The human architecture of the temple might have something to do with the fact that the high magisterial like corypheus and the architect were in contact with the false gods. The magisterial even sacrificed elven slaves for them. The statues were kept but only renamed, their eleven origin was kept secret and only known to the higher in rank. Why else would Corypheus be looking for Artifacts of such knows their magic and so on. The Empire was lured in by one of the Elven gods, Dumat. They were probably told to become gods themselves once they were to enter the golden city and bask in glory. but all they found was death, and corrption. They fought for their lives and called out to Dumat (Elven name unknown), he answered their calling and lead them to their dragon guardian, where they have sealed parts of their soul into. But the dragon must have been already corrupted or corrupted by the desperate Tevinters. The First Archedemon was born and furled by its rage and blighted mind it went on full assault on the living wishing to destroy everything. Reminds me of the bhagavad vita; "and now I shall become death". Also I belive the humans to have been rather primal tribes roaming the places in lumps raiding the fields like brutes. The Elvhen after the false might have crossed breed with I'm and brought them parts of their culture. Probably already weakened by broken veil, after all most of them depended on magic and became of "trabquil", absolutely helpless and cowering creatures, raided by humans, breeding with the Elves brought humans magic into their blood, so lines in which magic appears wih in humans are related to the Elvhen. The human uga uga's probably were also equipped wih better brains, that's why they were suddenly able to format. The Elven blood must have made the Tecibters also more prone to the co troll of the again Elvhen God's. ×_× ok hopefully it is still understandable.

The way the Avvar talk about the fade, spirits and their beliefs aligns very much with Solas' thoughts and beliefs. Perhaps the paintings with the bear and antlered person is a representation of Avvar/Elvhen relations?

One big piece of the puzzle. The Chantry. It's been erasing history all over Thedas. Trust that the Imperial chantry wouldn't act much differently and that the elves were definitely affected. Another thing. What Tamelen seemed to have thought was Human architecture might have been Elven.Keep in mind that they have no idea what pre-quickening architecture looks like. They probably think that humans build stone fortress' and elves live in trees. But we saw that elves used stone in the construction of the Altar of Mythal in the temple of sacred ashes and in the temple of Mythal. Tamlen has no knowledge of elven architecture except for Aravels.He's a bad source to judge who makes what.

If you get Sera's approval high enough, you get an option of a "friendly chat" that takes place on a roof. There are about five different short scenes that can be triggered after that, one of them being her reciting the first two lines of the poem, I think. When she finishes, she says something along the lines "It's poetry because of the w's and shit" in her usual fashion. Barring any fun theories about her unknowlingly carrying a part of Andruil, it's likely she learned the lullaby in Denerim as you just showed us in this video. Sera also tries to recall the first part of the poem in Redcliffe dungeons (and thanks to the red lyrium corruption, she has a hard time of it) as you approach her. I really enjoy your videos, so thanks for that. ;)

In Dragon Age Inquisition Corypheus says (and I paraphrase)"once I entered into the Fade on behalf of another to serve the old gods directly." If Corypheus really is one of the original magisters to enter the fade and corrupt the golden city, and he did it on behalf of the leader of the imperium, then perhaps the Imperium worshipped the lost old gods of the elves, worship of the maker didn't start until Andraste came around, raised and army and overthrew the imperium.

