Magic + Ellana & Cullen
That's complicated. The chantry says that the hubris of mages caused the first blight. The story is that when the magisters of old, or basically really powerful mages, went physically into the fade to try and find the Golden Seat of the Maker, their presence corrupted it. And themselves. When they returned to Thedas, it caused the first Blight. And they were the first Dark Spawn. How true that is, is anyone's guess. Even if the stor
The short answer though, is it's a corruption or taint that spreads throughout the land. Each blight starts when the Dark Spawn (corrupted and soulless creatures) find one of the Old Gods (Dragons that were worshipped by the old Tevinter Imperium). They then introduce the taint to the Old Gods, turning them into an Archdemon.
The Archdemon then controls the Dark Spawn hordes and bring them to ther surface, to blight the world. Each blight can only be ended by killing the Archdemon. But, when the Archdemon is killed normally, it's spirit goes into the nearest tainted creature. When this is a Dark Spawn, the Archdemon is reborn, as the Dark Spawn do not have a soul. Which is why Grey Wardens are needed. When one of us kills the Archdemon, usually this causes the spirit of the Archdemon to enter the Warden who made the killing blow. As the boy already contains a soul, the archdemons spirit is destroyed....and the Warden is killed.
It contains a drop of blood from an archdemon, lyrium and a number rare herbs. I had samples of most of these on me. Since, I don't think you have any of that here.
That is a good idea. I'm still getting used to the idea of science being separate to magic.