DATV — The Cobbled Swan Song by Cida Ciconia in Old Tevene
DRAGON AGE THE VEILGUARD SPOILERS ⚠
If you help Minrathous in Act 1, when you start "The Cobbled Swan Case" quest in Docktown with Neve, you'll have a cutscene of Cida Cicadia singing on stage while Makal Damas gets taken away.
It doesn't happen if you helped Treviso instead, but you'll still meet the singer later. (Which is odd to me?)
The lyrics in english are:
…if only to say my last goodbye
Call upon the center of the Fade…
…my love, come to me one last time.
Call upon the center of the Fade…
…if only to grant me my rest.
I can't help but think this song once was about Solas & Mythal...?
Bonus (Tevene lyrics transcription attempt):
…odoci dite sera vale
In vussa centra somniar
Amatus, ba vium vesse cia
In vussa centria somniar
Si solum de mea engrela con tria
(The words in pink at the one I'm almost certain of, but the rest is not accurate, I think!)
I write a lot of Dorian-centric stuff, which has necessitated coming up with meanings for some of our more colourful Tevene phrases. Allow me to share my work for fun.
Disclaimer: I'm not actually educated in Latin. Do I know what I'm talking about? Not especially. But Tevene seems to be based on some vague semi-Latin at best, so I think I'm up to this task.
Fasta vass!
Known background: Both Fenris and Dorian say this phrase in-game. Fenris spits it out amidst a string of curses in a moment of anger; Dorian exclaims it in the Fade upon seeing a pride demon: "Fasta vass, that's a big one!"
Possible Latin root words:
As far as I can tell, "fasta" and "vass" aren't themselves Latin, but Tevene is hardly 1:1 accurate Latin anyway. In the absence of any other context, here are some similar Latin words that we can draw from:
fāstus - (1) arrogance, pride, haughtiness; scornful contempt or disdain of others; OR (2) prudery, primness
vas - likely vessel, as in e.g. "vase." Also potentially a duct releasing bodily fluid? You know, as in "vas deferens."
Definition:
Given that Dorian says the phrase specifically upon seeing a pride demon, it would seem like too much of a coincidence for "pride" not to be involved in the definition. So something like "proud vessel" is where I landed. But what's the implication of that?
I came up with two possible interpretations:
(1) Vessel could be some sort of funny vessel, like a chamber pot. (The bodily duct implication coming into play too...) Therefore, "proud piss-pot."
(2) A proud bodily vessel. Well, then: "Gigantic dick."
(Very mature, I know. Hey, these are the same people who gladly proclaim "you shit on my tongue.")
"Gigantic dick" is pretty funny to me, especially if you consider the prospect of Dorian spluttering that when he sees a massive demon. But then, "big dick, that's a big one!" is perhaps a bit too redundant for our eloquent boy. So when it came time to put one in the story I'm working on, I chose "proud piss-pot."
The full context for what this means:
I'll let Dorian and Hawke explain my rationale and its potential uses under the cut. Plus I'll add the version where I had Dorian define it as "gigantic dick" that I cut out of the fic, just for fun.
V1: "Proud piss-pot"
“The phrase comes from ancient Tevene. The implied meaning is essentially, ‘Blast! Something I thought was valuable and worthy of pride has turned out to be nothing more than a cheap vessel for urination.’”
“Or, to translate literally,” Dorian says, “it means ‘proud piss-pot.’”
“‘Proud piss-pot,’” Hawke repeats. “Your helpful nugget of wisdom was to sit there and exclaim ‘proud piss-pot.’”
“Mm. I’m afraid so.”
Hawke hangs in a look of bewilderment for one moment, then laughs aloud. “Brilliant! I take it all back. There is exactly one appropriate thing to say in this situation and you have indeed said it. Well done.”
“No need to make fun,” Dorian says. Though a corner of his mouth has turned upward.
“I’m not. It’s perfect. That’s precisely how I feel. I came home with what I thought was a stunning victory, only for my darling baby brother to piss all over it. Surprise! It was a piss-pot all along.” Hawke sits back, thoughtfully mussing the dark tufts of his unfamiliarly bushy beard. “Or… is my brother himself the piss-pot that I foolishly continue to adore and prize, regardless of his ongoing pissery? It works on so many levels.”
“There. You see? That’s the wonder of my people’s language.”
V2: "Gigantic dick"
“The phrase comes from ancient Tevene. It refers to… hm. How shall I put this. It’s a… ‘personal apparatus,’ so to speak, that is monstrously large in size.”
Hawke is silent for a moment. “Big dick.”
“If you must.”
“You’re telling me what you just did was sit there and exclaim ‘big dick.’”
“Not precisely,” Dorian says. “‘Monstrously large dick’ would be more accurate.”
Hawke hangs in his bewilderment for another moment, then laughs aloud. “Brilliant! I take it back. There is exactly one appropriate thing to say in this situation and you have just said it. Thank you kindly for the compliment! Or for the extremely apt summary of my brother’s behaviour. Either way.”
I am once again asking for your Dragon Age knowledge 🙏🏻
Here’s my very serious, important question: how would the Dorian Pavus of Minrathous swear?
