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lairofdragonagelore · 2 years ago

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Murals in DAI: The actions of the Inquisitor

A series of murals painted by Solas in order to record the Inquisitor’s actions in Skyhold’s rotunda.

[This post is part of the series “ Murals in DAI ”]

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

“The Breach”

The border of the mountains are decorated with inverted triangles. It’s hard to know if this is an aesthetic choice or there is a subtle meaning considering the potential understanding of the inverted triangles as indicators of Fade-related spaces [Murals in DAI: Basics].

The air is filled with longer inverted triangles. This may mean the Fade pushing into the Waking World due to the Breach. Elongated triangles seem to represent spaces where the Fade and the Waking World are mixed.

The yellow ray falling from the yellow sphere above is representing the Breach. It seems to have a slight potential analogy with the mural “The Death of a Titan”, as if the ray striking into the Titan’s heart could be compared, even metaphorically, with the representation of the Breach. After all the same author has done these murals [ Nick Thornborrow but also Solas himself]

The yellow sphere on the sky, aesthetically speaking, seems to show a similarity with a Sun. In the Mural “Creation of the Veil” we know that the central sphere inside the Fade is a “contained Sun”. This concept is repeated in other murals.

The first thick border [Border 2] may represent the Veil in a less detailed way. The interior of this yellow sphere is a space filled with many eyes.

These could be the representation of Pride creatures, the Evanuris, the vigilant Dread Wolf himself, or simply the immense amount of demons wanting to enter to the Waking World.

The supposition of Prideful creatures is based on the fact that pride demons have many eyes.

The supposition of the Evanuris comes from the Concept Art of the Keepers of the temple of Mythal: they were originally conceived to wear an armour that is fully made of countless eyes in the same shape than those we see in this mural.

Even their faces had eye-based tattoos. Since Mythal was an Evanuris, I assumed that maybe this detail in the mural may represent the Evanuris in general. This would mean that they are in the Fade space, which is not true since they cannot contact dreamers, so this option is discarded.

The other suggestion was the Dread Wolf, since the mural of "self-portrait" seems to imply that while Solas, as an elf, exists in the Waking World, his wolf aspect seems to exist and protect the Fade, watching in all directions.

As in the mural of "The creation of the Veil", there is a red sphere inside a black sphere. The Black sphere may be related to the Blight, that by now we can confirm is what Corypheus found when reaching the Golden City. The Red sphere may represent the Red Lyrium that the Black City has, confirmed in the last mural "the Destruction of the Veil", from the DA:D trailer.

The Black Sphere seem to show a scale-texture, probably a representation of a snake skin to mean this is the place where the Magister Sidereal accessed to.

The Red Sphere shows some dark tendrils extending to the Black Sphere, probably meaning a “leak”. It seems to be that the black substance is leaking into the red sphere and inside the Black City.

“Inquisition Formation”

The sword with the eye and the sun beams over it represents the Inquisition itself. I find it curious the colour choice in the eye: it’s the same colours with which Solas represented the Black and the Red Sphere inside the Fade.

The sword sinks into the Earth, so its formation is a reality.

As we have been learning in the many elvhenan temples and how they place their statues, we can be confident that the Sword, being central, represents a position of honour, while the howling black wolves are, most probably, representations of Fen’Harel in a “disguise”. The ones that are farther, as well as the head of the ones protecting the sword at its sides show their “golden” nature. We have seen several golden statues of the Evanuris, and golden details seem to imply divinity in a general way. So this detail may be Solas trying to imply that the black wolf is, in fact, golden. He can’t draw the typical Fen’Harel iconography, but this is basically Solas saying “Fen’Harel is watching and guarding the Inquisition”.

The hilt of sword shows the typical chains of the Chantry that we see in many Chantry-based iconography. For example, the Divine:

The wolves seem to be inside a big triangle that may mean “mountain” as an emphasis of “reality”.

“Siding with the Templars”

We see the castle of Therinfal Redoubt upside-down, showing its connection with the Fade and the control that Envy had during that quest.

The banner of the Templars is ragged, showing how corrupt and broken the Order is.

The dark figure in it shows 3 arms, meaning this is the Envy demon. The demon is grabbing the Templar sword, representing its control on the Order.

