#thedas technology

[wyrdsistersofthedas]

Is the Crossroads essential to eluvian travel? Or could there possibly be a way to 'link' two eluvians to each other and bypass the Crossroads altogether?

Eluvian lore.  I love eluvian lore!  Looking through the instances of eluvian use in the games and in The Masked Empire, I would say yes, it’s totally possible to connect two eluvians without using the Crossroads.  The only things that seem essential to the operation of an eluvian is sufficient knowledge and power to create a path connecting two eluvians.  If the distance being traveled is sufficiently short, neither of these pose much of a problem.  The longer the distance, however, the more difficult it is to gather the power to create the path.

The Path Makers

Once you step through, stay on the path, and you will find your way to the crossroads.  (Imshael, The Masked Empire, p. 258)

One day I hope we get to craft eluvians (or at least have Merrill and Dagna put their respective knowledge together to make us a few) but for right now all we know is that eluvians are linked together with magic that creates paths that are neither the mortal world nor the Fade.  These paths are described in The Masked Empire:

“When her vision cleared, Briala saw that they stood on a path whose stones were carved with the same runes that had adorned the sides of the tunnel last night.  Unlike the tunnel, however, the stones shone with brilliant light.  The light seemed white, but when Briala looked away, it glittered with rainbows at the edge of her vision.  The path stretched off into the distance ahead.  Behind her, it ended at the eluvian, which looked here just as it had back in the burial chamber, only without the elaborate decorations.  

Beyond the path, everything was hard to make out.  The ground looked like grass, but it was grey and dim, despite the light coming from the stones of the path.  Briala thought she could see trees in the distance, but they were merely smudged outlines against the horizon.  

“What is this place?” she asked Felassan, who was rocking back and forth on his heels.  

“You know, da’len, I honestly have no idea.”  He leaned over and poked at the stones.  “It’s not the Fade.  The runes are elven… If I had to guess, I would say our ancestors actually created some sort of a tiny world between the eluvians.

“Can that be done?”

“Apparently.” Felassan stepped off the path and reached down into the grass.

“The demon said not to do that.”

“The demon says a lot of things.”  Felassan focused his gaze, and the gray grass around his hand filled with color, one lone spot of lush green in the strange dime meadow.  “And this little world seems to like us.”

….

“I suspect that this land was made for the elves,” Felassan said as Michel stood up, stiff and awkward, wincing against the light.  “Which they aren’t.” (The Masked Empire, p. 281-282)

So the elves made pockets “little worlds” that connect the eluvians together.  The trails help travelers stay on their designated path.  (You have to wonder what happens if you wander too far off the designated roads.  Bets on if we find out in the next game?)  It’s interesting that the trails in The Masked Empire look like a meadow while in Trespasser we have trails suspended in a void.  Does that mean that the trails in Trespasser were damaged when the Veil was created?  Or does the look of the path reflect the design of its creator?  Not sure, but the the presence of the magic eggs on the Trespasser paths suggest it could be the latter.

Depending on the needs of the travelers, the distance between the eluvians could be very long or almost instantaneous.  We’ve used both kinds in game.

The Shortest Distance

There are many instances of short distance eluvian travel that doesn’t require a visit to the Crossroads to manage.  These could be considered door, escalator, or elevator eluvians.  These types of eluvians can be found in just about all of the ruins in Trespasser and there is evidence that there were others in various Elvhen/Almarri ruins throughout Ferelden.  Some great examples of this can be seen in the Vir Dirthara.  It is likely that the paths would be so short that you would step through one eluvian and out the other without any travel at all.  Straight shot, no crossroads required.

Stranger Trails

“The eluvians are magical mirrors.  You walk into one of them, journey through a kind of in-between place for a bit, and come out the other side several days’ ride elsewhere…. Old elven magic.  Always have to respect old elven magic.” (Imshael, The Masked Empire, p. 227)

Others eluvians we know connect through a crossroads.  These mirrors are meant for long distance travel and  function more like roads than doors.  They are set up like a highway system with lots of intersections, on ramps, and off ramps for the convenience of those traveling them. This is the kind of setup we find in Trespasser.  Lots of trails intersecting so that areas of import can be accessed.  One has to wonder if this section of the Crossroads was meant for and/or created by Solas for his followers.  (An interesting question is whether more than one eluvian can lead to the same important place, like the Vir Dirthara.)  

The Nexus

The Crossroads Morrigan takes the Inquisitor to in Inquisition seems to be set up for another purpose.  It seems to be a portal convergence, a place where all eluvians can be accessed if one has the time and geographical knowledge needed to search through all the eluvians connected to it.  This part of the Crossroads seems more like an airport than a road system, given that it is capable of sending the user to a far greater number of destinations.  On could, in theory, use Morrigan’s eluvian for a quick trip to Kirkwall (if Merrill’s was in working order).  You just need to catch a connecting flight through Morrigan’s Crossroads.

