To no one’s surprise it was a Solavellan post. Which statistically, are not great, and my opinion clearly differs to that of much of the fandom but even so… this one truly took the frilly cake.
Something just occurred to me, and I haven’t seen anyone else talk about this. @ageofdragon I’m looking at you because no one does better meta. (Correct me if I’m missing something that’s touched on in WoT or something.)
The Golden City, Seat of the Maker, is supposedly visible when you’re within the Fade. They talk about it being blackened when the magisters set foot within and corrupted it, which led to the Darkspawn. We know this is essentially true, thanks to Corypheus. And somewhere it was said, in a Codex maybe, I can’t remember exactly, that the blackened city dominates your vision no matter where you are in the Fade. Corypheus also said something about how the city was already corrupted before they got there.
We now know, thanks to the Trespasser DLC, that Solas, Fen’Harel, actually created the Veil and presumably trapped everything that now resides there within it. This would also mean, then, that the Golden City was one of the things he trapped within.
Does this mean that the Golden City was actually something elvhen and not of the Maker? Is the Maker actually another elven “deity”? Is that the real reason the Maker “turned his gaze from the world”, because he was actually one of the evanuris, cast out and locked away by Solas? Is that why it was ‘corrupted’ before the magisters got there? Solas claimed he locked them away because they were corrupt. I know I’ve seen parallels discussed before between Mythal/Flemeth and Andraste.
And on that same note, if that’s the case, is Bioware also going to lay the blame of the Darkspawn and the Blights at the feet of the elves too?
There a lot of speculation that the black city is actually Arlathan. Or at least parts of it (the corrupted parts maybe). I just recently got through the fade again and Solas talks about it almost wistfully.
Also there’s a lot of interesting thoughts that Andruil actually brought the blight/corruption to the world after attempting to hunt the forgotten Ones in the Void. But even though it’s talked about quite a bit we actually know pretty much nothing about the Void, all we really know is that the longer she was there the more mad she became. (sorry I don’t have sources I cant find them right now)
Also even though a few people do try and connect Flemeth with Andraste the truth of the matter is that Flemeth was born a good 470 years after Andraste died. I’m pretty sure Flemeth/Mythal is an entirely separate entity.
I’ve seen a few people speculate about the city actually being Arlathan. I’m all messed up on the actual timeline for much of the history (I really need to sit down and actually read the WoT books) so I wasn’t clear on when the fall of Arlathan happened and how that tied in with humanity’s arrival + when the Veil supposedly came to be and when the “Creators” were locked away.
I have been curious about the Void, given that it’s used as a sort of “hell” analogy and some of the characters use it as a curse. “Void take you!” There isn’t much talk about an afterlife that I recall. I know the Chantry folk talk about going to the Maker’s side but I don’t recall any of the other religions talking about an afterlife or what happens to the so-called unfaithful in the Chantry’s mind. Are they supposedly cast into the Void?
And if it’s a physical place akin to the Fade and the limbo between places like the place the eluvians take you, where and what is it? If Andruil went there, maybe it’s the place the Forgotten Ones ended up locked in and how come we haven’t been able to find it? Although I suppose that’s not so odd, given that there are plenty of places actually in the physical world that no one found like the Temple of Mythal with its trove of ancient elves still living and breathing, or where the other ancient elves might be sleeping as Solas had been. The world seems heavily populated in the game’s terms but I imagine there are probably a lot of unexplored wilderness areas and maybe no one has real time to look for these things when they’re struggling so hard just to survive.
Alright, going to do my best to add to this. First, yeah. I also believe that Arlathan may be the Black/Golden city and thus an elvhen thing.
Here’s the thing with the Dragon Age Timeline (and why it is unreliable in this), it is the Chantry Timeline. The timeline is actually used in Thedas, by the humans and depicts what they believe happen (i.e. Tevinter caused the elves mortality and fall). However, Arlathan did exist during Elvhenan, Solas is able to describe it in detail and so he knows of it. Not to mention, Solas’ description sounds similar (though admittedly not exact) to the Golden City’s description.
