It's relaxing to imagine yourself at camp in the Graves. Fire roaring, wind through the trees...they even have a wolf howl, though I find it a little overbearing if too loud.
Owls hooting, nightengales singing... Easy to picture yourself staring up at the stars beyond the wolf statue guarding your camp.
That's ONE way to put it...
But yes! Definitely my favorite zone and I would totally live there. But a good ways away from the creepy, ghost-infested Orlesian chalet.
I wish my screens didn't make me want to stab out my eyes though. Even on my lowest brightness/colour settings, it's just still too much green. Instant migraine.
Why is it that bear and druffalo fights are more exasperating than the end fight with Corypheus?
You'd think he'd be a little tougher to beat than wildlife!
Corypheus was actually pretty tough to beat in the Legacy DLC for DA2. I was disappointed that there was no challenge to beating him here in DA:I. 
I always just think of how myths change over cultures and that's how I relate my (paltry) mythological knowledge to dragon age.
The Chinese, for instance, still use a relatively serpent shape in their dragon imagery. The western Europeans may not have used the same shape over time and so may not have considered their dragons very serpent like at all. But they all have a rooted history somewhere.
Anywah, melting pot of ideas I guess.
Or could be something completely different hahah
I like mythology. A lot. You can apply it to the lore and have it actually make sense! Unlike trying to pull chemistry theories out of my ear!
Madrar: Lost my multiquote of you but just wanted to say, it's okay if you want to discuss/poke at my ideas I posted earlier, just as long as it's in good fun.
I 100% think we'll see him for several games to come. When I say the story will be wrapped - it'll be like the direct events dealing with the Inquisition. I have a feeling DA4 would be dealing with a newer, better engine and they will not be making the game for for the 360 and PS3. Given that, I have a feeling at least the romance will be concluded in DLC. I HOPE SO.
Actually, they're not likely to change engines for the next game. They may use an upgraded version of Frostbite, but since they had to basically reverse engineer their own version of Frostbite for DA:I, I can't see them scrapping it for a while. That said, they could, but this is only likely if they can't iron out some of the bugs that they've encountered during the creation of DA:I. I think we'll be seeing Frostbite for at least one more iteration of Dragon Age; it might be around for longer than that.
One thing you are almost 100% certain to be right about, however, is that the next game will not be compatible with the 360 and PS3. A couple of years from now it will be widely assumed that everyone's moved on to the newer generation of consoles.
Well... there is one fanart of them at the waterfall that I know of, but it's NSFW.
There have been a few fanarts of Solas painting. If there were more, I'd love to see them.
Source: http://silverchimaer...n-from-painting
Just going to point out that fresco isn't just paint, it's paint+plaster, or maybe more accurately, it's pigmented plaster.
I think a lot of writers and artists either don't understand this, or assume that what Solas is doing is simply a mural with regular paint (oil or tempera) using the walls as a canvas. But basically, a fresco has to be done perfectly the first time, or else if you make a mistake you have to wait for it to dry and then do the whole thing over again. It can't be redone while wet, and if you paint over just the part you made the mistake on, the wall will be lumpy as a result. You might even have to remove that entire layer after it dried. A fresco isn't just paint on top of the wall, it is one with the wall.
It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine I guess, to see it treated like it's just paint... you'd still need paintbrushes, but I imagine that stuff's pretty thick. It's most likely not something Solas would be happy to be interrupted from. Redoing a fresco panel you'd worked on for a week because someone distracted you and caused your brush to slip? That'd be frustrating. The fact that Solas is able to do the frescoes that he does is actually quite the testament to his patience and skill as an artist.
I'm pretty sure that the devs were aware of the particular difficulty of frescoes when they chose to call the art in the rotunda frescoes rather than simply murals--their choice of media for Solas to work with was deliberate. There is a codex entry that comments on Solas's artistic skill--mastery even--and how carefully he plans each part of the fresco before he begins. So to me it's definitely not just a mural, it's a painstaking, honest-to-goodness, plaster fresco and he means for that thing to last for hundreds of years so everyone can see the Inquisitor's actions written on the wall.
