#I see u solas - the double meaning

[evermorelore]

𝔦𝔱 𝔰𝔢𝔢𝔪𝔰 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔥𝔬𝔩𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔨𝔢𝔶 𝔱𝔬 𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔰𝔞𝔩𝔳𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫

[libraryfines]

using "iambic pentameter" to describe solas' speaking style is not completely accurate. iambic pentameter is a specific type of poetic meter that's extremely common in english-language poetry, but it's not a catch-all for any poetic meter.

the "iambic" part of iambic pentameter means it uses iambs as its metrical foot, which is the basic rhythm unit in poetry. iambs are structured as one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. the "pentameter" part means it uses five feet in its meter -- pent meaning five. so a line of iambic pentameter is five iambs, and reads like this:

and-ONE and-TWO and-THREE and-FOUR and-FIVE

or:

shall-I com-PARE thee-TO a-SUM mer's-DAY

pentameter is great for speaking, which is why shakespeare used it so much, but not terribly musical. music is often written in tetrameter (four iambs), or an alternating tetrameter-trimeter (three iambs) combo which is called "ballad meter." (ballad meter is why you can sing most emily dickinson poems to the tune of the pokémon theme song, which is extremely funny but not relevant here.)

"solas meter" isn't in iambic pentameter, and even though it's based on a song it's not in ballad meter either. it does largely use iambs, so folks are on the right track. the structure is usually two lines of iambic tetrameter (four iambs) followed by a third line of iambic pentameter (five iambs) with an extra unstressed syllable tacked on the end:

i-JOUR neyed-DEEP in-TO the-FADE in-AN cient-RUINS and-BAT tle-FIELDS to-SEE the-DREAMS of-LOST ci-VIL i-ZA tions

the tetrameter gives it a nice musical rhythm. "hallelujah" is written in 6/8 and the iambs give you that eighth note-quarter note rhythm here. but what about that third line? the extra unstressed syllable is a "feminine ending," which you can see in the famous soliloquy from hamlet:

to-BE or-NOT to-BE that-IS the-QUES tion

in my opinion, the feminine ending is part of what gives "solas meter" that wistful, soft feeling that weekes is going for. ending on an unstressed syllable takes the wind out of the line's sails a bit. when it's alongside regular iambic meters, it can feel unresolved. ending in a stressed syllable every line can get sing-songy (see previous point about ballad meter, i want to be the very best, etc. etc.), so a feminine ending can make a line more conversational.

"hallelujah" uses this four-four-five meter for verses, although not always perfectly:

now-i-HEARD there-WAS a-SE cret-CHORD that-DA vid-PLAYED and-it-PLEASED the-LORD but-YOU don't-RE ally-CARE for-MU sic-DO ya

there's a couple sneaky anapests in there where iambs should be (and-it-PLEASED and now-i-HEARD are both U-U-S), but i'm not here to tell leonard cohen how to write songs. songwriting is not beholden to the same rigid meter that poetry is because it's intended to be paired with music, and the music is what's driving the rhythm, not the lyrics.

weekes has said they specifically used the k.d. lang version, and lang omits the "now" in the first line so it scans a little better with tetrameter. jeff buckley and brandi carlile did the same in their covers, so it seems there's an impulse when singing to make this line fit the meter more neatly.

now the refrain, which is just "hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah," is not iambic at all. it uses "ionics," which are four-syllable metric feet (iambs are two) that are U-U-S-S. minor ionics are unstressed syllables first, major ionics are stressed syllables first. so we've got minor ionic meter here:

hal-le-LU-JAH, hal-le-LU-JAH hal-le-LU-JAH, hal-le-LU-JAH

"solas meter" uses this ionic meter too:

ev-ery-GREAT-WAR has-its-HER-OES i'm-just-CUR-I-OUS what-kind-YOU'LL-BE

"curious" doesn't quite scan here because it's a dactyl word getting shoehorned into an ionic foot. dactyls are S-U-U -- e.g. "benedict cumberbatch" is a double dactyl. you could try the old-school poetry strategy of just dropping a syllable and going for "cur'ous," but that's a bit much. i'm not gonna tell weekes how to write dialogue any more than i'm going to tell leonard cohen how to write songs!

so in conclusion: "solas meter" is a combination of iambic tetrameter, iambic pentameter with feminine endings, and ionic meter. themoreyouknow.gif

for more on this, check out james frankie thomas' great explanation of poetic meter at the paris review, which specifically goes into the nitty-gritty of "hallelujah."

[this was original posted as a reblog of felassan's great post on the same topic, but i thought it merited its own post]

[felassan]

Thoughts/wonderings on the Dragon Age: The Missing issue 1 preview pages (Dragon Age: The Missing #1 spoilers at link), under a cut due to spoilers (please note post contains spoilers for front pages and synopses of subsequent issues beyond #1 as well):

I know it isn't new, as we saw her before in this piece of art, but I love Evka's design, like her hairstyle, her facial markings, etc.

