#tevinter urn

Once we return from the Temple of Mythal, we find Leliana telling the Inquisitor that Morrigan chased Kieran into the Eluvian. This scene is completely skipped and we never have access to this Fade if Kieran does not exist. For Lore reasons, I think having Kieran is the richest option

We enter the eluvian, and what we realise immediately is that we are not in the Crossroads that Morrigan showed us before. Instead, we are in a part of the Fade. This shows that powerful mages can force Eluvians to go to the Fade and the final destination of an Eluvian is not precisely determined with its construction. This is telling us that technically, any eluvian can allow us to reach the Fade if you are powerful enough. 

This Fade is more guided that the one in Adamant Fortress. In the moment we enter, we find these mabari-brazier that are so typical of Ferelden, and a statue of a The Guide.

Same as in the previous Fade, there are a lot of Keepers of Fears merger in the landscape. I find this strange, because this space belongs to Flemeth, it’s not a space of a demon of Nightmare or terror. Someone could argue that, since Flemeth may have some relationship with the Chasind, her relationship is being reflected in these statues since Alamarri and Avvar [and likely Chasind too] may share the tradition of the Keepers of Fear. We see several screaming faces, Keepers of Fear, Eroded dragon skull, and a Dwarf with long limbs. The first thing giving us a welcome is a big hand and a table.

This same table has been found in the previous Fade, in the beginning of that space too, like an invitation. Over the table, there are hanged generic dead bodies and two enormous hands: one keeping the strings of the hanged dead, and another from which a pile of keepers of fear emerges. These hands seem to work like the hands we see in the Crossroads of Trespasser, which give support to eluvians or circular tree.

Aside of this configuration, a bit hidden on the ground, Andraste statue’s head.

As we approach the second opening, we see a pair of Keepers of Fear, with heads being burnt, flanking a Sacrificial altar. The figure of a man is towering over them, and in front of these elements, there is a statue of Beheaded ram-man. The whole configuration seems to relate again the concept of sacrifice and fear.

These are the rarest version of the Keepers of Fear. In this case, we see them working: their heads are burning, maybe as a representation of the fear screams being consumed before an Alamarri goes to fight against their fate. The base of these Keepers of Fear have a drawing on it that looks like another creature, screaming.

The Sacrificial altar can be studied with great detail in this part of the Fade. We can see that it has a small platform with decorated patterns and carvings in the metal.

We have seen this human sculpture among Orlesian collections or in Free Marches-themes statues. 

The Beheaded ram-man is erected on a head of a Keepers of Fear. [Fore more detail about this statue, read The Raw Fade:  Part 1 ]

As we keep walking, we find Morrigan beside an enormous Claw of Dumat on one side, and a statue of the Free Marches in front of her. There are many keepers of fears around and above too.

Here, Morrigan explains that to direct the eluvian to the Fade requires immense power, which is absolutely reasonable since Kieran keeps the soul of an archdemon inside him.

Ahead, we find a very curious corridor that got my attention since I saw it. I believe the game is explicitly telling us to relate the andraste’s head with the Ferelden Wyvern through the spike. We know there is a tale in Ferelden Folklore [landmark Fereldan Wyvern Statues] where they connect both in a story that the Chantry does not acknowledges as official. I don’t know what’s the real deal with this Wyvern, but the connections with dragon-like creatures [reptiles] seems to be a pattern in the game. This Wyvern in particular is standing on two Tevinter urns. How this creature relates to Tevinter is also a mystery, but this statue has been seen in ancient Tevinter buildings as well, predating Andraste and Blights.

We step into another Guide under which a small table and chair can be found.

Behind the guide there is a skull with two metallic columns that seems to be Claws of Dumat prototypes. We saw these artefacts in Western Approach: Coracavus;  Records Room, gathered around desks:

Maybe it is an artefact used to study elements, such as heads, or to record information. Still it is hard to guess its function.

When we reach to the next clearing, we find one of these Tevinter devices of several claws, diapason-like, clipped with an “injector”. This device, or at least this combination of clipping is similar to what we saw in Suledin Keep, when we met Imshael. Like in that place, at the base of the device there is red lyrium. Same as in Suledin, the area seems to be related to Horned warrior holding a sword. This is the first time that this element appears in the Fade. It’s placed at the left of the device, on a piece of rock: One on front of the rock, and a smaller version behind it.