That's the thing--when you do a fresco right, it will last for centuries. It might need cleaning, parts might crack and break off, but it will last. If it's just a mural, depending on the paint used and the environment surrounding the painting, it could fade, flake off, cause the plaster beneath to rot, etc. Solas would likely know this. About the only thing he could have used that would last longer is a mosaic.
Ahem. But yeah. Painting pics are awesome and I agree, there should be more of Solas painting in art and in fics. (I just wish more people would understand what a fresco is... or acknowledge that a fresco is very difficult, if they do understand what it is.)
And now I'm tired so I should sleep.
Corypheus was actually pretty tough to beat in the Legacy DLC for DA2. I was disappointed that there was no challenge to beating him here in DA:I.
I haven't played the DLC, but I keep hearing that. Did they dumb down the final battle for casual players like me, or...?
Like seriously, something is wrong when I feel challenged fighting brown bears.
Quick question: When he asked you are you a typical Dalish what did you say? If you look at my post over on the Spoilers section you will see why I'm having a bit of difficulty with this. I play my Dalish characters much as I did in Origins, based on what we learnt of their culture there, plus a few things glean from Merrill in DA2 but that bit about what they do to excess mage children in DAI has me stumped; my clan doesn't do that but then we also take an interest in human affairs, just as Keeper Mahariel of Sabrae clan (the one before Marethari) suggested we should do at meeting of the clans. I'm beginning to think that the clans we met in DAO and DA2 were not typical, even if the clans have been gradually growing apart. So if I was going by the clans in DAO and DA2, then I'm probably pretty typical but if I'm going by Masked Empire and DAI, then definitely not.
I haven't been here a whole day so probably this post is like ancient history now (and had about a hundred answers), but I still want to reply.
In my first playthrough, which is always the one where I just act "naturally", I picked the "No, I am just me" line. But I did not (and would not) consider too many aspects of my clan. I believe that groups are never homogenous. Yes, there is mentality and it differs among groups, but despite all psychological group theory, it's still people in it and people differ. There's no common good or bad, only shades of grey. And, of course, what is good for one person might be bad for another. Read: exiling the second mage of a clan is "good" for some other clan members, because they are save from magic-turned-foul, but it is bad for the exiled one... while it is also good for the exiled one if s/he's freedom loving because s/he won't be put in a Circle... which is also bad for him/her because maybe s/he would like Circle life... and so on. There is no universal truth, every coin has usually at least 3 sides. That's why society lives by rules, to somehow conquer that chaos. But while "avoid killing whenever possible" might be a rule that her Dalish clan taught my Lavellan, it is still her individual choice what she does in a particular situation. Moreover, Lavellan has been away from her clan for awhile, living in an Andrastian organisation, lacking advice and debate of her people. I am sure she does not make "pure clan decisions" anymore.
Solas himself says that Dalish clans are in fact very different groups of people who happen to have one thing in common, which is beling elves. They have different ideas, different rules. From this note I take it that there is not "typical clan". (Also, this kind of negates Solas's general anti-Dalish attitute, but however.) And taking this as a basis, the clans from DAO, DA2 and DAI are all different to me. And in that respect, they are all the same.
(By the way, my judgement may be clouded because undeliberately I tend to throw in a good measure of The Witcher elves when thinking of the Dalish.)
*snip*
Just going to point out that fresco isn't just paint, it's paint+plaster, or maybe more accurately, it's pigmented plaster.
I think a lot of writers and artists either don't understand this, or assume that what Solas is doing is simply a mural with regular paint (oil or tempera) using the walls as a canvas. But basically, a fresco has to be done perfectly the first time, or else if you make a mistake you have to wait for it to dry and then do the whole thing over again. It can't be redone while wet, and if you paint over just the part you made the mistake on, the wall will be lumpy as a result. You might even have to remove that entire layer after it dried. A fresco isn't just paint on top of the wall, it is one with the wall.
