EA Play: DA4 WIP Art!

Something else I was reminded about whilst reading through an old thread on the Dalish. Some time ago I raised the fact that there is a connection in the password to Fen'Harel's refuge and the Forgotten Ones.

The phrase was "Revas Vir'Anaris", which roughly translates as "Freedom by way of Anaris." Except according to Felassan, Anaris was one of the "dark gods" that the Dalish refer to as the "Forgotten Ones". Now he used this name in a story to Briala, for whom the dark gods would have no significance whatsoever and the name of them even less so, bearing in mind even the Dalish do not remember them. So why was he giving the "dark" and therefore presumably even worse than Andruil god, a name that is associated with Fen'Harel's refuge? 

I'll accept that Anaris may well have a meaning in elvish, much as Solas does, but even so it does seem rather odd that a Forgotten One should be given that name by him if it was not actually the case. It also seemed odd that Felassan would describe them as a "dark god" in keeping with the Dalish when, as I say above, that would mean nothing to Briala and would seem odd to a Dalish who do not know the names, so really he could have called them anything he liked.

So it seems likely, since the story was used to illustrate the methods of Fen'Harel in achieving freedom from two ruling factions in opposition, that he was referencing the elven civil war, Anaris likely was one of the parties involved and thus was one of the sides tricked by Fen'Harel and locked away.

So that points even more to the hidden mosaics possibly being depictions of his allies in the war, that he later betrayed.

I know this translation is popular but I never felt like it referred to Anaris the "god" at all, simply because if the passphrase really did refer to the "Way of Anaris", going by consistency I would expect it to be vir-Anaris and not vir-anaris. The whole passphrase was 

Ar-melana dirthaveren. Revas vir-anaris.


The translation as I interpreted it:

Ar-melana = I, now

dirthaveren = promise (elves refer to it as the Exalted plains)

revas = freedom

vir-anaris = path/way(passage) of time (this is an interpretation based on the word bellanaris/bellanar)


“I promise my time in the fight for freedom”; in other words, his rebels dedicated their lives to his cause (a weighty promise because they were "immortal").

When rebels entered the sanctuary, they were effectively made to promise this. Sure, none were beholden but by choice. But the blessing also says "He leads only those who would help willingly." 



Fen'Harel also made a promise to them in return.

This specifics of this actual promise is never elaborated on but I'm assuming he promised them personal freedom and freedom of choice. He may have even promised them a homeland of their own, which is where the underlying meaning of dirthavaren comes from (this is personal conjecture because I know dirthavaren commonly refers to the land Andraste promised them, but I think there's a strong possibility the underlying meaning of the word could have come from this promise made to him).


A scratching in Skyhold also reveals some elven text that says the veil was made to uphold a promise apologetically, by someone whom I assume to be Fen'Harel:

Our belief transformed into everything. (assertation/problem? uncertain)

All time is transformed into the final/first death (uncertain),

Inevitable/threatened victory and horrible/promised freedom in the untorn veils, (uncertain)

Where the sky is held up/back, where the people give/gain love that is an apology/promise from/to....(missing subject, uncertain)


This is why I don't think vir-anaris refers to Anaris the god, because the promise was essentially between the rebels and Fen'Harel himself. In fact the way Fen'Harel made the veil (based on that elvish interpretation in the Skyhold codex) is very similar to the way he handled the beast in the slow arrow story, or the story where the noble wants to find the woman he desires. It's Solas' modus operandi- nothing is gained without something being lost.

This is why his followers likely felt so betrayed by him when Solas created the veil, because from the looks of it, he didn't give them any prior warning. He fulfilled his promise by ensuring their freedom, but it was at the cost of their empire and immortality. This is also perhaps why his name morphed to mean "harellan" or traitor to one's kin, because after the fall of the dales the elves had no homeland and so they felt lied to and tricked by him.

As far as the hidden mosaics go, it's hard to tell the timeline but the mosaics clearly show all four of the masked characters removing vallaslin, and in front of an army led by a wolf. Unless they writers have changed the story dramatically, it implies to me they were all actively helping with Solas' rebellion itself.

You can speak to Keeper Hawen in the Exalted Plains and ask him about the Dirthavaren and he'll explain the elves use it to refer to the land promised to them by Andraste (the Dales). I think you can only ask him about it if you speak to a group of elves near the start of the map though, and ask them about the Dirth (they help you fight some demons).

I find Solas' double-speak highly amusing and frustrating too. He sure has a way with words...

I do remember there was a piece of artwork in DAI that suggested the urn of sacred ashes was in fact an orb..but that was just speculation. Then again, there a lot of coincidences surrounding them so maybe it's plausible.