When we finish gathering the shards, Cole will say something that keeps hinting the idea that the elvhen are part of a communal song. Apparently, despite having lost its main entity, the temple still has several souls that are isolated, disconnected from the rest. They are not part of the song.

As we approach the Temple, we see a pool which is decorated with a statue of Andraste and one of the Faceless figure holding a crown. Both statues look equally old, so it seems fair to assume that both were placed here at the same time.

Updated December 2022: I finally managed to understand and justify the statue Faceless figure holding a crown  It's andrastian and represents the Maker. 

The stained glass of Andraste's life represents him as a figure without face with a crown that looks very similar to this one. As  The Maker, it makes a lot of more sense for it to appear in the places it does.

The entrance to the temple of Solasan needs shards, which are visible with ocularum.

The design of the shards does not say much: they have a skull inside a circle which border looks like similar to the ones used on the door. It seems to be decorated with vines or roots that come from the stone. Curiously, stone and roots are combined.

The entrance has unique symbols: the columns of this ancient elvhen design are a bit different than the elvhenan ones we saw in places like the Temple of Mythal or in the Elven Ruins in Trespasser.  These ones display a worn-out pattern of the typical elvhen circular flowers, but the bottom and the top of the columns show a unique design: they have several squares piled up, giving a more geometrical and angular style.

Over the door there is a symbol we didn’t see anywhere else so far, with geometrical shapes. It includes 5 overlapped squares rotated 45º, below them there are worn-out swirls.

The top of the door is circular and has cavities, under which we can see more swirls patterns. This decoration around the circular top of the door looks like the typical  representation of spheres containing worlds or creatures that we see in elvhen murals.

Bellow it, we can see the same swirl pattern we saw on the top of the entrance and bellow the 5 squares. In the centre of this circular section, we see a star or sun that we can link with many sun-based iconography in several other cultures in Thedas [Tevinter has the presence of a constant pointy star or sun in some of their objects, The Chantry itself has a sunburst in its own icon].

At the bottom of the door, we can see another circle with cavities that resembles the same barriers depicted in elvhen murals. The way we place the shards in the door fills the lock holes which have the shape of a germinated seed.

Each column at the sides of the entrance has a unique stone with elven inscriptions that I called it Stone in Razikale-Ceremony-style. However, due to the fact that this stone is here, written in ancient elven, it makes me assume this stone is elvhen. Which immediately would make us conclude that the images used by the Tevinters in the lids of Razikale Ceremony and of the Horned warrior holding a sword should be ancient elvhenan as well, since both of them have the same engraving of soldiers with shields and spears. This brings a problem of coherence and many questions because these lids have been seen mostly in Ancient Tevinter ruins implying a kind of worshipping. That a Tevinter element of worship is Ancient Elvhen will have a lot of speculative consequences. It’s also worth mentioning that this same stone appears in the burials related to Fairel all over Hissing Wastes, and its description via codices has nothing to do with the image we see on it. So I started to doubt the asset nature of this element in the game.

When we read the stone, it triggers Tracing from Temple Doors. The only thing that we can infer from these words is that a powerful elvhenan was trapped here from ancient times. We can't say for sure it was an Evanuris or a Forgotten one, there is little in this tomb that will give us a hint on this aspect. The inscription speaks with an "us", implying that the entity trapped here was not only one, but many. But that also could be a bad translation. I don't know why the whispers of the Well of Sorrow don't translate it and we have to rely on whoever did this [disgusted sounds]. The only thing that we know for sure due to the name of the quests, is that this place was a temple of Pride. If this implies a Temple of Fen’Harel or Solas, we don’t know because there is no wolf statues around, so, in principle, I find it difficult to relate it to Solas, unless this place was created before Solas became Fen’Harel in which case, the speculation that this place is related to our companion is not completely a nonsense. We know by Jaws of Hakkon that this temple could, potentially, be related to a forgotten one as in the DLC it’s related to Geldauran. Maybe a Forgotten one related to Pride, and the concept of Occam’s Razor keeps making us speculate about Solas once more.

Cole tells us that the demon inside, a Pride demon, wants us to be afraid of him. I think this is the demon we see inside the main chamber, and not the original entity that had been sealed here, simply because that entity had abandoned this place long ago.

