Dragon Age Lore Thread

I love learning lore. Inquisition was my first Dragon Age game, and Andromeda was my first Mass Effect game. Most of my life has been devoted to Star Wars, so that's how I was introduced to Bioware things. I am sorry I don't have any lore to share. I like to listen. The wiki has been helpful, but I need more.

*Can't find a good enough 'hungry' gif*

I feel so honored!!! there're so little info about werewolves in DA lore that they can do anything with them! We only know that Zathrian cursed a bunch of people, but we dont know how this curse works and even if there are different curses (full time werewolf like the ones that created Zathrian, werewolf only by night or only at full moon) I dont expect a thing in DA4 tbh but damn devs gimme *__*

My favorite ~lore~ is something that was already addressed, and kind of answered in The Best Bioware Game That Ever Existed or Ever Will Exist Formerly Known as Dragon Age 2, (but also kind of not addressed or answered at all also): The Enigma of Kirkwall.

A lot of the questions are brought up ingame, usually jokingly by Varric in the form of "why is everything here just so... weird?" but otherwise really only left in this Codex you can pick up slowly throughout the Acts:

- Blood mages are stated as being weirdly common, and "can channel great power from a simple cut".
- Harrowings are failed twice as often.
- Demons possessing regular people and not just mages is stated as weirdly common the deeper downward in Kirkwall you go, which has only presented itself in Origins in weird situations like the Circle Tower where the veil was thin from demon summoning (important), that Warden Tower DLC with the warrior Warden-Commander possessed... in an area where the veil was thin from demon summoning (important), or the farm girl earning the attention of a possessed cat (which I thought hinted at the little girl being a mage, as mage blood obviously ran in the family in a town that seemed a liiiil' permissive of apostates lol)
- There is an odd amount of previous thought-lost and priceless artifacts available in Kirkwall, original tomes of ancient knowledge that was suspected to be horded underground here.
- The city itself is made in the pattern of magister runes and symbols of power when looked at from above, hinting more at the purpose of Kirkwall as a slavehub was only secondary and a matter of convenience in its nature.
- The veil is thinner in Kirkwall which is stated plainly in game a few times, but not that it was PURPOSELY thinned by magisters for studies (and more power, of course) or that there could be an actual tear down deep enough.
- That Kirkwall was burned down before, multiple times, in the acts of violent suppression or violent uprising.

The only thing we REALLY get hammered to us in the maingame that Kirkwall is just a bit inherently "weird" is:
- It is sitting ontop of a lot of red lyrium, made more interesting in hindsight with Inquisition because of what Kirkwall was used for and how the Blight was caused is more intrinsically linked.

Which still changes... a lot, of how we see and interpret what happened ingame. It isn't mages vs templars as much as it is an escalation caused by a comically large-scale haunted house situation, in a game that has a haunted house to show it off in a more small-scale quest.

Kirkwall is like an old wound, with a history and veil so traumatized that it can't help but permeate and effect the modern people to repeat these same mistakes over and over and over. Maybe I like it a lot because it reminds me of The Shining really lol.

I mean I like a lot of ~lore~ I guess, especially pertaining to dwarves and their relation to the Fade, but The Best Bioware Game That Ever Existed or Ever Will Exist Formerly Known as Dragon Age 2 just makes me want to explore and understand Kirkwall better still though that ship has long since sailed so instead I'll just pine for a remake or alternate universe where they got more time to work on the game so Kirkwall was actually a maze of jet black stone and we can explore cool unique areas of this cool unique setting.

I might be wrong, but I didn't think the primeval thaig was close to Kirkwall; it was a long journey in the Deep Roads to reach the red lyrium idol. I thought WOT mentioned that it was the slumbering presence of Corypheus nearby which also contributed to the Kirkwall insanity. Perhaps the primeval thaig was close enough to effect the city but it just took a while for the group to navigate the collapsed Deep Roads, though.

One thing lorewise that I'm thinking about, especially for DA4, is how differently some regions of the Imperium might be. For example, on the border with Nevarra, there's probably more stuff that's shaped by a Nevarran influence. Necromancy falling in and out of fashion among mages, new generations starting necromantic movements that take different approaches and other movements not only rejecting necromancy but basing their whole movement as a counter-reaction to it. Think: some Post-Necro Altus mage kid whining to his old fogey, uncool necromancer parents that Post-Necro is the future and that their time is over so they should just let this generation have their time in the sun. They probably also have a lot of residents of Nevarran descent, due to both a general amount of immigration and Nevarran apostates fleeing the Templars. That's not even getting into the amount of imports and the effects of the recent Nevarran-Tevinter conflict in DA:I.

It's common for the coastlines in places to be be pretty booming and diverse and liberal (due to said economic growth and diversity). However, due to where it's situated, Northern Tevinter is probably not the typical picture perfect place for huge, sprawling cities. I can't see the economic growth being primarily based in trade when they're all busy fighting the Qunari, though trade is still probably a big part of the economy. While it's likely diverse due to immigration from Seheron and Antiva (as well as newly made Tal-Vashoth fleeing the Qun during military campaigns), I feel like it's probably more of the setting for military-towns , with a lot of the industry being geared towards the armies. Armor, provisions (likely seafood because of being on the coast and probably some imported food from elsewhere in Tevinter and a few other surrounding countries), new inventions from the dwarven allies and attempts at imitating Qunari technology.

