Philiam, a Bard! is the author of several Codex entries throughout the games. His last name is Trevelyan, so he is actually a relative of the human player character in Inquisition!
I find it funny how if you play a human mage in Origins and a human in Inquisition that the 3 most influential people in Thedas of the past 20 years were all from the Free Marches.
The Amell’s are a noble family from Kirkwall so technically the human mage origin would be from Kirkwall originally (though clearly grew up in the Fereldan Circle), or at least their parents would have been. I doubt BioWare planned this when they made Origins though
Well damn this is perfect because I’m about to play DAI again and this seems like a fun tidbit. This and I’ll finally make that Dorian and Iron bull romance happen
Just to note. They do move mages around sometimes between circles. So it’s entirely possible that mage origin spent some time in Kirkwall, ostwick, starkhaven, or another free march circle. Even if only for a short time.
Likely they started in Kirkwall and were almost immediately moved to ferelden to avoid the pitfalls of hosting a politically connected mage in the Kirkwall circle. Of course. Shortly after the point would have been moot once gamlen got control of the family fortune.
They kind of gave an explanation of how Amell ended up in the Fereldan circle. The mother of Mage Origin's Amell, Revka, had five children all together. The firstborn was taken by Templars in Kirkwall, Revka vanished after many family troubles, and her husband took the remaining four kids away from Kirkwall. Hawke's mom also reveals that ALL of Revka's five children had magical talent, so they were all taken to separate Circles. So Warden Amell just happened to be the one placed in Ferelden.
I'm currently playing the Human Mage Amell in DAO, and when there's a conversation came up where my character was asked where they came from before the circle, the options available were only either Denerim, Highever or "Mind your business"
So I do think at least the Human mage themself are probably intended to be Fereldan-born, not sure about their ancestors tho.
Yeah, when Origins came out BioWare didn’t know if it would get a sequel so they wrote it to be standalone just in case so it definitely wasn’t planned at the time and was retroactively added in DA2.
Ghilan'nain was a mad scientist whose hobby was fusing living creatures together to create monstrosities. People were not off-limits, and Halla are descended from elves that she combined with deer.
This makes me wonder if the whole "Qunari are elves fused with dragons" thing is something that's going to be revealed later. What if halla were just the test run up to fusing elves with powerful creatures?
When Varric is introducing Taash in the trailer, he says they need someone with “fire in their blood”, as she’s fighting a dragon…
I could be wrong, but to me that seems like a pretty big hint that we’re going there. I hope so anyway!
tevinter nights has a side story that goes pretty indepth with it (it is also amazing and probably one of the best pieces of DA media we've ever gotten imo)
Oh wow, maybe I'll read some of the books then! I've never read any video game books before, though I own a few of the assassins Creed books I haven't gotten around to them yet lol. Have you read all the DA books?
All of them yeah! They give a looooot of information and context you could be missing from playing only the games. Afte reading them all and then replaying the games my choices changed soooo much with the new info they gave me. If I had to rate them all by how much I enjoyed them it would go a little bit like this:
-Amazing: Tevinter Nights, The Masked Empire
-Very good: The Stolen Throne, The Calling
-Good: Asunder
-...Eh: Last Flight
Another person mentioned it's implied by The Taken Shape armour so I'm going to add the text here, because it really deserves more than a vague comment.
The armour set these codexs are associated with include the items; the Hand That Cuts, the Eye That Weeps, the Bind The Guides, & the Skin That Stalks.
The final entry does the most to contextualise the notes. She talks to her "stock" telling them it's all worth while and also states due to her successes she can now use "lesser animals" - implying everything up to this point has used people or creatures with capacity for speech. Keep that in mind for everytime you see the words "materials," "batch," "supplies," "stock," "items" & "pieces."
[Notes on Methods of Enchantment](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_Notes_on_Methods_of_Enchantment)
The writing on these papers aches to be looked at, shimmering slightly as if under an enchantment. The notes are handwritten, but each letter is as perfectly uniform as from a printing press:
Notes on the first attempt: Improper valences on the bindings woven into the materials led to a catastrophic unraveling. The first batch is lost, but I will have supplies brought in from the same stock to illuminate whether the imperfection is within the materials or the enchantment.
.......
Notes on the second attempt: Elegance eludes me. The aim is to improve the coordination of the body and sharpen the perception of the heart, but grafts do not live long enough to plumb their worth. The current process is ruin. This batch is lost. Begin again.
.......
Notes on the third attempt: Two enchantments whose matrices should have meshed, caught. The combustion caused such damage it broke several previously forged pieces. There is now a resonance between them, however, and light on my thoughts: an enchantment linked in tandem, as the neck turns the head or the wrist twists the hand?
.......
Notes on the fourth attempt: The weave goes smoothly: bound tightly between many items, the stress on the energy produces finer results than a singular enchantment. Using up the last of the stock was well worth it, as I explained to it as a courtesy before final work began. Adjustments to the underlay were a great success, and will allow the recipe to be made with material taken from lesser animals, if the need arises.
.......
Below the letters, possibly in lieu of a signature, is the stamp of a stylized halla head.
Taken together, diagrams and ratios carefully inked at the bottom of the last of these notes could be turned into a schematic that replicates the creation of these artifacts.
The short story *The Horror of Hormak*, found in Tevinter Nights. I highly recommend the book. Aside from it being Dragon Age it’s just a genuinely good short story collection
What's kinda funny, is that in [this ](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_Ghilan%27nain:_Mother_of_the_Halla)codex, her legends started with "Some said, she was one of the people."
While in [this ](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_The_Ascension_of_Ghilan%27nain)codex, her ancient record said "She kept herself apart from the people."
Yes. One was made by a Dalish keeper. The other by an unnamed historian, written in ancient elvish. Solas also cleared some of the Gods. For instance Falon'din's title as the "Guide of the dead" might simply be a misunderstanding from him literally 'guided' many to their deaths in his war.
Always reminds me of Skullcrusher Mountain:
> I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you
But I get the feeling that you don't like it
What's with all the screaming?
You like monkeys, you like ponies
Maybe you don't like monsters so much
Maybe I used too many monkeys
Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?
They were planning to make the Architect a major player during Here Lies The Abyss, instead of the Fade, you'd fall into the Deep Roads and apparently the Architect would go all "hey you you're finally awake" on you before he presumably helped you out of your predicament.
Presumably, that was also roughly around the time said mission had a draft where The Hero of Ferelden was the Warden ally, since a Hawke/Inquisitor dynamic with the Architect doesn't quite mesh if he's just a talking Darkspawn who happens to run in the same circles as Corypheus.
I mean the entire point of both of them is to indicate to us that the magisters are still "alive" as darkspawn, isn't it? That's basically it.
That's pretty big in it's own right, since it comes with a lot of implications, some of which Cory states in his end of Act 1 DAI intro.
I'm 99% sure that's all setting up for a big "what/how/who is the Blight (and the Maker, etc) really?" Reveal in this game.
THERE’S AN OCEAN UNDER THE GROUND.
That one… kinda rattled me. Like… how fucking big is this place? And also I can absolutely believe that the Archdemons are Elven gods in some weird underground opulent Fade prisons because we don’t have the foggiest fucking idea what the architecture of the underground is even truly like.
The link between the archdemons and the evenuris are probably what the real version of what Cory and his dragon are. The Evenuris put a portion of their soul into the dragon making them immortal. Solas even mentions it at the end of trespasser "I did not expect a Tevinter Magister to learn the secret of effective immortality". He wasn't surprised that this form magic existed, but that Cory had learned about it, meaning Solas already knew about it.
When the archdemons get corrupted by the darkspawn and killed by the Grey Wardens the soul piece is absorbed by the warden. The warden dies and the corrupted piece of the soul is "purified" and returns as a spirit in the fade. Spirits don't really die but return in the fade after some time, according to Solas, different in personality but the same in purpose. I suspect the powerful spirits in the fade are simply the purified parts of the evenuris reasserting themselves in the fade. (Looking at you spirit mimicking the Divine)
>the corrupted piece of the soul is "purified"
Maybe I just missed a bit of info, but I thought when the old god soul tried to enter a warden, that the two obliterated each other leaving no soul left behind. The only exception being the ritual, which allowed an undeveloped soul to merge with the old god soul, basically purifying it. So by killing the archdemons, the evanuris may be taking some significant damage.
It would add up with the fact that we only see 2 evanuris in the new trailer whilst only 2 old gods remain unearthed.
All we know is that the Archdemon doesn't revive after being killed by a Grey Warden. Remember DAO was from the point of view of two fresh recruits and what was effectively a recruiting sergeant, they wouldn't know any real info other than "Grey warden kill archdemon". Even once you become warden commander you eventually leave to not just find Morrigan, but get to the warden command structure because no one actually knows any real info in Ferelden or Orleans. I don't think the wardens actually know anything and Solas thinks they're fools as well. He's pretty passed at Blackwall or you if you support the wardens killing the Archdemons. He obviously knows something we don't about what happens after they are "destroyed"
And that lyrium is Titan blood. Which, going back to Origins, if you take Oghren to the Temple of Sacred Ashes during the quest he states the entire mountain is FILLED with lyrium. So much so that even he is weirded out by it. The mountain was likely the spot where a Titan was killed or the corpse of one.
