Abelas
the Sentinel

Independent Dragon Age roleplay blog.

est. Jan 2015 !

prayers

WoT volume 2 stuff regarding Shartan. Skip if you’re avoiding spoilers.

This is the Dissonant Verse most closely studied by Chantry scholars and historians. Struck from the Chant during the Exalted March of the Dales, it tells the story of Shartan, an elven slave from Tevinter, who leads his fellow slaves in a revolt and joins Andraste to become one of her closest disciples.

Authorship of the canticle has never been determined. The earliest versions appeared in the Dales around -140 Ancient. Elements appear very similar to ancient folktales about a rebellion against tyrants led by a trickster warrior, and it is hard to determine which parts are rooted in history and which in heroic myth. It is certain that slave rebellions across the central Imperium were instrumental in the success of Andraste’s campaign against Tevinter, but we cannot verify Shartan led any of them.
Different versions of the canticle place Shartan’s rebellion in Vol Dorma, Marnas Pell, Solas, Marothius, and Hasmal–all cities that suffered significantly from the famine that struck the Imperium and were the sites of brutal slave uprisings. Some scholars suggest that if “Shartan” existed at all, the name was a title or an ideal. Perhaps every rebellion had a Shartan, and he was truly the leader of every group of elves.

The text is very fragmented. Very few elven slaves could write Tevene, and nearly all the written language of the elves was lost at that time, so the canticle was preserved purely by oral tradition until clerics transcribed it at the behest of Justinia I in 1:8 Divine. There are gaps in the tale and it has often been speculated that between the ninth and tenth stanzas of the song, several verses or perhaps an entire stanza was lost. The search for the missing verses of Shartan, like the search for Shartan himself, has consumed many a Chantry scholar.

Countless historians have attempted to find proof of Shartan’s existence over the years, with little success. Whether of not he lived, thousands of elves did rise up against the Imperium, throw off their chains, and fight alongside Andraste. Their story has shaped our world into what it is today.

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