#felassan romance

[vir-bellanaris]

Solas left Lavellan because he was terrified of her becoming another Felassan. Another Mythal.

I don't think there's any doubt, if she had come between him and his plans, he would have had no choice but to neutralize her as well.

[felassan]

me and felassans ghost

[aqun-athlok]

i can't believe solas has like four messy as hell divorces and rook gets thrown in the middle of all of them

[whereismywarden]

god, i love this man 😂

[citrusai]

mythal was basically solas' faghag when he was pining for felassan but whatever.

[thessaralka]

Regrets of the Dread Wolf

Solas's Regrets featuring my Rook Sar de Riva

[babe-a-yaga]

Template by @dalishious

[bonesaints]

one of the biggest crimes of dai's writing, i think, is that the inquisitor can't be in a t4t romance with krem 😔

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

this is not a fully formed thought yet im still working this out. but after reading other people's impressions and seeing some complaints about Solas' characterization in this game i do disagree, but i see where people are coming from in a way

when you (or a character) have a Spiraling Breakdown of personality and belief and everything else. theres 2 kinds of ways it goes: spiraling OUT vs spiraling IN. Outward spirals happen when you start acting out of character/unlike yourself, because who you are (or used to be) failed. Inward spirals happen when instead you buckle down and commit to the one way though you can see, even if it keeps failing you, because maybe this time if you do it harder or better or more it will finally work.

in Inquisition we see Solas spiraling out. His world is shattered, everything's different, it's all his fault. And in response he desperately looks in every direction he can and grabs at anything he sees as being an option to set things right--using Corypheus, using the Inquisition, using whatever it will take. He loses his sense of self and who he is, he pretends to be someone else and falls into that character more than he expects because everything has gone so wrong he's trying to mentally distance himself from it. pretend it never happened, pretend he can turn back time, that this world isn't real. He mirrors your Inquisitor's treatment of him because the core of his own personality is so tangled he can't find his true self until the game ends, and we see him again in Trespasser.

in Veilguard we see him do the opposite. It might look like he's calm and focused but he's still spiraling, it's just inward this time. He has picked one core facet of himself and is becoming solely that aspect more and more and more. he's abandoning the parts of himself that he thinks don't serve this one goal he has fixated on, because this time he's not pretending he can turn back time--he knows that undoing it is not just erasing a new timeline it's altering the course of the current one. he can't look away from it but he also can't risk stopping. we see him as Fen'harel the war general who will do anything it takes no matter the consequence or personal cost, he lies and he tricks, and he leans into tricking you because that's his only out now. He can't stop and explain and make you see because he gave up the part of himself that can listen to alternatives. He's not calm and resolved, he's panicking--we see him make promises he can't keep like killing the Archdemon, so he's not just lying to us but himself. He kills Varric just like he killed Felassan just like he killed Mythal.

And that's also why it takes so much to snap him out of it. You can't appeal to the other parts of Solas--his love, his friendliness, his more lighthearted joking side. You can only beg your case to General Fen'harel, which is why you need the only one left who was also there to witness that part of him, Mythal. He cannot move forward or allow the other parts of himself, like the part of him that loves the Inquisitor if you romanced him, to surface until the spiral is shattered.

[kcwriter-blog]

More thoughts on Solavellan

I started replying to a post about the psychological aspect of Solavellan because it was interesting, well thought out and I thought good points were made but it got very long, and I had new thoughts. I wanted to put them down. This is not a criticism of that post in any way, it’s good and I urge people to read it. I just see things differently.

The big problem I have with most takes on Solavellan is how they take agency away from Lavellan whenever Solas is mentioned. We have a woman who grew to be one of the most powerful leaders in Thedas but when we talk about her and her feelings, she suddenly becomes this naive child desperately in love with the man who broke her heart. I just don’t see it. I don’t see a relationship – no matter how intense – of a few months, defining her going forward. So, let’s look at it.

