#solas is traumatised
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thepsychonyx · 1 month ago
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The Dagger is a representation of Solas Duty and Trauma
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DRAGON AGE THE VEILGUARD SPOILERS AHEAD
I believe the dagger being left behind in Redemption endings symbolise Solas finally being freed of his duty & trauma whilst non-redemption endings force that pain to go with him. The dagger reminds him all he lost & sacrificed vs in Redemption he is free and regains his autonomy.
Before anyone yells at me that this is a reach, I get it- but walk with me. The dagger was commissioned by Mythal, he was against its creation and against its purpose to sunder the Titans, it was also used to kill Mythal and is essentially a symbol of all of Solas' original sins
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Though some of us agree that none of these things sit solely on his head, they do sit on his conscience.
The grief of having a part of your autonomy irreversibly altered as they did with the Titans is a reflection of how he was forever condemned to himself. His one salve? Duty.
I've never thought Mythal's words in the Redemption endings were an indication of him prizing her affection above the chance Rook gave or Lavellan's pleading, she mutilated his spirit and perverted his purpose. For which, her taking accountability unbinds him of the emotional and mental toll. This is only one aspect of why the dagger is key to redemption. The important thing is he needed to be freed of his duty, he feels he has gone too far and taken too much. He knows the price has been too high and that is why he wants to be stopped, one way or another. Hence leaving hints for Inquisitor and Varric, as well as stating to Rook he fears becoming like Elgar'nan, too powerful with no one to check him. He never wanted to be this, and he is ready to die. Solas is exhausted of what this duty has taken from him as it has costed him everything.
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Crucially, freeing him from his duty finally allows him to let go of the purpose he made himself physical for. He was brought into the world to give her wisdom, wisdom she denied and without her to unbind, his reason for being physical is left to trying to heal the wounds he made.
In DAI, if you drink from the Well, thus putting you into Mythals service, Solas is incredibly angry for valid reason. He just watched you make the same error he did!
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He bears these words so heavily because this is also the burden he bears - he is stuck in the cycle of what this duty demands of him.
Solas asks you what will you do after Corypheus and he only *Approves* if you say "I'll restore what was" - he associates bettering the world with undoing the condition his actions have forced it into.
"You honor the past and work to recover what was lost, even if the cost is high." It is not all about Mythal, it is about fixing his biggest mistakes and restoring the world to what he, someone duty bound to the people for causing the problems, took away from *everyone.*
He knows the cost is high, that's why he wants to be stopped. That's why he leaves hints for Inquisitor. It's why he says to a friend, "I would treasure the chance to be wrong again" - he just cannot see another way because he is bound by his purpose for why he entered the world.
This is why the Trick ending also works because it forced Solas to see another way to atone, but the dagger - the grief and trauma - goes with him. The bad ending is him completely forced (stabbed) into becoming a manifestation of pride. His duty completely corrupting his values.
Whilst the Redemption ending is the most fulfilling as it finally let's him allow himself to let go. He is forgiven, for the first time ever by his friend or true love, he is absolved of the burdens and duty that haunted him, he is given the wisdom he has always been denied.
Someone who only wanted to free others finally being freed themselves, who endeavoured to unshackle the chains of others finally being unbound of his own, isn't that a beautiful ending? He is just a man, a faulted haunted man who did his best and I think that is worth something.
The beautiful thing, is with the Solavellan ending, Inquisitor Lavellan gives him more than just atonement to live for. Bereft of his original purpose of bestowing wisdom as he has confined himself to atone, she posits a new purpose. Their love, eternally, will be their new fate. He will never be alone again, and together work towards his new purpose. For a man who was enslaved by a friend (he wore Mythal's valaslin!) who used him and ignored him, to be given salvation from the love of his life who listened to him and wants to be beside him through everything - I cannot imagine a better conclusion and retirement from his Duty and the first crucial step into healing from his Trauma.
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(Ignore me in the corner teary eyed lol)
This post by Trick states that the endings with the dagger mean it’ll be harder for him mentally to become free - it may be a simple association that no dagger = redemption, but this is DA it has to mean more. At least, it does to me.
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talktorook · 9 days ago
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Lucanis with Rook after Tearstone Island (or any day of the week really):
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baphometsss · 2 months ago
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I don't wanna sit here and act like I'm a professional or anything, because I'm not, but as someone who has had to do a lot of work to overcome trauma and reconfigure my brain more or less from the ground up, there's a lot I have to say about Solas's mental state
We know that Solas was essentially used and abused by Mythal for millennia. Even if he wasn't under a geas, he was twisted from his purpose by being made to fight, and then created the Wolf's Fang which was used to make the Titans tranquil and started the Blights. He made those choices himself, but it's important to understand that no choice is ever made in a vacuum. She took advantage of his vulnerability when he was given a body after however long as a spirit semi-existing peacefully in the Fade, and moulded him into a weapon.
