Avvar - Tumblr Posts

it honestly sucks that the things that would make an avvar inquisitor so good are probably also the things that stopped them from considering an avvar origin

the avvar are basically completely outside chantry influence. theres no negative reactions to being a mage, a dwarf, an elf or a qunari. we know they have a close relationship with the dwarves, that they treat magic with respect and without fear, and that their founder had an elven lover. thane svarah sun-hair mentions that their people have had few dealings with qunari, but that it's nice to not have to look down when they talk. so if an avvar became inquisitor, the whole 'choose between templars or mages' just... wouldn't be a thing? imo, an avvar would look at the breach and be like oh yeah we clearly need mages. people would warn them about magic being dangerous because mages can't be trusted and they'd be like um?? we trust our mages and it's fine?? we literally practice spirit possession for our mages so they can be taught etc and it's?? fine?? we talk to spirits on the regular? what do you mean mages can't be trusted? the advisors would be like oh we need influence to talk to the mages and meanwhile the avvar inquisitor has gone straight to redcliffe to talk to fiona about the breach and how um yeah ur right that mages shouldn't be locked up ur chantry is whack. if they weren't let in they climbed the walls.

they go to val royeaux to talk to the chantry begrudgingly because they don't like the chantry and that revered mother is all the maker would send no barbarian in our hour of need!! and the avvar inquisitor is all?? I mean I don't believe in ur maker but wasn't ur prophet u know. a barbarian? queue outraged french gasps. cassandra slightly disapproves. seras cackling on a balcony.

the avvar inquisitor doesn't want to be called the herald, and gets their beliefs disrespected a lot, but is also probably happy with their role because they're healing the tears in the sky, and thus helping the lady of the skies. there'd be an actual connection for them outside andraste, who despite not accepting as their prophet, they probably have some respect for. the avvar are pretty outspoken about their gods and beliefs from the few interactions we've had with them (probably because they're not oppressed under the chantry) so maybe they're more insistent on being called something to do with the lady of the skies. like the lady's herald or something.

interactions with companions would also be very different. solas tries to do his whole I saw it in the fade thing and the avvar inquisitor, especially if they're a mage, starts to get really suspicious because of their understanding of spirits etc. they love talking to iron bull because he's one of the few non chantry companions and their neck doesn't get sore talking to him. sera reacts to a female avvar the same way she does with a female qunari. they can help sera understand that spirits and magic aren't all demons and things to be scared of, and as a consequence her crisis of faith after the temple of mythal goes very differently. dorian and vivienne are at first both kind of wary of the way an avvar inquisitor talks about magic, but if they become friends they both begin to understand that there are ways of being taught how to resist demons. this is especially impactful for vivienne, who grew up in the circle being told she was a ticking time bomb, and if an avvar inquisitor is friends with her there's the chance to teach her their ways. they're much less weirded out by cole, and since they're so familiar with spirits, maybe they work out he's not simply a spirit earlier on. they probably get close with varric quickly because of the avvars close relationship with dwarves, and they're the one to tell varric stories. blackwall is really interested in hearing about their culture and they sit together around the fire and whittle little animals together. they probably struggle the most with cassandra honestly just because of how pro chantry she is, and after learning about how seekers become seekers they probably call her out on how hypocritical it is of her to be critical of the way their mages are taught by spirits when she herself was possessed by one. they probably start looking into a tranquil cure much earlier, because of their understanding of spirits and possession.

also a lot of avvar seem to have animal companions. I'm just saying an avvar inquisitor could have a pet.

Random bits of Avvar lore

These are just some bits of Avvar lore that I consider interesting, though I rarely find an excuse to bring them up in discussions about Dragon Age lore. They might not be terribly relevant but I think they're worth mentioning! If you're working on a fic that incorporates Avvar characters, you might even find these bits useful for adding flavour.

The Lady of the Skies has favourite species of birds.

“Bluebirds carry the goodwill of the Lady.” (Amund, DAI multiplayer)

“Budgerigars are sacred to the Lady. I think she likes the chirping.” (Amund, DAI multiplayer)

The Avvar call the shards "elfstones" and were able to locate them with help of Hakkon Wintersbreath before he got locked away.

"In the old times, the first Jaws of Hakkon spoke with the great spirit himself. He opened their eyes that they might see the elfstones hidden across the world, and they entered the old cave and learned the mysteries of winter." (Codex entry: Leather-Bound Hakkonite Journal)

The ability to read and write is not widespread among the Avvar (and may even be seen as odd) but hold leaders and augurs are usually literate.

