MisterJB wrote...
No, it's not unfair. The belief in a single God that created everything and sent His son to die for us is part of my culture but given the fantastic elements of this story, a person from other culture or an atheist doesn't need to blindly accept it. Likewise, I do not accept the fantastic idea that elves were, somehow, biologically immortal and that the humans, again somehow, caused this biological factor to dissapear just by proximity.
I'm not telling you you have to accept it. Only that it's unfair to expect and demand a group of people whose society, culture, and religion has been destroyed by two other cultures to be able to prove to you they're right in what they believe.
Christianity and Andrastianism haven't suffered an almost complete annihilation of their belief systems. Native American culture -- which is, in fact, similar to Christianity in ways -- and Dalish culture have suffered that. And the Dalish are based, in part, on Native American culture.
As well as Jewish culture/society, Gypsies, and Celtic/Welsh society.
The Darkspawn are immortal and, if the Chantry is right, their origins is coated in blood magic. Avernus is someone else who achieved some form of immortality and appeared to do so by sacrificing his fellow wardens.
There are many possible explanations.
Avernus isn't immortal -- by DAII, his time is running out -- and he didn't achieve his facsimile of a longer life by sacricing his fellow Wardens. By the 90th day of his entrapment in the Tower, he had unfortunately killed off the rest of his Wardens by using them as test subjects -- and for the record, while it's highly likely it was unwillingly done we don't know for sure.
How he did it was simply by using blood magic to manipulate the Taint in his blood. And yes, blood magic and the Taint are intricately linked -- that much is certain.
That the Chantry is expansionist is undeniable but I don't see what is so wrong with it so long as it is not done by force.
Because it intrudes on the sovereignty of other nations/cultures. Whether it's done by force or not is irrelevant. They're trying to push their beliefs down the throats of other people.
Even in today's era, they call Rajmael the general of the Elven forces a heathen that recanted and turned to Andrastianism, when we know for a fact that what he truly did was hurl his axe
The Veshialle at his enemies before committing suicide -- from the item description, which is undeniable lore.
Their twisting facts to support their own story. They're not so nice as you make them out to be.
From what we have seen, most Chantry missionaries are peaceful people who just want to teach what is truth for them.
While calling those that don't believe in their culture "unenlightened", "savages", and "heathens".
Not exactly what I'd call peaceful.
Whether the elves choose to pay attention or not is entirely up to them.
You speak of the Chantry being intolerant but the elves of the Dales showed equal intolerance. Not to mention stupidity.
We don't know for sure how it went down. Words are a tricky thing. The Elves might've been polite in their refusal, citing why and the Humans may have taken that as a slight.
Byt the elves own admission, the war started because the Chantry sent templars to the Dales. If we assume that this is true, then the elves should have been capable of making a distinction between Orlais and its people and the Chantry. Increasing their borders would have been the ideal answer. Butchering human town is an attrocity and sacking the capital that houses the Grand Cathedral an act of supreme stupidity. If they wanted to unite all human nations in Thedas against them, they needed not do anything else.
I doubt Red Crossing actually happened by the Elves of the Dales. At most, I'll say fringe elements consisting of extremists may have been responsible, maybe even people the Dales cast out of their society for those beliefs.
But my mind thinks that, based on Orlais' expansionistic history and the fact that not all Elves traveled to the Dales but went to live in human lands during The Long Walk, that Orlais used Elves to assault their own citizens to give them justification to call for war.
And then when that failed, they were like "****....".
Now, I will admit that the Elves going so far as to approach Val Royeaux was a bad move. Were it me, I would've sent the Divine and Emperor/Empress of Orlais a missive saying that we wish to call for peace terms, as the war is a blemish on both of our societies.
However, according to a few Chantry sources and Dalish sources, the Exalted March was called
before they even got to Val Royeaux, as a response to the supposed incidents of Red Crossing -- as opposed to Orlais fighting first:
Codex Entry: The Dales
And then came an attack by the elves on the defenseless village of Red Crossing. The Chantry replied with the Exalted March of the Dales, and the era of the elven kingdom came to an end. Halamshiral was utterly destroyed, the elves driven out, scattered, left to survive on goodwill alone.
-- From Ferelden: Folklore and History, by Sister Petrine, Chantry scholar.
Now, even with that, this doesn't negate my secondary belief that it may have been an Orlesian ploy to expand their influence. Rather, it enhances it I feel because we also have the history of Kirkwall to show that Orlais and the Chantry will do whatever's mutually beneficial to both their interests -- specifically, the events of the Threnhold Uprising.
Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 05 décembre 2012 - 05:48 .
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be completely unrealistic and c) be simply infeasible in a mechanical sense, since the save-import function necessitates a lack of "world-changing" choices, and this would be such a choice.
