Chapter 3

Sometimes I wonder if I should even write this book. I mean the nobles across the land pay me well to produce their lies, so why would I want to do the truth? I have lived a very long life, all on the surface. I have seen kingdoms come and go, heroes rise and fall, villains redeem themselves, and experienced love and loss, Oh Kara how I miss you so mu….Bah! Why I ramble on like this, let alone put it to writing I do not know. All I know is I seek what knowledge is hidden and absorb it as much as I can. I will put these truths out there for others to judge, study or cast in the flames.

As the Tevinter Imperium spread throughout Thedas, the Archons and the Magisters ruled with complete authority. They took over the land of the elves and renamed it Thedas. But holding such a great land was easier said than done. First the elves were driven into servitude; slavery became just as good as gold. Next was crushing any last elven or human rebellions, and finally watching your own back as others sought your throne. One such early downfall, interestingly, would be were I am currently writing this – Ferelden. The elves had called this land Brecilia after its Princess. She was the daughter of High King Shey and was expected to eventually succeed him on the throne. She was a fair and just ruler, and made peace with all around her. Hers was a true elven kingdom as the humans had not come to her lands as the travel was far. She knew of the uneasiness that some of her people felt of the humans and was glad she did not have to deal with such people, yet.

Then one day she felt the loss of magic for an instance and knew something was horribly wrong. She alerted her generals and mounted their defenses. She sent out messengers to her father and had her mages try to figure out what had gone wrong. Many months passed with no news as the messengers did not return and her mages were still at a loss. Suddenly a guard shouted that someone was at the gates. They were two figures in wondrous robes, mages from the look of them, but not elves. Could they be humans? Offering news from her father and gifts as was custom, she agreed with an audience with them, of course with a full regiment of guards and her fellow mages. The two introduced themselves as Magisters Spal Thar and Gemma Acnon. They told her of a great rebellion at the Golden City and how her father had fallen in battle. Princess Brecilia was in shock and asked if the City was still standing. The two mages grinned and replied yes and that all would be well as soon as Brecilia fell in line. The battle in Brecilia took only three months. A small handful of Tevinter Mages would crush Brecilia and slay the Princess. They would only be stopped by a last minute effort by elven mages opening the veil in the great forest. This of course would destroy both sides. The Tevinter Archon decided that this land was now of little consequence and Brecilia was forgotten. Small clans of elves would roam these lands as they would go untouched, until the arrival of the Alamarri.

The Alamarri people arrived from the uncharted lands through the Frost Back Mountains. Yes humans did exist on Thedas, but were truly a barbaric society. Best suited for harsh climates they lived many years in the mountains until the great tribal splits. The Chasinds would return to their uncharted lands and turn into the dark twisted creatures they are, as the Awar would stay in the mountains and eventually interbreed with the dwarves. The remaining Alamarri would move down the mountains and into the Brecilia lands where they would become the Ferelden people of today. It was these Alamarri who would unite and build a kingdom that would push back a Tevinter invasion in it's height of power.

The Tevinter Imperium would go on to rule with each successful Archon and Magisters. Darinius would forge the great pact with the dwarves in exchange for peace as the Imperium did not want to lose its lyrium. Darinius would lose his rings forged by the dwarves and his throne. Archon Lovias would continue working with the fade and learning from each Superior Dragons. Lovias formed a pact with the "Old Gods" and began the worship of the Dragons as the official religion of the Imperium. The Dragons would come each year to a great yearly feast in their honor. Keeping these "Old Gods" happy kept the Archon in power. But even the Dragons were being lied to. Lovias had the dwarves forge the Fade Rings using strange metals from the Fade. Next would come Archon Ishal who built great towers and castles. He would lead the construction of the great circle, a place where the "Old Gods" would meet for their yearly tribute and where the Magisters would access the Fade for their quest for power. Archon Melos was next and he would build upon the old ruins of the elves in the Dragon Wastelands and rename it Drake Falls. Here the blood and items are collected for the Magisters blood rituals and the arrival of new Superior Dragons. After him came Archon Valerius who would take one of the Magisters Eleni Zinovia as his wife. This would lead to his jealousy and fear of her power and his betrayal by casting her into a stone statue where she could "tell her lies forever". Still don't believe that Thedas is held together by lies and truths? I have seen this very statue in the Mages Circle in Ferelden. This would lead to Tevinter law that no Archon or Magister would take another Magister as a consort. Then came Archon Hessarian and the greatest lies of all.