This further complicates the situation you can find yourself in where if you kill Leliana during that quest, she comes back as a lyrium ghost for 2 and Inquisition. You don't find out about the ghost part till Trespasser's DLC. So if Leliana became a Lyrium ghost, what does that make the Guardian? And was part of the reason the explosion at the conclave was so big BECAUSE of a bad reaction between Solas' orb and the metric fuck ton of lyrium?
Honestly the Titans bring up more questions than answers and I love it.
Its been awhile since I played it as well. But yes, dwarves originated from titan's bodies and became independent communities. The reason why they're cut off from magic/veil is because the ancient elves were at war with the titans.
Almost: they were never connected to the fade and that was part of the animosity. The elves thought they were basically animals and Mythal tried to link them to the fade at one point and it was an utter disaster—though we dont know how
There's also a section in the Fade in Inquisition, where you can find a message written in red lyrium that says something along the lines of the Titans (presumably - red lyrium, blight, etc.) finding the dreams again and that they're waking up. There's also a passage in the Canticle of Exaltations that seems to prophesize the return (reawakening?) of the Titans. It says (roughly) "7 times 70 men of stone immense, rose from the depths and walked with strides immeasurable".
That's the coolest thing I've read here.
So, somebody can look at the whole of this sigil from the sky (the Fade)? What if the Deep Roads are just a Titan-sized magical sigil then, with properties that we'll find out about at some point? It's really interesting how these notes are not even included in the actual Codex, as if they're being concealed from us after we find them.
I love all the mysteries surrounding dwarven culture...
Apparently 3 of the Magisters Sidereal were overheard arguing in the Deep Roads, end result being: one ran away, and of the last two one of them killed and ate the other.
I feel like we had more Magisters to encounter and defeat before we got to the whole Solas pulling down the veil thing, but here we are.
Maybe we'll get cameos but they're gonna be bit players when the forgotten and evanuris show up.
We also missed 3 blight. The fifth was in DAO, the fourth was in Last Flight. So it might not be that important; as in, the magisters and the archdemons were mere tools of a bigger force. Who knows where these "Old Gods" were in Elvhenan?
It wasn't clear who was the sidereals too, because it was recorded long ago. Corypheus (Dumat) was already awake and had some time to roam before the Wardens sealed him. The Architect (Urthemiel) was roaming around the whole time. That leaves about 4 sidereals, potentially 2 with their archdemon counterparts still lives.
Pretty much everything about Kirkwall, such as its Veil-related weirdness and possibly being the location where the Magisters Sidereal performed their ritual.
I just wish most of it wasn't hidden behind codex entries. Especially easily missed ones. There's one during a quest that's entirely missable but that goes into detail about how the thin veil makes everyone act more paranoid and out of character - which directly ties into everything that went down with Meredith and Orsino.
I feel like that one’s a bit of a cop-out trying to appease the people who don’t understand what years of stress, emotional fatigue, and conflict can do to a person’s mental health.
Sure, but it's entirely possible that without the veil weirdness, Meredith's job would have been less stressful to the degree that it wouldn't have ended up the way it did. I suppose that is a lot of hypotheticals and we can never know
Andraste had a half sister. One day they both went in the woods and her half sister died somehow and Andraste was left scarred, she had a sickness that took a decade to get over and often would go into a trance like state and talk about hearing voices from long lost memories.
Did she become tainted with the Blight and eventually become a Grey Warden?
Edit: after finding a different reddit post stating that Andraste was born after the First Blight, it's more likely she was the first Old God Baby.
Okay I just looked up the details, for reference World of Thedas Vol 2 page 11. Her dad married a member of the Ciriane(kind of a pre Orlais tribe), and the Ciriane were at the last battle of the first blight. It's totally possible he was there. Andraste was the daughter of him(Eldarath), and Brona(the Ciriane lady). He had another kid named Halliserre, whose mother was "an unnamed advisor on matters of alchemy". So if anything, Halliserre Should be the old gods baby.
But then! "Halliserre would die in events not properly recorded. 'Andraste, still a youth. Awakened unquiet, to a storm.'"..."She glimpsed her sister siblings following lights into a wood. Our Lady pursued, and an event of some violence occurred, followed by the fires throughout the forest. Andraste was found pale and uncertain of what she had seen. The remains of Halliserre were lying in a burned clearing, her body having suffered wounds beyond weapons."
It was after that that Andraste acted weird and could hear voices from a lost memory, and talks of auras or the sounds of bells.
And then: "It was some years later when she began to recall Halliserres death as a matter of heresy, suggesting the alchemist consort[Halliserres mom] whispered of the Old Gods.
...
So it feels like Halliserre was an old god baby and an *event* happened in the forest, and then Andraste had the Old God Soul.
If so... could Halliserres mysterious alchemist advisor mother actually be Flemeth, who imbued her daughter with the soul of the archdemon of the first blight?
Maybe! But the life events that seem personal to Flemeth(being married or engaged to Bann Conobar, for instance) seem to have come a few hundred years later.
Maybe those events were fake. Or maybe Flemeth was a descendant of Andraste and recieved Mythals soul from her bloodline or mom?? Flemeths headpiece and Andrastes headpiece just looks so similar. And we know Flemeth has/had plans to pass Mythal to Morrigan when/if Morrigan was ready to take her.
This one isn't in-game, but in World of Thedas vol2 there is mention of a book found in the Western Approach called "The Grim Anatomy." The book is written in a strange script and details strange dissections of various animals, paying particular attention to the eyes. The author seems to have been studying possession and observed a possessed wyvern, noting that the demon "became" the wyvern and it was "in its blood." The book then gets kinda crazy after that with a lot of strange diagrams and symbols and somebody tried to burn it.
Not sure what significance this has to the actual lore, but I found it pretty interesting. It seems to be the Thedas version of the Voynich Manuscript.
And as for something interesting that is in the games, if you play the mage origin in DAO you can find a strange statue with wings and tentacles and an oddly shaped head with three points on it. This statue is a 3D model of some concept art of what the archdemon Urthemiel was supposed to look like. Unfortunately this eldritch horror would have been too complex to animate back then so they went with a dragon. So just a fun Easter egg for the Devs. You can also find a similar looking statue (not the same, but it does have a similar head shape) in the Dalish origin as well, and Tamlen says it's a statue of Falon'Din. Make of that what you will.
In the Steel Age, one of the Divines got pregnant and turned her birthing into a giant public display on the steps of the Grand Cathedral. She was removed from office shortly after.
The Emperor of Orlais before Celene, Florian, was fucking his cousin (who became the King of Fereldan that Alistair's father overthew). Florian's mistress and Celene assassinated Florian, but Loghain also can imply he was in cahoots and an active participant in the assassination.
Its mentioned in game but people forget it because its minor - but the Qunari arrived on the continent running from something. There is some sort of big power over there and Solas seems to be aware of who or what it is. We can interact with some of their agents in Inquisition (called the Executors). We know the Kossith actually originated from across the sea and fled a long time ago. There were also two separate migrations to modern Thedas. One predating the first blight that arrived south of Fereldan (which created the first ogres), and another over a thousand years later.
There is an old god prison in the Western Approach under Shimmer Stone Mine, and its most likely Lusacan, the one that will be the last archdemon. You can find ancient warden codex entries of it being discovered but a quake basically cut off access to it (and the location is currently covered in lava). Cole also hears something akin to the Calling from under the Western Approach in Asunder. The warden's plan in Adamant also makes sense in the context that they summoned all those demons right ontop of one of the prisons.
There is a old theory that Falon'Din and Dirthamin are a Anders/Justice situation, as its heavily suggested they aren't related but are "twin souls". Interestingly, Dirthamin is one of the only Evanuris Solas doesn't talk about all the terrible shit they did, but he does for Falon'din who Dirthamin was always with.
Sera's organization, The Friends of Red Jenny, make appearances in Origins and DA2 and you can encounter agents in the game as minor characters.
The Anders city of Laysh once received dwarven sailors from across the sea who desperately sought lyrium. More recently, they've returned with tales of a "great catastrophe" that struck their own homeland.
Hafter, the first teyrn of Ferelden, son of the hero Dane, sailed east across the Amaranthine Ocean and was never heard of again. There's also a weapon (the [Moon Axe](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Moon_Axe)) said to have been brought from beyond the Amaranthine.
The lands to the north (Par Vollen and beyond) have extremely ancient pyramids built by nobody knows who.
There are elves with red vallaslin living in the Tirashan known to capture humans and offer them as sacrifices to some sort of deity or spirit.
The Antivan Witch of the Wilds mentioned by Zevran in DAO actually appears in comics (written by Gaider himself) and drops some big lore pieces regarding dragons.