Evka and Antoine is a pleasant surprise, I'm looking forwards to spending time with them and learning more about them, and I hope they both make it out of the issue alive.

going by the presence of two other characters (that resemble Teia and Viago) on the cover of #2, it seems Evka and Antoine are the companions for issue 1 only, but still, the composition for the adventuring party of issue 1 is such a treat. No humans, and dwarf-heavy!! I'd like to see more of that sort of thing in DA going forwards

about that. Evka and Antoine in #1. #2 has what looks like Teia and Viago on the front. #3's synopsis says Varric and Harding run into a pair of Veil Jumpers, and I wondered here if they could be Strife and Irelin. based on this I have wondered if each issue of Dragon Age: The Missing features a different cameo of 2 of the 'newer era', 'Tevinter Nights & similar' characters, perhaps even representing different factions? [Wardens, Crows, Veil Jumpers/The Triangle Guys, ?]. a) how fun, and a neat way to re-feature and expand on these characters before DA:D b) could we be seeing these folks in DA:D? c) who could it be in The Missing #4?

I like Varric's dialogue, I can hear 'his voice', u know? he seems so tired and on-edge in this. :[

So, if something has been dragging the people of Marnas Pell away / abducting them, the title could have a double meaning. It's not just Solas who is kinda 'missing', that Varric, Harding and the Inquisition remnants are looking for. these poor people are missing as well. if so and since that's the title of the whole series, not just one issue, that could be a plot thread that runs through all 4 issues

Varric and Harding's dialogue "Stop him, what else" / "But you were his friend, right? Maybe you could, you know, talk to him?" exchange nicely reflects the Solas choice Stop/Redeem at the end of Trespasser

"It fits, though. A refuge in the ass end of nowhere. He's really gone down in the world", Varric pls, the shade

"You were his friend, right?" reminded me of when the Inquisitor can ask Varric in Haven 'tell me about your friend Anders, the mage who blew up the Kirkwall Chantry'. poor varric, he must be so tired and feel so guilty feeling like his friends keep ending up doing stuff that isn't good for the world either with his involvement or under his nose without him knowing.

the light/dark shading on Varric's face feels quite intense compared to the others. it emphasizes for me how on-edge and stuff he's feeling/acting

Has Harding's hairstyle changed since DA:I? ^^ she wears it in a long braided ponytail now? reminds me of the Harding-esque dwarf in this DA:D concept art

interesting, they're in the Deep Roads with those familiar dwarven statues, but when Antoine is looking at the wall, that looks like a carving of a human-sized figure on a horse

"A tall, dark figure, emerging from the Deep Roads to drag the unwary to their doom" 👁️

"There could be a human or an elf down here, using the place as a base for whatever terrible scheme they've concocted" 👁️

the shadowy figure at the end 👁️

I guess if they told Evka and Antoine, they would probably become people Solas does know, not 'people he doesn't know', and the Inquisition remnants are trying to keep their operations secret and uninvolved people out of harm's way. I also wonder specifically what lead it is that the Inquisition remnants had that sent Varric and Harding down here after Solas in the first place. is it just Varric & Harding looking into these, or are there other groups of known faces investigating others?

about the kidnappings, and the possible it's darkspawn/maybe it's not darkspawn stuff. we know that darkspawn take female captives during raids and take them into the Deep Roads (the origin of Broodmothers). in the novel The Calling, the Architect's darkspawn captured and took captive Warden Bregan. ofc that doesn't mean it's darkspawn, especially since Evka and Antoine hadn't sensed any yet, just that it's not unknown that darkspawn kidnap people. is whatever/whoever's taken the people doing effed up experiments on them? is there any connection to the underground monsterpools from Horror of Hormak? how does it link into the plots of subsequent issues e.g. going by the Venatori presence in the synopsis for #2, maybe it is them who are the culprits?

could investigating the kidnappings be why Evka and Antoine had been recalled to Weisshaupt in TN?

also I'm just so excited! Obviously we knew that this comic was coming, and that it's stated to be a DA:D lead-in. but it's still just so exciting to finally see the DA:D storyline, or the prologue thereof, finally kicking off (things like TN & the short stories were great but more in the vein of bridging content between things, this feels more like 'Chapter One').

[lavellander]

some extremely messy warmup doodles that ran away from me 🥲 (she does keep her vallaslin btw)

mirthadrasha is a verrrry tentative title i made from terms in  dalishious’s elvhen dictionary: mirthadra (honored, esteemed, highly respected) + asha (woman)

[merrilldidnothingwrong]

Yeah playing dai was really frustrating despite all the cool new lore because you just. Can't denounce the chantry in any way OR the templars and you cant even support the mages as much as u could in da2. I enjoyed how there were lots of continued threads from the previous games but 😐 and not to mention even when hawke supported anders they still kind of demonish him which is...weird. probably the best part of the game was getting to see the cultures which were previously introduced finally like orlais and then all the new elf/magic lore. but I really couldnt stand how it stuffed you into one box. im sure this has been discussed for ages and im just cautiously hopeful that da4 will have nuance wrt solas and the new crisis but.......i dont have much faith in the writers

yeah i was SO happy to play a dalish again, but then its like.... if you dont play your cards right you can get your clan wiped out.... nobody says a word...  and theyre so.... proper?? (every inquisitor has the same personality??) such a huge step backwards from the warden. you cant be proud to be dalish, (or Quanri, or a Dwarf) like you get disapproval from everyone??!! 