He is broken, because Mythal broke him. I'm not incapable of seeing why she did what she did because like I said, no one makes choices in a vacuum and I could write about her for a long time too (in a similar way to how I have had to do myself in my own life in understanding why others abused me). He was so traumatised by everything that happened and he was trauma bonded to Mythal pretty much from the minute he gained a body. Trauma bonds are not about love. He definitely interpreted it that way, as most people do, but that's the weapon abusers use to keep the victim under their control. Abuse abuse abuse show a scrap of love and then abuse some more. If I just take it, I'll get the love/attention I need. I will earn it, because love is suffering, and I have to suffer to earn getting my basic needs met from my family/friends. Mythal, as his creator, was the one who he would've attached to in a similar way to spirit Cole/human Cole.
Trauma bonds are pathological. Mythal made him believe that if he did as she asked, and kept supporting her, then eventually he would gain her favour and they would be able to free all the elves, and he'd be able to live according to his true nature, which is one where he doesn't have to fight. (Remember his personal quest in DAI? He actually kills the rebel mages for corrupting his friend--another Wisdom spirit--into Pride.) In reality, she was just using him. She always kept the bone just out of reach for her lapdog. The line from Rook where they say (paraphrasing here) 'you know, I was actually excited about getting your approval... That's how you do it, isn't it? Keep giving little scraps of approval to keep someone loyal, and then you turn around and betray them' is so telling too.
Where--or from whom--do you think he learned to do this?
It literally reeks of a pathological trauma bond and honestly, with how isolated, 'grim and fatalistic' Solas is, it is not a surprise that he's so broken.
Solas, essentially, is little more than a lap-dog to Mythal. He followed her like a lost puppy, because especially in his early days, that's kind of what he was. You have to remember that most of the insight we get about Mythal is from Solas's perspective, and he is not a reliable person when it comes to her after so long being repeatedly terrorised and twisted and manipulated. There are several instances where he describes being betrayed by her, and mentions some of the things she did, but he never quite holds her fully accountable and ends up directing his rage elsewhere. (The parallel between Mythal/Solas and the rebel mages/Wisdom is important here.)
This awesome post by @mythalism only reinforces this. He is so messed up in that scene, he is broken, he is holding the Wolf's Fang up, trying to give it to her because it symbolises the burden he has carried for thousands of years trying to avenge her death. He never wanted the Fang, like he never wanted a body. Mythal just stands over him, fully aware of what she did to him, and only getting him to stop because Rook petitioned her successfully, and the reunion with the more benevolent Mythal within Morrigan tempered her anger. She was a goddess, with the unequal power dynamic, right to the end.
As a side note, on the potential romance element between Mythal and Solas, I read an excellent breakdown of it on Reddit a while ago about how out of character it would've been for Solas to keep something like that from a romanced Lavellan, especially in Trespasser when he comes clean about his plan/past. I can't find it now because it was pre-Veilguard release, but it made a lot of sense to me. Solas and Lavellan never have a love scene in DAI because Solas didn't want to 'lay with them under false pretences'. Lying about who you are when sleeping with someone is nonconsensual. You can't consent to sleeping with someone if you don't know their true identity, and someone who knowingly lies about who they are to get into your pants is a sexual predator. For someone who led a slave rebellion (no doubt many of them being sex slaves), and a former spirit of Wisdom, Solas would've been well aware of this. In the unsent letter from Solas to Lavellan he says he came so close to breaking and desperately wanted to stay with them as Solas, with the implication being that that is where he planned to sleep with them once he'd come clean. But because he stops, because he's still unable to forgive himself or release himself from his trauma bond with Mythal, he breaks away, and they never have sex.
Bottom line: Solas would've been honest about it. Especially that. As the Inquisitor says, he can't lie about his heart.
And it's why the Solas/Lavellan romance is so powerful because quote, 'you change everything'. Solas thought he knew what love was, that love was loyalty, devotion, worship, etc. It's not just his plans or worldview that Lavellan changes. Lavellan sees him for who he is, without the mantle of Dread Wolf, and because of that he's able to express his true nature to her, even if he's not being totally honest in Inquisition. Lavellan got much closer to the real him than most, as he says, and changed his understanding of love completely. Unfortunately, he has unfinished business, an unresolved trauma bond, and his crushing sense of duty to the past is what keeps him from taking that final step towards letting go of it entirely. Trick also says Solas doesn't think he deserves love, which tbh is kind of a hallmark trait of people who have survived abuse.
And honestly? Call me a simp but I think he really was trying to get the Inquisitor to stop him. He saw himself being unable to let go because he was so broken and burdened by his guilt, and knew he couldn't save himself--was too proud to admit that he couldn't, because how pathetic does it make him look? And how could he stop now without rendering all the damage he'd wrought pointless? Yet here was someone who had changed him right down to his core, who understood him in a way few people ever had, whom he trusted, whom he loved in a way he hadn't loved anyone else before. It took him 'centuries' to build up rapport with the members of his rebellion. The man does not know how to form attachments without trauma, and suddenly he forms a strong one with someone who loves him completely and without condition. It's a jarring change.
