Interlude 11: The Dread Wolf
Ancient Variant Dalish Legend of Fen'Harel
Not many remember the birth of Fen'Harel. He was one of the first gifts to be created by the land for Elgar'nan, child of the soil and the sun. It was believed that the dread wolf was possibly a protector to the young god in his first steps and guided him through the woods of his mother. This was long before the sun grew jealous and sought to destroy all the things the young god regarded with affection. The sun looked upon all that was green and good and smote it with angry eyes into ash, making the world gray with soot and cinder.
Fen'Harel saw his home begin to burn and watched his brethren blaze, consumed by the jealous rage of the Sky Eye. The air filled with smoke and the stench led him to confusion, but Fen'Harel was strong of mind as well as nimble of foot. Unable to find his companion, Elgar'nan, he discovered a place between, a Setheneran*, where the divider between the land of his birth and the land of dreams began. He curled into this place and waited, hearing the screams of the world as it burned and felt helpless and alone. When all had passed away, he lay there even longer, almost devoid of the will to live since the land he had known had died. There he dreamed, and his dreams sang, creating a dark song of loneliness and loss that did not go unnoticed.
While in hiding, he was found by some of the Forgotten Ones that resided in the land of dreams and they sensed Fen'Harel's dark gift: a way to manipulate the essence of dreams. They initially took him prisoner and held him under their sway for a period of time within the dream realm in the hopes of turning him into their lackey. Thinking that there was nothing left of the world he had known, he allowed them to hold him and did not resist. The time was interminable in that dreaming place until he heard a whisper on the wind that his home still existed. Using his cunning, he found a way to outsmart the Forgotten Ones and escaped back into the waking world.
When he returned, he found his former home, but it was dark. Nothing would grow and the land was barren without the light. The land lamented to him that Elgar'nan had destroyed the sun in a rage and had imprisoned him in an abyss within the heart of the land. Though Fen'Harel had no love for the sun because of the destruction the Angry Eye had unleashed, the wolf knew that the land would remain barren without him and was moved with pity for the ravaged emptiness.
Fen'Harel went to Elgar'nan and begged for him to relent and restore the sun, but Elgar'nan had hardened his heart and was blinded by his vengeance. After much time arguing, Fen'Harel was tempted to destroy the prideful god since he was choosing his own arrogance over the land and the wolf was disillusioned with his former master. He quietly turned from him and chose to watch from a distance.
Eventually Mythal came and soothed the rage of the god and Elgar'nan eventually restored the sun, but Fen'Harel never forgot the fickleness of the gods, ruled by their emotions instead of their reason, allowing their power to be corrupted by their darker whims. He saw that both the Forgotten Ones and the Creators had the capacity for destruction with their extensive power. He was sickened that the people that eventually grew from the renewed land blindly worshipped the Creators and blindly feared the Forgotten Ones. To him they were all alike.
For many years he wandered between the two worlds, his mind roiling with thoughts of all he had come to know and dread while both families of gods took for granted his good will. He continued to watch, until finally the Forgotten Ones and the Creators eventually went to war. Fearing that the gods would destroy both the earth and the dream realm in a misguided sense of rivalry, he chose to intervene and fooled them. Through a ruse, he convinced the Creators to go to the heavens in order to find a weapon he reported had been hidden there by the Forgotten Ones. The Forgotten Ones he sent to the abyss to find a weapon that he claimed the Creators had hidden that was capable of destroying them. It is forgotten how the Dread Wolf achieved it, but he gathered enough power and used it to seal both groups of gods away so that they could no longer walk either the land of men or the land of dreams.
Now the Dread Wolf continues to wander between the two worlds, watching all that passes between. Some of the people say he trapped the gods out of spite, some people say he did it out of anger, but the Dread Wolf is a cunning being. He has his reasons and they may not be what mortals presume.
* Setheneran (SEH-thehn-ERR-ahn): a Dalish word for land of waking dreams or a place where the Veil is thin. Literally: "Tenuous waking dream place"
I found the Dalish word and definition the Dragon Age wiki and I had to find a way to incorporate it.