theres a templar banner outside the quarters, there’s reminders of the people who colonizes your people everywhere, even the damn war table (the tree was torn down after the war between humans and elves and you gotta use it every time you gather to talk to your people about the missions). and like 2 of the advisors are cool but then you got cullen whose like talking about a “dalish queen” or some shit and fetishes your people... and is racist against all other races in thedas. but then again most humans are. (blackwall, my main main, gets his prejudices pointed out and hes like oh shit you right)

and yeah bioware / the game REALLY hate elven mages, which is probably why they created solas in the first place. i mean in da2 we had merrill, who was an angel, OH but blood mage, ohh so EVIL. and she wanted to preserve her people, wanted to save her people, DOUBLE EVIL. make her autistic coded? TRIPLE EVIL. even though they (humans) are obsessed with their own gods, their history, their past, but oh thats okay, but because its elves, its fictional, its “crazy”, its make believe. it doesn’t exist. and they MUST shut it down, kill it, wipe it out (genocide) and thats what they must do again. (which is why theres a part of me that hopes some of solas’ plans works. i want the elves to have their culture, i dont want them to continue to suffer. i don’t want them to die, i dont want thedas to die, but clearly, genocide of a culture is not the answer. This shit has been going on a thousand years, ENOUGH. the chantry, the templars, the circles, should NOT exist)

its just really horrible what the non human inquisitors go through during inquisition. always surrounded by humans, having to listen to human bullshit. even though they have companions that are of their own race, its like theyre disconnected from it too, and they don’t talk about the struggle of it. Varric is like, nah, im cool. i grew up this way. but hes cool with the chantry? even after everything hes been with in Kirkwall???? 

just imagining what could have been different if they put more nuance into it like they did with origins....... sigh. what i would have given tell the chantry to stfu and gtfo

sorry i didnt mean to type a novel lol nothing about inquisition makes any sense what so ever

[corseque]

Solas meta cause I just read a shallow take I didn’t like—For someone who explained in great detail how he learned ALL of his information about the world and the various peoples in it through a literal magical funhouse dream mirror that reflected his own prejudices and amplified them, Solas is pretty damn good at questioning his assumptions and admitting he’s wrong or prejudiced, to a degree I would never in 1000 years expect from a Thandruil character type like him.

He had never met a human or a Qunari or talked to a dwarf or a non-magic elf in person before. Think about that. Not ever, not once. He’d watched everything through the Fade, where “it is all real” — whatever your perception is, that’s what you’ll see. So he watched, but of course his assumptions colored what he was seeing.

He asks for new information, constantly. And he completely changes his mind. He has the capability to go (in a very, very short amount of time) from thinking nobody is even real to thinking that everyone is. and he gets better at accepting his misconceptions the more time he spends awake, and the more time he actually spends around people who aren’t his race (again, he had not met humans or Qunari etc before, and genuinely came from a society where there’s only the People, so he has no in-person experience with this).

And he did all of this searching for new info while working (failing to work?) through his own massive trauma and survivor’s guilt and massive, unbelievable sadness and regret. All the different, new, changed people were all constant reminders that he could have just doubled-down in hatred toward because their reality is too painful to think about (and actually that’s what he does at low approval). So it’s amazing that he would be open at all to new info about them.

there were real, hard, magical limitations to his initial perception of what was going on—he could 1) watch the funhouse mirror of reality reflected in the Fade shaped by his own feelings (and the feelings of the people who had those memories) or he could 2) listen to reports from his awake and prejudiced agents. Those were his options. “I was not misinformed!” he protests irritatedly at one point. But he was misinformed.

So idk like... what was he supposed to do, just somehow know what Qunari were like? And not see them even a little as terrifying uncontrolled beasts, when they themselves think they are savage without the Qun? And when the memories of terrified humans, say, would also portray Qunari as terrifying brutes? He describes how hard it is to understand what is and isn’t real from the Fade. (He specifically talks about how hard it was to know anything at all about dwarves, who don’t dream). He hopes he knows shit, but he has no idea.

He’s obnoxious while working through his prejudices, but like... I mean, at least he does work through them? That’s his whole... thing, that’s all he does if you’re his friend. “You showed me I was wrong, again.” “I would treasure the chance to be wrong once again, my friend” (Meanwhile the other characters don’t work through their shit, but they’re given a pass cause idk)

The accepting and valuing and extremely open-minded way he is with spirits, that’s how I assume he would eventually end up with all people. He’s just too interested in learning and challenging his understanding that he wouldn’t stop until he figured it all out, and gathered all the wisdom he could about it. I think the tragedy of the story is that he can’t just stop and do that.

Anyway he feels real and I like the complexity going on here, and I also like stories about people slowly realizing something foundational in their life isn’t true, and coming to grips with that realization, and changing their minds and their life. Because being strong enough to do that is one of the things I hope to be able to do send tweet.

[nordic-language-love]

What’s the difference between bokmål and Nynorsk?

Sooo bokmål and nynorsk are the two official writing systems of the Norwegian language. (Why does it have two writing systems? Long story short, it’s because of Danish rule meaning the upper class and city folk spoke a Norwegianized Danish while the farmers spoke Norwegian dialects, and when it came to developing an actual writing system for Norwegian no one wanted to compromise so they were like fine, we’ll have two damned writing systems then (don’t quote me on that lol)). They’re largely the same, and if you can understand one you won’t have much difficulty understanding the other. Which one people use varies from region to region, but most Norwegians use bokmål.

Seeing as you asked what the differences are, I’ll do my best to highlight them (this is all kinda based on observation rather than formal tuition though so it may not be 100% accurate sorry):

1. There are some spelling differences. Typically nynorsk uses more diphthongs, as well as a couple of vowels being different. For example:

Stressed e in bokmål is often ei in nynorsk

vet | veit (present tense of å vite - to know)

hele | heile (whole)

Stressed o in bokmål is often u in nynorsk

en bro | ei bru (bridge)

å tro | å tru (to believe

The letter ø in bokmål is sometimes au in nynorsk

høst | haust (autumn)

respektløs | respektlaus (disrespectful)

Words starting in hv in bokmål start with kv or k in nynorsk

hva | kva

hvit | kvit

hvem | kem

In nynorsk you often get and added j after double consonants such as tt, kk, gg, ll etc. Sometimes the j follows a single consonant where in bokmål there is a double consonant.