“Siding with the Mages”

We see a central figure that divides the piece in two, a bright side and a dark one. The figure is a Tevinter magister, representing Alexius. A side of his cape shows snakes and his belt shows golden scales, reinforcing the idea of a “divine” snake and how his current power is “god-like”, specially with his alliance with the Elder One. The colours of the figure are very Tevinter too: black and gold.

The right side of the background represents Redcliffe in the Present, with the bright sun in the sky [Chantry focused], while the one on the left, the Redcliffe from the Future is dark and red, as the Elder One has total control over Thedas. In this case, the interior of the castle is full of red lyrium. The ground of this side is filled with inverted triangles, potentially meaning that the ground itself turned into Fade nature [Waking World and Fade are one].

This whole mural is supported on a circular ground of black and golden triangles, that I’m not sure if it represents the Veil being broken progressively as this future fuses both worlds in one.

“Attack on Haven”

At the bottom of the mural we see a figure of a building burning, representing Haven in the middle of the mountains during the attack.

A long, tall figure looms over Haven: Corypheus. Its design is asymmetric and the upper part of his body is bordered with red, implying his relationship with Red Lyrium: it’s not clear if this is to imply his control over the Red Templars, or that he himself has been contaminated with it long ago as his design seems to suggest.

In the middle of the figure, there is a greenish sphere that represents the Anchor disputed by two hands: a wiry one that would represent Corypheus’, the other, the Inquisitor’s hand displaying a line across their palm. The recovery of the Anchor failed.

Behind Corypheus figure, we see a big tarnished golden halo. It is smeared at some parts, and has a lot of red and black tendrils. It’s likely that the golden halo represents Divinity, but in this case, because Corypheus is a corrupted and blighted creature, that attempt to obtain divinity has tarnished divinity itself. It’s a “dirty” divinity.

Behind Corypheus and the halo, we see blackness with the same exact pattern that we saw in the belt of the Tevinter figure from the previous mural. This seems to be located above the Breach [three circles in the orange part of the sky] and behind Corypheus, so this may represent Tevinter attempt to enter the “Black space in the Fade” [aka, Black City].

“The Siege of Adamant Fortress”

From left to right, we see the symbol of the Grey Warden. Depending on the player’s order of playing quests, the background of the symbol will appear in dark [If this is done before the quest of the assassination of Celene] or in warm colours [if it was done after].

The next panel shows Adamant fortress through dunes of sand. I assume this is the Western Approach.

The last panel is bordered by Chantry chains, probably a detail to represent the separation of the world [Waking World and Fade] with the Chantry interpretation or maybe it represents the “Chantry intervention”, since this quest was guided by Justinia.

The bottom of this section shows some mountains or peaks or maybe just a “broken crystal” representing the Fade. On them, some symbols that I’m unable to link with anything else may appear. These symbols are only present if “The Siege of Adamant Fortress” is done before the “assassination of Celene”. Maybe it’s just an aesthetic choice to produce a soft transition between the panels, and these symbols help to integrate the lower border of Celene’s dress. Otherwise, I don’t see any lore reason for them to appear.

We analysed the structure of the spheres presented here in Murals in DAI: Basics, and we concluded that the best interpretation was:

This interpretation coincides in several elements with the visual description we had in the mural “Creation of the Veil”. Even though there is no Black City in it, there is a red sphere with a sun inside a dark sphere. In this mural, such order is switched. However, the red space shows Eyes that have been seen in many other representations of the structure of the Fade. They are related to pride no doubt, but it’s not clear in what sense. It could represent the pride of the Magisters who broke into this place [the presentation of DAO [Darkspawn origin] represents them with dark and red peacock feathers], in others, there are many eyes, implying that there are many creatures pushing in. When it’s just six eyes, I’m inclined to think in Pride; when it’s a countless amount of eyes, I’m inclined it represents spirits or entities pushing out to escape the confinement. A third interpretation offered by the Mural “self-portrait” implies that the Wolf Aspect of Fen’Harel is guarding this space, vigilant of the creatures he sealed long ago.

