#da4 theories

[anneapocalypse]

On Lucanis

I've seen a lot of speculation about Lucanis and how he's implied to be dead in "The Wake," and is now apparently alive and well in Veilguard, whether he faked his death to escape the Crows, etc. I think that's a very plausible theory, and might well be correct, but I also have another theory.

Maybe Lucanis is in fact dead.

Maybe that's not Lucanis Dellamorte, but a spirit inhabiting his body.

In Tevinter Nights we're treated to the fascinating story of a bookish guard named Audric who finds that he is actually a spirit inhabiting Audric's body, who had taken on Audric's identity so thoroughly he ceased to remember his origins.

And in "The Wake" there's this interesting line:

The windows and mirrors were all temporarily covered with heavy black velveteen to prevent any wandering souls from getting lost on their way.

Wandering souls, huh. At a wake.

We've had some sort of spirit or possessed companion in every Dragon Age game thus far. In Origins, we have the Spirit of Faith who saved Wynne's life and resides with her, though we never meet that spirit personally. In Awakening, we have Justice, who finds himself trapped in the waking world in Kristoff's body. Justice later joins with Anders and the two of them appear in Dragon Age 2 together, with Justice making occasional appearances. And in Inquisition, we have Cole, a Spirit of Compassion who has crossed the Veil for a suffering mage child he could not save, and so took on his identity (but did not possess him).

Spirits tend to be more drawn to mages, but not exclusively, especially when the host is no longer living. Kristoff and Audric were not mages.

Furthermore, when last we saw Lucanis alive, he was busy putting an end to the horrific machinations of Forfex in "The Wigmaker Job." In the process, he destroys the elven artifact Forfex was using to keep spirits at bay, leading to a number of possessions including Forfex himself, who is ultimately defeated by Lucanis. Following the incident, Lucanis himself is nicknamed The Demon.

In the Veilguard trailer, Lucanis is referred to not as The Crow, but as The Magekiller. It does seem to suggest he has cut ties with the Crows and continued on the path "The Wigmaker Job" set him upon. But what if it's more than that? What if it's no longer Lucanis--or alternatively, not Lucanis alone? If he did die, perhaps a spirit has claimed his body, or perhaps he has even been brought back to life temporarily as Wynne was. If he did not die, perhaps he gained a passenger. Perhaps they are now of one mind in fighting abuses of magic and of spirits, and have seen the Veilguard as aligned with their goals.

I just can't help thinking we might get a surprise spirit companion in Veilguard, and that companion could be Lucanis. :)

[dreadfutures]

theories :)

the Evanuris killed a titan and that creates the Blight but also gives them their godly powers

the Evanuris (and all elves) were spirits who could body hop. the Evanuris body hopped into biggus badass dragons

Solas sees the blight sickness spreading as well as their evil and when they kill Mythal that's that

with the idol and the orb, he sucks up the whole blight and the Evanuris and traps them and locks them in the Golden City by creating the Veil

the archdemons are the hollow dragon bodies of the Evanuris hidden away so no one else could use them? or they're Keys to keep the veil in place idk

the idol holds red lyrium and is slowly infected. hidden away for safe keeping in a thaig it spreads red lyrium

the Golden City turns black as the blight corrupts the Evanuris and the entire city

the magisters sidereal break in, become dark spawn, and bring the blight to Thedas again

when the Blight reaches the archdemons, the consciousness of a blighted elven god possesses it and wants to destroy the world bc they're just cartoonishly evil

Solas' Plan has been to tear the veil down and reshape reality to go back in time to fix everything a la In Hushed Whispers but to do that on a world scale needs immense power.

that plan no longer works without the orb, so plan two is: tear down the veil and fight the evil gods

also the veil is tearing no matter his involvement, it is ancient and falling apart

so in da4, in no particular order

we've got a double Blight on our hands

red lyrium is spreading everywhere

ghilannains monsters and "things from beyond the fade" monsters are springing up

Solas tears down the veil and idk maybe he dies but I doubt he'd die there without seeing the end of things

we go to the black city, overrun by red lyrium and dark spawn and fight the last of the evanuris

Flemeth wants to fix the world like Solas but in a different way. idk purify the world for real instead of undoing it? idk what Mythal wants

anyway bc the veil is down everyone has some magic in them. dwarves get called by a titan to connect and survive what's happening and that's how lace gets ""magic""

[wickedapostate]

Theory for why Lucanis might have faked his own death

In The Wigmaker Job him and his cousin Illario discuss how their grandmother Caterina Dellamorte, First Talon of the Crows favors Lucanis to be the heir to her position, a position that he does not want and would much rather let Illario have. Lucanis also admits that it's impossible to refuse Caterina if she does ask him to take up the role, all he could do is just prolong things till she'd hopefully change her mind and favor Illario for First Talon.

