Corypheus
Corypheus is a male video game villain who features in Dragon Age.
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Biography
Sethius Amladaris was a male human who grew up in the lands of Thedas where he developed an aptitude for magic. This led to him becoming a Magister in the Tevinter Imperium where h time he became the High Priest of Dumat where he worshipped the Old God. He came to join a group of seven high priests of the Old Gods that existed within the Magisterium with these individuals being known as the Magisters Sidereal. House Almadaris was noted for being a mediocre with Sehtius believing himself destined for more. Around this time, worship of the Old Gods began to diminish leading to a loss in followers. Sethius was noted to had feared for his people and wanted to return the Tevinter back to worship of the Old Gods. Thus, he gathered with the other Magisters Sidereal in order to find a solution to the dilemma. Around this time, Sethius began to hear the whispers of Dumat in his dreams who offered to raise him up to godhood if the High Priest entered into the Fade and claimed the Golden City. Ultimately, Amladaris heeded this call but could not accomplish this feat alone and thus gathered the other six high priests of the Old Gods in order to enlist their aid. They agreed though ultimately only one of them could achieve the promise of Dumat in becoming a god leading to the six scheming against one another for power. To protect themselves, each of the high priests hid their true identities and assumed aliases with Sethius taking the name of Corypheus who was known as the Conductor of the Choir of Silence. Thus, he and his comrades in the Magisters Sidereal set forth to enter into the Fade and accomplishing a magical feat unlike any in the history of the world. Achieving this goal was no simple feat and the spell required two-thirds of the Lyrium of the Tevinter Imperium along with the life blood of hundreds of slaves. Ultimately, the Magisters spell succeeded and they were physically able to enter the Fade in the year -395 Ancient.
Afterwards, he remained within a dormant state for countless years until the aftermath of the First Blight in -191 Ancient. During this time, the Grey Wardens began to discover Darkspawn that were capable of thought and speech along with the ability to use powerful magic. In fact, some of their number were shown to lead Darkspawn hordes even in the absence of a Archdemon with these being attributed to Corypheus. In response, the Wardens looked to trap the being responsible for empowering the Darkspawn and set a trap for him in the Vimmark Mountains. Under orders from Warden-Commander Farele, Sashamiri were set to activate the trap for this powerful Darkspawn. In -189 Ancient, the trap was sprung whereby the blood of Dumat was used with the Old God's remains being destroyed to prevent any from knowing the nature o the spell Sashamiri had used in the ritual. Thus, trapped, Corypheus lay in his prison within the tower that stemmed from the Deep Roads at the middle of the mountains. At first, the Grey Wardens thought to use Corypheus as a weapon against the Darkspawn but their attempts at interrogating him simply failed as any of their number fell under his influence. Ultimately, it was decided that no Warden could handle being in the presence of Corypheus which meant any attempt to control or even kill him was impossible. It was thus ordered by the Warden-Commander Daneken that Corypheus was to be kept imprisoned and sealed for the rest of his days. This remained the case until the early years of the Dragon Age where the seals that bound him began to weaken. The Wardens faced a danger as none of them could approach the prison with Warden-Commander Larius approaching a Fereldan apostate named Malcolm Hawke. He came to force the mage into strengthening the seals using blood magic thus keeping Corypheus trapped within his prison.
Later on, Warden-Commander Larius came to succumb to the Calling lad to to one of his senior Wardens named Janeka taking charge of the prison. They came to believe that Corypheus was the key that could end the Blights and devised a plan to free him. In reality, Corypheus used the Calling to plant such thoughts in Janeka's head as a means of freeing himself. Under his influence, Janeka came to force a faction of the Carta to drink the Darkspawn blood afflicting them with the taint and binding them to Corypheus. At the same time, Janeka came to successfully lure Hawke to the prison as only the bloodline of Malcolm Hawke was capable of breaking the seals set in place. Trapped inside the prison, Hawke was forced to break the seals in the prison in order to escape. Warden-Commander Larius came to warn Hawke of the danger posed by Corypheus and claimed that the ancient being needed to be killed whilst Janeka continued to believe that she could bind Corypheus to her will. Ultimately, the final seal was broken where Corypheus was seemingly killed but in reality he had transferred his essence into one of the Grey Wardens. Thus, he was able to finally escape his prison and for the first time in years where he came to recover and think clearly.
