vespaer77

[vespaer77]

VEILGUARD SPOILERS

So while I'm in the "Solavellan slept together during Inquisition," camp because I'm a degenerate for that elf. I do think the idea that they didn't. And when they're in the Fade prison together....

It's not immediate. He's too banged up from his fight to be of much use, his heart too heavy from everything he's just experienced. But Lavellan is there to pick him up when he crashes to his knees as the rift closes behind them.

She'll heal him first. Maybe they'll try and talk but...God, how do you begin a heart to heart that's been a decade in the making? But it's alright. For once, there's no world shattering event, no ancient evil banging on their door, no demands of duty. They've got all the time in the world.

But they need to talk. And once they do...

They'll slowly settle into an easy dynamic, one that's like what they had back during the inquisition. She'll kiss his cheek, he'll kiss her hand. They'll hug. Hold each other as they sleep *if they sleep cuz they're in the fade idk* and debate. She'll ask questions and he's finally, FINALLY, free to answer without dressing up the truth.

And then maybe one day, they're laughing. She presses a chaste kiss to his lips. And he chases after her. Kissing her back.

But lavellan doesn't pull away. She keeps kissing him.

His hands might tentatively reach for her waist. It's not the first time they've kissed passionately like this, but something *is* different this time.

Lavellan maybe came onto him back in the Inquisition days. Teasing and taunting but he always politely refused. "Was it her? Did he not want her?" Her insecurities would insist. But then everytime he kissed her HE'D INHALE her. Grabbed her ass. Caged her body with his. But always, always, reluctant to cross the threshold.

But now she knows the real reason. And so she keeps kissing him. Because it all makes sense, and she wants him to finally let himself have his desire. And when Solas sighs against her lips....

That's it. It's tongue, and teeth, and greedy hands and MAKER it's been a decade of nothing but searching. Hunting. No communication save a distant figure in the far edges of the Fade when she dreamed. But he's here now, not Fen'harel, but Solas. Here with her just as he always wanted but couldn't let himself have. Until now.

So yeah, celibate solavellan fans may have been onto something cause the DECADE LONG YEARNING FINALLY CULMINATING AT THE FADE PRISON!? Good lord Dread wolf Take her.

[vespaer77]

so... not to be too random in your inbox but this image of the titan reeeeeally reminded me of something. And I knew I'd seen it on your blog too. Took me a minute but I figured it out. Do with this information as you will.

hello! ◕‿◕ hhhhhhh ok this took me out

[original post of the cat DA scarf meme]

[vespaer77]

I'm finding I can't be as sad about Varric as you'd expect, and I think it's because he won.

He saves the world he knows and loves, through Rook. More than that, depending on player choice, he wins that quiet, unstated argument between Solas and himself. The man on the island didn't give up, and somehow, incredibly, he won. Varric loved the world as it is, and the people in it, in all their deep and messy flaws, and despite their many failings. He loved them fiercely, with a loyalty bordering on the irrational. If he hadn't wanted to save his friend, his friend, Solas, god of lies and trickery (and who is Varric to judge someone for lies and trickery? He never would.), Rook would not have tried to do the same. Maybe, Rook would not have succeeded, without Varric's words ringing in Solas' ears.

It didn't matter to Varric whether Solas saw him as a friend, I don't think. I don't think that would've changed anything for Varric. But I do think that Solas saw him as a friend, too, though a complicated one. A man who challenged and frustrated him at every step, who loved what Solas hated, but who cared so deeply. In a different chain of events, there would certainly have been a demon in the Fade with the name of Varric's death.

But in the end, Varric's simple, dogged, unconditional love for things as they are won out over a god's millennia of pain and striving. He would've thought that was a damn fine way to go.

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The lord's work out here

The Dread Wolf's Eyes

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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.

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Just look at her.

One of these days I really need to get serious about writing that novel.

The beautiful French frigate L'Hermione from 1780, sailing in line astern behind a modern French Aquitaine class frigate Provence, 2015

[vespaer77]

Don't quote me, but I'm also pretty sure it's inferred that the return of the dragons correlates with a resurgence of magic in the world.

Which is probably a result of the Veil aging and starting to crumble.

I think it's fun that the titular dragons of Dragon Age ARE mysteriously coming back from extinction, but that is (1) never explained and (2) never plot relevant. It's like if during a major apocalyptic event, you just randomly started seeing dodos again. like hey that's neat. anyways

[vespaer77]

With his romance with Lavellan, Solas learned a horrific truth—that him simply as a humble man was enough to be lovable. He had been plied out of the Fade by Mythal because of her need for him, and out of devotion, he became something more and dreadful for himself, for her. And she never reciprocated that devotion with the same intensity. He spent millennia fighting for her as a thing he detested—a man of war and death, a being whose mortal body imbued him with innate qualities and emotions that would further twist his Wisdom nature. He was producing the very poisons that would normally corrupt a spirit by virtue of [Being a Person]. The external influences now harbored inside him.

