CONFESSION:
So, there's something that bugs me with a lot of "I hate Elthina, she had the power to stop Meredith" confessions that I've seen, and I feel like a lot of people missed some very important information from the codex (specifically History of Kirkwall: Chapter 4).
Meredith controls Kirkwall with the blessing of the Divine. She has Kirkwall by the balls and Elthina's boss backing her up every step of the way. The Viscount before Dumar -- Perrin Threnhold -- started levying heavy taxes on Orlesian traders and wouldn't let them dock unless they paid a huge fee. The Orlesians complained to their Orlesian Divine, and she then used the Templars as her personal thugs to try and convince Threnhold to knock it off. Threnhold then decided to arrest the Knight-Commander and execute him. Meredith, who was Knight-Captain at this point, then took her Templars and stormed the Keep, taking the throne. She gave Dumar the pointy crown, but it's very clear that Meredith wears the pants. She took over the city once before, with the Divine giving her high fives all the way to Keep.
Beatrix III dies after the Qunari attack the city, putting Justinia on the throne. But by then it's too late, the Viscount's dead and Meredith is no longer even pretending she's not ruling Kirkwall by this point. Elthina does have sway over Meredith, but let's be clear: Elthina is not Meredith's boss. Meredith is a warlord and a loose cannon who only bothers to pay attention to Elthina because she is a devout Andrastian. Elthina has seen one civil war in Kirkwall between the Templars and the people, so she's not keen on getting the Divine into this mess and she's not even sure if this new Divine will be any better than the old one.
Personally, I'm still not a huge fan of Elthina. I'm ambivalent. Character-wise, in any other city she probably would have been a mediocre cleric, very middle-of-the-road, and nothing bad would have happened. But in Kirkwall, this mediocrity just makes her incompetent. Which really isn't her fault. We're can't all be Hawke. But I do feel like she's unfairly judged for a situation she cannot change, with Meredith as a de facto dictator at the head of a military force that is being backed by Elthina's boss and one of the greatest powers in Thedas.
See also: Kirkwall The Threnhold family assumed its foreboding control of the city at the very onset of the Dragon Age, less than a week aft
I have to politely disagree because… timeline isn't adding up in your version. Elthina isn't some new cleric with no local ties. She was the one who performed thedas-version-of-baptism on baby Leandra. Leandra, the heiress of Amells (old aristocracy, that were as powerful as viscount's family). So, Elthina was already quite high in hierarchy. Maybe fresh Grand Cleric, maybe few steps before it, but anyway.
She's old. She's here for decades and decades. Image doesn't show it properly, but, judging by "Hawke's age + Leandra's age + time required for making career in the Chantry", during game she moves from her late 70s to late 80s.
She already had power when Meredith just started rising. She probably was the one who connected Meredith to the Chantry higher-ups - Divine doesn't get aquainted with just any eager and ambitious templar (there are too many of them). There are tons of intrigues, schemes and shady shenanigans within Chantry. Basically everyone with some status quickly becomes politician, puppet or corpse. For a puppet Elthina had way too much social influence (even at peak of her power Meredith didn't dare to publicly oppose her). And only unpredictable factor of vengeful apostate turned her into a corpse.
What I'm saying is: "Elthina could've destroyed Meredith decades ago". The Meredith we know happened because of Elthina. We can't properly evaluate how deeply Elthina influenced Meredith, but judging by her brainwashing of Sebastian… I have my doubts. And I see patterns. One day Meredith also was a young woman that lost her family and longed for purpose and safety. Such people are easily mouldable into fanatics. Did Elthina mould her? We don't know. But she surely didn't try to prevent it. Why would she? It was quite useful for her. The more power have templars, the more power has Chantry. The more power has local the Chantry leader - Grand Cleric. And Elthina even gets wonderful publicity by playing a "good cop"! When such luck happens to any political figure, it usually has nothing to do with luck.
I doubt she would've ever been a "mediocre cleric". She's too good at the Game for it. She didn't even need a material mask - you're already tricked by the one she actually wore.
I don't really hate her. No more than Meredith. She's skilled in her line of work, I could respect that. But at the same time I do despise her.