Solas and Lavellan do love each other deeply. We don’t hear Lavellan say I love you until the breakup scene and she never calls him vehnan until Trespasser. Obviously, that is, as with most things in the romance, because it was a rushed, late add to the game. But it is interesting.

People get on Solas’ case for not defining the relationship, but I would argue she isn’t in a hurry to define it either. Which is smart. They haven’t been together long and one, the other, or both of them could die.

It’s possible that Crestwood is the first chance they have had to talk about it. I’ve never liked the first dialogue option because Lavellan seems genuinely surprised that up until now, she doesn’t know what to call Solas. Which is silly. They have been exclusive for a few months now. They are in love. She’s been calling him something and my guess is it is vhenan (her heart, home). And Solas fully intends to have that discussion. He just gets cold feet because what he has to tell her isn’t something she is going to believe.

Moving on. The valleslin scene has had a lot posted about it and I don’t want to get into it. I think what’s important is not whether it is removed or not but the idea that Solas alone destroys her faith by telling her the truth. Did he hammer the final nail in the coffin of her faith? Yes, but a smart Lavellan has to be questioning everything already. Why? Because she met Mythal.

Even before she meets the head of her pantheon, she has been to the Temple of Mythal and learned a lot that differs from her people’s mythology. She learns that Mythal was murdered, not locked away. She learns that the Dread Wolf had no part in that murder. She sees a depiction of the Dread Wolf in an antechamber of the temple in a guard dog position which is weird. If she drank from the Well, she has a lot of ancient elven voices in her head telling her stuff. If she didn’t, she would have Morrigan telling her the same stuff.

She meets ancient elves. And those elves don’t see her or the Dalish as their own. Just as a reminder, Solas isn’t the only ancient elf to have feelings about the Dalish. Abelas is very pointed about saying Lavellan isn’t one of his people. Felassan makes fun of the Dalish. Mythal says “the People bend the knee to easily” in DA2. Heck, Felassan thinks more of the city elves than he does of the Dalish. Solas eventually comes around. It’s a grudging respect but he does allow that they have some good qualities.

Lavellan meets Mythal and Mythal isn’t exactly a nice person. She has chosen to possess the body of a human, not an elf. She never helps the elves. So, you have an elven goddess in diminished form running around helping human heroes but doing nothing for the people that pray to her. That must rock her world and her faith.

Her faith is already on the ledge by Crestwood. Solas possibly pushes it over. And he never would have told her if he hadn’t messed up and changed his mind about the other thing. It’s all impulsive. He isn’t thinking straight, just covering his ass and it hurts her. However, I think he still intended to carry on the relationship without telling her the truth. During the kiss, he finally realizes that if he loves her so much he almost told her everything, then not telling her is morally wrong and he comes up with a reason to end it.

After the breakup, Lavellan is hurt. It always hurts when someone breaks up with you. What hurts the most is knowing he still loves her. What also hurts is he won’t give her a reason. I don’t think she is questioning everything he told her at this point. He’s just the cold-hearted son of a bitch who broke her heart.

Most of us have been there. We’ve got breakup playlists, alcohol and friends to help get us through it. I usually imagine my Lavellan grabbing Bull, Dorian and Cole to help her take out her anger on a poor unsuspecting dragon. I also put off triggering the Wicked Grace game until after the breakup.

That doesn’t mean she isn’t angry or crying on Josephine’s shoulder. Of course she is, but she isn’t questioning her life choices. She could tell Solas to get lost, but she keeps him around. She is even kind to him when the Orb is discovered broken.

And everyone is kind of busy planning to find and finish Corypheus off once and for all. I see her putting a pin in it. Once they win, she will confront him and demand answers.

She doesn’t get the chance because he leaves without saying goodbye. That has to hurt. I don’t see her in a place where she could never trust anyone ever again. It’s more likely, she throws daggers at a drawing of him out in the practice yard. Even if she still loves him, she is an adult not a maiden in distress. As much as she loves Solas, her entire world does not revolve around him.

