Art post.
Solas fixing his robes after battle by nipuni.
Spoiler
Lovely modern AU art of Solas and Lavellan from the fic, Thedosian Field Trips.
Spoiler
Modern AU Lavellan and Solas from the College AU fic.
Spoiler
Singquisition modern AU comic: "...Good morning, Cole."
Spoiler
Lavellan and Solas butt-grabbing a Dalish OC.
Spoiler
Angry Solas for the emoji meme.
Spoiler
Adorable Trespasser Solas.
Spoiler
I adore your dedication to this art posting! Thank you! 
As a Lavellan who considers Cullen one of her bffs, this is extra sad. 
^ That hits you in the feels, it does. My Lavellan feels the same way, in her more despairing moments. :/
More Art
hehehe...cute, little, fluffy comic. Somewhere in the Fade...
http://bunnynoldo.de...Fluff-617897565
More cuteness. Dragon Age Charms
http://kasye.deviant...harms-617847541
Solas covering Lavellan's eyes
http://umabbas.devia...-Cara-617967468
Solas
http://umabbas.devia...olink-617967686
More Art
hehehe...cute, little, fluffy comic. Somewhere in the Fade...
Spoiler
His final line is so true to life, its hilarious! 
More Art
hehehe...cute, little, fluffy comic. Somewhere in the Fade...
Spoiler
Oh my god. Is there a tumblr link for that one?
As a Lavellan who considers Cullen one of her bffs, this is extra sad.
Oh yes! My Lavellan has been flirting shamelessly with Cullen because he is a great character (and yummie), but she loves him as a friend-nothing compares to Solas. *Heartbroken*
Credit: http://dagmarvanadiel.deviantart.com -her artwork is amazing.
Art post.
'The Lovers'. Another beautiful Solavellan art by nipuni. 
Finished artwork of Solas and Lavellan from the fic, When The World Fell. 
"You're the one who started with tongue."
"I did no such thing."
Beautiful sketch of Solas and Lavellan kissing. (NSFW-ish because of nudity but nothing naughty about this.)
Bad hair day. 
Solas x m!Lavellan.
Shirtless Solas. Hnnngh!
Sera annoying Solas for the emoji challenge.
A balanced party. Blackwall x Lavellan and Solas x Lavellan. (They're two different Lavellans btw.)
*And then Trespasser happens* Male Lavellan, Dorian, and Solas.
I'm not sure whether Solas feels guilty so much as not wanting to appear a monster to himself almost as much as his friend. There is a greater element of doubt in his mind. In the negative conversation he refers to modern people as the "innocents" that will be harmed. So he acknowledges them as that much.
I also feel that I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea that it is solely because of one person that he regards the entire population of Thedas in a different light. What of those other people he spoke with and appeared to respect? Does that mean that every other person in the Inquisition suddenly has no value just because the Inquisitor is an a**hole? In fact that is not necessarily the case anyway. Just because they did a few things he personally did not approve of doesn't necessarily make them better than his friend. To my mind the big difference seems to come over whether you talk with him or not. I've had an Inquisitor who was respected by Solas and yet they conscripted the mages, stopped him from killing the mages who harmed his friend and refrained from banishing the Wardens, three major decisions that he disapproves of, yet because they constantly go back and chat to him, I am able to mitigate these adverse effects. I wonder what you have to do to remain in negative territory but the fact that with the really negative conversation the Inquisitor can say "when have I ever wanted to hear one of your......" made me feel that talking with him is a key factor. So Solas feels no guilt about the world because the Inquisitor is not a conversationalist? I don't think so.
I suppose I keep trying to understand what is going on with him because I was so disappointed in how he turned out. I genuinely respected Solas. Every time he was chatting with one of the other companions and he criticised something, it was invariably something that I felt the same way as him about but I wasn't allowed to express that view. Not only that, but he did it in such a measured way that I didn't mind hearing him holding forth on the subject. The reason my first ever Inquisitor fell in love with him was because she was very much of my mind set and he seemed to share so many of my ideas on important issues. It was a relief that I had finally found a romance where I wasn't constantly asked to be in conflict with their worldview in order to be true to myself or have to compromise my beliefs in order to maintain it. I was depressed enough when he went off at the end of DAI without giving me the promised explanation but then when he finally did give one in Trespasser, my character was devastated. (I had already moved on because I didn't want anything more to do with that manipulation of my emotions by the writers). This man who had seemed her soul mate was prepared to destroy the world and everything in it to achieve his ends.
