On the Warden-children-with-taint thing, I found the following while looking for the thread with the Old-Gods-are-Forgotten-Ones theory:
David Gaider wrote...
A Grey Warden can have a child... just not with another Grey Warden. So in the case of Alistair being married to a female PC the only possible result is no heir (unless Alistair has a child with someone other than his wife, I suppose). Grey Wardens have a limited chance of conception with a non-Grey Warden, but it does happen... and the child is not tainted in any fashion.
According to Morrigan, the whole point of the Ritual is to transfer the soul of the Old God into an untainted vessel. I'd guess, though, that the ritual means that the foetus somehow..."smells" tainted to the Archdemon's soul, so that the soul ends up in the child without the child actually being tainted. That, or there's enough of the taint to count early in the pregnancy, but it disappears before the child is born.
TripLight wrote...
draxynnus wrote...
I think it's been confirmed by Word of God that the Old Gods aren't the gods that the Elves worshipped. There is, however, a theory linking the Old Gods to the dark gods that Ferenhal imprisoned in the Abyss - and, to take an idea and run with it, Ferenhal with the Maker.
Something gives me the feeling that some day we'll plunge the secrets of Arlathan or ancient Tevinter...just not necassarily soon.
Regarding the Ritual being good or bad...Really, it depends on who you think the Old Gods in general are, and which one this may be. Might go into a more detailed analysis when I have time, but right now I don't really.
Oh, you wouldn't happen to have a link to that theory would you? And thanks for clearing up the TevinterGod/ElvenGod connection.
Took some hunting, but
here's the thread where it came up.I can't recall exactly where the Word of God on the "good" elven gods and the Old Gods was, or even if I've seen it directly myself.
errant_knight wrote...
Well, I can't wait 'till you do! Your analysis is always very interesting!
Flatterer.
I feel like I have high expectations to meet now. Well, let's see...
While checking some of my facts, I found
some developer posts that seem to shed some light on the subject.
The first consideration is whether the Old Gods have actually been Archdemons and the leaders of the darkspawn all along, and instead of being corrupted by darkspawn they just need the darkspawn to
free them from where the Maker has imprisoned them (as discussed in the thread TripLight requested a link to). If this is the case, then the Dark Ritual is a temporary reprieve, nothing more - sooner or later the child is going to metamorphise into an Archdemon and the Blight will start once again.
If this
isn't the case, then regardless of other considerations, Urthemiel (the Old God that became the Archdemon of the Fifth Blight - see the Codex entry on Old Gods in your post-coronation save) is likely to have a grudge against the darkspawn - the darkspawn are effectively responsible for the deaths of four of Urthemiel's peers, and then corrupted and nearly lead to the death of Urthemiel himself. Thus, if the child retains a significant portion of Urthemiel's power and knowledge, the reborn Urthemiel will likely prove to be a powerful ally against the darkspawn...
especially if he remembers his time as the Archdemon. The Dark Ritual may well prove to be the gambit that breaks the secrets of the darkspawn wide open.
However, the next question is...Will this be worth the price?
To answer this question, we'd need two pieces of information:
First, what are the motives of Morrigan and Flemeth in performing this action?
There are other threads for discussing what that pair are up to, but suffice it to say that their motives can certainly be considered suspect. That said, while Morrigan "doesn't do charity", there is a loophole - she does seem to be perfectly willing to help out creatures she sees as powerful that have been brought down by circumstance - and Urthemial certainly classifies as that. However, while this may at first look like sympathy for beings similar to her (more powerful beings who must nevertheless be wary of the swarm of lesser creatures that Morrigan holds in contempt), it's also possible, even likely, that this apparent altruism is really just the pragmatism of knowing the value of a network of stronger beings oweing you favours - and Urthemiel is going to owe Morrigan/Flemeth a
big one.
Which brings us back to the question of what Morrigan/Flemeth expects to get out of this. Chances are, whatever they're up to isn't primarily intended to be for the benefit of Chantry orphans, although they may benefit indirectly (I doubt Morrigan or Flemeth want to see the world destroyed, after all - they have to live in it too!)
The second piece of infromation is - what is the nature of the Old Gods?
If they
are true gods, it's possible that they are actually somehow
needed in the balance of the universe. Now, the deaths of the Dragons of Silence, Chaos, Fire and Chains don't seem to have eliminated any of those things from the world - but it's possible that they've been
lessened by their passing, and if that is so, then the loss of the Dragon of Beauty would be a shame to say the least. From a wider viewpoint, however, it's possible that while the Old Gods may not be directly associated with their Tevinter-assigned portfolios, they may be required in some manner to maintain the balance of the cosmos, and their removal may tip the balance. Some among the Chantry, for instance, believe that if all the Old Gods/Archdemons are slain, than the Maker may forgive the First and Second Sins and return to the world. While the Chantry would certainly consider this to be a good thing, this is not necessarily so.
Another possibility is raised with the observation that, according to legend, magic was taught to mankind by the Old Gods. While linking dragons to magic is a common fantasy trope, one of the more interesting examples is probably found in George R.R. Martin's
A Song of Ice and Fire, where dragons were in fact the source of magic in the world - when the dragons died off, magic died with them. While this is another thing that may be seen as good or bad depending on your viewpoint, it's not hard to guess what the likely opinion of Morrigan and Flemeth would be to this eventuality.
Alternatively, they may simply be a more powerful form of dragon. There is, after all, a pre...errm,
postcedent for a religion springing up around a High Dragon in the form of the Cult of Andraste, and the Old Gods would certainly qualify. It is interesting to note here, however, that while the High Dragons are universally female, the Old Gods are usually referred to as male. While it's possible that the Tevinterans were just mistaken as per the gender of their 'gods' (possibly as the result of chauvinism), this does seem to indicate that the Old Gods were more than simply the next stage of the High Dragon life cycle. Unless dragons can change genders as they age.
Regardless of whether the Old Gods are actual gods or "just" powerful dragons, a final consideration is that of temperament - and their connection with the Tevinter Imperium, with its widespread slavery, blood magic, and alliances with demons, is
not looking good on their resume from the viewpoint of an observer with conventional standards of morality. However, the specific case of Urthemiel, a patron of musicians, artists and poets, may be a much gentler being than the Dragon of Chains or the Dragon of Chaos, so it may prove that while the release of some of the other Old Gods may be a Bad Thing, the release of Urthemiel may prove to be beneficial to humankind, possibly even heralding a cultural renaissance in Thedas. The flipside of this coin, however, is that art and beauty can also contain cruelty - consider the professional torturer or serial killer that considers their work to be an art and the malevolence hidden behind the surface beauty of a demon of desire - thus, the Dragon of Beauty may prove to be just as sadistic in his own way as the mages of Tevinter that worshipped him and his peers.
Retour en haut
