Dragon Age: The History and Lore of Thedas. The Elves
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 มิ.ย. 2021
- In the third lecture of the Dragon Age lore series, Professor Absalom delves into the the topic of the elves of Thedas, their history, culture, religion and much more.
Sources:
-Dragon Age: The World of Thedas (2013)
-Dragon Age wiki. dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Dra...
-Codex entries from Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II and Dragon Age Inquisition.
Music by Adrian von Ziegler. / adrianvonziegler
Music: Noel Malekar - Beginning of Freedom (No Copyright Music) Video Link: • [No Copyright Music] G... Channel Link: th-cam.com/channels/JkK.html...
All rights for the art is reserved for the artists, I do not own anything.
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As much as I can't wait for the return of these would be gods I am VERY fascinated by WHO they fought the war against before they came to power. Now that a story right there.
You mean the elf "gods" fighting the earth's Titans? I hope we'll get a flash back in the next game, even better, time travel back a be part of the battle and help Solas
@@kalabarringer3526 Solas mentioned during Trespasser dlc that the Evanuris became prominent after a war. He doesn't say if it was against the Titans and I don't think it was as well. When the Evanuris battled against the Titans they were already considered gods by that time and Solas said there was a progression for them after this eluded war. They went from Generals - Respected Elders - Kings - Then finally gods.
Titans that rule the land and live beneath the ground. Sounds like the old gods of the Teventer Imperium A.K.A. dragons who become arch-daemons during the blight
@@Mr.Incognito11 nah titans the creators "gods" of dwarves
I hope that the old writers who aren't with BioWare anymore make a prequel of sorts that shows the time of the Elvhen
This is an excellent primer/refresh in the run-up to The Veilguard. Thank you.
I've been playing Dragon Age since its inception and learned more from this video than 12 years of playing the games. Absolutely loved it, and I'm very much looking forward to the next one!
Thank you very much, you are too kind :D
I’ve never been super into, like, medieval fantasy because it always felt the same. However, Dragon Age lore is the first time I found it interesting because it strayed away from the usual and almost mirrored our own real lives and societies.
This is just a way of saying I’m glad I found a video to explain the holes of my knowledge of the lore and am excited to watch the others.
Dragon Age is great but it's a 70% straight up Tolkein rip
I really like the elves of the Dragone Age series. They’re multifaceted and I empathize with them greatly. As the Elves lost their homes and are now nomads/outsiders in their own ancestral lands.
Existence is Resistance.
Nah, when I saw the alienages, tevinter slavers etc for the first time I felt some sympathy but the more I learned about their history the less I cared because they were royal fuck ups..
@@Ragnarok6664 incorrect
How?
@@MalarikFilms, how are the incorrect?
@@ConnorLonergan they deleted their comment so I forgot
While replaying DAO after watching these videos and being amazed by information that’s given in them, I’m realizing that most of it comes from DAO’s codex. And it’s so frustrating… like.. I’ve been playing and replaying these games for years…how come that I don’t know it all already?
Thank you so much for making these videos! I just really really hope that game designers know DA lore as well as you❤
Because it's easier to get to the thing that you want to do next because of that one cutscene or interaction than reading a lot of tiny text
The tensions were so high because the Elves, being so isolationist, refused to aid against the Blight
So the elves took stuff from someone, then man took it from the elves. Honestly, that's pretty believable. Not bad writing tbh. I doubt EA did that.
I’ve had this bookmarked for a while and was waiting to finish Tresspasser before I watched. Even with my crappy attention span, your writing and presentation style keeps my attention the entire time. Love to have this resource to help me process a lot of the info from the games. Reading the codex for hours kind of makes me go cross-eyed after a while.
I love this video! I can only imagine how much it took to make it. Thank you for your time and effort put in to it. I can't wait to see a video on the dark spawn
O my god.. It was the most beautiful video I have ever seen and heard. I didn't know that the history of elves is so complex, and there are so many conflicts, and that the old Gods are not Gods at all! I remember that second time I played Dragon Age Inquisition and making an elv character with those tatoos, which I found so wonderful, and what a horrible story is hidden behind them.. Solas told me, that they were slave marks, but I couldn't believe him. Oh my..
