And to others: how ABSOLUTELY certain are we that the lost thaig is older than the fall or Arlathan? I'm forgetting if there was a specific reference that "proves" this. What references do we have that make the following timeline non-possible:
Because dwarven records go back to the time of the old Tevinter Imperium, and likely even sometime before that. The Primeval thaig is supposed to be something much older than what's recorded by the dwarves, which means it's reaaaalllllly old.
I think that this might have been the eluvian in the Crossroads that Mythal was standing in front of during the epilogue. I think she might have had a hand in their creation and that she could use them at her will.
Also, did it look like she was sending something through it before she turns to talk to FH?
Maybe? I'm kinda suspicious of June having something to do with the eluvians, since he's the Dalish god of crafts, but originally he was supposed to have a significance that was completely lost to them.
I'm still trying to process what happened at the end. I know a lot of people think she sent the Old God soul through, but I thought it just looked like she was touching the mirror... Morrigan does something similar in Witch Hunt. But I really don't know. 
I always thought that the red lyrium song was in fact the same song the darkspawn hear because of the taint.
And that the taint were in fact the reminiscent blood magic used by the Magisters to connect themselves spiritually to the Old Gods and/or open the first Tear in the Veil, the first Breach fourteen thousand years ago.
So the red lyrium song would be in fact the same song Wardens and Darkspawn hear: the Calling, which grows stronger as time passes.
I always thought that the red lyrium song was in fact the same song the darkspawn hear because of the taint.
And that the taint were in fact the reminiscent blood magic used by the Magisters to connect themselves spiritually to the Old Gods and/or open the first Tear in the Veil, the first Breach fourteen thousand years ago.
So the red lyrium song would be in fact the same song Wardens and Darkspawn hear: the Calling, which grows stronger as time passes.
Well, the first and third points I agree with. The second not so much, since we know that the Taint precedes the first Breach by millennia.
You also need to take into account Flemeth's historical interaction with Calenhad's family, especially now we know for certain who she is. [as a side note, she is also responsible for the foundation of the Cousland line, but that bears no weight to this].
The Alistair comics make it clear the descendants of Calenhad have dragon blood.
Alistair is able to resist The Calling. His mother, while pregnant with him, was cured of it.
There is a reason that Flemeth sent Morrigan with the 2 wardens, and that reason was the golden haired son of that line, no matter how it eventually turns out.
Adds weight to the Urthemiel = Old God = Elven Gods theory.
Just a wee addition for the theorising. 
Also, read the Warden codices when you do the Tracking Wardens quest on the Storm Coast. Some very subtle clues there, particularly about the song that Warden is hearing (and not just because she's Dalish).
Perhaps, but I really dunno. I used to subscribe to the theory, but now I feel like the Golden/Black City is something else. A prison maybe, but not Arlathan itself, real or in the Fade. The idea of it being linked to something underground also makes me wonder about dwarven involvement. The blight does appear to predate both the invasion of the Golden City and the fall of Arlathan.
Felassan isn't Fen'Harel, but...
Spoiler
You also need to take into account Flemeth's historical interaction with Calenhad's family, especially now we know for certain who she is. [as a side note, she is also responsible for the foundation of the Cousland line, but that bears no weight to this].
The Alistair comics make it clear the descendants of Calenhad have dragon blood.
Alistair is able to resist The Calling. His mother, while pregnant with him, was cured of it.
There is a reason that Flemeth sent Morrigan with the 2 wardens, and that reason was the golden haired son of that line, no matter how it eventually turns out.
Adds weight to the Urthemiel = Old God = Elven Gods theory.
Ok, a few things. Alistair is not able to resist the Calling, period. He is a Tainted Warden and has shown absolutely no resistance to it at all.
Flemeth sent Morrigan with the Wardens so she could control the destination of Urthemiel's soul. That had nothing to do with Alistair either.
Spoiler
Masked Empire takes place very close to Inquisition. Solas likely doesn't have the orb anymore: Corypheus does. Pure speculation but it's possible he realized Cory wasn't going to do what he wanted him to and started looking for another way. I don't like this theory because until the anchor backfires at Haven I think things were going according to Solas's plan.
You also need to take into account Flemeth's historical interaction with Calenhad's family, especially now we know for certain who she is. [as a side note, she is also responsible for the foundation of the Cousland line, but that bears no weight to this].
The Alistair comics make it clear the descendants of Calenhad have dragon blood.
Alistair is able to resist The Calling. His mother, while pregnant with him, was cured of it.
There is a reason that Flemeth sent Morrigan with the 2 wardens, and that reason was the golden haired son of that line, no matter how it eventually turns out.
