One of my favourite Unreliable Narrator moments to this day is in DA:I after the Blackwall reveal, Cullen's assessment of Leliana having the report on Renier but not saying anything is that she probably didn't connect the two people together because she's got a blind-spot for Wardens.
I understand why that's a reasonable assessment from him; Her history with the wardens is common in-world knowledge, the plot of Leliana's song is not. However from an outside perspective, I think it's far more likely Leliana did know, but that she has a soft spot for those seeking redemption from their past, given her own history.
The report on the Real Blackwall's whereabouts during the Fifth Blight (which Blackwall will contradict in casual conversation) that she has in the rookery from the first arrival at Skyhold.
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One of my favourite Unreliable Narrator moments to this day is in DA:I after the Blackwall reveal, Cullen's assessment of Leliana having the report on Renier but not saying anything is that she probably didn't connect the two people together because she's got a blind-spot for Wardens.
I understand why that's a reasonable assessment from him; Her history with the wardens is common in-world knowledge, the plot of Leliana's song is not. However from an outside perspective, I think it's far more likely Leliana did know, but that she has a soft spot for those seeking redemption from their past, given her own history.
I was drawn to play as Tabris because of the strong parallel between the city elves and the Jewish people. As I played, I was also really interested in the role of dogs and mabari and how Tabris would relate, culturally, to being around one and having one. I found significant ties to Jewish cultural understandings of dogs, connected back through elven monotheism and their narrative role in the alienage. I compiled some of this below, but there is plenty more, I'm certain. The iconic "Like dogs, Shianni" has more weight than I think people realize, both in-universe and in the real world.
Giant disclaimer that I am analyzing the city elves and Tabris through the analog of Judaism, that is, as a monotheistic minority culture living in segregated city quarters. This is not to diminish or remove the many other analogs to real life people and cultures that elves represent in Dragon Age. I just found the connections between them deeply rich in ways that I think people who are not familiar with Jewish context would find interesting! A general content warning for discussions of ethnic violence, pogroms, miscarriage, massacres, and dead bodies.
The Canticle of Shartan
In Dragon Age, it is established that the Canticle of Shartan is central to elves who believe in and worship the Maker; it is Dragon Age's Exodus parallel (the connections between which will have to be for another post). It is important enough to elves to have been vengefully de-canonized after the Exalted March on the Dales. Additionally, the Chantry has removed evidence that Shartan was an elf in art and literature. If Leliana becomes the Divine in Inquisition, she re-canonizes this Canticle.
What's interesting is that in the little actual text we have of the Canticle, dogs are one of the primary metaphors employed in the text through Shartan/the narrator's voice. In the first instance, Shartan tells the People who are considering returning to Tevinter:
"A dog might slink back to the hand it has bitten
And be forgiven, but a slave never.
If you would live, and live without fear, you must fight."
Dogs are used in the text to measure power, status, lowliness, and degeneracy. In the above, the condition of bondage is worse than being a dog.
In the next instance:
Darkness fell upon the Lonely One,
A night without moon or stars,
As the legion followed, like bloodhounds,
The trail of the rebels.
The narrator compares the Tevinter legion pursuing the elves to bloodhounds--a poignant deglorification of their Roman-adjacent military might. The elves are the strategic geniuses while the legion are mindless hunters; by lowering the status of the Tevinters to dogs, they legitimize themselves above them, as a free people.
The third instance is after the People kill the legion. They are frightened by the sound of Andraste's army marching into Tevinter, though they do not know it is her:
Seeing an army beyond counting gathered in the distance,
Shartan said to the People
"Let us not fall into the jaws of the wolf together..."
It is more than likely that polytheistic elven tradition seeped into the language of the Canticle, with Fen'Harel as a wolf-god associated with curses and exile. The change in metaphor is striking to me as it could foreshadow Andraste's power and dignity--while a dog is a low imitation, a wolf is it's more dangerous, more respected forebear. Wolves are, of course, associated with Fen'Harel, and even as a trickster, Fen'Harel is still acknowledged as a deity.
Regardless, danger, enslavement, mindlessness (a kind of enslavement) and death are associated with dogs, wolves, and canines.
