The Exalted March against the Tevinter Imperium was a religious crusade led by the prophet Andraste, Bride of the Maker, and her mortal husband Maferath against the Old Gods-worshipping Tevinter Imperium between -180 and -170 Ancient. It was the first Exalted March.
Aftermath of the First Blight[]
The ravages of the First Blight continued to be felt throughout the Tevinter Imperium for decades after its end at the Battle of Silent Plains in -203 Ancient. Droughts, landslides, wildfires and famine, caused or worsened by darkspawn interference during the Blight, plagued the Imperium.[3] Meanwhile, Dumat's attack on its own worshippers, and the silence of the other Old Gods in the face of their frenzied pleas for help, led to widespread civil unrest throughout Tevinter as the people began to violently question their faith, murdering priests and burning temples. The far northern and eastern regions of the Imperium rose up in rebellion, only to be put down by demons summoned by the magisters.[4]
While the armies of Tevinter remained the largest of any organized nation in Thedas, their forces were scattered and morale was low,[4] forcing them to draw back from outposts as supplies dwindled. Eventually, the northernmost tribes of the Alamarri, led by the chieftain Elderath, came to clash with the Imperium.[3]
Rise of Andraste's cult of the Maker[]
In -203 Ancient,[5] Andraste was born to Elderath of the Alamarri and Brona of the Ciriane. In -187 Ancient,[6] through his daughter's marriage to Maferath, another chieftain of the Alamarri, Elderath had managed to build a unified Alamarri border that stretched from the Fertile Crescent (present-day Orlais), to the Planasene (present-day Nevarra and the Free Marches) and the Ferelden Valley. However, this alliance was still tentative, as many small tribes who had not been directly victimized by Tevinter were slow to recognize their union.[3]
The Alamarri were galvanized against the Imperium when Tevinter soldiers and mages carried out a raid against an Alamarri settlement, killing Elderath, kidnapping Andraste into slavery, and razing the settlement to the ground. Command of the Alamarri tribes passed on to Maferath, though many would only follow once he'd successfully negotiated Andraste's release.
Andraste dreams of the Maker
In -186 Ancient,[7] Andraste began to preach of a new god she called the Maker. After the death of her half-sister Halliserre under mysterious circumstances in her youth, Andraste had been plagued with troubling dreams. Over time she began to interpret them as visions of a deity she called the Maker, the supreme being who had created then abandoned the world when his people took up worship of the Old Gods and who would only return if the world would turn from worship of false gods and accept his divine commandments. As the First Blight had called into question faith in the Old Gods, many found themselves receptive to the idea of the Maker, especially his commandment that "magic should serve man rather than rule over him."[8] Andraste began to amass many followers, a fact that Maferath used to consolidate his command over the Alamarri.[7]
In -180, Maferath and Andraste crossed the Waking Sea to begin their outright assault on the Imperium, forcing them to abandon the island of Estwatch to focus on the mainland.[9] As their armies marched north, they used the constellation Visus, which they believed to represent the gaze of the Maker, to guide themselves.[10] Natural disasters helped Andraste's armies advance into the Imperium, which her followers saw as signs of the Maker's wrath against Tevinter and proof of their divine mission.[3] Word of Andraste's Exalted March spread far and wide, and convinced many who felt abandoned by their gods to turn to the Maker.[8] Maferath also proved a talented general, and his forces made short work of Tevinter outposts outfitted against mere banditry. However, though some magisters were committed to the war effort against the barbarians, most still believed domestic unrest to be the greater menace. As a result, Andraste's armies did not initially face the full might of the empire.[11]
Shartan the Liberator[]
Slave rebellions were one type of domestic unrest that threatened the Imperium. In particular, the cities of Vol Dorma, Marnas Pell, Solas, Marothius, and Hasmal, which had suffered significantly from the famine that gripped the Imperium, were the sites of brutal slave uprisings. Slaves also rebelled in Emerius, the Imperium's foremost slave outpost. Three magisters, including Magister Parthalan, and their legions were sent to Emerius to quell the uprising before it spread, but they mysteriously disappeared before reaching the city.[12][13] As a former slave of Tevinter herself, Andraste is often credited as an inspiration for such rebellions, which in turn became instrumental to her success against Tevinter as thousands of former slaves joined forces with her.[2]
Andraste and Shartan
One of the slaves to join Andraste was Shartan the Liberator, an elven slave who led his fellow slaves in revolt. However, as Shartan's existence is itself hard to prove, given widespread illiteracy among slaves and the removal of the Canticle of Shartan from the Chant of Light following the Exalted March Against the Dales in the Glory Age, some scholars have suggested that "Shartan" might not have been a singular person but a title or an ideal.[2]
In the Dissonant Canticle of Shartan, Shartan was the leader of an elven slave rebellion in Vol Dorma. After fleeing the legions of the Imperium for twenty days, Shartan and his fellow slaves found themselves at the foot of Solitarios, "the Lonely One," a large hill near the settlement of Asariel. While some talked of returning to Vol Dorma and throwing themselves on the mercy of the magisters, Shartan urged them to fight. The elves successfully ambushed the legion that had pursued them, killing them to the last man then taking their arms and armors. When they heard the sounds of a great host approaching, Shartan went to investigate, and met Havard the Aegis, who took him to meet Andraste. After hearing his tale, Andraste welcomed the elves into her host, informing them of her plan to besiege Minrathous and set all slaves free. Shartan replied that the People would set themselves free, but that Andraste's host could march alongside them. From that moment on, they marched as one.[14]
