#we all deserve a second chance ( solas )

[sky-scribbles]

Party Banter with Rook!Blackwall

Harding: You know, for a moment back there, I thought you might actually get through to Solas.

Thom: Regret’s something we have in common. I thought… if I reached out to him, told him I understood what guilt drives you to do…

Harding: But no. ‘Do not compare your regrets with mine, Thom Rainier!’

Thom: He’s right, though. He can at least say he did his crimes trying to stop tyrants. I did mine for coin.

Harding: Uh, yeah, and then you faced up to it and decided no one else was going to get hurt for it except you. Solas is right. He’s nothing like you.

—

Lucanis: Do we have a problem, Warden Rainier?

Thom: You kill people. For gold.

Lucanis: I do. Venatori. Blood mages. The political rivals of those who hired me.

Thom: And that’s enough for you? Someone flashes a purse, and you’re ready to murder over some nobles’ spat over which of them gets the bigger fancy house?

Lucanis: Depends on the size of the purse.

—

Bellara: Um, so, about the mayor of D'Meta's Crossing? I just… do you really want someone like that? In the Wardens, I mean.

Thom: I won’t defend him. But he wouldn’t be the first Warden who let innocent people die for gold, and got another chance from the Order.

Bellara: He doesn’t deserve it. Like, really, really doesn’t deserve it.

Thom: No. Neither did I.

—

Thom: Do you ever get people trying to bribe you? To look the other way, or drop a case, or...

Neve: It's Minrathous. If I took even half the bribes I've been offered, I could buy an estate in Hightown.

Thom: It takes a special kind of strength to resist that.

—

Thom: I got a letter from Sera the other day. Don’t ask me how she got it to the Lighthouse.

Harding: ‘Friends’, I bet. And hey - she dealt with the Fade for you! So what'd she say?

Thom: Well, there was a lot of calling Solas a shite-faced arseknuckle. And then she told me not to get killed, or she’d yank my beard ‘til my head came off.

Harding: Aw.

—

Lucanis: Rainier, I do not knife civilians. Everyone I have killed has been embedded in politics. Their hands are never clean.

Thom: And you're sure you’ve never made a mistake? Never got a passer-by or a child caught in all the blades and arrows? Never gone in without knowing everything, and got someone hurt?

Lucanis: Of course not. I’m a professional.

Thom: You’re a mercenary with a cape.

—

Thom: You could’ve left Dock Town. A mage. Talented. You could’ve gone anywhere, chased a better life.

Neve: If I left, I’d be abandoning people who never got that choice. I’m good where I’m at.

Thom: I hope you know how admirable that makes you.

Neve: Not that admirable. If I got that estate in Hightown? Too far to walk to Hal’s fish stand.

Thom: (laughs) Good priorities.

—

Davrin: So, Rainier. Heard a lot of rumours about how you joined the Wardens.

Thom: (uneasy noise) You know, Warden Blackwall told me your past gets forgotten after the Joining.

Davrin: A nice ideal, but it never stands up to the gossip. But you’ve shown your worth.

Thom: Enough for me to have one of those griffons when we rescue them, d’you reckon?

Davrin: (laughs) We’ll see.

—

Thom: I knew someone like Manfred once. He was a spirit, but he sort of… grew his own body.

Emmrich: Oh! A spontaneous incarnation! Do you happen to know what kind of spirit he was?

Thom: Uh… the kind that looks like a young man, but reads minds and flits about trying to make everyone feel better about themselves?

Emmrich: Ah, Compassion! A rather more advanced emotion than Curiosity, and therefore capable of manifesting a physical body, rather than needing to adopt a vacant one.

Thom: More advanced? Right. That explains why Cole used to talk to me about living with the weight of regret, and Manfred spent ten minutes yesterday poking my face to see if my beard came off.

—

Neve: So, you know Dorian?

Thom: Does anyone who’s been in the same room as him for thirty seconds get a choice about knowing Dorian?

Neve: And didn’t always get along, I take it.

Thom: He’s… he’s not so bad. We might’ve judged each other by first impressions back when we met.

Neve: And what’s your impression now?

Blackwall: Still too fancy for his own good. But it says exactly who he is that he’s fighting against slavers and blood mages. I think I got the better deal with the darkspawn.

—

Taash: I heard the Inquisitor turned into a dragon.

Thom: No, she… didn’t. But she did get one to fight with us once.

Taash: She did? What kind? How’d she do it?

Thom: Sort of… gold? And she drank from this pool of elven magic, and… that somehow let her ask it to help us. I think.

Taash: Did she ride it into battle?

Thom: Uh… No.

Taash: Oh. I would’ve ridden it into battle.

—

Thom: Emmrich, do you know what those demons were the other day? The ones that wouldn’t leave me alone?

Emmrich: Ah. Those were manifestations of Shame. A variant of the Despair spirit.

Thom: Right. Don’t know what I expected.

Emmrich: If it’s any consolation, I find that one can tell much more about a person from the more benign spirits that gather around them. I catch glimpses of them about you often. Valour. Fortitude. Honour.

Thom: I hope to be worthy of them.

—

Thom: Lucanis, have you ever regretted any of your kills?

Lucanis: Not so far.

Thom: So this is what you’re fine with being? A man who takes nobles’ money and lives in luxury with your bloodied hands? That's the life you chose?

Lucanis: Not ‘chose’, exactly. It is what I was trained to be since my childhood.

Thom: Wait. You were – who trains a child to be an assassin?

Lucanis: You met my grandmother.

—

Davrin: You held up pretty well in the last fight, Rainier. For an old man.

Thom: Whelp like you’d better watch what he says around a senior Warden.

Davrin: Why? You’ll tell me to do the fifty press-ups that your creaky bones can’t handle?

Thom (laughs) I’ll stop letting you borrow my best chisel.

—

Bellara: Hey, um, Thom? You know that little rocking griffon you made? Could you make, I don’t know, a bigger one? Like… adult… person-sized?

Thom: (chuckles) You never have a rocking griffon growing up?

Bellara: No! They’re not a Dalish thing! Because you can’t really rock. When the aravel’s moving, I mean. So… no, it’s a dumb idea. Forget I said anything.

Thom: You want me to make it a rocking halla?

Bellara: Yes please thank you.

—

Emmrich: How far you must have travelled, with both the Inquisition and the Wardens!

Thom: I like being on the road. Keeps a man honest.

Emmrich: I rather envy your fearlessness of the wider world. It’s so recent that the end of the Circles allowed me to travel freely outside the Necropolis.

Thom: Must have been freeing. Having the whole world suddenly open to you.

Emmrich: And rather overwhelming, I must admit. When I compare myself to you – a brave Warden, combatting the Blight across all of Thedas…

Thom: Trust me: compare the two of us, and that’s the only way I’ll come out better from it.

—

Thom: We fought quite a few dragons in the Inquisition. Almost got eaten once by some pissed-off beast in the Hinterlands. Kept throwing its dragonlings at us.

Taash: Fereldan Frostbacks are crappy mothers. First sign of trouble, and it’s ‘here! Take my children!’

Thom: (laughs) The worst was the lightning-spitter off the Storm Coast. Spent twenty minutes hacking away at its scales, rest of my team unconscious on the ground.

Taash: Wait - you what? That's not how you fight dragons. You can't just stand there and hit them. That's stupid. And boring.

—

Lucanis: It’s how the Crow Houses work. Children of the House lineage are trained from our infancy.

Thom: Andraste’s fucking tits.

Lucanis: It’s necessary. If Illario and I had been coddled… Caterina pushed us hard and young, because she wanted us to survive.

Thom: I don’t… (sighs) The things people do to children.

—

Harding: I never thought to ask - how come Varric changed your nickname?

Thom: I asked him to go with something else. 'Hero'... that was a name he gave to Blackwall.

Harding: Well, he chose the right name. You know, 'cause Rooks move in straight lines. And you charge right in there, don't mess around with fancy words, just hit things til they drop. You could say you're -

Thom: Don't do it, Lace.

Harding: Straightforward.

Thom: (chuckles) You're as bad as Sera.

—

Emmrich: Master Rainier, I wanted to say – I hope you know that you’re the only person here who looks at you with any harshness.

Thom: I – (sighs) You don’t know everything about me.

Emmrich: I would never claim to. But I know that you place yourself before your allies and the defenceless without hesitation and with utter selflessness. I know you understand your Warden oath better than many of your superiors. I know that you are a good man.

Thom: … I wish I knew what it was like to be you. Seeing the good in everyone, living or dead.

Emmrich: Then I hope you’ll permit me continue to see the good in you – until you can see yourself as I do.

[ir-abelas-vhenan]

Desperately Searching for Dwarf/Titan Content. Coming up (Mostly) Dry :/

Part of the strategy with my second playthrough is to pay attention to my surroundings quite a bit more since I'm no longer in a hurry. I've also always been into the paintings we find (Solas' or otherwise) but I turned up the brightness in photo mode to better illuminate this one, which lurks in a darker corner of the music room at the Lighthouse today, and I think it could be useful for people interested in examining the Solas/Mythal relationship, and perhaps for those who, like me, wish there was more content surrounding what Solas did to the titans and dwarves.

Obviously, it being art and all, it's open to interpretation, but I personally take a lot away from what seems to be a depiction of a wolf engaging in violence while a Mythal-shaped woman watches on from within radiant light (of the golden city, perhaps?)

The wolf looks haggard, gaunt, maybe? And blood is dripping from its fangs and onto a hand reaching out from the ground, so I'm taking it as perhaps the only real reference I've seen in a minute of Solas actually acknowledging what he did to the dwarves and the titans* (asterisk followed up on below the divide so this isn't too long on anyone's page).

