That's just Breachy

The reason we’ve never heard of them in-game is quite simply that a bunch of mages, travelling alone or in tiny groups, who act as the backbone of Dalish society are really vulnerable to Templars. The Dalish would rather let humans continue believing that exile nonsense than risk the Chantry completely crippling their communications network in a single generation - which it could do, if it tried. Lavellan’s ‘We gave them to other clans, or…’ line is them nearly breaking silence, catching themself, and stopping just in time.

They carry news between clans - everything from ‘So-and-so has had a baby’ to ‘The Grey Wardens request our help to fight the Blight; the army meets at Redcliffe in four months’. They also ferry clan members between clans, if a swap is taking place, and valuable artefacts between clans, if somebody wants to borrow somebody else’s arulin’holm.

They act as independent judges during times when a clan’s Keeper is too involved to be neutral, or when there is a dispute between two clans who can’t reach an amicable settlement on their own.

Some of the braver (or perhaps stupider) ones will venture into alienages periodically to perform marriage, birth and death rites. Needless to say, they’ve been avoiding Kirkwall in recent years.

Also, you know, sometimes Dalish kids elope and need a priest.

They take on apprentices, when there are children in need of training. Some of the really brave/stupid ones will even smuggle mage kids out of alienages before the Templars come down on their heads. (These kids, in turn, often grow up to be the ones who’ll wander back into alienages…)

They also take on clans in the case of a Keeper, First and Second all dying, or if the only clan mage left standing is too young to take on full responsibilities…

…on which note, yes, they can do vallaslin too.

There are Dalish myths about them - both the normal kind of myths, in which they are usually total badasses, and the urban legend kind, the ‘I hear they have somewhere secret to go to commune with the gods’ kind. They actually don’t, but hey, a little mystique is good for the image.

Wandering Keepers organizing Arlathvhens, passing word between clans like “Hey, so the big meeting’s gonna take place in the Brecilian forest exactly in five months, you in?”, and then acting as mediators and repositories of knowledge for the those who can’t make it. Cause you know that a Keeper up in the Anderfels isn’t gonna drag their clan on some three month journey to the Kokari Wilds, just to spend two weeks arguing over whether or this chamberpot was dedicated to June, or Syliase. They’ll still want to know what went down, of course, which is where these guys come in.

Wandering Keepers who act as walking libraries, who transcribe books and scrolls and maps that have weathered the ages to the point of near illegibility, and make sure every clan has written copies of their legends and histories - because they know better than anyone else that oral tradition alone isn’t going to keep after one hundred, two hundred, five hundred years. 

They’re also census takers for the clans. No one really knows for sure how many Dalish elves are wandering around Thedas, but these guys will be able to give you a damn good estimate. And if it looks like a clan has shrunk past the point sustainability, they’ll step in and negotiate with other clans who’ve got too many mouths to feed, or too many orphans after their run-in with that asshole Lord So-and-So’s hunting party. 

Maybe some even act as rudimentary genealogists, who can tell you which family line is most likely to produce a mage child, or whether there’s any risk of inbreeding in inter-clan marriages, because this guy’s grandmother’s half-brother is actually her father’s father, who ran away and married into the clan two generations ago.

Varric: Cole, what do you think ‘ass eating season’ is?

Cole: There’s frost on the deck! Slippery! You’ll fall and eat ass!

Varric: Who told you that? Who are you hanging out with?

So, you know how Dwarves are afraid of the sky, right? And haha, yeah that’s so funny, silly Dwarves, right?

BUT NO

Dwarves have been around for millenia. Well before the fall of the Elves, since they’re mentioned as being around with Titans when they were alive. So you know, before the Veil was created.

How did the Elves describe the Veil being made? Fen’Harel held back the sky.

The Dwarves were never afraid of the sky.

A little Warden Surana and Zevran fun!