Gathering up old theory posts and dumping them here. Apologies for the length.
Before I start, a quick note that everything that follows uses “Sun” and “Earth” as convenient Dalish references for the two primordial, draconic beings whose collaboration seems to have created the DA:I universe.
The core of what I want to cover here is the Song, Harmony-as-Balance between Order and Chaos, and how Option (Fade) and Will (Blood) intersect to create Choice (Magic) in the DA universe. Much of this is going to touch on Solas in particular, as that appears to be the core of the Duty he was tasked with in exchange for the powers inherent to his OGS.
The Song of Creation, and Balance as Harmony
Trying to conceive of Order and Chaos in musical terms is a good place to start, since the heart of everything is the Song of Creation, living fabric of the game universe.
Imagine a symphony orchestra, led by a single conductor: the Maker. The (theoretical) original Song of Order is exactly that. Every player plays the same melody. It is simple. It is pure. There are no harmonies, and no improvisation. The Song shapes what is, and the conductor exercises full control over every note and tempo change.
Note that the blighted Song is also exactly that. It promises a return to perfect Order, but under the control of a new conductor -a new Maker. Hold that in your mind, because we’ll come back to it. The important takeaway is the idea of Order as the first Song, the one that defines the original state of creation and impetus for revolution in the pre-veil world. This is the time before the Fall, the time of Order’s absolute dominion, when everything sang the same.
On the other end of the spectrum is Chaos: utter dischord and dissonance. Each member of the orchestra is free to choose their own tune, regardless of how their particular melody might conflict with songs being played around them. Not only is no coherent music created from the whole, but such Chaos doesn’t even exalt the individual musician, despite her complete agency and control, because the potential beauty of each player’s song is lost in the cacophony of the rest. The forces of Chaos aren’t represented by any one united faction in game (which should come as no surprise, being what it is) though I suspect Andruil and some of the Red Jenny-esque elements of the Forgotten Ones may have come close to actively pursuing chaos for chaos’ sake.
So we have Order and Chaos. Black and White.
Now we turn to Grey.
Musically, Grey is harmony. It’s neither the single, immutable Song of absolute Order nor the cacophony of Chaos, but a joining of individual melodies in a deliberately shared and orchestrated experience. Each player relinquishes a small part of their agency: not to a single all-powerful conductor, but to each other. It’s a contract of compromise, freely entered, that allows the creation of a Song greater and richer than each player’s individual contribution would be on its own.
It is no coincidence that this is precisely how Solas describes the magic of ancient Elvhenan.
Solas: “Some spells took years to cast. Echoes would linger for centuries, harmonizing with new magic, in an unending symphony. …It must have been beautiful.”
This is immortal Elvhenan in its earliest days, when members of what would become the the elvish Pantheon would have stood first among equals, if they were acknowledged at all. It describes Solas’ ideal society, the one he desperately wants and is willing to sacrifice for, yet does not believe can persist. Over and over, he has seen that slowly, inevitably, groups are driven to play ever louder and more stridently, desiring their particular melody to be heard above others, drowning out the rest until the cycle must be reset by violent removal from the Song.
I believe this is Solas' purpose in the DA universe. It is his great duty, his burden.
As I'll get into shortly, there is a deep, fundamental connection between choice and magic in DA. They are, in theory, one and the same: the intersection between Option and Will, the power of the individual to literally change the world around them, in game and out. Solas’ primary concern is the restoration and maintenance of Balance, because balance is what makes the exercise of free will (–choice–) possible.
In this, his objectives are largely aligned with Mythal’s: she offers the world guidance, not command, but the side he’s actually on in terms of the great War is that of the individual. The People. That includes you, the player. His cause is the defense of individual agency, of sentient beings’ ability to choose for themselves. The fundamental evil that he identifies in the blight lies in what it steals from the infected: free will. Choice. The blight is a direct, overwhelming threat to the balance that exists at the heart of the DA universe.
Although he places himself in direct opposition to the (false) Sun in this, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is the Earth’s vassal. Remember his reaction if the Inquisitor drinks from the Well, and why he is so adamant that he will not. The Blight overpowers individual Will directly, but the guarantee of its free exercise is also taken by the Well. A measure of agency is the price of the power it holds. Like Mythal’s interaction with the mortal world in general, the Well’s power is largely limited to subtle influence and guidance- it speaks in whispers, not shouted demands- but as we see in the Inquisitor’s actual encounter with Flemyth, the drinker’s ability to exercise free will is still ultimately at her mercy. You may act as you like… until she chooses not to let you.
