Wish I had time to whip this into something coherent... or at least more succinct. Cuttin' and pastin':
The Tevinter "Titan".
This is deep tinfoil territory, but I can't be the only one who looked at the Titan setup and thought "Shiiiit. Huh."
This madness ties into a post a while back: the theory that the Stone is the unborn child of the Earth, that the Sun's OGS may be currently held within it in a primordial mirror of Kieran's Dark Ritual, and that the glorious "dawn" of the Andrastean religion may be referencing (among other things) the rebirth of the Sun via the Stone. According to Valta, the Titan "shapes the Stone. It is the Stone. It sculpts the world within and without." "The Titans are actually sculptors- and our world is their clay."
We know ancient Tevine breached the Bastion of the Pure. They left evidence in the altar we find there, as well as the skeleton of the magister with the fishing pole staff. It's likely they were as aware of the Titans' existence and nature as the Inquisitor is now, and may have had an even better understanding of the Titan's role in guiding the Stone, its ability to influence the nature of the emergent God. (A parallel, I think, to the Avvar and their collective ability to shape the nature of their reincarnated Gods.)
The Tevinter version substitutes human blood for Titan blood- but critically, not just any human. I believe the device works because two criteria are met: draconic blood to power it, and a sentient mind to guide it. The Therin line carries the blood of dragons, "the blood of the world"- again, I think, pointing to the fundamentally draconic nature of the Titans themselves.
*adjusts her tinfoil hat*
...which may explain the creation of the Qunari. The ancient magisters would have needed two things: draconic blood, and a biddable, sentient mind. I'm not certain where Tevinter-era dragons fell in terms of sentience- even the great dragons seem to be beasts in the modern age. They may have been able to power the device, but there would be no sentient mind to direct it. What better solution than to tinker with their massive population of slaves?
It's absolutely a stretch, but given the way Corypheus describes a Qunari Inquisitor ("Your race is not a race, it's a mistake!") there's a sliver of suggestion that the mistake may have been Tevinter's, and this device might explain their motivation.
The relationship between blood and mana.
At this point, it seems the two may actually be aspects of the same fundamental substance. Mana can be conceived of as the “energy stuff” of the spirit- a sustaining essence that can be spent and restored, but at a much faster pace than its “heavy, slow” concentrated version on the other side of the veil- blood. (A critical distinction being that a mage cannot be fully and permanently drained of mana, thus running dry does not imply the death of the mage’s spirit.)
This seems supported in the lore by a few examples: first, the bodies of elves who have passed into Uthenera. The more fully the dreamer occupies the fade realm in spirit form, the less they seem to occupy the physical- and significantly, this transition seems to be marked by the apparent near-bloodlessness of their bodies. In the Masked Empire, we find that the body of an ancient dreamer in Uthenera later killed by servants left only “the faintest trace” of blood from having his throat slit. Although not the only explanation, it's plausible that the stored energy that blood represents underwent a gradual transition, being drawn across the veil and transformed into spiritual power, or mana.
Cole provides a second point of reference, in his case an example of the process in reverse. We know from plenty of rift experience that spirits that have newly made their way across the veil may have physical form and mana – many can cast spells- but they do not bleed. Cole, on the other hand, does- and as his banter with Dorian makes clear, not because “he thinks he should” but because the transition from spirit essence (mana) to blood seems to be a natural consequence of existing fully on this side of the veil for a significant period of time.
A third pillar of evidence supporting the interchangeability of blood and mana is provided directly by written descriptions of blood magic. In Last Flight, Iseeya discovers Calien’s secret identity as a blood mage by noting that he occasionally casts “without touching the fade”- the critical point being that no mana is drawn across the veil in blood magic. Asunder supports and builds on the idea that blood may be mana in concentrated form, directly describing the transition from one to the other: “The blood on his hands sizzled and evaporated as he drew mana directly from it.”
Solas himself gives us a final piece of potential evidence, as this connection might serve to explain why practicing blood magic would be directly detrimental to walking the Fade. The more power a caster spends via physical blood, the less power she would consequently have in sleeping (spirit) form.
