As I said in the video, I do *not* believe any of this time travel stuff was the *intention* when the game/book was written. This theory is just an in-lore explanation for a few plot inconsistencies. I believe it matches well, and in my opinion, makes the events of the book a lot more interesting.
@@TheKingdomEntertainment it actually does :p definitely adds more interesting features and dynamics to the book and to th DA universe as a whole :D awesome vid man great treat after a long day at work :D
The Blights have always been one of my favourite things about the Dragon Age series, just the idea of a war that will keep coming back and placing everything on the verge of extinction. It's incredible, both incredible and terrifying at the same time. It's also a massive mystery which definately intrigued me
I love this type of thing. Writer probably just messed up but obsessed fans run with it making things not only make more sense but also adding to the world as a whole.
I'm actually hoping this is true. I've been wondering why the Blights have been shorter, the 4th being the shortest of the time by a lot. It cough also explain how Isseya knew the magic to keep the remaining Griffin eggs in incubation for the next few hundred years. Sending them forward in time as she and her bother had gone back. AND we know time magic exists. Alexius did it! The only thing stopping him from going back farther to save his son and stop the inquisitor's interruption was the power of The Breach. This is starting to line up.
if this theory weren't so thoroughly enjoyable while simultaneously grim in its alt-timeline implications, i'd argue that Garahel attracted a mage!kossith's attentions & Shenanigans Happened THAT way. given how The Qun treats mages, i've always assumed that the Kossith had some form of Tevinter or Arlathan-esque approaches to magic. Fadewalking across continents is something the ancient elves very probably did so kossith may have retained some level of knowledge of the Elvhen tongue. given the presence of ogres in pre-Qunari Blights, some explorers/refugees/scouts from the kossith homeland must have quietly existed at various points & locales in Thedas history. there is mention of non-Thedas sea-voyaging dwarves from east of Thedas who traded with Thedas, nope'd out, then returned to trading with Thedas just as abruptly. refugee/kossith-adjacent settlements may have arrived in Thedas THATAWAYS too. the way Garahel joked about his Encounter implies it's a story he's told before & with "success": others have heard and UNDERSTOOD what Garahel was saying regardless of whether the encounter happened at all. the sheer scale of slaughter in Blights mean that records of trade, settlements, knowledge, and other hugely useful information are periodically destroyed, lost, or forgotten. none of the above explain the use of "qunari" instead of "kossith", however though i DO believe that The Qun were Keen on conquering Thedas both to Get The Heck Away from KOSSITH-kossith but also because they KNEW of Thedas via the magical wastage/exploits of ancient elves having created a method of information exchange WELL before the qunari decided to flee to Thedas. the abrupt appearance of The Veil plus the sudden radio silence from elves would have encouraged the first Qunari that Thedas was "Up For Grabs", so to speak. They may even have had pre-existing awareness of the early Tevinter Imperium and been able to anticipate its response to invaders. ...but, yeah, Doomed Timelines just GEL with Blights and blood magics and elves and ANYTHING that can aid in ending a Blight is Free Game to most Wardens so. Time Travel? definitely More Than Plausible!
i think its very possible that instead of time travel, they were able to contact spirits who had seen or communicated with Qunari/Kossith yeah i know grey wardens dont typically talk to spirits/vice versa but that would make sense qunari is possibly a word that existed within the kossith peoples and then became a widespread term after first contact
So I tried to find you on twitter to no avail. So I'm posting this on some of your DA videos in the hope that you see it. I apologize if this isn't the way to go about it, but I just wanted you to know that I stumbled upon an awesome reddit post on the Dragon Age subreddit (www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/f4gf7q/spoilers_all_blood_magic_and_phylacteries/) that began with an interesting musing on the nature of Blood Magic and the Circle's Phylacteries and, in the comments, the spiraled into a really cool discussion about the Joining and Blood Magic! One person brings up GE Fiona, the artificial nature of the Qunari, and the First Blight. The other person brings up Blight Magic, Lyrium, and Darkspawn behavior! It's all really fascinating and has my mind abuzz about possible Blood Magic/Grey Warden lore! Again, sorry if this is an intrusive or impolite way to bring this to your attention. I read the thread and immediately thought "This guy has to read this, too!" and couldn't find you on Twitter.
