#dalish culture

[elvhenfaer]

I give you a new project based on my recent research into the lore:

Dog Breeds of Thedas

These are the only two I’ve completed so far, and I admit that if there are any more to follow… they will be completely made up. But they will be based on lore from the DA universe and knowledge that I possess from my actual education in dog training. It’s unfortunate that the only one with real codex entries is the Mabari.

[delicatefade]

Ropes of Fate

OC Kiss Week Day 7: dare

Fandom: Dragon Age, though it really doesn't matter for this snippet. Word Count: 2,299 😬 I got inspired. Main Tags: Childhood crush, kids being kids Summary: My name is Lex, I'm eleven, and in Clan Lavellan. So this one time Arris (who is dumb) wanted everyone to play ropes of fate cause Arris wanted to kiss girls. Pfft. I went anyway cause I was bored. This is what happened. It was pretty crazy.

I moved this one to AO3 -> https://archiveofourown.org/works/53891704 Excerpt

My heart was pounding in my ears. It’s not that I was afraid of girls or kissing girls. It’s just that Eilan had that power. Who knew what else she could do. I walked into the aravel and closed the door behind me. She looked me right in the eyes and fixed me again with that power. I couldn’t say or do anything. But then she did something I had never seen her do before. She looked down all bashful like, how some girls do, and she blushed and had a little smile. Did she like me? That’s what that meant when other girls did it, but Eilan never seemed to like anyone. I felt dumb again. Stick to the plan. Get it over with. I told my feet to move, but they would not listen. Eilan’s smile got bigger like she knew. Of course she did, she was super smart and could read anyone’s mind. But she was smiling a whole lot, at me, and I let myself smile back. I felt goofy, just looking at her, smiling like that. I still felt light headed, but now I could breathe again and my heart was calming down from a thump-thumping to a whisper-whoosh.  “LET’S GOOOO!” Arris shouted from outside the aravel. “We haven’t got all night!”

Story on AO3 -> https://archiveofourown.org/works/53891704

Eilan is my OC and Lex belongs to @bluewren

Want to follow their story? Start here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52434187/chapters/132646609 DAFF tag list: @warpedlegacywrites | @rakshadow | @rosella-writes | @effelants | @bluewren | @breninarthur | @ar-lath-ma-cully | @dreadfutures | @ir0n-angel | @inquisimer | @crackinglamb | @theluckywizard | @nirikeehan | @oxygenforthewicked | @exalted-dawn-drabbles | @melisusthewee | @blarrghe | @agentkatie | @leggywillow | @about2dance

[this-is-my-jaam]

I've been doing some light research on historical Chinese clothing for my version of Clan Lavellan based on my own heritage, and one thing that I noticed and love is the amount and variety of colors and patterns used. It feels very 'alive' for a lack of better words, it has a lot of character.

Another Tumblr post I came across recently brought up the current trend of color disappearing from the world. Our color pallets have become much narrower and dull. (Maybe that's why I like tie-dye so much XD)

A lot of the time, you can look at traditional clothing and name which region it hales from. With modern fashion, that's not the case a lot of the time, with it feeling rather homogenous.

Link to said post: https://www.tumblr.com/coldmaxine/692852331579047936?source=share

That is a major factor that drew me to your Dalish Redux series, but I didn't connect the dots until recently. The Dalish clans wouldn't feel homogenous, Clan Lavellan wouldn't be a straight copy of Clan Sabre, etc. So much can be told just by looking at them.

I feel the lack of color is something that plagues a lot of modern fantasy, the lack of color creates a lack of diversity. A lot of information can be gathered by appearance, and when everyone shares color pallets, a lot of subtle world-building is lost.

Like if we were to take the designs of Dalish Elves vs City Elves in DAO and II, they have some attire differences, but if you were to remove the Vallaslin, it would be rather hard to tell them apart.

This isn't to say the City Elves should have drab fashion, but their vanilla appearance is so boring.