So what does this have to do with lyrium?
At this point we have pretty firm evidence that blood is to physical entities as lyrium is to the Titans, including the Earth and the Stone. Similarly, as the spirit of an entity relates to its physical body – an incorporeal, malleable reflection- the Fade itself could be conceived of as the Earth’s soul. From this perspective, lyrium is the slower, denser, concentrated (and thus more powerful) version of that Fade. As Mythal was the Maker who granted souls to sentient life, we are inherently connected to this Fade- the fade of the Earth- and this is what untainted mages draw from. I believe Dwarves are connected to the fetal, developing Fade of the Stone, while darkspawn (and other blighted creatures) are connected to a third, dark Fade whose source seems most likely to be Elgar'nan. I'm not 100% convinced, but if we're meant to draw parallels between dwarven worship of the Stone and the dragon-helmed, lightning-crescented idols that the darkspawn create, it seems like a pointed hint.
What does that make the Titans?
To jump straight into Helsdim-level madness, my hunch is that they are (and were) enormous, primordial, draconic beings with... let's say, some distressingly robotic characteristics. The metallic nature of their blood/neural network, their "distributed" cloud consciousness- even the question of their purpose in creating this universe, as from a metagame perspective, conceiving of the game as what it literally is -a computer simulation- along with some of Cole's dialogue about proving a point / redeeming themselves to a distant Maker suggests the themes that drive the Mass Effect universe are alive and well in Dragon Age. Order and Chaos, Control and Free Will- the eternal cycle of Makers whose creations attain consciousness/free will, the inevitability of conflict, the search for a viable solution, etc.
An interesting possibility, but irrelevant for now- and since it doesn't dovetail all that well with Jungian Individualization theory, setting it aside for a bit. The more significant implication is at this point, it seems possible that the original relationship of the first dwarves to primordial Titans may have been as an integral part of their being- as blood, neurons, or mitochondria are to our own bodies.
To understand the role of Dwarves, and how that role may have changed, we first need to understand how blood and mind are entwined in the DA universe. In various contexts, little distinction is made between the two systems: both circulatory and neurological functions seem to share the same vehicle: blood. (This is most obvious in the details of blood magic, in which blood provides a direct link to the minds of others. The description of Isseya’s griffon-joining in Last Flight is a pretty graphic example, if you need one.)
Consequently, Dwarves actually had two original roles: they were both individual ‘neurons’ in the hive mind of the larger entity to which they belonged, and the blood of the being itself- a particularly important aspect, given the significance of blood in immune response and the need to defend the Stone against blight, red lyrium, gangue, and other “diseases”. As the theory goes, the lyrium they carry is the essence of their original, true form- their current bodies designed and crafted by June long ago to fight larger threats, golem style.
Dwarves as neurons:
This trace of lyrium has an essential purpose, though one that has waned over time as dwarven society moved ever closer to the surface and further from the Stone. This is the source of the dwarves’ vaunted stone sense: an electromagnetic charge created by their movement through the tunnels of the Deep Roads, which were once surrounded by charged (flowing = current) veins of lyrium. This magnetism not only provided an infallible sense of direction (a literal internal compass) but was also the neural charge that linked them to the larger hive mind, as Dagna seems to discover while tinkering:
Dagna: “There's something there. I was face-deep in a rune, and for a moment... I was tall. Really tall. And I thought -- I thought all the thoughts.” (nervous laugh)
Inquisitor: “You felt taller? How much taller?”
Dagna: “Like, mountain-tall. Or I was the mountain. But I was moving. I felt dizzy. You know what I remembered ? Watching a shaperate carve the wall of memory. Except... big. Isn't that weird ? Maybe there were fumes.”
Inquisitor: What do you mean when you say "thought all the thoughts"?
Dagna: “I don't know. As if, for a moment, I was around all my people. And my thought was all of theirs? No, no, my thought was all of our thoughts. Like parts. Ugh, words are mush. Maybe that's what the Stone feels like. Or we think it feels like. If we think it feels ? Creepy.”
