The single spike or horn has been a constant pattern throughout all games of Dragon Age in general and in DAI in particular. There are several things that may be linked to it, from Mythal and Andraste to Dragons. In this post we explore how many of these objects present such pattern and how this may be related in an integral way.
This post contains the following statues:
Andraste
Wyvern
Mythal
The red lyrium idol
Tevinter or Venatori outfits
Tevinter Dragon
Tevinter golems
Tevinter Colossus
Andrastian Free Marches warriors
[This post belongs to the series “Analysis and speculation of Statues”]
Andraste
The main figure we see with a single-spiked helm in DAI is Andraste, who is depicted in numerous pieces of art along the game and books. Although she doesn’t wear this single-spiked helm in all of them, it’s an iconic representation of her [to the point that some followers are depicted with similar tiaras/helms such as Meredith]
In DAO we only have one unequivocally representation of Andraste, which is the statue we see at the end of the Temple of Andraste where her ashes are supposed to rest. In this case, the helm has the shape of a “moon” or similar. This form will be changed since DA2, and it will turn out to be the iconic single spike. We can attribute this inconsistency to the many difficulties in resources and environmental telling that DAO had.
Most of the time, Andrastian art represents Andraste with this single spiked helm/tiara [more details in Andrastian Statues].
In the illustrations found in the Chant of Light we can suspect that such a single spike is related to the shape of one single sun ray.
Wyvern
These animal statues appear all over Ferelden and in some parts of Orlais and in the Frost Back Mountains. In the tag Ferelden Wyvern we can track their presence along DAI. That they appear in Ferelden is not surprising, but the fact that they are inside ancient Pre-Blight Tevinter ruins [check Western Approach: The Still Ruins, Main Chamber and Hall of Silence and Western Approach: The Still Ruins, Viridis Walk and Inner Sanctum] is very disconcerting, specially taking into account how central it is in The Still Ruins, which appears even in the loadscreen of the zone. One could suspect this may have been product of the Dragon fascination that Tevinter culture had/has. Still, it seems odd to honour a lesser creature such as a Wyvern when they usually worshipped the true Dragons.
This statue appears in the Fade as well, but it has a clear design choice: the game shows us a wyvern in front of a head of Andraste, pushing us to ask why such an irrelevant statue would be in front of something so important as it is Andraste. The answer is solved later in the book World of Thedas, where we find that there is a Ferelden Tale which related wyverns with Andraste:
Now, this Tale is quite curious. If we always keep in consideration that this piece of lore is highly unreliable since it’s a tale spread in a population via oral narration, and subjected to changes over ages without records, we can highlight several details:
Andraste goes to the Mountain to “reach the Maker”. In the Chant of Light, we know that she speaks with the Maker, who is described Mountain-like. This reinforces the idea that Maker=related to Mountains. I assume this is a cultural remnant of the alamarri/avvar origin of Andraste, who had a deeper relationship with Korth, the Father-Mountain.
Andraste sang, and with this song, a “wyvern” appeared. This may potentially bring some relationship with the Dragons and the original song I talked about in posts like The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak, and Until We Sleep. We can even suspect that maybe instead of a Wyvern, the original event that inspired this Tale may have related a true Dragon. After all, we know that this single spike in the wyverns may, potentially, have some relationship with the dragon shape of Mythal. We also know that Tyrdda had an elf lover who sent a dragon to help her people, so I wonder to what extent the Alamarri and Avvar had also some level of relationship with mountain dragons.
It’s still a big question to understand how this wyvern statue, so related to Ferelden culture, appeared in pre-blight Tevinter buildings, when Ferelden did not exist as it is now. This is what reinforces my question: are these wyverns potentially creatures related to the Great Dragons? So far, we have no answers.
Mythal
Mythal, in all her representations and shapes, also wears an iconic single spiked helm. Even in the Concept Art, where we can see wavy sided horns that did not make it into the game, we cannot mistake the single centred spike. In dragon shape or in her humanoid form, this spike is constantly present.
It is unclear how this design choice may potentially speak to the player to relate Mythal to Andraste. One can speculate that, maybe, a fragment of Mythal appeared to Andraste. Maybe the Maker that Andraste claims to hear was, in fact, Mythal’s fragment. It would have been very convenient for Myhtal to instruct Andraste to make her Exalted March on Tevinter if we keep in mind that Flemeth [another fragment of Mythal] has been altering History to push it into a direction she has been planning for ages.
Flemeth’s Tiara
Flemeth’s tiara also has a structure that shows a single central spike in a very prominent way. The relationship is obvious: Flemeth is Mythal. Or at least, a surviving fragment of her.
Her dragon shape is different in DAO than in DA2. In DAO it’s the model of a general high dragon [as usual, DAO didn’t have the most variety of visual resources so we can’t read too much in it], while in DA2, Flemeth has a clear dragon shape with a single spike in its horns that can be related to that tiara.
The red lyrium idol
The Red Lyrium Idol also shows a prominent central spike in the head. It’s a constant symbol that allows us to do some speculations: in the post Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History I speculated that Mythal's assassination may have inspired this idol, and therefore, this single spike seen in the idol is what relates it to Mythal herself.