Solas made his choice. She may be concerned about him - especially after Cole’s cryptic message - but I don’t see her searching frantically for him. He knows where she is and can send her a message if he needs her.  

And she is busy. She must help clean up the mess Cory made. She has rifts to close. She has dignitaries to meet. She has paperwork. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for pining.

There is an idea that Lavellan is alone because all of her inner circle except her advisors go off and do their own thing. Except that isn’t true. They write letters – which you can find exploring the Winter Palace – in those letters some of them mention having visited or that they will visit. Lavellan is also capable of making new friends. She is not static.

Solas leaving her may still hurt. She may have (and probably did) tried to move on but so far no one matched him for any number of reasons. She is only alone in the sense that any leader is alone. What she probably misses the most about Solas is that he always treated her like a person, not an icon.

Then we get to Trespasser. If you have found all the clues for the secret dialogue option, she has figured out Solas is the Dread Wolf long before she confronts him. She has seen the murals, learned his story. She knows the Dalish got it wrong. She knows from experience that the Dalish get a lot wrong. And he’s Solas. She might not know him as well as she thought but she saw beneath his mask a little. She isn’t going to be afraid of this figure out of Dalish legend. Mostly she is going to be pissed because he didn’t tell her the truth, because he didn’t trust her.

As far as the arm thing goes. Weekes and Epler have said, he did not amputate her arm. Solas drew out the magic that was killing her. The arm disintegrated. It was already doing so by the time she meets Solas. If he hadn’t drawn out the magic, she would have disintegrated just like Solas’ friend Wisdom. I think arguments that she would have trouble trusting anyone based on this are a non-starter

Once all that is over, will Lavellan have a hard time trusting anyone? She will have a hard time trusting Solas. Who wouldn’t? Will it color her perception of anyone she might want to be romantically involved with? For a few years maybe but what are the chances she will fall in love with another god?

Trust isn’t just about people you’ve been romantically linked with. She still trusts her inner circle. They help her. A bad experience with one person, no matter how much she may love him, isn’t going to make her stop trusting people entirely.

Now apart from Solavellan, I’m pretty sure Lavellan is messed up psychologically. You can’t go through what she did and not be a little messed up. But it is that experience that may make her empathize with Solas and understand why he left her.

She knows what it is like to be a leader. Not in the sense of leading her clan but in the sense that her decisions have huge consequences. She knows how a leader’s decisions are always second guessed - like they are at the Exalted Council if you chose to exile the Wardens. She knows what it is like to have to step up and be the one to save the world. She knows that sometimes there are no good choices, and you do the best you can. She knows it messes you up and you can lose your way. Solas has lost his.

Is it ten times harder to empathize when you loved that person, and they destroyed your trust? Yes. Solas will have to win her trust back. She will view anything he says or does with suspicion, as anyone would. However, Solas rarely outright lies. She knows this. She will be asking a lot more questions and be paying more attention. She also knows that he didn’t lie about loving her.

Okay, but he is still planning to tear down the Veil so he must not love her very much. Her love moved the needle. He went from believing nothing was real to thinking everyone is real. Is it so hard to imagine that Lavellan thinks he can be reasoned with? I doubt she thinks her love alone will change him. That doesn’t mean she won’t want to try. That doesn’t mean she will want him back when it’s all over. It also doesn’t mean she is a quivering mess obsessing over their relationship.

Solavellan can be whatever you want it to be, based on your own experiences. For some it's an angsty story with a Lavellan pining for him. For others, she gets over it fast with Cullen's help. For me, she is a strong, proud woman who is able to use her own experiences to empathize with Solas and want to save him from himself. She may still love him, but that love has been tempered by her experiences with him. They will need to have a long talk if they ever meet up again.

[vir-tanadahl]

[DAV Spoilers] My Thoughts on Solas

Look, I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but these are just my thoughts. Take what resonates with you, and feel free to leave behind what doesn’t.

Under the cut, because spoilers!

I don’t think Solas was acting OOC.

