153429 réponses à ce sujet

[almasy87]

My Lavellan PT continues.. getting closer to the end now..

But anyway found this in the SS folder

Solas is so afraid of dying alone that his body twitches in weird ways..
Or maybe it's a new type of dance, who knows....?

 

[NightSymphony]

My grandma gave me sweet coffee as a small child. This is a traditional thing among Puerto Ricans, giving your tiny children coffee with breakfast. But I grew up hating coffee, except for the smell. My gateway was sweet coffee drinks, one very occasionally, until the point where I found a lovely dark roast that I..actually liked? Still need milk and sugar, but not always so much. And I'm at the point where the overly sugary, syrup-laden coffee drinks are almost undrinkable sometimes.

 

i usually have two cups a day of regular brewed coffee these days. It only took until I was well into adulthood.

 

For me, the better comparison is dark chocolate. I couldn't stand it growing up and now I can eat, and enjoy, 85%+ cocoa dark.

I lived in Germany when I was very little. My mother used to give me something called Kinder Kaffee (child coffee). It's a powder that you just add to hot water. It tastes like coffee with lots of milk and sugar. I haven't had it since, but I can remember the taste. You just made me think about it..that's all.

[roselavellan]

Heh. I remember my sister used to have a pretty similar viewpoint on coffee - that everyone loved coffee, they just had to find the blend that was right for them. She even dragged me to a coffee tasting event to try and get me into the stuff, and every time I told her I hated the bitter taste, she just said I should add cream and sugar.

 

By the end of the night I was refilling my cup with pure creamer, and she had amended her stance on there being a blend for everyone. 

 

Ahah, but I bet you've never had..... the 3-in-1 coffee!! Which is exactly what it sounds like.

 

[Shizukai]

It probably has been posted here before, but since I'm laughing like a madwoman

(sleep deprivation ftw.), I have to share:

Spoiler

[Ellawynn]

Ahah, but I bet you've never had..... the 3-in-1 coffee!! Which is exactly what it sounds like.

 

 

Is it about 98% milk? Might be my kind of coffee then. 

[TheyCallMeBunny]

Tea? Coffee?

 

No, THIS is what I want:

 

 

Hot cocoa with whipped cream is heaven! ^^

 

Mmmm Swedish fika... 

 

 

Damn it, it's the middle of the night and now I'm hungry! 

[NightSymphony]

*drools* Oh my gosh, Bunny!!  I have to go make some hot chocolate now. :-P

[Barnzi88]

Damn, you're making me want some of that stuff! Righty-o, off to San Churro I go because that hot chocolate looks amazing! XD

 

[almasy87]

Bunny, please stop

It's 3 in the morning, I'm about to go to bed and now I want to drawn my face into chocolate and whipped cream....

My stomach growled just looking at the picture...

As for Solas, maybe he should consider some chamomile

I do understand him, although I love tea, as I'm super sensitive to caffeine. Give me tea, coffee or a coke after 5 pm, and I will not be able to sleep that night. Tbh it quite sucks :S

[Cee]

I lived in Germany when I was very little. My mother used to give me something called Kinder Kaffee (child coffee). It's a powder that you just add to hot water. It tastes like coffee with lots of milk and sugar. I haven't had it since, but I can remember the taste. You just made me think about it..that's all.

 

 

It's funny how these memories can come back to the point where you can almost taste it again.

 

I remember the coffee my grandma made was just the regular stuff but with much milk and a small load of sugar. It also was cooled a bit first, so I remember the sugar never fully dissolved, and I enjoyed spooning the coffee-flavored sugar sludge at the bottom of the cup into my mouth.

[NightSymphony]

mmm...coffee-flavored sugar sludge.

[FernRain]

For me, the better comparison is dark chocolate. I couldn't stand it growing up and now I can eat, and enjoy, 85%+ cocoa dark.

 

I used to like dark chocolate but seem to have gone off the bitterness now.

 

On topic statement: I wonder if.. Thedas has chocolate.

