[LORE] THE DREAD WOLF RISES – Who is Fen’Harel?

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

What we know about the Dread Wolf basically comes from two sources, the Dalish elves and Fen’Harel himself, plus a number of other ancient sources that we encounter in Dragon Age Inquisition and its associated DLCs. 

Fen’Harel means Dread Wolf in elvish.   There is a suggestion in a codex in the Temple of Mythal in Inquisition that the meaning might really be Rebel Wolf but this seems disproved by a conversation we have with Fen’Harel in Trespasser and Flemeth/Mythal addressing him as “Dread Wolf”.  It should also be pointed out that this codex was portrayed as being written by human scholars based on their studies of linguistics but it would be odd if they knew more about the elvish language or the meaning of his name than the Dalish.  Actually it would seem the codex was a device for introducing the idea that our knowledge about Fen’Harel might not be complete.  Fen’Harel was a rebel but the Harel part of his name definitely means Dread.

DALISH LORE

In the Dalish pantheon of gods, Fen’Harel is known as the Lord of Tricksters and the Bringer of Nightmares. He is said to have never been particularly fond of the elves, interacting with them for sport or imparting of dark wisdom as the whim took him.

The Dalish have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with Fen’Harel.   On the one hand they seem to fear him and regard him as an untrustworthy trickster but on the other they make offerings of appeasement and place a statue of him in their camps, facing outwards to ward off evil spirits, clearly looking to him for protection.  

The main story about him that the lore keepers tell is connected with their explanation for why their benevolent gods, the Creators, can no longer answer their prayers.   In this tale the Creators, led by Mythal and Elgar’nan were engaged in a war with the evil gods of terror, malice, spite and pestilence, known as the Forgotten Ones.   These gods had always been in opposition but apparently Fen’Harel could walk among both sides without fear of reprisal, belonging to both camps and neither. 

As the war seemed to have reached a state of impasse, Fen’Harel suggested calling a truce whilst he negotiated between them.  The Creators retreated to the heavens, whilst the Forgotten Ones returned to the abyss, whereupon Fen’Harel trapped both sets of gods in their respective realms.  In one version of the story, both sets of gods were persuaded to do this because he promised to reveal the location of a secret weapon that would defeat their enemies.

The Dalish call this action on the part of Fen’Harel “the Betrayal” and the lore keepers claim his reason for locking away the other gods is that he wanted sole control of the Beyond, which is the name the Dalish use for the Fade.  He then left the ordinary elves to fend for themselves in the centuries that followed.  

Around this time the humans arrived.  It seems that this may have been prior to the raising of the Veil but up until then the elves regarded them as little more than pests and Andruil even appears to have hunted them like beasts, although this last fact comes from writings in the Temple of Mythal rather than the Dalish.  After the raising of the Veil the elves gradually withdrew from contact as they believed the loss of the gods and contact with humans had resulted in a condition known as the Quickening, indicative of the previously immortal elves having become mortal.  Ultimately Arlathan fell to the human invaders, an event that the Keepers claim had Fen’Harel “giggling madly and hugging himself with glee” for the gods inability to be able to respond to the elven prayers for assistance.

With respect to Fen’Harel’s control of the Beyond, the keepers also teach that he gleefully patrols it to feast upon the souls of the dead.   This presumably is the origin of the Dalish curse “Fen’Harel take you”.    It is also possible that the reason he was able to walk in the camp of either set of gods was that he did not do so physically but contacted them via the Fade.   The awareness that he seemed to do much of his work through the Fade might account for why the Keepers teach he wanted sole control if it.

FEN’HAREL HIMSELF

His name is really Solas, our elven companion in Dragon Age Inquisition.   The word can mean “pride” in a negative way but also “to stand tall”.   He claims that Solas was his name first before he became Fen’Harel but that doesn’t preclude the possibility that this was not his original name.   There is evidence in the Temple of Mythal and Solas’ words to Abelas that the ancient elves would change their name as they changed their role in society or responded to events.  

Solas was given the name Fen’Harel, the Dread Wolf, by his enemies, the Evanuris, when he started to oppose their rule.  He then adopted the name and the persona as a way of boosting the morale of his followers and encouraging fear among those of his enemies.  

He admits to having a strong affinity with spirits and connection to them.  He had two particular spirits he was friendly with in the Fade, Wisdom and Purpose.  He regards spirits as people in the same way as he does the inhabitants of the mortal world and is incensed if they are mistreated.   He also seems proud of his knowledge of the Fade.

According to Solas the elven gods were nothing more than powerful mages, who became the generals of the elves during a time of war.  Evanuris translates as leaders,  the First of their People.  It is not clear who the war was against but it seems from other references it was likely the Titans.   After defeating these beings, the Evanuris continued to build their power as kings and then finally were regarded as gods by the lesser elves, who would make petitions and prayers to them asking for favours in their specific area of expertise. 