I like this theory, it's fun, but the line about the Qunari and the thing about the spyglass were most likely mistakes on the writer's part and not put there on purpose lol
I believe that Garahel could be an elf god in a similar way to Flemeth and Mythal, if you think about it he's the only gray guard who's defeated an achdemon in singular combat
Nah the writer simply fucked up. The book is canon but the dialogue of Garahel is non-canon. Simple fix is the legends about him have bullshit in them. People thought Ameridan was an Orlesian Warrior instead of an Dalish Elvhen Mage...It's not hard to believe they'd get other historical figures wrong like what they say.
perfectly badass af as usual maybe he is an ancient elf who had better knowledge or maybe some of the t Tal Vashoth did come to thedas but also its possible he was sent back with time magic
Lol... Great vid, love the sleuthing. My first thoughts - . 1.I don't want time travel in my Dragon Age though!..... 2. Thinks back to siding with mages...oh crap... its already there... >.
Really, this is just a plausible explanation for some narrative inconsistencies. I do think time travel has the potential to be dome well in Dragon Age, but I agree it should be kept to a minimum.
might have missed this, but the wc;s response is problematic. he snorts instead of asking "as what now?" the text strongly implies the wc knows what a qunari is... so i think this might have just been a lore mistake by the author?
"And then I thought: if that can't be bw considered canon, how can I take anything in this book as canon?" {experiences massive consternation about linking you to fanfic that attempts to follow canon}
@@TheKingdomEntertainment this somehow does not relieve my mind LOL I get it, though. Some of the "magic rules" and "psi rules" in the two canon universes drive me up a wall. That's the kind of stuff I find myself trying to smooth over when I write in them. You mentioned the lyrium issues (I personally found climbing all over red lyrium in DAI to be the biggest mood breaker so far in Dragon Age) but Bioware made so many weird choices with biotic canon in ME that it's hard not to draw parallels.
DA:I establishes that the Qunari were enslaved by the Tevinter long ago and the original blood sacrifice to enter the Golden City, not elves, so maybe they were known back during the Fourth Blight but got erased from history.
As I said in the video, I do *not* believe any of this time travel stuff was the *intention* when the game/book was written. This theory is just an in-lore explanation for a few plot inconsistencies.
I believe it matches well, and in my opinion, makes the events of the book a lot more interesting.
You know someone messed up in writing/editing that book when time travel is the most logical explanation to the plot holes :p
While it fills the plot holes, I say it also makes a lot of the events in the book way better XD
@@TheKingdomEntertainment it actually does :p definitely adds more interesting features and dynamics to the book and to th DA universe as a whole :D awesome vid man great treat after a long day at work :D
I love how this entire theory comes from a little joke Garahel made.
The Blights have always been one of my favourite things about the Dragon Age series, just the idea of a war that will keep coming back and placing everything on the verge of extinction. It's incredible, both incredible and terrifying at the same time. It's also a massive mystery which definately intrigued me
I love this type of thing. Writer probably just messed up but obsessed fans run with it making things not only make more sense but also adding to the world as a whole.
I'm actually hoping this is true. I've been wondering why the Blights have been shorter, the 4th being the shortest of the time by a lot. It cough also explain how Isseya knew the magic to keep the remaining Griffin eggs in incubation for the next few hundred years. Sending them forward in time as she and her bother had gone back. AND we know time magic exists. Alexius did it! The only thing stopping him from going back farther to save his son and stop the inquisitor's interruption was the power of The Breach. This is starting to line up.
It seems that the author here is the time traveller making the rookie time traveller mistakes. 🤨
Screen goes black - “this is my brain”.
I see. :D thanks for the video.
You know, it's funny how introducing time travel as a genuine possibility in Inquisition opens up all sorts of fun ways to fix plot holes. . .
if this theory weren't so thoroughly enjoyable while simultaneously grim in its alt-timeline implications, i'd argue that Garahel attracted a mage!kossith's attentions & Shenanigans Happened THAT way.
given how The Qun treats mages, i've always assumed that the Kossith had some form of Tevinter or Arlathan-esque approaches to magic. Fadewalking across continents is something the ancient elves very probably did so kossith may have retained some level of knowledge of the Elvhen tongue.
given the presence of ogres in pre-Qunari Blights, some explorers/refugees/scouts from the kossith homeland must have quietly existed at various points & locales in Thedas history. there is mention of non-Thedas sea-voyaging dwarves from east of Thedas who traded with Thedas, nope'd out, then returned to trading with Thedas just as abruptly. refugee/kossith-adjacent settlements may have arrived in Thedas THATAWAYS too.
the way Garahel joked about his Encounter implies it's a story he's told before & with "success": others have heard and UNDERSTOOD what Garahel was saying regardless of whether the encounter happened at all.
the sheer scale of slaughter in Blights mean that records of trade, settlements, knowledge, and other hugely useful information are periodically destroyed, lost, or forgotten.
none of the above explain the use of "qunari" instead of "kossith", however though i DO believe that The Qun were Keen on conquering Thedas both to Get The Heck Away from KOSSITH-kossith but also because they KNEW of Thedas via the magical wastage/exploits of ancient elves having created a method of information exchange WELL before the qunari decided to flee to Thedas. the abrupt appearance of The Veil plus the sudden radio silence from elves would have encouraged the first Qunari that Thedas was "Up For Grabs", so to speak. They may even have had pre-existing awareness of the early Tevinter Imperium and been able to anticipate its response to invaders.