It’s curious that even when Meredith turned into a piece of Red Lyrium, she also displayed a single spike in her head. This may have been just a consequence of the helm she was wearing in that last battle, which was clearly a helm trying to emulate Andraste’s.
From a design point of view, I think it’s clear that the game is telling us that this idol is related to Mythal/Flemeth, even though we are still blind about the “how”.
Tevinter or Venatori outfits
I already spoke about this in the section “outfits” in Patterns and Styles: Tevinter. We know that Tevinter has a long history of dragon cults, and until the moment the nation turned into the Andrastian Faith, the Old Gods Cult was its strongest religion. The fact that a dragon [Mythal] has a single spike horn, and Andraste also has this icon in her art, makes us hard to understand the origin of the symbol in Tevinter Design. It could have been due to the Dragons, but also, as a design choice once they were converted into the Andrastian Faith. Let's remember that Dorian tells us that Tevinter thinks that Andraste was a mage, so more reasons to have her icons among the Tevinter Warriors since they have mage-inspired armours.
I also explained that it's hard to differentiate the Venatori from non-Venatori Tevinter design simply because the Venatori are nationalist, so they will always use the most iconic symbols of their nation.
There is a strange link between this design and the one I called “The Free Marches Andrastian Warriors”, which display a strong Tevinter-like style, but remaining Andrastian. These statues may keep that single-spiked helm as a representation of Andraste, but also as a remmant of Tevinter design [more details in Andrastian Statues].
Tevinter Dragon
For completion’s sake, I add this detail: these typical Tevinter dragons display a single horn. At some point one wonders if these statues are related somehow to the design of the Wyverns or are a development of worshipping Mythal-dragon.
Tevinter golems
These Tevinter golems trigger the codex the Gate Guardians . They are metallic statues that, we are told, were powered at some point by bars of lyrium.
They also display a single spiked helm, that, due to the general looking of the golem, looks like a Tevinter representation of Andraste herself.
The golem in general has resemblance to some pieces of the armour of the Humanoid Mythal.
Let’s remember that Golems were developed by Dwarves during the First Blight, and due to their trade relationship with Tevinter, they sold some [Golem and Legend of the Juggernaut] that were displayed on the entrance of Miranthous, inactive. So it seems that, historically speaking, makes sense that these golems may have been developed into resembling Andraste since Tevinter embraced the Andrastian Faith after the beginnig of the First Blight [check all this in the integral post The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light]
Tevinter Colossus
Among the Tevinter sculptures, we find one of the most mysterious one: the colossus. They are found closer to the structures that belonged to Tevinter in pre-blight times.
In game there are three different Colossus, found in Western Approach: Coracavus; Front Corridor and South Entrance, in the open of Hissing Wastes: scattered objects and ruins, which was being co-opted by Orlesians to make it into a sculture of an Orlais Emperor, and inside the Frozen Gates in Frostback Basin [DLC]: Frozen Gate.
The book World of Thedas gives us more concept art about these structures, which seem to be related to “guiders” and, maybe, to astronomy too.
The fact that we can see one of these in a concept art, showing up a certain star over its hand, makes me suspect these statues belonged to the ancient Dreamer times, that the codex Astrariums claims that Tevinter was under before the Magisterium was the mandatory political system.
The heads of these colossus are not exactly single spiked heads, but one of them [The Coracavus' one] has one single spike that fuses with the bridge of its nose, while the other two, have "horns" backwards. Maybe we can suspect some dragon inspiration in them? I find their profile very similar to the Qunari ones’.
Andrastian Free Marches warriors
These were seen for the first time in DA2, and they decorated The Chantry of Kirkwall. They look similar to the Tevinter Warriors thanks to this spiked helm and pointy shapes, but this may be attributed to the fact that Free Marches have a strong Tevinter influence.
However, these statues have an unmistakable robe identified with the ones worn by the Chantry priests in DA2.
This single spike in their helms may be related to Andraste herself and her own helm/tiara, but also having some inspiration from Tevinter.
Conclusions
I think it’s fair to say that the “Single Spike” is an unequivocally symbol of Andraste that may have an inspiration or a relationship with dragons in general, or with Mythal in particular. By extension, and due to Mythal’s dragon nature, this Single Spike also appears in Tevinter culture, even in elements that are suspected to be pre-Blight, and therefore, impossible to be inspired in Andraste herself. So, as it happens with DA lore, and assuming what we did in the post Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History, everything comes to primordial dragons that may have inspired this icon in Tevinter Culture and later, in the human tribes, from where the Andrastian Myth and her religion raised.
The purpose of this collection of statues is to show the Andrastian style depending on the region, the details in it, and how this may or may not influence other statues we saw in game. I also attempt to recollect some interpretations of them, although most of them are mostly based on speculations.
The current post contains the following set of statues:
Ferelden Style: Pre-Divine Andraste, Chasind Andraste, Ferelden warrior protector Andraste, The Maker, The Dwarf [?], Rider Maferath [?], Masferath Repentant, Hanged Masferath, Other Statues.
Orlesian Style: Rustic Maferath, Hessarian, Andraste; The Orlesian Warrior Andraste, The Stylised Orlesian Andraste, The Orlesian Andraste, The Orlesian Maferath, The Orlesian Havard, and the Orlesian Hessarian; The Weight of War
Free Marches Style: The Free Marches Hessarian, The Free Marches Andrastian Warriors [?]
