Halamshiral is an Orlesian city that contains the Winter Palace, a vacation home for the Empire’s royal court that played host to a pivotal event in the war against Corypheus. The city sits in the southeastern part of Orlais, near the Waking Sea and almost due west of Skyhold. And if you’re thinking that “Halamshiral” doesn’t sound particularly Orlesian, that’s because it’s not. The city was actually built by the elves after Andraste freed them from Tevinter and her family granted them the Dales in recognition of their role in her fight. Meaning “the end of the journey,” Halamshiral was founded where The Long Walk, which was the name of the march undertaken by the elves from Tevinter to the other side of the continent to claim their new land, stopped. Then, a few centuries later, relations between Orlais and the elves soured, an Exalted March was called by the Chantry to destroy the blasphemers, and Halamshiral, which was the capital of the elven nation, was conquered. After leaving it abandoned for many years, the Orlesian Emperor of the time eventually decided the spot would make a grand winter home, and built an impressive chateau there. A city slowly grew around it, and why they didn’t change the name at this point, I couldn’t possibly tell you. But, Halamshiral it remained, just to rub salt in the wounds of the elves who lived and worked there, I suppose. Eventually, the chateau was burned down by an elven uprising, can’t imagine why that would possibly happen, but it was soon replaced by an even grander building, the Winter Palace. As its name suggests, it maintained the same holiday home role as its predecessor. The Palace was chosen as the site of peace talks, disguised as a grand ball, during the Orlesian civil war that the Inquisition was invited to attend. Thanks to my trip to the future, we knew that Corypheus planned to assassinate Empress Celene during the party, but we didn’t know how. That night was one of the twistiest, turniest, most ridiculous evenings of my life, but we played the Game to perfection, exposed the various traitors in the building, saved Celene’s life and reconciled her with her estranged lover as a bonus. Due to its complicated history with my people and my general dislike of the Game, I was happy to leave Halamshiral behind. I just have to hope they don’t decide to hold any other important functions that I’m expected to attend there.