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[Addictress]

So what I gather, conceptually, from the story is:

1. The Dread Wolf, if not strong or mighty enough to confront an enemy, will defeat the enemy through clever scheming, or cunning. This means he can go up against foes of any power level.
2. He will sacrifice innocents and casualties to achieve his goal, letting the older generations die, while not really informing them until too late.

Is there something beyond these two points? The "slow" adjective....it's just circumstantial, for the story, right? The same point could've been made with a trap he laid out, or something.


Also, "breaks in the sad wolf's jaws"? What's the origin of this phrase and what does it mean?

[thats1evildude]

Spoilers for Masked Empire:

Spoiler

Felassan, which means "Slow Arrow," was a servant of Solas sent to take control of the eluvian network from Briala. He refused to complete his mission, so Solas killed him. Hence "a slow arrow breaks in a sad wolf's jaws."

[Addictress]

Spoilers for Masked Empire:

Spoiler

Felassan, which means "Slow Arrow," was a servant of Solas sent to take control of the eluvian network from Briala. He refused to complete his mission, so Solas killed him. Hence "a slow arrow breaks in a sad wolf's jaws."

Oh...that's right....I read the book but forgot his nickname....I guess it still confused me because it's kind of an abstract and poetic way to describe his demise or the killing of somebody in general.....breaking? In his jaws? It's just....so abstract, relatively speaking. Feels like I'm missing someone. Like yeah, usually, poetically I'd expect that sort of language but in comparison to the rest of the writing in these games and/or books, it sticks out and stresses me out.

[Shechinah]

My interpretation of the quote in the last bit of your post;

 

Felassan was the slow arrow as he was a part of a longer play intended towards acquiring control of the eluvians. Felassan, however, intentionally prevented Briala from telling him the password as he'd come to care for her and so actively sabotaged the plan. Upon realising this change of heart, Solas killed Felassan so as to prevent him from further endangering his plans hence; the slow arrow breaks in the sad wolf's jaw.

[Dai Grepher]

I think the story indicates that you have to listen to what the Dread Wolf says very carefully, because he is a trickster. Don't assume anything of him. He said he would kill the beast, not necessarily save you from the beast.

Also, on its face, the story portrays foresight. He fires an arrow high into the air at the right angle and the right time so that it will later come down and strike harder against the beast at just the right moment. So in that respect it's a story about fate and predestination, and being able to perceive it.

[Addictress]

I think the story indicates that you have to listen to what the Dread Wolf says very carefully, because he is a trickster. Don't assume anything of him. He said he would kill the beast, not necessarily save you from the beast.

Also, on its face, the story portrays foresight. He fires an arrow high into the air at the right angle and the right time so that it will later come down and strike harder against the beast at just the right moment. So in that respect it's a story about fate and predestination, and being able to perceive it.

good points

[DreamerM]

I don't understand why they would create a character like Felassan, give him a ton of screen time and make him a key player in a novel... and then kill him off. But then I felt the same way about Ser Michel. I'm stunned it took him as long to show up as it did, and that his part was so small. He had future-party-member written all over him. Oh well...

[In Exile]

I don't understand why they would create a character like Felassan, give him a ton of screen time and make him a key player in a novel... and then kill him off. But then I felt the same way about Ser Michel. I'm stunned it took him as long to show up as it did, and that his part was so small. He had future-party-member written all over him. Oh well...

 

To show who Solas is as a character.

[DreamerM]

To show who Solas is as a character.

Solas killing him offscreen isn't really gonna change much.

[In Exile]

Solas killing him offscreen isn't really gonna change much.

 

It's not about changing much, it's about how we retroactively look at his character by killing another more sympathetic character.

[sniper_arrow]

I don't understand why they would create a character like Felassan, give him a ton of screen time and make him a key player in a novel... and then kill him off. But then I felt the same way about Ser Michel. I'm stunned it took him as long to show up as it did, and that his part was so small. He had future-party-member written all over him. Oh well...

 

To show us, in hindsight, what the Ancient Elves think of modern Thedas and to show Solas was already on a roll through Felassan.

[DreamerM]

I'm not sure I'd call Felassan "more sympathetic" then Solas, if just because I feel like we got to know Solas better then we did Felassan, who we only ever saw through Briala's eyes and he was standoffish with her.

...And it also makes no sense that he was planning to use her to obtain the Eluvians, since no one had any idea they would ever run into those. If his job was to recruit her as an agent for Fen'Harel, which she might have been amenable to considering her early feelings on the Dalish, then he sure chose a very indirect way to do that.

Felassan generally wasn't a very effective character for me.

[In Exile]

I'm not sure I'd call Felassan "more sympathetic" then Solas, if just because I feel like we got to know Solas better then we did Felassan, who we only ever saw through Briala's eyes and he was standoffish with her.

