Andrastian Chantry

## The Chantry :

The most powerful contemporary religion throughout Thedas is the Andrastian Chantry, a faith whose teachings are modeled after the sermons of Andraste, the prophet of the Maker. These collected teachings are called the Chant of Light, and its bulk consists of hymns and songs on a wide variety of topics including history and moral behavior. Emperor Kordillus Drakon I of Orlais founded the Chantry as it presently exists in seeking to codify into a single coherent religion the beliefs and practice of the many cults that sprang up in the wake of Andraste’s death.

### The Maker’s Chosen:

Andraste was a slave. She escaped from the Tevinter Imperium in the chaotic years following the death of the Archdemon Dumat, during the empire’s struggle to recover from the First Blight. Returning to the land of her birth, she rose to power as the wife of a powerful Alamarri warlord named Maferath. According to the Chantry’s modern teachings, Andraste sang of the world’s woes to the Maker, and to Andraste alone the Maker listened. The Maker chose Andraste as His bride and entrusted her with spreading His words across Thedas. The Prophet gathered a mighty army and set out to topple the forces of the corrupt mages of the Imperium. But at the brink of her success her mortal husband Maferath, whose jealousy had led him to secretly bargain with the Archon of the Imperium, betrayed Andraste to her death. Andraste was immolated at Minrathous, before the collected armies of Tevinter and the Alamarri. Ironically—or perhaps miraculously—the Archon Hessarian saw his error immediately; he spared her continued suffering by piercing her heart with his sword. The Maker, in rage and sorrow, turned once more from creation.

### The Chantry’s Foundation:

After Andraste’s death many despaired. A number of ominous sects were founded in this dark time. Some venerated the demons of the Fade, or were so vile as to advocate the worship of darkspawn. Some remained faithful to Andraste’s word. They gathered every scrap and record of her teachings into a vocal scripture that would eventually be known as the Chant of Light. Proselytizing as they went, Andraste’s followers traveled to all the lands of Thedas, believing that when the Chant was sung in every corner of the world the Maker would hear and return. More than a century later a young king of Orlais, Kordillus Drakon, heard the Chant for the first time. The monarch became a devout follower of Andraste. Perhaps more importantly, he grew into a gifted general. He built the first great chantry in his capital city of Val Royeaux and set about conquering the surrounding lands in Andraste’s name. A decade later, he was crowned emperor and instated Justinia I as the first Divine, the titular head of the Chantry. Just five years later, the Second Blight began with the awakening of Zazikel. Darkspawn poured up from the mountain ranges across Thedas, having used the Deep Roads to spread to every corner of the world. Drakon’s armies stood at the forefront of every major battle against the darkspawn. They always carried the Chant of Light with them and built chantries in their wake. When the emperor relieved the siege of Weisshaupt in 1:33 Divine he made a powerful ally for the faith: the Grey Wardens converted to the Andrastian Chantry en masse. While much of Drakon’s vast empire crumbled with his death, the Chantry’s power did not.

### The Chant of Light:

Andraste’s faithful followers collected the texts at the core of the Andrastian faith over many years in the wake of her death. The Chant of Light, the compilation of those texts, is as much a collection of historical stories as it a compendium of moral teachings, or a hymnal containing songs that were actually sung or taught by Andraste herself. The Chant is divided into canticles, which are sub-divided into stanzas and verses. The canticles are subject to a great deal of interpretation. The same story is sometimes told several different ways within the same canticle due to the vagaries of the Chant’s writing and compilation. The Chant of Light is only typically sung in its entirety at Val Royeaux, as it takes several weeks to finish. Broadly speaking, the Chant advocates that the strong are charged to protect the weak and succor the needy. However, many of its stanzas suggest that the weak and needy who strive on their own behalf are often blessed by the Maker. It is understood by most of the faithful that the Maker’s blessings are enacted by His human agents in the world, rather than arising through miracles, magic, or blessed happenstance. Also of note, the Chant admonishes that magic must serve mankind rather than rule it. This is the injunction that has led to the Chantry’s strict laws regarding the use of magic and the conduct of the Circle of Magi, as enforced in contemporary times by the Chantry’s templars. Historically, the Chant teaches that in ancient times the corrupt magisters of the Tevinter Imperium crossed physically into the Fade and breached the walls of the Maker’s Golden City, turning it black with their sins. The Maker cursed them for their hubris and cast them out of the Fade; they became the first darkspawn. According to Andraste, the Maker then turned away from the world in disgust, returned only when Andraste beseeched Him, and turned away again at Andraste’s immolation. Contemporary orthodoxy holds that when the Chant is sung in every corner of the world, the Maker will return again.

