Codex: The Dwarven People

The-Joining codex — The Joining Ritual tarot card. (See new image)

This article lists all codex entries in the The Dwarven People section in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Thoughts on "Isatunoll"

Main article: Codex entry: Thoughts on "Isatunoll"

How can anything be both all and one, together but separate? It doesn't make sense, does it? But of course it doesn't make sense. You can't make sense of an idea without a word to define it, to give it shape and boundary.

Maybe "isatunoll" is a word we forgot. And then we forgot that isatunoll was possible.

Think about ants. Ants know what they are. They know their purpose, and they must understand, instinctually, how that purpose fits within the whole. But what if it doesn't end there? What if their consciousness isn't just individual? What if the nest itself knew what it was? A collective sentience of some kind.

Nothing says the ants don't have a collective sentience. We just assume they don't, because they're ants.

Ants. Or bees. Or darkspawn. Now, there's a thought.

Love, Dagna.
Inquisition Arcanist

A Letter Home

Main article: Codex entry: A Letter Home

An unsent letter from Harding to her mother:

My dearest ma,

I'm writing to you from Minrathous. In Tevinter. I'm in Tevinter! Isn't that amazing? Yes, there are power-hungry mages and slavers and cultists, but the city is so much more than that. You should see the magical lights!

I've mentioned this before, but I don't really work for the Inquisition the way I used to. It's complicated. I do miss it. I miss Skyhold and my friends there. But Charter still keeps in contact and I'm working with Varric doing something really important. I wish I could tell you more. Soon, though! We're very close to finding the person we've been tracking. Once that's over, I'll come home and you'll get to hear the whole story! Maybe I'll even be in time for the sheep-shearing!

Lots of love,
Lace.

From Emmrich, on Sorrow Denied

Main article: Codex entry: From Emmrich, on Sorrow Denied

A note left on a thick book:

I once communed with a soul who shared a tale of deep sorrow from his youth. "So that the truth wouldn't be lost," he said. Interestingly enough, he could only bear to recall the event after death, when the memory had lost its sting.

(l cannot share the tale. A Watcher must keep the confidences of the dead.)

Your experience with what you call "the Titan's Shade" brought this anecdote to mind. As you say, in the first moments of your transformation, you were unable or unwilling to confront the depth of the Titans' sorrow. But unlike my friend, this pain was never quite your own. Instead of being trapped within, it fled elsewhere.

If you'd like further reading, here's a copy of The Soul of Emotion by Hedda Grahntevale. It's a fascinating look into the effect of emotion on the mortal body and soul.

Harding's Favorite Foods

Main article: Codex entry: Harding's Favorite Foods

Bellara,

I'm honored you want these. I don't really cook and these aren't really recipes. I just throw things together. Anyway, here you go!

Apple Cheesy Butter Noodles
Noodles (cooked with butter and salt)
Fresh diced apples, or baked slices, or applesauce (whatever's convenient!)
Grated cheese

Layer apples on top of noodles in a bowl. Then cheese. Bake in an oven until cheese melts. But you're a mage, so you can use fire! You'll get a nice bubbly crust that way. Wait a bit before eating so you don't burn your mouth.

Ham and Jam Slam
Ham (or bacon)
Jam (anything works, but I like plum, cherry, or apple)
Buttered toast

Slam ham and jam together between toast.

Yam and Jam Slam (Emmrich-approved)
Replace ham with yams, sprinkled with salt and roasted in oven until tender.

Harding's Notes: Thoughts on Stone Sense

Main article: Codex entry: Harding's Notes: Thoughts on Stone Sense

I can more reliably use my new abilities now, thanks to Rook's encouragement. Oddly enough, it's easier to handle certain kinds of rock. Some just don't seem to respond to me. Is it a Titan thing? Maybe some stone was closer to or part of a Titan? Maybe I just need to get better? I don't know.

It must be Stone sense, just extra. I can now do the things that people with Stone sense can do. If I concentrate hard, I can tell if there's a cavern close by, or water, or a lyrium vein. I can tell different types of rock apart. They "sound" different, but I'm listening with something other than my ears.

(That makes no sense written down, but it feels true.)