...And it also makes no sense that he was planning to use her to obtain the Eluvians, since no one had any idea they would ever run into those. If his job was to recruit her as an agent for Fen'Harel, which she might have been amenable to considering her early feelings on the Dalish, then he sure chose a very indirect way to do that.

Felassan generally wasn't a very effective character for me.

I misspoke. I didn't mean to say he's a more sympathetic character than Solas. To be honest I have no idea why the word is there - I only meant to say sympathetic character.

I assume Felassan's task was to get obtain the Eluvians generally, and that Briala being involved at all was a fluke.

Then again I've never read the book, just the summary, so you may well be right. This is just my view of his narrative purpose.

[thats1evildude]

I don't understand why they would create a character like Felassan, give him a ton of screen time and make him a key player in a novel... and then kill him off.

1)To compound the tragedy of the plot. It was a very sad scene.

2) To foreshadow DAI's storyline.

3) He was too inconvenient to be left alive, not knowing what he did about Solas' plans.

[sniper_arrow]

I'm not sure I'd call Felassan "more sympathetic" then Solas, if just because I feel like we got to know Solas better then we did Felassan, who we only ever saw through Briala's eyes and he was standoffish with her.

...And it also makes no sense that he was planning to use her to obtain the Eluvians, since no one had any idea they would ever run into those. If his job was to recruit her as an agent for Fen'Harel, which she might have been amenable to considering her early feelings on the Dalish, then he sure chose a very indirect way to do that.

Felassan generally wasn't a very effective character for me.

 

It's probably more of the fact that Felassan is a just plot device to introduce what the Dalish got wrong (remember his talk with Briala about Arlathan having elven slaves) and the Eluvians.

[Gervaise]

Felassan may have been introduced for any number of reasons.   Just because he played a major part in a novel didn't actually mean he had to be major in the game world.   None of the characters in Masked Empire were really fleshed out in the game as they were in the book, as though the assumption was that everyone would have read it so there was no need.   I thought Briala might have played a more leading role in the game.  I had even anticipated us using the eluvians to explain how we could get around the world so quickly.   In the end it was Morrigan who introduced the eluvians to us, they required no special password to activate provided you had the right "key" for your particular eluvian and Morrigan, Flemeth, Kieran, Solas, Qunari and the Inquisitor could all use them.   I assume in the latter case Solas deliberately left them open for you.   There was a brief war table mission connected to Michel that mentioned Briala in connection with them.  Otherwise, apart from our conversation with Solas in Trespasser you would have never known that Briala had any connection with them at all.

 

Based off what Solas said, it would seem that Felassan's main task was getting the eluvians activated again and under the control of Fen'Harel.   To this end, he made contact with Clan Virnehn and encourage their Keeper to take an interest in the matter.    Apparently he was active some 20 years before the events of Masked Empire, since he first ran into Briala in the year that Celene was made Empress.    She was trying to flee to the Dalish but he dissuaded her.   May be he wanted an agent in the Orlesian Court.    Whilst it is never made clear in the book or to Briala, Clan Virnehn were actually the exception to the majority of clans, based on previous ones we met and codices in DAO, as their Keeper suggested that city elves are "poor cousins lost to us forever" and not their People, when in fact the Dalish regard the city elves as brethren that they are only too happy to welcome back to the fold should they choose to leave the city life.   They are gathering and maintaining the lore and traditions of the elves against the day when there will once again be a Homeland for both the Dalish and the city elves.   At this point their efforts at preservation will be used to teach any newcomers.   There are a lot of practical and social aspects to this, not just religion.   Felassan may have been right that the Dalish don't have a plan for this Homeland at present beyond riding around on aravels but I don't think he had any right to sneer considering what his boss is planning.   Nor do I feel it reflects well on him that he was prepared to use the clan all these years, ask for the saving and protection of his party from the sylvan, which the clan did and then just abandoning them to be torn apart by a demon, that he likely encouraged the Keeper to summon.    As he admit, he knew perfectly well that Michel's actions would free the demon and yet he let him go ahead.    Of course this would be perfectly in keeping with a follower of Fen'Harel, since his own boss admits that he has sacrificed any number of people to his plans over the years.   Like Solas, Felassan doesn't really have a morality as such.   Just aims and objectives.  However, he did form an attachment for Briala and decided to override his mission objective and give her the eluvians instead, knowing that Fen'Harel would likely kill him as a result.   May be he wanted to die so he wouldn't have to witness how all Briala's efforts came to nothing as a result of his boss's plans.  It really made no sense why Fen'Harel would kill him since he was planning on destroying the world soon anyway.   According to Cole, it was for the crime of seeing modern inhabitants of Thedas as  People.   

