New Dalish lore tidbits & resulting speculation
Dalish clans are named for nobles from the Dales [source].
were all names of nobles from the Dales (presumably from the latter days of the Dales era, as these nobles would have needed to have been adults at the time of the Fall of the Dales in order to then go on and found clans and have descendants). In the lore, a Dalish “Lord of Halamshiral” named Hassandriel also existed around those last years, so there might well be a clan named Hassandriel too. It was previously established in the lore that the Ralaferin clan believe themselves to be descended from the great lord Ralaferin of Halamshiral. It was also previously established that the Dalish are considered to have the “purest blood” [words not mine] from the time of Arlathan, and that many Keepers are descended from the nobility who governed the Dales. There are at least 7 clans in the lore whose names have not been made known to us, such as Velanna’s, meaning that there were at least 7 other nobles.
In addition, the DA tabletop RPG lists the following “sample Dalish clan names”:
These could also therefore be names of nobles from the Dales and of existing clans, although personally I tend discount these for now, or most of them, partially because they’re from external ‘tertiary’-canon material (Green Ronin) but primarily because they mostly don’t sound like the other clan names or indeed like elvhen names or words at all.
Not every elf in a clan is descended from the clan’s founder. They “trade” people a lot [source]. This is of note as previously we had only really heard of mages specifically being switched between clans in this way (Merrill is an example, from Alerion to Sabrae). It makes sense that people living in smallish mostly-separated groups as they do may sometimes switch people between the groups, to help bolster community variety and strength, and many have speculated as much before, but it’s nice to have confirmation. I’d guess much of this switching of clans occurs during the Arlathvhens, but that’s my speculation only.
One founding noble (e.g. Sabrae) might start a clan with a few Emerald Knights (e.g. Mahariel, Talas) [source] - explaining why we find Warden [Lyna or Theron] Mahariel and Marethari Talas in the Sabrae clan, and potentially explaining why we find Deshanna Istimaethoriel / Deshanna Istimaethoriel Lavellan in the Lavellan clan. All Dalish ‘sur’names preserve a lineage from someone (just, not all of these someones founded clans) [source]. (NB, not saying the other names when appended to Dalish elfs’ personal names are literal surnames, but for simplicity in this post I’ll call them that. Plus, since it’s about preserving lineage and the Dalish strive to remember the past, we can infer that the other names are still important.) So some Dalish elves’ ‘sur’names differ to their clans’ name; this can either be because they switched clans or because they don’t descend from the noble founder; and some Dalish ‘sur’names instead derive from descent from Emerald Knights. Also, Mahariel and Lavellan don’t have ‘sur’names because of the meta requirement from being a PC or because they’re out and about in human society and it was helpful etc - World of Thedas calls Marethari Marethari Talas, and of course there’s Deshanna Istimaethoriel / Istimaethoriel Lavellan in a primary source, so it’s not a quality unique to PC Dalish or ‘away from their clans’-Dalish.
Named Emerald Knights in the lore include:
Also, Sulan was Mathalin’s squire. As Mathalin was the first Emerald Knight it seems reasonable to believe Sulan went on to become a Knight himself. Rajmael was an elven general who fought against the Exalted March, so he may have been a Knight also. The Wiki lists some other elves as Emerald Knights, but I’m unsure of this classification in their cases; all elves remembered in the final resting place of Din’An Hanin were Emerald Knights, and the Codex entry found in Din’An Hanin reads “For each knight, a seed was sown”, but unless I’m missing something I don’t know that every elf who had a tree planted in their honor at the Vallasdahlen, elsewhere in the Emerald Graves, was an Emerald Knight? It’s like a “all apples are fruits, but not all fruits are apples” situation. All Knights had a tree-seed sown in their honor, but not every tree that was planted to honor a great elf necessarily was planted in honor of a Knight specifically. They were all heroes to be sure, but an elf could surely have been a legendary figure who dedicated their life to the Dalish kingdom without being a Knight or even without being a warrior/fighter (see Tanaleth and Elnora below). There are many ways to achieve greatness and contribute to your nation, and many kinds of heroes. Hence, I don’t know that we can assume all elves with a Life-Tree/Life-Tree Codex entry were Knights.