å sitte | å sitje (to sit)

ikke | ikkje (not)

å bygge | å byggje (to build)

å fortelle | å fortelje (to tell)

Words that end in -som in bokmål usually end in -sam in nynorsk

ensom | einsam (lonely)

slitsom | slitsam (tiring)

Words that end in ‘-lig’ in bokmål often end in ‘-leg’ in nynorsk

vanskelig | vanskeleg (difficult)

hyggelig | hyggjeleg (pleasant)

Of course there are a lot of exceptions to those rules! I usually use Lexin to double-check everything I write.

2. Some grammar is slightly different:

In bokmål, all feminine nouns can be masculine (it’s complicated and almost certainly Danish’s fault), but in nynorsk they can only be feminine. For example: the word ‘sol’ is feminine. In bokmål, it can declined as en sol/solen (a sun/the sun) OR ei sol/sola. In nynorsk, only the second way is correct

The passive is slightly different: bokmål makes use of the verb ‘å bli’ (to become) whereas nynorsk makes use of the verb ‘å vere’ (to be). In bokmål the present passive can also be formed by adding -s to a verb. I’ve seen some nynorsk verbs taking -ast but in general the passive isn’t formed that way.

In general, masculine and feminine words are made plural by adding -er or -ene in bokmål. In nynorsk, masculine words are made plural by adding -ar or -ane, while feminine words are -er or -ene

In nynorsk, the neuter definite plural is formed by adding -a. In bokmål, you can use -a or -ene, although -ene tends to be more common (except for a few cases, such as barna and beina)

The preterite/past participle form of type 1 verbs is -a in nynorsk. In bokmål it can be either -a or -et, but -et is far more common (someone correct me if I’m wrong but I think it’s only recently that it’s now acceptable to use the -a form in bokmål?)

3. Pronouns are a little different:

jeg | eg (I)

hun | ho (she)

vi | me (we)

dere | de/dokkar (you pl.)

de | dei (they)

du and han are the same in both though!

4. Very occasionally, words are completely different:

tilbake | attende (back)

å begynne | å byrja (to begin)

hvordan | korleis (how)

Sometimes words overlap and both will be acceptable in one standard but only one is correct in the other bc reasons.

Anyway, hope that answers your question somewhat! If anyone spots any mistakes please let me know

[greensconnor]

i’m asking about your dragon age characters

molly i would KILL for u im ur personal hitman now

anyway i said my city now because the entire bioware writing team sucks shit xoxo and i’m so much smarter than all of them but also fully incapable of having a normal amount of ocs for anything (see: the time i made 20 rwby ocs in less than two weeks) so i have. five worldstates here r some assorted thoughts

uhhh so the worldstates r as follows

eira mahariel (two-handed berserk/champ spec), rhett hawke (two-handed berserk spec), alas lavellan (mage knight enchanter spec), romanced alistair/fenris/dorian respectively

shiv tabris (dual wield duelist/assassin spec), radella “rads” hawke (mage spirit healer spec), kat adaar (two-handed reaver spec), romanced morrigan/isabela/cassandra respectively because im a pc gamer and i think i should be able to date whatever video game woman i like because im infinitely better than cishet men

this world state said yeah i respect mens rights. mens rights to shut the fuck up

twins bronson (sword/shield reaver spec) & bryant cousland (archer ranger spec), carmine hawke (archer assassin spec), syracuse trevelyan (dual wield tempest spec), romanced zevran/anora/josephine/bull. if ur wondering how that works my city now and the warden, hawke and the inquisitor should all meet and so they do because i Said So

riva amell (mage arcane warrior/battlemage spec), graham “gray” hawke (mage force spec), hellathen “hela” lavellan (archer assassin spec); romanced cullen/anders and later blackwall because hawke only likes men who will break his heart. hela doesn’t have a romance because she’s literally 20. who let her lead the inquisition (me it was me). also it should be noted the version of cullen i have in my head only vaguely resembles actual cullen because i write better than dragon age writers ever could and i gave him an Actual Cohesive Narrative and he gets bullied relentlessly for being scrawnier than his mage boyfriend

malien “mal” surana (mage spirit healer/keeper spec), jules hawke (sword/shield reaver spec), ash adaar (mage rift spec), romanced leliana/merrill/krem because i should have been able to kiss krem and its a Crime that i am not allowed to

knight enchanter is a Very op specialization and by Very op i mean it makes a mage with their built-in low constitution stats able to solo the biggest baddest dragon in the game on nightmare mode in under five minutes so like. alas lavellan fist fights dragons for fun send tweet

i think lavellans should be able to hit ppl with bricks for all the shit they endure. thus solas gets pranked by mahariel and alas by which i mean they just tip buckets of water onto him from the rookery

kat might be my only competent inquisitor but she did also try to knock out the right hand of the divine and attempt to gap even tho there’s fucky magic burning up her hand so does she have a brain cell? you decide

also its fantasy land and i do what i want so kat has blue/gold sectoral heterochromia

gray “mage rights” hawke is best friends with fenris which surprises literally everyone. their friendship started because they got into a fist fight and then they were like okay i respect u now. hawke is like hey fenris give me ur sword i have a fun trick to show u [uses his sword as a foci to zap carver in the ass with lightning]

i am Always thinking abt like how cullen could have been one man anti-chantry propaganda machine if he hadn’t so blatantly been shoehorned into every game past origins so anyway bioware forgot about a wholeass moon i can write what i like. [holds up cullen by the scruff of his stupid armor] not only are you bisexual you are also a bottom

i also Hate the whole uwu mage haters get fixed by romancing a mage

unlocked secret dialogue option where my inquisitors verbally cuss out dorian’s dad instead of whatever sympathetic narrative the writers were going for cuz its bullshit.

