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Jan 20, 2023

Ancient Elven codices; Fen’Harel’s mountain ruins

These mosaics are located in the Ancient elvhen mountain ruins, a place created by Fen’Harel to give shelter to slaves of the Evanuris and remove their vallaslin. His followers protected this place and taught others the truths about the Evanuris to fight them. Along the towers, there are mosaics focused on Fen’Harel, made of a material similar to Veilfire, which narrate a kind of positive “propaganda” of the Dread Wolf. As Solas says by the end of Tresspasser, they are not accurate, even though they are closer to the truth than the Dalish tales.

[Index page of Dragon Age Lore]

At the top of all the following set of mosaics appears Fen’Harel’s face, framed in a circle, with swirls behind him. We have learnt along the DA series that swirls can potentially mean “Fade” or “Fade magic” [as well as lyrium]. It seems fitting for him to represent Fade [especially if we take into consideration the Mural self-portrait, where we can see Solas as a wolf in the fade and as an elf in the waking world].

We also learnt, when people dug into the game files, that these same exact mosaics had alternative versions with different heads inside the top circle. Two of them resemble the Sun-head creature and Bull horn-head creature. The third one seems to be related to the heads of the statues found in the Brecilian Ruins in DAO, whether representing Falon’Din or Urthemiel. I personally think this shape is closer to the Archdemon Urthemiel than to Falon’Din [we see the prominent shape of three spikes].

This link to Urthemiel makes me be inclined to think that the other two heads belong to other Old Gods, but so far our exploration in Trespasser, it’s truly impossible to say what these symbols _really_ represent. We have a certain level of confirmation with the last trailer of DA:D, where we see these symbols representing the “guardians” [potentially the Old Gods for the Tevinters] of what’s hidden in the golden city. But before any analysis on this matter, there is a bigger question to answer: what are the Old Gods? The lore has been quite scarce about them. To be mere majestic animals such as high dragons seems to fall short. On the other hand, we know that Tevinter co-opted a lot of their arcane [and potentially religious] knowledge from the elvhes. Tevinters considered dragons as sacred creatures to create the idea of the Old Gods, but the elvhen had also previous, ancient divinities from which they wanted to emulate “its shape”. The elvhen codices only speak about a shape that allows flying, and due to the context surrounding the elvhen, it seems reasonable to think that they also worshipped dragons in ancient times when The Evanuris were not contemplating the possibility of becoming gods themselves. So, the link between two civilisations as worshippers of dragon-like entities is not so far reaching and I personally like it more than any comparison of the Old Gods with the Evanuris. After all, Dragon Age Franchise is the story of how the stories modify along the ages and through the civilisations that co-opt them. The “tale” of the Old Gods and what they truly are is still a mystery.

In any case, since these extra “heads” of the murals is material discarded from the game I will not waste time trying to understand it; we should be managing the already complex narrative of the lore of DA with what we were given, or clear Dev’s notes in order to keep using our principle of Occam’s razor. Material like this tends to mud the speculations.

Wolf Welcome

Wolf's Welcome, found at the Smoke Tower, which has an Elven Tree Statue on its top.

A wash of powerful magic carries an impression of welcome. Images flash by: elven slaves fleeing to this place in ancient times, greeted by others who then tend their wounds. Words are not so much heard as felt.

"Fen'Harel bids you welcome. Rest, knowing the Dread Wolf guards you and his people guard this valley. In this place, you are free. In trusting us, you will never be bound again."

Considerations of the codex and comments

Each mosaic of Fen’Harel carries a feeling. This one inspires welcoming.

The Dread Wolf appears once more as a protector, as it has been doing in all the ancient elvhen ruins, specially in those with Mythal.

The followers of Fen’Harel protect this valley [this reached to the point that they bounded themselves to these ruins as those purplish-spirits that Solas awoke seem to imply]

The word bound appears once more in an elvhen context, and we know what a heavy concept it implies in DA lore. This is the important detail in the text, in my opinion. In this mosaic we are hinted that the slavery of the elvhen may be related to a bound process.

The comment of the Inquisitor adds a little bit more of information:

These mosaics are made with something similar to veilfire.

This place was a refugee for elven slaves, made by Fen’Harel and his followers, so these symbols present in the towers [the Elven Tree Statue, Elven Archers, and Elven Owl statue should be related to him or The People, and not to the Evanuris [these statues annoys me the most].

