Talk:Black City

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I changed earth with world as it seems more appropriate, feel free to change it back if you think it was correct Elvhen Veluthil 13:01, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

No. You're right. Good catch. :)

If "earth" was used to mean 'dirt' or the 'ground,' then it would have been fine as it was.

-- Xavier Grimwand on Thursday, July 23, 2009 @ 11:06 am (ET)

The only relevant screenshot from in-game, that I can see, for both The Maker and the Golden City is that of the Black City seen from the void. It seems rather redundant to have the same image on 3 pages that have similar topics though. Anyone have any input on the matter? Ammorth 20:05, January 2, 2010 (UTC)

• Well, Golden City links to this page, The Maker doesn't have an image, and as there is no screenshot here either, I put one in.

Corypheus

His dialog does not necessarily point towards it always having been black. In fact, his statement "The light. We sought the golden light. You offered... the power of the gods themselves. But it was... black... corrupt. Darkness... ever since. How long?" Seems to indicate that it WAS golden (hence the aspiration) and that it was black and corrupt UPON them entering... and not always having been as such.

Sign your comments, and he wasn't exactly speaking clearly the whole "Darkness... ever since" he might have been refering to himself after entering the black city for all we know. He seems to state that it was supposed to be gold but he never saw it as gold, so basically the legacy dlc has answered questions about the darkspawn origins but it's raised questions about the nature of the golden/black city seeing as it seems to be the origin of the taint, maybe the magisters were lured there to spread the corruption of whatever the city is--Gboy4 (talk) 10:13, July 28, 2011 (UTC)

Corypheus said that he expected it to be Golden, but was already black when he got there. They believed it was Golden, so that tells me that it was Golden in the past otherwise the legend would have never started. So what I'm thinking is that the Imperium weren't the first ones to get there. Isn't possible that someone (or something) got there before humans did?—Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

I speculate that the Primeval dwarves were mages. I think they experimented with fade and it caused the corruption of the golden city, corruption of lyrium making it red and turning the dwarves into profanes.78.8.99.18 (talk) 06:01, July 9, 2013 (UTC)

Corypheus expected it to be golden likely because that's how it looked in the Fade. A gilded cage for something evil? TheXand (talk) 22:24, September 27, 2013 (UTC)

Or maybe Dumat showed him an image of the Golden City, but it was a false image.78.9.2.110 (talk) 22:57, September 27, 2013 (UTC)

That's a very interesting point actually. Is there anything in the lore about the Maker and his worshipers before Andraste? Anything to hint at conflict between the Old Ones and the Maker? I always assumed the Maker to be evil and not what he appears in the Chantry, it'd make sense for the Old Ones to wish to attack it. But then again they might just have lusted after any treasures that might have been in the Golden City. Hopefully the next Dragon Age clarifies things. 86.133.240.146 (talk) 08:20, September 28, 2013 (UTC)

I on other hand always thought that every deity in Thedosian religions is just a product of imagination. Deities in the real world are absent, so why should they be in DA world real and present? So many people deny real world deities, so why don't they deny less real ones like those in DA?78.8.139.77 (talk) 08:38, September 28, 2013 (UTC)StubbornMageSlayer

According to the World of Thedas the city was always black and the Old Gods used to live there. 86.133.241.202 (talk) 21:31, October 14, 2013 (UTC)

Please, read again WoT p. 155.78.8.141.151 (talk) 22:22, October 14, 2013 (UTC)StubbornMageSlayer

Please, read again WoT p. 12. For those that don't have the book, here's a screenie: [1] TheXand (talk) 14:21, October 15, 2013 (UTC)

This was confirmed to be a mistake, see http://blog.bioware.com/2013/06/05/world-of-thedas-volume-1-an-errata/ – mostlyautumn • talk • contribs • 14:28, October 15, 2013 (UTC)

Lol that's an awful lot of errors. Seems like the Dragon Age world has a fair bit of retconning to endure yet. TheXand (talk) 14:30, October 15, 2013 (UTC)

We are all fooled by DA writers and each other because we spread wrong informations from badly written books.78.8.141.23 (talk) 15:33, October 15, 2013 (UTC)StubbornMageSlayer

The quality of a book and its writers is extremely subjective and debate about it doesn't really belong on a talk page. That's what forums and blog posts are for. Kelcat (talk) 16:44, October 15, 2013 (UTC)

"I have walked the halls of the Golden City, crossed the ages..." - he said at the end of the final battle. Also he said (during the Haven assault) that he has found the throne which was empty. --ZawiszaTheBlack (talk) 04:49, December 20, 2014 (UTC)

Theory (Care to share)

Is it Possible that the golden City isn't a heaven or a solace for the dead... Maybe it was the home of something darker maybe where the corruption took form or a prison for the corruption (...the Magisters must have contracted it while they entered...) Didn't Corpheyus say that Dumat Tricked them (if not Sorry..) maybe the Old Gods were trying to do something...(But What?).. Power? Flemeth?...Sandal (Damn I hate it all this unknown Phenomenon and the Illogical Formulae drives me Insane) MUCH Like BLAZBLUE! --The Jonology--122.107.38.38 (talk) 07:50, January 2, 2012 (UTC)

I had some theories of my own, while a few have recently been debunked in my head from reading further into lore some still make sense. As far as it ever being a golden city? I don't believe it was, because it was located in the fade, which is the realm of spirits, demons, and dreams. I don't know how many of you remember it but, without spoilers to any story, there is a gift found in Orzammar in the hall of the shaperate called "The Search for the True Prophet" that makes my mind wonder about the truth behind the chantry lore. Which if chantry lore is a lie, which is likely because as is customary history is written by the victors, then how much about the "evil" of the Tevintor's is true? I don't doubt that the Tevintors reached the fabled "golden" city but I also believe whatever they found there was the cause of the blights. Also question: In all of dragon age lore are there any recorded events of mages becoming abominations before the Tevintors breached the golden/black city?Deepshots (talk) 13:14, February 24, 2013 (UTC)

