Arlathan {Lore - No Spoilers}

[@ducky36F]

Ah yes, Arlathan, I’m sure Solas knows a lot about that place due to his ‘exploration of the fade’ :p

[@stars-and-clouds]

Hahahaha

[@C4TBOYASTARiON]

It's always saddened me how the elves lost everything of their people like imagine losing everything that made you, you. I really can't measure how terrible Solas felt when he figured out what he thought was right backfired and ruined people he wanted to protect :(

[@haphazardlark1502]

EDIT: Jesus sorry this got longer and more full of run on sentences than I planned for. I’m just a MITE obsessed with this specific theme The way it ties into cole’s quest line and his banter with Varric puts so much emphasis on this theme and I love it. The idea of change, trauma, and how people react differently and try to heal. what healing looks like to you. How much of the past can you try to carry with you and restore before you’re no longer healing, but moving backwards and clinging to something you have to let go? How much can you lean into the acceptance that healing still leaves you in a completely different shape, stop focusing on trying to repair what’s broken and build something new, before you’re avoiding and losing and repeating important things in the past that you have to carry with you for a while to truly grow, even if they can never be restored and you will have to put them down someday? And the way those two extremes meet at Cole’s quest, and the results of both, drive home just how impossible finding a straightforward answer to that really is? Because healing and growth and change aren’t linear, and to truly come to terms with grief that will never leave you and continue to adapt to the change around you, you can’t just try to move forwards or backwards. So much more of it is riding the waves up and down, moving laterally, and so, so much time simply holding still and letting the world carry you along for a while, even if every part of you wants to move? How much control do you give up? How much control did you ever have? When do you shove, when do you nudge, when do you ask, when do you let go and don’t try to exert your own influence at all? The idea of someone so deeply invested in an attempt to completely restore and revive things from the past that they killed in a no-win situation, to the point where they stay that course even after they come to realize the value of the now that they have to kill to try and revive the then, AND with the power to actually make such a massive change to an entire world is one hell of a compelling character motivation

[@w3ndigogames]

Elven lore is my weakness in the Dragon Age universe and I’m forever grateful for your content filling me in on the one part of DA my brain refuses to hold on to.

[@BMLA00]

Yay another video! I'll be honest I know people may kinda be tired of the elves but they are my favorite race in the game

[@DanteneNyx]

Honestly I completely agree. I think the Dragon Age take on elves is pretty different than most other versions, whereas dwarves and dwarves and humans are humans. I don’t know, I just enjoy learning more about the unique version of elves Edit: to clarify, I’m not saying the other races aren’t interesting, I just think the elves are *more* interesting

[@haphazardlark1502]

Hell yeah. I don’t want less of the elves, I just want more of them AND more of everyone else too. I’m dying to learn what kal sharok ‘s deal is, but there are just too many elf questions left for them to pull back on them now!

[@AF-xy4rf]

I don’t know why they do considering Thedas was once nothing BUT elves (and dwarves underground) so of course if it’s old or ruins it’s elves lol

[@greywarden1261]

I don't think people hate the elves, they're such an amazing written race that are unique and just a-tier, however the lack of knowledge on almost every other race, except humans, is kinda annoying

[@haphazardlark1502]

@@greywarden1261 and they’ve built up some prime mystery material with dwarves and qunari I am HUNGRY FOR. they seem to be setting up the qunari for more screen time, which makes sense cause tevinter, so hopefully we’ll get more from them. Having as big a revelation for elves as they did at the end of trespasser was really great, but it also definitely draws attention to all the stuff I worry they’ll abandon about the other races. Tevinter is, if nothing else, fertile ground for sharing the spotlight with their conflict with the qunari and history with the dwarves. I hope they take full advantage of it in da4!

[@alistairsmj1602]

Wow, great video! I like to imagine there was a great big tree in Arlathan, or maybe even looked like a tree (Yggdrasil the world tree comes to mind), and one of Mythal's symbols is a tree... Maybe the elves forgot why they honor Arlathan with a tree in the alienage, but if this franchise has shown us anything, Mythal is always somehow involved.

[@misterlemons111]

Great video, i always thought the elven empire has a lot of similarities to the Aztec empire and I wanted to share the similarities, some examples: the capital of the Aztecs was on a lake and it was called tenochtitlan. the Spanish bringing diseases the erasure of its culture after their fall. the only commonly known city was their capital. their city was destroyed when the empire fell.