TDLR: We are dealing with the Dread Wolf for most of DAV, not Solas.

This is not the Solas we know from DAI. In DAI, Solas concealed his identity as the Dread Wolf, embodying a part of himself from before he fully assumed that role. Now, however, he has fully embraced the mantle of the Dread Wolf.

 2. The comment about hating blood magic? It was a lie. Solas knows that, in this world, blood magic is despised and viewed as evil. The truth is, he sees it as a tool—both in DAI and in DAV. He lied to the Rook, manipulating his words to earn their trust.

3. I don’t think he intended to kill Varric—I think it was an accident; if that were his goal, he would have done it long before. If you slow down the cinematic, you can see him lower his head, a gesture of shame. But then again, this is the same man who killed Felassan. It is still shitty that it happened though.

4. Solas doesn’t trust the Rook, and he isn’t going to be as open with them as he was with the Inquisitor. Unlike the mentorship he offered the Inquisitor, Solas sees the Rook purely as a tool. He will never confide in them about his feelings for the Inquisitor, whether as a friend or a lost love. This time, he’s a tactician, a strategist—cold, calculating, and entirely focused on his goals. In my opinion, if Solas were to confide in the Rook, it would feel out of character. They haven’t developed that level of trust, so in my opinion, it would come across as fan service. 

5. I don’t believe Solas and Mythal had a romantic relationship. Although Mythal called him ‘love,’ the evidence in DAI suggests it was more likely reverence than romance. As Brené Brown describes, reverence—a deeper form of admiration or respect—is often rooted in a profound connection to something greater than ourselves, encompassing adoration, worship, or veneration.

6. It’s possible that Solas was bound by a geas, which would explain his intense reaction if the Inquisitor drank from the Well of Sorrows. This could also be why Mythal remains central to his story. He tells both the Rook and the Inquisitor that he cannot stop—not that he won’t, but that he cannot. Perhaps, before her death, Mythal commanded him to avenge her, binding him to her will and compelling him forward.

Update to 6: However, if it wasn’t a geas, then it speaks volumes about Solas, his choices, and the theme of regret that runs through DAV. Honestly, I hope it wasn’t a geas, because that would highlight his fallibility, showing just how far he’s gone and the struggle he faces in trying to reconcile (and failing) with those choices. It would also explain why he feels bound by his actions, believing he cannot turn back and why Mythal remained central to his story because he came into this world for her and he "failed" her. By releasing him from her service, Mythal allows him to see that his path wasn’t shaped solely by his own choices. He’s been carrying the weight not only of his decisions but of hers as well—and he isn’t responsible for her choices. Mythal had to be the one to make him understand that.

7. Solas's wisdom has twisted into pride. He's fixated on erasing the mistake he believes he made, on fixing what he thinks he broke. But this pride blinds him to the beauty of the world he inadvertently created. If his wisdom had remained pure, he might have seen that this new world, born of his error, holds its own beauty—and that not every mistake needs to be undone. It feels like Solas embodies Wisdom, while the Dread Wolf represents Pride.

8. Solas does care about people, but his wisdom has twisted into pride. The Dread Wolf, however, leads him to view their deaths as necessary sacrifices—a means to an end

9. Solas/The Dread Wolf created a prison that even the gods could not escape it—because escape would mean confronting the pain they caused and accepting any regrets tied to their choices. The gods refused to do this, seeing their actions as justified. Solas, too, remained bound, unable to face his own regrets and the pain he caused, needing to believe there was purpose in them. He is shocked when the Rook escapes, as he doesn’t believe (or literally just cannot accept this due to being under a geas) anyone can truly accept their regrets and move forward.

10. The Dread Wolf using spirits of chaos—and other similar entities—as tools in his war makes sense. He chose spirits that wouldn’t be corrupted by the task, a calculated and strategic move, even if it’s ultimately a morally questionable one.

IDK take it or leave it.

