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#the dales
huariqueje · 3 months
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 View in the Dales  -    Peter Brook 
British,  1927–2009
Oil on canvas,  22 x 18 in.
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thekingofwinterblog · 7 months
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You know what the most annoying thing about the Twists regarding the Elves in Inquisition was?
That all the twists, if taken on their own, would make for a really good story.
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The reveals about Solas backstory and how him and his fellow God Kings rose, became decadent, warred with each other and fell, setting the stage for their transformation into the Old Gods is frankly speaking, some of the best lore that Dragon Age ever had, and lines up really well with how the world is structured while explaining how the Old Gods came to be, how the elves fell, and so on.
That the tevinter imperium when it conquered the nation of Arlathan was not the great imperial state lead by mighty mages their descendants liked to think they were, but instead a bunch of weaklings that needed years and years to take on one, measly city-state that had utterly obliterated itself in civil war.
There is so much great stuff here.
So where did it all go wrong?
The answer, is of course execution.
Inquisition overall is a great game... But man did it drop the ball so hard with the Elves that it's pretty much hard to believe that they will be able to tell a nuanced story about them in Dread Wolf.
Everything from the companions, to the world itself as the game presents , to retcons regarding mages that's there, not to tell a story about the elves, but to try and make the Templar vs mage conflict grey.
Starting with the companions, we have a great example of coming so, so close to greatness... and then falling right on it's face.
The game has two Elf companions, solas and Sera... and the contrast between them really illustrates the big picture with how incapable Inquisition is with trying to tell a nuanced picture with the elves.
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Solas as a character is perfect. Love him or hate him, he is a fully fleshed out character with very clear, defined, understandable motives that makes sense to him.
And most importantly of all, his way of viewing the world is WRONG. The game acknowledges that he is wrong.
The entire story of where dragon age 4 is heading, is all about how the Dread wolf, for all his knowledge and intelligence and genuine virtues, is at the end of the day, a monster, who is willing to see the world burn to restore the Elves magic and immortality.
He is a racist, he is bigoted, and ultimately misguided. Despite all his development with the inquisitor, he does not manage to grow enough as a person that he manages to abandon his genocidal goals. And the game does not pretend othervise.
That is what makes the story of Solas rise to become the big villain of the sequel great.
There is no disconnect between the story, the characters, or the way the game wants us to view solas.
Solas is far, far more bigoted and close-minded than any of the dalish he so despises, and the game ultimately does not pretend othervise.
Which brings us to the opposite end of the elf spectrum with Sera.
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Sera is a very disliked character by a lot of people, but by dalish and elf players/fans more than most.
Just like Solas, she is bigoted, racist, and ultimately misguided in her hatred of her fellow elves, whether they be city elves, or Dalish, or ancient elves.
And that frankly, would not be a problem if the game acknowledged that fact. If her character arc was about it, and either how she could not overcome her own issues, or actually managed to grow beyond them, she could have been a great character.
The problem is the fact that the game is not willing to handle this fact head on. Its not willing to come out and portray Sera as just as bigoted against her own kind as Solas is, and to treat this as a flaw.
Instead the game treats her as if her biggest flaw is that she's annoying, and not the fact that in a game that is in many ways about setting up the rise of the dread wolf, she is just as bad as Solas, just from a different origin point.
Sera should have been a mirror to Solas, both from a story point, as well as a thematic one, but unfortunately she is not.
Hell, she doesn't really overcome her racism either. The closest she comes to doing so, is basically burning out on hating the dalish and other elves in trespasser, not admitting she was actually wrong to hate them so much in the first place.
The game does not treat Sera's disdain for other elves and their culture as a problem, and it does not give a dalish inquisitor the option to tell her to go fuck herself on the topic that you are given with Solas if you really desire to do so.