Cole confirms that this place was a shelter for resting and recovering.

The design of the Mosaic

The mosaic shows a central object that can be interpreted as different things:

First, an spherical Elven Tree Statue. However the bottom of the tree seems to be connected or being one with the ground. This detail makes me suspect two potential interpretations:

One is about a pocket in the Fade, a “bubble” created from the Fade [as Raising the Sonallium shows]. DA franchise accustomed us to understand the swirls as representations of Fade magic, Lyrium, or Magic in general. These elven trees seem to represent the “source of power” that comes from Magic, that in contrast with the swirls of the mosaic, one could suspect it means “it was created by using the Fade magic” [like we see they create these spaces in the previous codex]. The way that this “bubble” is not completely disconnected from the “ground”, makes it look like a small pocket in a bigger membrane, so the nature of this place is similar to the Crossroads’. Morrigan told us that the Crossroads gave her refuge. During that time, Flemeth could not detect her, so it seems quite straightforward to interpret this mosaic as a visual representation of the nature of these “elven mountain ruins”. Here, the slaves would be isolated from the Fade, unable to be found by the Evanuris, while they recover.

My second interpretation is not too different from the previous one, but the source of power of this pocket can be interpreted differently: the fact that the tree is connected to the ground, and the Elven Tree’s branches always looked to me like ramifications of lyrium vein, it changes the interpretation to a heart of a Titan or a Titan Guardian. It makes not much sense for Titans to give shelter to slave elvhen, but it could be an interpretation meaning that these pockets in between the waking world and the Fade are created by or use the power of the Titans [which are always related to creation and reinforcement of the reality, shape, and form]. In fact, both previous interpretation can exist at the same time, since powerful magic can be done via lyrium too, so the creation of these pocket space can potentially be done with magic enhanced with lyrium.

On a side note, I cannot help but relate the symbol of the swirls inside this pocket/tree with the symbol we find in the stained glass of the Chantry, in the Maker’s heart. The fact that in the stained glass we have a tree made of these swirls, in similar fashion to this mosaic, does not escape me. We know the Maker and Solas’ actions are strangely similar. It doesn’t seem too off for me to think that some elvhen survivor of this time spread the legend of Solas, and at some point, humans turned Solas, the elvhen rebel god, into the Maker, an entity that suited more the needs of the disconnected human groups spread all over Thedas. We know with the series of codices of “Before Andrastianism: The Forgotten Faiths, by Sister Rondwyn of Tantervale” that humans have been developing a lot of strange sects before the Chantry established itself as a strong institution. It seemed vital to unify the human religions in order to have some resemblance of peace and control over them.

Taking into account these similarities between the Maker and Solas’ actions, I support the idea that the Myth and the Folklore that gave origin to the Maker as a religion may have been inspired by Solas himself. It may have been done by an elf, who saw the actions of Solas [or was taught to into them]. We know that once Solas created the Veil, he disappeared, since he went to slumber. Fen’Harel followers may have wanted to keep his legend alive, as the Fall of Arlathan and the invasions of Tevinter put a full stop in the elvhenan empire. As the remaining elves escaped the slavery of Tevinter, the legend may have reached human ears who turned it into a tool to unify the so fragmented Thedas with the creation of the Maker, in combination, later, with the presence of Andraste. This is how, after all, most religions in real life history are made of: pieces of previous ones, modified to suit the needs of a certain population.

We know that those who created these mosaics were followers of Solas even though Solas rejected divinity, so they portrait Solas more perfect than he truly was in the past.

Curiously, this symbol in the mosaic tree seems to have been re-interpreted by the city elves and their Vhenadahl, which is decorated with white swirls in a red background. It seems to be inspired in this concept of the swirly tree of Fen’Harel mosaic as well as in the stained glass of the Chantry. Which makes a lot of sense since as city elves, they are the synthesis of the cultural aspects of the humans and the elves/dalish. So, in conclusion, I’m inclined to think that the trees keep representing source of power that may come from [Fade]Magic and/or Lyrium.

