#pls this post is just wild speculation for fun ok
Text
In a recent email from Spacelab, there is some new info on Dragon Age/potentially on DA:D, and on the DA vinyl.
first of all, a simple thing - as part of the pre-sale, there will be additional merch available, including a t-shirt and art print, of the beautiful vinyl cover art piece:
secondly, the official names of these two vinyl color variants/patterns have been given. the turquoise and gold one is named "Golden City" Merge, and the golden one with black 'explosion'-style lines is named "Black City" Splatter - artfully bookending/contrasting Thedas' past and the present, the Golden City and the Black City, the pre-Veil world with the world post-Veil:
in a previous post I mentioned that the first one reminds me of an eclipse, and the second one reminds me of an explosion. with the reveal of the naming of these two color variants, I've finally realized what both 'color swatches' remind me of, and it's Trespasser, or rather the key art for Trespasser.
you could easily imagine the palettes for both color variants being sampled from or inspired by this image or ones/DA settings like it, right? the Trespasser key art also includes element of both patterns - the sunbeams emanating as the dragon's 'wings' remind me of the 'exploding' lines in "Black City" Splatter, and the light/dark color contrast, bright light and splotchy patterns of the clouds along the top of the dragon's 'wings' remind me of the design of "Golden City" Merge. for me I found being reminded of the Trespasser key art interesting, as in it the eluvians are teal/turquoise, like the color in "Golden City" Merge - whereas eluvians are sometimes (not always) colored purple or shown with a purpley 'tone' in the setting. idk, I just found that interesting :) other feelings that I had from these were 1) that in "Black City" Splatter, the black (Blight, corruption, Taint) lines extending outwards made me think of the Taint entering the world and corruption spreading after the City was blackened and corrupted. and 2) that in the "Golden City" color variant, the two colors are turquoise/teal and gold. to "merge" implies mixing something together to create something new. in the setting, green is a color often associated with or used to represent the Fade - there's the Anchor, the "emerald waters", the green glow of Veilfire, the general green tinge often present in depictions of the Fade, etc. and if you merge or mix turquoise and yellow, you get green. hh, its probably overthinking, but I just thought it was fun/neat the different thoughts and feelings the images/art & their names bring to mind. :)
oke so, as a reminder, we had also previously seen official flavor text for the cover art, describing it thus: "The beautifully detailed artwork presents a pictorial timeline following the lore of the Dragon Age series, beginning at the dawn of the Golden City, throughout the City’s Fall and culminating in its re-emergence as the Black City, seat of the Old Gods" and "From the land of Thedas, at the dawn of the Golden City". in the email, there is also an image containing two all-new art pieces:
on the left, in the black and gold color themeing that we've now become so familiar with (one, two, three) is a picture of a shattering eluvian. the eluvian sits on a Fadey-style floating rock piece. it's the 'tri'-style of eluvian (highlighted in purple below), rather than one of the simpler single archway-style eluvians. this is the style of eluvian that Solas meets Flemeth in front of in the post-Trespasser scene. it's always been an interesting eluvian shape - like the shape you'd get if a 'simple' arch eluvian was flanked on either side by beasts (wolves, dragons, or one of each), or the shape a stylized dragon could make if looked at front-on with its wings folded, like in this dragon Mythal mosaic or this Mythal dragon statue. it also resembles the shape of the shrine to Fen'Harel in the Crow Plains. the shattering is also interesting - shards of glass fly outwards from the center, thereby resembling "Black City" Splatter. shatter, splatter, "and I looked up and saw the seven gates of the Black City shatter, and darkness cloaked both realms"... are those clouds of smoke in the background? what's caused the mirror to shatter - an explosion? just what is this scene depicting or representing? lastly, the shattering eluvian is flanked by two of those familiar ancient elven 'tree' sculptures (highlighted in yellow below). this is a familiar scene, no? there have been various theories/speculations over time about these DA:I 'trees', what their purpose was/is, what they are/what they represent. for example, Mythal vallaslin resembles branches without leaves, and on the front of Flemeth's grimoire is intricate stitching in the pattern of a leafless tree.