Unknown Style: The Skull with sword, The Guide, Guardians of the Path / The Watcher.
[This post belongs to the series “Analysis and speculation of Statues”]
Ferelden Style
Pre-Divine Andraste
One of the most iconic statues in DAI.
It’s present all over Ferelden, specially in big, colossal statues along the paths of Hinterlands. They are so big that sometimes one can overlook them unless you look upwards [check Hinterlands: Statues, paintings, and structures found in the open].
In Skyhold, we can find this statue in a small version in the local chapel, which triggers the note Bride of the Maker.
Thanks to the DLC Jaws of Hakkon [Main Chamber of Razikale’s Reach], we know that this statue belongs to a pre-divine time. It is probably one of the oldest representations of Andraste we have in-game.
As usual, she has a one-spike helm that has strong resemblances to Flemeth’s tiara, and to Humanoid Mythal statue, Dragon Mythal statue, and the Ferelden Wyvern.
She has a sword in her hip.
Her sleeves and skirt have long lines that emulate folding. It’s a style we saw in statues that were considered “elvhen” in-game [for example, the Elven Archers or The guide]. But we can see this became an Andrastian style since we also see it in the Blocky bearded humanoid.
Her gigantic hands have been used in several elvhen places, and I wonder how meaningful these are: these hands appear in Exalted Plains: the Dead Hand as well as in the Shattered Library, holding eluvians. Is this a mere reuse of resources or hides some lore in it? We know DAI is less lazy about this than previous games.
This statue is curiously aligned with Humanoid Mythal statue in the Fade, as well as with the Imperial Highway Columns [check The Raw Fade: Part 1]. A Design choice that keeps me wondering if it hides some meaning in it.
Chasind Andraste
It has the design of a totem.
Its relief is very intricate.
She is represented as a protector warrior due to the strong presence of the shield on it.
We can suspect this statue is also ancient, and you can see that it has similar style to the Alamarri Monolith with swirls we find all over Hinterlands.
If you pick the Chantry-related garden in Skyhold, this statue appears in it and the archivist Banon will mention details about it in The Women of All War. He claims it’s Chasind, not original from Skyhold, brought by Ferelden into the castle. He also suggest it’s a re-usage of an ancient totemic statue.
This last comment streghtens the idea that ancient Andrastian art tends to be done over or using/co-opting statues from previous civilisations.
Ferelden warrior protector Andraste
Another classic representation of Andraste in game.
It’s Ferelden style.
She is represented as a warrior [holding shield and sword] but also as a divine entity [I suspect the ring behind her works as a rustic design of a halo].
There is a chance that the thick “halo” could be an adaptation from another icon we saw among the Elvhenan design: the Golden Ring. How is this possible? I think it’s not too strange considering how deeply related to the elves the Avvar are. If we think that part of this culture comes from the Alamarri, one could guess that through the elvhen lover that Thrydda had, some elvhen presence has been around this culture to incorporate elvhen iconography in their own art, translated later into something of this shape.
The Maker
This mysterious figure has no face, in fact, it looks like bandaged. In his right hand holds a crown, while in his left hand, a dagger. The outfit is a very simple robe.
The dagger is quite curious for a representation of the Maker.
This statue took me a long whlie to identify. In early posts I kept calling it Faceless figure holding a crown. I came to the conclusion it is the Maker.
This statue appears always within the context of the Andrastian statues, so it could not be asumed in any other way than related to the Andraste Myth. In the posts Andrastian Design: Stained Glasses and Andrastian Design: Tapestry and Tryptich, we can see that a figure with no face and wearing a crown of similar characteristics is represented as the Maker. These are my main arguments to be confident about this identification.
In Hinterlands, he appears in the main hall of Haven very high upon the hall, hidden in the shadows, in a room filled with andrastian iconography, which reinforces the idea that it represents an entity that is above all of them, Andraste included. Another confirmation of being the Maker.
It also appears in the Tyrdda Bright-Axe Path, which has a mixture of statues, and in Forbidden Oasis, when the place was took by the Andrastian forces. It also appears in the mysterious Hinterlands: The Unknown Ruin. Other more natural and Andraste-related places where we find it: Redcliffe - Future, Therinfal Redoubt, Western Approach: Adamant Fortress.
The Dwarf [?]
This figure was tag along the blog as Blocky bearded humanoid. It is found in the main hall of the Templar building of Therinfal Redoubt and in the corridors of Redcliffe - Future
The design of this statue feels closer to the pre-divine Andraste. Maybe it has some influence of the Alamarri style.
The long lines on sleeves and chest seem to suggest similarity in style with the pre-divine Andraste but also with the elvhenan statues such as the Elven Archers, or The guide.
Its face seems to show a big smile, but if you see it with more detail, it may also represent a long, long beard. The broad constitution, the big ears, the lack of hair, and the prominent beard seem to suggest a golem-like or dwarven representation.
I can’t say I can identify this figure in the Andrastian Myth, but it’s related to the Andrastian Faith since it appears where there are other andrastian figures.
