Adalene

Adalene was a human woman who played a pivotal role in the incident at Red Crossing, one of the immediate causes of the Exalted March of the Dales.

Background[]

This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Adalene was a human woman who lived in the Orlesian village of Red Crossing during the early Glory Age. While border skirmishes raged between Orlais and Dales, Adalene fell in love with Elandrin, one of the Emerald Knight protecting the elven kingdom. Given the tensions between their two nations, Elandrin hid his relationship with Adalene from his fellow knights. He planned on marrying Adalene, and was ready to tell the Chantry sisters that he would follow the Maker if it would ease their doubts about him. He stated that it wouldn't change anything in his life, as the Maker was just as absent as the elven gods. However, Elandrin's frequent unexplained absences raised the suspicions of his comrades. One day, they followed him to Red Crossing. When they saw him with Adalene, pointing at the local chantry, they assumed he had truly converted to the Maker and feared that he would betray their secrets to the Chantry. By the time they went to question him, he had already left for Red Crossing to meet Adalene.

The knights followed Elandrin to Red Crossing, planning to either convince him to return with them or bring him to justice, and reached it before him. Adalene spotted them first; when she started racing towards them, "a cry on her lips and something in her hand," she was shot by an arrow. Adalene died with Elandrin's name on her lips, dropping his letter and the daisies she had been holding. Upon hearing her screams, the townsfolk attacked the elves, but were defeated. When Elandrin found Adalene's body, he refused to be parted from it despite the imminent arrival of more humans. He was killed by their arrows next to Adalene's body. Her body was recovered by the villagers, but his was dumped in the river.

Knowledge of Adalene and Elandrin's true fate remained lost, even to the Dalish, until the Inquisitor explored the ruins of Din'an Hanin more than seven centuries later.