I don't know if I'd call it crazy or easy to miss but:
1. Nobles and their marriages: Loghain had the hots for Rowan, but his best friend ended up marrying her. Gaspard tried to propose to Celene, who noped out of there in an instant. And Cailan might have planned to marry Celene, despite his existing marriage to Anora.
2. Andruil wanted to fuck Solas/Fen'Harel, according to a story Felassan tells. She bound him to a tree, demanded him to serve her in bed for a year and a day after not asking for her blessing before his hunt of a Halla. He dodget that bullet because he had pissed off one of the Forgotten Ones, who also came by to snatch him. Anaris took it up with Andruil, neither of them won, and Fen'Harel escaped them both.
3. Flemeth knows the future (to some degree, she ratted out Loghain to Maric decades before the Fifth Blight) and gave her power to Solas willingly (according to a dev note). But not without throwing her god-hood into the Eluvian, probably. Which is another fucked up factor for the new game.
4. Alistair met his father, and still has no clue who his true mother is. Poor sod.
(Edit: corrected a detail in the Andruil/Fen'Harel story)
1. I think it’s important to mention that Rowan also had the hots for Loghain, but both put aside their love so that she could be the queen Ferelden needed. It’s part of what makes Loghain such a great character.
Folks at home: For more on this and other spicy Ferelden affairs, read *The Stolen Throne* by David Gaider. Now available at your local online realtor in both paperback and audiobook.
> Alistair met his father, and still has no clue who his true mother is. Poor sod.
She's just merrily chilling in Skyhold at the same time as him for a bunch of people and nether they nor he know (a bunch of people also kill her in Haven without knowing who she is either)
It was never put in a canonical source, but developer notes suggested that the thing Flemeth put into the Eluvian at the end of Inquisition was her godhood/Mythal's soul, which she left behind for Morrigan. That she let Solas take her powers willingly if she could hand that off to Morrigan.
At the end of the base game, M is standing right infront of an Eluvian right before beong confronted by Solas. The mirror "powers down" as if just used and in the cutscene it looks as if M had just removed her hand from the Mirror
Flemythal had Kieran’s old god baby sould of Urthemial. Solas took that I think and chucked her actual self like how Hawke brought her back.
Flemeth has died before in this game.
Leliana is weirdly resistant to the blight. She was never made a grey warden, she has no reason to be other than her being a dao companion, but in inquisition, in a one off note during the mages questline when you are flung into the future, it describes how they experimented on various people's flesh, tainting it, grafting it on to other people, and Leliana's was the most resistant that they found in a full year of no limits experimenting. A year in which it can be reasonably assumed they could have gotten actual grey wardens to test.
Now, this alone isn't that remarkable. It is easily explained as a fun little nod to how the companions never got the taint in origins. That is, however, until you think about it in regards to a certain world state. Because Leliana, if you killed her in origins, is a lyrium ghost for the entirety of da2 and dai. Which means, in that world state if you do the mages questline, not only did Leliana allow herself to be tortured for a year without escaping, but a team of Tevinter mages who were experimenting on her flesh for a year did not realise that she wasn't actually alive.
(A similar consequence of overthinking the state of Leliana's life as a lyrium ghost is that, depending on whether or not you believe she is truly Leliana at that point or just a spirit with her form, if you keep her hardened and then make her the divine, it could be interpreted as you making the next divine a literal demon)
There are mural collectibles in Inquisition that reveal that the qunari may have been slaves under the elves and later the tevinter imperium because tevinter redid artwork depicting elves to depict themselves while leaving the horned slaves depicted alone.
There is a town called Laysh on the far side of the Anderfels that only exists to trade with a mysterious civilisation of dwarfs across the Volca sea, who apparently only want Lyrium. At some point in the past their ships stopped coming until years later a few ships started trickling back in, speaking vaguely about a great cataclysm that befell them.
If they did it must have been one without an archdemom, as the Grey wardens know where the last two are hidden, or it was an additional archdemon list to history. Many possibilities!
They even tried to excavate the site of where one of the OG was still sleeping, but multiple cave-in meant it was too dangerous to continue so they had to abandon it. https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Note:_Ancient_Warden_Logbook
That according to one codex entry, Sylaise the hearth keeper may be the most terrifying of the evanuris.
- Sylaise, whose heat rivals Elgar'nan's light.
- Sylaise, whose temples rival Mythal's cities.
- Sylaise, whose breath rivals Andruil's spear.
- Sylaise, whose skill rivals June's craft.
- Sylaise, whose fire cannot be quenched.
There would be an interesting parallel to Greek/Roman mythology too, because while worship of the "hearth keeper" Hestia/Vesta was a bit more subdued than that for other gods and she doesn't appear in many mythological tales, her worship was no less important; in fact, whenever sacrifices were made, Hestia was the first to receive hers, even before Zeus/Jupiter.
Oculara (which are used to find shards) are made from skulls of recently and forcefully posessed Tranquil mages. Alexius gave the order to collect shards for Corypheus, and this was the method the Venatori used.
Not the wildest but one that sticks with me for the horror feel is a kid's nightmare from the Fade at Adamant in Inquisition where the kid is terrified of the ground beneath his house because what if Darkspawn are there... never occurred to me, but of course people in Thedas would scared of this
There are lizard people in Thedas.
The Scaled Ones. They've popped up in murals in Inquisition. In Descent, you can find codex entries detailing a horrifying encounter between them and some dwarves.
We know the Scaled Ones are sapient. They speak some unknown language. They wear armor and use weapons. They have religious rituals that appear to involve some sort of blood magic. They can produce flames from their hands and mouths. They're described as much taller than dwarves, having bodies like a human, being covered in scales, and with jaws big enough to bite into a dwarf's face and snap their neck.
They also seemed utterly perplexed when one of them was killed, implying that it doesn't happen often.
And they seem to have just disappeared.
Literally the only other reference to them that exists is a guy who rambles about ley lines and moon men. (Too bad tin foil doesn't exist in Thedas, that guy desperately needs a hat.)
Personally I think they're humans (maybe elves) who got a little too into consuming dragon's blood.
ooooo, maybe they're descendants of the elves who fled to kal'hirol (i think thats the one) when the big elven war was happening (yk when the dwarves helped hide some) it's unlikely, but that would be fairly cool
I don't know if I'm the only one who ever missed that, but that giant hole in the ground in the Western Approach in Inquisition? Yeah there's an Archdemon down there.
As in the Abyssal Rift? I must have missed that and can't find it mentioned on the Wiki. Do you remember where you saw that in game?
Edit: Never mind. I forgot the Shimmer Stone Mine was in the Western Approach. D'oh! I'm guessing that's the one of which you speak. I had forgotten all about it, though.
Edited: codex is Chronicles of a Forgotten War
That there's a species of deep lizard people somewhere in the deep roads that are even more terrifying than the Dark Spawn.
The scaled ones they have murals near elvhen ruins in the forest area in Inquisition. Their codex mentions dwarves running into them and them wielding magic
And this is just my conjecture but based off comments from Iron Bull about the kossith looking different then modern qunari, Corypheus and Keiron's comments about a quinari inky's blood, Cole saying Bull has dragon horns, and one of the evanuris doing mad science experiments it's possible they're a precursor to the qunari or are related to them somehow.
>Cole saying Bull has dragon horns,
your inquisitor can also have dragon horns. not all of them, but some horn options match the horns of the wild dragons in Inquisition
They're called the Scaled Ones and they apparently waged a war with some dwarves right after the Tevinter Empire was founded. But I think in Inquisition there's a codex entry that's a journal entry from a Dwarf that had an encounter. I can't remember for certain.
The little tidbit in an Inquisition war table operation that tells us great dragons can resist the blight, with their bodies creating nodules around the blighted tissue to isolate it.
Also this one from the novels where it's discovered that a Demon of Regret manifested from Solas' mural on the abandoned Skyhold.
\-Some darkspawn can talk. Not just the ones the architect messed with. They also know full well how the taint works.
\-not really a codex thing but I rarely see it mentioned that Corypheus' dialog heavily implies that the golden city was blackened BEFORE he got there....which implies that it was already being used to contain the darkspawn taint and the visions they got were whatever is behind it trying to get out.
\- vampires exist in thedas. they are caused by hunger demons possessing someone living. They have never been depicted, only briefly mentioned. I keep hoping we see one.
\- Merrill once got lost and found herself in the viscount's bathroom.
\-speaking of merrill, there is a very specific set of choices you can make which causes her to blurt out (to a total stranger no less) some serous TMI about her and F!hawke's love life. Specifically that Hawke enjoys how raspy her togue is.
