The horrors persist but so do I

i saw a post about how as cousland you can tell alistair your family were murdered and he says he forgot which implies duncan wrote ahead and couldn't help but think about how this is how the interaction went for me.

So you're telling me there's this whole specie of people who... Technically "shouldn't" exist? Whose literal existence is the reason why the Blight exist? That's the whole thing?

Alright, elves came from spirit, I don't mind, cool I guess. But them making bodies for themselves and hurting the Titans in the process is what started the war between them, ultimately escalating into the Titans being made tranquil by Solas and Mythal, resulting in their dreams becoming the Blight.

Not to mention all the implication in the Chant of Light.

so, the elves are first introduced in dao as a very clear jewish/roma/indigenous sort of allegory, in how they're legally considered lesser, blamed for any societal problems, forced off their ancestral lands and into desperate poverty and segregation, and are hunted by the Fantasy Church for practicing their culture. this was clear both just from playing the game, and the writers' own out of universe statements about their historical inspirations. the dragon age elves are relatable to tons of people, bc as ham-fisted as it's sometimes written, i think anyone of a minority ethnicity/religion, or a history of colonization, will find it resonant to their own experience and feel a sense of sympathy with them.

then, they bring in the ancient elf empire stuff - which kind of starts to break this allegory, because now it's like... ok, this very oppressed group USED to be super powerful, decadent, really cruel, and ~as bad~ as the worst empire currently around. and actually, they were SO powerful and full of hubris, that they caused their own problems and oppression! which is kind of a difficult message to put across, bc it's unpleasantly similar to irl arguments for colonization and slavery - basically saying "oh well, their culture was really fucked up to begin with, so it wasn't even the colonizers' fault for the terrible state they're in now (after the colonizers invaded and plundered them)"

i personally think the ancient elf stuff can work ok, with a sort of caveat - there is also the sort of irl toxic historical nostalgia where people try to argue that past cultures were super peaceful and perfect and enlightened. when really, it was never perfect, and trying to idealize any historical period will only backfire. so that can kind of work as an analogy for the ancient elf stuff. but it REQUIRES there to be development for the modern elves, and for them to have differing opinions on their own past - some can be full blown elf nationalists who are pining for the Old Days without understanding them very well, others are more ambivalent, others are fully rejecting it, others are into the art and culture but not the militarism, etc. this is my personal opinion, probably others would find the entire ancient elf concept more or less irritating based on their own cultural viewpoint.

but THEN, they don't do that at all. they actually sideline the modern elves entirely, so they have very little opinion or reaction to their past, and no distinct modern culture either. and it goes even further with the Ancient Sins. not only were the elves super powerful, they also caused every problem in thedas. and they were literally born from forcibly stealing blood out of other creatures. which to me is honestly like... an insane sort of conspiracy theory style racism, where a marginalized group is framed as evil and unnatural just for existing? except they made that Literally True within the setting. so the conclusion is... elves aren't just a group of people who look slightly different and have a unique culture/religion that is frowned upon. they ARE unnatural and caused problems just by existing, so it would have been better for them to not have existed in thedas? the elven gods ARE all evil and it's better if the elves become andrastians or atheists instead? tevinter empire ideological win? 😭

and then there's really silly stuff like bellara apologizing to harding for her ancestors attacking the titans... when bellara has no rights anywhere in thedas. she is a dalish apostate, in a world where apostates get killed or imprisoned, nobility hunt dalish elves for sport, and there's an entire city elf origin showing how poorly elven women specifically are treated. and harding is... a surface dwarf who was just chilling and living on a farm before dai, haha. in what way is bellara or any other elf benefiting from the titans being harmed? no one explains this, and no one actually makes an attempt to fix the titans either, so it kind of comes off as... empty guilt tripping with no actual goal of reparations.

which is exactly how many white people act irl when doing a sort of hollow signaling of acting guilty to Be A Good Person, but not wanting to actually change their behaviour to help anybody. so it's very goofy that they haphazardly put that plot line onto bellara, the asian looking elf who logically has zero social standing anywhere in thedas. and then harding herself doesn't do anything much for the titans either? what exactly is the end goal of this apology? makes no sense. doesn't compel me.