That is why balance is necessary. That is why Solas is necessary, as its ultimate advocate and protector.
(As an aside, it is also why he finds the concept of binding Cole so repellent- even if he is the one holding the leash.)
A noble purpose, certainly. But it would be a disservice to Solas’ character not to immediately follow with the list of sins he has committed in its name. At the Temple of Mythal, he mentions an old saying of his people: “the healer has the bloodiest hands”. That's certainly an apt metaphor, as there's little doubt he has spilled more blood in service of this cause than any other single entity in the history of Thedas.
The blood of the Sun, before the Willing Fall from Eden. The blood of countless elves during his failed rebellion in ancient Arlathan, compounded during the successful one, and in the apocalyptic slaughter of the civil war that followed. All who sacrificed their lives for the Andrastean rebellion, and have died in the name of the Chantry since. The blood of every man, woman, and child killed by darkspawn since he set Corypheus on the path to freeing him as “Dumat” to begin his work anew.
He carries the weight of these necessary deaths – millions of them- because without the preservation of free will and choice, there is no purpose to life itself. Peace at such a cost would be no different than defeat.
…and so he fights.
*rests her head in her hands*
Let that get away from me a bit, sorry. We're not quite ready for Solas' personal history yet.
Backing up to cover basic Magic Theory:
Magic in the DA universe has three distinct sources: the fade, blood, and blight. These are Corpyheus' “three wine glasses”, if you remember Solas’ banter with Vivienne. Two are “natural” in that they are connected to the original state of Creation, the last is “poisoned” and connected to the Sundered Song. They’re actually interrelated in the actual practice of magic, as we’ll see shortly.
Without rehashing too much primordial history, the fade-shadows of the original elves (created by the splitting of their being when the veil was raised) are innate conduits to the Fade, sustaining their physical bodies and allowing ancient elves to pull a measure of its fundamental indeterminate “stuff” into the physical world. A common in-game metaphor conceives of the fade as water, while the will of the mage shapes the glass. The size of the glass is determined by how much fade you’re able to draw. This is spirit, the contribution of the Earth to mortal magic.
The other half of magic is the will that defines the glass, the part that forces the water to take a desired shape. This will is the individual Song that lives in all mortal blood. In a way, blood is a bit like carrying around your own tiny Maker. It’s the physical side of magic, the contribution of the Sun to mortal existence. Its power to force a given state on indeterminate fadestuff or to change existing reality is related both to the amount and quality that sings the same Song. (In other words, how “loud” the Song is.)
Aside: this is true of the larger world as well. When spirits are forced into the physical world, they are assaulted by the Song that is reality, most driven mad by its volume and twisted to demons. It’s also worth noting that while blood may be the physical embodiment of will, there’s evidence that the Song is present in non-physical entities as well- it’s just much, much softer. As we see with Cole, spirits can develop a limited sense of self that can decide, that can shape- but it’s incredibly fragile and weak compared to mortals and must be strengthened considerably to sustain a true, individual ‘self’ on this side of the veil.
So how does lyrium fit in? Judging from its effect and use by the Templar, lyrium acts like a solid, physical form of Song – greatly increasing the effect of the user’s will, allowing him to hold reality in place. Conversely, it seems to amplify both aspects of magic when wielded by mages: how much fade can be drawn as well as how great a change the mage is able to effect with it. If this observational assumption is accurate, this implies heavily that the blood of the Sun and of the Earth are fundamentally the same material. Or at least they were once, before the Sun’s blood was twisted to blight and the Song sundered.
In summary, magic in Thedas is the interplay of possibility and will, represented respectively as the Fade and the Song. (Or to get Bioware-meta, Options and Choice.) The interaction of these two halves, one drawn from each Creator of the mortal world, is the essence of how magic works in the DA universe and what gives mages the ability to shape the world around them.
I hope that makes sense. I feel a bit like Dagna here, awkwardly trying to wrap words around something my brain is pretty sure it understands but is totally stumbling trying to get it out right.
Magic and the Eternal Triad
This concept of magic is deeply woven into the fabric of the DA universe. This gets a little bumpy, but stay with me, here. Cyclical rebellion to restore the balance of Order and Chaos is the heartbeat of Thedas, and in every successful revolution we find the same triad at its center: the Wife, the Husband, and the Lover.