riva is a showoff and a Menace about being as good as he is because he unabashedly loves being a mage and hes like oooh look at me im sexy i dont need to use my hands to cast magic because i’m just that good ;)) and you know what. hes right.

gray, on the other hand, does Not want to be mage. he wants to be a druffalo farmer and retire in the hinterlands and be left the fuck alone. unfortunately he is gay and has one brain cell and terrible, terrible taste in men. ribbed relentlessly for this by riva (altho does he have room to talk hes been hung up on cullen since he was like 13)

shiv is trans n kieran is the result of doing the dark ritual with her wife and he looks a Lot like shiv (dark skin pointed ears, shock-white hair) and morrigan always just Assumed she dyed it or did something magic with it so seeing their kid come out like that was a WEIRD time for her

leliana almost Murdered by cassandra in worldstate 5 because the warden is Actually There The Whole Time, but its been 10 years, mal’s cut off all her hair and gotten full facial tattoos and she’s like “no one will know its me its fine” and she’s right. she gets away with it. only cullen like, Knows, because he knew her before the blight but he doesnt have a death wish n he like. will Not piss her off

shes dalish by birth n she was stolen from her clan by templars and thus is vehemently anti-circle and anti-chantry in general

uhhh the vallaslin (elf face tattoos) of my 4 dalish characters are:

eira = ghilan’nain (chose em cuz shes rlly interested in the navigation aspect of the goddess)

alas = falon’din (god of the dead n he picked them because he’s Also the god of fortune and alas is like tee hee fun but also he can and will kill u if u fuck with him so yk its fitting)

hela = june (god of the craft bc she likes to Make things but june is also the god who taught the elves 2 hunt and hela is. a hunter.)

mal = elgar’nan (allfather/god of vengeance bc. she is Vengeful. she is Angry. but yk fucking with shem politics and fucking their divine is like. mal may have little a retribution. as a treat.) yes she has the full half-face solid colour tattoo she does NOT fuck around.

bronson and bryant r not genetically identical but they Look similar enough 2 anyone who doesn’t know them well enough 2 play spot the distance. anora and bronson think this is a super fun game to play, especially when nobles realize they’ve swapped out the king but they’re too nervous to say anything

eira mahariel has two hands. one is for holding hands with alistair and the other is for throttling elven gods, apparently. she’s killed one before so solas she’s coming for your bitch ass next. watch urself.

speaking of eira and alistair are married thru dalish tradition and humans don’t recognize it n alistair loves 2 re-propose to her with random things. he’ll just pick up like. a bit of cheese and be like “marry me ;)” and she’s like GASP but whatever will the chantry say!!!! all of their friends r sick of them

“vhenan if you love me bring me a sword” “you think i could do better than a sword made out of space rock?” “:)”

eira is my youngest hero at 18 at the start of her game and kat is my oldest at 32 at the start of her game.

none of my hawkes are under six foot. rhett is the tallest (6′8″) and rads is the shortest (6′2″).

syracuse trevelyan would have been the Perfect inquisitor if he were not a pretty boy himbo and a gay bastard who does Most Things just to spite his parents.

[corypheus pointing at syracuse’s visage in his crystal orb thingo] i want that twink obliterated

i love the companions from older games return thing i truly do so i make it a point for Every companion to return in inquisition so the gang rlly is all here because i am a Slutte for found family

i lie in my keep worldstates because i dont want to choose between hawke and alistair during here lies the abyss but i never make him king and every time i play inquisition and cole has the wicked grace line it makes me Scream. alistair baby im so sorry i did this to you but i didnt actually do this to you

yes this is my everyone lives au but like. all the time. i have never left hawke in the fade and i do not intend to.

fuck whatever nonsense about wardens not being able 2 have kids. by sheer divine power (me) anora and bryant have three daughters; eleanor, sabina & cecelia n both bronson and zevran make Excellent uncles because i think anora deserves good things because i’m tired of bioware being like women bad, actually,

so like most of the time i have the warden & hawke turning up after the move to skyhold n then staying on, with the exception of bryant, carmine & mal. mal is as mentioned previously just There the whole time with her girlfriend. bryant steps in as king of ferelden w/ interests in closing the big hole in the sky spewing demons in2 his kingdom yk. carmine shows up because she wants to help & she wants protection for bethany but she outright says she’d rather die than be inquisitor so cassandra is shit out of luck.

“CHANGE HER MIND VARRIC” “she once doubled down on insisting amaranth was a shade of blue because she didn’t want to admit to being wrong. no one’s changing her mind seeker”

alas is the middle child of eight and is thus very good with children and also bossing around people older than him. 2 of his older siblings come to the inquisition when stuff in wycome has been settled

i left ash with the basic canon background with Some variation (he grew up under the qun and left of his own free will when his magic was discovered n he realized he couldn’t take living as a saarebas

kat on the other hand was raised tal-vashoth and has bounced around basically all over thedas and leads her own merc company when the conclave blows up. she also speaks multiple languages. is there a language she doesn’t speak? probably not

just realized how long this got so im gonna like. stop my general rambling now but lmao yeah theres some basics. waves hands.

