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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2017 1:30:22 GMT
Since the discussion about the dalish and how they were portrayed in DA:I have taken up a few pages of the Solas thread, I've decided that this conversation really needed its own thread.
This thread dedicated to discussing the Dalish and how they were portrayed in DA:I. How do you feel about the treatment of the Dalish in DA:I? There has been a lot of talk about the Dalish mocked and distorted by DA:I; particularly with the Dalish casting out mages once there are too many, the Dalish being supposedly wrong about everything, and the fact that there is a lot of Dalish negativity by members of our companion cast: Sera, Solas, and Vivienne mostly.
If you feel this way, or feel that this is a bunch of bs, well here's a place to debate/talk about it.
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Post by dragontartare on Feb 6, 2017 2:46:37 GMT
Other than the extremely stupid "What's a Mythal" problem, my opinions on this issue are not very strong. Mainly, I'd love to be able to make an angry Dalish Inquisitor just like my Dalish Warden was angry. I liked that the Dalish Warden could have a variety of responses to the racism around her, whereas the Inquisitor is almost always unfailingly polite even in the face of discrimination directed against him or her.
Why did BioWare make it so that a Dalish Inquisitor cannot really respond strongly to racism? Was it due to lack of time and resources because they hadn't intended to have elf Inquisitors (something I have read in other threads)? Or are they so blind that they didn't feel it was important to let a Dalish Inquisitor react?
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Post by midnight tea on Feb 6, 2017 5:12:30 GMT
Other than the extremely stupid "What's a Mythal" problem, my opinions on this issue are not very strong. Mainly, I'd love to be able to make an angry Dalish Inquisitor just like my Dalish Warden was angry. I liked that the Dalish Warden could have a variety of responses to the racism around her, whereas the Inquisitor is almost always unfailingly polite even in the face of discrimination directed against him or her. Why did BioWare make it so that a Dalish Inquisitor cannot really respond strongly to racism? Was it due to lack of time and resources because they hadn't intended to have elf Inquisitors (something I have read in other threads)? Or are they so blind that they didn't feel it was important to let a Dalish Inquisitor react? I think the reason may be the same as to why Inquisitor couldn't use the murder knife indiscriminately or be a blood mage. Because - while they hold much more power - they also have to deal with a tremendous lot of politicking and making all sides come together, rather than driving people apart. To put it simply, the Warden wasn't really bound by so many obligations - sure, they've had to secure the alliances (that others were already obliged to fulfill, btw) though any means possible, but other than that they could be pretty much entirely unconcerned with matters of leadership or projected image. That's not to say that DAO being designed from the start for Warden's background to play a large role in the story (even if plainly for the sake of exposition) and races being added to DAI later on not playing a role - I just think that the role of Inquisitor is ultimately different from that of the Warden and that many similarities they have are mostly illusory (aside from the whole 'welp, the world is falling apart, someone has to do things! of course).
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Post by thats1evildude on Feb 6, 2017 13:47:31 GMT
Ehhhhh ... perhaps it's because I have no great love of the Dalish to begin with that I have no issue with their portrayal in DAI.
There was something about their beliefs that never rang true for me. It felt too ... sanitized. There were good gods and evil gods and somehow they were all so stupid as to be tricked by one of their kin, who is apparently such a weakling that a regular dog can give him the business? I know myths can be inconsistent like that, but it still seemed very haphazard.
That their gods were tyrants and their followers essentially slaves actually feels right to me. It feels a lot more "true" than this utopia that everyone envisioned Arlathan to be. (Don't deny it.)
Also, I found the one Dalish tribe that appears in full to be rather pleasant, open-minded people. Their camp is too small, but that's my only quibble.
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Post by vertigomez on Feb 6, 2017 15:04:33 GMT
Also, I found the one Dalish tribe that appears in full to be rather pleasant, open-minded people. Their camp is too small, but that's my only quibble. I just want to add to this real quick. I've heard people say that this clan was portrayed as needlessly suspicious without going into why they would feel that way (centuries of persecution, etc.) but I never felt they were overly suspicious or unwelcoming at all. I've met them as a qunari Inquisitor and as a dwarf, and both times they were cautious but not some kind of stereotype. Not what I'd call a "negative" portrayal at all. One is even eager to join the Inquisition and they're all grateful for your assistance, should you provide it. Other than that, I don't have much to say. I feel like this topic has been beaten like a dead horse so I'm going to bow out and leave it to those who feel strongly about it.