the second new art piece, on the right, is a variation of/accompanying piece to the cover art. they should be compared side by side. Twitter user Hrungr was able to manipulate the image of the second new art piece to be front-on, and here it is on the right compared to the 'original' [image source]:
suddenly, the pre-existing artwork blurb and the color variant naming choices make sense. :) on the left is the Golden City, as it was. pure and uncorrupted. sculpted and shining, splendid and supporting growth/life. on the right, the Black City, having been blackened and corrupted. Blighted, blackened, dying, crumbling. gnarled and withered (...leafless...?), dark and sinister. "a pictorial timeline" of Gold->Black City indeed. we've seen this motif play out many times now, from the DA:O opening cinematic voiced by Duncan right through until the in-game Dragon Age: Dreadwolf cinematic that came out a few months ago.
these two versions of the City echo the color variants & patterns. :) in one, the Golden City with a cloud-like pattern in a teal/turquoise sky, and in the other, a golden setting ruined by blackness and 'faultlines', emanating out from the center.
apart from the obvious Gold to Black change, there are some other differences between these two pieces to unpack. on the left is a hooded figure on rock promontory, holding a horned or moon-like staff while looking at the dragon. this figure is absent after the City's blackening. on the right, that rock promontory and the other floating rocks are absent, presumably having fallen or crumbled away after the 'ruining'. on the left, in the center behind the dragon is a half moon-like shape. on the right, this changes to a sun-like golden disc complete with sunbeam-like 'rayed lines' emanating from it. the eclipse-like imagery of these is obvious, and the disc with rayed lines is an element we have seen before in the updated DA logo.
here it would be silly not to revisit previous related references and imagery such as:
two shadowed spheres among stars / an eclipse as Fen'Harel stirred [the Emergent Compendium]
and
and I looked up and saw
the seven gates of the Black City shatter,
and darkness cloaked both realms.
there is also the eclipse-style imagery in the in-game Dragon Age: Dreadwolf cinematic and a bunch of previous sun/moon motifs/references floating around e.g. Dalish lore holds Mythal created the moon and was born of the sea (so a moon connection there via the tides), and that Elgar'nan opposite her is the Eldest of the Sun, the guy who buried the Sun, the Pools of the Sun etc. also those art assets of overlapping spheres, repeating/concentric circles etc.
I also would like to highlight that it's either two different dragons we're seeing, or that the dragon changes at the corruption of the Black City. is the dragon on the right a depiction of inworld lore of an Old God becoming corrupted? or is something Evanuris-y afoot? (dragons, a shape "reserved for the divine" etc). who do/does the dragons represent? who is the figure with the staff?
additionally, the horns and general structure of the dragon is totally different on the right than it is on the left. the first thing this reminded me of was the "Double Blight???" DA:D concept art piece 👁️ -
the differences in the horns also reminded me of this stuff:
I'm not saying both dragons' horn shape match these, just that one seems to and that there's something going on here with all this anyways. there are of course other symbols around the outside of that ring beside just these two, and other types of dragon, including the style/type of dragon associated with Mythal.
the shape of the figure's staff is also curious, given all this.
left, silvery dragon - Mythal? right dragon (which is gold-toned despite the blackening) - Elgar'nan, after he's approached her [maybe as the figure on the rock promontory] and then murdered her and taken her place as the god, ruler, dragon who presides over all? moon and sun, moon dragon and sun dragon, beauty and destruction.. the shape of the 'right-hand' dragon's horns match the evanuris headpiece on the ring which is in the biggest hemisphere, and of the 7 gods those headpieces apply to (9 Evanuris, minus Mythal and Fen'Harel), the 'biggest' naturally is the patriarch leader opposite Mythal, Elgar'nan.
And so is the Golden City blackened
With each step you take in my Hall.
Marvel at perfection, for it is fleeting.
You have brought Sin to Heaven
And doom upon all the world.
--Threnodies 8:13
🌙 ◕‿◕ ☀️
#dragon age: dreadwolf#dragon age 4#the dread wolf rises#da4#dragon age#bioware#video games#long post#longpost#solas#mj meta#pls this post is just wild speculation for fun ok
164 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
