I haven't yet, but I'm thinking of playing a Dalish elf who disagrees with Solas. That would be a BIG leap for me.
Well, World of Thedas and Merrill both outright say that all spirits are dangerous in the Dalish point of view.
Most Dalish, not the exceptions we've seen, probably don't trust any spirit at all and would see Solas' view as naive.
I wouldn't be too bothered about vallaslin.
During the time of Arlathan it was put on slaves by nobles to show the noble's dedication to their patron god. It's slave markings in that no one else would ever have them but the dalish's take isn't wrong either. What Solas says provides a fuller picture, though Solas' opinion on this as so many things is coloured by his ultra high ranking at that time, on the use of vallaslin in Arlathan but thousands of years later the use and context has been changed so the news has little bearing on dalish tradition.
The dalish openly admit their lack of knowledge about ancient elves, it's the news they had slaves that would be the real stumbling block for the not only the dalish but for all modern elves.
I think I've found an alternative.
Just romance Cullen and drink from the Well, which basically downloads ancient elven lore to your head. It's another way to discover the solution to misconceptions, though it won't be addressed in game.
Romancing Cullen is the answer to everything 
I think I've found an alternative.
Just romance Cullen and drink from the Well, which basically downloads ancient elven lore to your head. It's another way to discover the solution to misconceptions, though it won't be addressed in game.
Or be besties with Morrigan, because why wouldn't you?
I felt Dalish clans were not religious communes but extended families. Elven tradition is an important part but someone would have to really hate it to justify leaving their friends and family and go...where?
Out in the wilderness to be killed by bandits, bears or worse?
to live in a Shemlen city where elves live in poverty and sometimes end up murdered, raped or sold into slavery?
Admittedly, openly following the Chantry is not a good way to make friends among the Dalish and might lead to banishment.
The Lavellan clan have more interactions with the Shemlen than many clans so its likely that the inquisitor had significant contact with them before the events in the game and may have been considering leaving the clan.
My Alfina Lavellan was always curious and questioned everything she was told rather than taking things on pure faith.
She initially was confused about the mark and put little credence into talk of Andraste (too much of a wild guess).
She initially looked at the notion of becoming leader of the inquisition with a "Why not? someone has to" attitude but became apprehensive when it started becoming real and official - particularly concerned with her lack of experience with such things and fears about how it may change her. As a result she spent a lot of time in Sera's company to keep herself grounded - to remember how to have fun, and to remember that her decisions can have dramatic affects on the lives of hundreds of people she'll never meet (confident that if she ever get's too high-and-mighty and forgets the "little people" then Sera will give her a much-needed boot up the backside).
She lacked real aggression and hostility and only ordered death once (the murderous noble who was trying to corrupt her -Sera, Kill!)
Am I right to assume these are self-insert views?
Not entirely. He is still Pro-Dalish the idea, though that is mostly because you can't play anything but a Pro-Dalish Dalish in this game without it being stupid.
I was fine with him right away. (What can I say? He's charming.)
I role play my Dalish as someone who pretty much just barely tolerates humans. I think the most interesting aspect about the Dalish is that they're missing large portions of their history and seem to have two goals as a people. First they want to preserve what heritage they have and maintain an elven home land. And second they want to find as much information about their history as they can while not disturbing their "ancestors ghosts". Another thing I take into consideration with a Dalish character is the description the game gives at character creation. The Dalsih character was sent as a "spy" to learn what the Conclave was up to. There's a lot of role playing opportunities there. As far as how my Dalish character views Dorian that's a tough call because Dorian is just about my favorite character in the game so it's hard to role play someone who doesn't like him.
The first question is, what did you do to give your Dalish character some individuality? I'm curious to hear.
The second question is about tolerance, and believe me, I don't think it's such a black and white subject. How does your character feel about City Elves?
I don't mean everyone in alienages, but those who worship the Maker or that managed to find a place in human society.
..
I had my character tell Solas "You and I are the same people", but I haven't managed to justify it in my head. It seems simple at first, " Yay tolerance", but this isn't the real world and circumstances are a little different.
My girl does not believe in any gods, is not religious, does not wear vallaslin (i.e. I made them as light as possible and thought them away), allies with the Templars, drinks from the well, and does not want to use its power to restore what once was.
She believes that people are just people, no matter where they are from, what they believe in, or how they look. It does not matter if Dalish or city elf, human, Orzammar dwarf or surfacer, qunari or (tal-)vashoth. Only their actions count.
When Solas does not identify with elves, she asks him who his people are out of genuine curiosity.
When Josie asks about her clan, she tells her that she mainly kept to herself. In part, because she never liked how the Dalish isolated themselves from the rest of the world and tended to treat every outsider with hostility. If you keep up this attitude you will never be able to improve the relationships with others. (Or, as Trev can say when talking about the hallas in the Dalish camp, we will always stay strangers if we don't get close to each other.) Arrogance leads to seclusion.
I pretty much self-insert.
Sup guys.
Tell me, how was your character's interaction with Dorian?
Initially, I mean. All Dalish grow up being told about how the Imperium is responsible for their current state.
Using DA2's system my girl was majorly diplomatic blue and dipped into purple when she was po'd or she liked someone, she had to be really angry to go red. When she met Dorian she was outwardly polite and very suspicious then they go on their time adventure where her secret!Venatori fears were put to rest and it brought them closer together.
By the end of the game she confided more into Dorian than her love interest Solas.