[NightSymphony]

 

http://llawll.devian...ledin-577451243

[dawnstone]

I used to like dark chocolate but seem to have gone off the bitterness now.

 

On topic statement: I wonder if.. Thedas has chocolate.

It does, Bull asks Varric to get him some cocoa from back home. There also seems to be some variations of coffee, tea and sugar.

[ChuChu]

Tea? Coffee?

 

No, THIS is what I want:

 

 

Hot cocoa with whipped cream is heaven! ^^

 

Mmmm Swedish fika... 

 

 

Damn it, it's the middle of the night and now I'm hungry! 

Mmmm. I do love me some Nordic sweets. Something about European countries that have to deal with the cold makes me intrinsically trust them at being good with the baking of yummy stuffs.

[ladyiolanthe]

I used to like dark chocolate but seem to have gone off the bitterness now.

 

On topic statement: I wonder if.. Thedas has chocolate.

 

They do!  Or at least cocoa.

 

Iron Bull: Hey, Varric, you get that thing I asked about?

 

Varric: It should be there next time we head back to base. Not easy to find, by the way.

 

Iron Bull: Hmm... how do you guys live without this stuff?

 

Varric: I don't see what the deal is, honestly, but different tastes...

 

Iron Bull: Ahh... now I just need some hot milk and some of those Orlesian guimauves to put in it.

 

Varric: Hey, what you do with this 'cocoa' is up to you. I don't need to hear about it.

 

Edit: But I see that Dawnstone beat me to it.  Sorry!  I missed that post.

Modifié par ladyiolanthe, 12 décembre 2015 - 05:18 .

[paramitch]

Thank you for the lovely and warm welcome, all!

 

Welcome to the Blanketfort

 

 

We have hugs, blankets, fluff, smut, cookies, and anything else you might need for heartbreak.  And yeah...Trespasser was so much heartache.  Beautiful and wonderfully written, but owwwwww.  IMO it's like ripping off a Band-Aid; it hurts more, but it's over faster if you just go for it 

 

That picture is insanely lovely and comfy. I want to go to there. And eat cookies and hug kittens. And probably drink heavily and cry (in my Lavellan persona anyway) because, man... DAI really got to me. And I already know what I'm in for with Trespasser but... I can't help myself! (sobs)

 

 

Totally agree with the above points. I've enjoyed BioWare romances before, but this was the first one I ever REALLY got into. I've actually resorted to writing fanfic, for Mythal's sake!

 

And the dumping...Solas dumped my Lavellan the day before Valentine's Day. I was inconsolable 'cause I'm crazy like that. BioWare truly created a beautiful character. I never expected to find such depth in a video game.

 

Welcome to the fort, and enjoy Trespasser. Oh, and here have some lovely eggy goodness. I meant to post this one earlier, but something went awry. 

 

This post? Me too. I'm so there. I'm a writer IRL but while I love fan-fiction and have read some wonderful stuff here by Blanket Fort members, as well as from Bullriders, I'd never felt compelled to write my own. But DAI and its characters really got to me. I mean, I wrote a fan-fiction short story about my first Bul-mancer Lavellan, but it's even worse with Solas. First I had to write an entire short script in which my Lavellan (newly dumped) went out to the Herald's Rest, sobbed continuously, got drunk and mayhem ensued.

 

The thing of it is, thanks to the game's complex and incredibly well-written banter (even if it's frustratingly inconsistent to trigger) we  really get to know these characters. I might not have been so upset over the Solas Dumpage or Dread Wolf revelations. But I saw how genuinely kind, empathetic, thoughtful and passionate Solas was with the other characters, about needless death or violence, and we saw his guilt and conflict over his past actions (only finally crystallized in the end when we realize how earth-world-everything-shattering those were) -- it made me -- at best, love him. At worst, not hate him. At least, not yet. There's too much tenderness there. Even that scene with Flemeth -- there's so much love there, so much responsibility and acceptance. He basically tells her he will take whatever punishment is due and she just smiles at him. And knowingly (I believe) faces the next step. 

