#i think i might have mixed up the gender for lethallin and lethallan

[emerald-amidst-gold]

A Change of Pace is Fun!

Mhairi and Solas interactions anyone? I’ve trying to flesh Mhairi out more since reintroducing her, so I figured, ‘Let’s play!’. She is a sweet summer child who I project onto, but then again, I project onto Fane, too. Both are kind of like me depending on my mood and mental state. But, enjoy stupidity at its finest!

****

“SOLAS!!”

The sound of a shrill scream had Solas nearly falling forward onto his desk as the resounding crack of the door leading from the Great Hall to the rotunda had him jolting forward - a few books visibly jumping from the source, as well. He let out a heavy sigh as his heart hammered in his chest. 

“Fenedhis lasa..” An uncommon curse falling from his lips airily before a flash of long blonde hair swam in his peripheral until delicate hands slammed down on his desk, causing him to jump once again.

“Solas! I require your powers of persuasion!” Mhairi exclaimed right next him, voice high and a tad panicked as icy blue eyes looked up at him with urgency. 

“E..Excuse me?”, Solas stammered out as he attempted to calm his racing heart from being startled twice. He was entirely too jumpy these days.

Mhairi shook her head frantically, beginning to tug on his arm to guide him to the door she had come through. “No time to explain! It’s an emergency!” 

Solas’s brow furrowed at Fane’s little sister, immediately resisting Mhairi’s insistent tugging by stiffening his body. What was going on?

“I will need more explanation than that, lethallan.” 

Mhairi’s expression became an immediate pout before she stopped her violent tugging, bringing her hands up to instead clap them together to point at him beseechingly. Solas’s confusion only worsened at that. He knew Fane’s sister could be..eccentric, but this seemed more odd than usual for her. 

“You. Powers. Fane. Cullen. Prevent death.”, Mhairi rattled off randomly before grabbing his arm again - beginning to tug anew. “Please, Solas!”

Solas’s expression went from confused to deadpan in the blink of an eye as he let out an exasperated sigh. Ah, now he understood Mhairi’s urgent behavior. Fane was on another rampage.

“He is challenging him again, I take it?” Solas spoke the question flatly, somewhat amused and irritated by the dawning realization.

Mhairi nodded violently, her blonde hair practically whipping like a rope. “Yes! Yes! So, come on!” Her tugging on his arm even stronger to where Solas actually staggered forward a bit. Mhairi may be small, but Solas would put her on par with Fane’s raw strength if he had a mind to. 

Solas let out another sigh, still refusing to move further despite the little grunts Mhairi was letting out. “Mhairi, as much as I share your exasperation with your brother’s habits of overprotectiveness, I am not an immediate ward for it.”, Solas stated as he reached over to gingerly pry Mhairi’s hands from his tunic. “Furthermore, the Inquisitor knows enough to not kill the Commander of his forces.”

Solas could admit that Fane’s temper was a problem, especially when it came to his inherent protectiveness. However, that didn’t mean the mortal dragon would blatantly kill another on those pretenses alone. Fane was dominating, yet reasonable. He was far more intelligent than--

“Solas, he has that look in his eyes!” Mhairi screeched, her icy eyes brimming with unshed tears. 

“Da’len, he will not--”

“He was speaking in elven!” 

Solas’s mind went blank at that before he slowly brought a hand up to pinch at the bridge of his nose. Fane was speaking in elven. Fane never spoke in elven unless he was one; overwhelmed with emotions from a form so prone to them, or two; incredibly irate. Solas could only pray that it wasn’t both.

“Pray tell, what exactly spurred your brother to challenge the Commander this time?”, Solas asked, still pinching the bridge of his nose as irritation towards his lover steadily began to rise. 

Mhairi seemed to shrink at his inquiry as blue eyes looked down at her bare feet. “Weeeelll.. Fane may have - may have - seen us..umm..kissing..” The young woman’s voice rose even higher upon the last word. 

Solas felt his jaw slowly lock into place. “What has he destroyed thus far?”

Mhairi sheepishly brought her hands up to tap her two index fingers together before glancing up at him. “Four training dummies, a market stall, twenty firewood logs, three Inquisition banners, six barrels, three of his greatswords, tore seven doors off their hinges, he took down the other half of the ruined wall by the tavern, and..uhh..Cullen’s desk.” The list falling from Mhairi’s lips as if she had done this a thousand times. 

Solas slowly let his hand fall from his face, letting his head tilt back to stare upwards towards the rookery. It was both. It was most assuredly both. 

Stormy eyes slipped shut as Solas took a deep, deep breath through his nose. “Where is Fane now?” 

Before a response could even be thought of, Solas heard a deafening crack from somewhere outside before a familiar, furious, and roaring voice echoed like thunder. 