Lavellan says that maybe they're being prideful themselves, refusing to see their own folly. But I think in admitting that they might be wrong, that it might be wishful thinking borne from misguided love to a truly terrible person, they've rendered the point moot. It shows self-awareness, which isn't folly.
If anyone can make Solas understand true love, it's Lavellan. Lavellan loved him when he was being his true self. Lavellan loved him after his betrayal was revealed. Lavellan loved him when his guilty conscience and terrible actions almost destroyed the world. Lavellan loved him because they knew the real him, and knew that his heart and spirit were broken, and knew that their love would endure, that their love would heal him.
And that's exactly where they end up. Healing the past, soothing the Blight, and loving one another completely.
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lesbiansforboromir · 22 days ago
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Anyway um. The general narrative position of Orzammar in Veilguard makes me want to throw up blood <3
And like the argument can of course be made that it is being percieved through a very biased lense, Kal-Sharok has held this grudge for nearly a thousand years now and therefore obviously are going to percieve themselves as the more morally pure culture in comparison. And Lace is a surface dwarf who really knows nothing about Orzammar except for the discrimination she has encountered when interacting with it. Okay, sure, Dragon Age has always somewhat awkwardly attempted to be an entirely unreliable-lore tale, nothing can be taken without a grain of salt etc etc.
So I suppose my main grief and agony is more with the DECISION to make these people the only ones who get to say anything about Orzammar in this, the final reveal of the true crushing extent of the Dwarven tragedy!!!! I have spent literal decades within the understanding that Orzammar is living on borrowed time, like pretty much every codex entry written by a dwarf about themselves mentions the 'long struggle' that will eventually be lost, the darkspawn will someday claim Orzammar too and with nothing of the Deep Roads left to conquer they will finally surge to the surface and begin the endless blight. Orzammar was made the unwilling blockade for the surface against the darkspawn.
And now we find out?? That the thing that was going to be the death of them, that has been eating away at the dwarven people for millenia, the cause of a thousand thousand horrors and griefs and terrible choices and screams in the lonely dark- That was the very thing they were begging to protect them!!! Stone protect me, Stone keep me, Stone's blessings to you, she encircles us and we must protect her here where darkness meet's light- but they were not protecting her!! And she wants them all to be consumed by the tide of her righteous retribution, for forgetting her, for using her, for building their civilisation upon the wreckage of her and leaving her trapped and alone in a purgatory between life and death, between existence and absence, cut off from they who made her whole and yet they thrive and she is left behind.
But they didn't know! They don't remember! All the dwarves have been doing for generation upon generation is unconsciously trying to clumsily recreate that lost soulful feeling of being part of a cohesive whole, Solas literally calls them 'the severed arm of a once mighty hero, lying in a pool of blood' (biting him biting him biting him b-) but the point is they were also traumatised by the loss and have spent ages and ages just trying to figure out how to exist without like... THEIR CONTEXT!! Their dreams!! Like Dwarves ARE STILL part of the Titans, evidenced by the fact that when the Titans lost their dreams so did all the dwarves, even those born post the calamity, they just are disjointed, disassociated!!!
... But Orzammar is just a stupid, hidebound, oppressive, politically-putrified, 'immoral' city of people whose perspective on all this is ergo completely superfluous, uninteresting and unimportant. And Kal-Sharok (who are just sooo morally pure they're making all the GOOD choices and don't have any prejudice in them at all and their own tragedies only drove them towards good things so I guess it was good Orzammar cut them off after all???) Well they apparently already know most of it anyway and they're ready to move on and grow and learn and it's all just so neat and clean and no dwarf who venerates and loves the Stone has any catastrophic or ugly feelings about this whatsoever! Orzammar APPARENTLY doesn't even care so yaaay how cool wow that's so cool an entire culture just doesn't care about their religion and it's origin? They just don't care? Haha! They just don't care! They're probably even suppressing it for evil oppressive reasons, completely ignoring the fact that even the Casteless have a relationship to the stone, wow! That's so compelling haha! I hate it when societies have to actually struggle with something or when religion is important to people, booo imagine... imagine......
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isobellenoire · 1 year ago
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Is the Dragon Age fandom still alive, or are you all romancing another traumatised elf in BG3?
I'm still hung up on Solas...
Maybe I'll make this into a series?
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evanhereonearth · 1 month ago
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Since I’ve gotten a few questions about my original books and where to find them, I figured I should do an introduction/master post, because I’ve a whole heap of things I do.