 

I get every single argument about who Solas is and what he has done. I just think (1) we don't have all the facts yet -- which get murkier and murkier all the time -- and (2) we don't have a clear picture of what it is he is actually planning yet. Almost everything Solas has said yet to date has had dual or shifting meanings. Complicating things more, he often speaks in metaphors. My jury is still very much out. And I do admit that part of that jury is wishing pretty hard that we can still save him from himself. (I know. Sorry.)

 

I have to write in here, as I have recently finished Trespasser and spiralling down into the Solas feels once more. First forum post here ever. I just need a place to rant about things he said and how amazingly sexy his confidence was. Among people who really understand. 

 

You're in good company. :-) I mean... I actually cried.  And then I kept bringing Solas on missions anyway (because my Quizzie would want to try to figure out what happened) and then glaring at his elfy little butt the entire time. So many feels!

 

Tuchanka in ME3 is IMO the best example of this.  I got the "best" solution; I have never cried so hard at a video game.  All the faith that I put in Wrex and his people got emotionally validated in the best way possible, and yet it wasn't done easily or without cost.  I still can't see that scene without tearing up from all the happy and sad feels.

 

I want Solas's storyline to suss out in a similar manner to Tuchanka, with multiple outcomes that draw from multiple choices.  

 

I loved the ME series (even while conflicted on the ending/s) -- but what's cool is that I think the "perfect" Tuchanka ending could be argued from multiple angles.

 

Spoiler

I did the same thing you did, but I also felt that it was an emotional gamble that paid off -- I was sweating bullets because I honestly felt I was wrong from a more concrete/scientific standpoint (ending the Genophage and loosing a volatile race that can lay thousands of eggs at a time on the galaxy wasn't a simple decision for me).

 

But... yeah. That scene was so, so lovely, and I loved those characters so much that I never even explored other options in my two other ME trilogy playthroughs. I loved the cure spores blossoming like golden flowers around them. But it's also a great example of Bioware's talent for complex scenarios and decision-making choices -- many involving the 'nicest' ones being the most questionable ultimately.

 

I remember really liking the Landsmeet/Dark Ritual because of it though, especially if you romance Alistair. There's no clean way out of that - you gotta give up something, and trying to take the "perfect" option by recruiting Loghain and sacrificing him ends up costing you the thing you likely wanted to preserve the most.

 

I like those too, a lot, precisely for the same reasons. Although the one that killed me (and that I failed, ethically, as a Warden) was the one with Connor. I totally couldn't see a way out and he was killing hundreds/thousands. So when his mother was going to kill him -- I had my Warden do it, instead. And I totally winced. But -- I couldn't figure out how to stop the local Zombie Apocalypse without it. When I later heard about the Fade option I felt even more horrible. But -- that's good writing. And good gameplay. I had to be responsible for my actions. I still remember how shocked I was (and really upset) when Alistair yelled at me afterwards. YELLED at me!

 

Those who romanced or befriended Solas and want to redeem him are already set up for heartbreak and difficult choices one way or another. Being as I'll have at least one character who felt utterly betrayed by him, I want to have the same struggle on that end too. If you're going up against a god, if you are trying to kill someone you claim a monster -- and he may well be, sure -- then I want to see how I choose when I have to make tough decisions and weigh the consequences on just how much I want to achieve that. Not just cakewalk up to an immensely powerful being and run him through. Talk about boring.

 

This. We don't play these games or worlds or scenarios for easy decisions. And I love that. I appreciate that in both DAO and DAI (I couldn't get through DA2) we are presented with decisions as complex or difficult as any a person with that kind of power and influence would absolutely have to make. And that's what engages me emotionally. There is always a price.