The Paths of Power

So could an eluvian connect two places that are farther apart from one another without using the Crossroads?  Yup, they can.  I would label these the “high speed trains” of eluvian travel.  We have seen just these types of eluvians in at least three instances.  

The final eluvian in the Darvaarad appears to lead directly to the Elven Ruins without a stop over in a Crossroads.  

The eluvian Tamlen and Mahariel found in the Dalish Origin also seems to be a direct path, although it is strange because Tamlen can look through it and see an underground city when it is active.  

None of the other eluvians we have encountered seem to be able to do this.  

And then there is that business with Kieran and Morrigan’s mirror.  He, and it, are the best example of what is possible in eluvian travel with enough power backing you up.

Kieran basically rekeyed Morrigan’s eluvian to lead directly to the Fade, something that was certainly shocking to his mother and all together expected by his grandmother.  (A good question is whether the eluvian in the Fade already existed or if he or Flemythal created it.)  So not only is a direct path between eluvians possible, one can also repurpose them to lead to other destinations.  Useful.  

Stretching the Limits

“[Imshael] pressed his hands together, and coils of read light shone from between his fingers.  When he brought his hands apart, he held a ruby the size of a child’s first.  “The keystone,” he said.  “It will awaken the mirror nearest you.  Once you step through, stay on the path, and you will find your way to the crossroads.  From there, let the keystone guide you.  It will point you towards a chamber where you will find a pedestal that lacks just such a gem.  Place the gem, whisper anything you like, and all the eluvians will awaken, ready to use.”  He smiled.  “But only to those who whisper the same phrase.  Old magic.  Lets honored guards in, keeps tomb robbers out.”  (The Masked Empire, p. 258)

I suspect, however, that there are limits to the direct paths eluvians can take.  All of the eluvians require a power source open them, and one can assume the greater the distance it travels the greater the power the eluvian will need to work.  Sort of like needing more fuel for a long drive.  If you don’t have enough fuel, you are going to run into problems.

“These mirrors have been dormant for centuries.  It would take powerful magic to awaken one.  I might be able to do so, but I’d need the rest of you to carry me for the rest of the day.”  (The Masked Empire, p. 279-280)

Felassan is certainly no slouch when it comes to magic.  He is either being modest or the power demands of opening an eluvian are high enough to be taxing even to an ancient elven mage.  If opening a dormant eluvian is difficult, one can assume that repair one would be more so.  (Props to Merrill!)  Such efforts demand a high price, or so Morrigan says.  

Morrigan’s mirror does the prudent thing and connects to an already existing eluvian nexus.  From there she can take portals to many different places around Thedas and beyond.  

Creating or repurposing an eluvian to lead to only one place would also come with a price, and I suspect that price would become very steep as the distance between them increased.  Can it be done?  Yes.  Can you take a direct eluvian from Skyhold to Minrathous?  Possible, but that is a vast distance.  

If magical engineering is anything like real engineering then there are limits and consequences to making direct gateways.  In addition to the power drain, it is very possible that long distance direct eluvian travel would make the mirror less stable.  And the key for such an eluvian may need a very high power source.  

It is interesting that Morrigan’s Crossroads has so many elven “energy” trees.  I postulated in a different post (and a follow up) that these served as power collections and/or conduits.  The presence of so many in the Crossroads lends support to the notion that they are more than merely decorative.  Perhaps they once channeled energy to the eluvian nexus.  

So, to sum up, you don’t need to use the Crossroads to link two eluvians together.  Two eluvians could be linked to provide a more direct, and private, means of travel.  The lore suggests that one would need to create a new path through the “in between places” or reestablish an old connection.  It wouldn’t be instantaneous travel.  Any traveler using such an eluvian would still need to walk the path to the other.  And it is likely, however, that more power would be needed for such a connection and it is possible that bridging too large a distance could make the connecting eluvians less stable.

-MM

[wyrdsistersofthedas]

Globes and Circles: More from the Brecilian Forest

Thanks for the great ask, Nony!  This was so much fun to investigate!  

Is it any wonder that the Brecilian Forest is one of our favorite areas to theorize about?  So many interesting details to dissect!  Is there something going on with the globe and the circles?  Almost certainly!  Are they related to the Veil artifacts?  Possibly!  And the Forest Ruins are just the beginning.

Let’s get the easy, but important, details out of the way first.  The circles on the floor of the chamber in question are summoning circles used to make it easier for spirits and demons to cross the Veil.  We see a simpler version of them at Soldier’s Peak.  Avernus used them to summon the demons that later possessed Sophia Dryden and sundered the Veil (5:10).  