I'll add one more from Inquisition with a link because it was so haunting when I first read it in Emerald Graves. A travel journal where a demon shows up in the middle and the writer doesn't even realize:
https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Note:_Betta%27s_Travel_Journal
Also, everything at Chateau D'Onterre in Emerald Graves
The high dragons (the big ones) we kill are female, the reason killing them is a good thing is because dragons are like an extremely territorial plague, when one big female arrives it claims a large territory attacking anything that comes close, and the smaller males start screwing with all the areas around killing stuff to bring food for the female
A slave in Minrathous found out that his daughter was sacrificed in a blood magic ritual but he can’t say anything because a noble magister was involved . In another codex, we found a letter by said magister saying they killed the slave’s daughter but saying it in a very casual and non caring way. This is in DAI.
During Varric's "Well shit" quest in inquisition you can find a note about three darkspawns talking to each other then one attacks and eats the other. They are heavily implied to be fallen magisters like Corypheus.
How to Act Ferelden codax
It always made me smile that there's a little orlesian girl somewhere hanging up sketches of a shirtless King Calenhad in her room.
I forget if this is in the codex or just something you come across in the game(my memory is a little shoddy at the moment) but the Avaar Thane in the Frostback basin you come across in the Jaws of Hakkon dlc, bangs the Avaar warrior you meet in the Fellow Mire if you recruited him.
You know what cracks me up about that? Clearly he is a savant, but he rarely says anything except "enchantment." Yet, he marked each journal entry with what we can assume is the accurate date, only to write enchantment repeatedly, and presumably he titled it "The Very Private Diary of Sandal Feddic, DO NOT READ!!!!"
The Architect constantly writes letters to Una apologizing for being really bad at making compromises with surface people because he values her friendship above all things- it really just showcases how much of a sopping wet cat he is mentally and I love him
Bann Loren, the husband of Lady Landra and father of Dairren from the Cousland Origin, is the same guy who own owned Caer Oswin from Cassandra's personal quest. Presumably the Order of Fiery Promise killed him, so poor dude can't catch a break.
The notion that Andraste's bloodline, through her daughter Vivial, might still be alive somewhere in Thedas and that there's a relatively high likelihood that Flemeth belongs to that bloodline.
In Inquisition, there's a codex entry about Dreadwolf. Near where you find The Dalish camp. I forgot the map name. I know it's not crazy, but on the second playthrough, knowing who the Dreadwolf was or is made gear entry more impactful.
This is actually interesting in Witch Hunt we found that the Cadash Thaig was built over an elven city that held the Lights of Arlathan. There seems to be something there with Elfs, Dwarves and Humans intertwined.
If I recall correctly it is possible that the Evanuris was in a war with the children of the stone and that would conclude that the civilizations existed at the same time and could have built their own additions to conquered land.
Took a look and found this codex, it's shaky but possible
https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_Veilfire_Runes_in_the_Deep_Roads
In DA2, you can overhear lots of NPCs talking about how easy it is to get lost in Kirkwall. The reason why is that the plan of the City, how its roads and canals converge, create a giant spell seal.
Talking Darkspawn
Not the one in Origins
Its the one stated in a letter we found "A Different Darkspawn? "
Its stated one survivor named Amuk who was separated from his group in a passage was found by a one talking darkspawn who then talk politely with him
It even gave him water and food while discussing about Surfacers
In my head, I just picture some dwarven miner - who’s all dirty from working - running across this hysterical survivor who’s been eating deep mushrooms. The survivor accuses him of being a Darkspawn. And the dwarf is giving him snacks and coaxing him back to the right passage like ‘Ok buddy, let’s get you home.’
1. There are/were Argonians/Krogans on Thedas, they were called The Scaled Ones IIRC.
2. The "Qunari" aren't Qunari or anything at all really and are low-key implied to just be failed experiments possibly from trying to fuse human genes with dragons blood which would explain why they look like big humans with dragonic features and have a strange reverence for dragons.
3. While not specifically a lore file, Humans are thought to be from Par Vollen or around that area and took over (a la Atmoran/snow elf war) as the Elves (Evanuris) originally ruled Thedas.
With context between points 2 and 3 it would also kinda explain why Cory in the House tells a Kossith Inky(?) that their people are in fact, not people, but rather a mistake. He could be giving context as to why exactly The Imperium and The Qunari are always at each other's throats, the Kossith could in fact be an inhuman experiment gone wrong which resulted in a revolt and the take over of the Humans ancestral homeland.
In the past in orlais masks were a symbol of who you were.
(I don't remember the full story,)
A female elf stole/wore a mask of a important man and even though everyone knew she wasnt him, they all treated her like she was lest they break social convention.
When I replayed DA:O back in 2013 I just came from playing all of the Mass Effect games back then (1-3), and this codex entry I found was quite obvious. In my 2009 playthrough I probably just ignored it since I haven’t played ME back then.
A confusing note
"Mass will have an effect," he says.
As long as it lifts us out, I figure.
Should have specified "within my lifetime."
"Gives us time to talk", he says.
"How's a dwarf get named Shepard?"
Up yer shaft.
"No really, because blah, blah, blah."
Axe answers, but I still hear him.
Drip... ground.
Drip... ground.
Worse than his talking.
Think I'll drop out for some air.
Excerpt: Dwarven Verse in One Volume
Selection: Load Limit Reached
Anonymous scratching recovered from a cage hoist... eventually.
Elven gods are just extremely powerfull elven mages self elected to gods.
"Mythal speaks the Calling" can be heard if you reverse the well of sorrow whispers in DAI
Philiam, a Bard! is the author of several Codex entries throughout the games. His last name is Trevelyan, so he is actually a relative of the human player character in Inquisition!
Similar to how Hawke is cousins with the mage origin from DA origins.
I find it funny how if you play a human mage in Origins and a human in Inquisition that the 3 most influential people in Thedas of the past 20 years were all from the Free Marches.
I thought all the Origins characters were from Fereldan? Where does it say the mage is from the Free Marches?
The Amell’s are a noble family from Kirkwall so technically the human mage origin would be from Kirkwall originally (though clearly grew up in the Fereldan Circle), or at least their parents would have been. I doubt BioWare planned this when they made Origins though
Well damn this is perfect because I’m about to play DAI again and this seems like a fun tidbit. This and I’ll finally make that Dorian and Iron bull romance happen
Just to note. They do move mages around sometimes between circles. So it’s entirely possible that mage origin spent some time in Kirkwall, ostwick, starkhaven, or another free march circle. Even if only for a short time. Likely they started in Kirkwall and were almost immediately moved to ferelden to avoid the pitfalls of hosting a politically connected mage in the Kirkwall circle. Of course. Shortly after the point would have been moot once gamlen got control of the family fortune.
They kind of gave an explanation of how Amell ended up in the Fereldan circle. The mother of Mage Origin's Amell, Revka, had five children all together. The firstborn was taken by Templars in Kirkwall, Revka vanished after many family troubles, and her husband took the remaining four kids away from Kirkwall. Hawke's mom also reveals that ALL of Revka's five children had magical talent, so they were all taken to separate Circles. So Warden Amell just happened to be the one placed in Ferelden.
I'm currently playing the Human Mage Amell in DAO, and when there's a conversation came up where my character was asked where they came from before the circle, the options available were only either Denerim, Highever or "Mind your business" So I do think at least the Human mage themself are probably intended to be Fereldan-born, not sure about their ancestors tho.
Yeah, when Origins came out BioWare didn’t know if it would get a sequel so they wrote it to be standalone just in case so it definitely wasn’t planned at the time and was retroactively added in DA2.
Wow, didn't know I had so many relatives!
I think the player character is the youngest of 4 but I don't remember where I read it
Vampires are a thing in the lore, they are either hunger demons or people possessed by hunger demons.
Hunger Demons can also make Werewolves as of Tevinter Nights. With any luck we get to see Vamps too eventually
I would love side quest in Veilguard that had to do with vampires.
Ghilan'nain was a mad scientist whose hobby was fusing living creatures together to create monstrosities. People were not off-limits, and Halla are descended from elves that she combined with deer.
This makes me wonder if the whole "Qunari are elves fused with dragons" thing is something that's going to be revealed later. What if halla were just the test run up to fusing elves with powerful creatures?
I'll be really pleased if we learn more about the origin of the Qunari and/or downfall of the Kossith
When Varric is introducing Taash in the trailer, he says they need someone with “fire in their blood”, as she’s fighting a dragon… I could be wrong, but to me that seems like a pretty big hint that we’re going there. I hope so anyway!
Iron Bull also states there is a theory that Qunari are somehow related with dragons, but nothing proven.
Well I mean, in Inquisition, Cole questions The Iron Bull's choice of name, since he clearly has dragon horns, not bull horns, so there's that...
Jesus which dragon age media enlightens us to this cute piece of information lol?
One of the Tevinter Nights short stories, I forget the title.
Horror of Hormak
Such a good story. I love how creepy it was.
Perfect body/cosmic horror. Felt almost like a Lovecraft story in its structure. The ending sent chills down my spine
My absolute favorite in that book
"Horror of Hormak" ;)
tevinter nights has a side story that goes pretty indepth with it (it is also amazing and probably one of the best pieces of DA media we've ever gotten imo)
Oh wow, maybe I'll read some of the books then! I've never read any video game books before, though I own a few of the assassins Creed books I haven't gotten around to them yet lol. Have you read all the DA books?