I'm very grateful for this video and I'm excited to watch your lecture about dwarfs!
Have you shared this on the dragon age subreddit? If not, you really should! Great work
I have not, but I will get right too it! Thank you very much :D
true!
Lol the dragon age subreddit is terrible
I love how the dragon age series makes it seem like the religions are bs born out of coincidence or misunderstanding and misinterpretation might be a little bit of real life influencing it but either way this was amazing keep up the good work
Most of dragon age problems are based on real life i think. Religion, racism, fanatical view, etc. A safe way to talk about sensitive topic without any protest.
I agree, although it seems that there might be something strange going on with Andraste. Im thinking specifically about everything ablut her Ashes
I discovered you channel yesterday and after watching two videos (with this being my third) I am hooked🤩🤩 As someone who loves reading fantasy novels since my childhood in Nigeria and as a newcomer to PC gaming, your videos on Dragon Age lore is amazing. I love these and it makes me excited to play the games in the future.
The little touches of lore like the tattoos actually being old slave markings are great writing as it reflects real life rather accurately. An example is how black nationalists in the US have a love of islam stating it to be their original religion often but they have no idea that the islamic empires of old invaded and enslaved Africans making the largest slave market in human history even over shadowing the one from the new wold colonies to Ghana. Even the arabic word for Africans actually means slave yet the black nationalists have no idea about any of this. It's horrifically sad I think how a people can lose their history and end up glorifying those who put them in chains. This sort of writing gives a fictional world a bit of a connection to real life making it all the more easy to escape into this fantasy world.
You seem fascinating to talk to. Let me know.
I live in Africa and I can speak to your claims. Really well said!
A little necro, but this is an absolutely ahistorical view of, well, 'history'. 'Slave' itself came from the supposed slavs, and 'saqaliba', which were often made-eunuchs of the royal courts, and even then, I've heard that connection is quite twisted. What you're referring to is the NOI, Nation of Islam, and how you potray is quite inaccurate, if even distortedly horrifying. Yes, the group itself originally was a seemingly twisted branch of the Sunni school of the Muslims, but it later grew into reforming itself into the so-called mainstream. One of it's prominent 'Ministers' was Malcolm X, and was the literal force that grew the group in the first place. Their being and forming was by the very civil-rights issues of America (i.e, RACISM and Jim Crow segregation laws) and out of some false sense of the Elijah Muhammad. What is very ironic is that you say the slave-tattoos of the Dalish are reflective of the members of NOI, when their names (their last names) WERE slave names given to them by their long-deceased white masters, thereby replacing it with an 'X', a sense of liberation from what they once were, a new start, to them. And this is mentioning little of Malcolm X's letter from Mecca, the very reason why he advocated for Islam was it's anti-racism, the delegations he met across the Muslim realm (Nkroma of Ghana, Faisal of Saudi Arabia), and... you know what, it sucks that ignorance like this is so widespread. I'll just give you a quote.
""Yes-I wrote a letter from Mecca. You're asking me 'Didn't you say that now you accept white men
as brothers?' Well, my answer is that in the Muslim World, I saw, I felt, and I wrote home how my
thinking was broadened! Just as I wrote, I shared true, brotherly love with many whitecomplexioned Muslims who never gave a single thought to the race, or to the complexion, of
another Muslim.
"My pilgrimage broadened my scope. It blessed me with a new insight. In two weeks in the Holy
Land, I saw what I never had seen in thirty-nine years here in America. I saw all _races_, all
_colors_,-blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans-in _true_ brotherhood! In unity! Living as
one! Worshiping as one! No segregationists-no liberals; they would not have known how to
interpret the meaning of those words."
@@hermitage6439 Not at any point did you refute not add to anything I said and your sloppy attempt to deflect the word slave to the slavs was out of left field at best and utterly wrong and not at all germane. The nation of islam was founded not for civil rights before the desired race war that Malcolm X and his cohorts wanted. They did not want equal rights but to kill those they saw as their enemies, not unlike communist groups actually. They latched onto islam while Malcolm was in prison actually where he converted to said religion. Lastly at no point did you even address the largest slave trade network in human history that predated the new world slave trade by centuries and it is still there to this day. The very world for people of African decent in Arabic literally translates to "slave." And it is specifically used for that group of people than anyone else even by the Ottoman Turks when they warred with the Slavics. It is clear you either know nothing of history or you actually subscribe to the ideals of the nation of islam. In which case carry on with your blind love of a religion that does not view you as a human and your vile hatred of your fellow man for things that were never done to you nor done by the people you hate today.