The Promise of Fen'Harel

The Promise of Fen'Harel, found at the Silent tower, which is the one that has several Elven Archers around

A wash of powerful magic carries a pang of hope. Images flash by: a man in wolfskin standing with a group of freed slaves, clasping one's arm in friendship. Words aren't so much heard as felt:

"Fen'Harel has been falsely named a god, but is as mortal as any of you. He takes no divine mantle and asks that none be bestowed upon him. He leads only those who would help willingly. Let none be beholden but by choice."

Considerations of the codex and comments

This mosaic carries the feeling of hope.

It basically reinforces the idea that Fen’Harel is not a god, and was falsely turned into an Evanuris

Beside no taking divine mantle [I suppose this is the reason why Fen’Harel is a wolf instead of a dragon, he didn’t take “divine shape”] Fen’Harel only encouraged the willingly to join the rebellion [which we can suspect it may have had some frictions].

I think in this aspect we can see the grain of non-truth of this propaganda: those who read The Masked Empire know that Solas is capable of killing and removing the elements [Felassan] that will endanger what he considers the just cause. We don’t know how Felassan ended up as an agent of Fen’Harel, but clearly his perception that the city elves were “People” and should have a chance in leading the change, costed him his life. Fen’Harel did not accept such a deviant concept even though it also implied rebellion. Fen’Harel do not accept rebellion that will endanger the cause in his inner circle [which makes sense, otherwise, his organisation would have ended as a purposeless entity of chaos, like Red Jenny’s].

With Sera, he will have banter that reinforces the idea that any organisation is victim of corruption and needs constant cleaning. So the implied free will line in the mosaic may be an understatement.

Solas: Once you have the aristocracy weakened, Sera, you will have to redirect your lieutenants. Sera: Oh, this again. All right, what am I doing? Solas: Some of your forces, valuable until now, have no interests beyond creating disruption. Chaos for its own sake. They must be repositioned where they can do no harm, or removed if necessary. You replace them with organizers willing to build a new system and carry out the ugly work that must be done. Sera: What? Why? What ugly work? Solas: That is up to you. Do you wish to disrupt the nobility, secure a title? Or change the political structure entirely? Sera: None of it! I don't want any of that!

The design of the Mosaic

The mosaic shows a circle with Fen’Harel in the center, and several elves around him, yielding spears. Five spears and four elves, which implies that the Dread Wolf “fights by your side as well”. The circle on the top with Fen’Harel’s face is connected with the other circle bellow, through an undulating pattern. Inside this undulation, at the bottom of the mosaic, we see veins and swirls, that we have always seen them as representations of the Blight, or Lyrium veins. Since these have no thorns [and the context makes no sense for a representation of the Blight], we assume they represent lyrium and/or Fade magic. The veins are inside the line that contains this Pocket, but there are also some swirls outside.

The inquisitor’s comment adds nothing to what we read in the codex. Cole explains to us that the true motivation of Solas for all of this was truly to help. Dorian reinforces to the player what we can infer so far: Fen’Harel was a rebel against the Evanuris.

The Lies of the Evanuris

The Lies of the Evanuris, found inside the Silent tower [with archer statues around], is placed in a very dark corridor that depict the “zombie” elves and the armoured figure which have been analysed time ago in Nation Art: Elvhen.

The mosaic gives access to a room that has a replica of the forgotten sanctuary and the three towers.

A wash of powerful magic carries a sensation of bitter fury. Images flash by: elven mages enslaving tens of thousands, making arrogant proclamations of godhood. Words are not so much heard as felt:

"The gods, our Evanuris, claim divinity, yet they are naught but mortals powerful in magic who can die as you can. In this place, we teach those who join us to unravel their lies."

Considerations of the codex and comments

This mosaic carries a feeling of bitter fury.

There is not much to say about this text. It shows that through slavery, the Evanuris could proclaim a fake godhood. It’s not clear at all if the process was similar as it is in DnD: the more followers/slaves you have, the more powerful a god becomes. We know, however, that Falon’Din went to extremes to starts wars in order to increase his worshippers, so quantity seems important. He also filled pools as big as oceans with the blood of his defiants [Solas’ words, Temple of Myhtal]. So maybe there is power in the quantity, or in the amount of blood you spill .

