Thinking about Harding’s quest with the Titan - choosing between rage or compassion - and I keep thinking about that rage - specifically how that may have affected the ancient war.
Before the severing, dwarves and Titans were joined in Isatunoll, the song of the whole. Harding feels the Titan’s emotion as something so great she couldn’t bear it. The ancient dwarves, through their stone sense and connection with the Titan’s - experienced them - their emotions. If a Titan suffered, I imagine its people suffered. If a Titan burned with fury, that fury would move through thousands of dwarves - like we saw with Harding.
Now thinking to the war between dwarves and elves.
The elves were harvesting lyrium to fuel their own mass manifestations. For the dwarves and their Titans that was a threat to survival - a violation. The anger rising from that would have surged through Isatunoll and into every dwarf who carried the Titan’s song within them.
So I’m left to imagine one battle among many.
Thousands of dwarves advancing, feeling the emotions of their Titans, their own emotions - carrying the fear and fury braided together. Every charge or attack against the elves infused with the force of primordial magic and something ancient demanding justice. A battle field would have become an eruption of collective wrath, an army moving with emotional and magical intensity.
Witnessing Harding’s own journey - and seeing the rage of the Titan’s shadow play out through her - shows how consuming even that was. Multiply that by an entire civilization still connected to its source, and the scale becomes staggering. It makes sense why the elves would have grown desperate, why they likely were even losing. How could you sustain a war against such rage and power? Their battles would have been carnage on a massive scale.
So the elves did the only thing that could break that advantage and give them a chance at life.
It’s devestating all around. And would any of this had happened if Elgar'nan, followed by Mythal - had remained spirits? From a storytelling perspective how bad were they losing before Mythal turned to Wisdom? How long then before Solas found the one way, as wisdom would, to turn the advantage back to the elves? It’s just so tragic to think about all around.
So this is a full overview of my theories and opinions on the life of Andraste, and the identity of the entity known as “The Maker”. It’s kinda long but I’ve tried to arrange things in a clear way.
The general gist is that Andraste was a half dwarven OGB with the soul of Dumat, who connected with a titan.
I unfortunately can’t post screenshots of all my sources as I’m on mobile and have a 10 image limit, but much of it comes from both volumes of World of Thedas and the rest can be found on the wiki if you read up on the relevant topic.
According to World of Thedas, Andraste was born in -203 ancient, to a Ciriane woman named Brona, and Elderath, who was a chieftain of a large tribe in northern Ferelden. She had a half sister on her father’s side named Halliserre, who died under mysterious circumstances. She had visions and dreams throughout her life of an entity she called The Maker, and later met an entity she believed to be this Maker, sometime before calling an exalted march on tevinter at the age of 23. Around ten years into the war with Tevinter, her husband betrayed her to Tevinter and they burned her at the stake. Her ashes were collected and taken back to Ferelden, where they were kept in a mountain with a very high concentration of lyrium.
The first part of this theory concerns Andraste’s mother, Brona, whose shade we meet in origins. Brona was a member of the Ciriane tribe, who lived in what is now Orlais. The Ciriane tribe were a huge part of the forces gathered by the grey wardens to fight Dumat in the Battle of the Silent Plains where he was finally defeated in -203 ancient, the same year Andraste was born. We don’t have any information about whether Brona took part in this battle herself, but we know she was a warrior, as Andraste gifted her sword to Shartan, so I would say it’s definitely possible and maybe even likely, as Dumat had been terrorising the world for nearly 200 years at this point and I feel like probably most if not all warriors of the Ciriane were helping in at least some way. The World of Thedas timeline places Andraste’s birth after the death of Dumat.
