#dalish vows

[beetnik-jay]

Let’s all collectively agree the inquisition wedding dress was not what it was

[scribeofmorpheus]

Trsl of the "vows":

Solas: "Ar ghilas vir banal" Lavellan: "Tel banal ar ama. Vir shiral ma lasa, bellanaris"

Dalish vows: “Sylaise enaste var aravel. Lama, ara las mir lath. Bellanaris.”

Okkkayyy, let's get to translating the solavellan "vows" from elvhen more literally! (It is so fun decoding elvhen!)

To make a blueprint for structure, I worked backwards with a phrase we know well:

Ar lasa mala revas

You are free

Ar | lasa | mala | revas

broken down:

Ar: from "ara" which means "my" or "journey" (from ara'vel which means "journey" +"ship") signifies it's singular, so: "me"/"my"/"I". We know it's not "my" because of "ma" or "mir" (ma vhen'an). And "me" makes little grammatical sense. Ar = I

Lasa: means to "to allow" or "to give" (which might come from "las" (hope) + siffix 'a (to be); lasa is the hope of coming to be -- to allow something.

mala: apparently means "now" (thank you project elvhen!)

revas: free/freedom (e.g: fort revasan : revas + an = place of freedom)

Which directly translates to: "I allow now to be free" but contextually is more poetically trsl to:

"I give you now freedom" / "You are free"

Dalish vows

Sylaise enaste var aravel. Lama, ara las mir lath. Bellanaris

Sylaise enaste: (possibly more accurately written as Sylaise'enaste, like Mythal'enaste) "By the grace of Sylaise" / "Sylaise's favour" (beseechment)

var aravel: "our aravel"

Sylaise enaste var aravel: "May Sylaise show favour on our aravel"

Lama: not clear on this one, too close to "nulama" which means "regret". According to project elvhen: "Ama" also means "to keep"/"to take". So "Lama" I read as "I promise" (like "I vow" or "I swear").

ara: my / journey

las: hope

mir: my

lath: love

Bellanaris: "Eternity" (from the "Var Bellanaris" codex in Inquisition).

Lama, ara las mir lath. Bellanaris: "[This] I vow, to hope, my love: Eternity." Possibly: "I vow to journey with hope my love. Forever."

Solavellan vows

Solas: "Ar ghilas vir banal"

Journey | (to the) place | path to | nothing / barren / oblivion OR: "I take the path to a place of oblivion"

Lavellan: "Tel banal ar ama. Vir shiral ma lasa, bellanaris"

(Tel'abelas means: I reject [your] sorrow/sorry)

Tel banal ar ama: "I reject" | "nothing"/"oblivion" | "I" | "to keep"/"to take"/"to protect"

So roughly: "I reject [that] nothing/oblivion, I protect" OR: "I will protect/keep you, [there will be] no oblivion".

Vir: "Path to"/ "way to"

shiral: according to project elvhen, shiral means "a great journey"

ma: "my"

lasa: "allow"

Vir shiral ma lasa, Bellanaris: path to a great journey, [my] allow. For eternity. OR: "Allow me to be on the path to this great journey, for eternity".

WHEW! yeah I see why the subtitles just condensed the meaning!

Tags: @protomun

I love translating the elvhen language, and I really want to translate what the final solavellan dialogue actually translates to.

And if anyone has screencaps of Solas and Elgar'nan speech fighting, feel free to hand them over, I desperately want to translate those!

Give me any elvish you're curious about from dav and I'll try my best to translate!

[andrewknightley]

i love to see Davrin talking dalish stuff!! but i dont know if im looking into it too much but "that "their" at the end... "my kind" and "their camps" oh he really is more Warden than dalish, and he left his clan of course... im really looking forward to see that story

or maybe is just "they" in arlathan ause he is not from there MMMM

[aqun-athlok]

i am Very excited about davrin's reaction to nadia mentioning the dread wolf, mostly because it establishes that he will still be connected to dalish culture, but also i'm thrilled about potential conflict that comes up in veilguard over it.

[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

[niofo]

i took notice when bellara said that she lost someone bcos she was tinkering with a dangerous artifact, or sth like this, and it really sounds kinda similar to mahariel and tamlen story. i'm of two minds about this personally. like they could make it into some parallel with how merrill eventually manage to fix the eluvian and that it was worth preserving. but also they might as well go into the "dumb dalish messing with technology they don't understand and getting hurt" route that they also kinda tried to show with merrill? (despite merrill being 100% right, it's marethari who fucked up.) and yk, i really hope it's this first instance and bellara is a positive example of someone passionate about history and old technology, but sometimes bioware does bioware.