Absolutely agree! Color and pattern are both instrumental to the development of textiles and arts and a fantastic resource in historical study. I mentioned before that patterns tend to be designed with some meaning at hand, That is something that I try to keep in consideration when making patterns for the Dalish. The base design that the og concept artists were going for seem to be aligned with the art deco movement as well as natural themes. In that sense, I decided to create abstract patterns to represent some of the in game plants that have been given Dalish names and/or have been said to have significance to the Dalish. We also already have the Vallaslin, which I use very often for reference since it is an already canon resource with significant symbolism.

My best advice on subtle worldbuilding, particularly in textile as that what I’m studied in, is natural resources. China is famed for its silk, Egypt for its linen, and Peru for its alpaca wool, etcetera etcetera. Not only that, by the richness of resources and availability play a significant role in how clothing develops.

As an example, the Ancient Egyptians loved color, but weren’t technologically advanced enough to be able to strip their linen of the fibrous outer layer, which made it extremely difficult to dye. As a result, there was a lot of white clothing supplemented with opaque stones, the most popular being carnelian, jade, and lapis lazuli. Those gems aren’t native to Egypt, but because we know where they can be found, we know who the Egyptians traded with and what was being swapped between cultures. We even know where dye moves around from based on what is and is not native to the regions using said dye. For example, there is a rare, tiny purple species of mollusk know as Murex snails. The dye was so rare and popular that only royalty was allowed to purchase it, and thus Royal Purple was born. 

Basically, try and think of cultural costume design as the natural cause and effect of resources being introduced to a society. What do the Dalish have from before the fall of Arlathan? What resources are available in the area that a specific clan is from? Based on the reclusiveness of the clan, would they have more resources from an established trade with other clans/merchants? Obviously you don’t need to go nuts with specifics, but limiting resources is a great way to give a culture character and thoughtful design.

There have been more recent attempts to really flesh out fantasy designs in more modern properties (for better or worse), but overall, clothing tends to fall back on more traditional,  western Europe aesthetics. Part of the issue is that costumes are designed with silhouette and flat color in mind rather than pattern, which would come later when the costume department actually gathers the fabrics.

City elves should definitely have developed their own unique styles based on where their alienage is (if they belong to one) and access to materials. A city elf likely wouldn’t have the time to be making their own clothing and gathering their own resources, so what would they be able to afford based on where they live? 

I will admit to being somewhat guilty of the lack of color in the modern world, but in my defense, Dark Academia is a look and half of my closet is rainbow brite colorful but I have no where to wear those outfits because I have no where to go and I live on my computer :,D Thanks for the ask!

[the-patchwork-soul]

Absolutely. Rip them out of the ground, topple them over, & crush em to dust

lavellan should have access to a war table mission to destroy every chantry statue in the exalted plains and the emerald graves i think. as a treat

[pavus]

i'm going to wait until after i'm finished with suri to actually play her, but miralen has arrived for solas-related business. 🖤

[raviollies]

Why does your Inquisitor not have vallaslin? :o

Daee is half Dalish & half City elf! When it would have been time for his coming of age he was clearly torn over his place of belonging, and the keeper decided against granting it to him. He felt so ashamed of the fact, and of the reputation that would bring to his Dalish mother for raising someone as indecisive, cowardly, childish (insert 10 more self deprecating statements) as him - & just ran away, becoming an apostate for the next 10 years until Inquisition (It's how he ends up at the conclave, just by happenstance).

If he gotten it, it would have been the same as his mom, Mythals :] (yes this is dramatic irony considering the Well of Sorrows)

[elvhenfaer]

All of this is yes. And I would like to add as a general historical note in case anyone has not read about it that the distinction between ‘Dalish’ elves and ‘City’ elves began with the colonization and forceful re-occupation of the Dales/Halamshiral.

Dalish elves are not a timeless peoples. They have not always existed as they do in present day Thedas. Elves were once one people (Arlathan/Elvhennan era) whose society fell for a plethora of reasons.

These elves were then mostly enslaved and oppressed under an expansionist Tevinter, which, at the time, covered pretty much all of Thedas (which is why we have things like a Tevinter prison in the Western Approach even though that area now lies in the territory of Orlais).

