Temple, according to Abelas' words]. The Betrayal of Flemeth is also unknown, but we know it is related to one of a mixture of the several versions of her story with Conobar and Osen. And the betrayal of the world could be the creation of the Blight that required brutal measures to be contained: hence the creation of the Veil and the destruction of the Elvhenan empire with it: a betrayal to the world that these elvhenan knew so far. With this I mean that I'm not sure what "world" Flemeth refers here: the Thedas we know, or the ancient world with no Veil?

It's also in this part where we have this iconic line about the music, which encourages the theory that the original source of the Blight's song is a corrupted entity trapped and/or fused with the Evanuris in the Black City [details in the post Speculations about the Vinyl Art].

We also suspect by the bold lines ["because things happened that were never meant to happen"], in combination with Solas' words about how difficult is to kill an Evanuris, that something truly terrible happened to Mythal to get killed. We know she was betrayed [ icon we saw in her Fade where a big statue we assume it's Dirthamen's exhibits a sword on his back, as a perfect symbol of betrayal: The Fade – Flemeth: Part 2], and something happened to her that not only changed her, as she claimed above, but also made terrible things happen; things that were not meant to happen.

Elven Inquisitor: Mythal was the goddess of justice. I've seen the statues. She... Flemeth: Was one of the People. Yes, indeed. So young and vibrant. You do the People proud and have come far. I: If Mythal is part of you why haven't you helped us? We’ve called to you, prayed to you. F: What was could not be changed. I: What about now? You know so much…. F: You know not what you ask, child.

As we can see, when the Inquisitor is Elven, Flemeth is kinder, and repeats similar behaviour we saw with Merril: she calls them young and vibrant, and respects them as "The People", when we know that Abelas, Felassan, and Solas, ancient elvhenan of that time, dismiss Dalish as non-elvhenan or even consider them Children. This always looked very curious to me, since apparently all of them are followers of Mythal in a way or another, yet they do not respect the Dalish as Flemeth does.

Hers and the Warden companion's Vallaslin look like things we didn't see before, which made me feel very suspicious about how much this new game will end up breaking lore just to make it look cool or just to pursue a "shock effect", narratively speaking.

Davrin, in any case, seems to be a retcon redesign of Falon'Din's or Dirthamen's or Ghilan'nain's Vallaslin [check Evanuris], which I hate, you can't really decide which one among those.

Why do they have to redesign these Vallaslins again? They claimed that "every Dalish clan developed their own vallaslin" since they are not a very homogeneous community and each Keeper ends up modifying their "ancient history" in order to obtain some desired effect: keeping the young people of the clan safe, making the clan less reckless in some explorations, helping the clan with some mourning process, etc. After all, DA lore teaches us that legends and cultural symbols are conquered, used, co-opted, and modified in order to obtain some political or social benefits/effects [you can explore these concepts in Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The Sun or in The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light]. I don't think the Dalish would be an exception to this natural process that even happens in our real life history. This, on one hand. On the other hand, even when something evolves and is co-opted and modified, you can trace their origin; you can see the source that inspired it. Pretty much we can see this on a design level in the Dalish Banner in DAI, for example: compare it with the Elvhenan Banner and the Orlesian decorations you find in all Orlais [see Patterns and Styles: Orlais],

and you will see that the Dalish banner is a combination and amalgamation of both, testament of their Elvhenan culture influenced strongly in the Dales by the Orlesians during the time of the Halamshiral [when humans and Dalish tried to co-exist before the Exalted March on the Dales]. And this is a single example, DA lore has tons of them. I don't see this process in these new companions' Vallaslin. I feel, with all the ignorance we have about the Veilguard, that they may have retconned the dalish vallaslins just "to make them look cooler" once again, and put a cheap explanation: Dalish clans are not a monolith, [which is true], but they are not modifying all their own lore extremely apart from what they consider their "true history", aka the unreliable Dalish legends. After all, we know via Merril, that all clans try to gather once every few years to exchange knowledge and relics; they have mechanics to still keep their own "culture" as one with slight modifications. So far as we played all games of DA, we know that every Dalish considers their Vallaslin as something to be proud of and, with the lore given by game files or Bioware itself [they gave us all the Vallaslin's names in DAI], we know that these are related to the Evanuris. So, we can fairly assume Dalish see it that way: they are honouring their gods.

However, in DAI, we were told that the Vallaslins are marks of ownerships on slaves, and we also know, due to Bioware and game files that they belong to the Evanuris so far. Even Felassan's [Felassan and bits of lore] is Mythal's Vallaslin. So, in conclusion, so far, we always have been seeing and being informed that these Vallaslins were related to Evanuris, who [according to Solas shared Lore Part 2] put this mark on their slaves/servants.

Her Vallaslin is basically an aesthetic third eye, symbol of knowledge and insight, which is a very cheap design detail for her characterization, in my personal opinion. Why could she not use a variation of the one of Dirthamen one, for example? Even the retconned design of the Vallaslin from DAO to DAI have some resemblance, one another. This feels like a "whatever cool symbol we can put on her face".

Could Bellana's Vallaslin belong to the Forgotten Ones? Maybe, if you read all my posts, you may know that I've been playing with the idea that the Evanuris may have worshiped the Forgotten Ones first, who were dragons, and once the Evanuris acquired power [divinity] through the use of Titan's blood and other unknown elements extracted from them, they chased the Forgotten Ones [Andruil in particular], forcing them to hide in the "Abyss", a word we have seen many times in all the games to be related to places deep into the Deep Roads [complete analysis here: Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History ]. But the Evanuris not only took divinity power for themselves, they wanted to have the divine shape ["winged shape reserved only for the Divinity and their chosen ones"], and I think it's not too far-stretched to think that they co-opted all the symbols of their previous "ancient gods" to become Gods themselves. Remember that Solas doesn't say "vallaslins are marks of the Evanuris", but "of the gods that nobles worshiped" and yet the Dalish kept the name of the Evanuris attached to them:

Solas: I've discovered what those marks mean. Inquisitor: They honour the elven gods. S: No. They are slaving markings, or at least, they were in the time of ancient Arlathan. I: My clan's keeper said they honored the gods. These are their symbols. S:Yes. That's right. A noble would mark his slaves to honor the god he worshiped. After Arlathan fell, the Dalish forgot. I: We try to preserve our culture, and this is what we keep? Relics of a time when we were no better than Tevinter? S:[…] You deserve better than what those cruel marks represent.

But can we question if these marks are truly from the Evanuris? Maybe the Dalish got this wrong too. The answer seems to imply that no, this part was correctly preserved: we had this curious example in Orlais where an elf who visited an old Temple of Mythal when he was a child had a dream during DAI in which Flemeth talked to him, and he woke up with the Vallaslin of Mythal on his face [I talked about this in Until We Sleep]. So we can be more or less sure that Mythal's Vallaslin is the one that the Devs gave us in DAI. Flemeth applies it on this new servant. Could this apply to all Evanuris? Well, that depends, since I don't know if it is Mythal the one who has double nature [Forgotten One and Evanuris] instead of Solas [I talked about this point all over my blog, many times].

However, it's also true that the tabletop core book [so questionable if its information is canon or not] says that some Dalish clans from the Tirashan forest wear red [blood based] Vallaslin and perform human sacrifices, and they are told to be related to rituals of the Forgotten Ones.

So far, we only know unreliable legends about the Forgotten Ones, as vague as they are, and only in the last DLC we may have found one of them, Geldaraun, who was, curiously, a dragon [read Frostback Basin [DLC]: Elvhen Tomb and Frozen Gate]. So, in general, Forgotten Ones are an immense mystery in all DA lore, and no game, comic, or book put a bit of light on this topic. It's as obscure as it was the first day.

On the other hand, and trying to debunk myself, we also have the example of Merril's Vallaslin, which was unique [maybe because they wanted to make her more unique herself? hence "let's made out a vallaslin out of nowhere"?], but also we can excuse that it was inherited from DAO [a game with a lot of visual difficulties, for example, they were unable to make the sun-mark on the tranquils' forehead, even though they knew it had to be there, lore-wise] and later, in DA2, we even find strange inconsistent vallaslin used on some elves that make no fucking sense [for example Huon, the blood mage elf who wears a castless dwarven mark on his face, is a blasting, enraging big wtf, lore-wise].

So, in short, can those strange Vallaslin be a representation of the Forgotten Ones? Maybe, we know so little about them that we can't truly answer with certainty.

We really don't know if the Forgotten Ones were evil, we only know that the Evanuris clearly made a big effort to erase them from History and indoctrinated their slaves to prosecute anyone who wanted to follow the Forgotten Ones [Pyre of the Forgotten]. Can we be sure that something is Evil just because the Evanuris considered so? We know Solas' story with Fen'Harel, and how the Evanuris saw him: as a rebel, a danger, someone you should not follow, and yet, Solas and the idea of Fen'Harel is a lot more complex and less evil than what the unreliable legends of the Dalish tell about him. So I have my doubts if someone or something is Evil just because the legacy of the Evanuris tells us so.

We only can glimpse a level of rivalry between Forgotten Ones and, at least, some of the Evanuris in Geldauran's tomb [read Elvhen Tomb]. We don't even know if the Forgotten Ones were elvhenan. Hence, all my speculation about them being Great Dragons. We only know three names: Geldauran, Anaris, and Daer'thal. Fen'Harel is considered a Forgotten One according the unreliable Dalish legends but I have my doubts, since Solas claims he has always been this elf you see, even though there is another part of him wandering the Fade [according to Cole's words]. However, Mythal is the only one of the Evanuris who has 2 different versions of her mosaic: one in elven form [a mother] and another in dragon form. If for a moment you consider the speculation that the Forgotten Ones were dragons, Mythal seems to fit better this dual condition than Solas. As you can see, my answer is very cautious, and basically I can't say much about these Vallaslin that they brought me a bit of worry of hardcore retcon. That's all what I can say with certainty. If they make a good in-lore explanation that justify these two strange Vallaslin, we may be in peace. Otherwise, it should be yet another retcon we have to endure, as we did with previous games. Although, DAO consistency is super low because the immense amount of visual difficulties they had, so DAO always sucked at environmental telling; DA2 and DAI are a lot more consistent one another [despite the difficulties that DA2 also had!], except with the Qunari lore, which was changed each time in each game, unfortunately.

The Claws of Dumat

Where does this artefact appear? We have seen it four times already: In the Valdasine Thaig in DA2, in different places within the Fade of DAI, in Fairel's tomb in the Hissing Wastes of DAI, and in the DLC The Descent, inside a chamber of the Heidrun Thaig.

In DA2 game

The claws of Dumat appear for the first time in DA2, in the Primeval Thaig's entrance, at the sides of the main corridor that will lead us to the Thaig filled with Red Lyrium. This implies that this Thaig, which has no typical Dwarven decoration of Paragons and the writing on its walls was not traditional Dwarvish, was deeply related to Tevinter. The Thaig was located below the Deep Roads and was built before the First Blight [exact same characteristics than the Heidrun Thaig] .

We learn later that the Dwarves than inhabit this Thaig had strong trade relationships with Tevinter [they gave them lyrium, according to the codex Valdasine], and it is not clear if they were involved in the construction of Emerius [former name of Kirkwall]. The configuration of the Thaig makes us suspect that Tevinter made experiments here. There is a constant pattern along these rooms: blue lyrium, Claws of Dumat, and red lyrium, that makes us speculate that these three elements are related one another: immense source of lyrium that must have been used to feed the Claws of Dumat until the magisters used slave blood, which in the end, corrupted the lyrium and turned it into red one.

As we continue exploring the Thaig we find an interesting and mysterious codex: The profane. We interpreted it in details in the post Primeval Thaig and Red Lyrium : we assumed that these profane may have been dwarven or humans who were abandoned in this Thaig when it was closed, and hungry, started to eat lyrium, the "blood of the gods", becoming through the aeons into the "profane" creatures, that only endure hunger. Hence, they brought the attention of Hunger demons in a place where the Veil was already thin due to the experiments performed with Claws of Dumat. These profane creatures don't look similar to the abominations of the Red Templars, so we could assume that they only consumed blue lyrium and the corruption of it into red lyrium happened later.

As we continue exploring the Thaig, Varric recognises the last chamber as a Dwarven “Vault”, filled with many Claws of Dumat from which the red lyrium grows.  Here, we find a staff called Valdasine, which codex says that before the First Blight,  the Dwarven House called Valdasine provided lyrium to all the Empire. However, one day, they closed the doors of their Thaig and blocked communication with everyone. When the doors opened after a time, it was empty, no bodies were found, and there were no clues of what happened. From a design point of view, clearly the profane and this event must be connected: This thaig is the Valdasine’s Thaig, and the profane are all those families that were trapped here and forced to eat Lyrium. The age seems to coincide roughly: both events happened before the darkspawn existed. It's also worth noting that the presence of a staff implies that this Thaig had mages, since dwarven were unable to use magic. This reinforces the idea that Tevinter had a deep relationship with this Thaig in particular, and Tevinter mages were present here with some purpose [most likely, an experiment that required big amounts of Lyrium]. We have to remember that dwarves and Tevinter mages had shown another similar situation where Tevinter Mages experimented within dwarven Thaigs in Golems of Amgarrak. In it, a Tevinter mage was trying to recreate a fleshy alternative to Caridin's golems, crafting the mysterious Harvester.

In DAI game: The Fade

The second time we see the Claws are in the Fade of DAI. They appear at different times and contexts: In The Raw Fade - Part 1 among statues of the Free Marches eagle, implying a strong relationship of this artefact with Kirkwall. This may reinforce the idea we explored in DA2 in Kirkwall history and design and in particular with the Enigma of Kirkwall : It is likely that Kirkwall was where the breach to the Fade was done centuries ago, through blood sacrifice. This is also reinforced by the codex Claw of Dumat, where we learn that Corypheus trusted that this artefact would allow him to bring back Tevinter to its former glory.

In the section of the Fade that I called "The Tevinter Path" in The Raw Fade - Part 2 we find more Claws, implying that they were used in the process of reaching the gods that had gone silent. This event can be interpreted as the Magisters breaking into the Black City in the Fade physically.

In Flemeth’s Fade – Part 1 , we find another Claw in an intersection, where a statue of the Free Marches is shown in front of some Avvar Keepers of Fear. Again, this seems to represent the tumultuous history of the region of Kirkwall: Tevinter invaded natives of this place to build Emerius with a hidden purpose beyond the mere extraction of stones for the construction of the Imperial Highway [more details in Kirkwall history and design]

In DAI game: Fairel’s tomb

In the Hissing Wastes: Fairel tomb we find a Claw in one of the tombs, implying that the whole story of Fairel may have been related to Tevinter and its magisters as well. This makes sense if we remember that the Fairel were a clan specialised on Runecraft, and this art was used in the construction of Kirkwall. There is also a mention of runes/sigils that can only be seen from the Fade in the Heidrun Thaig in The Descent – The Sacrificial Gates of Segrummar.

The tomb where the claw appears displays a specific fragment of the story of Fairel:

Fairel, Paragon, fled from the strife his brilliance created, the strife that destroyed thaigs, sundered houses, from weapons that clan used against clan. His own clan and his two sons followed Fairel to the pitiless surface, the surface where they would hide from the war that took their home.