It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine I guess, to see it treated like it's just paint... you'd still need paintbrushes, but I imagine that stuff's pretty thick. It's most likely not something Solas would be happy to be interrupted from. Redoing a fresco panel you'd worked on for a week because someone distracted you and caused your brush to slip? That'd be frustrating. The fact that Solas is able to do the frescoes that he does is actually quite the testament to his patience and skill as an artist.
*snip*
I've learned something new today. Thank you for this! 
I now have even more admiration for Solas for having the patience and putting a lot of time and effort into making those frescoes. Now it makes me wonder more on how long the period of DA:I lasted. DA:O and the Fifth Blight was said to have taken place in a year, and DA2 was said to have taken place for almost a decade. I admit, I know nothing about how long it takes to make one, but I imagine it takes a long time to finish just even ONE fresco.
And can you imagine him making a series of frescoes based on an Inquisitor he DOESN'T like? Now that's something.
I haven't played the DLC, but I keep hearing that. Did they dumb down the final battle for casual players like me, or...?
Like seriously, something is wrong when I feel challenged fighting brown bears.
Oh gosh was Corypheus a pain in my butt in Legacy. I had to restart that fight more times than I care to admit before I could beat him.
I honestly wonder if something was bugged about that final fight. It was ridiculously easy. Reminds me of the final battle in ME2 that way.
Wow, 70 pages over the weekend! Okay, that's probably been posted like a hundred times, but I'll add one more:
Dragon Age High Dating Sim Trailer!
Worst fight I ever had was two days ago: 2 giants and six brontos. AT THE SAME TIME. Because Solas can't keep his AoE in his staff like a good mage and not aggro every passive Thedosian bovine in the vicinity.
I'm laughing because this has happened to me too, with a -third- giant coming up after the first two finally went down (luckily). This may have been my fault though, because I was rolling with a three mage party just for fun and ...well, the fireworks were pretty at least?
I haven't played the DLC, but I keep hearing that. Did they dumb down the final battle for casual players like me, or...?
Like seriously, something is wrong when I feel challenged fighting brown bears.
Not only the final battle. I feel that all of DAI is easier than at least DAO (I did not think DA2 was actually difficult, only that the Cory fight was more dynamic because you had to change tactics a few times).
However, I also think that Cory was not meant to be most challenging (but his dragon... however you feel about that part of the fight).
Also I am very sure that Cory was bugged in that fight. Many times he simply stopped doing anything, hovered there and let me beat him up. I guess, that bug just had different manifestations (from him not doing much to being completely inactive).
I do miss the fights from DAO, where you actually had to figure out some tactics that worked on particular enemies. I feel that now the best you can get is the enemy using guard or being invunerable to a particular type of staff. And to make this feel difficult they don't allow you to change equipment once the enemy detected you. Both comes down to making the fights longer but not more difficult. I like the DAI gameplay, it's huge fun, but it is far too simple.
I think, to him, the frescoes are small solemn attempts at trying for redemption: If enough knowledge, information and evidence had been left behind before he went into his slumber, things would not have fallen into such a sorry state. It seemed such a trivial thing at the time - keeping records of everything. Only it was not.
[snip, but frescoes people! They are interesting and important!]
Ahem. But yeah. Painting pics are awesome and I agree, there should be more of Solas painting in art and in fics. (I just wish more people would understand what a fresco is... or acknowledge that a fresco is very difficult, if they do understand what it is.)
And now I'm tired so I should sleep.
Hey, I studied Renaissance art for a semester, I know my frescoes... and of course! Any animosity Solas has toward Dorian is because he bothered him while he was working on his frescoes. Dorian was the Raphael harassing Michelangelo as the latter painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel!
And the frescoes are probably the closest thing Solas has to one of his plans going correctly. Everything else we know he's done has gone all "best laid plans of mice and men" and those frescoes are possibly even more than an artistic outlet him trying to assert control and lay out a plan that he can have succeed. It's a shame that even that goes back as he doesn't seem to finish them.
Sigh, and I was going to write an essay about those frescoes once I nailed down what Bioware's artistic inspiration for them was. I really don't want to get dragged into trying to write about those frescoes again.