Encouragement from Harding's Ma

Main article: Codex entry: Encouragement from Harding's Ma

Dearest Lace,

Remember when Ser Russ bucked and threw you and you landed face-first on that pitchfork? There were so many tears those first weeks, from not recognizing yourself in the mirror. But that was mostly the swelling, and in the end, the scar didn't ruin anything. You learned to accept it as part of you.

Of course the Titan's gift changes you. Every day adds something new—sometimes it's little, sometimes it's big, and so often it's painful, but it doesn't lessen us. Change is difficult, but all growth is, and a thing that stops growing... well, it's dead, isn't it?

I do worry, of course, about what it all means. But I've always worried a little about your adventures. Whatever comes, I know you are strong enough to bear it.

Love,
Ma

Different Flavors of Andraste

Main article: Codex entry: Different Flavors of Andraste

Hey Taash,

Basically, the schism in the Chantry was the result of a disagreement over a single line in the Chant of Light: "Magic exists to serve man, and never to rule over him." The Orlesian Chantry interprets this to mean that mages shouldn't rule. Tevinter, obviously, disagrees.

Other differences:

Leader
Divine Victoria, in the South, and Divine Aequitas II, in Tevinter.
The Orlesian Divine is always a woman, and the Imperial Divine is always a man.

Seat of Power
Val Royeaux versus Minrathous

Templars
In the South, the Templar Order is tasked with keeping mages in line, in accordance with the Chantry's rules.
In Tevinter, the Templar Order "keeps mages in line," but actually just serves the ruling mages.

Magic
In the South, magic is seen as a curse, or a corrupting influence. Blood magic is forbidden. In Tevinter, magic is status, and blood magic is "forbidden."

Hope this helps!

—Lace

Harding's Notes: The Oracle

Main article: Codex entry: Harding's Notes: The Oracle

Shaper Valta joined with a Titan, and now the Kal-Sharok dwarves call her "the Oracle," and she talks to them by possessing a stone figure.

(Needed to write it down. It feels unbelievable.)

Thoughts:
Does the Oracle's physical self still exist somewhere?
Does she pass her consciousness through the Stone?
Or is she just a stone figure that sometimes wakes up?
Can she move rock, too?
Why won't she give me straight answers?
Has the connection to the Titan changed how she experiences the world? Is that why she communicates strangely? (There are moments where I feel like time is different. Or that space is different. Will I end up talking in riddles, too?)
Why does no one know what happened to the Titans?
How loudly can I scream without everyone hearing me?

Harding's Notes: Stalgard

Main article: Codex entry: Harding's Notes: Stalgard

Stalgard and I have been corresponding, and he's been patient with my endless questions. I've learned so much!

Kal-Sharok's society is structured differently from anything I know. They abandoned the traditional dwarven caste system ages ago. Now you have people like Stalgard, a stonemason and also a midwife-in-training. I just assumed he was a warrior. Of course he's that too, because everyone in Kal-Sharok is a warrior, even Stalgard's sister, who is primarily a scholar. Everyone helps keep the thaig safe. Stalgard says he has a few more months of Deep Roads patrols before he goes back to his building projects. He gets really excited about mortar.

(l still don't know if Stalgard is his first name, or his last, and it feels a bit rude to ask at this point.)

Harding's Notes: Kal-Sharok?

Main article: Codex entry: Harding's Notes: Kal-Sharok?

I've been thinking about Kal-Sharok. Aside from Orzammar, it's the only other great thaig we know about. It was supposedly destroyed in the First Blight. The thaig was in the darkspawn's path, and the dwarves sealed it off and retreated to Orzammar. They abandoned their own people. And then, about twenty years ago, we learned that the city survived, and continues to hold a terrible (and justified!) grudge against Orzammar.

Kal-Sharok has secrets. Many, many secrets. How they survived the Blight is one. And I hope a greater understanding of the Titans is another. Charter knows people who can put me in touch. I hope they're okay talking to me. It doesn't matter if they don't know much more than I do. If they accept the Titans, and are curious about them, it'll be a huge improvement over Orzammar.

