Here are my thoughts on the lore revelations in the DLC. Holy wall of text Batman !
1) I do not think that the magic Shaper Valta seemed to cast was magic that is derived from the fade or blood or blight like what an Elf or Human or Qunari or Darkspawn uses. It is my opinion that what Valta did was to draw upon the power of the Lyrium and the Titans. Think of it as a Dungeons and Dragons Cleric casting spells by drawing on the power of a particular god or goddess. As such, even though it opens the possibility of playing as a Dwarf mage, we would probably be only playing as someone with a strong stone sense, such as another Shaper and would probably only involve buffs and stone spells like Shale. Remember in Dragon Age Origins how Shale had an entire tree devoted to buffs whose abilities are blue in color ?
2) I think that the Titans are like giant earth walking creatures that supported Thedas and shaped it. They had Lyrium for blood and inside these large creatures, we had Dwarves who lived in the Titans, drinking Lyrium and living their lives. Because of this, some of the Dwarves or many of them became like the Sha-Brytol, immortal but soulless, just living to protect the Titan and to drink Lyrium. I also think that the Ancient Elves hunted the Titans for its Lyrium and to free the Dwarves who lived in it.
There is a Codex in the Arbor Wilds: http://dragonage.wik...d_Elven_Writing . Here are its contents:
There are whispers from the Well of Sorrows. It's impossible to understand the entire text, but certain parts suddenly reveal a shadow of their original meaning.
"In this place we prepare to hunt the pillars of the earth. Their workers scurry, witless, soulless. This death will be a mercy. We will make the earth blossom with their passing."
For one moment there is a vivid image of two overlapping spheres; unknown flowers bloom inside their centers. Then it fades.
So you see that the Titans are linked to the Ancient Elves. This leads me to believe that sites such as Temple of Sacred Ashes, which was a huge Lyrium deposit, was in fact a place where the Ancient Elves slew a Titan and its blood, Lyrium, spilled around and "bloomed the earth." Then they built some building over it and we know this because we see the Temple of Sacred Ashes having a symbol of Mythal at its foundations. Parts of it was probably destroyed and later Humans came along and built the Temple of Sacred Ashes there. The Warden stumbles on it years later and Oghren remarks how the Temple has a high concentration of Lyrium deposits. Later, Corypheus comes along and tries to use Blight Magic to unlock Fen'Harel's orb which caused the explosion of the Conclave and the corruption of the Lyrium deposits. Or corruption of the Titan's blood.
This could also be why Solas has very little to say about what happened in the Descent DLC. He once mentioned to Varric in a banter : "Dwarves are the severed arm of a once mighty hero, lying in a pool of blood. Undirected. Whatever skill of arms it had, gone forever. Although it might twitch to give the appearance of life, it will never dream." So The Egg knows about the Titans and knows that his brethren hunted them in the past. More importantly, he could not say any of this without giving his identity away because Dwarves do not dream so he can't use the "In the Fade" excuses. You could see though that he was very eager to investigate what was going on with the earthquakes. Perhaps too eager ?
3) The third thing we have is how Compulsion seems to be a really big theme in Dragon Age. Darkspawn and compelled by the power of the Taint to seek out Old Gods and corrupt them into Archdemons. Ancient Elves who were branded or marked with a geas or with lyrium tattoos were compelled to serve their masters. If you recall, Fenris mentions that he killed the Fog Warriors whom he lived with just because his master said so. The Qunari hear something in the High Dragons and without strict upbringing, become very violent. Corypheus is compelled to search for the Black City and enter it at all cost. Now we have Dwarves who can hear the singing of the Stone and who are compelled to serve the Titans in some way once they drank Lyrium, which is the Titans blood.
The fact that Dwarves are compelled somehow, either willingly or against their will to work for the Titans if they get exposed to the Lyrium is fascinating. On the one hand, it might be that the Sha-Brytol drank the Lyrium to sustain themselves or because it was like a drug to them and in return, they are compelled to defend the Titan against anyone, even to the point of killing other Dwarves. Rest in peace, Renn. On the other hand, we have someone like Shaper Valta who gets affected by pure Lyrium, survives it and still retains her sanity.
I think what we are seeing here is parallel to what you see in Humans. Only some Humans can be mages, not all. Accordingly, I think that only some Dwarves can be magical and can draw power from pure Lyrium and the Titians. Not all of them can. Shaper Valta is one such person. Sandal is perhaps someone who got exposed to too much pure Lyrium by a Titan ? Or perhaps the Old God soul thing is more suitable for him ? This leads me to believe that the records on the existence of the Titans were deliberately erased by someone from Orzammar's Memories. This is because only a few can truly draw power from the Titan and the rest who do so become soulless and witless, slaves to the Titans' will.
4) This is the second time in recorded history that the Titans were agitated and were awakened. We have the one right now, due to the Breach. Before this, I think they were agitated, awakened and wrecked a few Lyrium mines because the ancient Tevinter magisters breached the Fade and screwed up big time. Somehow the Titans and the Fade are linked. Perhaps the Titans with its Lyrium blood draws its power from the Fade and the Dwarves draw their power from the Titans, typically by consuming pure Lyrium. In this sense, perhaps the Titans are intermediaries that allow Dwarves to perform magic.
Does this mean the Red Lyrium we see comes from a corrupted Titan ? A Titan perhaps corrupted by the ancient magisters or by Andruil and her Void shenangians or by the Forgotten Ones who live in the Void ? A Blighted Titan. I sure don't want to meet those any time soon.
5) Notice that the Titan only marked Valta as their children. It did not pick anyone else. Varric was not chosen. Cadash was not chosen. Only Valta was. Perhaps this is due to her strong stone sense or perhaps there is a hierarchy of stone sense which translate to a hierarchy of how the Dwarves were linked to the Titans. Could this be the foundation of the Dwarven caste system in ancient times ? The most noble castes are the ones who are most connected to the Titans and were not driven insane whereas the Casteless were the ones who the Titans do not identify as their children.
6) The DLC gave too much of Legacy vibes. Is it just me or is Bioware setting up Valta and the Titans to be the antagonists in Dragon Age 4 ? We know from dialogue that Valta has her disagreements with Dwarven society. We know her life was negatively impacted because of it. We also saw her behaving very strangely after being struck by pure Lyrium blast.
That's all I got for now. Cheers.
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