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sqgworld · 6 years

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Fen’Harel and the Trickster God

Okay, so this is an idea that has been floating around in my head for… over a year at this point, and I just feel like I have to share it, because it’s both been nagging at me – making me wonder whether I’m completely nuts for thinking these things – and… it makes me kinda giddy? Because it gives me a chance to talk about a topic I feel I know quite well and that I love: Norse mythology. So, you might be wondering why there’s an “and” in this thing’s title, and it will become immediately apparent when I say that this entire thing is gonna revolve around the parallels I have found between the representations of Fen’Harel (of Dragon Age (DA) fame) and Loki (emphatically not the one of Marvel fame, however) as they are presented in their respective mythologies.

Obviously, we’ve got the connection that they are both trickster gods – the elven word “harellan” directly means “trickster”, as I’m sure you know –, which is a good starting point, but the similarities go beyond that. Here we will more closely be looking at three major points of comparison: the lupine connotations they both have associated with them; the reported ability to walk freely among both sets of “deities” present within their mythological worlds; and their direct involvement in the end of the worlds of the people that they were said to preside over. If you know anything about Norse myth, I’m sure these points ring a few bells already, but if you still wanna hear more – or don’t do Norse and find yourself curious nonetheless –, then the details will be found under the cut below.

So, are we ready? Good, let’s begin!

The first point: lupine connotations. This one is obvious for Fen’Harel, the Dread Wolf, so that’s not where the questions are going to arise – heck, the “Elven language” Dragon Age Wiki even tells us that the word “fen” just straight up means wolf, a suspicion I had after I had noticed that we have two prominent figures in the DA verse that have that… prefix? in their names and are associated with wolves; Fen’Harel (no duh) and Fenris, the “little wolf”. And it’s with that second name that I first found a connection between DA and Norse myth – though back then it was more of a “hey! they named one of their characters after a prominent figure in the mythology! nice!” than any deeper thought – and where Loki finally comes into the picture. Again, those of you that know the mythos know where this is going, because while Loki might not directly have any lupine things associated with him, he has got a very prominent son that is most certainly lupine; the Fenris Wolf, or Fenrir, for those that prefer. I think you get the picture.

So, even the elven language has got a word ripped directly out of Norse mythology, that is used as the noun for the kind of animal that originally held the ripped name. Pretty cool stuff, if you ask me, but then again, I may just be a nerd.

Who am I kidding; I am absolutely a nerd.

Second point: blending in with both “deific” sets. I put “deities” and “deific” in quotation marks, because in the Norse case, one group is not really so much gods as very powerful nature spirits, but we’ll get back to that point. Anyone that has ever read a DA Codex Entry on Fen’Harel probably remember reading somewhere that he had the unique ability to walk amongst both the Creators – the good gods in the elven religion of DA, for those that don’t know – and the Forgotten Ones – the bad gods, to oversimplify – and be understood as one of them; the Creators thought he was one of their kind, the Forgotten Ones thought that he was one of them. Okay, so Loki? Well, to anyone that has ever had a dive into the Marvel version of Norse myth, I want you to throw what you think you know about this character out the window for a second – or do as I have done, and create a separate folder in your brain for “Nature Boy” and “Popsicle the Frost Thing” – yeah, and just take my word for this. Loki is the only one of the prominent Norse gods that has the distinction of being half Æsir – what most all the other gods in Asgard are – and half Jotun (though he is by no means the only of the gods to have Jotun parentage, so why he’s the only one that counts that way, I don’t know; polytheisms, I guess). Remember those strong nature spirits I mentioned just above? That’s what the Jotuns are (and this is why “Popsicle the Frost Thing” needs his own box); they wield all sorts of nature magic and are very powerful and, yes, the natural enemies of the Æsir. And what can Loki do because of his prominent mixed heritage? That’s right; walk amongst both groups like he belongs.

There is the underlying connotation in DA lore that Fen’Harel doesn’t truly belong with either the Creators or Forgotten Ones (at least the way I read it) and the same holds very true for Loki, who always seems to be on kind of thin ice (pun not intended) with both the groups he mingles with, but manages to maintain his status in both places both because of and in spite of his mixed heritage.

