“What care have I for gods I have never seen, for a Maker I do not know? Let others distract themselves with such lofty concerns. I know only this life, I have seen only this world, and I care only for you.”
Elandrin was an Emerald Knight who played a pivotal role in the incident at Red Crossing, one of the immediate causes of the Exalted March of the Dales.
Background[]
By the beginning of the Glory Age, border skirmishes had broken out between Orlais and the Dales. After rumors of an abduction spread, Elandrin's sister was killed by human hunters for wandering too close to their path. While Elandrin mourned her death, he refused to answer their sister[note] Siona's call for vengeance. Elandrin had fallen in love with a human woman named Adalene from the nearby town of Red Crossing–a relationship he hid 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, Siona followed him to Red Crossing. When she saw him with Adalane, pointing at the local chantry, she assumed that he had truly converted to the Maker and feared that he would betray their secrets to the Chantry. She shared her concerns with the other knights, but by the time they went to question him, he had already left for Red Crossing to meet Adalene.
Siona took a few of her people to the town, planning to either convince Elandrin 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," Siona shot her with an arrow. Adalene died with Elandrin's name on her lips, dropping Elandrin's 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 then dumped in the river.
Elandrin's body was retrieved from the river by his fellow knights. By that time, they had read his letter to Adalene and realized that he had never planned to betray them. They decided to inter him in Din'an Hanin, along with a written account of the events at Red Crossing, to honor his memory and ensure that he wouldn't be remembered as a traitor. Their dedication to him reads: "Elandrin, Whom We Betrayed."[1][2] However, knowledge of 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.
Quests[]
The Knights' Tomb (mentioned)
Codex entries[]
Codex entry: The Death of Elandrin
Codex entry: The Emerald Knights- Codex entry: The Girl in Red Crossing
Note texts[]
Notes[]
- Codex entry: The Death of Elandrin seems to use brother/sister to indicate both a blood relative and a comrade in arms. It's unclear whether Elandrin and Siona are meant to be seen as the former or the latter.
Trivia[]
- Elandrin and Adalene are the subjects of the song The Girl in Red Crossing.
- If the accounts of Din'an Hanin are given to the Chantry, a scholar at the University of Orlais sees Elandrin's fate as an example of the persecution Andrastians suffered at the time.[3]