The Void, also known as "the abyss" is a place of nothing, an undefined location mentioned mainly in connection with various religious beliefs in Thedas.
Chantry teachings[]
All that the Maker has wrought is in His hand
Beloved and precious to Him.
Where the Maker has turned His face away,
Is a Void in all things;
In the world, in the Fade,
In the hearts and minds of men.
Passing out of the world, in that Void shall they wander;
O unrepentant, faithless, treacherous,
They who are judged and found wanting
Shall know forever the loss of the Maker's love.
Only Our Lady shall weep for them.—Canticle of Threnodies, 12:5
The Chantry views the Void as the antithesis of the Maker's creation. The relationship between the Void, or the abyss and the Fade is ambiguous. Andraste said all are children of the Maker and deserve the freedom to walk by His side or throw themselves to the Void,[1] two fates that await the faithful and the unworthy in the afterlife, respectively.[2] The Chantry also teaches that at death all souls cross the Veil and enter the Fade. Those who lived good lives and earned the Maker’s forgiveness move beyond the Fade and journey to join the Maker.[3][4][5] The sinners are lost, endlessly wandering the Fade[4][5] or even returning to the "ether" (the primeval matter of the Fade) from which they were made.[3] However, according to the Canticle of Threnodies, the Void is not equal to the Fade but rather is in it, as well as in other things.
Here lies the abyss, the well of all souls.
From these emerald waters doth life begin anew.
Come to me, child, and I shall embrace you.
In my arms lies Eternity.—Canticle of Andraste, 14:11
This fragment is where Andraste goes to speak to the Maker for the first time and convinces him to forgive mankind. It describes a beautiful temple deep under the earth surrounded by emerald waters.[6]
One interpretation of this verse directly equates "the emerald waters of the abyss" to "the waters of the Fade".[7]
Elven beliefs[]
The elves believe that the Void, or the abyss is the home of the Forgotten Ones, the gods of disease, terror, spite and malevolence.[8] It is dangerous even to the elven Creators.[8]
When Andruil began stalking the Forgotten Ones in the Void, she suffered longer and longer periods of madness after returning. She put on armor made of the Void, and all forgot her true face. She made weapons of darkness, and plague ate her lands. She howled things meant to be forgotten, until Mythal turned into a great serpent and sapped Andruil's strength with her magic, stealing her knowledge of how to find the Void. Andruil could not get back to the abyss ever since, and peace returned.[8]
In the legend known as the Great Betrayal, Fen'Harel tricked the Forgotten Ones into returning to the abyss and the Creators into withdrawing to the heavens. Then he betrayed both groups and sealed the ways shut behind them, so that they would never again walk among the People.[9][10][11] Some accounts mention that the elven gods are trapped in the Eternal City at the heart of Beyond[12] and that Fen'Harel still roams the Beyond, keeping watch over the gods lest they escape from their prisons.[10]
The elves do also believe that when the sun burned the creations of the earth to ashes, the earth's sorrow created a deep abyss[13] and Elgar'nan temporarily buried the sun in it.[13][14] It is unclear whether this is the same "abyss" as the one in which the Forgotten Ones thrive.
The Empty Ones[]
The Empty Ones were a small and short-lived Nevarran cult predating the Chantry. They worshiped the Blight itself and, by extension, the darkspawn. They preached that the Blight came from the Void, a place of nothing, and that returning to the Void would end all suffering and thus should be celebrated.[15]
Trivia[]
- "To the Void" is a common curse.
- During the Witch Hunt, Eleni Zinovia speaks of a breached prison and the shadow that will consume all. She then mentions "a hunger, a cage, a yawning void".
- Staff of the Void dating back to the old Tevinter Imperium bears the following inscription: "There is strength in absence. Absence of weakness, and of limitation. Absence of caution, and of mercy. The Void has always been within."
- In Dragon Age: Until We Sleep, chapter 3, Aurelian Titus says that "there are void places, gaps between dreams" referring to the raw Fade. Similarly, a memory in Vir Dirthara mentions "an island floating in a void".
- One of the Bottles of Thedas is the Abyssal Peach: "Not so much filtered as dredged. Should be kept in a cold, dark place. Also locked. Forgotten as well, if one is wise."[16]
- In Dragon Age II, a Force Mage can learn the spell Pull of the Abyss. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, a Rift Mage can learn the spell with the same name.
- The great chasm in the south-west of Orlais is called the Abyssal Rift. During the Second Blight, the darkspawn swarmed out of it and corrupted the land in the Western Approach beyond recovery.[17]
- The Anvil of the Void allowed Caridin to turn living dwarves into golems of steel and stone with the use of lyrium.
- Three lower levels in the Descent DLC - Forgotten Caverns, Bastion of the Pure and the Wellspring - are grouped at the expedition table as locations within "the Uncharted Abyss".
References[]
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