#samson's sword

[bohemiantea-scorpiocoffee]

UnCertainty

Meredith’s red lyrium sword has become a big deal again because of the red lyrium idol seen on the DA4 mural. I’ve seen some speculations that include her sword, and that’s cool. But I think there’s one thing folks are forgetting:

Meredith’s sword literally shatters during the end battle when you have her health down far enough you know she’d be killed off with a few more hits. Here’s video of that, jump to approximately 10:49.

But wait, we see her sword again in Inquisition, right? We get it from Samson after defeating him at the Temple of Mythal.

Yes and no. “Certainty” is anything but. Here’s its description:

A sword of deepest corruption and conviction, it cannot be the red lyrium blade that drove Kirkwall's Knight-Commander Meredith to madness. It cannot have been reborn in arcane energies somehow elven and Tevinter and Blight intertwined. And it cannot have inspired in the name of a magister who once entered heaven and would dare so again. One wonders what this sword cannot be next, in the hands of the Inquisitor, if he/she is not careful.

“Reborn,” considering how completely shattered it was, would have to mean it’s an inspired replica - all the little pieces from the original’s shattering went into making Meredith a red lyrium statue. 

It can, however, be a pretty faithful replica in look and some of its power! Especially if your Hawke helps Samson get reinstated as a templar in Act III: he’ll have had opportunity to see Meredith’s sword at least once, if not more than a few times, before the final battle. 

On top of that, Samson will have been in contact with Corypheus (at that time running around as either Larius or Janeka), so it’s extremely easy to see how the magister would have been massively inspired by seeing red lyrium in the first place, but also made into a weapon that makes its wielder so strong and powerful.

However, Certainty and Meredith’s sword are not quite the same things, and they cannot be because Corypheus would not have had the original idol - who knows what specific magics that idol had, as compared to what Certainty is capable of? In fact, it may be those specific differences that may be key to understanding (one or more of?) the central conflicts we might see in DA4. 

(Cut for Dragon Age Deception spoiler.)

This is why I personally hesitate in saying that any mention of red lyrium weapons will always be about Certainty: we could see ancient weapons made of red lyrium come to light (and given what little clues we have in the mural, it seems likely), or we may see more modern red lyrium weapon creations. Deception talks about red lyrium (the substance and/or the weapon) being stolen from Kirkwall, and considering the time Samson and Corypheus spent together there, at least one or two Certainty prototypes and several other weapon experiments could have been found.

tl;dr - I wouldn’t say that the mural’s idol is definitely about Certainty, and Deception’s “red lyrium weapon” doesn’t have to mean Certainty or the idol either. There’s a lot of wiggle room in there for possibility, though what evidence we have so far is pretty compelling. :)