The Fen’Harel propaganda reinforces the concept that the Evanuris are mortals. Which is a bit confusing to me; we have been told that elves were immortal during the time when the Fade and the Waking World were one [Solas’ words at the end of Trespasser]. Solas also tells us that the Evanuris are not easily killed. We conclude with Jaws of Hakkon that this must be because spirit-like entities reborn when they die, even though they may change in the process. So claiming here that they are mortal mages… feels strange. Maybe here is the half-truth of this propaganda? The Evanuris are not gods, but they still have their ancient elvhen spirit-like nature? Or maybe I’m just being too picky with the wording and they are saying “mortals” as an antonymous of “god-like”.

Still, it seems very strange to read the word “mortal” in a pre-Veil world. Then again, as the companions and the Inquisitor speak later, maybe it’s just a tale to rebuild the confidence of the slaves and get rid of the old propaganda.

The design of the Mosaic

This mosaic is one of the most curious one of the series in my opinion, and not by chance placed in a room we can barely see due to its darkness. This has to be a mosaic with interesting lore. First, let’s analyse what we see, and then how we can interpret it.

What we see:

It shows a creature with horns and pointy ears, chained around their waist. At the sides of the creature, there are two central branches of what looks like lyrium veins [they end in a swirl, making it look even more related to lyrium veins]. They also may look like columns. There are three drops of a blue liquid that fall from the captured creature. These drops are the only element in the mosaic made of an intense blue colour, making it an indicator, almost undeniable, that it is lyrium. Between the “horns” I see a dark circle that may or may not be relevant. The horns could potentially have an interpretation of “two spheres overlapping, one central dark one, another golden in the background.” This golden sphere comes from the head of the elf.

Regarding the branches, they are drawn in a different direction that we usually see them in the DA art: which is from the bottom spreading upwards. They appear at the bottom of mountains [or mountain-like visual], to emphasise the concept of lyrium vein [this can be seen a lot in the presentations of DAO, DAO Awakening and DA2 act presentations: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3 ]. In DAO we see more the association of the swirls with the Lyrium. In Awakening, we see veins raising from the bottom of mountains. In DA2, the veins grow from bellow [mountains or buildings] in concept art and in-game murals [like the one representing Flemeth], and in the DLC the Mark of the Assassin, we see only one vein in a different direction of what we usually see in the mountains.

It has several potential interpretations:

First interpretation: Since the direction of the branches is unusual, maybe the creature is not hanging upside down, but they are sinking into the circle that displays Fen’Harel’s face. The top of the image would be the “bottom” from where the lyrium branches grow. The body of the creature seems to be one with this circle [some lines that seem to draw the robe of the creature are fused into the circle, bringing the idea of The Horror of Hormak, where we learnt that slaves were sent to the bottoms of the mountains to be submerged into pools of a strange liquid altered with lyrium crystals, in order to produce chimeras or monstrous merges of souls. The book provides enough evidence to be quite sure that this was Evanuris’ doing, and if we combine it with the information of the codices Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara and the codex of the mural of the titan: Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads, we know that the Evanuris did something terrible underground that required them to collapse part of the Deep Roads to hide it.

Cons of this interpretation:

It makes no sense that the “bottom of the mountain” leads to Fen’Harel’s circle.

The book of Tevinter Nights says that over the piles of brine liquid there is a lyrium crystal, not three. Those three drops of lyrium could be seen upside-down, as diamond-shape crystals, but in any case, it makes no sense that there are three of them when it’s only required one according to this book.

If the horror happening in Hormak is what truly made Solas banish the Evanuris, we also know by the Dev’s note we find in the Unknown Ruin [read “The Crossroads [DLC Trespasser]: Deep Roads; Unknown Ruin”], that he had decided not to share what the Evanuris did to avoid future temptation from anyone else. So it seems unlikely for him to share it with his followers so they can put this secret in a big mosaic, lol.

Second interpretation: The creature hanging in this mosaic has horns. They may be interpreted as a qunari. If we see the Tevinter Mosaics, in particular “sacrifice”, we will find out that this situation looks pretty similar to the central figure in the Tevinter mosaic who is hanging upside-down. We learnt that this figure used to have horns. Gatsi says it may have been a Qunari. But the time of the elvhenan is quite more ancient than the time of Tevinter, so this creature hanging in the Fen’Harel mosaic could have been a Kossith for all what we know. Or anything else. Exactly because we keep in mind The Horror of Hormak, this creature could have been any creature made by the elvhen using those strange merging-pools: it could have been a Qunari, a Kossith, or even a proto-darkspawn chimera.

