#Dalish elves

[lobselvith8]

Regarding Gaider's "Modern Elves are Partly to blame for their own oppression"

In a conversation with Christina Gonzalez and a few other people on twitter, David Gaider, the former headwriter of Dragon Age, mocked fans of the Dalish. I took issue with his statement and pointed out why people are critical of how he and the other writers handled the Dalish in Dragon Age (while Allan Schumacher of Epic Games had nothing of substance to say in response). The Dalish are nomadic as a consequence of Andrastian societies violently attacking them if they stay too long in one area. The Andrastian Chantry outlawed their religion, making them criminals as a consequence of their faith. Andrastians will threaten the Dalish with violence in an attempt to force conversion to the Andrastian faith. Templars will hunt down the Dalish, and will even torture children. Andrastian elves also suffer from Andrastian oppression as Andrastian humans can massacre all of them, down to the children in an orphanage.

Gaider postulates that one could discuss how the ancient elves were "partly to blame" for their enslavement (let's keep in mind that being slaves is what he's talking about, even though he's careful not to put that into his tweet) or how "modern elves are partly to blame for their own oppression" which is essentially what we are told throughout the whole of Inquisition and the DLCs that accompanied the game (even JoH tries to romanticize the genocidal tyrant Drakon and place all of the blame on the Dales for the elves not trusting the tyrant who was invading their neighbors, forcing conversion, and massacring the people who would not convert - like the peaceful pacifists known as the Daughters of Song).

Inquisition even rectonned previously established lore on the Dalish in order to have characters like Iron Bull denigrate the Dalish. It's a game that will side-step Celene burning thousands of elves alive in Halamshiral while it will demonize the Dalish for wanting to maintain their autonomy from what's essentially a group of colonizers who want to rule over them and force them to convert, and the white Canadian writers (who are from Canada, a place known for its long history of horrific treatment towards Indigenous people) are firmly on the side of those who think that the Dalish (who, as Gaider himself once said at the Dragon Central forums before the release of Origins, were modeled after "Northern Native Americans") are wrong not to subjugate themselves to white Andrastian rulers.

Andrastian elves similarly face hardships because of Andrastian rule. In Ferelden even the efforts of the Night Elves fighting to free the nation from Orlesian rule didn't the elves any greater freedoms once Maric came to power. The Boon of the City Elf faces a number of dire consequences unless the Warden assumes control themselves as the new Bann. Inquisition ignores the plight of the elves of the Dales entirely to focus on a white human noble as the focus of the storyline in the Dales, and you can potentially help chevalier Michel de Chevin (a white man with blonde hair who is part of the chevaliers, a group who murder innocent elves as part of their initiation rite, although this isn't properly addressed in-game) while Briala's role is marginalized in-game despite being the leader of an elven rebellion across Orlais (and she strangely became white despite her in-book description making it clear she's a woman of color, which accompanying artwork confirmed).

Whether you're talking about the slavery of ancient elves or the 'modern' oppression of Andrastian elves and Dalish elves, I don't see how you can blame either the victims of slavery or the victims of racial (and in the case of the Dalish religious) persecution for the oppression they face. And Gaider doesn't seem to understand that at all, which explains the inherent problems with how the plight of the elves is framed within Dragon Age.

[themournwatcher]