“GET BACK HERE, TEMPLAR! LET ME PUT THAT MOUTH OF YOURS TO BETTER USE! MY BOOT’S ITCHING TO UNHINGE YOUR JAW!” 

Stormy blue met icy blue as Solas and Mhairi stared at each other with different levels of exasperation - Solas far more annoyed at this point, while Mhairi looked as if she might explode with worry. 

Solas dropped his head into one of his hands as he heard another crack echo in stone before there was a ruinous crash - presumably another ruined wall being smashed into with a heavy kick. “Mhairi?” He called out to the frantic elven woman, voice muffled from where it was buried in his hand. 

“Y..Yes?”, Mhairi stuttered out, Solas able to hear the way she was currently rocking back and forth nervously. 

“Has this ordeal taught you anything?” His voice sounding dead as further exasperation numbed him, another crack from beyond making his head pound. 

“..Umm.. Don’t poke a..uhhh..dragon?”, Mhairi offered quietly. 

Solas let out a dry chuckle as a far more violent boom had the literal foundation of Skyhold quaking. He would admit, Mhairi was a keen person, even if she was unaware of much. 

“Yes. Do not poke a dragon lest you wish for the sky to come crashing down. Please keep that in mind the next time you steal away with the Commander.” He sighed before letting his arm fall to his side in defeat. “Come. Let me attempt to calm him. Though I shudder to think what the outside looks like at present.”

Mhairi’s face broke into a relieved smile as she turned on her heel to point with an arm towards the door. “Into darkness; unafraid, lethallin! I believe in you!” The energetic woman quoted with renewed determination before marching towards the door. 

Solas let out a tired sigh. “Yes. Darkness. However, I am more fearful of the walls caving in than a dragon’s roar. I would prefer not to wake up under a pile of rubble.” Another sigh escaping as another crash sounded distantly. “I suppose it is time to tame a dragon’s wrath. Hopefully a simple paralysis spell works.” A far closer boom had Solas letting out a tiny growl as he hurried towards the door Mhairi had disappeared through. “Or perhaps chocolate would be better.”

****

[witchdoodle]

random dalish headcanons

halla are not raised for slaughter like goats or sheep, but when they die of illness or age or accident, every part of their body is used, to honour their life. usually a funeral is performed first. things like halla leather and halla horns are very expensive because of this; it’s rare the dalish will sell either to non-dalish, but the high price those goods fetch when sold to shems is a pretty good source of income if they get really desperate.

halla milk is definitely a staple of their diet though. halla milk isn’t as sweet as cow or goat milk but it is HUGELY superiour in terms of fat and protein content and makes really tart, tasty cheeses. you milk a halla for the same reason you milk a cow, it’s good for them.

all dalish can understand halla, who do not talk but make themselves understood to elves. it’s not just reading their body language like you would a mabari or a cat, but neither is it verbal words nor telepathic thought. the process is impossible to explain to shems. “you just /know/ what they mean,” lavellan says to cullen after trying to explain it to him for like an hour.

dalish spirits are strong as fuck, but their wines are typically shit, and mostly used ceremonially. that varies by clan, location, year, and luck, though. sometimes you forage some good shit.

lavellan was BLOWN AWAY by the ABUNDANCE of readily available sugar in haven and skyhold. sugar would have been an expensive luxury to his clan. that and the idea that shem are used to food just being like… delivered to them is like ????????? to him. most shem have never even butchered a chicken in their lives????????

like city elves, dalish marriages (they dont call it marriage, but lbr it’s marriage) are mostly arranged. dalish clans that we’ve seen are mostly small, and after a while everyone in it would be related to everyone else in some way, and i hc that they’re you know, intelligent enough to recognise incest = bad. there’s no stigma against a love match, it’s just kinda rare bc most of the people in your clan who you spend 99.99% of your time with are like, your first cousin. so chances are once you’re an adult your keeper eventually arranges a match, and it’s not like YOU MUST MARRY THIS PERSON OR BE CAST OUT FOREVER it’s like hey i found this girl from another clan who i think would be perfect for you, you should spend some time together and see if you’re into it. 

for them, it’s about tracking bloodlines for the purpose of knowing who everyone’s parents are; “pedigree” is a non-issue, unlike human nobility. you’re not matchmaking for pedigree kids, you’re matchmaking to create healthy, long-lasting, loving relationships that produce happy, healthy, supported children. 

family lines are tracked through the mother. they have no word for “bastard”

the attitude about homosexuality varies wildly both by clan and individual, but nowhere is it forbidden, no one sees it as inherently wrong or sinful, it would be refusing to reproduce that would be the problem.  at WORST, the attitude would be that it’s a selfish individual choice.