You are given the option of kicking her out of the inquisition, but not actually stand up for the dalish or even city elves the way the player could against Morrigan's flemeth raised cruelty in origins, anders and Fenris obsessions with, and hatred for templars/mages in da2, or solas ideals in inquisition.
And thats a problem that really illustrates the bigger issue with the way Inquisition took what could have been a great story about the Elves and the reveals about their anceators, and frankly ruined it.
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The dalish and city elvea were very thouroughly fleshed in both Origins, Awakening and DA2.
However, city elves largely managed to avoid being utterly destroyed by the narrative the way the Dalish were, for the simple reason that outside briala, we don't get much if any interaction with them at all, making them essentially a non show foe the game for the most part. They don't get a city elf inquisitor, and so we have no point of view to look at them from a pc perspective.
They got off much better than the dalish though.
Starting off with the arguably single worst thing in all of DAI is the retcon that Dalish clans, if there is more than two mages in a clan, sends off the third one alone in the wilderness to fend for themselves. This goes against absolutely everything that has ever been established about the Dalish, and worst of all, wasn't even an addition meant to demonize the dalish, instead being an addition to handwave away the obvious fact that the Dalish had a much better system than the human circles when it came to magic... Which in turn was made irrelevant by the fact the Avvar was later shown to have a much better and more effective solution to the possession question anyway.
It was, in essence, a pointless retcon, that overall only made the dalish look bad, and has now opened the door for the idea that most dalish clans acts like this, and will be portrayed so in future games.
Its bad, but unfortunately it was only the start.
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The game goes out of its way to portray absolutely every single person who critices the dalish as having a point, that they brought on their own downfalls, even as they are being the most imperialistic, racist assholes imaginable, while the dalish inquisitor can only offer a token of defence for his people, a far cry from way origins allowed you to handle the same situation wheter your main ethnicity was ferelden, mage, city elf, dalish, casteless or dwarven noble.
But nowhere is it worse than the way the game handles the fall of the dales.
Now the actual lore you learn about it, is not bad. At all. I know some complain that the reveals that ameridan(and presumably other elves) worshipped both the creators and the maker, as well as the fact that the dalish unfortunately did have a bad relationahip with the rest of the world, in particular orlais, is bad storytelling, but i firmly disagree.
No the problem is the execution.
Ameridan is not wrong when he says that The Dales should not have distanced itself from the rest of the world, especially not in the face of a blight... But the Dales of his era were in turn not wrong when they argued that the Orlesians were little better than the imperium, and they would be completely right.
This is not a grey issue, its a grey and black issue.
Orlais was, and still is an evil, expansionist empire with 99% of its population living as serfs, that can be raped and beaten at will, little better than slaves.
The dales were the morally right side of the exalted march on the dales. No amount of new lore we learned in inquisition has changed that fact. We simply get the details fleshed out a bit more to add context.
Orlais was going to invade and enslave the elves anyway, as they proved through their actions against all their other, very much fellow Adrastian neighbors.
The problem is that you are not allowed to express this kind of point of view and stick to it like steel.
The characters you meet having the bigoted opinion that the dales ultimately brought on their own fate is NOT a bad thing in and out of itself... the problem is that you are not allowed to challenge that opinion the way you could challenge Lelliana's view of the dalish in origins, or the way you could tell both Anders and fenris to go fuck themselves on their extremist opinions all through da2, and ending that fuck you by killing them in the endgame.
And thats a real shame, because just looking at characters like cassandra's character development through Inquisition, you could easily have made a really compelling narrative put of a dalish inquisitor who stuck by his or her principles, and actually challenged the people they met's racist views on the dalish the way you could in origins, just with a more fleshed out and(unfortunately something way too many people just cannot emote to a character withouth) an actual voice to raise those arguments with.
I do genuinely like Inquisition, and i think it's overall a much better game than DA2... but man did they drop the ball with the elves so hard.