In this region we find a codex called Worn Pillars, where this amateur historian Ducette explicitly says what we have been seeing so far and it’s evident in this temple: he confuses these ruins with Tevinter ones while one of the miners perceive them as elvhen. Neither of their opinions are reliable. They are not scholars on the matter, but even for the player following the patterns is clear that this temple can't be perceived as Tevinter or Elven easily.  He points out a fact: these pillars are not like the ones we see in the Dales. According to the patterns on the columns outside the temple, they are Tevinter, and it seems to follow the same style we saw in Razikale's Reach: a Tevinter structure built around an elvhenan tomb. The pillars inside temple are entirely different to any pattern or style we have seen before.

Another interesting thing that did not make it into the game was a detail present in the concept art of this temple: the columns did not display worn-out flower-patterns but a humanoid with a skull and a snake around their legs. Even though it’s not the same, similar detail can be seen in the statues of the Female Kossith/ Desire demon /Tevinter Warrior. The fact that this temple has a snake in its original concept art is very curious. Maybe the snake was replaced by the 5 overlapped squares rotated 45º, since that design resembles reptilian scales.

Once opened, we notice that the feeling at the door is gone, and Solas explains it was a ward, a warning or a test [this means that the dreadful entity that had to be inside is not and left a ward or warning before leaving?]. It's strange he suggests a test, since these temples seem to seal entities that the elvhenan wanted to keep away from them. A warning is more fitting than a test. It’s also strange that we find a ward if the original entity that lived here is not here  anymore and this place is ”empty” as Cole said. 

Immediately as we enter, we find a veilfire rune with an Ancient Writing  that feels more accordingly to the "test" interpretation than the warning. It talks about a favour you earned, and seems to be related to kneeling in meditation. Which is very strange. So this place was not a tomb, but a temple, and the Quest name is right on this matter: the Temple of Pride which later was used to seal an entity.

When we enter we can see the shape of the door frames: they are not the typical eluvian-like we know from old elvhen structures. These look like closer to the dwarvish style. In fact, the only two temples we visit in the game with these characteristics are carved into the stone, unlike the other elvhen buildings we saw, which were brick-based constructions. Inside, there are three more doors of the same style, representing spirit [which looks like overgrowth], cold, and fire.

In the corridors there are sarcophagi that, considering what we saw in the Deep Roads of the Trespasser DLC, we could assume they had elvhen bodies slumbering in them. Probably these are the souls that Cole spoke about when he said “they will join the song together”

The three tombs display more or less the same symbols and elements in terms of patterns. However, each door triggers a different side-quest with a particular name: The cold endured, the fire captured, the spirit calmed. 

The three of them have a sarcophagus at their end in the same fashion to the Deep Road Mythal Chamber in Trespasser. Their walls have worn-out patterns of circular flowers. Inside we can find barrels and boxes that have this funerary elvhen sign I spoke about in previous posts:

The whole structure of the chambers and columns gives a feeling of Dwarven style instead of the usual, refined Elvhenan style we have seen in ancient temples such as Temple of Mythal.

The most surprising element in these tombs is that the one related to the Fire, we see a banner of a Grey Warden. Which makes absolute nonsense. How is it possible that a tomb that was never opened and explored in the past, which belongs to the ancient elvhen, millennia before the blights, could have this banner here? As we have seen in previous posts such as  Western Approach: The Still Ruins and Hinterlands: The Unknown Ruin [Mihris], there is something more going on in the past of the Grey Wardens and Tevinter due to the presence of anachronistic symbols of the Grey Warden in ancient Tevinter ruins.

The only hint of the origin of the Grey Warden understanding the Blight is shown in the Fade, where we find a desk that reflects the moment in which a scholar who called himself a Grey Warden asked for a way to defeat the First Blight that had submitted everyone in despair after centuries of struggle. He saw Dumat return after being killed, so he must have been hopeless. I think it’s implied that he found the solution in the same place and moment when we are placing Archdemon blood on his desk. This may imply that the Grey Warden may have been related to elvhen or Tevinter originally; people with the power of walking the Fade deeply in search for answers. That Tevinter elements include griffons in similar or same design than the Grey Wardens’ suggests to me that their origin has been Tevinter as well.  We also know that the Grey Warden have a sunburst symbol in their joining chalice; the same symbol that centuries laters, the Chantry will use as their own icon. That these elements are associated, somehow, to a chamber called “the fire captured”, seem to show certain correlation but barely any sense for a decent explanation. 