And even that is just me making a reach there, but it does make me wonder if it was something that was originally going to be looked at more (especially with the game's previous title) and just ended up being another thing that the team decided not to keep. At the very least, despite there being 8 ish years between this game and Trespasser, the painting seems older in age to me, so I wonder when he started struggling with this self-image of a destructive beast getting its hands dirty to preserve the clean image of the one giving it commands.

*(fully fucked up their lives as they had always been and ended a good many of them, btw.) This is a side tangent that probably deserves its own post, but I do think a lot of Solas/solavellan fans would do well to grapple/reckon/sit with that a little more because the fights I've seen break out between dwarf fans who would just like at bare minimum some acknowledgement of the role he played and others who are intent on fully shutting them down are brutal.

I, personally, would have liked more that addressed this in-game other than Harding getting the chance to mention it only once to him, and that's IF she lives and you bring her to the final mission). I think there are maybe a few more dialogue references to it in Veilguard, but that mixed with the near-silence from Solas if you bring him along for the relevant DLC in Inquisition (I know some have theorized it's because a lot of people do it after he leaves the party/the devs didn't plan on him being there or that he just feels too guilty/conflicted to say anything, but with how big a plot point it is that's not enough to satisfy specifically me) just leaves me like okay...I like this character. But we get to his happy ending (if that's what you so choose for him) without ever really forcing him to struggle on-screen with dwarves and what he's done to them. And I wish we had gotten that beyond just a painting I'm inserting that plot line into.

[crossdressingdeath]

This has been bothering me for a while. What do you think is Blackwall's stance on mages and mage rights? He approves of allying with FIona but that seems more about giving people second chances, and his romance apparently makes no mention of the Inquisitor's magic, and his relationship with the mage companions is more about Vivienne and Dorian's noble status while Solas is about his relationship with spirits. What are your thoughts on the matter, if you don't mind sharing?

I actually went through his banter to check, so I'm just gonna copy/paste some points where his views on mages actually come up:

Blackwall: You think mages will be better off if people know they can change the future? Dorian: Ignoring that that's not the case, I suspect people will use any excuse to hate us. Blackwall: Then you should not give them more. Dorian: Did everyone act like this when the sword was invented? "Oh, my blushing butt cheeks! Round up everyone who can use these pointy things and lock them away!" Blackwall: It is not the same thing and you know it.

Blackwall: No, it’s not that. You find joy in [your magic], not shame. And it shows. Dorian: Why be ashamed? Power should be respected, not swept under the carpet. Blackwall: Something we “southerners” need to learn, perhaps?

Blackwall: Do you have no sympathy for the mage rebellion? Vivienne: It's not as simple as you think, my dear. Blackwall: I understand that mages are dangerous. I know that if I had to face you, alone, I wouldn't stand a chance. But must it be more complicated than treating people the way you'd like to be treated?

Blackwall: What happened at Redcliffe, have you ever seen its like, Solas? Solas: The distortion of time? I have seen magic accomplish many things, but ... no, that is new. Blackwall: Magic has little place in a war between men. Solas: Many mages are brutes, seeing nothing more than a larger ball of fire. But those with imagination, those who use war to push the limits of the possible ... Blackwall: I wish the Chantry could better enforce restrictions against its use.

So it seems to me that he's sympathetic, but wary. He recognizes that the way mages are treated isn't just, but also is very aware of just how dangerous magic can be. Also he wouldn't approve of allying with Fiona if he thought mages should be kept completely under the Chantry's thumb second chances or no, for what that's worth. He doesn't think mages are monsters and he does think they deserve better, but he's also at least partially fallen for the Chantry's claims that mages are uniquely dangerous. All in all I'd say his thoughts on mages and mage freedom aren't 100% positive, but more positive than the average person's.

[whump-place]

Adopted.

9-Training.

Masterlist.

Content: Multiple Whumpees, Pet Whumpees, Conditioned Whumpees, Multiple Whumpers, Reluctant Whumper, Group punishment.

Ray knew something was coming when Liam got down to the basement himself. He tried sitting gracefully, keeping his head down and his hands folded on his lap. Maybe Liam would give him a second chance, maybe..., maybe if he showed he could learn Liam would accept him.

But of course that was just a childish thought.

"You know there's a new one, don't you? I like him, and so does Master."

Oh. No, he was just going to spit on his face how unworthy he was, again.

"And we want him to feel welcomed, so you know what will happen next. I trust you to at least be compliant."

Ray knew. Ray knew. And that was the worst part.

He didn't complain when his hands were tied behind his back, or when he was dragged up the stairs, or when he was thrown out in the rain. He tried to show some improvement in his behavior, and maybe he could be good. Just maybe if he took it all...

"Hi! Long time no see!" Leo greeted him, pulling him by the leash when Liam got tired of holding him. "The new's name is Micah! Or Amy, Star liked Amy, but I like both. Master said he got to use both names as long as he wanted. I wish I could have two names too."

He talked way too fast for Ray to even try to answer, but that was for the best, if Liam got bothered by his voice he would get muzzled.

After a few minutes, Star and the new Pet got in front of him. The new, Micah, was wearing Leo's jacket, and Ray knew Star had put make-up on him, he was perfect, just like all of them. Ray wasn't perfect.

Liam explained his mistakes, the way he was too dumb to learn anything, the way he was thrown out because his master didn't like him enough to at least sell him. He was just so worthless.

But then they said that. They said they were going to 'train' him again.

Ray did lose any will to fight them anymore, he learned after years of being their punching bag, but still. He feared 'training', Liam never really cared what kind of training he had to endure, as long as he learned something. Sometimes Ray pretended to understand what his mistakes are, just to earn the privilege of being forgiven.

He thought he was doing better.

His body curled up on itself, the rope was like sandpaper on his wrists, he was sure there would be blood soon enough if he kept cowering away, but that didn't matter. Anything was better than training. Training means he isn't trying hard enough to be a good boy. Trainin means pain, and blood, and being a step away from being the perfect Pet Master deserves!

Ray tried to look up at Micah, maybe he would understand. When their eyes locked up, he only saw the disgust everyone felt towards him.

"Please." He tried to beg, but he was quickly corrected by being kicked in the rib cage. All the air escaping his lungs.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts so much. Please. Please. He can be good. Please!

"Look at that! Liam, did you see that? I knew Micah would-!"

"Good. Next time go for the legs. He's trying to avoid his training." Star's excited voice was cut off by Liam, who instructed Micah where the next kick would land.

They all were smiling.

Ray closed his eyes. He knows how this is going to be, but he also knows there's no reason to keep his eyes open to look at them beating him up, and laughing at his weakness.

What was he expecting? Why did he ever try to believe his life would be better?

No one likes him. No one loves him. Not even Master.

Ray lays down, his face stained with mud when Star stepped on his head and pushed him against the floor.

At least he should be grateful to have a family, shouldn't he?

---

If anyone wants to be added to the taglist please let me know :)

--

Taglist;

@sola-whumping

@octopus-reactivated

@otterfrost

@taterswhump

@risk606

@silly-scroimblo-skrunkl

@watermelons-dont-grow-on-trees

[vaguely-concerned]

I really can't say enough good things about the expression work they did with rook in this scene, the way you can see it all dawn for them and all the little nuances along the way. I've had some trouble at points to get rye's more distinct features to play nice with whatever the facial animation setup is (still always tweaking. every day in every way we get closer and closer etc., getting the mouth to move just right is such a struggle for many scenes lol), but in this it really worked out. perfectly. yeah, that is exactly how he would emote and I would DIE for him. just. look at him. his hard tight little mouth like a child furiously holding back tears. the shifts between vulnerability and anger, the swell of fury rising through that angry option. the way you can see his eyes go wide at hearing the companion's voices and how he immediately realizes that joining them means leaving varric behind. the warring emotions at 'you're not alone' -- confusion, wanting to protest, knowing varric is right but maybe not quite how yet. so much of the arc I'd envisioned for Rye going in hinged on this scene, and I'm so glad that when I got there it worked out so well. yeah. that's how it happened.

(I also like that you can see how tough it is for varric to be faced with 'I can't do this alone' and having to let rook down, in a way. it's the one time he glances away from rook not contemplatively but reflexively. looking up at the path they're going to have to walk -- without him. having to send them off with nothing but words and hope and your faith in them, because you can't be there with them anymore. and he only lets himself look sad when rook turns their back to him for a moment. the parent feelings in that. ouch aou aough I'm. fhsdjkfhas. ow. considering how little time rook and (plausibly real) varric actually spend on screen together, they really pack the animation so full of information and meaning when you look closely.)

also a true blink and you miss it moment but uh

yeah. sure solas wants to be a hero deep down. sure he deserves a second -- third?? fucking millionth????? -- chance to redeem himself. and I'll totally be the person to give it to him. don't you worry about it varric. you just rest now. I'll be taking it from here fhdsakj

extra heartbreak detail for the road: when varric tells rook not to get misty-eyed on him...

it's because they are actually visibly tearing up. so fuck me I guess

(also I know I'm always saying this lol allow me my broken record moment, but big shoutout to Jeff Berg for his voice acting as American masc Rook, this performance really has become so incredibly dear to me so quickly)

[lilllithdraagon]

PART 12: Hitting us right in the feels

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR DRAGON AGE THE VEILGUARD. READ AT OWN RISK.

Main Post Link

We cried.

We cried so many times.

(Lillith) I cried over a stupid codex entry about a dog. I cried at the kindness Assan showed to a sick Hala; a testament and proof that griffons could change. That they were more than killing machines. That Davrin might be too. I cried again when not a few days later, both Davrin and Assan were killed by Ghilan’nain. My choice. My words. “Whatever it takes.”

And I could see what Solas had been doing. He wasn’t subtle. I didn’t trust him. I was screaming at my Rook constantly that they were being a dumbass. I saw what was coming a mile away, and still, the game took me on a ride.