[plumrabbit]

Red lyrium, Titans, the Evanuris, Mythal and Solas - theories and sporadic thoughts

A few of us have been chatting (aka tinfoiling) on Discord about the possible past events involving the Evanuris, red lyrium, titans and etc. and came up with a little post about how we think a number of these factors tie in together.

We’ll start off with things that we (meaning the fandom) are quite sure about:

1. Lyrium is blood of titans and because of this is alive (the Descent DLC)

2. Red lyrium is tainted blood that has the blight in the sense of contagious corruption (“Well, Shit”–DAI, Varric’s companion quest)

3. There are statues of Mythal in the deep roads (Trespasser DLC)

4. The blight (in the sense of an event with an archdemon/darkspawn) allegedly first came about because magisters, including the Architect and Corypheus, tried to usurp the golden city

5. The idol looks a bit like Mythal/Flemeth (somewhat subjective but very compelling)

Of course there are many more, but these are just the ones that pertain to the theory we’ve been discussing.

Now there are things that haven’t necessarily been confirmed or are unknown:

1. How lyrium became tainted into red lyrium

2. Who created the red lyrium idol (knowledge that it was found in the primeval Thaig in a Dwarven ruin notwithstanding)

3. What exactly is in the Golden/Black city

4. Who exactly the Forgotten Ones are (we only know the story from the side of the Evanuris/what was passed down)

There have also been some awesome fan theories:

1. The Red Lyrium Idol looks like Solas holding Flemeth at the end of the main quests of DAI - there have been a lot of super interesting interpretations and descriptions of this phenomenon (does this mean that a new cycle of some sort is repeating?)

2. Evanuris orbs are Titan hearts (u/nouvlesse)

3. The idol was fashioned in Mythal’s image as a result of her role in something to do with lyrium

4. Does the current state of Tevinter/Magisters/rebel mages mirror what occurred with the Evanuris and Arlathan in the past (a new cycle repeating? Bioware seems to love playing with the idea of history repeating itself…just a theory)?

We know that the Evanuris were extremely powerful mages, and it’s been suggested (confirmed?) that they hunted Titans and were the first to mine and make use of lyrium, and potentially the Titans’ hearts as their orbs (u/nouvlesse on reddit). Perhaps they even used the lyrium and orbs to control the “lesser” Elves, enslaving them (I believe it was u/nouvlesse that made a post about this, also Fenris’ vallaslin being lyrium-infused?).

Here’s where we started tinfoiling about the chronological events leading up to the creation of the Veil, followed by DA events. What if Mythal somehow used the lyrium to create some kind of people/race? She is known as the “mother” after all, and there are statues of her in the Deep Roads as we see in Trespasser. And what if these new people, being synthetically created and whatnot, were somewhat mindless? And what if the Evanuris used this new expendable population as their army against the Forgotten Ones? And what if the Titans didn’t like what was being done with their blood, and used magic to twist their “offspring” into something corrupted to fight back (this idea was somewhat spurred by Game of Thrones - Children of the Forest/Night King, also “they made bodies out of the earth, and the earth was afraid…”)? And what if this new, corrupted race was the original darkspawn? And what if Mythal was the one to say “you’ve gone too far”, and the reason the Evanuris killed her was to stop her from destroying something they believed would grant them unending, substantial power? Did the darkspawn eventually get sealed away somehow, and the Tevinter magisters were indeed the ones that released them?

Now the question is, how does Solas fit into all this? We know that the Evanuris had slaves, marked by their vallaslin. It’s been suggested multiple times that Solas was originally a slave (“he left a mark when he burned her off his face”, also the fact that he absolutely despises enslavement in any form). Perhaps he was recruited into the upper ranks after some show of his magic ability (shapeshifter [wolf] maybe? This idea was in a recent Twitter post that Patrick replied to), and intelligence. The relationship between Mythal and Solas has had a lot of speculation behind it, and if he did indeed have her vallaslin, it’s also another point of interest as to when he figured out how to burn it off. It’s possible that they had a mentor-student relationship, it’s possible they had unrequited feelings for each other. A number of people have postulated the romantic route because of the parallelisms of Mythal with Andraste and Flemeth, that being having jealous, abusive husbands, as well as a love affair with some kind of rebel (the way they speak at the end of the main quest suggests platonic, though, yet in an uncomfortable manner, at least IMO [power dynamic?]). Either way, they were likely in cahoots when it came to freeing the Elven slaves and leading the rebellion against what they believed was corruption in the ranks of the highest powers of Arlathan. Perhaps Mythal was a double agent (I made a post about how ravens and wolves have a symbiotic relationship IRL and ravens are the “eyes” of wolves so that sort of ties into this idea).

Moving on to present DA issues…

Clearly something horrible is going to awaken in a sense (Titans? The Maker? The Forgotten Ones?), perhaps when Solas tears down the Veil, perhaps it’s been inevitable ever since the formation of the Veil and the disruption of magic (I want to say Sandal said something that alludes to this). It seems as though the biggest chunk of information we’re missing right now is the “why” of Solas’ plans - why is he so obsessed? What is the fundamental core of his motivations? Do we have enough knowledge to answer this?