 

Stuff I would do with Solas in the Fade if I could:

• Have discussions about wisdom, cause and effect, mistakes, and all that jazz. 
• Shake him up and be like, DUDE, WTF, YOU'RE A GOOD MAN BUT THAT PLAN SUCKS.
• Read him all my fanfics and request feedback on his character.
• Make slow arrow jokes, just to see him squirm. 
• Sit on his back and ask him to fly me around. I know, I know, it attracts demons, but you're the most powerful mage in Thedas, ATM, please, just once!
• Sit him in front of the Fade PS4, toss him the controller, and make him play DAI. He must collect ALL TEH SHARDS.

 

Come to think of it, I can see why he generally doesn't show up in my dreams

 

First off, my Lavellan would just TALK to him. Talk to him. Talk to him. And steal kisses. I mean, we get so little time with him in the game, and he's so fascinating! I would have loved 2, 3, times the content for question-and-answer with Solas in-game. As it is, I'm so grateful for the banter, because it helped to show us who he was at his core. And whether or not he's a villain -- what we were shown was not someone who's evil. Who is, frankly, good at heart. He may want to burn down the world, but every death matters to him and I find that fascinating.

 

I would definitely want to have my Quizzie (me, ahem) meet him for a variety of Dates In The Fade. Preferably with dream-kisses or dream-sex to round out the evenings. He can be as conflicted as he wants IRL later, but at least my poor Lavellan would finally get some.

 

Yes, that's one of the things I've always liked about Solas, that he never pretends to have all of the answers, even if he has a lot of them due to age and experience. The fact that he can be condescending, because of the knowledge he does have, is irritating, but not unexpected. He is effectively a demi-god. But in this, at the moment he is utterly helpless, all of his plans have failed, and the one person who has given him any hope at all is the Inquisitor.

 

The Inquisitor doesn't just ask questions, they get answers.

 

In retrospect, it's really exciting and cool, how HONEST Solas is. He answers everyone, everything honestly. Seriously. He may be oblique. Double-layered. Offer multple meanings. But I cannot think of a single instance in which he outright lied, either factually or emotionally. 

 

You assume I ever leave the feels corner.

 

cut for feels

Spoiler

 

Out of likes, btw. 

 

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME? (Sobs and runs for the liquor cabinet) But... yeah. I'm so with you. (I am a total Ten Fan, BTW, sniffle). Now I'm off to scream, cry, curl up in the fetal position, and look at pictures of baby animals again.

 

 

Haha... Varric, foreshadowing:

 

Iron Bull: Hey, Varric, I was reading your stuff. Where do your bad guys come from?

 

Varric: Well, some of them come from Tevinter and some are Ben-Hassrath spies, but I like the story where the villain was the man beside you the whole time. The best villains don't see themselves as evil. They're fighting for a good cause and willing to get their hands dirty.

 

Iron Bull: All right that's... really deep and all but, I meant where do the bad guys come from literally. The way you write it is like they just fall from the sky and land on top on the hero.

 

Varric: I like to leave some things to the reader's imagination.

 

 

This? Is BRILLIANT! I never caught this banter! I love it beyond the telling. Just amazing. It enriches Solas and the story even more. I love every morsel -- kudos.

[Cee]

Chocolate is also mentioned in the war table chain if you help Maevaris and use Leliana at one point. Leliana keeps the chocolates.

 

 

Well, after being kind of blocked and dealing with lots of real life stress, I managed another fluff-plot installment in my Lavellan's past/first love timeline.

 

http://archiveofouro.../works/5407874 It's also in the Blanket Fort collection.

 

It was nice to get something written again.

 

The funny thing is at this point, it's hard to write Solavellan. There's so, so much. Though I'd like to again at some point.

 

But I'm really enjoying writing her past (she does deserve at least one functional, happy, sweet relationship that's ultimately really important in her life! So it's coming of age while having fallen for her best friend) and then my other two timelines are post-Corypheus and post-Trespasser. So many feels.

[Eliantariel]

 

I would definitely want to have my Quizzie (me, ahem) meet him for a variety of Dates In The Fade. Preferably with dream-kisses or dream-sex to round out the evenings. He can be as conflicted as he wants IRL later, but at least my poor Lavellan would finally get some.

