Here's my theory:
Solas is, to some extent, the Dread Wolf Himself. I think when the elven gods went crazy, the Dread Wolf and Solas merged, and they rebelled against the gods, locking them away. Solas talks about a time when magic was as simple for all as breathing; I take this to mean that he, in some way or other, created the veil. Not the Fade, but perhaps the barrier. Regardless, the old gods were locked away. The elves destroyed themselves in their absence, during which time Fen'Harel, for some inexplicable reason, was "asleep." I can't say why.
When he woke, he saw the state of the elves and blamed himself for locking away the old elven gods. This also explains his constant moping about the loss of elven culture and his distaste for the Dalish, who have absolutely everything about their ancestors wrong, though they don't know it. He's tried to explain their correct heritage before, and they ignore him, so he hates them, if only for their ignorance.
So the gods are gone, and Solas/Fen'Harel blames himself. He wants to release the gods in a somewhat desperate attempt to revive the elves as a people, but he isn't strong enough. So he finds an old artifact, the orb Corypheus uses to screw with the Fade, and tries to open the gods' prison with that. Doesn't work; he's still too weak for...some reason.
He gave the orb to Corypheus, hoping that either he would help Solas out of the goodness of his magister heart or that Corypheus would happen across the gods prison on his trek through the Fade and accidentally release them. Obviously, this didn't work out well for either party.
The game ends and the only two elven gods left, Fen'Harel and Mythal, merge together as one, probably hoping that their combined power will be enough to unlock the old gods and revitalize their people. Most likely this was a last resort because either Fen'Harel or Mythal (probably Mythal) would die in the process of merging.
I propose a play on this in a DLC, or potentially a new game if this is what Bioware intends, playing on this. The Inquisitor goes looking for Solas at the urging of Leliana; Solas was anything but forthcoming about his origins and also his purpose, and his sudden disappearance arouses her suspicions to such an extent that both Chantry and Inquisition resources are being spent on locating him. If you and Solas were lovers, you could even instigate this quest on your own through a conversation with whatever character you made friends with, presumably Varric. Perhaps something like this:
Wolf Hunt
Also an afterquest where any female Inquisitors and Solas become…*ahem* “better acquainted” called “Hungry Like the Wolf.”
Corypheus is dead. The Breach is (probably) closed forever, pending another archdemon magister. You’ve made many friends, gone on many daring, and often hilarious (Varric’s fault, of course) adventures across Thedas. Maybe you even fell in love. The battle is supposed to be over. But the story beneath the story is not done with you yet. The Dread Wolf has unfinished business with the world and, undoubtedly, you with him.
You go and speak with Leliana, asking (again) after Solas. They lost him in the west somewhere, then he vanished. You know this, she knows this, and her scouts know this; but still she searches, either because she knows what he means to you or because she wants answers of her own; he was anything but forthcoming when questioned about his past and purpose. Regardless, the hunt is still on. You’ve asked her many times (as dialogue will denote) if she’s found anything, and every time she has told you no, that she’s sorry, and that she’ll keep looking. Today is no different. A brief conversation ensues in which you can choose to be teary eyed, angry (with either Solas or with Leliana), or indifferent (usually an indifference laced with anger). Leliana hugs you and apologizes once more. You might be crying; after a moment of sister bonding time, you leave. Maybe Varric stops you, asks you how you’re holding up. If you romanced Solas, he makes a joke, probably something about weird elven sexual positions. You can laugh or you can cry, and if you were any kind of close with Solas, friend or more, and with Varric (undoubtedly), Varric says if you need anything, just ask. If you, perhaps jokingly, ask him to find Solas, he says you don’t want him to; after what he’s put you through, Solas might not survive the encounter. You laugh, but he’s deadly serious. He tells you again if you ever need him, just call, and you leave.