Battle of Valarian Fields[]
In -171 Ancient,[15] the Alamarri and elven forces finally met true resistance at the Battle of Valarian Fields, a bloody battle which turned from siege to open fighting and back again several times.[16] In the Canticle of Shartan, Andraste is said to have commanded ten thousand swords, while Shartan had enough archers to turn the sky black with arrows. The armies of Tevinter were described as numberless, consisting of both warriors and mages. At some point during the battle, Andraste and her warriors found themselves encircled by walls of ice, which Shartan and his archers melted with flaming arrows. In return, Andraste named him her champion in the middle of the battle, then took her mother's sword from her scabbard and gave it to Shartan, exhorting him to use it to free their people forever.[1] Shartan called the sword Glandivalis.[17]
Thanks to Maferath's masterful tactics, Shartan's forces and the inspiration that Andraste provided, the barbarians emerged victorious from the Battle of Valarian Fields. However, the Alamarri suffered significant losses, including most of their leadership, and Andraste could no longer be held back from her divine mission. As such, the battle could be considered the beginning of the end for Andraste's Exalted March against Tevinter.[16]
Maferath's Betrayal[]
While the Chantry teaches that Maferath became jealous of Andraste and the Maker when credit for the victory at the Battle of Valarian Fields was laid at their feet,[18][19] historians believe that Maferath did not betray his wife out of jealousy but out of tactical concerns.[20][21]
Andraste and Hessarian
While the Alamarri forces had won early victories, they had not fortified the outposts they took, leading Tevinter to reoccupy many abandoned conquests. Furthermore, as Andraste's forces pushed further into the Imperium, they met heavier resistance, as they faced not just fellow barbarians or territories eager for liberation, but the true heart of the empire on its own home ground. Andraste's forces suffered several outright defeats, which have largely gone ignored by history. However, Andraste's faithful were only concerned about their divine purpose, Andraste herself most of all after the victory on the Valarian Fields. As a tactician and general, Maferath saw that Tevinter might use the Alamarri threat as a distraction to civil unrest to finally rally its full might against them, which could result in not just a reversal of their previous successes, but even further losses.[20]
In -170 Ancient,[22] Maferath travelled to Minrathous to speak with Archon Hessarian in secret and offered Andraste in exchange for a truce that would end hostilities[19] and the lands south of southern Thedas. The archon agreed, eager to silence the prophet that stirred his people against him. Maferath allowed disguised Tevinter forces to enter Andraste's stronghold in Nevarra City.[20] Hector, lord of the fortress and one of Andraste's disciples, was killed when he leapt to her defense.[23][24] The Canticle of Apotheosis states that Maferath set up an ambush for his wife at a silver pool where the Voice of Heaven could be heard. When Havard stood between Andraste and the Tevinters, unwilling to draw his sword against his lord, he was speared twice and left for dead.[25] Maferath bound Andraste himself and delivered her to Hessarian for execution.[26]
At the urging of his wife, Lady Vasilia, Hessarian organized a public and painful execution for Andraste.[27] The Canticle of Apotheosis indicates that Shartan attempted to storm the pyre to free her, but was cut down by the legion's arrows.[28] However, halfway through the execution, Hessarian took pity on Andraste and drove his sword through her heart to put an end to her suffering.[22] Far from consolidating the Imperium's power, Andraste's execution turned her into a martyr and seeded doubts among the Tevinter population.[20]
Aftermath[]
In exchange for his betrayal of Andraste, Maferath was granted the lands of southern Thedas. Rather that consolidate power into his own hands, he spread his holdings between his three sons: Isorath was given Orlais, Evrion the Free Marches, and Verald Nevarra while Maferath remained ruler in Ferelden. By all accounts, his intentions were that these four nations would stand as a barrier if Tevinter ever returned to its imperialist ways.[20][29] In -165 Ancient, Maferath also granted the Dales to the elves in exchange for their role in the Exalted March. By then, his armies had also dispersed.[30]
Andraste's cult of the Maker continued to grow after her death, especially as Archon Hessarian refused to take action against them.[31] Her ashes were collected from her pyre by Havard the Aegis, who had survived his wounds to travel to Minrathous, and returned to Ferelden to be kept safe in a secret location.
In -160 Ancient, Archon Hessarian forcibly converted the Imperium to Andrastianism, thereby outlawing worship of the Old Gods.[31] He also revealed Maferath's treachery, leading to widespread backlash against Maferath and his sons. Maferath himself was killed by his sons, plunging Ferelden into chaos; Evrion dispersed his holdings to various tribes, so that the area never coalesced into a cohesive nation; Verald's court was slaughtered and he was forced to flee to the court of his brother in Orlais.[32] While seen as a victim of his father's betrayal,[21] Isorath was hated for the Grand Unification of -155 Ancient,[33] the forcible unification of the disparate Ciriane tribes. He engaged in a lengthy power struggle with his wife, Jeshavis, and his brother Verald, which ultimately resulted in both of the brothers' deaths. However, the nation that they had created eventually became the seat of the Orlesian Chantry and the Tevinter Imperium's greatest rival in southern Thedas.
Codex entries[]
Codex entry: Constellation: Visus- Codex entry: The Enigma of Kirkwall
- Codex entry: The History of the Chantry: Chapter 1
- Codex entry: The History of the Chantry: Chapter 2
- Codex entry: The History of the Chantry: Chapter 3
- Codex entry: Glandivalis
- Codex entry: Not of Heroes: The Death of Diversity
- Codex entry: Not of Heroes: Division and Distance
- Codex entry: Not of Heroes: Maferath and Sacrifice
- Codex entry: The Sacred Ashes of Andraste
- Codex entry: Staff of Parthalan