I'm also getting a little tired of the characters that I feel I identify with the most in the games turning out to be the villain, particularly those championing personal freedoms. First there was Anders and the cause of mage freedom but he ended up a terrorist bomber (sorry but that is too close to real life for me to condone), then there is Solas who wants to restore the elves and give them a better future (a laudable aim) but states an intention of doing this by mass genocide. Leliana seems the most liberal minded of the potential Divines but if you fail to take one choice back at the beginning of the game, then she enforces her reforms with a blood bath. Even Calpernia, the ex-slave who wants citizenship for all her fellow slaves, is a Tevinter supremist of highly questionable judgement (would you have thrown you lot in with Corypheus?)
I really do hope there is a solution to the Solas plot that not only allows him to see the error of his ways but also allows for an improvement in the lot of the elves without the mass genocide. I'm pretty upset that my male Lavellan has to declare he is going to stop him at all costs simply because I could not bring myself to take the other option because it makes it seem like he is more concerned about the welfare of Solas than he is of the world and in any case, unlike my still devoted to her love inspite of everything female Lavellan, he feels utterly betrayed. Solas would understand I think. "Only a friend can betray you."
I'm not sure whether Solas feels guilty so much as not wanting to appear a monster to himself almost as much as his friend. There is a greater element of doubt in his mind. In the negative conversation he refers to modern people as the "innocents" that will be harmed. So he acknowledges them as that much.
I also feel that I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea that it is solely because of one person that he regards the entire population of Thedas in a different light. What of those other people he spoke with and appeared to respect? Does that mean that every other person in the Inquisition suddenly has no value just because the Inquisitor is an a**hole? In fact that is not necessarily the case anyway. Just because they did a few things he personally did not approve of doesn't necessarily make them better than his friend. To my mind the big difference seems to come over whether you talk with him or not. I've had an Inquisitor who was respected by Solas and yet they conscripted the mages, stopped him from killing the mages who harmed his friend and refrained from banishing the Wardens, three major decisions that he disapproves of, yet because they constantly go back and chat to him, I am able to mitigate these adverse effects. I wonder what you have to do to remain in negative territory but the fact that with the really negative conversation the Inquisitor can say "when have I ever wanted to hear one of your......" made me feel that talking with him is a key factor. So Solas feels no guilt about the world because the Inquisitor is not a conversationalist? I don't think so.
I suppose I keep trying to understand what is going on with him because I was so disappointed in how he turned out. I genuinely respected Solas. Every time he was chatting with one of the other companions and he criticised something, it was invariably something that I felt the same way as him about but I wasn't allowed to express that view. Not only that, but he did it in such a measured way that I didn't mind hearing him holding forth on the subject. The reason my first ever Inquisitor fell in love with him was because she was very much of my mind set and he seemed to share so many of my ideas on important issues. It was a relief that I had finally found a romance where I wasn't constantly asked to be in conflict with their worldview in order to be true to myself or have to compromise my beliefs in order to maintain it. I was depressed enough when he went off at the end of DAI without giving me the promised explanation but then when he finally did give one in Trespasser, my character was devastated. (I had already moved on because I didn't want anything more to do with that manipulation of my emotions by the writers). This man who had seemed her soul mate was prepared to destroy the world and everything in it to achieve his ends.
I'm also getting a little tired of the characters that I feel I identify with the most in the games turning out to be the villain, particularly those championing personal freedoms. First there was Anders and the cause of mage freedom but he ended up a terrorist bomber (sorry but that is too close to real life for me to condone), then there is Solas who wants to restore the elves and give them a better future (a laudable aim) but states an intention of doing this by mass genocide. Leliana seems the most liberal minded of the potential Divines but if you fail to take one choice back at the beginning of the game, then she enforces her reforms with a blood bath. Even Calpernia, the ex-slave who wants citizenship for all her fellow slaves, is a Tevinter supremist of highly questionable judgement (would you have thrown you lot in with Corypheus?)
I really do hope there is a solution to the Solas plot that not only allows him to see the error of his ways but also allows for an improvement in the lot of the elves without the mass genocide. I'm pretty upset that my male Lavellan has to declare he is going to stop him at all costs simply because I could not bring myself to take the other option because it makes it seem like he is more concerned about the welfare of Solas than he is of the world and in any case, unlike my still devoted to her love inspite of everything female Lavellan, he feels utterly betrayed. Solas would understand I think. "Only a friend can betray you."