Note that not all of the Knights listed above were alive at the time of the Fall of the Dales (some died before then temporally, and indeed some died in the final conflicts), so some of the ones listed wouldn’t have gone on with a noble to found a clan and have descendants who would then have taken their name. For example, Mathalin as the first Knight would have died long before the Fall and thankfully never had to witness it, and Lindirane fell in the final battle, therefore never getting the chance to help found a clan in the aftermath and have descendants.
The next few paragraphs are tangential speculation, put in a blockquote to collect it together while breaking up the screed of text that this post has become.
Speculation: The Tabris family gets its name from an Emerald Knight named Tabris who fought in defense of the Dales before the Fall, and from whom they descend.
Most City Elves we meet don’t have surnames or ‘sur’names, but the Tabris family do. It’s unclear imo whether the ‘sur’name was originally Cyrion’s or Adaia’s. He could have acquired it in marriage to Adaia, much like Sera when she marries the Dalish Inquisitor (Sera here being an example of CE who didn’t have an additional name then gaining or taking one through marriage), especially if he himself didn’t have a ‘sur’name previously. Shianni and Soris are Warden Tabris’ cousins through the Warden’s father’s siblings, and I can’t find canon instances where they’re called “Shianni Tabris” or “Soris Tabris”. The Tabris family in general is well-known in the Denerim Alienage and notable for their reputation as trouble-makers and rebels - but it’s Adaia (and by extension the Warden) around whom much of which this stuff is centered, or at least was in the past. So, I can see the name coming from her, and this reputation of the name also largely originally coming from her and her side of the family.
Adaia Tabris was talented enough in battle that Duncan once tried to recruit her into the Wardens and that she trained Warden Tabris in the arts of a warrior or a rogue when they were young. Her dagger, the Fang of Fen’Harel, was passed down to her, and can be passed down to Warden Tabris. This dagger is an ancestral blade that was first wielded in the battles to save the Dales from the Exalted March. I can therefore easily see it being wielded by an Emerald Knight (who else but they spearheaded the Dales’ defense?), that Knight’s descendants then preserving their lineage from the original Tabris in their name (as became Dalish elvhen custom; both groups of elves were originally the same society after all, and there are some common customs between them still even with the City Elves’ situation), and so, then that Knight’s name and martial prowess/training both were passed down through the generations, along with the dagger. I like this idea because all the pieces then fit quite tidily.
This wouldn’t be an isolated case either, there is potential precedent: Wenna di Ladia was a Nevarran City Elf who was a descendant of the last Emerald Knights who guarded the Dales. She took up her grandfather’s bow Tenasarin during the Third Blight. Perhaps Wenna’s descent from a Knight is why she also has a surname or ‘sur’name. In this reading perhaps Ladia was a Knight and the “di” part is a Nevarran naming convention that some Nevarrans have - that later generations of the family added as they became more a part of wider Nevarran human-based society - like the Orlesian “de” and “du”, or the Antivan “ d’ ”. Lots of surnames in our world have changed slightly or had several forms over time.
Anyway. It’s not known whether lineage from only nobles and Emerald Knights is preserved in Dalish names, or if lineage from other Dales heroes/notable figures is also preserved in them. For example, Tanaleth was a fabled smith that crafted bows for the Fade Hunters, and a High Keeper of June, and Elnora was revered for her tireless work reviving the magical arts of lost Arlathan. I’d like to think elves of this kind would also have had a hand in helping found clans and would also be remembered in the names of their descendants.