Solas claims that the majority of other elves were little better than slaves, subject to the whims of these powerful entities. Vallaslin, blood writing, which the Dalish regard as a sign of allegiance to a specific god and their outlook on life, according to Solas were slave markings.   In his opinion the only decent individual among them was Mythal because she genuinely cared for her people and protected them.  She was the voice of reason that kept her fellow gods under control and this seems backed up by other evidence we find that shows she adjudicated between them in disputes.   

It is never made clear by Solas whether the term Evanuris only applied to the Creators or whether it also encompassed the Forgotten Ones.

At some point in their history Solas decided to rebel against the rule of the Evanuris and help others who wished to escape from them.  It is not entirely clear whether he had already started to do this before the murder of Mythal or only afterwards.    If the Inquisitor drinks from the Well of Sorrows the spirits of Mythal’s priesthood impart knowledge of the secret password to Fen’Harel’s refuge for runaway slaves but it is possible they joined his cause after her murder and this is why they were party to it rather than the rebellion started before her death and she endorsed it.  Whatever the case, her murder was the event that he claims spurred him on in his efforts against them, culminating in him banishing them from the world as punishment for this crime and also because, without Mythal controlling their ambitions, their activities threatened the survival of the world itself.    He did this by creating the Veil to cut off the mortal world from the Fade.   In doing so he not only imprisoned the Evanuris but also stripped the elves of their immortality and the majority of their magical abilities.   Many structures that were built with magic and needed the Fade to sustain them were also destroyed.

He never reveals exactly how he managed to raise the Veil but it would seem it was probably connected in some way to his orb of power.   It would also seem the effort of doing so weakened him to such an extent that he dropped into uthenera, the elven slumber undertaken by those who wish to withdraw from the world either temporarily or permanently.   This would allow him to recover his strength over time whilst drawing sustenance from the Fade.   He states that he awoke from this slumber only a year before he joined the Inquisition.  

The Dalish stories about him prowling the Fade probably do have some substance in fact because Solas does have the power to contact people through the Fade and even kill them, so Dalish mages at least may have encountered him there.

He does not have a high opinion of the Dalish which is understandable given their view of him and the fact that he apparently had a bad experience when he attempted to introduce himself to a clan after his awakening.   However, it should be mentioned that the Dalish have a wariness of anything connected with spirits, so may not have been that impressed by his claim to have expert knowledge of the Fade and its denizens.   To them he would have appeared an apostate mage, fled from the human Circles who was trying to assert superior knowledge of elven lore to their own on the basis of his relationship with the spirits in ancient ruins.   So it is probably understandable why the encounter did not go well.

Solas admits that he can be ruthless, willing to sacrifice friends and allies when it comes to achieving his goals.  This is confirmed by what he does to his agent, Felassan, for disobeying orders and also to Flemeth in the epilogue to Inquisition.

OTHER SOURCES

Felassan

He is a character in the novel Masked Empire who befriends Briala, the city elf servant of Celene.  His name means “Slow Arrow” in elvish.  Whilst he seems to be a Dalish elf, this is in fact a disguise to conceal his true origins and he displays contempt for the Dalish or at least the clan we see in the novel, who are in fact a most xenophobic and obnoxious group of individuals, quite unlike any clan we meet in the games.      He was around for at least 20 years before  the events of Inquisition and was an ancient elf agent of Fen’Harel, presumably awakened ahead of his leader in order to pave the way for his return.   Solas informs us that his task was to recover control of the eluvians, the magical network of portals that were created by the ancient elves and allow for fast travel across the world.

Felassan tells Briala a number of stories concerning Fen’Harel as a way of instructing her in strategy and cunning.  These stories do seem to feed into the idea of the Dread Wolf as depicted by the Dalish; a clever but ultimately self-serving and somewhat untrustworthy character who acts as the mood takes him.   However, at least one story suggests that the Forgotten Ones had as much of a grudge against him as the Creators did before he allegedly locked them away, as both gods involved want to punish him for misdeeds.   Whether this is true or not remains to be seen.   The stories may be allegorical in nature, bearing in mind their purpose.   However, in this story he does set Andruil against Anaris, until they cause one another such injuries that they must sleep to heal their wounds, during which time Fen’Harel manages to escape from both of them.   So this does fit the idea of the Dalish story that the two sets of gods were at war when he tricked them both.

At the end of the novel Felassan enters the Fade knowing that he is likely to be killed by whoever is waiting for him there.   Cole confirms in Trespasser that the dark entity that slays Felassan for disobeying orders was in fact Fen’Harel.   