I think you raise some valid points, but I don't whole heartedly agree with all of them I think first of all, not everything is black and white, but very greyish with Solas. He is arrogant and self confident and even prideful, which leads to him making mistakes. He saw the world filled with "tranquils" which means he thought that the world and the people in it was suffering in it, which made him justify his would-be actions (before he met the inquisitor). He justified it, by the means of making it a better place, which I think in the end of trespasser is what he still does. I think he is so filled with guilt and heartbreak over the consequences for the elven people, that he feels he has to undo the wrong he did by creating the veil. (Solas and Cole mini conversations very much confirms this where solas replies to cole "this is a hurt you cannot heal"). He feels he has destroyed the world already, and now he has to right his wrong.
As another point is, it is not clearly specified how removing the veil would destroy the world? I don't see it as a big boom/disaster, but perhaps it would just end the world as it is now. I don't really see how the act of removing the veil would kill people. But it might change them? Or maybe I am wrong (and missed some lore?). But I more see it as a "destroy" the world and we know it, and free old "gods" which in itself is a pretty dire thing, and giving the elves back was what lost, but I don't see this mass genocide just by removing the veil, but wars etc will most likely follow this removal. (If anyone understands what I am trying to get at 
)
Regarding Anders, I really think him and Justice was just too entwined and it really was Justice pushing Anders to do it. (Not that it excuses it) - but as a point of Hawke saying "I dont think there ever was just Anders).
As another point is, it is not clearly specified how removing the veil would destroy the world? I don't see it as a big boom/disaster, but perhaps it would just end the world as it is now. I don't really see how the act of removing the veil would kill people. But it might change them? Or maybe I am wrong (and missed some lore?). But I more see it as a "destroy" the world and we know it, and free old "gods" which in itself is a pretty dire thing, and giving the elves back was what lost, but I don't see this mass genocide just by removing the veil, but wars etc will most likely follow this removal. (If anyone understands what I am trying to get at
Solas says that his plans would result in the death of every friend you've ever known, if you choose to say you want to join him. I don't know how it'll do it, exactly, but he definitely seems to think it will. I'm gonna trust him on it for the time being.
The negative conversation is also pretty implicit about the results.
Inquisitor: "Why stop the Qun if you are going to destroy the world anyway?"
Solas: "There is no benefit in allowing harm to come to innocents before it is necessary."
Okay, he does say harm rather than death, but on the whole harming innocents does imply something nasty occurring that they really do not deserve. May be it won't be as complete as "bang" and the are gone but there are going to be serious consequences from what he intends. The Inquisitor is the one who describes it as murder and he doesn't object to that term, just has the cheek to say, "Wouldn't you do the same?" Actually, no. Also to a friendly Inquisitor he says: "If they must die, then let them die in peace." All things considered, there are going to be a lot of casualties and innocent suffering, even if it doesn't result in outright annihilation.
Art post.
Beautiful Solavellan tarot card by steftastan.
'Wake Up' by nanananananablr.
Gorgeous artwork of the DA:I gang by neotericwitch! 
Print to be sold at AX.
*sigh* I love this art style. Reminds me of a lot of my favorite anime fanart.
EDIT: Apparently the artist is Japanese, so that might explain that. lol I feel like maybe they've done some Bleach stuff that I've seen before?
Should I keep posting ME:A info in here? I know it's way off topic, but I also know a lot of you are interested?
http://gamerant.com/...es-opinion-744/
Should I keep posting ME:A info in here? I know it's way off topic, but I also know a lot of you are interested?
Sure. Yeah it's off topic but we do that sometimes. Also, I've stopped checking the website or the ME twitter because of the utter lack of news. Might as well get it here in this thread since I do still read it regularly. =p
I'm not sure whether Solas feels guilty so much as not wanting to appear a monster to himself almost as much as his friend. There is a greater element of doubt in his mind. In the negative conversation he refers to modern people as the "innocents" that will be harmed. So he acknowledges them as that much.
I also feel that I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea that it is solely because of one person that he regards the entire population of Thedas in a different light. What of those other people he spoke with and appeared to respect? Does that mean that every other person in the Inquisition suddenly has no value just because the Inquisitor is an a**hole? In fact that is not necessarily the case anyway. Just because they did a few things he personally did not approve of doesn't necessarily make them better than his friend. To my mind the big difference seems to come over whether you talk with him or not. I've had an Inquisitor who was respected by Solas and yet they conscripted the mages, stopped him from killing the mages who harmed his friend and refrained from banishing the Wardens, three major decisions that he disapproves of, yet because they constantly go back and chat to him, I am able to mitigate these adverse effects. I wonder what you have to do to remain in negative territory but the fact that with the really negative conversation the Inquisitor can say "when have I ever wanted to hear one of your......" made me feel that talking with him is a key factor. So Solas feels no guilt about the world because the Inquisitor is not a conversationalist? I don't think so.