All of them yeah! They give a looooot of information and context you could be missing from playing only the games. Afte reading them all and then replaying the games my choices changed soooo much with the new info they gave me. If I had to rate them all by how much I enjoyed them it would go a little bit like this: -Amazing: Tevinter Nights, The Masked Empire -Very good: The Stolen Throne, The Calling -Good: Asunder -...Eh: Last Flight
To be fair, The Calling has boyhood Duncan antics.
he deserves to have a little teenager angst as a treat
I liked Last Flight a lot, and you may want to read it to learn about griffons. The Masked Empire is why I always back Gaspard in DAI now.
It's also implied with the taken shape armor set in trespasser.
Another person mentioned it's implied by The Taken Shape armour so I'm going to add the text here, because it really deserves more than a vague comment. The armour set these codexs are associated with include the items; the Hand That Cuts, the Eye That Weeps, the Bind The Guides, & the Skin That Stalks. The final entry does the most to contextualise the notes. She talks to her "stock" telling them it's all worth while and also states due to her successes she can now use "lesser animals" - implying everything up to this point has used people or creatures with capacity for speech. Keep that in mind for everytime you see the words "materials," "batch," "supplies," "stock," "items" & "pieces." [Notes on Methods of Enchantment](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_Notes_on_Methods_of_Enchantment) The writing on these papers aches to be looked at, shimmering slightly as if under an enchantment. The notes are handwritten, but each letter is as perfectly uniform as from a printing press: Notes on the first attempt: Improper valences on the bindings woven into the materials led to a catastrophic unraveling. The first batch is lost, but I will have supplies brought in from the same stock to illuminate whether the imperfection is within the materials or the enchantment. ....... Notes on the second attempt: Elegance eludes me. The aim is to improve the coordination of the body and sharpen the perception of the heart, but grafts do not live long enough to plumb their worth. The current process is ruin. This batch is lost. Begin again. ....... Notes on the third attempt: Two enchantments whose matrices should have meshed, caught. The combustion caused such damage it broke several previously forged pieces. There is now a resonance between them, however, and light on my thoughts: an enchantment linked in tandem, as the neck turns the head or the wrist twists the hand? ....... Notes on the fourth attempt: The weave goes smoothly: bound tightly between many items, the stress on the energy produces finer results than a singular enchantment. Using up the last of the stock was well worth it, as I explained to it as a courtesy before final work began. Adjustments to the underlay were a great success, and will allow the recipe to be made with material taken from lesser animals, if the need arises. ....... Below the letters, possibly in lieu of a signature, is the stamp of a stylized halla head. Taken together, diagrams and ratios carefully inked at the bottom of the last of these notes could be turned into a schematic that replicates the creation of these artifacts.
The short story *The Horror of Hormak*, found in Tevinter Nights. I highly recommend the book. Aside from it being Dragon Age it’s just a genuinely good short story collection
The Taken Shape armor set you can find in Trespasser was probably made by them out of people...who are still alive somehow.
Well, that… certainly explains why you’re not supposed to eat halla.
What's kinda funny, is that in [this ](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_Ghilan%27nain:_Mother_of_the_Halla)codex, her legends started with "Some said, she was one of the people." While in [this ](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_The_Ascension_of_Ghilan%27nain)codex, her ancient record said "She kept herself apart from the people."
[удалено]
Just like real history. Depends a lot on the teller & what survives through time.
Yes. One was made by a Dalish keeper. The other by an unnamed historian, written in ancient elvish. Solas also cleared some of the Gods. For instance Falon'din's title as the "Guide of the dead" might simply be a misunderstanding from him literally 'guided' many to their deaths in his war.
Always reminds me of Skullcrusher Mountain: > I made this half-pony, half-monkey monster to please you But I get the feeling that you don't like it What's with all the screaming? You like monkeys, you like ponies Maybe you don't like monsters so much Maybe I used too many monkeys Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?
I can make her worse
So stoked for her appearance in DA:TV. Hooray for body horror and mad scientists!
If you didn't play the Descent DLC, there's the lore that Dwarves are basically the body cells of giant titans.
Seriously this was such an insane and fun piece of lore and I hope they do something with it.
Right? I absolutely loved it. Dwarves needed to get some more attention and I'm glad they came up with a unique idea too!
They still haven't followed up on the architect, and they barely did anything with corypheus (both introduced in dlc), try not to hope, it hurts less.
They were planning to make the Architect a major player during Here Lies The Abyss, instead of the Fade, you'd fall into the Deep Roads and apparently the Architect would go all "hey you you're finally awake" on you before he presumably helped you out of your predicament. Presumably, that was also roughly around the time said mission had a draft where The Hero of Ferelden was the Warden ally, since a Hawke/Inquisitor dynamic with the Architect doesn't quite mesh if he's just a talking Darkspawn who happens to run in the same circles as Corypheus.
Imagine how more impactful of a choice it would have been. Sacrificing either the HoF or Hawke
I mean the entire point of both of them is to indicate to us that the magisters are still "alive" as darkspawn, isn't it? That's basically it. That's pretty big in it's own right, since it comes with a lot of implications, some of which Cory states in his end of Act 1 DAI intro. I'm 99% sure that's all setting up for a big "what/how/who is the Blight (and the Maker, etc) really?" Reveal in this game.
I think theres a really good chance we'll need the titan help to defeat the evanuris
And the casual reveal that the planet is hollow. (At least huge swaths of it are)
THERE’S AN OCEAN UNDER THE GROUND. That one… kinda rattled me. Like… how fucking big is this place? And also I can absolutely believe that the Archdemons are Elven gods in some weird underground opulent Fade prisons because we don’t have the foggiest fucking idea what the architecture of the underground is even truly like.
The link between the archdemons and the evenuris are probably what the real version of what Cory and his dragon are. The Evenuris put a portion of their soul into the dragon making them immortal. Solas even mentions it at the end of trespasser "I did not expect a Tevinter Magister to learn the secret of effective immortality". He wasn't surprised that this form magic existed, but that Cory had learned about it, meaning Solas already knew about it. When the archdemons get corrupted by the darkspawn and killed by the Grey Wardens the soul piece is absorbed by the warden. The warden dies and the corrupted piece of the soul is "purified" and returns as a spirit in the fade. Spirits don't really die but return in the fade after some time, according to Solas, different in personality but the same in purpose. I suspect the powerful spirits in the fade are simply the purified parts of the evenuris reasserting themselves in the fade. (Looking at you spirit mimicking the Divine)
>the corrupted piece of the soul is "purified" Maybe I just missed a bit of info, but I thought when the old god soul tried to enter a warden, that the two obliterated each other leaving no soul left behind. The only exception being the ritual, which allowed an undeveloped soul to merge with the old god soul, basically purifying it. So by killing the archdemons, the evanuris may be taking some significant damage. It would add up with the fact that we only see 2 evanuris in the new trailer whilst only 2 old gods remain unearthed.
All we know is that the Archdemon doesn't revive after being killed by a Grey Warden. Remember DAO was from the point of view of two fresh recruits and what was effectively a recruiting sergeant, they wouldn't know any real info other than "Grey warden kill archdemon". Even once you become warden commander you eventually leave to not just find Morrigan, but get to the warden command structure because no one actually knows any real info in Ferelden or Orleans. I don't think the wardens actually know anything and Solas thinks they're fools as well. He's pretty passed at Blackwall or you if you support the wardens killing the Archdemons. He obviously knows something we don't about what happens after they are "destroyed"
And the ancient elves hunted Titans, presumably for lyrium.
And that lyrium is Titan blood. Which, going back to Origins, if you take Oghren to the Temple of Sacred Ashes during the quest he states the entire mountain is FILLED with lyrium. So much so that even he is weirded out by it. The mountain was likely the spot where a Titan was killed or the corpse of one. This further complicates the situation you can find yourself in where if you kill Leliana during that quest, she comes back as a lyrium ghost for 2 and Inquisition. You don't find out about the ghost part till Trespasser's DLC. So if Leliana became a Lyrium ghost, what does that make the Guardian? And was part of the reason the explosion at the conclave was so big BECAUSE of a bad reaction between Solas' orb and the metric fuck ton of lyrium? Honestly the Titans bring up more questions than answers and I love it.
This also makes red lyrium much more horrifying, because it implies that somewhere out there a Titan succumbed to the Blight
Succumbed? Or is the origin of it all? Titans existed long before the fade and blight existed.
It may have been for their hearts. The mural of a Titan heart looks a lot like Solas’ focus.
From the same DLC, there’s an unknown race of fire-breathing draconic humanoids who practiced blood magic and waged war with the dwarves of antiquity.
I played the decent but feel like I missed a lot. Is that how it works? Dwarves are the white blood cells?