To see the argument about the aesthetic transition between panels to justify these strange details that appear if one does a quest before another we can see the integrated panels in the rotunda:

The change of colour of the background of the Grey Warden symbol and the strange symbols on the mountains that may appear seem natural depending on the transition of the panels.

“The assassination of Empress Celene”

Celene is represented with her regal blue dress and the golden half circle behind her head. The paint of the dress is a bit messy, like dripping water.

The background represents a typical Orlesian building, likely to be the Winter Palace.

The assassin is always present. It’s white if we do this quest after the “The Siege of Adamant fortress”, or black if it is done before.

The scene of the assassination happens without witnesses if this is played before “The Siege of Adamant fortress”, and with the witnesses of the ball if after.

Again, I don’t see the change of colour of the assassin and the presence or absence of witnesses in the panel as something relevant or related to the Quest Here Lies the Abyss. I see that these details are aesthetic choices to smooth the the transition between the panels.

“Temple of Mythal”

From the bottom, we see the trunk of a tree which is shaped in the same way that the entry gate of the Temple of Mythal.

This tree trunk shape can also be understood as the bridge that allowed the entrance to the Temple.

Inside the gate, there is a circle with many triangles and a star. This seems to connect to the mosaic with the asterisk symbol. This symbol can be interpreted as a sun is painted in yellow, linking it with the idea of divinity, golden halos, and, of course, the yellow mosaic. All of them make sense since Mythal is a goddess, even though the meaning of each of them is not clear.

The trunk of the tree is made of a constant pattern of undulating brown and blue lines. This may have a relationship with the Vallaslin, and the bound process that the servants of Mythal accept in order to serve her. It could also be a representation of the water of the Well of Sorrows as well as its bounding power [more details in Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins and in Murals in DAI: Basics].

The upper left part of the tree displays some branches that looks like the veins of lyrium we discussed in Murals in DAI: Basics. However, since they are coloured in brown, they seem to be merely tree branches [similar to those we see in the Dalish glass design].

Below those branches, we see a golden pattern of a net, on a moss-green background colour. This reminds me the ceiling of the temple, but also is the same pattern used in the background of the “Attack of Haven” to represent Tevinter interference.

The yellow background of the piece resembles the walls of the Temple

“Dragon slain”

We see a dragon with its neck pierced by a sword, meaning it’s been slain. This is the representation of the Death of Flemeth at the hands of Solas.

In front of it, there is a Wolf with dragony characteristics which represents Fen’Harel. This was when Solas absorbed or was planing to absorb Flemeth’s energy. It seems to imply that Solas was well aware of the transformation that such merging would cause.

The mural is not finished, probably for the lack of time or the regret caused by the action that had to be taken.

#DAI murals #haven #mythal #temple of mythal #keepers of Temple of Mythal #golden halo #divinity #Corypheus #anchor

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lairofdragonagelore · 2 years ago

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Murals in DAI: The Death of a Titan

This mural is found in an Unknown Ruin, which location is unknown. We have access to it via a blocked Eluvian in the Deep Roads.

[This post is part of the series “ Murals in DAI ”]

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

On the titan’s body, we find a veilfire rune that triggers the codex Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads. I already worked on some interpretations of it in Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara. If we read the codex while observing this image, and assuming that both of them describe the same event, we can conclude that the mural is narrating the codex in “three panels”: The elvhen attack, the death of the Titan, and the “something else”.

The codex, for a quick review:

In the light of the veilfire, the runes seem to shift, coiling and uncoiling like snakes. A thunderous voice shatters the stillness, shouting: "Hail Mythal, adjudicator and savior! She has struck down the pillars of the earth and rendered their demesne unto the People! Praise her name forever!"

For a moment, the scent of blood fills the air, and there is a vivid image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire. The vision grows dark. An aeon seems to pass. Then the runes crackle, as if filled with an angry energy. A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic. Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast. A voice whispers: "What the Evanuris in their greed could unleash would end us all. Let this place be forgotten. Let no one wake its anger. The People must rise before their false gods destroy them all."

The attack

According to the codex, the elvhen on the left could be Mythal. Her cape/cloak is made of “green/emerald water” which is usually the description we have of the Fade, which was once the kingdom of the elvhen and spirits. This part of the mural seems to imply “elvhen from the Fade used a god-like power to attack a titan”. I assume the god-like power because the elvhen is casting a circle of gold in her hand, which is a colour that we have seen used a lot to represent god-related iconography and decoration.