When the Wolf failed/won, we lost the People to war makes me think at least some of the survivors knew the price of freedom. Solas also says "my people built a life here...it must have been something to see" in the emerald graves so maybe he/Mythal really did have a guiding hand in what happened to Andraste and Shartan, perhaps they even helped found the emerald knights. There are a lot of weird things that line up around these two that seem more than just misdirection. :S

I also thought Anaris might have meant something, the name could simply mean "time" but how it differs to melana is hard to say. I suppose there wasn't really the concept of time back then as they were all immortal. Maybe Anaris mastered the unchanging world in some way, maybe he even something to do with "effective immortality"? He was a "dark god" after all and the forgotten ones were keen on proving themselves with deeds and skill. Perhaps he was one of the first to master red lyrium use or the blight in some way, after all the blight is often referred to with darkness and shadow.

Yeah I think so too, and it would also add extra weight to the reason why Solas cannot be swayed by his journey, that he is "doing what he must" in regards to restoring the elves' time and destroying the veil. As far as the modern elves are concerned, they trusted in promises and hope but that led to the destruction of everything they had and were, and now they don't even have land to call their own.

Imagine Solas waking up and realising his name had morphed into the god of betrayal, when in fact his name originates from a word meaning "noble struggle".  It must have stung badly, especially if you buy into the theory he is a more complex version of a spirit of wisdom/pride. The evolution of Dalish culture also reveals most survivors didn't even know the extent of the evanuris' depravity, because they kept things like the vallaslin in the hopes their gods would save them. Perhaps Solas is now trying to fix that and also reveal the evanuris' true nature to everyone..? 


I agree it's definitely looking this way. But it also leads on to so many more questions if they were in fact active during this time. Like, who exactly spoke to the magisters in their dreams and convinced them to breach the fade physically?

Surely if the legends are true and the dread wolf really was prowling around in the fade guarding the evanuris' prisons(which I could see Solas doing), he would know what these old gods were up to? Then they went silent after the first blight? Something's not adding up...

I'm working on some theories concerning Tyrdda Bright-Axe's leaf-eared lover at present. I watched Ghil-Dirthalen's video on You Tube about Tyrdda but she got some things totally wrong. She suggested the name of the leaf-eared lover was Aval'var but was the name the lover told Tyrdda to give to the child by Hendir, the dwarf prince. In the saga of Tyrdda she is named a Dreamer and I suspect the Lady of the Skies, who is the leaf-eared lover, was never physically her lover at all but only in the Fade. We know from our experience with Solas that an encounter in the Fade can seem very real, so why could it not be the same for Tyrdda and the Lady of the Skies? The fact that Tyrdda wasn't just an ordinary mage but a Dreamer would lend weight to this. The first line of the saga calls her "spirit bride". Now who else was said the be the bride of a spirit? That's right, Andraste and I strongly suspect she was a Dreamer too.

Another interesting aspect of the sage is that it mentions how when Thelm was trying to lead her and her clan astray, she accuses him of using "Demon-words that kill." The poem repeatedly suggests he is being influenced by what he sees and hears in his dreams. Ghil even suggests in her video that the city of gold that he was encouraging them to march against "across the Waking", was actually the Golden City across the Veil. If that was true, it would suggest that whoever the voices were that encouraged the assault by Corupheus, they were already whispering their true intent some 1500 years earlier. Perhaps Thelm was told he needed a Dreamer with the power of Tyrdda for the venture to be a success, which is why he tried so hard to court and then undermine her. However, she was guided by the Lady of the Skies to reject him. She then led her tribe away from the lowlands into the mountains where they could remain strong and free from evil influences of the lowlanders. Having failed with the Alamarri tribes, the demon whisperers would appear to have transferred their attentions back to the humans of the north, the Neromenians, with Dumat eventually settling on Thalsian as his first High Priest. Whatever the identity of the spirit gods of the Avvar, at least some of them would appear to have opposed those who became the Old Gods and were strong enough to deter them from persisting with their efforts in that location.

Then, whilst Tyrdda had always rejected all human lovers, the Lady encouraged her to have a child with the dwarf, to cement their trade alliance and ensure her line would continue, predicting that from it would emerge Morrighan'nan, who "in strength would shine."

I will continue this theory in full once I have worked it through in my own head; probably on the Crazy Theory Thread.

EDIT: I've discovered ferretting around on the web that David Gaider discounted any connection between Morrighan'nan and Morrigan, which presumably means there is none between Tyrdda and Flemeth either.   A pity as I thought that Mythal might have begun a bloodline by influencing Tyrdda (Mythal's wisp being the Lady of the Skies), which continued down the years in the barbarian tribes, manifesting as Morrighan'nan; Andraste; Vivial and finally Flemeth/Morrigan.   But apparently the similarity in two of the names is merely coincidental.  Sigh.