#dalish camp

Dalish Camp

Starting with the Dalish camp, we notice two interesting things. From the nine elven gods, we only find objects that represent 6 of them. Two of them, males, as dragon heads

Fen'Harel by its own, in the typical wolf-shape [reusing a mabari statue]

And then three goddesses

We know that, later, we will find Falon'Din statue in that strange winged/tentacle figure which was the original concept of Old Gods, and during your escape from the Architect laboratory, we find a trio of statues, with two Falon'Din (or most probably one as Falon'Din and the other his twin Dirthamen) and in the middle of both one we can assume is Urthemiel [Old God of Beauty, the archdemon we fought in DAO] since it wears a hat that belongs to that old god's symbol.

This secondary statue, without bigger wings and tentacles doesn't appear in the Ruins.

Falon'Din is also named once Zathrian is dead

Mythal is never represented all across DAO. We only find a shield with her blessing, an item found in the Brecilian Forest.

With all these details, we can see a pattern in this Dalish camp:

Non-humanoid figures = male elven gods

Elgar'nan = God of Vengeance

June =God of Craft

Fen'Harel= God of Betrayal

Humanoid figures = female elven goddesses. Curiously, the same statues can be found in most Chantry-based or Chantry related institutions. It's hard to understand if this is a mere reuse of the statues or there is a hidden connotation that the Chantry is originally based on an erased elven pantheon as well [see Chanrty related posts]:

Sylaise= Goddess of domesticity

Andruil= Goddess of the hunt

Ghilan'nain =Goddess of guidance, mother of hallas

Gods not present in statues or figures in the Dalish camp:

Falon'Din = apparently, it's the statue found in the Ruins

Dirthamen = maybe the other identical statue found in the Architect Laboratory's Ruins

Mythal = only a shield can be found in the Brecilian Forest.

Another thing we find in the Dalish Origin are these stones, probably of Chasin Origin since there are many of these around the Kocari Wilds.

It's hard for me to associate the symbols in them. One looks like a creepy hand over an eye, but such hand reminds me so much to Corypheus' that I had to place it here. Does it make sense? Not much. Specially since we don't have idea what kind of usage these rocks have [in fact, we can infer it thanks to Awakening].

The other stone looks like an armoured creature. It's so low its resolution that it could be a templar, a titan, or a golem. At the base of both stones we see the usual swirl pattern that we see in all Avvar buildings.

About the supposed inference we can get from Awakening: in the Blackmarsh, we found out a circle made of these stones, with a Fade-pedestal. We only know that around that place the Veil is weak; it is never clear if it was weak naturally or as a consequence of using this device. Maybe these stones are an Avvar/Chasin means to communicate with the spirits of the Fade [since it's probably how they allowed the consensual possession of their mages; this will be explored in detail once I play Hakkon DLC]

The Brecilian Ruins

Leaving the camp and heading into the ruins, we see the typical dragon-like sculptures that, depending on how you see them, they have insectoid elements. This head appears too in the entrance door of Andraste's Temple [see here]. These four heads are around a “Sylaise” statue.

Following the corridors, we found an Andruil statue, and another with a Shield. 

This one with the shield was pretty curious since we don't have a reference inside the game to assign it to an elven god. We do know that Andraste is usually depicted as a lady holding a shield. Most probably this statue represents another elven god that was not hinted before, and according to the remaining gods of the list above, Mythal is the one we are missing: the only remaining female of the pantheon, and considering we find in the game her shield, this statue has high chances of being Mythal for the Elves. Also, Mythal and Andraste were always subtly hinted one another along all the series of this game.

More and more corridors later, we find a Sylaise statue in front of one that it's not exactly Andruil, since Andruil's has her sword up. 

Since the remaining gods are all male, and it would break the pattern, I'm inclined to think that this is a variation of Andruil's statue. One less aggressive.

Then, when we are before the chamber of the Eluvian, we find the famous statue of Falon'Din. We know this is the old model that DAO's old archdemons wanted to, but the tentacle-design was too challenging for the old engine, so they ended up changing them into dragons. These statues survived though, yet they seem to represent the Old Gods. And on its chest I can't stop seeing a symbol that looks like the horned symbol that darkspawn worship or the symbol we found in Orzamar and most thaigs, or even the curious horns that Eluvians have in DAO. This symbol may be the same one found in the Fade in DAI, in the tag I called Female Kossith/ Desire demon /Tevinter Warrior 

I tend to be inclined for the first one. There must be an old god that Darkspawns have been worshipping for a long while, even in between blights [see post of Darkspawn]. This could be the reason why Avernus said that he was still hearing a sweet voice even after the blight ended, it's strange that the voice exists during no Blights (as the Calling proves it, we know the taint carries a song, like red lyrium and lyrium do too). Probably as the only warden ridiculously ancient and tainted, he senses this voice dragging him to the black city in the strongest way, pretty much like a standard darkspawn. 

Anyway, returning to Falon'Din. Tamlen will explain us that these ruins are human [confirmed by Merril later, we will learn with Morrigan that they are tevinter in particular] but they have "elven statues", saying that the one they are observing in front of them represents Falon'Din. 

He can ascertain this because he saw it from the Keeper's book. Clearly, Tamlen is not a reliable narrator, we can't trust in the info he gives since he is not an expert on the matter. And we don't even know if that book he saw was elven.

If we trust what the devs said time ago, that the elven gods are not related to the Old Gods, maybe all this info given by Tamlen is just a misunderstanding: maybe the book he saw was tevinter, and that statue has nothing to do with Falon'Din, but with the old gods. Now, he explicitly says that the  keeper called that figure "friend of the dead". The keeper, an “expert” in eleven lore, is doing the link anyway.

