The Dalish attempt to preserve and relearn as much of their history and culture as they can. But worst of all, alienages are subjected to complete “purges” if the elves are deemed too unruly its citizens massacred by an army of guards.Ī diaspora of elves known as the Dalish refused to accept these decrees dispersed across Thedas in nomadic/semi-nomadic clans, outside of human control. (The Val Royeaux alienage is said to have 10 000 elves in a walled off area the size of the Denerim market, with walls so high the shadows they cast cover nearly the entire place.) Elves struggle to find stable work, as humans will only hire them for dangerous or underpaid jobs, if at all. They are often walled off and over-crowded. The alienages are far from ideal “refuge.” They do not have access to many services human communities have, like building upkeep, waste disposal, and sometimes something as simple as clean water.

Almost all elven accounts of the experiences of the Exalted March were silenced only those carried by the Dalish strongly persist.

All mention of elves, including the Canticle of Shartan, is removed from the canonical Chant of Light (though Professor Kenric in DA:I’s Jaws of Hakkon DLC says this happened before the Exalted March).

All Chantry artwork depicting elves must be destroyed, save for a single mural of Shartan, with his ears docked to look human.

All elves given ‘refuge’ in the alienages must convert to Andrastiansism.

All lands loyal to the Chantry must create segregated elven communities known as alienages.

In the Chantry’s “mercy,” Divine Renata I declared the following: You can read it in its entirety here if interested, but here’s the most relevant piece again: The aftermath. I made a big ol’ post about this a little while ago. That being the history of the Exalted March of the Dales.

In order to understand the relationship between these two umbrella groups of elves, we need to first understand how said groups came to be.

Dragon age city elf origin