Tearing this apart a bit: first, she feels huge and dizzy. This makes sense as the subjective experience of the Stone, since if this theory holds, it’s currently spinning beneath the ground as the planet spins.
Second, she’s simultaneously “around all my people” and “thinking all the thoughts” of her people- again, a fair description of connecting with the Stone’s neural network. She also mentions that the experience evoked the feeling of a shaperate carving the wall of memory, only on a huge scale. This is an important insight, as –in theory- the Wall of Memory serves to fill a function that was lost when dwarves were severed from their connection with the Earth and its Fade: a connection to the larger mind and memory of the entity of which they were a part. Cole seems to reference this disconnection in his dialogue with a dwarven Inquisitor: “No dreams with the cord cut. You sell it.” The cord is a reference to their direct connection to the Fade of the Earth or Stone. The more lyrium they mine and sell, the less surrounds the passageways they move through, and consequently the weaker this connective charge becomes.
Dwarves as blood cells / lymphocytes:
Just as they fill the role of neurons within a larger neural net, Dwarves also function as a fundamental part of the Stone’s immune system: the most common being red blood cells, though some factions may serve a more specific function. (In Last Flight, we discover that blight can be cleared from living beings by another by taking it into their own body- and critically, this only seems to work on embryonic tissue. Consider the potential parallel with how real-world phagocytes work in the body, and the odd sense of simultaneous corruption and stalwart defense Ser Evrain Abernache experienced on meeting the dwarves of Kal-Sharok. It's possible they're drawing blight from the fetal Stone by taking it into themselves.) The same Inquisitor quote from Cole describes this facet directly: “The Stone, still there, silent and reaching up for the blood that walks.” Describing dwarves as ‘blood that walks’ seems apt: their essence is a core of lyrium, the “Blood of the Earth”, encapsulated within a mobile body.
Bits of Solas’ dialogue with Verric offer further clues. “Dwarves are the severed arm of a once mighty hero, lying in a pool of blood, undirected, whatever skill at arms it had gone forever.” That hero, I believe, is Earth: her sacrifice necessary to bring an end –or at least a pause- in the primordial war between Order and Chaos. In this light, this “severed arm” that the dwarves represent are maternal antibodies, passed from the (now deceased) mother to the fetal child.
He goes on, “Although it might twitch to give the appearance of life, it will never dream.” Here, Solas and this theory diverge. It seems likely that dwarves were individually mindless, their actions dictated by their connection to the larger being of which they were a part. One of the scrawled inscriptions in the Temple of Mythal is a possible reference to that time: "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."
Naturally, one possibility for the referenced “workers” are the dwarves. In their role as immune system and the Stone’s first line of defense, they would have to be destroyed for blight to flourish unchecked. Moving back to Solas’ comment, however, it seems clear that although the Stone’s fade hasn’t developed enough to allow dreams or magic, modern dwarves are far from the ‘mindess’ drones they may once have been. Though largely disconnected from the hive mind, they are still connected to that emergent fade- still “return to the Stone” when they die, and seem to experience ever-increasing access to emotion and other aspects as the Stone matures. Verric, an example of a dwarf with no stone sense whatsoever, is in some respects practically a dwarven “mage”- crafting entire worlds out of possibility in his novels. It's arguable that not all dreaming happens while asleep, and that the imaginative daydreaming required to write fiction borders on the same concept.
Returning to the idea of dwarves as immune system, it’s interesting to note that the same trace lyrium that serves as a connection to the larger being seems able to guide ‘sensitive’ dwarves to areas of infection, a slightly warped, funhouse reflection of the biochemical inflammation process that occurs in our own bodies. Gangue has an obvious disease corollary, as does the description of the dwarves’ battle with Malvernis. Red lyrium itself, in terms of its theoretical source, might be conceived of as a kind of blood (lyrium) lymphoma, perhaps pointing to why it was necessary to disconnect early dwarves from the "flow" of lyrium.