If the book was tevinter and it depicted the Old Gods, is hard to associate one of them with "a friend of the dead"; our best guess? Lusacan, Dragon of the night, not by chance, is depicted as an Owl constellation, a symbol that belongs to Falon'Din. Beyond this link, it's hard to determine exactly why an elven book would assign the god of dead to an old god.

Dumat: the Dragon of Silence (First Blight)

Zazikel: the Dragon of Chaos  (Second Blight)

Toth: the Dragon of Fire (Third Blight)

Andoral: the Dragon of Slaves (Fourth Blight)

Urthemiel: the Dragon of Beauty (Fifth Blight)

Razikale: the Dragon of Mystery

Lusacan: the Dragon of Night

In these ruins there are many undead that have an armour that may be important or not to have present, eventually

And finally the best part; the Eluvian.

This particular one is not like the others we saw in the Tower of Magi, or in the dlc Witch Hunt, or in Soldier's Peak. Like all the eluvians in DAO, they have a swirl-thorny structure behind. It's shape makes me remember the vine with thorns we saw in the presentation [see the post] which represents the Blight. It also has a slight similarity with the usual dragon-shape head we see everywhere in DAO, or at least, the bottom part of it. The top looks more like thorns and swirls, which recalls to Elgar'nan vallaslin. Any of this makes sense for an Eluvian? I'm not sure. Nothing can be said for certain.

So, this Eluvian found in the Brecilian Ruins has two human figures [we can see the rounded ears despite the resolution of the game] holding a sword. Since they are wearing robes plus a sword, we can infer they are Tevinter Archons, maybe variations of Hessaian. The interesting thing is that they are grabbing the "thorny" part of the eluvian.

Behind them there is a Sarcophagus who has nothing more than a Blank Vellum. I don’t know how relevant this can be.

Tamlen states that the mirror shows him a city underground. If we think in The Masked Empire, it may be an Evanuris' Uthenera city. Since the mirror is tainted and darkspawn come from it, we could assume that such city was overtaken by them. Once more there is the word of "blackness" that the talking statue in the basement of the Tower of Magi spoke of. It could be nothing, but once more, there is a great darkness looming over Thedas, according to the last part of the Chant of Light too. Maybe it's wise not to overlook this.

Later, when we return with Merril, she will confirm what Tamlen said: these ruins are human with elven artefacts.

Duncan will confirm that this Eluvian was of Teviner Origin, used for communication but not for transport. This is easy to understand when you read The Masked Empire, and later is stated in Trespasser: The Eluvians need keys to get activated and allow passage. Clearly, the tevinters co-opted, stole, or made replicas of the elven Eluvians, but never could unlock their transportation property.

Duncan also states that these mirrors can get infected with the Taint. In DAI we learnt that the blight only affects living creatures [putting aside some tainted crystal/items we saw here and there, that may be some minor lore inconsistency]. This means that the Eluvians are as alive as lyrium is.

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If one went to complete the Elvish Ritual [quest] and enter the chamber of the honoured dead. 

The Party would encounter a panicking-turn-hostile woman (assuming she is the mother of the ghostly boy) yelling something in fluent Elvish.

While the woman might have mid-long hair, the transparent model shows that she has round ears as well, indicating that she is human.

I have my scepticism as to if the ghostly woman is actually speaking Elvish or complete gibberish since Elvish in this series is more a cypher than with a "legitimate" grammar or vocabulary (in lore, much of language is been lost) and the developer might not have thought out more words or phrase than what would be used and understood for the player to experience. (Unless one is an expert linguistic. Which I'm not, unfortunately) Well, Curator Justine, I may not be an educated linguist. However, languages are something I greatly enjoy. Now down below there will be a very crude/rough translation. Of what this woman may have been talking too or about. Seems like she first asks: Is it over? Can it truly be? Second image: They must pay! I will make them pay. Third image: Now go!  I will stay, go! Now from what I recall of this particular scene this elvhen/human woman shows hostility but also fear. It certainly matches with the fear-induced voice the young boy tries to call for his mother. Asking where she has gone off too?   So could it be that the lair is under attack? By who you might ask? Now there is one entity in the Brecilian Forest that may shed some light on what happened. How many remember The Grand Oak? If you spoke to The Grand Oak you find out that some battle that had many casualties may be the reason for why the veil in the Brecilian Forest is so weakened. However, The Grand Oak was not yet apart of the forest at this point in time. Though it may shed some light on what may have been the cause. Of why these humans/elves found a reason to escape? Or stand behind and fight for those who had fallen? Well, I’ll let Curator Justine continue from here!

(If anyone can translate these, it would be very much appreciated)

There are only 2 plausible theories I'm able to come up with at the moment:

1) The ghostly boy might be elf-blooded but live with his elvish side of the family.

2) Elves and human might have shared the same society and mingled together willingly once upon a time.

Perhaps it might not be as surprising as one might think. Since the Elven Ruins discovered by Mahariel and Tamlen the Blighted mirror in the Dalish Origin (or first encounter in Witch Hunt DLC, if the Warden is of other origins), Tamlen does mention while the ruins are unmistakenly Elvish, there are also signs of human architecture (such as the female statue) as well. 

 Whatever inhabits might once were;  my estimation is it may possibly exist somewhat around post-Veil or post-Andraste up until during the Exalted March against the Dales; if the elvish spirit in the pendant in which the Warden would able to unlock the <Arcane Warrior> Specialization from is anything to be considered.