#tevene

DRAGON AGE THE VEILGUARD SPOILERS ⚠

If you help Minrathous in Act 1, when you start "The Cobbled Swan Case" quest in Docktown with Neve, you'll have a cutscene of Cida Cicadia singing on stage while Makal Damas gets taken away.

It doesn't happen if you helped Treviso instead, but you'll still meet the singer later. (Which is odd to me?)

The lyrics in english are:

…if only to say my last goodbye Call upon the center of the Fade… …my love, come to me one last time. Call upon the center of the Fade… …if only to grant me my rest.

I can't help but think this song once was about Solas & Mythal...?

Bonus (Tevene lyrics transcription attempt):

…odoci dite sera vale In vussa centra somniar Amatus, ba vium vesse cia In vussa centria somniar Si solum de mea engrela con tria

I write a lot of Dorian-centric stuff, which has necessitated coming up with meanings for some of our more colourful Tevene phrases. Allow me to share my work for fun.

Disclaimer: I'm not actually educated in Latin. Do I know what I'm talking about? Not especially. But Tevene seems to be based on some vague semi-Latin at best, so I think I'm up to this task.

Fasta vass!

Known background: Both Fenris and Dorian say this phrase in-game. Fenris spits it out amidst a string of curses in a moment of anger; Dorian exclaims it in the Fade upon seeing a pride demon: "Fasta vass, that's a big one!"

Possible Latin root words:

As far as I can tell, "fasta" and "vass" aren't themselves Latin, but Tevene is hardly 1:1 accurate Latin anyway. In the absence of any other context, here are some similar Latin words that we can draw from:

fāstus - (1) arrogance, pride, haughtiness; scornful contempt or disdain of others; OR (2) prudery, primness

vas - likely vessel, as in e.g. "vase." Also potentially a duct releasing bodily fluid? You know, as in "vas deferens."

Definition:

Given that Dorian says the phrase specifically upon seeing a pride demon, it would seem like too much of a coincidence for "pride" not to be involved in the definition. So something like "proud vessel" is where I landed. But what's the implication of that?

I came up with two possible interpretations:

(1) Vessel could be some sort of funny vessel, like a chamber pot. (The bodily duct implication coming into play too...) Therefore, "proud piss-pot."

(2) A proud bodily vessel. Well, then: "Gigantic dick."

(Very mature, I know. Hey, these are the same people who gladly proclaim "you shit on my tongue.")

"Gigantic dick" is pretty funny to me, especially if you consider the prospect of Dorian spluttering that when he sees a massive demon. But then, "big dick, that's a big one!" is perhaps a bit too redundant for our eloquent boy. So when it came time to put one in the story I'm working on, I chose "proud piss-pot."

The full context for what this means:

I'll let Dorian and Hawke explain my rationale and its potential uses under the cut. Plus I'll add the version where I had Dorian define it as "gigantic dick" that I cut out of the fic, just for fun.

Here’s my very serious, important question: how would the Dorian Pavus of Minrathous swear?

I’ve noted down the few times I’ve heard him swear in Tevene:

‘Fasta vaas!’, upon seeing the Nightmare demon in the Fade.

‘Vishante kaffas’, which I seem to remember he exclaims in response to something Bull says in party banter 💀

‘Festis bei umo canavarum’, not technically a swear, but I believe it means ‘You’ll be the death of me’ so it felt right to include it — he says that to Cole in party banter lolll

And these are all great, but I’m running out of the Tevene options for my writing, so if he were to swear in the common tongue…

Some Latin (or Tevene :P ) phrases for writing prompts

“Mors certa, hora incerta.” (Death is certain, its hour is uncertain.)

“Pulvis et umbra sumus.” (We are dust and shadows.)

“Luctor et emergo.” (I struggle and emerge.)

“Aeternum vale.” (Farewell forever.)   

“Mors mihi lucrum.” (Death to me is reward.)

“Nascentes morimur.” (From when we are born, we begin to die.)

“Omnia mors aequat.” (Everything is equal in death.)

“Tempus edax rerum.” (Time, devourer of everything.)

“Ars longa, vita brevis.” (Art is long, life is short.)