We find a final, slightly shaky parallel in the structure of dwarven civilization itself. To the right is a map of Orzammar. To the left, a diagram of a lymph node, production site of white cell leukocytes, including critical B and T cells.
We also know that originally, the Deep Roads were teeming with dwarves- that passageways between thaigs weren't simply crowded, but had almost shoulder-to-shoulder traffic. A fitting image, given the theoretical equivalent:
[/spoiler]
So what changed?
Valta has a quote in Descent: "The Sha-Brytol were dwarves once. Something turned them against us."
In light of the big reveal at the end of the DLC, it's possible she may have that backwards: the original dwarven race may have been quite a bit closer to the Sha-Brytol in form and function than the dwarves we know today. They are instruments with a single purpose: to repel foreign intruders and protect the Titan from "impurities"- and as always, the relationship brings to mind the Pillars of Earth codex, the "bloom" of blight, and an aspect of the Deep Roads that's described in more detail in the DA novels. The dwarven Deep Roads are both teeming with darkspawn and covered in literal blight- a sticky filth that clings to the stone itself. As soon as you leave the crafted Deep Roads for natural tunnels, there's no trace of blight. There are two obvious possibilities: either something inherent to the Deep Roads allows blight to take hold, or something in the 'natural' caverns is able to repel it. Given that the only example we have of a substance that repels blight is enchanted dragonbone, this may be additional support for the draconic nature of Titans.
Of course, if we take the perspective that the original dwarves were an integral component of the larger beings they were connected to -the Titans- then aspects of their current state start to become.. problematic.
It's not a precise analogy, but again- think of your own body: the blood in your veins, the mitochondria in your cells, even the bacteria in your digestive tract. All pieces that contribute to the larger whole, whose behavior is almost entirely governed by biochemical signals. You don't exert conscious control over any of it, of course, but neither do your blood cells 'decide' to carry oxygen or fight an infection. Their behavior is dictated biochemically. If you woke up one day to find that each blood cell was capable of free will and choice- and that instead of carrying oxygen, some wanted to sit around and write poetry- you'd be in trouble.
From a certain perspective, free will is a threat- the behavior of modern dwarves almost like an autoimmune disease. Though their connection and purpose hasn't been entirely lost, it's been twisted: mining lyrium attacks the very network that connects them to the larger organism.
And though this is some heavy-duty tinfoil, it's possible the question of free will may be connected to the Gates of Segrammar. We know that long ago someone attempted to carve a sigil into the stone of the dwarven Deep Roads, the effect of which would have been a mortal threat to "The Creator" mentioned in the codices, a being who refers to the crafter of the gates as "her own" and "her only child".
Marking the gate locations on the dungeon map gives us this:
No obvious pattern, but if you flip it...
....I don't know. It's a stretch, that's for certain. You can make just about anything out of nine dots. Complicating matters, it's not certain whether the gates were positioned to interrupt the lines of the original, or overlay them with a countering rune.
Still, given the connection between this particular rune, events in Kirkwall, and the breaking of slave bonds.... it's possible.
Finally, this trio of odd coincidences:
1) A letter dating before the First Blight mentions concern that the lack of communication with Heidrun Thaig might be due to "those creatures that wear the faces of the dead".
2) In the Chronicles of a Forgotten War series, the Scaled Ones gather the corpses of dwarves, using their gray, drained husks in some kind of blood/flame-based rite or religious ritual, the result of which is never discovered.
3) Post-Descent, Inquisition scouts discover that Lieutenant Renn's grave "was recently disturbed, and his remains are missing".
I don't know how much we're intended to connect, but taken together, these three are unsettling. The description of the dead dwarves' grey skin, the odd, wrinkled, under-leather of the suits, and the fact that the new suit they present to Valta immediately "summons the image of [her] dead friend"... it's definitely creepy.