I suppose I keep trying to understand what is going on with him because I was so disappointed in how he turned out. I genuinely respected Solas. Every time he was chatting with one of the other companions and he criticised something, it was invariably something that I felt the same way as him about but I wasn't allowed to express that view. Not only that, but he did it in such a measured way that I didn't mind hearing him holding forth on the subject. The reason my first ever Inquisitor fell in love with him was because she was very much of my mind set and he seemed to share so many of my ideas on important issues. It was a relief that I had finally found a romance where I wasn't constantly asked to be in conflict with their worldview in order to be true to myself or have to compromise my beliefs in order to maintain it. I was depressed enough when he went off at the end of DAI without giving me the promised explanation but then when he finally did give one in Trespasser, my character was devastated. (I had already moved on because I didn't want anything more to do with that manipulation of my emotions by the writers). This man who had seemed her soul mate was prepared to destroy the world and everything in it to achieve his ends.
I'm also getting a little tired of the characters that I feel I identify with the most in the games turning out to be the villain, particularly those championing personal freedoms. First there was Anders and the cause of mage freedom but he ended up a terrorist bomber (sorry but that is too close to real life for me to condone), then there is Solas who wants to restore the elves and give them a better future (a laudable aim) but states an intention of doing this by mass genocide. Leliana seems the most liberal minded of the potential Divines but if you fail to take one choice back at the beginning of the game, then she enforces her reforms with a blood bath. Even Calpernia, the ex-slave who wants citizenship for all her fellow slaves, is a Tevinter supremist of highly questionable judgement (would you have thrown you lot in with Corypheus?)
I really do hope there is a solution to the Solas plot that not only allows him to see the error of his ways but also allows for an improvement in the lot of the elves without the mass genocide. I'm pretty upset that my male Lavellan has to declare he is going to stop him at all costs simply because I could not bring myself to take the other option because it makes it seem like he is more concerned about the welfare of Solas than he is of the world and in any case, unlike my still devoted to her love inspite of everything female Lavellan, he feels utterly betrayed. Solas would understand I think. "Only a friend can betray you."
I don't think it's that the Inquisitor single-handedly changes his worldview, so much as the Inquisitor is the only one that makes a continued effort to reach out to him, which further convinces him to give other people a chance. And once he's done that, it's the people of the Inquisition as a whole that changes his mind. Does that make sense? He doesn't go "Wow, the Inquisitor's a really cool person, I guess everyone else is too." He goes "The Inquisitor's alright, I guess. And they keep encouraging me to talk to Cassandra... okay, fine, I guess Cassandra's also an okay person. And Varric, and Blackwall, Bull has his good points, Dorian's a remorseless slave-owner but at least he's got a decent grasp of magical theory..." etc, etc.
Well if codex entries on the Veil are even partially correct, then just restoring a conscious connection to the Fade by itself would make the world 'burn in raw chaos'. Considering people of Modern Thedas would now have to deal with the imagined and remembered having as much substance as things that are real. Their perception of reality might be altered with a sudden snap (depending on how the Veil comes away. All at once, gradual, etc...). This would majorly f*** with a regular individual. Think of how Cassandra and Solas' banter on tranquility goes, I'm sure it would be something similar to people abruptly having their mind drastically changed. And this isn't even taking into account magic, possible ancient beings awakening (Titans), or any potential violent change in geography (since we don't know for certain what the land would look like with the Fade crashing into the Waking world).
Hello, Solas thread!! This is a giant lore question dump and I'm sorry!
I just played through the game one more time, and I'm so sorry if this has been covered before (I'm sure a lot of it has) but I have some dumb lore questions/theories I was wondering about. I know, I'm super late to the party. Maybe some resident lore junkies can help me wrap my head around some of these things because I have a LOT of questions.
OK, here we go.
Solas says in Trespasser he created the Veil and then entered uthenera for millennia.
