The Fereldans are a puzzle. As a people, they are one bad day away from reverting to barbarism. They repelled invasions from Tevinter during the height of the Imperium with nothing but dogs and their own obstinate disposition. They are the coarse, willful, dirty, disorganized people who somehow gave rise to our Prophet, ushered in an era of enlightenment, and toppled the greatest empire in history. —Empress Celene I of Orlais, in a letter to her newly appointed ambassador to Denerim