Not only is there a hidden message inside one of the most important moments of Dragon Age, players think that it might be teasing what’s coming next for the franchise.
If you haven’t played through the What Pride Had Wrought mission in Dragon Age, you might want to stop reading now! The next section contains spoilers.
Those of us that have played through the Temple of Mythal level in Dragon Age know that, should players drink from the Well of Sorrows, then players get a chance to talk to something that ends up granting you the Elven knowledge hidden inside the well. On the first go-around, it sounds like nothing. Gibberish, at best. But actually, you are having a real conversation with the well. And what it has to say is mighty interesting.
YouTuber Geek Remix figured that the audio players hear during that section must be something called backmasking, which Wikipedia describes as “a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward.” So what happens when you play the audio forward instead? This. Check it out:
Now, the audio is still a bit unclear, but from what we understand, it says “She speaks…she’s fallen…go to him…the calling, the calling.” Other players have tried to fill in the blanks, suggesting that the audio says “She speaks the thruth. She’s fallen, lost, go to the altar, Mythal and Solas calling from behind,” but at the very least it is inarguable that the audio is saying she’s fallen, the calling, the calling.
Those words might still seem like nonsense, until you consider some of the wider Dragon Age lore. I can’t say who the audio is referring to when it says she speaks the truth — could be Morrigan, could be Mythal/Flemeth, who as we know, are sort of the same person. What is more clear is the bit about the calling. You know how we never see the Hero of Ferelden during Inquisition? Morrigan says that he’s off to the west, looking for something that might reverse the calling. You might know The Calling because of something called The Joining. Basically, in order to join the Grey Wardens, someone has to pass a test involving blood magic. Not everyone survives the ritual, which involves drinking something containing darkspawn, lyrium, and archdemon blood. But, if a recruit survives the ritual, then they are linked to the darkspawn’s hive mind — an ability which lets Grey Wardens know about blights. The public also thinks that the ritual lets Grey Wardens become immune to the taint, which is why they’re so effective against darkspawn, but that’s not actually what happens. That’s where the Calling comes in.
After being a Grey Warden for a while, Wardens start hearing things. Dreaming things. Disturbing things. The same sorts of things a darkspawn hears when an archdemon beckons them. The Calling drives people mad. Most Wardens take the Calling as an unavoidable aspect of being a Warden, and before the Calling can fully take them, they go off into the Deep Roads to die fighting/die while being useful. Most Wardens hear the Calling after a decade or two.
The Hero of Ferelden though, they’re not so sure The Calling has to be a fact of life for Wardens. And that’s why they’re out there in the world, looking for an answer that might reverse it. Since this is never resolved in Inquisition, players think that perhaps this audio in the Temple of Mythal is telling us that, either in upcoming DLC or in the next game, we’re going to find out whether or not The Hero of Ferelden was successful in finding something that reverses The Calling.
It’s just a theory, that much is true. But it’s a bit of the story that is such a cliffhanger, that it was never a stretch to think Bioware would explore it further in the first place. The other thing to consider is that, following the events in Inquisition, the Grey Warden order is kind of a mess. When the Grey Wardens are the only thing that can stop the blight, it’s almost a certainty that future games or DLC are going to explore the order, if not the Hero of Ferelden further. Guess we’re going to have to wait and see, though.
EASTER EGG – Temple of Mythal Backwards Message DRAGON AGE INQUISITION [Geek Remix]
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