Something something vampires walking on walls

Reclaiming Independence of the Dales

Before anything else, I’d just like to clarify that that vast majority of this is made of my own ideas, based on interpretation from the little canonical information provided, and a little inspired by my own people’s history and governing structure. Additionally, what I am presenting here is an ideal situation, not necessarily what I think is an immediately realistic outcome in the world-state established. So, please keep that in mind.

The Dales were established as a homeland for elves—a small piece of a continent that was once called their home in its entirety, before the humans colonized it—by Maferath in -165 Ancient. This was in reward for the eleven people’s participation in the fight against Ancient Tevinter. But in 2:10 Glory, Divine Renata I broke this treaty and declared an Exalted March against the Dales, ending in its annexation by Orlais.

[Related Post: All You Need to Know about the Exalted March of the Dales]

If Solas has very low approval with Inquisitor Lavellan, and Lavellan accuses him of not doing enough to help their people, he will say the following: “You could order Halamshiral returned to the Dalish, if you wished. But ultimately, you know that would fail. That even you cannot solve this.” I hate this with a burning passion. The reason I can’t do that, Solas, is because it’s not an option in the game! Why are you as a character angry at me, the player, for not doing something that is not an option for me to do? Why was this written? Just to push the point that it’s not worth it to try and fight back against oppression? Because if I refuse to accept hopelessness in real life, why would I in accept it in a video game where the story is made-up, and therefore anything is possible if the developers so wish it.

Regardless, according to Solas, the Inquisition has enough power to support the reclamation of an independent Dales. I imagine this would require a lot of political maneuvering within the Orlesian governance, and therefore I think the best opportunity to do this would be with Briala ruling through Gaspard. This would then later open the door for Briala to be the leader of the newly independent Dales, too. I would like to see Briala as ruler of the Dales not just because she is a favourite of mine, but because I genuinely believe she is the best established character fit for the job. She was trained in everything Celene was trained in, has first-hand experience in court, has extensive connections, and has demonstrated her ability and desire to utilize these skills and assets for the benefit of elven kind.

Briala’s blackmail on Gaspard may help prevent Orlais from invading again while under his rule, but to last longer, the Dales would need to establish itself as a strong, independent Nation with allies. This is why I believe it would also be important to have Leliana as Divine Victoria in such a world-state where this could happen. Leliana re-canonizes the Canticle of Shartan, and in making it available for the common person to understand, would ideally help sway the minds of the average Andrastian into supporting the Dales’s independence. The nobility would of course be much trickier, because they and the Chantry are the ones who actually benefitted from its annexation—but there is little they would be able to actually accomplish if they did not have the power of the people behind them.

As far as allies go, Ferelden could only gain from Orlais losing control of the Dales, because it would mean cutting Orlais off from a lot of Ferelden’s border, therefore reducing the threat of another invasion. Additionally, a leader with just plain good morals like say, Alistair, would easily accept the elven kingdom’s return. But even Anora is willing to grant part of the Korcari Wilds to the Dalish if Mahariel requests it, and while this sadly doesn’t last, it does show a positive sign into her potentially being open to the idea of an independent Dales as well.

I sincerely doubt that all Dalish clans would return to the Dales and re-settle down. After all, they have developed differentiating cultures over the years of wandering in separated groups, with different ideals and different ways of life that they might not want to give up. But many would return, and that would likely create conflict between the elves coming from the Dalish clans and the elves coming from the cities. We know that some prejudice exists against “flat-ears” as some Dalish call those from the city, and we know that city elves have adopted a lot of misinformation from humans into their views of the Dalish. It would take time and positive leadership to reconnect the people, without risking falling into some sort of hierarchy based on origin. This is why I do not believe one group or the other should single-handedly rule alone. Rather, I think there should be a Grand Council of High Keepers made up of those voted into the position each to represent a single district of the Dales. (I like the idea of there being seven High Keepers, not just because there are seven traditional districts of Mi’kma’ki, but because it works out that there seven of the Creators. So it makes sense that there would be seven High Keepers.) The Grand Council would meet and make decisions together, with one appointed leader at the head to act as the Council’s chair.

In terms of protection and order, the Emerald Knights should be reformed. This would include the Fade Hunters, to protect the people against demons and maleficarum, with there being no Circles or Templars.

Restoring the independence of the Dales would lead to a revival of elven culture in ways that could never happen before, because they would actually be free to pursue re-learning the language, re-discovering the history and culture, and sharing it all amongst each other. They would not have to fear arrest the crime of simply being an elf.  

But what of the other races presently living in the Dales? I see no reason why they would have to leave, so long as they would be willing to follow the Grand Council’s leadership. I imagine many nobility would flee to Orlais, simply because they would not stand for it. But for the average human or surface dwarf, their life wouldn’t really even change much; they’d still be managing their farms the same as always. Hell, it might even improve things for them, assuming the Grand Council gives fairer treatment than the nobility previously.

