So someone asked me why I was so obsessed with my Lavellan OC vs my other ones and I just have to say Lavellan is the most badass/saddest background and I love my Lavellan and she is the best because she deals with so much more sh!t than every other background and still comes out pretty bad-ass.
Lemme lay it down point-by-point:
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“I Am Totally Not a Spy. Praise The Andraste”
Lavellan is sent to spy on the Conclave. Yeah, so is Cadash, but Cadash works for the Carta and has been traveling the Free Marches. They know how to work in the cities. They know how humans operate. They know currency. How to pay for a room at an inn. How not to draw attention to themselves.
Lavellan stumbled off a boat from the Free Marches, and yes, they may be one of those Dalish with trade with humans. Maybe your OC hangs out in the Free Marcher cities a fair amount, for whatever reason.
But this is likely the first time Lavellan’s been in Ferelden. This is the farthest they’ve been from the clan. Ever. They have “hi, I’m a Dalish elf, please mug and/or murder me without any consequences” written right on their goddamn face. In a country where they aren’t allowed to carry weapons and murdering an elf IS PERFECTLY LEGAL.
Even worse, hurting a human in defense of an elf is illegal, so no one’s rushing to your aid, so even if some bystander humans want to help you, they aren’t going to.
(If Lavellan if female, oh boy, let’s add some Thedosian style sexism in here -because who are we kidding, Thedas has sexism and patriarchy. You think some nasty dude with the way humans fetishize elves - especially female elves -is gonna just leave her in peace at a tavern?)
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Sorry About Destroying Your Homeland, but You Kinda Deserved It
Ok, this is sort of fucked up for every non-human (and frankly, human mage) Inquisitors. The degree and nature of the “fucked-up”ness just changes based on your race.
But here you go. You are leading a war that you have zero percent investment in beyond “we made you do this and we need your glowing hand thingy”. For Vashoth and elven Inquisitors, you are a breakaway sect of an organization that called for crusades against your people.
But here’s the thing: Par Vollen still exists. All nations signed an accord to stop fighting them - minus Tevinter.
The Dales is gone. Your homeland was completely crushed. Your entire culture is based on themes of diaspora and oppression fueled by humans. The Chantry destroyed your homeland in the Maker’s name. Some of their “Anointed” (recognized as the Maker’s servants in the Chantry’s eyes) earned their status by killing a sh!t ton of “heathen” elves.
This is basically like the Catholic Church calling for a crusade with a Muslim as the figurehead that leads it. This spits in the face of all elves, not just Dalish. And Lavellan has absolutely no choice in the matter. No matter how many times she says she doesn’t believe in the Maker, that she’s proudly Dalish, that she worships the elven “heathen” gods. It’s one thing if she renounced her culture and believed in the Maker. It’s a little more awkward when she doesn’t.
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“Dalish Can’t Have Too Many Mages in a Clan”
These things aren’t really too much of an oversight if you can see that making the Dalish look bad is EXACTLY where developers intend to go with this. This is so unique to literally every other “faction” in the DA universe. Even mages.
They even retconned their own lore for this.
I’m talking a literal 180 degrees, unlike Red Crossing, which was more speculative.
Seriously, when did we go from “mages are rare and precious and we need to share them because if we don’t, clans will be left without mages as Keepers.” to “oh, sh!t, we made another one, leave her for the wolves”?
In DA:O and DA2, we are taught that magic is becoming more rare among the Dalish. In DA:I, we end up with “too many mages”. Mages everywhere, apparently. Mages were so rare, Merrill had to be transferred from her home clan in Nevarra to Ferelden so the Sabrae clan would have a new First.
Then Mineave and Dalish are either outright stating (or implying, via Krem) that they had to leave because apparently Dalish mages are a dime a dozen.
This may have been an attempt to force gray morality into the Mage-Templar debate again (since someone reasonable will probably go “Hey, the Dalish do fine without mages”) but nevertheless, it is a deliberate retcon that villainizes the Dalish even more.
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“LOL, F*ck the Dalish”
Says pretty much everyone. Seriously. Solas turns into (more of) a smart ass on you basically the minute he finds out you are Dalish. Sera pretty much rolls her eyes every time you remind her you are an elf.
Abelas literally says “you are not my people”
Cassandra tries that whole “Is there no room among your gods for one more?”
Dorian turns the discovery about Arlathan into more shem-guilt about why humans suck and Tevinter sucks (although, I’ll give him credit in that this time, he says he intends to actually do something about it).
Blackwall has the whole “I thought you’d be human.”
I mean, seriously, a fair amount of your inner circle either completely ignores your heritage or gives you sh!t for it. Kind of a bad example to set up for outsiders. No wonder Lavellan forgot who Mythal was at the Temple.
If legitimacy was a concern, you don’t stop at telling the followers “hey, don’t say knife-ear around the Inquisitor.” The prejudice is still there - there’s the “I don’t like working with elves” dude in Skyhold. And Seggrit definitely was not about to use the term ‘young elven woman’ to describe Thedas’s most terrified messenger.
And speaking in general about game mechanics, the ability to kill off a Dalish clan in every Dragon Age game is like entering the Fade in a Dragon Age game at this point. You’ll get a chance to do it, you just don’t know how.
