It is an old elven keep, which has recently been seized to serve as a base for the Red Templars as part of their offensive to seize control of Emprise du Lion. They are also conducting experiments on giants by infecting them with red lyrium. The operation is overseen by Imshael, a "Choice Spirit" and one of the The Forbidden Ones. After the Inquisitor deals with Imshael and drives out the Red Templars, the Keep is turned into an Inquisition stronghold.
[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]
We head to Suledin Keep, where the demon Imshael is working on his red lyrium garden. The entrance to the path towards this keep looks like a warning: full of red lyrium with more owl statues: the animal of Dirthamen/Falon’Din or maybe the messenger of Andruil, at this point in the game, we are not completely sure what God they exactly represent. Apparently, the owl statues have been guiding the player along the region to reach this Keep.
The entrance has a frame door with the same shape that the Gate to the temple of Myhtal.
As we climb the stairs and gain height in this ruin, we find several more statues. Hart statues, owl statues, and Archers, all of them pointing out towards the path to the courtyard of the keep. There is a codex called Suledin Keep Documents that talks about several things, but mostly about Imshael, summarised in the following list:
Imshael has been sent to overseer the red lyrium growth, like a gardener. He supports the red templar's cause [although personally I think he supports the possibilities to give ironic “choices” to those who take red lyrium in general, according to his personality in the book The Masked Empire] However, these templars will see him as a human supporting them. They clearly don't know he is a demon.
Another excerpt explains how much pain the red templars endure during the transformation and how this process may cause them moral conflicts. Apparently, Imshael can revert the process for a high price [exactly as he behaved in the book, he likes to force situations in which he can offer terrible hard options to his victims, and their choices, specially the cruellest or the most ironic ones, give him pleasure.]
A templar questions why they need to be in Emprise du Lion if red lyrium can grow everywhere. He is shut up by his general saying that Corypheus believes that he composition of the earth in this place will make red lyrium grow more rapidly and abundantly. [Personally I find it strange. What could possibly make red lyrium grow faster here? Blood? Bodies? Is this terrain covered in elven bodies due to the fights against humans during the Dales? Or is it about older bodies, from the time of the Evanuris, who asked too many sacrifices, as it was, potentially, hinted with the tower of bones? Or this is related to the line we read in DAO and DA2 about “The Stone lives beneath Orlais”, meaning that under Orlais there is some titan or titan-related element that would allow red lyrium to grow in better conditions?]
A survivor templar of Kirkwall who saw meredith die celebrates the fact that they are alive when they draw power from the red lyrium when Meredith died doing so with her sword. This narrator explains that slow administration of red lyrium allows a progressive transformation without infusing the madness that took Meredith’s mind. Imshael is the key for this process: he knows how to cultivate and supply red lyrium. In any case, via codices and notes we know that red lyrium is easier to control with cold as well. And we also know this place has never been this frost, so this weather has to be a product of magic of the red templars/Imshael to make red lyrium grow at the exact pace, and therefore have more controlled transformations
During the exploration of the keep we see vast extensions of garden/forest inside, marked with three different types of statues which guide our path most of the time: the owls and archers, while a colossus Fen’Harel's statue always seems to watch over.
Sometimes, statues of harts appear but I’m not sure what they indicate.
The archers indicate to enter to a part of the keep where we see a lot of barrels that I suppose, are the ones referred in Work Orders.
This place seems to be a kind of storage of these barrels. If we explore this part deeper, we see a corridor with these well known lids: Razikale Ceremony and Horned warrior holding a sword. Three potential explanations come to me:
These lids are new, they were not part of the keep, and are related to Imshael and the process that makes red lyrium grow. I think this interpretation is unlikely because these lids seem to be embedded into the old building, encrusted in the wall. They don’t look new.
They belong to the ancient building, and were part of the elven rituals. Which is also strange, since these images have been appearing in places strongly related to Tevinter.
Co-opted, this elvhenan ruin was modified and repurposed by ancient Tevinter to fulfil their own agenda in the region. This option is also unlikely, since this keep doesn’t have the presence of many Tevinter objects aside these to assume it was co-opted at some point in history.
Conclusion: It’s a mystery to understand why these objects are here, if we are correct in understanding them as Tevinter. Recently, I had my doubts, and I started to suspect they are originally Elvhenan, even though its style is very different to the rest of the elvhenan objects we saw so far [For more details, read the post about Hissing Wastes: Fairel tomb].
As we get closer to the main courtyard, we keep being guided by the usual four statues: Harts, sitting Fen’Harel statues, Archer statues and owl statues. With the exception of the hart, the rest have been used in the Elven Ruins of the DLC Tresspasser.
Close to the main courtyard we find felandaris plants, meaning that the Veil in this place is quite thin.
In this place we find where, I suppose, the transformation of miners and villagers happens or/and the controlled growth of Red Lyrium for templar transformations is cultivated. Or both. We see in the middle of this courtyard that device I called "injector" in Western Approach: the open, hovering over a base surrounded by many "diapason" instruments that, thanks to Jaws of Hakkon, we know they redirect energy. This object has red lyrium inside, and at the corners, we find these devices that we saw in the Fade and triggered the codex called "temple of Dumat" [reason why I call them as such]. The whole configuration makes me suspect that the injector channel energy to the central part of this configuration and the “diapason” instruments divide it and spread it to the rest in the corners, feeding the red Lyrium in the middle of them.
We find more "temple of Dumat” devices in places where there is no red lyrium growing.
Here is where Imshael awaits us. It's quite curious that his skin design looks similar to Anders’. I don't know if this was intentional or not, there is nothing in the information and the presentation of the quests that make us suspect anything related to him [Even though we know through the concept art that the appearance of Anders has been planed at some point, but it never made it into the game. Maybe the production of his body was not wasted and used in Imshael instead]. When we talk to him, he proceeds as usual, proposing a deal with a choice.
