It's pretty much the same with Poland, only we joined the Christian club, because basically our first 'grand unifier' Mieszko the 1st realized that it's either that or we're going to be either utterly destroyed or permanently exploited. Needless to say, there's not much left from original pagan Slavic beliefs (though funnily enough Polish Christian faith has its own unique flavor, because instead of some traditions being rooted out they were assimilated or slipped through cracks).
As a side note, I'd like to mention that many Hungarians and Poles consider our nations to be bestest of friends... so much in fact that when Slovakia came to existence we kinda, um, tried to make it stop existing, however slightly >.>''', since it was first time since what seems like forever that we don't share the border with Hungarian buddies.
As to the conflict between the "loyalists" and those not loyal - it might be an oversimplification to state that there were A and B sides that literally lasted through the ages, despite having been forced into slavery in common and being exiled as a whole, blah, blah, blah. However. I do believe that you can use this as a rough guideline for where the divides are between the elven people - they are not the same, emphatically not, despite sharing so many roots. My point is this: the kind of animosity I've picked up on between those elves who "pander to humans" and those who "consort with demons in the wild" must have a deeper root than just "we disagreed about what to do with ourselves after the fall of the Dales". What I'm saying is that there might have been a seed in their internal workings that distinguished those who sought the past in lieu of power to define their own lives and those who believed that meeting in the middle with the other races, all of whom would ultimately want peace and freedom, is the only way to escape the predicament they found themselves in. I'm not saying that way back when Solas raised the Veil the Dalish and the city elves were formed and they basically just kept killing each other until the humans began to kill them both - though I can imagine an iteration of this scenario playing out easily. I mean, not everyone agreed that Fen'Harel did something wonderful by locking the Evanuris away.
The problem is that almost all elves were at one point Dalish - that is, they at one point unified and inhabited the region of the Dales that was at one point in time their new homeland. It's only after the Exalted March that the Dalish were formed and the division between city elves and the Dalish began to truly exist, not earlier than that.
But that's just my point. The fact that the Dalish "try" should endear them to Solas, because they are attempting to preserve the past, just as he is in a way, only different parts of it. It's not their fault that they've gotten it all wrong. The fact that they aren't receptive to his teachings should not be interpreted by him as a rejection of him as a person or the "true knowledge" he knows or whatever, it should only be an indication of what it is: centuries of suffering and oppression twisting their self-knowledge as a people into some mangled remnant of what it once was. The Dalish shouldn't be blamed or reviled for that, they should only be helped - gradually and more subtly than Solas tried.
But my point isn't that - It's not that they're trying, but their attitude concerning different people (including city-elves) and the fact that they're pretty confident that what they uncovered is truth, to a point that they will not listen to those who DO know the truth. The fact that they're oppressed doesn't give them the right to twist the truth to their liking, especially that it may yet end badly for them.
I mean, imagine that the Evanuris either get to be released or someone manages to convince them that they speak in their name - and feed them stories they want to hear or they think they know. Most, I assume, would naturally follow the Evanuris rather than Fen'harel, or anyone else who knows better, and most probably would not sway if they were told that they're used or the truth is pretty grim, given that their entire culture pretty much spins around the conviction that one day gods will return, human civilization will crumble and then it's smooth sailing back to glory days.
And I have to point out that though Solas is all smiles for Lavellan, he's very condescending about her people, to her face, even way after he's fallen for her; he's just fine with knowledge like the skills of the Arcane Warriors and Rift Mages, sure, but that's an entirely different thing from what I'm talking about. He's all for knowledge from the past, we know that - it's the people ostensibly using it that he has problems with.
Actually, Solas isn't really as condescending as people try and paint him as sometimes, I've noticed - far less condescending than Dorian is about Tevinter and maybe even less critical then even Cassandra or Leliana are about the Chantry/Seekers/Orlais and we do know that all of them actually deeply care about subjects of their criticism.
Granted, I know that it's a somewhat different thing, given all the oppression and all, but still his criticisms aren't as unreasonable or extreme or short-sighted as I sometimes see it depicted in comments or fanfiction. He criticizes them for lack of knowledge and mangling details, while many of them view themselves as sole keepers of the elven lore (which is a fair criticism), but he still tells others that they remember more than most. He gives them at least some credit for raising approved elven Inquisitor even if Lavellan tells him that they didn't shape them in entirety, and tells romanced Lavellan that he admires their indomitable spirit. Bah, if taken into Elgar'nan's Bastion, he's the one to say that Taven would want the Dalish to have the truth revealed there, therefore encouraging Inquisitor to give the documents to Hawen instead of the Chantry.
Really... I'm not sure what people expect from him at this point... Accept that they're trying? But that's almost the first thing he does if he's confronted by elf Inky and told that they're trying!
He slightly approves, apologizes for being harsh and offers the - at that point not that well-known - Dalish Inquisitor answers to pretty much any question they have, and they're all pretty much devoid of any sort of sarcasm or condescension; in fact in the balcony scene he readily asks Inquisitor if perhaps he's misjudged them.
