Avvar: History

They are the descendants of the Alamarri, a warlike culture of fractious barbarian tribes that lived for battle. The Alamarri followed powerful warlords known as “banns” into near constant struggle with their fellow tribes, as each bann sought to widen his territory and influence. The history of the Alamarri is written with the blood of great champions who rose to immense power and wide dominion, only to have their legacies and tribes torn apart with their deaths.

The Alamarri were an animistic people, who worshipped a wide variety of nature deities. Most sacred of all creatures was the wolf, which they believed was created by the gods to be both a guide and protector for mankind. Promising young Alamarri warriors were paired off with cubs, and wolves were afforded as much honour as the greatest fighters when they fell in battle. There is a dark side to the old tales, though. One legend states that a wolf betrayed his master to evil gods in exchange for the power to walk in the man’s shape.

The resulting creature could not hide the beast in his heart when he dwelt among men, nor the man within when he tried to find a place amidst animals. Thus was the first werewolf born, scorned by all creatures, hating both men and wolves alike. Regardless of the truth of the old tales, the Alamarri were indeed long plagued by werewolves till at last all the tribes joined in battle against their hated common foe. They were victorious, slaughtering their shape changing foes and driving the last of them deep into the forests where a few folk whisper they lurk still.

In modern times, the Fereldans still face two enemies born of the Alamarri. Several centuries after their ancestors first came into Ferelden, a great civil war rose among the tribes that caused one large faction to break away from the Alamarri. The rebels eventually became known as the Avvarian hills-men, a blood thirsty off shoot of an already fierce people. Despite their brutality, the Avvars were gradually pushed high into the Frostback Mountains where they dwell still, nursing their ancient bitter grudge against their kin. They cling to the old ways, worshipping the nature gods that they once shared with the Alamarri and despising “lowlanders” as blasphemous weaklings softened by the trappings of civilization. While the Avvars are comparatively few in number, they are fell warriors, hardened by their harsh lives. Their winter raids, though rare, are still greatly feared by all Ferelden.

Arguably, the Alamarri’s most impressive achievement was withstanding the invading armies of the Tevinter Imperium. The Imperium was once considered the greatest power in Thedas and all nations save one were forced to bow before its sorcerous might. Even as the Tevinter Imperium was reaching the very height of its supremacy, for close to two centuries the Alamarri and their allies thwarted its campaigns across the Frostback range to conquer the barbarians of Ferelden.

Three times Tevinter nearly succeeded, pressing farther and farther into Ferelden’s interior before being pushed back beyond the mountains. All three times the Alamarri united; the Clayne, the Avvars and The Chasind driving the Imperium back, the only points in their long histories that the three peoples stood together against a common enemy. On the fourth, and what was destined to be final, push of their advance into Ferelden, Tevinter successfully held the western half of the valley long enough to build several fortresses and extend the Imperial Highway, which was designed to allow for quick deployment of troops and supplies. The renowned fortress Ostagar was built in the far south to watch for the coming of the Chasind and its mortar was so reinforced with magic that legend holds nothing will ever tear it down completely.

The Tevinter’s success came at a high price. While they remained entrenched, they were subject to near constant raids, their supplies eternally rationed. Rumours slipped back into the Imperium of the fierce and unrelenting blood thirst of the southern barbarians. Being posted to Ferelden was soon looked upon as punishment, exile, and likely a death sentence.

Tevinter managed to maintain a presence in Ferelden for well over a century, but their hold was ever tenuous. At last, a cunning barbarian hero figured out a way to defeat the supposedly impregnable defences of Ostagar. His name and identity have been lost, so that even today, the Avvars, Chasind and the Clayne (as the descendants of the Alamarri) all claim him as one of theirs; the histories, oral and written, simply refer to him as the "Bane of Ostagar". With the fall of their greatest fortress in Ferelden, the will of Tevinter to stay was broken. Though many bloody battles were fought before they were sped on their way, they retreated beyond the Frostbacks at last, never to return.

For the First Blight had come to Thedas.

In Ferelden, the Prophetess Andraste beheld the Maker, who charged her with bringing his teachings to his children. Mankind was to turn away from false gods, corruption, and dark magic. Andraste’s most passionate supporter and her husband, the Alamarri chieftain Maferath, united all the tribes under his rule and his wife’s spiritual leadership. The two convinced their people that the time had come to topple Tevinter and they set out across the Waking Sea with an army great enough to do so. Tevinter gathered all of their remaining forces to stop the Alamarri horde and it was almost enough to destroy the barbarians, but for a slave revolt amidst the Imperium’s underclass and slaves—elves for the most part—who had heard of Andraste’s teachings. At the Battle of Valarian Fields, the Tevinter’s greatest force was routed and Maferath conquered southern Tevinter. The Prophetess, however, was captured by Imperial agents and executed. Ten years to the day after Andraste’s execution, the Archon of Tevinter declared his conversion to her beliefs and announced that her husband, in his jealousy of her growing stature, was the instrument of the Prophetess’s betrayal. Maferath had arranged for a truce with Tevinter in exchange for Andraste’s death. The Alamarri abandoned Maferath en masse to return to Ferelden and the south fell once more into centuries of martial chaos.

It was many long years before the legendary Hafter, the first Teyrn of Ferelden, brought any measure of peace to the Alamarri. He led his people in many battles against the darkspawn during the Second Blight and secured a long period of relative peace. Hafter’s grandson Caedmon was the original warlord who attempted to declare himself King of Ferelden. Though he did not succeed, he did establish the Andrastian Chantry as the official religion of Ferelden. After another three centuries of bloodshed and many bleak times, the great warrior Calenhad finally defeated all other claimants to the throne and was crowned King of Ferelden by The Chantry. King Calenhad opened Denerim, the capital city, to trade with other nations.

Today the Avvarian hills-men have declined considerably in power, and while they still engage in raids on Fereldan communities (and occasionally even making their way into Orlais), they deliberately avoid doing so with enough frequency to provoke a united effort to wipe them out. Many Avvars believe that such a confrontation is ultimately inevitable, and their tribe warriors long for the day when they can prove themselves in battle against the lowlander bloodline that has weakened even more than the days in which the last wars were fought. The Avvars have a destiny to one day return to the lowlands as conquerors, or so they believe. To the lowlanders, the Avvars are a frightening and thankfully fractious people who simply refuse to disappear for good.