Tevinter as a whole she still doesn't trust, Dorian she does.
But all Dalish care a great deal about tradition. Those who feel otherwise naturally wouldn't want to stay in their clans.
Not necessarily - most Dalish don't view their current way of life as traditional: the keepers recognise that their ancestors didn't live the way they do now and that they should strive to return to the way their ancestors lived (in a settled elven homeland). But we know that at least some Dalish elves don't want to return to their traditional way of living. From the codex entry on Aravels:
what did you do to give your Dalish character some individuality?
That's a hard question to answer as I can't really pinpoint one specific thing I did to make her unique... but early on, Solas says that your clan is different than most in that they thought it was important to know what was going on outside of the daily life of the clan (in sending you to observe the conclave). So, I felt like at that point, the game was indicating your character probably comes from a different background than traditional Dalish, so you could do pretty much whatever you wanted with your character.
How does your character feel about City Elves? I don't mean everyone in alienages, but those who worship the Maker or that managed to find a place in human society. That their own kind would turn Andrastian and/or reject their own history is bound to be shocking to them.
Going off the idea that my Lavellan's clan was interested in the workings of humans and things going on in the world outside of the clan, I think she would have learned about city elves and that they worshiped other gods and had other lives. So, they didn't surprise her at all, and there's no I'm-a-real-elf-you're-not complex with her because her Keeper didn't teach the clan that way. She was brought up believing that we're all part of this world and we must learn to respect each other, kind of thing.
I also had my Lavellan grow to accept the Maker through the course of the game. At first, she denies the Maker and being his chosen. But as she survives crazy thing after crazy thing, she's starts thinking it must be divine intervention. And since the elves believe that their gods have left them... of course, she turns to the god everyone is telling her about. Also, since elves believe their gods we created when the world was and didn't create the world themselves, it's not a contradiction for a Dalish elf to believe in both elven gods (created with the world) and the Maker (who created the world and possibly the elven gods as well).
Solas or Cullen?
Solas. And in all honesty, I think who you romance depends a lot of who you're more attracted to as a player. But if I look at it from a story perspective... I do think my Lavellan is very interested in restoring the elves or at least bettering their position in Thedas. She purposely let's Celene die and puts Briala on the throne in an effort to achieve this. And in that way, I think her and Solas have that kind of do-whatever-it-takes ambition going on.
How was your character's interaction with Dorian?
Given that Dorian purposefully left his homeland and defied his family to help the Inquisition and set the world straight? We got on really well. She's not going to judge him for doing the right thing or hold a grudge against him for something that happened hundreds of years ago that he had nothing to do with.
This will be weird, since I haven't even done a Dalish run yet... But I can answer. I already know what my character will be like, I've planned it for a while.
Answer is, they're not a typical Dalish. They honestly think most Dalish customs are stupid, that most of the so-called-lore they've collected is all likely either wildly incorrect or just plain made up, that the snobbish and haughty way most Dalish act is very unbecoming of them, and that the ideal that "someday we'll have a kingdom with no humans and it will be rainbows and paradise forever" to be ridiculous, and the idea that they stopped being immortal just because of mere proximity to humans to be utterly laughable. They're also not remotely caring about their elven gods, because why should they be? Their gods have been sealed in some other dimension for eons and they're NEVER going to escape, so why even bother worshiping them when they're not even around anymore? City elves? They're right and wrong. Right in that elves should just get over the us-versus-them mentality and just join human culture. Wrong in that they still live apart from humans in cruddy sections of the city in some half assed attempt to still keep the us-versus-them mentality despite living in their damned cities. They're the kind of Dalish who will probably fully agree with Sera that we just need to get the hell over ourselves. And living in the woods sucks, give me a proper roof any day. "We elves are pretty stupid overall, city and Dalish variants" is pretty much their main thought about their race.
So why did they stay with their clan? Because the facts are, all their friends and family and social connections are also Dalish. They don't want to leave their friends and family just to go to the city and get treated like garbage by humans (largely because city elves staying in ghettos on purpose tends to not help with acceptance), so they stay with what they know. But to be sure, their ideal future would be humans and elves living as one as an accepting society... Not elves in a kingdom of their own that keeps the 2 races further separated. And yes, they realize that children born to humans just makes more humans and it's partially why elves don't want to mingle with humans much. But the 2 races actually living together is EXTREMELY unlikely to result in elves screwing humans to the point of their own extinction. And if elves do go extinct because they were that obsessed with having sex with humans, maybe we deserved it for being that dumb.
My girl does not believe in any gods, is not religious, does not wear vallaslin (i.e. I made them as light as possible and thought them away), allies with the Templars, drinks from the well, and does not want to use its power to restore what once was.
She believes that people are just people, no matter where they are from, what they believe in, or how they look. It does not matter if Dalish or city elf, human, Orzammar dwarf or surfacer, qunari or (tal-)vashoth. Only their actions count.
When Solas does not identify with elves, she asks him who his people are out of genuine curiosity.
When Josie asks about her clan, she tells her that she mainly kept to herself. In part, because she never liked how the Dalish isolated themselves from the rest of the world and tended to treat every outsider with hostility. If you keep up this attitude you will never be able to improve the relationships with others. (Or, as Trev can say when talking about the hallas in the Dalish camp, we will always stay strangers if we don't get close to each other.) Arrogance leads to seclusion.
I pretty much self-insert.
Wow, our Dalish would make great friends.
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