The Definitive Guide to Activating Ancient Elven Artifacts

Early in the game, Solas gives you his first personal quest: “Measuring the Veil”. It guides you to an old elven ruin in the Hinterlands and activating it, according to him, strengthens the veil in the immediate area.

After you activate 10 of these artifacts scattered throughout Orlais and Ferelden, a new quest titled “What Lies Dormant” becomes available via a War Table operation.

Additionally, these artifacts are a good way to raise Solas’s approval of you and gain experience points. However, these aren’t marked on your maps anywhere and can be pretty easy to miss (often, your only warning is having Solas in the party and hearing him say that he senses one nearby, usually when you’re almost on top of it). In the Solas Thread, Nyaore posted map scans from the strategy guide, but that proved… a bit inaccurate, for I stumbled upon many others that the strategy guide basically said did not exist.

So, I went on a quest to discover and catalog every artifact for others to easily find. I’m fairly certain I have located every one in the game, but if I missed one, please alert me so I can scout it out and add it here. Current total count is 24.

In each photo, I tried standing close to the artifact so that my locational arrow is as accurate on the maps as possible. Please note that in order to get to some of these, some quests or War Table operations need to occur first. Thus, there may be spoilers for you in my discussions on how to reach some of these (but nothing that spoils any major storylines). You have been warned.

Now, without further ado…


The Hinterlands (Total Count = 3)

Artifact # 1:
The first one is super easy, since you get a quest marker for it and everything. It is just northeast of the Crossroads. Do note that until you activate this first quest artifact, no others you might find beforehand will be able to be interacted with and, thus, can’t be activated.

It was right near where that pile of skulls is on the right (for some reason, it disappears after you activate it and leave the area… none of the others do this).

 



 

Artifact # 2:
This one is upstairs in Lornan's Exile. To get to it, enter Lornan's Exile, then turn right. It's at the top of that tower, so you'll climb up two sets of ladders and it is on the balcony outside:





  

Artifact # 3:
This one is hiding in plain sight inside an abandoned farmhouse near Master Dennet the Horsemaster's farm.



Here is a picture of the house on the left with Master Dennet's farm on the right in the background, to give you a better idea of which house.





  


The Storm Coast (Total Count = 2)

Artifact # 1:
This first one is in the far south of the map, inside a cave hidden behind a waterfall. I actually went here first in my screenshot-grabbing adventures, so I marked it (rather inefficiently) with a waypoint toggle on the bigger map. On the zoomed in one, I got smart and just stood by the darn thing, so my actual arrow is as accurate as I can get you.

 



 

Artifact # 2:
The last one in the Storm Coast is in an area that is inaccessible until you complete a certain War Table operation. After I captured Griffon Wing Keep in the Western Approach, I got a notification of a new War Table operation that had become available. The title was "Red Lyrium Templar Outpost in the Storm Coast". Once you complete that operation, the dwarven thaig that you couldn't enter before becomes accessible.

  



This one is tricky. It's stuck behind a big door that cannot be opened without a Red Templar Key.



You can go around the other side of this area and Solas will sense the artifact there, but you are blocked by a broken bridge which apparently cannot be energized by a mage to be fixed or anything. I was pretty sure I did not pick up a key when I fought the final Templars in the area, so I tore my hair out for a little bit. Then, I backtracked the whole dungeon and found the key on a random corpse I'd somehow missed near the beginning. Moral of the Story: CAREFULLY CHECK ALL CORPSE LOOTS. Once you have the key, you open the door and there it is.




The Fallow Mire (Total Count = 1)

Artifact # 1:
This one is a little tricky to get to. Stumbling into The Den isn't so bad - you've a Fade Rift there to guide you - but the actual artifact is in an apostate camp. When in The Den, you have two different passages along the right-hand wall (I say this as right-hand as you enter The Den from the Veilfire Tower area). The SECOND passage in the wall is the one you want. Go in, turn right, walk through the water and you're in the apostate's camp:






Exalted Plains (Total Count = 1)

Artifact # 1:
You can only access it after you have opened the passage to Ghilan'nain's Grove, which is a War Table operation after you've discovered the blocked passage. Once inside and heading towards the passageway on the right, the first left turn is the most direct path (the second left turn takes you to an underground area called The Dead Hand with a puzzle). Work your way through the swampy area keeping to the left. You'll find the artifact at the foot of a bridge leading to the Offering to the Dread Wolf shrine. There is a high dragon here, but she will not attack you. She'll fly overhead and bluster roars at you, then go land off to the right. She never bothered me until I walked right up to her, so she won't bother you at Fen'Harel's shrine:





 


Lost Temple of Dirthamen (Total Count = 1)

Artifact # 1:
This location does not appear on your map until you resolve a quest. I was in the Exalted Plains... received a quest from the Dalish looking for a lost member... found his body and a note saying he was trying to reach the Shrine of Sylaise, and so I went there. Inside is a glyph you can reveal with veilfire and spark a quest to find 3-4 other glyphs in the Plains. Did that, then got a War Table operation to have someone decipher the glyphs I'd collected. When that was done, the Lost Temple of Dirthamen appeared on my world map.