About Corypheus (Absolution spoilers)

Yet the cutscene is a rift opening engulfing his entire body and then closing. He was still making sound when it closed. No part of his body is torn during the process.

Anyone getting a bit tired of these uber artifacts? I seem to recall they were originally going to use a special sword to kill the arch-demon but then decided on something a bit more original. The problem I have with over powered magical items is you wonder how anyone was ever defeated in the past. So far there has been:
The Calling: An item that could have turned everyone across Thedas into darkspawn. Another item that cured Fiona of the Blight.
DA2: The red lyrium idol: Various uses, the main drawback being that it sends you crazy over time.
Comic Series 1: the Magrellan: An item powered by blood magic that could potentially mind control the entire population of Thedas.
DAI: The Anchor, that can open and close the Veil, and the Orb, that can channel magic and open the Veil.  An amulet that allows time travel (requires open Veil to work).  Communication crystals (first introduced in Asunder - all Circles apparently had one) (Why don't we use these instead of ravens, at least between our major strongholds?)
Comic Series 3: The Sarcophagus that can create lyrium wraiths as super warriors (I thought Fenris' tattoos had been done by hand before this)
Netflix Series: the Circullum Infinatum that can raise the dead (with the requisite amount of blood sacrifice)
Tevinter Nights: The weird pools in the Deep Roads that create monsters

Have I missed any?

Think we are going to get a nightmare-possessed Hawke?

It is not the fact that we have these but how they are created. Reavers need to drink dragon blood, so first of all you need to find a dragon and then subdue it. Templars need to have training, plus in the south drink lyrium, which destroys their mind over time, so there are limitations. Golems need the Anvil of the Void (another item I forgot about) but also living dwarves to use in a horrific procedure. Again, this places limits on its use.

The items I am talking about are where there seems very little restriction on their potential and apparently no downside for the user. The Anchor eventually starts to go haywire but Solas maintains that is because we weren't meant to have it and he would have had no problem. The item that could have converted everyone to darkspawn or the Magrellan that could mind control the entire world seem ludicrously over-powered if the possessor had managed to use them successfully. How is it even possible to create such an item? Ditto the amulet that allows time travel?

Now admittedly there does seem to be a limit on the Circullum in the form of the quantity of blood needed but it does seem odd that its creator never used it. If they had moral objections to the degree of sacrifice needed, why make it dependent on blood magic at all? If the blood magic aspect didn't bother them, why didn't they use it? If they did, why had we never heard of it up to now?

Mind you, I can think of a connection between the creation of the Circullum and the Mortalitasi. All those carefully preserved bodies of ancient heroes in the Grand Necropolis and the Nevarran obsession with hunting down dragons, the blood of which can fuel the spell. Dorian's family also seemed to have a close connection with the Mortalitasi as he was taken there as a child by his family, not to mention his own specialism and friendship with the trainer in Necromancy. Not suspicious at all.

I haven't seen this before...is it new?  Let's see...we have Meredith and Corypheus...Solas with what I'd interpret as the "golden city" (blackened) which would make the two inverted figures magisters that violated the city? The two remaining old gods?  That Cory and Meredith are on opposing sides could be a fight evil with evil sort of thing (which would be a nice contrast to Inquisition)...of course we'll get to fight 'em all in the end.  That's a fairly tantalizing piece of art.

Whilst it could be a case of misinformation to keep us guessing, Bioware have denied that anything in Absolution is connected to DA:D. In which case, Meredith and Cory are what they appeared to be, representations of former enemies that Varric's friends had to deal with where they lost "life and limb". I must admit, though, that is not entirely correct with Meredith, as Varric's principle friend, Hawke, didn't die in that confrontation or lose a limb. Any death was associated with Cory. Also the Herald didn't lose either life or limb to Cory, except indirectly losing a limb because of acquiring the anchor from him.

There is another way to interpret the positioning of the figures. The god on the left, above Meredith, was responsible for the creation of red lyrium or the idol, whilst the god on the right, above Cory, was responsible for the creation of the foci/orbs. Whilst Solas gave "his" orb to Cory, that doesn't necessarily mean he made the orb himself. According to Dorian, he saw orbs in pictures of the ancient dreamers in Minrathous and the priesthood of Razikale were definitely using foci of some sort (possibly lesser orbs) in their ritual in the Frostback Basin, yet there seems no evidence of Tevinter having the knowledge to create them for themselves or surely there would be orbs still in circulation in modern day Tevinter. Thus, it seems more likely that they were using items plundered from elven ruins (as Solas suggested to Dorian). So, one of the ancient elven gods, probably June but possibly Dirthamen, came up with the technique of creating them.  If the latter, it would certainly explain why the technique never went further than him or his priesthood, since he was the god of secrets.

Having Meredith be a surprise ally who stabs Solas in the back by surprise would be kind of awesome.

So, I thought Knight Errant was after Trespasser but in the comic Meredith is still in the Gallows.   So, the writers had obviously forgotten about or not read the Varric codex.   Alternatively, since they were in the city to celebrate Varric being made Viscount, then presumably that could have been before we saw him in Trespasser since he was already Viscount there.    It would also explain Charter acting on behalf of the Inquisition, since that was also still running at that time.    However, it does make for very tight timescales since Vaea then travels north to Qarinus/Ventus where the Antaam attack, which definitely takes place after Trespasser.    Also, as I pointed out at the time, Vaea being given an amulet in Hasmal (in Tevinter Nights) whilst on her way north, doesn't fit the timeline since the invasion had already begun, so I think it is best to ignore that one.

I found this on the Wiki Knight Errant page under trivia:
According to Nunzio DeFilippis and Mike Laidlaw, the comic takes place in 9:44 Dragon[3], some time after Trespasser. The appearance of Knight-Commander Meredith's statue in the Gallows Courtyard (instead of in the Black Emporium) was an editing error.[4]

So, according to that the statue was taken to the Black Emporium. (People mention seeing her there: when exactly?) This is crazy because it would mean that the events in Dread Wolf Take You had to have occurred before the statue was removed from the Gallows, in other words before the events of Trespasser. It also means that Absolution would have to have taken place before Trespasser too, although the area Meredith was in looked nothing like the Gallows courtyard. I suppose the alternative would be that someone gained access to the Black Emporium and either did a deal with Xenon or stole it.

Did someone mention that one of the writers said the statue in the Black Emporium was a copy and not the real thing?

Only writer pets get to return more than once and Corypheus is nobody's favorite.