He doesn't really tell much bad or openly derogatory about the Dalish after that, with the only mild exception being some dialogue in ToM that basically sums to asking to not think of the Dalish as those who have the true picture of the past or something like it - which is a legit request.
I don't know where this comes from that the Dalish don't want to share knowledge; they always welcome elves who come to learn.
That very much depends on the clan. We do know that many Dalish turn away from flat-ears; we know how Briala was treated in TME and we know that Mihris from the same clan was quick to be pretty condescending towards Solas, without him saying much anything or in fact saying anything whatsoever in the presence of elf Inquisitor - calling him flat-ear and openly questioning his ability to magically get rid of the debris blocking the entrance into the ruins after ordering him to do it first. What's more, he seems to be courteous towards her despite that, with the only breach in decorum being him pretty much openly calling her out for lying to non-elf Inquisitor... which she does.
Besides - I wasn't just talking about the elves who seek knowledge.
It's learning uncomfortable truths about their past that they can't do easily - but really, who can blame them? Would anyone accept it readily that their precious gods were really horrible people that enslaved their ancestors, or that the markings of respect and honor they think the vallaslin to be are actually the personal brands of said gods? Similarly with their knowledge about the world and magic and the Fade - they've been living with humans (under their thumb mostly), who bring their own weird concepts about such realities. How can they go against that when Solas offers them absolutely no point of reference, nor does he substantiate his assertions? I understand why, he can't reveal himself after all, but Solas should not be so harsh on the Dalish and be so friendly with city elves who are overall the more ignorant of the two groups. He hasn't been living with either group, he has no idea what they've been through, what their values are. He sees the barest surface - by his own admission, I might add - and makes judgements with the snap of the fingers. He makes those judgments after what, a year of walking on the face of the Earth? (Err, Thedas?) A single year is emphatically not enough to give him an idea of what centuries of history the elves have gone through.
Not many would accept readily that the "truth" they cling to in order to preserve their identity is either false or not as glorious as myths and legends tell so - but there's a clear danger to putting such truth on a pedestal or clearly being biased about it. I'd claim that there's even more of a danger to those who have scrapes of truth but cling to them and claim that they know how things were best than poor, ignorant city elves who at least have a good sense to be honest about their lack of knowledge.
Also - how do you know that Solas gives no points of reference about the Fade?
We don't have a point of reference when it comes to his interactions with the Dalish (the exception being the Dalish Inky) - he might have had only a year to walk in the Veiled world, but he had thousands of years to observe world and interact with it through dreams and likely had his agents infiltrating the Dalish clans for who knows how long. That he wants to distance himself from the world he either plans to either change or destroy is one thing, but I don't think it can be claimed that he makes snap judgments that are devoid of any substance, or that he has no idea of their suffering. I think the only thing Solas would contend, given thousands of millenia of observing things through the Fade, that the suffering of the Dalish elves may not be more severe or important than suffering of other groups (be it elves or non-elves), hence he gives them no special treatment (in fact, this is pretty much what is stated in WOT2).
We have absolutely no idea what actually went down, but we do know that Mythal's death prompted him to seal away the Evanuris. He said so flat out, I'm not theorizing that, it's exactly what he said. Maybe he had some grand explanations about what they would have done, but it was not an altruistic desire to save the world which made him make the Veil initially. "And when they went too far, I formed the Veil and banished them forever."
You're missing the point - I never said anything about the death of Mythal not being the reason he eventually banished the Evanuris for; I question your assessment that he did it predominantly out of vengeance.
I mean, just like he flat out states that it was the death of Mythal was a step too far, he flat out states that if he hadn't created the Veil the Evanuris would doom the world. So I'm not sure why you're accepting one of his statements at face value, but deny the other? Especially given the already cited evidence of the mural and a rune that rather clearly predates the death of Mythal and reveals one of his main motives to lead the People against Evanuris is to prevent false gods and their greed to doom the world and everyone with it.
And when the only voice of reason among Evanuris got murdered, he assessed that every alternative was worse than the Veil. We're yet to find out why he's made such assessment, but the motives of his actions are pretty clear and they're rather clearly not just a matter of avenging Mythal. It's a far deeper and more complex issue.
The path to hell is paved with good intentions, indeed. He can explain all he likes, but remember: we're talking about the guy who wants to destroy the world again because he screwed up the first time. I love Solas, but I'm not going to take his word for it that the Evanuris would have literally destroyed the world when he himself might as well have. The Evanuris sound horrible - but Solas' final solution doesn't sound all that much better.
Again - if the Veil managed to salvage what was otherwise supposed to be destroyed, then we can't just call the creation of the Veil as total screw-up. Just like Solas, it appears to be an action that is neither black, or white, but utterly gray.
He feels horribly guilty about it, but how a person sensitive to a plea of others and passionate about free will and living to the fullest of one's potential NOT feel guilty that apparently the only solution at hand destroys his home, messes with the Fade, forces the others to live in a diminished state in a world that still slowly marches towards what appears to be pretty inevitable doom? Plus, he's has a penchant to taking blame for everything - question is however if whether just because he blames himself for everything are you going to believe most his previous actions can only be categorized as 'screw ups' and that's the only reason he does things is to fix his mistakes, rather than being put in an impossibly difficult and complex situation?
