#Elven Pantheon

[loustica-lucia]

DATV — Spirit of Purpose💚

I think we should all draw our Dalish elves in their correspondant spirit shape, using their vallaslin as the base design for it👀

Have Sulevin Lavellan, a Spirit of Purpose, based on the June vallaslin💜

[plasticfreckles]

but also imagine you're a spirit in -8000 ancient, like a spirit of just minding your own business or whatever

and then some other spirits you know bc you know somebody who knows somebody decide to just get a Metabolism and they immediately get the biggest possible heads

and you're like "that's so weird but go off i guess not my circus and all that im just gonna go back floating over here"

(also im not too sure how they procreated if there was originally like 3 dozen Metabolisms but that's neither here nor there. Fade Magic i guess.)

and then some OTHER spirit gets a Metabolism too on the peer pressure of his buddy because those first Metabolisms have gone off the deep end

and then he disagrees fundamentally and just literally ends the world as you know it and fences yall in with the first Metabolisms who are now either dead or BIG MAD with Other Metabolism or both.

and somehow you survive and deal with it, sort out your mindset or whatever, maybe you go lurking what these weird Metabolisms are doing now bc it's kinda like really messy reality TV

And some of your pals get sucked into that reality TV and make it even messier but it's also kind of entertaining so it's probably fine

then the Other Metabolism has a Big Nap, does it AGAIN to try and get the old world back (that you JUST got over like 3 sol ago)

but bc he's stupid and lacks foresight some dude who's just as bigheaded as those First Metabolisms gets tangled up in it

and you hang in like fade-limbo for the forseeable future but the Other Metabolism is trying to fix that now for some reason?? Even though he's to blame the world is Like This and he's been Regretting It since Second 1??? But okay reinforce your mistakes i guess NOT MY CIRCUS

And somehow you survive THAT

and then Other Metabolism just does it again

idk id be so tired

(but also when it turns out he magicks off his own markings and only gets 1 tiny lil scar from it you're like OK that's actually really impressive)

[joy-jpg]

dirthamen and falon’din

[ohmyarda]

“Do not mistake absence for forgottenness. The Evanuris are still with us, watching, and waiting, somewhere beyond the veil.”

[dragon-age-codex-entries]

Codex entry: Fen'Harel: The Dread Wolf

"There is precious little we know about Fen'Harel, for they say he did not care for our people. Elgar'nan and Mythal created the world as we know it, Andruil taught us the Ways of the Hunter, Sylaise and June gave us fire and crafting, but Fen'Harel kept to himself and plotted the betrayal of all the gods. And after the destruction of Arlathan, when the gods could no longer hear our prayers, it is said that Fen'Harel spent centuries in a far corner of the earth, giggling madly and hugging himself in glee.

The legend says that before the fall of Arlathan, the gods we know and revere fought an endless war with others of their kind. There is not a hahren among us who remembers these others: Only in dreams do we hear whispered the names of Geldauran and Daern'thal and Anaris, for they are the Forgotten Ones, the gods of terror and malice, spite and pestilence. In ancient times, only Fen'Harel could walk without fear among both our gods and the Forgotten Ones, for although he is kin to the gods of the People, the Forgotten Ones knew of his cunning ways, and saw him as one of their own.

And that is how Fen'Harel tricked them. Our gods saw him as a brother, and they trusted him when he said that they must keep to the heavens while he arranged a truce. And the Forgotten Ones trusted him also when he said he would arrange for the defeat of our gods, if only the Forgotten Ones would return to the abyss for a time. They trusted Fen'Harel, and they were all of them betrayed. And Fen'Harel sealed them away so they could never again walk among the People."

