#prima guide

981 TE (-234 Ancient): Andraste is born a peasant commoner in the village of Luighdor (today part of the city known as Denerim), on the eastern coast of Ferelden. She is captured by Tevinter forces at a young age and becomes a slave.

Looks like name "Luighdor" got scrapped, now it's just said that Andraste was born in a fishing village that later became Denerim, and the original name doesn't appear anywhere. Another detail is that Andraste was a daughter of an Alamarri chieftain, not a simple peasant, but that could be part of the disparaging accounts of Andraste's life, which is baked into the lore. Even in the current iteration, the stories about Andraste differ a lot from codex to codex, especially around her enslavement. Some say that she was kidnapped as a child, other imply that she was already married to Maferath.

1020 TE: A massive horde of barbarians cross the Waking Sea from the south led by the warlord Maferath and Andraste, the Betrothed of the Maker. Some records claim the barbarians were driven north by the darkspawn, others that Andraste was bringing freedom to the people of the Imperium who had been long oppressed by the depravities of the magisters.

This part about the darkspawn didn't appear anymore, probably because it made little sense. The First Blight has already been ended for a while at that point, so why would darkspawn stragglerd suddenly drive the Alamarri north if they hadn't done so during the actual Blight. In fact, the north of Thedas was were the darkspawn horde caused the most damage.

1024 TE (-191 Ancient): The Archon declared a truce, while Maferath allowed his wife to be captured by Imperial agents and subsequently publicly burned to death in front of a large crowd at the Proving Grounds in Minrathous.

I'm kind of curious why Proving Grounds were supposed to be the place of Andraste's execution, was that just because it's a large open space, or did the dwarves from the Ambassadoria somehow helped with bringing her to the capital? Anyway, that got changed, Canticle of Apotheosis says that Andraste's pyre was built near the entrance of Minrathous, at the feet of the Juggernauts that guard the gates.

Alright, let's give Andraste some rest and move onto other areas of the lore.

2:10 Glory: The grandson of Hafter, Teyrn Caedmon, seeks to raise himself above the other teyrns. He declares himself king of the Fereldan people and officially establishes the presence of the Andrastian Chantry in Denerim. A civil war erupts to oppose him, and while he has great success at first, his downfall occurs when he commits too much of his power toward the Exalted March of the Dales in the west. In the end, the great Battle of Valmorn Hills results in Caedmon's death. Three more claimants to the title of king emerge, including Caedmon's son, Talemal, but all suffer quick ends as the civil war consumes the land. No more attempts to claim the king's title are made, though the various teyrns struggle for dominance during a long period known as the War of Crowns, named for the sudden rise of the various teyrns adorning themselves with royal crowns even if they did not call themselves kings. Centuries later, King Calenhad rounded up these crowns and destroyed them, though legend says some are still hidden away.

Everything besides the italicized parts seems to have been axed, and oh my, it would've been so wild if they kept all of that. An Alamarri king who brought the Chantry into Ferelden ages before Calenhad? He even got involved into the Exalted March against the Dales? Looks like they gave that role over to Kordillus Drakon II. Oh, and imagine the hidden away crowns of the Alamarri being discoverd by someone ages later. What if the Warden was able to dig one up and give it to the person they supported as Fereldan monarch?

Every nobleman appointed his arbiter. A bann had men who resolved the disputes on his land while a teyrn did the same. This led to inevitable disagreements as arbiters conflicted each other based on the rank of whom they served as well as the differing laws in each land. King Vortigeyrn in 4:85 Black reformed this system by decreeing that "every man had the right to be heard by the king." After that point, all arbiters represented the king and the king's law only. This did not go over well with the Fereldan nobles, especially in the Bannorn, and it was not until the various lords were given the power to collectively determine the king's law in the Landsmeet that this was deemed acceptable practice throughout Ferelden.

This guy got thrown into a hole, never to emerge, it seems. He would've reigned before Calenhad's unification, so not entire Ferelden population answered to him, though this excerpt make it sound like it did. I imagine this is why he got erased. He’s named after a 5th century warlord in Britain.

Seldom was anything accomplished, as the idea of giving up personal independence for the common good is not truly a Fereldan trait, but sometimes overriding concerns brought action: for example, in the Landsmeet, the banns fought against the occupation of the Imperium, repelled the werewolves during the Black Age, and elected to follow Maferath and Andraste into history. Since the time of King Vortigeyrn, the Landsmeet has become a more official body as well as a legislative one.

Apparently, these historic decision were made at the Landsmeet. The sources that reference the Landsmeet don't provide these examples, from what I recall. Vortigeyrn's involvement doesn't fit the current lore, but the other could still be true.

3:10—3:25 Towers: Toth is awoken and the Third Blight begins. Cormac plays a major role as he journeys north and fights alongside the Marchers against the darkspawn hordes, dying in the final fight, the Battle of Hunter Fell.

