New to this dwarven support thread... but my newest theory is that the castless tattoos are dwarven vallaslin.
- We now have information pointing to the dwarves being forced underground by the elves.
- We know the elves killed Titans and mined lyrium.
- We have no reason to believe that ancient elves could touch lyrium and easier than current elves.
- vallaslin are slave markings for elves.
- castless tattoos clearly indicate a "slave" rank among the dwarves
Cool theory- true that it's casteless that automatically get the tattoo as well as the enslaved elves (which later continued the "tradition" the same way that eating "grits" is a hold-over from the only meals allotted to blacks during slavery- or that fry bread is an Amerindian "cuisine" that derives from starvation on reservations). Mind you, caste dwarves will go tattoo by choice (and humans, qunari), so it's not exactly seen as slave markings by anyone other than Solas at this point- albeit the casteless having a different experience altogether. I've also wondered at when the whole branding happens for the casteless- parents expected to bring their children soon after birth to the authorities for branding or something, a bit like mage children are expected to be dropped off at the nearest Circle Depot Center when discovered. The casteless aren't born with the tattoo after all, no? I've been wondering if the implication is that "lower" elves are born with it, branded by the Evanuris as slaves into their blood- and thus skin- but the alienage elves don't have it, so... I suppose it's more likely that there are tattoo artists among the Dalish. Still, that makes Solas' offer to magically remove a vallaslin not much more spectacular than electrolysis.
EDIT:
And after all, it's called a "tattoo" explicitly in the CC. And tattoos aren't quite the same as a brand- heat up the poker and *singe*. They take time to design on the skin. This is why it's a bit more intriguing: they'd have to take time and care to make the casteless "brand" tattoo look the way it does with its crisp edges and details. This is also why I said an "X" or "O" or spot might've been an easier tattoo to make the standard for branding the dwarven "untouchables."
What I was more interested in, however, was how that particular symbol/icon/runemark was chosen to brand the casteless. It's a distinctive shape- somewhat conspicuously mostly resembling a "5". It's both a lore and metagame question, however, since, in the latter case, it may have nothing to do with Thedosian implications. For instance, the name of the world- Thedas- is actually just a sort of amalgam of "THE Dragon Age Setting". As much as the name of DA's hallowed known world may seem to mean something, that was the rather mundane origin of "Thedas" for the DA devs. So I wonder at what went into them making the casteless' brand look the way it does. Like, maybe the DC origin was the 5th origin to get developed, and the graphic designers were sorta partial to the number 5 that way and went with it. Or maybe it's actually an as-yet-unrevealed part of the lore- dwarves first having been officially designated as casteless in a "5th Age" or something. Not sure what went into it. I'm trying not to overthink it since there might be a very simple origin- or no thought having gone into it at all (like the Cadash Stompers symbol haha)- but I still wonder at it.
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