#when did I say that I would save you? ( fen'harel )

[baphometsss]

The Inquisitor's need to hear from Rook about how Solas helped them rescue the Dalish Clan is really interesting if they're Dalish, and especially so if you play as romanced Lavellan.

By his own admission in Trespasser, Solas didn't see anyone around him as true people in the beginning of DAI. In fact, he kills Felassan for refusing to help him any longer and suggesting that the modern elves deserved a chance.

It's why the Inquisitor needs to hear it from Rook, that he actually did save their lives. 'He's always thinking about where it ends.' He wants to be remembered as more than what the Dalish currently remember him as. He wants his sacrifices to mean something to the modern elves, for them to recognise the evils of the Evanuris and see that they are not worth worshipping. It stung him badly to see that his legacy was just as the great adversary, because it suggests that the elves who remained after the fall of Elvhenan did not think much of him, even after all he did for them. That one codex from the Vir Dirthara in Trespasser shows that people knew what Fen'harel did and it was viewed almost like an act of terrorism.

The fact that the Inquisitor goes on to call out Solas's prideful nature reflects that. He can't bear to be seen as truly evil because then he's as bad as his enemies, then all he did was for nothing.

He calls the Dalish 'our people' to an elven Rook, and I don't think he's lying, there. He didn't really have any reason to save the Dalish Clan. He could've let them die. He even describes saving them as a privilege, almost like he's atoning for what he did to the elves by protecting their children. Of course, he knows a lot more people will die when the veil comes down, and it doesn't make it any easier , as he says in Trespasser.

It's interesting for the Inquisitor to bring this up though, because it shows that they've been wondering if their time together in the Inquisition had any effect on him at all, if their pursuit of him over the years has changed him in any way. They're looking for tangible signs that he doubts himself, and that he actually wants his mind to be changed.

A romanced Lavellan will say that he forbade them from following him because he didn't want them to see what he would become, but that they don't believe this is the true reason. They know him better than anyone, they got closer to the real him than most. They know he doesn't really want to do it. They know he can't accept the notion that all the terrible things he's done have been for nothing. They know he's acting from a place of grief and trauma. Saving the Dalish Clan was just the proof they had been looking for.

[tenojan-in-tevinter]

Honestly I really want to be able to side with Solas in dreadwolf. I think it'd be super interesting to play as an elf in Tevinter and be able to just go "yeah actually I think Fen'Harel is right let's tear down that veil." I mean I assume the main conflict will be Solas trying to convince your character to join him, or your character being told they have to try and stop him, and there are not enough games that let you side with the presented "villain" character. I want to see what the world is like with no veil I'm so interested. Also so interested to see what full-on Fen'Harel Solas is like. Is he still as empathetic? Or is he more conniving and distanced from "mortals" like the old stories would have us believe?

[felassan]

A spear would be an odd choice for a mage, and if this weapon he's holding is a staff it's awfully arrow-like. I'm interpreting it as an arrow, as The Slow Arrow.

"The god Fen'Harel was asked by a village to kill a great beast. He came to the beast at dawn, and saw its strength, and knew it would slay him if he fought it. So instead, he shot an arrow up into the sky. The villagers asked Fen'Harel how he would save them, and he said to them, 'When did I say that I would save you?' And he left, and the great beast came into the village that night and killed the warriors, and the women, and the elders. It came to the children and opened its great maw, but then the arrow that Fen'Harel had loosed fell from the sky into the great beast's mouth, and killed it. The children of the village wept for their parents and elders, but still they made an offering to Fen'Harel of thanks, for he had done what the villagers had asked. He had killed the beast, with his cunning, and a slow arrow that the beast never noticed." -- Felassan

[source]

[internalloops]

I sort of feel like I'm the only one who doesn't want Solas to lose his power/ "god" hood in his redemption ending (if he survives it ).

Solas the fade-loving apostate, before we discovered who he really was never interested me in my first playthrough of DA:I (which we now know was intended and done beautifully) I didn't dislike him, and my first inquisitor was on good terms with him, but he didn't draw me in like Dorian, The iron bull , and the other companions did. He kind of was just there and I didn't really use him cause of it so I missed all the hints about his identity. It was only when it was revealed that he was fen'harel did he become interesting to me. (the elven/dwarven lore is my bread and butter when it comes to dragon age) And that's when I started to get into his story and jumped on the solavellan train.

So for him to lose that part of himself (magic and all) is to take away the part of him that makes him interesting as a character for me. As I saw a post say, it only keeps half of himself not him as a whole. And while some would see that as a fair punishment for the damage he's done/tried to do, as I see it with everything he's been through and the sacrifices he had to make: in order to save the elven people from mad gods, he had to literally create the veil and destroy their empire so that the world didn't fall to the blight... and that is killing him on the inside, to strip him of his power and a core part of who he is, feels like a low blow and a low hanging fruit solution to how to deal with him.

And those who are of the mind that no one in the world should hold his type of power, I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. That's not really how the world works, in reality or in fantasy. there will always be people who have more than others (power, resources, influence.. etc), and there will always be people who will do anything to the point of destroying people's lives in order to keep what they have/get more of it. And in regards to this fantasy world, you need powerful people to combat them. Had solas never gained the power he now wields, theads would not exist. If the inquisitor never gained the power of HIS orb, they would never have been able to defeat corypheus. If rook never got the lyrim dager that solas needed to be a full magical strength to purify, rook would have no way to fight/kill the elven gods.

Solas being a god/extremely powerful mage is what let our heroes become heroes in the first place.

I want Solas to accept his past and lose his guilt over making the veil (go to therapy you stupid egg) I want him to realize that he is not beholden to the stories that paint him in a negative light and that he can use his power for good (like he intended it) instead of destruction. That when his plans are not born from guilt and desperation (and they work), they are world-saving. I want this freaking man to finally learn the decades-long lesson that he refuses to accept, that no one, no matter how powerful they are can save the world alone.

But that's just me....