@@hermitage6439 I take it you’re a black nationalist
@@summerblossom4610 No, he’s ironically correcting the original point made, using the original point made.
The history of Black nationalism was misquoted and is clearly misunderstood by the original commenter.
It’s a fascinating point, but poorly attributed. This is a larger issue in America, where people that are misinformed assume that African and Arabic enslavement of Africans is not taught.
That is incorrect.
Hey! Thank you very much for making this content, seriously, this is amazing. I have been trying to collect every piece of codex possible in-game so I may learn as much as possible. The fact you took you're time to not only collect to right codex for these videos, you edited and put together this video for the avid enjoyers of the Dragon Age lore. This world is fantastic and it is very very tempting to spin a Dungeons and Dragons storyline off of it. Take care, and keep these videos coming!
This is amazing stuff thanks so much for the time and effort you put in!! Looking forward to many more lectures
Thank you for this. Your videos on Dragon Age lore is one of the best I've seen on TH-cam.
Loved this video! Hope to see more like this regarding other areas of lore as well. Have been playing DA for years and always enjoy it's world. My favorite game series of all time.
Great video, this really brought a lot of the lore together in an easy to understand way that a lot of other videos I've seen just haven't been able to do for me. A lot of other videos by comparison feel so fragmented and incomplete.
Thank you so much for this. I am learning a lot, and this helps a lot when I prepare to play a Lavellan again. It's good to have this meta-knowledge as a player, and your videos are very, very good. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and research in an appealing way. I love lore videos in general, but yours are special in a good way, of course.
Thank you so much, It means a lot to see how people really appreciate the content :D
I’ve been playing Inquisition for the first time over the last month. This video fills so many curiosity holes for me! And also confirms and supports my gut feeling about Solas. 🥰 Hope to see you make more lore videos!
Love your narration style, thanks for re-clarifying certain things that you've already said. It can be hard to remember so many details, words, characters, etc. I appreciate ya.
Absolutely amazing Video! Extremely underrated, I love you for what you are doing bro
Awesome video man. Really thoughtfully crafted!
That was just wonderful. I've watched it a few times, and each time I get some new insight. Thank you so much for this and your other videos - so much work and research and writing, etc. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this video! I love Dragon Age and the lore and this video helped so much with understanding the history of the elves. Love it and can‘t wait to see more of you!
P.S. English is not my first language but it was so easy to listen to you. I really enjoyed it 😊
Really amazing summary! Thank you for this video!
Awesome work dude! Keep going, can’t Wait for more in depth Lore from DA!!!
Thank you very much! :D
What I don't understand about Solas and his agents is this: Where were they after he went into Uthenera? They just left the slaves scurrying and desperate after the Veil was lifted and didn't even bother to at least try to help those that were left? Did they go into Uthenera as well? It just doesn't make any sense. Then, thousands of years later Mr. Egghead wakes up and expects the Dalish elves to take him on his word, "oh btw, your religion is wrong and you're wearing slave markings".
He did not go to sleep willingly. Creating the veil knocked the lights out of him. And he couldn't know the elves would get so confused. He probably assumed they will just rejoice at being freed from the evil god tyrants, not keep worshipping them and demonizing him.
As for his followers, remember that the elves still worshipped the Evanuris as their gods, despite them being dicks. So they probably killed Solas's followers to appease their gods.
I love this! I was so immersed in your story telling and break down. I'm a huge Dragon Age fan and love reading text throughout the playthrough. You however exposed the elven "gods" that left me surprised. I have been fooled lol. I'm edgar to learn more and I can't wait for the next video! You have done an amazing job!
How do you love Dragon Age and resding all the text, but didn't realise the elven "gods" were just elves, and evil?