The presence of the circles in the Brecilian Forest suggests that it too was a site where experiments involving spirits, demons, and the Veil were taking place, but on a larger scale than Avernus’ work.  And that makes it far more likely that globe and the nearby weird ass whirlygig (pictured below) in the Brecilian Forest ruin is also tied to the Veil, and thereby creating a potential connection with the veil artifacts.  

So what is it all about?

There are some curious similarities between Soldier’s Peak and the Brecilian Forest.  Both locations have summoning circles, it is highly likely that both had eluvians, and the Veil was messed up in both places.  Anyone else seeing some parallels?

Now, you might say, “Morta, there’re no globes or weird ass whirligigs at Soldier’s Peak...is there?”  

Behold!!

Avernus (or the Wardens before him) embedded the same type of globes and a whirligig in the damn roof!  There is something going on here...

If these connections are in fact connections, we should find more locations with similar features: summoning circles, globes and whirligigs, eluvians, and Veil weirdness.  And, sure enough, there are.

At Kinloch Hold:  

Globes, both in the tower and the basement.

A whirligig and Veil weirdness in the basement.

And note the eluvians and floor pattern, which is most likely given this is the Harrowing chamber a large scale summoning circle.  

At Vigil’s Keep there are some of the same features:

There is a whirligig in the Vigil’s basement, although I haven’t found a globe, summoning circle, or eluvian.  

There is lots of Veil weirdness, however.  Walking corpses, the wraith in the crypt, and the Dark Theurge being prime examples.

The Architect got in on this shit too.

(What the hell was the Architect trying to do in this chamber?!?  If these whirligigs are really used to mess with the Veil, what was the Architect trying to do to that involved piles of dead people?  Experimenting with sending them through the Veil ala the Anchor??)

But I digress.

It sure looks like these artifacts have connections to places where the Veil has been messed with, and these globes and whirligigs could very well be what allows the Veil to be manipulated.  So is there a connection to Solas’ Veil artifacts?  Very possible.  Especially when you start connecting some dots.  

Now you might be asking, “Well, why do they look so different from the the real Veil artifacts?”  My (Watsonian) guess is that someone was trying to reverse engineer the magical tech in order to create objects that could do the opposite.  These globes are meant to make the Veil vulnerable to thinning or tears.  Next question, who would want to tear the Veil?  

The most obvious answer would be Tevinter given that Corypheus and Magisters Sidereal given what happened with the Black City.  Tevinter certainly had a presence in Ferelden, albeit for a relatively short time, around the time that the Cory and Co. breach originally the Veil.  

But there is another explanation that is interesting to contemplate as well.  Were these magical artifacts created, not by Tevinter, but by the elves and humans (Alamarri/Avvar) living side by side in Ferelden during the thousand years after the creation of the Veil?  Not impossible.  I’ve written other posts about what appear to attempts and collaborations between these two groups to recapture some of Arlathan’s magic. (Links! Wells of Sorrow, In Search of Eluvians, Eluvians in the Temple)  

It looks to me like Tevinter was riding on the coattails of earlier efforts to undo the Veil.  I don’t believe all of these artifacts being found in Brecilian Forest ruins is a coincidence.  The ancient elves, and the humans who appear to have been their allies to some degree, had every reason to want to undo the magic that created the Veil.  They could free the elven gods and regain the magic and immortality that the elves lost to the Veil.  They had a thousand plus years in Ferelden to figure out how to do it, and it is very likely that the artifacts found in the Brecilian Forest are the result of their efforts.  

Why weren’t they successful?  Lots of reasons.  1) shortened lifespans 2) magic limited by the Veil 3) Fen’Harel’s people, or other elven groups, making war on them and/or 4) something targeted the Brecilian Forest ruins for destruction (see the video at 2 minutes).  Bonus) Pressure from the growing Tevinter Imperium probably didn’t help.

So...yeah!  I think the globe thingy is totally related to the Solas’ Veil artifacts, but they do the opposite.  

Thanks so much for the ask!

- Morta Mahariel

PS - If the globe is Solas’ orb reverse engineered to weaken the Veil, I’m thinking the weird ass whirligigs are possibly an attempt to recreate these thingies from the glory days of the Elvhen Empire, which are typically found in places where the Fade once touched the mortal world. (Where is the rest of the Dead Hand in the Exalted Plains?  In the Fade, of course!)

PPS - One last weird idea that is somewhat related to this post and has been bouncing around in my head for a while...  If Fade magic and Titan anti-magic is basically competing music, and the Veil is sound waves; are Solas’ artifacts basically mini speaker playing a Titan song that basically says:

Fade, Fade, go away Come again some other day

???

[wyrdsistersofthedas]

Stars and Guarders: Random Thought Blog #6

One of our recent posts had an interesting response from @thereallonelyagain​ .  I was thinking quite a bit about it this week and, naturally, I had to share the results of that thinking.  