Clan Ghilain descends from Inquisitor Ameridan - it seems reasonable to infer then that Ghilain and Ameridan were therefore somehow related. Ameridan disappeared in the early years of the Divine Age, and the Dales fell around 2:20 Glory, which is like ~100+ years later. Perhaps then Ameridan and Telana left a child or children behind before they departed on their final quest, or Ameridan had fathered a child or children before entering a relationship with Telana. The noble Ghilain would then have eventually descended from that child’s (or one of those childrens’) line. The only way for Clan Ghilain and its founder to have descended from Ameridan is if he had fathered or adopted children before his “death”.
Marethari and Warden Mahariel iirc, when their ‘full names’ crop up anyway, always seem to be listed in Codexes etc as Marethari Talas and Defaultname Mahariel, as opposed to Marethari Talas Sabrae, Marethari Sabrae, Defaultname Mahariel Sabrae or Defaultname Sabrae - perhaps meaning their noteworthy lineage is from Talas and Mahariel only, respectively, or that the usual custom is to only go by or keep one name? In contrast, Deshanna has been explicitly listed as Deshanna Istimaethoriel Lavellan at least once - perhaps meaning their noteworthy lineage is derived from both Istimaethoriel and Lavellan (entirely possible, especially after a few generations, but even from the outset, a noble founder and a Knight could have had children together)? Of course it could also be down to
writing inconsistencies or internal lore changes over time
Deshanna’s personal preference
if an elf changes clans, perhaps they keep or can choose to keep their original clan name and add the new one to it (reminds me a lil of double-barreled surnames)? In this reading, perhaps Deshanna was born to clan Istimaethoriel and later changed (being a mage makes that more likely) to clan Lavellan. If so, what would happen name-wise if an elf changes clans multiple times? I’m sure there could be situations such as: an elf is born to Clan A, their magic manifests young and they change clans to Clan B which didn’t have enough mages at that timepoint. Then later in life, more mages are born into Clan B, and the elf happens to meet someone from another clan - say at the Arlathvhen - with whom they fall in love. They then change clans to their love’s Clan C so that they can live a life together. I will note that I have seen Merrill listed as “Full Name: Merrill Alerion” once, in Faces of Thedas, and never as “Merril Alerion Sabrae” (or as “Merrill Sabrae” for that matter), so perhaps that scuppers the theory proposed in this bullet point.
or if an elf’s ‘sur’name doesn’t match their clan’s name (whether due to them having lineage from a Knight of the noble founder as opposed to the noble themself, or due to having switched clans), perhaps in some situations (like formal situations, such as when a leader figure like Keeper Deshanna was writing to the Inquisition in an official and important capacity) the clan name is added to the end of their actual name so that the clan which they are part of is still identified and therefore their allegiance is made known in this way?
What I’m interested to know now is, if John Mahariel (descended from a noble founder’s Knight) and Jane Talas (descended from another Knight of the noble founder) had a child, which parent’s lineage is preserved in the child’s ‘sur’name? Is it matrilineal? Patrilineal? A matter of the parents’ choice or the child’s personal choice once they’re old enough? Could they choose to take both names, Child Mahariel Talas? The one example I can think of to reference here is that Warden Mahariel’s father is the parent that was part of the Sabrae clan (and in the past, the founding noble Sabrae started the clan with some Emerald Knights including Mahariel the Knight, per Mary’s tweet). Papa Mahariel, descended from the Knight, fell in love with a hunter from another clan, who would have had a different name - so in Warden Mahariel’s case at least it was patrilineal.
I’d also be interested to know what happens when John Mahariel (descended from a Knight) and Jane Sabrae (descended from a noble founder) have a child. Would it still be patrilineal here? Or if not both or not personal preference etc, would the more prominent ancestor’s lineage be the one that gets preserved? A noble outranks a Knight, so would the child be Child Sabrae? Since it’s about preserving lineage, maybe the most notable name is the one kept? But if that were the case, wouldn’t some names decrease in prevalence over time (and then potentially run the risk of eventually not being preserved), because every time an elf who bore a noble’s name had children with an elf who had a non-noble name, their children would carry the noble’s name forwards only? Lots of food for thought.
Thank you to Mary Kirby for this information.
Post updated in September 2020.
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