The Tranquil are the Executors? - Dragon Age Theory — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Since the days of Inquisition, the
2. 0:02Executives have been a mystery to many a
3. 0:04Dragon Age fan.
4. 0:05However, I've got a theory on not only
5. 0:08who the Executives are, but also why
6. 0:10they're here to cause trouble here in
7. 0:12Thedas.
8. 0:13Hello crows and non-crows alike. My name
9. 0:15is Joe Mack, otherwise known as Support
10. 0:16Crew, and today we are talking about who
11. 0:18or what these mysterious Executives
12. 0:21could be.
13. 0:23But before we dive into these theories,
14. 0:25let's take the Executives for who they
15. 0:27claim to be at face value.
16. 0:30They appear to be spies, brokers of
17. 0:32information, fully cloaked from head to
18. 0:34toe, and always seem to be up to some
19. 0:36kind of unexplainable shifty business.
20. 0:39They are rarely put into a position
21. 0:40where they must explain themselves and
22. 0:42are quick to disappear after explaining
23. 0:44very little and often in vague nuances.
24. 0:48For context, let's go over a few
25. 0:49instances that stand out. In one
26. 0:52account, two Dalish by the names of
27. 0:53Sarris and Taren discover a collapsed
28. 0:56portion of the Deep Roads that seem to
29. 0:58go under the ocean. Then they find an
30. 1:00Executor, draped from head to toe in
31. 1:03robes, but with an exposed shifting arm.
32. 1:06This Executor was hostile to the Dalish,
33. 1:09who were able to escape. In the winter
34. 1:11nights, an Inquisition spy by the name
35. 1:13of Charter assembles a meeting of some
36. 1:15of the world's most skilled spies to
37. 1:17gather intel on Solas. One of these
38. 1:20spies was an Executor, who Charter
39. 1:22describes as having a voice that was
40. 1:24neither male or female, young or old. In
41. 1:27Inquisition, one of our war table
42. 1:29missions involves a mystery where
43. 1:31someone keeps drawing strange markings
44. 1:33on our outposts.
45. 1:34If you defer to Cullen, he sets up a
46. 1:37number of decoy outposts to try and
47. 1:38catch the culprits. When the outposts
48. 1:41are checked up on later though,
49. 1:43they have been abandoned. No sign of
50. 1:45struggle, looting, or any lead to
51. 1:48follow.
52. 1:49The soldiers that were stationed there
53. 1:51straight up vanish.
54. 1:53The Inquisitor later gets a letter from
55. 1:55the Executives themselves, explaining
56. 1:57that the men had given themselves at
57. 2:00their own free will to a higher cause.
58. 2:03And they sign off as representatives who
59. 2:05speak on behalf of those across the sea.
60. 2:09In Val'gar, we get as close as we ever
61. 2:11get to the executives through these
62. 2:13strange circles left in all of them
63. 2:15forests, the Necropolis halls, and the
64. 2:18Revenant dragon lair in the crossroads.
65. 2:20Each with its own cryptic message.
66. 2:24You return.
67. 2:25We are content.
68. 2:29Why are you here? What do you want? Not
69. 2:31now. Not yet.
70. 2:34We will show you
71. 2:37soon.
72. 2:39This just gets weirder every time.
73. 2:48Fascinating.
74. 2:50Unforeseen.
75. 2:53Who are you? Must not reveal. Must not
76. 2:56alarm.
77. 2:58Soon know.
78. 3:00Very soon.
79. 3:04And last but not least, the secret
80. 3:06ending that triggers when you find all
81. 3:08three of these circles.
82. 3:11The storm quelled.
83. 3:14The sun
84. 3:16dimmed.
85. 3:18The wolf
86. 3:19defamed.
87. 3:22At last,
88. 3:25we have balanced.
89. 3:32Guided.
90. 3:37Whispered.
91. 3:42And soon,
92. 3:43the poisoned fruit ripens.
93. 3:52We come.
94. 3:56In the secret ending, the Executives
95. 3:57claim to be the ones pulling on the
96. 3:59threads in this world's most dire
97. 4:01conflicts.
98. 4:03The last of the Evanuris, Corypheus in
99. 4:05the Breach, the Mage-Templar War,
100. 4:08Loghain's betrayal of King Cailan, and
101. 4:10last but not least, the corruption of
102. 4:12the Golden City.
103. 4:14And after all of this, one question
104. 4:17remains.
105. 4:18Who are they?
106. 4:21We are led to believe that the
107. 4:22Executives are from across the sea,
108. 4:25across the ocean.
109. 4:27Here's the thing, though.
110. 4:29A shadow organization telling us where
111. 4:31they're coming from doesn't quite sound
112. 4:34right.
113. 4:35Instead, I believe that this is a
114. 4:37half-truth,
115. 4:38a
116. 4:39assumption
117. 4:41that has been given to us by the
118. 4:43Executives' guiding hand, that the sea
119. 4:45in question refers to a literal ocean.
120. 4:49I believe the sea
121. 4:50is actually the Fade itself.
122. 4:53This leads to my first big theory about
123. 4:56the Executives. They are not people
124. 4:58pulling strings from a continent far,
125. 5:00far away. No, the Executives are spirits
126. 5:04observing from the Fade, which has been
127. 5:07inching closer and closer to the waking
128. 5:09world of each game. Considering what
129. 5:12we've pulled together, the possibility
130. 5:14of the Executives being spirits seems
131. 5:17likely.