The timelines could very easily align for Brona to be in the early stages of pregnancy at the battle to defeat Dumat, and potentially near him when he died. The warden who sacrificed their life to kill Dumat was never identified, as he killed several wardens in his death throes. So it’s entirely possible for none of them to have died absorbing his soul and for the fetal Andraste to have absorbed it instead. Not to mention, when Morrigan tells us about the ritual, she heavily implies that what she is suggesting has been done before. Now, I don’t think that Brona did a ritual to capture Dumats soul, but I think it’s possible for circumstances to have completely coincidentally aligned perfectly to allow the same effect. In this way, the origins ritual was only so complicated because it was a deliberate recreation and certain variables had to be controlled.
If this is the case, then we can look to Kieran to know what effect this would have had on Andraste. Old god Kieran is a strange child, who has strange knowledge of the world’s secrets and understanding of truths of the universe, and talks of dreams that are implied to have some significance. Andraste also behaved strangely, going into trance like states and talking of strange auras. She also had visions from an early age, which she believed to be of an entity she referred to as the maker. This does sound an awful lot like Kieran, except without Morrigan to help make sense of things.
This, I believe, is where a lot of the parts of the chant we now know to be mistellings of elven history come from. The soul of Dumat is a fragment of one of the Evanuris, likely Dirthamen according to Bellara’s notes, and we know these fragments can carry memories. The visions Andraste had from an early age were fragments of memories of the evanuris, the “Maker” in these visions a melding of several evanuris and their actions. The Canticle of Threnodies tells of the makers creation of the spirits, who he calls his “firstborn”, and the building of a beautiful golden city for them to live in. It then tells of him making his second born (physical people), with the fades “living flesh”. It also tells of spirits growing jealous of the physical people, and wanting to rule over Earth as gods (the tevinter old gods, to be precise) and being cast into the earth as a result.
The canticle of Threnodies we know comes from transcribed retellings of Andraste’s visions.
Knowing all this, we can easily see these verses being fragments of Dumats memories being filtered through Andraste’s interpretation, and then several retellings and translations. In these visions, “The Maker” is not one entity, but rather all of the evanuris and potentially any other powerful elven mage. Andraste had fragmented visions of some of the key events of elven history, the taking of physical form, the building of glorious cities, the desire to become like gods, the imprisonment in the earth, and the separation of veil and unchanging world and interpreted them as being the actions of one supreme god.
Another fun section of the chant of light is the canticle of Exaltations, which relays a prophecy of the makers return given to the founder of Orlais, Kordillus Drakon (also of the Ciriane, though unclear if that’s significant), supposedly by Andraste. The prophecy itself outlines several portents of the makers return, each seeming to align with events in the games since origins, with the final part outlining the Maker returning in tevinter, with proclamations eerily similar to Elgar’nans dialogue at the end of veilguard (and andraste wielding a shining sword). It’s unclear exactly where this prophecy came from, but it’s clearly from a source that knew what it was talking about and in my mind it further cements this idea that the visions of the Maker were in fact visions of several prominent elves, in this case Elgar’nan.
Later in life, Andraste meets an entity identified as “the maker” and speaks to him. She can’t be speaking to any of the evanuris (except Mythal, and while it is a popular theory that Mythal is who she spoke to I don’t actually believe this anymore. For several reasons, including that it would have come up by now and also I don’t see why Mythal would present herself as a man) so she cannot be speaking with any of the individuals responsible for events she previously attributed to the maker, but she clearly speaks with something. I believe that something to be a titan, and I believe that Andraste has significant dwarven heritage.
Which brings me on to her father, Elderath. We know Elderath was a chieftain of a tribe in northern Ferelden (likely the Clayne). We know he had a daughter with his alchemy advisor, and that was Andraste’s half sister Hallissere. We don’t meet his shade in origins, and thus, have no idea what he looks like.
