Elven questions, and a theory

[darkrose]

I got my new laptop! It's amazing--I can play DA in the way it was meant to be played, with decent graphics and without long pauses between keyboard entry and action.

I'm trying to finish my third Mira playthrough, and it's raised some questions about the elven history and lore as presented in the game.

Questions first:

1. How many towns in Ferelden have alienages? Canonically, Denerim and Highever are mentioned, but Amaranthine City doesn't seem like it's big enough to support an alienage, and we certainly don't see one in Awakening.

2. The thing about elves not being allowed to carry weapons--is this something Howe put in place, or is it actual law? Does it only apply to the alienage itself? It comes up in fic a lot, but no one apparently blinks when Mira and Zevran are running around town conspicuously armed and armored. (And yeah, hardly anyone recognizes you as a Grey Warden either, but I'd like to at least pretend like there's some consistency here.

3. Does the Chantry actually, you know, DO anything in terms of social issues? I guess they take in orphans, but based on the City Elf origin, they only show up in the alienage if you pay them to officiate a wedding; certainly the sister at your wedding is pretty ineffectual when Vaughan kidnaps half the wedding party.

4. Why, exactly, did some of the elves choose to move to the human cities and live as third-class citizens after the destruction of the Dales? I could understand if they were already there, but it seems odd that at least half of them would follow their oppressors rather than the rest of their people.

I do have a theory on this, based on something Lenaya says. If you talk to her, she mentions that there was resistance to her training as Zathrian's First because she wasn't born Dalish. She explains that the Dalish elves are descended from the nobility of the Dales.

To me, this suggests that the split between Dalish and city elves is class-based, and that while the nobility swore never to bow to defeat, the commoners either couldn't or wouldn't go with them if it meant wandering homeless forever. I can easily see Joe or Jane Ordinary Elf saying, "Look, I'm not a very good hunter, and I've got two small children--I'm supposed to become a permanent refugee just for the sake of pride? Fuck that shit." I think it gives an interesting twist to the Dalish contempt for "flat-ears"; there's some guilt underlying that attitude.


ETA: mousestalker answered question 4 here. Thank you!

Comments

[darkrose]

I believe that the chantry wasn't involved in the alienage 'sickness' because there was no actual sickness for them to be involved in

Actually, there was. Despite what Anora says about there being hardly any elves at Ostagar, there were enough for a couple to have survived and brought the blight sickness back. With the restrictions on elven movement, it was mostly kept contained. Again, though--no help from the Chantry, even just in terms of trying to mitigate the situation.

I definitely get the impression that most city elves give lip service to the Maker, and not much more. I find it interesting because it's one of the places where the ethnic minority comparison doesn't hold; you don't have either the Caribbean model, where there was a Catholic overlay onto African religion, or the Southern mode, where the slaves applied the Biblical narrative to their own experience to create the black church.

*wrangles plot nugs*

[niniane]

It's hard to tell. My guess is that there's some variation among city elves, with some being fairly into the Chantry, and some being all "screw this". (Just as there are differing degrees of religiosity among all groups of humans.)

I'm not sure how much back and forth there is with the Dalish, either. It wouldn't 100% surprise me if occasionally Dalish elves went "this sucks" (or whatever they were hunting died and people started starving or whatever) and they moved to the city, or city elves went "this sucks" and joined the Dalish. If this happened, I'd assume that there would be some overlays with Dalish religion and the Chantry, or some CE who pretended to follow Chantry rules, but secretly worshipped Dalish gods.

[prisoner_24601]

Zevran's parents might be an example of the possible back and forth between the Dalish and City elves, right? Didn't he have Dalish roots or an ancestor or something?

Although I have to say that if there is crossover it really didn't seem like it was happening in the Alienage in Denerim. Like I remember going through the city elf origin and I could have sworn that I talked to someone who was like: "Dude, I heard there were elves out there in the woods living free! Isn't that the craziest shit you've ever heard?"

[niniane]

Yeah, Zevran's mother was a Dalish who fell in love with a city elf. Then became a prostitute. I think. I'm sort of failing at game details today, so someone will undoubtedly correct me. ;)

But as you said, it does seem odd that there'd be a lot of cross-over, as the Denerim elves seem sort of freaked out by nature and unsure that the Dalish even exist. Maybe it depends on the country.

[darkrose]

Before the wedding, you can talk to a guy who says that his cousins went to find the Dalish. Your cousin is extremely scornful. After that you can talk to the shopkeeper, and ask if the Dalish are real, and he'll tell you yes. The implication is definitely that the Alienage elves no longer have any knowledge of their cousins.