[randomnonsensedragonage]

Listening to the latest episode of Vows and Vengeance, all I can think is how much Bellara and Aylwen would instantly LOVE each other if they got to interact

Like this:

[kissingwookiees]

now that you've seen this

they have to kill you

[ice-feast]

It wasn't one Dalish clan. It was every Dalish clan.

(Note: this is not uncritical Solas defence. I do think Solas is a fascinating character, but I am not at all interested in defending his shittiness.)

The story goes: the Dread Wolf imprisoned the gods and ran to the Fade to revel in his glee, and all elves are warned that he continually stalks them in their dreams. Listen not the Dread Wolf. He will trick you with his lies.

Solas, we learn, woke up about a year before the events in Inquisition, after millennia of slumber. All his stories about traveling the length and breadth of Thedas, of what he saw in the Fade: he saw because he was in the Fade. The entire history of Thedas seen through others' impressions in their dreams, acted out by spirits.

(it's kind of like using tumblr as your only source of news.)

He probably did reach out to those he met in dreams. But why would they listen? The Dread Wolf lies.

It's implied that the surviving elves are largely descendants of the ancient slave case. Everyone upper-class was either murdered, or died when their floating homes crashed. The academics? Largely gone with the libraries. It's the slaves on the ground who lived, and passed on stories about the man who ruined everything. Fen'harel, the one who got rid of the gods and made our existence bad.

And then? At night, when you dream - now the only means of accessing the Beyond - you meet the Dread Wolf. He tries to explain what he did, his motivations, why the Evanuris were the villains, actually. Why would you listen? He's the bad! He's the one who took away magic! He's the reason you are now at the mercy of the humans from the north!

So you tell your descendants: beware the Dread Wolf. He stalks our dreams. Be vigilant. He is our eternal enemy.

And from Solas' point of view, several thousand years of this gets old fast. Why should he bother explaining anything to these elves? They refuse to listen. When the Dales were created perhaps he reached out, tried to help, tried to instruct and aid as the elves pieced together their history and their culture - but they spurned him. They prefer to cling to the half-remembered lies of the Evanuris, the stories they have passed on from parent to child. So why should Solas bother? They only ever reject his words.

Consider: Dalish clans call their leader their Keeper. In the Temple of Dirthamen, they call him - their god, their master - their Keeper. Half-remembered vocabulary, facial tattoos, bits and pieces clung to taken and spun into culture: the elves are building themselves back up from nothing. And then some bald guy turns up in your dreams and tells you you're wrong? These things you have turned into pride are actually marks of shame? Fuck off, you bald weirdo! Ah wait shit it was the Dread Wolf, well that explains why he said that stuff. The Dread Wolf lies!

So Solas gave up.

And there's something genuinely tragic in that. The people Solas dedicated himself to helping, now the subject of his bitterness, because they didn't listen the way he wanted them to. He dismisses them out of turn. He has abandoned the descendants of the very people he took up arms for.

every so often i think about whatever dalish elf clan gave solas such a bad impression. whatever happened i bet they had a really weird day or two that they still talk about

[lavellaned]

I need a solavellan reunion, yes, but I also need solavellan meeting each other for the first time again.

It’s been an entire decade.

Give me solavellan not meeting each other as elvhen apostate and dalish hostage but as the Dread Wolf and the Inquisitor.

Give me solavellan meeting each other again on the other sides of their own apotheosis, free of pretense and masks.

Give me, “Is he still the man who hates tea, the curious man who wonders at the mundane beauties of life, the gentle man who supported a grieving spirit, the silly man who set his own coattails on fire, the loving man who called me his heart?”

Give me, “Is she still woman who surprised me at every turn, the strong woman who faced a would-be god so that others would be spared, the cunning woman who made an entire empire dance to her tune, the compassionate woman who would go out of her way to help the hurting, the open-minded woman who hadn’t scorned an outside view, the loving woman who vowed time and time again to protect me, the woman who changed everything?”

Give me solavellan meeting each other the first time again after 10 years and realize that, yes, you are still my vhenan.