Due to his experience in the Black City, Corypheus came to believe that the Old Gods were dead and the so-called Maker was a lie. Thus, he was resolved to end the search for religion completely. He decided to achieve this by attaining apotheosis through returning to the Black City and restoring the Tevinter Imperium to its former glory, creating a true deity capable of intervening in mortal affairs. Corypheus settled on a design to reach the Fade physically once more and restore Tevinter by surreptitiously seizing control of or disabling the most powerful factions in southern Thedas. Corypheus is even able to sway some of the most powerful Demons in the Fade to his cause, and most notably achieves an alliance with Nightmare, an exceptionally powerful Fear demon that had fed well on the banquet of fear Corypheus's actions had created in causing the Blights. The Nightmare amplified Corypheus' false Calling throughout every Grey Warden in Orlais. Deceived into believing that the death of the order was inevitable and without them to stop the Sixth Blight, the Wardens became desperate; leading Warden-Commander Clarel de Chanson to make a deal with Venatori Magister Livius Erimond who was one of Corypheus's underlings unbeknownst to the Wardens who performed a blood magic ritual that allowed them to bind demons to their control, creating the perfect army to invade the Deep Roads and kill the remaining Old Gods before they could become Archdemons preventing any further Blights. The ritual however had the side effect of leaving the Warden mages and the demons completely enslaved to Corypheus's will, giving Corpyheus an army of demons and powerful mages to use.
Corypheus also came to recruit a former slave named Calpernia to lead the Venatori that were a Tevinter nationalist supremacist cult, who believed that Corypheus will allow them to rule Thedas as god-kings in his stead once he returned to the Black City. Corypheus sent a Venatori Magister, Gereon Alexius, to Redcliffe to persuade the rebel mages to become his indentured servants in exchange for eventual Tevinter citizenship, thus allowing them to escape the Templar Order and settle in the north. In truth, the southern mages would only be used to bolster the numbers of the Venatori and serve as fodder in any future engagements. Corypheus also set out to subvert the Templar Order and bring them under his control. With the Templars now separate from the Chantry who control the Lyrium trade with Orzammar, the Templars began looking for a new supply. Using Samson as an infiltrator, Corypheus gradually introduced red lyrium to the Templars, convincing them it was superior to ordinary lyrium. Since red lyrium carries the darkspawn taint through which Corypheus could project his will, it would grant Corypheus complete control of any Templar using it. Corypheus arranged for an Envy demon to replace Lord Seeker Lucius Corin and begin corrupting the senior Templars with red lyrium, aiming to eventually twist the bulk of the order into the monstrous Red Templars. Corypheus also uses red lyrium to transform a High dragon into a imitation of an archdemon, creating his Red lyrium dragon that would serve as both a symbol of his power as well as a formidable weapon on the battlefield.
Overview
Personality and attributes
Alongside his fellow Magisters, he came to be referred to as the Conductor of the Choir of Silence and after his transformation he became known to some as the Elder One.
It was said that he could be stern but was not a cruel man. According to one of his slaves, it was the weakening of the temples and loss of followers that led to fear entering into his heart.
Corypheus had the hubris of the ancient Tevinter magisters to the point that he looked down on other beings and even other mages. Elves were considered snivelling 'rattus', Qunari were held as being racial mistakes and other mages were weak as well as incompetent.
His journey to the Black City convinced him that the gods were dead and that existing religions were fake. Thus, he sought to end the existence of other faiths and elevate himself to godhood.
Powers and abilities
As a Tevinter mage, Corypheus developed a vast amount of skill in the mystical arts.
He came to know Blood Magic where he used blood to fuel spellcasting and twist the blood in others for domination or violently corrupting purposes.
Due to his ties to the Darkspawn, he possessed certain abilities that were similar to those of an Archdemon. Among these included the ability to survive the death of his physical form by shunting his consciousness into the body of those infected by the Blight. After possessing them, he simply reformed their bodies to recreate his own allowing him to continue to function. It was shown that his magic let him speak through the Blight itself allowing him to affect any who bore its taint.
One of his allies was a fear demon within the Fade called Nightmare. The spider-like entity had fed on the fear felt by mortals in response to Blights and thus Corypheus's actions aligned with the demon. Nightmare was able to influence the minds of mortals and even simulate events such as a Calling among the Grey Wardens.
Corypheus came to gather a number followers among the mortals of the world.
Notes
- Corypheus was created by BioWare where he was voiced by actor David Sterne and featured in the setting of the Dragon Age universe.
Appearances
- Dragon Age II:
- Dragon Age: Inquisition:
External Links
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