[ohmyarda]

Slow Arrow “The god Fen'Harel was asked by a village to kill a great beast. He came to the beast at dawn, and saw its strength, and knew it would slay him if he fought it. So instead, he shot an arrow up into the sky. The villagers asked Fen'Harel how he would save them, and he said to them, ‘When did I say that I would save you?’ And he left, and the great beast came into the village that night and killed the warriors, and the women, and the elders. It came to the children and opened its great maw, but then the arrow that Fen'Harel had loosed fell from the sky into the great beast’s mouth, and killed it. The children of the village wept for their parents and elders, but still they made an offering to Fen'Harel of thanks, for he had done what the villagers had asked. He had killed the beast, with his cunning, and a slow arrow that the beast never noticed.” The Masked Empire, pg. 73

[mythalism]

ok im going to try and parse through my feelings on the entire game in the hopes that expelling these thoughts from my brain will allow me to actually sleep because i am running on about 3 hours right now

i will start positive with the things i absolutely loved:

solas. whos suprised

just kidding i will elaborate further of course. genuinely, from a (mostly) objective writing perspective, he is the best part of this game. like hands down. his writing is bonkers insane. he has the best lines and the most complexity out of any character in the game (besides mythal perhaps). i was so so so afraid they were going to completely woobify him into someone who was right all along and never did anything wrong in his life blah blah to make him sympathetic to a new audience. they did not give a fuck however and i could not be more glad. he is exactly the dread wolf and bringer of nightmares of legend. he is so wonderfully in character, even if that character is not someone we saw in inquisition (we saw solas, not the dread wolf!). there are moments that solas shines through, like in his mentions of varric in the very beginning, when he mentions his love for the inquisitor, his convo with a rook he respects (which i do believe was genuine, even if he betrays them anyway. we know that he regularly betrays people that he likes and respects lol), the way he helps the shadow dragons and saves the dalish, and of course in his final scene with the inquisitor. he manages to retain that perfect back and forth, mask on and mask off, solas vs. fen'harel dichotomy with a different balance than the one we saw in inquisition. in inquisition, we saw solas with hints of the dread wolf peeking through. in veilguard, we see the dread wolf with hints of solas peeking through. ok i need to move on or i will talk about him forever. but they nailed the moral ambiguity with him. they nailed the theme of forgiveness being hard. i loved when harding said something along the lines of "there is no one who doesnt deserve forgiveness" this is one of the few consistent themes that this game was successful in exploring. ok ok moving on now i promise

i also loved mythal (fragment mythal, not morrigan mythal who was a flop). admittedly i am a mythal stan, but her integration into this story was a highlight for me. she haunted the narrative in such a great way. it added so much complexity to solas. hearing him GROWL at elgar'nan in rage "you have lost the right to say her name" made me scream in glee. i loved talking to her and having to prove my worth to her. i love that it was hard and she would kill you without hesitation if she found you unworthy. i love that if she does find you worthy she is instrumental in changing solas's mind. i loved her dragon appearance even if she was useless in the damn fight lol. morrigan mythal sucked tho but thats for later

similar vein but the main quests were fantastic, with a few caveats. but overall every main quest had me hooked, having so much fun, at the edge of my seat and screaming and flailing in my chair. weisshaupt was incredible, BLOOD OF ARLATHAN WAS INSANE (the solas elgarnan bitch fight will go down in history as a moment of all time for me) and of course the finale was some of the best writing ive seen from bioware. the way suspense was built was well done, the stakes felt high, and the twists were interesting.

choice and consequence was absolutely banger. i gasped when i went back to dock town after leaving minrathous to fend for itself and saw a gallows with bodies hanging from nooses and piles of bodies in the streets. i gasped when harding died. i gasped when bellara got blighted. definitely the best choice and consequence in the entire franchise and it was very satisfying. i feel motivated to play again to see different options play out.

the environments are fucking insane. genuinely insane giga brained genius. i have never been so gagged by a video game like this. not only were they beautiful but they were well-designed, interesting and diverse. i rarely got bored anywhere (except treviso lol) and i was regularly picking my jaw up off the floor. some highlights for me were the anderfels area where you first meet davrin with that amazing vista, kal sharok, the docktown catacombs, pretty much anything in arlathan, the deep roads, and honestly so much. absolutely beautiful.

this game felt incredibly cinematic and the direction was fantastic. the cutscenes were so well done and they transitioned so smoothly into gameplay. the animation was fantastic, and everything was so engaging to watch. my favorite cutscene has to be when solas is about to switch places with rook and you see him in the background out of the corner of your eye twice, though rook doesnt know. i was literally screaming it was so fucking cool. it genuinely felt like watching a movie a lot of the time

i genuinely enjoyed the gameplay loop of exploration. i had a lot of fun just exploring around docktown and arlathan, there was always something new to find, i loved the puzzles, and i loved finding codex entries. this is a crazy thing to say but it actually reminded me a lot of genshin impact LMFAO. which i know a lot of people would probably consider to be a negative but i thought it was engaging and fun.

combat fucks. it got a little repetitive by the end, mostly because i think i just wanted to find out the end of the story and fucking darkspawn were in my way, but it was a huge step up from previous games and i think action combat was a good choice.

this game has an incredible amount of genuine heart and soul put into it and you can feel it in every facet of the game. i can tell that the devs were passionate and their creativity was genuine. i could feel their love for the characters and the world. this game is unflinchingly sincere and not afraid of being cringe (though it definitely is cringe at times, i respect the commitment to it so i dont mind it). it genuinely does not feel like an EA cash grab, which is a huge win considering how likely it was for years that a cash grab was exactly what we were going to get.

i enjoyed the varric ghost twist. i knew something was up with him but i didnt fully call him being dead until right before the reveal. i get why people are going to be upset about it, its a pretty fucking crazy decision, but i think what saves it is the quote he gives rook in the fade about his choices being his own and still encouraging rook to try to get through to solas despite being KILLED BY HIM.... fucking crazy. it ties in enough to the overall theme of regret and forgiveness that i think it works.

