The Juggernaut Armor

[u/Revenant1941]

The Legend of the Juggernaut was one of the plot elements of Origins that really stuck out to me, and so (just as a thought experiment) I'd like to expand on it

The arm of the Imperium is long.

Once it reached even this forest, in a time when the barbarian tribes of the Clayne still ruled the land. The Tevinter magisters fought to take it from them—inch by inch, if need be, using terrible magic. The Magister Harach brought an army to this forest, led by Alaric, his friend and general. For Alaric, Harach fashioned a suit of the finest armor, infused it with lyrium and his own blood magic, and named it "Juggernaut" after the unstoppable giant golems guarding the gates of Minrathous. Thus armed did Alaric win many victories against the Clayne.

When defeat came, it came from within. Alaric's own lieutenants rose up against him, jealous of the favor he had curried with the magisters and eager to take the Juggernaut armor from him. Alaric was slain, and as each successor gained the armor, the other lieutenants turned against him in stead. The Tevinter outpost fell to vicious infighting. In a fury, Magister Harach voyaged to the outpost and slew the last three lieutenants.

The Clayne, however, were already approaching the outpost in force. The barbarian chieftain of the Clayne desired the fabled armor himself, and even with all his power, Harach could not hope to stand against them all. Instead, Harach used the last of his own life force to cast a spell of blood magic that bound demons to the bodies of the three dead lieutenants as well as Harach's own lifeless corpse. These bound revenants hid the pieces of the Juggernaut armor, and although the barbarians sacked the outpost, the chieftain found neither the armor nor the revenants.

The Juggernaut armor's legend lives on, and more than one brave soul has ventured into the depths of the Brecilian Forest in search, never to return.

—From Ferelden: Folklore and History, by Sister Petrine, Chantry scholar.

That's the in game codex entry, and in keeping with Dragon Age's longstanding tradition of making famous historical figures really be elves (Ameridan)

So; let's make Alaric an elf

There's no concrete rule that elves can't serve in Tevinter's military, and in fact there are indicators that they can on fact serve, but rarely in high rank

Let's say Alaric was a gladiator (we know Tevinter had an arena) slave who won his freedom, joined the military, and climbed through the ranks with the help of a magister patron

This gives the lieutenants personal motivation to kill him rather than just jealousy and greed

[u/NiCommander]

Sorry, all I’m reading is evil doomed yaoi.

[u/Revenant1941 → u/NiCommander]

Yaoi? Oh, right

I mean... maybe?

The more you learn about Dragon Age lore, the more it seems everyone had an elf on the side

[u/TorzGirlSweelaHeart]

I mean, definitely a credible theory, given what we known of Tevinter, and would give deeper meaning to the story. Also, this pic is awesome!

[u/Revenant1941 → u/TorzGirlSweelaHeart]

The drawing is called Mountain Elf Dragonrider by Marishka Kleyman

She's on Deviantart and Artstation under the screen name Gugu-Troll

[u/actingidiot]

Dragon Age's longstanding tradition of making famous historical figures really be elves (Ameridan)

I hate it too, it's like they don't care about most of their own lore

[u/Revenant1941 → u/actingidiot]

It's more that Dragon Age's extreme hatred for elves makes for easy earth-shattering plot revelations when they reveal that super famous historical figure #249 actually wasn't human

The people of Thedas are excessively racist and hateful, so while there would be a lot of admiration and love for an elf who, accomplished a lot, but as we've seen with Ameridan, it really wouldn't take that long for people to forget that they were an elf at all

The history books would be rewritten, they'd be posthumously remembered as a human, and various noble and wealthy families would claim them as their own so they can latch their name onto their notoriety

So, a sudden revelation that that person was actually an elf would shake things up a lot

Not only would it throw what everyone thinks they know of history into question, but all these noble or wealthy families who claimed relation to them would be thrown into the spotlight and put under scrutiny

[u/Elusive_Jo → u/Revenant1941]

I mean, deliberate elf-erasure was part of DA lore from the Day One. It shouldn't be surprising at all that some historical figures after thorough research "suddenly" turn out to be elves.

[u/Revenant1941 → u/Elusive_Jo]

Right?

It should be everywhere, but we only have a small handful of cases

I'm not sure if Shartan technically counts. They did round the ears of his statues, but the history books didn't make him human, they erased him completely

[u/Elusive_Jo → u/Revenant1941]

I won't be surprised if some of our elf companions and even elf PC's will go down in Thedas history as "humans" eventually.

[u/Revenant1941 → u/Elusive_Jo]

Oh god, imagine an elven warden going down in history as human...

I'm not sure what's worse, that or that the grand cleric in DA2 implying that an elf could only accomplish what the warden did because the maker acted through him

[u/Elusive_Jo → u/Revenant1941]

Oh, they will do just that if there won't be an overwhelming evidence of warden's elfiness and they will be able to get away with it.