#some thinky thoughts. i'm no expert on verse i just love dragon age. and i have a musical bg

[maliro-t]

actually i'm just gonna talk about the actual examples more because it's fascinating to me

In dai the instances of the cadence breakdown into a few categories (I am counting full verses individually, even if they occur in the same scene, with a full verse being composed of two 8 bar lines and a 9 bar hallelujah conclusion):

9 stories about fade journeys (three for each prompt)

4 verses in a major cutscenes (this includes trespasser)

3 verses in prompted/"simple" dialogue

3 instances in Cole banter/dialogue

Here's what I found:

I'm excluding the fade stories because they're honestly not that important, but they are beautiful so go look em up or talk to Solas in Skyhold!

Cutscenes

HAVEN: first spotlight cutscene after the prologue

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 of wars both famous and forgotten. Every great war has its heroes. I’m just curious what kind you’ll be.

SKYHOLD: dream of Haven, scene requires higher approval

I told myself: one more attempt to seal the rifts. I tried and failed. No ordinary magic would affect them. I watched the rifts expand and grow, resigned myself to flee, and then…It seems you hold the key to our salvation. You had sealed it with a gesture… and right then, I felt the whole world change.

TRESPASSER: the one scene in Trespasser lmao

I sought to set my people free from slavery to would-be gods. I broke the chains of all who wished to join me. The false gods called me Fen’Harel, and when they finally went too far, I formed the Veil and banished them forever. Thus, I freed the elven people and, in so doing, destroyed their world.

[…]

I lay in dark and dreaming sleep while countless wars and ages passed. I woke still weak a year before I joined you. My people fell for what I did to strike the Evanuris down, but still some hope remains for restoration. I will save the elven people, even if it means this world must die

Prompted Dialogue verse in red with concluding line in purple

SKYHOLD, POST HAVEN: Tell me about Corypheus // What will he do next? // Are you sure?

Inquisitor: You’re sure that’s what he’ll do? Solas: As certain as is possible, assuming I can plausibly predict a man who seeks to rise to godhood. Inquisitor: And can you? Solas: The key is understanding this: no real god need prove himself. Anyone who tries is mad or lying. His deception will undo him, as it has done countless fools before.

GENERAL DIALOGUE: Tell me about the fade. // I'd like to know more about demons.

Solas: [Your Dalish say] [Your Circle say] [The Chantry says] that demons hate the natural world and seek to bring their chaos and destruction to the living. But such simplistic labels misconstrue their motivations and, in so doing, do all a great disservice. Spirits wish to join the living, and a demon is that wish gone wrong. (Reply: "Can we change that?") Herald: Is there a way to coexist? To live with them, if not in peace, at least without such active confrontation? Solas: Not in the world we know today. The Veil creates a barrier that makes true understanding most unlikely. But the question is a good one, and it matters that you thought to ask.

Second verse does not occur with any other response (options "I don't believe that" or "I don't care")

Cole Dialogue

BANTER:

Cole: You are quiet, Solas. Solas: Unless I have something to say, yes. Cole: No, inside. I don't hear your hurt as much. Your song is softer, subtler, not silent but still. Solas: How small the pain of one man seems when weighed against the endless depths of memory, of feeling, of existence. That ocean carries everyone. And those of us who learn to see its currents move through life with their fewer ripples. Cole: There is pain though, still within you. Solas: And I never said that there was not.

BANTER:

Cole: Bright and brilliant, he wanders the ways, walking unwaking, searching for wisdom... Solas: I do not need you to do that, Cole. Cole: Your friend wanted you to be happy, even though she knew you wouldn't be. Solas: (Sighs.) Could you... if you would remember her, could you do it as I would? Cole: He comes to me as though the Fade were just another wooded path to walk without a care in search of wisdom.  We share the ancient mysteries, the feelings lost, forgotten dreams, unseen for ages, now beheld in wonder. In his own way, he knew wisdom, as no man or spirit had before. Solas: Thank you.

POST CAMPAIGN: Solas speaks through Cole

 I'm sorry, Cole, but with your gift, I fear you might see the path that I must now walk in solitude forever. This fate is mine alone. Indeed, I would not wish it on an enemy, much less someone that I once cared for. Though you reach out in compassion, I must now insist that you forget.

And that's everything! Obviously, there is always the possibility that I missed something, and there's a bit of ambient dialogue and quest specific stuff that I either didn't look at or didn't have easy access to, but most of those are so short as to not be in the running, and I do feel pretty confident that this is every example of the cadence in the game

As a bonus, here's a verse from Tevinter Nights, included in the Mortalitasi's Tale in The Dread Wolf Take You, allegedly spoken in Dread Wolf form:

"YOU MEDDLE PAST YOUR UNDERSTANDING, FOOLISH MORTAL MAGES, AND IN DOING SO YOU THREATEN ALL CREATION" […] "YOU USE MY IDOL CARELESSLY TO VANDALIZE THE SEA OF DREAMS. NOW FEEL THE PAIN OF WHAT YOU HAVE CREATED." […]  "FROM THIS MOMENT, SHOULD YOU EVER BIND A SPIRIT, THEN YOUR LIFE IS MINE"

(note that this story is hearsay wrapped neatly around a lie so whether it actually happened is obviously a bit up in the air, but this is a literary tool anyways so whether he said it is not that important imo)

So, some of this dialogue is foreshadowing, some of it is exposition or wistful contemplation, and many of them are stories. The Tevinter Nights example is commanding and intended to be intimidating, spoken from the mouth of a strange monster. For me the best throughline is just his kind of otherworldly-ness (this is a great explanation of it in Weekes' own words), and in game specifically a hint towards how completely different Solas' perspective is from literally any other person alive. It's easy to say, "He does it when he's thinking about the how things used to be!" which is true a lot of the time, but when half of his in-cadence dialogue is made up by stories that are decidedly NOT about history that he lived, that explanation falls short for me.