So super late to the commenting party but thought I would just drop something down. Firstly I like your theory and you have lots of interesting points to back up an elven human relationship earlier on. To add to your points it is super interesting to look at the geography of Thedas. It is mostly a "circle" that is surrounded by impassable areas. To the west you have a mountain range that I don't think anyone has crossed. To the south is the world's south pole. To both the north and east are extremely stormy oceans that trapped both the Tevinter and Qunari in Thedas. Tevinter humans settled in the north but alamarri humans came from the west. I also believe somewhere in the world of Thedas some dwarven traders came from the north-west to the Anderfels. This geography point is interesting because you have a "world" that is surrounded by hostile physical landmarks that is inhabited by elves. All the other races seem to come in by breaking through these barriers and settling in Thedas. You could also begin to look at and tie this entire geography thing into why the veil is weak in possibly just the area that is Thedas. Also your two timeline points are fascinating with the 1905 TE (humans arrive) and 1655 TE (elves begin to age), and then connecting that to the poem. The end of the poem seems to hint at when Solas (will use his name since it is easier to write then Fen'harel) entered his sleep. Somewhere in this time is when the veil in Thedas was created since Solas hints that it once didn't exist and even the Chant says it didn't exist at one point. So Solas created the veil to end the war with The Forgotten Ones and this put a resistor to magic which is possibly what started the elves aging. The end of the poem then says that "we wastrels warred." This could mean the non-god elves and humans who remained after the veil was created. This shock of the veil being created, the possible war with a blight, and then the continued fighting between possibly followers of the now dead or trapped gods would have weakened the elven empire and sown seeds of distrust between humans and elves. This weakened state would allow the Tevinter Imperium to march in and swiftly overrun the southern lands of Thedas. It also adds a nice bit of interesting idea to that timeline where Tevinter didn't know about the elves till later on. A side note though that makes this theory a bit unstalbe unless you assume that humans are arriving as a stated earlier, is that OGB Keiran clearly makes a distinction that elven blood is old. So if humans and elves were coexisting then why would this distinction need to be made? As a final side note it ads an interesting character perspective to Corypheus and his motivations. As high-priest of Tevinter's chief god he would possibly know that Tevinter overran a disparity group of already broken petty kingdoms, dukedoms, and tribes. He would see the Tevinter Imperium as a force of order and stability. Cue thousand year sleep and he wakes up to a world where Tevinter has fallen and humans have broken into the very thing that was overrun (a bunch of little kingdoms hating each other). So Corypheus isn't so much a madman (still totally mad) as he just sees himself as bringing stability and order to a ruined chaotic world. It further ads perspective to why he despises elves so much because all he would have seen of them would be ruined kingdoms and cities that were fighting each other.

I'd like to think that as the Human tribes spread across Thedas they lived with relative peace with the elves and that in some areas they were close trading partners or even part of elven society to an extent and some may have worshiped their gods. (There would have been interracial marriages because they found out that elf-human pairings only produce human children) After the quickening was discovered humans would have been expelled and the elves would hide. then after the quickening humans forgot about elves and only legends remained. Which is why the Imperium "re discovered" elves. It is likely that the practice of accepting humans into elven society was a rare and regional thing as Soals states that he "had little dealings with your*human* kind" Maybe the Elves in the Brecilian ruin were unique?

i think humans and elves share a common ancestry. humans could have been a genetic mutation/evolution after the ancient elves/anduril came into contact with the blight, or possibly as a result of solas creating the veil. humans and elves share many similar traits and both races are able to procreate with each other, although their offspring are always human.

Thank you for pointing me to this video. I absolutely love your theories. You really base them on "real" evidence, and don't make big jumps to prove what you believe. I cannot wait to see more!

yes sera does read that poem and she says something like this after... " it's poetry ya know, because of w's and Shit"

9:30 it was said that it's not human ruins, but human architecture; it means they were built by humans at the very least

man i gotta love a game what is this complex first was wow and now dragon age and just notice how very complex dragon age is. its complex in lore just as wow is got to love complexity.

Solas: "I do not believe they sing songs about falon din's vanity. They say that Falon Din's appetite for adulation was so great, he began wars to amass more worshippers. The blood of those who wouldn't bow low filled lakes as wide as oceans. Mythal rallied the gods once the shadow of falon din's hunger streched across her own people. It was almost too late. Falon Din' only surrendered when his brethren bloodied him in his own temple." Could this be that temple? "Most tales paint Falon Din's stubborness only second to his self regard." He also said "one does not kill a god lightly, even in legend" which goes against the fact that he said he didn't believe the elven gods, were actually GODS. It's totally possible that these people were subjugated by Falon Din, and he has something to do with the blight.

