User:Asherinka/Sandbox

Dialogues

 * Haven - Solas
 * Haven2 - Solas
 * Romance 1 - Solas
 * Romance 3 - Solas
 * Temple of Mythal aftermath - Solas
 * Trespasser - Solas
 * Ameridan

Misc
, in the time when elves were still immortal and the dominant race on the surface of Thedas. Elvhenan covered most of Thedas; particularly Ferelden, Orlais, and lands west of Orlais.

Elvhenan, meaning "place of our people" in the elven language, was the original civilization of the elves, or elvhen.

Dalish Sources
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The Dalish retained vague memories of their earliest history, when elven civilization stretched across all of Thedas and featured multiple cities. Back then elven gods walked the earth, spoke to the people and provided them with knowledge , counsel and protection. In return elves made offerings and constructed temples in their honor with dedicated temple guards. Ancient elves did not age. They were not immortal, but they did not suffer from deterioration of mind or body. The Dalish believe that magic is the gift of their gods, and all elvhen once had it.

Most Dalish stories, however, focus on the fabled city of Arlathan that was built later. As a result, human scholars came to believe that Arlathan was the only elven settlement of note. The elven calendar starts with the founding of Arlathan around -7600 Ancient. The city was presumably located in a great forest in the north of Thedas, not far from where the Tevinter Imperium first emerged, and the Tevinters have found ancient stonework in the area. It's name means "this place of love". (REF) It was a place where the best of the ancient elves would go to trade knowledge, greet old friends, and settle disputes that had gone on for millennia, with homes, galleries and amphitheaters that stood for ages.

According to the elven calendar, they made first contact with the dwarves in -4600 Ancient. The Dalish have no legends about fighting the dwarves, although they have a story about how the dwarves fear the sun because of Elgar'nan's fire.

Dwarven Sources
Tens of thousands of years of dwarven history are recorded in their Memories. . The dwarven Shaperate speak of a Thedas entirely devoid of humans, a time when elves reigned over the land and dwarves ruled the underground.

It is known that dwarves interacted with the elves of Arlathan long before the coming of humans; a rare few works of great beauty depicting cooperation between both peoples still remain. Even so, it could not have been too close a relationship, for when the Tevinter destroyed the last of the elven kingdoms the dwarves said nothing, favoring their close relationship with that human dynasty.

Ancient Elven Sources

 * We hear stories of them living in trees and imagine wooden ramps and Dalish aravels. Imagine instead spires of crystal twining through the branches, palaces floating among the clouds. Imagine beings who lived forever, for whom magic was as natural as breathing. That is what was lost."
 * -Solas about Arlathan

Elves were once a race comprised of beautiful, ethereal immortals who lived in harmony with nature and who never changed. They existed in a world without the Veil and called the Fade the "sky". Ancient memories tell of a city of blue glass spires and enormous green parks, with figures strolling along the pearly, glowing strips as if they walked on solid ground and bodies of lovers colliding in the air in an endless dance.

Elvhen sought both to explore the stillest roots of the Fade and to master the unchanging material world, delicate and stubborn when subject to magic. Some of them manifested outside the Fade and built cities on the Earth. Elves maintained close relationship with spirits, who acted as keepers of knowledge and teachers.

However the Earth was the demesne of its pillars, the titans. It rang with its own harmony, and elvhen hoped that if they listened to it, great works would unfold and they would make the Earth blossom. But earthquakes shook the cities they've built, throwing down their work. Intent to tame the land, elves prepared to hunt the pillars of the earth and their witless and soulless workers. They believed their cause just and the death of their enemies a mercy and waged war upon the titans with burning light and Winged Death. Eventually elvhen defeated the titans, killed at least one of them and started to mine their bodies for the blood, lyrium.

War breeds fear and a desire for simplicity. Slowly elven generals became respected elders, then kings, and finally claimed divinity and were recognized as gods, the Evanuris. They declared the Earth their right and exiled spirits they proclaimed the Forbidden Ones for abandoning the People in the time of need and casting aside form to flee to where the Earth could not reach. Elven gods used orbs, or foci to harness magical power. Powerful magic allowed the Evanuris to enslave tens of thousands of their kin who were branded with the symbols of the gods, the vallaslin. They restricted others from assuming some winged forms by labeling it sacrilege and took it upon themselves to dispense justice.