I’ve noted down the few times I’ve heard him swear in Tevene:
‘Fasta vaas!’, upon seeing the Nightmare demon in the Fade.
‘Vishante kaffas’, which I seem to remember he exclaims in response to something Bull says in party banter 💀
‘Festis bei umo canavarum’, not technically a swear, but I believe it means ‘You’ll be the death of me’ so it felt right to include it — he says that to Cole in party banter lolll
And these are all great, but I’m running out of the Tevene options for my writing, so if he were to swear in the common tongue…
… Would he:
Use one of the many Chantry swears (honourable mention to “Maker’s balls”)
Use something along the lines of “by the gods”, etc…
Some Latin (or Tevene :P ) phrases for writing prompts
“Mors certa, hora incerta.” (Death is certain, its hour is uncertain.)
“Pulvis et umbra sumus.” (We are dust and shadows.)
“Luctor et emergo.” (I struggle and emerge.)
“Aeternum vale.” (Farewell forever.)
“Mors mihi lucrum.” (Death to me is reward.)
“Nascentes morimur.” (From when we are born, we begin to die.)
“Omnia mors aequat.” (Everything is equal in death.)
“Tempus edax rerum.” (Time, devourer of everything.)
“Ars longa, vita brevis.” (Art is long, life is short.)
“Sic transit gloria mundi.” (Thus passes the glory of the world.)
“Nemo me iuvare potest.” (No one can help me)
“Memento mori.” (Remember that you will die.)
“Nascentes morimur.” (From when we are born, we begin to die.)
“Solus sum” (I am alone.)
There is also THIS list of "actual" Tevene.
I am aware that according to the game codex Tavene is not far off being a dead language, but I tend to ignore that in my fics lol, and regardless the idea that the Magisters at least still use a far amount of Tevene phrases feels reasonable in my mind… I mean I am a lowly personal trainer who grew up on a farm and I can read some Latin so *shrugs*
These were collected for my DADWC prompt list, but feel free to use them yourself if they appeal. Also if you just wanted to ignore the Tevene aspect and use the Latin as a prompt go for it.
Since a lot of Tevene seems to be based on Latin, I decided to try to translate the official high names of the months from the Thedosian calendar:
Verimensis (Wintermarch)
Probably means something like “young/early month” or “true month” (possibly meant to be “first/beginning month”??). Mensis is the Latin word for “month,” and veri could be from a number of different words, including ver (“spring,” “youth”), verus (“true,” “right,” “proper”), or even verum (“roasting spit,” “javelin”).
Pluitanis (Guardian)
Pluit means “rain” in Latin. I don’t think anis (or an + is, etc.) means anything useful. I think the endings of a lot of these months were added by the devs to Tevene-ize the Latin words and make them distinct.
Nubulis (Drakonis)
Nubes is the Latin word for “cloud.” It is interesting that Cloudreach is the low name for Eluviesta instead of this month.
Eluviesta (Cloudreach)
This month probably takes its name from the Latin word eluvies, which means “flowing out” or “flood.”
Molioris (Bloomingtide)
Molior is a form of the Latin verb molio (“to build,” “to undertake,” “to set in motion”). Maybe this is traditionally the month of sowing crops?
Ferventis (Justinian)
The Latin verb fervo means “to be very hot,” “to boil,” or “to burn.” Presumably Tevinter is already very hot by this time of year.
Solis (Solace)
Sol is the Latin word for the sun. Presumably this month is, like Ferventis, named for the hot weather.
Matrinalis (August)
Matrinalis could get its name from the Latin word matrimonium, “marriage.” It could also get its name from the Latin word mater, which means “mother.”
(On an unrelated note: The low name for the month, August, is so named bc Andraste’s name was originally going to be Augusta.)
Parvulis (Kingsway)
Parvus means “little/small” in Latin, and parvulus is one of several words in Latin that means “children.”
Perhaps Matrinalis and Parvulis are meant to correspond as “Mother Month” and “Child Month”? Or “Marriage Month” and “Children Month”?
Frumentum (Harvestmere)
Frumentum means “grain” in Latin. Presumably this is harvest time throughout Thedas.
Umbralis (Firstfall)
Umbra is the Latin word for “shadow,” so perhaps this month is named for the days getting darker?
Cassus (Haring)
One of the meanings of cassus in Latin is “barren,” which would fit well with the lack of life in winter.
So in one of the Dragon Age server I’m in, the question of the Thedosian calendar came up. So I did some digging and analysis, and found some really cool correlations. Please note that these are my opinions, based on the Dragon Age Wiki and canon sources. There are many interpretations, not just mine <3
Southern Thedosian Climate Thoughts
Thedas is, from what we understand, in the southern hemisphere of their world, for the sheer fact of south = colder, north = warmer. However, if we look at the Common names of the months, there can be 2 different interpretations
-1. Either Southern Thedas has climate like an IRL northern hemisphere, where Wintersmarch = January = winter weather/snow, and thus follows seasons that way. It's easy to consider it that way, because the 8th month in Thedas and Earth, match: they're both August (according to the wiki, this is carried over from when Andraste was named Augusta in earlier drafts of the game)
-2. OR the Thedosian calendar year starts in, say, what we would consider summer in the IRL northern hemisphere/winter in the IRL southern hemisphere (such as IRL March) and then follows a southern hemisphere pattern of weather. Considering the Tevinters first set up the calendar, and the Roman calendar year starts in March, that can also be a consideration.
either of these methods can work. I personally use the first method in my longfic, The Songstress and the Swordsman, but, as stated above, there are many proverbial roads to Rome, and different interpretations.
