Uncorrupted old God?

Is solas an old god? Little confused on the hierarchy

Having the Old Gods already be tainted would be thematically redundant, since we already know what happens. Encountering an uncorrupted OG would have the potential to move the story in several different directions.

Well there is still the possibility of an uncorrupted Old God. 

We still don't know who or what actually sealed them (despite the theories), but I think it is safe to assume that something like sealing the Old Gods for millenia was monumental in scope, something that wasn't exactly common in history. Which meant that the rate of success was dubious at best. Particularly if certain variables were altered (which I imagined the veil did).

So things like seal failures or prison break-ins/break-outs were reasonable for at least some of the prisons. But perhaps not all.

I think Jaws of Hakkon did give us a number of clues about the nature of the Old Gods, particularly considering the presence of Tevinter Ruins in the Frostback Basin. In the Journal of one of the Jaws they state that:

In the old times, the first Jaws of Hakkon spoke with the great spirit himself. He opened their eyes that they might see the elfstones hidden across the world, and they entered the old cave and learned the mysteries of winter.

Hakkon has been silent all our lives. He cannot speak to us in dreams or open our eyes, and we remain blind to the elfstones. The lowlanders, though, have found a new way to see them. The skull of a dream-slain, set with the right magicks, can bring the elfstones to our sight.

So the spirit of Hakkon spoke to the mages of the first Jaws of Hakkon and gave them the knowledge to locate the shards that would open the old cave with the mysteries of winter. In that cave we also find a codex from Gelduran, one of the Forgotten Ones.

Since a powerful spirit of the Fade was able to give a group of Avvar the knowledge of how to find the shards that did not require the use of tranquil (or maybe it did) and this allowed access to an ancient cave sealed with elf magic, it would seem entirely possible that an earlier powerful spirit of the Fade did the same thing that allowed ancient Tevinter mages to access caches of old elven artefacts. Hence explaining how they came by the foci that Dorian recalls seeing in picture depicting that time.

Then the Journal of their leader states:

We have found it. Hakkon himself welcomed us..............We have found Hakkon, bound in silence where the lowland warrior trapped him for ages uncounted. Our trials have not been in vain. They were a test.

The lowland warrior trapped our god in some strange magic the mages cannot understand. They say time is twisted upon itself, a knot inside a knot. They say it may be the old Tevinter magic of this place that made it possible, spirits and old Tevinter power like blood and wine.


So the magic that trapped Hakkon also made it impossible for him to contact people in the outside world. His mages also believe that Ameridan was using an old magic that the Avvar mages did not understand. Was it Tevinter magic or something even older?

The spirit of Hakkon remains in the dragon. That much is clear. In the tales, the Jaws of Hakkon tamed it like a hold-beast, then fed it demonweed and other herbs the healers use to bring spirits. We cannot unravel the magic binding the dragon, but perhaps we can bring forth Hakkon himself and bind him anew to some other worthy beast.

I will eat the herbs myself. The mages say I may not be strong enough to bear such a great spirit as Hakkon. I would rather die trying than fail. I will not abandon my people. I will bring death to the lowlands.

So this clearly explains how a spirit can be summoned into a hold beast that has been specifically been prepared to be its vessel. Originally, with no dragon available, the Jaws were going to use Storvakker the Bear but when she was freed, the leader decided to attempt the ritual himself. However, his mage advisers thought he might not be strong enough to survive the ritual, suggesting that in ancient times the choice of dragon was that it had the constitution to withstand the ritual besides being a very powerful creature in its own right.

Also that magic could be used to draw the spirit from one such creature to another, by-passing the magic which holds its mortal body. This has shades of the soul jump of the old god soul from one blighted vessel to another due to the similarity between the two and how the dark ritual seems to work. Since Hakkon was not in a blighted vessel and no other suitably prepared vessel was to hand, when the Inquisitor kills the dragon, Hakkon is able to return to the Fade.

So whether the Old Gods were created by mages calling spirits into a dragon, or spirits being able to possess a dragon through their own power, or a spirit shape-shifting into dragon form, it does seem that they were originally spirits that were able to enter the mortal world in dragon form and then were later imprisoned. Given which part of the world that Andraste heralded from and her links to the Avvar and other barbarians that shared their lore, it is hardly surprising that her assertions about the Old Gods were that they were demons that were worshipped as gods that were subsequently imprisoned, thereafter only able to communicate from their prisons with the most powerful Dreamer mages.