Halliserre, Elderaths daughter with the unnamed alchemy advisor, died young under interesting circumstances. Andraste was the only witness, and all we know is that it was violent, and Hallisere was found in a burned clearing, with “wounds beyond weapons”. This seems pretty obviously an accidental magical discharge by an untrained mage. It calls to mind the stories various mages in the series tell of how they discovered their powers. It seems extremely obvious that either Andraste or Hallissere was a mage and that caused Hallisseres death. Except that nobody at the time believed that to be the case. The Ciriane blamed spirits, the Alamarri blamed rival tribes. Why would they not suspect one of the girls? Could there perhaps have been a reason why nobody would have suspected either girl of being a mage? Like, for example, their father being a dwarf, or half dwarven, and therefore they themselves being part dwarven? We don’t really know how the dwarven lack of magic works in individuals who are part dwarven and part human or elven, but one would assume that the more dwarven ancestry someone has, the less likely they are to be a mage.
There’s plenty of precedent for members of Alamarri tribes to have dwarven heritage. In fact, Andraste is the only historical Alamarri figure who neither marries a dwarf nor has explicit dwarven heritage. Tyrdda Bright-Axe marries the dwarven prince Hendir, and their descendant Morrighan’an has a child with Luthias Dwarfson of the Clayne tribe, who is himself married to a dwarven princess and also likely has dwarven heritage himself, given his name and short stature. It would not have been unusual for an Alamarri chieftain to have significant dwarven heritage, and if Andraste and Halliserre were significantly part dwarven that would explain why nobody suspected them of being mages. And Andraste being an OGB of Dumat would explain why she had magic anyway, and also why she later blamed Hallisseres death on the tevinter old gods.
The chant of light has an awful lot of references to mountains, wellsprings and songs. All of which are associated with the titans. The passages which describe Andraste’s meeting with the maker are particularly suspect. Andraste meets with the maker while on a mountain, after he answered her call (a beautiful song, according to chantry lore). The maker is described as “greater than mountains” and as “the wellspring of all” (there are two other uses of the word wellspring in the series: the location of the titans heart in the descent, and a line said by the slaughter of the pillars revenant in veilguard), and he takes Andraste to a pool deep beneath the ground and describes it as “the abyss, the well of all souls.” We now know these locations to be structures present deep within in the heart of a titan. In fact the abyss itself is deep within a titan, it is the other sky that dwarves are scared of falling into.
In this meeting he says the following to andraste:
"None now remember.
Long have they turned to idols and tales
Away from My Light, in darkness unbroken
The last of My children, shrouded in night."
At first glance, with the context of the chantry, this seems to be about the people of Thedas being metaphorically hidden from the makers light. But this all applies to the dwarves and their relationship with the titans.
The dwarves do not remember the titans. They have turned to idols (paragons) and tales (stories of the stone, divorced from their true meaning). They live in the deep roads, in darkness unbroken and shrouded in night, after fleeing to tunnels beneath the earth after the titans were sundered. The slaughter of the pillars revenant in veilguard has the line “in darkness long lamenting”. This is not a creator god sad he is no longer worshipped, this is a titan grieving the loss of connection with the dwarves, its children.
So, Andraste was part dwarven and had the soul of Dumat, gained by her mother being near Dumat when he died while pregnant with Andraste. This gave her visions of the past she did not fully understand, and interpreted the monumental events as being the actions of a singular deity. Later in life she communicated with a titan, who she perceived to be this singular deity, as such a powerful entity was completely unknown to society at the time, and what else could it have been but the god she thought she had seen visions of her whole life. This made her belief she was the voice of the maker, and caused her to declare war on tevinter, which ultimately led to her betrayal by Maferath, and her execution.
After her execution her ashes are gathered and taken back to Ferelden. Where they are interred in a cavern full of lyrium. Her final resting place is deep within the body of a titan. And she may or may not get reincarnated as a dragon I’m not entirely sure what’s up with that.
A millennia of history in two paragraphs. The truth about the Maker, elves, dwarves, Titans, and the Evanuris - and it's all thanks to lyrium, three little words, and one big song!
Lyrium has always held memory and music. What does a lyrium dagger recall throughout the ages?
(Yes, this is lyrium dagger POV, a fairy-tale perspective on Titans, dwarves, the doings of the Evanuris, and the events of Veilguard. Spoilers for all of Dragon Age, ~1000 words. Thanks to @terioncalling for the encouragement!)