If this figure comes from the Alamarri and it was co-opted by the Andrastian faith, I could suspect that may be related to the dwarven culture that Alamarri had. If we remember Tyrdda Bright-Axe Path, she had a child with a dwarven prince. The Chasind also had mixed descendants of humans and dwarves. So, if it’s an alamarri statue co-opted by the Chantry, it could not be strange for it to be a dwarf. These details may indicate that the Alamarri had a deeper relationship with not only elvhen, but also dwarves, and this aspect appeared in the art until co-opted by the andrastian faith resulting in this figure.
Rider Maferath [?]
This statue appears only in Fallow Mire. Although, the same statue appears riding a horse in Crestwood: surface. Maybe it’s a mere reuse of resources.
It has a similar design to the Blocky bearded humanoid.
It represents a man with a beard, and its angular design may suggest similar time and style than the previous one.
More details in the section Other Statues from this post.
Masferath Repentant
Mostly seen in the region of Ferelden [although, you can find it too in Western Approach: Adamant Fortress]
This is the typical Ferelden statue of Masferath, regretting his betrayal.
He is sitting on a stone which has a design of a snake surrounding it, representing the Tevinter influence or deal he made with the Archon before handing over his wife.
The helm in this statue has a C-shape, which I find very similar in design to the Tevinter helms [check section “Outfits” in Patterns and Styles: Tevinter]. I’m not sure if this is mere coincidence, or it speaks of a common [dragon-inspired] origin source.
Hanged Masferath
This totemic sculpture can be found in Hinterlands: Statues, paintings, and structures found in the open.
This is a Ferelden representation of Masferath being hanged. Clearly Ferelden has a strong sentiment with his betrayal.
The totemic structure seems to show mabaris at its base, followed by two different kinds of birds or maybe it’s a dragon [hard to say].
The top of these totems keeps bringing my attention: I can’t stop thinking there may be some link with the Tevinter metallic statue that I called “Tevinter bird”, found in Ferelden in the underground region of Crestwood: Flooded Caves.
Other Statues
The couple can be found in Hinterlands: Redcliffe - Present, as a symbol to remember those who died in DAO-Redcliffe. It can also be found in Crestwood: surface as a memory statue of the drown, and in Frostback Basin [DLC]: Nigel’s point, as a memory statue of Ameridan’s friends: The templar Haron and the dwarf Orinna. It feels more like a reuse in most cases since it’s a strange statue to represent "fallen/lost people”. Certainly we can assume it’s Ferelden made.
The horse with the rider seems to have, as we see in its drawing from the book Art of Inquisition, a lot in common with the previous statue I called “Rider Masferath”. The horse has been removed in some other places to only let the human figure stay. It can be seen in Fallow Mire without his horse, and in Crestwood: surface. Sometimes the rider is not well chiselled in the stone.
The vessel with many faces is only seen once in the game, in the The Darvaarad - Part2. We know the Qunari took this castle and put a lot of statues that they gathered around the world. However, this statue of many faces looks like it belonged to the inner corridors of the castle, implying the castle per ser may have been Ferelden, or elvhen in origin, but repurposed by Ferelden later. In the game we only see the “back” part of it, while in the book Art of Inquisition, we can see the full statue, which implies a beheaded figure. Maybe it’s the representation of a jury. It could also be interpreted as an entity that puts “the right head” into the people, suiting the Qunari and their Qun philosophy, but this interpretation would make me question why it is so related to Ferelden art in the Art Book.
Orlesian Style
Rustic Maferath, Hessarian, Andraste
A bit distant to the style of the Blocky bearded humanoid, we have these series of statues representing typical characters from the Andrastian Myth.
They are mostly located in different areas all over Orlais [or inside the Skyhold if you pick an Andrastian garden].
We find Andraste, in blue and red [I’m assuming one is the bride of the Maker, while the other is the warrior protector of her people]
Masferath is carrying a crown (?) in his hands, and Hessarian is holding the Sword of Mercy.
These seem to belong to an Orlesian style but rustic or more “popular”. They give me the impression that were made by the working class people who could not afford realistic artists to sculpt them in stone.
They seem to be made out of wood.
The Orlesian Warrior Andraste
Unlike the previous one, this Orlesian statue is made out of stone and is bigger, more detailed, and realistic. It seems to appear in rich/high class places.
It also appears in Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin, which may represent the influence of the Andrastian faith among the Ancient Dalish when the Dales was their Kingdom land granted by Andraste herself.
This statue presents Andraste as a warrior: she is wearing a detailed armour, a big sword, and, curiously, a helm that has no iconic single-spike. However, I can see some similarities in the armour design to Flemeth’s armour or the armour used by Humanoid Mythal statue.
Due to the strong similarities in style, this statue belongs to the same group than the Orlesian Andraste, Orlesian Maferath, Orlesian Havard, and Orlesian Hessarian.
The Stylised Orlesian Andraste
Another over-detailed statue of Andraste made out of Stone which appears in wealthy places.
The whole design of Andraste has a strong similarity to Tyrdda Bright-Axe, which may suggest that this statue may have a strong alamarri influence, mixing Andraste tale with the representation of Tyrdda.
