The Golden City

[DSharrah]

If you know anything about the background and lore of DA it should be how the blights came to be...boiled down to its most basic form, the Magisters learned some magic from the Old Gods that was to allow them to enter the "Golden City" and attain its power.

Theory time!

This takes this basic piece of back story and ties it into some of the other things that you can learn about the lore.  My supposition is that the Magisters were tricked.  "The Old Gods" were not kindly trying to help the Magisters gain power, but were trying to procure their own escape.

If you are aware of the story of Fen'Harel, he tricked both clans of Gods (Creators and Forgotten Ones) and trapped them in sepearte realms.  The "heavens" and the "abyss".

Most in the Chantry associate the "Golden City" with the "heavens"...I would posit that there is an equal counterpart in the "abyss"...a "Black City".

My theory would have the Creators trapped in the "Golden City" and the Forgotten Ones trapped in the "Black City". It would also assume that the Forgotten Ones are the "Old Gods" that so influenced the magisters of Tevinter.  My guess is that while trapped in their respective "prisons" these Gods could still influence the world (perhaps through the fade - illustrated by the difference between "spirits" and "demons").  Now the Forgotten Ones (malevolent assholes that they are) would seek to find a way back into the world.  But they would do so through deceit...by promising power they tricked the Magisters into thinking that they would be going to commune with kind, generous, Creators in the Golden City.  But the true objective was to have them open a way into the Black City - creating a way for the Olds Gods to escape back into the world that they had once been banished from.  And given that the objective was always to prey upon the world and wreak havoc and destruction - the world was gifted the blights.

What do you think?

[ericformans_sisterisdead]

[Rifneno]

I've always felt the Black City was some leftover of the ancient elven empire.

The ancient elves were not as benevolent as the Dalish paint them.  Tevinter basically went nuclear on Arlathan.  You don't nuke a city that you can easily rape and pillage and plunder.  Tevinter didn't just give up on countless slaves and unknown riches by utterly removing Arlathan from the face of the planet because it'd sound cooler to history.  They did it because whatever the elves were into scared the shit out of even Tevinter's blood mage empire.

Legend says the ancient elves were immortal in the sense that they could not die of aging.
Legend says that all ancient elves had magic.
You may recognize these two gifts the elves are missing as two gifts the darkspawn have (although most aren't smart enough to figure out how to use magic, I'm positive I read that they all have access to it).  Seems a mighty odd coincidence that there wouldn't be a connection there.

Lastly, the ancient elves were said to spend centuries at a time in the Fade.  Of course the golden/black city is theirs.  Why wouldn't the elves have a home-away-from-home?  The only question in mind is whether it became the unspeakable atrocity that it is by way of neglect (i.e. it turned corrupt and tainted without its masters around to care for it) or if it was a form of MAD (i.e. the elves intentionally sabotaged it knowing humans would have to deal with the unspeakable corruption).

One thing I can guarantee you is that the oil city (my nickname for it that never caught on... see, black gold is oil so both are... nevermind) is not the work of the "Maker".  One of the things they said VERY early on about dragon age, one of the core aspects, is that whether the Maker is real would never be established one way or another.  Unless they decide to change whatever their original plans were for the city, then the Maker won't factor into it.  And if they gave us an answer on why the Reapers reap, they're definitely going to give us an answer on the Black City one day.

[ZerebusPrime]

I intend to ask the big bad (dragon?  demon dragon?) from the Fade who appears to be our primary antagonist in DA:Inquisition.  His monologue in one of the recent trailers sounded rather Old-God-esque.

And speaking of demons, I'm surprised we have't seen more blight-infected demons given the way the Black City can project its corruption. The closest we've gotten are blighted werewolves in DA:Awakening. For that matter, I'm surprised we haven't seen the Black City corrupting dreamers.

[Rifneno]

I intend to ask the big bad (dragon?  demon dragon?) from the Fade who appears to be our primary antagonist in DA:Inquisition.  His monologue in one of the recent trailers sounded rather Old-God-esque.

And speaking of demons, I'm surprised we have't seen more blight-infected demons given the way the Black City can project its corruption.  The closest we've gotten are blighted werewolves in DA:Awakening.  For that matter, I'm surprised we haven't seen the Black City corrupting dreamers.

Just remember how much Bioware let us question the last old god we met.

[ZerebusPrime]

*shudder*

Anyway, my point is that whatever we learn about The Elder One in DA:I could greatly impact our discussion here.

...or not at all. I couldn't take another ME3-style nonreveal.

[RavenEyry]

Just remember how much Bioware let us question the last old god we met.

There's no time to explain!

Why not?

If we delay the crucible will be destroyed!

If you're the reaper's boss, why not stop them attacking if you're so worried?

........it is not a thing you can comprehend.

[DSharrah]

Rif

That's a fair theory as well...but Corphyeus's dialogue does seem to suggest that it was Dumat that "led" the magister's in the quest to break into the city...so do you think that the "Old Gods" are just the most powerful of the elves - or are they something else that is in cahoots with the elves?

And how would this tie into your theory that the Lost Thaig in DA2 is actually sunken Arlathan?

[GethJuggernautMKII]

Rif strikes an excellent point when he compares the traits the elves have lost with what the darkspawn possess. Perhaps whatever force governs the fade and the Black City punished the elves as harshly as it did those who sought to destroy them. Whatever happened, the elves were robbed of great gifts that the darkspawn seem to now possess.

Its speculated by the lore that contact with humans made the elves mortal, and weakened them. There has to be more to it than that. Could the corrupting power of the blight have been what caused the elves to lose their gifts?

[GethJuggernautMKII]

I intend to ask the big bad (dragon?  demon dragon?) from the Fade who appears to be our primary antagonist in DA:Inquisition.  His monologue in one of the recent trailers sounded rather Old-God-esque.

And speaking of demons, I'm surprised we have't seen more blight-infected demons given the way the Black City can project its corruption.  The closest we've gotten are blighted werewolves in DA:Awakening.  For that matter, I'm surprised we haven't seen the Black City corrupting dreamers.

The relationship between demons and darkspawn is an odd one to say the least. It's almost as if demons avoid anything associated with the blight. Its odd that one never encounters a blight corrupted demon, as you mentioned, or a demon possessed darkspawn. One would think that given the magic potential that exists in all darkspawn ( I'm with Rif on this one, I swear I've read this somewhere), they'd be prime targets for possession.

Demons in the fade go out of their way to avoid the Black City. Avernus's notes in Soldier's Peak suggest that the taint is alien to the demons. Whatever the taint is, demons want nothing to do with it.

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