Why did Corypheus believe he had created the orb?

He is talking about the mark.

No, but he was actually talking about the mark. Guy is just your classic, typical ego tripping badguy.

*sigh* Big, Red and Evil sees himself as a being that will ascend into godhood. So, he thinks that everything his does is his own making, even if it really is not.

He's the REAL thief in the story, not the Inquisitor.

Don't make me Thanos snap you... 😒

That's giving Batpool a lot more credit than is due. All he said was "hurr durr Corypheus is cocky".

But since there clearly is no chance this thread will get a serious (and polite) answer, we might as well meme away. Or use it for rule 34 pics. I'm open for ideas.

Err, because he is.... 😲

What answer do you want? Some made up shit about how "Ooooooh! His reasoning is beyond us to understand!"

Because the simple answer is: That guy has his head shoved soo far up his own ass that he is getting high on his own farts.

Because the spell he was casting gaveyou the mark when you interrupted him that's why he says it. He was planning t otake the mark for himself and desrtoy Thedas with it something which had you not stoped him he'd have succeeded at.

not really, making the inquisitor a martyr would not benefit him, aside from the risk of it rallying people against solas, it will cause pain and suffering to people and solas want to execute his plan in a way that will cause the least amount of pain.

and what i was describing specifically applied to the scenario in which solas and the inquisitor are not friends/lovers, since in those cases he has other reasons not to kill the inquisitor.

The orb wasn't just a power source, it also gave knowledge. There is a codex entry, allegedly written by Samson I seem to recall, that seems to explain this in the Arbor Wilds. They asked him how he knew certain things and he said it was the orb.

This is how he knows that the vallaslin are slave markings. This is how he knows stuff about the origins of the Qunari.

So the orb had been building up power for millennia. It gave him the knowledge of how to unlock it and create the anchor that would allow him to stay in the Fade once he was there, unlike the previous time when he was simply coughed out again. As someone has already mentioned, part way through his ritual the PC interrupts him, Justinia knocks the orb from his grasp and the PC touching it seemed to bestow the mark on them and simultaneously unlocked the orb.

Of course there are plot holes to this. Why wasn't the PC destroyed? Apparently by being automatically shunted into the Fade. Even if the PC hadn't been there, presumably Corypheus would have survived by being shunted into the Fade as well regardless of his regeneration ability. Yet Solas maintains he expected him to be destroyed by the explosion and it was only his regeneration ability that saved him. It would seem it was the releasing of the orb's power that caused the initial hole in the sky, which we later closed. Yet apparently at the end, even though much of its power must have been expended the first time and he did not have the anchor/key, Corypheus was able to open up another rift and levitate an entire mountain. Solas said that had Corypheus been destroyed first time round, he would have used the orb and anchor to enter the Fade. They seemed to go together.

people would still be in pain for the loss of the inquisitor, they are a symbol of hope and salvation to many people in thedas.

*sighs* you seem to be missing two points:
1) solas doesn't want to cause pain and suffering to anyone, he recognize that his plan will cause chaos but wants to minimize the amount of suffering to people as much as possible. he could've just let the qunari execute their plans, he gained nothing from leading the inquisition into unavailing the qunari plot, yet he did it anyway.
2) in the case the inquisitor was his friend/lover, obviously his not gonna kill them...

to think solas would simply kill the inquisitor is a misunderstanding of the character. it's not that he's above it, it's just he only do it when it's the best solution. when he killed his agent in masked empire, he did so because that agent became a liability.

PS: oh just realized a flow in your "blame the inquisitor's death on the qunari" idea. see thing is, leliana and her agents won't be easily fooled, not to mention the companions who heard vidasala exposing solas. fun fact about solas: he is really smart, he likely would have figured out that wouldn't work.

well aside from being smart, he seem to be able to turn people to stone not to mention the stories about him turning into a giant wolf. so i think he does have a good combo of the both, and to further those qunalities he also seem to have morals. i think he may be the most interesting antagonist of a bioware's game =D