Grey Wardens New Concept Art

Whilst that is a possibility, there did seem to be quite a bit of red lyrium considering it was only a matter of days since the explosion and it wasn't just protruding as red lyrium spikes but was showing glowing in the rocks in a way that suggested there was far more under the surface. If it was just the body of Corypheus and the Grey Wardens that were responsible, would there have been that much?

Plus Solas definitely makes a connection between the presence of the corrupted lyrium and the magic used in the explosion: "Magic could have drawn on lyrium beneath the Temple and corrupted it." When Solas says "could", it is usually just his way of avoiding making a definite statement that might incriminate him. If he had said outright that is what had happened, Cassandra might well have pricked up her ears and questioned how he knew that. Instead he just makes it sound like he is throwing out a possible theory.

So how did he know there was lyrium beneath the Temple? That is not an obvious conclusion to draw. Oghran knew this because of his dwarven experience with lyrium and the way it "sings" to them (he still had his stone sense having only recently come to the surface). You would not expect a mere elven apostate to sense this sort of thing or automatically assume the Temple was constructed on a mountain of lyrium. Also, why would he assume that magic drew on the lyrium or that the magic was capable of corrupting it? Again, that is not the sort of automatic assumption you would think a simple apostate would make, particularly when no one outside of Hawke's circle and Cassandra is meant to know about the red lyrium. What happened at Kirkwall and knowledge of the ancient thaig was meant to have been kept hush, hush. Otherwise, if it was already common knowledge, why would Varric be upset with Bianca over her "leak"? Not to mention that it is Bianca who confirms that red lyrium is "corrupted" lyrium, an infected living substance rather than simply a different type of a naturally occurring mineral. So, again, how come Solas immediately suggests that the lyrium has been "corrupted".

No, I'm pretty sure that when Solas says the magic "could" have drawn on the lyrium and corrupted it, that actually means it did and he knows because he has seen it done in the ancient past.

Actually mine was meant to be a rhetorical question but, I agree, the reason Solas knew is because he was likely around when the shrine to Mythal was built there and the reason it was built there was probably specifically because of the large deposits of lyrium in the location.


This is debatable. Did Corypheus go to the location because he thought he needed a large quantity of lyrium for his ritual, a distinct possibility seeing as that is how he got to the Black City on the previous occasion? Or did he go specifically because of the presence of the Divine who was needed for his blood sacrifice? Was he able to get information from the orb before he unlocked it or only afterwards? To my mind I would have guessed the latter. Would Solas really have handed over his orb if the recipient was likely to acquire significant information from it without having to unlock it first? I imagine his agent who led the Venatori to the orb would likely only have hinted that it was a power source that could aid the Elder One in his plan to enter the Black City, thus guaranteeing that Corypheus would rush to unlock the power.


I wonder just how much Solas actually knew about Corypheus or the type of magic he was using before handing over his orb. Given his declarations about blight magic and how it corrupts everything it touches, would he really have wanted his orb to be linked to such magic in any way? He wasn't even aware that Corypheus was capable of "effective immortality", although I do wonder how he imagined that the ancient Magister had survived down to the present if that was the case. Clearly he had a degree of longevity like the ancient Evanuris, so why not the rest? Did he really have no idea from his time in the Fade studying the world about how Arch-demons regenerate? Also, it was never clear exactly what was going on during that ritual. The Inquisitor ended up with the anchor, which seemed to be connected with the orb in some way and it was when they touched it that the explosion happened and the breach opened. So was it the anchor which opened the orb?