Dogs in the Alienage
Throughout most major Jewish texts, similar to the above, dogs are equated with lowliness, uncleanliness, and evil. In the Hebrew Bible, dogs are associated with prostitution, and considered animals that maul people and eat corpses. Even Jewish law, halakha, describes in kosher guidelines food so unclean it is nifsal mei'achilat kelev, "something one would not feed to a dog." The Talmud records a case of a dog barking at a pregnant woman, and she miscarried; the dog's bark "caused the Divine Presence to depart from the Jewish people." (Bava Kamma 83a:7).
In the opening cutscene of the Tabris origin, we see a dog lying beside working and impoverished elves; we later see elven children playing with this dog during the wedding preparations. So there's not a general cultural dislike or removal of all dogs, and dogs can be pets. I believe, however, there are significant limits to this relationship. Historically, Jewish legal codes regulated that dogs must be chained and/or only let out at night because of their association with destruction and violence. When going around the alienage, there are no dogs out and about--we only see dogs loose after the purge. Notably, the dog seen is not a mabari. In Dragon Age, it could be that mabari specifically, war dogs, represent a new magnitude of violence and lowliness.
Mabari and the Orphanage
In Jewish mystic tradition, dogs symbolize demons and the presence of evil in the world. They are referred to as such in the Psalms: "Dogs surround me;/ a pack of evil ones closes in on me" (22.17) and later in the poem "Save my life from the sword,/ my precious life from the clutches of a dog" (22.21) [Translation from the Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition, Oxford University Press].
When investigating the horrors of the orphanage, two of the major signs of demonic activity are dogs. One dog is dead, and has been for some time; the other is alive and feral. It is the same dog that was playing with the elven children that has gone feral, while the mabari lies dead.
When you enter into the orphanage, mabari have taken over the rooms alongside the restless spirits and demons. Considering the Talmudic story about dogs and children above, it is significant that dogs replace the elven children that were once there. They are the remnant of the pogrom.
A survivor says this about the dogs in the orphanage:
"The dogs hear the bad men too. They make the dogs so confused, so angry. Poor little pups barking at the noise. Make them stop!"
What's interesting is the elven woman shows a lot of sympathy for the dogs. If the "bad men" are both the violent humans and the demons, then the "poor animals" and "pups," are reacting with and like the restless spirits of the elven children and adults massacred. There are literal dogs inside the orphanage, just as outside, but they are the physical manifestation of a corrupted weakness in the veil, the death and violence. If elves believe dogs are demonically connected, perhaps dogs are drawn to such belief wherever elven spirits rage. Their angered and grieving souls have been corrupted, and their being stuck, frightened, and haunting that place is equal to the lowliness of doghood.
A major role for dogs in the story of Exodus is during the tenth plague, the Death of the Firstborn, which also connects dogs and noise:
"And there shall be a large cry in all the land of Egypt, such as has never been or will ever be again; but not a dog shall snarl [or bark, or move its tongue]..." (Exodus 11.6-7).
The silence of the dogs enabled and recognized the ancient Jewish people as a free people. The elven woman is also asking for the silence of the dogs, the quieting of spirits through justice and the expulsion of the demons. She is asking, in a way, for the restoration of their dignity.
We see in the Canticle of Shartan and the way in which restless spirits who died violent deaths become equated with mabari, the violent acts of humans degrade themselves into demons and dogs, and degrade others to a status even beneath that. The silence and absence of dogs represent the dignity of elves as a free people, and justice in their memory.
So, when Tabris tells Shianni she killed them "like dogs," it is a kind of redemption, a denigration of humans because of their violence and a recognition of elven dignity. Just as the People in the Canticle of Shartan slaughtered the "bloodhounds," and how the dogs in Exodus were silent during the last, violent plague for liberation.
In Conclusion
I think this provides an interesting angle into Tabris' relationship with mabari, Fereldan culture, and the differences in monotheism between humans and elves. I also think it can add new weight to the Nature of the Beast, with elves cursing humans after racial violence to be half-dog, half-man (this is deeply grounded in Dalish perspectives related to Fen'Harel, though I think there is important cultural bleed-through) and how an elven warden might respond. I hope it sheds light on what I feel is significant Jewish symbolism, and the metaphorical thread of dogs as it relates to monotheistic city elves found in the game and in-game sacred text. I hope it was an interesting read, and can add to whatever storytelling you'd like to do with your Tabris or city elf characters!