[@set9034]

2:34 A small part of me wonders if those petroglyphs or stone carvings you see depicting a mound or ziggurat like structure across the games was just a hint that the dwarves were either aware of the rumors that Arlathan had been sunk into the ground or if it gives a very small gran to the theory that Tevinter did sink at least half of Arlathan deep below the earth and the dwarves simply forgot this information over time due to the Blights. Assuming those carvings were depicting some sort of city anyway.

[@lila7095]

I saw my comment! And I only starting watching this channel! 😁The reasoning behind not doing a Tevinter video actually makes a lot of sense. Hopefully DA4 won't take much longer 🤞

[@a.munroe]

Always so happy to see your notifications!

[@alistairsmj1602]

Me too. ☺️ Thank you, Caitie!

[@Levsa399]

Now I really want a spoilers version.

[@jessicatreacher6766]

Had a stressful Friday and was ready to just be done with the day when I got home... saw your video notification and was in a better mood.... bring on the lore!!! Love your stuff!!! 💜💜

[@williamballard767]

What happened that made your Friday stressful?

[@anderporascu5026]

They middle finger the imperium and humans until we met an ancient who says "civil war happened NOT humans, they came as vultures after our empire's remains." Beyond that the Creators as their ancestors said we're douches so Sera rightly says "the Dalish are going to shit themselves." a facepalm for them for certain.

[@nelavris6536]

Hello. I think there is an error here. If I remember correctly, Arlathan is mentioned as a city in the skies. considering that the elves based their empire on magic. like what happened to the library from the final part of Inquisition. So I think one way or another when Tavinter supposedly attacked the city it was not exactly a city but ruins. I also think that it may be that the city was not exactly in the same place since it could have different sections. Or the city had an illogical structure for physical laws. As the magic waned, I guess the city was fading

[@AeschylusShepherd]

I have a feeling there were two Arlathan's that is why you have two story's. The other could be that Tervinter created a fake narrative/story to make themselves look good. It wouldn't be the first time people who wrote history did so to make themselves look good, even if the facts say otherwise.

[@ShadowninJar]

The other problem is that there will be things the elves think goes back to Arlathan, which only goes back to the Dales, and the tree thing feels like one of those. (They won't have alienates in the Tevinter imperium, because slavery.) Good video!

[@Hrafnskald]

Great video. I wonder if we might some day have fiction, pc games, or tabletop roleplaying options to play during the height or the fall of Arlathan. I know not much is known of that era, and I would love to see it explored, in whatever medium, some day.

[@taralynstevenson4016]

Is it wrong of me that when I saw it say No Spoilers, I got a little sad. Lol But super happy for a new video!

[@MrTeniguafez]

Will you be doing a spoilerrific exploration of Arlathan in the future?

[@custardpanda6209]

Awesome video as always!

[@TourAbsurd]

This is great. Taking me back to DAO days. Thanks!

[@ali74826]

Vhenadahls just got me thinkin about the non romanceable trailer tree 😔

[@jackal5359]

Really glad to have you and Jackdaw to hold me over until this game finally releases

[@volk551]

I know this is out of place but the big tree in the alienage has to be important for the simple reason that in the darkspawn Chronicles the archdemon literally tasks The Horde to burn the tree down I know I know darkspawn Chronicles is non-canon for certain things but why would it burn the tree down

[@xsvrrx]

Catie you could always do a what we know for far about the imperium

[@Im-Not-a-Dog]

Can we get a version with spoilers?

[@Im-Not-a-Dog]

@Alex Grey Yeah. I saw that. Lol I wrote the comment before watching.

[@shogun8159]

Anyone else thinks it’s ironic that both Dragon age and Witcher series hold elves in high regard

[@ducky36F]

And in both they’ve fallen from grace and are treated as second class citizens. Not surprisingly, both were written in the 90s/2000s around a time when dark fantasy and works with deconstructions of high fantasy tropes were on the rise

[@TheMuffinBurgler]

Isn't that most fantasy series with elves though?

[@anderporascu5026]

It also bears much of Wheel of Time in the mix considering orlais, the Templar and mage relationship, a powerful all female order/religion called the chantry (apart from Tevinter's mimic but with all males), the tranquil (equal to the idea of the gentled or stilled save for no emotions or dreams) and of course dream walkers if you recall the half elven boy in DA2.

[@riftbandit223]

Solas did nothing wrong. Make Arlathan Great Again.

[@dorathe1st]

👐👐 This!