Adds weight to the Urthemiel = Old God = Elven Gods theory.
Just a wee addition for the theorising.
Hmmm. Interesting stuff. Being weak on lore, this is the first I've heard about the golden haired son of Calenhad having special significance. What's the precise implication? That the "dragon blood" in his line is Flemythal's influence?
Hmmm. Interesting stuff. Being weak on lore, this is the first I've heard about the golden haired son of Calenhad having special significance. What's the precise implication? That the "dragon blood" in his line is Flemythal's influence?
A Witch of the Wilds led Calenhad to a dying Great dragon and had him drink dragon's blood, making him a Reaver, as well as passing down the ability to awaken the ancient dragons through his bloodlines. This is from the comics.
The big guess is that Flemeth was that witch.
Masked Empire takes place very close to Inquisition. Solas likely doesn't have the orb anymore: Corypheus does. Pure speculation but it's possible he realized Cory wasn't going to do what he wanted him to and started looking for another way. I don't like this theory because until the anchor backfires at Haven I think things were going according to Solas's plan.
Got it. The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that the references to eluvien requiring "keys" and drawing a connection from that to Solas' orb is a red herring. Eluvian = normal way elves travelled to Arlathan. Orb = tear in space/time/fade = alternate route.
Got it. The more I think about it, the more likely it seems that the references to eluvien requiring "keys" and drawing a connection from that to Solas' orb is a red herring. Eluvian = normal way elves travelled to Arlathan. Orb = tear in space/time/fade = alternate route.
Just out of curiosity since I've only played the game once, but where exactly is it revealed that the orb is a key to an Eluvian? I'm not doubting whether or not this is said but I don't recall.
It would actually make sense if the orb was used for tearing through the Veil instead of unlocking an Eluvian, since Corypheus was sacrificing Justinia to charge the orb with blood magic, and blood magic is how he tore a hole in the Veil and entered the Fade physically the first time.
Just out of curiosity since I've only played the game once, but where exactly is it revealed that the orb is a key to an Eluvian? I'm not doubting whether or not this is said but I don't recall.
It would actually make sense if the orb was used for tearing through the Veil instead of unlocking an Eluvian, since Corypheus was sacrificing Justinia to charge the orb with blood magic, and blood magic is how he tore a hole in the Veil and entered the Fade physically the first time.
Right, it isn't- that's where I got tripped up. If you don't know about the passcode business from reading Masked Empire, one plausible explanation for references to eluvien having "keys" was that they might have required the use of a focus to activate. (Like Solus' orb.) At this point, I'm pretty firmly convinced "key" simply means special phrase/passcode, and there's no connection.
"So. Now that Fen'Harel / Solas has gathered the elven leaders in one place, he uses his orb and a tremendous amount of power to seal the whole thing away in the Fade. (Possibly *creating* the veil in the first place, but again that's pure conjecture.) "
Do you think this might have happened in Skyhold? There are a number of hints that the prison and other parts under went some high pressure at some point which fractured/compressed the rock. Or perhaps not. Skyhold couldn't be that old, could it?
Mmm, some good theories in here. These are my favorite kind of threads.
Since it seems somewhat topical--was it ever explained why exactly Corypheus wanted to spread red lyrium everywhere? I kept expecting it to be part of a huge masterstroke but in the end the game barely addressed it. I guess maybe it was just a source of cheap lyrium for his crazy templar army but that explanation seems kinda boring.
Skyhold the castle? No, it's not that old. Skyhold the place? Absolutely. It's 'the place where the sky is held up.' The forge area is *ancient*. And the castle's been rebuilt on top of it time and again.
Not sure on the Black/Golden City - Arlathan comparison.
The blight has been around for a looooooooooong time, deep in the world. The ancient magisters became the first darkspawn and began the first Blight.
Lyrium is the physical manifestation of the Fade in Thedas, supposedly. Red lyrium is lyrium that is infected with the blight.
Mages, any mage and not just darkspawn or Wardens or ghouls, can tap into the blight for magical power. The souls of Old Gods travel through the blight if their body is killed (so can Cory's it seems). The blight seems to be a kind of Anti-Fade, or Negative Fade, or some perverted Fade or something.
Beautifully put. It has been revealed that elves are connected to the fade, though I'm not sure if that
applies only to the ancient elves.
It seems lore has implied that our physical world and the fade are two sides of the same coin.
Conversations with Solas reveal that he has a passionate interest in the fade, even going so far as to ask the inquisitor to imagine a world with no veil and all living entities existing in harmony. This could impy his plans relate to manipulating the veil or tearing it down completely. This does imply the nature of the elven orb; manipulating the veil.
