The state of humanity before the Veil?

I'm of the belief that there were no humans before the Veil.

It depends on weather you hold any store by Dalish lore. Considering how accurate much of it is, despite the words that are put into the mouth of a Dalish Inquisitor when romancing Solas, this might give a clue. It is taken from the history of Arlathan, according to Gisharel:

"The humans first arrived from Par Vollen to the north. Called shemlen, or "quicklings," by the ancients, the humans were pitiful creatures whose lives blinked by in an instant. When they first met the elves, the humans were brash and warlike, quick to anger and quicker to fight, with no patience for the unhurried pace of elven diplomacy.

But the humans brought worse things than war with them. Our ancestors proved susceptible to human diseases, and for the first time in history, elves died of natural causes. What's more, those elves who spent time bartering and negotiating with humans found themselves aging, tainted by the humans' brash and impatient lives. Many believed that the ancient gods had judged them unworthy of their long lives and cast them down among the quicklings. Our ancestors came to look upon the humans as parasites, which I understand is similar to the way the humans see our people in the cities. The ancient elves immediately moved to close Elvhenan off from the humans, for fear that this quickening effect would crumble the civilization."

Now clearly there may be some confusion between the later clash of the remnant civilisation in Arlathan Forest and the Tevinter Imperium, but it is possible there is some truth to be found here.

The Neromenians do have a seafaring history. It is also worth noting that Mythal was born of the sea and so could be regarded as the goddess of the sea. May be she guided the human tribes into the northern territories that belonged to her.

It says they arrived from Par Vollen as though that was their place of origin. Little is known about the civilisation of Par Vollen before the coming of the Qunari but they seem to have built pyramids and possibly worshipped humanoid beings with horns according to such pictures that remain. Could they have been some residual memory of the Evanuris in their headgear? The respect and worship of dragons could also be connected to the fact that at least some of them could shape-shift into dragon form.

The ancient elves saw them as pests or parasites. The entry in the Temple of Mythal about Andruil says that she went hunting in the Void after she grew tired of hunting mortal men. Before the Veil the elves were immortal, so it is possible she was hunting some early humans.

The elves caught human diseases and so withdrew from contact. This could explain why the remaining elven enclaves cut off all contact with the outside world and killed anyone who approached.

There was a residual memory that the humans were in some way connected with the loss of immortality. We know now of course that they were not to blame directly but this was due to the Veil. However, if the humans arrived only a relatively short time before the raising of the Veil, it would explain why the surviving elves connected the two events. If someone, say Solas or his followers, was helping the humans it could account for why the memory is of humans affecting the way some elves behaved.

There are ruins in the Brecilian Forest which show evidence of elves and humans living together and worshipping the same elven gods. Then the spirit of the Arcane Warrior we find there recalls them being attacked by some other evil entity. Could that be one of the other elven gods who disapproved of their co-existence?

The fact is the elves remember the arrival of the humans and the fact they originally came from Par Vollen, so this group of humans were definitely around before the Veil.

Then there are the southern barbarians who have a memory, confirmed by Solas, of crossing the Frostbacks due to the actions of a "Shadow Goddess" which Solas says was a lonely spirit. Did this occur at a later time with an offshoot of the Neromenian tribes who had gradually migrated around Thedas? Or did they represent a completely different group of humans that arrived out of the west? Certainly we know very little about what lies in that direction apart from some scant information from Genitivi but there are other groups out there, both human and dwarves.

Humans came to Thedas from other continents after the Veil was constructed. The only native races of Thedas are the elves and dwarves, both of whom record that humans arrived from elsewhere.

Learning what the world was like before the veil is one of the few things that interests me about Dragon Age, and as a player, I high-key hope it gets torn down so I can see the world Solas describes for myself.

I super-duper hate the "magic used to be everywhere but now it's dead/dormant" trope that is so common in Western fantasy. If I want to see a world where magic is dead, guess what, I can just go the fuck outside.

Mostly because Trespasser made a note to mention that at no point in human history on Thedas was there no Fade. After all humans believe the Maker created the Fade. Now they could have arrived shortly after it went up, like maybe there was something keeping other races from going there until the Fade was created, so the two events appear to be connected but actually aren't. A typical correlation doesn't mean causation. 

I really hope they don't go with the every race was just an elven experiment idea. As for crossbreeding, that doesn't work since the lore has it where if an elf breeds with somoeone who is not an elf, that child will always be the other race. 

Just for clarification, the original timeline in World of Thedas was:

Arlathan founded: -7600 Ancient (roughly estimated)
Humans arrive in Thedas: -3100 Ancient (although it does state the date is disputed by scholars)
Elves feel the quickening: -2850 Ancient (which causes them to withdrawn from human contact)
Human mages hear old gods -2800 Ancient

With only 250 years between human arrival and elven quickening this would be close enough for them to associate the two as that is a relatively short period of time for beings that have lived for millennia.