But the cutscene does not end. You transition to your room, on the balcony. You’re sure footed, fleet, and for the moment rather careless with your life; you’re sitting on the rails with your legs hanging over the precipice, swinging them, staring at the sun over the mountains. My, that’s a long way down. But then, that’s not what you’re thinking of, is it? Depending on your conversation with Leliana, you are doing one of three things: thinking (usually the path of the brother, sister, and dearest friend), crying, or raging…or perhaps the latter two would be combined. Whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it loudly. At least, you’re loud enough to be heard by a spirit of Compassion named Cole.
He manifests himself on the balcony and says that he heard you crying, shouting, or only felt your anguished thoughts and says that he wants to help. You say there is nothing he can do, or something akin to that. He offers to make you forget. Maybe you consider it, but surely these are memories you want to keep, however painful. It isn’t the memory you want gone, it’s the friend (or lover) you want back. According to your conversation with Leliana, you continue to cry, rage, or puzzle, and Cole tries to console you. If you romanced Solas, at some point in the conversation you can say that you loved him dearly, and that you don’t understand why he left you behind. “He loved you, with all his heart,” Cole says, but you can’t help but question that. If you didn’t romance him, you can say he was a dear friend, a battlefield brother you do not wish to lose. Either way, Cole, eventually, spills the beans. And he makes quite a mess of it.
He doesn’t ramble, he doesn’t babble, he doesn’t even think. When he hears you say how you feel about Solas, and more importantly when he feels it, he can’t help himself. For a moment he physically squirms as though trying to hold something in, warring within himself with a secret, a truth that he can’t contain. Even if the Dread Wolf is the one who bid him to contain it.
“If he cared about (me or us depending on your relationship with him) so much, why did he leave? He didn’t even say goodbye…”
Cole can’t contain it. “Because he’s the Wolf!”
But what in Thedas can he mean? You ask. Maybe you’re angry, maybe you’re hopeful, or tearful or indifferent, but regardless, you ask. He hesitates. You ask again. He remains silent. Then you ask louder, and when he denies you he feels your pain, and after a moment of describing the fire you feel, he relents. He tells you what he knows, which isn’t all that much considering, but its more than you had. He knows that Solas is the Dread Wolf; he also knows Solas gave the Orb to Corypheus because he was desperate, but he doesn’t know what drove him to it. He keeps referring to him as “The Wolf who broke the World.” You can never seem to get him to explain that. When he’s done telling you all this, you ask him if he knows where Solas is; and he does. Or at least, he knows where to look.
The Fade. It seems obvious, but maybe too obvious. Cole says he can feel him there, looking for something, a key, a key, he says, a key with no door, a broken door that has a key but has no lock. He’s there, he says. Physically. Not exactly hard to believe, this is Solas after all. But the Fade, however well known, is a dangerous place. You think of the Orb. You think of how quickly he disappeared when he realized it had been destroyed. If you loved him, you think of what he said before he departed: “Whatever happens, know that what we had was real.” Maybe you almost break down at this, but no matter. He’s somewhere, he’s alive, and he’s searching for something. More importantly, he abandoned you (and your friends, I suppose). Whatever he’s chasing, it isn’t nearly as scary as you are, surely. He has you to answer to, and Varric if you bring him, and also Leliana and Cassandra; he did, after all, cause the Rift and everything that followed. You should, or maybe you shouldn’t; it has the potential to be hilarious or extremely bloody. Or both, if you play your cards right.
But how to get to the Fade? Cole thinks he might be able to carry you through if you can “make yourself light enough.” Meditation, maybe, or sleep like most? Or, if you can find a place where the veil is thin enough, though, you might be able to slip into the Fade physically. You’ve done it before, and lived to boot. Shouldn’t be that hard. Spirits, Solas has said, cluster where much blood has been shed. You’ve created enough battlefields in your time. It should be simple enough to find a place where the veil is thin. Thin enough even for a body to slip through unnoticed and unhindered. Maybe you’re desperate, or angry, or scared. Righteous anger would be appropriate. Regardless your feelings, you have to pick one or the other; do you dream your way in, or go in yourself?