Just published my interactive timeline for the Dragon Age period (as in, 9:00-present)!

Keep in mind I've only included things with canonically confirmed years, so there's quite a lot of stuff that's happened post-Trespasser that we don't know the exact dates of missing, for example. (You can, however, find a detailed list of those events HERE.)

I've also narrowed things down to just worldbuilding events, not character birthdays and stuff like that.

For those unfamiliar with how Timetoast works: Click on the little boxes for more information on each event.

✨When you are a giga-strong mountain of stone muscles crushing the heads of weak people, and your wife a diplomatic, intelligent mage who needs to be protected✨

Why is this event in World of Thedas vol. 1's timeline worded like this...

"A violent uprising?" Really? This makes it seem like it was the mages who escalated things, when it was the templars who attacked their perfectly peaceful meeting!

i havent stopped thinking about ameridan and i just realized smthn, he was friends with drakon, emperor of orlais, who was it no one knew he was elf? did someone erase any records that would imply ameridan was a dalish mage to make drakon look better? did this happen during drakon's life time? if so was he aware? basically i have more reason to hate orlais i didnt even know that was possible

How was it no one knew he was an elf? That’s just the thing. People did know. But then Divine Renata declared an Exalted March on the Dales, established the alienages, and had any and all Chantry associated work depicting elves destroyed, except for a single painting of Shartan in the University of Orlais, which just had his ears revised to be human. (As detailed in The Masked Empire.) That likely included any mention of Ameridan being an elf and a mage. And the few elves who remained insistent that he was an elf were ignored, while humans profited off of their own claims of his heritage.

People didn’t just forget. The Chantry actively sought out to destroy this knowledge and replace it with a story that better fitted to their needs of human superiority. 

“I was a good hunter. I did not want to lead an organization. But Drakon told me I was needed… as I suspect you were needed.”

The Dales: A Broken Promise

RELATED POST:

All You Need to Know about the Exalted March of the Dales

—————

Founding of the Dales

When Andraste waged war against the Imperium, the elven slaves of Tevinter rose up to aid her, led by Shartan, the elven general. In -165 Ancient, for their service in battle, Maferath granted the elves a new homeland: The Dales, located in Southern Thedas between present day Orlais and Ferelden. But neither of those two nations existed yet at this point; the lands between the Dales were occupied by independent and unorganized Ciriane and Alamarri human tribes. The Dales as a nation is older than both Orlais and Ferelden.

The former elven slaves from across Thedas began to make their way to their new homeland, where they were promised freedom and independence. This journey is known as The Long Walk. Aptly named, as most elves travelled over a great distance, all on foot. Many perished from exhaustion, hunger, or attacks by human bandits along the way. Those that made it came to Halamshiral, (“End of the Journey” in Elvhen,) the new capital of the Dales. After over 800 years of slavery under humans, having their culture, their history, their traditions, their language, their identities taken from them, the formation of this new homeland allowed them to start to reclaim these things. As the elves built Halamshiral, they vowed that no human would set foot in it, that this would be their escape from those responsible for their near millennium-long genocide and enslavement.

Leadership

In present time, a Keeper is the leader of a Dalish clan. When the Dales were an independent nation, Keepers were priests, acting as archivists and magical scholars in dedication to a temple of one of the elven gods. The Temple of Dirthamen in the Exalted Plains has a “Chamber of the Oracle”, suggesting that priestly duties may have included divination as well. Ancient elves practiced scrying, (as acted in Witch Hunt, and also given Falon'Din is referred to as “master-scryer” in a codex found in the Temple of Mythal,) so perhaps this is an art recovered in the Dales.

There was some form of hierarchy to Keepers, with High Keepers being the leaders of a given temple. High Keepers were referred to as “the High Keeper of June” or “the High Keeper of Elgar’nan”, depending on the temple they served in. It is unknown if there were multiple High Keepers for a single god at once, or if this role was reserved for one High Keeper per one god at a time. The other priests addressed High Keepers formally as “Highest One”.

The Dales had some form of nobility, of which many Dalish clan names descend from according to Mary Kirby on Twitter. Halamshiral was led by a Lord, meaning other cities may have been too.

Seguir leyendo

camp clothes origins style

Briala my beloved

Josephine Montilyet - Dragon Age: Inquisition More art of one of my faves

I started this ages ago and finally finished it, since my last Dragon Age Awakening post is getting a lot of likes lately.

Don’t remember if I meant to add dialogue to this but here it is lol.

(Is it too much to ask if they show up again in DA4??)

All mages love cats

What am I to you?

And speak of Wyllyam Ravengard i love you i love you i love you

Everyone talks about what a nice guy Wyll is, but if you dare to play the lyre around him "poorly," he will threaten to stab you

I've seen that sparkle in your eye, that extra I-don't-know-what. Even a blind derro couldn't miss it.