I feel so sorry for anyone who really got invested in the elves as their favorites factions, and i honestly don't think the elves will be handled particularly well in Dread wolf, especially as the only Dalish we are likely to see fleshed out will be the villains fighting for Solas.
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anneapocalypse · 10 months
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Dragon Age: You won't BELIEVE all the ancient elvhen lore we're gonna drop on you! Me, holding out my empty bowl: please may I have some lore about the Dalish state
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scurvgirl · 11 months
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Thinking about how little we know about the Dales when it was under elven rule. Like, we know practically nothing about it. I feel we know more ancient Elvhenan now than about the Dales, which is WILD. The Dales were under elven rule for nearly 300 years - this is significant! I wish we knew more than about Emerald Knights and why Orlais went after them.
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homiest88 · 2 months
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Ho boy haven’t posted anything in Tumblr for two weeks mostly due to College. So here is a a Dragon Age fact for you did you know if you choose the Dalish Elf Origin you’re actually a descendant of an Emerald Knight. The name Mahariel is actually the name of the Emerald Knight who founded Clan Sabrae as Dalish Clans are named after noble houses from the Dales and Emerald Knights would found these clans with their descendants keeping their last name.
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heniareth · 1 year
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WIP Wednesday
Tagged by @wild-houseplant and I’m going to make it a separate thing from finding the words because that way I get to share more snippets XD XD Up next is one in which I’m trying to pin down just how much Astala knows about the fall of the Dales:
“So, what happened with the Chantry and the elves?” Astala asked.
“Your Chantry must have told you,” Ilanlas scoffed.
“I don’t know much, to be honest,” Astala said. “I know that elves and dwarves have worshipped other beings than the Maker and are thus further removed from him than the shem. And I know that there was an elf, Shartan, in the Chant of Light. Had a whole canticle—that is, a whole section—to himself. But he was erased and all statues of him were destroyed except for one, but that one had its ears cut off.”
Ilanlas shuddered and pinned his ears back.
“I also know that there was once a place called the Dales,” Astala continued. “And that it belonged to us, somehow. And that’s why you are the Dalish elves. Because you come from the Dales.”
Ilanlas went back to staring at the dirt.
“Listen, I know I know next to nothing,” Astala inststed. “But can’t you tell me? Because if there’s something about the Chantry...”
“I am a hunter, not a hahren,” Ilanlas grumbled.
“Who else is gonna tell me?” Astala said quietly .
These chapters are going to be very lore heavy, and I’m still munching over how to get it right. But I like what I got so far. I’ll tag you right back, Plant, for whenever and however you’d like to share something ^^ I’ll also tag @oxygenforthewicked @yukichouji @siriskulksnerding @bumblerhizal @icy-warden and @badartxd for next week or some other time at your convenience. Have a lovely week!
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maleficarlife · 1 year
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Heraldy of Thedas, Red Schism AU.
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Kingdom of Ferelden: The ascension of Prince-Consort Evar Cousland and the confirmation of Queen Anora Mac Tir meant the end of the Theirin and the start of a new dinasty. To avoid inheritance issues with the Teyrnir of Highever, the royal family took the name of Mac Cousland for the new dinasty. The flag of Ferelden changed with them, including a combination of the laurel of the Couslands and the wyvern of the Mac Tir in their families -now united- colors. The Kingdom of Ferelden lived trought a new of aggressive foreign policies, declaring a chantry of Ferelden and annexing land from Orlais in a reversal of fortunes during the 9:39-9:41 Dragon period. Before the birth of the Fereldean Chantry, the kingdom declared token loyalty to Justinia V as Divine, but claimed neutrality in the mage-templar war.
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The Free Republic of Orlais: In brown and white to rapresent the peasants of Orlais, who took their "mud" origins as a sign of pride and to show the people loyalty to the teachings of the white Chantry, the Free Republic of Orlais was born from the destruction of the Orlesian Empire and the teachings of The Iconoclaust, elevating the people and destroying the nobility but bringing with them a strong current of religious zealotry. As of today, Orlais remains the worst country for a mage to live in, even with the end of the Templar Order and the chantry sun in both gold and black -a reminder of humanity sin and the teachings of the Iconoclaust- proves it.