The darkspwan have been venerating a figure with beetle horns since DAO, so maybe there is a link there.

We also know that there is a link of this symbol with The Architect [those weapons can be bought through the nexus golem]

One could argue that makes no sense for a proto-darkspawn to be here, but I think it’s worth considering because the dwarves [specially the shapers], unlike the surface humanoids, do not attribute the origin of darkspawn to the Sin of the Magister Sidereal [Darkspawn], but to an underground cause, potentially an original broodmother living deep into the Stone [ The Eternal Battle: Darkspawn]. So, the origin of the darkspawn could be explained through these pools from The Horror of Hormak; where a creature, equivalent to an underground broodmother concept, was born. [This concept of a corrupted, underground creature as the origin of the darkspwan is not super reliable, but it seems to have some level of certainty since it’s supported by two shapers. Even if this information is a leftover of some alterations to the truth, the concept that the origin of the darkspawn comes from below and not from a violation of the Fade remains].

Regardless the race of the victim in the mosaic, we can interpret it that the Evanuris hang this creature upside-down and make it bleed lyrium. The Tevinter Mosaic tells us that Tevinter performed this ritual in their history: qunari were left to bleed in order to cast powerful magic. Since Tevinter has an old History of co-opting elvhen knowledge, I don’t find it too out of reach to consider that the Tevinter took this ritual from the elvhen past as the foundations of their own and adapted it to their own needs [as they always do] and started to use Qunari [in case the elvhen had nothing to do with the Qunari]. In the Tevinter version, the ritual seems to need the spill of blood, while in the elvhen version, it’s lyrium.

Cons of this interpretation:

The race of the victim is not clear at all and tarnishes more than confirms all the speculations we had developed up to this point. It releases the wild conspiracy-guy board attitude I want to avoid.

The lyrium drops makes no sense with any of the races I’ve listed.

Third interpretation: This mosaic may represent part of the Tale that Solas told us in the Temple of Mythal - Part 2: when Falon’Din went too far killing followers, Myhtal [and apparently Fen’Harel as well if this mosaic is correct] rallied the gods to stop Falon’Din and bloodied him in his temple. So this figure is Falon’Din, bleeding.

Cons of this interpretation:

This would relate Falon’Din to a figure with horns, which seems to be incoherent with all the iconography we have found about Falon’Din [the statues of DAO].

Even more incoherent is the fact that he is bleeding lyrium. Do we know if Evanuris bleed blood? no, that’s true as well. Flemeth doesn’t count since she is a possessed human. And even though Solas bleeds blood, it is never clear if he can be considered an Evanuris, since he “rejected the mantle of divinity”, and his massive power seems to come from an accumulative artefact [orb] and not from himself. This changes only when he absorbs Flemeth.

That tale and the text of the mosaic, in combination with its title make little sense. Falon’Din was bled in his Temple to stop him in his mass killing, not for lying.

He doesn’t have any element of Falon’Din’s mosaic to identify him as such.

Fourth interpretation: Following an interpretation more simplistic and using the Occam’s razor to the maximum: we focus on the fact that the creature bleeds lyrium and the horns may be, in fact, two spheres overlapping. In this way, we can interpret this creature as the only one who we know, lore-wise, bleeds lyrium: a titan. It would make sense to see the chains around its waist as a symbol of defeat, while the two branches at the sides could still be considered “veins of lyrium”, but also they can look like “columns of the earth” taking into account all the commentary I’ve already done about the direction of these veins. The titan is trapped in the depths of the mountain where the origin of the lyrium veins start.

This interpretation links this mosaic with the mural of the Titan’s Death and its codex: Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads. We know the Evanuris mined the body of a defeated titan, and made “something else”. Whatever that “something else” entails, I don’t think Solas would reveal it to his followers, because that’s the determination we read in the Dev’s notes of the room where this mural has been painted:

Dev’s notes: “A final eluvian is situated in a peaceful bolt-hole where Solas has painted murals. Fen’Harel was here and wanted to make sure nobody ever found what the other gods were doing. This place was the breaking point for him that turned him against the gods.” [Source: Corseque]

He wants the “something else” to remain a secret so nobody is tempted to use such power. More details in “The Crossroads [DLC Trespasser]: Deep Roads; Unknown Ruin”.