ok time for the negatives

its hard to pick my biggest issue but i definitely have a top 3: the lore flopped majorly, much of the writing felt juvenile, and there was an overall lack of nuance to everything about the game except for solas's storyline that did feel very not-dragon age to me

i actually dont give a fuck about lore retcons, especially if they are explained well. i think they are often necessary and can be pulled off. but this game literally just pretended to answer decades long questions about the lore and then does not. which would be fine if we didnt have someone who knows all the answers to those questions hanging out in our brains and willing to answer them. we did not learn what exactly a titan was. we did not learn what they were like when they were alive and before they were blighted. mythal called them monsters. harding suggests they might have been violent like the elves. we literally dont know anything about them except for what solas and mythal did to them. i dont think anyone even actually gave a clear answer on what the blight is. ok it was the titan's severed dreams but what the fuck does that mean? it was their rage and pain? then why does harding say the red lyrium manifested by her rage and pain was not blighted, just red? if blight equals titan nightmares then that lyrium should have been blighted? so what the fuck is the blight that ghilan'nain cooked with? red lyrium? how did the original darkspawn get made? did she start injecting people with red lyrium? but we know what that does to people because we saw it in inquisition. it makes them red lyrium freaks but it doesnt make them darskpawn. WHAT ARE DARKSPAWN? WHAT IS THE BLIGHT? did i miss this in a codex entry or something guys im so serious. how did we play this whole game and not actually learn what the blight is. we also learned almost nothing about the forgotten ones, which is fine except we literally met one and all they really had to say about it was "evil spirit" ? ok. also um. where are the rest of the evanuris. ok they are gone but where did they go. we know where their archdemons went, but where did they go? ghilan'nain exists separate from her archdemon so its not like killing an archdemon kills the evanuris, it just makes them vulnerable. should they not all be still alive in that prison together, just mortal and archdemon-less? they literally just say "they're gone" and expect us to be like ok! WHAT THE FUCK??? WHERE ARE THEY?? WHERE ARE THEIR BODIES??? WHAT??????? also the explanation for archdemons was boring. it felt like the team literally did not know the answers themselves (and didnt feel like calling up david gaider) so they just gave us vague non-answers hoping we wouldnt notice. I NOTICED.

similar vein; we learned nearly nothing about elgar'nan and ghilan'nain, and they overall felt cartoonishly evil and one-dimensional. and this is a greater problem that ill talk about next, but they were afforded none of the nuance that solas and mythal were given, and it feels glaring in comparison. why was elgarn'nan evil? was he just born fucking evil? we know thats not true. he originated as a spirit, what kind of spirit? what was his relationship with mythal like? what was his relationship to the other evanuris like? he calls ghilan'nain "sister", were they always close? did they become close in their prison? what are his goals beyond tyranny? or do you actually want me to believe he is just full stop evil? if he was one of the original spirit born elvhen what virtue did he embody and what polluted him into something so terrible? why does ghilan'nain love the blight? why is she obsessed with creation? we only get a single codex about she and andruil (that i found). what was her and solas's relationship like before she ascended to godhood? he calls her "the best of them" but we never see anything about their relationship. neither of them has any nuance. they are just pure evil, corrupted by ???? something ??? power??? i guess. and we are supposed to just be fine with it lol. what are even their motivations? why do they want to cover the world in blight? what is their emotional connection to this pursuit??????? we get such an exploration of this for solas and just NOTHING for them. they feel so one-dimensional in comparison, literal comic book cartoon character villains.

similarly, this game lacks nuance overall. bioware is known for its exploration of grey morality on both personal and sociopolitical levels. this game has that only for solas and literally no one else. qunari antaam? evil (super fucking racist depiction as well). venatori? evil minions. elven gods? evil. forgotten ones? evil. meanwhile, crows? suddenly good. its okay. just forget the MURDER, child slavery and abuse. seriously its fine. caterina dellamorte is a sweet old lady :) dont worry about it :). every faction is good and every antagonist is bad. its genuinely insane coming from the studio who gave us dragon age 2 to now give us something so fucking boring and black and white. they got SO CLOSE with the wardens and isseya and in the end davrin still kills her. why does solas get a chance at redemption and no one else does? here we are with an entire story centered around this morally grey character, interrogating whether or not his actions are justified, whether his intentions matter, whether his abuse informed his atrocities, asking ourselves if he deserves forgiveness asking if he deserves to be saved, where do we draw the line? what is the point of no return? why do people do the things they do? its fantastic. and then you go and do a faction or companion quest and its just like, these are the good guys and these are the bad guys. dont ask questions. have fun! WHAT???? FROM BIOWARE??????????

this issue bleeds over into the companions as well. i genuinely liked all of them. they are likable. but holy shit they have no flaws. all of them are genuinely good people and their problems center around others rather than themselves. there is little to no complexity, to the point where honestly they did not feel like real people to me. harding is sweet and perfect and her worst trait is being *checks notes* TOO AGREEABLE? davrin's worst flaw is raising his voice at his pet too much. emmrich's only flaw is FEARING DEATH LIKE A NORMAL HUMAN BEING? neve is kind of cold. thats it. bellara never does anything wrong. lucanis doesnt sleep enough? taash is the closes they come to any sort of complexity and i did genuinely enjoy their identity struggle and i loved seeing their complex relationship with their mother. but none of those are flaws. like these characters are cookie-cutter perfect. we used to have companions who committed acts of terror and blood mages and mean jealous little brothers and did horrible things and said horrible things to each other and struggled with things like internalized racism and complacency in violent corrupt institutions and addiction and facing your fucking war crimes and they are some of the most beloved of the franchise because they feel SO REAL. like genuinely going from characters like anders and blackwall to these companions was so jarring and disappointng. i LIKE them all, dont get me wrong. but they do not act like real, complex fully fleshed out people, and the writing overall suffers greatly for it.

