I don't think so. Arlathan was destroyed by the tevinters, and by destroyed, I mean they razed it to the ground using summoned demons and dragon thralls, its ruins are still in the Arlathan forest.
No they aren't. The ruins of Arlathan are at the bottom of the ocean. Granted, that was post-Veil Arlathan, minus whatever parts got left in the Fade.
The Black City may simply be a sort of lock on whatever hidden part of the Fade Solas locked the Evanuris in.
But if the City is part of Arlathan, then why is it in the Fade? It should only be in the Crossroads and/or in the Real world.
Personally I believe that while Arlathan was the capital of Elvhenan, the Golden City is exactly the kind of construct would be gods would erect; built not only to mark their superiority over the rest of the elvhen population but also to proclaim their sovereignty over the Fade itself. One need only think of Olympus or Asgard to see the parallel.
It is said that when the Evanuris agreed to the truce proposed by Fen-Harel, they retreated to the heavens. Where else would they go besides their own citadel? I believe that is where, once the Veil was formed and Arlathan had fallen, they devised the Blight, to be unleashed on a world now dominated by humans. Thus they seduced the magisters, whispering the means to enter the Fade and open the gates of the City. And while they themselves remained prisoners, sealed behind 'a mirror' according to Cole, they knew the mortals would become infected and carry the disease with them into the world. There were doubtless elluvians connecting the Golden City to Arlathan and that is how the magisters returned.
I just finished the game and my gut feeling is that... The Black City must be Arlathan?
Your thoughts?
My thought is that it's the manifestation of the first Titan to be tainted.
Why should it not have been in all three?
The Crossroads was like a bridge between the two.
Morrigan said how it was not actually the Fade but very close to it. To be honest we have no idea how the world of the elves would have looked pre-Veil.
Flemeth/Mythal has her own little pocket realm in the Fade
and Mythal was responsible for the construction of major cities, probably including Arlathan (though she may have had help with that) so it may well have spanned all three planes of existence.
Alternatively it may have originally been outside the Fade but some sort of warping of the Veil meant that part of the city ended up in it. Really it is hard to know exactly what the Veil is meant to be now, since so many different ideas have been put forward by people in Thedas.
Another possibility is that the Golden City was the residual memory in the Fade of what Arlathan once looked like in Thedas, kept that way through the mind of a Dreamer (Solas?), just as we visited what looked like Haven through the actions of Solas. When the Magisters entered the Golden City, it broke the illusion and instead they encountered what was really there and it had been shut away in the Fade deliberately to stop the corruption from spreading. Unfortunately the Magisters breaking in did precisely that; released the corruption on the world, starting with them. There is definitely something strange about the Black City, considering even the most powerful of demons shunned it.
Personally I believe that while Arlathan was the capital of Elvhenan, the Golden City is exactly the kind of construct would be gods would erect; built not only to mark their superiority over the rest of the elvhen population but also to proclaim their sovereignty over the Fade itself. One need only think of Olympus or Asgard to see the parallel.
It is said that when the Evanuris agreed to the truce proposed by Fen-Harel, they retreated to the heavens. Where else would they go besides their own citadel?
I believe that is where, once the Veil was formed and Arlathan had fallen, they devised the Blight, to be unleashed on a world now dominated by humans. Thus they seduced the magisters, whispering the means to enter the Fade and open the gates of the City. And while they themselves remained prisoners, sealed behind 'a mirror' according to Cole, they knew the mortals would become infected and carry the disease with them into the world. There were doubtless elluvians connecting the Golden City to Arlathan and that is how the magisters returned.
My thought is that it's the manifestation of the first Titan to be tainted.
Because when the magic was cut off, the constructs fell apart and either were stuck in the Crossroads (and continued to fall apart), or fell to earth. If part of Arlathan can somehow end up in the Fade, which is the wrong direction for something real to go, then how is it still intact in the Fade? It should be shifting in form. Changeable. Yet it is described to remain constant and always visible from any island world. Also, why aren't there other structures like this in the Fade? The evanuris made dozens if not hundreds. Yet only one made it into the Fade?
Then why didn't they leave the city when released? And how does casting Veil magic seal anyone inside a Fade city? Why couldn't the evanuris simply release themselves and then cross through the Veil as the Forbidden Ones have already done?
1. Well, Arlathan was presumably the crown jewel of the Elvhen, so it's likely that it was created mostly with magic, and is in fact mostly "not real", and may end up fade-side post-veil. There could be a number of reasons we don't know as to why it's unchanging. Although, if spirits bend the fade according to their will, and also avoid the Black City, that in itself explains it. And there may in fact be more, since the ground we walk on (and the stonework and castle-aesthetics) in HLtA had to come from somewhere.
2. I'm just guessing here, but it may be that the Evanuris were tricked by Fen'Harel into retreating into the fade in their spirit-forms, and that's why they are stuck there. Or maybe they are trapped specifically within the City by some other means, like binding of a sort.
I just finished the game and my gut feeling is that... The Black City must be Arlathan?
Your thoughts?
Meh. Not sold on that theory.
My thought is that it's the manifestation of the first Titan to be tainted.
Titans look like buildings?
Titans look like buildings?
Titans are enormous organism whose sheer size allows for human-friendly ecosystems to form within their body cavities and who served as "Homes" for the ancient Dwarves.
I'm pretty sure that the eluvians have something to do with how Solas managed to imprison the Evanuris, both from the words of Cole about someone being trapped behind a mirror and Fen'Harel's anger with Felassan over allowing Briala to take control of them. The fact that he then chose to intervene personally suggests how important they are.
The story about the Creators returning to heaven may have a basis in fact. Instead of Fen'Harel tricking them by suggesting a truce, he may well have tricked them into returning to their powerbase by making them fear an attack or something similar from the Forgotten Ones. In doing so they used a mirror that he had control over and for some reason raising the Veil locked it and trapped them.
The Dalish belief that Fen'Harel prowled the Fade thereafter wasn't so far from the truth either. He wasn't there physically but he was patrolling it from Uthenera. Whatever happened to the Magisters when they entered the Fade, I'm pretty sure that Fen'Harel had something to do with it. I'm not saying he caused the Blight since I think that was already contained somewhere but some sort of fail safe mechanism should anyone try and enter the Golden/Black city that coughed them back into the depths of the earth would seem about right. They were said to open a gate; what if that was simply an eluvian?
Titans are enormous organism whose sheer size allows for human-friendly ecosystems to form within their body cavities and who served as "Homes" for the ancient Dwarves.
Yeah, I know. And what makes you think they look like buildings?
Yeah, I know. And what makes you think they look like buildings?
I don't think Titans look like Buildings. I said the Black City is the manifestation of the first Titan to be tainted, and the Black City itself... Doesn't look like Buildings:
You assume that thing in the distance is a bunch of towers and spires built on a a floating island because from the beginning you were told that this big blot of ink was a city. But it could just as well be a mountain devoid of buildings, or the silhouette of an enormous beast: the form is vague enough so that it can just be anything.
What's certain is that Titans are enormous, and are at made of Lyrium: since the Fade is made by the manifestation of things, concepts and idea from the material world, the fact that the largest magical... well, anything wasn't visible in the Fade seems strange... unless they were visible from the get go
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