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Post by Jarovbees on Feb 6, 2017 17:14:13 GMT
The main issue I have is with the Clan Lavellan questline, and how the Inquisitor never really gets a chance to address what happened to them in the main game. (Especially if things end badly.) I know, Trespasser, but that seems too little, too late. If there's going to be a storyline with the potential to kill off so many people from a PC's origin, it should be better addressed.
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Post by Steelcan on Feb 6, 2017 18:32:24 GMT
None of the backstories get a lot of attention outside of the war table missions
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Post by fylimar on Feb 6, 2017 18:42:59 GMT
The main issue I have is with the Clan Lavellan questline, and how the Inquisitor never really gets a chance to address what happened to them in the main game. (Especially if things end badly.) I know, Trespasser, but that seems too little, too late. If there's going to be a storyline with the potential to kill off so many people from a PC's origin, it should be better addressed. I agree to that. And there is some strange comment by Cass at the beginning of the game, when she asks about your backgraund. When you say, that you would like to see your Clan again after the breach is closed, she says something along the line:'Some of your clan may still be alive.' WTF - why should my clan not be alive after I just left them? And you can't even ask her, what she means by that. Another issue is the notorious 'sending mages away', which I think stupid. After all, in none of the other games did a Dalish clan send their mage children away because of overpopulation. But this is already discussed epicly here. Other than that, I like the protrayal of the Dalish. As others pointed out, the clan you've met on the Exalted Plains, is quite nice after they get, that you don't want to hurt them and Clan Lavellan (if they survive) will even rule a city together with humans and city elves, they saved before from an evil noble. They risk their own lifes for those city folk - sounds like a clan, where I want to grow up as a Dalish . And about the gods: at least the Dalish know, that their gods are real (a**holes, but real), the Andrastians still have to proof that . So I don't know, if they are better or worse in their beliefs than any other culture in Thedas. As a Supernatural fan, I'd say the best gods are the missing ones (or never real ones), the others interfere too much, as Solas and in a way Mythal proofed. I would have liked for my inqui to have a welsh accent (one of the few things, I liked about Merrill) and to speak more Dalish (as I would have loved fo my Cadash to speak a bit more dwarven, I don't know how the Qunari inqui is handled, probably not better), but other than that, I am content with my Dalish inquis. They can stick out for their believes or give some cultura references if the players like and that is great.
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Post by PCthug on Feb 6, 2017 18:52:44 GMT
The main issue I have is with the Clan Lavellan questline, and how the Inquisitor never really gets a chance to address what happened to them in the main game. (Especially if things end badly.) I know, Trespasser, but that seems too little, too late. If there's going to be a storyline with the potential to kill off so many people from a PC's origin, it should be better addressed. Agree and I want to add that the Lavellan war table questline had a lot more packed into than the other 3 backgrounds. Nothing nearly as dramatic happens to any of the other Inquisitors depending on your choices there. The discrepancy is odd, to say the least.
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Post by midnight tea on Feb 6, 2017 19:07:19 GMT
The main issue I have is with the Clan Lavellan questline, and how the Inquisitor never really gets a chance to address what happened to them in the main game. (Especially if things end badly.) I know, Trespasser, but that seems too little, too late. If there's going to be a storyline with the potential to kill off so many people from a PC's origin, it should be better addressed. Agree and I want to add that the Lavellan war table questline had a lot more packed into than the other 3 backgrounds. Nothing nearly as dramatic happens to any of the other Inquisitors depending on your choices there. The discrepancy is odd, to say the least. I think it may have been dependent on who has written particular war table missions - and that one was a brainchild of none other than Mr. Weekes who - as we know - can be a bit trollish, especially when it comes to emotional depertament This particular war table mission is practically a puzzle (we get similar one if we keep the Wardens) - and likely served as a bit "WUT" moment for those who didn't realize the consequences of choosing the wrong adviser... but someone didn't really thought through that this would actually be a major emotional moment for Inquisitor... and if they did, it was too late to add VO or anything else to it, so they've left it as it is.