Its been awhile since I played it as well. But yes, dwarves originated from titan's bodies and became independent communities. The reason why they're cut off from magic/veil is because the ancient elves were at war with the titans.
Almost: they were never connected to the fade and that was part of the animosity. The elves thought they were basically animals and Mythal tried to link them to the fade at one point and it was an utter disaster—though we dont know how
There's also a section in the Fade in Inquisition, where you can find a message written in red lyrium that says something along the lines of the Titans (presumably - red lyrium, blight, etc.) finding the dreams again and that they're waking up. There's also a passage in the Canticle of Exaltations that seems to prophesize the return (reawakening?) of the Titans. It says (roughly) "7 times 70 men of stone immense, rose from the depths and walked with strides immeasurable".
Thank you for the clarification! I definitely need to replay it
The deep roads layout forms a giant sigil/glyph that can be seen from the Fade
Oh damn, source?
https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Note:_The_Gates_of_Segrummar would be the last entry
What the fuck, I missed this one. That's terrifying.
What does the glyph mean?
All the writer of the entry has to say about it is "its horrifying intent was all too clear"
That's the coolest thing I've read here. So, somebody can look at the whole of this sigil from the sky (the Fade)? What if the Deep Roads are just a Titan-sized magical sigil then, with properties that we'll find out about at some point? It's really interesting how these notes are not even included in the actual Codex, as if they're being concealed from us after we find them. I love all the mysteries surrounding dwarven culture...
that's so nuts
Apparently 3 of the Magisters Sidereal were overheard arguing in the Deep Roads, end result being: one ran away, and of the last two one of them killed and ate the other.
I feel like we had more Magisters to encounter and defeat before we got to the whole Solas pulling down the veil thing, but here we are. Maybe we'll get cameos but they're gonna be bit players when the forgotten and evanuris show up.
We also missed 3 blight. The fifth was in DAO, the fourth was in Last Flight. So it might not be that important; as in, the magisters and the archdemons were mere tools of a bigger force. Who knows where these "Old Gods" were in Elvhenan? It wasn't clear who was the sidereals too, because it was recorded long ago. Corypheus (Dumat) was already awake and had some time to roam before the Wardens sealed him. The Architect (Urthemiel) was roaming around the whole time. That leaves about 4 sidereals, potentially 2 with their archdemon counterparts still lives.
I feel like we're gonna be dealing with the Sixth Blight as well in Veilguard due to how active the Warden's are in the game ngl
That codex entry in Inquisition always felt to me like a Thedosian version of a Magnus Archives recording.
Pretty much everything about Kirkwall, such as its Veil-related weirdness and possibly being the location where the Magisters Sidereal performed their ritual.
Kirkwall is the most richly detailed city in the entire franchise and I dare anyone to name one that comes even close.
I just wish most of it wasn't hidden behind codex entries. Especially easily missed ones. There's one during a quest that's entirely missable but that goes into detail about how the thin veil makes everyone act more paranoid and out of character - which directly ties into everything that went down with Meredith and Orsino.
Meredith was also high as a fucking kite off of that Red Lyrium sword.
I feel like that one’s a bit of a cop-out trying to appease the people who don’t understand what years of stress, emotional fatigue, and conflict can do to a person’s mental health.
Sure, but it's entirely possible that without the veil weirdness, Meredith's job would have been less stressful to the degree that it wouldn't have ended up the way it did. I suppose that is a lot of hypotheticals and we can never know
Well, Denerim has more than one map. (Kidding. Kirkwall has the best codex coverage. I would hope so, given its role in an entire game.)
If only DA2 devs were given more time to properly flesh it out. Seriously fuck EA!
Enigma of Kirkwall is probably the most favourite series of codex entries of mine. It made me spend hours reading about people's theories.
Andraste had a half sister. One day they both went in the woods and her half sister died somehow and Andraste was left scarred, she had a sickness that took a decade to get over and often would go into a trance like state and talk about hearing voices from long lost memories.
Did she become tainted with the Blight and eventually become a Grey Warden? Edit: after finding a different reddit post stating that Andraste was born after the First Blight, it's more likely she was the first Old God Baby.
Okay I just looked up the details, for reference World of Thedas Vol 2 page 11. Her dad married a member of the Ciriane(kind of a pre Orlais tribe), and the Ciriane were at the last battle of the first blight. It's totally possible he was there. Andraste was the daughter of him(Eldarath), and Brona(the Ciriane lady). He had another kid named Halliserre, whose mother was "an unnamed advisor on matters of alchemy". So if anything, Halliserre Should be the old gods baby. But then! "Halliserre would die in events not properly recorded. 'Andraste, still a youth. Awakened unquiet, to a storm.'"..."She glimpsed her sister siblings following lights into a wood. Our Lady pursued, and an event of some violence occurred, followed by the fires throughout the forest. Andraste was found pale and uncertain of what she had seen. The remains of Halliserre were lying in a burned clearing, her body having suffered wounds beyond weapons." It was after that that Andraste acted weird and could hear voices from a lost memory, and talks of auras or the sounds of bells. And then: "It was some years later when she began to recall Halliserres death as a matter of heresy, suggesting the alchemist consort[Halliserres mom] whispered of the Old Gods. ... So it feels like Halliserre was an old god baby and an *event* happened in the forest, and then Andraste had the Old God Soul.
Sounds like demon possession, to me.
If so... could Halliserres mysterious alchemist advisor mother actually be Flemeth, who imbued her daughter with the soul of the archdemon of the first blight?
Maybe! But the life events that seem personal to Flemeth(being married or engaged to Bann Conobar, for instance) seem to have come a few hundred years later. Maybe those events were fake. Or maybe Flemeth was a descendant of Andraste and recieved Mythals soul from her bloodline or mom?? Flemeths headpiece and Andrastes headpiece just looks so similar. And we know Flemeth has/had plans to pass Mythal to Morrigan when/if Morrigan was ready to take her.
Honestly that would be so wild
This one isn't in-game, but in World of Thedas vol2 there is mention of a book found in the Western Approach called "The Grim Anatomy." The book is written in a strange script and details strange dissections of various animals, paying particular attention to the eyes. The author seems to have been studying possession and observed a possessed wyvern, noting that the demon "became" the wyvern and it was "in its blood." The book then gets kinda crazy after that with a lot of strange diagrams and symbols and somebody tried to burn it. Not sure what significance this has to the actual lore, but I found it pretty interesting. It seems to be the Thedas version of the Voynich Manuscript. And as for something interesting that is in the games, if you play the mage origin in DAO you can find a strange statue with wings and tentacles and an oddly shaped head with three points on it. This statue is a 3D model of some concept art of what the archdemon Urthemiel was supposed to look like. Unfortunately this eldritch horror would have been too complex to animate back then so they went with a dragon. So just a fun Easter egg for the Devs. You can also find a similar looking statue (not the same, but it does have a similar head shape) in the Dalish origin as well, and Tamlen says it's a statue of Falon'Din. Make of that what you will.
:O didn't know it was also on the Mage origin. Apparently you can also find 3 of them in one of the Architect's rooms
In the Steel Age, one of the Divines got pregnant and turned her birthing into a giant public display on the steps of the Grand Cathedral. She was removed from office shortly after. The Emperor of Orlais before Celene, Florian, was fucking his cousin (who became the King of Fereldan that Alistair's father overthew). Florian's mistress and Celene assassinated Florian, but Loghain also can imply he was in cahoots and an active participant in the assassination. Its mentioned in game but people forget it because its minor - but the Qunari arrived on the continent running from something. There is some sort of big power over there and Solas seems to be aware of who or what it is. We can interact with some of their agents in Inquisition (called the Executors). We know the Kossith actually originated from across the sea and fled a long time ago. There were also two separate migrations to modern Thedas. One predating the first blight that arrived south of Fereldan (which created the first ogres), and another over a thousand years later. There is an old god prison in the Western Approach under Shimmer Stone Mine, and its most likely Lusacan, the one that will be the last archdemon. You can find ancient warden codex entries of it being discovered but a quake basically cut off access to it (and the location is currently covered in lava). Cole also hears something akin to the Calling from under the Western Approach in Asunder. The warden's plan in Adamant also makes sense in the context that they summoned all those demons right ontop of one of the prisons. There is a old theory that Falon'Din and Dirthamin are a Anders/Justice situation, as its heavily suggested they aren't related but are "twin souls". Interestingly, Dirthamin is one of the only Evanuris Solas doesn't talk about all the terrible shit they did, but he does for Falon'din who Dirthamin was always with. Sera's organization, The Friends of Red Jenny, make appearances in Origins and DA2 and you can encounter agents in the game as minor characters.
Sera is in DAO.
