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[Aulis Vaara]

Part 1: Elements
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Something clicked with me this week, and though it may turn out to be yet another silly theory, there does seem to be something to it.

So, here's the thing. Magic has elemental properties, right? But then, we also have different sources of magic that seem to relate to one another in a similar manner. The most obvious clue to this is that the non-elemental runes relate to each other in a very rock-paper-scissors way:

Cleansing Rune -> Corrupting Rune -> Dragonslaying -> Demonslaying -> Cleansing Rune

How does this work exactly?

A Corrupting Rune is made from Corrupted Lyrium and does more damage to Living beings.
A Dragonslaying Rune is made from Living beings (or rather their poison) and does more damage against Dragons.
A Demonslaying Rune is made from Dragon blood and does more damage against Spirits.
A Cleansing Rune is made from formerly Spirit-possessed corpses and does more damage against Corrupted beings.

A full circle of weaknesses.

Is there more to this? Well, it would seem so. If we equate Living beings with The Land and the Titans (they were all made by the land, afterall, as were the bodies of the elves and presumably the other races) and given that the Fade and thus spirits are already equated with the sky, we've already got two more classical elements.

So what about the other two then? Well, we know that "The Sun" is known as primal force or something like it in elven mythology. Is there any chance that this is a real power? Well, in legend Elgar'nan threw it into the earth, into the abyss, combined with that memory from Vir'dirthara where the elves killed the Titan and its mention of vines enclosing an orb of fire, it seems rather very likely that this force indeed exists.

Since Dragons already seemed to be known to the elves, and that they are more associated with the sea (through Mythal), it only makes sense to associate The Sun with the Blight. This makes some sense, as the Blight does cause some amount of desertification and seems like a great power source. And it comes, of course, from far below the surface of Thedas. The Blight also seems consumptive, in the way that it kills most things it comes into contact with and is even capable of destabilizing the Stone itself. We can also draw parallels with how Red Lyrium consumes living beings to power itself.

That leaves us with equating dragons to The Sea. This makes some sense, as the one elven god explicitly associated with dragons is said to have emerged from the sea.

Part 2: The Dawn Of Time
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Jumping back to the beginning of time may seem like a crazy leap at this point, but it reinforces the notion that dragons are indeed The Sea. The reason for this is that dragons are somewhat resistant to the Taint. The earliest stories of the elves refer to a time when The Sun (aka the Blight, the Taint) burned the world under its gaze. The Land wept tears that became the oceans (aka The Sea, dragons). It makes a whole ton of sense for the world to fight back against the Taint with a weapon that could actually resist them.

For its transgressions, Elgar'nan hurled The Sun into the abyss, but given that Elgar'nan is probably nothing more than an elven mage like all the other elven gods, this seems like a far stretch. I foresee two possibilities here, either Elgar'nan is NOT just an elven mage, or, this story is nothing more than Elgar'nan's self-righteous propaganda elevating himself above his fellow gods. It seems entirely likely it is the latter, because that would fit neatly with the rest of elven history. Or at least the parts we know of.

However, before we get to that part of elven history, we must first deal with the event that made the Evanuris generals. Some would argue that this event was a fight between the elves and the titans, but as far as we know, they only ever killed the one titan and that turned out to be disastrous. Titans are not easy to kill and in fact, however, we DO know these titans panicked at the elves making bodies from the land. So if the Titans did not fight themselves, who did they send? Dwarves? Possibly, but witless dwarves don't seem like an adversary that would elevate the Evanuris, nor do they seem dangerous enough that those who did not fight were Forbidden from the world. No, if the Titans sent anyone, it would have been the Dragons, who in those days ruled the skies and were a far more dangerous foe.

Part 3: Hive minds
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We know that Darkspawn have a hive mind. We also know that proper dwarves, connected to a Titan, have a hive mind. And we know that other living beings like elves and humans have a hive mind, i.e. the Fade. That accounts for three out of four "elemental" power sources, leaving only the dragons not to have one.

Or maybe just not anymore. If the elves fought a brutal war against dragons, but the dragons are still around, then obviously they won in a way that did not result in total annihilation for the dragons. Now, we know that dragons are relatively intelligent, but not exactly on the same level as other living beings. However, when they become corrupted they gain tactical insight and are all too eager to use clever tactics to outwit their enemies. The reconnection to a hive mind obviously makes them a more capable being. However, this could still be a coincidence, a knowledge of warfare that the archdemons actually steal from the darkspawn Magisters through that hivemind.

However, taking into account the ancient elves thinking that dwarves were soulless and witless for not being connected to the Fade and Solas' surprise at dwarven ingenuity and creativity, the lore is practically screaming that in Dragon Age being connected to such a hivemind is vital to being a sentient, intelligent creature.