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Post by Artemis on Feb 6, 2017 20:20:39 GMT
I was really irked with the way the Dalish were presented. I'm pleased I was able to play as Dalish, but other than that, I was disappointed. There is massive Dalish-related stuff revealed in the Solas romance, yet the romance is gender-locked. That pissed me off more than anything. Not gonna lie. The "rewriting" of the Dalish so that they cast young children out into the cold to fend for themselves simply because they have magic... is not only against their own canon but also stupid. Why would the child be cast out ALONE? Would the parents at least not accompany the child? It makes no sense. Oh, the Keeper forbids the mother from accompanying her child. Um, fuck that? What mother would bow her head and agree? What father? It was dumb. And it upset me so much that I addressed it in my latest fic (in this one Solas is just a regular guy): “Solas,” he said, his voice rather more careful than normal, “Are you Dalish?”
“Strictly speaking, no.” He did not find the question difficult to answer. It was simply something he rarely wished to speak of. “I was cast out of my clan at a very young age, forced to fend for myself.”
“Because you were a mage?”
“Just so.”
“But my clan never treated children with magic like that. We kept them until we met with another clan.”
“Yes, but not all clans are the same. After I left, I chose to remain on my own. I was terrified of possession, seeing as how I’d been given very rudimentary training. But my connection to the Fade had always been strong, so I met that fear head on. I learned to converse with spirits, and in turn learned a great deal from them. As I grew older, the friendlier ones directed me to areas of interest, places where ancient elves once dwelt. I collected many artifacts, and again learned much. I suppose I have always been curious about the world around me, but perhaps even more so about the world which no longer exists.” I'm also annoyed it was pressed upon me again and again and again that I was the HERALD OF ANDRASTE and everyone continuously acted shocked that I didn't believe in Andraste, and after awhile I was no longer even given the choice in my dialogue responses to explain that I was Dalish and didn't fucking believe in the Maker! It was evident to me that the game had been written for humans and other races were hastily shoved in at the last minute. Oddly enough, I didn't feel discriminated against enough. This is more an elven thing than strictly Dalish. I should have been called knife-ear more often or been treated rudely. Again, I feel this is a result of the entire game being originally written for a human PC. The Dalish clan in the Exalted Plains was ridiculous. It was stupidly small and the halla were the size of chihuahuas. And the keeper sent me to fetch something that was like two blocks away. Oh and don't forget the golden halla, who was a hop and a skip away as well. It was silly. I could go on but I'll stop lol
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Post by Steelcan on Feb 6, 2017 20:59:19 GMT
I mean a lot fo those points are gameplay/story segregation
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Post by Walter Black on Feb 6, 2017 21:19:23 GMT
That, and possibly the writers were too afraid of disrupting the Inquisitor's Mary Sue vibe and "triggering" sensitive players .
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Post by Sifr on Feb 6, 2017 21:27:22 GMT
Also, I found the one Dalish tribe that appears in full to be rather pleasant, open-minded people. Their camp is too small, but that's my only quibble. Yeah, it was a pleasant surprise that this Dalish clan was open-minded about the Inquisition, given the suspicion that's often thrown at the Inquisitor throughout the the game. The Dalish (along with Avvar in JoH) were probably the most cordial group we encountered, even willing to let one of their own join us once we proved our good intentions. The size of their camp bothered me a little as well, although they may have lost some of their people in the cross-fire of the Orlesian Civil War? Or they have other campsites dotted about the plains, because it's too risky to have them all centralised in one location with so many soldiers and demons roaming about?
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Post by vertigomez on Feb 6, 2017 21:53:05 GMT
I thought the discrimination was done pretty well, actually. Harritt catches himself as he almost calls the PC a knife-ear, somebody (Harritt again, or one of Cullen's soldiers?) calls Charter a knife-ear and is reprimanded for it. The points you lose at the Winter Palace for being a non-human or a mage, the comments at the Winter Palace (Lavellan is a savage, Adaar is somebody's pet, Cadash is an "it", etc). Threnn says something obnoxious to every race, Otranto trash talks you based on your background, Solas and Sera have their hangups with the Dalish and super religious characters like Cassandra make indelicate comments over the course of the game, that guy in Skyhold who writes to his father and asks him to reconsider his opinion on elves (and other races) because the Herald is one...
I dunno, man. The racism was real. Definitely not something I felt was lacking from an in-game perspective, except probably more people should have been clamoring to burn a non-human, mage, or even male Herald at the stake. But seeing as you are literally the only person in the entire world who can zip the rifts they were willing to give you a pass.