Other things to think about:

1. DA4 “The Dread Wolf Rises” may be a double meaning (Bioware loves that shit): 1. Solas’ rise to magical power in terms of undergoing whatever he has planned, but, 2. perhaps we will also see flashbacks of how exactly he rose to power as a rebel in the first place (somewhat related: it would be hilarious if the DA4 protagonist was a Fen’Harel double agent, that is, actually working for the Inquisition or whatever cause, since one of the themes of DA is corruption in the ranks of a large organization. Irony, ha).

2. What did the world look like when spirits co-existed in the physical plane? Are there any races/peoples that have been associated/merged with spirits? The Avvar provide a good window into this life history/possibility but it’s still a foggy concept.

3. The throne in the Fade (speculated to be in the Black City by @canticle-of-apotheosis) is reminiscent of “The Devil” tarot card (can represent entrapment and obsession with power [upright], but also freedom and the cusp of personal breakthroughs [inverted]. It can also show a strong connection between two people. Interpret that how you will).

4. In general, the amount of Norse mythology in DA lore.

[feynavaley]

If I may add:

- In summer, quickly walking the whole length of the train from the outside and looking inside the wagons to see if there’s one with closed windows and people wearing sweaters – it means that it’s that mythical place where the air conditioning is working. There can’t be more than one per train, or the apocalypse would happen.

- 40 degrees outside, 45 inside the train. You manage to be the first to sit in the four seats, and as such you claim the right to open the window. Ten minutes later, the woman in front of you, with a nauseatingly sweet smile “Could you close that window? It’s too windy…” ‘No, you fucking bitch, I was here first!’ is what you want to screech, but that wouldn’t be socially acceptable, so you have to muster your best fake smile and resign yourself to spending the next hour inside an oven.

- The trains come with only two temperatures: +50 °C or -20 °C, depending on the season and whether the air conditioning/heating is on. There’s no in between. You have started wondering whether Trenitalia is all an elaborate cover for an illegal traffic of tropical animals or penguins, depending on the day.

- People chimney smoking all over the platform, slowly intoxicating you. You can’t move away far enough, but if you ask them to stop you’re the rude one.

- The train is so late that it gets the following one late, too.

- There’s a person without the ticket. The ticket inspector is willing to not fine them, if they get off at the following station. They refuse to. The police has to be called, the train is delayed. You’re going to murder that person with your own bare hands.

- People listening to music without headphones at 7 am, while you’re desperately trying to review for your exam.

- That one train, at that particular time on that particular day, that is going to be twenty minutes late. There are no exceptions.

Also, one of the most memorable things that ever happened to me was two summers ago. I was going home after my last exam, and the train had been on time at first, then it started slowly accumulating delay… until at one point, it just stopped at a station. About twenty minutes later, the dreaded announcement came “Because of technical problems, this train will have to stop for twenty minutes. We apologize for the inconvenience.” It was about lunchtime, so, amidst the general grumblings, people started getting off to get something to eat at the snack machines on the platform. I had thought about doing that too, but first I had to write my mother, who would pick me up at the station. I had just sent the message, when the train started moving again. I remember raising my head and locking eyes with the boy in front of me, his features perfectly mirroring my own confusion. It hadn’t been more than two minutes since the announcement. A lot of people were still outside the train.

Italian trains are so paradoxical that my train was late but I got to university earlier

[libraryfines]

using "iambic pentameter" to describe solas' speaking style is not completely accurate. iambic pentameter is a specific type of poetic meter that's extremely common in english-language poetry, but it's not a catch-all for any poetic meter.

the "iambic" part of iambic pentameter means it uses iambs as its metrical foot, which is the basic rhythm unit in poetry. iambs are structured as one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. the "pentameter" part means it uses five feet in its meter -- pent meaning five. so a line of iambic pentameter is five iambs, and reads like this:

and-ONE and-TWO and-THREE and-FOUR and-FIVE

or:

shall-I com-PARE thee-TO a-SUM mer's-DAY

pentameter is great for speaking, which is why shakespeare used it so much, but not terribly musical. music is often written in tetrameter (four iambs), or an alternating tetrameter-trimeter (three iambs) combo which is called "ballad meter." (ballad meter is why you can sing most emily dickinson poems to the tune of the pokémon theme song, which is extremely funny but not relevant here.)

"solas meter" isn't in iambic pentameter, and even though it's based on a song it's not in ballad meter either. it does largely use iambs, so folks are on the right track. the structure is usually two lines of iambic tetrameter (four iambs) followed by a third line of iambic pentameter (five iambs) with an extra unstressed syllable tacked on the end:

i-JOUR neyed-DEEP in-TO the-FADE in-AN cient-RUINS and-BAT tle-FIELDS to-SEE the-DREAMS of-LOST ci-VIL i-ZA tions

the tetrameter gives it a nice musical rhythm. "hallelujah" is written in 6/8 and the iambs give you that eighth note-quarter note rhythm here. but what about that third line? the extra unstressed syllable is a "feminine ending," which you can see in the famous soliloquy from hamlet:

to-BE or-NOT to-BE that-IS the-QUES tion

in my opinion, the feminine ending is part of what gives "solas meter" that wistful, soft feeling that weekes is going for. ending on an unstressed syllable takes the wind out of the line's sails a bit. when it's alongside regular iambic meters, it can feel unresolved. ending in a stressed syllable every line can get sing-songy (see previous point about ballad meter, i want to be the very best, etc. etc.), so a feminine ending can make a line more conversational.