I mean, you already said that he's biased and we shouldn't believe everything he says at face value.... So why believe that he's responsible for everything and his screw-ups are as big and numerous as he claims, when instead we can at least some of it may be exaggerated by a rather bad case of guilt-and-betrayal-ridden PTSD?
I mean it's one thing to take responsibility for one's actions and another to be unfair towards someone who readily takes the blame for everything, because he's convinced he's doomed, broken, capable only to bring pain to anyone he cares about and beyond saving anyway.
His character wouldn't even work if he didn't believe that what he did had to be done - so naturally he would believe that the Evanuris would have destroyed all.
But honestly, he's not a terribly good judge of people or what they're capable of. (Que Corypheus.)
If he's not such a good judge then how come he managed to predict that Inquisition's going to be infiltrated and basically saved the South by tipping Inquisitor that the Qunari are up to no good? Is him seeing Inquisition as the best chance to defeat Corypheus was a mistake? Is he making a mistake by saving Inquisitor as well?
Corypheus was a fluke, but it's hardly a measuring stick of how badly he can judge people, but rather how desperate he is and how dire the situation may be. Many of Solas's flukes can be pretty easily ascribed to him fighting near-impossible odds (I'd like to point out that Mythal apparently fought them too in her own way and got herself murdered), and when those are in the picture, the chances of making critical mistakes or having many stakes against himself increase insurmountably.
That's not to say that Solas isn't biased or can't make grave mistakes. But given what we know about character, how it takes him relatively short time to adjust his opinions about people when with Inquisition and decent Inquisitor, and and how much thought he puts into everything, it's not really in-character IMO for him to just believe that Evanuris would destroy all without a very good reason to think that they indeed would.
That's a little like fixing a hole in the wall by running over the house with a tank. Let's be honest: we have one person's word on what the Evanuris were up to and he isn't 100% reliable based on our brief experience of the man. He does need to take responsibility for what he caused - but that's not to say that the good that it's done shouldn't be taken into consideration, far from it. He did have good intentions ultimately, after all.
It's one thing to take responsibility for one's actions, it's another to take blame for everything or blame one person for pretty much everything.
Cassandra blames herself for everything that led to the explosion at the Conclave, because she thinks she didn't explain Varric well enough that they need Hawke as Inquisitor. Varric and Hawke blame themselves severely for discovering red lyrium and releasing Corypheus and unleashing them on the world. In both cases, logically, there is indeed some responsibility - yet should the take blame for absolutely everything that transpired? Especially if, by their own assessment, they should indeed take pretty much the full blame???
I think most would agree that it's not really fair to expect this from them. They had to make decisions in increasingly more convoluted or desperate circumstances, while being unable to predict everything that led to the crisis. And while none of them went and done anything at the caliber of creating the Veil, or made attempts to tear it down, I think it's pretty clear how the ordeal to actually get to the point where Solas decides that the Veil is necessary to save the world and actually going through with it could have severely skewed his own sense of burdening responsibility for the entire mess.
I mean, even if we'd assume that Solas doesn't just feel guilty for creating the Veil, but also had his hand in Project Evanuris and their rise to power, is he really to blame for all that transpired, when he's not just the only player in the scene? Is the ruined civilization, mortality of elves and lost knowledge (or a portion of population) a price too high in the face of utter destruction? Especially that Solas didn't just go against ONE opponent, but at least six + the Blight, apparently. And then there's an allusion of pretty bad betrayal that happened somewhere alongside the whole ordeal, likely separate to he betrayal of Mythal (given that he was already fighting the Evanuris when she was killed).
It might have been that he was pretty much the only one left to face a decision and consequences of it - not really an envious position to be in and something of a punishment in itself. That's not to say that Solas is blameless, but given that we're yet to know a full extent of his actions or what happened in the past I'm yet to readily blame him for all the suffering in the world or the causes for it, or deem all his attempts to fix it as utter screw-ups.
Retour en haut
I mean, as far as I can tell Thedas as we see it is basically like Europe. Coastal countries have fairer weather, the "Mediterranean" area is hot with jungles and in-land is cooler, more mountainous. Ferelden would be pretty hot in the summers but still very cold in winter, as central Europe would be, despite the proximity in latitude to the Mediterranean strip. As to deserts: it's not the geographical location that makes it hot and dry, it's the lack of plants, unimpeded winds, etc. that shape a desert. Like the Sahara - it used to be a lush jungle, though now because of its geographical region you assume that everything in that line would be equally hot and dry.
...
The Arbor Wilds lie deeper South than Mont-the-Glace after all, and the name pretty much translates to "ice mountain" (and there's a sea called "Frozen Sea" on the other side of the map), while the area and see close to it is depicted to be white (same with Uncharted Territories, which Frostback Basin turns out to be part of)