...but, yeah, Doomed Timelines just GEL with Blights and blood magics and elves and ANYTHING that can aid in ending a Blight is Free Game to most Wardens so. Time Travel? definitely More Than Plausible!
i think its very possible that instead of time travel, they were able to contact spirits who had seen or communicated with Qunari/Kossith
yeah i know grey wardens dont typically talk to spirits/vice versa but that would make sense
qunari is possibly a word that existed within the kossith peoples and then became a widespread term after first contact
Finally another one of your videos, jesus christ i need them now
Now after coming to the end of the video: great job. I dont know what else there is left to say :D
interesting theory. But that strange joke Garahel made was most likely a plot hole and not time travel.
So I tried to find you on twitter to no avail. So I'm posting this on some of your DA videos in the hope that you see it. I apologize if this isn't the way to go about it, but I just wanted you to know that I stumbled upon an awesome reddit post on the Dragon Age subreddit (www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/f4gf7q/spoilers_all_blood_magic_and_phylacteries/) that began with an interesting musing on the nature of Blood Magic and the Circle's Phylacteries and, in the comments, the spiraled into a really cool discussion about the Joining and Blood Magic! One person brings up GE Fiona, the artificial nature of the Qunari, and the First Blight. The other person brings up Blight Magic, Lyrium, and Darkspawn behavior! It's all really fascinating and has my mind abuzz about possible Blood Magic/Grey Warden lore! Again, sorry if this is an intrusive or impolite way to bring this to your attention. I read the thread and immediately thought "This guy has to read this, too!" and couldn't find you on Twitter.
Completely off topic, but I love your voice.
Thank you!
I like this theory, it's fun, but the line about the Qunari and the thing about the spyglass were most likely mistakes on the writer's part and not put there on purpose lol
I believe that Garahel could be an elf god in a similar way to Flemeth and Mythal, if you think about it he's the only gray guard who's defeated an achdemon in singular combat
He's either an elven god, or a Mary Sue.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Nah the writer simply fucked up. The book is canon but the dialogue of Garahel is non-canon. Simple fix is the legends about him have bullshit in them. People thought Ameridan was an Orlesian Warrior instead of an Dalish Elvhen Mage...It's not hard to believe they'd get other historical figures wrong like what they say.
Imagine telling the author a book that he's wrong about his own book.
I think the writer just didn't know Dragon as comprehensive as they are supposed to.
perfectly badass af as usual
maybe he is an ancient elf who had better knowledge or maybe some of the t Tal Vashoth did come to thedas but also its possible he was sent back with time magic
Very interesting theory!
Lol... Great vid, love the sleuthing. My first thoughts - . 1.I don't want time travel in my Dragon Age though!..... 2. Thinks back to siding with mages...oh crap... its already there... >.
Really, this is just a plausible explanation for some narrative inconsistencies. I do think time travel has the potential to be dome well in Dragon Age, but I agree it should be kept to a minimum.
Pretty neat stuf
might have missed this, but the wc;s response is problematic. he snorts instead of asking "as what now?" the text strongly implies the wc knows what a qunari is... so i think this might have just been a lore mistake by the author?
I talk about that in the description.
& yes, I know this wasn't the intention. This theory is just a lore explanation *for* the mistake.
@@TheKingdomEntertainment gotcha :)
Time travels? Is this an out of season april fools joke?
"And then I thought: if that can't be bw considered canon, how can I take anything in this book as canon?"
{experiences massive consternation about linking you to fanfic that attempts to follow canon}
I just mean it bothers me when something breaks the rules or timeline. As long as things make sense, I'm all for it 😅
@@TheKingdomEntertainment this somehow does not relieve my mind LOL
I get it, though. Some of the "magic rules" and "psi rules" in the two canon universes drive me up a wall. That's the kind of stuff I find myself trying to smooth over when I write in them. You mentioned the lyrium issues (I personally found climbing all over red lyrium in DAI to be the biggest mood breaker so far in Dragon Age) but Bioware made so many weird choices with biotic canon in ME that it's hard not to draw parallels.
But are all Qunaris kossith? That... is the real question...
DA:I establishes that the Qunari were enslaved by the Tevinter long ago and the original blood sacrifice to enter the Golden City, not elves, so maybe they were known back during the Fourth Blight but got erased from history.
This better be in DA-Veilguard 🥸 (joking)