 

I was thinking about "making out" in the fade - I mean we have the Solas/Blackwall banter where Blackwall asks Solas about having more than friends in the fade and a banter between Solas and Bull where Bull asks him if he had sex in the fade:

 

Solas: (Sighs.) Sera's involved? So this question will be offensive.

Blackwall: Yes, probably. Sorry.

Blackwall: You make friends with spirits in the Fade. So... um, are there any that are more than just friends?

Blackwall: If you know what I mean.

Solas: Oh, for... really?!

Blackwall: Look, it's a natural thing to be curious about!

Solas: For a twelve-year-old!

Blackwall: It's a simple yes or no question!

Solas: Nothing about the Fade or spirits is simple, especially not that.

Blackwall: Aha! So you do have experience in these matters!

Solas: I did not say that.

Blackwall: Don't panic. It'll be our little secret.

Solas: Ass.

Blackwall: Now who's twelve?

 

 

Iron Bull: Hey, Solas, you ever do your Fade thing and pretend you can fly?

Iron Bull: Just flap your arms and zip around in there? Then maybe bang some hot Fade ladies?

Solas: No. Such behavior attracts the attention of demons.

Iron Bull: Aww. Demons **** up everything.

 

 

So - from the last banter I do get the impression that such intimate behaviour in the fade is quite dangerous. Maybe when Solas says to Lavellan that it has been a long time for him it means that all the time in the fade he wasn't quite so intimate with someone but only before that? That would really be a long time. But kisses seem to be ok, at least in Haven there was no demon attending.

 

 

For those who have not seen it, here in the spoiler section of the forum is a nice thread about Solas and if he could be or carry a spirit.

 

And totally unrelated to that before: before the veil, when fade and real world were combined, how do you imagine elves dreaming? I mean, the fade was already around them, and if they dream they are just again in the fade (without real world parts)? 

[midnight tea]

I used to like dark chocolate but seem to have gone off the bitterness now.

 

On topic statement: I wonder if.. Thedas has chocolate.

 

It does have cocoa

 

Spoiler

Iron Bull: Hey, Varric, you get that thing I asked about?

Varric: It should be there next time we head back to base. Not easy to find, by the way.

Iron Bull: Hmm... how do you guys live without this stuff?

Varric: I don't see what the deal is, honestly, but different tastes...

Iron Bull: Ahh... now I just need some hot milk and some of those Orlesian guimauves to put in it.

Varric: Hey, what you do with this 'cocoa' is up to you. I don't need to hear about it.

 

... And one of war table mission results mentions chocolates -> http://dragonage.wik...nter_Resistance

So I assume chocolate is a thing that exists, but it may be a rare treat.

[dawnstone]

For those who have not seen it, here in the spoiler section of the forum is a nice thread about Solas and if he could be or carry a spirit.

 

And totally unrelated to that before: before the veil, when fade and real world were combined, how do you imagine elves dreaming? I mean, the fade was already around them, and if they dream they are just again in the fade (without real world parts)? 

I think that he once was a spirit, and that he was asked by Mythal to come and take a body, but I don't think he has anything extra in terms of spirits inside of him. There is just Solas, and the power he stripped out of Flemythal. He does seem to consider flesh to be separate from the spirit, and so it seems that everyone who is alive has a spirit, but each one varying in age, strength and levels of sensitivity to the Fade - or in the case of Tranquil, no sensitivity to the Fade, because they've been cut off from their spirit-selves and are just a body.

 

Current Thedas seems as if it is full of Tranquil to Solas, because beings with spirits in his time probably were more volatile, and projected emotion more broadly, because they could always draw directly from the Fade, possibly even demonstrated a level of telepathy. With the Veil, people still have spirits but they are subdued and only mages have larger access to what is familiar to Solas (and confined to the Circles, it might have been a while before he ran into any mages at all!).