The icon that represents the sun, ironically, has a strong similarity with the statue I called Sun-head creature, deeply related to the Elvhenan and, potentially, to Tevinter and its old dragon gods. This may imply that this statue may have collected several icons and details from different cultures and faiths to gather them in the cult to Andraste. This process is well known in human History, where the forced religion tries to blend with the local ancient one to produce an assimilation of the new faith.
The Orlesian Andraste
This Orlesian statue is made out of stone and is bigger and a lot more detailed and realistic that the “wooden” sculptures.
It tends to appear in wealthy places as well as inside the Chantries of the game.
It represents mostly the divine Andraste and the bride of the Maker, without any element of her warrior side.
She has a one-spike helm that has strong resemblances to Flemeth’s tiara, Humanoid Mythal statue, Dragon Mythal statue, and the Ferelden Wyvern.
Due to the strong similarities in style, this statue belongs to the same group than the Orlesian Warrior Andraste, Orlesian Maferath, Orlesian Havard, and Orlesian Hessarian.
The Orlesian Masferath
It is called “The Betrayer”.
We see the man worried, grabbing his own head, showing the weight of his own betrayal. He keeps the crowd of his leadership of the Alamarri in his hand since the Chantry tale says that he betrayed Andraste out of jealousy because she was more important than him among their people. I always questioned this since he was the one commanding the armies and their people into Tevinter, and he may have chosen the “lesser bad” option [read the The Chantry and the Mythology of the Chant of Light for more details].
Due to the strong similarities in style, this statue belongs to the same group than the Orlesian Warrior Andraste, Orlesian Andraste, Orlesian Havard, and Orlesian Hessarian.
The Orlesian Havard
Havard is shown here with avvar clothings [fur-based].
He is carrying the urn of Andraste’s ashes that will be placed in Haven and will become later the Temple of Andraste [DAO].
We know thanks to the notes triggered in it that this statue seems to represent Havard but its appearance was based on a noble’s lover [check it in Emprise du Lion: Pools of the Sun].
Due to the strong similarities in style, this statue belongs to the same group than the Orlesian Warrior Andraste, Orlesian Andraste, Orlesian Maferath, and Orlesian Hessarian.
The Orlesian Hessarian
He is holding the sword that will be called the Sword of Mercy, used to kill Andraste in the pyre so she could not suffer anymore.
His hat has a bent T-shape that we can see in many other helms of Tevinter warriors in the section of “outfits” in Patterns and Styles: Tevinter.
Due to the strong similarities in style, this statue belongs to the same group than the Orlesian Warrior Andraste, Orlesian Andraste, Orlesian Maferath, and Orlesian Havard.
The Weight of War
This statue was tagged in this blog as Man holding bigger head for a long while.
It has appeared in Forbidden Oasis, Redcliffe - Future, and in Orlais: Winter Palace.
Thanks to the constant presence of Andrastian-themed art around it, I could finally assume that this statue belongs to Andrastian art in Orlesian style.
The main man has angular features, his ears are not visible since it looks like he is wearing a chain-mail. He uses scale-based pauldrons, and a robe. He is holding a sword with one hand while the other holds a bigger head. By comparison with the state of the overall figure, we can assume that the bigger head has a lot of wounds and scars [meaning that this is part of the sculpture design and not a consequence of erosion].
Despite looking similar, the head in his hand and this man’s profile are different. The bigger head has a smaller, shrank nose.
The only significant shape in this statue that can give us a resemblance of a hint to whom it belongs is his belt, which has pointy ends. We had seen this pattern in two places: in Tevinter artefacts, such as the sacrificial burial, or in andrastian outfits.
It triggers a codex called The Weight of War which is a bit unreliable, since the person explaining this is an amateur historian, but it’s the only hint we have about this statue. The amateur historian implies that this statue may belong to a warrior with a philosophy similar to the Grey Wardens.
More details about this statue in the post Forbidden Oasis.
Free Marches Style
The Free Marches Hessarian
It appears mostly in the Templar fortress of Therinfal Redoubt
This statue has a strong resemblance to Tevinter art. It’s not only the dark metallic material used for the sculpture, which was strong similarities with Tevinter artefacts such as Thrummer, Water dispenser, Tevinter urn, Tevinter artefact with spikes, Tevinter golem or Claw of Dumat, but also the prominence of angles and pointy ends.
There is no codex associated with this sculpture, but I can guess it may represent Hessarian [the main Tevinter figure in the Andrastian Myth] since this statue has a version carrying a sword.
It has a long beard and hair.
This statue has also been present in DA2, specially in the Chantry district of Kirkwall [check it in Architecture of Kirkwall : The Chantry].
The Free Marches Andrastian Warriors [?]
It appears mostly in the Templar fortress of Therinfal Redoubt and in the Fade.
This statue has a strong resemblance to Tevinter art. It’s not only the dark metallic material used for the sculpture, which was strong similarities with Tevinter artefacts such as Thrummer, Water dispenser, Tevinter urn, Tevinter artefact with spikes, Tevinter golem or Claw of Dumat, but also the prominence of angles and pointy ends.
It’s wearing a typical DA2 Andrastian robe, but the helm has always brought my attention: it has a lot of more similarity to the Tevinter warriors than to the one-single spike helm of Andraste.