I read quite a bit about navigation and astronomy instruments, including astrolabes, while I was in high school and in my early college years.  I was writing fanfiction for a very different fandom at that time that I felt required knowledge of 16th century sailing.  I did notice that the globes in the Brecilian ruins resembled an orrery under glass and the orbs I jokingly called “weird ass whirligigs” do bear a resemblance to a dioptra or an armillary sphere.  So could they be used for astronomy?  

In order to prove a connection to Thedosian astronomy, we should expect to find similar traits to an observatory in our world.  We should find star charts and writings that describe the heavens and the movement of celestial bodies around Thedas (murals, paintings, or starry images would be a start), multiple instruments that can be used to make observations of such things, and an unobstructed view of the sky.  I can’t definitely find any of these things in the Brecilian Forest ruins, but there is a case to be made for all of them being present in the Western Approach, specifically at Coracavus and the Still Ruins.  Items and evidence found there suggests there could also be a connection between the Fade, Time Magic, and Thedas astronomy...maybe.

Here is what I’ve got:

This object looks a lot like an orrery, perhaps showing Thedas and its two moons.  

At least one of these scrolls seems to show a star chart or a map of constellations around Thedas.

Here’s a close up of the chart.  It looks a lot like constellations,especially when you compare it with other Thedosian star charts.  (I haven’t been able to make a match between these and the constellations marked by the astrariums and in World of Thedas, but I’ll keep at it.)

You know...come to think of it, Coracavus and the Still Ruins are hosting some shady shit!  “Prison” my ass!  No “prison” has green marble walls, richly decorated rooms, and a teeny tiny cells for a dozen-ish people at most.  All the evidence points to Coracavus being a well appointed research facility, whose occupants conducted some nasty experiments, fueled by lyrium and their prisoners’ blood, all of which resulted in a Veil breach that required time magic to contain ages before “the Breach” we deal with in Inquisition.  Could astronomy be part of the magic that alters time?  No clue, but it would be interesting to be able to talk with Dorian about his work with Alexius more.

The clearest connection between magic and astronomy is seen in the astrariums scattered across Southern Thedas and the codex entries associated with them.  

It’s pretty clear that armillary spheres inspired the design of the astrariums and suggested their purpose, i.e. mapping the locations of various star clusters. Thedas has the added twist of them being used to magically seal away treasures from an ancient Tevinter cult that seemed a bit obsessed with constellations.

Could these be related to the globes in the Brecilian Forest?  Maybe.  

As you can see in this picture from the basement in Kinloch Hold, there are spheres and planes that resemble the parts of a dioptra and look a lot like a medieval armillary sphere.  Since we have never seen these objects used, however, all we can do is speculate about their purpose.  They do bear a resemblance to an astrarium, but I can’t say for certain that they are related or not.

It is worth noting that the Western Approach does have something in common with the Brecilian Forest; the Veil is very thin in both places.  The book Asunder talks about how thin the Veil is near Adamant as does this codex found at the Ritual Tower where the Inquisitor first confront Erimond.

“Many Tevinter structures litter the wastelands of southwestern Orlais. In the age before the First Blight, the Imperium expanded through the South at an incredible rate, and the lands farthest from Minrathous became home to a great many sites dedicated to magical experimentation, taking advantage of natural weaknesses in the Veil as well as the distance from the Archon's oversight to try ever more dangerous fields of study. As with Aeonar in Ferelden, the laboratories of Orlais were set upon by the followers of Andraste during the uprising, and little remains of them now save crumbled stone.”

-An excerpt from Empire and Imperium by Sister Petrine, Chantry scholar

There are also aspects about the Western Approach, the Brecilian Forest Ruins, and the Old Temple in the Frostback Basin that are similar.  Tevinter may have conducted magical experiments in all three places, two of which definitely went very wrong.

So let’s get back to the original point: Could the weird ass whirligigs and the ancient elven tree ornaments be astronomy instruments like an astrolabe, orrery, or armillary sphere?  Well, we have seen the Brecilian Forest whirligigs in use in Awakening.  Twice.  Once in a modern context, the other in an ancient one.  

Here’s the modern use.  The Architect was using four whirligigs in his experiments in the Silverite Mine.

They are definitely magical tools of some sort, perhaps serving as conduits and/or collectors of energy.  Turning the apparatus off also releases the magical door lock the Architect put in place to keep the unwanted out (and the wanted in?).  I assumed up to this point that the Architect’s experiments focused on the Blight and individuals who are naturally resistant to it, but this particular experiment doesn’t seem to have much to do with the Blight.  Perhaps the whirligigs themselves may have been the experiment, the unlocking effect merely a side effect of the apparatus being turned off once the room safe to enter.  (A good question to ponder is if the Architect brought the orbs to the room or if they were part of the original construction of the Silverite Mines.)

The other time we see a whirligig used in during the battle with the Dark Theurge.

