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[Heimdall]

This is my theory about the how the Golden/Black City, the Old Gods, the Elven Gods, and the Void all fit together.  Let's start with:

 

Gods & Titans

In The Silent Grove, Yavana tells Alistair that "the blood of dragons is the blood of the world" and a time before the Veil when Dragons ruled the skies.  I believe that the Great Dragons, creatures of tremendous power even by dragon standards, where the dragons of those times, creatures of incredible power tied to the very reality of Thedas.  The Old Gods were the greatest of them, and Thedas itself was tied to them.  Each of these creatures houses a kind of, 'living heart of the world'.  That is to say, without them, Thedas would be struck by terrible cataclysm and possibly die.  Without the Veil in this time, spirits and perhaps other living beings could pass between the Fade and Thedas at will.  With dragons, embodiments of primordial aggression and power, roaming the land, this would have been an extremely dangerous and chaotic era.  Enter the Elven Gods and the Titans.

 

Titans are vaguely referenced but once by Kieran in relation to dwarves.  I'm a bit unsure about these parts myself given the general lack of information, but I believe Titans are tied entirely to the physical world of Thedas.  They are creatures of order and firm reality.  I'm less certain about the nature of the elven gods, but I don't believe they were merely powerful mages.  Cole claims that Solas feels like he walks in the Fade and the real world at the same time.  I'll tentatively suggest that the elven gods are almost or just as primordial as the dragons or the Titans, something neither mortal or spirit.  Whether you want to apply the term 'god' is purely academic.

 

At some point, the Titans went to war with the Dragons, to bring order to the chaos.  Possibly they allied with the elven gods, I'm not certain.  The Titans could not allow the Old Gods to die, however, because of what they are to Thedas.  So it was the Titans that constructed the prisons that hold the Old Gods deep within the earth.  The Great Dragons were killed or went to slumber and only their lesser children remained.  The elven gods went to war with the Titans at some point.  Codex's from the Temple of Mythal suggest that the elven gods went to war with the "pillars of the earth" and their soulless servants.  Some people take "soulless" to indicate darkspawn, but I think these were the precursors of the dwarves, unconnected to the Fade.  Whatever happened, the Titans are gone or slumbering.

 

Divine War

On to the Forgotten Ones and the Elven Gods.  The disagreement between the two seems to lie in the way elven gods set themselves up to be worshiped by mortals.  Elven legends also talk about the Forgotten Ones residing in the abyss, used interchangeably with the Void.  I'm not really certain about this, since they are supposedly the same type of being as the elven gods, yet residing there wasn't apparently as harmful to them as it was to Andruil.  It might be that their location there was more exile than choice.  As a god of rebellion (also considering Geldauran's testimony and a certain someone's feelings about the word 'god'), Fen'Harel's sympathy and association with them makes sense.  However it appears the Forgotten ones were able to escape the Void and travel the world.

 

They most likely participated in the events leading to a civil war among the elven gods.  I believe Mythal's murder was the result of her refusing to participate in the war when Elgar'nan demanded she do so.  Her "death" and the destruction a godly war would cause to the elves was likely what led Fen'Harel to implement the Betrayal, sealing away the Elven Gods and the Forgotten Ones.  This reality warping event is what created the Veil and (probably as an unintended consequence) the elves lost their immortality and most of them lost the ability to use magic.

 

His efforts came a bit too late.  Elvhenan was shattered and then the humans arrived.  The rest is history.  Let's return to the subject of the Void.

 

The City & The Blight

Some believe the Black City may be a real city, like Arlathan, dropped into the Fade.  I don't.  I think the Chantry is right about one thing, the city was not built by mortal hands.  I think it is something of a cosmological linchpin for the whole Dragon Age Setting, something tied into the very fabric of reality.  What's important here, is what the city contains.

