I had a discussion with a friend about this in a PM recently.
Honestly? I don't think the devs have any intention of changing things significantly for the elves. There's going to be a huge struggle where the elves rise up, but the elves are going to be on the opposite side of and cannon fodder for the PC in the game (like the elven Qunari converts in Act 2 DA2, soon to be agents of Fen'Harel from Trespasser, etc), then then we'll either slap them down or marginally improve their conditions for a short time before "realistically" humans will take back all the rights the elves won (The Dales, the Elven Bann for the DAO City Elf ending slide, the Hinterlands for the DAO Dalish ending slide), and they'll just go back to being slaves in all but name in every worldstate by DA5.
The devs seem to keep hammering home how the elves have been enslaved and oppressed through their entire history. First they were enslaved by the Evanuris, then Tevinter, then a short shot at independence in the Dales followed by oppression and subjugation by Andrastian humans. Every attempted rebellion has either failed or not lasted in the long run, and each time the narration hammers home how it's their own fault they're oppressed ("The People bend their knees too quickly," and all that garbage), so I don't think the devs have any intention of changing things now.
I have to agree, regrettably. I don't get the impression that the developers have any intention of changing things for the elves in a positive manner. The Dalish were little more than caricatures in TME, and neither the Dalish nor the Andrastian elves were given anything in the way of perspective or content in Inquisition proper. Even the Jaws of Hakkon seemed to exist to take a shot at the elves of the Dales for not submitting to the genocidal Drakon.
They wouldn't have the elves' entire history be one endless stream of oppression and then say it's their fault for being oppressed every single time (either because they were too meek to fight back in the case of Tevinter, or they were too violent and fought back when they shouldn't have in the case of The Dales against Orlais) if they had any intention of having things finally improve for them.
That particular tone of the narrative is incredibly uncomfortable. I don't understand why they don't strive for a more balanced depiction of the elves.
Yeah. Too bad pretty much 100% of those with "political force" (nobles, knights, guards, Chantry priests, Templars, etc) are all humans who don't care about the plight of the elves; who dismiss them when they ask nicely for change, then crack down on them when they try to force change violently.
And, of course, putting elves in political power is as easy as pulling teeth since humans literally form lynch mobs and race riots when an elf so much as buys a house in a nice neighborhood or is given a petty nobleman's title, and revolt when Leliana as Divine tries to return Shartan to the Chant of Light and allow elves (well, men and women of all genders and races) to join the Chantry; because giving an elf some power is the same as taking away power from a much more deserving human, and of course the elves should NEVER try to gain anything at the expense of any potential human.
We've already seen that the deeds of the Night Elves were forgotten about after Ferelden became freed from Orlesian rule, and with the land of the Hinterlands being taken away from the Dalish (and now under Redcliffe control despite the promise of the Crown). Given the story arc with Solas, it's possible even the reforms with Briala will go the way of the rectonned Dalish Boon in order to move the story forward (and perhaps even Clan Lavellan at Wycome).
Yup. It was actually Martin Luther King Jr. who wrote, in a letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963, "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." (Although I know he argued through non-violent means.)
Furthermore, he wrote, "Frankly I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was 'well timed,' according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every [segregated minority] with a piercing familiarity. This 'wait' has almost always meant 'never.' We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.' "
The scenarios are completely different as well; entire populations of elves can be purged. Let's not forget that an orphanage of children were killed during the purge of Denerim's Alienage because the elves were upset that a noble took women out of there in broad daylight to be gang-raped. Or how the city of Halamshiral was burned to kill off thousands of elves. Or even how the Dalish can be hunted and killed.
But sure, yeah, let's talk about how the elves bring their continued oppression completely on themselves. How when they act too violently, bitterly, or insistently they turn humans off helping them, but then ignore how the city elves as a collective people have been cooperating with the Chantry's terms for over seven hundred years (basically, "You convert to Andrasteism and serve as scut labor living in walled off ghettos in our cities, and we'll ' show mercy' ") and are still second class citizens. After seven hundred years, humans as a whole still treat them like lesser beings, resist putting Shartan back into the Chant of Light, throw a fit at the thought of allowing elves to enter the Chantry or nobility--but don't worry. If the elves wait around long enough, I'm sure any century now humans will finally get around to improving conditions for them of their own accord.
Yeah, you don't solve acts of genocide and subjugation by writing a strongly worded letter to your oppressors.
When it comes to the elves, the unbalanced portrayal is the issue. You get more nuanced and rounded depictions of Andrastians and the members of the Chantry of Andraste, while you don't get the same with Andrastian elves or the Dalish. Briala's story is pretty much nonexistent, we get a fraction of a mention about the massacre of thousands in Halamshiral, the elves aren't given a point of view while a multitude of Andrastian humans are, and as a Dalish elf we're bombarded by an onslaught of negativity and denigration while we hear waves of people laud the Andrastian faith and the Chantry of Andraste.
For example: the Dalish get a few things wrong? The dialogue and narrative tone treats it as if they got everything wrong. The Andrastians get everything wrong? The dialogue and narrative treats it as if they could be right if you do a couple of mental gymnastics about it. It's really silly, and it's hard to take the story seriously when it does things like this.
Even Jaws of Hakkon didn't focus on Drakon wiping out different faiths (like the Daughters of Song); instead we had his ardent supporter, Ameridan, acting like Drakon was a perfect person and his only blame was directed at the elves of the Dales. No balance or nuance; this unbalanced vilification of the elves and whitewashing of Drakon is also echoed by the responses from Cassandra and Sera. Yet again we have the narrative ridiculing the elves of the Dales for not being subservient to Drakon and trying to shift all the blame to them for everything as a consequence (as if we didn't have to deal with this kind of lop-sided story-telling throughout the entirety of Inquisition).
Most likely, the future Dragon Age game won't be any different, and we'll have to deal with this same unbalanced storytelling unless they change course. Solas gathering elven forces and being positioned as an antagonist does not bode well for the elves.
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I know! I want to be there too. It looks so lovely and peaceful.
