I've been thinking that for awhile now. It's my theory on where the Architect came from.
Last time I checked, red lyrium spreads extremely fast and could've simply grown there after the thaig was built.
Also, again, last time I checked, red lyrium was normal, blue lyrium before, but was simply corrupted by the blight, much like how humans and elves turn into ghouls. So it could've been simply blue lyrium inside the thaig before the blight started and then turned into red lyrium after the blight started.
Red lyrium is grown from the taint of living organism. its not blue lyrium tainted by the blight hanging out by it. otherwise the deep roads would have been filled with the stuff.
And the whole thing i believe is the Magisters first came back to the world and not purposely tainted a few individuals and created the first ghouls, and it just steam rolled until brood mothers birthed the first hordes and they all eventually left the deep roads since the Codex from Paragon Aeducan says the Dwarfs had been fighting them for some time before he saw the Archdemon leading a massive horde to the surface.
also that codex about the dwarf seeing talking magister darkspawn was about 3 tainted magisters arguing and one of them killing and eating the other, while the last ran away.
But my whole theory is this, Red Lyrium existed for a time and it was locked away in the black city by Fen'Harel or who ever, but when the magisters came they were tainted by its pure essence into the creatures they are. and i think they must have been tainted by pure taint like red lyrium otherwise they would go mad like ghouls, because we see that the red templar who are tainted by blighter/red lyrium still have their mind and are able to speak and create complex plans like trade networks. while everyone else who gets tainted by darkspawn blood go crazy or just die. it would also explain the extreme magic Corypheus(and maybe the architect) had, and the existence of the tainted magic the darkspawn seem to have since for all we know darkspawn don't dream so they shouldn't be connected to the fade, so in my mind, the taint must first come from Lyrium, and the dark spawn just have in a sense dirty unpurified Liquid lyrium in their veins which makes living things sick when they come in contact with it, just like what dirty unpurified blue lyrium does to people when they ingest it.
Interestingly, not only can organic creatures with the taint not infect lyrium with it, but not-so-obviously, tainted (red) lyrium cannot infect organic beings with the taint.
Think about it. Corypheus had an army of red templars and he still enthralled Grey Wardens. He took the Wardens everywhere with him, you can even find a note from one red templar to another where one is complaining that Corypheus favors the Wardens over the templars because he takes the few Wardens he has everywhere. Now why is that? Not for combat skill, obviously. Not that the Warden mages are to be trifled with, but the red templars are easily just as vicious and honestly Corypheus himself doesn't need any backup at all. No, the answer is that Corypheus can respawn inside a Warden if need be. But apparently, he cannot respawn inside a red templar. Which means that red templars, despite eating blighted lyrium en masse, do not carry the taint themselves. Fascinating.
nvm I think I totally misinterpreted the question
Edit: actually, I think I didn't after all. The question was "That gets us 7 Darkspawn - where did all the rest come from?"
I think the answer is Broodmothers. Broodmothers aren't darkspawn, they are ghouls. Broodmothers birth darkspawn. So, the first 7 darkspawn could have created ghouls, including Broodmothers, thus creating more darkspawn.
David Gaider said:
"Darkspawn don't breed, either... unless you want to call the process by which darkspawn are created by broodmothers breeding. Broodmothers technically aren't darkspawn themelves-- they're ghouls."
http://forum.bioware...-eat/?p=3145744
"A ghoul is any living creature that has been afflicted with the darkspawn corruption and survived the process-- and there are different stages from your typical (the standard "ghoul" you encounter, or creatures such as the blight wolf or the bereskarn) to the very advanced (the broodmother, a being who has had their corruption artificially accelerated). A darkspawn is a creature that is born from a ghoul, but that's the only way they're created."
http://forum.bioware...-eat/?p=3145878
Now, how did the Magisters actually get tainted is a good question.
Interestingly, not only can organic creatures with the taint not infect lyrium with it, but not-so-obviously, tainted (red) lyrium cannot infect organic beings with the taint.
Think about it. Corypheus had an army of red templars and he still enthralled Grey Wardens. He took the Wardens everywhere with him, you can even find a note from one red templar to another where one is complaining that Corypheus favors the Wardens over the templars because he takes the few Wardens he has everywhere. Now why is that? Not for combat skill, obviously. Not that the Warden mages are to be trifled with, but the red templars are easily just as vicious and honestly Corypheus himself doesn't need any backup at all. No, the answer is that Corypheus can respawn inside a Warden if need be. But apparently, he cannot respawn inside a red templar. Which means that red templars, despite eating blighted lyrium en masse, do not carry the taint themselves. Fascinating.
Good find. I never realized that. I did see the codex where one of the Templars think they were below the Wardens.
I think the taint changes in nature depending on what or who infects it. It is magic after all. So for mortals they become darkspawn, in lyrium it becomes red with added taint superpowers (and crazyness on the side)
Therefore, given to the right wielder, the taint could be used as a powerful source of magic, but without the poison bit. Avernus I believe was working to achieve this goal. He wanted to access the powers of the taint without its side effects.