I went into the final battle sequence with fear in my heart. Would I get all my companions killed? My hands were shaking. Solas was being a badass and I was living for it, then he got hurt and I felt my stomach drop like a stone. I went into the fight with Elgar’nan, with The Ultimate Salvation of Felassan in my dagger and fury in my heart. My Lavellan told Solas exactly what I would have in her place. Gripes aside, it felt like I got my closure at last.

I laughed and cried and shouted at the screen so much in my first playthrough. I’m sure I will again in my next.

(Lunadys) I lost it with Taash’s second Tama. I chose Harding to lead the team to stop the ritual. She deserved the chance to prove herself. She had worked with the Inquisition and had so much experience. The first tentacle started the floodworks. The second made me scream in denial and thank my lucky stars my door was closed because it was the middle of the night. I had to walk away.

I never trusted Solas. What Solasmancer would? It didn’t matter. The pit in my stomach when the other characters wouldn’t look at Varric. The way he would just... be there in a scene. The way he wasn’t healing. Time was soup in these games but surely it had been long enough. All of it was pushing at me in a way I didn’t want to acknowledge. The way Harding had been so upset when we first got to the lighthouse. It didn’t add up. Until it did.

It didn’t matter that I’d had a suspicion. That it was eating away at the relief of seeing my friend alive after that fateful stabbing. I was blindsided all the same. It hurt me in a way only Dragon Age could. It was a low blow... but it worked.

I went into that last fight ready to tear the world apart. I didn’t know if we’d survive, if there would be anyone left standing, if I had done enough or chosen the right things to do and say. I knew what Solas was going to do. I threw everything I had learned, everything I had felt, and everything I had lost into that final fight. Elgar’nan fell... and the Dread Wolf betrayed me once more.

But I didn’t want to fight him. I knew too much. I had seen too much to blindly blame the man in front of me. I had the same blood on my hands. I cried when my Lavellan chose to walk into that prison with her Vhenan. She would have done so at the end of Trespasser had he only let her.

[mumms-the-word]

I think about this a lot. I normally play elves first but this time opted for a human Rook, and now my second Rook is a dwarf. While I won’t say either of them aren’t sympathetic to Solas’s plans (my human Rook was a veil jumper mage, she would have been interested in what a Veil-less world would have looked like were it possible to do so without chaos), neither of them are on Solas’s short list of lives worth saving if/when he sunders the Veil.

Solas says he has spirits ready on the other side of the Veil who are going to help him minimize the damage. But I’m pretty sure if he had succeeded, those spirits would have only sought out elves to protect, or at least prioritized them over everyone else. His letter to a romanced Lavellan makes it sound like she’ll survive the fall of the Veil, no matter where she is—“when you read this the world will be as it once was, and you will see why all I did was necessary.” Not “if,” but “when.” Why? Because he is sending spirits to protect her directly? Or because all his spirit allies are prepared with orders to protect certain kinds of people?

I don’t think he means for everyone to be wiped out in the sudden rush of magic and demons. The strong and the capable will surely survive, no matter their race. But there aren’t enough spirits in the Fade to save every single life in Thedas, and Solas has made it clear ever since Trespasser that his goal is to restore Elvhenan, to restore immortality to the elves, to fix what he broke in elven culture, life, and longevity. In that final mural with Mythal, he literally says, “Why should I not tear down the Veil and bring back immortality to all the elven people? They deserve it!” Human, dwarf, and qunari life? Not exactly high on his priority list.

Solas was going to minimize the damage, yes. And on some level I do think that he spared a thought or two to the damage he’d do to humans, dwarves, and qunari. But they were never going to be his first priority. Just as an Inquisitor can develop a friendship with Solas and get him to see the world around him as real and valuable, if Rook develops a relatively positive working relationship with Solas they have a chance to convince him that his plan to tear down the Veil isn’t going to be worth the cost to anyone other than the elves. Sure, the elves may get immortality back, and the world will get magic back, but at the expense of who? Who is actually paying the cost here?

Solas wants to restore the world of Mythal. Mythal, the Protector of the People. Mythal, the All-Mother. Mythal, the goddess-queen of the elven people, her children, her subjects. There are no dwarves, humans, or qunari in her kingdom. So why should he bother to save them when he restores her world?

I think this is also partly why in the last mural with Mythal, specifically Flemythal, we hear her defend the modern world against Solas’s schemes. “The elven people of today do not deserve to see the world they love be torn apart to salve your conscience.” That’s not just Mythal speaking as a protector of the elves. That’s Flemeth, too. Flemythal, with the weight of living several hundred years as a human. Flemythal gets it. She shapes the world as it exists now. She doesn’t try to restore what was.

And that’s why Solas had to kill her. She wasn’t his Mythal. And like the Inquisitor, like Rook, she could be too persuasive. He would be willing to listen. But he can’t. He thinks of himself as oath-bound to restore the world of the elves, the one he broke when he was seeking vengeance for Mythal. And if no one is there to stop him or convince him otherwise, he will honestly and truly believe that the deaths of countless humans, dwarves, and qunari are a sacrifice worth making. There will be survivors, and that’s good. But many won’t make it.

So, yeah, why wouldn’t a human, dwarf, or qunari Rook want to stop Solas?

It seems like people on my dashboard only have elven Inquisitors and elven Rooks, because I haven't seen anyone saying that Solas' plan at the end of Trespasser would only benefit elves. My protagonists, both humans, want to stop Solas, because he plans to destroy their world and wipe out all humans. That's exactly what he tells the Inquisitor at the end of Trespasser. All this "I want to create a new prison for my fellow gods" appears already in the Veilguard.

Dwarves and qunari? Solas doesn't bother thinking about them. Genocide for all except elves. And spirits. Which are basically the same.

"I would have entered the Fade, using the mark you now bear. Then I would have torn down the Veil. As this world burned in the raw chaos, I would have restored the world of my time… the world of the elves."

Exact quote from the game (thanks @daitranscripts)

That's why I don't have any "regrets" for stopping Solas' ritual. It would have been worse. Yes, even with the gods out of their prison.

[cloudgazercadash]

15. Out of the followers/companions, who are they most comfortable around?

out of the canon inquisition companions it’d have to be sera, cole, vivienne, thom/blackwall, and solas. thora likes most of the inquisition companions (although with bull it takes until post-da:i in her game canon) but those five are the ones that hit the right combination of things.

her initial discomfort about sera stems from sera’s sometimes confusing speech patterns which take a bit for thora to grow accustomed to. sera keeps referring to people not-her as “people people,” too, which is just an odd phrase when thora was people people just a month or two ago at the time they met. in her companion verse i think they’d get along a lot sooner, quicker because there is none of that herald stuff to make the relationship stickier. my in-game headcanon for thora’s post-game involves sera being around, as thora does take her offer to be a jenny. sera is one of the companion relationships that persists beyond inquisition, without it being a long-distance friendship anyway.

cole it’s a similar reason to sera, plus her unfamiliarity with spirits. cole is literally the first one she’s met, and his speech patterns are even stranger. there may always be some discomfort with cole if she’s having a bad day, the thought of having something dredged up might put her on edge around him. but also with cole there’s absolutely zero judgment, and she also evolves into feeling the same about him? like, thora and cole are both people who are very different and yet very similar. when she keeps him a spirit she doesn’t completely understand why he’s happy, but she’s glad he is and was happy to support it.

i think vivienne is the outlier on this list b/c she’s sort of noble. not by birth, her parents were merchants and she’s a mage, but she carries herself like one. vivienne and thora share vastly different opinions on things such as the chantry and circles, things that might strain friendships typically, but also thora isn’t a mage. vivienne’s opinions are just that to her. it certainly does strain their relationship at first, but once you’re friends with vivienne she takes care of you. i can’t say the two are close emotionally but at the same time she does feel comfortable around vivienne.

then blackwall. although in rp this depends upon if the thom agrees to this, but thora sort of knows he’s a criminal before it all comes out. their conversations hint at that past too much for her to be completely oblivious to it, and wardens are known for being penitent criminals. he also doesn’t talk like a highborn lord, giving him some of the same initial comfort she gets from sera. the reveal that he’s not all who he says he is does harm that, but it doesn’t stay like that and i think by trespasser especially - once thom starts actively confronting his past - that discomfort would go away and they could be as they were.

but solas is probably her best friend in the inquisition and the one she’s most comfortable with. like with sera and cole, it does take adjustment. solas lives his life in a way that’s hard for her to grasp, but as she comes to understand him they get more comfortable with each other. most conversations about difficult decisions she has with him either before or after the fact, she’s not free of judgment like she is with cole, but the two end up in a friendship where both are comfortable calling the other. for her part, thora fails to fully grasp the personhood of spirits even after having it explained to her until well into da:i. and for his, well, we know what solas says about dwarves in canon. neither of them let this slide, but there was also always the potential for forgiveness and learning. thora being more emotionally open and touchy also pushes past some of solas’ walls. they’re not the sort of friends who are always all over each other, but if they’re both reading together she will prop herself up on his shoulder. and she gives lots of hugs. everyone in the inner circle gets a hug at least once.

[theheraldsrest]

“Companions (+Scout Harding and Varric) when they realized they were in love? Thank you, have a good day!”

Heehee, hooho, I’m very tired. We both work with schools and sometimes it gets hectic. Had one kid who knew what Dragon Age was and went on an entire rant about how wrong the Qun is. I’m so proud of him.

-LordLex

Cullen

-Kept brushing it off, could only see it as admiration. How you held yourself through different obstacles, being made the Herald, having to fight off waves of enemies and looking to help the people, it was truly a sight to see

-But then you started coming by to see him more often, even if you just spoke. Why did he keep stuttering? And he couldn’t stop himself from glancing over at you. Were you looking at him, just now, as well?