So I'm not sure what your conclusion in all that was, but it definitely brings up a lot of points from different angles that bear pondering. I especially love the comparison between the dwarf-stuffed pre-blight deep roads to a blood vessel, and it makes me think that the blight-tainted remains of the deep roads resemble a circulatory system overrun by plaque or even cancer (because Darkspawn = cancer is about as obvious as you can get, of course). A couple of thoughts of my own:
One thing that your writing helped me bring into focus is the surety that the dwarves have been cut off from the Titans. We knew that a little, what with Solas' description of them being a severed arm, and Dagna's vision, but I feel like I'm getting a better picture of it now. I'd say the Sha-Brytol were trying (and failing) to rekindle that connection with their rituals, which is why they're so in awe of Valta's success in doing the same. Also, your description of a possible dwarven/Titan hive mind certainly calls to mind the bizarre way Valta was acting following the Guardian fight.
Just finished, and my mind's a mess. So many ideas and I'm trying to make sense of all of them.
The Fade seems like it could be the Titans' consciousness. If it is, then the Veil being created would indeed sever dwarves from the Titans. It would also explain why the Titans are disturbed by things that mess with the Veil (the magisters visiting the Black City 1000 years ago, and the Breach now). Both of these events -- I think -- let the Fade bleed into the waking world. This would allow the Titans to "wake up" briefly, like how Karl regained his emotions in the presence of glowy!Anders. However, the Titans seem to need to calm down by connecting to a dwarf.
So I don't know what to make of this. Maybe I should just go to sleep, but I have a funny feeling I'd just have nightmares about a bottomless world populated by things wearing people-leather. Thanks for that, madrar.
Those two pictures close to each other are freaking me out.
Not the Titan one , the ritual one...because in the comics the magister was using old great dragon blood to well...reshape the Fade , mind control the whole universe.
With the Ouroboros...mmmm.
It's a sign of opposition not clashing but uniting in an unending circle.
Are dragons keeping Thedas together ?
Going back to the Titans ,their blood lyrium can be used to "reinforce" reality , thus denying the power of the Fade to have an impact on Thedas.
Which is probably useful , mages can fart fire , they can have an influence on people's thoughts but what they can't do is picturing the world destroyed and then "Yeah it happens!".
The Tevinter version substitutes human blood for Titan blood- but critically, not just any human. I believe the device works because two criteria are met: draconic blood to power it, and a sentient mind to guide it. The Therin line carries the blood of dragons, "the blood of the world"- again, I think, pointing to the fundamentally draconic nature of the Titans themselves.
I very much doubt the Titans are draconic in nature.
Dwarves don't like dragons (cf some codex you find in the western Approach)
Dragon Blood and Lyrium don't have the same effect too.
It's powerful magical stuff sure but one gets you more powerful and violent , the other well give you some sort of magical abilities.
Also well you need blood magic to affect people mind but Solas says Blood magic is not good with the Fade.
What does that make the Titans?
To jump straight into Helsdim-level madness, my hunch is that they are (and were) enormous, primordial, draconic beings with... let's say, some distressingly robotic characteristics. The metallic nature of their blood/neural network, their "distributed" cloud consciousness- even the question of their purpose in creating this universe, as from a metagame perspective, conceiving of the game as what it literally is -a computer simulation- along with some of Cole's dialogue about proving a point / redeeming themselves to a distant Maker suggests the themes that drive the Mass Effect universe are alive and well in Dragon Age. Order and Chaos, Control and Free Will- the eternal cycle of Makers whose creations attain consciousness/free will, the inevitability of conflict, the search for a viable solution, etc.
An interesting possibility, but irrelevant for now- and since it doesn't dovetail all that well with Jungian Individualization theory, setting it aside for a bit. The more significant implication is at this point, it seems possible that the original relationship of the first dwarves to primordial Titans may have been as an integral part of their being- as blood, neurons, or mitochondria are to our own bodies.
I'm kinda losing you here , to be honest.
Anyway the Titan and their blood is sort of helping Thedas keeping its reality .
With their blood , it assures , no creatures or sentient mind using the Fade would be able to destroy Thedas simply because they want it to happen.
They have a hive mind but only with the dwarves , and Shaper Valta says their blood is inside of her.