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a thing about vivi that is always like. heartbreaking to me. that i feel is often overlooked in the fandom. is like... when she is supporting the circle system and arguing for reform over rebellion, when she's arguably conservative... she's Not arguing from being like. just too insulated from normal mage life to know how bad the circle system can be and Is. she's not pulling up the ladder behind her or arguing that everyone should just get good like her. she's arguing from essentially abject terror for the mage children, mage Tranquil, mages with no abilities that can be used to protect themselves or fight back, mages who are not ready and able to run off, become rebels and arm themselves, when inevitably the response to the rebellion from the chantry hits the weakest, most vulnerable, most Currently Still Easily Accessible circle mages the hardest. she doesn't think that mages should be in the torture basement forever because they deserve to suffer and suffering is what's best for them— she believes that if the circles fall, the people (the chantry, the templars, the nobility of every country under the orlesian chantry who rely on mage labour, the ordinary soldiers and civilians who have been raised to be Terrified Of Magic) will turn on her people. and they'll turn on her, no matter how well-behaved she's been! and When they do, she won't be able to protect the most vulnerable mages! she is trying to protect other mages the best way She knows how here!
she's The exemplary circle mage taking a permitted avenue to create a position of influence and Make something of herself, and it still isn't enough, and she's still forced to rely on wealthy and powerful patrons who don't fully see her as an equal person to them and can retract their patronage whenever they want, because a mage can Never be enough. and she knows it! probably better than anyone! she Knows she's always on the verge of losing everything she's built for herself! so yknow. yeah she's afraid, of templars and kings and queens and the chantry, of the Backlash the rebellion will provoke, and she's absolutely certain that the mage rebellion Can't Win, and when they are inevitably crushed, it will only be Worse For Everyone. that's not someone saying mages are Correctly placed under the templars' boots, that's someone saying If You Cause Trouble, All Our Most Vulnerable Will Be Killed. she's not entitled or disconnected from Normal Mages, she's terrified! & i think that often goes like. unacknowledged because. ok partly bc dai is constantly asking you not to sympathise with her and to instead be as suspicious of her as you can. but also because so much of her character is putting on a front and refusing to allow anyone to see her fear because so much of her influence comes from being able to control the narrative around her. you are falling for her bit!
anyway i do think even though it's obviously a real highlight of da that the characters have like firm opinions and beliefs that won't bend just to please the player it's kind of a heinous crime against me specifically that vivienne's perspective isn't allowed to evolve At All through questlines & the way the inquisitor can materially impact the political landscape esp wrt mages. given her everything
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Hey you should totally recruit me. Yeah I've spent the last year in a solitary confinement cell hopped up on my own imbalanced brain chemicals and talking to cats about magic theory. I'm definitely not going to go monkey mode on the first templar who looks at me funny. I totally remember how to be a human. *grabs Warden-Commander's hand* I Love You.
I was looking for one of my reference screenshots but also found my DA:I fic notes and this one made me laugh;
Ancient elven burial ground under the riverside garrison. The orlesians have been storing their wine there. “No one alive knows what they used it for.” Buddy! There are corpses!
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Okay, but Rook asking Lucanis to promise they aren’t in the fade anymore and Lucanis, who never makes a promise he cannot keep, SWEARS! Like, I see your promise and raise you a DONT YOU EVER DOUBT YOURSELF OR ME OUR LOVE TRANSCENDS THE FADE!
No, because let's talk about it. Not only does he not make promises he isn't certain of, this is a man who is one thousand percent aware of how fallible he and everyone around him is, fresh off multiple weeks of believing he'd never see Rook again, and who often cannot trust his own reality standing on the fact that this moment is real, that Rook is there, and that he's absolutely certain of it all so Rook has something solid to lean on.