again connected, the writing in terms of literal dialogue but also what i mentioned above comes together to feel incredibly juvenile. i know some big reviewers beforehand said that the game feels like a pixar movie at times, and unfortunately i dont think thats inaccurate. a little harsh maybe, but there are moments that are truly written in such a way that it feels like the audience is children. and that doesnt mean its bad, because i am a lover of childrens media and most of my favorite media of all time is actually for kids (avatar the last airbender, fullmetal alchemist, etc), but this game oscillates back and forth so violently it will give you literal whiplash. it reminded me a lot of the way young adult fiction is written. GOOD young adult fiction, where its well-done, but its deliberately written to be simpler in both diction and theme and focuses on concepts that young people can identify with. this is how i felt during much of the companion quests during this game. again, it was GOOD young adult fiction, but it had the narrative styling and lack of nuance and complexity that is characteristic of such things, and that is just literally not what the game is supposed to be like. and there are great writing moments that do feel appropriately mature and complex, but they are mostly in the main quest and their presence makes the lack of maturity in the rest of the writing feel even more jarring. i have no idea why they wrote it this way.

morrigan's mythal flopped and was out of character. i missed flemeth's crazy ass. they literally nerfed her. i think this is connected to everyone being nice and good and perfect (no abusive mothers allowed!) which is crazy because the other mythal fragment got to be a crazy bitch. so what the hell

the lack of world states is still a major L. it felt like things were missing that should have been present and had no reason not to be other than just no worldstates. well of sorrows needed to be there ESPECIALLY considering the solas/mythal/lavellan dynamic.

this one is self-indulgence but solavellan could have benefited from better pacing. packing so much into act 3 made it feel rushed. i loved the scenes themselves, but there could have easily been more build-up with a few codex entries.

no fenris. i will never forgive

ok im running out of steam and actually feeling more able to sleep now (thank god). i know i said a lot of negatives but i actually believe this game is very, very good, especially within the context of its development. i think a lot of the issues likely do stem from their fraught development cycle, and overall they did a great job of identifying their priorities and pursuing them to the fullest. i dont necessarily agree with what they prioritized or what their vision was at all points, but i respect the clear direction that this game had. i do not believe it will stick with me the way the previous games did, and while playing i often found myself just missing the characters from 2 and inquisition that i love, and the writing that so often had me screaming crying throwing up and/or giggling and twirling my hair. however, this game gave me the #1 thing i wanted which was a satisfying solavellan conclusion, and though yes it could have been done a bit more... artfully, i think its incredible considering where we were just a few years ago with this game. i will play it again a few times, and the fact that it has sold well enough to guarantee bioware gets to stick around and make new games is a major win. 7.5/10 thank u for listening

[hustlemeanokay]

Some rando thoughts about Solas in Veilguard. About how I think they did such a great job allowing him to be able to fit a lot of headcanons out there. Spoilery so it's below the cut.

So. If you've played through DA:Ve (I refuse to call it anything else in acronyms because I think that is the funniest one ever) - then you know that Solas began life as a Spirit of Wisdom. And if you're well versed on spirits in the DA canon - then you know that spirits will mirror the world around them / become what is expected of them depending on whoever is encountering them. They become what you expect. And I think, personally, they did such a good job of this when it comes to Solas in the game.

Yes, I know - they laid down such a rigid Inquisitor backstory for him and I do agree with the fact that they could have allowed players to be like "no, actually, my Inquisitor loathed Solas and Solas loathed them." but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. So, they wanted the Inquisitor to have at least been on friendly terms with Solas. (If you select they vowed to stop Solas, he says they were friendly once or something along those lines and if they say they vowed to save Solas, Solas will say he still considers them a dear friend or something like that - I can't remember the exact dialogue). And yes - it is a better story if the Inquisitor and him were in a relationship. It adds another layer of awe and tragedy. Because this dude is hella old and here he is, falling in love with a mortal that he now knowingly puts in mortal danger because he has to fix his mistakes. I mean, we can (and have) go into great lengths about it.

But! What I think they did so well is that Solas... for all his past deeds, for ill or good, will be whatever you want him to be in the end. If you want Solas to be this vulnerable spirit who is just out there doing his best, making choices he has no idea how to make, with no context, with no idea how to be mortal because the dude takes thousands x thousands of years long naps - he'll be that. If you want Solas to be Fen'harel - hell bent on burning the world - an advisory, an asshole who will straight up finally say that he is a god? He'll be that.

Up until this point, we've only known the gentle Solas. The apostate hobo who gawks at an Inquisitor who punches him like he couldn't fathom such violence though he himself has done untold atrocities in the past. But here? In the Veilguard? We can witness him straight up killing a friend (accidently but still) and blatantly manipulating another person. And I mean, I can't be the only one who was like "dude, shut up" during the only time you get to have him along side you fighting and he's going on and on and on about how good Rook is at being the one to fight this fight. (Insert Rook's "I will pay real gold if he'll shut up" about Elgar'nan.)

I mean, Solas is almost painfully transparent towards the end. But, even still - he can be saved. Granted, the relationship with the Inquisitor has to exist but still - that just makes a certain amount of sense. Because he'd need another something drastic there to really change his course. I've put it in countless fics of mine, often said by Varric. You don't save the world for the world, you save it for the people in it. And Solas will have had one meaningful relationship with one person still living. And that would be the Inquisitor. And friendship is fleeting - he's had friends. Many of them over the years. Some who he had never dreamed would have betrayed him (Mythal) and others he's betrayed (the list is endless). But he's only ever had one love. No matter if you think him and Mythal had a thing (they didn't, sorry Taash).

ANYWAY, that's not the point - the point is that all the interactions you can have with Solas, you can mold him into whatever it is you've HC'd him as, really. He can be a little smart-assy, a little sassy, a little funny, a little humble, a little joyful, a little bit of a hero (he's not a really good one though, poor guy), a little bit of a protector, a little bit of a total asshole, a little bit of a bad guy, etc, etc. And I think they did that so well. They did it without it feeling forced or fake (except those praises he did for Rook there at the end but I think that was more about us knowing that he was tricking Rook in real time).

So, yeah - I'm just glad they didn't lock it down into Solas is this and nothing more type narrative.

