Hello Thedosians and welcome back to my channel coming to you with my Mythal series. It has been a while, and I hope you don't mind, I do tend to do a lot of research for this series, so it might take a little bit longer for some of the subjects and I hope will forgive me.
So last time I discussed Mythal, it was about her status around being the 'All-Mother' of the Pantheon. How it influences and or endorses the status of strength for the Pantheon, knowing that all would come to her in the time of need.
Now we are talking about the next subject: Dragon (Totems & Constellation)
I have studied some myths and legends about the Gods represented as a Dragon form, and to be quite frankly honest, none come close to the depiction of what describes Mythal.
Draconology:
Apparently, according to the DA lore, the male and female distinctions are quite different.
Male Dragons mature fast, but they are never superior to the other counterpart gender, females.
"Male dragons never develop into the winged monsters of myth. At most, their forelegs grow the vestigial spurs where the wing membrane might have been."
— World of Thedas Vol. 1
But Females are the threat here, obviously...
Whereas a female Dragon will mature to what we know of a Mature, or High Dragon. These High Dragons live in a lair only to be seen within a century between flights. High dragons are extremely territorial and will typically attack almost anything that trespasses near its lair. Even creatures as large and powerful as giants (and even other high dragons), you must be cautious when a high dragon's lair is nearby.
As for a female shapeshifting into a spectral High Dragon, this completely makes sense. As for any other male counterpart we know to shapeshift, it could actually be Solas, but as a wolf counterpart.
Reaching a little bit further into the members of the Pantheon, now I can understand why Dragon form could be more reserved for certain aspects. Being male could have limited that process of being powerful like a Dragon...
"His crime is high treason. He took on a form reserved for the gods and their chosen and dared to fly in the shape of the divine. The sinner belongs to Dirthamen; he claims he took wings at the urging of Ghilan'nain, and begs protection from Mythal. She does not show him a favor, and will let Elgar'nan judge him."
— Codex entry: Ancient Elven Writing
Turning into a shape of the divine, had to be the similar reference of what Yavana tells Alistair;
'Where do think it comes from? It sings from a time when Dragons ruled the skies. A time before the Veil, before the mysteries were forgotten.'
— Yavana; Silent Grove
It seems to me that potentially, Dragons are a reserved form for certain aspects, a divine form, meant to only be known and shared to those who are worthy. And for those who 'dared' to be anything near a dragon for Mythal's divine form, were doomed.
The closest we know of a divine being in modern Thedas lore is known as the Great Dragons,
A "Great" dragon is a powerful, rare, and ancient form of a dragon, distinct from high dragons, in terms of size and intelligence.
In the Silent Grove, Yavanna explains the Blood of Calenhad the Great called to the Queen of Dragons and woke her. Calenhad, as we look back, is only called the Great due to the Qunari legend the Arishok, tells Alistair the Qunari version of the myth of King Calenhad, in which he gained the power to unite Ferelden by making a bargain with a mysterious witch to drink dragon blood—
The witch led him to a cave where a Great dragon lay dying. Calenhad used his dagger on the ancient creature and drank some of its blood, gaining new strength that made him undefeatable in battle. A measure of this strength was passed on within the Theirin family from that time onward, and it allowed Calenhad to conquer all of Ferelden and establish his bloodline as royalty, which would endure into the Ages.
Relating to a mentioned D&D campaign, specifically, the Forgotten Realms, there is a Dragonkind known as Song dragons, or also known as weredragons, were a type of dragon. They lived among humanity in the guise of human women, sometimes acting as agents. Song dragons resembled copper dragons in general shape, but they were more slender and possessed iridescent silver-blue scales. This made them bright and impressive in appearance.
A song dragon possessed a unique alternative form, that of an attractive human woman aged between 20 and 30 years old.
Song dragons eschewed the company of other dragons, choosing instead to live amongst humankind, aided by their alternate forms as young human women. Many were also talented actors. This made it extremely difficult to tell them apart from actual humans. They would reveal their real identities only when in great danger.
They sought to protect and preserve the environment. To this end, they usually worked with or served the Harpers, good mages, and other people and organizations of similar inclinations.
However, to human civilization, they were rare and surrounded in mystery.
Totems:
What we know of Mythal, surrounds her whole being as a Dragon. Her Totem represents a female body with Dragon wings and her Dragon-like headpiece. What I believe, is like most of any of the Gods in elvhen lore, is their depiction is quite different than who they truly are.
I mean, if Solas be lookin like a lil wolf, no one would be questioning the threat to Thedas' humanity in the next game. But hey, just my opinion...
Mythal is confirmed to be 'one of the people, yes'. As the verbiage from Flemeth states so, she was elvhen.
So no, I don't believe she had Dragon wings but was just like any other elvhen in the Ancient Arlathan. But this totem could actually represent her into mid-transitioning into a Dragon form. And the form is also shown within Mythal's temple as well..
The other depiction is more a representation of a motherly force, such as the count of the children being represented in this mural are the children of Mythal.
Such as, the encompassing position that's represented in the mural, not only applies to what's within her arms but the outreach look, as if she's holding those around her in the protection of her wings, which, is likely near a dragon-like nature.
What makes the dragon so closely tied to Mythal's nature, is the motherly protection she brings within her people, and like a High Dragon, they protect their lair when there arises a threat against their family, justice...
Constellation:
Let's now talk about Mythal's representation astronomically,
The closest we have come by links to the constellation Silentir --
"Some depict a dragon in flight, while others show a man carrying a horn and a wand. Some scholars believe these represented scales, which would point to this constellation being a supplantation of the elven Mythal, but nothing indicates this to be more than speculation."
—From A Study of Thedosian Astronomy by Sister Oran Petrarchius
While others in the Imperium believe it to link as the old God Dumat. This constellation's representation comes no closer to any other god-like Mythal. Dragon form, as we know, is what Mythal truly represents.
Now, normally most of the constellations seem to represent more than one thing or could be interpreted by one's imagination. Looking upon further, I would love to address the representation in which led to Dumat mixing the characteristics of Mythal.
Dumat, as we know, has one of the closest connections to the Blight in this Veil-like world. Inspiring Old God worship of Dragons as a high deity. Blood magic was personally taught to the high priest, creating the political pyramid of the Imperium by Magisters and Dreamers alike. And alast, the First Sin, entering the Golden City to surely become enriched with power beyond imagining, yet as we know makes the Blight rise to the surface, which I would love to go into more detail about each and every situation, but hence, this is a video mostly for Mythal, so moving on furthermore:
Dumat was some sort of corruption of or antithesis to Mythal, perhaps a malignant spirit or soul fragment, or even one of the Forgotten Ones, said by David Gaider himself to be much more likely to have been the basis of the Old Gods from a Tevinter perspective. Maybe the Forgotten Ones co-opted the iconography of their former enemies as mockery. Regardless, the possible connection between the two remains, if indirectly. If Dumat was a Forgotten One, then the possibility that Mythal creates the Calling and therefore the Blights as well still remains, seeing as both would have been Elven "deities" of a kind, and therefore most likely have had similar abilities.
Dragon Age:
I guess what makes the title of this franchise so obvious to why we play in the age, is because it's completely controlled by Mythal, but also, controlled by these beasts to awake.
Some see the return of dragons to Thedas as a glorious sign – Chantry scholars, however, claim that this is the worst of omens. Because of the numerous dragon sightings, Divine Faustine II names the next age as Dragon Age. And with that, I can agree, the blood of dragons is the blood of the world.
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