Go Into the Fade Yourself:
If you decide to force your way in, you need to find someplace where the veil is thin.
The veil is thinnest where the tears were most grave; the sky, obviously, but good luck getting up there. You go to the Valley of Sacred Ashes and Cole leads you to the place where you stepped out of the rift. The veil is so thin so that you can see the air shimmer. Cole shivers. So does Varric. Nobody likes the feel of it, but you’ve done this before. Maybe some members of your party have as well. You can be worried, brave, sad, and, most likely, so angry that you don’t even consider the consequences of your venture. With substantial aid from you, Cole manages to open the same rift you fell through in the beginning. After a moment of bantering and hesitation, you and your party enter. The rift closes behind you. You’re in. And, more importantly, you aren’t bound by where your body sleeps. The Fade is yours to command and explore, but you know to be cautious, even paranoid. Physically entering the Fade is a bad idea; manipulating it is a worse one.
Cole leads the way, following, he says, “The sound of his sorrow.” Apparently, Sad Solas is a very loud creature. You encounter a few demons and defeat them, sometimes with the help of those who haven’t been claimed by the darkness that still lingers here. Where you tread, the veil thins. Whatever emotion you’ve been courting manifests itself heavily in the world around you; hopefully you manage to control your anger. Rifts open here and there, possibly the result of your being here. The Fade wants you gone, but it can’t force you out without tearing itself apart. Maybe it’s hoping if it opens enough holes you’ll fall out.
You wander a long ways. Halfway across Thedas, you’d recon, and when Cole says Solas is getting close you find that you were right. The Fade mirrors a temple now, one surrounded by trees and filled with the dead. Very recently dead. Look there, Varric’s arrows poking out of the back of a red Templar. You seem to be back in the Arbor Wilds. It doesn’t surprise you that Solas would come here. Cole says something about the temple and its forgotten people, and how “this is what he destroyed.” Maybe you wonder who he means or maybe you’re smart enough to realize. Or maybe you’re too angry to care. Varric talks a lot, and you talk back. Everything you say shapes the Fade. If you ever manage to get loud with your anger, you manifest a rage demon that instigates a mini boss battle. Best choose your words carefully.
Cole finds Solas rather quickly. He isn’t in the temple, actually, but just beyond, in the forest beneath a massive tree—massive being a gross understatement. Cole gasps with a sudden pain. “It hurts!” he cries, “It hurts! Why is he hurting it?” You wonder what he means, but only for a moment. Every time the pain comes to Cole, the tree changes. Shifts. Writhes beneath a strange glow. There is someone standing beneath it, a soul you recognize. But something has changed, and if you can see it, Cole can certainly feel it.
“Too many,” Cole whimpers. “Too many died here. I can hear them in the trees. Their blood made this place, it’s still there and it’s boiling now. He wants to wake them up so he can get through.”
“Get through to where?” you ask. You haven’t the time for an answer.
There is a sound like a great explosion and the light intensifies. You hear Solas scream, loudly, and beneath his voice there is another. A woman, familiar, strong but fading fast.
Solas. He stands beneath the tree, and he’s doing something you’re almost positive is very bad. He has his hand raised and there is a light coming from it, one green and one blue. They twine around the tree, coil around it and squeeze like a snake. The bark cracks beneath its weight. You can run down to him and stop him from...doing something, or you can wait and see what happens. But now Cole is screaming and the tree is tearing itself open. Solas begins to shake. Something has gone very, very wrong. You opt to stop him. It feels like you have to.
Apparently Cole agrees with you.
