Renata I

“I tell you truly, nothing but the integrity of our hearts will win the love of the Maker back to us. It is all the power we shall ever possess to change this world for good or for ill.”

Renata I was Divine of the Chantry during the early Glory Age. She called for a holy war against the elves, a conflict which would become known as the Exalted March of the Dales.

Background[]

Centuries of tensions between the elven kingdom of the Dales and the human empire of Orlais finally turned to open conflict in 2:09 Glory with an elven attack on the human town of Red Crossing. The following year, as the elven armies had captured the city of Montsimmard and marched on the capital of Val Royeaux, Divine Renata I called for holy war against the elves.^[1] Uniquely among all Exalted Marches, only a single nation is reported to have answered the call–Emperor Kordillus Drakon II's besieged nation of Orlais.

In 2:20 Glory, after ten years of war, Orlais captured the elven capital of Halamshiral and dismantled the elven kingdom. At the conclusion of the Exalted March, Divine Renata I decreed that all Andrastian nations should allow the newly homeless elves within their lands and cities–on the condition that they abandon their own gods and convert to the worship of the Maker. Those elves who converted were sent to alienages–dilapidated, walled-off districts within human cities where they are treated as second-class citizens.^[2] Those who refused to submit separated into nomadic clans known as the Dalish.

Renata I also struck the Canticle of Shartan, Andraste's elven disciple, from the Chant of Light and ordered that all Chantry art including elves be destroyed. The only piece to survive the destruction was a mural by the legendary artist Henri de Lydes depicting Shartan. Henri de Lydes pleaded with such grace and passion that Renata relented and allowed his mural to remain as long as Shartan's ears were cropped to obfuscate his race.^[3]