*vague noises about Amgarrak and The Descent*

[charamei]

I thought I had a thing, so I replayed Golems of Amgarrak (which should tell you how much I thought I had a thing, because I fricking hate Amgarrak), and I am no closer to either proving or disproving the thing than I was before I dragged poor Alim’s ass through the Deep Roads but I’m going to try to verbalise this anyway:

• Amgarrak = some kind of attempt to create an artificial Titan?
• Amgarrak’s colourswitching doodaddery = somehow related to the Void/ to making golems? If the ‘real world’ = white then Void = black?
• Maybe proof that mortals are basically spirits with corporeal bodies???
• Something something something Orsino something Forgotten Ones something Harvester?

Some attempts at putting these thoughts into words under the cut. No solid or even semi-solid answers here, sorry - just a lot of question marks and confusion. Hopefully someone else can see something I’ve missed.

Amgarrak = attempt to create an artificial Titan?

Caridin lived before Orzammar sealed off the rest of the Deep Roads, as evidenced by all of his great works being, you know, not in Orzammar. We don’t know when precisely the Shaperate removed all references to Titans relative to Caridin’s birth, but considering the sheer amount of lyrium around the Anvil of the Void, I would say it’s possible there’s a Titan somewhere nearby whether or not Caridin was aware of that fact. This could have been a significant factor in why 1. Caridin was able to make golems when nobody else was, and 2. The Anvil couldn’t be moved. (Also 3. Why he built it in Ortan thaig, which IIRC was considered a little strange since he was already a Paragon with his own thaig at the time.)

Amgarrak is noteworthy for these things:

Which have lyrium wells beneath them. Meanwhile in the Titan we have this...

Again, it’s possible (even probable) that the builders didn’t realise they were trying to make a Titan, just that they needed a lot of lyrium in one place. But Amgarrak may be simulating the effects of a Titan, whether they intended it to or not?

Amgarrak’s colourswitching doodaddery = somehow related to the Void? And to making golems?

Amgarrak was built entirely to try to recreate Caridin’s research, so it would make sense that the colour-switching stuff is somehow related to that research. Considering that the ‘normal’ world is represented by white (all the colours), it would make sense for the Void, aka the place of nothingness, to be black (none of the colours).

Perhaps this state of blackness is somehow required to make a golem? See: The Anvil of the Void.

If someone was in the black colour, would they be visible to people in the white at all? Creatures, especially golems, are frequently hidden from the player in this method; they’ll be invisible while you’re in one colour, then appear and turn hostile when you enter another. If this hypothetical black is the Void, could that be how the Forgotten Ones hid from the Evanuris?

For some reason I’ve always got the impression that Brogan was screwed up as much by being stuck in the blue as by watching everyone else be dismembered. I’m honestly not sure why I think that, but if I’m right, could that be related to Andruil going mad in the Void?

Maybe proof that mortals are basically spirits with corporeal bodies???

...okay, corporeal bodies and, somehow, that has an effect on their ability to act un-spirit-like.

I think a lot of the lore is pointing this way now:

• Cole. Just... Cole.
• Mythal
• Justinia in DAI and the spirits in the Temple of Sacred Ashes in DAO
  
• The Profane started out as dwarves and somehow ended up as rock wraiths
• The researchers in Amgarrak tried to recreate Caridin’s research by making flesh golems and animating them with spirits. It occurs to me that dwarves can’t summon spirits, which might be why Caridin had to resort to using the casteless in the first place?

*even vaguer noises about Orsino*

• Quentin’s research is clearly in the same general direction as ‘Turn Yourself Into A Harvester’ but I wonder if he provided Orsino with the entire method or merely a couple of fundamental basics
• If the Void is ‘the black’ then that’s where the Forgotten and Forbidden Ones hail from
• The Forbidden Ones were supposedly the beings who originally taught blood magic to humans
• There might be a connection here???
  

In summation: many questions, no answers