An Attempt to Analyze the Blight
Obviously the blight is a fictional disease and therefore we cannot expect a plausible explanation for its symptoms or mechanism of action. However, given that so little is known about the disease itself, I will attempt to find possible explanations regarding the how’s, what’s, and why’s of the blight using the similarities between the symptoms of the blight and symptoms of diseases that exist in our world. Because oh boy are there similarities.
I believe the blight to be a “hybrid" of two main diseases, rather than just one. An actual disease that directly resembles the blight itself does not exist (obviously!)…(well… that we know of, at least)- but many aspects of the blight are similar to different diseases that are currently observed in nature.
The blight appears to resemble both cancer and the bubonic plague. Now hear me out: I draw the comparison to cancer because there are similarities between the mechanism of cancer and the mechanism of the blight. For example: a blighted individual in DA shows pretty consistent symptoms: black veins, growths, disfiguration, aggressiveness, and hair loss. Now I know you’re thinking “tumors don’t cause all that!” and you’re absolutely right, but listen-
I assume the blight is spread through the body through the blood stream, because whenever a blighted person is shown, the severity of the progression of the blight is usually represented by black looking veins protruding from their skin. Let me explain where I’m going with this- let’s say the the blight disease causes cells to turn tumorigenic and start growing in random areas of the body. Tumors are masses of cells that are caused by the cells continually reproducing. These masses need a blood supply, and as they grow they outgrow the blood and oxygen supply in that area. That specific area becomes hypoxic (oxygen deprived) and the bodies response is to form new blood vessels to the area- forming a cycle. If these small growths block respiratory paths, it could also decrease oxygen flow. Blood that is extremely low on oxygen turns extremely dark in color, almost appearing black. Another symptom of hypoxic conditions is vasodilation (dilation of the blood veins), which could explain why there are many visible blood veins that appear large and dark colored in a blighted person. Granted, this comparison is exaggerated- in actuality, hypoxic/hypoxemic blood veins do not become visible as far as I know, but the biological comparison is still remarkably similar enough to warrant it being mentioned. (EDIT: For clarification, I assume the tumor metastasis in this scenario works via the bloodstream when small cell clusters of the tumor break off of the parent tumor and enter the blood stream, which then travel to different areas of the body & form new masses)
If these ’tumors’ then proceed to super-metastasize and travel rapidly throughout the body, each of these symptoms can (somewhat) theoretically be caused by different kinds of tumors. The growths observed on blighted individuals can be large forming tumors in areas close to the surface of the skin, and the disfiguration could be caused by large bone tumors. Aggressiveness and hallucinations can be caused by certain tumors in the brain, and hair loss can be caused by certain tumors that cause a deficit in some hormones. The rapid growth of any tumor can cause tissue necrosis around the parts of the tumor no longer getting blood/oxygen supplied to it. This necrotic tissue could explain the blackened/decomposing appearance on the skin of the blighted individuals. Now I realize I’m kind of using “tumor magic” as a catch all for these symptoms, but I’m trying ok? Finding a working explanation for a disease that has literally 0 information about its method of action is harder than it seems.
But cancerous like symptoms alone do not fit the blight- it also has aspects of a viral/bacterial type of disease- which brings me to the second disease: the bubonic plague. Yes, yes, it’s an obvious comparison given the name and nature of the blight, but the mechanisms of the diseases do not actually appear to be that similar. The reason I believe it has to be a “hybrid” like disease of these two conditions is because cancer is not contagious, whereas the blight is. The bubonic plague causes lesions (which could also explain the growths on blighted individuals) and some tissue necrosis usually around areas like the fingers and toes. Advanced bubonic plague(pneumonic?) could also be spread from person to person, which is more like how the blight appears to spread. Additionally, the bacteria that causes bubonic plague kills macrophages! Macrophages are used to kill small cancerous cell growths in the early stages. So by killing off the macrophages, it is simultaneously helping the tumors grow without being broken up by the natural immune responses. Which could explain how the blight tumors spread so rapidly through the body of an infected person.
As a side note, I feel like I’m obligated to mention the Grey Warden joining ritual. To be honest I am really confused how this could work, but here goes! I am kind of assuming that maybe it might work kind of like a vaccination? A vaccination activates your immune response towards a specific pathogen by introducing a modified version (usually altered to deactivate/remove the component that sets off the disease) so that you have antibodies ready & waiting for if/when you encounter the pathogen. So remember how in Origins they had to magically alter the darkspawn blood with the mage ritual? I assume this was working to deactivate the trigger toxin in the disease, which allows them to drink it and still be relatively asymptomatic. Well... except for the people who get OHKO’d. I uh, don’t really know how to explain that because it could be anything out of a hundred things. I would love to witness an autopsy of a failed joining warden! It would be fascinating! But I’m going off topic.. So as far as the joining working kind of similarly to a vaccine, it wouldn’t explain the hive mind or the dreams. Or the song. I can’t even try to explain those. Someone who is more familiar with the lore/psychology/theology is more than welcome to work on that part of this theory!
AND LASTLY: I also once in a previous theory compared immortality of immortal beings to the immortality of cancer cells. The only reason I bring this up again is because it appears that the blighted magisters(architect & corypheus) are also immortal. Note that I use the word immortal lightly, I am fully aware that we killed corypheus- but it appears(?) that these magisters do not die from aging. From our knowledge in game, there is no spell that causes immortality and humans are not supposed to be immortal. So could their immortality be linked to some magically altered version of the blight similar to something like the warden joining ritual? Could they have found a way to utilize this immortality aspect of the cancerous cells without having the deadly uncontrollable proliferation?
Does it have anything to do with their taint? All questions & no answers. Sorry! I tried.
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No I have other games... This is just the one I'm focused on. I generally don't switch from game to game unless there's not much else to play. I've got plenty of other games. Just not interested in playing them right now. Last new game I got was Farcry 4 besides this.