As we see, it is related to the exodus of Fairel and its causes: a weapon he developed, which provoked strife and destroyed clans. During this quest in DAI, we learn that this secret weapon is a kind of rune, but the game doesn't give it more importance later [it feels more because the rush of ending the game, than something lore-related]. This is the main reason why I think Fairel’s house, as runecrafters, may have helped magisters to develop Emerius [which is built following glyphs and runes patterns, for more details check Kirkwall history and design]. As a clan alone on the surface, during a time when most dwarves were underground, they may have relied on Tevinter or accepted any deal in order to survive.

There is clearly a link between the Fairel ruins and Corypheus: Corypheus knew about these forgotten ruins when nobody knew they were there, thus he commanded the Venatori to dig them and look for Fairel's particular weapon: a rune.

Also, the presence of Tevinter elements in this tomb must have been brought in the past, during the times of Corypheus when he was a human magister, since these ruins where not known by anyone until now: it was Corypheus who informed the Venatori about them. The Shaperate, the only other institution that may have had this knowledge, never knew about them since they “recorded Fairel as dead” as soon as he left the underground. So I think it’s reasonable to keep supporting the idea that this clan and these ruins were involved with the ancient Tevinters quite deeply.

In DAI game: DLC, the Descent

In The Descent – The Deep Roads we start the exploration of this region with a big Claw in the main room. It is flanked by two elven rounded trees in the dwarven style. This is already telling us that this Thaig, which predates the Blights, had Tevinter presence not only for trade: their blood ritual instruments had been incorporated to the decoration of the chambers of the Thaig Heidrun, built on a lyrium mine and then destroyed by and earthquake caused by unknown reasons [the stir of a woken-up Titan by an unknown event].  .

In front of the claw, there is a table with a game and a Dwarven stone-paintings that belongs to these strange paintings we found in Hissing Wastes: Fairel tomb, where we speculated that maybe represented Kirkwall, or another city Kirkwall-like.

Later, we find more Claws in another room where they are exposed in a way that implies worship. Since it's in here where the Tevinter bird appears, i will talk about this room later, in the Tevinter Bird section down below.

What do we know about the Claws of Dumat?

In the DAI Fade [ The Raw Fade - Part 1] we find an extremely juicy codex explaining about this artefact. The codex is written by Corpyheus’ slave who was sacrificed later. What we learn here is:

It implies that Corypheus has been developing different altars to “bring Tevinter to Glory” [Would that mean that the Tevinter bird is a prototype?].

We are informed that the Old Gods have been silent for a while and that has caused the loss of followers. This has been a source of fear in Corypheus. [This info is confirmed by Corypheus as well during Orlais: Shrine of Dumat]

This slave knows that Corypheus has been meeting with other “priests” to try to find a solution to the decline of the cult to the Old Gods. 

Corypheus took his name around the time the Tevinter Magisters entered the Golden City. So we can assume this is a narration very close to the time in which the Sidereal Magisters stepped into the Fade physically.

Corypheus knew that the old elves were tied to the Fade, and the mortal elves have something of that power in their blood, hence he wanted to use their blood for the ritual of entering the Fade.

The Claw of Dumat supports the victim on its top, with shackles, and seems to drip blood along the statue to a pool with runes. [Could these runes be a creation of Fairel?]

It is implied that Corypheus used little blood magic before the silence of the Old Gods. The loss of god's voice made him fall in despair.

These words were written and reflected/preserved in the Fade at the base of one of these Claws of Dumat we find just after we pass by some Free Marches eagles. Again, the presence of the Free Marches eagles around the Claws of Dumat may be a representation of Kirkwall, but it could also represent another thing, maybe related to the Tevinter bird.

The Tevinter Bird/Dragon

It is a metal statue of something that looks like a bird or a dragon. It could be the “Tevinter” style of the usual Kirkwall eagle, or something else that escapes me completely. If one is careless, these draconic-bird-like statues can be mistakes for Claws of Dumat, but they are not. They share the same style than the Claws: they are Tevinter, made of dark metal, in an angular and pointy shape.

When we compare it with the statue of Mythal dragon shape, we can see some similitude, as if it were the same one but in the pointy “Tevinter” style. Of course, if this were the case, this metallic representation of Mythal lacks of its iconic spike. 

In DA2 game

The first time we see this statue is in DA2, in the Primeval Thaig [read Primeval Thaig and Red Lyrium ], in a Chamber that Varric refers to as a Dwarven Vault but its key claims it to be a crypt. There are veins of red lyrium around these statues and around the Claws of Dumat.

In DAI game: Crestwood Caves

The next appearance is in Crestwood: Flooded Caves, at the entrance of a chamber of a Dwarven ruin.

This place seemed to be important, since it is decorated in this fashion. This entrance even has an illustration in the Book of Inquisition [image above], showing that these statues are placed at the side of the entrance completely on purpose. The position seems to be similar to Mythal statues we find in the elvhenan ruins or Temples.

In that illustration, however, we also see a big mask-face over them, reminding us those faces we saw in dwarven Thaigs in DAO, or in the Avril of Void. These faces always gave me the impression of being unconcious representations of the Titans within the dwarven culture.

Later on, I found a plaque close to this place, in a locked room, that seemed to imply this whole dwarven ruin was a route that connected Aeducan Thaig with Gundaar Thaig [another famous Thaig, and one of the first in falling under the darkspawn threat]. It’s interesting that the name Gundaar appears here, since it’s one of the three Thaigs that the lore considered lost and have been hiding curious developments [the other two are Kal-Sharok and Hormak, for more details read Orzammar, Witch Hunt, and The Horror of Hormak ].

In DAI game: Heidrun Thaig

The last appearance of the Tevinter bird was in DLC: The Descent – The Deep Roads where, despite the lack of information in a codex, we find a curious chamber in the Heidrun Thaig that may provide some insight.

The chamber in question seems to honour four statues: two Claws of Dumat and two Tevinter birds. This could have been a chamber of summoning or enhancing magic, since we know the Claws of Dumat were used with blood sacrifices to empower magic. So even though we don’t know what the Tevinter bird’s function could have been, the presence of the claws makes us infer that it may have been related to blood sacrifices and the process of breaching the Fade.

Another detail that supports this hypothesis is that, in this Thaig, blood magic has been performed long time ago: we meet an Arcane Horror in The Uncharted Abbys, Bastion of the Pure, who still performs blood magic with animal bodies [we find some dead animals that are still warm]. The curious detail is that this chamber has a lot of elvhenan objects: several inukshuk, an eluvian with the same frame that Merril's, and a statue of Humanoid Mythal. In the same chamber we also find one of the Tevinter sacrificial altars, which makes us suspect that Tevinter and Elvhenan knowledge have been fused in this place. That these elements appear in this part of the underground may be related to the fact that the Bastion of the Pure it's where we find the densest amount of lyrium [important component to cast powerful magic].

However, I'm not sure if we can assume this Arcane Horror is an ancient magister of that time. I’m more inclined to think that it is the father of the builder of The Sacrificial Gates of Segrummar, who needed to be in the Fade in order to see the sigil that is present in all this Thaig, apparently. 

Speculations about the Tevinter bird/dragon

The information we have collected in here is rather scarce. We can have a good understanding of the Claws of Dumat, but it's hard to extrapolate all that to the Tevinter bird. So, I developed several hypothesis:

It's a prototype of a Claw of Dumat

According to the codex of the Claws of Dumat, Corypheus had been working on different prototypes, so we can assume this Tevinter bird may have been one of those: a mere prototype. However, if it was so, why would it be present in Valdasine's Thaig? You don't use failed prototypes. Unless its presence, in combination with the Claws, is what makes the claws work.

It's something related to Emerius

Kirkwall always had an iconic metallic statue of an eagle [1, 2]. We can even say that the geometrical symbol of Kirkwall [7] looks like an eagle extending its wings [7] even though the origin of that symbol has a strong resemblance with the original symbol of Emerius: a raising dragon [7].

In the Viscount's Keep, we see different other representations of the eagle [2, 3, 5, 6]. The origin of [3] seems to be [4] which is a symbol closer to the Emerius style than the current, geometrical one, so this design detail tells me that this symbol may have belonged to the time of Emerius. The fact that the claws of Dumat appear in the Fade close to the [1] eagle statues may represent something. Maybe the original rising dragon represented in the Emerius symbol was hidden later in a bird-like figure?

Since the dark metallic eagle represents Kirkwall [or Emerius if we are talking about old times], this draconic/bird statue may be the representation of another city with similar characteristics than Emerius, maybe less important during the time of the Tevinter Empire glory.

This idea is also suggested when we find a Claw of Dumat in the first chamber of DLC: The Descent – The Deep Roads , where we see one of those Dwarven stone-paintings, which is neither the usual painting we saw along DAO, nor the usual one representing Kirkwall in DA2.

There is also a weird "bird" statue that we only see in DA2, that I talked about it in Xenon and his Black Emporium, depicted as a humanoid bird with chains that holds a mask on it. I can't bring a decent, non-conspiracy relationship between them, but it's the only bird-like statue I can think of through all the games. This weird statue appears in many houses of Kirkwall in DA2 [specially noticeable in Danarius house].

It's a Forgotten One which, as a dragon, was taken by the Tevinter interpretation as Dumat [or any other Old God]

In the way it is presented in the Vault of DA2, and considering it has a draconic shape to it, we can even speculate that this statue is a small representation of Dumat himself.

Hence, this statue is attached to big chunks of metal and close to the Claws of Dumat in that Vault as a mere decoration.

I like to play with the thought that it may be Myhtal [as I did in the beginning of this Tevinter Bird section]: I already talked about the speculation of Mythal being of double nature [Evanuris and Forgotten One, that the unreliable oral tradition of the Dalish lore twisted to give it to Fen'Harel, details in Speculations about the Vinyl Art or Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The Sun], and the Forgotten Ones being dragons that were worshipped by the Elvhenan until they claimed their divinity [read more in Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History]. In that moment on, they may have erased the ancient gods turning them into the forgotten ones, who escaped to the Abyss [which is related to the underground, where we know many dragons hibernate]. Therefore, there is a possibility that these forgotten dragons were taken later by the newly arrived humans [the Neomerians] who developed the cult of the Dragons, aka The Old Gods, being completely oblivious of the relationship that these creatures had with the Elvhenan, a civilisation they hated and despised. So that, they took the image of Mythal and considered it Dumat, and for that reason, they used this statue as a decoration to place around the Claws of Dumat.

The con of this interpretation is that it's not clear what kind of Dragon was the real Dumat-Archdemon which desolated the lands during the First Blight: was it truly Mythal? Another fragment of her? or was another Dragon? We already made a lot of speculations about the true Mythal being trapped in the Black City in the post Speculations about the Vinyl Art that makes this current speculation to falter.

Considering this horrible counter-argument, we could assume that maybe this is another Forgotten One that we have no name at all, but again, why would you put it close to the Claws of "Dumat" then?

Conclusion

The vinyls

They are named “Golden City Merge” [blue-teal one] and “Black City Splatter” [Yellowish one].

Golden City Merge

It has a blue-teal colour around a yellow centre that may be golden.

One of these colours coincides with the codex Vir Dirthara: Homecoming, which claims that a “city home” is made of blue glass with spiralling up towers, so only through this detail in colour, and the shape of the city we see in the cover of the vinyl, we can assume that Elvhenan “homes/cities” may have been of this style too. Here, it’s all the lore we can link to these colours.

The only piece of [unreliable] lore we have to blandly link the Golden City with Arlathan is Tyrdda Bright-Axe Path. In it, the man who wanted Trydda’s hand in marriage wanted to lead an army to the North, in order to reach the Golden City.  From an Alamarri’s point of view, Arlathan was also in the north, crossing the Boeric Ocean [if we assume, too, that Arlathan was inside the Forest of Arlathan, which is a reasonable speculation given the peculiarities of the place, read The Missing for more details]. This information had been shared to him via dreams by a demon. It is a bland piece of lore because this is a tale that was transmitted through generations, orally, and we know how sensitive to change and modification this process is.

If we keep all these bland speculations, we can play with the idea of assuming that the Golden City may have been Arlathan. If Arlathan was surrounded by Arlathan Forest, the tree theme in the art of the vinyl would add more consistency to this speculation.

Black City Splatter

It has a black splatter over a worn-out, pale yellow colour. It may be considered a “sick” yellow even.

What we speculated from Corypheus’ design is that, due to the way his face was deformed and pieces of metal [or maybe red lyrium] were incrusted in him, it always looked like “something hot exploded” on his left side face [which, coincidental, it was the side which eye was, apparently, blind in his taror card, however, the unmatched eyes is completely inconsistent along art and games]. I talked about this long ago in the end of the post DLC: Legacy and in DA2:  Eyes. My point in bringing this desing detail is to say that, when the Magister stepped into the Black City, something “exploded” and melted them, and no matter the Andrastian Myth, we can see it clearly in the design of Corypheus and The Architect. That this vinyl has this colour design and name reinforces the idea that the Magisters unbalanced something when they entered, and it exploded, catching them in the explosion.

The Architect also has a design in his face that tells us that he was melted, and some things were incrusted in his body [I was always curious how a “dragon horn” seems to protrude from his neck]

Although they are focused on the Andrastian Myth, the Tevinter Mosaics seem to reinforce the idea that, when the Magister entered the Black City, they were burnt as well [again, the Myth claims it was the Maker, I suspect the truth is different, but the repetition of melting design in the only two Sidereal Magisters we saw can’t be overlooked].

As a speculation we can assume that the Black City was containing and working properly in the way that Solas had left it when he sealed the Evanuris, until the Sidereal Magisters entered and caused a “burning explosion”. It’s not clear if they caused it with their entering to the City, or  touched something that caused it.

the middle of the vinyls show the map of Fade we had in DAO

Curious thing, an extraction of this map from the DAO game files, shows that it was surrounded by thorny vines, or something that inspires the idea of thorny vines. And it covers a ring made out of mosaics, very similar to the style of the Golden Ring.

It is also interesting that each of the apexis in the vinyl shows a circle that, according to what my eye can distinguish in that small image, may represent another Golden Ring. These golden rings have been appearing all over the game, specially in DAI.

The back of the vinyl shows an eluvian floating on an isle, and two Elven Tree Statue. There is a series of detail we can notice here:

The eluvian is shattered. This gives us the idea that the system protecting the Black City, according to what we have concluded along the posts Murals in DAI: Basics and “The Creation of the Veil”, was broken and whatever kept inside is now free. 

Behind it, we see the shape of 6 more eluvians, in a pattern that looks like a flower. The flower may be a mere aesthetic for the vinyl, or could be a representation of the Elvhenan [since the elvhenan banner has a lot of flowers in it, check Elven Ruins to see it], or it may be related to the last bloom of a flower related to the codex “A Flowering Imago” [explanation attempted in the post Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara]

The Chant of Light, if it’s to be trusted with some grains of elvhenan knowledge that was leaked into its text, claims that the Black City has seven gates that, one shattered, will allow the pass of Darkness [Read exaltations in Chant of Light - Part 2]. Darkness has always been associated with the Blight, so I think this piece of info may have been part of elvhenan knowledge that made it into the religious text in ways I explained in “The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light“. If the Eluvians are gates to the Black City, the seven ones are represented in this vinyl illustration.

The Elven Tree Statues have been seen in many opportunities along the DAI game, and its symbolism is not clear. In the Shattered Library it appears as a source of Fade power, crackling with green energy until the Inquisitor approaches and absorbs it. In the Elven Mountain Ruins, appears as central along the corridor of the Forgotten Sanctuary, and as the main symbol of the Smoking Tower. In Ancient Elven codices; Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins I made a deep analysis of potential relationships of this tree with a source of power to create “in-between” spaces, as well as related to lyrium, the power of the Titans, a Titan’s heart, or Fade itself. It also appears as central in the puzzle of the Dead Hand, where energy is gathered in it, while being surrounded by Golden Rings.

