Dirthamen

“Some words remain unuttered. Truths are pushed down, down where they shall never arise again.” ―Ancient runes

Dirthamen is the elven god of secrets and knowledge.^[1]

Dalish legends[]

Dirthamen wandered aimlessly till he came across two ravens. "You are lost, and soon you will fade," the raven named Fear said to Dirthamen. "Your brother has abandoned you. He no longer loves you," said the other, named Deceit. "I am not lost, and Falon'Din has not abandoned me," replied Dirthamen. He subdued the ravens and bade them carry him to Falon'Din.

—From Codex entry: Dirthamen: Keeper of Secrets

In Dalish stories Dirthamen and his twin brother Falon'Din are the eldest children of Elgar'nan and Mythal. Dirthamen gave to elves the gift of knowledge and taught them loyalty and faith in family.^[1]

Legends tell that the twins were inseparable spirits from birth to adulthood. They were parted when Falon'Din ventured beyond the Veil, to a place where his brother could not easily follow. Dirthamen wandered the grey paths of the Fade until he found and outmastered two ravens, Fear and Deceit. The ravens took him to Falon'Din, and the twins swore to never be parted again.^[2]^[3] Together they accompanied the elders who would enter uthenera and walk the shifting paths in search for the secrets of dreams. Dirthamen provided such elves with counsel.^[4]

In one tale Dirthamen gave each creature a secret, but only the bears kept it and therefore were honored by him.^[5]

Elves also tell that in the days before Arlathan there was a city in the mountains. It was beloved by Dirthamen, who shared his wisdom with its people. When a high dragon attacked the city, Dirthamen created the first varterral from the fallen trees of the forest to serve as its eternal guardian.^[6]^[7]

The Dalish believe that Dirthamen was banished along with the other gods, and his city crumbled to dust.^[6] They bury their dead with a cedar branch to scatter his ravens who are now without a master.^[4]

In Elvhenan[]

This section contains spoilers for:
Trespasser.

Dirthamen was one of the Evanuris, elvhen mages who ruled as malevolent despots over Elvhenan, enslaving their kin and branding them with their vallaslin.

This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Dirthamen and Falon'Din were "twin souls" with no family connection. Their bond was not romantic, beyond even the strongest friendship. The oldest elven stories never even name them directly, referring to Falon'Din as "Dirthamen’s shadow," and Dirthamen as "Falon'Din's reflection."^[8]

The unnamed sinner who dared to fly in the shape of the divine belonged to Dirthamen.^[9]

This section contains spoilers for:
Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Dirthamen was originally a primeval spirit who took on a corporeal form. Spirits can be broken, which will shatter the soul into pieces, each piece holding part of the original. The halves of a soul can inherit different aspects of the original soul's personality but can go on to live different experiences as two different people. Dirthamen and his "brother" Falon'Din are the most prominent of this phenomenon, but far from the only one.^[10]

The Evanuris weaponized the Blight in their wars of supremacy, especially during Solas' rebellion against them. Solas told Mythal of the other elven gods' abuse of the Blight and she sought to convince them to cease its use on behalf of Solas. The other elven gods had somehow acquired Solas' lyrium dagger and murdered Mythal with it when she confronted them. Solas recovered the Lyrium Dagger from Elgar'nan and from it extracted a fragment of Mythal that had lain hidden within its depths.^[11] For unleashing the Blight onto the world and murdering Mythal, Solas imprisoned the Evanuris in the Fade and used their lives to sustain the Veil by connecting their blood to his Lyrium Dagger. Yet Solas did not anticipate that the Elven pantheon that he had imprisoned would speak through the Old Gods and manipulate the Magisters Sidereal into breaching the Black City and releasing a portion of the Blight onto Thedas.^[12]^[13]

Bellara Lutare suspected Dirthamen’s dragon thrall was Dumat, the Dragon of Silence and the Archdemon of the First Blight. Assisting in her research, Neve Gallus asked if Dirthamen liked toads, since Dumat was associated with them in Tevinter and this would be more evidence of a link.

Symbols and shrines[]

Dirthamen's symbols are two ravens, a bear and a varterral. Dirthamen himself is sometimes depicted as a cloaked kneeling figure.^[14] Ancient glyphs scattered across the Exalted Plains reveal the location of the Lost Temple of Dirthamen.