like the qunari, the dalish see transgender individuals as just being the gender they say they are, because surely they’d know best, right? nonbinary individuals are not unknown to them, and elvish has always had gender-neutral singular pronouns, and gender-neutral forms of gendered words, like lethallin (masculine), lethallan (feminine), lethallen (gender-neutral).

trans and nonbinary individuals are widely viewed as special and important. shem don’t understand but fuck ‘em.

kicking out mage children to die in the woods is stupid. if i HAVE to acknowledge it as canon because apparently it is now, i hc that was that an extreme minority view. one or two specific clans’ stupid decision is NOT a common, widespread practice. if a clan already has a lot of mages and is worried about templars, they make contact with another clan to harbour the mage child until a more permanent placement can be found. elves do not fear magic like humans do. magic is a precious commodity, and a USEFUL and RARE skill. it is a gift to them, not a curse.

dalish religious ceremonies involve a lot of song and dance, especially call-and-response type of songs. a lot of their song uses sounds that aren’t explicitly words, necessarily, but which are loaded with meaning anyway; this is a result of them substituting what they’ve lost of elvish.

they don’t really have the space to be hauling books around. they have an oral tradition, and most dalish are functionally illiterate in terms of the common tongue. they don’t really need to read. that said, some choose specifically to learn, and keepers/firsts usually make the effort to learn, since they’re usually the ones preserving and studying ancient elven artifacts which does include some books and scrolls.

their history being mostly oral, they also use song as a teaching tool. it’s much easier to teach a bunch of six-year-olds history lessons if it’s presented as catchy songs.

dalish dancing is way more expressive and interpretive than ballroom dancing. it’s meant to tell a story, not follow a set of rules, and how good you are at it is determined not by how well you follow predetermined steps but how good you are at getting your point across and how creative you are. your dance should make your audience *feel* something.

it’s also how the Youths flirt with each other, you gotta really practice ya moves for the next arlathvhen cuz what if neria from clan whatever thinks ur a scrub... ya gotta Bust A Move...

they craft elaborate costumes for their dances. everything on those costumes is symbolic in some way, meant to express something.

generally speaking storytelling is SUPER important to their culture. much of their values are taught by fables. elvish is an inherently metaphorical language, this has always been the case.

all dalish are taught to track and hunt with bow and arrow. obviously some are better at it than others, but everyone learns the basics just in case. everyone learns to provide for themselves just as everyone learns to defend themselves. children, men, women, elderly, everyone learns.

dalish courting involves a LOT of gift-giving on both sides. usually one party initiates it with a gift, and if the other party is interested, they return with a gift, and so on and so forth, the purpose being to show mutual commitment to providing for each other. it’s not regulated by gender roles.

the vallaslin ritual involves taking just enough lyrium and felandaris to trip balls and go into the woods and have a spiritual experience. used to be elves would take lyrium and meditate and receive a message from their chosen god, and that’s how you picked your patron, but the gods aren’t listening anymore, so you just kind of have to have your own epiphany about life and culture and yourself and stuff. it’s meant to purify your mind and clear any lingering fears or doubts away. then you purify your body and the keeper mixes your blood, their blood, and the keeper’s magic into an ink they embed under your skin.

vallaslin is applied when you are ready, not at a certain age. some get it as young as fourteen or fifteen, others have to wait until well into their twenties. it’s about maturity and being ready for adulthood. 

nobody has ever failed the ritual. that is, sometimes people can’t do it on the first or second etc attempt, but nobody has ever PERMANENTLY failed to complete it. a keeper who senses that a young adult is sensitive and might not do well at it is likely to encourage them to get a small design. it’s a keeper’s job to see their whole clan safely through the ritual. if someone fails, it’s as much the keeper’s failure as theirs.

everyone in the clan has a “job,” but if you’re not up to speed or where you should be, the keeper intervenes, finds out why, and fixes it – whether that’s through counseling, or assigning extra training, or figuring the individual just isn’t suited to the task and finding them something else that brings them pride to do instead.

they bathe a LOT, cleanliness is super important to them. shem stereotype them as being stinky wood savages but nah, once or twice daily bathing is widespread practise, and they’re super careful about keeping their water sources clean. 

nomadic life is hard as shit. most clans lose a couple members every year from age, illness, accident, starvation, or shem interference. some years are harder than others. babies and the elderly are especially at risk.

there’s a dalish saying of “two keepers, three opinions.” the arlathvhen can get… heated… with debate, but nobody takes being argued with personally, because if you can’t defend your position then it’s a bad position. debate is a bonding activity. it’s the keeper’s job, also, to make sure everyone’s opinion is heard.

you will pry shoeless elves from my cold dead fucking hands