"Script style and surrounding symbolism mark text as Avvar. Writing not widespread in holds—place marked by a leader or augur? Few lowlanders known to be in area at time.” (Codex entry: Colette's Notes)

“Thane Harofsen thinks he alone can work the words of lowlanders, as though the augurs had not learned the tale-drawing runes to study the old magic.” (Codex entry: Leather-Bound Hakkonite Journal)

They refer to the Tranquil as "dream-slain".

"The lowlanders, though, have found a new way to see them. The skull of dream-slain, set with the right magicks, can bring the elfstones to our sight." (Codex entry: Leather-Bound Hakkonite Journal)

An Avvar warrior won the Grand Tourney once.

The Grand Tourney is the oldest, and perhaps only, tradition of the Free Marches. [...] Contestants come from all over Thedas. [...] Once, the champion was an Avvar mountain man. (Codex entry: The Celebrant)

Their swearwords often involve gods/legendary heroes

Korth's stony arse, Korth-cursed, Tyrdda’s tits

Another common type of profanity is tied to domesticated animals and/or body waste

goat-lovers, goat-kissing, goat’s piss, goat shit, chicken-craps, shit-eating, blood-drinking

Stone-Bear hold has changed its physical location a few decades prior.

"Stone-Bear Hold's been here a few generations. I was born further north, but we left before I could remember." (Arvid Rolfsen, DAI)

Each of the chief gods has a test associated with them that can be used to settle disputes. The test of the Lady is climbing, as witnessed when first entering Stone-Bear Hold. The test of Hakkon involves fighting with blunted weapon, similar to the Hakkon's Trials quest where you face local warriors and fight until surrender. The one test that wasn't shown in any shape or form is the test of Korth, which incorporates flyting - an exchange of insults conducted in verse.

"The test of the Lady. We use it to settle disputes when it is not clear who has the right of it. There are others. For the test of the Mountain-Father, you battle with verse while those who favor you hold you aloft. The test of Hakkon is battle, with blunted weapons." (Svarah Sun-Hair, DAI)

Veilfire runes are known as "god-runes" to the Avvar.

"Stone-hidden lie the tales of this hold. Here's the means to find them. Return when you've seen all the god-runes, and I'll tell you why the Jaws of Hakkon did this." (Augur, DAI)

Avvar lore resources

I might be a little bit invested in a certain part of Dragon Age lore...

Jaws of Hakkon DLC transcript - a transcript of all dialogue lines from JoH DLC, including variations dependent on the Inquisitor's race, previous choices, and quest order.

Avvar history reconstruction - a 7-part series delineating the history of the Avvar tribe

Avvar first names spreadsheet - a thorough list of Avvar first names that appear in canon sources, organized by their real-life origin if possible

Avvar name structure - a detailed analysis of how Avvar names are constructed, including first names, surnames, legend-marks, and clan names

Avvar symbolism - collages of visual symbols related to the Lady of the Skies, Hakkon Wintersbreath, Korth the Mountain-Father

Parallels between Korth and the Titans

Elven roots of the word "Avvar"

Random bits of Avvar lore

they make fun of the avvar all they want but their world and traditions are 5x more fascinating and exciting than the rest of inquisitions story

Playing the Hakkon DLC rn and I am loving Avvarian animism.

They’re obviously based off norse aspects of culture, maybe even some ainu or slavic (though I’m not as knowledgeable on them), but I like that when the Inquisitor or Solas ask them something that sort of seems rude or makes them out to be “simple” they reply with good wit.

One of the Avvar was asked about making offerings to the gods and being gifted with feats, such as a burst of strength or speed. Solas tried to “dumb it down” to “Ah they call spirits and they get magically enhanced” and the Avvar replied “Isn’t that what I just said?” to which Solas actually apologized for.

Likewise, the fact they worship spirits animistically in addition to their main gods is so cool. The spirits are essentially landvættr, maybe there’s room to headcanon types of fylgja or hamingja that follow family lineages that may offer family specific blessings or omens. I wonder if their augurs perform some kind of útiseta or other trances. Theyre very practical so I wonder if they’d use spinning for some type of seiðr or spá, or similar physical crafts woven with spiritual influences.

With the context of dragon age they probably wouldn’t spin for the sake of altering the different fates (örlög, wyrd, luk) but maybe to weave enchantments into clothes, enchant weapons and armor differently from dwarves. Their connection to spirits is unique so I’m sure they’d have a unique magic system, not just for mages but like how dwarves have runes they could have other means of magical imbuement.

Love it so much. Good grounds to flesh out my new OCs too

i think it's interesting that avvar mages from the stone bear hold seem to dress exactly like all the rest of the avvar, don't seem to be carrying staves etc - at least the two mages we know, the augur and sigrid don't. i think that would be nice if it was just a confirmed thing that the avvar do, and how pissed off the chantry people would be, knowing that literally any avvar they're interacting with might be a mage, they just have no idea.