—From The Tale of Fen'Harel's Triumph, as told by Gisharel, Keeper of the Ralaferin clan of the Dalish elves

[celestialscarlet]

Elgar’nan

The All-Father, the Eldest of the Sun, He Who Overthrew his father, God of Vengeance and Sun, Husband to Mythal

This is the start to my series drawing each of the Elven Pantheon. I don’t have much in terms of information and inspiration, just generally sticking with those gold elements - as well as taking some inspiration from his Vallaslin. I got very frustrated with this drawing halfway through, as I’m just generally trying to work out a style I like - and I was also trying to keep some of that Dragon Age Tarot style reminiscent (mainly in the background). Ultimately I’d say I’m pretty happy with how it came out, this is the most ambitious drawing I’ve done in awhile and I generally achieved the look I was going for 🙂‍↕️

A close up on detail, and then the starting sketch. I wish I would have kept the richer skin tone but with all the shading I did it turned out different. I also went back and forth about adding back details to the cloth, but I think the very simple shape adds to the drawing.

[tomoleary]

Mike Dubisch Forgotten Realms: Silver Marches Illustration Original Art (Wizards of the Coast, 2002) Source

Mike Dubisch - Elven Pantheon Illustration Original Art (Wizards of the Coast, 2002) Source

Michael Dubisch - "Spelldancer" Illustration Original Art (Dungeons and Dragons, 2001) Source

[lairofdragonagelore]

Brecilian Ruins - DAO

[Remade post, originally from here] 

I don't know what to make of Brecilian Ruins. Can we truly trust DAO design with its statues? Spoiler answer: no.

[This is part of the series “Playing DA like an archaeologist”]

The following post contains

Tevinter architecture filled with Elven traps

Iconography

The Well of Sorrows: DAO version

The Tevinter Artefacts

Extra minor details

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

Tevinter architecture filled with Elven traps

The first thing we have when entering these Ruins is Morrigan telling us that, despite seeing the whole place with the same architecture we saw in the Ruins of Dalish origin, this is Tevinter. Sure, we can assume that the Dalish hunters know nothing of Elvhenan Architecture or Tevinter Architecture, so their opinion about those ruins being elven could be wrong from the first moment. They are, after all, extremely unreliable beholders of the reality. 

Anyways, let's assume Morrigan is right and we see Tevinter arquitecture with Elven traps. This is quite different of what we usually find in Thedas: which is elven structures appropriated by Tevinter humans. This makes sense when you think that the elves were the first creatures in this world, and humans came later, in addition to Tevinter always co-opting any knowledge or techniques from the Elvhenan. 

However in Brecilian forest the order of the events seems to be on the other way around. Historically speaking, it can be explained in the following way:  we know that Tevinter invaded Ferelden and built many structures with defensive purposes, like Ostagar [which was built to contain the “danger” of the Chasind in the far South]. 

We also know in the DLC: Witch Hunt, that slaved elves ran away from the North to the South years later after the fall of Arlathan. We know they hid for a while in a Thaig, but maybe some could have reached these forest and inhabit the ancient human structures, protecting themselves with elven traps to keep Tevinter slavers away from them.

Another possibility is that Tevinter simply co-opted the Elven traps and used them in their own buildings. It would not be the first time doing this.

Iconography

The Ruin corridors and chambers are filled with statues. They are the same statues we saw in Zathrian's camp: Sylaise (woman with a vessel), Andruil (woman with a sword. Why? Should not be a bow?), and Ghilan'nain (woman without head and hands). 

These are the same exact statues we find in any Chantry, Circle of Magi, or human town, so this is exactly why I never trusted DAO design in general. I don't know if the engine and its lack of resources made them reuse a lot of background details, or there is a real intention in them [I incline to the former]. Considering that DAO had almost 10 years of development, I want to believe that this is not by chance... but maybe the limitations of the engine forced them to remove most of the potential that environmental telling has to offer... I don't know.

In any case, inside the Brecilian Ruins we see a symbol or figure we also saw in the Dalish origin: a kind of dragon-head like figure, accompanied many times by one of those figures that we believe, it represents Andruil (the goddess of Hunt). This could also represent Andraste [who always has a sword or a shield in her representations] beside two figures that look like dragon heads. This would link Andraste with Dragons too, which has been a repeated association that we are not stranger to. 