UPDATE:

I also believe that the essence of Mythal, which released him from her service, ‘died’ after freeing him. The essence he carefully preserved could only watch and observe the world, as Mythal herself stated she couldn’t exist outside the Fade. I think Solas knew that. This fragment of Mythal, the one he knew, who just released him from her service no longer exists anymore.

[vir-bellanaris]

Okay listen. Solas has done so much damage, caused so much pain and quite literally destroyed lives. Despite the sympathetic nature of his character, a happy sunset and butterflies ending would ring hollow.

As much as I love him.

Elio and Nadia being torn asunder because of him. Don't get me started on Felassan and Briala.

Like...he doesn't deserve a happy ending.

[baphometsss]

Starting to think that 'memories of a duet' might also be about a high approval Inquisitor.

Ofc it will never be confirmed/denied, especially since it makes little sense to be there for a low approval inquisitor and it can also be read as being about Mythal and the early days of Solas living in a body, where she forged him into a weapon. But it's interesting to have it in a room which is otherwise a shrine to the Inquisition. There is beautiful sunlight pouring in through the windows, and it isn't the dull bluish light in the rest of the Lighthouse. He has repainted the frescos from Skyhold, to remember his time as Wisdom ('seeing wholly, and being wholly seen'), with those friends he loved and betrayed. There is a chair with an Inquisition mural on it facing the harpsichord, as if waiting for the Inquisitor to sit and watch him play. A ton of cheese, because they were in Ferelden. There is an Orlesian clock, a Astrarium, and basically 0 references to Mythal. It's odd, then, that the Duet codex would be about Mythal, in a room that is otherwise devoid of her presence. It is a sanctuary, the only part of the Lighthouse that truly lives up to its name for Solas.

You have to make the statues of Fen'harel and Mythal face each other to access it. As if it's only by facing his regrets and humbling himself that he will allow himself to indulge in his 'selfish' desires to be loved and seen for who he truly is, something that Mythal and even Felassan did not give him. The rest of the Lighthouse is filled with destroyed frescos of memories he wants to forget (mainly featuring Mythal), and there is a fragment of Mythal in the Crossroads that he never goes to see. He doesn't allow himself to be selfish or he'll be tempted off his path like he was when he was with the Inquisition, and the presence of Mythal in the Lighthouse is his way of reminding himself to stay true to his purpose. Yet still, he destroys references to her; he destroys the murals because they are too painful to witness, his Pride cannot handle it.

The truth is that since gaining a body, nothing about Solas's life has been about want. He never wanted to come through, but he was asked to by a friend who wanted his help and wisdom to fight a war they would likely die fighting in. He cannot resist appeals to his true nature. He didn't want to stay and seems to have returned to the Fade at some point (the second memory where Mythal shrugs him off to return to the Evanuris appears to take place in the Fade).

He hasn't had anything he wanted since he was a spirit in the Fade. A romanced Lavellan/high approval Inquisitor, and the bonds he formed in the Inquisition, made him reflect his true purpose, and it's through his time in the Inquisition that he begins to change. By his own admission, he came very close to breaking during the Crestwood moment with a romanced Inquisitor. However, the destruction of his orb by Corypheus, and the ritual to tear down the Veil already being underway, meant that he couldn't abandon his plans. He failed in his attempt to unlock the power of his Orb.

And that's kind of the crux of his change: Pride cannot handle failure, as failure requires humility, which is its opposite. Solas in DATV is Pride is trying to prove its purpose; Mythal is used a figurehead for all his regrets, but don't forget that he destroyed a fragment of Mythal in his pursuit of tearing down the Veil, to steal her power from her. It's no longer just about the debt he feels he owes to her for leaving her to fight the Evanuris alone (i.e. leaving her to die), it's the fact that his words of wisdom were not heeded, and as a manifestation of Pride, he cannot tolerate that. It's the fact that he left to start a rebellion, and it got Mythal killed because he wasn't there when she needed his help. His Pride has convinced him that it would've made a difference, when by all accounts he was outnumbered and not powerful enough to fight them all anyway. All of these mistakes and regrets are deeply humbling. So of course he's desperate. Pride will stop at nothing to prove its purpose, like Elgar'nan's Tyranny will not stop until he achieves godhood.