Hey, I studied Renaissance art for a semester, I know my frescoes... and of course! Any animosity Solas has toward Dorian is because he bothered him while he was working on his frescoes. Dorian was the Raphael harassing Michelangelo as the latter painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel!
And the frescoes are probably the closest thing Solas has to one of his plans going correctly. Everything else we know he's done has gone all "best laid plans of mice and men" and those frescoes are possibly even more than an artistic outlet him trying to assert control and lay out a plan that he can have succeed. It's a shame that even that goes back as he doesn't seem to finish them.
Sigh, and I was going to write an essay about those frescoes once I nailed down what Bioware's artistic inspiration for them was. I really don't want to get dragged into trying to write about those frescoes again.
do eet!!!
do eet!!!
No! That essay is never happening as I have nothing to gain from it and I'm such a perfectionist and torment myself to be accurate whenever I write that I loathe writing merely to put my thoughts down.
I wonder how Solas would paint the Inquisitor?
Also, I love that Solas's location in Skyhold is literally right under Leliana's nose. It's no wonder he wasn't high on her list of people to check out - any time she wondered what he was up to, she could just lean over the railing. Talk about hiding in plain sight.
I would like to imagine something inspired by one of the earliest frescoes: A portrait of a girl from Pompeii. It's one of my favorites since I used it to shutup a history teacher I didn't like when he said there weren't any depictions of learned women in European art.
I've learned something new today. Thank you for this!
I now have even more admiration for Solas for having the patience and putting a lot of time and effort into making those frescoes. Now it makes me wonder more on how long the period of DA:I lasted. DA:O and the Fifth Blight was said to have taken place in a year, and DA2 was said to have taken place for almost a decade. I admit, I know nothing about how long it takes to make one, but I imagine it takes a long time to finish just even ONE fresco. (And can you imagine him making a series of frescoes based on an Inquisitor he DOESN'T like? Now that's something.)
It's probably one of the best estimates we have to measure the length of DA:I. Sistine Chapel was four years, clearly a piece too big to be compared to Solas'. The School of Athens is closer in size and took about three years. Bearing in mind that both these frescoes have more detail and work with perspective and depth than Solas' frescoes. If comparisons between frescoes of similar style were to be compared then the Byzantine frescoes would be the go to for reasonable timetables. Yeah, I'm not putting the research in to figure out how long it took for the average Byzantine fresco to be painted. Again, constantly held back from writing by perfectionism and need for accuracy.
But please, as long as I don't have to break out an academic database let's keep talking about frescoes so I can feel smart and interested.
because he does that even for an inquisitor he doesn't like.
I never thought he was doing it for the inquitior. The frescos are not exactly self-explanatory. If I were atually there I would be very curious as to their meaning because I do not understand it myself (I understand some of it knowing the end of DAI, but in my inquisitor's shoes I would be at a loss. Curious enough that they don't talk about them.) Considering how little the inquisitor knows (not only a non-Dalish one but also Lavellan constantly needs translations and explanations) I don't think those frescos are the best way to transmit knowledge.
Are we using X Files GIFs now? I love this thread...and this post is probs even more irrelevant because seriously as I was writing this I was notified that 15 MORE POSTS WERE MADE. WHHHY DO I EVEN TRY?
I never thought he was doing it for the inquitior. The frescos are not exactly self-explanatory. If I were atually there I would be very curious as to their meaning because I do not understand it myself (I understand some of it knowing the end of DAI, but in my inquisitor's shoes I would be at a loss. Curious enough that they don't talk about them.) Considering how little the inquisitor knows (not only a non-Dalish one but also Lavellan constantly needs translations and explanations) I don't think those frescos are the best way to transmit knowledge.
I could understand what the pictures meant pretty well after I read that codex thingy in his room. He basically says it's the actions of the Inquisitor, which is why each section gets added after you finish a main plot quest.
http://dragonage.wik..._and_the_Fresco
What I find curious is how he somehow snuck into Skyhold to finish the last section after disappearing O_O
Everyone should have the app, that way you can tell me what you would do for the hissing wastes. I want that one but can't get the sounds that would fit.
