TL;DR: In the DAverse, creativity and imagination make you a god. Literally.
What if the Maker is evil, and created Darkspawn/The Blight in order to eliminate the Old Gods one by one after the magisters tried to free them? It would certainly explain the option to save Urthemiel’s soul with Morrigan’s ritual…
That is an interesting theory, because Corypheus indicates that the Golden City was already tainted when they got there.
YES
I hate the Maker and Andraste and this would be AMAZING particularly if the final fight gives you the option to tear them both down.
And omg, all the stupid chantry people’s reaction to their precious Andraste being an evil monster?!
klsdajjklsdhjkdhajksdhkjashjkdsahdjksahdjkashdajksdhjsakd
I’ve actually been saying this for a while - not necessarily that Andraste is evil (or was even more than a Mage fighting for a cause against oppressors - sound familiar?), but that whatever it is in the “Golden City” is actually something that can’t be trusted. Though I’m not sure it’s actually the Maker (I’m not sure there IS an all-powerful Maker, as even DA leaves this as delightfully ambiguous - magic exists, yes, but does He?), but maybe something presenting itself as such. Anyways, yeah, since Legacy came out and Corypheus dropped that little bombshell, I’ve been certain that the Chantry is being played for fools.
It could be a particular Old God that the others locked away, which is why it has such an effect on the others? Maybe even something like a parasite, that causes where it is located to wither up and become diseased (which could be why the Black City is as it is).
It could have lured the Magisters to it with the promise of the Golden city because it wanted out.
(I’m personally of the notion that a lot of what the world believes about Andraste is mythologized - the same way I feel about Jesus, if he existed. An excellent fellow, ahead of his time, but built up over 2000 years and presented as something he was not. As such, I wouldn’t classify her as “an evil monster” just like I wouldn’t call Christ “a fucking bastard” because of what folks are doing in his name right now).
The Maker is so made up. Srsly.
Personally I’d actually be sort of disappointed if the DA mythos comes down to any kind of good-guys vs. bad-guys fight; I do like it when it’s more ambiguous. And there’s nothing more ambiguous than things that are made up! (Which is why I liked it better when the Black/Golden City was potentially not “real” per se.)
WARNING! Total personal headcanon time (but this is my writing blog so you’ll have to deal):
IMO the closest thing the DAverse has to actual gods are Abominations. I mean, you’ve essentially got a being described as having the ability to create anything but lacking the imagination to do so, combined with one that has the ability to imagine anything but the inability to create it. So what’re you left with? Something that has both the imagination and the means to do… whatever the goddamn hell it wants.
It’s just a shame about the, erm, side effects.
Corollary #1: This is also what I think things like the Old Gods, Flemeth, and (potentially) Morrigan’s Baby and the Dalish gods are; incarnated spirits that’ve reached some degree of stability between their two halves. I think it takes a certain personality type — for both the spirit and the host — for this to work: Your standard in-game abomination is a “failed” god whose spirit/host was too weak or too incompatible with the desires of their other half or… whatever. Not quite the right mix. So someone like Anders could go wither way: Letting go of his humanity and becoming either a true “god” of Justice/Vengeance… or refusing and being consumed by the power and alien emotions. (FWIW I think friendship!Anders is potentially more the former while rivalry!Anders is the latter. They’re both a bit borderline, but I think r!Anders is more so and — if he’s not killed by Hawke — will be doomed by his eventual rejection of Justice… But this is possibly just my Team Justice!Anders showing.)
Corollary #2: Mages, by this definition, are demigods of a sort: They have a connection to the Fade but it’s not as powerful or direct as an abomination’s (q.v. Anders and Karl in the Chantry, especially in relation to the now-canon-I-think cure for Tranquility which, for the record, I totally had in the prelims for Rabbit Heart: Legacy before it was official, hah!). One of the biggest methods of control the Circles have is essentially the way they codify magic into schools and spells; by turning magic from whatever-you-can-imagine into rote-learning-of-this-but-not-that they remove most of the power of it. Hence why Wynne is a different sort of “failed god” to your usual abomination: She doesn’t have the contentious relationship with her spirit-half that causes “grr arrgh”, but she doesn’t have the imagination/will, after so long in the Circle, to truly capitalise on her new power either. (For the record, I also think “Wynnes” are a lot more common than anyone is prepared to admit…)
Corollary #3: The “imagination thing” is where I think a lot of blood magic’s power comes from, especially given it seems a bit contentious in the canon as to whether magic cast with blood rather than mana is intrinsically somehow different, or is “just” drawing off a different energy source. Blood magic “suddenly” gives Jowan the ability to take down a room full of templars not because it’s intrinsically more powerful than “normal” magic, but because for the first time he truly believes he has the ability to do whatever he can imagine.
Corollary #4: This is also why I think the Tevinter magisters are nowadays, despite their fearsome reputations, pretty weak; their magic is just as creatively-stunted as your average Circle mage’s, just in a different sort of way. The problem in Tevinter is that the mundanity of blood magic means that gets negatively affected too, in a way it doesn’t in lands dominated by the teachings of the Orlesian Chantry. I think this degeneration is something that’s happened over time; q.v. the difference between someone like Corypheus and someone like Danarius. Tevinter is a failing Empire, and that’s reflected in the paucity of its mages.
Thought: What would the effect of all of the above be on the Qunari mages? Weakness due to the Qun’s general focus on order and disapproval of individuality… or uncontrollably extreme power due to the fact it teaches mages are explosive monsters? I think I like the latter more; it’s more darkly ironic. (Now that is my all-around loathing for the Qunari and their nightmarish, 1984-esque religion/society showing…)
Like I said: Total headcanon, but… it works for me (YMMV). At least until it all gets jossed. /sigh
