"I did not foresee a Tevinter Magister learn the secret of effective immortality." — Solas
What is effective immortality?
Effective Immortality is the ability to live forever with both mind and body. Using its effectiveness would require a chain of command, or multiple vessels to complete this task.
In Thedas, it's a rare phenomenon for one to learn this ability in its adequate sense. And it depends on the specimen's aptitude on how it will affect their longevity of life and potentially becoming undefeatable.
This practice was a God's drooling savvy, to imagine a powerful mage acquiring this power would lead anyone to bow down at their knees and believe.
Hello Thedosians and welcome back to my channel/blog, today we are delving into the mysterious effective immortally definition, and who practiced this skill:
Mythal
"Flemeth extends her life by possessing the bodies of her daughters... That was the fate she intended for me." — Morrigan DA:I
As far as we know, Mythal has two ways of effective immortality.
Firstly, through Flemeth, Mythal has extended her life by birthing many daughters and possessing their bodies when they come of age, each sharing the same blood connection.
Secondly, Mythal splits her being into multiple aspects of herself ensuring she can survive any threat thrown at her throughout the ages.
So let's break that down with more context:
'Then you're Mythal, and Morrigan's mother...' — Inquisitor
'As well as a witch, who prolongs her unnatural life by possessing the bodies of her daughters!' — Morrigan
When Morrigan received Flemeth's grimoire, it stated that she prolonged her life by 'possessing' the bodies of her daughters. Morrigan was against this and plotted to kill her before Flemeth would possess her body.
However, in Dragon Age 2, whether the Hero of Ferelden killed Flemeth or not, she remained alive. She placed a small piece of herself into an amulet carried by Hawke who then traveled to Kirkwall.
"Just a piece, a small piece" — Flemeth
According to Dragon Age: Silent Grove, Yavana believed that Flemeth's 'possession' was a "gift" and that Morrigan was being foolish not understanding that.
What Yavana was trying to prove was that Morrigan has many misconceptions about Flemeth that have proven to be completely false, Mythal is not a demon, instead, she is a powerful elven goddess, and to bestow this power is a gift - something that Morrigan has been looking for ever since she left the Korcari Wilds.
'And you follow her whims, do even know what she [Mythal] truly is?' — Morrigan
'You seek to preserve the powers that were, but to what end? It is because I taught you girl, you because things happened that were never meant to happen...' — Flemeth
While Morrigan rejects Flemeth's purpose for her, Flemeth's previous daughters have proven to be willing to inherit Mythal's power. So, this gift is not 'possession', where a soul is taken without consent, one has to be willing in order to receive Mythal's power.
'A soul is not forced upon the unwilling Morrigan, you were never in danger from me' — Flemeth
So Morrigan will choose whether or not to accept it for the cause of Mythal's plan of destruction that will shake the very heavens.
'She was betrayed, as I was betrayed, as the world was betrayed! Mythal clawed and crawled her way through the ages to me, and I will see her avenged!
...alas, so long as the music plays, we dance..' — Flemeth
And I think that's also why Flemeth vacillates so wildly between wrath and humor. Her dry wit and wry laughter is the only way she can be sure that she is in control and not under the influence of the wisp's wrathful need for revenge. Flemeth needs to hold Mythal back from indiscriminately and aimlessly rampaging because Flemeth is both smart and vengeful enough to orchestrate plans that take centuries to come to fruition.
If I'm right, I wouldn't be surprised if DA4 features a Morrigan who has somehow inherited the wisp of Mythal and struggles with the dual personalities and memories of past Flemeths'.
Even though we saw one Flemeth do something with/to Fen'Harel, we've also seen that Flemeth can stow away a piece of herself and smuggle it to safety as a backup plan in case someone fails to fulfill her plan of destruction, hence her effective use of mortality itself.
And until her mission has been fulfilled, however sinister that maybe, Mythal is making sure she has many variations of her essence to come out alive at the end of it all, whatever the cost.
'You saw Mythal did you not? The first of my People do not die so easily.' — Solas
Corypheus
Solas said he was surprised that Corypheus had learned the secret of effective immortality, which suggests that what Corypheus achieved was different from natural immortality as given by the ancient elves. At least, that's what I took from Solas' seemingly deliberate use of the word 'effective'.