In this case, even more than with the Architect, we are probably seeing the original purpose for the whirligigs, which I guess we could now call the “Strange Apparatus”.  The Strange Apparatus activates when the Dark Theurge is about to be defeated.  Why is a whole other matter.  It is likely that the whirligig’s strange apparatus’ energy is part of what kept the Dark Theurge from escaping his Deep Roads prison.  By turning it off, we seem to have unleashed it. Hopefully its sorry ass was sent back to the Fade after the Warden-Commander defeated the Avvar lord corpses it raised.  My Warden-Commander doesn’t love the idea of having to deal with that nasty bastard every time the wardens need a turnip from the root cellar.

The elvhen orbs seem to serve a similar purpose.  They also seem to channel energy, such as we can see in the elvhen shrine under the Dead Hand and with the energy “trees” in the Vir Dirthara.

Given the energy associated with all of these artifacts, I still suggest the “strange apparatus” whirligigs have more to do with directing power than they do with astronomy. 

Make of all of this what you will.  :)

-MM 

PS - We actually have seen astrolabes in Dragon Age before or rather, their navigational cousin, the sextant.  In our post about non-magical technology in Thedas, we pointed out that the Warden-Commander can give one to Nathaniel Howe in Awakening.

[wyrdsistersofthedas]

Well Shit: Origins of the Vir'abelasan (Part 2 of 4)

As we noted in yesterday’s post, Mythal’s temple existed for ages before the creation of the Veil and the loss of elvhen immortality.  We have every reason to believe that the Well of Sorrows existed in those ages when the Evanuris waged war against the Titans, ‘tamed’ the land, exiled the Forbidden Ones, and reached the pinnacle of their powers.  What would the Well have been used for during the glory days of Arlathan?

Origins of the Vir'abelasan

Certainly it was important to preserve the knowledge of the elder elves, but there may have been another purpose for those entering uthenera to leave their memories and will in the Well.  In recent post, we examined why spirits like Cole, Justice, and Command can become trapped in the waking world.  Memories and painful experiences act like an anchor, preventing spirits from being able return to the Fade.  An interesting question is whether this would also be true for elves who entered uthenera in ancient days before the Veil.  

According to the elves who lived in the Dales, the ancient elves: 

“were not immortal, but they did not suffer from deterioration of mind or body. They suffered only from a deterioration of the spirit. It did not happen often, but the oldest of the elves were said to reach a point where they became weary of life. Memories became too much to bear, and rather than fade into complacency, they voluntarily stood aside to let newer generations guide their people.”

In essence, these ancient elves wanted to the do the reverse of Cole becoming more human in Inquisition.  Elves entering uthenera were casting off the pain and memories in order to become like spirits.    Without their memories and identity weighing them down, they would be able to search the depths of the Fade like spirits, perhaps even answering the prayers of their descendants with wisdom from the Beyond.  Properly trained and prepared elves could also reach parts of the Fade where even spirits were unlikely to go:

“The pages of this book—memory?—are instructions on how to reach the deepest parts of the Fade, realms so far removed they're unmarked by Dreamers:

"Epiphany requires a mind smooth as mirror glass, still as stone. Put aside ten years for practice, and the next hundred for searching. What others have learned will ease your journey. Those who never manifested outside the Fade will find it easier to find its stillest roots, but it is rare the compulsion overtakes our brethren of the air." (-Codex)

Even the name of the Well makes sense in this context.  The Well was a repository for all the pains and sorrows of an elf who was tired of all they experienced in the mortal world.

 If our theory about elves being descended from spirits who became corporeal Thedas dwelling beings, then leaving part of their essence in the Vir’Abelasan before entering Uthenera might have been an essential step to ensure that the elf reconnected with their spirit-ual roots.  It would likely make it easier for them to obtain the ultimate connection to the Fade, which would allow them to be fed by the Fade itself.  In The Masked Empire, Felessan said that:

“Most of those who entered uthenera could survive on a simple potion.  Water, with honey and herbs added to keep the body alive.  Servants would brush it across the lips of the dreamer at the full moon, and then smell the naked wrist of the dreamer at the new moon.  If they smelled the perfumed scent of the herbs, it meant that the concoction had been drawn into the body, and they would keep feeding the dreamer.  If the wrist was bare of scent, then it meant that the dreamer had learned to draw sustenance from the Fade itself, and would never need to be fed again.  Those true dreamers were placed in beds of purest white, signifying the dreamer’s achievement of perfection.” (The Masked Empire, pg. 317)

The Fade fed these dreamers like it feeds Cole when he has a corporeal body.  It is only when his connection to the Fade weakens that he starts to need food.  The reverse process happened with elves who achieved a spirit-like connection to the Fade.