 

According to the story of Andruil venturing into the Void, when Andruil returned she suffered bouts of madness and plague infested her lands.  There are also references to blighted creatures (Possibly darkspawn, but I think ghouls) in ancient elven art.  This would suggest that the Blight comes from the Void.  And where did the Magisters Sidereal find the Blight?  The Golden City.  I believe the Golden City contains or is itself a doorway, a gate to the Void.  This is the same doorway that the Forgotten Ones and Andruil passed through.  It is likely they who carried the Blight to Thedas and created the ghouls or proto-darkspawn depicted in elven art.

 

The Magisters did not have the power or knowledge of the elven gods, hence the need for the Architect's advanced magical designs and immense power (I personally ascribe to the idea that Kirkwall was the site of the ritual).  When they arrived in the Golden City, it was completely empty, but something they did not so much opened the door to the Void but shattered it.  They were completely transformed by the Blight that poured forth and infested the entire city.  SSomehow they ended up in the Deep Roads.  Some of the Magisters were probably female, and I think they became a sort of uber-broodmother and produced the Emissaries (The only Darkspawn that can draw on the power of the Blight), which I think have been retconned into a separate breed of darkspawn given their unique models and resemblance to the Architect and Corypheus.

 

Now, here's where the song of the Old Gods fits in.  I believe the darkspawn are drawn to taint them because if they are the indeed "world hearts" as I mentioned before, then infecting them effectively claims Thedas for the Blight, for the Void.  Effectively, Thedas is under attack by an alien infection that with either claim it or lead it to kill itself by slaying the Archdemons.

 

Thoughts?

[Ieldra]

You do realize that far too much of your theory relies on the truth of mythology?

 

I'll put forward an alternative very incomplete outline, Some things are deliberately not set because we lack any sort of information about them.

 

I. The elven pantheon

 

(1) I assume that real entities are, or were, both behind the elven Creators and the Forgotten Ones, since we know Mythal and Fen'Harel are, but they were, and are, never tied to some fundamental aspects of reality, but rather just beings with great power.

(2) The places they were supposedly exiled to are not real places. Rather, "exiled" is a metaphor for "being rendered powerless". Just like Mythal and Fen'Harel, whoever of them survived to this day still exists within the world.

(3) Given the evidence, it appears plausible that the falling-out between the two groups was indeed about being worshipped as gods. I conclude, however, that the attributition of negative traits to the Forgotten Ones was propaganda rather than reality, given that (1) the Creators weren't particularly "good" either, and (2) I'd assume those who let themselves revered as gods would rather be the villains of the piece. At the very least, I'd expect the reality of the Forgotten Ones to be quite a bit less simplistic than in the tales.

 

II. Fundamentals of the world

 

(1) Lyrium is alive but without individuality or will, best described as "amorphously alive" and having a non-local awareness. Lyrium enables the Fade. if other entities exist that are "tied to a fundamental aspect of reality", they are like that only through lyrium.

(2) The Fade was an aspect of the one reality created from the emanations of life channeled through lyrium. After the Veil came into existence, it became a secondary reality. The difference may be a matter of perception, itself influenced by the eforementioned emanations of life as they create and change the Fade over time.

(3) Consequently, fundamental changes in the Fade are tied to changes in the kind of life that is dominant within the world. The Veil may be tied to the rise of civilization and the decline of the dragons.

 

III. Old Gods and dragons:

 

(1) The "Old Gods" are a special kind of dragon. They are intelligent and self-aware, but not different in their nature from the elven "gods". They are, or were, beings of power, nothing more. Dragons have no fundamental significance except in the eyes of those who worship them.

 

IV. The Blight and the City

 

(1)  If the Fade exists as a secondary reality created by the emanations of life channeled through lyrium, then the City must be tied to something all life has in common, since it is permanent and omnipresent. 

(2) The City turning black is a symptom of the infection of lyrium with the Blight.

(3) The Blight is another amorphous life form with non-local awareness and no individuality or will. Because of its nonlocal awareness it can create connections between infected units of other life forms. Alternatively, it may have gotten its non-local awareness from the lyrium it infected, and those connections are channeled through red lyrium. These connections enable the different communication and control methods of the different types of darkspawn. It should theoretically be possible to use lyrium in a similar way.