In DAO we see that the dalish are deeply related to Dragons too if we pay attention to the enviromental details that are not repeated anytwhere else:  in Zathrian's clan we see many aravels with masks that are dragon-like skulls, and when you click on them, you find out it's a representation of one of their elven pantheon. 

We see the concept art of these in the credits of the game.

By now it's quite difficult to say if this is an obvious link of the Elven Pantheon with dragons or maybe Old Gods, or it's just a vestige of former slave elves whose masters may have forced them to worship the Old Gods. It is not strange that a slaved group takes the religious symbols of their slavers and worship them in the name of their own (forbidden) gods. We know that we can't trust in Dalish tales as reliable sources of History, because it's extremely fragmented and lost (thanks to DAI we are truly aware of how false they are containing barely a pinch of truth in them, twisted and romanticed).

On the other hand, I am inclined to think that this is just a representation of how the Elvhenan had, originally, a religion based on Dragons. We know that they venerated a “divine” shape that was meant for their gods and their chosen ones that implied Wings, and due to Mythal’s shape, we associate this Divine Shape with the form of a Dragon. Additional material that can support this speculation can be found in the first three comics of DA comics [The Silent Grove , Those Who Speak, Until We Sleep] where we are informed that the Dragons were the ones who controlled the skies originally, possibly had a broad power over the Fade [Dreamer-like, so from the Fade they could alter reality], and they may have been related to an original non-fragmented “song” that everythign and everyone in the world sang.  Also, Dragon Blood is “the blood of the World”, placing the Titans in a confusing position within the lore.

In these Ruins we find a codex of Falon'Din. Which is the same god that Talem told us about when we asked him if he could identify that strange winged statue. So... the confusions gets worse here: it's a Tevinter Ruin, with elven traps, and Elven God statues. 

It’s impossible to overlook the fact that this statue of Falon’Din has strong resemblance to the Old God statue of Urthemiel. As if Falon’Din wanted to have the shape of Urthemiel.

The chamber with the fire traps displays “Sylaise” and “Andruil” statues. Which in terms of Dalish Elven lore makes little sense. Andruil? Sure, she is the hunter goddess, though in these statues she is not in a aggressive stance. So is she chasing after you?. And what about Sylaise? The goddess of the domestic arts? Trying to kill you? Protecting the home of the elves? In a Tevinter structure? This makes a bit of more sense if we keep in mind what we know about Andruil from DAI and the little bit of Sylaise [read their sections in Evanuris]; Sylaise is a very agressive, envious goddes of Fire, who is described top have fire breath [like a dragon?], as powerful as Andruil’s spear [a very dangerous and brutal weapon so far we know]. Andruil is presented to us in DAI as the goddess of Sacrifice, brutal and merciless so far we can gather from the codices. So both goddesses seem to fit a bit better in a deadly trap room if we keep in mind the interpretation we had from DAI.

The Well of Sorrows: DAO version

Then we reach to our first "Well of Sorrows". Or more like "Puddle of Sorrows", lol. Once again, we find a wall covered with that Dragon-like skull statues of “Andruil” and “Sylaise” [I keep the quotation mark because we know we can’t trust little these representations]. We also find the codex of an ancient elven tablet explaining the ritual which, after DAI, makes more sense. You drink from the water of the pool, taking the knowledge left by other elves, and then you put the rest of the water in it, leaving your knowledge there [it works similar to what Abelas explained about the Well of Sorrows]. It seems to be corrupted or empty since you don’t have any whispers or sudden knowledge inside your head, and many Shades are summoned if you fail in the procedure. This chamber unlocks the following one where we find the Uthenera chamber.

Since the only Elven god codex we found in these ruins is Falon'Din’s, it could be fair to believe that this may be interpreted like a "Well of Falon'din" which gathers all the knowledge of those elves that want to stop living and go to Uthenera. 