There's no talk of the Titans creating the world , they shape it , maybe like I say above reinforce its reality but they didn't create anything
He goes on, “Although it might twitch to give the appearance of life, it will never dream.” Here, Solas and this theory diverge. It seems likely that dwarves were individually mindless, their actions dictated by their connection to the larger being of which they were a part. One of the scrawled inscriptions in the Temple of Mythal is a possible reference to that time: "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."
Naturally, one possibility for the referenced “workers” are the dwarves. In their role as immune system and the Stone’s first line of defense, they would have to be destroyed for blight to flourish unchecked. Moving back to Solas’ comment, however, it seems clear that although the Stone’s fade hasn’t developed enough to allow dreams or magic, modern dwarves are far from the ‘mindess’ drones they may once have been. Though largely disconnected from the hive mind, they are still connected to that emergent fade- still “return to the Stone” when they die, and seem to experience ever-increasing access to emotion and other aspects as the Stone matures. Verric, an example of a dwarf with no stone sense whatsoever, is in some respects practically a dwarven “mage”- crafting entire worlds out of possibility in his novels. It's arguable that not all dreaming happens while asleep, and that the imaginative daydreaming required to write fiction borders on the same concept.
That piece of lore about the "mindless workers..." and the fact that Solas lament about the dwarves being broken because they lost their Hive Mind ,
And a codex from Valta where she communicate with a Titan and see the dwarves before they were "broken in two..."
Make me believe the elves were ready to attack a bunch of dwarves who were already disconnected from their Titan.
They appeared "Witless and soulless " because like the Shar Bytoll (?) they were already drinking the lyrium to recreate a lost bond.
That's why the elves thought, echoing Solas speech , it was all a mercy killing.
So what changed?
Valta has a quote in Descent: "The Sha-Brytol were dwarves once. Something turned them against us."
In light of the big reveal at the end of the DLC, it's possible she may have that backwards: the original dwarven race may have been quite a bit closer to the Sha-Brytol in form and function than the dwarves we know today. They are instruments with a single purpose: to repel foreign intruders and protect the Titan from "impurities"- and as always, the relationship brings to mind the Pillars of Earth codex, the "bloom" of blight, and an aspect of the Deep Roads that's described in more detail in the DA novels. The dwarven Deep Roads are both teeming with darkspawn and covered in literal blight- a sticky filth that clings to the stone itself. As soon as you leave the crafted Deep Roads for natural tunnels, there's no trace of blight. There are two obvious possibilities: either something inherent to the Deep Roads allows blight to take hold, or something in the 'natural' caverns is able to repel it. Given that the only example we have of a substance that repels blight is enchanted dragonbone, this may be additional support for the draconic nature of Titans.
Of course, if we take the perspective that the original dwarves were an integral component of the larger beings they were connected to -the Titans- then aspects of their current state start to become.. problematic.
It's not a precise analogy, but again- think of your own body: the blood in your veins, the mitochondria in your cells, even the bacteria in your digestive tract. All pieces that contribute to the larger whole, whose behavior is almost entirely governed by biochemical signals. You don't exert conscious control over any of it, of course, but neither do your blood cells 'decide' to carry oxygen or fight an infection. Their behavior is dictated biochemically. If you woke up one day to find that each blood cell was capable of free will and choice- and that instead of carrying oxygen, some wanted to sit around and write poetry- you'd be in trouble.
From a certain perspective, free will is a threat- the behavior of modern dwarves almost like an autoimmune disease. Though their connection and purpose hasn't been entirely lost, it's been twisted: mining lyrium attacks the very network that connects them to the larger organism.
And though this is some heavy-duty tinfoil, it's possible the question of free will may be connected to the Gates of Segrammar. We know that long ago someone attempted to carve a sigil into the stone of the dwarven Deep Roads, the effect of which would have been a mortal threat to "The Creator" mentioned in the codices, a being who refers to the crafter of the gates as "her own" and "her only child".
Marking the gate locations on the dungeon map gives us this:
No obvious pattern, but if you flip it...