In DA:O - you can kill an entire Dalish clan with zero repercussions because a vengeful Keeper cursed some now dead humans with lycanthropy. Nevermind that the humans killed his son and raped his daughter. Nope. Zathrian’s just a big meanie with a grudge.
In DA:2 - you are forced to engage and slaughter Merrill’s entire clan (this is your clan too if your Warden was a Dalish elf, btw) if you don;t choose the right dialogue option. Again, no in-universe consequences.
In DA:I, Lavellan’s entire clan can very, very easily be killed by picking the wrong advisor for the background related war table missions. This kind of “everyone from your life before is murdered” thing happens to NO ONE ELSE.
This tendency to kill off Dalish clans for plot is redundant, tiresome, and a little disturbing. Even worse, the one time killing off a clan is supposed to hurt the player in some way directly, it’s a side mission with absolutely no follow-up whatsoever even though ANDRUIL’S ASS, YOUR WHOLE F*CKING FAMILY AND EVERYONE YOU KNEW BEFORE IS DEAD!!!!!
If the only time Lavellan gets to confront such information and even have a chance to digest it, regardless of how she take it, is in a fanfic or some fanart but she gets plenty of chances to talk about whether the Chantry should be saved or what their role should be in Thedosian society, then it becomes glaringly obvious how non-human backgrounds are routinely being slighted. But what makes it SO MUCH WORSE for elves vs. dwarves or Vashoth is this…..
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The Temple of Mythal And Other Elfy Things Encountered
Ok, so Corypheus is basically constantly looking for elven stuff. This is what starts distingusihing the Lavellan background from everyone else. Humans (especially the mages) may have had a stake in the Mage-Templar War, and they need to close the Breach, but the elven stuff is at best, something very interesting to note for scholastic purposes.
For Lavellan, this is EVERYTHING.
Dalish elves, Keepers especially, spend almost all their spare time tracking down old legend, relics, etc from the Dales and even before. In fact, you encounter a clan whose First is doing precisely that (before he gets killed off because the writers love killing off Dalish elves).
So, when, exactly, are the Dalish going to hear something about this Temple of Mythal? Or the Lost Temple of Dirthamen? Or pretty much every piece of lore you come across??!!
The only time you get a chance to give the Inquisitor any chance to actuallyEXPLORE any of this incredibly reality shaking history is - when you get a chance to blame them for starting the Exalted Marches, of course……(of f*cking course, don’t get me started on the bullshit that was Red Crossing).
But nope, here’s what happens instead.
You encounter ancient elves (!) who promptly tell you to go f*ck yourself, and may or may not have to kill them, while being accompanied by a human woman who basically spends her time waving her superior knowledge in your face, without any understanding of the cultural context. Her bafflement about Fen’harel statues being in the Temple is proof of this. Being DALISH, you can explain that “yeah, this is a thing we do.” because she, being HUMAN, does not understand the nuances of how the elven gods are revered.
Later, you encounter ONE OF YOUR F*CKING GODS!!!!!!
LIKE HOLY F*CK OJWEifnrwogvpikQW#IKVBNQ IT’S F*CKING MYTHAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And what, nothing? There’s absolutely no followup on this extraordinary piece of information whatsoever. Don’t tell me Lavellan didn’t run over to Solas being like “HOLY F*CK HOLY F*CK HOLY F*CK YOU ARE NEVER GONNA GUESS WHAT I SAW!!!!!!”
Or, if romanced: “HOLY F*CK HOLY F*CK HOLY F*CK I STILL HATE YOU HARDCORE CUZ YOU BROKE YOU HEART BUT WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT MYTHAL RIGHT F*CKING NOW!!!!!!”
This entire “Elder One” bullshit basically just proved to Lavellan:
1. Elves from Arlathan still exist. They are assholes.
2. Elves made places that are “between” the Fade and the read world. And now we know EXACTLY what Eluvians are for, and could theoretically use them (yes, Briala knows this, but she doesn’t share it with the Dalish)
3. Mythal is alive and using some human woman as a vessel. (nevermind that the vessel for the goddess of MOTHERHOOD is emotionally, verbally and physically abusive basically a terrible mother like holy f*cking sh!t guys come on that’s fucked up beyond belief)
4. (If you romanced Solas) Vallaslin were slave markings
5. All of their stories need some serious revision
And instead of this being framed as an amazing opportunity that could amend everything and really help the Dalish, it’s a bludgeon to show the Dalish are stupid, because how dare they be inaccurate about things from literally a few millennium ago!
Your Lavellan does get a chance to remind people that she is Dalish and she cares about this stuff, but you get talked down to every step of the way.
Taken to it’s most annoying extreme with the Solas romance, you get a chance to remove your vallaslin. To basically remove the one thing that says to the world “I am a Dalish elf.” It is the thing that distinguishes you from city elves. And Solas wants you to get rid of it.
The intentions and reasons for removing them might be pure (they areslave markings), but for people who have been forcibly removed from their culture, then mocked for not knowing enough about their culture, this is a huge slap in the face. It stings on a level that could hurt a fair amount of players beyond the Dalish Protection Brigade. And the more you see a marginalized culture belittled and disrespected and revised to be villainized at every opportunity, the more annoying, tedious, and tiresome it gets.
TLDR: Lavellan has the saddest, shittest time in the Inquisition out of all the Inquisitors (even without a Solas romance) and I just want to hug all the Lavellans and give them tiny, frilly cakes and a blanket.
Retour en haut