This is consistent with the info provided in The Masked Empire, when Felassan explains that powerful mages went into Uthenera in underground tombs beneath Orlais and their servants had to take care of their bodies until they rebelled to them and slit their throats. This part of the Ruins are deep down underground. It is also reasonable in its location: Mythal’s Temple is located in the Arbor Wilds, South of Orlais, while this potential ruin in the depth of the Brecilian Forest. What’s a bit inconsistent is that some chars [Morrigan] said that this place was a Tevinter building [not an elvhenan one], but we can’t take Morrigan’s words as reliable either. She has been wrong many times along the series. 

The one thing that deeply disturbed me was that there were two spirits, a little boy and a woman, clearly humans, talking in elven. We could assume they were elf-blooded, but there is no assurance in this. I want to believe this is not a mistake, there is purpose in them being humans since this game has elven models. There is no “engine” limitations there. Now, about the meaning of it, it’s another thing entirely.

The ghost human woman is beside the altar where you find the codex of Uthenera, some elven remains, and a piece of the Juggernaut (a lot of these Ruins History can be scratched via the rare items you find, so sometimes finding a particular item in a particular place is not minor).

Another detail that annoyed me is that the platform where the elven burial lays is surrounded by Alamarri/Tevinter statues. It’s not clear the story of this building: was it originally elvhen? retaken by Tevinter and later taken by elves again? Or this was an Elvhenan ruin, taken by the Avvar or Alamarri of any tribe, and then taken by Tevinter when they invaded the South? It’s not clear neither the original construction of this building nor the succesive invations and appropiations of it, 

So the elven chamber dedicated to Uthenera is surrounded by dragon skull-like figures, there are Sylaise and Andruil statues on the outside ring and Alamarri/Tevinter statues with spears in the inner ring. Clearly this shows that we can’t truly trust much the enviromental telling of DAO due to the restriction of resources. 

The Tevinter Artefacts

Finally, when you head to the deepest bottom of the ruins, you find a big statue I can't establish to what culture belongs yet; I speculate it's Tevinter due to the places where I found it most of the time. It has a similar flavor to the ones found in Kirkwall. 

Behind it, an instrument with two tables filled with research stuff. The instrument is something that I can't decide if it is the same artefact we use in DAI to strengthen the Veil, those elven artefacts, or it's a prototype version of the Tevinter artefact to see the stars: the astrarium [which would make NO sense in the deep bottom of the Ruins, lol. What stars are you looking at?]. 

In any case, after this part you find a big chamber with a quincunx. Probably the first time we see this organisation. Which makes us remember Solas Tarot Card: the thing we find in a quincunx’s centre tends to be of great importance.

So, this disposition makes a quincunx inside another one, since each of them is also a  quincunx, but its centre must be.... a person? a sacrifice? 

 And if this symbol were not crazy enough already, the squares have a Chantry symbol in each corner. Not the Imperial Chantry (which won’t be a big fuss) but the Standard Chantry! I can’t believe this is a lack of resources... the sunburst symbol is extremelly important in DA series.

In the centre of this big chamber, once again, we found another artefact that may be an Astrarium or an Elven Artefact. We are sure it's Tevinter, since the same object can be found in the basement of the Circle of Magi. We have no idea what it does, or if it's related to any other artefact we found in DAI. (But it’s related to the one found close to the tables full of research stuff. They look the same, one only has a spherical glass around it while the other is more like the skeleton of the first one, with some missing part)

Anyway, returning to the quincunx Chamber: Here we fight an Arcane Horror. I always found these creatures with a design preeeetty close to the Sidereal Magisters. I don’t know if this means something, but in this context, it hints that a Tevinter experiment went wrong in this chamber and corrupted the mage performing it. It’s not by chance that Arcane Horrors are a product of a Pride demon taking control of a mage corpse. It has a big symbolism.