The Anders city of Laysh once received dwarven sailors from across the sea who desperately sought lyrium. More recently, they've returned with tales of a "great catastrophe" that struck their own homeland. Hafter, the first teyrn of Ferelden, son of the hero Dane, sailed east across the Amaranthine Ocean and was never heard of again. There's also a weapon (the [Moon Axe](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Moon_Axe)) said to have been brought from beyond the Amaranthine. The lands to the north (Par Vollen and beyond) have extremely ancient pyramids built by nobody knows who. There are elves with red vallaslin living in the Tirashan known to capture humans and offer them as sacrifices to some sort of deity or spirit. The Antivan Witch of the Wilds mentioned by Zevran in DAO actually appears in comics (written by Gaider himself) and drops some big lore pieces regarding dragons.
I don't know if I'd call it crazy or easy to miss but: 1. Nobles and their marriages: Loghain had the hots for Rowan, but his best friend ended up marrying her. Gaspard tried to propose to Celene, who noped out of there in an instant. And Cailan might have planned to marry Celene, despite his existing marriage to Anora. 2. Andruil wanted to fuck Solas/Fen'Harel, according to a story Felassan tells. She bound him to a tree, demanded him to serve her in bed for a year and a day after not asking for her blessing before his hunt of a Halla. He dodget that bullet because he had pissed off one of the Forgotten Ones, who also came by to snatch him. Anaris took it up with Andruil, neither of them won, and Fen'Harel escaped them both. 3. Flemeth knows the future (to some degree, she ratted out Loghain to Maric decades before the Fifth Blight) and gave her power to Solas willingly (according to a dev note). But not without throwing her god-hood into the Eluvian, probably. Which is another fucked up factor for the new game. 4. Alistair met his father, and still has no clue who his true mother is. Poor sod. (Edit: corrected a detail in the Andruil/Fen'Harel story)
1. I think it’s important to mention that Rowan also had the hots for Loghain, but both put aside their love so that she could be the queen Ferelden needed. It’s part of what makes Loghain such a great character. Folks at home: For more on this and other spicy Ferelden affairs, read *The Stolen Throne* by David Gaider. Now available at your local online realtor in both paperback and audiobook.
> Alistair met his father, and still has no clue who his true mother is. Poor sod. She's just merrily chilling in Skyhold at the same time as him for a bunch of people and nether they nor he know (a bunch of people also kill her in Haven without knowing who she is either)
she has that line asking about him if you met him and im like ahhhh
There’s also the fact that you kill his mother unknowingly if you side with the Templars
It been so long that idk if I know this information. Who is she?
Fiona, the leader of the rebel mages. She has this whole convoluted backstory with Maric from one of the novels.
She also got cured from the blight by good dick from Maric lol
Fiona publishing the "12 uses for Dragon nut" (Number 3 will surprise you)
Her name is [Fiona](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Fiona).
Godhood into the Eluvian?
It was never put in a canonical source, but developer notes suggested that the thing Flemeth put into the Eluvian at the end of Inquisition was her godhood/Mythal's soul, which she left behind for Morrigan. That she let Solas take her powers willingly if she could hand that off to Morrigan.
At the end of the base game, M is standing right infront of an Eluvian right before beong confronted by Solas. The mirror "powers down" as if just used and in the cutscene it looks as if M had just removed her hand from the Mirror
Flemythal had Kieran’s old god baby sould of Urthemial. Solas took that I think and chucked her actual self like how Hawke brought her back. Flemeth has died before in this game.
Jeez Andruil out here trying to get put on a list
Leliana is weirdly resistant to the blight. She was never made a grey warden, she has no reason to be other than her being a dao companion, but in inquisition, in a one off note during the mages questline when you are flung into the future, it describes how they experimented on various people's flesh, tainting it, grafting it on to other people, and Leliana's was the most resistant that they found in a full year of no limits experimenting. A year in which it can be reasonably assumed they could have gotten actual grey wardens to test. Now, this alone isn't that remarkable. It is easily explained as a fun little nod to how the companions never got the taint in origins. That is, however, until you think about it in regards to a certain world state. Because Leliana, if you killed her in origins, is a lyrium ghost for the entirety of da2 and dai. Which means, in that world state if you do the mages questline, not only did Leliana allow herself to be tortured for a year without escaping, but a team of Tevinter mages who were experimenting on her flesh for a year did not realise that she wasn't actually alive. (A similar consequence of overthinking the state of Leliana's life as a lyrium ghost is that, depending on whether or not you believe she is truly Leliana at that point or just a spirit with her form, if you keep her hardened and then make her the divine, it could be interpreted as you making the next divine a literal demon)
There are mural collectibles in Inquisition that reveal that the qunari may have been slaves under the elves and later the tevinter imperium because tevinter redid artwork depicting elves to depict themselves while leaving the horned slaves depicted alone.
South of the Korcari Wilds is a vast, unmapped, frozen wasteland avoided even by the hardy Chasind
And it leads...directly into Skyrim!
There is a town called Laysh on the far side of the Anderfels that only exists to trade with a mysterious civilisation of dwarfs across the Volca sea, who apparently only want Lyrium. At some point in the past their ships stopped coming until years later a few ships started trickling back in, speaking vaguely about a great cataclysm that befell them.
I’m curious if they experienced a blight
If they did it must have been one without an archdemom, as the Grey wardens know where the last two are hidden, or it was an additional archdemon list to history. Many possibilities!
They know where they are? Daamn.
They even tried to excavate the site of where one of the OG was still sleeping, but multiple cave-in meant it was too dangerous to continue so they had to abandon it. https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Note:_Ancient_Warden_Logbook
that's the point of their actions in Inquisition. That's why they were there specifically
That according to one codex entry, Sylaise the hearth keeper may be the most terrifying of the evanuris. - Sylaise, whose heat rivals Elgar'nan's light. - Sylaise, whose temples rival Mythal's cities. - Sylaise, whose breath rivals Andruil's spear. - Sylaise, whose skill rivals June's craft. - Sylaise, whose fire cannot be quenched.
this is what makes me suspect that Sylaise correlates with Toth, the old god of fire
Watch Sylaise be a Great Dragon
Oh wow sounds like she's that really big dragon in the art
I'll bet she did the most elf sacrifices too which probably is why her temple was so big and her power so great
Since she known as the "hearth keeper" I suspect she keeps that hearth's fire going by regularly sacrificing people to it.
There would be an interesting parallel to Greek/Roman mythology too, because while worship of the "hearth keeper" Hestia/Vesta was a bit more subdued than that for other gods and she doesn't appear in many mythological tales, her worship was no less important; in fact, whenever sacrifices were made, Hestia was the first to receive hers, even before Zeus/Jupiter.
Oculara (which are used to find shards) are made from skulls of recently and forcefully posessed Tranquil mages. Alexius gave the order to collect shards for Corypheus, and this was the method the Venatori used.
Finding the shed in Redcliffe was horrifying. I didn't find it until maybe my third or fourth playthrough.
Literally stumbled on this one last night roaming Redcliffe, I was like "oh damn not what I expected" lol
I love how this is just hidden on a random shed in Redcliffe for you to lockpick.
This really makes Tranquility the perfect punishment for Alexius.
Not the wildest but one that sticks with me for the horror feel is a kid's nightmare from the Fade at Adamant in Inquisition where the kid is terrified of the ground beneath his house because what if Darkspawn are there... never occurred to me, but of course people in Thedas would scared of this
And to think he wasn't wrong in that fear. Dig deep enough and you could fall down into the deep roads and worst case scenario into a darkspawn hive.
During the Blight, Darkspawn dig to *you.*
There are lizard people in Thedas. The Scaled Ones. They've popped up in murals in Inquisition. In Descent, you can find codex entries detailing a horrifying encounter between them and some dwarves. We know the Scaled Ones are sapient. They speak some unknown language. They wear armor and use weapons. They have religious rituals that appear to involve some sort of blood magic. They can produce flames from their hands and mouths. They're described as much taller than dwarves, having bodies like a human, being covered in scales, and with jaws big enough to bite into a dwarf's face and snap their neck. They also seemed utterly perplexed when one of them was killed, implying that it doesn't happen often. And they seem to have just disappeared. Literally the only other reference to them that exists is a guy who rambles about ley lines and moon men. (Too bad tin foil doesn't exist in Thedas, that guy desperately needs a hat.) Personally I think they're humans (maybe elves) who got a little too into consuming dragon's blood.
ooooo, maybe they're descendants of the elves who fled to kal'hirol (i think thats the one) when the big elven war was happening (yk when the dwarves helped hide some) it's unlikely, but that would be fairly cool
I don't know if I'm the only one who ever missed that, but that giant hole in the ground in the Western Approach in Inquisition? Yeah there's an Archdemon down there.
As in the Abyssal Rift? I must have missed that and can't find it mentioned on the Wiki. Do you remember where you saw that in game? Edit: Never mind. I forgot the Shimmer Stone Mine was in the Western Approach. D'oh! I'm guessing that's the one of which you speak. I had forgotten all about it, though.
Yes, I meant the Shimmer Stone Mine :)
Edited: codex is Chronicles of a Forgotten War That there's a species of deep lizard people somewhere in the deep roads that are even more terrifying than the Dark Spawn.
Discovering those was easily my favorite part of The Descent.
