Avvar History Reconstruction, Part 6
<<Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5>>
Part 6: Pushed back into the Mountains
As the Alamarri tribes living in the Fertile Valley grew in power, the Avvar would retreat further and further into the Mountains. From time to time, they tried to advance into the lowlands, occasionally allying with the Chasind against their Alamarri cousins. However, they were always pushed back and did not reclaim any of the settlements they held in the Valley in the previous centuries.
1:50 Divine: Hafter defeats combined Chasind and Avvar forces and holds the Fereldan Valley. Hafter is named the valley’s first teyrn.[1]
I think Hafter’s victory put the Avvar on the losing track. The Alamarri started to establish an intricate political structure while the Avvar continued with their old tradition of thanes and jarls. I imagine the terms “bann” and “thane” have a common root, as well as “arl” and “jarl”. It’s said that the Landsmeet had been:
“held for almost three thousand years except odd interruptions during Blights and invasions”[2]
which would put the time of its creation before the Avvar separated from the Alamarri and after the proto-Alamarri tribe crossed the Frostback Mountains. However, I think that in the Ancient Age, the Landsmeet was an infrequent meeting between leaders of neighbouring tribes, not an annual occurrence for which all chieftains ruling in the Fertile Valley were expected to gather. I theorize it was only after Hafter’s success that the Alamarri leaders started assembling more regularly. In large part, I imagine, it was to discuss their line of defense against the Avvar and Chasind forces surrounding them from the west and south. The enmity between the central Alamarri tribes and their “cousins” grew.
Whereas the Avvar tribes only occasionally united under powerful chieftains as they had in the old times, the Alamarri began laying the foundations of a more organized system that would eventually allow them to form a kingdom.
The next few centuries are a blank space in Avvar history, though I’m inclined to believe that their area of influence continued to shrink and their power dwindled.
“4:80 Black: The Orlesian Empire takes advantage of Ferelden's fractured state [or rather, the fracturated state of the Alamarri tribes, as this happens before the formation of Ferelden - addition mine] and crosses the Frostback Mountains to invade for the first time.”[3]
The first Orlesian invasion entered the Fertile Valley through the Frostback Mountains, launching the initial attack on the fortress of Redcliffe. I think it’s safe to assume that the Orlesian forces had to cut their way through the Mountains by decimating Avvar tribes standing between them and their true goal. Even though the Alamarri tribes were not fully united during the Black Age, they managed to withstand the Orlesian invasion and pushed the foreign forces outside of the Fertile Valley in 4:84 Black.
The losses suffered by the Avvar further diminished their strength, which was very advantageous to the Alamarri. Unbothered by the neighbouring tribes, the Alamarri would soon unite under Calenhad. The Avvar, even if they were offered the chance to enter the alliance (and there’s no such indication in the lore, as far as I can tell), would be unlikely to accept it. For one, Calenhad has brought the Chantry into his newly formed country, a decision which the Avvar did not approve of.
“We Avvar never leave the ice and the stone. We never bowed to Calenhad as the Alamarri did, nor shall we be enslaved by the words of their new prophet.”[4]
Though Andraste was an Alamarri-Ciriane woman, and her husband was an Avvar, the majority of Avvar tribes did not abandon their pre-Andrastian beliefs. The Chantry dogma, heavily influenced by the Orlesian priesthood, would be even less appealing to the Avvar. Furthermore, the Avvar would never agree to send their mages to the Circles, where they wouldn’t be able to practice the sprit worship as they used to. For the Alamarri, however, a place in the Chantry offered an enticing possibility to legitimize their self-rule. As “heathen barbarians”, they were not viewed as a sovereign state by other nations, most importantly, their neighbour, the Orlesian Empire.
5:42 Exalted: Calenhad Theirin is crowned king in Denerim, uniting the long-warring tribes of Ferelden under a single banner.[5]
Not everyone agreed with Calenhad’s decision, for example, his close friend and mentor, Aldenon. Aldenon was a mage and he didn’t share Calenhad’s belief in the Maker, nor did he approve of inviting the Chantry into Ferelden.
“Aldenon conceived a plan to enlist strong allies and Calenhad went into the Brecilian Forest to make it so. But unbeknownst to the mage, Calenhad had made contact with the Chantry. When Calenhad returned at the head of the Ash Warriors as Aldenon expected, so as well did templars and Circle mages join our host. Aldenon was in a fury such as I've never seen. He wanted a kingdom of free men, of moral people beholden to law. Where a common man could tend his land safely and in peace. He lifted his staff and his voice echoed through the hills: "A civilization cannot be civil if it condones the slavery of another. And that is what this Circle is! But by accident of birth, those mages would be free to live, love, and die as they choose. The Circles will break—if it be one year, a decade, a century, or beyond. Tyrants always fall, and the downtrodden always strive for freedom!"”[6]
Afterwards, Aldenon abandoned Calenhad and vanished. The Theirins ruled over Ferelden for the next centuries.
The last attempt of the Avvar tribes to take control of the Valley was the invasion led by Balak. It seems that his forces took Fereldans by surprise, but that advantage didn’t last long.
6:50 Steel: The Avvar organize forces under the great warlord Balak and sweep into the heart of the Ferelden Valley in massive numbers. The bannorn is put to the torch.[7]
6:52 Steel: The Avvar are pushed out of Ferelden proper. The period results in one of the worst famines in Fereldan history. Memories of Avvar savagery sour relations between the barbarians and Fereldan kings for ages.[8]
Afterwards, the Avvar mostly stayed bound in the less accessible regions of the mountains, which is how the Frostback Mountains area is defined in the current times (as opposed to the wider area that I proposed earlier as the antiquated definition of the Frostback Mountains).
Figure 12. Lands inhabited by the Avvar tribes following the formation of Ferelden.
Next up: What’s the current situation in the Frostback Mountains?
~~
Sources:
[1] Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, vol. 1, p. 70
[2] Codex entry: Politics of Ferelden
[3] Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, vol. 1, p. 94
[4] Codex entry: The Lady of the Skies
[5] Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, vol. 1, p. 105
[6] Codex entry: Freedom’s promise
[7] Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, vol. 1, p. 110
[8] Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, vol. 1, p. 111
