So, how does this relate to my wafflings about Arlathan? The Ancient Elven empire was basically all there was. When the fade and physical world were not separate, Arlathan would have been a very important cultural icon and landmark in the minds of everyone. It's possible it coexisted in the fade and physical parts of the world (the fade was still a 'thing' before the veil, it just wasn't hard separated).
It's worth mentioning Yavana: Yavana is a character in the Dragon Age comics. She is Flemeth's daughter, Morrigan's sister. She is known as the Witch of the Antivan Wilds. She has some very interesting things to say in the comics:
- "The blood of dragons is the blood of the world."
- "A fool with power desires only more power."
- (to Alistair) Your heart beats with the old blood, as well. Where do you think it comes from? It sings of a time when dragons ruled the skies. A time before the Veil, before the mysteries were forgotten. Can you hear it?"
Surely, 'when dragons ruled the skies' is meant to mean when the Evanuris ruled the Elven empire. 'Your heart beats with the old blood' is a reference to him being a Grey Warden, having darkspawn blood in him, but then what does that mean?
OK, IN THE COURSE OF WRITING THIS I HAVE REDEVELOPED MY THEORIES.
You'll have to work hard to keep up with my thoughts, since I haven't even fully explained my previous theories. But I was labouring under the impression the Black City was already Black when Cory et al went there. That Andruil brought the taint up from the void with her (it says as much in one of her mosaics in Mythal's temple), it helped fuel their wars, which in turn spurred Fen'harel on to stop them by any means necessary. Sundering the physical world and the fade also sundered Arlathan, but by this point Arlathan was mostly tainted, and it was locked in the fade all but a tiny part of it, which remained (for the Tevinters to sack many years later as they stole all of Elven culture and history). Because everyone expected to see a Golden City, because there had always been the golden city of Arlathan in the fade, that's what they continued to see, because no one knew it was now black, because it turned black around the time Solas locked it away in the Fade, or just before. Over the eras, the stories as to what this Golden City was changed as ideologies and religions and narratives and politics changed, but just because that was what people had always expected to see, they continued to see it as Golden. No one could walk physically in the Fade, so no one knew it was in fact Black. When Cory went there, he saw it was in fact Black, and from that point onwards, thanks to the Chantry as well, people saw it as Black, and attributed that to their various religions. That's also how Cory was tainted - he caught it from the already tainted Arlathan.
BUT
What if the Golden City WAS still Golden when they got there? Taking into consideration what Yavana says, and if the old god dragons
are the dragon aspects of the Evanuris, sundered from them, two halves of the same beings separated (on purpose, because Solas separated out the tainted bit and the non-tainted bit while he thought about a way to more thoroughly fix the problem) into the two realms, what if Cory breaching the fade and walking there physically - a thing that was never meant to happen - created a link between them again, and somehow passed the taint to the Fade? And so when Cory went there, it
did turn the Golden City black? And that, in turn, passed the taint onto him and his mates, who then brought it back down to the physical world. They become drawn to the Old Gods, who want freeing from their prisons, and the process create more darkspawn, who in turn are drawn to the Old Gods. So the blood of the Old Gods is the blood of the Evanuris, the taint is from the blood of the Evanuris, and that makes sense of what Yavana says, and it helps explain very simply the Golden-Black thing.
There's still a lot Solas wasn't telling us at the end of Trespasser. He explained some of his motivation, and he explained some of the history of what happened, but I don't for a second believe he told us everything. And there
has to be some link to the taint.
I like this theory! I mean, I still like the idea that the Golden City was already black, but this makes a lot of sense.
Your warden from DAO is meant to be out there searching for a cure to the taint. Before I just redeveloped this theory (right in front of your eyes, I do that a lot), I'd already figured what would happen in DA4 - it's all in the final scene where you stab the map, it's literally written on there:
* War between Tevinter and the Qunari will for the backdrop, a la the conflict between the mages and templars - we'll have to solve some stuff, we'll be fighting qunari as random mobs here and there
* Solas (also a town in Tevinter, which is why I say this stuff is literally written on there) will be our key plot, our main antagonist, the main danger, and we'll have to stop him
* We will go to Weisshaupt (also on the map), and we will find out why all the wardens have disappeared
Now, we know our warden is searching for a cure, maybe the reason they're disappearing is because they've found one? This would tie in perfectly with Solas' story, since a cure for the taint would give him options when deciding what to do about the veil and the Evanuris, if he could cure the remaining two old gods, and potentially all of the Evanuris in the Fade if they are indeed now also tainted, and cure Arlathan, etc... maybe that gives him choices, or maybe he'll want to take that cure forcibly for his own ends and continue with his plan as is?
However, we also know that the Wardens have maps of where the remaining Old Gods are imprisoned, they've just never been able to reach them because of the sheer numbers of darkspawn in the way (since they're drawn to their 'song'). A very good reason for the wardens to be disappearing would be if they had indeed found a way to get to one of them. They wouldn't alert the world, they'd want to muster all their forces to assault the dragon and kill it before the darkspawn could get to it, and thus prevent a blight.
Both of those things could be true. They might have discovered the former in pursuit of the latter.
You need to read
The Last Flight in order to see why it'll be so AMAZING to go to Weisshaupt and I'm SO EXCITED.
So, during the course of DA4 I predict (and none of these predictions have changed, my ideas about the golden city I've developed while writing this don't alter anything): we will discover the true nature of the Old Gods and the taint; the taint might be cured and the dragons might be dealt with; we will discover what the qunari are (hint: they used to be elves, they were corrupted by dragon blood and blood magic in rituals and experiments gone bad by the Tevinter long ago); we
might find out more about dwarven stuff BUT I CAN'T TALK ABOUT THAT BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE DESCENT OMG IT'S SO IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING. I'm unsure whether we'll see a complete resolution of the veil story, but it does feel like we're building to something world-altering. I think the end of DA4 will see the end of the Dragon Age, although hopefully not of
Dragon Age. I think we'll have got to the bottom of a heck of a lot of stuff that's been building since DAO, including the Old Gods, the nature of the taint, etc. It will come full circle, and there will be no more threat of blights. That leaves us perfectly situated for something entirely new in DA5, which will be The Executors, and part of the game will be based in Antiva (YAY!).
I also think Mythal is the Avvar god, The Lady of The Skies. I think Elgar'nan/Dumat has been trying to get people to break him out for eras. He nearly managed it with Cory but it backfired. I think he nearly managed it with Andraste. Mythal put a stop to it with Tyrdda Bright-Axe. This is some of my more tinfoil stuff, but we'll see.
OMG play the DLCs!!!