As one voice and body the two of you rush forward, calling out to Solas, but he doesn’t seem to hear you. You can barely hear yourself. A rumbling has overtaken the Fade and the essence of every spirit trembles beneath the weight of a forbidden right. The tree tears open, consumed by a brilliant white light, and everything seems to slow. You can’t move fast enough and neither can Cole. In fact, Cole can’t move at all. You see the silhouette of Solas, and you watch it shrink as he is drawn towards the light. As you turn back to help Cole, you realize something is pulling you in as well. As Solas’s shadow shrinks, the light becomes dark, black and grey and green, the awful colors of the consumed. Do you know what’s happening? And, more importantly, can you stop it?
Then you feel something; your hand. The mark, more specifically. It burns and it glows, and with every pulse the Fade shifts, creaking like an old ship. You can hear your party crying out to you, calling your name, but they’re fading, and it doesn’t take you long to realize why. You’re being pulled in. All of you are, by the power of your mark. Something on the other side of this light wants you, and it wants you badly. It needs you. Or rather, it needs the power of your mark.
He needed to enter the Forbidden City, the Golden City where the old gods were imprisoned, but he wasn’t strong enough when he woke, so he gave the orb to an already blighted creature in hopes that he would tear through to the city and open a gate for Solas to pass through. That’s why he gave him the orb, he wanted Corypheus to make it to the center of the Fade. He needed him to.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he says. He sounds angry. He looks angry. You’re not sure, but you’re fairly certain that he doesn’t want you here, and that tears you apart. And the others. He was friends with them as well, to a certain extent. He rushes up to you, probably to force you out of the Fade. You can’t hope to match him, not here. But you don’t have to. Before he can reach any of you, Varric advances, but he doesn’t draw Bianca. He clenches his fist, runs forward, and punches Solas in the face. You hear something crack. Cole whimpers. Solas reels, glaring at Varric, but the dwarf isn’t done. He stands in between the two of you. The extent of his reaction depends on your relationship with Varric and your relationship with Solas. If you romanced him, Varric jumps to your defense, screaming at Solas and berating him for leaving you behind. If you were merely friends, he is less angry, but he still tears Solas apart for a minute or two before the scene rolls on. Solas still looks angry. But then, for the first time, he locks eyes with you, and the scowl fades into nothing. You don’t get a smile, but you get a tear. You wonder if that’s any better.
“You…” he says. You dare to hope.
Then something behind him bursts open. It looks like a rift but it’s a different color, and you can see far beyond the tear.
If you dared to be Lavellen, you recognize the faces of your gods.
Dream Your Way In
If you’re going to dream your way in, you have to find the real world counterpart to wherever Solas wound up. The Fade is bound by where it is. Solas traveled so much to explore various parts of the Fade. Find where he entered, and you might just find him.
According to Cole, he went to a somewhat obvious place; the temple in the Arbor Wilds. The doors are locked again, and not by the hand of its guardians; they are long gone. He was here, he had to be. Cole confirms that Solas is close, but what kind of close you can’t get him to say. You go to the place where the Well of Sorrows once stood. Only now do you realize how much damage your little misadventure did to the barrier. The veil is so thin so that you can see the air shimmer. Cole shivers. So does Varric. Nobody likes the feel of it, but you’ve done this before. Maybe some members of your party have as well. You can be worried, brave, sad, and, most likely, so angry that you don’t even consider the consequences of your venture. Cole tells you to lie down by the broken Illuvian, and go to sleep. He says Corypheus tore a hole in the veil when he tried to chase you and your comrades through. You don’t doubt him; the spirits are perilously close to reality here. Your proximity to them is equally unnerving. You have to get to the other side. You have to sleep. This takes you a very long time. Your party leaves you be and camps down the valley. You can smell the fire, hear them talking quietly. Cole sits above you on the ruins, waiting, watching. You talk with him for a while, about Solas and why Cole knows and you don’t, but Cole doesn’t have many answers. Frustrated, somehow you finally fall asleep. First, there is only darkness. And then, you begin to dream.