But Lavellan showed him. That being you are, the one that wished to ponder and reminisce of spirits, who valued liberty and freedom and knowledge and the wry observation? That was enough. That was always enough. But he can’t accept it, because millennia of being Fen Harel, being devoted to Mythal and her cause.. to sunder it from himself would feel like a magnificent loss. He has been that for so long, is there anything yet truly left of the Wisdom spirit that once was?

Not only that, but given corporeality, Solas is compelled by the operant [If I can, I must]. He CAN do something about the Veil, so he will. If he doesn’t, then he is forsaking the memory of those whose choice he made he destroyed. He is forsaking his own principles. To do nothing in the face of injustice and cruelty is a sin he cannot bear.

He comes to the Inquisition as a “humble apostate”, both as disguise and because in his de-powered state he is of little greater use (if he had greater power I’m certain he would have nudged the Inquisition toward their goals). This is a costume he is wearing, or so he tells himself. He exists to advise, to suggest, to subtly direct toward more peaceful and humanitarian and spirit-friendly directives. He operates as his former [Wisdom] spirit state.

And Lavellan grows to love it, to appreciate it. She grows to appreciate [Solas as Wisdom]. That part of him, the part of him that he has put aside for thousands upon thousands of years, though his nature craves to return to it. Without his ability to be Fen’Harel, it is pretty much all he has. And oh, this mayfly mortal born of a “forsaken ignorant people”, she is drawn to him, seeing him as a [man], seeing him at his (comparatively) weakest, most ineffectual state and finding it pleasing. Desirable. [Enough].

Enough. He is enough as Solas, simply Solas. But if it is enough for Lavellan, why was it not enough for Mythal? No, no, there was a reason. There was a war. War requires more of people. It requires limits to be broken and terrible mantles to be donned.

But Lavellan is fighting an existential war against Corypheus. And she does not demand more of him. She values what little he is able to provide—guidance, insight, his magic. It is [Enough].

We Solavellans have dissected and discussed at length about the nature of the relationship being one built on deceit, the moral and ethical quandary of love cultivated under a false identity. Veilguard has confirmed the existential struggle and quiet agony that Solas experienced by transitioning into [Being]. While Lavellan should of course had been informed of his ‘true identity’ before falling in love with him, an argument could still be made that Fen’Harel is not his true identity but a long-worn mask that he wishes he could ditch. The man Lavellan fell in love with is who he should be, who he wants to be. Far more underpowered than he’s comfortable with, sure, but the personality for certain. Just a person giving advice, discussing at length about topics he enioys, exploring memories and ruminating over them, smirking over small verbal sleights of hand and sly tricks, engaging in philosophical debates. All of that is already there, that is who he is in peacetime. The man has known war and conflict for so long that he has mentally split Solas and Fen’Harel as two people, because he needed to, but they are the same. Solas who has the martial prowess of Fen’Harel. Fen’Harel who possesses the capacity for wry levity and sincere artistic sentimentality of Solas. SOLAS YOU ARE BOTH AND MORE THAN THESE TWO HALVES.

[vespaer77]

next time at me, geez.....

solas girls stay winning

[vespaer77]

Solas: The chosen of Andraste. Blessed hero sent to save us all.

Lavellan: Will I end up marrying the maker of this world?

Solas:. ...I would have suggested getting a drink first.

[vespaer77]

Not just that, but if her spirit was changed in any way.

Like his was.

finally know the answer as to why he asked about her spirit

[vespaer77]

Solas was deeply humiliated first thing after he woke up from a thousand-year-long nap and he decided that one try was enough

(this was @thewritersramblings's fault, she's keeping me fueled with dragon age memes)

[vespaer77]

I'm playing this first game with just native photo mode and camera tools because if I don't I'll never get through my first play through. But the next one? IT IS ON.

camera tools updated so I was able to get some better shots of the moment when Solas sees Lavellan for the first time 😭 he truly can’t believe she is there after all this time

[vespaer77]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard | ▶ dev. Bioware

[vespaer77]

Alright, here is the Inquisitor Import trick in action! (post by @felassan which has the OG BSky post)

Make sure to match your Inquisitor's gender & lineage up for the one you want to import, and to change a couple of things about the Inquisitor's appearance so it's registered as a custom one, and then import your Rook.

[vespaer77]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard | ▶ dev. Bioware

[vespaer77]