Its literally all Solas bangs on about later in inquisition and the DLC
Absolutely love this format! I've played all the games but haven't read everything in them nor the accompanying books and comics
Thank you so much man, I lookin for this content. So amazing
Thank you so much for this incredible video!!! I thought I would have to wait until the next game come out to really learned the full history of the elves and what happened and had so many questions after Inquisition and all of them have been answered by this video incredible work thank you!!👏🏻
The markings are absolutely heartbreaking. Great work on the lesson!
The best historical lore Video on the Dragon Age franchise. Even Jackdaw is not posted a video so detailed. Narration is excellent . It can be used as a reference video to learn and understand the lore of Dragon age which In my opinion can rival A song of ice and fire, Lord of Rings (Hobbit), Wheel of Time, Harry Potter and Sapkowsky's witcher saga.
Thank you so much!! You were so good at explaining it and it was just so well put together
This video is very engaging and easy to follow along with. Great information and excellently narrated!
Love the series, deserves so much more attention
This was a great video. I can't wait to see more
Thank you very much!
@@loreuniversity895 Might be asking to much but can you make them an hour long? Really enjoyed listening to this on my car ride and at work lol
@@NRV0 Thank you, future videos will probably be around 1 hour long, if not longer :D
@@loreuniversity895 Awesome! I appreciate your efforts
I really appreciate this. This must have taken you some time to research, write and create. I am so glad you did. I now have better understanding of each race.
All I can say is that I really hope Solas knows what he is doing. He's risking too much with his current plan.
Very well put together Lore video. Very informative and enjoyable. Well done, my good Sir.
Thank you so very much! :D
Love the content Professor!
I know some might disagree with the event, but I love the imagination and how you present it so for me if you go even harder with speculation that would be dope af
This was a really good video!!! I'm really glad TH-cam got this to me
Thank you, I'm very glad you enjoyed it :D
Super informative! Thank you!
Very good video. Well worth the time to watch
i just started replaying inquisition, this was such a nice refresh!
So much more in dragon age i enjoy these kind of videos
Great work! :) I love Dragon age and played the games several times these last years, but still struggle to keep up with its super rich and deep lore :D So thanks a lot!
Thank you very much :D
I'm enjoying these lessons very much, thanks to this one in particular now I understand fully the Trespasser DLC, that left me confused and with mixed emotions back when I first played it.
Absolutely wonderful! Thank you 🙏
Amazing video, by the way. I wished my nursing lecturers could explain everything so well ;) Elvhen culture and lore feel very close to my heart, as I identify with much of their history.
Holy ...that's fantastic brother ! Insta sub and I hope a lot will follow. Looking forward to more lore especially once DA4 drops 🤩
great job man!!!
Love your content and your amazing music choice :) Adrian von Ziegler is my favourite composer
Thank you very much! Adrian is a truly wonderful composer indeed, I'm glad he let's people use his work as long as he is mentioned. I would like to use music from the DA games, and I have seen other content creators do so, but I am unsure if I will get copyright strikes or not if I do? So I went with the safe alternative with Adrians music :P
@@loreuniversity895 yeah I know Jackdaw uses the Inquisition soundtrack but I don't know if it can get you copyrighted :/ I still think it's better to use Adrian's music if you know you won't get copyrighted and bring more awareness to his music! ☺ oh and I look forward to your future videos! These first three have been great :)
This is absolutely brilliant!
Thanks so much for the work you put in this one! I'm starting my second play through as an elve after finding out about Solas 😧 This backstory is only adding to my hype 😎👍🏽👍🏽
Now this is a school I'd never miss attendance for.
Thanks for the history lesson!
Greay video, I enjoyed it a lot
thanks for this. I havent played the games in years and im currently replaying and this helps to understand a lot.
Thank you, Im glad I could help! :D
@@loreuniversity895 you making more Dragon Age videos? I watched the (3) you have uploaded. They are really good!!! Hope you do more
@@joecaronna2450 I will be making more episodes, the next one will hopefully be out in the coming weeks :D
@@loreuniversity895 awesome man!! cant wait
This is very good content.
Dragon age has easily one of the best elf lore ever, the elfs suffered a lot but also made some awfull bad decisions
Perfect I really like it.