(4) The source of the Blight is still a mystery. It may be that both the Blight and lyrium are some sort of semi-aware primordial matter representing opposing principles. 

[Heimdall]

You do realize that far too much of your theory relies on the truth of mythology?

Only some of it, most of it is based off sources in a position to know more than what the Chanty or Dalish think they know
 

III. Old Gods and dragons:
 
(1) The "Old Gods" are a special kind of dragon. They are intelligent and self-aware, but not different in their nature from the elven "gods". They are, or were, beings of power, nothing more. Dragons have no fundamental significance except in the eyes of those who worship them.

The question is then why they seem to emit a 'song' that attracts darkspawn and why the Elven Gods we've met, Mythal and Fen'Harel, do not seem to do so.

That "the blood of dragons is the blood of the world" quote comes from Yavana, a daughter of Flemeth who would have access to more information. I'm extrapolating quite a bit from there, but given the source it does suggest a greater significance than simply being powerful.

[Ieldra]

The question is then why they seem to emit a 'song' that attracts darkspawn and why the Elven Gods we've met, Mythal and Fen'Harel, do not seem to do so.

That "the blood of dragons is the blood of the world" quote comes from Yavana, a daughter of Flemeth who would have access to more information. I'm extrapolating quite a bit from there, but given the source it does suggest a greater significance than simply being powerful.

Then the question is why nobody but darkspawn and Wardens is affected by their song. That suggests a connection to the Blight. Hmm....maybe the sleeping Old Gods were already infected and they sang to the darkspawn to get free.

[Dai Grepher]

Question. I may have missed it, or maybe you didn't mention it, but near the beginning of your theory, are you saying the Fade and the real were coexisting without the Veil to separate them, or was it only the Fade at this point and then the real world came later?

[Dai Grepher]

Then the question is why nobody but darkspawn and Wardens is affected by their song. That suggests a connection to the Blight. Hmm....maybe the sleeping Old Gods were already infected and they sang to the darkspawn to get free.

 

Can't be. Mother and Architect confirm that Urthemiel was untainted when the Architect found him and tried to use his ritual on him. The result was an archdemon.
 

[Andromelek]

Question. I may have missed it, or maybe you didn't mention it, but near the beginning of your theory, are you saying the Fade and the real were coexisting without the Veil to separate them, or was it only the Fade at this point and then the real world came later?

Yavana and Solas pointed out that there was a time when the Fade and the "real world" weren't separated.

[Dai Grepher]

And is Heimdall agreeing with that notion or not?

[Heimdall]

Question. I may have missed it, or maybe you didn't mention it, but near the beginning of your theory, are you saying the Fade and the real were coexisting without the Veil to separate them, or was it only the Fade at this point and then the real world came later?

I'm not entirely sure, but I believe they coexisted.  The elven elders went into Uthenera back in the old empire, which suggests some separation if the Veil was created by the Betrayal.  Without the Veil, however, spirits could enter the world at will.

 

I suppose you could say they were two separate realms, but there were little to no barriers between them.  They may as well have been one, but they weren't.

[Heimdall]

Then the question is why nobody but darkspawn and Wardens is affected by their song. That suggests a connection to the Blight. Hmm....maybe the sleeping Old Gods were already infected and they sang to the darkspawn to get free.

The Architect and the Mother indicate that Urthemiel was only infected and became an Archdemon after he attempted his ritual, which involved feeding it tainted blood.

[Ieldra]

The Architect and the Mother indicate that Urthemiel was only infected and became an Archdemon after he attempted his ritual, which involved feeding it tainted blood.

Well, then why are Tainted creatures the only life forms who can hear the Old Gods' song? I'm really curious about how this will be resolved, if at all, because I suspect this is - on the meta-level - an aspect of the world they did not think about resolving when they made DAO. Within Chantry mythology, it's the symbolic reference that counts - both the Old Gods and the darkspawn were connected to this world's "original sin", and that's why they connect. Within the mythology, there doesn't need to be a better explanation, but now that we know the song is real, there needs to be a real explanation rather than a symbolic one. On the symbolic level, the Blight is the symptom of the "original sin", but if the Old Gods aren't physically or magically connected to it, as their being free of the Taint suggests, you can't transform the mythological connection to reality.