I’m a polymath, a pain in the ass, a massive pain
If you’ve enjoyed my Solavellan meta and want to support me, I would be honoured. I’ve just been totally cleaned out by a gruelling and traumatic immigration process (that is ongoing), and honestly *any* support is an enormous help in getting back on my feet so my life in my home can…finally begin.
I’m a fantasy author of over 25 novels across several subgenres, but all of my books have a romantic element or are romances. I’m also an award-winning Gaelic singer and songwriter who has represented Scotland internationally twice and been invited to perform for our parliament’s 25th anniversary celebration.
I’ve been at this a long time, and I keep kind of getting knocked backwards onto my arse and am pretty exhausted! Here’s my erm…life’s work below the jump!
Books
If you want to read my current series as I write it, check out my Patreon! I’m back on my Solavellan bullshit with it: if Lavellan met Solas somehow both as Solas and simultaneously as rebellion-era, peak traumatised Dread Wolf…and had to reconcile those experiences on the fly as her people’s oppressors subject her to impossible trials to steal what remains of their Indigenous magic? Aye, that’s Wilder.
You can follow along for £1 a month on Patreon. It’s going to get very spicy.
My most recent published series is a Solavellan-inspired romantasy trilogy (complete!) that I wrote over the last five years of absolute panic that we wouldn’t get a happy ending.
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Complete trilogy!!!
Mutual pining
Souls bound across time and space
Big Dragon Age and Solavellan vibes
Banter!
“We shouldn’t” 👀
Low spice (honestly I kinda regret not making it spicier so might make some erm…bonus scenes at some point)
In KU/ebook and available in bespoke deluxe paperback from my own shopfront
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Elven gods and mortals romance episodic series where the gods are being punished by a greater power for being assholes and can only find redemption by winning the heart of their mortal soulmates 😌
Queer-norm world!
Book 1: m/f
Book 2: f/f
Book 3: enby/f
Book 4: m/f
In KU and ebook only; they’re just short lil guys
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Complete trilogy!
Spell-induced climate change, one land magically draining the resources from another, and those dead set on righting the wrongs (or making it worse 😳)
Giant sapient bats
Giant cats and those who bond with them and ride them
A land cut off from the world by an ancient curse
Ace rep!!!
Profound friendships and trust
Available in ebook, hardcover, and paperback
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Complete quartet!
Lots of snark
My earlier work but I’m still proud of it 🥹
Bi lead, f/f endgame
So many butts
Adorable demon hybrid lads who are very wholesome and also always naked
NANA THE BUNNY, best bunny
Available in ebook, hardcover, and paperback (and audio, narrated by the amazing Amber Benson of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame—she’s truly an absolute legend ���!)
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Look to the Sun and A Hall of Keys and No Doors are both available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audio. Also narrated by the amazing Amber Benson!
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Two standalone YAs, both lightly paranormal
Non-binary autistic leads in both
Big themes of surviving and recovering from trauma
Sweet romance in each
Demi/grey ace rep in each
Will is obsessed with Solas just like me lmao
Target of banning in plenty of US states 🙃
Sam got nominated for a Nebula award 🥹
Available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audio (Sam is narrated by Allegra Verlezza, and Will by Vico Ortiz—yes, that Vico Ortiz!)
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Seonag and the Seawolves: free to read at Reactor Mag!
A Gaelic reimagining of a Green Man tale with a sea-based protector and their wolf guardians. Set in South Uist!
Long listed for a Hugo award 🥹
The Quiet: A tale of a woman who bridges worlds to seek out her lost sister in the face of an ancient threat. Has selkies!
Perchance to Dream: An m/m tale of Sleeping Beauty if the legends didn’t get it quite right and neither Aurora nor Phillip wanted anything to do with one another, beginning from the wake-up kiss
The Quiet and Perchance to Dream are both available in ebook and KU!
***
Beyond this, I have a whole series of LitRPG under another name that I’m toying with outing myself about.
Music
I also have a wee EP of demos of my original Gaelic songs and one translation of Once Upon a Dream over on Bandcamp. It’s a pay-what-you-want dealio!
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Art
You may have seen my lil Solavellan art going around! You can get it on a T-shirt in my shop, along with other wee bits and bobs I’ve painted.
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And, of course, if you want to just read my Solavellan long fic, you can do that here. 💕
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sexilydrawn · 2 months ago
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Max really hates all qunari JUST because I ron Bull??
All of Max's character ques come from Inquisition's gameplay and then I'll expand on things here and there with canon lore, maybe fill things in etc.
It's more like he's ignorant of all qunari. He's just never met one he liked. He's from a historic family in Ostwick (btw how come they never mention Ostwick) a qunari occupied city so traumatised it built double walls around itself. (Technically they landed near the city and launched an invasion of the entire Free Marches).