Few, forgotten, refused those who would exert will upon them, while the Evanuris built temples and lured the faithful with promises. These were no simple shrines but cities with buildings radiating out of the main edifice, with a multitude of functionaries who conducted rituals, ablutions, and prayers overseen by High Keepers. At least some of them would shed their names the day they began their service and would pass their memories on through an artificial "well" at the end of their days. Those who drank from the well gained collective knowledge of all priests before them but became bound forever to the will of a particular deity, compelled to act as commanded.

Not all elvhen were mere servants. Some were deemed the chosen of the Evanuris, and less restrictions were imposed upon them. Elven nobles owned slaves and worshiped one of the gods. As in any empire, they committed unspeakable atrocities upon their subjects. Elvhen did not age, but could get wounded and die. Noble elves were buried in intricate underground chambers inside urns and sarcophagi. Before laying the body to rest the dead would be cleaned up, and mages would burn away the internal tissue. Some noble dreamers entered uthenera, the eternal sleep and rested in great underground bedchambers. Servants would cleanse them and would come to feed them by brushing a potion across their lips. Distinguished dreamers would learn to draw sustenance from the Fade, and would never need to be fed again.

Arlathan was the capital of the empire, but elvhen civilization was not confined to it nor to Thedas itself. Elves employed elaborate magical rituals to create "places between" from the fabric of time and space, made with yet different from both the waking world and the Fade. Such feat was a collective effort of thousands of elves who pulled raw essence from the Fade and formed pockets within it with their own rules of reality. These realms facilitated travel, were dedicated to one of the gods or served as a repository of knowledge. Both mortals in the flesh and spirits could inhabit them. Elvhen settlements and structures were interconnected with magical mirrors, eluvians.

The Evanuris were arrogant and fickle and warred amongst themselves. Thus, Andruil hunted mortals in addition to animals and was known as the Goddess of Sacrifice. Elgar'nan and Falon'Din had to appoint champions to fight to death in their stead to settle a dispute, and thousands of servants toiled to carve an enormous monument as a testament of Elgar'nan's victory. Falon'Din's appetite for adulation was so great that he began wars to amass more worshipers, slaying countless victims. Only when the rest of the Evanuris blooded him in his own temple did he surrender. A song reveals rivalry between Sylaise and other gods, and her followers could kill each other over the color of a temple's roof trim.

Mythal was the only voice of reason who genuinely cared for her people. Thus, when Andruil went hunting in the Void, she grew mad and brought "plague" to her lands. Mythal challenged the hunter and stole her knowledge of how to find the Void, and peace returned. An aeon passed since the defeat of the titans, when the Evanuris in their greed discovered something terrible deep underground. In fear, elves sealed the tunnels with stone and magic and vowed to forget the place. At long last, the realization that false gods would destroy all sparked a rebellion.

Co-Existence with Humans
Elven lore holds that the humans first arrived from Par Vollen to the north. They are thought to have arrived around -3100 Ancient, some 4,500 years after the founding of Arlathan. For some time, humans and elves interacted and traded peaceably.

Dalish Sources
The elves named the humans shemlen, or "quicklings", because, in comparison to the immortal elves, their lives blinked by in an instant. To the elves, humans appeared brash, warlike and impatient. Even worse, the elves proved susceptible to human diseases, and for the first time in history, elves died of natural causes. Furthermore, elves who spent time with humans found themselves aging. The ancient elves moved to close Elvhenan off from the humans, for fear that this quickening effect would crumble their civilization.

Tevinter Sources
However, the elves' attempted retreat into isolation only facilitated the expansion of the Tevinter Imperium and it continued to gain territory, enslaving any captured elves as it did so. The first “dreamers” learned the use of lyrium to enter the Fade from elven captives, and these dreamers later became the first of the Imperium’s ruling magisters.

At first the early Tevinter empire hardly believed the elves existed at all, not crediting the existence of another people in a forest which was more likely simply haunted. Settlers began to report seeing elven scouts, however, and legionnaires reported spotting strange beings with pointed ears who wielded magic, and humanity began to realize it was not alone.

This realization did not bring peace, however. Outlying Tevinter settlements began to disappear. Emissaries never returned from attempts to make contact in the forest.

Downfall
"And thus was mighty Arlathan cast down, its people swallowed by darkness—never to rise again."