Hmm, this one is interesting because Cormac isn't mentioned in connection to the Third Blight any longer. He's the legendary Alamarri hero who, according to some, repelled a Chasind invasion led by Flemeth and her daughters. (Though Genitivi notes that the timeline doesn't line up, and Morrigan claims Cormac led a civil war against his own people.) If Cormac's role in the Third Blight remained in the lore, would he be eventually identified as the person who killed the Archdemon? Even now, the Hero of the Third Blight is a mystery, the only known thing is that they used a blade which was later reforged into three daggers dubbed Thorns of the Dead Gods.

Legends also claim that a race of half-shape-shifters called "ferals" descend from that time, living quietly among humanity or withdrawing deep into the wilds (depending on the legend).

Sorry, what are half-shape-shifters? :P Shape-shifters who can change only half their body into animal? Or maybe they succeed just half the time they attempt shifting.

8:99 Blessed: The previous several years have seen two dragon flights ranging out of the Frostback and Orkney Mountains, even though it was thought that dragons had been hunted to extinction by Nevarran dragon hunters during the Steel Age.

The Orkney Mountains, a rugged chain of mountains that stretches from the icy wastelands of the southeast deep into the continent's center, dominate the southern lands of Thedas.

That got me a bit puzzled because the Orkneys aren't marked on any of the maps, and if they were as massive as they describe here, at least a portion of them should've been labelled somewhere. Strangely, the Orkney Mountains did make it into "Codex entry: Geography of Thedas" that appeared in Dragon Age, but the version of this codex entry featured in the Prima Guide doesn't mention them. All in all, it looks like someone forgot to update stuff when they changed this geographical detail.

9:20 Dragon: The young Empress Celene of Orlais makes her historic visit to Denerim, putting aside decades of strife and resentment to sign a peace treaty. This officially ends the long war between the two nations.

I don't think Celene's visit to Denerim in 9:20 is referenced in the current version of the lore. Ferelden and Orlais did certainly sign a peace treaty after her ascension to the throne, and Celene has exchanged letters with Cailan, so there's that. The devs said that in the original plot of DAO, Celene would've arrived in Denerim to meet up with King Cailan. If that plotline was kept, Celene's previous visit to Denerim ten years prior likely would've been brought up.

The Donark Forest marks its northern border and is a rain forest of tall trees and uncivilized freemen who have notoriously evaded control by their southern cousins.

I suppose existence of these freemen could still be true, but the way the Donarks are presented now, no humans seem to live there. But the jungles are largely unexplored, so maybe some folks do indeed thrive beyond the borders of known Thedas.

Now they have been part of the Qunari culture and Qun philosophy for so long that they could not even imagine going back. For their part, the Qunari treat Par Vollen as their homeland. Contact with their original homeland was intermittent at best across the turbulent Northern Ocean before it finally ceased altogether two centuries ago. Several ships have been sent home to restore contact, but they have not returned.

Excuse me, what? Qunari were once envisioned to have had contact with their homeland after they landed in Thedas? They tried to restore it but no one returned? What's happening in the Qunari homeland, BioWare pls tell me.

The Crows are almost omnipresent in their own nation and are known to appear elsewhere, all identifiable by their unique tattoos (a tradition taken from the Rivaini; some Crows display their tattoos proudly, while others keep them hidden).

From what I could hear in Zevran's dialogue, this detail about Crow tattoos possibly being inspired by Rivaini tradition doesn't come up. In a banter with Leliana, he says they're sacred and that he cannot talk about their meaning, and that's all I believe. Will the topic resurface in DA4? I suppose the Crow markings could originate from some Rivaini ritual. Tattoos are said to be popular among the people of Rivain, much more than in other cultures of Thedas. Antiva has some ties to Rivain, they're close geographically, and the two nations were brought close together when Asha Subira Bahadur, a Rivaini princess, became Queen Asha Campana of Antiva. I think giving Crow tattoos Rivaini roots would be pretty neat actually.

1200 TE (-2415 Ancient): The tribes of people known as the "Alamarri" cross the Frostback Mountains and settle in the lands that would become the country of Ferelden some 3,000 years later. What drives the Alamarri across the mountains is not known, but the oldest tribal legends mention evil forces belonging to the "Shadow Goddess," a being whose proper name was never invoked by Alamarri scribes lest her gaze fall upon them. Some modern scholars suggest that the Alamarri likely fled a great natural disaster—a flood caused by a large earthquake appears the most likely cause, according to hints in the old tales, though there are several tribes with stories that directly contradict this theory and instead point toward some form of enemy invasion. Regardless, the Alamarri crossed the mountains from the west and spread quickly across the Fereldan valley.

This particular story stayed mostly the same, except the ommission of the flood theory. I do wonder why it wasn't mentioned in the current version of the lore, the timeline just says that it could've been a disaster without suggesting what it could be. Before looking into the Prima Guide I had theorized that the natural disaster was an eruption of a large volcano that forced the Alamarri to flee across the mountains, mainly because the "shadow" part of the "Shadow Goddess" made me wonder what events that could cause prominent shadows, and that brought ash clouds to my mind. Now I suppose "shadow" was simply meant to invoke hardships that the Alamarri went through because of the earthquake and the flood.