You find yourself and Cole in the temple, but it is different. You’re not entirely certain how, but the change is apparent. Spirits hover about you, intrigued by the stranger in their midst only briefly before the majesty of the Fade steals away their interest. It steals yours as well, I should think, though you are welcome to react with horror, fear, and general indifference. Anger is, of course, always an option. It is beautiful in a rather hostile way. You don’t belong here. You feel an equal measure of welcome and disgust from the beings around you. The Fade reminds you of Solas, and, rather suddenly, of why you’re here.
Cole leads the way as best he can. You can talk to spirits in the fade, command the world to change. “Thoughts are loud here, make them louder.” Maybe there is a side quest or two, reuniting lost lovers or settling old grievances. The further you venture into the Fade, and the closer you get to Solas, the darker the world gets. Demons appear. Rifts as well, the same door seen form the other side, and you close them before the darker spirits can worm their way through to your world. There are many of them. More than there should be, which is none. Cole becomes steadily more agitated and, once you’re done fighting a rather large demon, you speak to him.
“It’s still tearing. Someone is tearing it apart again.”
“What?” you ask.
“Things don’t tear unless their pulled,” he says. “Someone wants to break it open again.”
“The veil?” That doesn’t sound good. Actually, it sounds very, very bad.
“The seal is cracking, it shouldn’t be, it shouldn’t ever have been, but now it has to be…” Cole rambles on.
“Who’s pulling?” you ask, with varying degrees of urgency.
Cole shakes his head, mutters to himself, paces. “They think they can do it. He couldn’t do it alone, they think they can do it together, they can tear it open, but there are too many souls, too much hate…they can’t, they shouldn’t, they’ll break it for good…”
“Who shouldn’t what?”
“They’re angry. They’re trapped and their angry, he trapped them and now they hate him, they want him to burn.” He suddenly cringes and cries out. “I can feel them. They’re close, too close, too many, too strong. Too angry.”
“Cole, what’s happening?” You ask, most likely growing agitated. “Where’s Solas?”
Cole doesn’t answer, but runs on ahead, through lyrium caves that moments before were forests. He calls for you to follow, and to hurry, before it opens, whatever “it” happens to be.
You follow Cole through an increasingly volatile Fade. The slightest shift in emotion turns it all to ash and water. The Temple trembles, even in the physical world. You are perilously far from your body now; you’re not certain what will happen if you step out of bounds.
Then you find him. He’s standing in front of something large, tall, and its glowing white and black all at once, like the fire that springs forth from burning tar. Cole is absolutely stricken.
“They’re here,” he whispers, horrified.
But you aren’t listening. You’re looking at Solas and wondering what the hell is going on. He raises his hand and you see something, a light, no, two, reaching out to the black fire. They touch it, and Solas screams, but the lights push on. A hole appears in the light.
“They can’t,” Cole whimpers, “They can’t open the door!” He turns to you, desperate and afraid. “You can’t let them open it!”
The hole grows, and in the dark place beyond the fire, you can see faces. Angry faces. Horrible, terrible, angry faces. They claw at the light, but as though asleep, slow and tired, quiet. All of them are screaming.
Your mark glows and burns, and your hand shifts forward, and you suddenly know that, if you really wanted to, you could open the door yourself.
From here, you make a choice:
You can help Solas free the old elven gods, unleashing them on the world of men
Or
You can stop Solas from letting the old gods go free.
If you help him, the gods become the villains of the game. If you try to stop him, he becomes the main villain. Or maybe the gods escape regardless and become the villains. Most likely the latter, as the former would take a great deal of time and lead to a plethora of different choices whose programming we simply don't have the patience for.
Or, instead of all this, Solas later approaches you for help releasing the old gods, perhaps thinking that your Mark combined with his and Mythal's magic may be powerful enough to unlock them. If this is the case then, when you come across him, one of the options absolutely must be to punch him in the face. Or, if you were close with Varric, Varric punches him for you, especially if you and Solas were lovers. Solas asks you for aid; if you agree to help him, you go with him physically to the Fade; if you refuse, drags you into the Fade anyways.
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