In his world state Ostwick has 2 branches of Trevelyans- blacksmiths and soldiers/horse breeders- During Ostwick's invasion it was Max's side of the family that suffered most of the losses. Men, money and most importantly horses. Even though Max is born like 200+ years later his family still harbors a generational hatred of qunari. Hating qunari in Ostwick is like hating on Antivas in Tevinter.
Max particularly is a third son, the vanity child you have to show off. Most often overlooked ending up in the chantry. He had 2 high performing older brothers and as a result Max became a people pleaser which in his family often meant taking part in discriminating against qunari. Becoming Inquisitor corrected this behavior a little, but by then he's simply too old to unlearn hundreds of years of rigid thinking. His sister Evelyn escaped this prejudice because she spent most of her formative years with Max who by then was aware of himself enough not to pass it on to her.
Over time I thought of fixing this note of his character, but to have him be too perfect and too understanding, too inclusive would make him flat and unrealistic. Instead I focused on him fixing his ego. I DID include a stupidity modifier though! Max is an oblivious man in the best way. If there's something, any one thing that he likes about someone he will overlook or even fail to notice general characteristics like race. To this day he canonically doesn't know Maevaris is anything, but a woman, he had to be told about Krem and not even the veil's collapse could turn him against Solas, because he was his friend.
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videogame-ocs · 2 months ago
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Happy Veilguard day for those who are celebrating!
As a result of Dragon Age The Veilguard coming out today I’ve been non stop thinking about my canon Worldstate so I’ve decided to explore where all my characters (and their love interests) from Inquisition and especially my canon inky is pre Veilguard.
I’ll start with my canon inky who WILL be making an appearance in my first play through of Veilguard starting today and I have the most headcanons about her:
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(Former) Inquisitior Anya Trevelyan & (former) Commander Cullen Rutherford:
Anya Trevelyan is still pretty traumatised by the events of Trespasser. I mean she’s still clinging to guilt of not being able to persuade Solas to stop in that moment almost ten years ago.
But she’s now living on a farm just outside Redcliffe with Cullen…..and their children.
Anya and Cullen now have three children; Leon, Sophie and Dorian. Leon (Leo) is six, Sophie is four and Dorian is a ten months.
They occasionally see both sides of the family, Anya’s is a bit far to travel so is less frequent but they’re all pretty close.
Anya was adopted immediately into the Rutherford family. I mean she was adopted even before they properly met but afterwards they almost got adoption papers ready and everything. Mia is especially protective of Anya. But the two Rutherford sisters basically see her as a younger sister.
Anya’s mother, Lady Sophia Trevelyan is still convinced she’s the Herald of Andraste but Anya doesn’t mind this one person holding onto that belief. She only minds when she makes a huge fuss about it to her friends or fusses over and smothers her as mothers tend to do. Her middle brother Elias, does also believe that fact. Her father and five other older brothers believe Anya that she’s not the herald but still hold her achievements high when she visits and humours Lady Trevelyan and Elias’ belief.
Anya’s family treat Cullen as a sixth brother. Bann and Lady Trevelyan did accept Cullen’s request the propose and did kind of half suspect they were going to elope so they did make a clause that Cullen could propose if they had a wedding reception afterwards if they chose to elope. Lady Trevelyan is not entirely impressed by the decision though, and Bann Trevelyan is a tad upset he didn’t get to give his daughter away but Anya and Cullen have more than made up for it.
Cullen, of course retired from active duty after the Inquisition disbanded, but he still set up a sanctuary for former Templars who wanted to kick lyrium and for Templars who’s minds were too far gone from lyrium so they have comfort in their final days. So he’s away quite a bit but not all the time, he’s always back by the weekend.
Anya despite disbanding the Inquisition also never stops trying to find a way to stop Solas and make him see sense without violence. She has constant updates from Varric and Harding and former inquisition agents on the matter.
Speaking of Solas, Anya still sees him as a close friend, I mean he saved her life by severing her arm, and several times before then, of course she’s forever going to be grateful to him and view him as a friend. Which you know adds to the guilt she feels.
Anya gets phantom pains in her left arm stub. they’re more manageable than they were years ago when she still had the anchor and her arm. They’re more twinges now. Her friends got her a custom prosthetic arm which she wears most days. But she’s still kind of sad she can’t hold her children with two biological arms.
It took her a while to learn how to fight and adjust to life again after losing her arm, her speciality was two handed swords so she had to adjust to using them again. But she’s very skilled at it again.
She also cut her hair even shorter some time between trespasser & veilguard because it’s easier to manage (as someone who has a disability that means I can’t use my left arm as well and can basically only use my right, I can confirm this is true, I cut my hair short for this exact reason and my blorbo inky did too).
Anya still cares for her horse Chester. She still rides him about the fields and everything but he’s pretty elderly now.
Cullen’s Mabari, Captain, is still alive and absolutely loves the kids and Anya. He’s very protective of the children, and is usually either found following both Leo and Sophie everywhere or by baby Dorian’s side.