This might have been the original purpose of the taint - a weapon - but I suppose the only one who can wield the power is either dead or nowhere to be found. Corypheus is pretty good at it, although something tells me there's more to the taint than just a means of achieving immortality
This is one of the codex entries that are translated after you drink from the well...Could the weapon created by Andruil be the taint?
I doubt it was the taint, or at least not the taint at that time. The weapon was glowing golden, not black or red. It could be what the Magisters where told they would find in the Golden City though: "we were promised the golden light, the power of the gods themselves". A golden glowing spear (of light?) created by an elven god...
Also, going by the Chant of Light, I'm starting to wonder if the Magister brought the taint to the Golden City as opposed to them contacting it there. That might actually explain why Corypheus had a change of personality right before the ritual happened, he was already transforming into a ghoul/darkspawn. This passage might be literal with Sin standing for Taint/Corruption:
And so is the Golden City blackened
With each step you take in my Hall.
Marvel at perfection, for it is fleeting.
You have brought Sin to Heaven
And doom upon all the world.
Maybe Red Lyrium pre-date the Taint/Blight and it was the female Magisters that went into the City who turned into broodmothers afterward and created the darkspawns...
Also, for crackpot theories, I'm starting to wonder if Andruil might have been Andraste. She gets the most references in DAI in term of elven lore beside Mythal and Fen'harel.
That wouldn't really explain all the gold finery fused to his flesh.
The Architect's a tainted magister. The comparisons to Corypheus are utterly overwhelming. I really wish someone from BW would just confirm it already so we stop having to have these discussions.
Seriously.
I can still recall the small explosion on the forums when we first got screenshots of Corypheus, in Legacy. "Hey! Its another freaky weird mutant darkspawn! He's just like the Architect!"
There were screenshot comparisons. There were denials, and assertions of certainty. And then we played the DLC, Cory opened his mouth and started speaking and we all learned that the legends of the magisters assaulting heaven weren't allegory afterall.
The similarities between the two are just too big. If the Architect isn't one of the seven Tevinter magisters, then the explanation for him better be mind-blowingly magnificent.
From the Codex entry: A Different Darkspawn?:
Reminds me of a story my grandsire used to tell, about something his grandsire did. Said he once came upon a group of three darkspawn in the Deeper Roads, each twice the size of any Dwarf - bigger than Humans, even - and dressed up like kings. He watched from the shadows and said they talked, like people, about things he couldn't understand. A city gone black, and they blamed each other for things but could barely remember for what. My Mam was like that: never remembered the slight, just that she was angry. Story goes they attacked each other, and one ran off while the second choked the third to death and then ate him.
It seems like the CIty was golden. I think that Corypheus was mad because he expected to enter the city which is gold to get the light/divinity, but he destroyed it and received corruption. That's why he said: "It was supposed to be golden!".
Keep in mind in the final fight he rants how he walked the golden halls which he couldn't have done if they were already black, well unless there was someplace in the black city that hadn't been corrupted until the magisters stepped into it corrupting it with every footstep they took into it.
There is a theory about the Old Gods actually being the Elven Gods. It would work... if the Orb is able to open the breach to every single location in the world or Fade. Does he really need to use such a magic to go to the Deep Roads? It's possible.
I don't think that Archdemons are the vessels for the essences of the Elven Gods, but actually for their souls. It makes more sense. We know that they were imprisoned and Fen'Harel needs the Orb. It's useful if the Dread Wolf's goal is to save the rest of his kind before the Dark Spawn will currupt them which means death at the hands of the Grey Wardens.
The next important thing is the reason for Dumat's whispers to Tevinters about the Golden City. Maybe the City was something different before corruption and Dumat (one of the Elven Gods) wanted to get something from it or just corrupt the entire Thedas as his revange? We know that Magisters ended up in the Deep Roads, starting the First Blight. I think that Dumat cheated on them to go out of his prison to destroy the world which wasn't the same after their banishment and the Blight was his weapon. Flemeth said that Mythal was betrayed as well as the world was.
But... there is no answer why Dumat would say that the Golden City is Maker's home and who the hell is Maker? It seems that myth about Maker and his City was older than Tevinter. It makes no sense with the theory that Fen'Harel (when he was dreaming) introduced himself to Andraste as Maker to punish Tevinter which destroyed the Elves completely (right after they started destroying themselves). It makes no sense, because Andraste was born after Magister's arrival in the Black City, so Maker was created by Dumat to convice Tevinter to go to the Black City or he really exists.
That wouldn't really explain all the gold finery fused to his flesh.
The Architect love the Orlesian fashion
I'm just spitballing here, but I think the Blight will probably be traced back to the Old Gods and not the Maker. According to legend, it was the Old God Dumat that told the Magisters to enter the golden city. He promised the power of the Gods, but they found the city already corrupted and contracted the blight, which directly led to the release of Dumat in the form of the first Archdemon.