"I did not foresee a Tevinter Magister learn the secret of effective immortality." — Solas
From what we know, Corypheus used the Blight that allowed his tainted blood to take over a body of a warden and re-create his original form. This has been prevalent from the end of Dragon Age 2 Legacy, and throughout Inquisition with the actions that took place at the Conclave and the Temple of Mythal, all of these events concluded that Corypheus is immortal.
They spit on our deeds and claim we brought darkness into the world. We discovered the darkness. We claimed it as our own, let it permeate our being. If the others have not returned, they are lost. I am alone in my glory. — Corypheus' Memories
However, some fans believe that Corypheus' Red Lyrium's Dragon was the reason for his use of effective immortality, this is incorrect. Mark Darrah stated that the "Dragon isn't the source of the body jumping. It represents a weakness IN [the] ability. Killing it temporarily disrupts ability".
So this means that the source of his effective immortality came from the Blight's connection to living sources like lyrium and tainted blood like the Wardens. Much of what is similar to the Archdemon's effective immortality process.
Naturally, Archdemon's are effectively immortal in the sense that if the tainted Old God is killed by someone without the taint, then it would move onto another soulless darkspawn, recreating its terrible form and starting the Blights cycle once again.
However, it's effectiveness ends when a Grey Warden strikes the killing blow, the soul will assail to that Warden's taint—causing both souls to be destroyed, thus ending the Blight.
So it concludes that there isn't truly an answer as to why these two powerful blighted creatures attained the use of effective immortality, it's just assumed that the Blight makes it much easier to attain that feat.
Ancient Elvhen
'It was simply being elvhen' — Solas, Trespasser
It is said that ancient elves pre-veil were immortal in the sense that they didn't age. Yet they could still be killed by injury, sickness or because of someone's power. And up until that point, a natural death for Elves would be considered them going into a deep sleep due to their deterioration of the spirit.
Elves did not age. They were not immortal, but they did not suffer from deterioration of mind or body. They suffered only from a deterioration of the spirit.
— Codex Entry: Uthenera
So in a sense, Elves had ‘immortal’ vessels. Even when their bodies were useless they could still kick it somewhere else as a spirit unaffected. When the veil was put up it cut their ties to the land so elves in Uthenera would lose their connection to their body and stay a spirit in the Fade and ‘died‘ in their normal sense.
'It was me, the Veil took everything from the elves' — Solas
In the presumption before the Veil, the ancient elven developed an ability to jump over bodies and be immune to any type of natural death when doing so. This made them create an 'effectiveness' to their immortality and perhaps causing a threat to the elven race who did not know the use of this process.
I believe the ancient elven developed a body jumping ritual as a backup plan, but such a ritual was limited to nobles and the Pantheon. You can even theorize that the vallaslin is also another way for an Evanuris to body jump onto their slaves if everything else fails, thus their direct translation to blood writing, and why there was a prevalent rebellion by Fen'Harel.
So if this was a divine ritual reserved for the nobles and the gods, the question leads to how did Mythal die if this practice was in use? But we all know this answer: she truly didn't die...
Blood Connection
Blood is the first clue as to why effective immortality works. Corypheus and the past Archdemons have a shared blood connection through the taint, which enables them to body jump from one Blighted creature to another. This is dangerous because anyone blighted could perform this feat if it's taught by one of their intelligence groups like we have seen in Awakening.
The same goes for Flemeth, her shared blood connection is using her offspring to body jump through the ages in case pf death since her tale began.
As for the ancient elven, we can go as far as to say that the Pantheon used effective immortality through their shared blood too, but the question is, who do they share their blood with?
I mentioned that vallaslin could be the reason as to why the Pantheon couldn't be 'killed' because their blood writing would allow them to body swap to one of their slaves. Thus making them effectively immortal.
"One does not likely kill a god, even in legend" — Solas
In Dragon Age: Blue Wraith, they revealed how Fenris received his markings from a lyrium embrued sarcophagus that Magister Danarius recovered. In Dragon Age 2, Merrill commented on how Fenris' markings are like vallaslin:
Fenris: Why are you watching me like that?
Merrill: You have vallaslin. The same markings that the Dalish have.
Fenris: Yours are not made of lyrium.
Merrill: No, they're made of blood. Our blood. That's what vallaslin means: blood writing. It's a mark of adulthood.
Fenris: Mine were carved into my flesh against my will, in a ritual I remember only for the agony it caused me.
Merrill: I'm...so sorry.