So, in short, we see this mosaic called “The Lies of the Evanuris” which explicitly says that the Evanuris are gods because they are “powerful in magic” [this is the concept that should be a lie], and when we put it in contrast with its image, it seems to imply that such power comes form Lyrium [the blood of the titans]. So, a simplistic approach to interpret this mosaic is that we are seeing the representation of mining a Titan, which is what grants them great powers.

Now, titans are of colossal size, so it’s unlikely to have them chained upside-down, but this drawing may be a representation of the process of mining their bodies through a process that will leave them helpless. But what process does it?

We know through Cole as we explore the series of posts “The Crossroads [DLC Trespasser]: Deep Roads” that the titan seems to be sleeping, unable to awake [”Songs screaming far away. It wants to wake up but can't remember how. No one should be here”], and we can assume it may have been caused through some procedure that the elves did onto it. After all, we know via the Ancient Elven codices: Vir Dirthara, that titans were active before the war against the elves, and put in danger their fluid civilisation. For the elvhenan was vital to force the Titans to stay “quiet”. Probably when they discovered the power of the lyrium, they needed to keep the titans even quieter, to control the shake of the world, but also to proceed to mine them.

At the end of the exploration of the Deep Roads, we find dozens of coffins with elves in Uthenera [we know this because Cole says “They're all singing. Coffers, coffins, corpses that aren't dead. A song crying out in the dark”], suggesting [when we combine it with the other lines that Cole drops in the same place] that they may be the reason why the titan sleeps. I’ve have been toying for a long while in many posts with the idea that Uthenera was not what the Dalish say it is, but a more horrifying procedure with a different objective. The Deep Roads of Tresspasser seem to suggest so, as well as codices as A Flowering Imago, explained in Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara.

Now, what annoys me of this interpretation is the visual of horns. However, the design of the mosaic suggest that these golden protuberances are not part of the head, as horns usually grow from the skull of the creature. This detail in combination with the suspicious, perfect dark circle inside, made me reconsider this image.

What if, instead of horns, it’s two overlapped circles, one bigger than the other. If the smallest one is not centred, it can allow the creation of a looking similar to horns. However, as it can be seen, it doesn’t look like the case. This idea is a bit useless.

Another similar possibility to consider: these murals and a lot of art in DA franchise is related to [gold] halos around heads or behind bodies. They tend to be a representation of godhood and sanctification. If we understand the “horns” as a golden sphere [or halo of supposed “divinity”] which is slowly covered by a dark sphere [orb, true source of power], one could come to see something similar to this [this is seen in the corridor behind the statue of Mythal in the Inverted Ward]:

The orb [which seems to be related to power according to Solas’ own words in Attack to Haven and in the end of Tresspasser, where he says the orb accumulated his power through millennia of slumber] and the Golden Ring [which seems to be related to mental control of the creatures according to Nation Art: Elvhen], inside a bigger golden ring, which could be the “golden halo” of divinity. Maybe all these elements can be related to the vegetative state of the titans in current times. [I hate this explanation, it’s so complicated, it should not be like this!]. This process may allow the creature to be drained of its precious liquid that gives god-like powers to the Evanuris without reacting at all.

Somehow, this interpretation gives room to the second interpretation in the sense that this knowledge could have been co-opt by Tevinter at some point in the History, and emulated it with different races [even maybe finding the need to create qunaris to reproduce the potency of this elvhen ritual]

Cons of this interpretation:

Still there is a lot of speculation. A Lot for my taste.

I’m not convinced at all about the explanation of the horns. This explanation is very far from any Occam’s razor. However, bleeding lyrium is a very strong argument to relate the central creature to a titan.

The chains around the waist of the creature may be a representation of being defeated, but it seems unlikely that a Titan has pointy ears. It’s true that we have no visual reference of them, but if they are similar to dwarves [I’m assuming the trope of gods creating their children similar in image to them, of course], makes little sense to present them with long pointy ears.

There is no room to make the events of The Horror of Hormak fit in this interpretation, if they are related. But on the other hand, we didn’t have this book when the DLC came out, so the most natural interpretation should come from the information already given in the game.

The fact that you need the presence of the orb to interpret this is questionable, specially when it is suggested in several murals and mosaics that the orbs are creations from the heart of titans. You may need to kill one titan first to create an orb and use it to control the mind of the rest. This hypothesis hides too much over-complication later.