We also know that Mythal was different and special from all the rest of the Evanuris. This idea is given to us not only because her statue always is present in all the Temples we visited [included Dirthamen’s], more often than not in a central place or in a place of importance. We also saw that, from all the Evanuris, she is the only one with a divinity halo behind her in the mosaic series [check it in Evanuris]. So, one can assume her power was far over the rest of the Evanuris, so she has a good probability of killing a titan. In any case, this elvhen could represent any Evanuris anyway, but again, I’m also working in relating this mural to the codex.

The Death of a Titan

Then, the next “panel” would be the way in which the Titan was killed

In the centre we can see an undeniable humanoid figure that has been attacked. It’s made of a brown colour, giving the idea of an earthy creature. Its dimensions are so big that it does not fit completely in the sphere. It is the titan. It has an eye drawn on it. This particular kind of eye has been seen in the murals “Self-Portrait” or in the “Removal of the Vallaslin”, which gives us the confirmation this is an eye in the fresco elven style [if we had any doubt].

The body of the creature has been cut in two, across its heart/core. The heart has the asterisk symbol surrounded by a “halo” of gold [or it can also be understood as a Golden Ring]. Once more, we can see that the figure of a golden halo, or gold sphere or gold ring may be implying “Divinity”-like power and control. We also need to remember that in DA lore, divinity has been set as something related to the amount of power that a creature has instead of a particular nature [Solas’s and Morrigan’s words].

Around the golden halo wrapping its heart, we see a fading glow of green. This colour matches the “emerald waters” of the figure on the left, so it’s a colour related to the Fade: this may imply a relationship between the heart of a Titan and the Fade [could this be related to the codex Vir Dirthara: The Deepest Fade, where the skills to reach the deepest Fade are described very titan-dwarvish-like?] The interpretation of the heart needs a whole section apart.

The titan’s head has been removed. The cut in its “neck” seems clean, while the side of the head is “blasted” which may imply that it was affected mentally. Thanks to Cole’s lines along Overlook, Excavated Caves, and Lower Walkways, we know the Titan has been removed of its will, it is sleeping, unable to awake, as the elvhen mined its body and did something with its heart.

The creature is surrounded by blue lines which branch shape represents lyrium veins. All are drawn in a radial way, with its heart as the central origin of all these extensions: we are seeing the Titan’s circulatory system.

The colour of this sphere where the Titan is trapped is coloured in red. On the bottom we see a bit of orange, giving the idea of fire. This is the “fire sphere” that the codex speaks about. So the fire sphere is about something done to a titan, that angered it, and produced something terrible that had to be hidden later and avoid “its wake”.

Titan’s Heart

The interpretation of the heart of a Titan and the elvhen orbs is very complex and vague. It requires some lore details first that seem to be unrelated:

The Elvhen Orbs

The Elvhen orbs have been shown in these murals represented by the asterisk symbol. This symbol has also appeared in the ground yellow mosaic, in the centre of what seems to be related to a sun surrounded by four eluvians/Mythal dragon shaped Gates:

It’s the same asterisk made of eight “rays”.

Tevinter co-opted [or maybe were taught?] about these orbs before the time of the magisterium and the Old Gods. The Tevinter orbs, called somnaborium, are translated as “vessels of dreams”.

Dorian: That orb Corypheus carries... are you certain it's of elven origin, Solas? Solas: I believe so. Why do you ask? Dorian: There are paintings in the Magisterium's archives of men holding similar orbs. They were depictions of a time long before the magisters. The ancient Dreamers, perhaps. The texts called those orbs "somnaborium"--"vessels of dreams." Could they be the same thing? Solas: Perhaps. The humans of ancient times took much from the elves. Dorian: And Corypheus isn't far removed from the time. Hmm.

These Tevinters that Dorian refers to may be the same ones related to the Astrariums. They seemed to have had a deeper relationship with Elvhenan culture. They also had interest in the constellations and the astronomy of Thedas in general, which originally had a lot more of elvhenan representation. This brings a lot of unanswered questions about this particular ancient group of Tevinters and the posterior Magisters Sidereal [title related to celestial bodies and constellations].