What seems to have in common in all these analysis is that these trees are related to power, and potentially a power to create worlds that may be associated with Titans. Maybe they represent the power that Mythal found when she killed the Titan, according the mural “The Death of a Titan”, and this was the reason why the Evanuris killed her in order to acquire this power. What’s curious is that in this illustration of the vinyl, we see, for the first time, their roots. Which are quite similar to the design of the Mythal’s Vallaslin. 

What is this eluvian representing for the Golden/Black City?

The shape of the eluvian is not something to read too much in my opinion. We find these frames in many elvhenan buildings, with other gods too. Even with Andruil in the Shattered Library; Inverted Ward. I think that we have to read it simply as “Elvhenan style for frames” which is deeply related to the shape of door and window frames too, which also carries similar function in the Eluvians: they are “doors” or “windows” to other places in between. I think it’s the typical elvhenan style for frames in general [details in Patterns and Styles: Elvhenan]. There are tons of these tri-style eluvians without flanked beasts spread all over the Elven Ruins. The Crossroads or The Crossroad [Base Game] also show a lot of these eluvians, sometimes flanked by statues, sometimes don’t. A quintuple-style shape is also the shape of the big gates into the Temple of Mythal [check  Temple of Mythal, What pride had Wrought: Part 1]. The idea of this shape is that it’s an eluvian with smaller and broader eluvians at the side, overlapped behind, so the final outline looks like it.

The Eluvians are related to the Elvhenan, but also to the Titans in a design point of view: they glow in a similar way as lyrium does or have a similar colour to it. In DAO, we lost Tamlen because an Eluvian was infected by the Blight [and we can justify DAO eluvian as corrupted ones since all of them were non-working or blighted]. So far we know, objects can’t be infected by the Blight, only living things, hence the idea that Eluvian are made of “something alive”. It’s not clear how alive it has to be, since we also know a creepy set of objects that exude “life” in a weird way: The Taken Shape set.

The Eluvians we found in DAO were “Tevinter Eluvians”. It’s not clear if the Tevinter took elvhenan eluvians and modified them to make them work like “communication devices” [as Finn and Dorian explain], or they developed the technology itself. That would also explain why these Eluvians are mostly purple instead of blue [and decorated with human statues that tend to be associated with Tevinter, details in Merril’s Eluvian]. Unaltered elvhenan eluvians have been shown to glow in silvery blue [all of them present in DAI].

Red Lyrium is the product of lyrium being infected with Blight because lyrium is “alive”. So far, this info is what Bianca told us, who at the same time, was told from an unknown source, according to what she speaks about with the Tranquil Researcher in the Emprise du Lion [last part of the post Emprise du Lion: Suledin keep ]. Since we know that Lyrium is Titan’s blood, it makes sense for it to be able to be infected with Blight because Titans are living yet vegetative creatures. On the other hand, there is enough hints to suspect Titans are immune to the Blight, so the lore seems a bit inconsistent on that. More details about this in posts such as Songs and elements that sing and whisper in DA Lore and  “The Death of a Titan”.

We also know that the Elvhenan exploited Titan’s bodies in unknown ways, according to all the info we can obtain in the mural from Trespasser: “The Death of a Titan”. Maybe they created Eluvians after they discovered the powers of Titan’s blood. This is a mere speculation about why the eluvian look like made out of lyrium.

Eluvians, then, allowed Elvhenan to do something that, so far, we were told since DAO that magic could not do, according to The Cardinal Rules of Magic:  “No one has found any means of travelling—either over great distances or small ones—beyond putting one foot in front of the other.“

There is also a potential interpretation that some Eluvian, somehow, are Gates to the Black City, implied in the mural “The Creation of the Veil”. This information may have survived the ages while being altered into what the Chant of Light claims in Exaltations [Chant of Light - Part 2] as “the Black City has seven Gates”, which is the same amount of “weird bubbles” we see in the mural. It was never clear what’s the reason for having 7 gates to a city you want to seal completely. I have no speculation why Solas could not sealed them completely, and, as it seems, put dragons in them to keep them closed instead.

Eluvians have been used in different ways, as portals to access tombs where elves were slumbering or in Uthenera, but also as “doors to cells”. We have two examples of this: Merril’s eluvian, which, according to Marethari, was a means to keep its Pride demon trapped [details in Merril and the Eluvian ] or as the door to a place inside a pocket dimension called “The ancient Jail” that seems to be a place where slaves or maybe dwarves were taken prisoner by Elvhenan [details in The Crossroads [DLC Trespasser]: Ancient Jail] which entrance has an unmistakable statue of Mythal in Dragon Shape. and inside of it, there are many broken eluvians.

The shattering Eluvian surrounded by two Elven Tree Statue is a similar image to the loadscreen related to Merril that I analysed in the post Merril’s Eluvian, which shows a symbol on the background that I’ve related to Flemeth/Mythal and potentially to Andraste too. Since Merril’s eluvian is related to a prison, maybe in the vinyls we are talking about the same: The Golden/Black city had become a prison for the Evanuris. We know this because Solas himself told us in Elven Ruins that he had banished them.

Therefore, a shattered eluvian seems to represent the destruction of a prison, in the same fashion it represented the escape of the Pride Demon in Merril’s quest [see that in the loadscreen gif above]

What the vinyl is telling me with the Shattered Eluvian and seven of them forming a flower, is that we are going to see the release of the Evanuris from their magical prison.

What have to do those trees in the illustration? It could represent the forest of Arlathan where Solas sealed the Evanuris in the city deep inside it. Another option is, that somehow, this prison is sustained/supported by Mythal, or was motivated by Mythal [probably with her death], since these trees seem to represent power, Titans, and Mythal at the same time. Trees are also related to the vhenadahl, which seem to hide a darker meaning that has nothing to do with what the Dalish or city elves believe about [more details in the section vhenadahl in the post “Red Lyrium Idol”].

Mythal as a motivator: If we take Solas’ words in the Elven Ruins, he sealed the Evanuris because they killed Mythal, but we also know in the Dev’s note from the mural “The Death of a Titan” that he really wanted to hide everything they were doing to no tempt anyone else to use this power.

Mythal as the last Guardian: We also know, according to Flemeth’s words in DA2, that Myhtal can exists in different places, as long as there is a “small piece” of her somewhere. 

Flemeth in DA2 says:

“I’m a fly in the ointment. I am a whisper in the shadows. I am also and old, old woman. More than that you need not know”

“Must I be in only one place? Bodies are such limiting things. I am but a fragment cast adrift from the whole. A bit of flotsam to cling to in the storm”.

In DAI she says

“Once I was but a woman, crying out in the lonely darkness for justice. And she came to me, a wisp of an ancient being, and she granted me all I wanted and more. I have carried Mythal throuh the ages ever since, seeking the justice denied to her. [...] But what was Mythal? A legend given name and called a god, or something more? Truth is not the end, but a beginning.”

“I nudge history, when it’s requiered. Other times, a shove is needed.”  [chuckles]

[Mythal came to me] “for a reckoning that will shake the very heavens.”

Morrigan: And you follow her whims? Do you even know what she truly is? Flemeth: You seek to preserve the powers that were, but to what end? It is because I taught you, girl, because things happened that were never meant to happen. She was betrayed as I was betrayed - as the world was betrayed! Mythal clawed and crawled her way through the ages to me, and I will see her avenged! Alas, so long as the music plays, we dance.

When elven inquisitor asks her

Inquisitor: Why haven’t you [Mythal] helped us? We’ve called to you, prayed to you. Flemeth: What was could not be changed. Inquisitor: What about now? You know so much.... Flemeth: You know not what you ask, child.

Flemeth, about Kieran:

“He carried a piece of what once was, snatched from the jaws of darkness.”

So I think this also may show that Mythal’s retribution is coming. Flemeth has been doing a lot of mastermind work along the ages to give Mythal her deserving revenge associated with the destruction of the Evanuris that, it seems, Solas will perform [since he absorbed Mythal’s powers]. These words were always present in any path you pick, so they are key. Flemeth says that she will stay in this path as long as the “music plays”. This seems to refer to the music of the Darkspwan and the Archdemons that, thanks to Avernus, we know it’s linked, at the end, to something calling from the Black City too [read Songs and elements that sing and whisper in DA Lore and the last part of DLC: Soldier’s Peak]. What I understand is that Flemeth will not be in peace until the Evanuris are destroyed completelly. Which seems to have been Solas’ goal since forever, but lacked power to do it in that moment and he only managed to seal them and borrow some time [and power, since the orb was gathering Fade energy for a millenia]. This plan, of course, was ruined by Corypheus. 

In short, considering Flemeth’s words about how shape is limiting, I wonder if there is a chance for Mythal to be in some shape or form, linked to the Golden City, in her Dragon Form, sealing the Evanuris. This hypothesis seems unlikely because Solas told us that Mythal died in some way. You can’t die and be a guardian at the same time. 

However, here comes the last hypothesis I can muster:  Mythal as the thing that was sealed in the Golden City, fused with the Evanuris. I think there is little to mistrust about the fact that the Evanuris indeed are trapped in the Black City, however, this illustration may imply that Mythal, in her dragon shape, is sealed there too. Considering Flemeth’s words, that sugest she is just a small fragment from the whole, cast adrift, and that can exist in different places at the same time, I wonder if Mythal, in a corrupted, draconic shape, belongs to the creatures that were sealed in the Black City. Maybe she is the ultimate danger, fused with the other evanuris, corrupted and mad by the Blight that “killed” her [when the Evanuris are hard to kill, according to Solas’ words in Somewhere[DLC Trespasser]: Elven Ruins]. This is a bit weird concept, to be fair, but I think that it tastes to “Bioware plot twist”.

The cover and the back

Let’s analyse the illustrations while constrasting these three hypothesis. They show two different versions of the same illustration, a non-corrupted and a corrupted one.

The front cover [details can be seen in this webpage ]: We see, in general, the Golden City with a Dragon behind, extending its wings onto the city, as if they were protecting it. I will call this image the “non-corrupted” version. Now, let’s go to the details. 

Facts that can be seen in a better quality image:

The dragon is black or dark coloured with a blue accent. It has slightly curved horns and red glowing eyes [image 1].  From their wings, a dense golden-like canopy raises. In some parts of the drawing it looks like a golden vine spread all over the dragon’s wings [image 2]. Despite being in front of the source of light, the dragon does not cast shadows onto the city. The illustration seems to inspire the idea of “guardian” or “protection”.

The lower parts of the Dragon’s wings show branches that have no leaves, but look like single insect wings pending from branches [image 2, arrows]. Could this be related to the codex “Flowering Imago” from Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara? I don’t know.

The area of the wings without branches shows a texture of red veins which can be perceived as veins of an animal as well as veins of a leaf [image 5].

Behind the dragon there is an Eclipse almost happening.

The cupule of the building shows small typical details of Elvhenan design that I talked and pointed out in the post Patterns and Styles: Elvhenan.  The windows look the same design that the elvhenan ones [image 3].

The four spires that can be seen in the city are repeated upside-down, in shadows, implying this place may be similar to the Inverted Ward [image 4, arrows].

The gates of the building resemble strongly the gate of the Temple of Mythal, displaying a draconic image, similar to the statue of the dragon shape of Mythal [image 7].

The trees that rise and entangle with the building seem to be one with the structure, giving it more stability. This gives me the idea that the Dragon, related to these trees through its wings, keeps giving protection and stability to the city.

The whole city lays on a small floating isle.

In front of the isle, there is a tiny humanoid figure with a staff that  displays the shape of one of the symbols of the Archdemons [image 6]. I talked a lot about this symbol in the post  “The Destruction of the Veil“, linking it to Darkspawn and The Architect. 

Around this figure, several birds or winged insects fly around [image 6, arrow].

The space around the city is bright and colourful, reinforcing the idea of a vivid city.

The back cover [details can be seen in this bigger image]. We see, in general, the Black City with a Dragon behind, extending their wings onto the corrupted city, as several faces with symbolic helms are fused in its wings. I’ll call this version the “corrupted” one.

Facts that can be seen:

The dragon is black or dark coloured with red accents. It has curved horns, and a second pair of horns protrudes from its jaw. It’s not clear for me if it has yellow glowing eyes or red ones [image 8]. These horns seem to have a resemblance with the Dragon version of Flemeth in DA2, but not in DAO [ but we know DAO engine was always poor for environmental telling and design details].  Flemeth’s hairstyle doesn’t resemble to any of these horns [image 8]. However, the strange tiara that Flemeth wears seems to coincide a lot with the horn structure of her Dragon shape in DA2 [the tiara has some curves on her temple that resembles the smaller horns in her dragon shape - blue and orange arrow-]. There is, of course, the meaningful yet mysterious central spike too. This spike, which relates Mythal with Andraste and other figures in DA lore, is not present in the corrupted dragon’s head. Considering how important this main spike is for lore, I believe that thinking in this dragon as Mythal may be a mistake [but then again, this is a corrupted dragon that may have suffered a transformation due to the Blight].

From its wings, a dense withered-like canopy dies. The corruption is deeper and more blackened the closer to the extreme of its wings. This corruption looks like black vines, but lacks of thorns. We know that thorny vines are related to the Blight since DAO games. We spoke about this in posts such as Murals in DAI: Basics.

Fused with the corruption of its wings, we see six heads, many of them with clear elven ears. All of them are wearing a helm with the symbols that we identified with the Old Gods / Archdemons in the post of the mural of “Red Lyrium Idol” and  “The Creation of the Veil” [image 9].

The area of the wings without branches shows a texture of white veins, and in some parts of this darkened area, bits of orange that seem to imply something is burning inside this corrupted body. Looks like small peeks of Red Lyrium [image 11] or lava. 

Behind the dragon there is an Eclipse happening, so the shadows projected by the dragon fall all onto the city. The Design of this Eclipse looks the same like the design of the (alternative) logo of Bioware for Dragon Age Dreadwolf [image 10].

The building is completely overtaken by these black vines, which destroy the infrastructure. It even destroys part of the isle where the city was built upon. We can see that these vines spread deep into it. The corrupted trees are not sustaining and reinforcing the structure of the building but attacking it. The Dragon “lost” its protective nature.

All these black vines remind me a lot of the strange Tentacles we find in the Fade of DAO [image 12]. They protrude from structures or the ground, and some of them even from statues. Maybe it was a concept related to the Old Gods when their design was more related to a Cthulhu creature with tentacles for feet. Check DAO screenshots in the posts The Fade - DAO  and The Fade: The Undying Blackmarsh – DA Awakening 

There is no tiny humanoid figure in front of the city anymore. However, the symbol that this figure had in their staff is the symbol we don’t see among the faces fused in the dragon’s wings [Image “?”]. This would mean that one of these creatures “escaped” this fate. 

The colour of the space around the city is darkened, desaturated, and with “smoke” vein in the air, reinforcing the idea that this space has been corrupted deeply. 