But uthenera did not have to last forever for the ancient elves.  Dreamers could return after wandering the Fade after a short time or many ages (ie Solas).  They might even have been able to wander the deepest parts of the Fade and still be “themselves” if/when they returned from the Beyond.  In order to truly travel through the Fade like spirits do, ancient elves likely needed to be more spirit-like themselves.  The Well would have provided an easy way to recover a sense of self, and will, for an elf returning from uthenera who had become so spirit-like that they have been cleansed of their identity and forgotten much of who they were (and whom they served).  The Well would have provided a simple way to download and upload knowledge and personalities.

The reverse also seems to be a possibility.  Spirits who spend a large amount of time in the physical world seem to develop stronger wills and a greater sense of self, which can also lead to a “corruption” of the spirit.  This appears to be exactly what happened in The Jaws of Hakkon.  Hakkon was summoned and bound in the corporeal body of a dragon and was no longer able to speak to the Avvar augurs in the Fade.  Hakkon became so corrupted that he could only kill and could no longer provide wisdom to the augurs.  

The Avvar in Stone-Bear Hold advocate for Hakkon to be killed so he can be reborn and purified.  There is a cost for this level of purification.   Death seems to be a total reboot for a spirits as they loses what memories, identity, and will they have managed to accumulate.  Such was the case with Solas’ spirit in the All New, Faded for Her quest.

The Wells could have provided a way for spirits to cleanse themselves of negative emotions, as well as allowing elves to be cleansed of their pain and experiences before entering the Fade.  And let’s face it, the priests of the Evanuris probably know a lot of shit that could be very damaging to the elven gods if it fell into the wrong hands.  Plus they probably know some of the dirty ass secrets that the Evanuris did to maintain their power and that knowledge would likely fuck with the priests’ heads.  In other words, they had extra incentives to give up their memories and take a long walk in the Fade.

So the Wells probably once served as a way for the servants of the various elven gods to pass on their knowledge, but also to imprint a geas to keep them loyal.  It could also cleanse spirits of grounding emotions and influence so they could return to the Fade with less difficulty.  So why wouldn’t the other Evanuris have had a Well of Sorrows of their own since they had so many obvious benefits?  Answer: They did!  We just have to locate them...and we are pretty sure we have at least two other examples of Wells of Sorrows.

-MM

PS - We are trying not to overwhelm people with too much info in one post, so this is part two of four.  The rest will posted around this time over the rest of this week.  You can also find search for posts by topic on our Navigation page.

Other posts in the “Well Shit” series:

Part 1: Searching for the Secrets of the Elvhen Gods

Part 2: Origins of the Vir’abelasan

Part 3: Dirth of Knowledge

Part 4: The Elvhen Ritual

[wyrdsistersofthedas]

Well Shit: Dirth of Knowledge (Part 3 of 4)

Previously on “Well Shit”, we deduced that Mythal’s Well was used to keep sensitive information in the hands of loyal (*cough* geas: ie magical binding for instant loyalty and controlability) followers, and that it may have originally been used to help elves and spirits manage emotions and personality which would make it more difficult for them to live in the Fade.  

The Well appears to have been essential to the Sentinels’ ability to preserve Mythal’s wisdom.  So why wasn’t the Well despoiled along with the rest of her temple?  Did the Well only contain the knowledge of the priests who survived the attack on Mythal’s temple?  Or was the destruction of her temple merely meant to break her worshipers’ will?  Could the geas binding the will of the Well’s recipient been enough to keep her rivals at bay?  Or did they already have all the knowledge they could have gained from Mythal’s Well from another source?  There was, after all, an elven god devoted to knowledge and secrets...

It would stand to reason that Mythal wouldn’t be the only Evanuris to have an ultra secure pool of knowledge just for the most faithful of followers.  Of all of the elven gods, Dirthamen seems even more likely than Mythal to keep a repository of hidden knowledge.  Does Dirthamen have a Well of Sorrows?  There is a pool of water in the inner sanctum of Dirthamen’s Temple.  Could this be the remnants of Dirthamen’s Well of Sorrows?  Or could his Well have been secreted somewhere else?  There are some interesting hints in the Lost Temple of Dirthamen that may indicate what happened to the knowledge collected from ages of priests who served The God of Secrets.  And it seems to be more of a horror story than a sad tale.

In visiting Mythal’s temple, we gained insights into how the ancient elven religion functioned.  Supplicants seeking her aid, judgement, or merely worshipping their goddess would complete rituals to show their devotion and worthiness to receive Mythal’s mercy.  Dirthamen’s temple seemed to have worked in a similar fashion, although supplicants had to demonstrate their worth before they ever reached the temple.  Elves seeking Dirthamen had to find his temple first!   Cue the quest for veilfire runes in the Exalted Plains:

“The elven glyphs discovered in the Dales might prove valuable. Cursory inspection suggests they predate the ruins in which they were found──possibly transferred onto the stone from a much older edifice that dates back to the original elven nation or even earlier.”