Awesome vid I love these

Hi, I'm back. In retrospect, I will remind everyone that my theory is Arlathan was not the only Elven civilization on Thedas. That seems crazy to me. Instead, Arlathan was an empire that conquered other Elvish peoples. Some elves fled to the human settlements, and lived among them. (Hence the elves living in human ruins.) The "Quickening" may not have been caused by humans. Because so much has been lost, I take all accounts of ancient history with a spoonful of salt. (For the record, I don't believe the story. I think it was merely an excuse to keep elves away from the humans.) Soon enough, the fugitive elves assimilated into human life, making statues of their gods. (These were the elven statues.) However, I think these were statues of the Forgotten Ones, not the Creators. (In my theory, the Forgotten Ones were the gods of non-Elvhenan elves.) The styles were merely similar, due to years of cultural influence from Arlathan. Overtime, the humans adopted these gods as their own, learning Elvish magic as well. They warred against their former oppressors, and forgot their own elvish origins. In other words, this hybrid people became Tevinter. They rewrote the history, claiming they had no contact with the elves to hide their roots.

I think that a war with Gods would expand all of Thedas. So any humans in Thedas would suffer effects of the war as well. As for the elves and humans being friendly, it's very possible. The quickening started to happen because elves where trading with humans, which would imply some type of friendly ties.

The Falon'Din statues are also found in the fade in origins. Might just be spirits mimicking what they see beyond the fade, might be related, or lazy devs. I feel like it's related though as Falon'Din is a god of death and who helps people pass through the fade into the beyond. Many people like the qunari and Andrastians believe the fade to be the land of the dead or a place you pass through once you have died, seems appropriate that you would find his statues in the fade. Perhaps he was a key player in creating the veil?

there is another one of those elven statues in kinloch hold, in the repository with the tevinter statue that speaks to you on jowans philactory quest

4:00 - humans made contact with elves, then elves withdrew from them, then after thousands of years elves became just a legend, and humans didnt believe in them, until Tevinter noticed them again

6:17 "he was one of the old gods" OLD GODS ARE EVANURIS CONFIRMED lol

My theory always was that those status where war prize, trophy looted from conquests

girltriesgames thanks for another great video :) I would like to ask you though, what do the statues of Ghilan'nain mean, especially where there are two of them?

also if you have not made a video for use who is curious on how long solas/dread wolf slept make one would be very good.

What if the most ancient elves were some type of common ancestor type of deal? It was hinted by Iron Bull that the Kossith (or at least the matriarchs) tampered with their blood to change them. Bare with me; I suspect that the Kossith may have been a kind of elf as well, but even if they weren't, it seems likely that they got the knowledge of how to manipulate genetics from somewhere. The quickening caused them (elves and humans) to separate, so they might look pretty different by the time the 'Vints arrived, if the loss of the quickening and magic was involved. Solas states that the Tevinter built on the "bones of his people", and the implication from the full conversation is that he means by more than just taking elven slaves. So, maybe the Kossith got their knowledge from the ancient elves like the 'Vints, and the humans are a result of the elves using some kind of magic (the type the matriarchs used) to try and prevent the quickening or create an immunity to the blight. The Dwarves being immune to magic could mean that they came from an all together different ancestor race; the elves, humans, and qunari can all use magic though, implying some kind of connection between those three races (which could be explained by their ancestors being immortal elves who "lived and breathed magic"). This probably way more sci-fi than fantasy, admittedly, but a fun thought to entertain.

A woman after my own heart.

The chapter on the watch time bar says Brazilian instead of Brecilian. 😂

What if mythal was andraste

can humans be a race of elves?

So glad u're back :) Here the poem :) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nNWFi6WWp5uvn2g.html