I don't know. It's a lot to think about. Feel free to disagree, since I'm mostly just pulling this out of my ass. I just like to think about worldbuilding and junk.

The Pavus family home is in Qarinus (along with Maevaris), which was featured in one of the comics. It appears to be a highly affluent coastal city. Qarinus was also the last of the independent kingdoms to join the Imperium, so I think that would also give it a different flavor.

I tend to think of Qarinus like Savannah, compared to the rest of the South. There is just a different style and flavor that separates it, due to its history.


The Vyrantium line comes from Dorian's introduction during WEWH -- "Lord Dorian Pavus, member of the Circle of Vyrantium, son of Lord Magister Halward Pavus of Asariel." * (Asariel is in western Tevinter, directly south of Minrathous along the coast. I don't know why Halward is the Lord of Asariel when the family seat is in Qarinus.)

This is one of those things where there is a discrepancy between game and WOT information. The game tells us this, but WOT tells us that Dorian went to several Circles in his youth. It could be that the Vyrantium Circle is the strict Chantry-based Circle his father sent him to as a last resort.

The WEWH introduction should instead reference the Circle in Minrathous, as that is where he apprenticed under Alexius and earned his Enchanter rank; he was working on Senior Enchanter when things turned to shit. He also introduces himself to you as "Dorian Pavus, most recently of Minrathous."



* Just so I don't seem too obsessed, I don't have these things memorized. I have screenshots of certain dialogues that I pull up for reference.

nvm, i'll just go ahead and post my speculation:

In Fade part of "Here lies the abyss" we meet Divine Justinia, whose nature was never clarified, guiding Inquisitor and generally acting very... compasionate. Extraordinarily convenient, that a powerful, helpful spirit is waiting in Nightmare's lair ready to help while Nighmare is... busy putting in it's many, many contact lenses?

Now, we know that Nighmare is (most probably) a corrupted spirit of compassion (as evidenced with it's convo with Cole) AND that spirits tend to have dual nature (their purpose and it's corruption). We know nature of the spirits seems to be very unstable and prone to switching, even in moment's notice, but could it be possible that the two could coexist at the same time? That the Justinia was compassion, other/spirit side of Nightmare, actually guiding it's own defeat, in a sort of schizophrenic fashion. Currently I am unaware of evidence contradicting this theory, so please correct me. Perhaps such duality can be manifested (and clearly defined) only with the very powerful entities that fulfill certain degree of "purpose", antithesis appears- to balance itself out? it would certainly put an interesting twist on spirits.

If that is true and if Evanuris were spirits, perhaps Forgotten Ones were not generals, but the other, spirity/demony side of Evanuris itself, that they somehow banished/sundered since it was interfering with their plans and purpose. Perhaps even not all of Evanuris did that, for example- maybe it never happened with the "twins" (Falondin and Dirthamen if I remember correctly, being spirit/demon pair of a same being?). Perhaps even the first battle between the Elgarnan and "the Sun" the battle in question was not literal, but the battle of identity, purpose. And as it seems, the darkness prevailed, Elgarnan sure seems like an asshole.

It would explain much more easily the convenient antithetical and numerical balance to Evanuris, if such has to exist (if I remeber, balance is important motive, right?). It's a bit suspicious that Evanuris would allow their generals to become their equals, and that said generals would all suddenly turn on them in unison (alhough not impossible, of course). At the same time, this duality could be calculated into the whole body/spirit sundering of Evanuris with the Veil. So while Evanuris sleep beyond eluvians somewhere, their "shadow" versions had better position to plot and act from the Void (or from wherever) posing as Old Gods. In any case, while Evanuris "forgot" the other part of itself, it looks like this duality should manifest itself in spirit nature of Evanuris.

of course, the most important question is simple- can spirits manifest itself as two different aspects at the same time? if yes, can these aspects act independently?

I think shitting on other people's predictions is dumb, because it's about what the authors choose to write about. They might pick something plausible, they might not. So if people disagree with you ima be salty, is what I'm saying.

I don't really have predictions so much as stuff that would be kind of cool to see.

Tevinter has a lot of similarity with the Byzantine Empire (which I'm going to use interchangeably with "Roman" in this post because better historians than me do it too) so them pulling themes and ideas from Byzantine history would be kind of neat to see. We've already got that the view of Vints in the south is just about as vile as Franks' view of the Romans in the crusading era.

I want to know if there's anything like the Italians in the Eastern Mediterranean. Genoese, Venetian, and other merchants played a huge role in commerce from the eleventh century onward, which went hand in hand with political and military activity by their city-states in Outremer and the Empire. Genoa and Venice sent ships and troops to support the Crusaders, established trading quarters in Roman and Outremer cities, and fought out their fratricidal wars in the Aegean as much as in northern Italy. It'd be kind of neat if, say, Antivans had established such a politically and economically advantageous position in Tevinter as well, in the aftermath of the anti-Qunari Exalted Marches. Perhaps Antivans take up the slack of smuggling lyrium to the Empire to avoid the White Divine's control of the Orzammar supply (in addition, one imagines, to Kal-Sharok trade). Perhaps Antivans have, in fact, made themselves so hated by a wide section of Tevinter society that riots and state-sponsored pogroms buffet their merchants' quarters, just as the Romans sometimes supported the Constantinopolitan mobs in their attacks on the Italians at Pera.

Flemeth is Voldemort confirmed

Just a little