Okay, so last point: the ends of their respective worlds (which means spoilers for the Trespasser DLC, I guess? but not really). So, from way back in DA:O (Dragon Age: Origins) we know that Fen’Harel somehow managed to trick both the Creators and Forgotten Ones into searching for the ultimate weapons to destroy the other group with and then managed to trap them both in their respective realms. What we then learn in Trespasser is exactly what kinds of consequences that had for the world of the elves. Spoiler alert: it absolutely wrecked their entire shebang. Their empire fell, their lifespans got shortened – the so called “Quickening” – and the nasty humans were allowed to enslave the physically weaker elves, that were now also separated from the magic that their entire way of life depended upon. For the Norse counterpart, let’s talk Ragnarok! Because yes, it is literally all Loki’s fault. He’s the one that starts the whole thing – where the Fenris Wolf jumps up into the sky and eats the f***ing moon – and he fights in the final battle between the Æsir and the Jotuns. Spoiler: everyone dies! Well, not quite…

In fact, both of those “end of the world” scenarios aren’t complete disasters. Y’see, not everyone dies in either of those two occasions. Yes, Elvhenan collapses, but the elves still exist in the Dragon Age of Thedas; Ragnarok kills off almost everyone, but a few gods manage to survive the ordeal as well as a couple of humans, and they then go on to rebuild the worlds. And this is noticeable, because in most doomsday scenarios, it’s just the end of everything; nothing gets out alive, at least not on the “mortal plane”. The Norse end of the world, for all the gloominess and battlelust the rest of the mythology is known for, is oddly enough the one that is the most optimistic about the world, at the end of the day.

But that is moving more into comparing Norse mythology itself with the religion of the Dragon Age elves, which is a whole other affair, with lines not so clear cut as in this particular case study. Though a few quick tidbits I’d like to point out before I sign off completely from this mess I have made:

Both Fen’Harel and Loki have close ties with one of the two primary gods in their respective religions: Loki is Odin’s blood-brother, while Fen’Harel had a close, if somewhat undefined, relationship with Mythal

I once found a source that called Elgar’nan “the All-Father”, and at that point I just surrendered myself completely to the idea of Norse mythos having at least some kind of impact on the entire elven pantheon

Andruil is obviously supposed to be some sort of Artemis/Diana parallel – all of them being huntress gods –, though I know a lot less about Greco-Roman mythology, so I’m not exactly qualified to dive further into that particular subject

Right, well, this thing is now officially long enough to be handed in as an essay for my uni, so I think I’ll stop here. I hope this was at the very least interesting, if not enlightening and please feel free to tell me if there’s anything I missed or if you have had the same kind of ideas!

#dragon age #dragon age origins #dragon age ii #dragon age inquisition #DA lore #fen'harel #norse mythology #norse gods #loki (not marvel)#loki #trickster god #I refuse to believe other people have not thought about this already #but I'm gonna post this anyway #I am officially done #enjoy this if you feel so inclined #no one's forcing you to do anything

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tumblunni · 7 years

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HEYO! oh man now my friend helped me get all inspired again for working on my Cathedral Tower Defense game so WOO lets have another long post of miscellaneous ideasies for storyness! may not be very coherant tho cos i am super tired and ill! but happy!! THANKS SUMMON-DAZE FOR BEING MY ULTRA BESTIE

* Okay now I am super sure that I’m gonna let you choose the gender of the protagonist! And I wanna keep it so that their name is Amity either way, cos that’s kinda stuck in my mind. Surname Amity, player gets to decide the first name, but people will still be calling you Amity a lot at first cos you start off all awkward and formal with everybody. You’re a newcomer to this cathedral town and nobody knows whether to trust you, from their perspective you’re this dangerous person theyre forced to accept just because they need you to help protect them, whether you’re good or bad. They’re all worried what price they might have to pay for this, trying to figure out how to minimize the damage if you turn on them... and its not like they’re bad people for being untrustworthy, they’re just scared people huddling in a church and trying to keep their families safe at any cost. So try and prove your worth to them, and help them learn to protect themselves too, and make this ramshackle settlement into a real home! ....anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, gender selection is a good! And it could be relatively easy to impliment too, cos of the situation. Doesnt even necessarily have to be a menu or anything, it could just be like sir amity/lady amity/master amity. Cos you’re this paladin knighto, itd make sense for them to ask for your title. And it could just be like a shot of protagonist’s badass silhouette in the gateway of the cathedral and then you get the dialogue choice to pick your identity, and its all Super Cool~!

