They have curious similarities to stonework found in Arlathan, so I would guess it is likely an old elven temple dating two, three hundred years before the Imperium.

You asked if I could identify the elven architecture from the few existing sketches of the outer ruins. There is beauty and curiosity in the forest, such as trees that rise tall as towers, but those who travel too deep into them never return. When the people who would start a war over a single crumbling wall ignore a large elven ruin to the south, it bodes disaster. The attack would likely succeed, but its leaders would not see the day.įrom In Pursuit of Knowledge: The Travels of a Chantry Scholar by Brother GenitiviĬruxis: For once, look to the elves for guidance. Their fame is such that Antiva keeps no standing army no king is willing to order his troops to assault her borders, and no general is mad enough to lead such an invasion. Since Antivans are well known for being good at everything but fighting, it is more than a little ironic that Antiva possesses the most deadly assassins in the world.

Their power is conferred strictly by wealth.īut Antiva is not primarily renowned for its peculiar form of government nor for its admittedly unparalleled wines. They are not princes in the literal sense, but heads of banks, trading companies, and vineyards. In truth, the nation is ruled by a collection of merchant princes. The line of kings in Antiva has remained unbroken for two and a half thousand years - it is simply that nobody pays any attention to them whatsoever. I assure you, gentle readers, that this is untrue. In the rest of the civilized world, it is common belief that Antiva has no king. The Anders, too, are a people of extremes: the most devout priests and the most deadly soldiers, the poorest nation in the world and the most feared.įrom In Pursuit of Knowledge: Travels of a Chantry Scholar by Brother Genitivi Antiva It is a land filled with wonders like the Merdaine, with its gigantic white statue of Our Lady carved into its face, her hands outstretched and bearing an eternal flame, or Weisshaupt Fortress, with its walls of living rock towering over the desolate plains below. It is the most desolate place in all the world, for two Blights have left great expanses of the steppes so completely devoid of life that corpses cannot even decay there - no insect or grub will ever reach them. The Anderfels are a land of shocking extremes. Only spirits roam its halls now, alongside the memories of those who gave their lives to protect us all from darkness.įrom the journal of Veldin, Grey Warden of Orlais, 8:58 Blessed but should the Order ever return, they will find it difficult to resurrect. The dwarves did well by us I suspect Adamant will remain for ages to come. I returned recently with a small expedition to retrieve supplies, surprised to see it still standing. We left the great griffon statues to tarnish in the blowing sand, retreating to Montsimmard with a sense of loss and shame.

So in the dawn of the Blessed Age, we sealed the fortress's mighty gates. Even if darkspawn still emerged from the chasm, who would they threaten other than the Wardens themselves? each visit of the Warden-Commander made it more apparent that Adamant had become a symbol of our decline. There were no griffons to fill its weyrs, too few Wardens to man its battlements, too many good men and women killed by demons creeping through the thinning Veil. The entire Western Approach had become a wasteland, and thus the expense of maintaining the fortress became increasingly difficult to justify. We kept the land safe from further encroachment, but as each new Age dawned, memories of our sacrifice became fainter. It had been built as a bastion against darkspawn spilling out from the Abyssal Rift, a symbol of how we had done the impossible, pushing those creatures back into the shadows where they belonged. Of all the decisions we Grey Wardens were forced to make over the lean years, withdrawing from the fortress of Adamant was perhaps the most difficult. Known Main Locations in World of Dragon Age: Inquisition Adamant Fortress

Dragon age inquisition rose puzzle