WHERE exactly did Solas sleep during this time? Surely a mortal body would have decayed or wasted away somewhat if it was just lying there literally asleep for ages and ages. Is it possible that Solas' "sleep" was merely in the Fade, where he existed first as an incorporeal spirit-being/mage known as Fen'Harel? Like, what are the PHYSICS of the pre-Veil world? Is it a world where all those ancient mages existed in a physical sense, or were their forms ever-changing based on their wishes? In that case, Fen'Harel/Solas could assume multiple forms. I remember something in the library codexes in Trespasser saying "his [Solas's?] crime was that he assumed a form reserved for the gods" but if this was pre-a Veil world then shouldn't anything be able to manipulate the world around it with ease? Wouldn't "shape shifting" just be the norm for all these ancient beings? Either way, whatever form he slept it may have been entirely non-physical, right?
So, what does Solas really mean when he says he "woke up" a year ago?
Also, what caused Solas to wake up? Was it Mythal who summoned him into a "mortal" form, like hers (as Flemeth) so that he could help her? If he is Mythal's servant, her loyal hound/wolf, then he would be bound to her will, much as whoever drinks from the Well of Sorrows is bound to Mythal's will. Solas seems to know a great deal about this transaction already, and tells a romanced Lavellan that he "begged her not to" drink from the well, and that in doing so she's become "Mythal's creature." He could know firsthand what that entails. He may have been a servant of a so-called "God" before became loyal to Mythal and free of his vallaslin. Is there any more evidence of this being the case?
I was also thinking... Could Solas' allegiance to Mythal have done something to Solas/Fen'Harel and Flemeth/Mythal a lot like Dumbledore does with Snape in Harry Potter? You know how Snape is forced to KILL Dumbledore because it is what Dumbledore wants, and out of loyalty, Snape promises to do this when the time comes. Because of Solas's loyalty to Mythal, I believe it's possible that is the kind of situation we're witnessing in the post-credits scene when Solas absorbs Flemeth's power. The body she has inhabited (Flemeth's) is old and decaying, but her soul/essence is more or less immortal (or at least extremely difficult to ever destroy fully). The way Flemeth just lets her "old friend" end her, in what appears to be an entirely humane way makes it seem like something they both understand was destined to happen, as though this was always a part of Mythal's plan... but what PART of herself did Mythal give/sacrifice to Solas? Surely not her soul (that would go to Morrigan I assume...?) Even the whole idea of the Dread Wolf taking the blame for doing Mythal's dirty work fits with the Snape/Dumbledore parallel. Basically, Solas would be willing to look like the bad guy for the time being in order to ensure that Mythal's plans are set in motion. We just don't know the full extent of these plans yet... Obviously the include destroying the Veil though.
Why does Solas look so much like the depictions of Shartan, if Shartan only existed in the time of Andraste, ie. during the time Solas was supposedly still deep in uthenera? What was the importance of Felassan from The Masked Empire and was he an ancient elf like Solas and Abelas? How old is he and how did he become an agent of Fen'Harel? I know Solas killed him at the end of masked empire, but what happens to a person's physical self if they're killed in the Fade?
From the Dragon Age Wiki, this describes something from Origins:
"in The Gauntlet, during A Test of Faith quest, the Warden encounters what appears to be the spirit of Shartan,[who looks a LOT like Solas] who will ask a riddle and tell of his desire for an elven homeland. The riddle is "I'd neither a guest nor a trespasser be. In this place I belong, that belongs also to me." "Home" is the correct answer to his riddle. (http://dragonage.wik...m/wiki/Shartan)
Another excerpt from the Shartan wiki page:
Also note: In the very last part of Inquisition, the Inky stabs the map of Thedas and the area they single out is the town/village called Solas, in Tevinter. If this is where we're going next, there must be a good reason!
I think based on that tidbit from the wiki that Shartan could have been a mortal mage from the area called Solas, or whose name was earned at the battle that took place in Solas. Naming a leader for a famous battle they took part in is not uncommon, historically. (For example, Shakespeare's Coriolanus is only known as Coriolanus after winning a battle at Corioles -- before that he was known as Martius. After the battle, he takes on the name Caius Martius Coriolanus.) Or perhaps the historical figure known as Shartan was also known as something like Shartan of Solas (his hometown?). After all, Solas does say he "grew up in a village to the North". 'Solas' could be that village.
What I find most confusing when trying to figure out what the heck is going on with Solas is the TIMELINE of events. The history/legend/fable of Andraste and Shartan has WAY too many parallels to the history/legend/fable of Mythal and Fen'Harel (as Solas tells it) for it to be a coincidence. The betrayal/murder, the slave uprising, etc. The only glaring issue is that it takes place at a totally different time in history. One set of events apparently took place before time began (before the Veil, in ancient elvhenan, when everyone who existed was ancient and elfy) and the other set of very similar events took place in Thedas after the Veil formed. Why would history repeat itself? Did these (very similar) events happen more than once? If so, why?