Perhaps the Golden City was once the seat of a Divinity or Divinities, but at some point it was corrupted during the reign of the Old Gods (perhaps during the same event that led to their imprisonment). Some say the golden city was Arlathan, and perhaps it was sealed in the Fade to mitigate the spread of the Blight, and the reason Solas sealed away the Elven Gods, to save the Elves from the madness of their "gods" (theorized to be the remaining Old Gods). What we do know is that Dumat sent the Magisters to the Golden city with promises of godhood. It seems more likely to me that instead of generously trying to give godhood to mere mortals, Dumat was plotting his escape. The Old God almost certainly knew that there was no Maker to be found in the Golden City, but the blight of old, that would draw the newly minted darkspawn to his song and eventual release.
Now this comes with the obvious drawback of becoming an archdemon, but I don't think we know enough about how the blight affects a being as powerful as a "god" to know if this would be considered a drawback to the Old Gods or a benefit.
What if there is more than one orb? Dorian mentions seeing ancient elves holding orbs and asks Sola's if they could be similar to what Cory has. Solas was evasive.
I also believe that the taint holds an extreme amount of power, but for those who can control it they either die, get crazy.
I personally think that the Taint is the work of the Forgotten Ones and ancient dwarves. The ancient dwarves of the forgotten thaig also had statues of gods unknown to anyone one else.
If I recall correctly what Dorian was asking if Solas was sure the orb was really elven because the dreamers who used to rule Tevintor before the magisters who shown using similar orbs. Come to think of it dreamers used to rule both Tevintor and the elven empire before being replaced by the magisters in Tevintor and killed by slave revolts in the elven empire after it gutted it self in civil war.
I would still bet money that the Blight is the result of the sinking of Arlathan. Pretty sure there is some connection between Arlathan and the black city. The black city is likely Arlathan's reflection in the Fade. The blight might be some kind of ancient elven defense mechanism gone wrong or something to that effect.
Or it was a tool used by Dumat and his kind to destroy the world. As mechanism it's too dangerous, because no one knows about it and it's cost to protect one city is too high - it must kill intruders, not the entire world.
I would still bet money that the Blight is the result of the sinking of Arlathan. Pretty sure there is some connection between Arlathan and the black city. The black city is likely Arlathan's reflection in the Fade. The blight might be some kind of ancient elven defense mechanism gone wrong or something to that effect.
I'm pretty sure they were growing it, then mining it as a dying red templar tells you if you defeat imshael and take the keep. He says the demon was referring to it as his "garden" or something like that.
When a mommy darkspawn and a daddy darkspawn love each other really much..
Avernus said the demons he faced were baffled by the blight, it's power was alien to them. (I wonder if he has anything to do with whatever the HofF was doing during the events of Inquisition, if he was still living. Even of he died I doubt all his research would have been wasted, plus the Warden had an opportunity to drink some of that weird stuff)
Now in Inquisition you finally see demons monitoring the growth of red lyrium & enhancing that false calling. If demons really were clueless about the blight before, something has changed. Maybe Bioware's just going a different route than what they had with Avernus, but I think Corphy gave them that knowledge, and offered them a means to use it. What could be the motivation? Why are these demons seeking to learn about the blight, what use of it could they have?
Mm. I'm not so sure we should look at Imshael and see change to all demons. Imshael is anything but a typical demon. Its one of the Forbidden Ones, unique in power and intellect even from other desire demons.
His hat is fused to his head, unless it's symmetrical gold designs are somehow natural for him. You can even see where his flesh meets the fabric. I'm not sure what you're going on about with the mask, it's just mask. Beneath it, half his face looks melted off, much like Corypheus.Is it fused or is he wearing it? Or maybe it's just part of him. His hat, for instance, is not a hat, it's his head. But his mask is a mask and appears to correct deformities subjects like Seranni might find off-putting.
To me, there's more if a symmetrical look than with Corypheus, like it's organic material that looks inorganic.
He's also not noteworthy if appearance in the book. Perhaps he mutates as he ages, like the children?
My guess, he's the offspring of a female magister broodmother, a genetic throwback to the magisters.
His hat is fused to his head, unless it's symmetrical gold designs are somehow natural for him. You can even see where his flesh meets the fabric. I'm not sure what you're going on about with the mask, it's just mask. Beneath it, half his face looks melted off, much like Corypheus.
I don't think his appearance is the book is at all relevant. It could have been retconned. It might simply be that they hadn't decided what the magisters would look like yet. They could have designed him as a normal emissary in Awakening, but they didn't.
Yeah his hate is fused to his face, just like Corypheus' helmet thing is.
The mask is detachable. Maybe it's a vanity/beauty thing, because The Architect wears the Robes of Uthurmiel, who was the Old God of Beauty.
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