[sammakesart]

Dalish wedding vows end with the word “bellanaris” meaning forever/always/eternity. The last word Lavellan says to Solas as they’re holding hands is “bellanaris”. They’re married now.

[dreamdragonkadia]

One of my favorite romance routes in Inquisition is the relationship between the Inquisitor Lavellan and Commander Cullen, especially if Lavellan is a mage. There's just something so compelling about their dynamic—two people from vastly different worlds, with so much potential for conflict, yet they come together with genuine love and respect.

One of the best moments in their romance is if you choose for them to marry. Lavellan being Dalish, naturally wants to honor her heritage by reciting Dalish vows during the ceremony. She’s anxious, though—afraid that Cullen, with his human background and history in the Chantry, might not understand or might even disapprove. But instead, Cullen surprises her by being not only supportive but wholly accepting of her choice. He doesn’t just tolerate her traditions; he embraces them because they’re a part of her.

The fact that Cullen—a man who’s faced his own struggles with identity and faith—supports Lavellan’s culture and wants her to stay true to herself makes my heart scream every time. It’s such a beautiful example of love that isn’t about erasing differences but cherishing them.

[ar-ghilas-vir-banal]

Like many others, Veilguard made me restart DAI. I’ve never completed it and I want to. One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of fics show Lavellan as not having much of a grasp of Elven. Which while she may not be fluent, she absolutely can speak it.

One of the first interactions you can have with Solas in Haven is in Elven. It’s a little testy, he’s insulted the Dalish, of whom Lavellan is very proud. But she masters her offense, and address him as hahren, deferring to his wisdom and knowledge. Entirely in Elven.

Solas responds warmly to this. Calls her Da’len and defers right back to her, gallantly and quite charmingly. They address each other in this language many times afterward as a sign of not only mutual respect and sincerity, but also I think it becomes the main form of intimacy between them. Solas is careful with his physicality, except toward the end of their relationship.

At Hilamshiral, when he finds her on the balcony, he very gently lays a hand on her arm to console her if things didn’t go perfectly. And then draws her into his arms for a dance.

A DANCE!!

Let’s not discard him calling her Vhenan almost solely after that. Even after he’s “broken up” with her. And I say that because to be broken up, man you were in her dreams as often as you could be, weren’t you? You carved the regret that is Lavellan into your very soul. You can’t even talk coherently about her; you’re all pregnant pauses and glazed eyes when you try.

And she is the same with you.

Flip to Veilguard and their entire interaction is nearly in Elven. They speak a few words that the others will understand… but then their words stop being about anyone else but each other.

Solas may never see her again, at all, after this. He needs her to know he MEANS every. single. word. He needs her to know that he has never wanted to hurt her. And this time, it’s all truth and yet his face, his voice, begs for her.

And she replies in step with him. If her understanding of Elven was indeed lacking, it isn’t now. She lets that vow to join him roll off her tongue proudly and pulls him to her. You’ve never stopped loving her, man, she suspected it this entire time and she has never stopped loving you. Her faith wasn’t in what you’d do or not do, but Lavellan did absolutely hold a little hope in her heart that you did love her still. And she was right.

You’ve both done your waiting.

No more of this aching distance. Never again.

[invinciblerodent]

While I'm on the topic of being hopelessly in my feelings about these characters, I just finished the last part of the Gloom Howler quest, and I'm thinking about Davrin and names at the moment.

I really, really love how, once we learn the truth about her, Davrin seems to make a point of always referring to Isseya by her name (mostly on its own, but sometimes in conjunction with calling her "The Gloom Howler" when necessary), and even correcting others who would refer to her only by the latter name. (Which, honestly, both Solas and the Inquisitor could also talk at length about a title that all but replaces your name- it definitely feels significant that Davrin would pointedly reject the thought of doing that to someone, but I digress.)

And that reminded me of how I previously made an idle, kind of shitposty little post about how nice I found that during his recruitment mission, Davrin calls out the specific names of each griffon if you interact with their cages, and he attempts to comfort them like that- by reminding them who they are, that he's there, and promising that he'll be back for them.

In retrospect, I think that's so interesting, how his core story seems to boil in part down to... well, in part to the burden of duty, the questioning of tradition and authority (he questions both Dalish- and Warden traditions from very early on, one by joining the Wardens and the other by joining Rook) and, yes, living past what one thought to be their purpose, but also... to these moments, that invite some contrasting of his elven-, and his Grey Warden identities.