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The Dales: With the fall of the Orlesian Empire, crushed by civil war, lack of leadership and the dissolution of much of it's armies -bogged down by enemies or recalled in the attempt to stop the spreading of the Iconclaust teachings- the elves of "Ambassador" Briala repeated the exodus of their ancestors, reclaiming the Dales for themselves. If not for the extraordinary circomstances of the conflicts that were ripping down the status quo of Thedas, such a move wouldn't have been possible, but it was. While the symbolism of the colors and the bow is obvious to who knows elven history, the addition of the stars over it represents the merging of dalish and city elves, for the dalish quickly discovered they had to live with their lost people in order to claim the land that the city elves had succeedee in taking back.
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The Grand Duchy of Serault: The Marquis of Serault had already taken prisoner his rival and neighboor, the Marquis of Aloyns, before the fall of the Empire. When the teachings of the Iconoclaust -a native of Serault- started to spread the and nobles started to be viciously ripped apart by mods, The Glass Rose of Serault marched on as much territory as possible and closed the borders, declaring indipenndeance from Orlais and trying to avoid to share the father of many other nobles trought her wealth. The Grand Duchy of Serault is the smallest nation in Thedas, but also incredibly rich thanks to their glasswork. Originally bearing the emerald stag of her family, The Marquis turned Grand Duchess and ruler of Serault added a golden circle and purple colors to show her wealth and status, comparable to that of royalty.
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UMA: The United Marcher Alliance was born at the end of the mage-templar war, when Divine Justinia V's Exalted March ended with the victory of the schism of the Red Chantry and all of the free marches either allied to or occupied by Kirkwall rebel forces. Viscountess Selby of Kirkwall decided to invest in the rebuilding of the overthrown and defeated enemy and the monetary sacrifice was repaid by political capital and the prospect for unification in a Federal Republic, giving strenght and unity to the divided marcher states without breaking their oath to have no crown above them. The UMA was born by the blood of a revolution who affected all Thedas and such truth is painted in the red of their flag. But more importantly is their magical identity, for while maged are now free in all the continent (bar Par Vollen) only the Free Marches new Arcane University, an institution created by Ignis Hawke, teaches every possible branch of magic, included blood magic and how to safely bind demons. Such identity is rapresented by the University presence on the nation flag.
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chaoticgoth · 2 years
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Could get used to country life
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simplyjustagirlsblog · 5 months
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i love laura palmer
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fadeintoyou1993 · 1 month
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happy laura palmer asparagus for dinner again does this mean i'll never grow up february 23rd to all those who celebrate
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tippenfunkaport · 2 months
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You know, it would be amazing if Hollywood learned the right lesson from the success of Nimona. Something like "Hey, maybe don't throw out a nearly done movie as a tax write off" or "people want queer stories" or even "don't be afraid to take some storytelling risks and be original" but you just know they're going to come away with some absolutely batshit takeaway like, "next time delete all the evidence and burn it to the ground so the gays can't make us look bad!"
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scary-dubois · 9 months
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Special Agent Dale Cooper
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hankhillmpreg · 7 months
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zegalba · 4 months
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Tom Dale: Department of the Interior (2014)
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jimjimenezzz · 4 months
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i love you media that emphasized mundanity. i love you media that says you still matter as a person even if you don't achieve something great. i love you media that says existing and being alive is enough. i love you "we might not remember your poems, but we'd remember you." i love you "i was no hero" "perhaps. but you are a brave man." i love "in another life i would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you." i love you "but who's gonna watch the deer?" i love you the mundane as something to be loved for
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bl00dysk1es · 5 months
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y’all fuckin with the laura palmer rolling tray?
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