When Solas first talks to you at Haven he says he "watched as hosts of spirits clashed to reenact the bloody past in ancient wars both famous and forgotten".
Solas is super interested in Alexius' time magic stuff, and if you take him to the Still Ruins in the Western Approach he says: "I've been here before. I nearly died for lack of water." WTF, Solas, why were you HERE? And one of his Veil-strengthening wards is there too.
If you check out this tumblr post: http://canticle-of-a...uct-of-the-veil it shows a lot of evidence for the Veil being the beginning of time as we know it. Looking up time and the veil and Solas led me to it! Very interesting!
So basically before the Veil was created, it seems like there was no time as we know it at all. Without the construct of time, "immortality" (perhaps more accurately described as simply a lack of mortality) was the norm. The creation of the Veil is like the Big Bang, Thedas style. Before it, we cannot see any further back into the history of the universe. That's how we estimate the age of the universe as around 13.8 billion years. Before that, there is no light. Only darkness. Only the Void. Fen'Harel created the Veil, and in so doing he created TIME. He is the Father Time figure / the Time Lord of Thedas... and also kind of The Maker.
"Live well, while time remains." Tearing down the Veil = no more time.
If Shartan and Andraste were dreamers, did they maybe converse in the Fade with Fen'Harel and Mythal, and this became confused over time identifying these ancient elvhen "gods" as other gods known by new names? Do you think Mythal possessed Andraste? What's the purpose of including so many similarities between the stories of Andraste and Mythal? Why does Solas look exactly like Shartan? Is it just history getting it wrong and combining elements of two different stories from two different times, or is there something more to it than that?
Is it... time travel!?! Is the next game going to involve flying around through all of time and space in a Veil-less world?
... Thoughts?
Hello, Solas thread!! This is a giant lore question dump and I'm sorry!
I just played through the game one more time, and I'm so sorry if this has been covered before (I'm sure a lot of it has) but I have some dumb lore questions/theories I was wondering about. I know, I'm super late to the party. Maybe some resident lore junkies can help me wrap my head around some of these things because I have a LOT of questions.
OK, here we go.
Solas says in Trespasser he created the Veil and then entered uthenera for millennia.
WHERE exactly did Solas sleep during this time? Surely a mortal body would have decayed or wasted away somewhat if it was just lying there literally asleep for ages and ages. Is it possible that Solas' "sleep" was merely in the Fade, where he existed first as an incorporeal spirit-being/mage known as Fen'Harel?
I have not read the entire post but this part ... elves who entered uthenera were sometimes able to gain sustenance from the Fade itself, according to in game lore. So apparently it's possible to exist simply on magical energy. It's also possible he's still doing this to some extent as I recall a codex entry or possibly random conversation where the servants say Solas doesn't seem to eat much. Don't take my word on that part though, I've been searching for that reference and I haven't been able to find it. So I may be mistaken about that part.
Edit to add: We don't know where his physical body actually rested although it was probably guarded by his agents as he apparently had active agents through the millenia he was in uthenera.
Hello, Solas thread!! This is a giant lore question dump and I'm sorry!
I just played through the game one more time, and I'm so sorry if this has been covered before (I'm sure a lot of it has) but I have some dumb lore questions/theories I was wondering about. I know, I'm super late to the party. Maybe some resident lore junkies can help me wrap my head around some of these things because I have a LOT of questions.
OK, here we go.
Solas says in Trespasser he created the Veil and then entered uthenera for millennia.
WHERE exactly did Solas sleep during this time? Surely a mortal body would have decayed or wasted away somewhat if it was just lying there literally asleep for ages and ages. Is it possible that Solas' "sleep" was merely in the Fade, where he existed first as an incorporeal spirit-being/mage known as Fen'Harel? Like, what are the PHYSICS of the pre-Veil world? Is it a world where all those ancient mages existed in a physical sense, or were their forms ever-changing based on their wishes? In that case, Fen'Harel/Solas could assume multiple forms. I remember something in the library codexes in Trespasser saying "his [Solas's?] crime was that he assumed a form reserved for the gods" but if this was pre-a Veil world then shouldn't anything be able to manipulate the world around it with ease? Wouldn't "shape shifting" just be the norm for all these ancient beings? Either way, whatever form he slept it may have been entirely non-physical, right?
So, what does Solas really mean when he says he "woke up" a year ago?