Isseya being an elven Warden is a very direct parallel, and a very clear image- it, I think, is meant to show what happens when authority goes unquestioned, and one side (the Warden) triumphs over the other (the person). His uncle then acts as a counterpoint and a thread of connection to the past- he shows what happens when tradition goes unquestioned, and while peaceful, how that existence is not one Davrin wishes for himself.

This all comes to a head in the final choice concerning the griffons... which, I can't say what a "correct" choice is, but I find it really cool how one option embraces a more rigid tradition and acts as a vow for reforms within them, honoring them, while the other embraces a different tradition, one born of fluidity, choice, and change- a more personal freedom.

Purpose and nature, respect for the past and hope for the future, all strain against each other sometimes (in multiple companions' stories, I feel), and it's often a name that represents the complicated harmony between two halves.

Be that Assan, noble descendant of a hero Warden's griffon wearing an Elvish name, Isseya, the monster and mage brought to peace, the idea of "turlum", harmony and understanding forged between vastly different minds, or just... Davrin, the Dalish Grey Warden, who is not more one than the other.

Maybe that's why calling people (and animals, and feelings) by their proper names seems so casually important to him. Because if you give something complex, messy, and muddled up a name, it's easier to just live it.

(.......... and yeah, that makes it a bit ironic how so far he's been calling Rook, "Rook", but, yknow, technological limitations. I've a feeling I've at least one important scene to go still, but honestly, the name "Rook" does also kind of represent a similarly complex matrix of ideas condensed into a person. It could be that "Rook" feels more accurate than any "friend", or "love", or "boss", or even "vhenan", for what they are to him, or it could be that he's still looking for the right name, but either way, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all ends.)

[thedinanshiral]

Inside you there are two wolves..

I recently made a tweet simply sharing a fraction of my thoughts on the Solavellan motif of wolf&halla. I decided to expand on it here.

I never adhered to the whole wolf/halla Solavellan thing. That dynamic is simply not for me, not with them. I think Solas is more likely to fall for an equal; even if Lavellan technically isn't, she's definitely the closest he's met in a thousand years. She's the white wolf [in his romanced tarot card] Adding to this, he respects her opinion and counsel, she inadvertently may help him make up his mind about what he'll do next (woops) aka giving him purpose, and she can also vow to save him from himself. She's both his guide and guardian. This is his romanced card for a reason.

I can understand why many people may like to frame Solavellan in the wolf&halla motif. He's an ancient elvhen, she's literally thousands of years younger than him. He's wise beyond her imagination and she knows by comparison basically nothing of their own history. He's the deciever and she's the deceived. The predator/prey dynamic is right there, at first.

Solas is a proud man, one may argue even arrogant, but he's also a serious man, focused, disciplined, he wouldn't fall for just anyone, he wouldn't open his heart to someone he may consider lesser even in the slightest. While he refused to acknowledge present elves as people and maybe thought of them as little else than a bad dream he had to wake up from at any cost, Lavellan earned his trust, his respect and admiration, through her actions, her own "indomitable focus", and by showing him the respect and admiration other Dalish denied him on sight. She gave him hope for the future of his people and that must have been priceless, she literally changed his whole world.

At that point there was no hunting, no preying, no seeing Lavellan as another chesspiece on the board, even if she couldn't be allowed to be anything else. She defied all his preconceptions and rendered him vulnerable. Their relationship is consensual, up to a certain point it ends when Lavellan says it ends, he doesn't pursue further if rejected. Actually, it's Lavellan who pursues him most of the time, why isn't Solas the halla here? He's the one being chased!

Lavellan is a wolf too, the white wolf.

The Exalted Plains has shrines to Fen'harel, one in particular is flanked by two wolf figures, one white and the other black. His dual nature is always present; in Dalish lore he's despised as the betrayer but also revered and his favour still sought after. As the Dreadwolf he was both friend and enemy to the people, depending on which side they were on. He's prideful but can also be crushingly selfless.

I really like this shrine because of these statues

The white and black wolves also appear in his tarot cards.

When he falls for Lavellan, he's locked in for good; even as he ends the relationship before even giving it a name, his card changes to his romanced one, and there's no going back. Lavellan can't undo it, he won't even though he's the one insisting their love can not be. But it is, and it is for life. Wolves mate for life. This immediately tells me Lavellan is also a wolf, and she's represented in his romanced card as the white one.

