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[morelenmir]

I think a very big part of the appeal for the DA games and world to me is its 'history' and specifically more what is left unsaid that said.  Within the game I think a great deal of what we learn through books and oral tradition is at best a distortion and at worst totally 'untrue'.  Even after "The World of Dragon Age" there is a LOT left unsaid and only hinted at - indeed I think that aspect of 'what was REALLY happening' as opposed to what we are told is an essential part of the storytelling style that David Gaider has infused the games.  It is exactly the same as what Tolkien referred to as 'unseen vistas' or 'far-trees becoming near-trees'.

However I think through a little logical consideration of cannon in-game facts we can get a rough idea of what is REALLY going on behind the scenes, the REAL history of the last two thousand years in Thedas.  Obviously this is just one player's - mine - take on things but to me at least it makes a lot more sense than the 'official' history as largely presented and sanitized by The Chantry.

There are many small, unexplained mysteries in the game - the Watchguard of the Reaching, the Enigma of Kirkwall, Flemmeth herself.  However the central mystery is the Golden/Black City.  It underlies pretty much everything.  The origin of the Darkspawn.  The supposed deification of Andraste, the Chantry, the Blights, the fall of Tevinter.  Everything important in the game can be traced back to the Black City and the original group of Magisters - who, urged by the spirits of their Old Gods and made possible through vast use of lyrium, bloodmagic and the deaths of uncounted slaves managed to actually enter it.  This much at least seems really to have happened in pretty much the form we are told.

However, that is where I think the official, chantry sanctioned version of history departs from 'what really happened'.

We are told the Magisters entered the Golden City, their 'Mortal Taint' made the place suddenly become black and - worse still - somehow magnified this inherent corruption and infected them terribly.  Somehow on their waking from the lyrium induced trip to the heart of the fade they had been transformed in to the original Darkspawn.  Once back among men they proceeded to spread this spiritual and literal infection through mere contact.  When enough had been changed into Darkspawn the new faction proceeded to mine in to the earth deeper than the dwarfs had ever managed and found Dumat, the dragon god.  Infecting him also with 'the taint' the original Magisters ignited the First Blight.  Moreover we are supposed to believe this pattern underlies each and every successive blight.  Darkspawn spend many years physically digging, uncover the hidden form of a sleeping old god who is woken and transformed by the blight in to an undead dragon archdemon.

I think almost everything about this scenario beyond the simple existence of the Darkspawn Taint and its initial spread by the original group of Magisters is utter nonsense, propaganda spread by the Chantry.  I think to find 'what really happened' we have to go right back to that small group of immensely powerful mages who really did manage to enter the Black City.

We are told first hand by one of this group, Corypheus who was trapped in the Grey Warden prison in the Vinmarks that the supposedly Golden City as promised by the whispering of his Old Gods was black WHEN THEY GOT THERE.  This is critically important and totally canon.  The 'Golden city' was NOT corrupted by the presence of the Magisters - it was black before ever they set foot in it.  I think this is the precise point where reality diverges from disseminated history.  I think the Magisters were 'set up' by the Old Gods and fell in to a trap VERY long in the making.

We know from the official 'The World of Dragon Age' that the entire history of the Tevinter Imperium was one of the steady rise to power of the Magister mage-class, their leaders constantly taught and discovering more and more powerful forms of magic from the whisperings of the Old Gods.  Their entire civilization was built upon this - as they saw it - divine intervention.  It taught them bloodmagic and when the fabric of their society was strong enough to permit it the Old Gods began to urge the most powerful Magisters to perform the rituals necessary to enter 'The Golden City'.  Why?  What did the Old Gods get from this charade other than eventual corruption by the very taint they seeming capriciously wished upon the Magisters themselves.

However, once again this version of history comes from Chantry-approved sources.  I do not believe it.  I think the Magisters were tricked into entering the Golden city as the culmination of a centuries-long period of unseen guidance.  Why?  NOT to find it totally empty.  NOT to taint it by their humanity.  Rather I think the place was neither golden NOT empty.  I believe the Black City was itself in reality an ancient prison set up for the very spirits of the Old Gods themselves and I believe THIS is what the Magisters found there.

Again, why?

Well, we know as canon that the real being of the Old Gods is their spirit.  Their physical form of an undead dragon archdemon is totally expendable.  If one who does not himself bare the Darkspawn Taint manages somehow to kill this physical vehicle the Old God merely instantly reforms, bursting out from the corrupted body of the nearest Darkspawn.  And there we have it.  The Old Gods in order to take physical form in the physical world need the presence of a semi-living host who bears the Darkspawn Taint.  Without it they cannot incarnate - and THIS is why they guided the rise of Tevinter and at the first possible moment tempted its most powerful Magisters.  This is exactly what we learn from the writings of Avernus the Gray Warden mage - that if he could just understand this connection to the Black City he would understand the taint itself.

I think on entering the Black City the Magisters were indeed tainted, but not by some kind of amplified reflection of their inherently corrupt mortality but by the Old Gods themselves in order to carry back to the world of men 'the taint' so they could escape their ancient prison.  NO angry Creator, no asinine digging underground to find the sleeping Archdemon.  Why?  We know they don't need a physical body to be dug up.  They can create one as necessary from surrounding Darkspawn.  No. The Magisters were horrifically trapped by their supposedly benevolent gods and brought back to the world an evil which had not been seen since... when?  Who made the Black City prison?  That much is not hinted at in any canon source and does not really matter to the games as they stand.

Once this central truth is realized the rest of the Chantry-approved history comes crashing down.  Everything is explained to a large extent.  Why do the Darkspawn spend sometimes centuries digging underground without any surface blight?  Perhaps for the same mundane reason the Dwarves do - to gather lyrium.  We know it takes a vast quantity to permit the opening of a gateway to the Black City and without the deaths of the thousands of human slaves used up by the first ritual then even MORE lyrium will be required.  Therefore the periodicity of the blights is explained - it takes a while to gather that much.  Who directs this recurring process?  The surviving remnants of the group of initial Magisters who entered the Black City.  We know they are STILL lurking among the Darkspawn horde and can be identified as those who talk, who possess a larger quantity of intelligence than the others.  When enough lyrium is gathered another gateway to the Black City can be opened, another old-god can be let free to incarnate from among the conveniently waiting horde of tainted Darkspawn and another blight begins...

The rest?  Just Chantry nonsense and the brokering of power.

There was no Creator horrified by the failures of the human, elven and dwarven - and presumably qunari - races he created, abandoning them to their own corruption.  This was just an invented belief structure spread by Andraste in an attempt to fill the power vacuum of faith created when the larger Tevinter population found themselves to have been betrayed and tricked by their Old Gods when they needed them the most.  To gather a following you need belief and what could be more convenient at a time of spiritual doubt than to be handed a new belief system that offered both explanation for your failings and the hope to overcome them in the future - to win back the favour of your true god.  We see this every day in the real world with evangelical religious movements among many different faiths.

Tevinter was crumbling, Andraste - already we are told a person with spiritual significance among her group of 'barbarians' began to spread a new gospel and it 'took'.  The people, without spiritual hope flocked to her for a new beginning and she exploited their need in her own quest for power.  She struck at a critical moment... And ultimately failed.  However the cod 'religion' she spread survived her death and has continued to infect Thedas to this day, bringing the inhuman oppression of those with magical talents and the continued ascendancy of the ruling theocracy, as corrupt as ever the Tevinter Magisters were.

All of this, all centred around the Golden/Black city and what it contained.

And then there was Flemmeth...

[rosey1579]

You can't expect me to read all that. But I appreciate the time it took for you to write it.