http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/304/index/8032708
I had started this in another thread, but it was pretty off-topic for that one, and after having spent the day on this I thought it warranted its own thread.
I propose that the Primeval Thaig is part of the remains of Arlathan, which elven legends claim Tevinter made "the ground swallow whole." I know this theory has been brought up before but I've never seen much supporting it beyond "the thaig is old and weird." I did a bit of digging (no pun intended) to find supporting evidence as well as data challenging some of the counterpoints I've seen made against it being Arlathan.
- First and foremost, an item found the thaig that first got me suspicious. "Carved Ring of the Vhenadahl." Vhenadahl is the "tree of the people" that you see in alienages. Like much of elven lore, most of it is forgotten to the world and thus not available to us. All that we're told of the Vhenadahl is that it was said to be a symbol of Arlathan. At the very least, it all but assures us there were elves living in this city.
- Another item you'll find in the thaig is a pair of boots called "Ghillie Brogues." These are a real type of footware. They originated in Scotland and Ireland and made of untanned leather. Their distinguishing feature is that they have holes to drain water out of them after the wearer goes through watery terrain such as a bog. I doubt I need to tell you that there aren't many bogs several miles underground.
- Then there's the infamous lyrium idol itself. Take a good look at it,
here if you wish. There are two figures, one a female standing and another of unknown gender only seen from the torso up and only from the back, with his head against her side and a large circular object behind them. The most glaring oddity of the idol is that these figures are not dwarves. There isn't enough detail to know whether they're elven or human but they are far too tall to be dwarves. Why would the dwarves worship a deity in a human or elven form?
I think it's a good possibility the idol was made to depict an event mentioned in the codex "Elgar'nan: God of Vengeance," which I'll quote for you here:
"
Long ago, when time itself was young, the only things in existence were the sun and the land. The sun, curious about the land, bowed his head close to her body, and Elgar'nan was born in the place where they touched."
Elgar'nan is the closest thing the Elven pantheon has to Zeus. In other words, that scene was the origin of their gods. An argument could certainly be made that the lyrium idol is a representation of that important moment. The woman in the picture stands for the land or Earth, the circular object behind her the sun, and the figure appearing only from the torso-up being Elgar'nan halfway through his creation. Of course, with any art it's a matter of interpretation.
- Finally, there may be a clue in the thaig's trash. In the rest of the Deep Roads trash such as "Weathered Dwarven Clan Pin" is common. In the Primeval Thaig there is none to be found. If you look into the game's data files you'll find the typical Deep Roads trash is categorized under "dwv" clearly for "dwarven." Primeval Thaig trash has a different internal label, "prf." While there are a few so-called dwarven items in the prf trash, they're all marked as "odd" or "strange" unlike dwarven items from the normal Deep Roads.
- The Profane's codex.
We who are forgotten, remember,
We clawed at the rock until our fingers bled,
We cried out for justice, but were unheard,
Our children wept in hunger,
And so we feasted upon the gods.
Here we wait, in aeons of silence.
We few, we profane.
The most interesting parallel I want to point out is to "We cried out for justice, but were unheard." Now read the codex "Arlathan: Part Two." Specifically, this line. "The elves called to their ancient gods, but there was no answer." A striking similarity, no?
There are some other ways to interpret some of this as well. "We who are forgotten" may be a reference to how the Arlathan culture was lost (forgotten) after Tevinter's attacks. God knows it's hard to meet an elf who doesn't refer to their culture as forgotten. "We clawed at rock until our fingers bled." This obviously suggests they were trapped underground. Sure, there could be a tunnel collapse that sealed in a dwarven city. But I would think dwarves would be prepared for that; they did create the Deep Roads after all. Besides, crying out for justice indicates that whatever happened was an intentional attack that trapped them underground (and at a time when even primitive explosives weren't discovered). Tevinter sinking the city would certainly qualify as that.
- This would also explain what Tevinter was doing in Kirkwall with all the blood pools for magical energy. They were gathering the ridiculous amount of magical power required to sink Arlathan. I know the response here, "they were doing that to invade the Golden city." Which brings me to counterpoints.
- Quote the Enigma of Kirkwall, "
Did they seek the Black City to compound the madness of their previous efforts? Or was it something else?" This could be taken a few ways, but it certainly seems to imply that whatever Tevinter did in Kirkwall, it happened after they failed to capture the Golden City.
Also this entry, "
Access has not been easy, and I fear my disguise will not bear great scrutiny. But I saw the records the templars say do not exist. The blood of countless slaves was spilled beneath the city in sacrifice. Whole buildings were built upon lakes of blood. The sewers have grooves where blood would flow, all leading down. The scale is hard to fathom.
A blood mage can channel great power from a simple cut. At least a thousand unfortunates died here every year for centuries. For what ungodly purpose would one need so much power?"
Compare this to the codex "The Cardinal Rules of Magic" (as well as other sources, but that was the easiest I found), "
Similarly, even when you send your mind into the Fade, your body remains behind. Only once has this barrier been overcome, and reputedly the spell required two-thirds of the lyrium in the Tevinter Imperium as well as the lifeblood of several hundred slaves. The results were utterly disastrous." Several hundred slaves. Why would the Chantry lie and claim that Tevinter used several hundred slaves when they actually used perhaps a thousand times that? Unless the interpretation that they already attempted to invade the Golden City was accurate, meaning Tevinter had almost exhausted its vast lyrium reserves on something else so they needed to rely on lakes of blood for this spell.
Lastly regarding the Enigma of Kirkwall, there is this, "
The magisters had hundreds of mages deep below Kirkwall. They lived and researched here, far from the scrutiny of common men.
Many ancient cities specialized in arcane research, but why did Kirkwall hide its efforts here? Why go to such great pains to keep it out of sight? Were they a cabal of renegade magisters? Or was this a special project of the archon?" Whatever they were doing here, they were hiding its preparation. Why hide their attempt to enter the Golden City? But if they were planning to destroy an enemy city, it would make perfect sense to hide their efforts lest the enemy discover their evil plans.
- "But Arlathan was located in a forest north of Antiva." There is indeed a forest there called Arlathan Forest. But I ask, is New England next to England? "Arlathan" translates into "This place I love." It's easy to see such a name being reused. In the "Arlathan: Part One" codex it states that "And at the center of the world stood the great city of Arlathan." It could mean a metaphorical center, certainly. But if we look at a map of all Thedas, you'll note that Kirkwall is not far from the center. More importantly, note the Sundermount codex. "
Legend says it was the site of the final battle between the Tevinter Imperium of old and the ancient empire of elves that perished with Arlathan." If Arlathan was on the nothern coast, why did they make their final stand at a mountain hundreds of miles south, near Kirkwall?
I rarely have much confidence in theorycrafting. But so many things that we didn't understand make sense if this was part of Arlathan...
t:
. However, I don't think this game deserves all the flak it gets or all the unnecessary comparisons to The Witcher 2. Still, I hope for DA3 Bioware thinks more critically about character interactions; for instance.