However, the Dragon Age Keep pushes the dates back further:

Arlathan founded: -8400 Ancient
Humans arrive in Thedas -3900 Ancient
Elven immortality ends -2850 Ancient
First human mages -2800 Ancient

The only date that is consistent here is elven immortality ending in -2850 which would seem to be the date of the raising of the Veil. The writers would appear to have pushed back the arrival of the humans to over a 1000 years before this. This does make elves linking the two events rather strange so it could be a typo but then it states -2800 is the appearance of the first human mages, which does only seem to happen after the Veil, whereas WoT only suggests this is when they first heard the whisperings of the Old Gods.    So if Vivienne had said there were no human mages before the Veil then this would apparently be true.

There are enough changes in the detail of events that it would seem the writers decided the WoT timeline didn't fit with the plot as they wanted to advance it. So it would seem anything is possible at present.

Looking at the Avvar's relationship with Spirits made me think that ancient human tribes were similar. That they had patron spirits that helped protect them. Maybe other humans also had a similar relationships to dragons as the cultists did in Haven?

There's also speculation in WoT2 or a codex that it was the Forbidden Ones that taught the humans blood magic and other mysteries of the world. Maybe it's from that knowledge that they discovered the Old Gods?

I'm not so sure about that. It is perfectly possible that the human mages learned blood magic from the elves or at least from studying elven pictures which gave them the idea to start experimenting. It would seem the Forbidden Ones did have some close connection with the ancient elves, which is why the Evanuris banished them for desertion at a time of war. It also seems likely they were originally shape-shifters but then before the Veil it would seem that most powerful elves were capable of this but the dragon form was considered the province of the Evanuris and lesser people were not permitted to use it.

When the Veil went up the Forbidden Ones probably got trapped in the Fade but if they could find a way to cross back into Thedas then they were capable of adopting a form at will. The Evanuris warn about this. Imshael was able to look like a human even without a human host. So a Forbidden One could have taught the human mages the skills that would allow them to be summoned into Thedas and could even have taken on the appearance of an elf. However, it was also possible for them to adopt the form of a dragon without the Evanuris around to punish them for doing so. We also know from Jaws of Hakkon that the primitive human tribes had the knowledge to summon a spirit into the body of a dragon.

So either way it would seem that it was the legacy of elven magic and civilisation that allowed the rise of the Neromenians. I would be inclined to believe the Tevinter Chantry on this because they probably have the historical records to back this up. Remember Dorian saw pictures in their archives depicting mages from the time of the Dreamers holding foci that looked like Corypheus' orb and there is a later mention of mages from Tevinter using foci in JoH, so at least one aspect of elven magic was adopted by them.

Last Flight suggested that blood magic draws its power from somewhere other than the Fade. Solas says he doesn't use it because it weakens his connection with the Fade. It makes sense to me that elves rebelling against the rule of the Evanuris might have used it to avoid detection. Hence its association with the Forbidden and Forgotten Ones, who were the acknowledged enemies of the Creators.

There is another possibility. If Solas hadn't been around from the beginning of the elven civilisation it is possible that the Creators/Evanuris did something the weaken the barrier that existed between the Fade and Thedas. Or Solas may even have been aware of this but didn't wish to divulge that bit of information. If that were the case, then having a Veil is the normal state of affairs and Solas did not create the Veil but restored it to how it should be.

If you think about the Dalish legends, they speak of the origins of the world with Elgar'nan appearing first, a creative process which occurred as a result, then the Sun destroying this, after which Elgar'nan attacked the Sun in his anger, before Mythal appeared and calmed them both, putting the Sun to sleep. Then everything that had previously been destroyed was restored.

This could all be symbolic of events between the two eldest gods and the Titans. If Elgar'nan weakened the Veil, resulting in an influx of magic into the material world, this may have disturbed the Titan (just as the Breach does) so it responded by destroying what had been created as a result of this magic (as described in Temple of Mythal), so Elgar'nan and Mythal subdued the Titan, and resumed creating the world of the elves. This was a world infused with magic, with spirits having easy passage between the two but it was not the normal state of affairs and other creatures that were native to the world, like the dwarves and may be also the proto-humans, suffered as a result.

Then when Solas restored the Veil, the world of the elves fell apart, but it enabled the other races to flourish as was the natural state of affairs. Then some elves, freed of the domination of the Evanuris, intermingled with their human neighbours and had children with them, that only looked human but their elven blood was what allowed magic to enter the human race. This would account for why it was only a short time after the raising of the Veil that human mages appeared, which would otherwise seem odd when the presence of the Veil should have meant less mages rather than more.

So, if the Fade is where magic comes from, how does erecting the veil relate to humans becoming more magical, while elves become less?