So, we can speculate that some Tevinter experiment happened here, there is no doubt. Not by chance Zathrian and the Oak tree tell us that the Brecilian Forest has a particular thin Veil, and rage demons possess the trees around. We also find a lot of revenants here (pride or desire demons bound by blood magic, explained in the codex The Black Vials). In short,  Brecilian forest has similar symptoms to Kirkwall. Tevinter made experiments here, but it’s not sure if they were performed before or after the slave elves lived here.

Extra minor details

In these ruins is where we found a soul trapped (or bound?) to a gem that will teach us the ancient arts of the Arcane Warrior. It says that it is the last of their kind, implying that if you don’t acquire this knowledge, it will be lost forever and would make no sense for Viviene to have this knowledge in DAI. 

All over the Ruins there are some rugs with a symbol that can be interpreted as an oversimplification of the Tevinter Imperium heraldry.

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore ]

[pachebelsheadcanon]

Oh buddy I cannot even begin to explain to you how excited I am for “some Ghilan’nain nonsense”.

Since they put John Epler in charge as the creative director for DA4 I’m absolutely counting on some disgusting Horror of Hormak style content.

Or at least I’m hoping for Ghilan’nain to be one of the more interesting lore developments in the upcoming game and other media.

On Ghilan’nain

When dealing with her name we all think of the halla. Maybe imagine she and Andruil were ancient elvhen girlfriends. And we might remember there could be mysterious giant sea monsters molded by her hands still lurking in the deep that she never got rid of.

As with the rest of the Evanuris we barely have a handful of codex entries on her, so there’s plenty to speculate. Recently, however, there have been a couple of …developments.

First things first though, what is her origin story? There are a couple of differing versions.   On The Ascension it’s said Ghilan’nain kept herself away from the People and spent her time creating monsters, and when Andruil tired of hunting the wild creatures she approached Ghilan’nain with a proposition: to stop, destroy her creations and join them in their godhood. Ghilan’nain accepted and began ending her creatures but spared a few -some of the air offered to Andruil as gifts,  those in deep sea that Pride stopped her from killing, and the halla that she was very fond of. This implies Ghilan’nain created the halla herself.

However, in Mother of the Halla, it was Andruil who created the halla, by turning Ghilan’nain into one to help her find her way home after the attack of a resented hunter she had cursed. In this story Ghilan’nain was already one of the People, and didn’t spend her time creating monsters but being a huntress dedicated to Andruil’s Way being a devout follower.

In the Halla codex, Ghilan’nain is referred to as “first halla and mother of them all” but there’s no clarification of how she became the first halla.

So either she created the halla herself, or she was turned into the first halla by Andruil. The latter could be a metaphorical reading, as Andruil being the one inviting Ghilan’nain to join the Evanuris could be interpreted as her being the “creator” of Ghilan’nain. I’m partial to the first take, that Ghilan’nain created all those creatures and the story from Mother of Halla just take a few liberties to illustrate Andruil answering her prayers.

What of her character? Most of what we know of the Evanuris comes from myths and biased sources, there’s not enough for a full picture but we do get some small glimpses. As Solas mentioned at the temple of Mythal, the Evanuris were not as the elves like to portray them. They were flawed, violent, war-hungry, abusive, and could have destroyed the entire world had he not locked them away. We see the halla and maybe think it’s cute and such an innocent-looking creature, and may had thought similarly of Ghilan’nain, as this ancient elvhen girl who crafted a variety of creatures with her magic and was so good at it she received the favour of her gods. Thing is, as it turns out, her gods were not particularly good, so what exactly would the kind of gods who promoted war to enjoy their worship valued and found of interest in Ghilan’nain? Were her monsters a threat they didn’t wish to deal with so they wanted her on their side instead? It’s possible, but so is that they saw part of themselves in her, and I think it’s no small detail that we’re introduced to Ghilan’nain through Andruil. 