There is a bit of extra lore about this aspect of the real origin of the Grey Warden and how they managed to find out the way to kill the archdemon in the RPG tabletop book of Dragon Age, but this material is considered even less canon than the comics, so I will ignore it.

The chamber of fire also has chains, which is something that the other two do not have and reinforces the idea that the “fire was captured”. 

The three doors have a lot of enemies and most of them are simply undead or arcane horrors. There is no much to say there. I tried to check if maybe these enemies have particular skins or designs in their armour, but noting in them was too telling.  Pretty much a reuse of assets.

When we open the first sarcophagus, some energy jumps out and enters the inquisitor. Cole says that the inquisitor is now shinier than before, and Solas explains that thanks to the anchor in the inquisitor's hand, this piece of magic popping up was not only bening but a reward. This procedure is repeated in the three chambers of spirit, cold, and fire, giving resistances to the inquisitor.

That these pieces of light come from the sarcophagi would it mean they represent what’s left of slumbering elvhenans? We know in Trespasser that Cole tells the Inquisitor that the Anchor sings a song. If these fragments were joined to the Anchor [”drawn to the mark”], is this what Cole was referring to about “They can all sign together now”. If that’s the case, it means that these fragments of light [the fire captured, the spirit calmed, and the cold endured] are also part of Solas, since the Anchor belongs and has Solas’ energy.  So, as a general conclusion, this moment is a way to tell us that this temple has some relationship to Solas? [more speculation at the end]

In these chambers there are also barrels which contain elements that we could interpret as very odd to have for an elvhenan temple of ancient times.  Stonehammer was the first paragon and King of the dwarves when the capital of the empire was in Kal-Sharok, so the figurine here doesn't seem to be a random loot: this place is closer to Kal-Sharok than Orzammar [although, Kal-Sharok has no path to the surface directly, it has to access to another Thaigh first for that; this was the reason why they were the first Thaig to be lost when the darkspawn appeared]. 

This paragon was friend, ally, and successor of Orseck Garal, a dwarven ruler whose diary Valta finds in the DLC, the Descent. During Stonehammer time, Tevinter approached the dwarves to negotiate with them, earning their alliance around the time of -5TE [5 years before the Tevinter Empire is established]. His main legacy was to move the Capital of the Dwarven empire to Orzammar and establish trading relationships with Tevinter. Why such iconic dwarf is here in the shape of a figurine? They could have put any random loot without significance. 

Once we open the three tombs, we have access to the central chamber, which is sealed behind a door without any shard-based lock. This means that this creature was sealed here, with 3 guardians: spirit, cold, and fire. So, maybe the sealing chamber which worked like a prison was only this one, while the rest  of the building worked like a temple, where their guardians meditated to keep the evil entity at bay. This place triggers a quest called A Prideful Place.

This chamber has ancient patterns as well, and a lot of corpses and urns. In the centre, we see an urn and several skulls, in front of a typical simple sarcophagus.

The central chamber shows a powerful pride demon with undead or possessed corpses. None of them is special in any way.

Once defeated the demon, Solas says that this is an odd temple, and wonders if others may exist. Because he is saying this, he is introducing the seed of question into the Inquisitor’s mind, which is a way for Solas to help them think in the right direction [otherwise, Solas would remain silent]. I believe he knows that there are more temples like this simply because in Jaws of Hakkon we find one which was associated with one of the forgotten ones. And these were well known by the Evanuris, we know that Andruil hunted them down in the Void.

The Stone in Razikale-Ceremony-style triggers Inscription in the Oasis Temple, which shows a scene more proper of a jail or a seal: we see a figure bound in chains. We can assume is a forgotten one which represents Pride.

Once more the text speaks in plural. The author says that they have pride in their accomplishment and heart. That Pride was corrupted, and tried to claim something [divinity? freedom?], so he was chained, losing his favour.

In any case, if we see the loot in this last sarcophagus, we only get worse information: there is dagger called Agony, related to an Antiva crow's tale, Vitaar, and a sigil of Gamordan, the dragon we fought in Ghilan'nain's grove, Exalted Plains. Meaning that nothing of this loot gives any hint of this place, sadly.