When we fight him, he changes his shape several times. During his transformation we are hinted once more how complex is "Choice", he is not a desire demon [as he says and as it was explained in the book The Masked Empire as well]. There is a bit of terror, rage, and pride in it, pretty similar to the spirit of Regret in the book Tevinter Nights [these spirits are a lot more complex than the ones we have been seeing in the games].
When we kill him, we can loot March of the Everlasting, a shield with clearly elvhenan patterns on it [we find the swirls and the circle designs] but has a pyramid in the middle that breaks its elven style. This detail is not missed by its description which says via a really unreliable tone that this shield may have been forged in Arlathan, but Tevinter modified it and, during the Exalted March, the orlesian circle re-enchanted it to give it to Chevaliers. As we can notice in this detail, elven elements are constantly being reused and reshaped by Tevinter and Orlais. [This shield design is not unique, however, and has been used in other items, so I don’t think we have to read too much into it, to be honest.]
Before reclaiming the keep, we find a dying templar who may have been the same one who wrote that excerpt in Suledin Keep Documents about questioning his choice of becoming a red templar and wanting Imshael to revert it, no matter the cost. He repeats again that imshael's role in this place was to be a gardener of red lyrium to control the change, not to make it grow too fast nor too slow. He says that Imshael may have been able to remove the red lyrium, but his price was apparently too high for this templar, and his choice was the red.
When we take the keep, we leave a responsible orlesian Baron in charge of the zone as a representative of the Inquisition. A codex of Trading with Kal-Sharok triggers here, bringing us a bit of information of a very, very mysterious thaig again: written by a merchant-scholar in a contemporary time, it makes interesting remarks:
Kal- sharok has been isolated, and remains isolated for a reason different than fear. Still yet, they are very aware of the current state of the world and the surface trade.
They have trade contacts with Orlais and Free Marches, and their wares could be extremely new or relics.
These dwarves remain hooded during the deals.
The presence of these dwarves cause uneasiness, and the narrator suspects it's because these dwarves are blighted. Therefore, it’s highly hinted that Kal-Sharok dwarves are blighted but have developed some resistance that allows them to keep their mind in control.
After cleaning the red lyrium, the Keep changes its decoration to a more Orlesian one: we have the usual orlesian Andraste statue, some decorative clocks held in place by two female figures, and a knelt statue that has been called as the “Guardian of the Path” in the Exalted Plains. The ancient elven owl statues remain.
As it can be seen from height, this keep is massive and very forest-like.
Once the templar operation in the region is finished, we can talk to the major and judge her.
When we return to Emprise Du Lion after doing Varric’s quest, we find Bianca and a tranquil researcher called Felim studying Tevinter artefacts while exchanging some extra information about the gravity of the red Lyrium spread. This post has compiled the information much more easily.
On two tables, they have several Tevinter artefacts that, with the exception of one [the thrummer] we can’t guess their function yet. They are dismantling a thrummer, so we can see its inside which seems to be filled with red lyrium.
From the conversation that Bianca has with this tranquil we can assume or infer some details:
Bianca: If the red lyrium is alive…
Felim: We have no reason to doubt our source.
B: All we have to do is make it not alive.
F: Say “kill it”. It is more precise.
B: Fine. Kill it.
F: That may be impossible.
I think this confirms to me that Bianca is not the one who came up with the concept of red lyrium being normal lyrium but infected with blight. Felim says that the information of lyrium being alive comes from a source that they have no reason to doubt. So who is the original researcher who came up with these hypothesis? The rest of the information in this part is all potential, conditional, and speculation. There is no certainty in what they talk about.
F: I have looked over the reports. The red lyrium veins are well-established. Given the size of the field, We have a 0.0014% chance of eliminating all of it.
B: Even if we dig down?
F: Digging taken into consideration, shards will likely remain.
B: So long as there’s no one for it to infect…
F: There is life in the ground. Molds. Earthworms.
B: The growth will be much slower.
F: But still inevitable.
There is no certainty in this conversation, we can see the dire situation that red lyrium represents.
B: Fire? What if we scorched the earth? Mages maybe?
F: We have not yet fully researched the properties of red lyrium ash. If fire does not render it inert, dispersal by air may have disastrous consequences.
B: I hate you right now.
Again, there is no certainty, but there is a potential risk of spreading red lyrium through ashes if it doesn’t get inert after being burnt.
F: I would suggest shorter shifts for the workers.
B: Why?
F: Reports of strange music have been increasing.
B: Already? Maker.
This is another effect that Varric told us about: the researchers, as they are exposed to the Red Lyrium, became able to hear its song. What it seems here is that this effect is getting stronger, and the study of red lyrium needs less time of exposure than before to be perceived. With this comment, one has the feeling that red lyrium is getting stronger.
You know that barrel room in Suledin Keep in Emprise the Lion where there’s loot up high? Has anyone else had to try to get up there, like, 20 times before succeeding? I imagine it going something like this:
Inquisitor: *tries for the 17th time*
Cassandra: Inquisitor, please, there are more pressing matters, we need to get on
Dorian: Oh, it’s fine, let her be
Inquisitor: *falls off again, goes back to the beginning*
Cassandra: *sigh*
Solas, meanwhile: *casting Barrier over and over to safeguard his girlfriend from getting splinters*
Veowyn didn’t mind the cold, but she wouldn’t say she liked it. However, there was a quiet beauty to the Emprise du Lion, and she couldn’t help but smile as the snow crunched beneath her feet.
~~~~~
I’m really proud of this! I miss crosshatching and need to do it more often.
(Pulled the screenshot from google, linked me back to @lavellanlin so, thanks, I suppose!)