With regard to Felassan’s original mission, it is interesting to note that to gain control of the eluvians required a keystone that was in possession of Imshael, an ancient demon, who is identified in DA2 as one of the Forbidden Ones.   In Trespasser we discover that the Forbidden Ones were around at the time of the Evanuris and the designation of “Forbidden” relates to the sentence passed on them by Elgar’nan for cowardice during a conflict in which they were meant to be allies.   Essentially they were banished from the lands of the Evanuris and “forbidden from the earth that is our right”.   So it is possible to speculate whether the Forbidden Ones aided Fen’Harel in his later conflict with the Evanuris and if he was the one who gave Imshael the keystone for safekeeping.   Certainly Imshael seemed to be on friendly enough terms with Felassan.

Flemeth/Mythal

In the epilogue to Inquisition she addresses him as “old friend”.  It is clear from their interaction that there was a strong bond of friendship between them but also the sense of her being his superior.  She admonishes him for giving his orb to Corypheus, whilst his appeal to her that he deserves punishment for his action but “the People need me” seems to fit with the idea of Mythal being the dispenser of justice for the elves but would only find in your favour if you are honest and sincere.

In Trespasser we discover confirmation that they were allies in ancient times.  There is a statue of Mythal with a wolf alongside her in the position of guardian.   This suggests he may have been some sort of bodyguard to her.  We know from the Dalish that at one time all elves had magic to a greater or lesser degree, which is confirmed by Solas.   So presumably what distinguished one from another would be the way in which they utilised the magic.   Solas gives the Inquisitor information about the arcane warriors of ancient times, saying that they were bodyguards and champions to the nobility.  In a conversation with Blackwall, when the latter says that he does not carry himself like warrior, Solas replies “You should have seen me when I was younger, hot-blooded and cocky, always ready to fight.”  So it is possible that in his youth he did train as an arcane warrior and took service with Mythal.

What is slightly more puzzling is why he is depicted as a wolf alongside her?   If he was only given the name  Dread Wolf after he rebelled against the rule of the Evanuris, why is he shown as a wolf when he was serving Mythal?  There is a similar statue on guard outside her Temple in the Arbor Wilds.  Was he also a shapeshifter that took the form of a wolf when guarding her?  We are told that in the old Dales the Emerald Knights had wolf guardians that fought alongside them.   Could this practice have come about through some residual memory of the same being true in ancient times?   Did all arcane warriors take the shape of wolves when they were not using their magic?   Or were they just called wolves, symbolically, and so the statue of Fen’Harel alongside Mythal was symbolic of his designation as an arcane warrior, which is why he was later named Dread wolf, as opposed to those wolves that were still loyal to the Evanuris?

What is even more baffling is the huge statue of a wolf that overlooks the Exalted Plains.   In the few hundred years that the Dales were in existence in the modern era, it seems highly unlikely the inhabitants would have put carving a giant wolf out of a mountain at the top of their list of priorities.  So clearly this statue must date to more ancient times.   If it depicts Fen’Harel then it would hardly have been carved after his rebellion, so did he already have status enough before?   Was the entire area southwards as far as the Arbor Wilds the domain of Mythal so this is why there is a statue of him on guard at its borders?   For an individual who was ultimately a rebel against the leadership of the Evanuris there are an awful lot of statues in this style to be found throughout the area, so are they not of Fen'Harel at all but was the area perhaps the base of training for arcane warriors? (see my previous comment that perhaps the wolf was the symbol of the arcane warriors).

Prologue to the Canticle of Shartan

This states that there are elements of the story of Shartan that are similar to ancient elven folktales of a rebellion against tyrants led by a trickster warrior.   Why the Dalish never made the connection between these folktales and Fen’Harel’s story is something of a puzzle since it is clear the story is about him.   Presumably it was the only way his devoted followers could keep the memory alive of his rebellion without earning the ire of elves which had remained loyal to the Evanuris.    The fact he is described as a warrior seems to lend further credence to the idea that he was an arcane warrior when he was an ally of Mythal.

Vir Dirthara

The memories in the ancient library confirm the destruction that he admits occurred as a result of him raising the Veil.   It is also clear that at least some of the elves were aware of who was responsible for the destruction if not how exactly it was caused and swore vengeance if they were lucky enough to survive.   Considering a civil war also followed on the imprisonment of the leaders of the elves, it is hardly surprising that his actions were less than fondly remembered by the survivors.   If it was then apparent that he was no longer physically active and could only be encountered in the Fade, it would explain why the Keepers teach that he left the elves to fend for themselves whilst he took control of the Beyond.  

In hindsight, it would appear that even Solas wondered if his actions were justified, seeing as he now wants to reverse them, so it seems reasonable enough that those who survived the chaos and anarchy tended to remember the disastrous results of his rebellion and thus handed on a negative memory of the Dread Wolf to future generations.