Speculations

The Dragon

The dragon and the dense vine rising along its wings, making it look like trees in the non-corrupted version suggests several potential representations:

1) This strong presence of the Forest theme in the dragon may relate this city to Arlathan, which was located in a deep, dense Forest entangled with the Fade, according to the comic The Missing. This would help us link Arlathan and the Golden City as the same place, since it has been very obscure in DA lore the whereabouts of the city of Arlathan. The only hints we have are the Tyrdda Bright-Axe Path, in which the man who wants to force Trydda in a marriage with him claims that  whispers told him to conquer the Golden City at the North of their lands, which is a location where the Forest of Arlathan, and potentially the gone city, fit. The unreliable Dalish tales also claim that Alathan was sunk into the underground by Tevinter [details in Arlathan codices from Ancient Elven codices; Din'an Hanin– Elgar’nan Bastion]. There is no more pieces of lore or hints that explain the whereabouts of Arlathan.

2) The dragon seems to be a symbol that may represent Mythal. Another speculation is that this Dragon was Mythal, and the Golden City [maybe Arlathan], may have been her city or the city where her fate was sealed.

According to the unreliable codex [The Temple of Mythal], it seems to be an archeological fact that the Elvhenan used to have a main Temple surrounded by a city developed around it. We know the Temple of Mythal lays in the Arbor Wilds, and we can see some ruins that may fit the idea of a “city/town” before reaching the central part of it [see Temple of Myhtal - Part 1], so the hypothesis that the Golden City was Mythal’s main city seems discarded. However, we also know that Mythal may have had many cities and the biggest ones among the Evanuris thanks to the codex "Song to Sylaise” from  Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal.This city can be one of the many that belonged to Myhtal as well as the place where her fate was sealed.

3) This dragon may represent one of the ancient gods that the Elvhenan worshipped before becoming gods themselves. This city also may have been the temple of an ancient dragon that the Evanuris worshipped in the begining [according my interpretation of the Elvhenan lore, explained here], but it is hard to speculate further. There is no much lore but some visual hints on this matter.

4) If it is the city where Mythal’s fate was sealed, we can imagine that the Evanuris, desiring Mythal’s natural Dragon shape, may have invited her here and may have made experiments with her [as we know some Ghilan’nair’s experiments were performed in Tevinter Nights: The Horror of Hormak, that may include some fusion of animals in order to modify their shape]. Let’s remember that the Evanuris were related to winged shapes, “a shape reserved for the Divine and their Chosen” [from the codex Ancient Elven Writing]. If this is the case, the corrupted version of this dragon may represent Mythal, corrupted, and also, displaying her recknoning upon the city, where the other Evanuris were sealed by Solas. She and the others are fused in the corruption itself released by this hypothetical experiment. 

There is also a chance that Mythal, in her dragon shape, is still protecting the city, trying to contain the spread of the Blight thanks to the natural Blight-resistance that Dragons have. This concept is only inspired by Flemeth’s words about hinting the fact that she can be in many places at the same time, and bodies are limiting things [there is also a strange hint in the old quest of the Blackmarsh, where a demon in human shape could be in the Fade while a dragon-like shape related to it could be in the Waking World, details in The Blackmarsh and the High Dragon]. Maybe some pieces of Mythal were spread in the world to preserve a bit of her, while her [corrupted] Dragon form remained sealed with the evanuris or maybe she is a guardian of the corupted city. Flemeth also claims to an elven inquisitor that Mythal “changed”, and according to the corruption version of this illustation, Mythal may have changed, and acquired a more menacing looking, as her horns changed too and lost her central spike, such an iconic element in her design.

The inner side of its wings are consumed by the Blight, but the top external side is still resisting. So, the dragon resists the Blight, protecting or isolating the city even though the dragon’s horns changed, and it is “a different/corrupted” dragon. To me this double image represents what the mural “The Creation of the Veil” implies: the Black city, for an unknown reason, has 7 gates that could not be closed and were protected by creatures that could resist this corruption as long as possible: 7 dragons. This idea is a bit supported by the fact that Flemeth always tried to protect Urthemiel’s soul by teaching to Morrigan to protect “what was once” and telling her to have the baby. Urthemiel cannot be an Evanuris that killed Mythal [remember that Mythal wants revenge for that betrayal]. And Urthemiel is a dragon, as we saw him in his Archdemon form, and Mythal/Flemeth is also a dragon, so maybe she is part of the group of these dragons that were powerful “ancient gods”, potentially worshipped by the Elvhenan in the beginning until they got their own divinity. From that moment on, these dragons became the Forgotten Ones, chased by Andruil to the Abyss, and later, worshipped by the Tevinter as “Old Gods” that reside underground. I explained a bit this idea in the post Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History. 

5) This dragon maybe is not Mythal, but another archdemon, or maybe the mysterious 8th Old God. I never know what to do with that bit of information: the codices of the astrarium imply the presence of an 8th old god dragon that makes no sense to introduce in the lore so late [Constellation: Draconis]. Is this dragon related to this illustration? I don’t know.

As a detail, the wing veins in the non-corrupted version are red, and I am not sure we should understand them as veins of red lyrium. Because, first, it makes no sense to have red lyrium inside a dragon's body in a version which is not the corrupted one, and second, if it were the case, it would imply that Dragons, [these ancient dragons] used to have lyrium instead of blood, which would relate dragons to Titans as the same creatures. And despite the fact that the lore seems to show some similarities between these creatures when it comes to their powers of manipulating Reality or being underground, sleeping, it seems extremely odd. It’s too big of a concept inside the lore of Dragon Age to take it lightly, because it would imply that dwarves are “dragon children”, and things will get more confused when thinking in the “crafted race” of the Qunari.

The two versions of the dragon indeed look like different ones. I’ve been speculating long ago that, so far we can gather from comics and codices, the Elvhenan, in particular the Evanuris, were looking for means to obtain Divinity. The Dragons seem to be extremely old, and ruled the skies when “everything sang the same song” [Yavana’s words]. We can also suspect that the Great Dragons had somniari powers, meaning that they could change reality through the alteration of the Fade [The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak, Until We Sleep] and mortals could attain some degree of this power via their blood. On the other hand, we find in the last comic [The Missing] a mural of potential Evanuris wearing dragon-like outfits. This fits with the old codices of the Elvhenan we found in game, where “divinity was related to the shape of something with wings” that we can assume it’s a dragon. We have several hints pointing to us that maybe, the Evanuris, when they were generals and mages, worshipped “ancient gods” that were Great Dragons, until they found a way to manipulate their own shape to become dragons themselves. Maybe here the Titans appeared as the means for this transformation [in The Horror of Hormak we see that this process of fusing shapes include crystals that seems to be made out of lyrium, maybe these are the Titan’s heart?]

We know that Evanuris did something terrible with Titan’s power that forced Solas to hide all that monstrosity, collapsing the Deep Roads in order to avoid anyone attempting to reach that power again. The codex associated with this event may transpire hints that can be related to a terrible thing being unleashed that may have killed Mythal [or maybe corrupted her? Details in “The Death of a Titan”]. That could be the Blight, or the red lyrium, or something worse that originated these two diseases.

We also suspect that the Forgotten Ones and the Evanuris had been at war for a long time before the Titan War, so how did the Forgotten Ones fit in the reconstruction of this past? It’s hard to say with precision, but some bland and weak hints may imply that the Dragons that have been leading Blights are, in fact, the Forgotten Ones [the only weak proof we have about this connection is through Hakkon/Geldauran in Elvhen Tomb]. This means that the Forgotten Ones may have been dragons [or more likely Great Dragons] and not elvhenan, and, when the Evanuris released the evilness that they created [probably The Blight], it was the Forgotten Ones [naturally resistant to the Blight, read Josephine’s result in Learn More about Dragons] who became the protectors and the means to isolate that disease from the rest of the world until finding a solution.

The Eclipse

Eclipses are associated with Fen’Harel and the events to come, according the codex The Emergent Compendium: an ancient magical tome that produces images and text on its own [DA2]. One of the pictures it manifested was described as "Two shadowed spheres among stars", and it was accompanied by a subtitle that could be deciphered into the phrase "An eclipse as Fen'Harel stirred." [I talked a while ago about how "stir” seems to be used mostly to describe the movement of Titans in DA lore, so the word choice is quite peculiar here, details in “The Destruction of the Veil“].

Eclipses are also related to the dynamics of sun-moon hidding each other or projecting shadows over the other, which may relate Mythal [unreliably related to the moon, according the Dalish Tales/codex Mythal: the Great Protector] and Elgar’nan, who has several unreliable Dalish tales in which he “hides” or “shoves” the sun down into the earth. The concept that the Sun is hidden somehow is repeated in small details along the lore of these gods, even though all of these tales are extremelly unreliable in my opinion. It’s hard to appraise the grain of truth they must have.

If the Sun is related to Elgar’nan, and if the moon may be, somehow, related to Mythal, then, a [solar] eclipse is the moon [Mythal] overtaking the figure of Sun [Elgar’nan?]. The fact that Elgar’nan is associated with vengeance, while Mythal to justice but also revenge, seems to weakly push us in this direction when we remember that Mythal took the place of Elgar’nan as judge of the People. 

Let’s open a parenthesis here and refresh details before we continue further:

Mythal has always been a goddess of the Revenge as well, according to Solas in the scene of Altar of Mythal, which places Elgar’nan in a curious and questionable role. Elgar’nan was always related to fury, vengeance, and brutality. And we also know through the codex of The Judgment of Mythal, that she took the place of Elgar’nan as a judge of The People to avoid his fury which destroyed everything it touched. Considering this, it seems that Mythal has been shifting into a more “Elgar’nan”-like shape.

I can’t say Elgar'nan and Mythal are both the same entity, since the old codices of the Elvhenan present in the Temple of Mythal show two different Evanuris. However, the many aspects where Elgar’nan and Mythal overlap, the lack of much more iconography for Elgar’nan as the big “father” of the Elvhenan pantheon [which makes us suspect he was a really powerful Evanuris, probably compared to Mythal], and the repetitive concept of split personalities that some Evanuris seemed to have, make me play with the idea that Mythal and Elgar’nan are the same. After all, Mythral has different representations on statues: as a dragon, as a humanoid, and as an elf in mosaics [check Evanuris]. This is not a peculiarity of hers alone; Fen’harel also has 2 shapes: the elf and the wolf. And we also have the very vague case of Dirthamen and Falon’Din who seem to have different shapes but sometimes one takes over the other and it’s very unclear what’s the true nature of their situation: a lot of this has been speculated in Humanoid Dirthamen and in The Lost Temple of Dirthamen - Part 1-Part 2. Besides, Solas always warned us that the nature of Mythal was more complex than we can truly understand [read Temple of Mythal, Part 1, Part 2, and Solas sharing Lore: Part 1 - Part 2].

I’m not saying Elgar’nan and Mythal are the same [I don’t truly believe it yet], but sometimes I play with the idea, considering how little ancient art we have about Elgar’nan and how much of it is related to Mythal. If we think in Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin, the place is called “Elgar’nan’s Bastion”, and even though the place has been altered by ancient Dalish, and there are plenty of statues that seem odd to be there [like the many Andrastes spread in the main hall], we still find many of Mythal’s presence in a central display. Now, this may be consequence of the ancient Dalish or may have been there long time ago before them; that we don’t know. We also have the mysterious Strange Idol [analysis] deep down in the tomb of this Bastion, surrounded by Mythal’s dragon shaped statues. It’s also true that these dragon-statues seem to be defensive devices as the scene with Corypheus entering the Temple showed us.

Another detail that always got my attention was that the mosaic of Elgar’nan, which I spoke about in Evanuris, shows a non-elven limb. His arm has the shape of a wolf’s or a “dragon’s” arm, with big claws, shoving down the Sun. We also know, thanks to Flemeth’s words, that bodies are “limiting things”, so Mythal maybe has been adopting different forms along her life or depending on the role she had to perform. This idea is very weak, supported barely by details that, I personally, don’t consider super strong, but still yet I think it’s worth commenting that maybe there is something going on about these Evanuris. Maybe we have, at the end of the day, less Evanuris [maybe four plus Fen’Harel?] than the ones we thought [eight plus Fen’Harel] simply because many of them were split in the Tales due to their different roles along their lives?: Falon’Din and Dirthamen as one, Ghilan’nain and Andruil as one, Elgar’nan and Mythal as one, and by discarding enumeration, June and Sylaise as one. Geldauran speaks only about Andruil and June [check Elvhen Tomb]. Solas speaks dismissingly about Falon’Din and Andruil [Temple of Mythal, Part 2]. How is it possible that Elgar’nan, as the “father” of the pantheon, and therefore probably one of the most important/powerful Evanuris originally, ended up being such a forgetteable figure in the art and places we found? It’s another mystery to me.

Anyways, this whole paragraph is an idea that has been flying around my head for a long while, and to be honest, I’m not super convinced about it. It seems very weak and baseless, even though there are some details that keep making it annoying to discard completely, specially if we take into account how fluid shape was among the elvhenan.

So, with all these details in mind, the eclipse as a concept of moon taking over the Sun could represent mythal changing or taking over Elgar’nan’s figure? Or it’s Mythal all along, but Elgar’nan is the corrupted or angry version of her, while Mythal is the gentle mother and what was left of her? Mythal, after all, changed; and could not help The People anymore. Something happened that was never meant to happen [Flemeth’s words]. However, I doubt this because the split is previous to her assasination.

Closing the Parenthesis and returning to the Eclipses: It is also true that eclipses are associated with darkness because they tend to block [the solar eclipses] the light of the sun. So the constant reiterative comment of the darkness in the Chant of Light or in Elvhenan codices may have a double interpretation: as the darkness=Blight but also as an allegory to the darkness that comes with an eclipse. To this point in the lore, and considering the last videos/trailers we were given, it’s clear for us that Eclipses are omens of something big that will happen.

If we allow the interpretation of an Eclipse to be a bit more laxed, we can also see it as an overlap of different spheres, and there is a common yet vague symbolism in these games and recent trailers about  “spheres” that may be related to eclipses too. Let’s numerate them just to have all of them in one place:

Mythal: the Great Protector: Unreliable Dalish tale, where we read that Mythal created a “pale sphere in the sky” which is one of the two moons of Thedas. This seems irrelevant but for completion’s sake I add it to this list.

The Emergent Compendium: I’ve refered to this codex in the begining of this section. It’s an ancient magical tome that produces images and text on its own, presented to us in DA2. One of the pictures it manifested was described as "Two shadowed spheres among stars", and it was accompanied by a subtitle that could be deciphered into the phrase "An eclipse as Fen'Harel stirred." It seems to relate Fen’Harel with an eclipse or the overlapping of spheres.

Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads, requeires Veilfire to read:  There is smell of blood followed by the image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire. A sphere of fire can be interpreted as a Sun too. The “original fire/sun” was sealed in a sphere, protected with vines. I spoke a lot about this “sphere of fire” in Murals in DAI: Red Lyrium Idol and The Death of a Titan. A lot of more speculation in Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara, and how the “sphere of fire” also leaked into the Andrastian faith in Andrastian Design: Stained Glasses. This particular sphere of fire seems to be important now, specially with the visual design of red lyrium and trailers of creatures or trees burning from the inside that Bioware shared with us lately. This sphere seems to be a container of something furious and destructive.

Raising the Sonallium tells us that there were thousand of elves maintaining a spell to pull raw essence from the Fade into a sphere in order to create pocket worlds, “planes in-between”, like the Crossroad. The sphere in this codex has a temple, in rust-red jungles with waterfalls. Spheres here are presented as we saw them in the mosaics of Fen’Harel, in Ancient Elven codices; Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins.  This sphere seems to be a container of a world or another plane of existence.

