BioWare finally gave us our first look at Dragon Age 4 during yesterday’s Game Awards and though the new game is still a little ways off and was meant as just a small teaser, fans have already begun digging in to figure out the next premise. We’ve covered some amazing theories so far – including my own about Solas wanting to be corrupted – but another die-hard Dragon Age fan dove deep into the game’s codex to piece together a very intricate outline for what the teaser really meant.
Redditor ‘Nouvlesse’ took to the social media forum site to give a VERY thorough analysis on the teaser and tracked it through Dragon Age lore. I knew it was going to be good when she started out saying, “I don’t want to say that I had an ‘epiphany’ last night, because I’m probably completely wrong, but I found that the murals from the Trespasser DLC have some extraordinary connections to certain codex entries that I never realized had anything in common before.”
Videos by ComicBook.com
Now her theory directly relates to the one I shared with my own thoughts, but she took it to a whole new level. The first part of her analysis dove into the Emerald Waters of the Fade codex, “In elvehn lore, the Fade is said to reside in the sky,” she began. “In fact, Skyhold, theorized to be the location in which Solas created the Veil, is known as Tarasyl’an Te’las in ancient elvish: “the place where the sky is kept” or, more specifically, “the place where the sky was held back.” The dark backdrop with small yellow triangles which appear to represent stars (I will further explore this in Part Two), also appears like the night sky. It’s said that in the raw Fade, a land unclaimed by spirits, it is always night. Something also interesting to note is that Astrariums, devices used to view the stars, were sought out by Andrastian cultists (such as the Order of Fiery Promise) and destroyed during the early Divine Age. They believed the Astrariums ‘held together the Veil’, and that destroying them would “destroy the Veil and thus the world.””
Since the Chantry believes that these “waters” are actually lyrium, the presence of the important materials within Thedsas in both the Fade and the waking world is profound. She added, “In some of Cole’s banter with Solas and Varric, he talks about how once “everything sang the same” and then “the song was sundered” (i.e. split apart). I believe that these two symbols represent how lyrium once ‘sung the same’, but most likely due to the creation of the Veil, or perhaps a different cataclysmic event entirely, the once unified song became discordant and split into two separate entities. In Dragon Age: Awakening, Justice says that lyrium doesn’t sing in the Fade and regrets his inability to bring the music there for the other spirits to hear. Maybe this also has something to do with red lyrium and regular lyrium both singing different songs? Also, if you look closely, the border that surrounds both the golden and blue orb mirrors the border that surrounds what appears to be the Black City in the middle. This may indicate that they are connected or the same, and symbolize a ‘barrier’ of sorts, perhaps separating lyrium from the raw Fade, and separating the Black City inside the Void?”
Basically, Solas’ orb symbolized how lyrium was all the same and now that it’s become corrupted, the “song” is different and causes discord.
She also brought up an amazing point about the prisons of the Old Gods, which are noted by seven gates. These gates can be opened and will lead to the Black City. The effects are as dire as they sound, doing so unleashes a true blight that impacts not only Thedas, but the Fade as well. These gates being the points teased in the trailer have been a big point of conversation in the gaming community, and it seems like the next adventure will be so far beyond what we’ve known in the past. We’ve been the Warden, the Champion, and the Inquisitor – Will we now become a god? Will the fight against Solas become a divine one, or will we see another hero become extraordinary through trials and tribulations?
She talks about the gods, the blight, the lyrium, the mural itself, and how the game’s take on the Chantry has evolved as new lore is uncovered. If you’re a Dragon Age fan like I am, please check out her musings, with more coming later. We only barely scratched the surface of her theories, there is SO much information here. It all pieces together into one very powerful image for what’s to come:
There are so many possibilities here! Let’s hear your thoughts in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy!