Duncan: "Your keeper and I have spoken, and we've come to an arrangement that concerns you. My order is in need of help. You are in need of a cure. When I leave, I hope you will join me. You would make an excellent Grey Warden." Mahariel: "Me? A Grey Warden? This is madness!" Keeper Marethari: "This is not madness, da'len. Your survival depends on it." Duncan: "The darkspawn taint courses through your veins. That you recovered at all is remarkable. But, eventually, the taint will sicken and kill you--or worse. The Grey Wardens can prevent that, but it means joining us." Mahariel: "I will not join out of pity." Duncan: "This is not simply charity on my part. I would not offer this if I did not think that you had the makings of a Grey Warden. Let me be clear: You will likely never return here. We go to fight the Darkspawn, a battle that will take us far from your clan. But we need you, and others like you." Mahariel: "Is the clan sending me away?" Keeper Marethari: "A great army of darkspawn gathers in the south. A new Blight threatens the land. We cannot outrun this storm. Long ago, the Dalish agreed to aid the Grey Wardens against a Blight, should that day arrive. We must honor that agreement. It breaks my heart to send you away. As it would to watch you die slowly from this sickness. This is your duty, and your salvation." Mahariel: "This is all I've ever known! This is my home!" Duncan: "A home that darkspawn may tear apart. This way, you can find a cure and protect your clan. Have courage." Keeper Marethari: "I… cannot express my sadness at sending one of our sons off into such danger, away from the clan that loves him. But if this is what the Creators intend for you, da'len, meet your destiny with your head held high. No matter where you go, you are Dalish. Never forget that." Mahariel: "Please, do not cast me away." Keeper Marethari: "I am sorry, da'len." Duncan: "Very well. You leave me no choice. I hereby invoke the Right of Conscription." Keeper Marethari: "And I witness and acknowledge your invocation, Duncan of the Grey Wardens." Duncan: "I am sorry this was not your choice, but the darkspawn threat is simply too great." Mahariel: "You cannot make me serve against my will." Duncan: "I will drag you kicking and screaming to Ostagar if I must. Would you rather die here, and sicken your own people?" Keeper Marethari: "I know you'll do your clan proud, da'len. Take this ring. It is your heritage and will protect you against the darkness to come." Duncan: "A valuable gift. So… are you ready to go?" Mahariel: "Now?" Duncan: "I have already waited longer than is wise. You can afford less delay than I can, and we have much ground to cover. But I won't deny you time to say your farewells." Keeper Marethari: "Come then, da'len. Before the Creators guide you from us, let your clan embrace you one last time."

Duncan forcibly conscripts Mahariel.

[ayamikasai]

Protective Solas 🥺✨💕

Another commish for @zevswarden ✨🫶

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[oakfathers-blessings]

Agilina for @ohmyarda ✨

[skeletalk--art]

concept art version of Solas with my inquisitor Niari Lavellan 🥰✨🫠 I love the concept art ver of him (also love egg)

I wanna make some more coupley pieces but couple pose art is extremely new to me and scary

[bardandbear]

For the other Dalish lovers out there, it's really only just hit me how excited I am to be able to take an all Dalish party out in DAV to fight the blighed elvhen gods. I'm giddy about it actually. Found family, found clan. Working with the Dread Wolf and a Dalish Inquisitor. Somewhere out there is a (very blighted) Dalish Hero of Ferelden.

Please please please can we get better elven interactivity this game Bioware I beg-

[namizu]

happy dragon age summer >:)

ive never posted her before, but this is my lavellan; adariel. she is going to 1v1 her ex man with a frying pan.

[attractthecrows]

solavellan this solavellan that. my favorite way to interpret dalish heroes is as mirrors.

you're Mahariel. your life is over because of a mirror.

You are the mirror of Garahel. Tamlen is the blighted mirror of you. You, the hero, are a reflection of what has been and should never have been. The blood spilled and blackened over a millennium in the name of corrupted once-gods.

you're Merrill. your life is forever altered because of a mirror. you are a reflection of the pride and the folly of your Keeper, of what a Dalish mage should be, and should have been all along.

you are Lavellan. you are the Inquisitor, the lynchpin of fate, both a reflection and avenue of change - like an eluvian. you are the reflection of Mahariel. you are the reflection of your clan. you are the reflection of Ameridan. you are a reflection of Corypheus, caught in a cycle older than either of you. you are a reflection of the elvhen heart and soul. you are, unknowingly, the reflection of Fen'harel, and you will drag the world kicking and screaming into it's new fate and future.

you are, more than anything else, a mirror.