132. 5:18There's also a couple of other clues
133. 5:20that suggest the Executives could be
134. 5:22from the Fade. One being Spite's writing
135. 5:25in Lycanis's daily notes, within he
136. 5:28says, "There is an infinite. There is a
137. 5:30shelter.
138. 5:32There is a storm outside the center."
139. 5:34I believe the infinite is the Fade.
140. 5:37The shelter being Fade as or the waking
141. 5:40world, and the storm being, of course,
142. 5:43the Executives. Then there is this
143. 5:45interesting statement we hear from
144. 5:47Gilleanain while we're in the Fade.
145. 5:53What are your dreams?
146. 5:56A discordant refrain and
147. 5:59shadows, nothing more.
148. 6:04In our prison, there was more.
149. 6:07I dreamed the songs of the living past.
150. 6:12And now,
151. 6:13masked eyes across the sea.
152. 6:16A storm that drinks the sky.
153. 6:20If the Executives are just mortal beings
154. 6:23pulling strings from another continent,
155. 6:26then how could they have such an effect
156. 6:27on Spiked and Gilleanain and other
157. 6:30spirits?
158. 6:31If the Executives are not spirits, I'll
159. 6:33eat my tin hat. But what spirits are
160. 6:36they? What kind of spirit could organize
161. 6:39together and carry out these complex
162. 6:42plans? Well, this leads us to our second
163. 6:45theory and the main reason for the video
164. 6:47if I'm being honest. If the Executives
165. 6:49are spirits, then I believe that they
166. 6:52consist of the severed spirits of the
167. 6:55Tranquil. If you're new to Dragon Age,
168. 6:57then you're probably wondering what a
169. 6:58Tranquil is. They weren't exactly a a
170. 7:00major fixture in Val Guard. When a mage
171. 7:03becomes dangerous or uncooperative or
172. 7:06unwilling to undergo a magical exam
173. 7:09called the Harrowing, they may be
174. 7:10subjected to the Rite of Tranquility. A
175. 7:14horrendous and painful process that
176. 7:17severes a mage's connection from the
177. 7:19Fade. This does strip them completely of
178. 7:22their magic, but it also removes all
179. 7:24emotion from the mage and makes them
180. 7:26extremely compliant. It is speculated
181. 7:29that Tranquil are often misused and
182. 7:31abused due to their obedient nature.
183. 7:33They are basically walking, talking meat
184. 7:36sacks that will never tell their bosses
185. 7:38no.
186. 7:39And I'll leave the rest to your
187. 7:41imagination. The Rite of Tranquility was
188. 7:43greatly abused in Southern Thedas and
189. 7:46only used in extreme cases in Northern
190. 7:48Thedas, which is why we don't see it
191. 7:51that much in Dragon Age: The Veil Guard.
192. 7:53If we believe that severing the
193. 7:55connection from a mage from their spirit
194. 7:58essentially cuts the spirit and leaves
195. 8:00them off to the Fade somewhere, then
196. 8:02there's no telling how many Executors
197. 8:04there could be. The official records
198. 8:06within canon claim that the Rite of
199. 8:08Tranquility was developed by the First
200. 8:10Inquisition. However, there is no record
201. 8:13of how it was discovered or developed or
202. 8:16invented.
203. 8:17It is just simply one of the
204. 8:19Inquisition's many secrets. We do know
205. 8:22that how Solas deals with the Titans is
206. 8:25very similar to the Rite of Tranquility.
207. 8:27At least it produced a similar effect,
208. 8:30which got me on this whole theory to
209. 8:32begin with. If cutting the spirits from
210. 8:34the Titans caused the Blight,
211. 8:37what is being created every time
212. 8:40Tranquility is being enforced? A
213. 8:43collection of spirits with a shared
214. 8:45suffering, power, knowledge, and motive
215. 8:49to retaliate against the waking world.
216. 8:52If we believe that the Rite of
217. 8:54Tranquility has been around since at
218. 8:56least the fall of the Tevinter
219. 8:58Magisters, then the Executors have been
220. 9:00gathering strength one tranquil at a
221. 9:03time for over a thousand years.
222. 9:06How could we possibly defeat such an
223. 9:08enemy?
224. 9:09Are we supposed to win against an enemy
225. 9:11like that or is this like
226. 9:14Noah and the Ark?
227. 9:16The biblical flood is coming and we're
228. 9:18just trying to figure out a way to
229. 9:19survive. Because short of cutting away
230. 9:23all of magic across the entire world,
231. 9:25I'm not sure how we would
232. 9:28handle that kind of situation.
233. 9:31If this theory is true, then this could
234. 9:33give the conflict of Tranquility a major
235. 9:35resolution. Thank you for watching. Let
236. 9:38me know who you think
237. 9:40the executives are down in the comments.
238. 9:42And also be sure to stick around for my
239. 9:44next Dragon Age theory bit. An
240. 9:46otherworldly force requires an
241. 9:48otherworldly protagonist and this theory
242. 9:51I think is going to blow your socks off.
243. 9:53Until then, be safe, be well, be kind.
244. 9:57Bye-bye.