69 réponses à ce sujet

[Shaftell]

Umm isn't it because he's Solas? He's not a regular elvhen, but a member of the pantheon. Weren't they immortal? That's why Flemeth can retain her mortality with just the essence of Mythal, even though she needs a host. Solas is the OG, he doesn't need ways to keep his mortality.

[Reznore57]

I think what happened when the veil was formed those who knew how to go in uthenera managed to keep on with the immortality feeding on the fade.As long as they would keep sleeping , they were fine.

The elves who didn't know in uthenera well just started to age and die.

 

It's not just a God thing , since Abelas and Felassan were still there and kicking after thousand of years.

 

And from several descriptions I've been reading there was no in uthenera for your random slaves .

Those who went in slumber had beautiful tombs build and servants looking after their bodies , also the populace would come see them and ask for some favors after walking some labyrinth .(a bit like Mythal's path in her temple I imagine).

[BansheeOwnage]

The current elves are somehow different than the past ones. When you meet Abelas he says that the elves are "shadows" of what they were and that they are "not [his] people".

 

I would assume they still have a deep connection to the Fade. Cole keeps saying Solas is "real" on both sides.

Here's a question: do we actually know whether Solas is aging or not?  We've only seen him over a relatively short period of time.

 

I don't have the quotes handy, but I've seen some people theorizing that prior to the veil, the elves might have been part physical, part fade-linked spiritual entities, whereas now only the physical is left.  Who knows if this is true, or if it has anything to do with the aging issue, but it would explain why both Solas and Abelas treat modern elves as "not their people" to such a degree.

It's possible Solas and Abelas etc. are indeed aging outside of sleep, but if not, my guess is that any elves that were born before the veil do not age (since they are effectively a different subspecies compared to modern elves, physically and otherwise). If ancient elves were part-spirit or what-have-you, this may be an inherent trait for them, and any elves born afterwards would not be part-spirit, only physical like a human, and would age.

[myahele]

Well Solas is pretty much a "god" so I'm sure his immorality is different from the standard ancient elvhen immorality. At most, he is very attached to the fade (Cole says he's in "both worlds") so that might have something to do with it.

 

 

Maybe he's got a piece of himself bound to something (a spirit?) similar to Zathrian and the Lady of the Forest

[Cyrus Amell]

I believe that while Solas survived in Uthenera until the present age, upon awakening from his slumber he may very well have become mortal. This means that Solas has yet another incentive to tear down the Veil - the fact that he is going to die soon! Well, soon as in 40-50 years but to an entity with a few thousand years under his belt that must certainly feel like "soon."

 

So destroying the world is partly self-preservation on his part, though I am sure that (just like Zathrian) he would rather we focus on his proposed goals. 

[Tamyn]

Maybe it's the elves that were born after the veil's creation that were mortal, and most of the remaining immortals were killed in wars.

[In Exile]

There is a very slight plot hole if you believe Felassan in Masked Empire.   He maintains that initially the elders would be fed a sort of honey substance to sustain them; servants would brush it across their lips.   When they ceased to absorb it, this indicated that they no longer needed it because they were drawing their sustenance from the Fade.   Now this would make sense if this was the old elf world where there was no Veil but a bit harder to understand now there is one because that was the whole reason why the elves lost their immortality.   Still that was the explanation for why those in Uthenera did not age or die through lack of nourishment; the Fade sustained them.

 

The elves could still die. Mythal died - that's not the kind of immortality people think of re: e.g. the Christian God. It's like Greek Gods being immortal - ageless. The elves might well have needed sustenance to live. 

[Statare]

Since the Elvhen were immortal with out Uthenera being required, it is possible that the Uthenera process was a means of keeping your physical body sustained during long periods of inactivity/dormancy. It's hinted Elves have some sort of fundamental connection to the energies of the Fade, the Ancient Elvhen a more immediate one, and so an elf performing Uthenera in a veiled world might still be able to connect their physical being with Fade energies enough to "activate" their immortality while undergoing Uthenera, but not while awake. It seems like Uthenera is a loop hole to get Ancient Elves to survive into the new world.