....I don't know. It's a stretch, that's for certain. You can make just about anything out of nine dots. Complicating matters, it's not certain whether the gates were positioned to interrupt the lines of the original, or overlay them with a countering rune.
Still, given the connection between this particular rune, events in Kirkwall, and the breaking of slave bonds.... it's possible.
Finally, this trio of odd coincidences:
1) A letter dating before the First Blight mentions concern that the lack of communication with Heidrun Thaig might be due to "those creatures that wear the faces of the dead".
2) In the Chronicles of a Forgotten War series, the Scaled Ones gather the corpses of dwarves, using their gray, drained husks in some kind of blood/flame-based rite or religious ritual, the result of which is never discovered.
3) Post-Descent, Inquisition scouts discover that Lieutenant Renn's grave "was recently disturbed, and his remains are missing".
I don't know how much we're intended to connect, but taken together, these three are unsettling. The description of the dead dwarves' grey skin, the odd, wrinkled, under-leather of the suits, and the fact that the new suit they present to Valta immediately "summons the image of [her] dead friend"... it's definitely creepy.
Valta is an example of a dwarf connected to a Titan , from what the Titan "tells" her , it was this way before and something unknown happened severing the bond between the two.
Valta shows no sign of being witless , soulless or wanting to defend the Titan at any cost.For example , The Inquisitor and co are intruders , she is still friendly.
Now of course , there is worrying sign , she feels a sense of bliss , gain some power making her able to apply force to the material world.She tries to blast your head , she lost sense of time after a while down there.
But it's close to that sense of wonders the elves felt too , they were immortal time had no meaning...
Their spell were echoing a song ("endless symphony " from Solas )
Like the dwarves once their Gods went down , all those fluffy feelings disappeared.
Their immortality went down the toilet , less and less dreamers and mages were born.
They are still able to connect with the fade though.
So for the elves even if they lost much ,somehow, they didn't lose everything.
Just finished, and my mind's a mess. So many ideas and I'm trying to make sense of all of them.
The Fade seems like it could be the Titans' consciousness. If it is, then the Veil being created would indeed sever dwarves from the Titans. It would also explain why the Titans are disturbed by things that mess with the Veil (the magisters visiting the Black City 1000 years ago, and the Breach now). Both of these events -- I think -- let the Fade bleed into the waking world. This would allow the Titans to "wake up" briefly, like how Karl regained his emotions in the presence of glowy!Anders. However, the Titans seem to need to calm down by connecting to a dwarf.
So I don't know what to make of this. Maybe I should just go to sleep, but I have a funny feeling I'd just have nightmares about a bottomless world populated by things wearing people-leather. Thanks for that, madrar.
Two ideas to mention in regards to this, one I had before, one that is the logical conclusion of your own post, unspoken:
1. What if the physical world is just the dream of the Titans, made hyper-real and immutable by the power of their vast minds.
2. What if the Titans (and potentially, through them, the dwarves) have been made tranquil?
Valta is an example of a dwarf connected to a Titan , from what the Titan "tells" her , it was this way before and something unknown happened severing the bond between the two.
Valta shows no sign of being witless , soulless or wanting to defend the Titan at any cost.For example , The Inquisitor and co are intruders , she is still friendly.
Now of course , there is worrying sign , she feels a sense of bliss , gain some power making her able to apply force to the material world.She tries to blast your head , she lost sense of time after a while down there.
Maybe she doesn't want to defend it violently, but she does completely flip flop on what she wants the outside world to know about it. Before we get to the very "bottom" with plants and clouds, she can't understand why someone would erase such a thing from the dwarves' history. She wants to make absolutely sure that the Shaperate gets records about what's going on. Then she gets blasted back while we're busy fighting, and wakes up saying she wants to stay here, and tells the Inquisitor and everyone else to tell the surface they don't know what happened down here. I know controlling knowledge is just what the Shaperate does, and all of the historical "authorities" in this universe fall somewhere between "ignorant" and "orwellian" to me personally, but this does feel like the Titan wants to keep itself secret. The only thing left of Valta seems to be her desire for knowledge.
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