---
There was a time before there was time, when all was whole and sung within a thousand thousand throats. Blood carried the Song of the Stone through beat and breath, and there was harmony resounded, echoing through the firmament and the very bones of the world. Isatunoll.
Then came wounds, bitter and jagged, leeching the blood into soil and spirit. A Faded world of shimmering spirits sent invaders in their ignorance. There were battles that heaved the mountains down, that ruptured the very earth, that caused fire and flood and pain. The pain reverberated through the Song, sour and foul, a discord shivering through the blood.
The stolen blood had other uses than weaving an entire people’s dreams. Once spilled it could create new bodies — or end those that it had raised and nourished. A spirit once Wisdom, now Pride, folded blood upon itself in layers shimmering and bright, until a blade was forged that sang with dreadful purpose.
The blade could sever.
The blade could sunder.
And Pride’s cruelty echoed through the firmament and the very bones of the world.
-
The blade was not alive. But nor was it dead. It was something unto itself, a mirror of what had come before, a prism to refract the future. Or to create it.
Pride was not its only master. Tyranny bore it for a time, casting Retribution -- before Benevolence -- into splintered shadow. The blade sang anew, echoing with the scattered refrain of the spirit’s shards, until Pride reclaimed his own and drew forth the fragments in his sorrow.
The blade hung at Pride’s side as an anchor, the great sundering of the Titans, the ending of Retribution, remembered in a faint and voiceless song. It did not let him forget. The weight of it would have destroyed a lesser spirit.
But Pride was one of the old dreamers of the world beyond, and his will was mighty, enough to fill his ears and heart with a music of his own that drowned out the silent screaming of the Titans. Vengeance came upon him, and he devised a plan to bring it forth.
The dagger sang again, binding a new world where all was shadowed and the voices of the world beyond made faint. It sent Pride to his knees, the dagger clattering beside him.
The screams of Pride’s own people carried not the ancient melody of the Song, but it was a chorus still remembered.
-
Darkness twisted what once was pure and singing, and the blade roiled with the poisoned music of the Blight. It gleamed red in the shadowed halls, a perversion of what had come before.
It sang to a Child of the Titans in the wending deep, its music choked with retribution, with sundered dreams, with the follies of the proud. The Child listened with his heart unguarded, and the voices wove within his mind a song that could not be denied.
-
A city cast in ruins, smoke heavy on the air, stone broken like a Titan’s mind. The blade whined and hummed in its corruption, rippling in a prison of pulsing red.
It slumbered in this frozen form until mortal hands freed it once again, until it traveled under guard and spell. Great magic wove within it and without. At last the red corruption was destroyed and anew it breathed in purest blue.
It recognized the hand that held the now-cleansed blade. Pride was not so easily evaded.
-
Ah.
There, familiar, the Song! Carried still in Child’s blood, if faint and near-forgotten: the ancient music, oneness, isatunoll!
The dagger drank deeply of its own lifeblood, but the Child of the Stone was only mortal, and he could not bear the blade.
No matter; an echo still would linger, as of Retribution, as of sleeping Titans. The blade hummed, waiting to discharge its gifts, to remind the Children who they long ago had been.
-
A filthy hand upon the blade, marred and soulless. Mercifully the carrying was brief.
The next hand, small and strong and reaching —
ISATUNOLL!
The dwarven blood unleashed, the song resounding, unlocking, reweaving — remembering —
Another hand upon the blade, but the music slowly faded, a silent song once more.
-
Resonance. Like met like, the amplitude increasing, the effect doubling, trebling. Pride’s touch on his enemy was light and masterful, deft weaving of remembrance. It sang in harmony with the fragment in the blade, a Child wise in his own way, an admixture that seemed real as real to one that would behold it.
-
The assassin’s hand hid a tremor, a rupture nearly imperceptible. A note soured in the distilled music of the blade. The demon the assassin carried twisted, straining, in its bonds of flesh.
