Just gonna leave a link here to my fanfic's thread in the forums, 'cause I haven't gotten much in there yet about Solas, so I don't want to keep posting it here under spoiler tags: http://forum.bioware...fic/?p=18079782
This way, too, anyone who wants to leave feedback/criticism/point out typos/etc. can do so without cluttering this thread.
I'm pretty sure it's "Ar lath, ma vhenan", and the subtitles are wrong. I say this because when Hawke falls in battle, Merrill calls him/her "ma vhenan", which means "my heart". Possibly the "you" is just taken out because that's the way their language is?
Or it may have some other meaning and he's really saying "I love my heart" meaning the mark his orb left on her hand.
I think the comma is in the right spot, but the VA says it a bit wrong. We may have misinterpreted the "ma" all along, or else the devs decided to change the meaning of the word. For instance, "Ma serannas" basically means "Thank you," and some would translate it to mean "My thanks," or "my gratitude," but I suspect the translation is probably closer to, "You've been helpful."
It is not that unusual for just "heart" to be a pet name, either, sort of like calling someone "Love." I.e.: Good morning, Heart!
Granted you could still say "My heart" or "Dear Heart," but... it's not that strange to JUST say "Heart."
However if "ma" means both "my" and "you," well... elven language is supposed to have a certain degree of ambiguity, so it still works out.
I believe it means "I love you (my) heart" with the "my" on my heart omitted.
Solas just continues to surprise me.
I think the most unexpected thing for me was his sense of humour. I mean, pre-release all we really heard about him was that he was mad about the Fade and that he thought that morality was more complicated than good and evil. We heard all about Bull's humour and Sera's and Dorian's. Someone even asked PW on twitter whether Solas was sarcastic like Dorian was, to which he replied that he wasn't as overt about it, but he'd say something that you'd realize was an insult maybe half an hour later. So after that I was expecting him to be all polite all the time. I was not in a million years expecting him to be as snarky as he is. I think Solas gets some of the best zingers in the game, really. Especially when talking to Viv.
Also, after hearing people worrying about sales numbers, posts like this make me incredibly hopeful for post-game DLC:
And in response to a question about an expansion that specifically deals with the epilogue:
*crosses fingers*
It's both sad and hilarious to me how invested I am in there being some sort of continuation of this. That ending was basically engineered to make me want to find out what's next. I mean, the character that I got the most attached to during the story first breaks up with me, then leaves. And just as I'm reeling from that, they drop that post-credits bomb on me and give my Inquisitor no way of finding out what I have just learned. Bioware whyyyyyyyy.
silly question: How would your Lavellan react to Merill? and how do you think Merill might react to Lavellan/Solas especially if she learned whom solas was 
I don't think Lavellan is ever going to know who he really is, unless he tells her.
Re: comparison with Merrill's line, it's certainly possible that the details of the language were changed a bit by different writers; you could always chalk it up to ancient elven being somewhat different from the version the Dalish have at the time of the games (as seems to be the case anyway, based on the Inquisitor saying they only kind of understand the inscription at the temple of Mythal).
Notably, in romance-specific dialogue Solas addresses Lavellan as both "vhenan" and "my heart" at different times, so I'm guessing that "my" is either included or implicit? I should probably actually read the wiki page before I speculate more... 
I don't think Lavellan is ever going to know who he really is, unless he tells her.
I don't know. He had a bit of an ominous "you'll see" thing going on. "All will be made clear", I think he said. I think that everyone may well know who he is when he does whatever he's going to do.
I don't know. He had a bit of an ominous "you'll see" thing going on. "All will be made clear", I think he said. I think that everyone may well know who he is when he does whatever he's going to do.
Well, yeah, but we all assume that's going to be something drastic. 
Maybe it won't be, who knows?
I don't know. He had a bit of an ominous "you'll see" thing going on. "All will be made clear", I think he said. I think that everyone may well know who he is when he does whatever he's going to do.