The Imperium is said to be the cause of Arlathan's downfall, leading to centuries of slavery for the elves, during which time much of the lore and history of ancient Elvhenan was lost. What little remains is mainly in the memories of the Keepers of the Dalish elves, who hold the responsibility of gathering, remembering and teaching the lost lore, passing it down from generation to generation through the oral tradition rather than through the written word.

When the people demanded a war against their neighbors, Tevinter forces marched into the Arlathan forest and laid siege against the city for six years. The siege was consuming much of Tevinter's resources, and the Inghirsh took the opportunity to rise up and strike the southern settlements. To make an end of it, Archon Thalasian along with the Magisterium worked a powerful Blood magic spell to sink the city. According to elven lore, the Tevinter magisters used their great destructive power (aided, it is said, by demons and dragon thralls) to force the very ground to swallow Arlathan whole, destroying eons of collected knowledge, culture, and art as a final insult.

Despite this, little is really known about how or why the Tevinter Imperium came to conquer the great city of Arlathan, but elven lore tells that, rather than fight, the elves chose to flee. As the Tevinter Imperium continued to spread over Thedas, Elvhenan fell and the elves were enslaved, losing their lore and supposedly losing their immortality.

Subsequent History
It was to be centuries before the elves were freed by Shartan and Andraste and found a new homeland in the Dales. Of the elves taken as slaves, their magical ability--thought a sign of the Old Gods' favor in Tevinter rather than being something anyone might be capable of--was never acknowledged by the Imperium out of a sense of snubbed pride.

Culture

 * "Take the richest district in Val Royeaux, and add the magic that was part of our everyday life. Every statue fountain could speak through the water that poured from her mouth. Every column glowed with runes the fools in Tevinter copied by rote like children tracing letters. When night fell, the roads were lit by stones like these, bright enough to find your way safely, but soft enough that you could still see the stars."
 * -Felassan

The life of the ancient elves was leisurely: the immortal have no need to hurry. Elven settlements included galleries and amphitheaters in which elves could while away some of the endless time they had at their disposal.

Elvhenan had, however, a far more complex--and sometimes troubled--society than may be imagined from the outside. As an empire, Elvhenan relied on a class system, one that often elevated its nobility at the expense of its servant class (and even, potentially, slaves); little different than the societies and cultures of any other race on Thedas. Indeed, the lower classes of elves were treated little different by their fellow elves than City elves are treated by human nobility in modern-day Orlais.

As mortality began to touch the elven people, the dead would traditionally be brought with great ceremony to burial chambers and placed in luxurious beds with satin sheets and soft pillows. Their bodies would be cleaned and the inner tissue would also be burned away by the mages, to preserve it in eternity.

Dreamer mages seemingly comprised the top of ancient elven society, and that this may have created some resentment among the lower classes, particular as the empire fell and Dreamers were perhaps seen as failing to help. Some Dreamers have been discovered to have been murdered while in Uthenera.

Uthenera
While the ancient elves did not die, the oldest of the elves were said to be weary of life. Memories became too much to bear, and rather than fade into complacency, they voluntarily stood aside to let newer generations guide their people. This practice was known as uthenera, or "the endless dream".

Language
Along with their lore, much of the language of the ancient elves was lost with the fall of Elvhenan and the long enslavement of the elves by the Tevinter Imperium. Some words survive, however, and are used by modern day elves, primarily the Dalish.

Religion


Ancient elves worshipped a pantheon of five gods and four goddesses. Their religion also mentions another set of gods called the "Forgotten Ones", the enemies of the elven pantheon. Only Fen'Harel, the trickster god of the elven pantheon, was able to walk freely between both groups. Elven legend attributes the failure of their gods to intervene in the fall of Elvhenan to Fen'Harel, who, it is claimed, deceived both the elven pantheon and the Forgotten Ones, trapping the former away in heaven and the latter in the abyss, where they could no longer influence events in the mortal world.

Trivia

 * During the Dalish Elf Origin, Paivel will recite another poem about uthenera.
 * During their campaign, the Warden can discover two Elven Ruins (one only in the Dalish Elf Origin) with architecture and decoration that mixes human and elven styles, implying that, in some places, elements of the culture of Elvhenan survived beyond the human conquest.
 * Relics and tombs of the ancient elven empire lie just beneath the surface of the many present-day nations where it once reigned, particularly in Orlais.
 * Ancient elvhen architecture is characterized by the copious use of Ogee arches, a feature of English Gothic architecture in the later thirteenth century.