The “vessels of dreams” can easily be interpreted as “vessels of Fade energy”, the same energy we saw in the codex Raising the Sonallium, which allowed the creation of worlds. Now, this brings a question: is this energy infinite? What’s its source? Is it merely Fade? If the elvhenan created worlds from it, is this not an energy that seems to have “shaper/titan” properties? In codices like Attentive Listeners or Homecoming, we see that the main power of the elvhen is to bend what already exists, not to create.

I always questioned the real reason why the architects are fighting in Raising the Sonallium. I think it may be related to some unethical procedure in the creation of the world, or a question about the use of the energy of the Fade for this kind of useless creations. We know it cannot be about an aesthetic colour choice.

Sadly, there are no many other sources to explore this train of thoughts, but certainly the idea that the Fade energy may be provided by the Titans themselves would have terrible in-lore consequences if it’s true: it would mean that the elvhenan kingdom was just the typical story of the created creature taking the power of their creators, rebelling against them, and abusing of the original power.

Anyways, continuing with the orbs: through the analysis of Fen’Harel’s orb, we know that the main function of these orbs is to accumulate Fade energy, which is used to the creation of worlds. Solas tells us at the end of Trespasser that he slumbered during a millennia while his orb kept accumulating energy that would allow him to destroy the Veil again.

We don’t know the origin and construction of these orbs, but we know there were many during the time of the Evanuris. In the Shattered Library we even find several of them, empty, spread at the borders of the Lower Archives. Why are they not accumulating energy? What process has been broken that the accumulation function has stopped working in them? These seem to be discharged or useless. Maybe the accumulation of energy needs of someone directing that energy?

These orbs also seem to be used in the procedures of creating pools such as the Well of Sorrow, through which the bound process of the servants of a given Evanuris is executed, according to the mural Removal of the Vallaslin:

So, when we connect the elven orb with the asterisk symbol, the mural of “The Dead of a Titan” can be understood in three different ways:

1) The Creation of the Elvhen Orbs is made out of the Hearts of Titans.

We can think that these orbs are made of “extracted” Titan’s hearts. So, when the Evanuris won the war against the Titans, they took their hearts to create these orbs and the rest of their bodies were mined in order to obtain their lyrium to potentiate magic and to perform vallaslin slavery-rituals.

Pros of this idea

Titans are always spoken in plural, meaning that there were many of them and since some codex speak of “pillars of earth” and some victories over then were attributed to Elgar’nan too [Vir Dirthara: Signs of Victory ], it seems that some kind of harvesting may have been possible in order to create several elvhen orbs.

This concept allows the speculation that the red lyrium is Blighted lyrium even though we were hinted in books [The Calling] and in games [Uncharted Abyss] that some parts below the Deep Roads, potentially related to the interior of the Titan, are immune to the Blight and reject the darkspawn: it seems reasonable to think that while the heart exists, the lyrium in the veins is purified through a “circulatory system”, so we can find places likes the Uncharted Abyss where there is no Blight nor darkspawn. But once the heart is removed or dead, and the remaining lyrium gets stationary, the possibility of being blighted does not contradict the apparent immunity to the Blight that places like these seem to have.

Cons of this idea

Size. I bet a titan’s heart is too big to compress it into that small ball that we see in the elvhen’s hands. Note: remember that the heart we saw in the DLC was not a Titan’s, it was a Guardian. Even the wikipedia of Dragon Age has that information wrongly [check The Wellspring].

If we assume Occam’s razor, there is no much sense in thinking a living creature could stay alive without their heart. Besides, there is no lore that states what happens with a titan once their heart is removed. Is it still alive? Is it dead? Is it in permanent sleep? According to Cole, the Titan is still singing and sleeping, which seems to contradict the idea of “removing heart”=“death of a titan”. Two possibilities arise if we assume Cole is the one who holds the truth: Or removing the titan’s heart removes their consciousness but keeps them alive; or the heart was never removed.