Old Elven Writing gives us the image of two overlapping spheres; “unknown flowers bloom inside their centres”.  We know that these spheres can be representations of pocket worlds, according to the previous codex in this list. Overlaping spheres can be also interpreted as an Eclipse. Flowers blooming inside is a bit odd. We didn’t see lore related to this image. If we see the banner of the Elvhenan [the brown banner I showed in Somewhere[DLC Trespasser]: Elven Ruins], they have a pattern of flowers, but this seems to help little. However, flowers may be related to the reiterative symbol of the vines. In a laxed way, this image brings to me a distant relationship with Vir Dirthara: A Flowering Imago, which is a codex that always got my attention due to its oddity and rebel nature to find a proper interpretation within the context of DA lore. I talked about it extensively in Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara.

Murals: In Solas’ murals, we see the representation of the Fade and the several barriers crafted to isolate the Black City as [sometimes red] spheres too [details in Murals in DAI: Basics and in “The actions of the Inquisitor”]. The Red sphere is always the one related to or encapsuling the Black City. In the mural  “Red Lyrium Idol” we see Solas figure walking inside or on the sphere that may be on fire. In this last mural, it feels like he will face and deal with the danger that was contained in the “fire sphere” long ago. 

As a final note related to Eclipses, I think it’s worth noting that the DA lore also has some details about the stars and the historical meaning of astronomy in few codices. Eclipses are events related to celestial bodies, so stars and skies must also have some significance in this lore. Trying to find this link, I found two codices that give us a bit of more context related to the inminent Eclipse that will happen and that will bring a deep, chaotic change. 

Notes on the Stars: is a codex found in Fallow Mire. It seems to imply that the sky has been shifting and changing slowly [”Looks like different sky“]  Although its interpretation may be left open, considering the fact that the sky is different in different hemispheres. However, I’m not sure Thedas is spread along different hemispheres but extended all just in one: the south hemisphere [Even though we don’t know the planet where Thedas exists, I suspect it is located on the South Hemisphere of the said planet: warmer and tropical to the north, and colder and icy to the south; which is how climate works, in broad lines, in the south hemisphere of a planet with a day-night cycle like Thedas]. So, in theory, that the sky is changing is not a comment to take as irrelevant, but as a piece of enviromental information which is telling us that the sky is changing and therefore, something big is going to happen at a global scale.

Astrariums: This codex gives us the unvaluable information that cults previous to the Andrastian conversion of Tevinter were deeply against the Magisterium system and wanted to be ruled by Dreamers. We also learn that the Sidereal Magister were related to astronomy thanks to this codex, since all of them were Dreamers too. Also, the word Sidereal makes sense now; “of or relating to the stars or constellations”. Maybe this is associated with the idea that “the dragons ruled the sky” [The Silent Grove], so Tevinter tried to approach their dragon divinities by studying the constellations.

These two codices give us a bit more of information about the importance of the sky within DA lore, and how the incoming Eclipse may be changing things already. 

The Tiny Figure

The figure with the staff is a mystery to me. I can link its staff’s shape with several things: 

from The Architect [items sold by the Nexus Golem in DA2] and a broad faction of mindless Darkspawn [darkspawn decorations in DAO], to a Great Dragon/Forgotten One used during the creation of the Veil [details in the mural “The Destruction of the Veil“ and in “The Creation of the Veil”]. This symbol is also present in one of the Fen’Harel’s mosaics, in Ancient Elven codices; Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins, from which drops of lyrium fall and a lot of speculation has been done around it. These small details keep telling me of the potentiality of relating the Titans to the ancient Great Dragons that slumber underground. We know that both creatures have the power to change reality through different means, although both have totally different kind of blood [dragon blood vs lyrium]. However, we also know that Evanuris exploited Titans, and Mythal [a dragon] may have learnt “something else” from them.

First speculation: The figure is Solas, and the symbol is Fen’Harel’s

The tiny humanoid figure is in front of the city in the non-corrupted version, while it is not there anymore in the corrupted one. Curiously, the symbol of their staff is the symbol we don’t see among the faces fused with the dragon’s wings, so I suspect it means it was the “Evanuris” that "made it", an Evanuris that escaped Fen’Harel’s banishment. Hence my suspicion that the figure could be Solas himself and that symbol Fen’Harel’s or Mythal’s. However, I think it’s impossible for this symbol to represent Fen’Harel: Solas is not a Dragon, he never was one, and his rejection to Divinity is present in most codices we explored. He did not take the divine shape of a “winged thing” [his shape, actually, has always been of a wolf, recently made “draconic-like” due to the absortion of Mythal/Flemeth’s powers], and he also was always Solas in the way he is now [Solas’ own words], so he was always a creature related to a wolf of six eyes that, probably, took the shape of an elvhen due to Mythal’s request [read details in “Solas’ Nature” in Solas sharing Lore: Part 1 ].

The most logical concept to explain that figure should be Solas, appreciating the city and the magnificent dragon [Mythal] he has praised in game a couple of times, before isolating it when the Evanuris went too far and corrupted it. But it’s a speculation without any proof, to be honest. And the fact that all these symbols in the helms of the elvhen fused with the dragon’s wings were dragons [read “The Creation of the Veil”], makes this hypothesis less likely. Solas was never related to a dragon shape, so these C horns could not represent Fen’Harel [we have suspected that all these symbols are related to Archdemons/Great Dragons thanks to the unmistakable symbol of Urthemiel, check “The Creation of the Veil”]. We also have to remember that this C-symbol is also used by Darkspawns, and Solas is even less related to them. With this idea, the mosaic of the creature bleeding lyrium is also nonsense: Solas has not lyrium blood, although his wolf shape has been painted once with eyes that may represent lyrium [I explained this detail in “The Destruction of the Veil“].

Second speculation: The figure is Solas, and the symbol is Mythal’s

The other speculation I can make is that this C symbol represents Mythal herself. Part of this symbol appears in the horns of the corrupted dragon. We know that Evanuris killed Mythal [but we suspect they did something worse to her since “Evanuris do not die easily”], and that may be represented in the mosaic of Fen’Harel with that figure bleeding lyrium [this, again, puts us in the uncomfortable position of making a comparison of a titan with a dragon; however, we know Mythal got something powerful from the Titan she killed in “The Death of a Titan”, and maybe this power is represented with the lyrium drops in such mosaic]. We know that Solas respects her enough to, probably, carry a staff with her symbol, and allow a representation of her assasination in the series of mosaics in his pocket world [Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins] to keep memory of what the Evanuris did to her. 

How does this interpretation explain the symbol carried by the Darkspawn? It’s true that the darkspawn keep hearing a song in their heads that, thanks to Avernus [ Soldier’s Peak], we know it comes from the Black City, even though it feels like it’s from the Archdemons. If we still try to stick to this interpretation, we are getting close to assume that Mythal, in her dragon shape, is still in the Black City, corrupted, maybe even fused with the rest of the Evanuris. So these symbols carried by the Darkspawn have always been representation of Mythal, who keeps singing a song with the other Evanuris from the Black City through the Archdemons to the Darkspawn. This idea seem to resound a bit when we remember Flemeth’s words: she is a fragment adrift in the storm, and she keeps doing whatever she is doing [we dance] “as long as the music plays”.

We also have the curious and forgeteable long quest of The Blackmarsh and the High Dragon in DAO which, despite being cryptic, can have an interpretation that makes us aware that in Thedas, there are means to have doble shape, and one of them, as a dragon. Of course, this is a mere obscure hint that shows a potentiality. It’s far away from being a clear canon concept still.

But returning to the interpretation of seeing this dragon as Mythal, there is more than one flaw in this interpretation: We have enough art of Flemeth to suspect her symbol is not this C-Symbol [read details in “The Destruction of the Veil“]. However, I noticed again that the corrupted dragon seems to have a similar shape of “horns” than the ones we saw in Flemeth’s art in the cutscenes of DA2, but still missing the iconic central spike. So, as we can see, the interpretation of this C-symbol, and the tiny figure is very, very obscure. None of the interpretations seem to fit every detail.

What we can link with some degree of certantity is that, now, this C-symbol makes sense to be present among the Darkspawn, since it seems to imply that this is the corrupted dragon/creature that has been "singing” throuhg the Blight and archdemons into the head of all blighted creatures. This corrupted dragon, whoever it is, resides in the Black City, maybe even fused with the Evanuris, probably victim of a process similar to what we saw in The Horror of Hormak [read the process explained by Jovis]. After all, Avernus [Soldier’s Peak] always told us that the Archdemons were not the true source of the song, but something inside the Black City itself. 

Art pieces in the vinyl book

These vinyls come within a “book” where each of them is placed in a double-sheet/envelop page. Each of these pages shows a very stylised image. We proceed to analyse each of them.

Update on Dec 2023: Here, someone compiled all the images, and can be seen a lot better.

First Image: The Gray Warden Image

This seems to represent a griffon. It’s an uncommon Grey Warden’s symbol, since I didn’t see it anywhere before. However, the presence of the chalice with a symbol of a drop of “black” blood makes it unmistakable. 

The sword that pierces the griffon’s neck also has a drop of blood, but it seems to be a white drop. Maybe this is related to the concept we learnt in the book Last Flight: as a last resource during the Fourth Blight, the Grey Warden started to force their griffons to a process similar to the Joining, but they didn’t handle the corruption well. Madness spread among the Griffons and most of them had to be sacrificed. This was the reason why the griffons went extinct.

The dagger that the griffon carries in its talons seems to pierce or be surrounded by something long and white that looks like tendrils or a snake with small branches, or a vine [which usually represents The Blight]. It’s not clear. 

On the background, there is a symbol that looks similar to the ones we saw for glyphs or for mage organizations such as the Circle. So far, I could not find the one matching this.

I think it’s clear that this vinyl will contain the music related to the game DAO due to its strong relationship with the Gray Warden symbols.

Second Image: The Hawk and Kirkwall logo

Twitter user Kiranox (@/veranox) was able to do some photo manipulation and have a better image of the second and third one despite the perspective.

As @felassan​ has pointed out, this symbol displays two unmistakable old ones:

The Hawke falling onto its prey, and the Symbol of Kirkwall on the background. 

 It’s curious that, in this vinyl illustration, both images are overlaped, as if they were trying to tell us that this geometrical symbol is a Hawk, when we know that, historically speaking, it was a rising dragon, from the time Kirkwall was called Emerius [more details in the post Kirkwall history and design].

When we have this image in high quality we will see it better, but the white figure also looks to me like a hawk falling free, and I can’t stop thinking in relating this to Flemeth’s words: "A word of advice, we stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment… and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap.” Her cryptic words were always interpreted by me that the world needs Hawke to stay in the Fade. Soon, Fade and Waking World will join again, and maybe what Hawke did in the Fade until their death will be extremelly useful and key in the world that we are going to face in DA4. 

This symbol also has what looks like a rope in a messy way, maybe even falling free too, with a knot in one side. The only symbol similar to this that I can relate to is Sylaise’s vallaslin, which looks like snakes or ropes in messy ways, but I don’t think there is any link between these. Is this image telling us that this is Hawke leaping into the abyss with a cut rope, and therefore, no way to return?

What I think it’s clear is that the vinyl placed in here will be related to DA2′s music due to its strong relationship with the hawk and Kirkwall symbology.

Third Image: The diagram and the hexagonal shape

If we continue this logic, this image should be a symbol representative of DAI.

What I see repeated several times here is a pattern of 6 circles, 3 of different colour and alternated. Inside of the central circle we have another set of three filled circles. This repetition of 3-circles is not something I can say I’ve seen in DAI. In fact, I’m nor really sure to what associate it with.  If these were a Quincunx, we would have a lot of speculation to make since it’s a symbol present in Thedas since DAO.

These six circles are inside an hexagonal shape, which is deeply related to Tevinter, as I described in details in Patterns and Styles: Tevinter. It has a potential to be related to focis, that potentiated the power of the dreamers or priests to communicate with their dragon gods. 

This design also looks similar to the diagrams that faintly appear in the background or on the body of some creatures that I talked about in Nation Art: Elvhen. However, none of them fits perfectly.

It is likely that this vinyl will countain all the music related to DAI due to the symboly of magical diagram and the presence of the Tevinter hexagonal shape. 

Fourth Image: The diagram and the spheres

This is probably a mixture of all previous games with some pieces related to the incoming game of DA4.

This figure, in general, shows a Quincunx, where the central part are the three overlaped circles with a sun or a star inside.

I don’t think it can be related too much to Solas’ tarot Card [which is related to Orlesian decoration of the Winter Palace, as we can see a rug with the same kind of Quincunx symbology on it in the book of Art of Inquisition [below]. 

Again, as I said in Patterns and Styles: Orlais, a lot of Orlesian design and art seems to be strongly influenced by the elvhenan, so maybe this symbol has a particular meaning to the Elvhenan, but so far, I can’t think much of it beyond the fact that it is a Quincunx.

If Anything, that tarot card is showing the Quincunx symbol in itself, with Solas being the central, and therefore, the important thing. Just because these symbols have a clear Quincunx in them, one could relate the three spheres and the star in the vinyl illustration to Solas. These three spheres look like overlaping one that has a “sun”, so the meaning of an eclipse seems to be implied. And we know that Solas, in his Fen’Harel representation, is related to an ominous Eclipse, according the The Emergent Compendium I spoke about in the section “The Eclipse”.

Let’s talk about these three spheres and the star present in the vinyl: The star has the same shape to the central star we see in Solas’ mural when he draws the Temple of Mythal in “The actions of the Inquisitor”. This strengthens the hypothesis that the dragon we see in these illustations may be related to Mythal in her dragon shape.

I’m not sure if this symbology of three spheres overlapping has something to do with the mysterious symbol found at Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin. In it, we see three golden ring of the same size, aligned. The central one is surrounded by a bigger ring, which seems to be similar to the image we see in this black-and-golden illustration: Three spheres [blue and orange ones] with a bigger ring [yellow line]. In fact, it looks like a progression: The first stage is the one shown in Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin, where the two orange sphere approach and try to overlap the blue one, which is inside a bigger ring. The second stage is the orange circles overlaping half of the blue one [this is seen in the trailer too], and the last one is this vinyl illustration, where we see that the three spheres are inside the bigger ring and we see the middle of the blue sphere: a sun or a star, or maybe a “sphere of fire”. I talked a lot about the concept of the “sphere of fire” in Murals in DAI: Red Lyrium Idol and The Death of a Titan. A lot of more speculation in Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara, and how the “sphere of fire” also leaked into the Andrastian faith in Andrastian Design: Stained Glasses. 

This Star [made of eight points] is the same one that we see in the mural of Temple of Mythal, but it’s also very similar to the yellow mosaic I talked about a lot in posts such as: “The Death of a Titan” and in the tag asterisk symbol. This links Mythal with this star, which can potentially be related to the heart of the titans and this mysterious power the Evanuris discovered aside Lyrium.

Why I don’t give to much thoughts to Solas’ tarot card? Because it’s a general  Quincunx which central important element is Soals himself. Similar Quincunx symbol appears in this vinyl illustration. In fact the circles that compound this Quincunx are very similar, but those in Solas’ tarot card’s present a series of small icons: a moon, a sun, undulating lines, and four dots.

We can assume that they may be related to magic, but so far we saw in DAO, DA2, and DAI, all these symbols come from the Circle, and therefore most of them keep recreating the Chantry icon, or are inspired in it: all of them are very close to the design of the sunburst. The Orlesian carpet has a small flower in it, which is a very typical icon present in all orlesian design.

