#thaig

In here we find the Sha-Brytol for the first time. Their armours are made of lyrium that has been fused with their bodies. They have hexagonal figures and pointy design that reminds us more about Tevinter style [would that mean that Tevinter also took part of its style from the dwarves?]. It also has a lot of geometrical patterns which resemble the modern dwarven style. 

They have more triangular swirls instead of the classic dwarven squared swirl.

Due to the fusion of their bodies with the lyrium of the armour, we can see their nose and mouth are melted. Their eyes are opaque, filled with lyrium [I guess it’s their eyes glowing with lyrium what we see in the darkness]. They developed firearms, probably based on the lyrium powder due to its explosive nature.

With the little information shared and shown about the Sha-Brytol skills, we can notice that they have similar abilities to Fenris’, who also has lyrium fused in his body. They are stealthy, almost ghostly. 

When Renn dies, Cole comments about the Stone, reinforcing the idea that the Stone also has a song.

As we continue, the song becomes wrong, filled with too many whispers. I have no idea what is that has too many whispers that interfere with the Stone’s song.

As we explore the caverns deeper, we find a bridge with a unique decoration: it’s not a standard dwarven bridge, each column has a triangular/pyramid-like structure with metallic claws at its point. These claws were seen previously in bigger size in ancient Tevinter structures.

I’m not so sure how much to read here, if the Sha-Brytol infrastructure inspired Tevinter, or this is a mere reuse of assets for a DLC. 

This bridge is destroyed, but we will see many of these in Wellspring.

Around this bridge we find the first of a series of upgrades of the codex Chronicles of a Forgotten War which I think it's related to the whole section of the Cadash Thaig in the DLC: Witch Hunt .

The source of this codex is unknown, but one can suspect it's an ancient dwarf soldier. The things that it informs us are quite juicy:

It says that the north of Cad'halash [name of the Cadash Thaig before it gave refuge to elves escaping Tevinter, see DLC: Witch Hunt  for a refreshment] is under attack. We don't know if this is happening before the elves settle down there, but we can be sure that this Thaig, with this name, predates the First Blight. So the events described in this codex predate the First Blight.

The King of the dwarves sent the reinforcement.

The Deep Roads changed around Cad'halash. The Deep Roads were almost abandoned. Torches would snuff out suddenly and attacks in the darkness would occur.

The father of the author who wrote this chronicle was the first victim of these attacks.

The attackers, named lately as Scaled Ones, breathe slow and heavily, and are larger than a dwarf.

When they finally could see one of them, they saw a human covered in scales. It wore an armour and had weapons [dagger]. However, they can attack with their jaws, teeth, and talons.

They speak a language that the dwarf could not understand [clearly not common]

When the dwarves could finally kill one of the Scaled Ones, they were in shock for a moment, hint that these creatures were not accustomed to see one of their own die.

I know this can be a lot, but this codex speaks of an amber light, which is also registered in the Razikale's Reach codex, in a cave that may have been connected to the Deep Roads.

The Scaled Ones worship a deity that can be seen in a golden altar fashioned in the shape of fire. On the tip of each flame hanged the corpse of those dwarves that had been killed in those sneak attacks.

These bodies have been drained of blood, leaving them bone and wrapped in grey skin.

A feminine Scaled One, a potential priest of this god, chanted and raised a bowl of blood towards the altar as she received the bow of the others.

This one seemed to be a mage. Produced fire on his palm and mouth  and ignited the blood.

When the dwarven company returned to this place to attack fully, they found nothing of the Scaled Ones’ camp, only a bow with burnt edges, suggesting a massive teleportation magic.

I would like to notice and remind myself that the first time I read this codex and the description of the golden altar, two images came to my mind immediately: Sylaise, who is extremely related to fire and rivalry according some of the codices that describe her in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal. And the other image is Andraste’s inquisitor seat

After all, the whole Chantry is a cult of Fire, of a sunburst, more precisely.