At the forefront, walking next to him, watching, guarding him. Colours are light, golden, the scene is calm, serene.

If he's never romanced then the other card of his give us a very different image:

His shadow becomes a giant black wolf that towers over him, right behind him, leaning forward almost as if about to engluf him, consume him. This is possibly a representation of his Dinan'shiral, and more clearly of his Dreadwolf aspect. He's set himself on a journey he can not stop and from which he can not return.

Interestingly enough there's an alternative version of this card that was discarded:

In it his head isn't covered by a hood, he carries no staff and there is no moon. The menacing wolf haunting him remains the same.

While the black wolf walks behind him, the white wolf walks beside him. He considers Lavellan his equal, even in all their differences. While the black wolf seems about to consume him, the white wolf is guarding him, staring at the viewer as if asying "Do not dare disturb his peace". He knows she'd do anything to protect him out of love even as he's decided to destroy himself out of love for his people (and tons upon tons of guilt).

Lavellan made him vulnerable in a way he had not foreseen and so he had no defenses against that love. I strongly believe only a romanced Lavellan can change his mind, at the very least make him doubt at the last moment. As much as he respects and appreciates a friend Inquisitor, it simply isnt' the same. Lavellan is to him a light so bright he had to force himself to look away lest he became blind and lost in it.

I remember people were puzzled at first, why if his romanced card is The Hierophant it had almost all elements of The Fool? There's two simple reasons i can think of. First of all, he's a fool in love. Falling in love with Lavellan is probably the stupidest thing he's done since he woke up, considering he's on a suicide mission to end her world. But that he did speaks of trust, opened up possibilities he hadn't imagined, Lavellan's innocence was contagious and powerful enough that he really had to struggle to turn away from her.

At the same time, the Hierophant is a teacher of tradition, which really had been his role all throughout Inquisition, and the last thing he does before cutting the romance was share more of that lost knowledge to Lavellan, the truth of the vallaslin.

Solas' romanced card is two cards combined referencing multiple aspects of their character and relationship, and we could also consider the Fool to be Lavellan, because the defining element in the card design that can make people wonder which card is it is the white wolf. She's the fool mortal that fell for a god, she's the Keeper who fell for Fen'harel, and she didn't know it until it was too late.

As for his final card, The Tower, it doesn't necessarily have to be so terrible. Much like Death, The Tower is about change. The end of the old to allow for the new, and changes can be positive or negative, they can be gentle or earth-shattering. In Solas' case we know he's aiming for the resurgence of the world he knew by destroying the one he inadvertently created when he put up the Veil, but this card may also symbolize the destruction of all his preconceptions and ideas, the realization that the world he knew was gone and another strange one he couldn't accept had taken its place, the symbolic death of a part of himself as he changed in his time with the Inquisition.

I imagine the white wolf represents his soul, in a way, the thing by which he may be redeemed. And that is Lavellan. No halla, but a wolf that's been tracking him for years, hunting him down to stop him because she and she alone has the power to do so. And he's been running away from her for as many years because he knows this even better than she does, he knows she's his last remaning weakness, the one that makes him vulnerable enough to break his resolve because in the end hers is stronger.

I really don't think he'd be capable of harming Lavellan, and if he does i feel it would drive him mad and cause him to lose whatever control he'd have left. He'd lose his light, his soul, his heart, leaving behind only the shadows. He chose to leave rather than take Lavellan out of the equation here and that tells me he can't bring himself to do it, it's too late now, he feels too much for her.

Now I'm extra curious and anxious to see what role the Inquisitor will play in The Veilguard, if they'll meet Solas again, what effect that would have on both of them.

And I hope neither tries to do something stupid..

[eastern-lights]

I'm a bit biased, but it occurs to me that Solas and Lavellan might be the greatest love story of Dragon Age. And by that I don't mean the best, or the most wholesome or the sexiest or the best-written and definitely not the healthiest.

What I mean is that it is the in-universe most epic romance since Andraste and the Maker. It's straight out of a myth or an epic poem. It's the kind of love story that generations of thedosians will compose songs about. It has the potential to be the basis for entirely new elven myths and folk tales.

I mean, the humble dalish elf born of an insignificant clan from the Marches who won the Dread Wolf's heart? Who then vowed to save her love from himself and

(Veilguard spoilers)

when she finally did so, chose to accompany him into a lonely eternity rather than abandon her love?

Stuff of legends.