Elven Pantheon

AKA:
Evanuris

Members:
Elgar’nan the All-Father, god of vengeance and the sun
Mythal the Protector, goddess of love
Falon’Din, god of death and guide of the dead
Dirthamen, god of knowledge and secrets
Andruil, goddess of the hunt
Sylaise the Hearthkeeper, goddess of the home
June the Master of Crafts, god of shaping and building
Ghilan’nain, Mother of the Halla
Fen’Harel, the Dread Wolf and Lord of Tricksters

The pantheon worshipped by the Dalish, and supposedly the ancient elves, is called the Evanuris in elven and consists of five gods and four goddesses that represent various aspects of life. Unfortunately, much of the original knowledge of these gods was lost while the elves were enslaved for hundreds of years by Tevinter. What remains is a mix of leftover fragments, pieced as neatly into a whole as can be managed. The most important story of the elven gods is the one that tells us where they are now. According to our legends, the Evanuris had rivals, now known simply as the Forgotten Ones, whom they battled throughout the ages. Fen’Harel, the trickster, convinced both groups to retreat to their respective homes, the Beyond, or Fade, for the Evanuris and the Abyss, or Void, for the Forgotten Ones. Once there, the Dread Wolf sealed them all in their homes for eternity. This is the reason given for why the Evanuris did not intervene in the suffering of the elves over the centuries. The rest of the stories of the elven gods are vast and varied, and there are simply too many to catalogue here. The few tidbits that have been recovered about the actual worship of these beings by the ancient elves point to temples, specially equipped guards, and complex rituals. The Dalish keep these gods alive primarily through stories. Each clan has a lore keeper called a Hahren that knows and passes on the tales. Also, possibly the most distinctive trait of the Dalish, the face-tattoos called vallaslin, are worn in honor of each clan members’ chosen deity. The Dalish also carry statues of the various gods with them as they travel and arrange them appropriately when they stop at a site for a significant period of time.

Personally, despite being born and raised in a Dalish clan, I always questioned the divinity of our gods, though, to be fair, I questioned just about everything. Many of the things I have seen while inquisiting have reinforced my skepticism about the Evanuris, despite simultaneously confirming their existence. I always thought our “gods” were either invented to reinforce our traditions and establish our rules and culture, real beings that happened to be very powerful, or some combination of the two, rather than true, all-powerful gods like the Maker is to Andrastians. I witnessed enough events and discovered enough evidence to at least challenge the stories that we had always assumed to be true, if not shatter them almost completely out of existence. In the Arbor Wilds, for example, in a temple dedicated to Mythal, a Sentinel named Abelas insisted that Mythal had been murdered, rather than sealed away as I explained earlier, and that Fen’Harel had nothing to do with it. And then, I met what was left of Mythal. She definitely existed when I talked to her, and was undoubtedly powerful, but not the fully fledged god I was told about in my youth. So, basically, the most important story of the Evanuris, the one I bothered to tell you just a minute ago, was completely disproven. Sorry for wasting your time. And with the way things tend to happen around me, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more to come.