"hallelujah" uses this four-four-five meter for verses, although not always perfectly:

now-i-HEARD there-WAS a-SE cret-CHORD that-DA vid-PLAYED and-it-PLEASED the-LORD but-YOU don't-RE ally-CARE for-MU sic-DO ya

there's a couple sneaky anapests in there where iambs should be (and-it-PLEASED and now-i-HEARD are both U-U-S), but i'm not here to tell leonard cohen how to write songs. songwriting is not beholden to the same rigid meter that poetry is because it's intended to be paired with music, and the music is what's driving the rhythm, not the lyrics.

weekes has said they specifically used the k.d. lang version, and lang omits the "now" in the first line so it scans a little better with tetrameter. jeff buckley and brandi carlile did the same in their covers, so it seems there's an impulse when singing to make this line fit the meter more neatly.

now the refrain, which is just "hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah," is not iambic at all. it uses "ionics," which are four-syllable metric feet (iambs are two) that are U-U-S-S. minor ionics are unstressed syllables first, major ionics are stressed syllables first. so we've got minor ionic meter here:

hal-le-LU-JAH, hal-le-LU-JAH hal-le-LU-JAH, hal-le-LU-JAH

"solas meter" uses this ionic meter too:

ev-ery-GREAT-WAR has-its-HER-OES i'm-just-CUR-I-OUS what-kind-YOU'LL-BE

"curious" doesn't quite scan here because it's a dactyl word getting shoehorned into an ionic foot. dactyls are S-U-U -- e.g. "benedict cumberbatch" is a double dactyl. you could try the old-school poetry strategy of just dropping a syllable and going for "cur'ous," but that's a bit much. i'm not gonna tell weekes how to write dialogue any more than i'm going to tell leonard cohen how to write songs!

so in conclusion: "solas meter" is a combination of iambic tetrameter, iambic pentameter with feminine endings, and ionic meter. themoreyouknow.gif

for more on this, check out james frankie thomas' great explanation of poetic meter at the paris review, which specifically goes into the nitty-gritty of "hallelujah."

What's all this about Solas speaking in iambic pentameter? English isn't my first language so I never noticed anything odd about the way he talks, but your blog is the first time I've seen it mentioned by anyone

hello! ◕‿◕ Solas sometimes speaks in a specific pattern or rhythm. It sometimes gets described as or compared by people to iambic pentameter. (which is a type of rhythm common in traditional English poetry. Shakespeare used it in his sonnets and plays.) Though, I'm not sure that it's actually literally that or always that. The main point is that at those times, he's speaking particularly poetically, with a specific poetic rhythm in his speech. (Like where the stress on syllables is and the 'beats' in his speech.) Occasionally, the Inquisitor's dialogue line[s] in response to him are the same.

When Trick Weekes wrote Solas in DA:I, they wrote some of his key scenes to KD Lang's cover of the song Hallelujah on a loop. They talked about some of their process and the reasons for the use of this technique in terms of Solas' characterization in this DA:I-era blog post:

Trick Weekes: "When Solas talks about things that he saw in the Fade, things that speak to a distant past, I needed him to sound ever so slightly otherworldly and wistful – someone remembering a dream with a sense of both sadness and inevitability. If you follow [that link] and look at some of Solas’s lines, you may notice a familiar rhythm come out. It would have been forcing it to give lines the same rhyme scheme, but giving the words the meter captured some of that wistfulness and made Solas sound ever so slightly otherworldly. (In the rare cases the player got into the same rhythm, there was always an approval bump from Solas. For that brief period, it was like the player was thinking like he did.) I used this a few times over the game, and I love what it did to his voice. Also, Cori (who edited Solas) is exceedingly kind for putting up with my request that changes to those lines keep this surreptitious rhythm."

[source]

An example of when it happens in DA:I is:

"I've journeyed deep into the Fade // in ancient ruins and battlefields // to see the dreams of lost civilizations. I've watched as hosts of spirits clash // to reenact the bloody past // in ancient wars both famous and forgotten. Every great war // has its heroes. // I'm just curious // what kind you'll be."

Compare this with the song's lyrics:

"I heard there was a secret chord // That David played, and it pleased the Lord // You don't really care for music, do ya? Well it goes like this: The fourth, the fifth // The minor fall, the major lift // The baffled king composing Hallelujah Hallelujah // Hallelujah // Hallelujah // Hallelujah"

An example from Trespasser is:

"I lay in dark and dreaming sleep [I heard there was a secret chord] while countless wars and ages passed [That David played, and it pleased the Lord] I woke still weak a year before I joined you. [You don't really care for music, do ya?]" etc.

Recent mentions of this are:

Q. Will Solas still occasionally or dramatically speak in iambic pentameter? A. “Massive kudos to Patrick, who always writes Solas so well. Again, Solas is a returning character. It’s the same Solas you know and love (or hate depending on who you are). The same writer. So I think the answer is yeah, it’s Solas.” – John Epler

[source: BioWare dev Discord Q&A on June 14th]

User: "you really went off with solas. but the iambic pentameter makes writing fanfic dialogue for him so treacherous..." Trick Weekes: "It doesn't always have to be in the cadence! Just when he's deeply feeling The Old Days! He's written in standard prose 99% of the time!"

[source]

I think he does it a bit in the gameplay reveal video [Veil ripping scene with Varric] too. hope this helps :>

[msg refs this post]