So basically Solas was a real savior for his people while in inquisition he is seen as the villain.
Yeah but him creating the vail also kinda started this whole mess soooo.
He just wanted to undo what he did before.
Nicely done 👏👏
Lore I can actually remember lol this was awesome
Great presentation, please keep up the good work! Will you make a video on the Dwarves at some point?
Thank you very much, Im glad you enjoyed it! And you are in for a treat because the next video will be about the dwarves :D
Maybe The Forgotten Ones we’re actually good deities and the elven higher powers were truly evil, considering they enslaved their own people. Is DA actually a game where the bad guys basically won?
Amazing video! So what unspeakable terror did the elf gods find deep underground?
awesome video! i've been scouring youtube trying to find the perfect lore video because i was so confused and this was perfect 🥳
The Titans are going to be instrumental to being able to fight the Evanuris or Solas. No one else is powerful enough
This is fantastic
Thank you! You are fantastic! 😁
The dread wolf got such a bad rap for freeing slaves, he was done dirty
I loved it.
Thank you very much!
I'm just starting to really dig into the lore behind the main games... so maybe these are silly questions but a) when the elves sealed the tunnels, what did they find that scared them? (I saw one theory it was a blighted titan?) and b) What exactly were the archdemons by the actual historical standard (as opposed to the religious answers given in game)?
So I know this is a video on the elves but as you were talking about the dwarves I had a thought, so the ones that are under the control of the titans are different than the ones we see in the cities and everywhere else maybe they are from the titan the was killed by the elves and that’s why the are so different they weren’t under control so could evolve on there own. So they Honour the “stone” or body of the titan in memory of that.
A lot of real world history went into the making of Dragon Age Elven lore.
Ay ngl YOU SLAY on the dalish words bro be speaking like he's fluent with it
Shared to my FB group!
Im gonna crawl down the DA lore hole of this channel ty
Can I assume that a lot of this is the creator connecting dots from the lore? If not, I've missed something, and if it is its really well done. I'm hoping that the forgotten and forbidden ones are more than just mear elves that were locked away but it would make sense if that is the case.
So Solus has some Loki and his children imagery associated with him. Cool.
30 minutes in, didn't know anything about Dragon Age prior to this video. Everytime i thought "Man, elves can't possibly suffer more after this!", they then do
rip
────
Cole: You don't need to envy me, Solas. You can find happiness in your own way.
Solas: I apologize for disturbing you, Cole. I am not a spirit, and sometimes it is hard to remember such simple truths.
Cole: They are not gone so long as you remember them.
Solas: I know.
Cole: But you could let them go.
Solas: I know that as well.
Cole: You didn't do it to be right. You did it to save them.
Inquisitor: Solas, what is Cole talking about?
Solas: A mistake. One of many made by a much younger elf who was certain he knew everything.
Cole: You weren't wrong, though.
Solas: Thank you, Cole.
___________________
Solas: You cannot heal this, Cole. Please, let it go.
Inquisitor: Perhaps Cole can get a better answer from you than I did.
Cole: He hurts, an old pain from before, when everything sang the same.
Cole: You're real, and it means everyone could be real. It changes everything, but it can't.
Cole: They sleep, masked in a mirror, hiding, hurting, and to wake them... (Gasps.) Where did it go?
Solas: I apologize, Cole. That is not a pain you can heal.
____________________
Cole speaking:
"He broke the dreams to stop the old dreams from waking. The wolf chews its leg off to escape the trap."
A reference to Solas creating the Veil to stop the Evanuris.
-----------
Trespasser DLC
This section contains spoilers for:
Trespasser. RE: Solas
"He did not want a body. But she asked him to come. He left a scar when he burned her off his face."
---------------
"Bare-faced but free, frolicking fighting, fierce. He wants to give wisdom, not orders."
The inquisition should have helped the elves take back the Dales. Or at least owned the Dales. So Ferlden can stop crying about the inquisition troops being on their border lol.
What I don't understand is how come Tevinter Imperium managed to capture and enslave all of the known elves when they took their capital? Shouldn't the elves be all over the world because of how much they spread before the creation of the Fade? You even said they were decentralised in this video so only a portion of them should have been taken by Tevinter.