[lasandra]

How My favorite 2 Lavellan Inquisitors Feel About Solas: Pt 2 Assana

Under the cut like Pt 1 because, also long. Pt 1

Assana Lavellan: For context, though Assana is the First of her clan, just like Eowynn, they couldn't be more different. Where Eowynn was a dutiful leader, Assana never wanted to lead. Assana had many doubts about what she was taught by the keeper and the elders of her clan. She had always been a curious youth particularly when it came to the past. She was curious of Fen'Harel in particular. How could she not be? He was not trapped in the Beyond or the Abyss like the others. That meant there was a chance (albeit small) that she could one day encounter him. She wanted to be prepared for that. Assana's curiosity of the man Solas began the instant he started telling her about the mark on her hand, so you know, basically immediately. Who was this man who knew so much about the mark on her hand? And just HOW did he know so much? He was fascinating to her. He was no Dalish, and yet he didn't act like your typical run of the mill city elf either. This of course led to her pestering him with all her questions. She was surprised when he seemed to enjoy her pestering. Most had always gotten annoyed with her "ceaseless questioning." His answers were delightfully unexpected. Conversation with him was the first time she'd heard so many of her own opinions coming from the mouth of someone other than her. It was as though she had found a kindred spirit. He even introduced new ideas she had never considered before that all sounded rather amazing. His flirtation caught her off-guard, because yes, he really seemed to flirt with her first. She was surprised but both receptive and reciprocal. Any time she went out, she brought him with, always seeking his advice, always listening to the conversations he'd have with the others. She realized not everything was as it seemed with that man but kept it to herself. After the destruction of Haven, when Solas told her of the Orb, that was the moment she felt like he trusted her and her affection for him grew. She had not accepted the idea that he might feel the same affection for her until... "And right then, I felt the whole world change." "You change... everything..." Kissing him felt like a no-brainer until she was actually doing it. Quickly doubt flooded her mind and she pulled back. Maybe it had been a mistake. Maybe he didn't really see her like that. Maybe... Or maybe he did. Maybe things were even more complicated than even she had begun to suspect.

The further along into their relationship they went, the more certain she was of her suspicions. She theorized that he had been hurt in a previous relationship. He had a hard time trusting, spoke often of betrayal. She was saddened by this, wondering just how badly he'd been hurt. She was determined to do everything in her power to help him not feel that way around her. In the Crestwood scene, she allowed him to remove her vallaslin. When he suddenly broke off the relationship, she was somewhat flabbergasted. She was quick to believe it had something to do with whatever he was hiding, as well as his past experience. "I'm not giving up on you, Solas." "Whatever you need, we can find together." She isn't mad at him or even painfully hurt on her own behalf. More so, she is sad FOR him. It's obvious to her that he loves her and she knows enough about him to believe that it scares him. She tries talking to him about it but he's evasive, of course. She is willing to give him time though, if that will help him. It's not until after the battle with Corypheus that Assana is really and truly hurt by Solas. She really thought that after the battle, they would be able to talk, and she could show him that he didn't need to be afraid with her. How could he just… leave like that. Without even so much as saying goodbye? She thought she meant more to him than that. During Trespasser, she was too worried about saving him from the Qunari to worry about reading anything on her way. So unlike Eowynn she got to hear the truth from Solas directly. To say she was surprised would be an understatement. She had been romantically involved with the member of her pantheon that she had been obsessed with since she was a small girl and she hadn't been able to put 2 and 2 together?? She doesn't dwell on the fact though. When he told her of his plan, she understood. She wanted the same world as him, after all. She begged him to take her with him. That she could not stand the idea of him being alone. Learning his fear of dying alone had left a lasting impression on her. Long story short, the girl is desperate and determined to save him, to be by his side.

[hoboblaidd]

the slow arrow

'when did I say that I would save you?'

The god Fen'Harel was asked by a village to kill a great beast. He came to the beast at dawn, and saw its strength, and knew it would slay him if he fought it. So instead, he shot an arrow up into the sky. The villagers asked Fen'Harel how he would save them, and he said to them, 'when did I say that I would save you?' And he left, and the great beast came into the village that night and killed the warriors, and the women, and the elders. It came to the children and opened its great maw, but then the arrow that Fen'Harel had loosed fell from the sky into the great beast's mouth, and killed it. The children of the village wept for their parents and elders, but still they made an offering to Fen'Harel of thanks, for he had done what the villagers had asked. He had killed the beast, with his cunning, and a slow arrow that the beast never noticed.

—Felassan, to Briala

[broodwolf221]

i already talked about his personality and behavior, now i want to dig into my theories about solas' distant past

note: these are just theories. some of these have already been discussed and/or are parts of fanon, so im not claiming that everything here is Incredibly Unique, but this is my particular view of all of it. sry this is so long i honestly tried my best but im very autistic and detail oriented.

i think that solas is one of the forgotten ones. the forgotten ones and the creators warred against each other and solas - fen'harel - was alone said to travel between the two groups.

i think it's bc solas was the spirit of wisdom. i think all the forgotten ones were spirits - more, i think they were the first spirits. not necessarily more/stronger/better than the spirits that followed, but the first.

and i think that they were the first sentient beings to exist.

when you're in the fade after adamant, solas comments that fear is one of the earliest emotions - save perhaps desire. and in the wiki, it says that the forgotten ones brought all strife to the dalish and the world, while the creators brought all good

now, we know that the creators were just powerful mages, the evanuris. how could mages have brought all good into the world? i mean, they already had a society, the good was there, they didn't will it into being. so, the creators did not bring all good into the world.

and we know that spirits can be corrupted into demons - too, we know from solas that they don't have to be, that it's dependent on interpretation.

i think that the forgotten ones, and by extension all spirits, are both a spirit and a demon. so, using solas as an example, he is both wisdom and pride. not at once, but as needed, as relevant.

and if we accept that, then it stands to reason that the forgotten ones, these primodial spirits, brought all good and all bad into the world. that's also why i view them as the first sentient beings. they made emotions. identified them, if nothing else.

