Crazy shower thought about titans and the wellspring...

The good ol' big bad gives birth to lesser bad thing, but with minerals!

There is an alternative explanation and that is Mythal was not some saviour of the dwarves but their captor and enslaver. The codices in her Temple describe them as "witless" but that may be how the ancient elves viewed any race that did not possess magic and did not have a spiritual connection with the Fade.

The racial memory of the dwarves as the Stone being their parent is probably true. They were the children of the Earth/Stone. When the ancient elves invaded the earth from the Fade (because I am convinced that they were originally spirits that took on material forms) their use of magic disturbed the titans (just as it does in the Descent) and resulted in earthquakes that destroyed the initial elven creations. So Elgar'nan and Mythal waged war on the titans and either killed or subdued them. It seems likely that it was the latter and somehow Mythal was able to send them to sleep. She then did something to the dwarves (see our discussion about the Sha'Brytol on Heimdall's video thread), giving them dreams but severing them from the Stone forever. (This is the Sun referred to symbolically although it could also have meant the sun literally as well, as Elgar'nan would not now allow anything to do with their former enemy on the face of the earth). The dwarves mining lyrium probably dates to this time as they would have no use for it before.

When Mythal was killed and the other Evanuris shut away, this freed the dwarves from their control, except those that Mythal had changed by "giving them dreams" which I think may have been the Sha'Brytol that she charged with protecting the source of her lyrium. When they die these poor dwarves become the cursed rock wraiths. In the Descent Valta says that the titan has no need of the Sha'Brytol's protection so clearly they were not acting on its orders. Nor was the titan soothed by their presence but instead by Valta, a normal dwarf, with whom it connected.



This could well be true. The elves described them varyingly as the "pillars of the earth" or simply "the Earth". It is also possible that the "Sun" in the Dalish myth that Elgar'nan fights is in fact a titan. The mural in Trespasser showing them killing/subduing a titan seems to hint as an actual giant being but that could have just been a symbolic way of depicting the enemy so Mythal's subjects could understand it.

In the Dalish myth Elgar'nan is described as the firstborn of the sun. This would make sense if he was the first to leave the Fade and on touching the Earth acquired a material form. In the battle with the Sun, its blood is shed, creating the stars. This now always makes me think of droplets of lyrium scattered across the sky/Fade (it is the only substance that is found both there and on the earth). Elgar'nan is then said to have cast down the Sun and Mythal, who arose from the sea/water in response to the anguish their fight caused, made a pillow for the sun in the earth where it could sleep.

So this tale could well describe how Mythal quietened the titan(s) to prevent the possibility of further conflict. To keep Elgar'nan appeased she undertook to keep the children/servants of the Sun/Earth away from Elgar'nan's domain. If the lyrium is sentient, then may be it is not so much blood as an extension of the titan, helping it mould the earth.

Originally we were told that lyrium was a mineral and that would be because the stuff the dwarves mine is solid rather than liquid. So either it is dried blood from a dead titan or possibly in an interim stage between being liquid and true stone. Either way, I am a lot less happy now about the use of lyrium.

We have no way yet of knowing which came first, red lyrium or the Blight but when we were in the Temple of Sacred Ashes at the beginning of DAI and Varric is questioning how red lyrium got there, Solas mutters something about the use of magic. So it is possible that it was misuse of magic that originally corrupted some lyrium/a titan and the Blight grew from there rather than the other way around.

It has suddenly occurred to me that you may have hit on an explanation for why the titan may be referred to as both the Sun and the Earth by the ancient elves.

 

When we attack inside the Wellspring, the heart generates this Guardian from the lyrium. At full power one of these guardians would probably seem it shone like the sun, bits breaking off and being scattered would be lyrium and any pictures of the battle would depict a giant being defeated and it is also shown with a shining heart. In the mural in the Descent, its defeat turns it a reddish brown (could be ominous).

This being the case the heart and the lyrium that flow from it could be the titan within the Stone.     Even the elves may have thought that the Guardians were the Pillars of the Earth rather than simply offshoots from the main being on being threatened.  

Hmmm... I don't love that, aesthetically. It would be more interesting to me if the Titans were more rock-like/alien in nature. But oh well.

What bugs me most about Lyrium is that it is starting to feel like the DA version of Unobtainium, a substance that simply does whatever the plot demands, when it demands it. Not that a mineral can't have more than one function (many do irl), but having it perform two *opposing* functions (enhancing magic and counteracting magic) just makes me feel like they didn't really think it through at the time.

If a mage drinks it they get more magic, if you stick it in clothes or weapons, THEY get magic. But if a templar drinks it they get anti-magic abilities, if you're branded on the forehead with it, you're disconnected from the Fade and from emotions, unless a spirit does... something to you, and then you'll either be normal again OR get new abilities, who's to say?

And if the lyrium gets tainted? HOO boy well you might go mad the minute you see it, or over the course of years, or not at all, and it might give you absurd powers. And if it somehow gets inside you, well, who the fuck knows?

Well I was never too happy with how they made the jump from it being an inert mineral to being organic and alive to being blood. The red lyrium caused madness didn't surprise me considering that is what ordinary lyrium does if you have too much exposure to it. What surprised me was that in the Descent our mage companions ought to have been having blood pouring from their ears and dying from internal haemorrhaging with that much lyrium around them, so apparently it is only when it crystalises that it becomes lethal.

It is also peculiar that it is said to appear in the Fade and thus is considered to be a bridge between worlds. That would explain its magic enhancing properties but not why lyrium brands do the opposite. As for Templar powers, Solas did explain to Cassandra that they are reinforcing reality with their magic and apparently the Viddasala was working on a similar principle using sarebaas powered up with lyrium but that proved to be a bad idea.

Lyrium does seem to be the catch all substance that they use to explain practically every sort of strange phenomenon. I was more comfortable with this when it was just a substance that could be found throughout creation. The moment it becomes the actual blood of some earthbound being what reacts adversely to magic, it might explain the lyrium brand blocking magic but it becomes rather harder to understand why its blood also promotes magic use.

It is not blood magic because apparently that requires an element of violence and pain at the time you want the power and with lyrium potions it is literally just the substance, refined from raw lyrium, so completely detached from any emotions that might have been attached to the creature you obtained it from. Of course if it is just the blood in blood magic that provides the power then that would explain it but according to WoT (which may of course not be accurate on the subject) blood alone is not enough, you need the violence and pain for it to work.

I don't suppose the properties and functions of lyrium will ever be properly explained because I doubt the writers have figured out to reconcile all the contradictions themselves.