* It also actually gives me more of an idea of what i could do for their design, like I dunno maybe they have some sort of face-concealing helm or headdress or something. I was just thinking of them being dressed like a generic nun or princess but maybe emphasize more on the knight aspect instead of the holy part? So like anyway, maybe they have a very all-concealing outfit and that could be the framing of the first scene instead, its like *pulls off the mask and you’re into the character selection screen* Orrrrrr maybe there doesnt need to be any magical setup for a gender selection and it can just be a menu before the first scene starts XD Or maybe you have a cool face-concealing helmet thing anyway, like all three gender options just have a different one, lol

* More random magical names i got via the cool name generator site summon-daze linked to me! Dunno if I’ll actually use any of these but im writing them down here so i dont forget. Berebath, Betnia, Amurziz, Jetre, Miemahl, Semdach, Batxahl, Sidefarch, Botolohn, Vausach, Thammoch, Droibhal, Lekonach, Zeidhal, Tieloch, Rabrohm, Maesur, Smoiroch, Baelbuhr, Axoth, Jige, Chushou, Hukru, Nejeget, Roucu, Jinah, Aujus, Yekoth, Nugresah, Israfel, Jabriel, Tabris, Douma

* Also I’m remembering Jade Cocoon and how I liked that the different ‘families’ of monsters shared naming traits. Like how all those weird snake/slug cutiepies that i loved best were nushab, rashab, etc etc. And tamatoch and somethingtoch and so on. I think there was at least one where the modifier was a prefix too? I dunno why i’m talking about this, but there you go. I just think if i wanna do full original made up names for demon species then i wanna make em stuff that just... feels like that. I dont actually wanna make like five different elements of each one tho, i wanna have only one per element and then they have like two different higher level finalized forms. Like, the human characters can have two job classes each and the demons can have two specializations within an element. That helps me think about how to limit it down to four or five elements, if we can combine common fantasy elements together! And yeah I was thinking it’d be cool if the demon ‘job classes’ could have their own evolving appearances and new names!

* Thoughts for the ol elemental groupings! The only one I really have finalized is grass + poison = same thing. Florin, why u always the character that gets developed faster than everyone else XD And I’m thinking giving them their own made up names would make it easier! Like how in SMT you have spells being stuff like ‘media’ and ‘agi’ instead of cure and fire. But here (hopefully) it’d be easier to memorize cos its just the element names that’re fantasy words, and the attacks themselves would be a little more self explanatory. i just think it’d work cos like... the idea i had of rock and fire being one single demon type, you could just call that magma. But i mean, what can you call plant + poison? Except.. like.. plant. Cos poison is reasonably often a grass type skill anyway. And i mean, game creators dont often worry about making sense, what with how ‘grass’ is the common element name when thats just one plant in a million. I cant stop thinking about that now I’ve noticed it! I legit thought grass was a synonym for plant when i was a kid, i learned to read from pokemon yellow... ANYWAY IM GETTING OFFTOPIC AGAIN The other idea I had for groupings was fire + non-elemental together? I was just thinking like... aura. Non elemental/physical attack as a ‘magic’ could be fighting spirit! And thematically speaking it tends to be shown as fire effects in anime, i guess XD But then i couldnt put fire with rock and that means I’d have to redesign malachi again. his design ended up looking more firey than rocky :P Another idea is maybe darkness + non-elemental together? like, interpret non-elemental as ‘void’. Or light and dark could be together actually, that could be an interesting way to do it, instead of having them opposing. Like maybe the elements could be colours! Grey element, able to specialize into white or black but neither is any sort of ‘good and evil’. And then the rest could be like green or like.. instead of red maybe fire could be bronze and thats why it has rock skills too? or man, maybe rock and metal could be one element and fire could be grouped with something else. And would water and ice be too ordinary and boring? do they already kinda count as one element? should I throw in something else? GAHHHHHHH

