Well... could play it like you were childish and immature before the traumatic event.
"My name is (insert Dalish name here). After surviving a horrific event known as The Breach, I walked out of the Fade with only one goal: to save my world. But to do so, I can't be the child I once was. To honor my clan, I must be someone else. I must be... something else." Last time on Inquisitor....
If I remember right when I played a Dalish Elf in Origin I created a character without the tattoos, I even played dwarf commoner without the brand, so I doubt they will lock you into it. I justified by saying that as an orphan without intent to marry there was no rush to enter adulthood and so was still immature and perceived as unready for the responsibility by the keeper. As for if there is cannon supporting it, in origins when you go to get the dalish support you can find Cammen, a young hunter who wants to marry but isn't allowed to hunt to get the pelt he needs to prove himself a full hunter to Gheyna. Gheyna doesn't want to bond with someone who can't provide for their family after all and needs a talking to to convince her to give him a chance. It's worth noting that both of these two seem to be born dalish and neither have the tattoos, this may be because they are simply young, late teens early twenties, and it's likely that the pc in inquisition will be a young elf to so I see no reason why they should be forced to have tattoos.
I always thought the tattoos just meant that you had accepted the Creators as your gods.
An agnostic dalish might choose not to get the tattoo due to lack of faith.
I doubt the dalish would turn them away regardless. Why would they?
I always thought the tattoos just meant that you had accepted the Creators as your gods.
An agnostic dalish might choose not to get the tattoo due to lack of faith.
I doubt the dalish would turn them away regardless. Why would they?
But it's also supposed to be a Dalish rite of adulthood.
I've decided to make a really young ElfQuizitor at some point without the tattoos for just this reason. She and Sera shall be young and carefree together.
Only if you were a city elf who joined the Dalish. We saw that in DA2- the guy who ran away from Merrill to the varterral. Otherwise, I believe it is a rite of passage.
But it's also supposed to be a Dalish rite of adulthood.
And a Bar Mitzvah is a Jewish right of adulthood.
Not having your Bar Mitzvah doesnt make you any less Jewish however.
(I, however, had mine.)
It is a coming of age thing but also has religious overtones, since you have to purify your body, meditate on the gods, etc, before undergoing the ritual. The odd thing is that the Dalish claim it distinguishes them from the Shemlen but the old barbarian tribes used tattoos to differentiate between clans and the Chassind still do so, However, the Orlesians no longer use tattoos, nor are they in common use among other humans who follow the Chantry. So may be there is some cultural or possibly even religious reason why the followers of the Chantry no longer have tattoos. This would then suggest that the Dalish adopted tattoos to distinguish those who worshipped the old gods from those who worshipped the Maker. In which case it is not an ancient elven practice but a more recent development.
Whatever the case, if you choose not to have tattoos it is either because your were not considered ready by the Keeper of your clan (whether born into the clan or a city elf refugee) or you have deliberately rejected this tradition - in which case you are likely to be an outcast or at the very least treated as an unruly child who is unwilling to accept the responsibilities of becoming a adult.
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