There certainly does seem to be some kind of big reveal upcoming. Doesn't necessarily mean that it'll happen when the Inquisitor is still around to see it, if it's in the next game rather than DLC - as iirc Bioware have stated that they don't plan on a direct sequel to DA:I.
I really don't think it is going to be DLC. The setup at the end was leading into another story that changes the world completely. My impression is the with Origins, it was a complete story as was II. Now it seems the writers have all the lore together, a plan, and are going to continue on this ancient elf path. Too much for DLC. I still really believe the Inquisitor will be the protagonist of the next one.
As for the racism, I really don't believe that is what it is. You have to look at it from the perspective that he knows what things were like. With Sera, it's a matter of knowing the potential and the beauty of their culture and she outright rejects even acknowledging that she is a part of it. This is not a commentary on the perfection of elves. They were far from perfect, but there were things worth saving. He know these things and I think it hurts him to see her like that. I think his anger at the Dalish was more their inability to admit they may be wrong rather than them actually being wrong. He has a different perspective and can't outright tell people.
I generally think that what happened was:
1. The elven gods were somehow causing misery amongst the people, possibly from sparring amongst themselves. The exception perhaps being Mythal who seems to be relatively well regarded amongst the people and maybe was holding things together for a time.
2. We know she was murdered but I really can't think of who. Flemeth said that she was betrayed and that the world was betrayed which means it was something very big and I don't know if the other gods would have been capable of such a betrayal. The Maker maybe? Perhaps the pettiness of the gods made him turn his back and Chantry wasn't completely wrong. Murder being a very loose term because she somehow managed to survive possibly by reaching out to Flemeth but as a shadow of her former self.
3. Fen'harel locks the golds away out of revenge for Mythal? To contain the chaos and help the people? Then falls into sleep.
4. Flash forward, Solas wakes up and gives his sphere to Corypheus? Possibly to get the charge necessary to open it and Corypheus obviously takes it and causes his own havoc. Solas is of course, distraught from this does everything he can to get his sphere back and close the breach.
5. Solas finds Mythal/Flemeth. I don't think they met before this. He probably learned of her survival or sensed her and saught her out after the events.
6. He apologizes for his mistakes and she apologizes I believe for needing to punish him. However, he is not ready to go because he thinks he is needed to help/put the world back together and absorbs whatever he does from her.
The next game is definately going to be dealing with this. As Flemeth said, Mythal was going to have retribution that would shake the very heavens. Luckily, as Morrigan says, the Inquisition is ready to handle what ever happens.
Solas is just the best character for this because of his ambiguity. He wants to help, you want to think what he does is right, but when it comes to changing the world, things are just unsettling. I don't think he is a bad man but a desperate man. He is grasping at pieces trying to put things back together to save everyone.
BTW. Wonderful art and fanfics everyone! My hubby is making fun of me for spending so much time look at things.
Make me wonder if he was there when the Winter Palace was built.
I'm pretty sure it's "Ar lath, ma vhenan", and the subtitles are wrong. I say this because when Hawke falls in battle, Merrill calls him/her "ma vhenan", which means "my heart". Possibly the "you" is just taken out because that's the way their language is?
Or it may have some other meaning and he's really saying "I love my heart" meaning the mark his orb left on her hand.
I figured it out. Because "ma" can mean both you and my, and because of the way the sentence is structured, the ma is applicable to both parts of the sentence, to translate as something closer to "I love you, my heart," because it wouldn't be practical or probably correct to say "Ar lath ma, ma vhenan." (Although to me this would still sound juuuust fine.)
silly question: How would your Lavellan react to Merill? and how do you think Merill might react to Lavellan/Solas especially if she learned whom solas was
My Lavellan would be shocked at how naive about the most very basic aspects of life Merrill at least the DA2 Merrill is. This is especially in regards to her romance arc and in terms of living independently. Esp as a Keepers First my Lavellan would view this type of naivity as very dangerous for the clan (which it ultimately becomes) since the Keeper is not just the clans leader but their archivist, their healer, and a battlemage.