But Solas’ tarot card has four clear symbols:

We can agree that Sun/Moon may have some relationship with Mythal/Elgar’nan, since there is information that relates them, but sadly the only source we have for that is the Unreliable Dalish Tales, so it’s hard to be sure. These both symbols are also related to the Eclipse symbology that, at this point, we can’t deny as related to Fen’Harel. 

The undulating lines have been associated with “shape and control” according to the info I gathered in “Murals in DAI: Basics” in the section “Undulating lines associated with Vallaslin or/and bound-slavery”. 

Lyrium

Lyrium has had a song since DAO. The mining cast of the dwarves say they can hear it and that's the reason why they can find lyrium veins easily [Lyrium (Origins), Lyrium]. Lyrium in crystals also keep memories at the hands of the Shaperate, and produces indestructible metal when combined with iron. [Orlais: Shrine of Dumat]. Lyrium is also used to write the memories of the Shaperate, sever a mage’s mind from the Fade [make them tranquil], and it was a key element in the construction of Caridin’s golems [ which uses molten lyrium,  Caridin's Journal].

Justice when nearing large lyrium container in Kal'Hirol Trade Quarter:  "This...this substance...sings to me. Do you hear it? I did not know something so beautiful could exist."

Justice [after giving him the lyrium ring]: What is that sound? Such beautiful singing. The stone within this ring… is it lyrium? [...] When mortals dream of lyrium in the fade, it is not like this. The song saddens me, but it is breathtaking. Of all the things I have seen in this world, this is the most precious. I will keep it at my side as a reminder that even in misfortune, good can be found.

Lyrium also sings to the spirits in the Waking World: When we give Justice a lyrium ring, he says that it has a beautiful song that summons an ache in him [probably this is the Sadness of the Titan]. He also states that lyrium doesn't sing in the Fade and regrets his inability to bring the music there for the other spirits to hear.

Wynne rummaged through her pack, pulling out a large bottle filled with a glowing blue liquid. Pure, unrefined lyrium. Even from here, Rhys could hear its faint song, a melody that played in his head and danced upon his skin.

In the book Asunder, a Mage sensitive to speak with spirits, Rhys, can hear its song.

This staff gives a faintly audible hum when touched: A wistful tune, as if it were thinking of a faraway or forgotten place.

We can notice this song with the staff Isana's Song.

As the Titan's blood runs through Valta's veins, she claims there is loneliness to its song. [Ending of dlc, The Wellspring]. Lyrium carries a song that explains that the dwarves were broken into two [ Titans ]. 

However, there are some codices such as Kolg's Journal, that show that an excess of Lyrium produces a maddening song, that it's not clear to which point it's truly the Titan's song or merely lyrium poisoning. Due to the artificial way of connecting to the Titan through consumption and fusion of their bodies with Lyrium, the Sha-Brytol may be in a similar state of mind.

Conclusion on Lyrium: The Lyrium certainly carries the song of the Titans’ Fall and how their children were split into two different kinds of dwarves. Sensitive mages, dwarves, and spirits can hear this song in the lyrium  but not to understanding it. Only a deeper connection like Valta’s would allow it eventually. The song summons ache and loneliness.

Templars

"You take it like medicine at first, the lyrium. Your whole body sings with it, like the Maker's own fire. You're not scared of anything, not even abominations. After, it even takes away the nightmares. But the ration's too small. If they don't give you enough, your hands get cold. The sky starts to press down on you. Little things slip away. So you have to stay." [Confessions of a Lyrium Addict]

Cole, If Cullen is told to take Lyrium again: "He sounds right again with the chains in place, but the music makes him sad."

Inquisitor: Can you tell me more about how the templars feel to you?

Cole: They feel older than they look. They’ve been changed, and their bodies are incomplete now. The lyrium helps, but their bodies always want to connect to… something older. Bigger than they are. That’s why they block magic. They reach for that other thing, and magic has no room to come in. Like when I listen to Varric.

This makes us suspect that lyrium causes a kind of slavery [addiction if you drink it, or forced shape in Ancient Elven codices; Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins ], which can be connected with the concept of "lyrium vallaslin" we talked in other posts.

Templar's body and modern dwarf’s body want to connect to the Titan through the small bits of Lyrium in their blood. This is what causes the block of magic: the Fade cannot enter in their bodies because the need to connect with the Titan is bigger. Magic has no room.

This lets us infer that the Sha-Brytol tried to force an artificial re-connection with the Titan by drinking lyrium and fusing their bodies with it. We can assume that this insanity may have been caused by the despair they felt when the connection was broken.

Conclusion on Templar: Templars of course can hear the song of the Lyrium after drinking it, giving them an overwhelming sense of power. Lyrium usage, through consumption or otherwise, always causes a kind of slavery. It prevents magic, since the constant need to connect to the Titan thorough the small bits of Lyrium in their blood system blocks any attempts of the Fade to “enter” their bodies.

Dwarves

Solas: Do you ever miss life beneath the earth? The call of the Stone? Varric: Nah. Whatever the Stone - capital S - is, it was gone by the time my parents had me. Solas: But... do you miss it? Varric: How could I miss what I never had? But say I did have that sense, that connection to the Stone. What would it cost me? Would I lose my friends up here? Would I stop telling stories? I like who I am. If I want to hear songs, I'll go to the tavern. Solas: You are wiser than most.

If the inquisitor is a dwarf, Cole will say: "You’re too bright. Like counting birds against the sun. The mark makes you more. But past it… The stone, still there, silent and reaching up for the blood that walks. No dreams with the cord cut. You sell it."

Cole: I like traveling with Dwarves. Varric: Glad to hear it, Kid. Cole: You're quiet, but the old song still echoes inside, almost like Templars.

Cole: Do you write to reach across? To hear the song that was sundered? Varric: I'm... not sure what that even means, Kid, but probably?

Cole reinforces the idea that Dwarves have an echo of the "old song", I imagine, it's about the song that Lyrium carries: the Titan’s fall and its pain.

When Cole speaks about dwarves calls them “blood that walks” [Titan’s blood].

Dwarves have no magic ability because they are constantly reaching to the Titan, preventing the magic/Fade to enter in their bodies.

Apparently, it is implied that if a dwarf can access to the connection to the Titan, they can dream [since the cord would have been restored]. So, was the Titan always connected to the dreams, and therefore the to the Fade so the original dwarves could dream? However, Valta stops sleeping when she connects to the Titan, but she has access to any space and time, so she seems to be living the Reality with the flexibility of the Fade. In a sense, does she live Reality as if it were a dream? The implications of this bit of information are wild.

This confirms a bit the interpretation of the Mural “The Death of a Titan”, where we find a green Fade-like colour around the heart of the Titan: Titans may have been connected to the Fade originally? Or they controlled the Fade as much as Reality as Massive Shapers?. This makes the connection with the old unreliable Dalish lullaby about Mythal [Torn Notebook in the Deep Roads, Section 3] more impossible to understand.

Conclusion about Dwarves: Dwarves apparently could dream when they were connected to the Titan. It’s not clear what this exactly means since Valta stops sleeping when she connected to the Titan in the same way the ancient dwarves did. However, she bends reality as if it were made of Fade. Once the connection was severed, the dwarves became “silent or quiets”, with faint echoes of the Titan’s song in their blood. The constant desire to reach this connection or to reach the Titan, prevents the Magic from entering inside their bodies, hence they are unable to perform magic.

Titans

Cole: I like travelling with Dwarves. Varric: Glad to hear it, Kid. Cole: You're quiet, but the old song still echoes inside, almost like Templars.

Cole: Your stories aren't real. But then people read them and they are! Varric: Get the readers invested and you'll have them forever. Cole: So many people reading, dreaming, feeling. Spirits spill around the veil making shapes. Reality from writing! Varric: I've got fans in the Fade? Well, that's something. Shame I'll never meet them. Cole: Do you write to reach across? To hear the song that was sundered? Varric: I'm... not sure what that even means, Kid, but probably?

There is a book from the time of the Paragon Orseck Garal, which describes the stone as singing: “I awoke to the singing stone. Our kingdom trembled at the Titan’s hymn”.

Cole, when he reaches the Bastion of the Pure (descent): "It's singing. A they that's an it that's asleep, but still making music."

After the first fight with the Sha-Brytol in the Bastion of the Pure (descent):

Cole: It sings softly under the silence. The Stone took him back. He's home again. Valta: Somehow that brings me comfort.

When entering the Overlook (Trespasser) "Songs screaming far away. It wants to wake up but can't remember how. No one should be here."

When walking along  Excavated Caves, he refers to Qunari: Cole: The stone sings. The song scares them. It's the wrong song, the wrong blood. They don't know how we stand it. Dorian: If we can convince them to stop murdering us for just a few years, I'm open to a cultural exchange.

“Its blood now flows through me, and its song fills the gaps in our history. I close my eyes and see glimpses of the world that was, before everything changed and the dwarven race broke in two. Something caused the Titans to fall, and the fate of my people fell with them. The Titan wants me to know. No, more than that. It wants me to understand. There is a loneliness to its song.” [Valta in Titans]

Cole describes the Titans as an "it" in singular, and they sing "the old song".

The song of the Titans is about loneliness and the Fall of the Titans that also caused the fall and fracture of the dwarven race. This most likely refers to the war against the elves: The Fall of the Titans, the sundered of the dwarves, and a forced sleep through ages as the Elvhenan mined their bodies and did "something else". This story is partially told from an Elvhenan point of view in the mural “The Death of a Titan”.

Cole seems to imply there is one last titan: "A they that's an it". Valta also speaks at the end of the dlc about the loneliness of the Titan. It’s not clear if there is a last one of their kind or it’s a loneliness due to the disconnection from its children, the dwarves, or due to this eternal sleep that the titan is submitted.

Titans are sleeping but producing a lonely, aching music unconsciously. They forgot how to wake up. However, their song echoes in the blood of the disconnected dwarves.

Apparently, Dwarves keep trying to "fully" hear this song, and that's the origin of their "constant reaching" that blocks magic from them.

The Stone is always singing under the silence, and apparently this song scares the Qunari because "it's the wrong song, the wrong blood". It’s impossible for me to interpret this, even when we know the wrongness of the Qunari’s blood is because they are a created/experiment race.

When Valta connected with the Titan, she stopped sleeping at all, and has no sense of time, past, present, future, nor distance. She seems to be able to violate all the [The Cardinal Rules of Magic].

According to Cole, there are many other songs that seem to imply that keep the Titan unable to wake up. “Songs screaming far away. It wants to wake up but can’t remember how.” This is the reason why I personally suspect Uthenera is related to a song/spell chanting sustained forever [as the codex Raising the Sonallium seems to imply elvhes could do in the past].

Curiously, Corypheus and the Archdemons displayed a similar or the same ability that the Titans: they were “asleep, but still making music.” We know both of them unconsciously produce an song despite being sleeping that causes blighted creatures to reach to them in a compulsive way.

Since Valta’s blood now carries Lyrium too [but in a different way to the modern dwarves, or the Sha-Brytol, or the Templars], she can hear and translate the song that explains that part of the ancient dwarven History. Even though Valta is only hearing one voice: the Titan’s voice, it seems a similar situation to the Well of Sorrow; an entity with access to the mind of Chosen Ones who can understand  it.

The only odd piece of information I gathered about Titans that I can’t fit in all this list is this one:

Cole, as he walks through the  Forgotten Caverns (descent): "It’s wrong here. Too many whispers. The song is wrong. Chords cut to silence."

We are close to the Titan that will be connected to Valta, so these songs are not the ones Cole listen later in The Wellspring. Since this is the level where we meet the Sha-Brytol, I assume they are the whispers? But this is extremely strange because the lyrium sings one song [the titan’s, not many different songs or whispers], and the Sha-Brytol have fused their bodies with lyrium and drink it and feed on it.  Unless Cole is referring to the remnants of dwarves that he can heard below all that lyrium: these may have been the original sundered dwarves who, disconnected from their Titan, lost in despair, passed through this insane process of fusing their bodies with the lyrium to get closer to the titan in an artificial way. Valta, once connected, calls them “lost dwarves”, which would make a bit of sense for Cole to call them “chords cut to silence”. So Cole is hearing the dwarves below all that stuffed lyrium and not the lyrium itself? This confuses me a bit.

Conclusion on Titans: The Titans have an "old song", filled with loneliness about the Fall of the Titans and the sundered dwarves that were disconnected from them. The song may speak about the Elvhenan who forced them to sleep and forget how to wake up while their bodies were mined and "something else" was done to them. This song still echoes in the blood of the modern dwarves, but apparently not in the Sha-Brytol’s ["Chords cut to silence"]. This same song scares the Qunari because "it's the wrong song, the wrong blood".

This curious connection between the Titans and their dwarves feels similar to the connection that the servants of Mythal have through the Well of Sorrows to her. It’s also curious how similar Corypheus and the Archdemons can produce a song to make the blighted creatures become compulsive in reaching them. It seems a “bad, perverted” version of the same mechanics that affects the dwarves in relation to the Titans and prevents them from having magical abilities. 

Red Lyrium

"Red lyrium isn't the weak stuff they fed you all your life. The song is deeper. It's got a will of its own [...] Soon you won't need to stop to hear it. Practice, and the song will always be in your blood." [Red Templar Archers]

Cole in Emprise du Lion; near red lyrium: "It sings... sick music."

Cole in the Darvaarad, near red lyrium: "The song is different, but the pieces fit together".

Cassandra: Cole, you killed Lord Seeker Lambert so he wouldn't hurt people. Cole: Yes. Thank you for remembering. Sometimes people forget me. Cassandra: Is that why you went to Therinfal? Cole: Most sounded the same, but the leaders they listened to were hurt, hollowed, sick with a new song. They swallowed lies until they sang with darker music. The sound hollowed them. I wanted them to stop me if I harmed people, but I had to stop them instead. Oh, wait. You had a question.

Inquisitor: Can you tell me more about how the red templars are different? Cole: The red lyrium is different, darker. Daggers under the skin. It eats you inside until you're nothing. They hear a different song. The song behind the door old whispers want opened. They are dead and dark and done.

The red Lyrium has a sick, dark, deeper song to it.

I'm not sure what Cole means when he says that the song is different to the normal lyrium, but “fits together”.  Is this a way to say both lyrium are singing complemented songs?

The most meaningful comment of Cole about the red lyrium is "The song behind the door old whispers want opened". This comment connects the Red Lyrium directly with the concept of "Old Whispers", which makes us remember the codex Whispers Written in Red Lyrium. In this codex we read about entities that were in the Dreams before being sealed. This can be interpreted in several potential candidates: 1) If the Titans truly were able to sleep and walk in the Fade original, a possible interpretation is that the Red Lyrium’s whispers may be the consciousness of all the titans that can’t awake, 2) the Evanuris sealed by Solas through a bound process, or 3) the entities that Tevinter considered the Old Gods; but this piece of information is based on the unreliable Chant of Light. After all, it’s only in the Chant of Light that we are told that the “old whispers” are related to the archdemons/old gods.     