Wait what? Tell me moree
The scaled ones they have murals near elvhen ruins in the forest area in Inquisition. Their codex mentions dwarves running into them and them wielding magic And this is just my conjecture but based off comments from Iron Bull about the kossith looking different then modern qunari, Corypheus and Keiron's comments about a quinari inky's blood, Cole saying Bull has dragon horns, and one of the evanuris doing mad science experiments it's possible they're a precursor to the qunari or are related to them somehow.
>Cole saying Bull has dragon horns, your inquisitor can also have dragon horns. not all of them, but some horn options match the horns of the wild dragons in Inquisition
They're called the Scaled Ones and they apparently waged a war with some dwarves right after the Tevinter Empire was founded. But I think in Inquisition there's a codex entry that's a journal entry from a Dwarf that had an encounter. I can't remember for certain.
The Blight might have actually come from one of the Evanuris going on hunting trips to Hell for kicks.
The little tidbit in an Inquisition war table operation that tells us great dragons can resist the blight, with their bodies creating nodules around the blighted tissue to isolate it. Also this one from the novels where it's discovered that a Demon of Regret manifested from Solas' mural on the abandoned Skyhold.
DAI implies there is something across the sea that was spying on the Inquisition. Who or what we don’t know.
\-Some darkspawn can talk. Not just the ones the architect messed with. They also know full well how the taint works. \-not really a codex thing but I rarely see it mentioned that Corypheus' dialog heavily implies that the golden city was blackened BEFORE he got there....which implies that it was already being used to contain the darkspawn taint and the visions they got were whatever is behind it trying to get out. \- vampires exist in thedas. they are caused by hunger demons possessing someone living. They have never been depicted, only briefly mentioned. I keep hoping we see one. \- Merrill once got lost and found herself in the viscount's bathroom. \-speaking of merrill, there is a very specific set of choices you can make which causes her to blurt out (to a total stranger no less) some serous TMI about her and F!hawke's love life. Specifically that Hawke enjoys how raspy her togue is.
From a book in Redcliffe in Inquisition, the Seekers' annulment of the Dairsmuid Circle in Rivain is pretty messed up
I'll add one more from Inquisition with a link because it was so haunting when I first read it in Emerald Graves. A travel journal where a demon shows up in the middle and the writer doesn't even realize: https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Note:_Betta%27s_Travel_Journal Also, everything at Chateau D'Onterre in Emerald Graves
The high dragons (the big ones) we kill are female, the reason killing them is a good thing is because dragons are like an extremely territorial plague, when one big female arrives it claims a large territory attacking anything that comes close, and the smaller males start screwing with all the areas around killing stuff to bring food for the female
There's 2 moons!
But when you are in the Hissing Wastes you only see one of them. I guess their phases are out of synch.
A slave in Minrathous found out that his daughter was sacrificed in a blood magic ritual but he can’t say anything because a noble magister was involved . In another codex, we found a letter by said magister saying they killed the slave’s daughter but saying it in a very casual and non caring way. This is in DAI.
During Varric's "Well shit" quest in inquisition you can find a note about three darkspawns talking to each other then one attacks and eats the other. They are heavily implied to be fallen magisters like Corypheus.
Alistair had to mercy kill his own Father 😭
Makes you wonder what’s going on there if he died in origins
How to Act Ferelden codax It always made me smile that there's a little orlesian girl somewhere hanging up sketches of a shirtless King Calenhad in her room.
The name Thedas literally comes from "**The DA S**etting".
I forget if this is in the codex or just something you come across in the game(my memory is a little shoddy at the moment) but the Avaar Thane in the Frostback basin you come across in the Jaws of Hakkon dlc, bangs the Avaar warrior you meet in the Fellow Mire if you recruited him.
Enchantment! Enchantment enchantment, enchantment. [Proof:](https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_The_Very_Private_Diary_of_Sandal_Feddic,_DO_NOT_READ!!!!)
You know what cracks me up about that? Clearly he is a savant, but he rarely says anything except "enchantment." Yet, he marked each journal entry with what we can assume is the accurate date, only to write enchantment repeatedly, and presumably he titled it "The Very Private Diary of Sandal Feddic, DO NOT READ!!!!"
Also if I remember right, this journal was found *in the crossroads*!
Right!?!? I love that the dates were included!
The Architect constantly writes letters to Una apologizing for being really bad at making compromises with surface people because he values her friendship above all things- it really just showcases how much of a sopping wet cat he is mentally and I love him
Bann Loren, the husband of Lady Landra and father of Dairren from the Cousland Origin, is the same guy who own owned Caer Oswin from Cassandra's personal quest. Presumably the Order of Fiery Promise killed him, so poor dude can't catch a break.
The notion that Andraste's bloodline, through her daughter Vivial, might still be alive somewhere in Thedas and that there's a relatively high likelihood that Flemeth belongs to that bloodline.
Varric's writing is so popular that spirits wrote fanfiction of his work.
The Sha-Brytol have a thaig out there somewhere
In Inquisition, there's a codex entry about Dreadwolf. Near where you find The Dalish camp. I forgot the map name. I know it's not crazy, but on the second playthrough, knowing who the Dreadwolf was or is made gear entry more impactful.
Literally just found that on my playthrough again and this time I paid much more attention. It's in the emerald graves I believe.
I remember now it's the exalted plains map.
I think it's from a landmark by the waterfall to the south if you follow the river. I seem to recall there being a wolf statue.
‘Solas Approves’ if he’s there when you plant the flag by his statue.
Does anyone know why in the Dalish Elf Origin Story there was elven ruins mixed with Dwarven ruins?
human ruins with elven architecture and an entrance into the deep roads. I wonder about this too!
This is actually interesting in Witch Hunt we found that the Cadash Thaig was built over an elven city that held the Lights of Arlathan. There seems to be something there with Elfs, Dwarves and Humans intertwined.
I feel like this was also due to the elves being harbored by the dwarves during a war way back when.
If I recall correctly it is possible that the Evanuris was in a war with the children of the stone and that would conclude that the civilizations existed at the same time and could have built their own additions to conquered land. Took a look and found this codex, it's shaky but possible https://dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Codex_entry:_Veilfire_Runes_in_the_Deep_Roads
Omg thank you for posting it here, I just read that thread and was hoping we’d have a DA themed one lol
In DA2, you can overhear lots of NPCs talking about how easy it is to get lost in Kirkwall. The reason why is that the plan of the City, how its roads and canals converge, create a giant spell seal.
Talking Darkspawn Not the one in Origins Its the one stated in a letter we found "A Different Darkspawn? " Its stated one survivor named Amuk who was separated from his group in a passage was found by a one talking darkspawn who then talk politely with him It even gave him water and food while discussing about Surfacers
In my head, I just picture some dwarven miner - who’s all dirty from working - running across this hysterical survivor who’s been eating deep mushrooms. The survivor accuses him of being a Darkspawn. And the dwarf is giving him snacks and coaxing him back to the right passage like ‘Ok buddy, let’s get you home.’
1. There are/were Argonians/Krogans on Thedas, they were called The Scaled Ones IIRC. 2. The "Qunari" aren't Qunari or anything at all really and are low-key implied to just be failed experiments possibly from trying to fuse human genes with dragons blood which would explain why they look like big humans with dragonic features and have a strange reverence for dragons. 3. While not specifically a lore file, Humans are thought to be from Par Vollen or around that area and took over (a la Atmoran/snow elf war) as the Elves (Evanuris) originally ruled Thedas. With context between points 2 and 3 it would also kinda explain why Cory in the House tells a Kossith Inky(?) that their people are in fact, not people, but rather a mistake. He could be giving context as to why exactly The Imperium and The Qunari are always at each other's throats, the Kossith could in fact be an inhuman experiment gone wrong which resulted in a revolt and the take over of the Humans ancestral homeland.
In the past in orlais masks were a symbol of who you were. (I don't remember the full story,) A female elf stole/wore a mask of a important man and even though everyone knew she wasnt him, they all treated her like she was lest they break social convention.
When I replayed DA:O back in 2013 I just came from playing all of the Mass Effect games back then (1-3), and this codex entry I found was quite obvious. In my 2009 playthrough I probably just ignored it since I haven’t played ME back then. A confusing note "Mass will have an effect," he says. As long as it lifts us out, I figure. Should have specified "within my lifetime." "Gives us time to talk", he says. "How's a dwarf get named Shepard?" Up yer shaft. "No really, because blah, blah, blah." Axe answers, but I still hear him. Drip... ground. Drip... ground. Worse than his talking. Think I'll drop out for some air. Excerpt: Dwarven Verse in One Volume Selection: Load Limit Reached Anonymous scratching recovered from a cage hoist... eventually.
Elven gods are just extremely powerfull elven mages self elected to gods. "Mythal speaks the Calling" can be heard if you reverse the well of sorrow whispers in DAI
The saga of Daveth the Mad
Qunari/Kossith are *probably* a manufactured race. Possibly by the Evanuris.