Harding's Notes: Orzammar and Titans

Main article: Codex entry: Harding's Notes: Orzammar and Titans

Getting the strong feeling that Orzammar doesn't want to acknowledge the Titans' existence. You'd think the capital of dwarven civilization would be interested in the history of our people, but nope. Almost ten years since Shaper Valta connected with her Titan, and they don't care. I know they know. I delivered the Inquisition report to the Assembly myself!

(Technically, I delivered it to an Assembly aide because I'm a surfacer and I don't get to be anywhere near the Assembly Hall. Sure wasn't fun learning that!)

Records that exist outside of Orzammar mention "great sleeping Titans" and "the First Ancestors." Maybe Orzammar's leaders removed all reference to the Titans from their Memories on purpose. Maybe they buried our report on Valta for the same reason. Are they afraid of something? Maybe accepting that we all came from the Titans makes it harder for them to defend the caste system and their treatment of the "casteless." Ugh.

Harding's Notes: Dead Titan?

Main article: Codex entry: Harding's Notes: Dead Titan?

I think the lost dwarves are in the Anderfels. The Deep Roads can be accessed from an ancient dwarven outpost, Isana Negat, built atop a mountain to allow access to a huge lyrium deposit. According to records, as they followed the lyrium deep into the earth, the miners suffered "maladies of the mind." They saw things, heard things, and felt things that they couldn't understand. The mine was eventually abandoned.

Dwarves are resistant to the effects of lyrium. We assumed they could eventually be affected if exposed to too much lyrium. What if dwarves are affected by certain kinds? Lyrium still in contact with a dead Titan, for example? Is there a Titan under Isana Negat?

On the Fall of Kal-Sharok

Main article: Codex entry: On the Fall of Kal-Sharok

The nobles who were told about the plan to seal the Deep Roads were advised to keep the news to themselves, to avoid a panic. But gossip trickled down to the commons as the high houses made preparations to flee. Informed by rumor, those with the means sought their own escape.

Less than a hundred of the thousands who inhabited the thaig made it through the Deep Roads before the tunnels collapsed. In the following days, we confronted ourselves and each other, struggled against our own monstrosity, before the first darkspawn ever arrived at Kal-Sharok.

—Excerpt from A History of Kal-Sharok by Durra, Steward of Memories

This makes it seem like the darkspawn weren't the worst of it.

—Harding

Harding's Notes: Red Lyrium

Main article: Codex entry: Harding's Notes: Red Lyrium

Stalgard says the passages leading to the Titan's heart are now peaceful and no longer lined with red lyrium. The jagged crystals we saw retreated back into the rock, the veins are blue again, and sing like lyrium usually does.

It makes some sense, I think. The disembodied rage of the Titans, with nowhere else to go, took root in the heart. And the red lyrium extended from there, her pain infecting what was left of the Titan's body. When I accepted that rage into myself, it cleansed the mountain.

The red lyrium we saw in the heart looks like blighted lyrium, but it's not. Blighted lyrium is almost impossible to destroy. It infects and grows and corrupts, just like the blight itself. What we saw in the heart wasn't it.

Kal-Sharok's scholars don't have an answer. I wonder if I could introduce them to Dagna. She'll have theories I'm sure.

Returning to the Stone

Main article: Codex entry: Returning to the Stone

Harding's thoughts scribbled in the margins of her journal:

They say we return to the Stone after death.

In Orzammar, only those laid to rest with the proper rites get to return to the Stone, and the privilege of a good burial is reserved for the upper castes. No luck for the casteless or surfacers. Rejected by the Stone, they say.

But I'm a surfacer. The Stone, whatever it is, hasn't rejected me.

But if we do return to the Stone, every single one of us, why can't I sense the others that have passed?

Letter for Lace Harding

Main article: Codex entry: Letter for Lace Harding

Excerpt of a letter from Stalgard:

Perhaps I should have been more suspicious. The blight was surging and yet, we'd heard no darkspawn. The passages were quiet.

It was supposed to be a routine patrol, but only myself and one other made it back to the rendezvous point. He stayed in safety while I went in search of the missing. I never saw the shade, only heard it as it wept in the darkness. I drew close, and the sound became something more. I could feel it, Lace Harding.... Rage, sorrow, and a vast loneliness.

It reached out for me, and l, feeling the pain like it was my own, reached back.