(i know that in the heroes of dragon age both sigrid and the augur have staves, but i don't really like focusing on the models from there, they can be... very alternative)

i just like to imagine avvar practicing a lot of staffless magic, bcos their magic is just different and works fine like that. like i also hc that bcos they have such a close connection to the spirits they have way more spirit healers than amongst circle mages, where it's said to be a rare talent.

What Avvar mage training tells us

Not enough people talk about the Avvar, which is a shame because they have some amazing history and practices. I find the way they handle mages to be especially enlightening and based as fuck.

So I made this post to summarise it!

In the above video, I captured two conversations with the Augur of Stone-Bear Hold, and Sigrid - the mage-in-training who went into a self-imposed exile. I'll summarise what mage training looks like for the Avvar, and then delve into the implications.

Augurs are the spiritual leaders of the Hold, but are not necessarily mages - though they often are.

Spirits are called 'gods' by the Avvar. The Avvar do also have named gods, and these appear to be particularly powerful spirits.

Mages among the Avvar bind themselves to a spirit in order to be trained - i.e., they become 'abominations' in the eyes of the chantry, which Dorian confirms in the video. This occurs at a young age, in Sigrid's case when she was a child.

The spirit becomes the mage's trainer. Years later, when the training is done, the mage releases the spirit in a ritual which requires only a small sacrifice (like a bird) and a vial of lyrium.

If a mage cannot release the spirit, then the situation is handled carefully. In Sigrid's case, she just didn't want to say goodbye to a good friend. She goes to the Augur after this, and he confirms that they are working on helping her overcome her loneliness.

If the reason is they are truly incapable of releasing the spirit (they are 'weak', though it's unclear what this means), then the Hold and spirits watches over them to prevent them from growing 'sick'. The Augur implies that if the mage does sicken and endangers themselves or the Hold, they are euthanised and pass away peacefully in their sleep. He says it is a very sad event.

What are the implications of this, then?

Reversing 'possession' can actually be really easy. We knew it was possible from DAO, but now we see that it need not require a massive amount of lyrium or blood magic. If the 'possession' does not happen in a state of extreme desperation/distress (which the Circle and Templars love to put mages in), then reversal is simple.

Mages who cannot release the spirit might 'sicken' - and I suspect that's what they tried to show with Anders. What 'sicken' means is not clarified by the Augur, but from our Anders experience we can piece together that the Augur means they grow mentally and physically unwell. But even this can be prevented or mitigated with proper care.

It appears to be very, very rare that mages among the Avvar turn into the types of abominations we fight in the games, because the Augur never even mentions it happening.

So, in conclusion: The Avvar treat their mages with the most humanity and compassion of everyone, resulting in very few instances of violent abominations.

(Note: tbh I have no idea wtf the Dalish mage training is like because the games contradict themselves even within the same clan, so I can't really draw comparisons to the Dalish, unfortunately.)

Codex entry: A Good Marriage

“In a hold past our own, a man named Virmik Torsen was to wed a woman named Seddra Yildsdotten. They were young, and in love, and made large offerings to the gods asking for happiness. The night before their wedding, Seddra had a dream. The Lady of the Skies came to her and told her to tie her rope-knots so tightly that she and Torsen would only wed a year. She awoke troubled, but did as the Lady asked. Virmik untied only one knot, and they married a year.

The year was hard. Their bows missed game and the winter wind howled through their huts. Virmik and Seddra grew thinner. When their marriage was up, they made large offerings to the gods, this time asking for mercy. The night before the wedding, the Lady of the Skies came to Virmik in a dream and told him to untie a single knot, so he and Seddra would wed only a year. Virmik awoke sorrowing, but did as the Lady asked. He and Seddra married again for a year.

The year was long. The weather was foul and the crops were poor. Virmik and Seddra grew thinner still. When their marriage time was up, Seddra and Virmik both had a dream from the Lady of the Skies. “You asked for happiness,” she said, “but I cannot give that to you. You asked for mercy, but the land will not show it. Think carefully what you ask tomorrow.”

Seddra and Virmik spoke long into the night and in the morning made an offering to the gods. They asked for strength to hunt and harvest when life was good, and patience, when life was not. The year was good in some places and hard in others, but they grew to know themselves and what they could bear. They became happy, not from the gift of the gods, but from their own deeds, and lived the rest of their lives as one.”

—From Stories of the Wild South: A Collection of Tales of the Barbarian Nations of Ferelden by Lady Susanna Ashwell of Ansburg

There are notes at the bottom margin of this page, in different handwritings:

“How’s a rope tell you how long you marry?”