So, where did the dragon hive mind go? Well, it seems that the ancient elves managed to cut them all off from it. Or perhaps destroy the hive mind entirely. This is less absurd than it sound, afterall, Solas managed to lock away the Fade all by himself. It is entirely possible that this stolen hivemind formed the basis for the Wells Of Sorrow. Afterall, they are filled with water (aka The Sea).

With the hivemind gone, the dragons became little more than beast and the elves took over dominion of the surface world.

Part 4: Titans
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With the dragons defeated, the elves celebrate and their empire flourishes, but the Titans are still worried about their presence on top of the world. And thus begins an age of earthquakes for the elves. The populace begs their elders, they gods to do something about them, to protect them from the destruction and thus they prepare to hunt the pillars of the earth.

Against all odds, they succeed in killing one. And the earthquakes promptly stop. The Titans have bigger fish to worry about, afterall, they are guardians of The Sun who is imprisoned in the abyss, and they cannot afford to get themselves killed or The Sun would be released. Instead decide to wait it out and see what happens. The Sun is still safely tucked away for the moment and if they leave the elves alone, then maybe they'll leave the underworld alone.

Of course they don't. With their new access to lyrium to power their magics, the elves become more power hungry than ever.

Once, the Deep Roads were illuminated for the dwarves, who built and scurried along them for the Titans. Dwarves we small and had a fine touch that the Titans could not match, but why did the Titans need these workers? Well, to build massive underground runes to contain The Sun. These runes were full of life and light, but with the death of a Titan and the Evanuris commanding and even hunting the dwarves in the Deep Roads, these runes fell into disrepair and eventually they failed entirely. And thus the lights went out.

Part 5: Panic, More Panic, and Power
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The elves panicked when they came across minions of The Sun. Were these minions already darkspawn as we know them? Possibly, but it is not a guarantee. Furthermore, there is no actual guarantee that The Sun has a will of its own. The Darkspawn only become truly malevolent under the direction of an Archdemon, and while by themselves they are not exactly friendly, they don't go out of their way to kill anyone either.

Regardless, the elves panicked and they collapsed part of the Deep Roads. However, the elves were not the only ones to panic. The Titans also panicked, and worried that The Sun would well and truly escape their grasp, they fashioned seven seals to The Sun's prison. Mighty Great Dragons, who still possessed a great deal of power and intelligence despite being deprived of their hive mind. We know that there is actual Stone near Old God prisons, so it seems like the Titans did the job themselves.

While Mythal was smart enough to see the danger to her people, the other Evanuris were not. They wanted that power, they always wanted more power and were especially pissed that their lyrium supply was now gone. Andruil never stopped his hunting in the Deep Roads and to show his might, he fashioned himself armor from Red Lyrium. He was not the first, however, as Elgar'nan had already bypassed Mythal's collapsed tunnels and taken in the power of The Sun. Afterall, he IS the firstborn of The Sun. Might just be propaganda though. In any case, Mythal was forced to stop Andruil for fear that with the corruption he tried to wield, he'd destroy the People. When exactly she learned to transform into a dragon is uncertain, though it seems likely it was long before this moment, but she took that form to stop Andruil because she knew of no other that stood a chance against this power.

She won that battle, but Elgar'nan saw she would not allow him to keep his new source of power and thus pre-emptively killed her. This made things way worse, and began the rather rapid downward spiral for the People.

Part 6: The Veil
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With Mythal did, the voice of reason among the Evanuris was gone. Elgar'nan became obsessed with ending the world in fire (because of the Taint) and the other Evanuris could only try to keep up and try to match his power. Out of this desperate grab for anything to counter him came a lot of excesses and the rebellion under the guidance of Fen'Harel flourished. However, none of this was effective enough to stop Elgar'nan who managed to kill another Titan, all on his own this time.

The war became more desperate, more destructive and even Fen'Harel feared that Thedas would not survive the destruction. And thus he raised the Veil. In Skyhold, he held The Sky back. How? Did he have a hoard of Lyrium lying around? That seems unlikely, but it seems entirely likely that he fucked up. He fucked up because he didn't have a clue that Elgar'nan was actually harnessing the Taint and because of this, the Veil that separated Thedas from The Fade became corrupted and gained a thin film of corruption across it. This is why spirits so often become demons when pulled across the Veil.

It also stands to reason that the place where the Veil originates and where it is anchored and where it can be (properly) undone is protected from being visited in the Fade, thus protecting the Veil from being undone. Thus Skyhold is the Black City. This also explains why every attempt to reach the Black City was done in the south, because it is close to the physical location of the Black City.

So why didn't the Magisters undo the Veil while they were there? They didn't have a clue. To humans the Veil is a natural phenomenon, it has always been there. On top of that, there was something far more important there: an extra source of power, the Taint.