It’s evident from what stories have survived time that Andruil was impulsive and prone to violence. As the Huntress she undulged in the practice to the point of losing herself in it. The thrill for the hunt led her to go after bigger and more dangerous game until she descended into the Void to go after blighted creatures, tainting herself in the process and spreading disease onto the land on her return. Mythal had to intervene, deceiving her and essentially whiping her memory so Andruil wouldn’t remember how to reach the Void, making her stop using it as hunting ground.

In relation to Ghilan’nain , this is also how they may have met. We can’t separate this two, it’s like they come in a set: the huntress and the monsters maker. The two put together make this vicious, wild loop were both can indulge endlessly; it hasn’t been mentioned yet that Ghilan’nain resented Andruil for killing her creations or that she was devastated at all at having to kill them herself. In fact, she seems to have agreed without protest to destroying her work in exchange for a seat at the big table. This, and that Andruil made the offer to begin with, says plenty of what sort of person Ghilan’nain may have been.

It’s kind of implied the two were together, although we don’t really know enough about ancient elvhen relationships. On one of Fen’Harel’s stories told by Felassan in The Masked Empire, it’s said Andruil once caught him for hunting halla without her permission and her punishment for it was to keep him as a sex slave for a year and a day. He escaped but it’s strange that Andruil would demand such a thing. Either she and Ghilan’nain weren’t really partners, were in an open relationship, or she’s just an opportunistic cheater.

Back to Ghilan’nain, it’s in Tevinter Nights, specifically The Horror of Hormak, where it’s heavily implied she was nothing like her precious halla. In this story a couple of Grey Wardens on a rescue mission find underground ruins seemingly dwarven at first that turned out to be actually elvhen. A series of mosaics decorating the walls at first glance show gracious rulers helping and healing people but the images soon twist into showing the rulers as cruel and the people subjected to harm, and what at first looked like halla pulling on aravels soon became insectoid creatures pulling on caged cargo headed to different destinations resembling different mountain locations. The one where the Wardens found themselves at held a chamber of horrors, with odd coloured lyrium pending over a pool of a strange sustance that mutated everything that came close enough. Having been told time and time again that Ghilan’nain created beings so monstrous the other elvhen gods asked her to stop and kill them, this is the first time we get an idea of how she went through her creative process.

Throughout the story there are mentions of a terrible “She” and the persistent smell of brine, and all these put together point to this chamber -and potentially many others – being where Ghilan’nain played god, or as I put it in a previous post “gene-splicing anything that moved”. Could it be Andruil’s madness got to her as well? It’s a possibility, just as likely as her being awful on her own. One of the Wardens survived the horror they found there and we know his concern was the other locations depicted in the mosaics and warning the others about it, so there’s a possibility we get to visit at the very least one of these locations.. maybe the dwarven place we got from the BTS video could be one.

Another mention of her in the lore is the Ancient Elven Writing, where it’s said it was Ghilan’nain who “urged” a servant or follower of Dirthamen to commit treason by taking on a form reserved for the gods. There’s no idication as to why she’d do such a thing, why specifically to one who belonged to a different Creator or even, if that wasn’t the case, why this person would include her name in their lie as if to frame her somehow. I can only make sense of it within my previous theory of the Evanuris, where I propose June, Sylaise and Dirthamen may have been not too awful and even secretely aided Fen’Harel somewhow. Maybe. 

While Elgar’nan, Falon’din and Andruil were definitiely the bad guys that most likely plotted to kill Mythal, Ghilan’nain would have sided with Andruil, and there we have potential motivation. Pushing a follower of Dirthamen into commiting a most offensive crime would compromise Dirthamen as well, but if he was with them why do it? For so long we’ve been led to believe the Evanuris were at war with the Forgotten Ones, but it’s likely they also fought each other. We can’t know for sure if Mythal still lived when that episode took place, as the codex says “she will not show him favour and will let Elgar’nan judge him”, which can also be read as “she didn’t show up so Elgar’nan will judge instead”and i find that weird considering Mythal cared for the people and one would assume took her role as judge seriously. She may have decided to pass on that one for whatever reason, but there’s still a possibility she may had already been murdered by then and this was Elgar’nan taking over to execute those who served his enemies, in this case with the aid of Ghilan’nain. I’m definitely adding her to my Evanuris who suck list for now.

