Dalish - Tumblr Posts
Initially I didn’t plan to draw Lavellan, but something clicked and I decided to draw her) And a little animation as a bonus.
Are we going to talk about how scary being the Inquisitor is for a Lavellan or…?
I mean, the more and more I have played this game, the more the Chantry shit is terrifying. Over and over again, you see painful and irrefutable evidence about the shit humans did to elves in the name of the Maker. The Exalted Plains is an obvious example. (I consistently call it Dirthavaren you don’t like it fight me bitch)
Like I think the entire fandom can agree on fuck that bitch sister Amity. The Chantry crusades destroyed what was left of the elves, destroyed them. Culture, body and spirit. Like be honest, there aren’t many Dalish clans left and each time a new game/book comes around, another one bites the dust. It’s so easy to lose your clan in Inquisiton and even easier to accidentally kill off Marethari’s. Hell, you can choose to kill Zathrian’s.
The Dalish are dying out, any way you slice it.
Then suddenly a hole rips open in the sky and everybody thinks Lavellan did it. It destroys the Conclave…don’t tell me for one second that the humans didn’t immediately start developing an ‘elves and vengeance and antiMaker’ conspiracy theory. The ‘remain silent’ dialogue option in that first interaction isn’t a stoic ‘I don’t give a fuck’ to me, it’s more of a ‘whatever I say doesn’t matter I’m already dead’ for a Dalish Inquisitor.
The true horror is knowing that they wont just kill you, they’ll call for a bloodbath on elves across Thedas.
“For the elves were guilty of the greatest sin, of turning from the Maker.”
You’ve damned them all and you can’t even remember how or why. For a First, it must be terrifying to realize even if you try to diplomatically talk your way out of it, they’ll never believe you. As a hunter or warrior, you know it’s hopeless. All you can do is throw yourself forward as the villain, claim that whatever happens you acted alone and take as many of these shems out with you as you can. As a mage you know if they take pity on you, you’re condemned to their mage-slavery prisons.
“Whatever you think I did, I’m innocent!”
But then they believe you (barely, like thank the Creators the Lavellan clan taught you how to talk to humans civilly and not panic) but it’s basically a hostage situation. There’s one other elf with you and even if he’s not Dalish thank Mythal because shit you were scared and you’re still scared but at least it’s something. His name is ‘Pride’. You take it as a sign from the Creators that it’s not time to give up yet. Suledin, you think.
There is an orb, a weapon that caused this. Solas tells you it’s elven and your heart sinks.
“Eventually, the humans will find a way to blame elves…”
You become Inquisitor and things are a little better but the humans call you Herald of Andraste. You don’t believe in their Maker but none of them care. You know your clan would feel betrayed, think you’ve given up your gods. You haven’t of course but the terror is there…what if the gods think you’ve given up them? You talk to Cassandra and Leliana, trying to understand the human chantry and maybe figure out a way for your two beliefs to coexist.
But no.
You realize it wont help. Cassandra talks about spreading the Maker’s word to all corners of Thedas…you remember the lonely howls of the wolves across Dirthavaren. You know what ‘spreading the Makers word’ means. Leliana at least acknowledges what the Chantry did, but she dismisses it with words. All those lives and hopes and dreams dismissed with the words ‘that hate won’t just go away if you dissolve the Chantry’. You understand what she really means, though.
She’s saying that the hate will never go away, not until the elves are just like humans. The Chantry will never stop. She says she wants elves to be part of the chantry so they survive and you try not to taste bile in the back of your throat when you think of what that means.
“My father says humans are like weeds that choke out the grass…”’
Slowly, slowly, slowly…they consume you.
Name my next Solasmancing Lavellan??? I suck at names! She’ll have Mythal’s vallaslin but I haven’t chosen which class I’ll play yet.
Here's a list of example names using my fanmade elven dictionary
Here's a list of names in DA lore that you might want to pick from, i.e. naming your character after a historic elf (you can filter by origin)
Some of my personal favourites from List A:
Ajalen: child of the sea
Alenriel: true strength
Beylen: one who saves; saviour
Elgaris: little spirit
Mithravel: moonlight
Tarasan: rain
Taravel: lightning
Wenalen: one who is brave
Repaint of an older drawing I did a few month back
She’s so expressive in her screenshots I feel like she needs more wrinkles
Enlil Lavellan
Just a sketch, but I like result ;) Pencil sketch colored in GIMP
My Inquisitor Enlil Lavellan :)
I’m frustrated that ardent blossom can’t be worn by qunari, thank god i’m an artist and reality can be whatever i want, take that >: p Bull gets to wear the flower crown.......
Solas in DA Tarot Style for @enterthedreams Standard version! ✨
The timelapse is on my TikTok as usual! 🫶 Please follow me there too if you haven’t already!
A print of this is available at www.artpal.com/artbyyami 🫶✨
I decided to show you some more elves so there are wild elves from wild Thedas
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!"
If think about it Dalish are closer to the qunaris than the andrastians, because they believe that they don't just belong to themselves but to their community.
They are the last of thier kind and must live to rebuild what was lost. Choosing any other path would be selfish and would be consider a betrayal.
In DA2 Alistair said that dalish living in their own lands didn't work because people were complaining. Now, forgetting that my baby Alistair broke the only thing Mahariel asked after she saved his ass... Who the fuck would be threatening HoF's clan?
What stupid human woke up one day and said: remember Warden Commander? The bitch who killed and Archidemon and command a hole army against the dark spawn and murder Loghain just because her friend asked her to? Yeah, I don't think her people should have lands. Specially considering Ashalle is in Ostagar, did Alistair heard that poor woman being happy for having her own house and said fuck her?
There's not a single thing about the Cousland origin that it's interesting. If your boring 'my name is Bryce Cousland, you killed my family prepare to die'. With no twist or anything, you get to be privilege human, no personal obstacle. If this origin were a person it would be middle age man who goes golfing every weekend, his name is Bob.
All the other origin are far more appealing and I will die on this hill.
Anders tried to understand how Merrill became a blood mage, so he asks her about her people. He regret it as soon as she said I am from Clan Sabrae and... Of course, her stupidity couldn't have come from something else
He stood there grasping that somewhere of Kirkwall lived a bunch of elf who created two of the most reckless and stubborn beings on Thedas.
Leliana helping the Warden at the final battle:
Couples as Disney love songs because I'm bored:
Mahariel x Alistair: learning what love means
I won't say I'm in love from Hercules.
Mage Hawke x Fenris: to love without chains
Strangers like me from Tarzan
RLavellan x Cullen: love grows even in the darkest moments
I see the light from Tangled