OH! Can I add a few things, OP? Because you’re laying out things that match my tinfoil ensemble…
Unsettling Reminders:
-ABOUT THE QUNARI– Time magic will undoubtedly play a huge role in the coming conflict. But I think several clues might point toward a deeper revelation regarding the history of the Qunari. 1) When you bring Gatsi all those mosaics, he tells you that several of them were altered by a second artist somewhere down the line. Many of the re-carved mosaics once depicted Qunari, but were changed. 2) The Qunari have a settlement, Qundalon, in the Anderfels. Not terribly far from Weisshaupt.
-ABOUT TEVINTER– Way back when they were barely out of their barbarian tribe origins, the early Tevinters suddenly made huge strides in building their culture and civilization. This was due, in no small part, to the influence of the Old Gods, who gave the Neromenian tribe all the magical cheat codes. The Old Gods were able to do this because there were dreamers in the tribe. But this was just history repeating. Before the Neromenians, it was the dreamers among the ancient elves who became the most powerful of their kind, who set themselves up as gods. The Evanuris. If the Qunari push Tevinter to desperate measures, we’re looking at a war that involves 1) time magic, 2) blood magic, 3) wholesale massacre to fuel that blood magic, and 3) the possible intervention of the remaining Old Gods (if they don’t get Blighty) on behalf of loyal magisters/dreamers who still know how to call on them.
At the very least, I expect there might be an interesting turn of events involving a mass wave of Tevinter refugees, fleeing to the southern realms to escape the Qunari threat.
Don’t forget, there’s also a large community of dwarves in Tevinter. Their close alliance (built on the lyrium trade) means that dwarves in the Ambassadoria will be forced to either fight the Qunari on behalf of Tevinter, or bar their doors and retreat to the Deep Roads.
Fun Fact - Barindur was one of the fancy new cities that was established out of the split Neromenian tribe. It boasted fantastical fountains that could grant eternal life. But someone in Barindur fucked up big time, because the whole city got wiped off the map, every temple and shack, every inhabitant, down to a man. Maybe Barindur’s ‘eternal life water’ caused a massive fight. Maybe it wasn’t water at all, but something way more powerful. Legend says it was Dumat who snapped the city to dust on behalf of some offended magister. But, a few hundred years later, the united Tevinter leaders would pull that exact trick with Arlathan, sinking it entirely into the earth.
-ABOUT SOLAS– Solas was never a member of the Evanuris. Even as Fen’Harel, he never had their power. He never battled them directly. Every move he made against them, even the construction of the Veil, was done on the sly, or by manipulating others to do the work for him. It’s part of his mythology, but it’s also an indication that whatever power he had, whatever he’s gained, it’s NOTHING compared to the Evanuris.
Flash forward to recent events. There’s some question as to whether the Orb of Destruction truly belonged to Solas. The Evanuris didn’t begin using orbs or foci until after the war with the Titans, which could mean that the power harnessed within them might belong, in part, to the earth. So, if the Orb of Destruction was a source of power that Solas borrowed from a greater being, then it’s a recurring theme in his arc. Using power they stole from the Titans is what set the Evanuris on their path to “godhood.” When that wasn’t enough, they went back for more, and very likely found red lyrium/blight instead. Wielding a power one can’t hope to understand or control is the reason Solas despises the Wardens.
Think about what all the (suspiciously-repainted-looking) murals in Trespasser are covering up. What Fen’Harel’s sanctuaries show us. What the Tomb of Fairel out in the Hissing Wastes indicates. What Mythal’s unwavering respect for him means. I believe the huge lesson we’re meant learn about Solas in DA4 is that he never did any of it alone. He couldn’t have. It took the combined power of freed slaves, crafty dwarves, outcast spirits, and Mythal herself to hold the Evanuris back long enough for Solas to create the Veil. It was always a shitty stop-gap. Mythal died for an off-brand MacGyver solution. Lots of people died for it. Solas had a closet full of chaos, and because he wasn’t powerful enough to eradicate the problem, he just closed the door.
AND SO, like he did the first time around, Solas will chug across Thedas in a whistle stop campaign to free every oppressed mortal who’s willing to take up arms. The original rebellion was brutal enough (masters closing eluvians, trapping servants in pocket realms where they starved. rebels murdering dreamers while they slept in uthenara), imagine the same rebellion playing out now. There’s gaatlock and Qunari everywhere! Mages and templars still recovering from their own conflict. Whole city-states in upheaval following the fight against Corypheus.