Up to that point, Rook's been the one certain of him, the one solid for him, the one pulling him out of the unreality. Not only does he know how he feels, he knows how they're feeling. The grief, the uncertainty, the daunting task ahead of them still. It's not merely an expression of love, it's Lucanis being able to be there for Rook in the same way Rook has been there for him. As a culmination of the romance, it's really very sweet and shows a lot of character growth on Lucanis' part for being able to acknowledge all of these things he would have previously repressed.
hi, veilguard peeps, can we take a moment to talk about rook mercar? because rook mercar is possibly one of the most batshit rooks in the game and they deserve to be recognized as such.
but not only that, mercar's backstory shades the shadow dragons and venatori conflicts in very interesting ways so let's talk about them.
so first, the nessus job.
i don't blame you for forgetting (or not knowing, i know the shadow dragons aren't everyone's cup of tea) so here's your quick refresher from the shadow dragon background blurb found in the character creator:
Breaker of Bonds
“Rook risked everything to liberate the enslaved people of Tevinter, even knowing it would anger the ruling elite.
The foundling Rook was adopted into a military family and joined the Shadow Dragons to fight from the shadows for change in Minrathous. While guarding a visiting dignitary who was investigating a slavery ring in the nearby city of Nessus, Rook concluded that the mission would fail without throwing caution to the wind. Alone, s/he(/they) sneaked the dignitary deep into Venatori-controlled zones and brought him back, along with the rescued slaves. These actions brought Rook to the Venatori's attention, and the Shadow Dragons decided to keep Rook out of sight.”
that is the nessus job.
except this doesn't quite square with what the game has to say about it.
the background:
first, here's the viper's letter about the job:
so right away, note how weird it is that the viper's writing mercar's letter. i say this is weird because, with the other factions, the person writing rook's letter is someone they're familiar with, usually in a position of leadership. antoine and evka are the notable leadership exceptions here, having actually been involved in thorne's backstory actions.
here's the rub: mercar doesn't know the viper. they've heard of him, certainly, but when that little popup telling you that you've worked with these faction agents before appears, mercar doesn't have the option to act like they know the viper.
the lines mercar gets are:
it's an honor to stand beside a legend
i know he likes to make an entrance
i know he gets things done
now, i will grant you that some of the responses to mercar's comment indicate tarquin is familiar with both rook and ashur (his response to the honor line is 'well, that'll go straight to his head' while the entrance line earns the viper's comment 'no one watches the rooftops' and tarquin's exasperated 'sure, that's what he says') but the point is, for a character mercar is "supposed" to be very familiar with, neve still tells them about the name ashur. like, seriously, it's the same dialogue tag every rook gets.
which is weird because veilguard is actually pretty good at keeping track of rook's faction and seamlessly changing up the conversation while still getting across the relevant information.
but it doesn't stop there, oh no.
during mercar's unpacking scene, we get these default shadow dragon lines:
now, these right here ping for the following reasons:
varric isn't the "visiting dignitary" that rook was guarding, given that rook had to get to nessus before meeting varric
the fact that rook's backstory happens dao style, where all events are true but only one has duncan varric available to pluck rook out of the immediate consequences
minrathous slaves, specifically, are mentioned as being freed here, even though we're supposed to be in nessus. now i'm not saying that minrathous citizens can't be enslaved and sent elsewhere, i'm just pointing out the phrasing here
the magisters who were financially benefiting from the nessus ring (aka venatori and their backers) knew enough about rook to put a name and a face on them. the structure of the sentence here is that everyone knows who is "too much trouble" to keep around and that is fucking wild kids. no, seriously, that is wild. there is so much wild here, put a pin in it.
no, seriously, this matters and matches the backstory blurb that the job "brought Rook to the Venatori's attention." put a fucking pin in it.
whatever rook's feelings, they always take pride in freeing those slaves- impulsive rook just dislikes that it comes at the cost of putting the shadow dragons in danger (put a pin in it), righteous rook thinks that the shadows should have used the crackdown to start a full out war with the venatori and their magister backers mind you while finally stoic rook just hopes that the shadow dragons weathered the storm safely.
okay, so ready for more batshit mercar?
the next solas conversation is the one where rook tells solas why they're going to stop the gods and here's what mercar has to say about that operation:
i just want y'all to marinate in that little gem of a line for a sec.
done screaming yet? it's cool, take another minute. no one's doing it like mercar.
okay, so finally a fuller picture of mercar's backstory comes into focus, if you ignore the weird bits. like the fact that the shadows made a plan with varric to rescue a friend, which does not appear to be the original nessus job, mind you.