[thessaralka]

the dread wolf took her face tats lol :(

[cadaveerie]

spoilers for DA2, DAI, DATV (from things seen in the first Dragon Age: The Veilguard gameplay reveal, and from the character designs and descriptions) and Tevinter Nights (The Horror of Hormak)

Trying to guess what gods Davrin and Bellara's vallaslin represent

Long post ahead. TLDR at the end!

I suppose that someone has already made some comparison like this, but I couldn't find any post that compares the images like this so I'm doing one!

Firstly, the source: The chart in which the vallaslin were assigned to their gods for the first time was posted by Matt Rhodes (post).

The vallaslin used in that chart are from Dragon Age: Inquisition, so we don't have an official confirmation for the vallaslin of DAO or DA2. The designs are different in those two games, but they're similar enough to make a guess. For further reference, aside from the confirmed DAI version I'll try to assign the vallaslin that I suspect might be Davrin and Bellara's to their respective DAO version.

Now, the post itself is under the cut:

Davrin - Ghilan'nain

Ghilan'nain is the elven goddess of guides and navigation. She is often called the Mother of the halla—white deer-like creatures revered by the Dalish and used to pull their aravel, or "landships".

Comparison to DAO's, this is the most likely to be Ghilan'nain's vallaslin, in my opinion. This image belongs to codexapocryphal, who made this post. After looking at all the vallaslin, I agree with them that this is the one that's most likely to be Ghilan'nain's.

Ghilan'nain is my best guess for Davrin.

The reasoning:

Theme

The Mother of the Halla, a goddess closely related to animals, who loves and protects them, and who herself became the first halla. The goddess that created countless monsters so wild that she had to destroy most of them after her beloved pleaded her to stop (Codex: The Ascension of Ghilan'nain). And possibly, she might have been the one responsible for the events of The Horror of Hormak, a story in Tevinter Nights that narrates how two Grey Wardens find a temple that, coincidentally, is full of halla horns symbolism in its columns, and in which from a strange pool come out horrifying mutated darkspawn and monsters. There's also some other symbolism in the story that suggests that it might be Ghilan'nain's doing, but that's the most obvious one (aside from the fact that the pool is straight up creating monsters, as Ghilan'nain is known to do).

She is also said to help Dalish hunters find their way home when they're lost. And all of that -- the hunter, the monster and the animal elements, sound very accurate to Davrin, who is both a monster hunter and one of the Grey Wardens that were assigned to raise a griffon (perhaps he loves animals like she does, that'd be cute :D).

Additionally, if it turns out that it's indeed Ghilan'nain's vallaslin, we will probably end up getting this information in-game, since Ghilan'nain is one of the gods that Solas (and Rook) freed by accident. Oops.

Design

Based on the design alone, I think you could easily see a halla's horns in it. However, I think it can be a little hard to properly identify which vallaslin we are talking about by only looking at the forehead, since some of the designs look very similar to each other, especially in the forehead region.

Having said that, I think that if we look both at his forehead and chin, the Ghilan'nain vallaslin design from Inquisition is the most similar to Davrin's, since both vallaslin occupy the forehead and the chin only and the "horns" are making similar shapes.

Other reasons

One of the reasons why I believe it might be hers as well is because it would make a very interesting conflict for Davrin. The monster hunter who has to fight this... monster-looking creature, that on top of that is the goddess his vallaslin represents?

And it's even crazier if we consider what Solas reveals to f!Lavellan in one of their romance scenes: that the vallaslin are actually slave markings that nobles forced their slaves to get. I wonder what Davrin (and Bellara, and a Dalish Rook) would think if they knew this... And I wonder what a god would think if they saw an elf with one of their symbols on their face. Would they believe they're a slave dedicated to them? Who knows, if some of the theories out there are true, perhaps the gods themselves could have some control over them. Not sure how likely that is, but it would be interesting and add yet another layer of drama (and maybe it's reaching, but it reminds me to what happens if you bring Anders with you to the Deep Roads in the Legacy DLC, that he turns against the team. I wonder if something like that would be possible if you bring Davrin along and have to fight this goddess at some point. tbh I love this trope.. I know it's too extra but I hope it's true lol).

