Chapter Text
Taken from the blog of Valen F., a student of archaeology at the University of Arlathan.
Among all the monuments of the War of Restoration, few are so controversial as the statue of the woman known as Silverhand. A respected enemy rather than a hero of the people, she is the only member of the Loyalist force to be represented in the Hall of Remembrance and few curators will speak of her. It took two hours and the bribe of a fine vintage from Halamshiral before a minor historian was willing to share what he knew of her.
“Most of the artifacts from the Loyalist army weren’t well preserved or cataloged, and those we were able to obtain had obviously been altered by zealots, so her name and her lineage has been lost, but she held great rank among the opposing forces. She had a strange title---’The Questioner’ or something like it---and was credited with having magical talent nearly great enough to rival the Great Wolf.”
While the Wolf Kings of present are known for freely admiring talented individuals among their enemies, at the time of its creation the statue was probably highly inflammatory. It is an unusual statue. Rather than slumped in a position of defeat she stands erect, chin lifted and eyes clear, with her famous gauntleted left hand extended towards the sky. The hand was lost, or so the legends go, when she faced an opponent greater than herself and would not retreat. The prosthetic she wore in its place is reported by various sources to have been made of anything from pure silver to dragonglass, and it was reputed to work like a functional hand due to some lost magical engineering. The depiction of the gauntlet is painstakingly rendered, it must have taken a master craftsman months of labor, “but what is really interesting is the engraving. Under a magnifying glass we’ve discovered something carved into the palm of the gauntlet. It appears to be an animal head, possibly that of a wolf.” But this was centuries before the Wolf Kings took the mark as their sigil, how would it come to be represented on the palm of an enemy? “Either the sculptor or his patron believed there was some connection between Silverhand and the Wolf, but it had to be done subtly to avoid public outcry.”
With a bit of prodding (and another glass of wine) the historian added, “There is more. The pattern on the hem of her tunic is evocative of courting knots, stylized and complicated knot patterns that couples engaged in courtship would wear to declare themselves ‘off the market’. ” So Silverhand was courting, surely there’s nothing unusual in that? “But to choose to depict these details together with the Wolf sigil may indicate---” And here, sadly, ended the interview, as the Head Historian discovered us and asked me to leave.
Could Silverhand have had a romantic entanglement with the Great Wolf? Could the statue be, in fact, a hidden love-letter to one who was both beloved and enemy? As I have been barred from the Halls of Remembrance indefinitely my personal inquiries have ground to a halt, but it raises some interesting ideas about the Great Wolf, who as history teaches us took honor-queens to unify the People but never a mistress. All the depictions of Solas, first Wolf-king, paint him as a grim man who took no pleasure in his conquests, or in fact almost anything. ‘Of solemn mien and harsh feature was Solas, Wolf-king; named Liberator and Restorer, he delighted not in the beauty of Arlathan Rebuilt nor in the many who gathered to acclaim him. Distant was he as snowcaps and as cold, and in the line of his jaw was a hunger never satisfied.’ The exact date of Silverhand’s death is unknown, though it is believed she survived to the end of the War of Restoration and may have even fought in the final battle.
I am only a first-year student at the University and cannot claim to have come to any definitive conclusion as to their relationship one way or another, but I will leave you with this final thought: in the original plans for the Hall, the famous statue of the Great Wolf with his arm extended and that of Silverhand were intended to be placed in opposing alcoves, eyes locked and hands ever reaching.