Arlathan
“A place of magic and beauty, lost to time…imagine instead spires of crystals twining through the branches, palaces floating among the clouds…”
The Golden/Black City
“…called forth a city with towers of gold, streets with music for cobblestones, and banners which flew without wind.” (Chant of Light) “…The spirits, glorious beings that populated the many spires of the Golden City…”(Codex: Maker’s First Children)
It is also said by the elves that the evanuris were locked away in the Eternal City (Black City), by Fen’Harel (WoT Vol. 1). Meaning it is definitely an elven place, even if it is not Arlathan.
What more, Solas is actually the Maker in some cases of the Chant. For instance, in the Chant it claims the Maker created the Veil, the spirits, and the Fade itself. When we now know, the Maker did none of it and it was simply an evanuris trying to free his people who caused all that to happen. Elves are already being attributed to current day Thedas is every way and showing that even the Maker and Andrastian is really just the elves. Whether this trend of elves disproving every human religion and taking blame for Thedas’ problems continues, I don’t know but it unfortunately seems likely.
Now for the Void? The Void is interesting. According the Chant of Light, the Void exists within the Fade itself, a pool of nothingness. The Void is considered the equivalent of Hell in Andrastian (”to the Void” is basically “go to hell”).
For elves, the Void is the lair of the Forgotten Ones. Andruil wished to hunt the Forgotten Ones and went into the Void, a place dangerous for all but the Forgotten Ones. Andruil suffered madness and plague for her Void walks, forgetting her “true form” and wearing armor of Void.(Codex: Elven God Andruil) Which sounds a lot like the Blight and Ancient Magisters, as Andruil kept her sentience despite the illness.
So yeah, it seems a lot of the Fade and Andrastian is built around the Elves. Though the link between the Forgotten Ones and the Creators and the link between Elves and the Old Gods are still uncertain and unsure.
At this point I’m almost certain the Black City is Arlathan, and I agree more or less with what is above. Going to throw in a few more interesting points about how the Old Gods/Forgotten Ones might be tied to this.
Of the few times Solas gets legitimately upset in Inquisition, the Grey Warden’s plan to kill the remaining Archdemons is one of them. In the conversation afterward, he says that had they succeeded they ‘would have doomed us all’. Which coming from Solas, is pretty ominous. We also know from both the Dalish and the Chantry that someone locked up the Old Gods / Forgotten Ones, which in likelihood was Solas. Couple this with the Chant of Light mentions the Black City having seven gates, which must be unlocked (not unlike the seven seals in Revelations), there’s the heavy suggestion that releasing the seven Old Gods from their fleshy prisons is tied to this. Doing this before Solas decided he was ‘ready’ to do so might well release the evanuris, and undoubtedly spell doom for pretty much everyone.
While we’re also talking about Old Gods / The Forgotten Ones having their fingers in all the pies, I will also point out that Andraste’s visions / dreams started after the suspicious death of her half sister, an event that is linked to the Old Gods by Andraste herself. (Wot2) Her immediate response was then to oppose the Old God’s teachings and wreak vengeance upon their followers. As an agenda it’s all very fishy.
Also, we can actually pinpoint the exact year Arlathan fell thanks to the WoT2, which was six years after Tevinter lay seige to it in -981 Ancient. Arlathan fell then in -975 Ancient, 445 years after the Imperium was founded (and possible theorised time the Veil was created), and 355 years before the first Blight. Make of that what you will.
(Aaaaaand the link between Andraste and Flemeth could actually be Mythal trying to follow the female line of Tyrrda Bright-axe to ensure Morrighan’nan was born, but that’s conjecture and not entirely relevant to the Black City side of things.)
I’d say at the very least it’s probably an assholeish thing to do? By all means think it, say it elsewhere on your blog but the artist likely sees those tags. I’d leave it at ‘nice art’ personally, it’d annoy me if someone did it to me.
Yeah, the more I think about it - the more I’m realizing “nah, that’s an asshole thing - don’t say that.”
I do think it’s a different thing to say ‘do I ship this now? I think I do’ or ‘ok now this i can get behind’ or ‘i really like what you’ve done with x’ or something to that effect. That’d be pretty cool, and would make the artist fell pretty chuffed I’d say, since there are many different interpretations of a ship and some are better than others. Most people in fandom are aware of this I think.
However tags like ‘pretty art… but i hate this ship its so toxic’ (which I have seen people tag art before) is just… Why would someone do that? Their followers probably know/infer that if they don’t reblog the ship much. Take a chill pill and either don’t reblog the art or bite your tongue, peeps.