this is a very strange understanding of colonialism, which seems like it's not based on "this person is benefiting from oppression or stolen resources" but "my 5000 year old ancestor may have killed your 5000 year old ancestor :( i'm so sorry :(" haha. which is not the point of why people care about inequality - if you go far back enough in history, probably everyone's ancestor has killed someone else's. who cares. the problem is when that violence or theft has measurably benefited one group over another, to the point where even their descendants now are still privileged from their ancestors' crimes.

which the elves are not! they're in shambles! objectively speaking, they have no resources, no unified leadership, no place of safety at all, their culture nearly got eradicated multiple times. but the writers somehow want to position them as both victims of oppression who are facing hardship all over thedas... as well as having Evil Deities™️, whom they have to disavow to be Good People™️. and also their current oppression was kind of their fault for toppling their own society to begin with. and their ancestors only existed by stealing blood, and invented the blight, which threatens everyone. and the modern elves get nearly zero content beyond that. so... what is the conclusion there besides either incoherence, or an uncharitable "this culture was actually bad from the very start, and has contributed nothing to thedas except blight and evils?"

yeah i agree! i was honestly hoping vg would add some ~grey morality~ in there, for once, bc otherwise it was SO awkward to just... pin literally every crime in thedas onto the elves? like framing them as first the most oppressed group, and then responsible for Original Sin Itself, just by existing, is kind of sad, and has terrible implications.

it was already set up that the dwarves themselves erased the titans from their own histories. and how their "hivemind" actually worked is unclear - if they all liked it, surely they'd have tried to remember it? and there were hints that the idea of "exiling" people from the stone was very old, and the casteless in dragon age are a remnant of a really ancient idea, which must have actually HAD a physical effect beyond social ostracization when they were still a hivemind - similar to how the vallaslin are just cultural to the dalish, but had an actual magic effect on the ancient elves.

so i figured they'd go with like... there was a pro-titan and anti-titan civil war situation already happening with the dwarves, and so the elves, naturally, sided with the anti-titan faction. they could've EASILY even spun it to other elves as a moral argument of "ohh, the titans are oppressing these poor little flesh people :( we can help them if we take bodies :) and also then they give us lyrium afterwards :) :)" which is still a very standard colonial method! and makes sense as a "this was a slippery slope, and they became powerhungry and violent over time", but adds more nuance, and gives the dwarves something to do in the narrative.

like what actually happened to the dwarves after the elves won against the titans? were they trading with the elves? were they pissed off and fighting them as retaliation? did they mean to hurt the titans that badly, or did they not realize it would have a permanent effect? was it the war, or the veil, that had the major effect on the titans? there had to be tons of time in between the titans getting killed/tranquilized and the veil going up, so... they had to have some kind of interaction between the elves and dwarves? why does june have such a geometric and dwarven vibe to his mosaics? was there disagreement on whether to remove the titans from the memories or not? why did they decide to do that? etc.

solas says he locked the evanuris behind the veil to stop them destroying everything > the black city is behind the veil > dalish religion also says the creators are trapped behind the veil in an Eternal City > the blight destroys everything > one can conclude that the veil and the black city are linked in some way > the original magisters needed a huge breach-type of thing, and only touched the black city a little before getting thrown out > maybe the whole veil needs to be down to reach it for real?

and then if they even mildly remember "why did solas get so upset about the archdemon killing plan", they can then even put together:

the chant of light says there's 7 locks to the black city > there are 7 archdemons > most have been killed already > solas is rushing his plan crazy style for an immortal > is he perhaps afraid the city will open on its own? > he says he wants another plan, so is that why he sounds so unhappy about it?

but they don't :') yay :') girl the blight :') it's a status effect so don't worry about it :')

yeah :') it makes it nearly impossible to write a fic that matches the rest of the setting and is veilguard compliant! but..... we can use democracy to find a way to solve it