[Speculation] We know the Magisters Sidereal entered the Black City and saw it empty [Corypheus’ words in Legacy and his memories in Shrine of Dumat], but we also know, thanks to the last mural of Dread Wolf, that the Black City is infected with Red Lyrium. If we take into consideration the codex above, and we assume these whispers belong to the Evanuris, we can conclude that the Evanuris may have been bound or sealed to Lyrium. Since Solas seems incapable of using Red Lyrium on purpose, the contamination may have happened accidentally when he forced the bound process. We also know through Zathrian story that these strong bound process may produce curses or infections that can spread, so I suspect that Solas’ banishment may have caused an unexpected contamination that required extra layers in the Fade to contain. Another possibility, removing the old lore content of Zathrian is that simply bounding Andruil caused the contamination of the rest because she was already contaminated with Blight or Red Lyrium [Elven God Andruil]

Conclusion on Red Lyrium: The red Lyrium has a sick, dark, deeper song to it that "fits normal Lyrium's", even though it is a different song. Red Lyrium seems to be associated with "Old Whispers" that wanted to be released. They could be related to Titans [if they were truly able to dream originally], the Evanuris sealed by Solas, or the unknown entities that the Tevinter called "Old Gods".

Old Gods, Archdemons, and The Blight

“The Old Gods are dragons.” The Architect chucked with amusement. “Is that all they are, human? Is that such a small thing, then? Are there so many such creatures in the surface lands that they are not something of wonder?” [...] “I do not know what an Old God truly is,” the Architect admitted. [...] “I have never seen such a creature in my lifetime. Nor do I know if doing so would be a good thing. All I know is that the call of the Old Gods is a thing of perfection.” It turned to look at Bregan again, its expression indiscernible but its tone soft and sad. “We are things of darkness, human. You know this better than any other might. To us, the call is the only light we shall ever know.” [Book The Calling]

“The Grey Wardens have never been successful in wiping out our kind. Four times we have found one of the ancient dragons slumbering in their prisons beneath the earth, the beings you call the Old Gods.” The Architect looked off into the distance, its demeanor melancholy. “They call to us, a siren song we cannot resist. We seek them out, and when they rise up to the surface, we follow. We cannot resist. And when your kind drive us back down, the cycle begins anew.” [Architect in The Calling]

Isseya heard a faint, strange melody seep into her mind. She had no sense of it as actual sound; rather, it seemed to come from within, almost as if she were humming the tune to herself. She could never have imagined such a song, though. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever heard. Aching and ethereal, it seemed to pull her toward a memory of nostalgic bliss that she had somehow lost—but that she would do anything to recover. Anything at all. [Book Last Flight]

“The corruption that allows us to sense the darkspawn, and protects us from their taint, also causes us to experience some things as they do. The Archdemon’s call is among them. It’s the same song you’ll hear when the Calling comes upon you, and it will grow stronger as the corruption sinks deeper into your bones. Someday, if you wait too long, you won’t be able to resist. Your duty is to answer the Calling while you still have the choice.” “Does that happen faster because we hear the Archdemon’s song?” Isseya asked. Turab shrugged in a clanking of steel and silverite. “It might. It comes a little differently to each of us.”

Avernus [DLC: Soldier’s Peak and Avernus’ notes]: " I am starting to hear things, even while awake: A voice—more beautiful than any other—that calls to me from the depths. In my dreams, I see the Black City, and I am drawn towards it. There is something there, an answer to what this taint is, this taint that we share with the darkspawn..."

“What happens if the Old Gods perish? Does the song die with them?” [Awakening, The Architect's Notes]

Only comment of Cole when stepping in front of the Shrine of Dumat: "This is a sad place, filled with old pain. People spoke here, and something listened, until it didn't."

Those who consume Darkspawn's blood can hear the song of the Archdemons [Ghoul (Inquisition)]

Cole, in Western approach says two lines:  “The song never sang for them. They were lucky.” [Probably about warden who died in duty without experiencing the Calling, or he may be referring to the Call of Corypheus] and “The darkspawn are below us. A long way, but still singing.”

"It scratches at my thoughts, the music almost a voice, at once unearthly and beautiful. I found myself humming it aloud a few days past. Where once it intruded, it now feels a natural part of my mind's course. It coils around memories I hold dear [...] and inserts itself into them, so that I could almost swear that music, that sense of a presence watching and calling, had always been a part of what I remember. [...] I should not find it beautiful. I must remember the corruption and recognize that my mind is slowly losing the wit to differentiate between this world, and that which would consume and destroy it. [...]  But if I am to die, after all I have given, can I not at least allow myself the pleasure of the song's beauty?" [Regarding the Calling]

"I hear a song in my head. It's deafening. The most beautiful thing I've ever heard. But I don't hear it with my ears. It's in my brain. A blissful sound. This must be the call for which the darkspawn yearn, what causes them to dig so feverishly." [To Be Corrupted]

“I can't explain the sound—the song—but I knew. It's a poison that grows in the mind, then consumes the body.” [Warden Ailsa's Diary]

The song of the Blight sometimes is a set of sounds or a voice.

The Old Gods, or their corrupted version the Archdemons, sing a song of "perfection". The Blight and the blighted creatures are things of darkness, and this song is the only light they will ever know, creating a compulsion to reach it.

The song they hear is mixed with their dearest memories, building up the compulsion. The song is ethereal and aching too, an extreme beauty.

Avernus in particular feels a voice directed towards the Black City, which will answer his questions about the Taint.

The song intensifies during the Blights, so the Grey Wardens may end up suffering their Calling in a premature way.

It's not clear if the song will die with the extinction of the Old Gods.

The only true reference that Cole does to an Old God was in the Shrine of Dumat. I'm saying "true reference" because we can't be sure that these dragons trapped underground are the same Old Gods that the Tevinter heard in their dreams in the beginning of times. So far, Cole does not say they sing, and he describes the place as an "old pain". He uses "old pain" usually to describe elves, but I think here the context is different: the old pain is in the whole Shrine, probably when Dumat stopped talking to his priests, and the people worshipping him entered in despair.

There is only one case of a person who was free of her Calling, as well as the Taint: Fiona. Her conditions may have implied a pregnancy by a dragon-blooded man [Maric] that may have caused a resistance to the Taint; or her previous possession by a spirit/demon. This last situation may have given her extra resistances to the Blight since we know Seekers, who are touched by spirits after a year of being tranquils, are resistant to things such as Red Lyrium.

Corypheus can reproduce a song similar to the Old Gods’ even when he is unconscious, since he did it at first as he was sleeping. Grey Warden mages were the most sensitive ones to this calling.

Conclusions on Old Gods, Archdemons and the Blight: The Archdemons' song and the song in the Taint are the same: it's a beautiful set of sounds, a song, or a voice of immense beauty, that mixes itself with the dearest memories of the blighted creature, and creates compulsion. Clearer minds know this song comes from the Black City. It is suggested that killing the Old Gods would not end the song because the origin of it is not the Old Gods per se, but the inside of Black City.

Elves and Uthenera

The elven song Uthenera seems to be translated as a process where they sing, rejoice, but there is sorrow too [In Uthenera].

Elvhen weep as they enter Uthenera. It's a sad event, more than a relief to an eternal life [A Flowering Imago, and Untranslatable Elven Writing]

Flemeth returns to life in DA2 when Merril narrates a part of the Song Uthenera.

If Cole is a spirit, and walks along Excavated Caves, he will say: "The songs are old here. Sleeping sadness already forgotten. I can’t help this hurt." [He says songs, so I assume it's the Elvhes. The titan's song is usually one.]

Cole in the Deep Roads, where we find the chamber with the Uthenera elvhen in Trespasser: “They're all singing. Coffers, coffins, corpses that aren't dead. A song crying out in the dark.”

Cole: There are songs in every part of you, Sera. Soft silly sibilant, sighing in silence, waiting for you to hear them. Sera: Could someone please shut him up. Or I’m going to shaft him in his creepy, little eyes. Cole: You...you called me “him”. Thank you!

Cole: You are quiet, Solas. Solas: Unless I have something to say, yes. Cole: No, inside. I don't hear your hurt as much. Your song is softer, subtler, not silent but still. Solas: How small the pain of one man seems when weighed against the endless depths of memory, of feeling, of existence. That ocean carries everyone. And those of us who learn to see its currents move through life with their fewer ripples. Cole: There is pain though, still within you. Solas: And I never said that there was not.

Uthenera seems to be a very sad process more than a relief to eternal life. Always that an elvhen enters Uthenera, there is weeping and sadness. It gives the impression of being a process without return. 

Cole speaks of "old songs" when we head towards a Chamber of Uthenera.

When we see the Uthenera coffins, Cole reinforces the idea that they are singing. This brings to our minds the idea implied in Raising the Sonallium [“The well-dressed elves' shouting grows so loud, it can be heard over the magic.” It seems to imply the spell is related to some communal chanting].

Elven bodies naturally have songs associated with them. Cole detects Sera's songs who are ignored by her, and Solas', which is quieter and sad. 

Conclusion on Elves and Uthenera: Elves seem to have songs associated with their bodies. It’s not clear if the Uthenera allows the elves to maintain a song while eternally slumbering, or their natural, intrinsic song is what Uthenera uses to keep these songs. In any case, entering Uthenera is a sad, weeping process, implied that has no turning back, and it’s seen more as a final death than a relief.

[I will eventually make another post about Uthenera in a more global approach beyond its song-aspect]

Magic and Fade

The Fade or the Magic also have a song, that may be the one associated with the elves:

Dorian: Cole, do you hear magic? Cole: Yes. I do. Don't you? Dorian: Spells sometimes makes a sound but... I don't think we hear the same thing. Cole: Don't your spells whisper things to you? What is and could be, music in the mind of strange, far away places? Dorian: Not lately. Cole: Then we don't hear the same thing.

Cole: Do you feel spirits move around you when you cast a spell? Bits of them push through with your magic, tiny, a wisp of a wisp, free before falling back. They pool around you, water in a cup, defined, deafened, hearing only your song. They want to skate, scintillate on skin. You made them them. Their Maker. Vivienne: Now. I need. A bath.

Cole: Dorian is like you, Vivienne. Vivienne: I think not. Dorian: Vivienne, the poor thing is trying to pay you a compliment. How so, Cole? Cole: The Veil sings around both of you. It whispers through you and makes you both brighter. Vivienne: The same could be said of any mage. Beyond that, I have little in common with a noble from Tevinter. Cole: No. For most mages, it's a tool. A toil. You make it you.

Cole on Inquisitor who specialised on Rift Magic: “The Fade sticks to mages. Little figments, flitting, floating free, then forced into shapes. Fire, ice, lightning. You use the Fade itself. You make it charged but not changed, channelled enchantments. It’s strong and pure. And loud.  You ripple like water when the tone is dropped. Solas is the same, but quieter. The Fade is his friend. He doesn’t need to look to know where it goes. Vivienne is crisp and cool. The Fade dances, darts, lashes and leashed. Dorian pulls at pieces, pushing them to bodies. I like him more when it’s just fire. And the Venatori are dark and hard and cracked and old. They pull the Fade with blood and pain and ancient lying whispers. […] [Rift Magic] is familiar.  It reminds me of me.”

"The ancient dwarves who inhabited this place could not have known, as they are deaf to the song of the Fade " [ Note From the Silent Quarter, from Hissing Wastes]

Conclusion on Fade and Magic: Spells are cast tapping into the Fade, and apparently, this is from where the songs and the whispers come from. Sometimes it’s implied they come from the Veil too. It's also described that the Mages produce a song that attracts spirits and shapes them into magic, ironically turning the mage into their Maker [this is an interpretation very close to Zathrian and the Lady of the Forest]. The Fade used in order to cast blood magic seems to invoke ancient lying whispers. We have an unreliable source [the Chant of Light] which claims that the blood magic was taught by the old gods, while the Fel grimoire [a bit more reliable] claims it was the Forbidden Ones were those who taught it to humans, so this may imply that casting magic makes use of the songs of different spirits in the Fade. These ancient lying whispers could be connected to the Red Lyrium whispers and to Cole's line: "The song behind the door old whispers want opened".

Extra things with unclear songs

Cole, in the Shattered Library; Courtyard: "Your hand hurts. A heartbeat. Not yours. Hammering the beat of a song in its final verse. I'm sorry."

Here, Cole refers to the Anchor, and its song may be related to the same song that we covered in the Magic and Fade [after all, the Anchor is made of Fade energy]. Combined to this bit follows:

In Solasan Temple, Coles says once the inquisitor collected all shard: “It will open now. They can all sing together”

Where Cole seems to refer to the small pieces of energy we find in the sarcophagi of the Solasan Temple, which want to join the Anchor. These songs seem to be related to the Fade too. 

Cole, in Forbidden Oasis: “Digging and delving like dwarves. Do they hear the old song, too?”

Cole refers with this line to the miners in the Forbidden Oasis, thinking they are like dwarves, drawn to the “old song”=Titans.

Cole in Fallow Mire: So many old songs under the water.

I’m a bit confused with this one. In Fallow Mire we have people who died due to a plague. Many of them ended up as walking corpses inside the water. If Cole is referring to something underground, we have no idea about it, since it was never implied that Fallow Mire had any ruin or the like underground. So my guess is that the spirit of the people, trapped in the corpses, are the ones making the song. But this is weird too, since humans do not seem to have a song. At least Cole never suggested that. Only dwarves and Elves have it.

Cole as he approaches the flooded lake in Crestwood:  It sounds different. The water changes the song.

We know that under Crestwood there was a strange dwarven ruins which had Paragon statues but also Tevinter ones that resemble a bird or a dragon [Tevinter bird].  This confuses me a lot, because Cole refers to one single song. Is there a titan below Crestwood?

Cole, in Storm Coast: “The temples have a lot of keys. They all sing, but never the same song.”

Again, I’m not sure what he is referring to. This is Storm Coast, and there are no Temples, and underground there is only an old place of business exchange between dwarves and surfacers. Below there, we find the Titan of the Descend dlc, although along the way we find some chambers with Claw of Dumat and Tevinter birds that may be considered a “kind of temple”. But this would imply that these gods also have a different song to the titan deep below? I’m super confused with this one. 

Dorian: Do you need to eat, Cole? Or sleep? Cole: I thought I had to. But I don't. The Old Songs can pull me.

In general, we know that Cole speaks of the Titan’s song as “the old song”, while the elves have different old songs. In this line he may imply that the Old elvhen songs pull him into the Fade when he sleeps? Or to the Black City? I’m not sure how to interpret this one.

What Cole reads in one of banters where he simply reads Solas' mind for some seconds: "He hurts, an old pain from before, when everything sang the same. You're real, and it means everyone could be real. It changes everything, but it can't. They sleep, masked in a mirror, hiding, hurting, and to wake them... (Gasps.) Where did it go? Solas: I apologize, Cole. That is not a pain you can heal. "

This may imply that all these small songs we found in different places, were all the same: The titans, and the Fade’s song, and the elves’ and the lyrium’s. I’m not counting on their corrupted versions. They seems to be the other part of the songs that were broken.

General Conclusions

In Principle, there are FOUR songs: the Titan’s, the Red Lyrium’s, the Archdemon’s and the Elves’.

First song: the titan’s

It seems very clear that the Lyrium, as a titan's blood, carries the song of the Titans. A sad, lonely song about the fall of the Titans and the disconnection with their children, producing two different kinds of dwarves. Some with the echo of the song [modern dwarves], others apparently silent [Sha-Brytol?].

Modern dwarves have no dreams and can't manipulate magic because there is no room for the Fade to enter them, since they are all the time reaching to this original song and to the Titan.

Apparently, when the Titan was whole and the dwarves were part of it, they had an unclear connection to the Fade, dreams, and magic to a point where the modern limitations of magic did not affect them.