#### Dissonant Verses:

The Chant of Light has evolved over time to emphasize particular interpretations or comply with the will of particular Divines. On occasion, inconvenient verses have been struck from the Chant. These “Dissonant Verses” are now considered sacrilegious, and to retain copies of the Chant that contain these verses is blasphemous. The most infamous passage to be removed in this way was the entire Canticle of Shartan. Shartan was the leader of the elven slaves who joined Andraste’s army to fight for freedom and an elven homeland. He was murdered when Andraste was betrayed, never seeing the Dales’ foundation. The Canticle of Shartan was struck from the Chant shortly after the Chantry declared an Exalted March against the Dales

#### Exalted Marches:

Exalted Marches are holy crusades declared by the Chantry against enemies of the faith. Andraste’s campaign against the Tevinter Imperium is considered to be the first Exalted March, so the concept predates even the founding of the Chantry. The second was against the elven Dales, and though the Chantry had many reasons to choose from the one most often stated by Chantry historians is the elves’ refusal to accept the Chant of Light or give up their pagan gods. The Andrastian Chantry declared four different Exalted Marches against the Imperial Chantry in Tevinter, though none succeeded. The last three Exalted Marches have been against the Qunari. While the Chantry considers the final Exalted March done with the peace accords of Llomerryn in 7:84 Storm, the separate Imperial Chantry of Tevinter fights skirmishes against the Qunari to this day.

### The Imperial Chantry:

Despite having martyred Andraste in the first place, the Tevinters were eventually swayed and finally converted to the Chantry of Andraste. Even so, the tenets of their faith were never in strict accordance with the teachings of the Divine in Val Royeaux. In partic - ular, followers of the Chantry in the Imperium looked more favorably on magic and mages than their co-religionists elsewhere in Thedas. More than two centuries of drift came to a head in 3:87 Towers. The Imperial Chantry arose in schism from the Andrastian Chantry. Among their many disagreements with Val Royeaux’s orthodoxy was the question of whether Andraste was divine or mortal. Members of the Tevinter faction argued that she had been mortal, albeit a powerful mage, and that even her ascension to the Maker’s side on her death did not change this fundamental aspect of her nature. The Imperial Chantry, furthermore, allowed male priests and stood by their ancient conviction that mages could rule as long as they abstained from using blood magic. The Chantry of Andraste censured the Imperial Chantry. The Imperial Chantry responded by electing its own Divine, a man named Valhail who was also a prominent member of the Circle of Magi. This “Black Divine” (as the Andrastians called him) was instated in Minrathous, and some years later, called for celebrations and a holiday on the occasion of the death of the Andrastian Divine Joyous II. The infuriated Chantry of Andraste declared a new Black Age that would see the false Chantry and their schismatic Divine cleansed from Thedas. Four Exalted Marches and a century of warfare failed to unseat the “pretender” Divine and his successors, and these efforts finally ended with the coming of the Fourth Blight. Since the Schism, the Imperial Chantry’s orthodoxy has diverged considerably from the Andrastian Chantry’s. The most obvious facets are the instatement of male priests, priests who are mages, and the general acceptance of magic in society. The modern Chantry of Andraste has formally given up on subduing the Imperial Chantry, reckoning that their efforts are better spent elsewhere. The Imperial Chantry’s power has been bolstered by their acceptance of mages, many of whom flee to Tevinter from persecution in the south. Those who want to mark a distinction between the two Divines refer to the female Divine in Val Royeaux as the “White Divine,” and her male counterpart in Minrathous as the “Black Divine.” When a distinction must be made between the two chantries, they are most often distinguished as the “Chantry of Andraste” (or “Andrastian Chantry”) and the “Imperial Chantry.” However, it’s important to note that most followers of one or the other are most likely to resolutely ignore the opposing camp and refer to their Divine as “the Divine” and their Chantry as “the Chantry,” disregarding even by their nomenclature the existence of some other alternative.