 

It seems that the state of going from flesh to spirit was much more fluid for elves (though if you pay attention, Spirit!Cole can go from fully-fleshed to being able to slip back into the Fade as a spirit by the end of Trespasser, so maybe bodies are something a spirit can form and discard at will, if desired?). The vallaslin may have simply been a way to keep elves from shedding their bodies and returning to the Fade if they got bored with being physical. Though there is uthenera, where elves go to sleep, as if dead, their spirits roaming. Perhaps some elves could take form and leave it at will, while others could not, and/or, if they wanted to return to the physical world their self and memories intact, had to use uthenera to maintain permanence.

 

Permanence, memory, being remembered, or being forgotten, are very important concepts to the ancient elves, it seems.

 

Being forgotten was/is like being dead, really permanently dead in their society, because everyone had such a long memory. It's hard to be forgotten unless willfully. You basically become nothing, you have never existed, if forgotten. Being a Forgotten One had to be the ultimate insult/condemnation. It also lends a great deal of importance to Solas telling a romanced Lavellan that he will never forget her. Cole tells him, in one instance, "They're not gone, so long as you remember them." which reinforces this idea.

 

A desire for permanence is what seemingly separates the elves from the spirits, in the end.

[Master Warder Z_]

I was going to write a direct rebuttal to something Master Warder Z posted recently, but I don't really have the will. I'll just do a little soapboxing. Some people can't really think outside the box on Solas or "villains" generally in fiction or reality. Some people see things in black and white and take everything at face value. They see a "villain" in the media and never stop to think about their side of things or about how a peaceful resolution might be reached. They just want to drop bombs or swing the executioner's axe utterly convinced of the righteousness of their actions. The roles hero and villain in the end are completely subjective. A hero who seeks no alternative path and kills Solas at the cost of the ancient elves is no less or more a villain than Solas is himself. [end scene]

And if we are generalizing? Some 'people' love that word choice are incapable of setting aside sentiment if it means doing what's required, they will leap to the defense of monsters and argue 'perspective' from acts to terrorism to plans for genocide. There are 'people' who defended Anders after the Kirkwall bombing. There are people who defend Titus or Celene, or Gaspard or that elf.

My reply? Try arguing perspective with the giant robot cuttlefish and see how it goes. It's all subjective, but to sit there and blandy and poorly attempt to dissect my morality, or values even on a fictive subject without even offering additional context or values to dismiss my perspective leaves me with little respect for your own.

Maybe people like me if I can use your example need to 'drop bombs' because your kind just talk to a problem rather then fix it even while people die.

[midnight tea]

I was thinking about "making out" in the fade - I mean we have the Solas/Blackwall banter where Blackwall asks Solas about having more than friends in the fade and a banter between Solas and Bull where Bull asks him if he had sex in the fade:

 

*snip*

 

 

So - from the last banter I do get the impression that such intimate behaviour in the fade is quite dangerous. Maybe when Solas says to Lavellan that it has been a long time for him it means that all the time in the fade he wasn't quite so intimate with someone but only before that? That would really be a long time. But kisses seem to be ok, at least in Haven there was no demon attending.

 

You can't forget that the world Solas comes from and a current state of affairs is different than what it was - Solas is from a time where Fade was an integral part of the world, and elves were something between a material being and a spirit (they called Fade spirits their brethren of air).

 

So, if he doesn't want to lie to Blackwall about experiences in the Fade, or spirits in a way he understands it, or as they truly are or were before, he can neither confirm or deny that he had any experience and what it entailed.

 

We do find however a recording in Vir Dirthara how intimacy looked like in times of Elvenhan: http://dragonage.wik..._Birds_of_Fancy

 

... And given that Solas is experienced in these matters, I assume this is at least one of ways how those matters looked like before for him

 

In fact, the only thing he says to Blackwall is that nothing about the Fade is as simple as Blackwall may think it is - it's just Blackwall that assumed that this is just as simple as falling asleep and finding a spirit interested with Fade sex, lol.