The blow did not strike true.
-
God-blood now twice-stolen, draining from the wielder of the flesh, flowing into ancient soil like the sweetest rain. What was stolen, now reclaimed, fragments of the Titan-stone anointed in her blood —
The blade flashed beneath a shrouded sun. Pride and his games again!
-
The enemy of an enemy was not a friend, but perhaps an ally. The blade danced between them, gifted freely.
Until bright and blighted Tyranny fell from his lofty throne, and the Veil shivered, shredded, ached to open.
Strange words, a tuneless verse that yet held meaning, many voices in the fray, fragments of Retribution and Benevolence. Pride’s tears fell upon the blade, no magic in them but what made them fall. His blood on the blade’s edge tasted of regret upon regret, a chorus all its own.
Pride’s hands trembled, the weight too much at last. In his blood a hint of Wisdom stirred and struggled.
His enemy’s hands were merely mortal, but they were strong and certain, cradling the blade.
Blood and blade and bound again, the Veil renewed, the sundered dreams a soft motif instead of crushing melody. Like this, the blade could find a peace. Like this, the blade could slumber.
Until someday the Titan-song was sung again, until the blade was at last unmade, until it could rejoin the Song in blood and blue.
Toward a unifying theory of the blight and its effects
In this paper, we present a unifying theory of the blight that positions it as a corruption of the ancient isatunoll, or collective hivemind consciousness, of the Titans and their descendants. We propose that this isatunoll, sundered from the Titans and cast into the Fade by the Evanuris and then further altered to incorporate the Taint, constitutes the blight as it is known today. Additionally, we propose that the Joining ritual of the Order of the Grey Wardens serves to inoculate those who survive it against further corruption by the Taint via a sympathetic bond with the archetypal isatunoll. Finally, we provide reasoning to suggest that the Joining can only be survived by those with latent genetic heritage derived from the Titans themselves, whether directly (as with the dwarva) or via the ancient elvhen people who constructed physical bodies from lyrium, the blood of the Titans.
Download the PDF version here.
Not a story, just a full-on academic paper on the blight by @aquamonstra, Antoine, Evka, and yours truly. Because why not, I guess?
But...I think they really had a missed opportunity, in killing off Harding or Davrin at the penultimate mission, they really should've kept them both alive(With Hardingwhich you send her to lead the second team, because Titan Magic, somehow Harding reacting negatively to the creation of the Red Lyrium Blade would shock Ghilinain long enough for her let go of Lucanis and then he attacks, and then Harding seemingly is injured and lost(she is captured just like your second party member choice. This causes her to be Blighted being a mini boss you fight and then free, she is not blighted but was instead responding in pure rage to anything and everything and then she and say Neve help you out against Elgarnan in the last leg, because Elgarnan guess tries to will the Blight back and is failing at it.
So then when confronting Solas, and redeeming him, he says he will go to soothe the Titans pain. Here Lace can offer herself up to go and soothe it, in completing her personal quest with either rage or calm, she says she can best understand their pain and needs to be the one to go and do this. Thus fulfilling her Destiny in typical Chantry fashion, chants a bit of the chant to herself.
Solas being long lived is made to promise her to find a way to bring the Veil down safely if it needs to come down one day, and she'll work on soothing the Titans.
There, that's my ending.
In fact, even if you choose Davrin, so long as you have him as a Hero of The Veilguard Status, then he lives, and Harding gets captured because Ghilinain registers her as the bigger threat.
Like, who else but Harding, the voice of the Titans, not a Deep road Dwarf, but a Surfacer, one entirely disconnected from the mainstream culture of Orzammar Dwarves and Surfacer Castes and Merchants. She was a homely farm girl growing up as the one dwarf in a human village, and she joined up because she wanted to protect her home. Plus with all the elf root she grows, she wants to soothe pain, and if need be taken out the thing or person causing the pain. So either in rage or calm, she still goes to soothe the Titans. The only thing that would change is her tone towards Solas.