The only hint we have of a creature without a heart that still lived is the Tale of the Avvar about Korth the Mountain-Father. But he not only kept alive, he became cruel and violent. This image would fit an “angry titan” too, though. Was this tale shared with the Avvar via the spirits to represent what the Elvhenan did ages ago to a Titan? Hard to say for sure.

2) With the power of the elvhen orbs, the Titans were killed, including their hearts.

This idea brings similar consequences from the point 1. The difference lays that it does not make use of the heart of the Titan, and uses the concept that the Titan is killed in the process.

Pro of this idea

Similar to the previous interpretation. It solves the problem of keeping the size of the heart into consideration as well as a potential “life” after the heart is removed. We assume in this option that the titan is completely killed.

This idea allows the concept of accepting that a titan dead body can be susceptible of being tainted, potentially giving the explanation of the origin of red lyrium as part of the procedure of decay and rotting of a titan’s corpse.

Cons of this idea

This is a good interpretation of the Mural we are seeing, but the cons are similar to the previous one: Cole keeps telling us that the Titans are alive, but in a vegetative state, sleeping, unable to awake because they forgot how to do it. So, the titan doesn’t seem to be dead. This argument is so strong that I would say that the whole idea of the point 2 should be discarded. The Titans are sleeping, stirring with big Fade-related events, and singing. Their minds seem to be trapped, but they are very much alive. We even can bring into this idea the potential interpretation that their minds are trapped inside Redy Lyrium, since Whispers Written in Red Lyrium can be interpreted as the voices of trapped evanuris as well as titans .

Even if we consider this titan in the mural being the only one who has been killed in the history of the elvhenan, it seems a bad assumption because at the end of the codex we know that, whatever the Evanuris made experiments with the titan, it is still alive thanks to the sentence “Let no one wake its anger”, which implies that it is slumbering but alive.

We have a good amount of reasons to assume that these titans were not killed. So, the title of the Mural is a fallacy, but I will keep calling it that way because we are not sure what truly happens with the Titan. The key is in the “something else”-part which we had no idea about.

3) With the power of the Elvhen orbs, the Titans were defeated, stealing their “mind” somehow, siphoning their powers into the orb, while the elvhen mined their vegetative bodies. Maybe they even experimented with the titan’s body.

Both the centre of the titan and the elvhen orb have the same symbol: an asterisk, but the colour of it is different, and the ray hitting the Titan maybe it’s more about a siphoning effect than an strike: the elvhen orbs may have become “vessels of the energy of a Titan’s heart” [this, again, would suggest that “the Fade energy” of the orbs is related to the mind/heart of a Titan, to their “dreaming” ability]. The “attack” of the elvhen may be the “golden ring” around the heart, implying control as the golden ring seems to represent in many the elvhen paintings, removing “heart and mind” [like it happens with the slaved elves]:

The centre of the titan [asterisk symbol] seems to have been accessed through a tunnel that has the same colour that the background around the asterisk. This structure makes me remember the Uthenera chamber found in the Deep Roads in Trespasser: Lower Walkways, we see a long deep well with an intense lyrium-light deep into it, suggesting that the well and the whole chamber is close to the lyrium spring. My speculation is that the Uthenera chamber may keep the Titans sleeping or without will [keeping the effect of the golden ring, maybe?], as Cole explains to Sera in Overlook: “Their [referring to dwarves] ancient shapers [Titans] were mountains drawn of all their wills, walking their memories into valleys of the world". In the Uthenera chamber Cole says: “Songs screaming far away. It wants to wake up but can’t remember how”. The Uthenera chamber may have a role in the process of making the titans “forget how to wake up”, as Cole seems to imply in "They made bodies from the earth, and the earth was afraid. It fought back, but they made it forget."

Once again, Cole repeats that the Elvhen made the Titan forget, and that seems to be a reasonable role for the Uthenera chamber found there, because as I said in other posts, it seems that the Ancient Uthenera had nothing to do with what the Dalish think it is [as usual in the Dalish pattern]. The main reason to suspect this is why would immortal beings go to sleep eternally in the Fade if they were already living in the Fade? It always felt suspicious.

If the Elvhen drew energy from the heart/mind of the titans, who had the power to create worlds and shapes and bodies, the conflict with the Titans may have been more complex than only the shaking effect of the Elvhen cities that we read in Song to Elgar'nan.