 

As for Bull's inquiry - I assume Solas spoke mostly of what he avoids to do in a state of a Fade it is in now, compared to what it was before. Demons, after all, attack so eagerly before they want to cross tehe Veil to the willing world, while there's not that many with magical talent who are left in the waking world. 

 

... Which both suggests that the Fade itself suffers greatly from the world being split as it is, as well as the sad fact that Solas spent last millenia being near constantly on guard and avoiding most fun No wonder the dude is grumpy and distant. I bet he mostly forgot how is it to have fun, of any kind.

 

 

 

And totally unrelated to that before: before the veil, when fade and real world were combined, how do you imagine elves dreaming? I mean, the fade was already around them, and if they dream they are just again in the fade (without real world parts)? 

 

It probably wasn't much different from before - there was still waking and dreaming world... it's just that the stuff they dreamed about was actually around them as well and could be accessed consciously, or transformed into magic.

[TheyCallMeBunny]

Mmmm. I do love me some Nordic sweets. Something about European countries that have to deal with the cold makes me intrinsically trust them at being good with the baking of yummy stuffs.

 

Sorry for making everyone have cravings, but at least some of you must have been in a timezone where you could go and buy/bake something. It was waaaay into the night here, so I had to go to bed and just dream of it. 

 

I would say that Europeans in general love their pastries and cookies, but to the people here in Scandinavia it is considered a way of living. A tip about Swedes is to never never get in-between them and their fika. Never! I'm not joking, there would be riots!   

 

I'm glad there seems to be chocolate in Thedas, otherwise Solas might just as well kill everyone for there would be no reason to live! 

 

Yes, I should join something called Chocoholics Anonymous...   

[Eliantariel]

I think that he once was a spirit, and that he was asked by Mythal to come and take a body, but I don't think he has anything extra in terms of spirits inside of him. There is just Solas, and the power he stripped out of Flemythal. He does seem to consider flesh to be separate from the spirit, and so it seems that everyone who is alive has a spirit, but each one varying in age, strength and levels of sensitivity to the Fade - or in the case of Tranquil, no sensitivity to the Fade, because they've been cut off from their spirit-selves and are just a body.

 

Current Thedas seems as if it is full of Tranquil to Solas, because beings with spirits in his time probably were more volatile, and projected emotion more broadly, because they could always draw directly from the Fade, possibly even demonstrated a level of telepathy. With the Veil, people still have spirits but they are subdued and only mages have larger access to what is familiar to Solas (and confined to the Circles, it might have been a while before he ran into any mages at all!).

 

It seems that the state of going from flesh to spirit was much more fluid for elves (though if you pay attention, Spirit!Cole can go from fully-fleshed to being able to slip back into the Fade as a spirit by the end of Trespasser, so maybe bodies are something a spirit can form and discard at will, if desired?). The vallaslin may have simply been a way to keep elves from shedding their bodies and returning to the Fade if they got bored with being physical. Though there is uthenera, where elves go to sleep, as if dead, their spirits roaming. Perhaps some elves could take form and leave it at will, while others could not, and/or, if they wanted to return to the physical world their self and memories intact, had to use uthenera to maintain permanence.

 

Permanence, memory, being remembered, or being forgotten, are very important concepts to the ancient elves, it seems.

 

Being forgotten was/is like being dead, really permanently dead in their society, because everyone had such a long memory. It's hard to be forgotten unless willfully. You basically become nothing, you have never existed, if forgotten. Being a Forgotten One had to be the ultimate insult/condemnation. It also lends a great deal of importance to Solas telling a romanced Lavellan that he will never forget her. Cole tells him, in one instance, "They're not gone, so long as you remember them." which reinforces this idea.

 

A desire for permanence is what seemingly separates the elves from the spirits, in the end.

 

While I do think that Solas was once a spirit there is his dialogue at haven where he says he grew up in a village to the north. I don't think this is a lie, he did not even have to mention it. So I am trying to wrap my mind around this.