The Almarri (Avvar) tribes then united under one King (Maferath) who married Andraste (the daughter of another Tribe leader) to create the largest Almarri tribe the world had ever seen, spanning from Nevarra across the Free Marches and into Fereldan, basically the largest force outside of the Tevinter Imperium. However, Andraste was taken by Tevinter slavers and half of Maferath’s kingdom was only loyal to him through that marriage, so he negotiated her release. Together, they then went to war with the Imperium in what is known as the first Exalted March (it got religious). This was when Andraste joined forces with Shartan.

Shartan was an elf, and lead the slaves of Tevinter in rebellion against them, joining Andraste. He is quoted as having said “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.

When Andraste is captured by Tevinter for a second time as a result of this war, Maferath basically sells her in an agreement that he gets to keep the lands she conquered from the Imperium, which is why we get all the references to Maferath the Betrayer.

Tevinter plans to burn Andraste and it is the elves who fight to free her rather than her own people. Shartan himself died in this attempt.

The war ends with the death of Andraste, Tevinter and Maferath having made the deal where he gets to keep his expanded territory. Maferath then gives the elves the Dales as a reward for their part in the war.

For three hundred years, the elves finally have a homeland alongside the human territories. Orlais is established in the west in yet another war, but the elves stay out of human affairs. They keep to themselves and don’t bother anyone. This is the era of the Emerald Knights. This is an era in which the elves attempt to reclaim the lost histories of Elvhennan, with artisans reviving old techniques of craft and notably Elnora reviving lost magical arts of Arlathan.

Then we get to Second Exalted March in which Orlais marches in and takes the Dales. We see a lot about this in Inquisition as the Exalted Plains, the Emerald Graves, and Emprise du Lion are all territories that once belonged to the Dales. It was not until this time that any distinction between elves ever existed. Orlais gave them an ultimatum: you can live in exile (these became the Dalish elves we see now) or you can convert to Andrastianism and live with us (city elves).

It was a pretty shitty choice, kind of a lose/lose situation.

Keep in mind that the Dragon Age timeline is a crapshoot because it’s determined by ‘Ages’. The Second Exalted March took place in the Glory Age. Since then we’ve had the Towers Age, the Black Age, the Exalted Age, the Steel Age, the Storm Age, the Blessed Age, and finally the modern day Dragon Age. We’re talking 6-800 years of this separation.

So, as Dalishious said, city elves and Dalish elves have definitely developed cultural distinctions, but they are very much the same people. And I hope this brief historical explanation as to why that is true helps to understand.

As for superiority? I hope you see that there was no right choice for elves to make. They had lived peacefully in the Dales for three hundred years, these were not all warriors, these were families facing down Orlesian religious zealots with their blades drawn.

Some said “Yeah, sure, I’ll be ‘Andrastian’ if you let my kids live.”

And some said “I would literally rather take my chances in the woods if it means I don’t have to deal with you.”

And ya know what? Both of those are fair responses.

I may have this all wrong, but is it just me or does there seem to be this trend in the (Dalish positive spaces of) fandom, where city elves' culture is seen as "less" of a culture than the Dalish's and less connected to the Dales (Not helped by the source material)? As an example, recently some people were talking about how an elf PC would feel about Orlais being so huge because they took over the Dales and the only ones anybody brought up were Mahariel and Lavellan, as if Tabris and Surana would somehow have less of a connection to the Dales, which idk feels a little odd, given how clearly inspired the city elves are from the Jewish and Romani peoples.

Obviously the Dalish do have more information about a lot of things! And I'm not denying that! But there's this lingering implication that happens when people talk about city/circle elves that, as an example, none of them could believe in the Elvhen gods without being Dalish because otherwise it would be cultural appropriation somehow despite it being just as much their culture as the Dalish's?

I could be reading into this incorrectly, (social cues and reading between the lines is not my forte) hence why I wanted to run it by someone else, but it sits with me very uncomfortably given their real life counterparts

A few thinks to unpack here...