-Tried to keep up his professionalism but couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face when he saw you approaching him or when your voice came out of nowhere.

-And after helping him with his personnel quest, Maker help this man. He can’t help but to look for you whenever he leaves his study, listening for your voice or laughter. Love is complicated and Cullen sure as hell knows nothing about it.

Josephine

-She had lost all hope after the attack on Haven, thinking that all that you did was for nothing and it only ended up with you getting killed. But you saved so many lives and-there you were, alive. Injured but alive.

-Compared to most of the people she meets, you were very well mannered, not trying to gain favor, but honestly cared for her when you asked her if she wanted to talk for a second. Josey didn’t think much of it but started to enjoy the time spent with you, the conversations you’d have.

-At some point, she started to take mental notes about such small things: your favorite food, where you came from, what makes your nose wrinkle and what makes your lips turn up into that wonderful smile.

-She felt horrible about getting you involved in her family business but, when it came down to it, she wouldn’t have any regrets, thinking you two had grown closer through this experience

Solas

-You caught his eye and it wasn’t just because of the mark. You were...different. That’s the closest word he could connect you to. You were strong and powerful but also kind and gentle. Working with those around and yet you’d also be by yourself with a thoughtful look.

- He fell in love when you started asking for his advice Kidding, but he does get very excited when you start questioning about magical studies and the fade and the history behind certain artifacts

-He tries to distance himself from everyo1ne but you always seem to pull him back, pull him into conversations, going out of your way to spend time with him, even when you didn’t even seem to understand what he was saying

-With his personnel quest, he’s completely taken by you. You do so much for others, for him, when you really should care for yourself. He doesn’t want to feel this way, he doesn’t want anything to do with mortals. But you...you’re a different story.

Cassandra

-It’s been a hell of a ride for Cassandra on the rollercoaster of emotions. First she despises you, then gives you an inkling of doubt, then suddenly she values you as a friend. And now...flirting?! How dare you

-When you started to change your tactics and be more direct, she continued to try and brush them off as nothing more than friendliness. Sometimes would humor the idea, but you had more important matters to deal with

-Cassandra Allegra Portia Calogera Filomena Pentaghast does not fall in love, there’s too much to do and too much to take care of. And with the Inquisitor no less! Preposterous! She could lie to herself but that didn’t change how she’d drop whatever she was doing to talk to you

-Even with her personal quest out of the way, she has more emotions to sort through, including what she thought was admiration for you

The Iron Bull

-Bull doesn’t ‘fall in love’, it’s always just someone curious or someone wanting some company or something new. Never ‘in love’ and he didn’t think that would ever be something he’d have. He’s a soldier, meant to be used

-Started out as admiration. Was impressed with how you handled yourself and the inquisition. It’s not easy being a leader when you’re thrown head-first into war with a darkspawn

-Starts to question his feelings a bit after helping him during his quest. There’s still admiration, but with every touch, with every word, there was something else. Maybe he just appreciated you more?

-And then you brought him the other half of a dragon tooth. He had spoken about it so off-handedly, not expecting anything further from it and yet here you were, wishing to commit yourself to him. It was that moment that he truly fell in love with his boss.

Dorian

-Doesn’t seem like it, but he’s a romantic. He used to picture the perfect life with someone he truly loves, but since the issues with his family, he had basically given up on that life. Until you

-Most of his partners so far were just flings, so you can bet that he thinks he’s sick when he starts feelings butterflies in his stomach around you or looking to you to lend an ear

-He’s not used to someone caring for what he has to say or actually treating him more than that ‘evil magister from tevinter’, he likes it but is so confused

-He wants to accept these feelings but he’s so unsure of himself, so unsure if this is more than just another one of his flings. Gods, he hopes it is

Sera

-She doesn’t much care for relationships or ‘caring’ or ‘feelings’. If someone’s fun, she’s gonna hang around them more often. Nothing more to it

-Except it’s more than that with you. You’re big and important, nobles talk about you like you’re one of them and lower class praise you like Andraste gave birth to you, but you don’t hold yourself like any of that. You’re not a prick, you’re a goof and you actually enjoy Sera’s company

-She’s so excited when she sees you coming, when you look to her, you’re so easy to read and it’s easy to make you smile and laugh and- Sera’s falling for you

-She’s so inexperienced with these things, she doesn’t know what to do and she doesn’t want to screw up what you two already have. So, for now, she’ll lay low, admiring from a distance

Blackwall

-Blackwall respects the person you are. A fierce warrior but at the same time a kind leader. And he knows you respect him as well, as a person and as one of your companions

-He didn’t know he had more feelings than that till you started to flirt with him. He would have never considered it, not because he didn’t like you, but because he didn’t think he’d ever have that kind of chance with someone

-He pushes them down, trying to convince himself that he didn’t deserve it. You don’t want him, you’d be making a mistake. He could hurt you, he could hurt who you are. But sometimes he’d slip up, let something show

-After his quest, he fully believes that now you’ll truly see he doesn’t deserve you, but he’d forever love you

(Bonus!)

Varric

-Love is a touchy subject. Sure, he knew how to write it and a lot of his readers lapped it up, but that was only from witnessing it and experiencing the worst of it

-Who’d have thunk that he’d become rather attached to the Inquisitor, seeing them as the person they were before the mark, treating them as if they were anyone else, but always offering a shoulder if needed

-He’d worry for you, watch over you, making sure you were ok and not pushing yourself. It wasn’t until he saw you come back from the fade that he realized he cared for you, more than he ever cared for Bianca. Even Hawke would ask if he’s crazy

-Also tries to convince himself that he doesn’t deserve these feelings. You can be so close to someone without them knowing how you feel and it hurts. He had to go through it once, he doesn’t know if he can do it again

(Scout) Lace Harding

-Honestly, she hadn’t planned for you. How could she? She joined the inquisition to help and was made as one of the main scouts for the Inquisitor. She hadn’t planned on the Inquisitor having pleasant conversations with her on the few times they meet, even some playful banter

-She also didn’t plan on seeing you more often when the inquisition was moved to Skyhold. Before now, she had one of the most well-spoken attitude, but with you around she’d stumble over her own words, hitting herself for saying anything embarrassing

-She both hoped she was and wasn’t imagining the flirting, it gave her some hope that maybe you felt the same but also that maybe it was some sort of game.

-She did enjoy your company and, when given the chance, the drinks you two would share. If only you could do this more often, but then she’d be completely smitten with you

[corseque]

Since you played those three’s routes, which one would you suggest if someone wanted the most the thematic ties, without romancing Solas? Blackwall’s feels the most obvious to me, but I’d love your thoughts. Also, how would you rank those romances personally?

BLACKWALL yeah BUT ALSO IRON BULL? And CULLEN too actually?

They’re all so related it’s wild. All 4 are monster husband romances. 

Bear = Blackwall

Lion =  Cullen

Dragon = Iron Bull

Wolf = Solas

In different ways, moral monsters with regrets who are trying to change their life, or are failing to do so. All of them are about the identity of the character, and who they want to be or decide to become. Names, and names changing. Titles and roles in society. Deception and shame.

Hissrad/Iron Bull, becoming tal-vashoth

Blackwall/Rainier, the concept of a “good man”

Cullen as a Templar or a free man

Solas (obvious)

Failure to live up to their promises or their responsibilities to their roles, and generally stories about weakness or faltering

Iron Bull and his responsibility to the Qun but also his men

Blackwall and his responsibility to his men

Cullen and his responsibility to the Inquisition

Solas and his responsibility to the people

About finding faith or strength or trust in those outside themselves

Iron Bull’s shift from the Qun to the Chargers

Blackwall’s shift to the Grey Wardens or the Inquisition

Cullen’s shift from the Templars to the Inquisition

solas’ failure to do this :’(

All of them are about these men trying to transform and heal after experiencing incredible trauma that just breaks you

Blackwall’s deep moral injury, having to live with yourself afterward

Solas’ indescribably deep moral injury that even Cole can barely catch the edges of, it’s so big and horrible

Iron Bull’s deep moral injury, when he lost himself fighting the Fog Warriors, and the tension dividing himself from his people

Cullen’s deep trauma after the Circle collapsed in DAO and Kirkwall collapsed in DA2, and the moral injury of how he contributed to what happened to the mages in Kirkwall, recognizing that and wanting to do better than Meredith

And actually, Bull, Blackwall and Solas in the game fully talk to each other and judge each other and relate and help each other process their traumas because they have such closely related experiences. It makes me so sad that Solas deeply projects onto the others negatively but at the same time is particularly good at helping and comforting the others over these moral injuries. I put their (spoiler) banter under a cut at the end, for reference to show they really do talk to each other about their traumas, and compare themselves to each other. I kind of wish Cullen could have had banters with them too.

As for ranking them, I think they’re all very good. Solasmance is bestmance lol

Blackwall: You haven't said much to me since... well, you know.

Solas: There is little to say. I assumed we were alike. We'd seen war, knew its terrible costs, but understood that it was necessary. But there was nothing necessary in what you did. You did not survive death and destruction. You sowed them. To feed your own desires.

Blackwall: I know that. I see it every time I look in a mirror. I try to make up for it.

Solas: By wearing another skin. You ran away rather than face what you had done. You wasted your time.

Solas: I wish to apologize for what I said to you, Blackwall.

Blackwall: You were right, though. I deserved it.

Solas: My people had a saying long ago - "The healer has the bloodiest hands." You cannot treat a wound without knowing how deep it goes. You cannot heal pain by hiding it. You must accept. Accept the blood to make things better. You have taken the first step. That is the hardest part.

Solas: So, you and the Inquisitor are together.

Blackwall: Yes. Is that a problem?