How exactly the mechanics of corrupting the Black City went seems yet impossible to determine. However, it seems preposterous to think that the Black City counts as alive and therefore cannot literally be infected with the Taint. Nevertheless, it seems likely that it was the Magisters who opened pandora's box by tearing open the Veil to walk physically into the Fade and thus unleashing the Taint that ran through the Veil.

Part 7: The Old Gods
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So the dragons buried in the Deep Roads were put there for a specific reason, but how did they contact the Magisters and why would they even want to get out? They didn't and they don't. If nothing else, Dragons don't seem to be able to enter the Fade and being buried since before the Veil, they would know nothing of the Golden City. The Old Gods of Tevinter were clearly based on the elven gods who came before them, but it seems unlikely that those gods are indeed buried beneath the earth. For one, the Dread Wolf wouldn't have needed to cast his Veil if he could succesfully imprison the Evanuris underground.

How did we arrive at those similarities then? Wells. The ancient Tevinters stole everything from the elves, perhaps even scoured their temples clean. So why didn't they run across any Wells Of Sorrow? They did run across them, and they greedily took them in. That is why Corypheus knew what to expect in the Arbor Wilds. Unable to truly understand the Wells, it makes sense that the Magisters got the names of the Gods wrong, and how they knew what the Old Gods were supposed to look like in the first place.

The Wills of those that had given themselves to the Wells Of Sorrow wanted to find their gods and were perfectly willing to use humans to get that done. They could even have gone silent when there were no answers to be found, until one got the bright idea that maybe there would be answers in that one constant place in the Fade. It promised the powers of the Gods themselves, fully expecting that the Sidereal Magisters would be on the receiving end of them. And thus the Second Sin was born.

That leaves one major unanswered question: why do the Deep Roads dragons look like the Old God iconography of Tevinter? Well, that's because becoming corrupted the dragon takes the shape desired by the one who corrupted it. Which is to say: of the two dragons still in the Deep Roads, neither is Razikale or Lusacan, but rather, if Razikale's high priest wakes up the next dragon, that dragon will become the Archdemon Razikale, while if the high priest of Lusacan does so, then the next Archdemon will be Lusacan, regardless of which physical dragon is. Does this make sense? Well, we know Corypheus can decide at the very least his own shape after he reincarnates through the Taint, so it's not too far fetched he can do the same upon waking up an Archdemon.

Part 8: The Song
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It stand to reason that if all these things are indeed elemental powers, each with their own hivemind and power, that they all each carry a song. It seems hard to determine for sure, because such a song would not necessarily be consciously experienced by those who are constantly connected to it. However, one thing does make sense, and that is that The Sun's song would be heard physically in the Old Gods' prisons. If they are a seal on The Sun's prison, then this song is The Sun's raging against the bindings that hold it.

Part 9: The Future
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So, what does this mean for the future of Dragon Age? Well, for one, that when Solas drops the Veil, the whole of Thedas will be in deep ****, but not because of what Solas thinks will happen, but because it will unleash the Taint on a scale never before seen. The world will end in fire, but not according to Solas' plan and it won't bring his world back. It'll only start a massive Blight and the heroes of that game (hopefully a party of all previous heroes of Dragon Age supplemented with some others) won't stand a chance fighting it. All they can do is search for answers and hope that there is something that can explain what the Taint is and how to get rid of it.

[SoulWeaver]

Interesting theory!

I think the equation of Dragons to the Sea and the whole rune reasoning is unnecessary and weakens the theory - it's somewhat of a long leap - but overall the theory is plausible! I was surprised by it, given I disagree with its premises, but I guess sometimes it happens

 

The rune thing doesn't sound right to me because dragon blood is "the blood of the world", so it should be like the blood of the titans - that's why it hurts spirits. The poison is just poison. And I would speculate that the essence of spirits hurts blighted creatures because spirits can't be tainted by the blight!

 

Solas understands the veil better than anyone and he didn't mention anything about it being corrupted. He explained the transformation of spirits into demons very well - they turn into demons when they are coerced to act against their nature - and I guess he also understands that very well, given that it is heavily hinted that he went through that process.

 

 

Edited for greater readability and clarity.

[Dai Grepher]

I think Elgar'nan's myths are just Fade world tricks. He manipulated things in his Crossroads world, not the real world. In other words, it was his dream. Less spirits picked up on this and just regurgitated his story to the point of absurdity. The myth of course, did not displease him. It elevated him to godhood eventually.

 

I think the game mechanic of runes is just a method of weapon crafting. I doubt there's any deeper meaning behind it. I mean, corpses creating cleansing runes? Come on. If anything, spider venom should break down the taint chemically.