So just replayed the deep roads/primeval thaig section of da2 while pondering the implications the new veilguard titan/dwarves/blight lore has to *vaguely gestures at the weirdness* all of it and it’s got me absolutely gnawing on my keyboard so I gotta talk about it.
So ok, easy one, sandal’s got stone magic! The same Harding has. Now we know that’s a possibility it’s the only explanation that makes sense for finding him next to a petrified ogre and his ‘NOT enchantment!’ answer. It just fits too perfectly to not be true. But then that means SANDAL HAS AN OPEN CONNECTION TO THE TITANS!!! This explains how his diary ended up in the fade in tresspasser, if he is connected to an awakened titan, he’s probably had a connection to the fade as well this entire time. Probably even able to enter it at will like a mage but also like…are the titans speaking to him? are they influencing him? are they up to something that sandal is helping them with? Aaaaaaaa I need them to bring sandal back and reveal these things *gnaws*
Next point of order, the profane. Aah the profane… what the fuck ARE the profane????!!!! Like I have some theories thanks to the new lore but I’m still not certain. Anyway, one of them is seemingly a demon in disguise and when you fight him, he dies and an abomination, standard old abomination, no rock wraith shit or anything, rises out of him. Now a DEMON rising out of a possessed vessel, we’ve seen before, but an abomination? A person possessed by a demon? How does that work? What about the giant ancient profane with a skull that seemed to control the others? What the fuck is going on? How does this all tie into red lyrium and the blight and the dreams of the titans and the ancient elves’ sundering of the titans from their dreams???
*carefully places tinfoil hat on head*
So we know the place is old right? Like stupid old. Literally called primeval, that’s like the oldest you could possibly be, so what if this thaig is not just older than the first blight, like Bartrand said, but also older than the veil, older than arlathan, older than the blight itself???? 👀👀👀
What if the primeval thaig was where the dwarves once lived when they were still connected to the titans? When both the titans and the dwarves themselves could dream and thus access the fade and magic. This lines up with lore around the thaig mentioning it seems to have been shaped by magic, which should be impossible since dwarves can’t do magic right? WRONG! and we know that now!
But if this was a relic from a time when the dwarves still had their magic and their connection to the titans, what would happen to those dwarven mages when the titans were effectively tranquilized by solas? What happens to dwarven mages that are turned into rock golems or whatever the fuck happened to branka after the descent?
Well what if the profane ARE those dwarven mages? What if the titans pain and anguish and rage, the blight itself, transformed them into something PROFANE! *roll snare drum* this makes sense as to why there are so many shades and demons in the thaig and why one of the profane is possessed. perhaps the demonic possession even occurred long before the profane were transformed and the abomination that resulted from said possession was just already hiding amongst the dwarves that got transformed too! what if the giant ancient profane is just their version of Branka, a dwarf closer to the titans that became something more than a dwarf or a golem *gnaws*
Finally, the idol, what the fuck is up with the idol??? How did it get there??? How did it get blighted in the first place???
Well, we know what the idol is now. Solas’ lyrium dagger. The one he used to create the veil, but more importantly, this was not its original purpose! Solas regrets reveal he originally crafted a lyrium dagger to sunder the titans from their dreams, (which I’m presuming is the same one even if it does introduce some problems later on) the thing that created the blight in the first place, soooooo…
WHAT IF THE PRIMEVAL THAIG WAS WHERE HE DID IT? 👀 THE PLACE WHERE THE TITANS WERE TRANQUILIZED 👀 THE PLACE WHERE THE BLIGHT WAS BORN👀👀👀
This would explain how the dagger got there because ofc the dagger would still be in the entry wound essentially, it would explain how it got blighted as it is essentially both the bomb and ground zero, it would explain why the profane occur here and and only here (as far as we know) as they were at the epicentre of the blast, it would explain why they turned it into an idol, as being born of the blight (aka the titans rage and pain and suffering) the dagger is a very symbol of all the things that the blight is made of!!! it would be a reminder to never forget the atrocities committed to them and also a source of power for their blight magic. Finally it would also explain the name of sundermount, a region on the surface we know to be somewhere nearby the primeval thaig that the ancient elves very much had a presence in as (presumably many centuries/millenia after their war with the titans) a battle was fought there but the elven empire and the tevinter imperium. The only wrench in this is how solas got the dagger and took it all the way to skyhold to create the veil only for it to end up back in the thaig? Maybe the one used in the veil ritual was a replica dagger since several key plot points of veilguard involve replicas of this dagger. maybe solas took it back there and sealed it back up so it wouldn’t be a danger, maybe it was reclaimed by the profane and taken back to serve as their idol once more, idk but all the rest fits too perfectly to be coincidence and holy shit holy shit holy shit