Solas: Far from it. People should seize any chance for a moment's respite in times such as these. I am glad you've allowed yourself some happiness.

Blackwall: I expected you to think that I should keep punishing myself.

Solas: I would be concerned if you forgot your past, but that seems unlikely. Beyond that, guilt is a distraction. One we can ill afford.

Blackwall: What of you, then? Have you found someone to share a moment's respite?

Solas: I find my peace elsewhere.

Blackwall: You sacrificed your own men.

Iron Bull: I'm Qunari. We don't flinch from duty.

Blackwall: Your men trusted you. You betrayed that trust when you left them to die.

Iron Bull: No.

Blackwall: No?

Iron Bull: Two key differences between you and me, Rainier.

Iron Bull: First, I didn't kill a wagon full of kids.

Iron Bull: My men were holding a position to secure an objective. I mourn their loss and honor their sacrifice.

Iron Bull: And second, I'm proud of who I am. I hope that's not a problem for you.

Blackwall: Not unless you ask me to hold a hill, Qunari.

Blackwall: So, Bull, how does it feel to be Tal-Vashoth?

Iron Bull: Feels a bit like I've been living a lie, and now it's coming back to bite me in the ass. What's that like, Blackwall?

Blackwall: Calm down, I meant no offense.

Blackwall: As you say, I know something of being cut off from a past life, having to find a new way.

Iron Bull: Well, you could've just led with that.

Blackwall: In any event, you have the Chargers. You haven't lost everything.

Iron Bull: Yeah, I think I'm good.

Iron Bull: Now, isn't this better? Getting the burden of that lie off your chest?

Blackwall: And exchanging it for the burden of everyone hating me? Yes. So much better.

Iron Bull: Hey, I don’t hate you. You and me? We’re good.

Iron Bull: Now that you know who you are, you can stop doubting yourself and start hitting crap again.

Blackwall: Why don't we hit a few bottles first, huh?

Solas: You fought the Tal-Vashoth for a long time, Iron Bull, did you not?

Iron Bull: Every day.

Iron Bull: I'd kill some of them, they'd kill some of my guys, and then I'd kill them some more.

Solas: No man can kill so many people without breaking inside. To survive... those you fight must become monsters.

Iron Bull: The ones that kill innocent people, yeah. The rest... I don't know.

Solas: The mind does marvelous things to protect itself.

Iron Bull: Nice job in that last fight, Solas. You really kicked the crap outta that guy.

Solas: I suppose.

Iron Bull: What, you don't think so? You ripped him a new one. It was great!

Solas: Unless the fight is personal, violence is a means to an end. It isn't appropriate to celebrate.

Iron Bull: I don't know. Gotta wonder about anyone who fights as much as we do and doesn't have some fun with it.

Solas: We have fought living men, with loves and families, and all that they might have been is gone.

Iron Bull: Yeah, but they were assholes!

Iron Bull: So, you going to let me have it, Solas? Or do I get to wait and wonder.

Solas: What do you mean?

Iron Bull: We've got the alliance with my people. Given how much you love the Qun, I figured...

Solas: I might scold you? Berate you for your decisions?

Iron Bull: Hey. The Chargers died as heroes for the good of the mission.

Solas: I never said otherwise.

Solas: The truth is, Iron Bull, you are Qunari. I cannot be disappointed in your decisions.

Solas: As a mindless, soulless drone, you could never make any.

Solas: You are not Tal-Vashoth, Iron Bull, not really.

Iron Bull: Well that's a fuckin' relief.

Solas: You are no beast, snapping under the stress of the Qun's harsh discipline.

Solas: You are a man who made a choice... possibly the first of your life.

Iron Bull: I've always liked fighting. What if I turn savage, like the other Tal-Vashoth?

Solas: You have the Inquisition, you have the Inquisitor... and you have me.

Iron Bull: Thanks, Solas.

[missingcarrion]

this^^

but I also wanted to add a few more things about what i've seen from this fandom so far:

yeah game devs have to be good at tying things together, but games where so many choices are to be made, it makes it difficult to make a good story which is probably why they didnt carry too much over from previous games. It most likely would've taken longer and you STILL would be unhappy if they made every previous choice in the games matter because something would be left out.

you have to make decisions and choosing to tell Solas' tale, lavellan included, just makes more sense.

we only know what they're willing to show and tell us so i IMPLORE you I ASK YOU hell i BEG you all to give it a chance.

also the characters we have deserve to be here. Scout Harding DESERVES to be there. SHe has been there through thick and thin SHE is deserving of being included amongst the team. I WILL NOT ACCEPT SLANDER

you're all entitled to your opinions but she's literally like, one of the few characters left that have stuck with us. you can think what you want, but do *not* for a second doubt her right to be a companion.

People being upset about DATV being more solas and lavellan centric is a bit funny cuz like... At least to me it felt like this was their end game to begin with?? And they weren't exactly subtle about it and haven't been??

Like from my stand point some of y'all are upset that a game literally titled after Solas (originally) that was then changed to be more open ended about him is, in fact, about him.

There's too many choices everyone could've made that it would've been impossible to make a concrete and good story if they had to rewrite so many facets of this story to appeal to every single choice players made in previous games.

I can understand being upset but like the game was called Dreadwolf, and the ending of inquisition dlc whether you romanced solas or not kinda made it clear where this was going.

[mydrug-is-dragonage]

Dar Atishan, A Talk with Cole

“Wind and whispers, dreams and demons, ‘why don’t they ever want me enough to want me?’” My ears perked up and I saw Cole walking towards me on the battlements. I glanced at him and returned, hunched over and brooding, watching the snow blow of the tops of mountains. “You’re hurt and hurting, all three of you wounded, worried, ‘was it the right decision?’”

I turn around and face him, smirking. “Do they have love in the Fade?”

“‘Hahren Morriel warned me, the shemlen are fickle, but the elf too?’ Wanting, wondering, ‘what else could I do?’” I sighed and patted the battlements. I pushed myself up with my hands and he joined me, legs dangling over the edge. “You’re sad.”

“I am.”

“They think it was the right decision.”

“I know.”

“But they’re sad, too. Brooding, breaking, ‘Bull said it’d help me with the ladies, but it’d break her.’” He looked towards the barn. I sighed and looked up towards the sky, clear and full of stars. “Dust, danger, delightful, distraction, ‘if she’s real, what if they’re all real, too?’”

I shake my head. “Cole, stop.”

“I want to help,” he says. He looks up, his shaggy hair nearly hiding his big eyes. I put a hand on his knee.

“I don’t think you get to help,” I said.

“Why?” He asks, his voice full of genuine curiosity.

“Can I tell you a story?”

“Sixteen, sweating, ‘Will we make it?’”

“Yes, that story. Stay out of my head, let me tell you, not show you.” He nods and puts his hand in his lap. “When I was sixteen, my vallaslin fresh, my sword sharpened, I went on a hunt with a boy.”

“Tallen.”

“Yes, Tallen. Tallen was a few years older than me, an accomplished hunter. We’d been out in the forest for a few days. He was certain he’d found some clues that would lead to some ancient artifact, something Keeper Istimaethoriel could make use of. Remind of us of the old ways.” I looked towards Cole, his gaze stuck on the lines arching across my face. “So we looked. We looked and looked and looked. Days passed, and we couldn’t seem to find whatever his sources had led him to.”

“Boredom, bothered, ‘This is worse than when the aravel breaks,’” he said. “Sorry. I’ll try to stay outside.”

“Thank you, Cole. Yes, I was bored and angry. I’d only agreed to come along because of Tallen. None of the other hunters thought it was worth our time. The Keeper wasn’t especially keen. But Tallen,” I said. I trailed off, taken back to the forest, a girl with fresh ink, so sure of what I’d chosen, Elgarnan’s markings across my face.

“But Tallen?”

“Right, but Tallen wanted to go, and I wanted to help, and I wanted to spend time with him, alone,” I said. I looked at Cole and raised an eyebrow. His face stayed as placid as ever. “So we wandered. We looked. We found nothing. One night, deep in the forest, we found a cave to sleep in. We’d build a small fire, roasted a bird we’d killed. We sat, quietly listening to the forest.” I looked up at the sky again, constellations dancing around. I heard the Hahren speaking about the legends, the Elven gods, the Dread Wolf.

“As we finished dinner, I heard stirring from the back of the cave. I didn’t have time to fully put on my armor, but I grabbed my chest plate and my blade, I got Tallen’s attention and pointed towards the darkness beyond us. He grabbed his bow, and started to draw an arrow. Before he could get a good shot lined up, darkspawn came running towards us,” I said. Cole closed his eyes. “I’d never seen one up close. I’d heard stories growing up, of course. We’d avoided the Blight, but everyone knew of them, their corruption. I got a few good swings, killed one right away. Tallen had time to back up, start taking shots at different ones as they approached me.”

“You were afraid,” he said.

“I was. I was so young, this was my first real mission.”

“You lived.”

“Or maybe I’m a spirit, too, drawn to the dying elf.”

“Jokes and jaunting, ‘laughter makes it easier,’” he said.

“Does it bother you?”

“No, you still like me. You see me all the time,” he said.

“I thought that was your decision.”

“I did, too. Go on. I like the way your voice carries the past,” he said.

“The darkspawn kept coming and coming. Soon enough I realized they were too many to fight, the two of us. Tallen called out to me,  I gave him a clear shot and we ran from the cave. We ran and ran and ran until our legs were going to give out. The darkspawn never let up.. We reached a cliff. The darkspawn were maybe four hundred feet away, running towards us as they had, corrupting everything in their path. Tallen looked over the edge, then back at me. He grabbed my face and kissed me.”

“First, frolicking, filthy, ‘I’d hoped I’d be clean.’ You’d wanted to kiss him?”