Descent revealed that 'Isana' is translated to Titan's blood, aka: Lyrium. Vallaslin was not originally made by the blood of the elves like the Dalish claim but was made by Lyrium and processed similarly to what was done on Fenris.
'They made bodies from the earth, and the earth was afraid, they fought back, but they made it forget' — Cole, Trespasser
This means that Lyrium is the source of the Pantheon's shared blood connection to their slaves. Making them nearly impossible to kill unless disrupted of their effective immortality process.
Spirit Connection
Spiritual Connection is another factor that can prolong a mortal's life. The connection between a spirit and its host could potentially possess the ability of effective immortality.
The best example of this method was shown with Zathrian in Dragon Age: Origins. Zathrian's tale began when his children were captured by a group of humans. They tortured and murdered his son, then abused his daughter, and left her for dead in the forest. The Dalish rescued her, but when she found out that she was pregnant, she ended her life in shame.
Mad with grief and hate, and wanting to exact revenge for what the humans did to his family, Zathrian summoned the Spirit of the Forest and bound it to the body of a wolf, creating the monster known as "Witherfang."
Through using the manipulation of life and blood this prolonged his mortal age to three centuries including the spirit's curse upon the forest. This proved that one's years can be extended by the lashing of the soul to a Fade spirit. However, the Hero of Ferelden proved that Zathrian can be killed by any natural means, which assumes that his life was prolonged by the spirit and blood magic, but certainly not effectively immortal.
Zathrian's years were extended not through the restoration of the natural means we assume have been poisoned by the press of humanity, but by lashing the soul to spirit through the manipulation of life and blood. — Zathrian and the Lady, WoT Vol. 2
Before the Veil's creation, spirits had a natural presence in Thedas. With the Veil's creation, spirits have found it harder to interact with the waking world. Many spirits who pass through the Fade's curtain are naturally done by powerful emotions, powers, and even mages.
In spite of this, spirits have a natural tendency to be immortal because there's nothing to deteriorate them from their sole purpose unless they are denied. If denied, these spirits either wither away, or they are turned against their original purpose and become a demon.
Solas told the Inquisitor that spirits can technically be reborn, however, never remember their past-selves.
Early human tribes like the Avvar believed spirits could be reborn, the souls of a few Avvar "favored" by fate "migrate" on death to inhabit a new body destined for them, so they may return and perform great deeds for the good of their hold.
Yet Avvar also believe some of their people are destined to be "reborn," which some among the Chantry have great trouble grasping. It is not, I must emphasize, a spirit possessing a body. Other than invoking the gods, spirits have nothing to do with the process. It is the essence, the soul, which returns clothed in new flesh.
— A Tradition of Rebirth
The main point I'm exploring is that spirits are immortal, and their vessel they intact to are also immortal. While it is technically effectively immortal for the spirit, their vessel would cease to exist and not pass on as the spirit would. Proving that this form is not effective immortality...
To finalize, I feel like I need to explain more on Dragon Age's definition of immortality.
In a general sense, immortality means you can never die, however, in Dragon Age, people who have been defined as immortal can die by natural means but their body doesn't decay with age.
'We were immortal, it was not the arrival of humans to begin aging, it was me. The Veil took everything from the elves, even themselves' — Solas, Trespasser Further expanding on this, Solas explained that his People were naturally immortal in the time of Artlathan, they never aged. However, since the Veil's creation, this natural gift was gone, and the elves began to age.
So, this means that Solas' statement was not entirely true, the ancient elves were not immortal, but ageless mortals who switched out bodies to extend their lives, which effectively made them 'immortal'. Despite that, this gift was only given to the select few who ruled the elven empire.
With the Evanuris understanding the gifts of effective immortality, Solas knew the only way to defeat them, was to trap them in the Beyond. 'One does not likely kill a god, even in legend... the first of my People do not die so easily.'
In this post-Veil world, the many uses of effective immortality have not been limited with the Veil's creation, as proven by Corypheus and even Mythal.
What has been limited by the Veil's creation, has been how Spirits interact with the living world, which prohibits the use of a mortal becoming naturally ageless.
One of the most prominent ways mortals have become ageless post-Veil has been through lashing a soul to a Fade spirit, which corrupts the spirit's purpose, and is in no way natural.
So while mortal beings of Thedas today age with each passing hour, the use of body-switching is more prevalent in this fleeting world that's threatened to come to an end.
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