That being said, when the inquisitor asked Solas what the orb was used for, he answers by stating that the elven orb was used to channel power. This means that either the orb is just a conduit where it's purpose is dictated by the user or Solas was being ambiguous in his answer in an attempt to hide the orbs true purpose.
So many implications. I almost don't want BioWare to confirm any of this, crafting and reading the theories is incredibly fun.
Alistair, as Warden, is the only one who calls bullcrap on the whole fake Calling thing. He ignores it. Perhaps "resist" is too strong a word. Granted, Stroud and Loghain do, too, but their responses re: if they hear when you speak to them about it are different.
As King, he also ignores it (if he hears it at all, discussion of that aspect on another thread).
The same song made Anders go literally mad when he got too close--so much so that Justice intervened and Hawke has to fight him to save him (in Legacy). Also, in Legacy, there are many notes that imply that Kirkwall's extreme blood mage/demon population is caused by the Prison being so close by--Cory's song affected them.
Perhaps, as a mage-blooded and elf-blooded, dragon-blooded Calenhad heir, he has a wee advantage. 
It's only theory. Thought I'd just add it to the speculation.
Re: dragon blood, what Rex said up there. Golden-haired son of Calenhad was just my euphemism for him, however, he's never referred to that way.
Flemeth sent Morrigan with the Wardens so she could control the destination of Urthemiel's soul. That had nothing to do with Alistair either.
P'haps. If your Warden is female, however, it, of necessity, has everything to do with him. 
Morrigan's extreme reaction to Alistair himself speak volumes, to me, but... again, implication. There's a lot of implication in Flemeth's stories, though--and this is all most of the theories are, born of implication.
ETA: [He's also Gaider's golden boy, so that in and of itself means he's some sort of Thrall character ]
Highover is where the noble who Flemeth killed for breaking his promise ruled. Its part of the history mentioned by the Cousland family tudor that the first cousland to rule was a member or captain of the guard who took over with local surport instead of the lands going to the nearest related family the Howes which was the start of the bad blood between the Howes and Couslands.
Alistair, as Warden, is the only one who calls bullcrap on the whole fake Calling thing. He ignores it. Perhaps "resist" is too strong a word. Granted, Stroud and Loghain do, too, but their responses re: if they hear when you speak to them about it are different.
As King, he also ignores it (if he hears it at all, discussion of that aspect on another thread).
The same song made Anders go literally mad when he got too close--so much so that Justice intervened and Hawke has to fight him to save him (in Legacy). Also, in Legacy, there are many notes that imply that Kirkwall's extreme blood mage/demon population is caused by the Prison being so close by--Cory's song affected them.
Perhaps, as a mage-blooded and elf-blooded, dragon-blooded Calenhad heir, he has a wee advantage.
It's only theory. Thought I'd just add it to the speculation.
Re: dragon blood, what Rex said up there. Golden-haired son of Calenhad was just my euphemism for him, however, he's never referred to that way.
P'haps. If your Warden is female, however, it, of necessity, has everything to do with him.
ETA: [He's also Gaider's golden boy, so that in and of itself means he's some sort of Thrall character
What are you talking about? Warden Alistair clearly says he can hear the calling, that's it's like an itch in the back of his mind. You can't just ignore the calling that's idiotic.
So the red lyrium song would be in fact the same song Wardens and Darkspawn hear: the Calling, which grows stronger as time passes.
So this notion, in combination with the finding of the Red Lyrium in the pre-tevinter Primeival Thaig, seems to tie in with the fact the Darkspawn keep cropping up in the Deep Roads.
Why does this whole matter of the Fade tearing, old skool Tevinter blood magic, the darkspawn taint and the meddlings of Solas/Fen'Harel seem to have such a long-lasting effect on the Deep Roads in particular with the recurrance of Darkspawn down there?
Is it likely that the Deep Roads were/are connected to Arlathan/Golden City, and/or a Thaig that had some link to Arlathan (Eluvian Mirror portal)? (Tamlen loosely referred to a dark city underground when discussing the matter of the Black City/Arlathan). So everytime a blight occurs, that particular Deep Road route from the now-Black City is essentially an overflow pipe from a proverbial melting pot of blight nastiness; hence the Deep Roads being a seemingly endless source of Darkspawn critters.
Following this through - it seems as though The Calling is an attraction to Blight-central, The Black City, by way of the Deep Roads.
just so you know. the elves had a name for the golden city, The Eternal City.
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