AH! Ah. I have things to say! Some Dead Season spoilers ahead:
I actually based Solas and Ghil’s relationship in Teen Wolf off of a story in one of the mosaics in the Temple of Mythal, The Ascension of Ghilan’nain:
Ghilan'nain kept herself apart from the People. She used her power to create animals none had ever seen. The skies teemed with her monsters, the land with her beasts. Andruil hunted them all, and after a year of killing, approached Ghilan'nain with an offer: the gods would share their power with Ghilan'nain, but only if she destroyed her creations, for they were too untamed to remain among the People. Ghilan'nain agreed and asked for three days to undo what she had made.
On the first day she struck down the monsters of the air, except those she presented to Andruil as a gift.
On the second day she drowned the giants of the sea, except those in deep waters, for they were too well-wrought, and Pride stopped her hand.
On the third day she killed the beasts of the land, except the halla, whose grace she loved above all else.
This is how Ghilan'nain was made youngest of the gods.
—Story of the elven god Ghilan'nain, author unknown
My choice of Ghil for Solas in Teen Wolf was totally purposeful. She was one of the people first and had to earn her godhood. That “Pride stopped her hand” in this extreme scenario really struck me. From my first playthrough where I actually realized what that meant, I thought that it could mean that Ghilan’nain and Solas had been friends. It’s an odd mention, that Pride was there to help her, very specific. And I was in love with the idea that they were both a little off beat. They were not invited to this party, but they were let in the door anyway.
In my adaptation of this little bit of lore, and this is something I write about toward the end of The Dead Season, I establish that Ghilan’nain’s territory was where Crestwood now is, which was mainly just nature and animals at the time. She planted all the purple flowers that still grow, and she shaped Crestwood to look like the Weathers, the suburb of Arlathan where she and Solas grew up. It was her way of trying to salvage her shredded mind, and then toward the end of the war (which she was largely removed from), she made that little cove with the waterfall like a hiding place where she would meet in secret with Solas, protected by her halla statues like sentinels. There, he would try to convince her to come with him and to defect to his rebellion, but she was very far gone. She didn’t even know Mythal. She hardly understood the seriousness of the turf war being fought to the north.
So, ah! I’m glad you noticed this, @bearlytolerablethethird. While it’s obviously not canon, I tried to use real evidence from the game to mold the story in such a way that it would feel real, while playing. So like when Solas takes his Lavellan to that cave with Ghil’s sentinel hallas, it means something–like that he is hoping desperately to regain some form of his lost ability to be loved, and that maybe by channeling Ghil there, he can find the strength to tell the truth.
@thevikingwoman, per your interest <3
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