The following article contains major lore spoilers for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Summary
Cassandra Pentaghast: Seeker of the Inquisition, Hero of Orlais and, potentially, the Divine Victoria. Cassandra has excelled in everything she’s undertaken in life and is undoubtedly an exceptional woman.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Cassandra is potentially one of the only people on Thedas who guessed at the true nature of the blighted dragons before their secret was revealed inDragon Age: The Veilguard.
The True Nature of the Old Gods
As spotted byKaydreamer on Reddit, the dialogue between Solas and Cassandra in Dragon Age: Inquisition foreshadows future revelations in Veilguard about the connection between the Evanuris and the Old Gods.
Cassandra:Solas, the dragon Corypheus commands - could it truly be an Archdemon?
Solas:One assumes that if it were, we would be facing a Blight.
Cassandra:So what is it, then? A corrupted dragon? Simply another darkspawn?
Solas:It is connected to Corypheus. Such a relation goes beyond mere control - it is a bond.
Cassandra:It makes you wonder if that’s all the Archdemons themselves are - pets to beings who no longer exist.
Cassandra managed to intuit the true nature of the Old Gods. It’s revealed in The Veilguard that the Old Gods are ancient high dragons that have been invested with soul fragments from the Evanuris, essentially granting the so-called gods immortality so long as the dragons live. The Evanuris used the Old Gods as proxies to tempt the Tevinter magisters through the Blight, eventually creating the first darkspawn. Among the first corrupted was Corypheus, who became very powerful in his own right.
Cassandra is correct in her guess that each of the Archdemons was attached to a “being who no longer exists,” in this case, a member of the Evanuris. The Archdemon from Dragon Age: Origins, Urthemiel, is revealed in a codex entry from Dragon Age: The Veilguard to have been connected to June, the god of crafts. Should the Warden support Morrigan in her dark ritual, the soul fragment within Urthemiel is transferred to her son, Kieran. This fragment is then extracted by Flemeth, who possesses a fragment of Mythal (another Evanuris), in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Corypheus' method was different. He used the power of the ancient substance red lyrium to corrupt and command a high dragon. It’s almost more impressive that Corypheus managed to achieve the same level of control as an Evanuris with only his own ingenuity and red lyrium.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.