 

Imshael recognised him as Slow Arrow, which suggests his title and stories might well belong to an earlier era and he just recalled them as appropriate to teach Briala, rather than simply making them up on the spot.    The story about the Slow Arrow and the Wolf Chewing His Bonds while his enemies fought, seem to me to be analogies of the fight for freedom that led to the raising of the Veil.     May be Felassan was one of those who distracted the Evanuris (fired into the air) while Solas was busy making his plans for the Veil.   Then Fen'Harel played the Creators (Andruil) and the Forgotten Ones (Anaris) off against one another until they had fought to exhaustion and returned to their respective strongholds to recover.   This is when he struck, raised the Veil and imprisoned them all, thus chewing off his bonds.   Cole also says about the wolf chewing off its paw to escape the trap, which is probably eluding to the fact that whilst the Evanuris were trapped, the elves and Solas were maimed as a result.

[sniper_arrow]

Felassan may have been introduced for any number of reasons.   Just because he played a major part in a novel didn't actually mean he had to be major in the game world.   None of the characters in Masked Empire were really fleshed out in the game as they were in the book, as though the assumption was that everyone would have read it so there was no need.   I thought Briala might have played a more leading role in the game.  I had even anticipated us using the eluvians to explain how we could get around the world so quickly.   In the end it was Morrigan who introduced the eluvians to us, they required no special password to activate provided you had the right "key" for your particular eluvian and Morrigan, Flemeth, Kieran, Solas, Qunari and the Inquisitor could all use them.   I assume in the latter case Solas deliberately left them open for you.   There was a brief war table mission connected to Michel that mentioned Briala in connection with them.  Otherwise, apart from our conversation with Solas in Trespasser you would have never known that Briala had any connection with them at all.

 

Based off what Solas said, it would seem that Felassan's main task was getting the eluvians activated again and under the control of Fen'Harel.   To this end, he made contact with Clan Virnehn and encourage their Keeper to take an interest in the matter.    Apparently he was active some 20 years before the events of Masked Empire, since he first ran into Briala in the year that Celene was made Empress.    She was trying to flee to the Dalish but he dissuaded her.   May be he wanted an agent in the Orlesian Court.    Whilst it is never made clear in the book or to Briala, Clan Virnehn were actually the exception to the majority of clans, based on previous ones we met and codices in DAO, as their Keeper suggested that city elves are "poor cousins lost to us forever" and not their People, when in fact the Dalish regard the city elves as brethren that they are only too happy to welcome back to the fold should they choose to leave the city life.   They are gathering and maintaining the lore and traditions of the elves against the day when there will once again be a Homeland for both the Dalish and the city elves.   At this point their efforts at preservation will be used to teach any newcomers.   There are a lot of practical and social aspects to this, not just religion.   Felassan may have been right that the Dalish don't have a plan for this Homeland at present beyond riding around on aravels but I don't think he had any right to sneer considering what his boss is planning.   Nor do I feel it reflects well on him that he was prepared to use the clan all these years, ask for the saving and protection of his party from the sylvan, which the clan did and then just abandoning them to be torn apart by a demon, that he likely encouraged the Keeper to summon.    As he admit, he knew perfectly well that Michel's actions would free the demon and yet he let him go ahead.    Of course this would be perfectly in keeping with a follower of Fen'Harel, since his own boss admits that he has sacrificed any number of people to his plans over the years.   Like Solas, Felassan doesn't really have a morality as such.   Just aims and objectives.  However, he did form an attachment for Briala and decided to override his mission objective and give her the eluvians instead, knowing that Fen'Harel would likely kill him as a result.   May be he wanted to die so he wouldn't have to witness how all Briala's efforts came to nothing as a result of his boss's plans.  It really made no sense why Fen'Harel would kill him since he was planning on destroying the world soon anyway.   According to Cole, it was for the crime of seeing modern inhabitants of Thedas as  People.   

 

Imshael recognised him as Slow Arrow, which suggests his title and stories might well belong to an earlier era and he just recalled them as appropriate to teach Briala, rather than simply making them up on the spot.    The story about the Slow Arrow and the Wolf Chewing His Bonds while his enemies fought, seem to me to be analogies of the fight for freedom that led to the raising of the Veil.     May be Felassan was one of those who distracted the Evanuris (fired into the air) while Solas was busy making his plans for the Veil.   Then Fen'Harel played the Creators (Andruil) and the Forgotten Ones (Anaris) off against one another until they had fought to exhaustion and returned to their respective strongholds to recover.   This is when he struck, raised the Veil and imprisoned them all, thus chewing off his bonds.   Cole also says about the wolf chewing off its paw to escape the trap, which is probably eluding to the fact that whilst the Evanuris were trapped, the elves and Solas were maimed as a result.

 

On the bolded part, I think you just answered your own question. Also, to add, Felassan was killed because he didn't completed his mission and, for Solas' POV, he might be an obstacle due to his attachment with Briala.