Conclusion: I can’t have a strong, integral interpretation of this mosaic.

The Lifting of the Vallaslin

The Lifting of the Vallaslin, found at the Forgotten Sanctuary, right after the mural of the removal of the Vallaslin.

A wash of powerful magic carries an sensation of determination. Images flash by: former slaves in ranks with Fen'Harel, armed and strong. Their skin is clear; their face tattoos, the elven vallaslin, are gone. Words are not so much heard as felt.

"The brand of the Evanuris can be lifted from you, that all may know you oppose their cruelties. None here are slaves. All are under our protection. All may choose to fight."

The Inquisitor who romanced Solas adds at the fresco found before this mosaic: "That's Fen'Harel removing Dalish vallaslin? Solas said they were used to mark slaves."

Considerations of the codex and comments

The emotion it carries is determination.

The text says little extra information. The former slaves became rebels that fought by Fen’Harel’s side for their freedom.

These elves could remove their vallaslin, so they looked like cleaned skinned elves.

Here we are repeated once more that the vallaslin is a brand of the Evanuris.

The design of the Mosaic

In the mosaic we see that the figure of Fen’Harel has rudimentary arms and hands that hold an orb [as we can see, the design of it is different to the one we wanted to interpret in the previous mosaic]. This potentially means that these orbs contain the power to remove and apply the Lyrium Vallaslin through which the elves became slaves. From it, an undulating thick line divides the elf’s face below. We have a suspicion that the elven lines of this kind are associated with slavery.

We know that the aravel are ships where they sent their elvhen slaves to the horrifying mountains where they were victims of experimentation [The Horror of Hormak] and they are decorated with these lines. The lines in the mural of the removal of the vallaslin, as well as the water from where these elves come, seem to be represented with blue undulating lines [once more, the idea of lyrium is reinforced]. Submerged in that water there is a clear elven orb. In the mural of the creation of the Veil, we find two orbs: one golden, another blue. The blue one has the undulating lines downward, which is mostly how we see them in this mosaic. This blue representation of the orb may be interpreted as a tool related to lyrium, while the golden one, I’m more inclined to think as god-related in the Evanuris sense, containing the power to produce slaves [hence the lines].

Returning to the mosaic, the Vallaslin lines on the left side of the face are in blue, meaning they were done with Lyrium. The Evanuris branded their slaves in similar fashion that Fenris was marked. This makes us suspect that, once again, Tevinter had knowledge of these ancient elvhen practices and tried to make their own versions to fulfil their “necessities”.

I don’t know if I’m seeing too much, but the removal seems to cause changes in the physiognomy of the face: there is an important asymmetry between the two halves and it seems that the left angular shape was rounded once the vallaslin was removed, and the eyes increased its size. Even though the text doesn’t say anything about this, and due to the context of seeing Dalish elements in these ruins which are still present among the modern Dalish [like the snucksuit and the banners and flags], I’m tempted to infer that this removal of the lyrium Vallaslin caused a change in the elvhen shape, making them look more like the Dalish [brand-free elves] which physique is very distinguishable in comparison with the Elvhen’s, [through the lore of the Sha-brytol (melted faces) and Fenris (white hair), we know that infusing lyrium may produce physical changes, but these are supposed to appear _after_ the infusion, for this reason I’m a bit sceptical about this interpretation. Maybe I’m seeing too much.]

However, we know that in Masked Empire, while exploring an elvhen ruin, Briala remarks how big are the steps of a stair, and Felassan answers in his evasive style: maybe we were taller before, implying that elves truly changed physically. It’s not clear to me if it was because the Veil or because some effect of the vallaslin.

The staircase widened as they went down, until all four of them could comfortably walk abreast. The steps themselves were slightly longer than was normal. It took just a bit longer than a normal stride to cover a single stair, but not enough for two, and Celene found herself settling into an odd rhythm, taking two short steps and then a long. It made her think of the dances written in three-beat form, and she had to stop herself from humming.

“These steps are oddly sized,” Briala said ahead of her.

“Perhaps we were once taller,” Felassan said with a chuckle.

Is all of this true?