To a point though, it's kind of Mythal's fault that Solas/Fen'harel happened in the first place. She shouldn't have twisted him from his purpose and used him as a weapon, she shouldn't have kept him loyal to her so she could keep the fight against the Evanuris by manipulating and branding him as her lap-dog. She shouldn't have made him forge the Wolf's Fang to kill the Titans and start the Blight. But also--she was Benevolence, who became Retribution, and that meant that she also needed to prove her purpose. Solas/Fen'harel is the collateral damage of that.

It is only by appealing to his true purpose (Wisdom), that Solas has a chance to be redeemed. The Inquisitor is the one who brings the statuette to Rook's attention. The Inquisitor is one half of the key that brings humility to Pride, to make him see that there is Wisdom in humility too, that he still has that good in him, that he is loved and cared for despite everything. It is Mythal who is the other half of that key, as she is the one makes him understand that the shame isn't just his own, but a shared burden that he must accept a proportionate amount of blame for. Mythal is the release, and the Inquisitor is the guide for his new direction. They are foils. He says that the high approval Inquisitor is why he can see a better way forward, and a romanced Lavellan is there to remind him that he is loved, that he has a purpose beyond all he has known for thousands of years, that he is not alone in his struggle.

[maharellasa]

OH MY GOOOD—

ok i finished reading masked empire and I have SO many questions!!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS IS THE ONLY INFO WE GET ON FELASSAN?! How long has he been working for Fen'harel? Why does it sound like they're very familiar with each other?! I mean, I think this happens while Solas is still asleep, because Felassan was afraid of him finding him in his sleep, so he could have been working with the Dread Wolf for quite a long time?!? Hell it even sounds like he himself is an ancient elf (the slow arrow of the story even 👀) but more importantly:

“You know, I suspect you’ll hate this, but she reminds me of—”

WHO?! WHO DOES BRIALA REMIND HIM OF!! DAMMIT TRICK WEEKES!

That said I am devastated with the solas x inquisitor parallel here. Felassan clearly approached Briala intending to betray her in the end, but her actions had his eyes opened, ending up with him believing in her cause and her People. And a cold-hearted Solas who hadn't yet seen the value in this world killed him for that weakness/betrayal... Only to then meet a modern elf himself (in case of inquisitor lavellan — I am a solavellan, sorry my worldview is defined by them, but obviously this works for any inquisitor) and have his eyes opened in turn. And I cannot help but wonder if this was maybe the realization (again, in case of a romanced inquisitor) that turned his intentions during the scene in crestwood. He intended to fully commit to the romance, but then maybe remembered, oh not so long ago, killing his most trusted agent over that same mistake. Why must it hurt so 😭

[dilapidatedanchor]

Rambling about Solas and his relationship to agency

Spoilers under cut

He, the leader of a rebellion to free the enslaved ancient elves fought for their agency. He constantly feels the weight of his actions and goes back and forth between feeling he has the personal agency to enact change while lacking agency on a higher level.

He makes choices he doesn’t want to because it’s the only way. The only way to fix his mistakes, to return the world to what it is supposed to be. There is no other option, it has to be him. Solas fails to recognize his own agency while simultaneously using it to alleviate his own guilt.

But that’s not what I want to talk about really.

I want to talk about the irony in his relationship to agency and those closest to him. Solas strips the agency from others time and time again.

Felassan, Rook, The inquisitor (especially a romanced one), etc.

Repeatedly he takes their agency with some pretty apology of how he lacks the agency to allow them theirs. He takes their agency through omission, lies, manipulation. In taking their agency - he is enacting his own.

This is also why it has to be the inquisitor who makes the choice to go with him. He has to trust her and allow her the agency he had taken from her in so many little ways, time and time again. He also has to make the choice face his choices for what they are, not what they could be.