#the deep roads

[telumendils]

you wouldn't last a day in the asylum where they raised me

[elfcollector]

DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION (2014) — the descent

[blighted-elf]

Dragon Age 2 Scenery - Primeval Thaig

[illusivesoul]

That line that Corypheus says after being released in the Legacy dlc while he's all confused "Be these some dream I wake from? Am I in dwarven lands? Why seem their roads so empty?" highlights how in his time, the Deep Roads really were the commercial and trade arteries of Thedas, and how they must have been constantly bursting full of people and merchants trading and going from one corner of Thedas to the other.

Tevinter controlled most of Thedas, but below the surface, the dwarven empire was what truly connected it, all the distant Thaigs and cities bringing lyrium and other things all over the continent, and even trading with the Chasind and the Avvar as far south as Ferelden (and according to Bianca, its possible the Deep Roads might have gone beyond Thedas itself)

And then Corypheus wakes up a thousand years later and assumes he's on the Deep Roads and is puzzled as to why it all seems so empty and lifeless. And the irony is that, even though he doesn't know it yet, thats what the Deep Roads and all the dwarven lands except for Orzammar and Kal'Sharok have become. A dead, lifeless carcass filled with darkspawn, with decaying statues, crumbling Thaigs and a few squads of the Legion of the Dead representing the fading memories of the glory of the past that once was and will never be again, and slowly fading into history like the dwarves themselves.

[archonfurina]

Valammar.

[fashionablyfyrdraaca]

On the way to the Primeval Thaig

[dragonagegallery]

The Deep Roads

By Albert Urmanov

[antivan-leather-boot]

One line that really pisses me off when people hate on DATV is "it doesn't feel like a dragon age game."

BRO. What game have you been playing?

I am in awe and jubilation over how much attention was paid to architecture and scenery. I feel like the game not only connects to the aesthetics of Inquisition directly, but I've often felt like certain non-built environment areas remind me of walking around the Wounded Coast in DA2 (but I'm also just a DA2 simp so maybe that's just me?)

In any case, the entire worldbuilding is gorgeous and feels very much like Thedas and I am very impressed with the artistic team's skill and attention to detail. Feels very much like a Dragon Age game, thank you very much

[orangesnail]

If The Deep Roads has a million fans, I’m one of them.

If The Deep Roads has 5 fans, I’m one of them.

If The Deep Roads has 1 fan, that one is me.

If The Deep Roads has no fans, I’m no longer alive.

If the world is against The Deep Roads, I’m against the entire world.

Till my last breath, I’ll support The Deep Roads.

[garrien-thorne]

Kal Sharok and the Deep Roads

i really wish that we got to spend more time here, the Deep Roads are one of the most interesting places in the games to me.

[lieutenant-satyrn]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024)

The Deep Roads

[justanotherflemethstan]

my controversial bg3 opinion is that the gauntlet of shar is really not that bad. I've suffered through the fade & the deep roads in DA:O upwards of 20 times. the gauntlet is fine

[crestwood-survivor]

Mythal in the Deep Roads: Deep Descent Ritual Cave

So, I just finished another playthrough of Inquisition and noticed a lot of neat things. One being the creepy ritual cave you can find when you’re going through the Deep Roads for the Deep Descent DLC. It looks like this:

The cave is filled with a bunch of dead Cretahls that have been sacrificed, a bloody altar, bloody symbols written on the walls and ground, etc. It’s in the “Bastion of the Pure” which is the last level before we get inside the Titan, so it is deep beneath Thedas, deeper than the deep roads.

And what is the strangest thing we find here? A statue of Mythal:

I didn’t realize what it was at first because it’s dark in this section of the game, and the statue is busted, but it is 100% a Mythal statue. It’s the same as this one:

Except the statue in the deep roads is missing its head.

The Mythal statue is not he only weird thing in this cave. First, let’s briefly go over what happens as we enter this area. The cave and the tunnel leading to this area have dead Cretahl with designs written in blood on the walls and the ground like this:

When we enter the actual ritual cave, as we approach the altar in the room an arcane horror will appear that we must fight. When the arcane horror appears, our Inquisitor will say “You’re the one behind the rituals!” and the arcane horror will resurrect some of the dead Cretahl to fight us.

After killing the arcane horror, we can get a closer look at the actual altar in the cave:

And also find a sacrificial mug on the altar that gives us this description:

“Sacrificial cup: Those stains don’t look like moss-wine.”

Finally, we have a busted Eluvian:

Except, this one doesn’t look like most of the Eluvians we see in the game; it looks like Merrill's Eluvian:

(I don’t think the Eluvian found here is Merrill’s, another Eluvian like this one can also be found in Morrigan’s study in Halamshiral)

So putting it all together, we have a creepy cave beneath the deep roads just outside of a titan where Cretahls are being sacrificed to an Arcane Horror, and this cave also has a statue of Mythal and a busted Eluvian in it. The only people living down there are the Sha-Brytol, so are they the ones make sacrifices here? What does Mythal and the Eluvian have to do with it?  We know from the Trespasser DLC that the ancient elves were in the deep roads and other Mythal statues can be found there too (I will be making a post about that as well) but those areas look very different compared to this ritual room in the Deep Descent.

[roguetrevelyan]

The Deep Roads.

tap on gifs if they’re showing up blurry

[illusivesoul]

Dragon Age Inquisition Scenery - Valammar

In ancient times the dwarves used the region as a trading post until it fell to the darkspawn. The uppermost layer of the soil has since collapsed, leaving the surface exposed, allowing for a massive waterfall to form. The built up humidity from the water has allowed trees and other flora to flourish about the region.

Architecturally, Valammar is very similar to Orzammar in the sense that the settlement is designed in a series of tiers. The thaig lay docile beneath the Hinterlands unbeknownst to those above. Darkspawn roam freely undisturbed—until the Carta's sudden interest in the abandoned fissure.

[inqvisitor]

the dwarves with guns are back and crashed my game with a vengeance