Hypothesis about Chronicles of a Forgotten War:

The Scaled Ones are a joke of Bioware. Since in Jaws of Hakkon we have also read a codex that speaks about reptilian races, moon men, and a lot of delirious conspiracy theories; one could assume that this is just Bioware making a long joke. I doubt it because if it were the case, the murals of the lizard men in Elven temples would not be seen so repeated and central to the plot [they even appear in Trespasser, in the ancient elven ruins]. In my opinion it’s more than a joke if they appear in different contexts and even a codex is created. However, it feels like they developed this making it look like a conspiracy theory, but with the intention to reveal some lore mystery later. 

The Scaled Ones could be creations of Ghilan’nain that were not destroyed by her.  Since they have devotion for a golden altar in the shape of Fire, I think that, in the case of being elves transformed into this using procedures similar to the ones we saw in The Horror of Hormak, their worship seems closer to Sylaise [check Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal].  In any case, in this hypothesis, these could have been a bunch of altered elves under the experimentation of Ghilan’nain, that somehow survived. 

Another simple option that comes easily to mind is that they are the first darkspawn that the dwarves see. However, I think this is not the case for several reasons: Cad'halash was destroyed a long time before the First Blight. The description of these creatures, even though it looks similar to the first darkspawn from DAO and not to their redesign, have fine armour and weapons, and the way they attack [always sneak attacks and then run] do not resemble the modus operandi of the darkspawn who have trash weapons and scrapped armours, and their strategy to attack is always mindless and brute force. There is also this strange reaction they had when they saw one of them being killed, when darkspawn would not care at all.

The final option I can muster and that I trust a bit more than the others: Tevinter humans who are dragon blood drinkers. Even though the source of this codex is unknown, we infer it’s a young dwarven soldier from Cad'halash. We know these dwarves have seen humans of Tevinter before due to lyrium trade, so this comment in the codex makes me suspect that the Scaled Ones may have been humans who were under experiments of Tevinter mixing dragon blood [proto-qunaris?]. The devotion to a golden figure that represents fire may be a representation of the draconic fire of the Old Gods. We also know via Cassandra’s banter, that in her family it is said that those who drink dragon blood grew scales on their skin and became mad. On the other hand, the leader of this group of Scaled Ones seems to be a mage: it could cast fire from her palm as well as her mouth, like a dragon. They worshipped this entity of fire through blood, draining it from the dwarven victims they caught [sounds a very common Tevinter practice of blood magic]. They seem to have potent magic since they disappeared an encampment with a golden altar in an hour. These creatures seem to be related to three main things: fire, blood, and magic. Three elements related to Tevinter culture and dragons.  We also know that Qunari may have been a crafted race by, potentially, Tevinter [which makes us suspect that Tevinter has been experimenting with dragon blood in many ways to create a new race]. The Scaled Ones fit the idea of being “the discarded or non-successful” experiments of this purpose. The con of this theory is that why Elves would care about a failed experiment of Tevinter to fill the walls of their temple with lizardman drawings? 

So, Maybe the most substantial hypothesis is the one about the experiments of Ghilan’nain. In this case, the fact that they speak a language the Dwarven can’t understand also would fit since it would have been ancient elvhenan.

What annoys me of this codex is that North of Cad'halash is not marked in the maps of any game, while the southwest is where we find Heidrun Thaig, where these codex are and where we find, I assume, the skeleton of the dwarf who wrote all this. So north and south are mixed in the maps.

It’s also important to notice that maybe this codex may re-signify the history we know about Cad'halash. We found a codex in DAO [ Letters from the Past] which gave us the idea that Cad'halash was attacked by Kal-Sharok because the elven refugees who could put in danger the trade between the Tevinter Empire and the Dwarven Empire. If this forgotten war was happening back then, then the elements we found in the Thaig that belonged to Kal-Sharok may have been there not because they attacked Cad'halash but because they sent help to the thaig but they were annihilated by the Scaled Ones. another possibility is that Kal-Sharok truly destroyed Cad'halash to isolate the potential threat of the Slaced Ones spreading along the tunnels of the Deep Roads.