Pros of this idea

This hypothesis would explain why the titans were disconnected with their children: the dwarves. The elvhenan made the Titans forget too much, or may have even severed the Titan’s connection to the dwarves as the tranquils are severed from the Fade. If a Mage’s mind is severed with a brand of Lyrium [The Rite of Tranquility], maybe an inverse process may exist where a titan’s mind is severed by branding their mind with some Fade energy [golden ring?].

This interpretation gives sense to most of Cole’s comments: the titans are not dead, but vegetative.

Cons of this idea

This makes the explanation of the red lyrium as tainted lyrium a bit less possible, since they naturally seem to be immune to the Blight. However, we only have one source who claimed that knowledge, which so far seems unreliable: Bianca, who at the same time, got this information form an unknown source [read Emprise du Lion: Suledin keep]

Ironically, when we activate the puzzle in front of this mural, the heart of the titan has to be lighted with Veilfire, so there is an implicit message that the heart of a titan is burnt with Veilfire or fire. Or a titan’s heart/mind is the fuel for the powers of the Fade and Veil. Could this be the origin of the “weakening” stone that the dwarves believe in, where the power of a Titan is consumed by the Elvhenan orbs and this progressive weakening is what causes aberrations such as being susceptible of the Blight and then turn the Titan’s blood into red lyrium? Depleting a titan’s heart causes a progressive corruption? So many questions.

In any case, as we can see, the option 3 seems to be the most reasonable of all. The Titan has not been killed [it can sing and stir as they have been shown to do in repeated occasions], but turned into a vegetative creature that allowed the mining of its body for lyrium extraction and “something else”. However, the option 1 as a consequence of the end of the siphoning effect, as the effect of “what happened when they killed one”, still seems to apply to at least one titan, but not as a general practice executed on all titans. The problem is: if the option 1 is possible, it means that dead titans can still sing “angrily”. It ends up contradicting a lot of logical statements and assumptions done along this section. The only way to “save” this is that the Titans are not killed but weakened, and end up being corrupted without being “dead”.

The “something else”

From the three options proposed above, the only one which provides a “secret” to be considered as a “something else” [while keeping the Titan alive, which is the case since they sing], seems to be the third one. Keeping this option in mind, we can try to interpret the “third panel” of the mural:

Here we find an elvhen holding the orb/sphere with the asterisk symbol, which is not the same one than the titan’s core. The Heart of the Titan is a yellowish sphere with a black asterisk. The sphere held by the right elf is a green sphere with a yellowish asterisk, the same colour than the sphere of the titan’s heart and the ray. This could mean “redirection of the power”, encouraging the idea of the siphoning power.

The fact that these orbs in Tevinter are called “vessels of dreams” makes us also wonder if they don’t drain the consciousness of a Titan [its dreams] as well and trap them inside an orb. And once more, we have to remember that it’s in this place of the mural where we put the Veilfire, giving the idea of “Fade-presence” in the “heart of the Titan”, or a Titan’s heart being burnt/consumed by the Fade powers.

The golden ring around the asterisk symbol in the Titan’s heart, now is seen as a halo in the elvhen head, a God was born [in terms of being a creature more powerful than anything else]. So through the heart of a Titan, Divinity is seized. Similar iconography can be seen in Valta’s tarot card

The divine halo melts and falls behind the elvhen, giving the impression that it transforms into a mountain, implying that now the elvhenan control more than the mere Fade with the siphoned power: they can control the Waking World, the world where shape is strong and can create like “titans”.

Hence the image of a range of mountains below. The left side of this elvhen also has some Fade-green colour as a way to show transition or also Fade nature [light blue square].

A second interpretation is that through this power of shaping the world, they may have abused of it, creating new bodies [Cole: "They made bodies from the earth. And the earth was afraid. It fought back. But they made it forget."], changing the shape of creatures, and experimenting with them, as The Horror of Hormak implies. Hence, the perfect halo of divinity is falling apart and becoming the underground of the mountains that had sealed horrors such as The Horror of Hormak. Sealing horrors seems to fit the last part of the codex Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads. Like, “playing to be gods”, creating and shaping, ended up in a horror that “elvhen had to hide below collapsed caverns”.

