Of Explosions, Breaches, and Wardens
A while back, there was this post going around about all the “doesn’t make sense” in regards to the Chantry explosion in Kirkwall. This post: https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/origami-penguin/171829887459
It got me thinking. They’re right. This explosion doesn’t make sense. Not as an explosion. Not at all. Just take a look at the first scene we see.
I mean, wow. That doesn’t look like the average explosion from a ground-based explosive kept in barrels, now does it. As the first “barrel bomb” as we know them wasn’t created here on earth until 1948 (Israeli military), the explosive within would be something more akin to gunpowder. Especially considering the first quest in the quest progression: Blackpowder Courtesy.
The Biggest gunpowder explosion ever, 1000kg stored in 36 barrels, did not look anything like that. The bottom part? With the smokey stuff? That could have been caused by the explosion of black powder. Maybe. Video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbvNIaC3gKM.
A single barrel exploding:
These don’t look much like that large column, now do they. But you know what does?
This is a screen capture of a moving laser. More on that later.
Corypheus was released somewhere between 9:31 and 9:37 Dragon. One of the things we know about Corypheus, stated in World of Thedas, and actually seen in Dragon Age: Inquisition is that he can take over the body of a Warden. We’re also informed that Corypheus can call to the wardens. And he could do it BEFORE his lyrium growths were blighted.
Corypheus during Inquisition:
This is from the first conversation with Larius in the Legacy DLC. Before Corypheus is released. Because the seals are weakening, he hears Corypheus call. This is before the Magister makes a deal with Terror to expand the call.
Okay, back to the explosion.
It looks like the beam, whatever it is, burns through the layers of flooring.
You can see the heat before the floor explodes, then you see it impact the upper floor.
This is what it looks like when a laser is used to cut stone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX_rXrCi2RY
I can’t get a good still image, but much like welding, you see that sort of light/plasma spill before the material is punctured.
Moving on, the explosion STILL doesn’t make much sense, because the next “step” seems to be this:
Now, that’s weird. The light is coming out the windows, and the only destruction seems to be where the beams of light are going straight up.
We’ve established three things here that may intertwine. First, this is not a black powder explosion from the seven(?) barrels deposited in the Chantry. Second, Corypheus wants to rip into the fade to get power and can control/influence Wardens. Third, can control/influence wardens.
Think back to all those notes and hints that Kirkwall may be the place the Magisters Sidereal breached into the fade the first time. Not certain, but a possibility. We have a suggestible warden right there (Anders). Now, we must keep that suggestible warden and his spirit rider content. But how? We’ll whisper about blowing up the Chantry. I have a great idea! That new black powder explosive stuff? You should put that in the basement of the estate… ahem Chantry there. And we can use the power of Kirkwall to reopen the sky, triggered by black powder and adding more blood sacrifice… We’ll get to that.
Now if, and I do mean if — because this is way out in lalaland territory — that is the case, things get interesting. Anders’ great manifesto is still his. Justice is still upset over the mage/Templar thing. But there’s another voice whispering there.
Anders’ banter over time gets harsher and harsher. His behavior changes. He gets more aggressive and angry. He literally says that he is surprised that Fenris’ master let him live. Then this mage who does not do blood magic tells Fenris that “to use blood magic you must look a demon in the eye and accept his offer.” How did he know that? Justice? Maybe. Or Corypheus.
In any case, Corypheus gathers his stuff together, makes his plans. He’s going march back to the black city and grab that power. Because he knows the way. He’s been there before. There’s an energy about Kirkwall, after all, and bad stuff just seems to happen there.
So we have a wacko why theory. I know it’s wacko. But it’s PLAUSIBLE.
Okay. Next thing is that there is more weirdness going on. The pieces of Chantry don’t fly off like we might expect. They levitate to the sides and hover a moment:
At this point we could expect them to fall, right? But no. They go UP.