Although the runes were moved when the elves reclaimed the Dales, their purpose remains the same.  Those who sought knowledge or aid from Dirthamen first had to prove their intellectual merit.  

Once the seeker found the temple, what would they have found?  Most of Dirthamen’s Temple look like catacombs a nightmare might question hanging out in.  Was it always like that?  And were Dirthamen’s followers always so...messed up?  

I see couple of possibilities: 1) The outer areas of the temple could have been another trial for supplicants, testing their mental toughness.  2) The temple was retrofitted to become a burial place after Dirthamen’s priests became so paranoid that they locked themselves in the temple and took their secrets to their graves (in the truest sense of the phrase).  3) It is also possible that Dirthamen’s priests once worked in tandem with servants of Falon’din to teach elves entering uthenera how to let go of their mortal forms to reach deeper levels of the Fade and find the knowledge they desired.  If elves entered uthenera in Dirthamen’s Temple, then the bodies might have been those trapped there when the Veil was created or they were deliberately killed in the war that came after, as Briala, Felassan, and their companions found in The Masked Empire:

[Briala, Felassan, and their companions] passed through chambers filled with the urns and sarcophagi, and even great bedchambers where the elves who had not died but instead gone to the eternal sleep of uthernara had lain for their long rest.

When they came to the first of these rooms, Felassan stopped and looked at the ancient corpse half-laying under the satin sheets....[his] face was twisted with grief.

“Unnecessaary,” he said quietly, and Briala, curious, came out of her reverie and looked.

The body lay in a resting position, with clean white bedding pulled up carefully over the chest, leaving only the head and shoulders exposed.  It had not awakened to die, nor struggled....But there, at the throat, Briala saw a single thin cut, along with the tiniest trace of old bloodstains on the pillow.

....Briala looked at the white satin sheets.  “Revenge, then.”

“Such a waste.” Felassan shook his head.  “This one could have helped.” (pgs. 316-317)

4) Or the Dalish did it.  (More on this possibility later.)

But I digress.  What about the possibility of Dirthamen having a Well?  He’s the god of knowledge, for Void’s sake, so he must have had repositories of knowledge.  That was his whole ‘divine’ purpose.  So where are all the secrets?  Again, there are a couple of possibilities:

As alluded to in the analysis of “The Lost Temple of Dirthamen” codex above, Dirthamen gave his priests secrets to ‘hold’ for him until he took them back.  Could those secrets have been from his Well of Sorrows?  Did these secrets die with them?  Were they supposed to die with them?  Given that Mythal’s Well puts a geas on whoever partakes of the well, perhaps Dirth did the same.  Were the priests actually murderously paranoid or did their geas force them to bind that knowledge at the cost of their lives.  A final failsafe.  Perhaps the blood magic ritual the priests feared from the High Priest was actually an attempt to break the geas so that the knowledge of the temple would not be lost.  

Another possibility is that Dirthamen’s Well could not be stolen from his temple...because it wasn’t in his temple.  One thing that is very interesting about that ruin is that there are no effigies to Dirthamen (unless those death’s head statues are supposed to be him).  There are halla statues (Ghilan’nain), Mythal in her dragon lady form, and even statues of Fen’Harel near the entrance of the temple and in the innermost sanctum.  But there are more images of one particular elven god than any others: Falon’Din.  He is everywhere.  This leads to an interesting possibility.  In the oldest elven records, Dirthamen and Falon’Din are never directly named.  

Or it the “lost” temple really wasn’t lost.  Not only did treasure hunters find the temple, but they were well into the process of reassembling the High Priest.  If they could do it, so could many others.  In fact, we know that the Dalish discovered and moved all of the runes necessary to locate the temple when they settled in the Dales.  Dalish relics, like inuksuit and inunnguaq stone markers, are scattered throughout the ruin, and perhaps they were the one who buried so many bodies in the ruins.  In the almost 300 years that the elves ruled the region, it stands to reason that they sought out and recovered every piece of their heritage that they could put their hands on.  (The Dalish are, perhaps, following centuries of tradition from the Dales.)  I cannot help but think that Dirthamen’s temple would have been pretty high on their priority list and, while we players often think that our characters are the only ones badass enough to brave all these dangerous ruins, it is pretty clear others made it to this temple first.  While I doubt they were able to recover all of God of Secrets knowledge, I really hope they found some of it.   

[I wonder if the shield, Dirthamen’s Wisdom, was returned by Dalish worshippers after the fall of the Dales while they were interring a deceased loved one (a Keeper, perhaps) in the Temple.  There are tons of Dalish relics in the Inner Sanctum so they seem to have made it in there as well.]

I wonder if Dirthamen would only use one means of protecting his secrets.  A god of wisdom wouldn’t put all of his eggs in one basket, would he?  So perhaps he had several “Wells of Knowledge” hidden in different ways to prevent any one person or groups with ill intent from obtaining his wisdom.  Whether any of these measures were enough (or even existed) remains to be seen.  