The “something else”, then, can be related to the experiments and the abuse [The Horror of Hormak] that the elvhenan may have done by using the powers siphoned from a titan’s heart/core.

Extra details

The background of the mural shows elongated inverted triangles, suggesting a world where Waking World and Fade were mixed, which is correct; by this time the Veil has not been created yet. They are painted in gold.

Neither the mural nor the codex said what exactly went wrong in this process, but something did it as the whisper in the codex says that they should not wake “its” anger [the “it” treatment seems to mean the Titan as usual] and suggests the people to raise against the Evanuris [I personally think this whisper is Solas’].

The dev’s notes say that this mural was drawn by Solas, in a determinant point in which he decided to stop the Evanuris, but making sure nobody learnt again what they were doing [probably to avoid temptation]. These notes seem to confirm that the whisper in the codex is Solas’. He is the first voice who speaks about the need to raise and stop the Evanuris.

If we consider Solas’ words as hints of truth, the event shown in this mural should be part or be linked to Mythal’s death. Why? Because Solas said that the last straw to banish the Evanuris was her death, while here, the Dev’s notes tell us that the reason was this painted event. Solas has a good history of telling truths that need a particular context to be understood exactly in the sense he says them. And I think it’s not by chance that this mine has so many statues of Mythal in big sizes. The death of mythal, the corruption of this titan, and the red lyrium idol seem to be connected one another even though it’s all speculation what we can say about.

According to the codex, this Titan, who is trapped or it’s part of a sphere of fire, was contained with vines. The detail of the vines immediately reminds me of the Blight, because as we saw in Murals in DAI: Basics and in all previous games’ presentations, the thorny vines were always related to the Blight and Darkspawn. These vines in particular were originally green and enchanted [since later they are described as runes], but after eons they weakened. Maybe the codex shows in this image the origin of the Blight as a degradation, or rotting process of a sleeping, angry Titan. I can’t help but relate “angry” energy with Red Lyrium, although the Red Lyrium seem to be more related to the Evanuris according the analysis done in The Creation of the Veil. However, nothing is completely said after all.

This sleeping, angry Titan was buried underground according the codex. “Terrible place sealed underground” can also be related to the The Horror of Hormak.

Integral interpretation

The first part of the mural seem to represent an Evanuris attacking a titan. Most likely, it is Mythal, according to the codex Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads. Her power wraps the heart of the Titan with a golden sphere or a golden ring. The golden ring is usually a symbol of control as we saw in some paintings of Nation Art: Elvhen.

We know the Titan’s will has been removed, so it is sleeping, unable to awake, as the elvhen mine its body for lyrium and do “something else” with its heart. If we understand the golden sphere around the core of the Titan as a golden ring, it would support the idea of an alive titan being "zombificated" as we saw the golden ring seem to do on elves. This forced slumbering of the titan may be done via Uthenera-related processes, since we find a chamber that Cole identifies as such, and he assures that these singing elvhen interact with the Titan’s song.

Siphoning the power of a Titan's heart may give the elvhenan powers related to creating worlds and shaping creatures. Abuses such as the ones seen in The Horror of Hormak may have been done with them, justifying the line “something else” said by the inquisitor about the codex/mural.

However, if this siphoning process was continuous and ended up destroying the heart and killing the Titan, there are chances that the circulatory system of the titan, that may have given to it some immunity to infections such as the Blight, stopped working, turning the Titan into a creature of red-lyrium. This may refer to the angry energy of the sphere of fire.

The problem with this hypothesis that seems to offer a reasonable in-lore explanation for the origin of the Red Lyrium, is that it assumes the death of the Titan, which would mean Titans should not be singing and stirring as they do when big Fade-related events happen. So I’m inclined to think in the option where the Titan remains alive but corrupted.

Side note: I’m annoyed that is not clear yet which was created first: the Blight or the Red Lyrium, or if both are the same thing. Clearly both diseases are related to Titans and Evanuris, but the truth is still quite away from our grasp.

#DAI murals #titan #titans #evanuris #red lyrium #High speculation #uthenera #Golden Ring #golden halo #inverted triangles #asterisk symbol #elven orb

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