This laser-like thing is aiming the energy, even the kinetic energy, in some way. The large particulate matter coalesces at a point along the stream, but the laser-like beam goes all the way up, so far as we can see.
It seems to reach a critical mass, potentially a critical heat point, and explodes again, in the air. The large particles you see above are broken into much smaller pieces. The laser beam type thing disintegrates at this point. It’s gone.
The flying debris gets thrown far and wide. All is calm for a moment before it happens. A third explosion, and some kind of shockwave flows outward at ground level.
I mean, whoah. This is big. Even if Anders set the barrels of black powder to explode, how could they explode TWICE? Once to start the first thing, and then again at end of the event?
Now, I’m going to float an idea here. Anders took the fall for the explosion that did not work, but what he was capable of could not have done the damage we see. If it was a first try, it makes more sense. This is why Corypheus needed more power.
Now let’s take a look at the explosion that caused the breach.
We’ll start with that picture of a laser.
Just for giggles, scroll back up and take a look at the beam of light from Kirkwall again.
The Breach explosion is very interesting. There is no accumulated stuff from the temple building. In fact, the whole place looks like the rock and stone of the temple melted, FLOWED away, and hardened as it escaped the heat. Any loose or floating debris went right to the top.
But take a look at this explosion from the title screen. There’s something I didn’t notice when it went by so fast.
What is that green stuff? Could that be what the orb did? You see there is an explosion, and a shockwave, but they aren’t moments separate. They happen at nearly the same time. That’s great.
A mirror of this is the explosion we see in Trespasser, without the beam to the sky.
Same green ring? So perhaps that part is similar. I could speculate ad nauseaum here, but I’ll just say it’s something we see in Tresspasser, don’t see in Kirkwall, and see in the breach.
The beam appears to have HIT SOMETHING. And stopped.
It sends ripples along that thing, flinging back the clouds, which didn’t happen in Kirkwall. The ripples happened at a random point in the middle of the beam that time.
At the bottom, it looks like something liquifies, or becomes plasma. The veil? The particulate? Both? Melted and wrenched to create an opening?
Anders was framed. If black powder could do the Kirkwall explosion, I’ll eat my hat. It may have triggered it, but it certainly wasn’t the whole story. Corypheus had to have some reason to seek out more power. I’d bet the breach happened in 9:41 because the first attempt in 9:37 failed, and it took four years to gather everything they needed.
Who would Anders have identified as a devout Mother? Elthina. Elthina could have been the first attempt at a sacrifice. Someone imbued with all that trust from her people. Her death meant more. Look at Sebastian! He goes to war to try to find Anders, who destroyed his mentor, if Anders lives. That’s power, influence, even from beyond the grave. Harvestable?
So that didn’t work. The Kirkwall run failed. His tool, Anders, is worthless, used up. The power wasn’t enough to reach the veil.
So he looks for a better spot. A more invested spot. Instead of the Kirkwall Chantry, the Temple of Sacred Ashes. The focus of an entire religion, which literally housed the ashes of the slave who founded it. Instead of a Mother, THE mother. The Divine. Instead of the residual power of Kirkwall, an elven artifact that his researchers worked hard to find. (You don’t really think Cory’d trust a random elf walking up with a random thing, right? They heard a rumor, researched, and hunted for this thing.)
After he got his hot little hands on it, he could probably sense was just brimming with power, if only it could be accessed. Add a ritual, to make everything even better. Set up the main sacrifice. Add lots of additional minor sacrifices, mages, templars, and lyrium deposits, because that is more power to access. And rip open the veil. It only took two tries. He’s not bad at this magic stuff.
Things we want to mention, but don’t know where to fit:
In the color spectrum, green has a higher frequency than red. Green fire is hotter than red. Green lasers are far more dangerous than red. Is it coincidence that the laser is now green? It could be related to fade energy, or it could be science, as well. Burning a hole in the veil. Melting temples into slag?
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