Aside from the ridiculous continuation of "let's give them the opportunity to wipe out one Dalish clan per game!" and the Captain Obvious moments with Morrigan, I thought a Dalish Inquisitor was pretty well implemented.
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Post by Sifr on Feb 6, 2017 22:22:40 GMT
Somewhat related to the above, a nice touch I thought was how the dialogue for the noble who lost her ring at the Winter Palace actually changes if you're playing as a Qunari Inquisitor. Instead of asking normally, all of her dialogue is delivered much slower, louder and more deliberately, as if trying to explain herself to someone foreign who doesn't speak her language.
Rather effectively sells the racial discrimination that the Orlesians view Adaar as an unintelligent "ox-man" who probably can't understand or even string two words together, but has been trained to close rifts on command.
Pity they didn't do something like this for the ambient dialogue in Skyhold. There's a conversation between two NPCs near the stables, where the human believes the Elves are responsible for everything as a plan to take over, only for the dwarf to ask how they hope to achieve that without an army. Would have been nice if it'd changed to instead have them ask what Lavellan role was in this conspiracy?
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Post by fylimar on Feb 7, 2017 6:19:58 GMT
I thought the discrimination was done pretty well, actually. Harritt catches himself as he almost calls the PC a knife-ear, somebody (Harritt again, or one of Cullen's soldiers?) calls Charter a knife-ear and is reprimanded for it. The points you lose at the Winter Palace for being a non-human or a mage, the comments at the Winter Palace (Lavellan is a savage, Adaar is somebody's pet, Cadash is an "it", etc). Threnn says something obnoxious to every race, Otranto trash talks you based on your background, Solas and Sera have their hangups with the Dalish and super religious characters like Cassandra make indelicate comments over the course of the game, that guy in Skyhold who writes to his father and asks him to reconsider his opinion on elves (and other races) because the Herald is one... I dunno, man. The racism was real. Definitely not something I felt was lacking from an in-game perspective, except probably more people should have been clamoring to burn a non-human, mage, or even male Herald at the stake. But seeing as you are literally the only person in the entire world who can zip the rifts they were willing to give you a pass. Aside from the ridiculous continuation of "let's give them the opportunity to wipe out one Dalish clan per game!" and the Captain Obvious moments with Morrigan, I thought a Dalish Inquisitor was pretty well implemented. ^This. You get your fair share of racism, but not so open, that you are bound to act against it. I mean, who is stupid enough, to antagonise the guy or gal with the big army and the faderift-closing hand? APart from the Venatori and Red Templars - and their judgement is clouded at best (' yeah, just believe that talking darkspawn, what bad can come out of it?'). But as vertigomez mentioned, there are moments (I would add Blackwall, who is wondering that the Herald is an elf/dwarf/Qunari, but catches himself and told himself off for it - but it shows, how deep racism is ankered in the societies of Thedas), when you get your race shoved in your face. I found it funny, that you can get touchy, when Dennet calls you Halla-rider and he means it as a badge of honor - that is a sweet dialogue. About the clan in the Exalted Plains: That wasn't the whole clan, someone (I think the Keeper) mentioned, that a lot of them are out scouting, because they want to leave, but have to dodge the undead and the battling Orlesian parties. I fact, you find one of the groups at least when you explore the map. I encounter them normally before I encounter the clan.
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Post by midnight tea on Feb 7, 2017 17:55:43 GMT
^This. You get your fair share of racism, but not so open, that you are bound to act against it. I mean, who is stupid enough, to antagonise the guy or gal with the big army and the faderift-closing hand? That, plus we have Josie to take care of a lot of it - she even meets with us early in the game in order to ask us about the past and help battle some pretty nasty stereotypes people have believed about non-human Inquisitors. It is in Inquisition's interest to help the Herald fight people who are against them, hence it's not like Inquisitor is there alone to fight back: in fact, they have more - if subtler - means to do so than a slew of arguments or comments. Another difference between Inky and Warden. Aaaaaand if that fails... well, there's always Leliana ;P Or Cullen - even if sending troops to battle any slight or bigoted remark (no matter how genuinely bigoted it is) would likely send a bad message. But it's not like we don't have examples on some missions where we can send soldiers in order to deal with people who threaten either mages, peasants, or - like in case of the whole Wycome debacle - openly conspire against the Dalish.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2017 19:08:14 GMT
We even have a mission where we can send Leliana to cut out a Bard's tongue for slandering us.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2017 19:43:06 GMT
Based on some of the comments about this topic in the Solas thread, I feel that people ignore what's happening in most of the game and focus intently on the reactions of the companions. Cassandra and her comments at the Temple of Mythal, Solas's and Vivienne's comments on the Dalish, and Sera's oozing racism. They aren't the talking figure heads for the devs. They are meant to be people with their own flawed outlook, not the omnipotent narrators.