In terms of how Merrill would view Lavellan/Solas if she knew who he was.. I don't think she would react to negatively. Due to her research on the Eluvian she is probably aware of how much of the history of the elves has been lost or misinterpreted and she would be accepting that what they know of the creators is false as well.. I do not think she would react positively to the vaslallin issue though.. she hates to think of her people (and she is an Dalish from a clan that accepts that city elves and dalish are not that different) suffering in any way and to know that they had been slaves in Arlathan as well would be a pretty big blow for Merrill.
silly question: How would your Lavellan react to Merill? and how do you think Merill might react to Lavellan/Solas especially if she learned whom solas was
Uth'shiral would be nervous about Merrill's blood magic, but would reserve judgement. After all, it's not the form of the magic, but how it's used, that makes it dangerous or not. They could probably trade clan stories back and forth. It would put Solas horribly on edge, since a lot of the stories wouldn't be precisely flattering to Fen'harel.
Numinera (whose name effectively translates to "tear-jerker"--"tear story") probably wouldn't get along with Merrill at all. She's considerably less nice than Uth'shiral, She would be okay with the blood magic, most likely, even more so than Uth'shiral--it could be a useful tool, so why not? What she would not be okay with is how naive Merrill can come off. Dealing with demons? Yyyeah bad idea there, Merrill. Numinera comes from the worst possible world state I could come up with, too, with the only things coming out well involving halla and the mabari hound. To her the world is cruel and unforgiving, and not a place where people like Merrill can easily survive. She'd probably pity Merrill more than anything, and that would make Merrill hate her.
I don't think Lavellan is ever going to know who he really is, unless he tells her.
I think she will, even if he doesn't tell her. The truth will come out, eventually. Whether that's through DLC or the next game, I don't know--especially since we won't ever be playing the Inquisitor again in a future game (or so I would guess); after all, the Inquisitor ends the game at the peak of her power. Where do you go from there, unless you just up and decide to take over the entire continent?
Re: comparison with Merrill's line, it's certainly possible that the details of the language were changed a bit by different writers; you could always chalk it up to ancient elven being somewhat different from the version the Dalish have at the time of the games (as seems to be the case anyway, based on the Inquisitor saying they only kind of understand the inscription at the temple of Mythal).
Notably, in romance-specific dialogue Solas addresses Lavellan as both "vhenan" and "my heart" at different times, so I'm guessing that "my" is either included or implicit? I should probably actually read the wiki page before I speculate more...
It could be included. After all, we have the word "Arlathvhen," a meeting of the people. Elvhen, the people--but we don't know if "el" means "the" in elvish the way it does in Spanish. The translation could be something like "our heart" or "our soul," and the -an ending could make "vhen" heart or spirit into "vhenan" - my heart or spirit.
If that makes sense.
Something I've struggled with in trying to understand elvish in DA is that the sentence structure seems very English, but I haven't noticed any particular use of verb tenses, etc. If the devs know much about language, they've already thought of these things, and used them. So we might be missing out on nuances in the nouns and verbs, such as possessives, past tense, future tense, infinitives, etc. Or, we might be mistranslating because we don't understand the rules of the language properly.
I believe it means "I love you (my) heart" with the "my" on my heart omitted.
Err yeah, haha, sorry I didn't see your post before posting the "I think I figured it out!" bit.
My Lavellan would be shocked at how naive about the most very basic aspects of life Merrill at least the DA2 Merrill is. This is especially in regards to her romance arc and in terms of living independently. Esp as a Keepers First my Lavellan would view this type of naivity as very dangerous for the clan (which it ultimately becomes) since the Keeper is not just the clans leader but their archivist, their healer, and a battlemage.
Pretty much any way you play a Dalish Inquisitor, they appear more savvy about human customs and history than Merrill (not an especially high bar, to be sure). I believe it's mentioned in dialogue that their clan is more than usually interested in human goings-on, as demonstrated by the fact that they got sent to the conclave in the first place.