So what connects the Old Gods, the Wardens and the darkspawn, if it isn't the Blight?

[Andromelek]

Well, then why are Tainted creatures the only life forms who can hear the Old Gods' song? I'm really curious about how this will be resolved, if at all, because I suspect this is - on the meta-level - an aspect of the world they did not think about resolving when they made DAO. Within Chantry mythology, it's the symbolic reference that counts - both the Old Gods and the darkspawn were connected to this world's "original sin", and that's why they connect. Within the mythology, there doesn't need to be a better explanation, but now that we know the song is real, there needs to be a real explanation rather than a symbolic one. On the symbolic level, the Blight is the symptom of the "original sin", but if the Old Gods aren't physically or magically connected to it, as their being free of the Taint suggests, you can't transform the mythological connection to reality.So what connects the Old Gods, the Wardens and the darkspawn, if it isn't the Blight?

Not every tainted creature, the Red Templars and the Rock Wraiths don't follow any song but they have the Blight, the Rock Wraiths were eating red lyrium rather than seeking for an Old God.

[Reznore57]

So what connects the Old Gods, the Wardens and the darkspawn, if it isn't the Blight?

 

It's possible the Blight is just corrupted Old God blood.

If the dragons were the Blood of the World , well it could be the same just the very wrong version.

The Blight is really powerful stuff , it created a new form of life : the darkspawn.

 

Anyway if it contains the blood of the Old Gods , it would explain why the Old God are related to the Blight and darkspawn , even when they are uncorrupted.

 

There's also the whole creation myth with Elgarn'an and Mythal , I know Dalish tales are not reliable ...but if you change the Sun with dragons in the story well I think it 's interesting.

[Jedi Master of Orion]

Not every tainted creature, the Red Templars and the Rock Wraiths don't follow any song but they have the Blight, the Rock Wraiths were eating red lyrium rather than seeking for an Old God.

 

That very reason is one of the things that made the Red Lyrium = taint feel very much like a major retcon to me. Rock Wraiths don't act like any other blighted being, nor can Grey Wardens apparently sense them.

[Heimdall]

That very reason is one of the things that made the Red Lyrium = taint feel very much like a major retcon to me. Rock Wraiths don't act like any other blighted being, nor can Grey Wardens apparently sense them.

Well, this might be complicated by lyrium possessing its own song.  The Blight twists that song, but maybe doesn't displace it.

 

Was it made clear in Inquisition whether Corypheus could directly control Red Templars or merely controlled them through controlling their red lyrium supply, like the Chantry?  Because we know he couldn't jump into them like he could Grey Wardens.

[Heimdall]

Well, then why are Tainted creatures the only life forms who can hear the Old Gods' song? I'm really curious about how this will be resolved, if at all, because I suspect this is - on the meta-level - an aspect of the world they did not think about resolving when they made DAO. Within Chantry mythology, it's the symbolic reference that counts - both the Old Gods and the darkspawn were connected to this world's "original sin", and that's why they connect. Within the mythology, there doesn't need to be a better explanation, but now that we know the song is real, there needs to be a real explanation rather than a symbolic one. On the symbolic level, the Blight is the symptom of the "original sin", but if the Old Gods aren't physically or magically connected to it, as their being free of the Taint suggests, you can't transform the mythological connection to reality.

So what connects the Old Gods, the Wardens and the darkspawn, if it isn't the Blight?

Really that comes down to what drives the darkspawn to do what they do.  In my theory, I suggested that they were driven to seek out the "blood of the world" in order to claim Thedas in some metaphysical way.

 

It could be that whatever created the Blight in the first place is like the Old Gods, but corrupted somehow (That theorized eighth dragon god?)