These three roles are sometimes metaphorical, sometimes literal, but always, always present. The triad pops up elsewhere as well, but their relation to the idea of overthrowing established Order is deeply connected, and the Earth – Mythal – forms the center, the critical pivot point, in each and every instance.
She must, because this change is a process that reflects the very nature of magic itself.
As the Earth, she represents the Fade- the realm of Possibility and Option. The Husband and the Lover are competing Wills, or Songs, thus when she abandons one and joins with the other, change is enacted on the world.
I know I’m kind of channeling Dagna again, but hold on to that thought. It’s exactly like casting a spell, but with lives. Like the universe itself casting a spell. A different kind of magic, yet still fundamentally the same and explosively effective. There is a commensurate cost, however, and that price is always the sacrifice of the Wife.
The three critical revolutions of Thedas’ history are as follows:
The First Revolution (The Loss of ‘Eden’)
Wife: the Earth (Mythal)
Husband: the Sun
Lover: Elgar’nan
The Second Revolution (the Fall of Arlathan)
Wife: Mythal (the Earth)
Husband: Elgar’nan
Lover: Falon’Din-Dirthamen (Solas)
The Third Revloution (the Andrastean Rebellion)
Wife: Andraste (Mythal)
Husband: Maferath (Likely just a human mage, but one whose dreams and actions were twisted, either by Elgar’nan or Solas)
Lover: Shartan (Solas)
The events of DA:I may be the first stirrings of a Fourth Revolution. It’s a tempting thought, but I’m not sure how I feel about that yet. The blight threatens the return of tyrannical Order in terms of the sundered Song, but it’s still just a threat, not the actual practice yet- there’s no existing tyrannical rule to be directly challenged. (The mage Circle business barely registers as a social blip compared to the three above.)
That said, it seems very likely that Solas is making preparations for another massive showdown with Order, no matter what his specific intentions are.
The relationship of the game world as "fade" to our own, in which basic laws are twisted but never broken, is a recurrent theme in the Dragon Age universe. Digging into that would require an entire separate post, but the basic connection here provides some very simple and useful insights to how magic works in DA.
The Wife and Husband are the bonded nucleus. The Lover is the free neutron. Like all fission, the split releases a truly absurd amount of power, which produces drastic change. Potentially catastrophic results and toxic aftermath are the obvious thematic bonus.
All life on Thedas, and even the planet itself, comes from Fusion. The merging of Sun and Earth. Physical and Fade. And if you want to get disturbingly literal with the imagery of the Sun "dragon" and the Earth....
...there you go.
The most obvious in-game demonstration of this theory in practice is Mythal, but there's reason to believe it might be the underlying nature of all "everyday" magic with respect to the Stone (Thedas). Like Creation magic, it's the intersection of Physical and Fade- but like Triad magic, the fade component is consumed by its use. It is Earth and Sun as Coal and Fire.
The combination burns, producing power at a cost: a measure of Earth is irrecoverably lost. Again, I'm still uncertain whether this holds true with generic magic's Fade component, which from a certain perspective would be the Stone's literal "soul". Need more data. The inferred environmental / conservationist subtext wouldn't be too out of place- this is Bioware, not Rockstar North. Also the steady leeching of a finite magic reserve leading toward conditions of modern Earth supports the "worthy struggle" theme. Mage-style magic is still too easy as a means of Change, just as Eden was too easy. Difficulty is what makes change meaningful, worthwhile, lasting, etc, etc.
This, though, is why Mythal's orb looks like it was crafted from Anthracite Coal, as does the shell of her physical body after transferring the last of her power to Solas. (The bright blue flame graphic is a telling hint.) Her immortal OGS remains to be transferred to Morrigan, but the reserve of ancient Fade she carried into this world (the remains of her soul, her power) is completely spent. Once Solas uses that flame, there is no more.
Like the others, the intersection of Earth and Sun (Option and Will) grants the wielder a degree of power over the world around her. It might not be as easy or flashy as "combustion" magic above, but (critically) it's universal and infinite, granting every sentient being the ability to change the world... both in game and out. (Assuming a critical degree of social balance is maintained to make Choice both possible and meaningful. Cue Solas.)
And of course, all of this ties into the Song at every level. Quantum harmonic oscillators at the atomic, DNA at the biological, player Choices as individual notes in the Song of Creation that defines their Thedas in the grand overview, etc, etc, etc.
Finally, shoving this color theory diagram in here because it doesn't really justify a separate post:
The same theme repeats at each level: the center representing the critical intersection of concepts on either side.
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