Druidic Heart **Coming December** (Cullen Rutherford and Astarion Ancunín)

Lore Notes

Elves:

Elves exist in Faerun, obviously, and are treated the same as humans, for the most part (So there are no alienages in Faerun), though Drow are feared.

Ferelden and the related countries are the only ones that treat elves the way that they do.

There are Dalish clans, but unlike their Thedas counterparts, they are very present and social within Faerun, and many openly live within druid groves and are given space to live comfortably, they are even allowed to erect shrines to their own gods.

Note: Whilst elves have lost their immortality due to what the dread wolf did, elves in Faerun have extended lifespans. Solas will theorise that this is because they were never stunted by humans but accepted and embraced by them. But also that magic might be involved as it is seen more in wizards, sorcerers and warlock mages, and seen most in druid elves, with Halsin being the oldest currently at 200 years of age.

As age isn't really mentioned beyond characters such as Halsin, Jaheira and Astarion, adjusting this slightly can work. Maybe limit natural elf lifespans to not ruin the Dragon Age issues. As I don't plan on going into too much detail about BG1 and 2 or the events in it, then maybe limiting elf ages in Faerun to 300 (Halsin's age will have to be shifted (to around 200 instead of 350), but so far I have only heard him mention his age once), obviously Astarion is a vampire spawn and he stopped ageing when he was turned so his doesn't matter.

The elves only age in the last couple of decades of their lifespan, so they grow up from being children to that sort of ageless, in between appearance at about the same rate as humans, but then just keep that look until the last couple of decades.

Other Species:

Only the elves seem to be found across all the nations, but Faerun species such as gnomes, dragonborn, orcs, and tieflings are all mostly found in Faerun due to the way they are treated in the likes of Ferelden, Orlais, etc.

Githyanki are seen more often in Faerun, however, small contingencies have been seen in other places in recent years, as if scouting out events and world states, specifically after the Fifth Blight.

Tieflings, Dragonborn and Qunari are different species but are distantly related. They have too many similarities in design and stuff for me not to make a link between them, especially between the dragonborn and the Qunari given the story that Bull tells the Inquisitor about the mixing of dragons into their species line at some point.

Half-Elves:

In Dragon Age, half-elves always look human, whilst in Baldur's Gate, they appear to be elves, so for this, it will be random luck of the genetic draw. So Shadowheart retains her ears, and Alistair still looks human.

Fade, Astral Plane, and the Hells:

Each of these are different 'realms', however they are all connected to one another. The Astral Plane was originally created by Ghilan'nain to imprison Falura after faking her death, and later used by the Githyanki to imprison Orpheus. The Astral Plane is a 'neighbour' to the Fade, with them rubbing up against one another but never overlapping.

The Nine Hells are the infernal lower Planes of the Fade, home to Devils and divided into nine cosmological layers. Every layer is its own unique magical ecosystem, warped after the sheer presence of their rulers. The Nine Hells are locked into a never-ending Blood War with the Demons of the Abyss.

To those outside of the Fade, and specifically with Andrastians, there is little difference between the devils and the demons.

Religion:

All religions are kept because each continent has its own religions, cultures, and beliefs. There are around 4,000 + real world religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, or ultimate concerns, so less than 100 across what we know of DA and BG3 isn't that huge. Therefore, folk stories, histories, etc are all kept. However, I might change story locations if they fit with Thedas locations better or if those locations are references to BG1 or 2.

Mind Flayers/Illithid and the Githyanki:

As their origin isn't known in BG, then I am going to make them the creation of the Evanuris. Because of this, the Evanuris also created the Githyanki to be slaves for the Illithid who were slaves to the Evanuris.

Their rebellion began due to the subtle influence of Falura and her magic on their minds through the Mind Flayers, and eventually they broke free of their chains moving into the Astral Plane.