I laughed. “For a long time. Tallen was so handsome, so strong and brave. He’d be a good partner, he was a good man. I’d only come along so he’d be forced to see me as a woman instead of the child I’d been.”

“Did it work?”

“You don’t kiss children like that,” I said. “When we pulled apart, he said, ‘trust me’ and put out a hand. I put mine in his, and we jumped over the edge.”

“Maybe you are a spirit,” he said.

“I was lucky,” I laughed. “We landed in a lake, deep enough that we didn’t break any bones. The water helped wash away the darkspawn blood. When I came up for air, I looked around, gasping. I saw Tallen, swam over towards him, put my arms around him, and kissed him again, how I’d wanted to.”

“He tasted like fire and lake water,” he said.

I nodded. “We stood in the water for a time, embracing. Then we found our way to the shore. The darkspawn didn’t follow, so we made another small fire and slept for the night. The next morning, when I woke up he was gone. I panicked, put on my chest plate and went searching for him. I saw him on a far hill, picking flowers. Cole, in that moment I could have died.”

“But you wanted the flowers?”

“Good die, not bad die.”

“There’s different kinds of dying?” Cole asked.

“I settled back into camp, and he returned. Together we made our way back to the clan. When we arrived, Keeper Istimaethoriel came up and gave us a hug. The Keeper’s daughter, Asharell came up too and put her arms around Tallen. He reached in his pack and gave her the flowers.”

“You wanted to die then, too. Good die?”

“Bad die,” I said. “My heart broke into a thousand little pieces. We’d kissed, we’d survived darkspawn, and he picked flowers for the pretty girl back home instead of me.” I stopped and swallowed. The night air on the battlements had begun to chill, and goose bumps rose on my arms. “After we’d had a proper bath and a proper meal, I wandered near the halla. Tallen came up to me.”

“Kissing, killing, crying, chilling ‘No hard feelings?’ Oh. He was an ass.” I laughed and patted him on the back.

“Yes, he was. Apparently he’d long been sweet on Asharell and wanted to go on this expedition to impress the Keeper so he could marry his daughter. Our daring tale and the flowers had certainly done their part,” I said. “He came up to me and said, ‘I hope we can keep it a secret. It was the moment, fear of death and all that.’ I nodded, said it was fine. He was afraid he’d die. I was there. People have made worse choices under fear.”

“You carry this hurt like a scar,” he said. “But now, it cracks upon, and it’s hurting all the same.”

“When Solas and I kissed in the Fade, I was so excited. I hadn’t done anything like that in a long time,” I said. “But when we woke up, he said it was a bad decision, a mistake. So I let him go.” I put my hands on my knees and took a deep breath. “Then Blackwall and I, traveling, laughing. It came so suddenly, I thought the Creators had given me a second chance. We went and found his badge, we sat by the fire light.”            “But he also said it was wrong,” Cole said.

“After Tallen and Asharell married,  I spoke to the Hahren. I needed some advice. He told me, his years of wisdom, ‘You cannot beg anyone to love you.’”

“So when they said no, you believed them.”

“I’m not going to convince them otherwise. If they don’t want me enough to want me honestly, I won’t fight for it,” I said. My eyes welled up and Cole put his hand on mine.

“They could have been convinced,” he said, “but that wouldn’t have been right. It would have hurt you more than losing them.”

I wiped my eyes with my sleeve. “I think maybe love just isn’t for me. Before I wasn’t anyone, now I’m so much more than myself.”

“Willfull, wanting, given, gotten, ‘I’ve given up so much, maybe she could be for me, maybe this woman I could keep,’” he said.

“That’s not how I feel.”

“That isn’t you,” he said. I sat up straighter and looked at him. His eyes glanced down, Cullen leaning over the battlements, his own late night stroll.

“Josephine?” I asked. He shook his head. “Cassandra?” He shook his head again.

“Lost and longing, lyrium-sick, ‘She’s so powerful, so strong, how could she ever want anyone like me?’” Cole looked back at me.

I swallow and look at him, his hands running through his hair. “I never thought, I mean, I’d flirted, but he seemed so closed off. I assumed,” I trailed off.

“‘What if the lyrium takes me? What if I’m not strong enough? She deserves someone strong enough to carry her burdens. She deserves someone without the weight I carry.’”

“Thank you, Cole. This helped.” We hopped off the edge and I gave him another pat on the shoulder.

“Thank you. I’m happy I helped.”

[aarongoldenwrites]

Alright. Get ready for a trip. I'm gonna go point by point through this because I'm obsessed with these games, I dig the real world connotations, and the new trailer just dropped and I haven't played any DA since the flood. So...

We need to start with a discussion of Solas in general. He's Fen'Harel, the Dread Wolf. He fought against institutionalized and systemic slavery, freed his people, and fought alone against corrupt being powerful enough to be considered gods (and they are the old gods of the Tevinter Imperium, I believe, but that's a whole other thing). He created the veil and imprisoned the gods, possibly in Black City, and doing so nearly killed him and sent him into a thousand year coma. He didn't understand the consequences of his actions, but he trusted people enough not to mess it up further.

And then he woke up.

Let us start with the Qun. The Qun is fascism. Individual Qunari are fascinating individuals, especially when they are removed from the Qun as a whole – Sten and the Iron Bull being our prime examples. But everything we know about them paints them as fanatics that torture mages and lobotomize anyone that doesn't accept their philosophy. Their entire culture is systemic slavery, which is the very thing Solas opposed. Of course he hates them.

There's two instances that can change his mind: one is a possible Qunari Inquisitor, but your Inquisitor is Vashoth (edit 2020/09/03: as noted by @felassan -- thanks!), someone who was never part of the Qun. He's not been awake long enough to see it, and it shocks him out of binary thinking. He's apologizing badly, because he's personally a social disaster who doesn't know how to people (and we'll get to that). The second is if you choose to save the Chargers; Solas turns around on the Bull instantly, shows genuine concern towards him, and helps him deal with Fade-related PTSD.

In fact, all he ever wants to do is teach. If he comes out and says he's Fen'Harel people are going to assume he's a crackpot, but I think Solas, as a persona, is actually who he is. He jokes with the Bull and Blackwall about his Fade knowledge, and offers them both knowledge on how to kill fade spirits more efficiently. All three of them respect one another as soldiers. He compares knowledge of magic and history with Dorian, Cassandra seeks his opinion on organization and faith, Josephine appreciates his insight, Leliana asks his advice, and Varric and he chatter and shoot the shit.

He constantly tries to teach or learn. The only two people he has issues with are Sera and Vivienne, and even there he tries to offer advice and wisdom as best he's able. Sera can't stand him because she hates elves, and Viv is a victim of the Circle and can't imagine a world without an entrenched power structure, regardless of how many people it hurts.

And I suppose that's a thing a lot of people have trouble with when it comes to Solas: he tells you straight out at the end of Trespasser that he's going to tear down the Veil and destroy the world as we know it. And that's terrible. That's destroying a world state and trying to return thing to how they were, kind of like how the Inquisitor and Dorian reset time in Redcliffe. I mean, that world was a hellscape where everything you ever cared about was dead or corrupted, and fixing it was the right call. It's not at all like how the world Solas wakes up to is a hellscape where everything he ever cared about was dead or corrupted. Fixing it is the right call?

And we could argue that the future that we averted was a monstrous place, but how does Solas see his own world? His people worship the slavers he defeated and die with a terrible frequency. Elves die and face fates that are about as terrible as that faced by mages; he's fucked coming and going. And we know he went to the Dalish and tried to talk to them and they attacked him. Why wouldn't they? He knows about what's happening outside of the Plato's cave that the Dalish are dying in.

His actions are going to kill thousands. His actions are going to save millions. The Dalish are dying in droves and the city elves are going to follow. Giving them a fighting chance at survival means reminding them who they are.

He also tells us that waking up was like “swimming in tranquil”. I think creating the Veil crippled the elves in some way, and he's not trying to give them magic so much as he's trying to heal them of a disease he inadvertently created. And while I know it's hard to take him at his word, it shouldn't be: he lies by omission once (about being Fen'harel, as we've covered the reasons why already), and lies directly twice.

After Orlais, he talks about how much he missed intrigue and court. If you ask him about this, he stumbles and you get disapproval – the only time you get disapproval for asking him a question. He lets his guard down around you and still doesn't know what to do.

The last time is in Crestwood and only happens if you romance him. He's about to tell you who he is and he chickens out and tells you about the slave marks on your face instead. Because – and this is the important thing – he cares. He's viciously selfless; he doesn't believe he deserves happiness and he can't imagine a world where he can save his people and be happy.

Make no mistake: the elves are threatened with extinction with the world as it is. The city elves in Origins are blamed when they react to some of their number being raped and killed by human nobles. The Dalish in Origins can be wiped out by the werewolves. The Dalish in Awakening are wiped out regardless of what you do. The Dalish in DA2 can be wiped out in Act 3. The city elves in Kirkwall are hunted for sport, see their children kidnapped and raped before being murdered, are locked away and left to burn whenever there's any problem at all. Three different Dalish clans can be wiped out in Inquisition, and it's so easy for Lavellen to lose her clan.

The status quo is killing the elves. It is wiping them out. This is an existential threat that no one is doing anything about, except Solas.

He's also lonely.

He says he was derided by his enemies also when he offered to share his knowledge of the Fade. We took this to mean the Dalish before Trespasser, but given who he is, we can speculate that he's talking about the old elven gods. But if his enemies derided them, that means his allies did, too. His old allies still saw him as a madman and a fool, probably because he was one man standing against an empire. He clearly couldn't trust anyone in the old days, and even tells Sera he had to sacrifice some of those closest to him for fear of betrayal.