Its weapon also has a strong similarity to the weapon used by Tevinter golems, while its helm has strong similarities with the ones that belong to the Tevinter warriors. One may say that both of them, in fact, are representing the one-spike helm of Andraste.
The unmistakable identification with Andrastian faith is given by the robe: if we see the chest, we will see the pointy half sun on it, which was the main design of the outfit of Elthina and other chantry priests we saw in DA2.
Unknown Style
The Skull with sword
This is the statue that I called Skull bud with sword all over this blog.
The skull is quite long for a regular human. It holds a sword. The body seem to be inside a bud or a shell that may look like a flower bud but also as the shell of an insect/scarab.
This statue has always appeared within Andrastian contexts such as in Frostback Mountains - Haven [the basement], Hinterlands:Dead Ram Grove, or Ferelden: Therinfal Redoubt, but also in places where the Andrastian context is not that strong, but still yet reasonable to appear, for example in Hinterlands: The Unknown Ruin [overtaken by Andrastian faith lately, so far we see in the statues present in this room], or Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin [which clearly shows how the Ancient Dalish allowed a certain level of assimilation of the Andrastian faith thanks to Andraste’s gift of the Dales]. However, we also find this statue in Western Approach: The Still Ruins, Viridis Walk and Inner Sanctum, which is a pre-blight Tevinter building, so one is inclined to think that this statue may have been Tevinter in origin, and somehow, adopted later by the Andrastian faith. Or maybe it’s just Elvhenan, taken first by Tevinter, and later by the Chantry [as we see this pattern repeats over and over with everything related to Tevinter].
One of the potential interpretations is that this sculpture represents a coffin, or a dead who is put to sleep in this position. The fact that this skull is inside a bud or an insect shell [in addition to the speculation that, like all what comes from Tevinter, was originally elvhenan] brings the possibility of being related to Uthenera and the mysterious codex of Vir Dirthara: A Flowering Imago that I tried to multi-interpret in several ways in Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara.
So far I know, there is no codex associated with it, and we have only speculations about it.
Its style is not strongly similar to all these Andrastian statues, but the fact that it appears mostly within andrastian themed rooms, it’s hard not to bring it into this post.
However, I’m not confident about how to understand this statue and to what culture associated it with.
The Guide
It can be seen in three places only: Emerald Graves: The open pointing more or less towards Elgar’nan’s Bastion, on top of Stone-Bear Hold Avvars - Part 2 pointing out to the sea, and in the Fade, exactly in Flemeth’s Fade: Part 2, pointing the path towards Mythal/Flemeth.
It’s associated with the unreliable landmark called The guide [written by this orlesian scholar who lacks of deep knowledge of elven culture], which identifies it as an elvhen statue, but it has a lot of style similarities to the Blocky bearded humanoid and the pre-divine Andraste as well as to the Skull bud with sword. If we see the back of an Elven Archer statue, we can find line-based similarities too, so it’s hard to decide whether this is truly Elvhen in origin and co-opted by the Andrastian and repurposed later, or it truly belongs to the set of pre-divine statues we spoke above and this amateur scholar misunderstood it as Elvhenan.
The unreliable landmark links it to Falon’Din for the mere fact that it is pointing out a place, so it “guides”. If we overlook this pathetic logic, and we give it a remote chance for it to be elvhen, we should be careful to identify it with Falon’Din. First, Via Solas, we know that Falon’Din was far from guiding people [Check Evanuris], and second, even if we consider this statue to be Falon’Din, we should never forget how Falon’Din and Dirthamen are entangled one another [check Humanoid Dirthamen], so this could also be a statue representing Dirthamen. The shape of the sleeves has some resemblance to the Elven Owl statue [they have long lines along it], but once more, both gods are so indistinguishable one another that it’s hard to say who is who.
Guardians of the Path / The Watcher
This hooded statue was called Humanoid Dirthamen/Falon'Din in this blog.
The hooded statue can be seen in four places: in Emerald Graves: The open, as a watcher of entrances, in the Hinterlands, along the Tyrdda Bright-Axe Path inside the Calenhad’s Foothold; in Exalted Plains: Northern Ramparts and Citadelle du Corbeau, as the main big statue when you step into the Citadelle [again, watching over an entrance] and in Flemeth’s Fade – Part 2, as a statue bleeding profusely with a sword in its back, as an unmistakable symbol of betrayal.
In all these cases, the hooded version of the statue seems to be related to “watch or protect entrances”. Due to its presence in the Fade of Flemeth, we also can associate it with deep betrayal.
Once we see how the pattern unfolds with the statue I called Humanoid Dirthamen/Falon'Din [hodded version] we can understand the Andrastian version “guardian of the path” in similar fashion [he always appears in entrances as well], suspecting it was a re-usage and co-opt of the elvhen hooded statue when the Andrastian forces conquered the Ancient Dalish's lands.
The Guardian of the Path appears twice in game: in Crestwood: surface, at the entrance of the region, similar position as the hooded versions in Emerald Graves, and in the entrance to the region of the Exalted Plains.
When heading to the room with the eluvian near the Skyhold garden, we meet Leliana who tells us that Morrigan has entered the mirror in pursuit of her son. As the Inquisitor enters the Eluvian, they realise that it leads to the Fade instead of the Crossroad. A part of the Fade that seems to reflect part of the "personal" story of Flemeth.