There are also plenty of times where he's talking directly about Elvhenan that are not in verse at all- often times those are quite rhythmic, but not always, and almost none of them have even a single full line that fits the cadence (the only ones I found that do are the iconic verses from trespasser and that is literally it!). There are a couple examples of this where I kind of expected it and didn't find it, such as his comments about Falon'Din, or at the Winter Palace, or even in the post credits scene with Flemeth.

That being said, I think it's also generally not that useful to spend time looking at why a verse might exist in one place and not another given just how impractical it would be to do every single time and the fact that there is tons of truly blatant-with-hindsight foreshadowing that doesn't have a lick of verse to it. From both a 'this is hard to do!' craft perspective and just a pacing perspective, there is no reason for him to be doing it in every conversation.

The only main exception to this rule is that there are three full verses in collaboration with Cole, while no other companions have any dialogue with Solas featuring the cadence. That it's only Cole matters, as influenced by their closeness, but also of course Cole's ability to intuit so much about other people. Every other verse is in conversation with the Inquisitor. You saw more than most etc etc iykyk

What's so interesting about Cole's examples in particular too is how, again, collaborative those verses are. Two of the three of them are spoken by Cole himself (although one is a message from Solas to him, likely in response to Cole's own searching), and in the third, Cole speaks part of a line, which flows seamlessly into the conclusion.

We can compare this to the verse to the inquisitor about false gods (an example with clear reference to Soals' contempt for the Evanuris), which is interrupted after one line by the inquisitor's questioning and continues on without incorporating their speech. So, he has no problem carrying on without help (there is a single other exception to this which I'll get to in a minute). In fact, I would wager that he prefers it that way! I find that so many of these lines are kind of double speak- like his way of being quietly vulnerable without actually telling you what he's feeling or thinking about. The rhythm is a way of encrypting vulnerability into his speech without having to actually take his walls down; I personally read it as him placing an intentional distance between what he's saying and what he's feeling. The conversations with Cole are really intimate in that way (as Cole's conversations with everyone are!), with Cole instinctually absorbing and using that code as a way of taking on those feelings and instantly expressing that he understands them without having to explain.

(I think that reading is supported by the banter between them about compartmentalization and Solas' "softer, subtler...still" pain)

There is, of course, one other collaborative verse, and I think it's the most interesting. That is, the conversation between Solas and the Inquisitor about demons, which begins with a verse from Solas, and is followed by a second verse if you choose the right option.

It's wild because the Inquisitor says the first line! Versus Cole jumping in in the middle or delivering a whole verse at Solas' request.

The second verse directly follows Solas' first, and only occurs you express curiosity and open mindedness at his ideas, which we all know is something he really respects.

So, what has happened here is that you have accidentally stumbled upon on his exact wavelength, and you might notice that the rest of the verse, after you ask if coexistence is possible ("Not in the world we know today. The Veil creates a barrier that makes true understanding most unlikely.") is point for point Solas' motivation for destroying the veil as outlined in Trespasser. You have expressed to him an interest in the goal which he is quietly sitting on, and he responds back, with that careful distance, that the only way for that goal to be achieved is to destroy the world. And because you start the verse (unknowingly!), he fills in the rest himself.

And as a side note, I know it's literally a difference of a few words but for Weekes to carefully write three variations to the start of the first verse in that demon conversation depending on the PC's cultural background while still maintaining the rhythm in each is so impressive to me 🫡

I don't really have a conclusion here because I just wanted to point out some of (what I think are) the lesser-known verses that he has, but for one last thought-

While combing through this stuff I was reminded of a banter between Sera and Solas where he tries speaking to her in Elven, of which she is of course quite dismissive. He says to her, "…our people can sometimes feel the rhythm of the language despite lacking the vocabulary," and I think the use of the cadence or even just the general iambic rhythm of his speech pattern is related. You can say it's his old fashioned-ness or nostalgia, but I think it's partially just tied inherently to a time and place and perspective built on a language that only barely exists now, and every once in a while, when he speaks it seeps through the cracks.

ok i have no sway here and idk what veilguard will be like but idk if people know how few and far between the solas cadence lines are. like i did actually go through pretty much all of the dialogue in the game (thank you da wiki and GENITIVI CHRONICLES omg) and in all of dai there are 19 individual verses (which relatively is a VERY small amount) and they are all extremely specific instances. About half of those are from the same dialogue tree, specifically his fade stories which are all in verse. He has a lot of other dialogue that is quite rhythmic and has built in iambs and is performed very deliberately, but not everything he says that has that bounce is actually in the cadence.