Anya does worry about the kids a lot, mainly because she has the whole Solas’ plan hanging over her head, knowing that her children might not live to adulthood, if she can’t stop Solas, well that’s not something you want to know or live with. That’s probably one of the main reasons why she’ll be jumping to help the Veilguard.
Cullen isn’t the only one who suffers from awful nightmares. Anya does too, maybe even worse than Cullen now. One day she’s going to have to explain to the children why she wakes up screaming and it terrifies her. Luckily Cullen is always there to reassure her and he’ll be there to support her when that day comes.
Solas also appears in her dreams sometimes, just watching. She doesn’t know if it’s better or worse that he refuses to talk to her.
There is still a chance she’ll become Bann of Ostwick in the future, Ostwick’s Bannorn doesn’t have a birth hierarchy when it comes to heirs so she’s aware that might happen. She intends to decline and pass on it should it happen, she never ever wanted it, similarly to how she never wanted to be the herald or inquisitor but she can turn that title down.
A more lighthearted one to end on with Anya for now, Dorian and Anya have bi weekly wine nights on a Friday, where they drink a glass or two of wine or any alcohol (or under some circumstances a non alcoholic beverage) and over the Crystal, catch up and talk about what’s going on in their lives. This is a regular thing, they do not miss it. Cullen looks after the kids if they’re still up and Dorian always schedules it in his busy schedule at the exact time every other week. The two best friends always make time for it.
Non inquisitor OCs below (because all of my inky’s are canon but they’re not the Inquisitor in my canon Worldstate, Anya is the only inquisitor):
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Percy Trevelyan & Dorian Pavus:
Dorian is of course a magister.
But he does have frequent contact with Anya.
And Anya’s brother Percy.
Percy and Dorian got quite close during Inquisition. They both mostly were in the library in skyhold together, when Dorian was not out on mission with Anya. Percy, a circle mage fugitive, was recruited by Anya post Redcliffe to help research stuff, not that Percy needed recruiting.
So…Dorian and Percy were close. Very close.
So close in fact that they got married before Trespasser. It’s a secret so nobody knows….except Anya, Cullen, Maevaris and the main Trevelyan family.
Percy lives in Minrathous with Dorian most of the time. He’s Dorian’s chief researcher there.
Percy and Dorian frequently check in on Percy’s younger sister. Like I said, Dorian and Anya have wine nights, and Percy likes to check in on his younger sibling.
They have adopted an child, Felix although officially he is Percival’s child.
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Bertrand Trevelyan & Cassandra Pentaghast:
Bertrand the oldest of the Trevelyan’s children is still an orlesian bard, so he returns to Orlais where he was recruited as a inquisition spy from.
But he now serves the divine (Leliana).
This allows him to be close to Cassandra who is on the exalted council.
Cassandra still revives the seekers. Bertrand goes with her.
Cassandra is still baffled by his choices and personality sometimes but loves him dearly.
Bertrand plans to marry Cassandra eventually when things are a bit quieter.
They both like to check in on Anya occasionally and see how she’s doing.
Thalia Lavellan & Solas:
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Thalia is obviously, not happy.
She’s not miserable but she’s also not happy.
Thalia was supposed to keep an eye on the inquisition for her clan & work in the Herald’s rest but….she fell in love with Solas. Solas reciprocated and well broke it off.
But unlike Lavellan solas romance she didn’t get anything any closure or a talk until she discovered he was the dread wolf from rumours.
Solas still appears in her dreams and she desperately reaches for him in them but solas is actively keeping her at arms length.
Anyway she joined the veil jumpers in arlathan forest. Unknowingly close to a certain elf.
She has friends, she’s really good friends with Ashara, an older Dalish elf like her who is from Ferelden.
It’s not all doom and gloom but she’s still not over Solas and hopes that one day he’ll see reason or someone will make him see reason. Non violently.
And maybe, just maybe, their love will endure and he’ll come back to her.
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trulycertain · 11 days ago
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Decided to un-hide helmets. This was, in retrospect, perhaps a cruel decision. Dorian's sort of makes sense, he's got a hood for the rain, but Sera… and Cass… and Gal…
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Look at Gal's traumatised face. He's just realised he has a chicken on his head.
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The thousand-yard stare really adds something, I think.
Cass is the most "disgusted noise" she's ever been.
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Sera is looking pissed off, fairly, because this is some Solas nonsense she'd never wear.
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Dorian's doing pretty OK in an AssCreed sort of way, but helmets shave your head because they're a replacement mesh for hair, so…
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Of course it has a fancy little border. That boy does like embroidery. Though, um… is anyone going to tell him he looks like a Venatori?