While it's true that city elves and Dalish elves have developed individual aspects of culture based on their surroundings, they are still all of the same people. This opinion in-game is argued between different characters, but I firmly stand on the side of those who favour a unified elven identity. And if someone were to argue that because their cultures are different, well, the same could be said of individual Dalish clans--and yet no one argues that the Dalish are not grouped together because of that.

Subsequently, city elves have just as much a right to claim their ancestors of the Dales as the Dalish do.

The only reason most city elves are Andrastian is because it's illegal for them to worship the Elven Pantheon, at least publicly. But this doesn't stop some elves from doing so! For example, the quest "Flowers for Senna" in DA:I has you place flowers on the grave of a deceased partner for a widowed elf who recites "may your ashes be gathered by Falon'Din," and says to Lavellan, "You are Dalish? My Senna and I, we kept to the old ways as we could, though I know we are as children to you." This is not cultural appropriation because you cannot appropriate your own culture, and I reiterate: city or Dalish, they are all elves and they all have the same ancestors.

[danielnelsen]

i think what’s frustrating is that you’re kinda required to have a strong opinion about solas to potentially get the most out of your choices for dav. having one of only three worldstate options be how you want to handle him is so strange for something that, to me, just felt like a pretty random inconsequential dialogue choice during trespasser. it felt like an immediate reaction to the situation, not an action plan

because honestly my inquisitor wouldn’t really care. he’s done saving the world and has just had a pretty major traumatic post-saving-the-world adventure while dealing with what is basically a very painful terminal illness… he wants nothing to do with any of it anymore! solas can be someone else’s problem! he would NOT spend the next decade trying to figure out what solas is up to, he would get as far away from all that bullshit as possible and try to live a peaceful life now that he’s suddenly no longer dying.

like idk i’ll probably choose that he wants to stop solas. but it doesn’t feel like so significant a choice to make it one of the only lasting impacts of the previous games. he already hasn’t seen solas in a few years by trespasser and wasn’t that close with him before and would like to take a nap

[winchesternova-k]

this week’s vows and vengeance was so good. davrin is super charming and im so glad he came across as self assured instead of arrogant

[elvhenfaer]

Dog Breeds of Thedas

[whispering-depths]

I finished an outfit reference/timeline sheet for my Inquisitor, Janne Lavellan! I'm a little bit obsessed with her, and I had fun drawing all these different looks for her at various points in her story—I'm REALLY proud of how the armor came out! (even though my partner said it looks like a strawberry lmao)

After the events of Trespasser, she takes Varric up on his offer of land and a title in Kirkwall. She has no clan to go back to, and disbanded the Inquisition in favor of working in secret to track down Solas. She travels a great deal and starts studying Elvhen history with renewed vigor, both to feel closer to her lost clan and to try to understand what is going on with her wayward love.

[this-is-my-jaam]

@queer-amann

Absolutely! Feel free to use these patterns for your own fan projects. I'm so happy that the fandom has been enjoying my work so far. I absolutely encourage anyone who wants to try their hand at high-fantasy anthropology to absolutely go for it. I am more than happy to let you reference the work I've shared so far.

As far as in-game item description goes, There can be quite a bit of conflict between what is shown and what is told. For the most part, I try to stick with what is shown and anything canonical from the books or in-game story related info (such as the ironbark). With the number of writers that had a hand in building Dalish culture in canon, trying to work off of in-game item descriptions can be tricky with conflicting information, though the details about the bow and Andruil are great! I haven’t quite gotten around to deep diving into weaponry yet, but I will definitely keep that in mind.

The city elves are a bit difficult to place design-wise. My natural response would be some sort of combination of localized human clothing (Fereldan, Orlesian, Nevarran, etc), but the city elves are a heavily oppressed group and unlikely able to afford fine, imported fabrics. The city elves are another group that I have yet to get to as far as design and research goes, but based on canon from the Masked Empire and DAI, I would likely veer towards shoddy and worn versions of the common middle class fashions, but very out of date. I would need to do more research to give you a definitive answer first.