Solas Has teleportation Magic how he got to Flemeth that fast is beyond anything.
Edit: Lil say there was no trace of him, which suggest he has that type of power.
Pretty much any way you play a Dalish Inquisitor, they appear more savvy about human customs and history than Merrill (not an especially high bar, to be sure). I believe it's mentioned in dialogue that their clan is more than usually interested in human goings-on, as demonstrated by the fact that they got sent to the conclave in the first place.
I think even in terms of the more isolated clans Merrill would be considered hopelessly naive given what a Keepers First is held responsible for .. I don't think it particularly has to do with whether or not a clan interacts with humans - my DAO Warden was from the same clan as Merrill and would have viewed the DAII Merrill as being ridiculously naive as well and that would be if Mahariel had met DAII Merrill before becoming a Warden and being exposed to human cultures.
That's a stereotype/misconception, actually. Dreads are essentially hair that's not brushed out and allowed/encouraged to tangle. The only people I've met with dreads that were dirty were people who didn't actually know what they were doing.
Ah, well that's good to know. I still think they look weird though :/
I've been taking selfies literally everywhere since I got the cinematic tool. I swear all the companions are despairing over the vain idiot they made Inquisitor.
Maybe this needs its own post because it might be missed, but can someone explain how to use the tool? I downloaded the .rar file, how dost thou operate?
Hee! 100% agree. I don't get much opportunity to stick them together (3 mages is a bit much) but when I can it's delicious. They're so good at getting under each others' skin. I particularly love these:
OMG yes I love them together, it's too bad my party comp usually doesn't allow it. The BEST one is kind of a later one, and I'm so sorry I don't have the direct quotes, but it's basically her commenting on how Solas burned his shirt with a fireball, and he's all like "What? No, you're mistaken" and she's just like "MMhmm" Too funny.
And I agree Solas's humor really makes him awesome. I love in one of the very first dialogs you get, when he says something about you being a hero, you can choose the 2nd option which makes her say something like "Oh, should I have rode in on a shining steed?" and this gets you bonus points. Just love it.
I think the comma is in the right spot, but the VA says it a bit wrong. We may have misinterpreted the "ma" all along, or else the devs decided to change the meaning of the word. For instance, "Ma serannas" basically means "Thank you," and some would translate it to mean "My thanks," or "my gratitude," but I suspect the translation is probably closer to, "You've been helpful."
It is not that unusual for just "heart" to be a pet name, either, sort of like calling someone "Love." I.e.: Good morning, Heart!
Granted you could still say "My heart" or "Dear Heart," but... it's not that strange to JUST say "Heart."
However if "ma" means both "my" and "you," well... elven language is supposed to have a certain degree of ambiguity, so it still works out.
I think the "ma" could be an objective pronoun, like "me" in spanish. In Spanish you say "Me gusta" the translation means "I like it" but the literal translation is actuall "It pleases me". So ma serannas could be "[you've been] helpful to me" (the "you" being implied by the verb conjugation). I'm not really sure how that would help with the whole "Ma vhenan" thing but there you go.
Can I share a screenie of my new Lavellan for Solas? Playthrough #4 I really want to try Knight Enchanter this time (also lol at Cass's face in the background):
Hey guys. I saw someone saying you won't be able to romance Solas if you flirt even once with another character... is this true? Dx
Hey guys. I saw someone saying you won't be able to romance Solas if you flirt even once with another character... is this true? Dx
Lol. No. Flirt away with everyone and anyone until you get a broken heart and regular heart. That's the romance lock in.
Lol. No. Flirt away with everyone and anyone until you get a broken heart and regular heart. That's the romance lock in.
Phew, thanks. After seeing that I thought he may have been a special case where you can't flirt with anyone else. Good to know. I was caught between deciding to go with either him or Cullen for my elf rogue so I was flirting up them both for awhile. xD
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