Other options

If not Ghilan'nain's then I believe the other most likely options are the following:

Mythal's (complex version), The All-Mother, the patron of motherhood and justice (the flip side of vengeance):

and Falon'Din's, the god of death and fortune who guides the dead to the Beyond:

And the both of them is because even if they have a cheek part that Davrin's doesn't have, it's similar enough to his in both the "horns" aspect and the chin. At least enough, I suppose... I still think it's way more likely that it's Ghilan'nain, though. For the rest I can't seem to find enough similarities to even suggest them... but here is all of them, in case you want to check:

link!

Bellara - Dirthamen

Dirthamen is the elven god of secrets and knowledge.

Comparison to DAO's, this is the most likely to be Dirthamen's vallaslin, in my opinion. This image belongs to codexapocryphal, who made this post. After looking at all the vallaslin, I agree with them that this is the one that's most likely to be Dirthamen's.

I know that for this one, the DAO and the DAI one don't seem that similar to each other, but I believe that there's still similarity, especially in the cheeks. Since this is speculative it might not even be the right comparison, but it's not that relevant either way.

Dirthamen is my best guess for Bellara.

The reasoning:

Theme

The Keeper of Secrets, he is the god that gave the elves the gift of knowledge. Both him and Falon'Din, his "twin brother", would venture into The Fade often to learn secrets. He's also said to have gifted the elves the gifts of loyalty and faith in family.

It's pretty clear that this would make sense for Bellara, since she's a Veil Jumper, the people that explore the ancient ruins of the Arlathan Forest looking for ancient secrets of the elves. And Bellara herself is described in the EA website as "obsessed with discovering the ancient secrets of ancient Elvhenan". This god seems to be a perfect patron for her.

Contrary to the dynamic that Davrin might have with Ghilan'nain, the other god that escaped as we saw in the gameplay reveal was probably Elgar'nan (if you want to know why, you can watch this video by Jackdaw). So if Bellara's vallaslin is Dirthamen's, then she wouldn't have this sort of connection to one of the gods that escaped as Davrin does for having Ghilan'nain vallaslin (although it would have been funny, but I suppose it's better this way, to give each character their own personal struggle facing this. And at the end of the day, both of the gods that escaped are still part of the pantheon she follows, so it'd be significant for her as well regardless of who was released).

Design

Compared to Davrin's, this is a bit harder to figure out, as the two vallaslin look significantly more different. To me the most relevant part when we compare DAI Dirthamen's design to Bellara's are the geometrical shapes, especially the triangles, as this shape (in this form of... dots, almost) is never found in other vallaslin.

And I think that the design in her cheeks is also kind of similar to Dirthamen's in DAI, as they are little triangles/diamonds that go across a longer curve. It could be a reach though... I'm not super confident in this one, but considering the other options, this one seems like the most similar.

Other reasons

Relevant to her overall design and her vallaslin, it seems that the triangle (and geometric shapes, but mostly the triangle) is a relevant motif for her. She's full of them all over her outfit... although as seen in the concept art below, it's not so much a "her" thing as it is a general theme for Veil Jumpers. I also suppose that they took a lot of their style from the elvhenan and their ancient artifacts that they found in the Arlathan Forest.

Other options

The one that in my opinion looks the most like it could be Bellara's, aside from Dirthamen's, is June's, the elven Master of Crafts, a god of crafts and building. I believe this because of the little dots June's has under the eyes, which I think look similar to what Bellara has in her cheeks, and also to those she has right below her eyebrows. The forehead part also looks... kind of similar to hers. One of the biggest differences is that June's DAI vallaslin goes down the neck, and hers doesn't (and doesn't even have anything on the chin, but Dirthamen's DAI one also has something on the chin).

I've also seen some people suggest Sylaise's (the complex version), the goddess of all the domestic arts, or Falon'Din's, the elven god of death and fortune who guides the dead to the Beyond... but to be honest I just don't see enough resemblance, and I don't think thematically it makes as much sense as Dirthamen's does.