Also, what caused Solas to wake up? Was it Mythal who summoned him into a "mortal" form, like hers (as Flemeth) so that he could help her? If he is Mythal's servant, her loyal hound/wolf, then he would be bound to her will, much as whoever drinks from the Well of Sorrows is bound to Mythal's will. Solas seems to know a great deal about this transaction already, and tells a romanced Lavellan that he "begged her not to" drink from the well, and that in doing so she's become "Mythal's creature." He could know firsthand what that entails. He may have been a servant of a so-called "God" before became loyal to Mythal and free of his vallaslin. Is there any more evidence of this being the case?
I was also thinking... Could Solas' allegiance to Mythal have done something to Solas/Fen'Harel and Flemeth/Mythal a lot like Dumbledore does with Snape in Harry Potter? You know how Snape is forced to KILL Dumbledore because it is what Dumbledore wants, and out of loyalty, Snape promises to do this when the time comes. Because of Solas's loyalty to Mythal, I believe it's possible that is the kind of situation we're witnessing in the post-credits scene when Solas absorbs Flemeth's power. The body she has inhabited (Flemeth's) is old and decaying, but her soul/essence is more or less immortal (or at least extremely difficult to ever destroy fully). The way Flemeth just lets her "old friend" end her, in what appears to be an entirely humane way makes it seem like something they both understand was destined to happen, as though this was always a part of Mythal's plan... but what PART of herself did Mythal give/sacrifice to Solas? Surely not her soul (that would go to Morrigan I assume...?) Even the whole idea of the Dread Wolf taking the blame for doing Mythal's dirty work fits with the Snape/Dumbledore parallel. Basically, Solas would be willing to look like the bad guy for the time being in order to ensure that Mythal's plans are set in motion. We just don't know the full extent of these plans yet... Obviously the include destroying the Veil though.
Why does Solas look so much like the depictions of Shartan, if Shartan only existed in the time of Andraste, ie. during the time Solas was supposedly still deep in uthenera? What was the importance of Felassan from The Masked Empire and was he an ancient elf like Solas and Abelas? How old is he and how did he become an agent of Fen'Harel? I know Solas killed him at the end of masked empire, but what happens to a person's physical self if they're killed in the Fade?
From the Dragon Age Wiki, this describes something from Origins:
"in The Gauntlet, during A Test of Faith quest, the Warden encounters what appears to be the spirit of Shartan,[who looks a LOT like Solas] who will ask a riddle and tell of his desire for an elven homeland. The riddle is "I'd neither a guest nor a trespasser be. In this place I belong, that belongs also to me." "Home" is the correct answer to his riddle. (http://dragonage.wik...m/wiki/Shartan)
Another excerpt from the Shartan wiki page:
- Scholars question whether the true location of the elven rebellion lay in Vol Dorma or elsewhere, such as the cities of Marnas Pell, Hasmal, Marothius or Solas. All these locations suffered from slave revolts and the Tevinter famine.[8]
Also note: In the very last part of Inquisition, the Inky stabs the map of Thedas and the area they single out is the town/village called Solas, in Tevinter. If this is where we're going next, there must be a good reason!
I think based on that tidbit from the wiki that Shartan could have been a mortal mage from the area called Solas, or whose name was earned at the battle that took place in Solas. Naming a leader for a famous battle they took part in is not uncommon, historically. (For example, Shakespeare's Coriolanus is only known as Coriolanus after winning a battle at Corioles -- before that he was known as Martius. After the battle, he takes on the name Caius Martius Coriolanus.) Or perhaps the historical figure known as Shartan was also known as something like Shartan of Solas (his hometown?). After all, Solas does say he "grew up in a village to the North". 'Solas' could be that village.
What I find most confusing when trying to figure out what the heck is going on with Solas is the TIMELINE of events. The history/legend/fable of Andraste and Shartan has WAY too many parallels to the history/legend/fable of Mythal and Fen'Harel (as Solas tells it) for it to be a coincidence. The betrayal/murder, the slave uprising, etc. The only glaring issue is that it takes place at a totally different time in history. One set of events apparently took place before time began (before the Veil, in ancient elvhenan, when everyone who existed was ancient and elfy) and the other set of very similar events took place in Thedas after the Veil formed. Why would history repeat itself? Did these (very similar) events happen more than once? If so, why?
When Solas first talks to you at Haven he says he "watched as hosts of spirits clashed to reenact the bloody past in ancient wars both famous and forgotten".