[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]
[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]
Once we return from the Temple of Mythal, we find Leliana telling the Inquisitor that Morrigan chased Kieran into the Eluvian. This scene is completely skipped and we never have access to this Fade if Kieran does not exist. For Lore reasons, I think having Kieran is the richest option
We enter the eluvian, and what we realise immediately is that we are not in the Crossroads that Morrigan showed us before. Instead, we are in a part of the Fade. This shows that powerful mages can force Eluvians to go to the Fade and the final destination of an Eluvian is not precisely determined with its construction. This is telling us that technically, any eluvian can allow us to reach the Fade if you are powerful enough.
This Fade is more guided that the one in Adamant Fortress. In the moment we enter, we find these mabari-brazier that are so typical of Ferelden, and a statue of a The Guide.
Same as in the previous Fade, there are a lot of Keepers of Fears merger in the landscape. I find this strange, because this space belongs to Flemeth, it’s not a space of a demon of Nightmare or terror. Someone could argue that, since Flemeth may have some relationship with the Chasind, her relationship is being reflected in these statues since Alamarri and Avvar [and likely Chasind too] may share the tradition of the Keepers of Fear. We see several screaming faces, Keepers of Fear, Eroded dragon skull, and a Dwarf with long limbs. The first thing giving us a welcome is a big hand and a table.
This same table has been found in the previous Fade, in the beginning of that space too, like an invitation. Over the table, there are hanged generic dead bodies and two enormous hands: one keeping the strings of the hanged dead, and another from which a pile of keepers of fear emerges. These hands seem to work like the hands we see in the Crossroads of Trespasser, which give support to eluvians or circular tree.
Aside of this configuration, a bit hidden on the ground, Andraste statue’s head.
As we approach the second opening, we see a pair of Keepers of Fear, with heads being burnt, flanking a Sacrificial altar. The figure of a man is towering over them, and in front of these elements, there is a statue of Beheaded ram-man. The whole configuration seems to relate again the concept of sacrifice and fear.
These are the rarest version of the Keepers of Fear. In this case, we see them working: their heads are burning, maybe as a representation of the fear screams being consumed before an Alamarri goes to fight against their fate. The base of these Keepers of Fear have a drawing on it that looks like another creature, screaming.
The Sacrificial altar can be studied with great detail in this part of the Fade. We can see that it has a small platform with decorated patterns and carvings in the metal.
We have seen this human sculpture among Orlesian collections or in Free Marches-themes statues.
The Beheaded ram-man is erected on a head of a Keepers of Fear. [Fore more detail about this statue, read The Raw Fade: Part 1 ]
As we keep walking, we find Morrigan beside an enormous Claw of Dumat on one side, and a statue of the Free Marches in front of her. There are many keepers of fears around and above too.
Here, Morrigan explains that to direct the eluvian to the Fade requires immense power, which is absolutely reasonable since Kieran keeps the soul of an archdemon inside him.
Ahead, we find a very curious corridor that got my attention since I saw it. I believe the game is explicitly telling us to relate the andraste’s head with the Ferelden Wyvern through the spike. We know there is a tale in Ferelden Folklore [landmark Fereldan Wyvern Statues] where they connect both in a story that the Chantry does not acknowledges as official. I don’t know what’s the real deal with this Wyvern, but the connections with dragon-like creatures [reptiles] seems to be a pattern in the game. This Wyvern in particular is standing on two Tevinter urns. How this creature relates to Tevinter is also a mystery, but this statue has been seen in ancient Tevinter buildings as well, predating Andraste and Blights.
We step into another Guide under which a small table and chair can be found.
Behind the guide there is a skull with two metallic columns that seems to be Claws of Dumat prototypes. We saw these artefacts in Western Approach: Coracavus; Records Room, gathered around desks:
Maybe it is an artefact used to study elements, such as heads, or to record information. Still it is hard to guess its function.
When we reach to the next clearing, we find one of these Tevinter devices of several claws, diapason-like, clipped with an “injector”. This device, or at least this combination of clipping is similar to what we saw in Suledin Keep, when we met Imshael. Like in that place, at the base of the device there is red lyrium. Same as in Suledin, the area seems to be related to Horned warrior holding a sword. This is the first time that this element appears in the Fade. It’s placed at the left of the device, on a piece of rock: One on front of the rock, and a smaller version behind it.
A bit above of the device, we find a Tevinter urn merged in the stone and more versions of Keepers of Fear, one who is swallowing or regurgitating Red Lyrium, and another screaming.
The Crossroads are a separate dimension beyond the waking world and the Fade. It is described as one of the "places between," pockets within the Fade with their own rules of reality created by ancient elvhen from the fabric of time and space. Its true name was lost to time, and Morrigan coined its current designation. The Crossroads were the means by which ancient elvhes travelled.
[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]
[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]
The entrance
When we enter here, we don’t find the same place that Morrigan showed us in The Crossroad. It makes sense, because it’s not the same eluvian. This one seemed to be the one that belonged to Celene.