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calico-callista · 4 months ago
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Inquisitor outfit backlogs- Hell hath no fury like a Lavellan that romanced Solas and was already a traumatised mess
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notebooks-and-laptops · 1 year ago
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So I want to share some early game Caleb and Cassandra stuff that's really integral to their relationship and how it develops. I'd say main take away from this is they anchor one another. So:
When Caleb wakes up the first thing he feels in ten years is the startled and slightly scared emotion that jumps up into his throat when Cassandra bursts through the door and starts questioning him. For Caleb, Cassandra symbolises the moment he realised he was not tranquil anymore. While Caleb is very attached to nearly everyone he meets in these early moments (and finds it very hard to make deep connections once this has settled), his connection to Cassandra has this at it's core. Cassandra becomes an anchor.
Early game, Caleb can have moments of being completely overwhelmed. These moments can cause his magic to release in unpredictable ways; Havens chantry has some shattered glass due to this. In these moments where emotion feels overwhelming, Cassandra can often make him feel calmer just by being there. They happen way less in her presence.
"Providence. The maker sent you to us when we needed you the most." This belief in him Cassandra has is also anchoring. It means when his magic goes haywire and he receives scorn from others, he knows he can do this. He believes, in a way, through her belief, that this is real.
About a month into the inquisitions formation, Caleb travels with Blackwall, Solas and Varric to the storm coast to recruit the Chargers. While it it is never spoken about after, Caleb and Cassandra both have terrible times during this separation. Cassandra is surprised that she misses him, but is also so worried about him she can't stop hitting training dummies and taking on Cullen's recruits. After this, they never travel apart.
They have some intense discussions surrounding theology early on, sometimes late into the night when neither of them can sleep. Caleb likes sitting out in the cold on the pier over the frozen lake at Haven and Cassandra often joins him.
Cassandra is the only one to know in detail, from Calebs own mouth, why he became tranquil. He shrugs off others questions about it. Cassandras desire to reform the seekers and templars is spurred on by this obvious account of abuse.
They fight WELL together. Spookily well. Calebs barriers naturally find her, and she is very good at keeping people off him so he can cast. It's kinda awesome.
Caleb likes Cassandra early game but at this point neither would even really consider a romantic relationship with the other. They have a bond, but Caleb is very traumatised and overwhelmed and Cassandra is still working through the whole Tranquil Herald and the fact that someone she used to care about died at the conclave. While Varric might have a bet with Dorian about what it might turn into, neither Caleb or Cassandra are thinking about that at all.
And yeah. Anyway. I love them so much my chest is gonna explode.
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sometimesraven · 11 months ago
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"Let me what?" Without skipping a beat, Adris was in front of her. Her hand was on Miriel's cheek, forcing her to meet her gaze again. "Touch you? Help you? Miri... I don't care how broken you think you are. I don't care that you still love him, or that you want to help him. I care that you can survive until then. I care that you can learn to heal. I care-!"
Miriel couldn't stop herself. Adris' lips were soft and warm as Lavellan stole them into hers, barely hesitating for a moment before they explored her in return. Even as tears streaked Miri's cheeks they didn't part, pulling closer together until their bodies were pressed in a tight embrace. Even as they parted for air, they remained together; breathless and shivering with the strength of the emotion washing between them.
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A fandom doodle for OC Kiss Week today! This is Miriel, my Lavellan pictured right, with her post-game beaux Adris Sabrae.
Miri is a rogue artificer who is chronically ill and,,, more than a little traumatised. Being Inquisitor, losing her clan, then losing Solas was enough to basically break her until Adris came along to pick up the pieces. This particular scene is inspired by a fic I wrote about them both (smutty after the kiss, just to warn ye) <3
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mogwaei · 2 years ago
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Chapter 166: Harmony    
Rating: explicit
Pairings: Solas/OFC, M!Lavellan/Dorian Pavus, F!Lavellan/secret companion
Fic summary: Agent of Fen’Harel defects to search for an alternative solution and--oh no. An Inquisitor who is Not Well. His sister who likes to complicate things. Time travel with consequences. Lore exploration and expansion. Friends, rivals, lovers, and endless explanations. Do u like bagels, ‘cause this one has everything on it.
Chapter peek: Clearing the debris from an old, perilous path.
Word Count: chapter [6k] | entire fic: 940k+
Snippet below:
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"You're going to teach me blood magic finally? Or would you like to hear how we ended up in a spirit pond?"
Since she’d materialised in the main hall of the centre keep, Asmodei began to weave his way toward the grand entrance. "Pah. Yes, we will get there, and I will hear the story in time. Before that is to be entertained however, a promise on my end is to be upheld. I offer now to draw back a layer of reality to show you the first path that will lead to endless possibilities.” His lips curved then in the way of a sly merchant’s. One that could be selling junk…or flaunting that he had access to the jewels of ancient kings.
If only she could think straight past the distant screams from remnant dreams of traumatised soldiers…or the dreamer having an orgy with demons nearer to the mage tower. The stray magic was giving her a headache and the nausea had yet to recede. She could not remember Skyhold being this intense before.
