Oh no, I entirely agree with you that the Dalish are admirable for how they're trying to keep their culture alive and intact, despite how incomplete some of it is. It's a noble goal and it's worth preserving, as despite all the flack they get from people like Sera and some of the criticisms that Solas and Abelas give them, they are really the only bastion of that culture in the modern world that's out there.
As Lavellan can say to Solas in that first meeting when he comments on this, the Dalish aren't perfect, but they are trying.
Similarly, when you can call Abelas out when he comments that by taking the knowledge of the Well, it will be "lost" forever, by pointing out that by hording that knowledge and culture in a crumbling ruin, rather than sharing it with the elves that still exist in the world, it already is lost.
What I meant was, the Dalish in some ways are no different from Abelas and the Sentinels, in that they also tightly cling on to the past that is lost and are content to horde their knowledge from their kin, looking down on the "flat-ears" for being little more than Shemlen. They could be doing so much more to help, teach or reach out to the other elves, but they refuse to do so, out of pride and stubborness.
To be honest, that moment when Abelas rebuffs Lavellan is actually quite a nice little parallel to that Dalish's own attitude sometimes, as we're now seeing how much it utterly sucks to be on the recieving end of "I'm the true Elf and you're just a pretender".
I like to think that Lavellan learnt quite a great deal about the value of tolerance and acceptance of others over the course of the game, evolving from the relatively sheltered individual they were implied to be at the start (judging by some of their comments about how the clan avoided outsiders), to someone who's become rather versed in various peoples and cultures.
I'm still catching up on the posts overnight... this thread is like a part time job, but more fun...
Anyway. I agree about Abelas' comments reflecting how the Dalish treat other elves. It's more clear to me now that I've finished TME. Abelas saying "you are not my people" is basically the interaction Briala had with Clan Virnehn. I think the writers are showing that elven society was just as stratified and subdivided as human society is. There were factions and some of them bitterly hated each other. It'd be like lumping Fereldans together with Orlesians as one people- they would take exception to that.
I don't agree, though, that Lavellan is assumed to be that clannish and xenophobic. You can roleplay her as being fairly open-minded from the start. She can tell Solas that they're one people, and her "ir abelas, hahren" response to his snarky opening when she asks his opinion of elves is a humble, open-minded response. Clan Lavellan is also supposed to be fairly forward-thinking and IMO they wouldn't send a xenophobic or sheltered representative all alone to a huge conclave made up mostly of Chantry folk (that kind of blows my mind). The fact that Lavellan is apparently the only Dalish who shows up is a pretty big statement. Of course, it does give you a character development arc if you rp her as being more of a traditional Dalish mindset from the start.
Retour en haut
Seems it's really isn't in the soundtrack...