Due to the consumption of Lyrium, Templars sound a bit like dwarves, and we can even consider them “artificial” children of the Titans. However, they are chained to Lyrium, reinforcing the idea that Lyrium can be used to create a kind of slavery. In the Templar's case, this slavery comes from the addiction to it.

The Qunari fear this song in the lyrium, but it's unclear why. It may be related to their own nature of being a race created through experiments. Maybe their fears comes from an unconscious perception that their wrong blood was created through the use of painful procedures based on lyrium?.

Second song: the Red Lyrium’s

Red Lyrium is a different song to the Titan's; it is darker, deeper, sick, but it seems to "fit" together. It’s associated with a song that uses whispers to ask for the gates to be opened. It may be related to blood magic as well due to the link Cole does with the Venatori magic.

It’s not clear what the entity that whispers into the Red Lyrium is. It may be Old Gods, Evanuris, or Titans [if they were capable of dreaming before the war against he elvhenan]. 

Third song: the Archdemons’

Another song comes from the “corrupted Old Gods”, the Archdemons, and the Blight in general which seems to point out to the Black City. This song seems independent of the Titans', but quite closely related to the Red Lyrium’s. 

Curiously, the Archdemons and the Blight seem to have a lot of common mechanism with the Titans and their blood: Lyrium. It’s as if the Blight were a creation trying to imitate the characteristics of the Lyrium. What I mean is: The Blight works for the Archdemons in a similar way as the Lyrium works for the Titans: they carry a song related to them and their needs. In the case of the Archdemons, it’s a song that inspires compulsion to awake them and free them [even beyond the dragons itself, since Avernus can feel the call towards the Black City].  In the case of the Titans, it’s a song to reach their children and know the truth of the past and connect the dwarves to them.

The natural children of the Blight are the darkspawn, born from broodmothers, while their “artificial” children are the wardens and the ghouls [those who connect to the Archdemon through the consumption of blighted blood], all of them suffering compulsion as a sort of slavery. The natural children of the Titans are the dwarves that were severed from them, while their “artificial” children are the Templars [and Sha-Brytol?] who connect to them faintly through the consumption of Lyrium suffering addiction as a sort of slavery. 

I think that due to these common mechanisms, and taking into account their differences and subtleties, it looks like “someone” tried to emulate the lyrium’s powers and its relationship with the Titans, and created the Blight and attached it to the dragons. I would not be surprised if the Evanuris created the Blight trying to emulate the Titan’s power and their control over the dwarves as a means to slave elvhenan in another level, and ended up creating the Blight, trying to attach it to the only dragon we know for sure among the Evanuris: Mythal, killing her in the process [but this is a speculative motivation, I think the Evanuris may have had many other reasons to develop a new kind of slavery of their own people by using Titan-like mechanism].  

Fourth song: the Elvhen and the Fade’s

The Elvhes and the Fade have mixed different songs. It’s implied that Uthenera may be a process to sing forever to, probably, control the slumber of the Titans [this is also a speculation].

Yes, I think that in the posts of the comics [The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak, Until We Sleep] we are hinted that the worlds were one, so we can be more or less sure about Fade and Waking World being one in the ancient past [Dragons seem to be the powerful creatures that ruled the skies, and everything "sang the same song"]. Where the humans were and from where they come in all this lore is a big mystery still. Some unreliable codex and books of Thedas claim that most scholars in Thedas think humans came from the north, beyond the map of Thedas. The unreliable Dalish knowledge says that humans came from Par Vollen. But we don't know for sure. Probably it will be explored with DA4, located mostly in Tevinter, since Neomerians [ancient Tevinters] were one of the first groups of humans in appearing in Thedas.

Curiously, we have some kind of proof in ancient elven codices that shows the presence of dwarves [workers of the pillars of Earth in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal and in Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara] in their time but not about the humans. To me is impossible to speculate what happened with the Elvhenan when they saw for the first time the ancient humans walking Thedas/the Waking World. Because, there is no reliable lore about the origin of the humans, so far.

In Seheron there are ancient [apparently human (and Dwarven too) made] pyramids that seem to honour a religion based on the Sun [codex: The Pyramids of Par Vollen], which is related to the constellation Solium, and who knows if this is somehow related to Elgar'nan in a very obscure way? Are humans creations of Elgar'nan? of Ghilan'nain? We don’t even have hints to speculate, unfortunately. The fact that there is a proto-religion based on the Sun in this place only says that Humans may have inhabited this zone first.

Gaider said that in Par Vollen there was a unique horned race called Fex, but it was never explored or mentioned in another official material besides a guide [I think it was DAI game guide? It was a small paragraph that only claimed that there was a race called Fex, no more]. It seems to be a piece of Gaider’s lore that never made it to the canon seriously.

A bit of more lore about Par Vollen can be found in the tabletop corebook, but this source is always a big question if it is considered truly canon or just circumstantial canon for tabletop sessions.

We also have the war between the Evanuris and the Forgotten Ones, but the lack of lore about the latter ones makes hard to speculate about this part of the Elvhenan history where maybe humans may have been started to appear? [I support the idea that the Forgotten Ones may have been called Old Gods by ancient humans].

At some times, the lore seem to suggest that the Forgotten Ones were dragons that the Evanuris worshipped in the beginning but they hunt them down in order to acquire their divine power. So these dragons hid underground, like the comic The Silent Grove seem to imply. In other hints of lore, we can think that the titans were the Forgotten Ones, which, if it’s true, would make the titans dragons too [maybe colossus dragons?], since dragons and titans seem to have similar impressive power and ability to modify reality to their whims. But again, the proof and the links between these entities are really weak and it's too easy to find counter-arguments for rebuttals: think in each creatures' blood for that, lyrium vs dragon blood, and with that we can destroy this hypothesis.

Attempt to rebuilt Ancient Elvhenan History

So, so far, in order to see where the humans may fit, we could attempt to reconstruct the ancient elvhenan history first, which more or less may follow:

- The skies were ruled by dragons [The Silent Grove]. Maybe Titans, and their creations the dwarves, ruled the earth at the same time, but it's not clear. Everyone "sang the same song" [The Silent Grove], which I think it implies that there was an unclear yet harmonious connection between dragons and Titans. Both creatures have similar incredible powers of modifying Reality. Titans "enhance" and almost create the reality [read “After the end of the DLC” in The Wellspring], while dragons can modify it with somniari powers [they alter the Fade which modifies the Reality, details in lore section of Until We Sleep].

- Elvhenan may have worshipped these dragons originally [ancient codices speak of an association between winged shape and divinity in the Temple of Mythal]. We also have a visual hint of this in the mural we see in the comic The Missing, where we can suspect elvhenan, maybe Evanuris, were wearing dragon-like outfits, similar in design to the current Archon’s outfit in Tevinter [a culture that has worshipped dragons since its origins]

- Because the Titans put in danger Elvhenan society by shaping the Stone and making their cities shake [”Song of Elgar’nan” in Temple of Mythal], the Elvhenan made war against the Titans. By this time, the Forbidden Ones [ancient demons] are exiled from the Evanuris’ lands because they did not fight [against the Titans, I speculate] since they seem to like “form”; therefore, they are exiled to the deep Fade [we don’t know what or where it is, but it may be related to a Titan-like space, more details in “Exile of the Forbidden Ones” in Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara]. Myhtal and Elgar’nan seem to display more symbols of victory against Titans [Elgar’nan has a statue in his honour [ Signs of Victory in Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara] made out of stone that simulates a crumbled mountain, a symbol we can assume represents a defeated titan, while Mythal killed one by herself in the “The Death of a Titan”]

- Winning against the Titans gave Elvhenan more power and new skills. It’s not clear what element gave them the biggest advantage, but probably the use of lyrium or of “something else” [speculated to be a titan’s heart or a process related to changing shape, inspired by Ghilan’nain’s experiments that may include lyrium in it]. This allowed the Evanuris to stop being mere war generals and become “gods”, acquiring the shape of their, until that moment, worshipped gods: the original dragons that ruled the skies, or beign able to modify everyone’s else shape as a sign of power [as The Horror of Hormak seems to imply]. A lot of details and other speculations on this matter in “The Death of a Titan”. From this moment on, Evanuris warred against each other in order to have more and more followers.

-There is a potential danger that this obsession in acquiring “divine shape/power” and control of other beings may have induced the Evanuris to produce experiments as the ones narrated in The Horror of Hormak [General] and The Horror of Hormak [Personal Speculation]. So, they may have created the Blight or Red Lyrium, or some other disease previous to these ones that was hidden by Solas and his followers, when they collapsed some rooms underground. The immense rejection to the Blight and Blight magic that Solas has [Solas sharing Lore: read Part 2] seems to encourage the idea that the Evanuris may have created the Blight with these experiments. More concepts around the Blight in this ask.

- Once the Evanuris had “divine winged shapes” [Falon’Din was Winged Death, check his song and Elgar’nan’s song in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal], they did not need the original dragons anymore, so they hunt them down [Andruil was obsessed with hunting down the Forgotten Ones in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal]. The original draconic gods may have been rejected and forced to be called “Forgotten Ones”--forgotten from history--so the Evanuris could have their divine place. That’s how Andruil may have gone to the “Void” to hunt them down. We know that the Void is closer to the Depth of Earth than to a pocket-dimension thanks to the analysis of the words Abyss and Void in “Elven God Andruil” from   Temple of Mythal and The Uncharted Abbys, Bastion of the Pure.This means that the Dragons hid underground, to hibernate in safety, and Andruil went to the Abyss/Void, returning with madness [probably contaminated with raw Lyrium, The Blight, or whatever disease their previous experiments caused underground]. As a side-comment, I want to highlight that the only hint we have to assume the Forgotten Ones as Dragons is Hakkon himself: it was hinted in all the DLC that Hakkon, a dragon made out of Fade, was also a “forgotten” entity called Geldauran, that had a deep resentment against some of the Evanuris [details in Frostback Basin [DLC]: Elvhen Tomb]

- It seems likely that, since Mythal was naturally a dragon, the Evanuris may have tried to experiment with her too, and caused her death in a corrupted way [as the Red Lyrium idol seem to suggest], spreading a further more complicated diseased in the process. It is also likely that, since Mythal was the one who stole Andruil’s knowledge of how to reach the Void to hunt down the Forgotten Ones, Mythal was killed because she was protecting the Forgotten Ones. If the Forgotten Ones are the Archdemons/Old Gods, this hypothesis seems to fit this strange interest of Flemeth in protecting Urthemiel, “what once was”. Flemeth also taught Yavana whose role was to protect a grove of dragons.  Flemeth seemed to have a strong interest in preserving dragons and ancient beings.

- The assassination of Mythal was somehow related to the power-thirst of the Evanuris, so Solas decided it was enough and banished them in an Elvhen City, the one we know as Golden City. Due to the corruption that potentially Andruil had, they all may have become corrupted/blighted. They seem to be the voice/song that all blighted creatures listen and think it comes from the Archdemons, but the true origin of this song comes from the Black City [this info comes from Avernus in Soldier’s Peak]. So the song we always heard along the games may likely be the Evanuris trapped in the Black City. They may also be the whispers in the Red Lyrium too. A lot of these ideas were worked on in the post: Songs and elements that sing and whisper in DA Lore. There is also a chance that the Black City doesn’t only trap the Evanuris, but the corrupted aspect of Mythal herself, when the Evanuris tried to take her divinity or kill her for experimentation or power. This hypothesis was recently developed in Speculations about the Vinyl Art.

- Solas isolated the Evanuris [and potentially a corrupted Mythal too] and the source of the disease that was going to destroy the world [and according to his words about the Blight in Part 2, it seems that The Blight is the biggest problem of Thedas]. He separated the worlds; Fade and Waking World became two different spaces, causing the crumbling of many elvhenan cities that had a deep connection with the Fade [like the Shattered Library]. Due to the weak hints in unreliable codices of Dalish knowledge, we can speculate that Solas may have sealed the Evanuris in Arlathan, and hid it underground [Ancient Elven codices; Din'an Hanin– Elgar’nan Bastion], gates protected by dragons/forgotten ones who are naturally resistant to this disease, deep below the Deep Roads. He also hid the city’s reflection in the Fade, producing a barrier that makes impossible the access to the Black City reflection from the Fade. It seems that, whatever the Evanuris managed to do and create, was so devastating that Solas used every bit of his energy to isolate it in all worlds, [even the reflection of it] so nobody would be ever tempted again to use such power.

- It is not clear if Red Lyrium appeared  when the Evanuris used Titan’s power to acquire “divine shape”, or was an unexpected consequence that Solas may have accidentally caused when he hid the corrupted city with the evanuris sealed in it deep underground. So far, there is lore that claims that Titans are immune to darkspawn and The Blight [The Uncharted Abbys, Bastion of the Pure], but then again... there exist red lyrium [which is blighted lyrium, if we can trust the only source we have for this info: Bianca and her unknown source]. So there is a big chunk of lore we don’t have yet that should exist to make both facts consistent. I’m more inclined to think that Solas caused it accidentally, when hiding the city deep underground; he may have forced the corruption of a Titan from where Red Lyrium came out. So far we know, the first sights of Red Lyrium were in DA2, close to the coast of Kirkwall in the Primeval Thaig and, potentially, in Kal'Hirol: First sight of Red Lyrium, both places are close to one another.

-With the disappearance of the Evanuris, and the creation of the Fade, Elvhenan empire fell, elves lost their immortality, they became prone to illness, and most of them lost magic, becoming easy target to the human empire that has been developing for a long while. From this moment on, the history is all about the Tevinter Empire and its conquer and expansion over Thedas, which is well covered with many codices and lore all over the games and books.

So, this is the maximun I can do in rebuilding the ancient Elvhenan History. In which part of it humans appear is completely unclear to me, and so far I know, there are not trustworthy pieces of lore that explain it. I suspect that Tevinter worshipped the same gods that the Elvhenan did: the original dragons that later were forced to be “forgotten”. Tevinter seem to have always had a deep rejection to elven things. They were always too eager to steal their knowledge and magic techniques, but it seems unlikely for them to worship the Elvhenan pantheon [however, we don’t know... The Tevinter Mosaics seem to imply that among the Sidereal Magister there was an elf]. Now, worshipping dragons is something we know Tevinter always did. If by that time these dragons had been forgotten by the Elvhenan Empire, it makes sense for the Tevinter to worship them without realising they were ancient gods for the race they always dismissed. So, in this speculation, what the Elvhenan called Forgotten Ones, became, for the humans, the Old Gods.

Were humans slave of the Elvhenan at some point?  No lore seem to imply it. But again, there is no lore about humans in Elvhenan sources, so far we know. The most ancient chars that may give some enlightenment also say nothing on that matter: neither Imshael, nor Flemeth, nor Solas, nor Felassan or Abelas.

This hardly answer the question “when the humans appear in Thedas”, or from where, or how.  The lore is so overwhelmed by fragments of elvhenan history, that there is nothing about humans until the fall of the Elvhenan empire. Avvar also have no lore about the origin of humans in these lands, their narrations are mostly focused on the expansion of the tribes from the  west to the south lands that will end up being Orlais and Ferelden. I put my hopes that Tevinter exploration in DA4, and its libraries, will have a lot of alternative lore from human point of view, and may cover and explains some gaps in the history that we noticed in the elvhenan codices.

The four sides beyond the map of Thedas are filled with extra mysteries that only are commented in some isolated codices or in small paragraphs in the books of Thedas. Each of them more filled with legends and fantasy rumours than facts.