Cassandra I would say is just trying to protect her own religious beliefs by bashing others. After all, during Inquisition Cassandra is more or less having a crisis of faith. Its why she approves when you say you believe that your are the Herald, because reaffirmation of her faith. Solas is just bitter and salty because the Dalish turned him into the bogyman. Vivienne is just trying to piss you off, and Sera is a troll so she's also just trying to piss you off.
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Post by Jarovbees on Feb 7, 2017 19:51:26 GMT
I would have liked for my inqui to have a welsh accent (one of the few things, I liked about Merrill) and to speak more Dalish (as I would have loved fo my Cadash to speak a bit more dwarven, I don't know how the Qunari inqui is handled, probably not better), but other than that, I am content with my Dalish inquis. They can stick out for their believes or give some cultura references if the players like and that is great. Me, too! That didn't bother me at first, but after hearing the other Dalish in the game, I really wanted that connection via a common accent. (And Merrill's was lovely.)
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Post by Lazarillo on Feb 7, 2017 21:05:01 GMT
I have 2-3 main beefs, depending on how you want to count it.
The first is the whole "too many mages" spiel. Quick and done that one's easy. The second is less with the Dalish specifically and more with Elves in general. There's a lot more...solidarity in Inquisition than I really got from the previous games, and I actually don't like that very much. Origins indicated that City Elves mostly saw Dalish as savages, and though they had their own cultural approach to things, were mostly Andrastian. Inquisition things seem to be more idyllic; there's a City Elf in Redcliffe who will talk about how great the "old ways" are if you're a Dalish, and another refugee who invokes Sylaise (regardless of your race). It's even weirder for me because I never got the impression, especially in Origins, that the Dalish actually bought into the ancient religions. They were more like scholars, and had no more actual belief than a modern Greek professor of ancient literature would believe in Zeus. They invoked the ways of the ancient elves to preserve the culture, but not necessarily because they believed everything was true. Or, as Sera put it, they were "digging it up just to wear it". It felt like Inquisition tried to make it more "real", simply so it could pull the rug back out from underneath those beliefs.
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Post by gervaise21 on Feb 7, 2017 21:21:51 GMT
Certain things annoyed me. Number one was the new lore about mage children, which was absolutely ridiculous given Dalish beliefs about their ancestors and how the Keeper can only be a mage, plus the importance they place on family, which they believe was taught to them by their gods. I wouldn't have minded if I had been allowed to address it more strongly, particularly to Vivienne. It really irked me that she was given the last word on that. I also felt I should have been allowed to challenge Bull's assertion about the same thing. Something to the effect that clans that abandon mage children in the wilderness are not proper Dalish.
I would like to have been able to explore more with Solas and Sera just why they had such extreme prejudice against the Dalish. In Solas' case, just how many clans had he encountered since he woke up? What did he say to them? I had this suspicion that his idea of the Dalish was based off the feedback from his pal, Felassan, who had managed to dig up the most bigoted and atypical clan possible, compared with every other clan we had encountered in game. It would seem that Mihris still hadn't learnt from her experience either. I'd like to know where he got the idea that the Dalish think they are perfect guardians of the lore, when every clan we have come into contact with has admitted they don't know everything and is only too willing to discover more. As Lavellan can say, they are simply trying their best to recover their culture, not because they don't want to live in the present (as Felassan suggests to Briala) but because they want to retain their independent identity from their human oppressors. As any historian will also tell you, it is only by understanding the past you can avoid making the same mistakes in the future - something our clan in DAO seemed to understand since they also believed the city elves could help with this.