And once again I leave the picture of all of DAI's vallaslin in case you want to check:

and the link, again!

And that's all! Sorry if this was too long!

Keep in mind that at the end of the day we know that the vallaslin are different depending of the region, so that's the in-game reason why they're different. That and of course, there can always be slightly changes, especially in this game since it's been 10 years since the last one came out.

Do you agree or have any other take? If you have other theories for this or you spot any mistake, please let me know! Thank you for reading :D

TLDR: It's Ghilan'nain for Davrin and Dirthamen for Bellara, probably? But we're just guessing here.

the DAI vallaslin images from the wiki, they were uploaded by KeladinStorm and  Evamitchelle so shoutout to them!

Edit 1: Confirmation for Bellara

[crunchbuttsteak]

It’s weird that it gets progressively easier to wipe out an entire Dalish clan in each dragon age game, right?

Origins: You have to pass a pretty high persuasion check to get the option to attack the clan.

DA2: Unless you pick one specific dialog option, the entire clan will aggro you.

Inquisition: Unless you do a series of war table missions in the exact right way, your clan will be wiped out.

[catboy]

I've seen a lot of people regurgitating the "Bioware thinks Dalish elves are stupid and misguided for believing in evil gods and therefore they're poor representation" opinion lately and this drives me absolutely crazy as an actual Jewish person who does feel like Dalish elves are a well done analog and doesnt think this is the intended message AT ALL. I could literally write a whole cited dissertation about this if provoked.

But I'll leave it at this for now-- (cut for length/discussion of antisemitism)

It's no mistake that so much of this revolves around tattoos. It used to be an extremely sensitive thing in the Jewish community around the time after the Holocaust to have a tattoo at all because of how prisoners were forcibly tattooed. This has caused a lot of strife between older and younger Jewish people, but I think it's safe to say that we are at a point where having a tattoo no longer symbolizes the same marks of oppression and are valid self-expression. You can in fact get a tattoo celebrating your Jewish heritage now, and that's a good thing.

In the case of the Dalish, I think it's frankly insane to feel that they're not well within their right to reclaim the vallaslin as a tradition and symbol of their history, as people connected to an entirely different pantheon. And I think the original purpose of vallaslin being commonly known wouldn't change that. They haven't been a symbol of oppression since literal pre-history, and have cultivated a new meaning over ages.

And besides that, it is a reoccurring theme in the real world within Judaism to constantly remind ourselves of the times throughout history where we have been alienated from society in various ways, in order to cultivate a common desire for freedom and peace (and don't get me started on how many people IRL seem to have not internalized that lesson at all, but I wont get into that here.) We light memorial candles, we symbolically drink our own tears, and we remind ourselves of how lucky we are to be in a better place than we were once.

Solas is just blind to all of this because he's too stuck in the past to care about the Dalish as a modern people. He's an old bubbe who thinks you're sick in the head for wanting "marks of oppression" on your skin and doesn't care about what it means to you, as someone who has every right to decide that meaning for yourself. I think a LOT of this subtlety is completely lost on players who aren't Jewish.

Oh and I'm extremely happy and excited for Bellara and Davrin. Dalish can represent many different diaspora, even if they have a lot of parallels to be drawn with Jewish people. Also, Jewish people IRL aren't all white either and a lot of people tend to forget this.

[ayamikasai]

Lalen Dragon Age tarot set for @enterthedreams 💕 for their DA fic 'God Touched'! I also added in a bonus character concept design :3

Thank you again for the opportunity to draw for you~

10/10 recommended read. It is so good! Literally got me waiting on new chapters!

❤️Discord (junyami) for commissions!

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[fenrisdefender]

Dalish OC Commission WIP

these aren't the final colors - just thought I would play around with a friend's commission

[baldursgrave69]

Im playing Dragon Age: Inquisition right now so have some pics of my Inquisitor Eve and Cullen bc I’m obsessed with the two of them

[nucuk]

Halamshiral ball extra scene 🕺💃🧝🤵🪩

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Cullen Rutherford & Dalish | Dragon Age Inquisition