I wonder if one could just record the in-game sounds with Audacity or something? Maybe a "2 Hours of DAI Ambient Sounds" Youtube video? 
I could understand what the pictures meant pretty well after I read that codex thingy in his room. He basically says it's the actions of the Inquisitor, which why each section gets added after you finish a main plot quest.
http://dragonage.wik..._and_the_Fresco
What I find curious is how he somehow snuck into Skyhold to finish the last section after disappearing O_O
Unlike the intelligent people here, I do not understand the meaning of the single frescos from that note. Yes, it is about the story progressing, I got that much. But (speaking as the inquisitor) what exactly does the artist want to tell "me"? "I" can only guess. Painting uncommented pictures is not the most transparent way to share important knowledge (I think). Too much room for interpretation leaves too much room for error. "I" did not encounter story-relevant wolves. Still, there's the pack of wolves in one. Sure, might make more sense knowing who he is. But I assume that the inquisitor does not know, not then and not by the end either (as the talk with Lelianna suggests). So what about those wolves... howling at (or away from)... the orb? That's what I do not think the inquisitor can understand (and never bothers to ask) so how would the frescos help him/her?
Unlike the intelligent people here, I do not understand the meaning of the single frescos from that note. Yes, it is about the story progressing, I got that much. But (speaking as the inquisitor) what exactly does the artist want to tell "me"? "I" can only guess. Painting uncommented pictures is not the most transparent way to share important knowledge (I think). Too much room for interpretation leaves too much room for error. "I" did not encounter story-relevant wolves. Still, there's the pack of wolves in one. Sure, might make more sense knowing who he is. But I assume that the inquisitor does not know, not then and not by the end either (as the talk with Lelianna suggests). So what about those wolves... howling at (or away from)... the orb? That's what I do not think the inquisitor can understand (and never bothers to ask) so how would the frescos help him/her?
There was a fan-made article trying to explain these frescoes... let me see...
Top to bottom left to right [original post]:
1) The explosion at the Conclave. A blast on the hill. It explodes outwards and jets up into the sky. In the sky in the sphere is the Fade; the Black City in the center.
2) The formation of the Inquisition. A pack of wolves howling defiantly against the world, beneath the blade and all-seeing eye of the Inquisition’s symbol.
3) Siding with the Templars. Next to the turrets of Therinfal Redoubt, Envy lurks. Grasping hands and the flaming sword of the Templar sigil.
4) Siding with the mages. A figure in Tevinter gear and iconography - serpents - Alexius. In the distance are the two versions of Redcliffe Castle, including the red and black iteration from the nightmare future scenario.
5) The attack on Haven. Corypheus, orb in hand, presides over the burning and sacking of the village in the mountains.
6) Allowing Celene to be killed. An assassin lurks in the window of the Winter Palace, dagger in hand. The figure in blue is wearing Celene’s iconic blue dress with gold collar. The palace is dark due to what has occurred.
7) Exiling the Wardens. Adamant Fortress is in the distance. To the right is the black rocky crags of the Fade. The Black City rests at the center of the sphere; Nightmare’s multiple eyes stare balefully. The crest of the Grey Wardens is cast in shadow, reflecting their fate.
8) Allying with the Wardens. As above, but the crest of the Grey Wardens is in the light.
9) Saving Celene. The palace is decked out in blue and gold, the colors of Celene’s outfit, and her court is in session.
10) The Temple of Mythal. In the halls of Mythal’s temple, a figure dressed like Abelas guards the blue ripples of the Well of Sorrows. The arch could feasibly represent Mythal’s last Eluvian.
11) Unfinished piece from after the final battle. A wolf stands over the body of a dragon, slain by the sword. Solas killing Flemeth in the post-credits scene, perhaps. [?]
And here's a link to the frescoes themselves: http://thedosianimpo...s-fresco-panels
Ofc, there's no Internet in Thedas, so the Inquisitor can interpret them however they wish. 
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