going back to solas' description of spirits being changed by how they're viewed... i think that was true when the forgotten ones and the 'creators' were living at the same time. but i don't think it was a fixed transformation at that time. a spirit of X viewed as a demon of X might become that demon, but it wouldn't be anything like permanent.

it's not even permanent in the current game canon, as we saw with wisdom/pride/wisdom - but it took both undoing its bindings and having solas view it as a spirit to transform it back. and solas knew its nature.

but i think we're back to the nature of the fade here. the fade being part of the waking world made things more fluid, more changeable. nothing was as fixed or permanent as it is in the split world. which is also, imo, why the fade is now SO changeable, so malleable. the permanence went into the waking world, the mutability went into the fade, the veil a strict division between the two

if desire was the first emotion, and fear second, i think that pride - and thus, wisdom - would be the last. wisdom comes at the end, right? it's not a physiological need, it doesn't keep you safe, it doesn't inform you about the world directly. wisdom is about interpreting information, not just obtaining it - that's more curiosity. so i think that solas was the youngest of the forgotten ones.

and i think he - or it, really - watched the world. i think solas studied all, learned all, interpreted all, and did nothing for a long, long time, that being its fundamental nature. and then i think the 'creators' attacked the forgotten ones, perhaps wanting to bind them, or perhaps the forgotten ones tried to stop the evanuris from binding other spirits, im not sure. but the point is: there was war, or at least conflict, between the two groups

wisdom sees this. wisdom feels it knows what to do. so wisdom approaches the creators and tries to end the war before its begun. maybe it's as vaguely described in canon, that it promised both sides a means of ending the conflict; perhaps wisdom's choice was deceit. alternatively, perhaps it was acting as a peacekeeper, trying to make everybody understand one another, understand that war was unnecessary

whatever its purpose, it interacted with the evanuris and learned about the elvhen people and their culture. it obviously grew to respect mythal. solas calls her the best of them, says that she protected her people. i also think she was unique in that she cared about spirits, or at least grew to.

but i also think that what solas said is true, that mythal did protect the elvhen. she cared about more than herself and her power. but my theories about mythal and her nature are a different post, so that's all i'll say about her here.

now. it's important to note that i think solas - wisdom - alone of all the forgotten ones has never transformed. there was no need to. why become pride in complacency and peace? why shift from wisdom when there was still so much to learn?

but when the evanuris slew mythal, i think solas was born. its first transformation to pride - full of contempt and enmity, certain it knew exactly what to do going into this (end the war) and equally certain it knew what to do now (punish the evanuris)

so, pride used all its knowledge to draw the veil. pride, in its fury, split the world in half. pride sealed the evanuris away. and somehow, perhaps because it was the one to draw the veil or perhaps for no more reason than its physical position, it alone went to the waking world.

where it took the elvhen word for pride as its name. it was solas, now. he was solas, now. he took that name as a punishment and an admittance, at least to himself, of his crime. not sealing the evanuris away, but splitting the world in so doing, destroying so much of the life he'd watched grow.

the evanuris were sealed, and what happened to the forgotten ones was unknown, supposedly sealed away in "the abyss"

but i think that through one of several potential explanations, the forgotten ones are the old gods. either they seep through the fade into a possible host, or the abyss crosses the boundary between the waking world and the fade, or they fell into the depths of the waking world with solas.

regardless, i think they are the old gods, and i think the demon part of them is what makes the archdemons and, by extension, the blight. i also think this is why solas is so disturbed by the grey warden's desperate plan to hunt down and slay all the old gods - those are the forgotten ones. the ones that are left, anyway, assuming when the grey wardens slay an archdemon they really slay it and don't just like... transfer it back to the abyss, which i suppose is possible

and in a roundabout way, the mythos of the chantry is vindicated. 'heaven' - or, a peaceful existence - was disrupted by mages - the evanuris - who sought power. those mages indirectly created the blight, because they brought war to the primordial spirits.

and the forgotten ones, spoken of in dalish lore as the harbingers of all terror and disease and bad, are in fact the bringers of all, the closest to a true god that any of these would-be gods come to, but still not gods themselves. just powerful. and just first.

[tokyopewpew]

Veilguard Breakdown Pt 2

Going deeper into each companion, their quests. Factions, Cameos, and some writing stuff. SPOILERS ABOUND, read at your own risk.

These are still mostly chronological notes reacting real time to quests and characters:

I had some HOT opinions on some early game stuff. Solas' comment on abhorring blood magic, some comments on the elves and how the Veil Jumpers were so on board with denouncing their gods. My finger shot up to "well actually" very quickly but I kept playing and they addressed them. They clarify like a little later and I think that's something I and a lot of other people have gotten bad at: being patient with writing.

Now don't get me wrong, there is a lot of bad writing out there that won't address stuff that is important.

But we gotta trust sometimes that we won't get a wall of exposition right away. That we'll get a line that makes us go, huh that's interesting I want to know more about that. And wait five minutes to naturally come back to it.

AAAAAAAA INKY SHOWS UP! Pretty early! Happy to see them so soon!

BACK AND SO COOL I LOVE THE DIALOGUE BEING A LEADER BEING A HERO

BITCH SHES GETTING DRAWN AS THE GENERAL SHE IS!! SAVING SOUTHERN THEDAS. (I did not disband the Inquisition. I had a Solavellan inquisitor which by the end of Inquisition is fucking beat down into playing the role of The Herald, which I like as a mirror of Solas and his mask of Fen'Harel.)

Damn Solas being a catty sexy sassy bitch saying he tortured a bitch with rumors and laughter. Note from later: THE FUCKING ROLLERCOASTER THEY ROCK YOU ON

everyone is def less bitchy than previous games and not dealing with as much overt racism. Not having a base in “the real world” removes some of that. But despite taking place in cities, not seeing alienages or acknowledging that makes it super different. I’m sure it’s something people will criticize but im ok with Thedas being Nicer™️. Companions are less bitchy but there is tension and conflict but it is like. communicated and resolved super easily. Which i know it’s maybe fun for Alistar and Morrigan to fight and argue but you have to have a character like Morrigan to do that. There aren’t really any catty bitches on the squad. This is a group of professionals hired on a job. They all feel more like coworkers than a found family. Like DA:2 as a group gave me anxiety they would shit on each other so much like you guys should not be friends.