I believe that, for the majority of city elves (or at least the ones we meet in canon), follow the Chant of Light and have a complicated relationship with their Dalish counterparts. The city elves see the Dalish as the rebellious last stand against human oppressors, and the Dalish see city elves as traitors to their heritage, largely due to the worship of the Chant of Light. I imagine that city elf culture and artwork may have some Dalish inspiration, (the trees dedicated to Mythal and maybe some other references to Dalish gods here and there) but mostly based on aesthetics that they wouldn’t fully understand in the way that the Dalish clans would. The Dalish are very protective of their history and culture to the point that many clans are unwilling to share their knowledge with city elves at all. Though I think that it would be highly likely that there would be a number of Dalish heirlooms passed down city elf family lines, such as Briala’s Dalish locket from DAI. Any patterns or imagery that would grown in alienages would probably be a combination of whatever knowledge they have of patterns like the vallaslin and references to things that are commonly known to be important to the Dalish (Halla and elfroot, for instance).

The City Elf situation is complex because of how often their lives are uprooted by violence. I mentioned in another post that civilizations rise and fall and all of their technology and mythos goes with it. Something similar can be said of the City Elves who are probably more concerned for their safety than anything else. Their homes are so often attacked and destroyed that it would be hard for a steady and cohesive aesthetic to form. There would likely be only simple patterns on smaller portions of the clothing and it would really vary from alienage to alienage.

More important than the actual clothing of the city elves, I think that it would be very likely that they would direct attention and craftsmanship towards practical things that were less likely to face destruction in the streets from mud or hard labor. Quilting, weaving, rugwork, carving, and home-made goods would definitely be something that I could see City elves doing. And quilting, weaving, tapestry work, embroidery and the like are all common storytelling avenues. City elves find themselves in such a difficult and lost place in the world of Dragon Age, which is why I think that they would turn to home crafts where they would be able to record their own stories, taking influence from the cultures surrounding them and shaping their lives, but creating a narrative wholly their own.

Hope this helps, and feel free to ask me questions anytime! I’m on pretty infrequently these days, but I’ll try to answer asap :)

Aight, pattern drop time. I am not really a pattern designer myself and these are still pretty rough, but I’m doing my best. These go along with my post from earlier this week about Dalish textiles and how much I dislike the underdevelopment of the Dalish aesthetic culture. I spent the last few days coming up with these based on the Vallaslin, halla, frescoes, and other imagery that the Dalish would likely make designs with, like elfroot and arrows. I tried to make patterns to varying levels of intricacy based on a few different real world ethnic groups whose design aesthetics fit what we already have for the Dalish and their Vallaslin patterns, which mostly ended up being mid Eastern Turkish, Iranian, Persian, etc. I also wanted to include some reference to Native American design as they are stated to be one of the inspirations for the Dalish culture, so for the more geometric designs I referenced Navajo rugs and some Sioux clothing from both the Lakota and Dakota Sioux. There are some other indigenous design references that I used that were not credited to a specific group that I could find unfortunately. I’ll continue to make more for as long as I’m working this project, but let me know if anyone is interested in more detailed breakdowns of the designs, materials, etc that I’m using for this project. I can also post the reference board that I’ve been making on Pinterest for how I’m building the culture and where I’m taking design inspo from. Any related posts will be tagged ‘Dalish Redux’ from now on for anyone wanting to keep these posts for reference.

[mabaris]

also. tbh. a little disappointed it seems like taash is Also going to be from the qun, or at least a very recent defect. i was hoping we’d get to see more vashoth characters

[haniebnie]

time cast a spell on you, but you won't forget me i know i could've loved you, but you would not let me i'll follow you down 'til the sound of my voice will haunt you

king's burden fic

[avrorean]

velanna would have been such an amazing narrative foil for both merrill and solas if the writers knew what they'd made

[elvhenfaer]

You did such an amazing job! I love where you chose to put the textile. Understated but definitely Dalish 🥰🥰🥰 spectacular work

@elvhenfaer Posting a few more pictures for you, the ones on the mod page don’t do it justice.