dracuella wrote...
@Faerunner,
Generally, I never really felt as if it bothered anyone but me that the elves were being treated poorly and didn't have any real chance of changing their lives other than becoming servants in Orlais, Crows in Antiva or whoores in the Blooming Rose. I can't remember even ONE comment made by anyone about how terrible it was that the elves had to live in the disease-infested alienages or that they were quite openly discriminated against in every aspect of their lives. It made my eyes twich with murdering rage everytime someone referred to Merrill and Fenris as 'knife-ears' and while I laughed because of the reaction I knew would come from Fenris when I played Mark of the Assassin and the Duke de Montfort referred to him (and Isabela, in all fairness) as manservants, I felt like pulling out my most nasty, snarky voice and inform him that Fenris was indeed my friend and lover and that I had already given him my blessing to kill all who dared degrade him by comparing him to their tainted views on elves.
The humans of Thedas just don't care about elves :'<
Wait, are you talking about real people on the forums, fictional people in Thedas, or both?
Because both are pretty accurate. Funny how most Thedasian humans that cry hardship never even bat an eye when presented with elves who suffer from the same or worse situations as them (like Loghain ranting against Landsmeet nobles for not understanding or caring what he suffered under Orlaisian oppressors, but calling a CE Warden "egotistical" for taking umbrage with him selling their people into slavery), and funny how the same forum posters that cry big sobby tears over the human mage plight and the "noble-that-lost-their-wealth" plight (like for Cousland and Hawke) basically say the elves aren't as bad off and/or are just lazy whiners. Um, what?
With respect to the mage/elves comparison, I always fully understood that elves face the greatest hardships when it came to blending into society. They've never had the option of hiding in plain sight as mages do and this in itself makes it impossible to lead any sort of normal life. They'd be constantly watched and scrutinised and judged simply because they look differently. They would have children knowing fully well that they, too, would be subjected to that sort of treatment. And if they happen to live too closely to Tevinter, there's the constant threat of raiding slavers looking for new products to sell on the market.
Agreed, though even those living far away from Tevinter can be targets. Loghain's slave-trading in a nation that prided itself on abolishing slavery, and had themselves been enslaved in all but name not too long ago, proved that. =(
So yes, hands down, compared to the mages, the elves are truly worse off. Anyone can see that. But I also have to recognise that while a human mage may simply discard his robes and choose not to do magic in public, he wouldn't be able to lead a normal life either. He couldn't settle down in a village in the countryside, marry a girl and start a family. He'd have to tell her he was a mage and that any children they have could potentially become mages themselves. He'd have to face the risk of her turning him in because she's afraid or uninformed. He'd have to constantly look over his shoulder for templars or angry villagers with pitchforks and torches. Or worst of all, risk becoming an abomination who would most likely turn on the ones he love and murder his own family.
Same here. My heart goes out to human mages too because it is a genuinely terrible lot. If anything, the constant uncertainty of their situation would become nerve-wracking in the long run. As you said, they never know when they might be discovered. They never know when they might be turned in. They never know when they might have to flee for their lives/freedom. If they fall in love, they never know for sure if they can trust their spouse with their secret. If they have children, they never know for sure if their children will be mages or normal. r how to raise their mage children, whether or not to tell their nonmage children what they are, or how to raise their kid to cope with knowing they have an apostate parent. There's so much fear and uncertainty.
At least the elves know where they stand and what to expect from the world. They know they'll be treated poorly by most humans and rather well by most fellow elves no matter where they go, know their elven spouse is going through the same thing as them, know that all their children by elven partners will be elves and children by humans will be human, and how to prepare them accordingly.
Well--okay--nonmagic elves. I honestly think Andrastian
mage elves have it worst because they get the worst of both worlds. They get the uncertainty of who they can trust and who will turn them in just like human mages, plus the certainty of being mistreated for how they look like fellow elves. Add the fact that many Andrastian elves are conditioned to mistrust magic same as humans, and they have no one they can trust. They can't walk as an equals among humans and they can't enjoy the ties of fellowship with other elves within the poverty-ridden alienages they're forced to live in. (And they get to be treated like "flat-ears" by Dalish if they leave human settlements.)
I honestly think mage elves have the worst lot, and the most potential for interesting and dramatic stories; yet we haven't gotten any Andrastian mage elves, Circle or Hedge! Apart from the Mage Elf Warden, every Circle and Hedge Witch companion we've had so far has been human (Morrigan, Wynne, Anders) and every elven mage has been Dalish (Velanna, Merrill). BioWare has the potential for such interesting stories and they're squandering it!
So while I don't agree with Anders about mages and slaves being the same, I do see where he's coming from. There are many parallels you can draw between their circumstances and in many aspects they have the same battles to fight. Which is why I so hoped that an elven uprising would follow in the wake of the mage revolution or perhaps even in unison with it.
Thank you! I've been saying this on the forum for months, but it seems that no one else thinks so.
I still find it amazing that the same people that find the mages' rebellion "realistic" and "inevitable" say that elven rebellion is "unrealistic," "unlikely," won't happen for centuries, etc. "They've dealt with oppression this long, they can keep living with it." Same argument can be made for mages. "They're not organized / in constant contact with other alienages." Neither where the mages when they broke away from the Circles. "Most mages are humans." First of all, most CIRCLE mages are humans; that's not counting undiscovered alienage and Dalish mages.
Secondly, as you said, they all have the same circumstances (centuries of oppression culminating in mass uprisings) and the same battles to fight (their oppressors for freedom) against roughly the same people (non-magic Andrastian humans that want to keep elves and mages segregated and subjugated). I see no reason why the elves wouldn't rise up after the mages, or with them. In fact, I find it blatantly unrealistic that they seem
not to be.
Who knows, perhaps in DA4 - the Restoration of Elvhenan? 
If they did, I would pre-order the game faster than you could say "Arlathan."
Modifié par Faerunner, 04 août 2013 - 07:32 .
Retour en haut
) but the shoes were one thing I always wanted him to have. There's no 'nature' to connect with in the stone paved streets of Kirkwall >_<
I wish I could get the real Fenris model to take off his armour so I can see all of his markings and their intricate pattern and run my finger along the lines down his back and... ehm did I think that or say it out loud? 