I shake as a write this section. After all I have been through and the knowledge I have acquired? Damn them all! Note to self: Must remember to ask for bigger ladder to access the upper shelf books and I need to trim my beard. Anyway Archon Hessarian and the Magisters were ten of the most powerful mages that the Imperium had ever seen. Theirs was a terrible and dark ruling time. They had established terrible experiments in an area of the Deep Roads called Malex'tnor. This small outpost was an area forgotten by the dwarves, but used by the Magisters for their dark experiments. Humans, Elves, and even Dwarves were used as test subjects on lyrium, dragon blood and essence of Fade Spirits. Many experiments were done until one day a vial came to life, to sentience. It grew and spread upon all things that contained life or imbued with magic. It corrupted and tainted all it touched. It was feed to the captive test subjects with terrifying results. Some would go crazy and tear themselves apart, others would attack and eat the others, but it was the women who went under drastic changes. The mages and guards that worked in Malex'tnor noticed how this taint that grew was transmitted faster by tainted beings. They watched as tainted beings would touch the "Taint' on their cell walls and that they would have some kind of communication with other tainted captives within other cells who touched tainted walls. In hive mind fashion the tainted males would force feed the female captives tainted flesh and blood. As I write this the thought of this is utterly shocking, but I must go on. They changed in appearance and consumed the other males as they went mad. These "mothers' soon gave birth to true evil creatures - Dark spawns. Even the Magisters determined that this was too much to control as this taint effected all things and these creatures could not be controlled by them and sealed this area of the Deep Roads with all of its guards and mages included. This is why the dwarves know only of the Dark spawn coming from the Deep Roads.

The Magisters continued their work in the Golden City of using blood magic in the Fade. Even going as far as experimenting on the Fade "Sprits". Over the centuries the Veil had become weaken and the "Demon Spirits" begun to possess humans in Thedas. The Magisters allowed this as they were able to control any outbreaks. Two of these Magisters were sisters and they had become very powerful. The youngest was fair looking and held persuasion over many, while the oldest was very beautiful but cold. Their knowledge of the Fade and Blood Magic was great. The youngest sister had fallen in love with a Fade "Spirit", a Love one I believe would be its classification. She spent many days in the Fade and eventually decided that she would leave the Magisters and stay forever with her "Love". This disturbed her older sister tremendously and she was bound to not let this happen as it would break the plan the Magisters had in the future for the Old Gods. One night she decided to enter the Fade and kill this "spirit" but when she met it she was overwhelmed by his kindness and love, something she was unaccustomed to. She quickly fled from it and was to prideful to admit she could feel such things. As she had let her guard down, a Pride Demon tried to take possession of her, its mistake. At that moment she had done what no Magister had done, she consumed the essence of the demon, basically possessing it. With this new source of power she decided she would leave her sister to her fate and she would be the new Archon. But Archon Hessarian had many eyes everywhere and became well aware of her plan. Feeding false information to her of another Superior Dragon sighting, she took off for the wastelands, even though it was around the time for the yearly tribute. Now her younger sister had a white dragon being raised in Orzammar which would be for her future use. Hessarian used his pacts with the dwarven king to seal the dragon away forever. He would not let her join in this great plan either. The Magisters awaited the seven "Old Gods" and would put their plan in action without the two traitorous sisters. As the Dragons arrived to the Golden City the Magisters waited until they began feasting on their tributes and then opened a great hole into the Fade. The "Old Gods" caught unaware were sucked into the Fade by the Magisters as they used their knowledge of possession to try and drain the power from these Dragons. Unfortunately as with all dark magic something went horribly wrong. Instead of taking their power, the dragon's souls were destroyed and the Magisters souls were thrusted into the dragons. Wanting to be like the "Old Gods", they became them. The Fade violently rejected this union and casted these new "Old Gods" out and put them deep underground of Thedas to remain entombed hopefully to never be released. The Fade then sucked in the great Golden City, turning it black and trapping it forever in the Fade. The youngest sister…Andraste would be casted out of the Fade from her love and flee to lands of the Alamarri, the ancestors of the Ferelden, to seek her revenge against the Imperium. The oldest sister Flemeth would realize the treachery too late and flee to the Kocari Wilds far away from the Imperium. She would eventually use her ritual to take a high dragon as she had done to the Pride Demon and see to her immortality through her future offspring, until the day she could rule the Imperium. Archon Hessarian would be left without The Golden City and soon suffer The First Blight. The Magister/Old Gods would sleep and sing songs of their power in their minds. Unfortunately this would call to the tainted creatures, to the Dark spawn and the one known as Dumat would be entomb near Malex'tnor. So began the First Blight, the fall of the Old Gods and the rise of Andraste.