In Sera's case, had she personally encountered any clans at all or was her prejudice based off hearsay? People say she was there to give a different perspective from either Dalish or city elf, but we had Zevran fulfil that role in DAO. Whilst he has some rather pertinent remarks to make about the vhenadahl tree and having spent time with the Dalish, had decided their life was not for him, I never found his remarks objectionable. Nor did he seem to hold any grudge against the other elves for being too "elfy". As we had discovered playing city elves in DAO, they have a "them" and "us" attitude because of the universal prejudice against the elves. This was carried forward into DA2. As that father put it, people would have been a lot more worried about the child abuser if it had been shemlen children he was attacking. A city guard was able to rape an elf girl and Averline only bothered to try and investigate the rumours after the girl's brothers took the law into their own hands. Having lived with the city elves, Merrill was able to recognise what they suffered. So I almost felt that Sera, having managed to escape from alienage life, was now trying to blame the other elves for being too "elfy" for her lack of solidarity with them. I really felt we were lacking something in her backstory to explain her extreme racism against elves and any form of elven culture.
I had no problem with finding out that the gods were not the benign teachers and guides that the Dalish made them out to be. However, I did not find that negated their entire culture since this had been largely built up without any input from those gods but entirely based on what had been passed down over the years. Naturally when their ancestors had spent so much time as slaves of Tevinter, it was hardly surprising that they would look back to the earlier era of Arlathan with a rose tinted nostalgia. Bear in mind that Solas does the same when he speaks about how wonderful the elven world was, minus the Evanuris.
What I do resent is when words are put in the mouth of Lavallen saying "another thing we got wrong" or Sera is mocking in the same sort of way. To my mind it is amazing how much the Dalish got right or nearly right given the amount of time that has passed. What is more peculiar is why they got the bits wrong that they did when the majority was remembered CORRECTLY. So I feel that the revelations didn't go far enough because there is still a big question in my mind as to what happened in the period after Solas raised the Veil. Abelas says the empire was destroyed by war. How does he know since he was meant to be asleep too? Solas says much of the structures was destroyed by being cut off with the Fade. And then we have the mystery of the city in Arlathan Forest, whose occupants fought with Tevinter and when defeated supplied them with a huge new slave workforce. Who were they? Why did their descendants have hair and make up the majority of the elves we find in the world today?
I also found the halla in DAI laughable. Why did they make them so small? According to WoT they are meant to be larger than normal deer. Instead we had any number of deer mounts that were considerably larger than the halla and yet not a single halla option (Dalish only) despite what Dennett says about you being a "halla rider".
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2017 21:36:01 GMT
So I almost felt that Sera, having managed to escape from alienage life, was now trying to blame the other elves for being too "elfy" for her lack of solidarity with them. I really felt we were lacking something in her backstory to explain her extreme racism against elves and any form of elven culture. Yeah, that's pretty much her problem. I think Sera's whole shtick is the toxicity of internalize racism. She was raised by humans and wants to belong to the human group, but she can't because she's an elf and has to face bigotry from humans do it. Really, she just bashes them to show to the humans that she's not one of them.
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Post by gervaise21 on Feb 7, 2017 22:17:37 GMT
One other thing I brought up on the Solas thread and that is how I feel the elven slaves were badly let down after the raising of the Veil. People suggest I am treating them like children but the fact is after probably millennia of being ruled over by the Evanuris they would have been pretty vulnerable and in need of guidance. Look to the comments of Fenris about the slave mentality to realise just how much of a shock to their minds the sudden freedom would be.
It is one of the things that is lacking in the history given thus far that we have very little detail on what happened in the aftermath to the Veil. There were apparently a large group of rebel elves but what became of them? Did the supporters of the Evanuris kill them off? Was that the civil war that Abelas alluded to?
Then we have the oddity that Solas was able to see things in the Fade and discuss things with spirits there but was apparently unable to contact elves in the real world. Yet later he was able to contact Felassan in the Fade (unless this was after he had already woken up). Still he is a somniari and they are capable of contacting people in their dreams if nothing else. So to my mind he should have been able to offer some guidance from the Fade.
So after some two millennia following the Veil, suddenly Tevinter encounter the elves of Arlathan Forest. They behave like the elves of the Arbor Wilds in their hostility, yet apparently are in much greater numbers than found there and curiously many of them must have hair and looked like modern elves because modern elves are their descendants. So in the absence of any further information, it would seem that an enclave of Evanuris worshippers simply carried on ruling over the majority of slaves following Solas imprisoning the gods. Likely the priesthood/nobles were the ones who entered uthenera whilst the ordinary slaves carried on breeding from generation to generation. If this was the case, then Solas did not free the elven people when he raised the Veil, since the majority of elven people were slaves and continued to be slaves, first under their own rulers, then under Tevinter and only finally achieved their freedom under Shartan.
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