Consider that the Inquisition was the first time he had friends. No one knows him as anything other than the elven apostate hobo with bad fashion sense and a weird relationship with spirits, but, as mentioned, he has mostly good relationships with everyone. People rely on him. They like him. Lavellan potentially loves him, and he loves her.

You change his mind on the Qunari race (but not their culture). You show him that he was wrong and he accepts that with good grace and moves on; he keeps coming to the Inquisitor afterwards because he respects you and he does not want to do what he sees as the only way to avoid genocide. I don't think he ever stops feeling bad about any of the things he's gotten wrong; he wears his mistakes like a chain and tries to do better, never stops trying to do better, but his perspective and capability are so much greater than anything the Warden, the Champion, or even the Inquisitor currently understands.

And I wouldn't be surprised if we get a chance to fold him back into the party at some point. I think the actual villain of the series lies with the monsters the Evanuris fought against and were corrupted by.

I think the actual villains are the Forgotten Ones, and I think they are the Blight, and I think they are what lies in the corruption we know as Red Lyrium.      

[emerald-amidst-gold]

No Title. Only Self Indulgence.

This little idea was stuck in my head, and it was an excuse to make Fane and Solas act like dragon dads again, so I had to. I had to. 

I guess you could consider it ‘spoilers’, but I think everyone knows what the hell Fane is. I haven’t decided how the later chapters are gonna go exactly. So, just view this as a ‘creative’ process - a potential concept for later.

Pairing: Solavellan (Male Lavellan/Solas)

Warnings: None

“Are you certain of this, vhenan? There is still time to intervene.”, Solas asked him with a somber expression - the two of them watching from the shadows as his sister and the others of the Inner Circle swarmed around the clearing of where they had fought against Corypheus. 

Fane merely watched with a semblance of indifference, but inside his whole soul was roaring in anguish and agony, especially as he saw the wave of tears begin to run down Mhairi’s pale cheeks. The pure agony in his sister’s eyes had him shutting his own as the emotions embedded in them were too much for him to bear.

“No. This is the way it has to be. I have accepted that.”, he stated with a pained grimace cracking his stoic mask before continuing, “I wish there was another way, but all I have discovered does not point to one. And so, I must break the leash that binds me.”

Solas simply gave him a hum in sad agreement as the mage reached back to throw up the cowl to conceal his head before delicately brushing a few fingers against the palm of Fane’s hand. 

“We should leave, then, or all of this will have been for naught.”, Solas warned him gently as his hand slowly slipped into Fane’s own.

Fane continued to observe the display below them before closing his eyes once more. Yes, it was time to go. With a quick flick of his wrist, he threw up his own hood before taking Solas’s hand more firmly - giving it a tender squeeze which elicited a small, but sad smile from Solas as the mage began to guide him away from the edge of the hill they were on. Fane followed without a word nor chancing a glance back as he heard his sister’s agonizing wails from beyond. 

Observe and accept. Accept that this is the path you have chosen, but do not forget where it began. He told himself with firmness before striding up to walk beside Solas more confidently. 

Solas gave his hand another soft squeeze before a tiny chirp sounded from the mage’s pack - a tiny white head popping out of it not a second later to look around curiously. Fane and Solas both looked at each other before the mage let out a fond chuckle - reaching back to stroke the tiny dragon’s head.

“Good morning, little one. Or I should say, ‘good evening’. Sleep well?”, Solas asked the white baby dragon - its scales bristling from the touch before it let out a quiet chirp of confirmation, spurring Solas to let out a fond coo, “Excellent. We have a long journey ahead of us.”

Fane couldn’t help but smile at the sight of his sky and his newborn kin despite the grief that weighed down on him. This was what he was abandoning everything else for - his kin. He was willing to sacrifice the world and the people in it only so that his kin could live without fear of being broken and bound again. He hoped that in the months to come, that there would be another way to achieve that without killing everyone, but in his heart, Fane knew that there would be death and heartbreak no matter what. Even so, the sight of his newborn so happy washed away the pain he was feeling; if only for the moment. 

“Hey.”, he called to Solas softly, the mage stopping his fawning over the little dragon to look up at him with a sad, but hopeful smile. “Yes, vhenan?”, Solas asked - the little dragon chirping at Fane excitedly. Fane chuckled fondly at the little dragon, reaching over to give it a gentle stroke before leaning down to nudge a pale cheek tenderly. 

Solas met his action immediately with a nudge of his own - stormy eyes filled with sorrow, but fondness for him.

“I love you.”, he said with a tenderness he rarely ever showed before stopping his nudging to put their foreheads together. 

Solas’s eyes immediately shifted with hues of deep blue and indigo as the love Fane had professed became reflected in them - a tender smile spreading across Solas’s face as he tilted his head to gaze into Fane’s own eyes more deeply.

“Ar lath ma, ma’isenatha.”, Solas murmured to him quietly before their lips brushed together lightly. 

Fane huffed in amusement at the timidness. This fool still thought he couldn’t handle a kiss, didn’t he? Well, then.. 

With a bold, but gentle movement, Fane closed the distance between the two of them - slotting their lips together easily as he tilted his head a bit to deepen the kiss with a calm huff through his nose. Solas froze for a moment upon the contact, but immediately relaxed as Fane deepened the kiss - allowing himself to be swept up in the emotions harbored within it. 

“Hm..”, he hummed out softly before taking another step towards Solas - cupping the man’s face firmly as their lips moved together more deeply and slowly. 

Solas responded with a hum of his own, reaching up to gently hold onto the hands cupping his face as he allowed Fane to lead. Fane slowly became more insistent with his kisses as he carefully, but boldly slipped his tongue into Solas’s mouth - the mage offering no resistance at the action, immediately entwining his tongue with Fane’s in a slow, but bold dance. 

Fane let out a soft growl leave his lips as he began to stroke Solas’s cheeks - the grief from before beginning to crop back up as his emotions ramped up. He wanted to lose himself in the kiss. He wanted to forget everything - if only for the time being. All the pain he had inflicted and the doubt and grief that went along with it was reflected in the dance of tongue and lips as Fane tilted Solas’s head back more with his hands - the elven man letting out an understanding, but quiet moan to let Fane know he knew. With a slow movement, Fane gently pulled his lips away from Solas, a trail of saliva connecting them before he shut his mouth with a pained grimace. 

“Shit..”, he cursed as tears began to prick at his eyes, “Shit..”, he cursed again as the tears began to flow despite his efforts to hold them back.

“Oh, Fane..”, Solas said with a sorrowful tone, carefully leaning up to peck at his cheeks gingerly - a thumb coming up to catch the tears as they fell. “Shh, my heart. I know it hurts. I know.. I am sorry for the pain I have caused you..”, the mage apologized brokenly - the little dragon watching the two of them with a sad growl. 

Despite the tears rolling down his cheeks, Fane couldn’t help but offer the little dragon a smile when he saw the hue of gold attempt to light up - the newborn attempting to ease his pain with its abilities. 

“Look at you. Already, you wish to use your nature as you should..”, he told the little dragon before more tears began to flow, “I..I will make sure you can once again. You will never know a magical leash as long as I am alive. I promise you..”, he vowed around a sob as he let his tears flow unbidden. 

Strong arms wove themselves around his neck to pull him into a tender embrace as he cried - letting his face bury itself into Solas’s shoulder as choked sobs wracked his body. Solas’s hand gently worked its way under his hood to lovingly stroke at whitened hair as he murmured soothing to him.

“You will free them, my dragon. You will..”, Solas encouraged him quietly. All Fane could do was offer a single, but firm nod to Solas’s words before took a deep breath to compose himself - slowly standing up straight to stare into stormy orbs before speaking with resolve.

“We will. And we will free your people, as well, my sky. I vow to you.”, Fane proclaimed passionately, even as tears continued to stream down his cheeks, but kept his face hard with feigned strength.

Solas gave him a grateful, tender, but sorrowful smile before opting to give him a single nod - his own face hardening despite the continued softness in his stormy blue eyes.

“As I vow to you.”, Solas echoed his words before taking Fane’s hand once more - intending to lead him away once more, “Come. We must go.”

Fane nodded once more before easily falling into step next to Solas - their hands linked as if it were the only thing keeping the two from drifting apart. The little dragon’s head swiveled between the two of them before it let out a happy cry. Fane watched as Solas startled before he himself chuckled.

“It seems he has made a vow, as well.”, Fane explained when he saw Solas looking up at the little dragon on his shoulder in confusion.

Solas glanced up at him before a smile of understanding spread on his face, cracking the hardened mask from before.

“Is that so?”, Solas asked the little dragon softly, tilting his head so the newborn could nuzzle at his cheek happily, “Then I accept your vow, little one. As does he.”, the mage said, indicating to Fane with his free hand. 

Fane nodded with his own strained, but soft smile when the white baby dragon looked at him with wide emerald gold eyes. 

Those are the eyes I wish to protect more than anything. They will never be grey again. He thought before nodded once more at the little dragon, “I accept your vow made amid bloodied fields, and vow to you in turn so that emerald pools may forever echo the warmth of gold.”, he said with ease, the little dragon’s wings spreading with excited chirps. 

He watched the little newborn fondly, even as Solas’s hand squeezed his own - the intensity of his stare feeling like no more than the warmth of the sun even as pale moonlight shrouded them in shadow. Yes, this was what all the agony and heartbreak would accomplish; a future where his kin could live as they deserved - as they must. So, he would endure it all in their stead. He would endure until the moon and sun went dark. He would endure until the land beneath his feet crumbled into ash. And he would endure until the day storm colored eyes refused to reflect the sky; his own then refusing to reflect golden trees from the sky’s absence. 

For Fane - no, Aterian - was a dragon, even as his body belonged to the creatures of the immutable world; the wolf currently walking next to him with his own head held high from endurance was the sky, even as he was connected to both the physical world and the Fade. And the only way to fell a dragon was to tear the sky asunder; the only way to tear the sky asunder was to fell a dragon that guarded it. And neither would happen unless the other fell first. 