[DuskWanderer]

Solas might have been in the Crossroads, or the equivalent area. Maybe time is different for him there. 

[Almostfaceman]

Uthenera. It's how the surviving ancient elves retained their immortality following the creation of the veil and fall of Arlathan.

 

Actually, no. Uthenera "(literally "long sleep" or "endless dream") is a slumber-like state which elders of the ancient elves voluntary entered when they became weary of life and memories." It wasn't involved in preserving their immortality, they already possessed immortality. Actually, it could result in death. It was around long before the Veil. 

 

Any ties to preservation don't exist in the lore. There are ties to exploring the Fade and gaining wisdom.  "While their bodies would remain in the mortal realm, their spirits would cross the Veil and wander the shifting paths of the Beyond, accompanied by two children of Mythal - Falon'Din and his twin brother Dirthamen This state did not necessarily equal death, as some would return after centuries of sleep and share the secrets of dreams with the People. Yet many would never wake up: their bodies would deteriorate and they would in fact die."

 

http://dragonage.wik...m/wiki/Uthenera

[Lumix19]

The elves could still die. Mythal died - that's not the kind of immortality people think of re: e.g. the Christian God. It's like Greek Gods being immortal - ageless. The elves might well have needed sustenance to live.

More like the Nordic Gods who could actually die. I don't think any Greek Gods actually died in the myths.
But yes, although Mythal was able to hang on (so to speak) but Solas suggests that was a feature of "the first of his kind" so presumably this refers to the Evanuris and not the Elvhen as a whole.

[Ashagar]

The only god from greek and roman myth that reportedly died was pan and it doesn't say how he died only that a voice on the wind annouced to sailors on a ship that the god Pan was dead when they were passing by some other island.

[Cobra's_back]

Solas might have been in the Crossroads, or the equivalent area. Maybe time is different for him there. 

That is what I was thinking. The crossroads are different to humans vs Elfs.

[Neoleviathan]

I wonder though. Think Solas, Sera, & Elf Inquisitor got a lifespan boost after their trip to the fade? Brief though it was.

[Phoenix_Also_Rises]

Interesting. I think it has something to do with the fact that both Solas and Abelas and Co. are ancient elves, not "contemporary" ones. If you look at Ameridan as a point of reference to something similar, he managed to hold back time, but in the end, said something to the effect of "time will catch up with me" and dissipated (or something). Not to mention that Telanna died looking for him in the Fade (though it is more likely she died on account of her wounds and not due to having dreamt herself to death). Sure these could be completely different things, but going by the fact that in both cases, the similarities are that (i) they are elves and (ii) time manipulation/conservation is involved, while (iii) the outcome is different, with (iv) the main difference between them being that Solas/Abelas are ancients, whereas Ameridan is a contemporary, I will go on a limb here and say it has something to do with that. Or, perhaps, having been alive before the Veil was formed, perhaps Solas/Abelas interact differently with the world post Veil creation, they carry with them a piece of Fade, if I can put it that way (and if it makes any sense).

[Almostfaceman]

The most logical explanation for Solas not aging after the raising of the Veil is that he prepared. He was the guy who sundered the Veil. He was and is an incredibly powerful elven mage who's been practicing magic for thousands (if not millions) of years. He obviously had some sort of plan that let him put up the Veil then sleep undisturbed for millennia. 

 

And no, please nobody read into that that I think Solas is perfect, infallible, yada yada yada. 

 

How he prepared is unknown. But that's not unusual, there are all types of spells we know nothing about. Some that took hundreds of years to cast. 

[Nixou]

Perhaps most of the elvhen lost their immortality but some, like Abelas and Solas, retained it

 

 

I get the feeling that the most powerful mages in Thedas have always been capable of bypassing the Veil. After all Dreamers still exist despite the Veil.