So the thing is, he can't abdicate and he can't deny Caterina, but he can remove himself from the realm of possible heirs. Dead men inherit nothing after all. So he could've set himself up a faked death and fled so that Illario could follow his calling, and Lucanis could follow his own: Death.

[foxx-queen]

I was playing through dao awakening for the first time today and while I was fighting the baroness as the pride demon form it occurred to me that she looked different from other pride demons - namely that she's black rather than purple. and it struck me that it kind of looked familiar to me? and then I realised it reminded me of solas' wolf tarot card with the pride demon eyes.

at first I thought the dark pride demon that took the baroness' form might just look like that because the blackmarsh is so dark, but now I'm wondering if it's because it enters the world without a body to possess and because it's so powerful

and then I was thinking about how the baroness says she's been leeching off the souls of the blackmarsh for eons, and it's because of that power that she's able to enter the real world without a hoast. and now I'm wondering if maybe solas is doing the same sort of thing, but in reverse? absorbing power from spirits in the fade and red lyrium and whatever he can get his hands on, in order to physically enter the fade. and that all that power is showing itself in his other form, the wolf that looks more and more like a pride demon.

it's interesting that you get the achievement 'pride before the fall' when you kill the baroness too. pretty apt for what solas is doing.

[veshialles]

hm why do I get the feeling that The Order Of Fiery Promise is going to come up again in DA4

I mean, if Solas truly intends to destroy the world, they would be sympathetic to his cause

[himluv]

Solas and the Red Lyrium Idol

Okay, these last few days I’ve been thinking about Dread Wolf Take You and really chewing on some details that I missed the first time around.

************SPOILERS FOR TEVINTER NIGHTS AHEAD*************************

Okay. So. In the very last story of Tevinter Nights, “The Dread Wolf Take You”, there is a gathering of what seems to be spies. I’m not gonna get too far into the details of it here, but suffice it to say that each spy has their own Dread Wolf story involving the Idol and none of them should be taken at face-value. 

A Mortalitasi woman tells her story about a blood magic ritual involving the Idol, and this little detail stuck out to me:

So, I know I don’t trust this bitch, but the detail about the Idol TURNING INTO A BLADE???? That seems important. It also seems like a weird detail to make up whole-cloth, because it doesn’t really impact the outcome of the story at all. Dudesef could have used ANY blade to slice him self up and call on spirits or whatever. He’s Tevene, he knows more than me. The Mortalitasi is the only one to mention this detail, either because no one else has encountered this fact, or because they don’t want it to become common knowledge (I’m looking at you SOLAS).

So, this little nugget stuck in my brain... because it sounded familiar. 

Hmmmmmmmm. That’s sus as fuck yo. So now we have two canon stories involving a Red Lyrium “weapon” and Solas. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

Sorry for my really shitty screenshots and outlining, but this is from the Codex and talks about how Fen’Harel tricked The Creators and The Forgotten Ones by telling them that the other had forged “a terrible weapon, a blade that would end the war”. Now, this was a story from Merrill, which was no doubt passed down in the Dalish oral tradition and isn’t entirely accurate. But still. Relevant. 

I know I can’t be the first person to make these connections, but I haven’t seen it come across my dash all in one place, so I figured that meant I was duty bound to put it out there. 

TL;DR: Solas is looking for (and maybe already has) an Ancient Elvhen(?) red lyrium blade that could be the key to doing some nasty ritualistic shit. Which, we all already knew. But, I think seeing these pieces together made me realize that the Idol isn’t new to him. It’s something he is deeply familiar with and/or has used before. 

Yikes.

[crazedpeanut]

Ok, so is that the idol in the center there??? Rounded top, wide middle,  and a longer bottom section ?

[witche-nerd]

Me theorising about da4 for the next three years