Considering some of the concept art we got in the BTS video, specifically these

..i think  it’s about, hmm, 70% safe to expect some Ghilan’nain nonsense in DA4. Monstruous sea creatures? Check. Monstruous creatures with miss-matched parts and insectoid features? Check. Solas threatening to lift the Veil which would free the Evanuris? Double check. 

She might show up. I like that some really good fanarts are popping up, and now i’m very curious how Ghilan’nain’s canon look would be like. 

[kirkwallguy]

when you side against the templars you're up against samson, the guy from da2 who introduced the reality of templars being controlled by their lyrium addiction. you know. the reason we're supposed to feel bad for the ex-templar advisor. you fight red templars who are an extension of the lyrium addiction thing as well. when you side against the MAGES you're against the venatori and calpernia, a completely new faction who have nothing to do with the mage-templar conflict. fiona is a miniboss that you might not even recognise if you're not using the tactics cam and the rebellion just kind of dies out because the venatori killed all the rebels offscreen or something idk

[glamfellens]

sorry 4 always complaining but i am so over "the gods arent real" reveals . why are u so opposed to faith and the belief in something u cant comprehend fully but still devote urself to anyway. is that not a form of love. yawn.

[teoceearts]

Lord Inquisitor Dalinev Lavellan

Knight-Enchanter, First to the Keeper, and Not Your Fucking Herald

[rpgchoices]

Okay so we agree that the elven gods were already tainted with the blight when they got trapped in the fade so the city was already corrupted, right? And they got the corruption from the void and maybe infected one titan too, and then when the tevinter magisters entered the fade they fully spread it everywhere?

Tho I don't know how this is connected with the old gods and why they are the ones searched by the darkspawn.

[emahriel]

time to study again and refresh my mind... latest da4 update got me thinking about what other god we may possibly see 👁️ we know worship of the seven old gods was the religion of the imperium for hundreds of years so...

[sequesteredbhaalspawn]

Also why is Minthara a "Lolth-Sworn" Drow, when she clearly doesn't like Lolth? Like did Larian just give her the "evil" subrace (gross of them to have it be that why in the game tbh) because she's "evil?"

[dragon-age-codex-entries]

Codex entry: Mythal: the Great Protector

"Elgar'nan had defeated his father, the sun, and all was covered in darkness. Pleased with himself, Elgar'nan sought to console his mother, the earth, by replacing all that the sun had destroyed. But the earth knew that without the sun, nothing could grow. She whispered to Elgar'nan this truth, and pleaded with him to release his father, but Elgar'nan's pride was great, and his vengeance was terrible, and he refused.

It was at this moment that Mythal walked out of the sea of the earth's tears and onto the land. She placed her hand on Elgar'nan's brow, and at her touch he grew calm and knew that his anger had led him astray. Humbled, Elgar'nan went to the place where the sun was buried and spoke to him. Elgar'nan said he would release the sun if the sun promised to be gentle and to return to the earth each night. The sun, feeling remorse at what he had done, agreed.

And so the sun rose again in the sky, and shone his golden light upon the earth. Elgar'nan and Mythal, with the help of the earth and the sun, brought back to life all the wondrous things that the sun had destroyed, and they grew and thrived. And that night, when the sun had gone to sleep, Mythal gathered the glowing earth around his bed, and formed it into a sphere to be placed in the sky, a pale reflection of the sun's true glory."

—From The Tale of Mythal's Touch, as told by Gisharel, Keeper of the Ralaferin clan of the Dalish elves