At the end of Trespasser, we have a long conversation with Solas and several details arise. When the inquisitor claims to know the truth about Fen’Harel due to these mosaics, Solas says:

“You saw another story, written in desperation to give me more credit than I ever deserved.” [video]

“They are closer than the Dalish legends, though still prone to making me into something more than I am.” [video]

Solas implies that the elven mountain ruins belongs to a time before the sealing of the Evanuris. These mosaics clearly depict Fen’Harel as a concept, as a creature which is the embodiment of Rebellion against the Evanuris, not a person. En these mosaics, Fen’Harel is shown in a better way than the unreliable Dalish tales do which make out of him a god of trickery.

The mosaics focus too much on the presence of Fen’Harel, and maybe this is the “Fen’Harel propaganda” that Solas refers to. After all, the mosaics are written in a way that suggest that those who worked with the recently escaped slaves, feed them, give them shelter, and taught them about the truths, were followers of Fen’Harel, not Solas himself. Solas may have created this space, but it was sustained and maintained by his followers who almost, ironically, worshipped Fen’Harel. In fact, during the exploration of these ruins, we see fighters who had bounded their spirits to the place to defend it, and invoke words and passwords related to Fen’Harel [and potentially to Anaris]. I found this a disturbing thing considering how averse Solas is to bounding spirits.

“I did not lead a rebellion against immortal mage-kings without getting my hands bloody”

“You were people, and you deserver better… like all the rest I have used in one hopeless battle after another”

“You created a powerful organization, and now it suffers the inevitable fate of such: betrayal and corruption”

“Briala controlled part of the Labyrinth. One of my agents was supposed to take it from her, but he did not succeed. I had to override the magic personally.” [video]

The main aspect that the mosaics show is that Fen’Harel is a fatherly figure that will give choice to fight against the Evanuris and will offer shelter no matter what. However, by Solas’ words, and his own actions through the book The Masked Empire, we know that this is an idealisation created in these mosaics. Solas could have never led the Rebellion without killing and using people. He seems to regret it, but the actions were taken, it was the “dirty work” that had to be done to free his people. He speaks of organizations suffering corruption and degradation, and with Sera, we know he speaks about “cleaning” the group when some member begins to shift away from the original purpose of the organization. We saw this action with Felassan, even though Solas regrets it [Cole says in this aspect: “His friend (Felassan) had to die. Because he thought they (city elves) were people. A slow arrow (Felassan) breaks in the sad wolf's jaws”.]

“I sought to set my people free from slavery to would be gods. I broke the chains of all who wished to join me. The false gods called me Fen’Harel, and when they finally went too far, I formed the Veil and banished them forever. Thus I freed the elven people and, in so doing, destroyed their world.” [video]

“Had I not created the Veil the Evanuris would have destroyed the entire world. [You did not kill them]. You met Mythal, did you not? The first of my people do not die so easily. The Evanuris are banished forever, paying the ultimate price for their misdeeds. [what did they do that made you move against them?] They killed Mythal (chuckle). A crime for which an eternity of torment is the only fitting punishment.” [video]

“[Mythal] was the best of [the Evanuris]. She cared for her people. She protected them. She was a voice of reason. And in their lust for power, they killed her.” [video]

The mosaics claim that everyone is free first and then can choose to fight against the Evanuris. Solas’ words imply this in the other way around: if you promise to fight against them you will be granted freedom. It may have been a security procedure in order to avoid the proliferation of free elves that may end up selling out the rebellion. I don’t know. My point here is that we can see in Solas’ words how “real” situations and events are rawer and cruder than what legends and tales explain [which is what we read in the mosaics]. This concept is continuously repeated along the DA series.

All these mosaics are from the time when the fight was against the Evanuris, but he seems to imply that when Mythal was killed [which is an event related to the Titan’s death, something he wanted to keep in secret according to Dev’s note] he stopped working with his rebel groups and took the most drastic option: the creation of the Veil. He did it because what the Evanuris had caused [which we can speculate could have been the Blight, the creation of the Red Lyrium, or something else that we had seen in The Horror of Hormak] would destroy the whole world. To protect the world, he ended up altering the nature of the elvhen forever.

#Evanuris Mosaics #evanuris #fen'harel #Sun-head creature #Bull horn head creature #solas #Titans #elven orb #vallaslin #Golden Ring #Vhenadahl #elven tree statue

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