“Are you proposing to be my guide?” She swallowed the sick and focused on getting to the gardens where it seemed the air was clearer. Asmodei followed, visibly untouched but carrying an air of mild disgust.
“Yes. Unless you cannot stomach the very first step," he said ominously. “We are presented with the predicament that you were born outside the Fade, the realm that passes through many others. It is a crossroads and an origin simultaneously.” The starfall eyes fell upon her again with their probing aura, making her feel uncomfortably bare to him. “Therefore, the closer you are to it, the easier it is to travel to others.”
“How do I get closer?”
[Keep reading with this link]
[New readers here!]
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baphometsss · 8 days ago
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will the haters' patronisation of solas enjoyers ever end
for some reason people feel like hating a character who starts off with a shitty outlook and then has it challenged and unravelled in the story makes them morally superior. it's purity culture at its finest. we're literally at the point of these people accusing solas enjoyers of being racist/xenophobic/manipulative/abusive/insert whatever hatemongering buzzword they can think of as if it somehow bolsters their argument, when it actually just makes them look childish and willing to reduce very real and painful struggles to a metric in point scoring for petty online squabbles
i have actually seen people accuse critics of the veilguard as a game to nazis. i wish i was joking. like this is the point that we're at and it's so unbelievably dumb it's kind of funny
one of the reasons arguments based on this logic don't really achieve anything is because they frame every single thing around victimhood and a false dichotomy of victim/perpetrator. like t/erfs for example. they're a fringe movement within feminism for a number of reasons but one of the fundamental reasons is that they heavily focus on reinforcing victimhood rather than empowerment. they seek out and prey on traumatised women, take their trauma and twist it into hate by validating victimhood repeatedly until there's nothing else left but piss and vinegar for other people who aren't exactly like them. in fact, this formula is straight out of the radicalisation playbook used by neo-nazis, terrorists, and similar pieces of shit
instead of reinforcing self-actualisation, self-belief, hope, communion with other people, and understanding of the vulnerability inherent to all human beings (the things trauma survivors actually need), they focus on biological essentialism and other claptrap to explain why more segregation and hate is necessary. it makes this messy, complicated world more digestible for people with cognitive distortions that are so extreme. all under the guise of 'women's safety/rights'. it's unsustainable, because at some point we become perpetrators too and this ideology doesn't make room for that. hence why there's truth to phrases like 'scratch a terf, find a racist'. they flatly refuse to acknowledge intersectionality, because that requires accountability for oneself and by the time they're radicalised they can't view themselves as anything other than victim. and once you're radicalised, you can't connect with people who haven't also been radicalised, so it becomes a vicious cycle.
it's something that's so insidious but it's made its way into every part of our lives. you're not perfect. no one is perfect. everyone is a clusterfuck of bullshit mixed with beauty and love and the potential for pretty much unlimited evolution. that's why i love solas. he's an absolute fuck up in so many ways, but he's also a victim of eras-long emotional abuse, he's suicidally depressed, he's a monumental failure, he's a sad wet cat in elven form and he's one of the most interesting characters i've ever seen. i would take that over some morally 'pure' but flat, one-dimensional and boring companions who talk in therapy speak all day long.
but while we're on the topic of 'fixing him'... what exactly is that even supposed to mean? people can't be 'fixed'. all you can do is heal. and love is nourishment in its purest form. lavellan doesn't 'fix him', nor do they try. they try to help him because they love him, but they're not trying to 'fix' him. the use of this phrase only reinforces my belief that people are falling for the radicalisation in online spaces even more, because it screams cognitive distortion. if you play a high approval inky, they're trying to help him grow and learn and understand. it's sad that so much of social justice has become divorced from love when love is the most important aspect of any kind of justice. people hand-wave and piss on love as if its a bad thing. it's not. and it's certainly not a bad thing to love a character who's fucked up, because they're the hardest ones to love, and therefore the ones who need it most.
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des-no9 · 7 months ago
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Van/Voss: tiny angry traumatised tiefling falling in love with an ancient, morally grey githyanki
Saga/Solas: tiny angry traumatised elf falling in love with an ancient, morally grey god
i see i see i see.........
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robotslenderman · 2 years ago
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Sometimes I get so self conscious bc I see other people's Lavellans who romance Solas are so cool and self assured and skilled and talented
meanwhile my ADHD-ridden Lavellan starts out DAI so traumatised by her apostate upbringing that one of her clanmates can only convince her to have a bath if he bathes her in dog form (shapeshifter) while someone else keeps watch. also she has no social skills and is completely feral and it's not endearing at all it's extremely annoying and Solas falls in love with her completely against his will and only because she sees through his bullshit completely and has outwitted him a couple of times and he finds that kind of hot (provided Mahanon's given her a bath recently anyway).
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