Don’t know what the beef people have with the dialogue. It all works fine for me.

Taash’s gender stuff is a little fast. Baby’s first gender story but it’s still good. They are appealing to wide audience. Still nice to see. I love Maddie’s Mini on tiktok’s comment that like the qun’s gender roles are so progressive they wrap back around to being conservative. Men and women have distinct roles and they WILL trans your gender to fit them. So Taash being non-binary is like the one way to be difficult for her mom to understand about gender.

Solas was a spirit! Imean they all were. with lyrium bodies?? ok guess that’s why y’all are immortal. ugh i love all that implies. He hates having a physical form but learning to love all the sensations that come with it. The body is joy but also horror. The miseries too but food, touch, smell.

omg so cute when harding moved a rock she shakes her hands in the air like woo i did it!

wow took awhile to remember to write notes (I played like 15 hours forgetting to do any notes)

Interesting mix of companion quests! Funny I did the Formless One dragon first so now every subsequent dragon fight has been a breeze.

Harding’s personal quest was an easy choice: push for compassion. She’s so nice. Bellara’s final choice felt disconnected from her “omg it’s my BROTHER” lines. and Neve I didn’t really have a say because i didn’t help Minrathous. I think i got her to be a defender of Dock Town?

Taash and Emmerich’s both are the best, most emotional and RP wise, hardest choices. while I didn’t give a fuck about these side boss characters, Taash’s emotional end with her mom was very impactful. Hezzenkoss’ giant skeleton was super cool visually and MANFREED. I chose to revive him because idk. I think when we’re fighting against immortal gods it’s hard to be like yea do that too Emmerich. But it’s still sad and either way he’s having to confront loss and mortality?? So either way is bittersweet which is GOOD WRITING. Cannot believe people choose lich romanced Emmerich.

Davrin’s quest was very satisfying too! It also felt like an easy choice to have the griffons start a new legacy since that is nice symmetry to his own storyline.

loved getting to run around Villa Delamorte locked in with a romance to Lucanis like wait a second this is… your house? This. Is your house. YOUR house. ok ok ok like fuck i’m a backwoods elf treasure hunter wtf and having to meet Catarina again but now as like. Her favorite grandson’s romantic partner. Neither choice for his felt particularly impactful. Maybe if they killed Illario and not just imprisoned him? I think i picked his based on armor tbh. The only one I did that for.

Yay to my inquisitor and rook having a drink together! I do love my Lavellan but Rook is like girl, stand up. Oh my god. (But internally, oh my god I love the dialogue ugh)

Very tame romance scenes (I took this back by the end. I appreciate the ramping up in the final fight and Lucanis only being able to get some comfortable sleep with her there is… oh so good. They have such an interesting dynamic. Babysitting Spite. Will write more in fanfic to explore it). Their lead up was very unromantic.

THANK GOD NO HARD TIME WITH THE GRIFFONS!!! They survive without blight!! Kind of a stupid choice tbh why not have them both get some gryphies? In the forest and the wardens? also rip but i’m hoping the wardens won’t be around much longer

[theharellan]

The Strength:  Thora Cadash by @antaarf

Save me alike from foolish pride,    Or impious discontent, At aught thy wisdom has denied,    Or aught thy goodness lent. Teach me to feel another’s woe,    To hide the fault I see; That mercy I to others show,    That mercy show to me. Commission of my Thora Cadash’s post-Trespasser tarot, also featuring Solas, as they play big roles in one another’s arcs and I couldn’t resist swapping a lion for a wolf. Thanks again to Anta for working with me on this!

Find the artist here: Twitter (@ArfArts) ☀ Instagram (@anta_rf)  ☀ Patreon (@anta_rf)

[mywitchcultblr]

Not people saying "Solas want to destroy the world to bring back Arlathan'"

In Tevinter Nights he said this:

But then he said this:

So 'Before this world ended' is contradictory with 'What I am doing will save this world, and those like you—the elves who still remain—may even find it better when, when it's done'

I think this is intentional, Solas often speaks in double meaning and half-truth. I have a weird feeling that his plan is not the apocalypse, this world ended could just be the world of Thedas that we know now end. Doesn't mean all lives will die apocalyptic level.

Still i have no idea whatever only elves who will survive or maybe all people surviving. It's possible even with the veil down, other races survives too (they just gonna be mages, which is the natural state of everyone)

What if tearing down the veil might be a necessary step to deal with blight? Evanuris? Other threats??

Who knows it remains to be seen. But i found it hilarious that some people are falling for 'solas is the next big bad' no, Dragon Age always have a secondary bigger threat that is revealed half-way through or in the end.

Also the last thing Solas wanted is the old Arlathan. You can tell from the way he talks about his fellow elven gods.

I bet all of my money theres another legitimate reasons behind his plan. And I bet with and without Solas, the veil is going down anyway. You can't keep the evanuris there forever.

@thedreadblog Morrigan also made a remark about how change is necessary, there's sandal and his prophecy, i also read Drakon's vision about the maker returned and make the world paradise or at least harmonious again from Felassan post (yes Drakon is a piece of shit egocentric zealot lying bastard but still it's a piece of lore) and WHO just returned from his long lost sleep? Solas.

Make the world harmonious again (or something like that) sounds like no-veil world again.

Also there's people who speculating that Solas doesn't care about his people because he wants to tear down the veil then that's mean all people will die including his followers

Look at this picture below:

This is a very modern looking ship, definitely inspired by aravel. But i think this is an ancient transportation from Arlathan era. What if there are thousands ships like this or even more??

Solas definitely has an ark or more prepared to save people, especially his followers maybe??

I just... It's just doesn't make sense if he let them all die. One of his plans is TO SAVE the elves, not damning them even further.