Solas was ‘He Who Walks Alone’, but the world always forgot what the two of them never would, and that what Fane had and still was. 

Fane was ‘The One Who Flew Above’ - the Dragon of the Dread Wolf, and it would be the only title he would allow to bind him to another. For now and forever.

[fenharel-babe]

By the way this is rlly long-

Just a reminder that I still think of Solas angst and here’s another one :)))

Like,,,imagining her writing letters for him. Not sending the letters to him but just...writing letters as if she would send them to him. It’s like a diary. She doesn’t know why she started doing it, but she needed to get words out of her head, so she started writing them. She just says what she did that day. She didn’t do it everyday, but everytime she did something big. Whenever she solved a extremely difficult task, helped so many people in just a few days, or had a funny story to tell. She would write it as if she was talking to him. It gave her comfort during these times. Almost no one ever knew she did it. The only person who did was Cassandra when she caught her. Bloom doesn’t know Cassandra did, but Cassandra knows what she’s doing. And she feels an ache in her heart for her dear friend. Solas did her so wrong and he’s going to destroy the world. Cassandra doesn’t know how to feel either. Solas was a little weird to her, but she gave him respect like he did to her. They talked a lot and they gave each other respect. However, now that trust was betrayed...but she still was conflicted with her feelings towards Solas. Just like Bloom (my inquisitor) was.

And then maybe when the final battle comes or when she finds a way to stop Solas, but it’s very dangerous, she goes to Cassandra and tells her to give him her letters. All of them. They’re in her room and she tells her where they’re hidden and that she needs to give them to him. She practically begs. Cassandra can’t help but promise her, but she begs her to return. Bloom can’t promise her that, but she promises that she’ll try her best. In the end, she does what she needs to do, and Solas only realizes he has lost when he sees Blooms body on the ground. The rest of the fighters are far away from the two of them, as if the world knew this was going to happen. Like the world was laughing in his face and giving him this last chance to be with her. He runs over to her and holds her in his arms. She lets out a whimper of pain, but looks him in the eyes and she smiled.

She smiled.

She smiled at the man that just led to her death. The man that almost destroyed the world. The man that would have if it weren’t for her. He couldn’t smile back at her, he let out a little breath. “Hey, there,” she said. He was still silent, not knowing how to respond to her. “I’m so sorry, Bloom,” he managed to choke out, his voice shaking as tears fell down his cheeks, landing on her own cheeks. She let out a groan as she reached up her right hand to wipe the tears away. “No crying. Not now. I don’t want the last thing I see is you crying.” Leave it to her to try and make things okay, even as she’s dying. However, his tears continued to fall.

He leaned down so their foreheads could touch and he closed his eyes as she did. “I’m sorry I did this,” she whispered out. He opened his eyes in a rush and pulled back and looked a little angry. “Sorry? Why are you sorry? You’re dying and it’s my fault,” he almost shouted. “I did this, Solas. I made this choice. Yes, you...” she paused. “You May have lead to this, but I still chose to stop you. I chose to sacrifices myself.” She tried to justify her actions and tried to make Solas feel like it wasn’t all his fault. But it wasn’t working. It never would work.

If only he listened to her...this wouldn’t have happened. She wouldn’t be dying here.

“Remember me, Vhenan. You will receive a gift,” she said with a little smirk. He tried to smile back, but he couldn’t. He placed his hand on her cheek and stroked it. “I will never forget you.” She leaned up (with his help) and kissed him one, last time. He held on to her tight, as if that could save her. But it couldnt. Nothing could at this point. And oh how he regrets everything he’s done. But he just kisses her, showing her his love in her final moments. And when she dies, she at least dies in the arms of her heart. Her Vhenan.

And then when Cassandra sees that Bloom has died, she mourns like everyone else, and a bit harder than everyone else. She knew mages were dangerous, but Bloom was one of her closest friends. Bloom ruled her magic, ruled everyone with a kind heart and always gave her best. It was hard to not admire her. However, even as Cassandras mourning, about a week later after Blooms death, she remembers her promise to her. Even though it sickens her a little to face Solas, she knows he’s suffering just as much as everyone, maybe even a little more. Plus, she knows she has to do this. He deserves to know of her sadness. Not to make him feel worse...but to remember her. Just like all of Thedas would.

“Solas,” Cassandras voice called out. It echoed in the emptiness of the inquisitors room. Solas slept in Blooms quarters, trying to imagine her there with him. He was laying on the bed and didn’t dare move. “Well, I know you’re Awake. You’re rarely asleep.” She tried to sound composed, but her voice was shaking at being back Ik this room. She remembers Bloom and her thinking of plans up here, talking, and enjoying time together. Her voice was shaking but she shrugged it off and took a breath. “You haven’t seen the letters have you?” After a few seconds, Solas leaned up and looked over to Cassandra.

She was leaning on Blooms desk, her back facing it, in her room, looking conflicted. “What letters?” His voice was raw and tired, and she felt sympathy for him. Even if she wasn’t supposed to. When he said that, Cassandra when to the front of her desk and pulled a key out of her pocket. She paused before she unlocked the drawer. It wasn’t even her writings, it was Blooms. Why was she getting emotional? Maybe it’s because it’s her last thing she ever wrote. The last thing she ever put all of her emotion into. But Cassandra opens the drawer and finds a box full of letters. It makes her sad, but she picks it up and slams it on the desk. Anger was rising in her.

She put all of this emotion out there. On these pages. Her sadness caused by a man who’s head was far up his ass, and Cassandra was witnessing said man having the gall to be sad and regret his choices. “After these letters, you will realize how wrong you were even more than you had. You say you understand what she went through, but do you?” Cassandras voice was filled with venom. She wasn’t trying to be angry, she wasn’t, but it took over her. Blooms innocent life that was stolen had put her into a mess. “Even after these letters you will not understand. I witnessed her writing these. She cried over these pages. Cried over you. But I will leave you be,” she said, leaving the room before more hatred left her mouth.

Solas stared at the desk for a second, not able to move. He thought that if he stared long enough, she would appear at the desk...but he knows that’s not how it works. He gets up and goes over to the desk and looks in the basket. It was filled to the brim with letters. They all had his name written on the front of them. Written in her glorious handwriting. When he opened them, his heart crashed. He apparently fished out the last letter she wrote. The one before the final battle. He opened it and he read over it and he could hear the sadness in her voice if she said these aloud.

“Solas. I’m scared for tomorrow. It’s not for me...it’s for you. I don’t want to kill you, Solas. I don’t want to. I’ll do whatever I have to for it not to lead up to that. And I have a plan. A plan you will hate. I have to sacrifice myself. I love you, Solas. But I cannot let you destroy this world, full of people who don’t deserve this. Why not teach them? Tell them of their mistakes. We changed once and why can’t we change again?”

Before he knew it, tears fell down his cheeks. Of course she would say that. That people can change and be saved. She was always the one saying that, and he wasn’t surprised that it was one of the last things she wrote. He read the rest and it was her telling him how much she loved him. He read more and more. They talked about her helping kids, saving some animals, talked about her bad days (which he wishes he was there to comfort her...), tell funny stories, and they always ended with, “I love you, Solas.” He stayed up into the late hours of the night reading through this letters.

His heart aches now. And his fear has come true. He will die alone. Without his heart...

Hehe I LOVE sadness >:)))). And if you want a happy ending (LIKE I DO :() then just imagine her surviving and then him finding the letters and then both crying but just saying how they love each other :))). Take this sadness while I go read some Solas fics and CRY MY EYES OUT.

No proof reading bc it’s late and I’m tired. Sorry if there’s mistakes.

[cloudgazercadash]

Thora and solas banter after adamant

party banter meme | accepting | @theshirallen

Solas: You have been quiet since we made camp.Thora: Just… thinking.Solas: About the Warden?Thora: I don’t know how I’m going to look her husband in the eye and tell him what happened.Solas: It will not be easy, but I believe he will be understanding. She was a Warden, and a warrior before that, death is so much a part of their life that it is written in their motto.Thora: Knowing it’s a possibility doesn’t make facing it any easier.Solas: No, it does not. The world is less without her in it, let us hope the Wardens follow by her example.

Solas: What dwarven funerary rites are there?Thora: I only know what I’ve read, but they can get extravagant, grand ceremonies where bodies are committed to the earth, that sort of thing. Though they can be simple as just a few words spoken over the body.Solas: What words are they?Thora:Atrast tunsha. Totarnia amgetol tavash aeduc. (sighs heavily) But it doesn’t matter, dwarves that die on the Surface never return to the Stone, no matter how many words you speak over them. I imagine it’s no different in the Fade.Solas: I see.Thora: Maybe the Maker will step in. Maybe… I… I don’t know.Solas: Neither do I, but it is comforting to consider.

Thora: How is Ian?Solas: He has been… quiet. After all that has happened– processing these things is difficult. I was worried he would run, yet he remains.Thora: I’m sorry.Solas: It is not your doing.Thora: Maybe not, but… I’m sorry.

(after Solas returns from Destroy Adamant Fortress with the Chargers)

Thora: How was your field trip with the Chargers?Solas: From the time I spent with them I believe I better understand the Iron Bull. They were lively, aside from one…Thora: Grim?Solas: Yes. I thought I might have been the cause for his silence, but when they gave me his name it assuaged my doubts.Thora: Yeah, he’s like that with everyone as far as I know. Did the– were you able to set up the monument safely?Solas: It is modest, but even if it falls, it is sure to be remembered by the Fade. Thank you again, for allowing me to mark their loss.Thora: I can’t make people remember, but… it was the least I could do.