The final possibility is the one alluded to in this post’s introduction: Could the elves who destroyed Mythal’s Temple left her Well of Sorrows intact, not only to avoid the geas, but because they already had all the knowledge they needed?  Solas tells us that the Evunaris were generals before they were gods.  Was Dirthamen to the Evunaris as Leliana is to the Inquisition?  Their spymaster?  If that were the case, his temple would have been the first stop for anyone seeking the knowledge to overthrow the Evanuris.  The priests of Dirthamen seemed certain that someone was coming for their knowledge.  Could it have been Solas’ rebels?  Some other faction, perhaps based out of Arlathan itself?  Something in the Fade sure seems to believe that Dirthamen was betrayed, and what greater betrayal could there be than for someone to steal your life’s work.  

The sword in the back could even indicate it could have been someone close to him?  Falon’Din, or perhaps Ghilan’nain, might fit the bill.

It is even possible that part or all of Dirthamen’s secrets were stolen before the Fall of the Elvhen Empire.  The “Sinner” gained the ability to transform into a dragon at Ghilan’nain urging.  Morrigan gains the exact same ability if she is allowed to drink from the Well of Sorrows.  Did the Sinner drink from Dirthamen’s Well?  If Dirthamen had been robbed once, he might have gone to extreme measures to protect his remaining secrets, including giving that knowledge to his most loyal priests with a geas to take his secrets to their graves.  

So what does this add up to?  A whole lot of maybes...but pretty interesting maybes.  The most likely end for Dirthamen’s Well of knowledge is that it died with his priests’ madness.  I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that one of the less likely, but more dramatic, scenarios turns out to be the truth.

So far we have only visited two of the Evanuris’ temples in game: Mythal’s and Dirthamen’s.  At least, as far as we know.  There is, however, a very interesting ruin with human and elven ties that sure seems to have Well of Sorrows.  The problem is, it’s hard to say whether it is an original, a remnant, or an attempt at a recreation.  The Brecilian Forest is our next stop.

-MM

Think you missed part of the “Well Shit” series?  Here are our previous posts:

Part 1: Searching for the Secrets of the Elvhen Gods

Part 2: Origins of the Vir'abelasan

Part 3: Dirth of Knowledge

Part 4: The Elvhen Ritual

[wyrdsistersofthedas]

Well Shit: Searching for the Secrets of the Elvhen Gods (Part 1 of 4)

So anyone else think that there are more “Well of Sorrows” in the series than just Mythal’s?  It’s clear that groundwork was laid for shit to go down with the elven gods, their eluvians, the titans, and much more since the beginning of the series.  It stands to reason that there may well have been other Wells shown earlier in the series...so let the speculations commence!

The Well of Sorrows

Mythal’s Well is in an interesting place in her temple.  The innermost sanctum.  A sacrosanct place meant only for her most trusted servants, not everyday worshipers or those seeking her judgement.  According to Abelas, Mythal’s servants deposited their knowledge in the well so it wouldn’t be lost when they entered Uthenera.  

Now I don’t know about you folks, but that seems like a very inefficient way to collect information you may need again some day.  The Vir Dirthara, on the other hand, seems to be completely composed of memories that the archivist spirit, Ghil-Dirthalen, tended so that they would be easily accessible to knowledge seekers from all parts of the elven empire.  The Shattered Library was used for recording memories for those entering Uthenera as well regular and irregular record keeping, such as elves trapped there when the Veil went up.

The fact that memories could have been recorded in a more organized fashion, but were instead dumped into the Vir’Abelasan suggests that this knowledge was not meant for general consumption and was not meant to be viewed repeatedly.  It was collection for a chosen recipient, someone worthy of and talented enough to hold the collected ages of wisdom that was gathered from the temple guardians.  A “chosen one”, in other words.  Someone prepared and willing to take all of the information that the Well contained, an idea that is eerily similar to Corypheus’ plans for Calpurnia/Samson.  A vessel for the knowledge in the Well.  A living archive who would be able to access relevant information in the blink of an eye or the whisper of a thought.

This implies that Mythal’s priests know shit that one would not want circulated among the general public.  Add a geas to keep the recipient loyal, even if they happened to not be one of your followers, and you have a system that could pass on sensitive information with a reasonable surety that it would remain in the family.  Only later did it become a repository for everything that the guardians of her temple knew so it would not be lost as their immortality faded.

-MM  

 PS - We are trying not to overwhelm people with too much info in one post, so this is part one of four.  The rest will posted around this time over the rest of this week.  You can also find search for posts by topic on our Navigation page.

Part 1: Searching for the Secrets of the Elvhen Gods

Part 2: Origins of the Vir’abelasan

Part 3: Dirth of Knowledge

Part 4: The Elvhen Ritual