“An Avvar groom unties knots on a rope that the bride ties for him. He’s got until the end of the wedding-chant. Number of knots he unties is the number of years they’re married.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Sounds like a good deal to me. See if you like living with your handsome new husband or wife once the bloom’s worn off. Maybe you only untie one knot or tie them tight, like in the story, if you’re not sure.”

“I think it’s daft.”

“I think you two nitwits should stop scribbling in the book I’ve got to return to the library.”

You know, in terms of mage companions I feel like on we haven't had yet is a rivaini seer or an avvar mage. So on one hand, I'll love to see both of them as a companion but then Bioware would find a way to villanize or both-sides the them. Instead of just presenting them as they are and letting us come to our own conclusions they employ these manipulative writing techniques to steer you away from having TOO much sympathy for mages, so I'd rather Rivain just remained in the background. Much safer

It would be so cool to have a Rivaini seer or Avvar mage companion. Bonus points if they were benignly possessed by a Spirit (two-in-one deal! 😆) and it would shed so much light on the lore on Spirit possession.

On the topic of Spirit possession: Jaws of Hakkon kind of gave us a glimpse into what benign Spirit possession among the Avvar looks like; it might be likely the next game will take us to Rivain and we'll get to see practices among the seers there, too. I think it also might be likely we'll get to visit Nevarra, and might either get to play as a Mortalitasi or have a Mortalitasi companion, which might also shed more light on Spirits inhabiting (dead) bodies.

But you do have point about BioWare's disappointing track record when it comes to portraying mages. The next game will bring us to Tevinter; I'm just dreading they'll try to convince players "magic bad, mages evil!" 😐 I'm not keeping my hopes up.

Thanks for the ask! 😃

i dont think im done talking abt this, actually. i'm going to try and explain how stupid this whole thing is because there's always SOMEONE going on about how if it wasn't for the circles, and the parallels of the circles to real-life atrocities, "the mage-templar debate" would be a two-sided issue.

actually, it's not.

the "mage-templar debate" is not an issue of ethics even before addressing the conditions of the circle, because you have other options.

the basic premise of the argument is "mages are inherently a danger to themselves and everyone around them. is locking them up to reduce the harm they pose to the general population the correct ethical decision?" but the entire concept is already bullshit even before you address the conditions of the circle, which is where most people claim the civil rights movement comparisons come from.

because. CANONICALLY. you have other options. you have options within the context of the games to reduce the "threat" or "danger" of magic. there's no cases of mass abominations in rivain. there's no cases of mass abominations (as we know understand & abominations anyway) amongst the avvar. there's no cases of mass abominations in tevinter. from the get-go the idea that "mages have to be locked up for their and everyone's safety" is already bullshit, before you even touch the issue of the circles. even before you get to the conditions of the circle, the very existence of mages in rivain and nevarra and the avvar and tevinter already renders the argument null and void.

from it's very inception, the entire premise -- mages are inherently a danger to themselves and everyone around them -- is proven to be a belief, not a fact.

I don't want to be too excited about Dragon Age Dreadwolf but. What if in one of the origins you get to be a human Avvar. A MAGE Avvar. Someone who hasn't grown up under the Chantry's rule and who learnt magic through being what the rest of Thedas call an "abomination." That's would be so freaking rad and be a nice follow-up to the Jaws of Hakkon DLC. I wouldn't know what to choose between that and being an elf for sure (because fighting against Solas as an elf would also be Great for Prime Drama)

thinking again about how fucked up it is that bioware revealed that the evanuris aren't actually gods but rather murderers and slavers - but they said they're not gonna confirm anything about whether the maker exists.

the chantry gets so much slack in-game imo as a parallel to the catholic church, especially when you compare it to how the other religions/spiritual beliefs are portrayed.

you get so many companions and sympathetic npcs who follow the chant and believe in the maker and aside from the templars as an institution and a cleric or two they're basically made out to be good when they're... colonizing, forcing assimilation, and demonizing other groups.

outside of velanna and merrill there aren't really any proud dalish characters, solas and abelas make a point of distancing themselves from a dalish pc.

sten is the only qunari companion who continues to follow the qun regardless of player choices.

the avvar are portrayed as basically wild, uncivilized barbarians.

it just seems like most if not all the chantry-aligned characters either have their faith confirmed or held up as the best option despite its flaws. the tone is so often like, "yes the chantry committed genocide but look! mother gisele is helping both the refugee mages and the church-appointed supersoldiers hunting them down and executing them. it's equality! not everyone in the chantry is a bad person!"