[Estel Lavellan]

Uthenra (sp?) is essentially elven cryosleep iirc.

 

According to Abelas, it seemed to be 'the sweet dream of eternity, never to awaken'. Sounds more like the afterlife than cryosleep.

[Estel Lavellan]

L'Oreal sounds like the name of an elven god.

 

What about Empress Chanel of Orlais? Ambassador Ferrigamo? Ser Estée Lauder of the Chevaliers?

[Aulis Vaara]

The most logical explanation for Solas not aging after the raising of the Veil is that he prepared. He was the guy who sundered the Veil. He was and is an incredibly powerful elven mage who's been practicing magic for thousands (if not millions) of years. He obviously had some sort of plan that let him put up the Veil then sleep undisturbed for millennia.

And no, please nobody read into that that I think Solas is perfect, infallible, yada yada yada.

How he prepared is unknown. But that's not unusual, there are all types of spells we know nothing about. Some that took hundreds of years to cast.

That does not explain Abelas and friends, nor Felassan.

[Wahed89]

He just woke up a few years ago. We don't really know if he is currently aging or not.

[Katebe94]

Hmm, when you talk to Solas in Trespasser he says that "the first of my kind are not so easily destroyed" (in regards to the survival, in some form, of the Evanuris, Mythal a case in point).  Could Solas' apparent lack of ageing (although as others have pointed out, it may be that he *is* still ageing but just hit pause during his sleep) be connected to this? 

 

What I thought it implied is that the ancient elves remembered by the dalish as gods were among the oldest elves, and this has as yet unknown implications on their power.

[Estel Lavellan]

That does not explain Abelas and friends, nor Felassan.

 

I never read the Masked Empire, is Felassan an actual ancient elf? Or a modern elf who's been taught much by Solas?

 

Abelas spent the ages in hibernation though, perhaps hibernation is his way stave off age. Or perhaps the elven magics lingering in Mythal's sanctum sustains them in some way? They seem to need no sustenance.

[Aulis Vaara]

I never read the Masked Empire, is Felassan an actual ancient elf? Or a modern elf who's been taught much by Solas?
 
Abelas spent the ages in hibernation though, perhaps hibernation is his way stave off age. Or perhaps the elven magics lingering in Mythal's sanctum sustains them in some way? They seem to need no sustenance.

1. Nobody eats in the games.

2. Immortality was part of being elvhen. They had no magic whatsoever for this, why would they need to? They were already immortal!

As for Felassan, I'm just going on what other people have said, I haven't read the book myself. He seems to be an ancient elf though, since Solas regretted having to kill him because he (Felassan) saw modern elves as people. Obviously Felassan would have seen the dalish as people had he been one, but then there would be no need to kill him because he'd just die with all the rest.

[fizzypop]

It's possible Solas and Abelas etc. are indeed aging outside of sleep, but if not, my guess is that any elves that were born before the veil do not age (since they are effectively a different subspecies compared to modern elves, physically and otherwise). If ancient elves were part-spirit or what-have-you, this may be an inherent trait for them, and any elves born afterwards would not be part-spirit, only physical like a human, and would age.

Yeah my problem with the theory that elves before the veil don't age is that if that was true then there would be A LOT more ancient ass elves still alive. If aging immortality was inherent then anyone who survived the veil going up should be ageless still. That means we would probably have known way more about the veil. I mean why would that many people HIDE what happened? A good portion of the population HAD to survive because elves we know today are still alive and well. You generally need a population to make babies. So it stands to reason if it IS inherent then only some people were protected. This makes sense. Guardians could have been protected by Mythal's temple. Solas obviously would protect himself.

The other possibility is that immortality was GAINED through some kind of spell or ritual. Once the veil went up that ritual became much harder or impossible to cast by most people. This would leave mages with the ability to do so if they could figure out how, but anyone else would have been cut from the fade.