Chapter 1.
In the beginning…why do all the books start that way now or end in "Happily ever after". It is those new books; those tale books, that started it all. The tales like the one with the Princess and the seven Orzammar Dwarves, or the one of the poor bard girl and her mentor that was like a step-mother to her. She had that love of shoes, especially the blue ones, though writers have since turned them to glass ones. Also the apostate mage with black hair that helped her with magical animals, I believe a nug, as she got her Warden at the strike of twelve. Even the Dalish keepers laughed as I told them of stories of elves building shoes for poor shoe makers. One elf asked me what was next, them baking cookies out of trees? That one still makes me bellow with laughter, although I am digressing here.
As I was saying the history of Thedas is very old. Even before humans had come to this side of the great land, the land we now know as Thedas was ruled by the elves on the topside and the dwarves in the Deep Roads. Others races also lived here, but since moved on or have become extinct. The magister book "The Anatomy of Races in Thedas" is a knowledgeable but horrifying book to read, as how they obtained information thru "medical and magical" ways still makes me shudder. The land ruled by the elves was called Elvhenan. The elves had ruled all over this land and had many great kingdoms. They had good relations with those around, including the dwarves, but their rule on the topside was absolute. The center of the Elves great kingdom was Arlathan which was ruled by the great Elven High King Shey. Now the elves will tell you they were immortal and one with nature, but this is not so. The lies that I have talked about begin here. The Elvhenan Elves ruled in peace and did live long lives, but were not immortal. Their races natural ability was to live long lives and credit this with the worship of the Creators or Elven gods. They had great culture and were well skilled in the art of war, but their greatest knowledge was magic. Their ruling class knew the secrets of their longevity and knew that great power came from magic. Only the ruling class were allowed to become, well, what we call mages. It is from this ruling class that the Tevinter Imperium Archon would learn great magic from, not the "Old Gods".
Now the Dalish would like you to believe that they are the descendants of this great empire. Lies and truths. You see humans from across the Boeric Ocean would arrive on this great land of the elves. The elves will say that they saw these barbaric people, but traded with them in peace. The fact of the matter is that the ancient Thedosians were far from barbaric and well cultured and skilled people. The High King Shey sent armies to actually push out the Thedosians as neither people spoke each other's language or knew each other's cultures. The Elves believed they were being invaded and the Thedosians believed they were being attacked. This began the Quickening War as it was called by the elves. This war lasted less than a year and truce was declared as each side learned more about the other. At first trade was established among both sides and eventually Thedosians were gradually assimilated into the Elvhenan Kingdom and eventually allowed to intermarry with elves. This is where their downfall began. Some elves believed that the humans should be kept separate from them and blamed them on the sudden short life spans and diseases that were killing the elves each generation. They said that the "Shemlen" had caused their "gods" to lose favor with them. This was true to a point as the intermarrying of the elves and humans were causing the future generations to be susceptible to diseases and shorter life spans. But there also were lies in this also. You see it has been claimed that the offspring of elves and humans are humans. But the fact is that originally it was elven children that were born of such unions. As the generations passed the more human the offspring eventually looked. This is why the elves of now have shorter life spans and are affected by human diseases, as they are not pure blooded elves. Although it has been rumored there still is a clan that does exist.
The humans as they integrated with the Elven Kingdom soon began mixing culture even their "gods" with the elves. These 'gods' would soon become the "Old Gods' and later the Dragons. The Elven royals noticed that some humans displayed a use of mage arts. Although it was not to the level of their pupils, they still could contain the ability to use it. Elite families of humans sent there sons and daughters to be taught by the elven mages. These human mages began to learn all sides of the arts as the elves believed that all knowledge was beneficial. The elven mages taught them about how some were born with the ability to tap into the Fade, another dimension that existed with ours. The elven mages taught them how to use the raw material of lyrium which was provided by the dwarves to weaken just a little of the veil to access the Fade and dream walk to gather it's energies to gain abilities. At first they let the Thedosian mages "glimmer" or skim the Fade by ingesting small serums of lyrium. This would give them some minor abilities such as the Templar's now do. Next would eventually come the dream walk and granting of major abilities. As the humans begun to gain more wealth and power in the arts, to late for the large Elven Kingdom to notice, they begun scouring the elven records for more. I guess kind of like I do now. Anyway the mages learned from the elves about the Dragons and their hierarchy. You see the Chantry would like you to believe that the dragons are extinct and only the "Old Gods" were cast down. But the early Thedosian mages learned the truth.
Rising in the ranks of their elven mages and even surpassing them, one great Thedosian mage would seek out the secret knowledge – Blood Magic. Thalsian was his name and he would become eventually the First Archon. He learned from his mage masters and the records about the Dragon Bones Waste or Drake Falls as we know them now. The mage elves had built great ceremonial grounds at this site. This is where the Dragon Watchers would gather the blood of these ancient beasts as they came to rest, for their blood mixed with lyrium was a tremendous power and their bones and teeth made great mage staffs. As it's been told when a high dragon has come to its ending cycle it will come to the great waste to lay down and let the cold take them. But the elven mages knew that on very rare occasions a High Dragon will not slumber but become a Superior Dragon or as our history calls them an 'Old God". These Superior Dragons developed magical abilities and communication with elves. The Dragon Watchers would alert the elven mages of such an occurrence and the mages would travel to learn from the Dragons in exchange for peace as the Dragons were not evil as the Chantry would like all to believe. Thalsian would travel with this knowledge and learn the blood magic from the Watchers. He would be there when the third Superior Dragon Toth would arise. Much he learned from Toth and with this knowledge he would return back to Arlathan and take its famous…..Golden City