As for the Southern Thedosian climate: from what we see in the games, there’s so many different climates present in DAI. So you can interpret it a number of ways, including:
-visiting different regions during different time of the year. We know that DAI takes place over a period of time, so that’s not a stretch. ex: ‘I’m visiting the Hinterlands in the summer, and the Emprise in winter’
-The Frostbacks could act similarly to the Rocky Mountains in the Pacific NW of the US, where one side is lush and green, and the other is dry prairie/grassland
-some areas could be affected by magic, which would also affect things in its own way
But, we can mostly agree that it’s relatively temperate in Ferelden and the Free Marches. There's some snow in parts of it.
What of Tevinter/the North, though? That's where things get interesting.
Tevinter Calendar and Climate
Here is the calendar, directly from the Wiki
so let's break this down. Tevene shares roots in Latin, so I used Latin to translate this...
1: Spring-month/Wintermarch; celebrate First Day
2: 'it rains' (from that Latin verb 'to rain')/Guardian; celebrate Wintersend
3: 'hazy/ cloudy'/Drakonis
4: Eluvium: sediment/rock debris formed from running water or rain/Cloudreach
5: I strive/work (or, alternatively a tweak of 'melior' which is 'better')/Bloomingtide; celebrate Summersday
6: Hot/boiling (from 'fervens')/ Justinian
7: Sun (easy: sol for sun)/Solace
8: Pertaining to matrons/married women (further push it to Mothers)/ August; celebrate All Souls Day
9: Small (can be interpreted as ‘little ones’ or children)/Kingsway
10: Grain/Harvestmere
11: Shadowy/cloudy/Firstfall; celebrate Satinalia
12: Hollow or empty/ Haring
Notice that we have a clear period of 3 rainy months, 2 intense summer, a harvest, and then a cloudy, empty period of not much going on. This, to me, follows the typical climate found in India.
If we ascribe to the first theory of 'Wintersmarch = January = Winter' I would consider SE India, where there are monsoons during the IRL winter months (speaking from a northern hemisphere perspective, at least)
If we use Theory 2 'Wintermarch = IRL March' then this aligns with the SW monsoon pattern during the IRL summer (again, northern hemisphere perspective <3 ).
I interpret it as this:
Guardian-Cloudreach: monsoon season
Bloomingtide: super short respite, planting season
Justinian-August: S U M M E R
Kingsway-Harvestmere: autumn
Firstfall-Haring: winter
Wintermarch: super short spring
Could it be that it these names are simply cool names slapped onto the IRL Earth calendar? Possibly. However, the correlations are a bit too coincidental for me to rule that out completely.
Tevinter Calendar, The Weather, and Holidays
I found some correlations between the Old Tevinter names of the holidays, and the translated month names in which they occur
Wintersend/Urthalis: dedicated to Urthemiel, the god of beauty. How does holding tourneys match up with 'beauty?' well, two ways: flex your political muscles and put on some epic pageants/events that are beautiful. OR celebrate this right before the monsoons start, when the weather is still 'beautiful.' Parts of Tevinter will become muddy and muggy, soon, definitely not pretty
Summersday/Andoralis: dedicated to Andoral, the god of unity. We celebrate this in Bloomingtide/Melior, or the 'I work' month. Andoral is the god of unity, so why honor him during this month? To unify together and plant before the summer comes
All Souls Day/Funalis: dedicated to Dumat, the god of silence. this is a very interesting holiday, because after Dumat rose in the first Blight, Thedosians rededicated the holiday to remembering those who have passed. In the South, it represents Andraste’s death, coming from August (Augusta was, remember, an old name for Andraste before the devs switched it over). Bonfires are common, to represent Her pyre. In the Old Tevene, Matronalis is ‘pertaining to matrons/married women.’ Andraste is the Bride of the Maker, a married woman, and mother.
It’s interesting to note that in some Northern countries, people dress as spirits and parade down main thoroughfares at midnight. Is it a carry-over from Dumat’s celebration in the ‘dead silence of night?’ Perhaps!
Satinalia/Feastday: originally attributed to the god of chaos. Now. This is like... two letters off or something from the Ancient Roman Saturnalia, and bears some really close resemblances (not to the month name, this time). Wild celebrations, masquerades, gift giving: in some areas, like Antiva, it lasts a whole week! So a whole week of chaos! Epicness! It’s my favorite holiday, and I never attended it before <3
It’s a good thing to note that the holiday got its name from Satina, the second moon. It could be that, during this time of year, Satina is really visible/prominent in the sky, hence why the holiday is named for it.