With just a mere comment done by a companion and minor physical effects [aka, bloomed trees], the game tries to reproduce something that was a lot stronger and more conflicting in the book The Masked Empire: these roads are not meant for humans [even elf-blooded humans]. They tend to cause a purplish annoying sensation at the corner of the eyes of humans, and there is a constant hum that makes them feel uncomfortable all along the way. It’s a very uncomfortable travel for non-elves, while elves see it as a multicoloured landscape which makes them resonate with the energy of the place [for more details read The Masked Empire].
It is curious that the entrance to this place is decorated with andrastian’s statues in orlesian style: Andraste as a warrior [the same kind of statue we find in the Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin], and a pair of Havards carrying her ashes. There is also a banner of Orlais and this wall is extremely decorated with Orlesian ornamentation.
This is not the Fade, so this is not exactly a place that "reflects" reality. This is a crafted space between the waking world and the Fade, so my guess is that these statues were crafted here for a purpose, unless these dimensional pockets reflect the place that surrounds the Eluvian from the other side as a natural mechanism to know which eluvian goes to where. What I mean is that, if an Eluvian goes to a Ferelden castle, for example, we will see Ferelden elements around the eluvian in the crossroads that goes to such place. However, if we want to confirm this pattern, I suspect it does not always complies.
We can see Orlesian patterns present in the decoration of the wall close to this eluvian that allows us to reach the Winter Palace.
As we walk to the next floating isle, we see a pair of Howling Fen'Harel statues. We have seen this configuration several times: this means that Fen'Harel is guarding this eluvian, which makes sense. This eluvian in particular will lead us to the Ancient Elven Mountain Ruins, a place that Fen'Harel had created to give shelter to slaves. In a corner, we see long banners of white flags, which are the "elvhen" banner, as we will see in later post. Dalish banner is heavily inspired in this design.
Behind the Fen'Harel statues, we find a unique, mysterious statue
This statue and all what’s related to its head is called by me from now on as Sun-head creature. Its head has a particular shape, and its body emulates a stylised dragon. The whole figure reminds me the DAO statues, one of them confirmed as an Archdemon, while the other, similar in style, was hinted as Falon'Din (and by extension, Dirthamen as well).
Putting aside the difference of years and engine, this statue has a slender body that reminds me those statues in DAO. The wings are more stylised than those from the original Archdemon, but what gets my attention mostly is its base.
There is a texture that looks like veins, as if the statue is fused with the rock, when it could have been much more easier to simply clip it on a standard piece of stone.
Looking around
In this space there are these strange red objects that, when you charge them with the Anchor energy, they give access to hidden sections of this crossroad. They allow the creation of stone bridges. Cole says something curious about it: these eggs are old and ask the stones to change, so they do.
In the beginning I was not sure what it was, but after checking the eggs we find in Fairel’s tomb [Hissing Wastes] and in the Dragon decoration of Skyhold, I’m pretty confident to say these represent polished red dragon eggs.
In the top and the bottom they have some tear-shaped figures that I suspect, they depict a bud.
In Dragon Age, we know little about dragons in general, and we only infer via the comic with Yavana that the Dragons were the original creators of worlds ["The blood of dragons is the blood of the world"].
We also know that the Evanuris considered “divine shape” to one that allowed them to fly, so it’s implicit -considering Flemeth’s shapeshift- that it may have been the shape of a Dragon. If we add the importance and mystery that Dragons embody in this franchise, we can have a good degree of certainty that they [or at least a particular kind of them, such as the Great Dragons] are immensely powerful creatures, and therefore, their blood is one of the most powerful ones among the living creatures. That these egg-devices are in red decorated with golden patterns make me infer that there may be made of blood related to dragons and manipulated by elvhen [golden].
Each of these isles have corners that allow us to access to new areas. In this case, if we follow around the statue of the Sun-head creature, we will find a place that has Orlesian design: it will lead us to the Abandoned Chateau.
Crossing down the bridge from the Isle with the strange statue, we head to another one, placed in a lower level.
The walls of this small chamber show Dwarven style, and its eluvian will guide us to the Deep Roads.
Around the corner of this place, behind the wall, we have access to a secret eluvian that leads us to a Hidden Hollow.
From the isle that lets us enter the Deep Road, we can activate another egg to cross a bridge and reach to a higher level isle which has a lot of rubble and the entrance to the eluvian is welcomed with a brown Chasind rug. Among the rubble we find a Monolith with swirls. This mirror will guide us to the Forgotten Tower.
Finally, after the plot advances a bit more, a new “permanent” bridge will be created from the isle that contains the Eluvian towards the Deep Roads. It will guide us to another isle, in a higher level, decorated with columns of elvhen patterns and a Free Marches Eagle. This place leads us to the Shattered Library space. It’s very curious that this statue marks the library. So far we saw, Free Marches Eagles are not related to elvhenan art. Despite the strange presence of this Eagle, more of this statues will appear in the Shattered Library, so we still see that this eluvian complies with the rule: “the space around the eluvian reflects its destiny”. In this case, at both sides of the mirror we have elvhen places: Crossroads and Shattered Library [which seems to be another created space in-between like the crossroads itself].
Behind the eagle in this isle, there is another red egg that, once activated, allows us to walk a bridge towards an isle in a higher place, that has a Dragon Mythal statue and several bones spread on it, marking the entrance to the Ancient Jail.
Each of these spaces will be analysed in separate posts.