Tales about the golden city and the darkspawns are older than the Chantry. Corypheus said "The city, it was supposed to be golden". Andraste appeared over 2 centuires after the First Blight began, the Chantry was found not by her buy Orlesian Emperor 2 centuries later. The Golden City isn't a tale of the Chantry, magisters believed in this and searched for this, it's their tale. People can lie, but not numbers. Magisters belied in the golden city before the 1st blight and Andraste.78.8.1.133 (talk) 13:47, February 24, 2013 (UTC)

Appearances

I wonder if we shouldn't add appearances as normal, not just mentioned, as the City is always visible in the Fade, such as when in Blackmarsh in Awakening. Henio0 (talk) 12:55, April 7, 2014 (UTC)

Proposed Name Change

Shouldn't this article be called the "Black City" with the golden city section being a side note rather than the current inverse situation? I mean, it is almost exclusively referred to as the Black City with the alleged Golden City only being an afterthought that is occasionally brought up. - 15:54, October 21, 2014 (UTC)

However, I am not perfectly sure about this. On one hand, it is known as Black City now, similarily to how Dales are Orlesian and not elven, and Kirkwall is not Emerius, but then on the other we really don't have that much information about it regarding when exactly it changed, or if possibly it was always black but referred to as golden. I think that if we do change the name, we should keep the redirection via Golden City, and mention that in the article that it was originally known as Golden City. henioo ^{(da talk page)} 05:50, October 22, 2014 (UTC)

I agree with Henio0 though, we should keep a redirect leading from Golden City to this article. - 06:01, October 22, 2014 (UTC)

06:31, October 22, 2014 (UTC)

We seem to have reached an agreement on this so I am renaming the article. - 13:55, November 3, 2014 (UTC)

New picture from Inquisition. (Spoiler=

Spoilers here

But is it possible to get a screenshot of the black city from Inquisition. I tried to take one, but it was frustrating. In every Dragon Age exept Awakening i have not known witch one of the floating islands that is the black city.--62.243.82.158 (talk) 08:13, November 24, 2014 (UTC)

How about this one (it's visible on the left)? http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/353/e/c/screenshotwin32_0441_final_by_zawiszatheblack-d8agcl9.png --ZawiszaTheBlack (talk) 05:12, December 20, 2014 (UTC)

That one is great! --130.226.41.3 (talk) 07:39, January 6, 2015 (UTC)

Theory

I had a theory which is pure speculation at this point but I wanted to share.

1. Corypheus claims that the city was black before he got there. He didn't really have any reason to lie about it. 2. We already know that what we think we know about history is not terribly accurate with Abelas claiming that humans had nothing to do with the fall of Arlathan. It's possible that humans inserted themselves into both myths being ignorant of the real causes.

However if that's true then what was the point of the Old Gods (or whomever they were) sending the magisters to the city? If the city was already corrupted then it seems like the only possible purpose from what we know was to unleash the taint into the world.

It's suggested in Inquisition (very vaguely) that the elves might have once been spirits themselves and migrated out of the Fade. Could they (or their gods) have lived in the Golden City? Could it be the murder of their gods (as Abelas alludes to) that blackened the city? Of course that begs the question who was responsible and why.

It's all speculation of course. —Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

Talk pages are for discussing changes and improvements to the article. Please use the forums for general discussion. --♫ Kelcat ^Talk 02:59, December 3, 2014 (UTC)

Not trying to be a ball breaker here, but there've been quite a few "theory" posts on this talk page, and this is the only one to have been picked on for being inappropriate. Seems kind of inconsistent, no? In any case, it's a good theory (especially when you think of all the romanticised aspects of Elvhen history that Solas spoke of). I had an interesting theory of my own, but we'll leave that for now.

On a more related note, I found it interesting that we got to see the Black City more clearly and prominently than any other time in the series when venturing with a senior Grey Warden (one who has had the taint for 10+ years rather than a shorter amount of time like Origins). I wonder if that's significant or not? LordSchmee (talk) 08:17, December 12, 2014 (UTC)

Well, I can't exactly do anything about off-topic discussions had before I was even around. It's not inappropriate, it's that we have forums available for just such discussions, and I would encourage its use. ♫ Kelcat ^Talk 08:36, December 12, 2014 (UTC)

Didn't mean from you specifically! Just consistency in the rules in general. Sometimes theories are okay in the talk section, and other times they aren't, despite no difference in the content brought forward. I'm really pernickety so it can get rather annoying when things don't line up.

It'd be nice if each article had its own "forum" (just like the talk page) linked at the top though, for discussions relating purely to it. The reason I never use forums on wikis is that I can never browse by topic (ie. can't see all of the discussions regarding the Black City in one area, or even just all of the theory discussions like a traditional forum). It's really inconvenient. LordSchmee (talk) 12:46, December 12, 2014 (UTC)

Corypheus claims that city was black when they arrived. There is no such a sentence that city was black before. --ZawiszaTheBlack (talk) 04:46, December 20, 2014 (UTC)

The Final Piece

Just to clarify, the writers have stated explicitly that is just another section of the Fade , since I saw some people debating if it was the black city here.

-HD3 ^(Talk) 20:55, August 4, 2015 (UTC)