Solas is super interested in Alexius' time magic stuff, and if you take him to the Still Ruins in the Western Approach he says: "I've been here before. I nearly died for lack of water." WTF, Solas, why were you HERE? And one of his Veil-strengthening wards is there too.
If you check out this tumblr post: http://canticle-of-a...uct-of-the-veil it shows a lot of evidence for the Veil being the beginning of time as we know it. Looking up time and the veil and Solas led me to it! Very interesting!
So basically before the Veil was created, it seems like there was no time as we know it at all. Without the construct of time, "immortality" (perhaps more accurately described as simply a lack of mortality) was the norm. The creation of the Veil is like the Big Bang, Thedas style. Before it, we cannot see any further back into the history of the universe. That's how we estimate the age of the universe as around 13.8 billion years. Before that, there is no light. Only darkness. Only the Void. Fen'Harel created the Veil, and in so doing he created TIME. He is the Father Time figure / the Time Lord of Thedas... and also kind of The Maker.
"Live well, while time remains." Tearing down the Veil = no more time.
If Shartan and Andraste were dreamers, did they maybe converse in the Fade with Fen'Harel and Mythal, and this became confused over time identifying these ancient elvhen "gods" as other gods known by new names? Do you think Mythal possessed Andraste? What's the purpose of including so many similarities between the stories of Andraste and Mythal? Why does Solas look exactly like Shartan? Is it just history getting it wrong and combining elements of two different stories from two different times, or is there something more to it than that?
Is it... time travel!?! Is the next game going to involve flying around through all of time and space in a Veil-less world?
... Thoughts?
Ok, read most of the rest ... a couple other things. Shartan was depicted as being bald. Solas is bald. That's pretty much the only real parallel, appearance wise, that we can really draw from Solas and Shartan. You can't really get a good look at the spirit in the Gauntlet in Origins and it was an entirely different game engine/graphics so I can't say that they actually look similar other than the baldness.
I've heard Solas say the bit about almost dying from lack of water ... but to be honest I'm not sure if it was in the Western Approach or in the Hissing Wastes. I do know that I've never heard him say it near the Still Ruins. You may be reading a bit too much into the random banter.
Edit to add: I don't really think we can assume that time didn't exist pre-Veil. I believe that ageless beings such as the ancient elves might view time differently but to say it didn't exist at all is a bit of a stretch in my opinion.
Ok I'm thinking about this "time did not exist thing" and I'm trying to figure out how such a world would function. Do all events occur at precisely the same moment? I mean, what would separate one event from the next if not time?
Ok, read most of the rest ... a couple other things. Shartan was depicted as being bald. Solas is bald. That's pretty much the only real parallel, appearance wise, that we can really draw from Solas and Shartan. You can't really get a good look at the spirit in the Gauntlet in Origins and it was an entirely different game engine/graphics so I can't say that they actually look similar other than the baldness.
I've heard Solas say the bit about almost dying from lack of water ... but to be honest I'm not sure if it was in the Western Approach or in the Hissing Wastes. I do know that I've never heard him say it near the Still Ruins. You may be reading a bit too much into the random banter.
Edit to add: I don't really think we can assume that time didn't exist pre-Veil. I believe that ageless beings such as the ancient elves might view time differently but to say it didn't exist at all is a bit of a stretch in my opinion.
Well... we also know that Shartan was an elven slave who played a major role in leading a slave rebellion. But I'm pretty sure that somewhere in the game it's put forth that Shartan never actually existed at all, and was just a retelling of "an old elven folk hero." (Which is almost certainly Fen'Harel.) So it's not out of the question that Shartan's just an aggregation of elven figures who fought for freedom, and Solas inevitably got included. The temple is Origins isn't evidence of much, since it's been established that the entire mountain was stupid with lyrium which made things sort of Fade-y and magical - the Shartan there may have just taken on the form legend says he should have, rather than being the ghost of an actual historical figure.
And yeah, I'm not crazy about the "Elvhenan had no passage of time" thing either. I'm not sure how such a society would function and, given what we know of Elvhenan, it doesn't seem like the progression of time was particularly wonky or effected. Also, I feel like that's something Solas would've mentioned. "Crystals spires twining through tree branches, spells that would sing for centuries. Also everyone had a sick time machine."
That being said, the time travelling they introduced in Inquisition does seem like a bit of loose end. If they aren't going to use it to bring back time travel at some point in the future, I can only think that they did it because it gives Solas and/or his followers an opportunity to call the Inquisitor a hypocrite.
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