“Sic transit gloria mundi.” (Thus passes the glory of the world.)

“Nemo me iuvare potest.”  (No one can help me)

“Memento mori.” (Remember that you will die.)

“Nascentes morimur.” (From when we are born, we begin to die.)

 “Solus sum” (I am alone.)

There is also THIS list of "actual" Tevene.

I am aware that according to the game codex Tavene is not far off being a  dead language, but I tend to ignore that in my fics lol, and regardless the idea that the Magisters at least still use a far amount of Tevene phrases feels reasonable in my mind… I mean I am a lowly personal trainer who grew up on a farm and I can read some Latin so *shrugs*  

Since a lot of Tevene seems to be based on Latin, I decided to try to translate the official high names of the months from the Thedosian calendar:

Verimensis (Wintermarch)

Probably means something like “young/early month” or “true month” (possibly meant to be “first/beginning month”??). Mensis is the Latin word for “month,” and veri could be from a number of different words, including ver (“spring,” “youth”), verus (“true,” “right,” “proper”), or even verum (“roasting spit,” “javelin”).

Pluitanis (Guardian)  

Pluit means “rain” in Latin. I don’t think anis (or an + is, etc.) means anything useful. I think the endings of a lot of these months were added by the devs to Tevene-ize the Latin words and make them distinct.

Nubulis (Drakonis)

Nubes is the Latin word for “cloud.” It is interesting that Cloudreach is the low name for Eluviesta instead of this month.

Eluviesta (Cloudreach)

This month probably takes its name from the Latin word eluvies, which means “flowing out” or “flood.”

Molioris (Bloomingtide)

Molior is a form of the Latin verb molio (“to build,” “to undertake,” “to set in motion”). Maybe this is traditionally the month of sowing crops?

Ferventis (Justinian)

The Latin verb fervo means “to be very hot,” “to boil,” or “to burn.” Presumably Tevinter is already very hot by this time of year.

Solis (Solace)

Sol is the Latin word for the sun. Presumably this month is, like Ferventis, named for the hot weather.

Matrinalis (August)

Matrinalis could get its name from the Latin word matrimonium, “marriage.” It could also get its name from the Latin word mater, which means “mother.”

(On an unrelated note: The low name for the month, August, is so named bc Andraste’s name was originally going to be Augusta.)

Parvulis (Kingsway)

Parvus means “little/small” in Latin, and parvulus is one of several words in Latin that means “children.”

Perhaps Matrinalis and Parvulis are meant to correspond as “Mother Month” and “Child Month”? Or “Marriage Month” and “Children Month”?

Frumentum (Harvestmere)

Frumentum means “grain” in Latin. Presumably this is harvest time throughout  Thedas.

Umbralis (Firstfall)

Umbra is the Latin word for “shadow,” so perhaps this month is named for the days getting darker?

Cassus (Haring)

So in one of the Dragon Age server I’m in, the question of the Thedosian calendar came up. So I did some digging and analysis, and found some really cool correlations. Please note that these are my opinions, based on the Dragon Age Wiki and canon sources. There are many interpretations, not just mine <3 

Southern Thedosian Climate Thoughts

Thedas is, from what we understand, in the southern hemisphere of their world, for the sheer fact of south = colder, north = warmer. However, if we look at the Common names of the months, there can be 2 different interpretations

-1. Either Southern Thedas has climate like an IRL northern hemisphere, where Wintersmarch = January = winter weather/snow, and thus follows seasons that way. It's easy to consider it that way, because the 8th month in Thedas and Earth, match: they're both August (according to the wiki, this is carried over from when Andraste was named Augusta in earlier drafts of the game)

 -2. OR the Thedosian calendar year starts in, say, what we would consider summer in the IRL northern hemisphere/winter in the IRL southern hemisphere (such as IRL March) and then follows a southern hemisphere pattern of weather. Considering the Tevinters first set up the calendar, and the Roman calendar year starts in March, that can also be a consideration.

either of these methods can work. I personally use the first method in my longfic, The Songstress and the Swordsman, but, as stated above, there are many proverbial roads to Rome, and different interpretations.