Also one more crucial info from Tevinter Nights

The nevarran mages thought that Solas is using demon army or bind Spirits to do his bidding, but no! Solas would never do that. Those necromancer are just delusional and arrogant, they think they know everything about Spirits.

They thought "NOOO justice and valor would never follow Fen'harel"

But what if they did? And because Solas is against binding spirits, that's mean spirits are following him out of their free will.

Do you honestly believe spirits of justice and valor would follow him if his cause is not justifiable or noble? Bold?

They wouldn't follow someone who is just 'Evilz'

Edit: This is something that I just remember, but i wonder if let's say the veil is down and not all people die and people just turned into mages (as their natural state should be, because I believe any races who can dream are connected with the fade) which will make them powerful

Mage inquisitor and mage hawke's power would be boosted up to an unfathomable level... I wonder if it'll be enough manpower to defeat the evanuris?? And blight??

LOTR style battle? And people who have their magic back fight alongside Solas to defeat their enemy? Just like what happened in the past??

[felassan]

Red lyrium idol detail from the Dreadwolf dice set.

The angular, geometric style of the wolf head makes it all pointy and triangular. Less furry wolf, more the suggestion of scales or of a reptilian-type aspect (especially with the way the head is half bisected down the middle). The ears look less like ears and more like horns, especially with the dividing line separating them from the head itself. this reminds me of the half dragon/half wolf or dragon-wolf design on these dev t-shirts -

and the creature as described in Tevinter Nights -

But here, unfinished, was the outline of a beast that stood over both dragon and sword. This was not the battle, or the victory. This was after. And the beast was not a dragon. The outline alone might have allowed that assumption, but now, filling with black and red, it was something other. The creature was reptilian, but also canine. The snout was blunted and toothy, but edges came to a point in houndlike ears. As the mass of plaster filled the shape, it began to rise, revealing scales and tail, and paws with talons. It looked like two figures painted on either side of a pane of glass, then viewed together, their forms confused. A wolf that had absorbed a dragon, and now stood crooked over all.

in relation to this Skyhold rotunda mural -

The Dread Wolf is depicted with red eyes this time. Sometimes he's shown with red eyes (below), other times with blue.

Some other by-now very familiar imagery and motifs also return, like the figure with the staff from the Dread Wolf Rises Teaser trailer (Solas), the arrow/arrowhead-shape & outward rayed lines depicting the moment of Impact when he Did The Thing, those triangles that crop up when something Veily/Fadey/magicky is happening in a mural, the general gold and black color scheme (Golden City/Black City), and the alternating gold and black 'dotted line'-pattern that probably represents the Veil as a barrier between the Fade and the mundane world:

(👀 Shoutout to the 'arrow' shape, that depiction of the Dread Wolf always reminds me of the story of the Slow Arrow, that Felassan told Briala -)

"The god Fen'Harel was asked by a village to kill a great beast. He came to the beast at dawn, and saw its strength, and knew it would slay him if he fought it. So instead, he shot an arrow up into the sky. The villagers asked Fen'Harel how he would save them, and he said to them, 'When did I say that I would save you?' And he left, and the great beast came into the village that night and killed the warriors, and the women, and the elders. It came to the children and opened its great maw, but then the arrow that Fen'Harel had loosed fell from the sky into the great beast's mouth, and killed it. The children of the village wept for their parents and elders, but still they made an offering to Fen'Harel of thanks, for he had done what the villagers had asked. He had killed the beast, with his cunning, and a slow arrow that the beast never noticed."

[kumaronoa]

“When did I say that I would save you?” ―Fen'Harel

[dreadfutures]

14 Days of DA Lovers - Slow Dance

@14daysdalovers ​

Pairing: Solas x Ixchel Lavellan

Rating: T

Spoiler Warning - for my Halamshiral arc, Ch 60-80 of DPDF

-:-:-:-

It has been a long time since she has lost herself in a dream like this. Somewhere deep in her psyche she can feel an ache like wounded Vigilance; not so surprising, given the way the world is turning around her, and her hands are tied. But mostly she is conscious of the smoke.

Smoke and blood and screams rise up from the alienage she should have been protecting all night, rather than tracing hollow paths through these glamorous shem halls in bare feet. She leaves blood in her wake, and every step she feels like she is walking on broken glass.

But now she is stuck in the perpetual moment of just-turning; there had been an explosion, and she can hear the screams piercing the hollow walls of the Winter Palace and interrupting the even more hollow victory they were about to celebrate. She is held, oscillating, between the first elf to rule the Dales in eight-hundred years, and the repeated burning of an alienage that has likely stood for just as long.

His presence in her dream breaks the cycle. One moment, she feels him drawing near, and the next she is standing in front of the torn-down wall with bonfires all around. He is at a distance, a looming six-eyed monster all in black, and the shadow he casts is long and chilling. She feels smaller here than she did high above Halamshiral, on that pristine balcony.

We were made for the halls of emperors, not such urban battlefields, she remembers him saying when he found her in the aftermath, her feet bloody and swollen from her futile fight through the alienage. Now she knows the irony in his words, the truth turned upside down, sweetness soured.

He considers the shadow he casts, and she feels his weary regret ripple through the dream. And yet he chides her softly, patiently, with words she once told him: "This place is no more or less wretched than the halls I once walked. You have reminded me that beauty yet remains to be found and made, in the silence between the screams."

Fen'Harel extends his hand.

"Would you dance with me?"

She wants to be at his side, her hand in his, but she is so tired, and every step between them is full of broken glass. He closes the distance in a blink to save her the choice, and as he takes her up in his arms, he says, "Step with me. You know the way."

On one side are the ruined walls of the alienage, burning to let something better rise from the ashes. On the other, the golden halls not of the Winter Palace but of a time long past, shaped by memories older than she can imagine.

She takes a deep breath and does as he has requested: she takes just one step.

Her bloodied feet do not touch the broken ground.

With every slow rotation in their dance, the scene shifts: other battlefields, other palaces. Other dancers.

They are not alone, finding peace and love amid the pain of revolution. There have always been lovers. There have always been broken hearts in need of healing. There have always been a need to remember what they are fighting for.