mercar met varric, something went screwy, and mercar and varric decided the only way they had a chance was to start an armed rebellion in the city of nessus. the slavery ring is busted, said rebellion is (apparently) put down, the venatori and the magisters know who to blame for it all, and mercar hightails it out of the country with varric. simple and straightforward, right?
wrong, we have so much to work through.
the fallout:
like why the fuck are ashur, mae, and dorian squatting in dock town, exactly? tarquin lives there but those three surely have a high town shadow dragon cell they can go bug, right? and why is ashur the only one of the three making any cell decisions? i mean, points to mae for being a decent house guest, i guess, but what exactly is going on here? why are the venatori breathing down the shop's neck, to the point that they knew its location well enough to deliberately target it in the save treviso route?
remember those pins? it's time to pull them.
i repeat: this is real fucking bad for the shadow dragons. unlike the rest of the origins, the shadows are a covert operation. they don't want anyone knowing who their members are, who their backers are, any of it. the people in power being able to identify shadow dragons is how you lose shadow dragons: to arrests, targeted killings, beatings, destruction of their livelihoods, etc. ya know, like the viper mentions in his letter.
the fact that the first warden can not only link rook's face and name to the shadow dragons but to very specific crimes, crimes for which rook can absolutely be arrested, should set off all the alarm bells. as dorian says, the man is more politician than warden and as charter's letter from marnas pell states, "Assume every noble Tevinter family not with Shadow Dragons has Venatori pulling strings." this is extremely bad.
after nessus, the venatori had rook's identity as mercar and what did they do? they started looking into every single person mercar had known contact with, every path they took, their home, their family, the bar they stopped in for breakfast that one time. that's how resistance cells die, by the way. including, potentially, mercar's. this is why the shadows were more than happy to see mercar out of the way for a while where they couldn't cause any more trouble; so long as they're not around, they can't compromise more of the various cells' activities and members. it's the safest move for literally everyone involved.
because the damage has been done:
mae's related to varric via marriage, by the way, if the full picture hasn't come into focus yet.
mercar and varric were id'ed in that rebellion, the venatori were pissed at the lost revenue streams and suddenly mae's knocked out of the magisterium?
yeah.
my guess is that there is no high town cell anymore because of the nessus job. for all that mae worked to ensure that dorian was out of the line of fire and squeaky clean, the shadows and their backers couldn't stop the venatori crackdown after nessus, as mentioned by ashur's letter. ashur and mae are here specifically because there is no other cell to go to.
this is why tarquin is snippy, by the by. mercar and the highbloods are drawing attention to him and endangering all of his people just by being there.
hang on, it gets worse.
because the venatori are obsessed with the viper and proving that he's the divine (he is the divine, for the record, there are too many ambient dialogues, codices, and missions pointing in that direction). and to that obsession, i say, what the fuck? how did they come to that conclusion, exactly? what trail did the divine leave behind that first got the venatori on his tail?
well, he's related to and has close ties with mae's family. secondly, the divine is known for being quietly supportive of slave liberation. but the real reason, i think, is the original nessus job.
because again, why were the shadows in nessus originally? why was mercar in nessus to meet varric in the first place? who was the "visiting dignitary" that mercar was guarding?
yeah, i think the dignitary was the divine. and i think he was there in his official capacity. it would handily explain the discrepancy that ashur knows mercar but mercar doesn't know ashur. while the divine might not have a lot of actual power, the power of the press and drawing attention to issues and plights should never be discounted. especially when it's a plausible excuse to get several minrathous shadows in place to shut down the nessus slaver ring.
the divine being guarded by a now known shadow dragon (the viper likely made an appearance, ashur is known to pop up when slave rebellions start) combined with his anti-slavery views and ties to anti-slavery politicians turned the venatori's eye on ashur's night job.
remember, the shadow dragons are officially labeled as insurgents; if the venatori can tie the divine and all his people to them? that would be a death knell for any political support for liberation. the checkmate for the anti-slavery cause for the next age.
tldr: mercar exposed their ties to the shadows (and possibly the divine's) by starting an armed rebellion with varric to free slaves and shut down a slaver hub. in response, the venatori sniped several cells using mercar and varric's likely contacts, which led to ashur, mae, and dorian squatting in the dock town shadow dragon cell instead of some high town cell.