If the Evanuris emerge after the fall of the Veil–even worse, if they’re corrupted–what allies will we, as the player, have to gather in order to oppose them? Solas. Who else? Who has more to atone for? After bringing down the Veil, and likely weakened again, Solas will have to be convinced to join the player to defeat the Evanuris.
Oh, ABOUT THE WELL, Morrigan or the Inquisitor…they’ll be subject to Solas’ will. I think? I mean. The Well was Mythal’s place of power, and Solas has absorbed the last fragments of Mythal. (I think?) If that’s the case, Solas would have absolute control over a person. For millennia, he’s fought tyrants who used power to dominate and enslave others. But would he use that same power in service of the greater good? Would he compromise his core beliefs (ie, corrupt himself) to set the world right?
-Not a single fresco in all of Trespasser depicts a dragon, despite the fact that the lore confirms that dragons co-existed with the Evanuris. Also noticeably absent from the ancient artwork are dwarves and spirits, even though they were major players in the time of Arlathan. Paragon Fairel made weapons for the elves, and wrote about the dragons he encountered when building Kal Repartha.
The Evanuris used “winged death” in their fight to topple the pillars of the earth. Elves and spirits taking winged forms are mentioned in a ton of codexes. Many statues of Mythal depict her as a human with dragon wings. A worshipper of Dirthamen was punished for using the form of a dragon.
Archdemons who surface during Blights take the form of dragons. It’s not a stretch to say there’s a connection there. Tevinter’s religious history has been shown, time after time, to be a re-skin of elven beliefs. What the magisters believed to be Old Gods, taking the shape of a revered being (a dragon) could be yet another stolen reinterpretation.
To take the shape of a dragon, the so-called Old Gods we see during a Blight must be either
A) Servants of the Evanuris, beloved, ‘chosen’ high priests, devoted to each of the elven gods, tasked with guarding the sealed realm of the Void.
B) Pissed off spirits/beings who displeased the Evanuris and were bound in service to them.
or, most distressingly…
C) The elven gods themselves, the Evanuris. Some portion of their power or their soul could’ve been (as we’ve seen with Mythal) fragmented out, taking the shape of a dragon to guard the seal of the Void.
And we’ve been picking them off like it’s gonna save the world.
Also, what happens to an ancient, powerful being when a piece of its fractured soul is corrupted and then destroyed? Hmm? Tom Riddle me this.
-ABOUT THE WARDENS (worse than you think)–The Wardens have kept bits and pieces of every archdemon they’ve slain all the way back to Dumat. **hurk** so gross. All the blood they could collect, bones, etc., every salvageable piece of blighted corpse…they’re keeping it out there in Weisshaupt. No wonder the Anderfels never recovered.
Like I said, there’s also a Qunari colony just hop-skip from Weisshaupt.
MORE FUN STUFF TO KEEP YOU AWAKE
-The cult of The Empty Ones may still exist in Nevarra. They’ve been worshipping The Blight since before there was a Chantry. Even in Nevarra, a city state so goth it’s built around a Necropolis, these guys were Too Much. The Empty Ones believe the Blight is a prophet of the Void, and that the Void is heaven. As in, eternal. The end of all suffering.
-The Veil is actually a vibration or frequency. Like a song.
-Vallaslin, like the orbs of power/foci, wasn’t used on elves to enslave them until after the Evanuris destroyed the Titans to harvest them. So it’s possible that this magic might come into play again. Blood is a big deal, thematically. It’s the Mountain Dew Code Red that fuels everything.
-Mythal was the only one who knew the path to the Void. Pretty sure that knowledge has now passed to Solas.
-The Forgotten/Forbidden Ones will likely be released, wholesale, when the Veil comes down.
-ANDRASTE– Bride of the Monster. Whatever “called” to Andraste for all those years…I think it did so from the Void. The Maker spoke of embracing his children, of returning them to his side, not unlike the way dwarves describe their afterlife as returning to the stone. If Andraste spent her whole, sickly life under the influence of lyrium/Blight/taint, then she was hearing the song of a very specific kind of entity we’ve seen before. Could be Titan, or Stone, or anyone with several red eyes, too many limbs, an address in the Void.
To be honest, I really hope this theory pans out. We had a whole game full of elves getting shit on for misunderstanding their own history. It’d be glorious if DA4 went full Nelson, pointing and laughing at the Chantry for a change.
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