* Ideas for the multiple religious groups aligned with each element! I’m thinking I want one of them to interpret the setting’s absent god as two deities. like, every perspective on this deity is a wildly different character, this one is just even more so! they’d see malahat (tentative name) as two people, but kinda more like a shared soul that can manifest as either a male or female form. But there’d be ambiguity and debates in the mythos over whether this is actually a genderfluid god, or if its ‘twins who were cursed to never exist at the same time’, or various other variations on the story. I wanna make it like real life, where even within (for example) catholocism, there’s different sects and different translations of the same text. And where there’s predjudice against minority groups and people like to twist their faith to ‘justify’ it, even when parts of the original tale could easily justify treating those people with kindness too. So there’d be some followers of the twins religion who are very openminded to LGBTQ people, and historically anyone trans was able to hold a unique position as a priest, being treated as someone blessed by god. But like in norse mythology, this wasnt necessarily a sign that society was 100% okay with LGBTQ people. Its kinda depressing to read about how trans women and gay men were considered the only people able to become a specific kind of witches, but also how you kinda HAD to take this one safety net in society to stop people from making you an outcast. It was like ‘make them fear me so they dont fuckin kill me’. You had to become a medicine person and at least claim to believe in these magic powers, you had to be blessed by the gods to prove you were like.. one of the good ones. Otherwise its like youre saying the gods made a mistake when they made you, or youre choosing to be a deviant against nature. i can only imagine how terrifying it must have been if you believed in that religion and had to like.. be forced to go against it and leave society, or be forced to lie about being chosen by a god for a higher purpose, while believing that any moment you might get struck down for lying. And then I read in other history books about how the concept of homosexuality was far different in that old society too, how male-on-male sex was accepted at sea as long as you were the dominant one and you were forcing something unwanted onto a lesser shipmate as punishment. Like ugh, rape being more socially accepted than consensual LGBTQ relationships! I guess the only solace is that we can never be 100% sure how much of historians’s theories are correct and what might have changed in retellings of history, but honestly I can believe the past is this fucked up when the present is already fucked up in different ways. BUT ANYWAY I wanna explore those themes in my story maybe. And I wanna do more research into the subject to make sure I’m doing it justice, even though its a very sad subject that might be quite stressful. Maaaaan, I remember how I used to obsess about researching norse myth as a kid, it was one of my first Special Interests and I really wanted to see all the different reinterpretations of Loki and write my own fanfic/adaptation/vaguely inspired original story about What If He Stayed A Good Guy. Man I had soooo much sympathy for the poor sod. I mean it depends on the retelling whether he was always evil or whether he was like a comedic neutral ally to the gods who just abruptly becomes evil and gets killed off without remorse in the final story. And gahhh he’s like the biggest LGBTQ bastion in the whole mythos, and how can I not feel sympathetic?? When we get all these stories about him being a literal genderfluid shapeshifter and giving birth to half of his children and just like seriously its like The Story Of the One Trans Man In Homophobic Transphobic Valhalla and he was probably meant to seem Bad and Funny and whatever but im gonna sit here and grumpily cling onto the idea that he was deliberately written as trans, or that if these gods actually do exist out there somewhere then Loki would support me. *pout* I just have a lot of good memories of how this was like the first sign of me realizing my own gender, back when I first learned about Loki in school and then devoured every damn history book about the dude. And got in a million internet pissing matches about how innacurate the marvel version was XD Also it sucks that we like to believe that modern times are always 100% more enlightened in every way, yet its modern adaptations that always censor out the bits about him shifting gender identities and getting pregnant once. ... man this has gone offtopic too much, im really tired but seriously its funny how teenage bunni had NO CLUE they were nonbinary, no clue why they got so obsessed researching gender-defying mythological figures and historians who created gender neutral pronouns in the 1800s. i was so supernaturally oblivious, holy shit...

#cathedral tower defense

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