Hmmm... I'm starting to get the sneaking suspicion Fen'Harel/Solas might not be a god in the way Mythal, Elgar'nan, Dirthamen and cie are. I have very few clues that tell me this, but there's a few evidence there:
- He has a foci. An artefact said to channel the power of a god. Why would a god need a foci to channel his own power? If it was to channel someone else's power though...
- He (as far as we can tell) went into uthenera the way ancient elves would. He was powerful enough not to need substance, but woke up so weak he couldn't use his own foci.
- On the other hand, Mythal even as a wisp is quite powerful. Powerful enough to transform her own human vessel into a dragon at will (no one else, apart from Morrigan if she drinks from th well, can do so).
- We have found temples to other gods across Thedas, and yet apart from that small shrine to Fen'Harel (which doesn't seem that old), there are no hint that Fen'Harel was ever worshipped. On the other hand, we have he wolf statues, the wolf serving as some sort of protector to the elf. That same statue is in the temple of another god, Mythal, which everyone finds strange.
Now, I might be tally wrong there, but here's what I think. Solas isn't a god. He never was (although he IS an ancient elvhen, and a quite powerful one at that). One of the themes of DA;I seem to be how history distorts the truth and will make demi-gods of ordinary people. The Herald is the perfect example of that. So, I think he didn't lie. He was born in that small village and spent his youth exploring the fade. Possibly, there he caught the eye of one of the deities (quite possibly Mythal), the same way Gilal'nain is said to have, and brought into the inner circle. I like the idea that he might have become the protector of the pantheon. In short, he wasn't that dissimilar to Abelas. He was given the foci to help him in his task. But at one point, something changed and from protector he became their betrayer. Maybe that was due to Mythal's murder or Andruil's madness or a combination of things. Then he went to sleep. History became blurred in time and he was remembered as a god himself while he never was.
Anyway, I might be totally wrong there, but I think it would fit.
Regardless of whether or not they are gods, it would seem that from Fen'Harel's viewpoint they are definitely not. It would make sense for an ancient elf to be "disillusioned" (if that's how it went down) or possibly he did/does know some added secrets that we're not cognizant of. I'm thinking along the lines of ME3 (interconnectedness theory brewing here regarding Bioware Stories):
Spoiler
I'm thinking, what if the gods were simply denizens of the Fade? There is a permanent gateway between the worlds of the Fade, the Void and Thedas, yet the origin of beings predetermines their respective power and how they regard one another. Just as to an ancient human we might be perceived as gods for all our "mystical powers" (I'm thinking Prime Directive violation here.)
I am still reluctant to see any of the elven gods as real gods in the sense of divine beings that created Thedas. Bioware will most likely not give us an answer to that anyway. And I like it when there is evidence for both scenarios, same as with the herald. Was this all really just coincidence? Luck? Who knows...
However, I do like the idea of Solas as a friend of the gods. I do believe that his current body is his original body. He looks strikingly like the sentinels at the temple. So he uses the body of an ancient elf at the very least. So he's like an adopted son of Mythal then, yes. It would be another parallel to Morrigan who's adopted too, right? (I bet there are really weird fanfics about them out there as "sibling" lovers...) Btw, how do gods procreate? I mean, the elven pantheon is like one original family. But what happened after that? Do these gods have children with mortals too? What are they and what special powers (or not) do they have? Is that stated somewhere?
And yes, in a way the concept of god is simply a being so much more powerful than us. Not necessarily infallible or even immortal. ANY act of creation could fall under that. Humans rule over animals like gods nowadays. We domesticate them, breed them, keep them as our slaves. Pretty much the same thing really. Any race could be regarded as gods by a more primitive race. And the superior race enjoys that and starts seeing themselves as such. Like the reapers in Mass Effect.
We could be an abandoned science project of a schoolkid from a very advanced alien race for all we know. Like Lisa Simpson who accidentally created life out of a tooth. *g*
Looking at it that way the elven gods can easily be regarded as gods. They do have unmatched powers. However, god in the sense of one mastermind that created the entire galaxy, that spark that created life in the first place, is something different. And I'm curious what Bioware will present as that spark of life. Or maybe they will leave it at the Sun and Earth and not venture further out...
(So annoying that I have to go to bed when you all come out to theorize. Time zones suck.)
Retour en haut
)