Tevinter used to occupy most of Thedas.
Pls make next episode on dwarves or more specifically on dwarves whom lost war against evanuris. I know there is not much information available at this point. Dragon Age 4 will be the game where ancient dwarves and titans will be at central plot point. But nonetheless your hypothesis on Elves is most educated, accurate and makes sense. So I would like to hear your hypothesis on dwarves in next video.
It was at this time Shartan was expelled from history, leaving little behind but fear and regret--a process known as sharting. While the meaning, in modern times, has evolved slightly, it has come to share striking similarities in both Elvish and Trade tongue. Interestingly, dwarves have no word articulating the concept in their traditional language but have adopted the concept and the Trade tongue pronunciation.
I expelled a shart
15:50. Did they stumble upon the dark spawn in its infancy? Makes you wonder.
im actually wondering if they found titans
Hi my name is Thomas Love can you talk about archer Elf 's please ? P.s. in your history on elfs please.
I did NOT get all this clearly from the games, thank you!
I think that cause behind forbidden city being tainted is unrelated to Tavinter magisters.
I'd say it's something more fundamental, related to creation of veil itself. I mean, they've disconnected realm of souls from real world. Separated it.
It's possible that maker doesn't exist at all. That it's all nothing but manipulation of bitter souls torn apart by creation of veil, could be related to elven wannabe gods. That there is no higher power controlling that world. Just entities that obtained power, mostly by means of violence towards other entities.
Now im playing Dalish Elf warrior (archer) in DAO.
love your voice !
Thank you so much! :D
one thing i don’t understand is how after the veil was created the elves just forgot that the “gods” were slavers and tyrants and started worshipping them again??? makes no sense
I think it makes sense time often wrap stories into myths. And every one has their own interpretation of the myth, also most of the elven knowledge and history Is locked behind the veil, so can't really fact check
daaamn… the elves can’t catch a break 😭😭
Im curious bout what the elves found underground that got them so panicked, is there any information on this?
what if the blight actually is originally from titans? we know that lyrium exists both in the fade and the real world - and given that titans blood is lyrium - what if andruil stumbled on a decaying and rotting titan body in pre-veil Thedas?
Red lyrium is normal lyrium tainted by the blight, but what introduced the blight to the ancient titans let alone the elvhen if not from one or the other. Its hinted Solas was trying to contain the blight along with the former god mages, meaning it was spreading and we know by then that most of the titans have been slain.
just a thought ^^
we know for a fact that The Blight originated from those seven Magisters that entered the fade but what we dont know is whether the Darkspawn originated from that too or did the magisters release them upon their return from the fade
@@wintertrooper7918 the 7 Magisters were said to have found the Golden City already blackened/blighted meaning the 7 original magisters who broke through the Veil were the original and first darkspawn. They contracted the now released sickness, and upon returning the the physical world brought it with them.
Solas created the veil trap the Old Gods, but really I think he was afraid the Evanuris would destroy themselves by being too arrogant and using red lyrium/Blight instead of containing it or destroying it if possible. Solas ended up being true, and the Elves were lost but over the last 1000s years whose to say how corrupt everyone trapped in the now Blighted Fade has become.
@Sovannarama so no Solas created the Veil to punish the evanuris after they murdered Mythal as far as we know Solas only learned of the taint the datkspawn and all that much later in fact based on his comments I'd say that he has no clue what the old gods are nor has he seen an archdemon before
@@wintertrooper7918 the Old gods are the old Elven Gods. There were 9 Evanuris in total but Mythal was murdered and Solas didnt want to be a God, so 7 remain and align with the Old Gods of Tevinter.
Punishment was partly why he created the veil, but if the Golden City was part of Arlathan then the Blight was already present before he sealed it away with the Gods and the Blight.
Andruil who is one of the remaining Elven gods is the one to find the Blight and be corrupted by it, which codex entries state.
@Sovannarama we have zero evidence backing the "evanuris = old gods" theory it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially given what we know of the evanuris now if the Old Gods are a group of 7 of the so called "Forgotten Ones" that has more weight to it