I made a dragon age sideblog

(follows/likes from @kawuli)

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

Very funny to me that the entire point of the regrets of the dread wolf sequence was to show that this is what solas did, and he did it all of his own free will. Yes there were feelings for mythal and a power balance involved, but he always had the choice and he CHOSE to do those things. He wasn’t forced or compelled

And people decided to interpret it in the exact opposite way

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

hi!! you said that evidence points to kirkwall being where the magisters broke into the fade. can you elaborate on that? (if u have the time!!)

Kirkwall was founded a couple hundred years before the first blight. The placement of it is odd, and there was no real advantage to it that a mage based civilisation like Tevinter would require. Unless there was a need that we didn’t know, or that all that was needed was a place a bit out of the way, where things might go unnoticed.

So point one here is that Kirkwall is fucked up. Like deeply fucked up. The veil is in fucking tatters. It’s prone to haunting and possessions, and mages in the gallows have generally worse outcomes because the veil is so damaged. Like we joke about Kirkwall being fucked up, but there’s straight up something deeply deeply wrong with the veil in that place, and a ritual to break into the fade sure would do that.

Second point is the design of Kirkwall itself. It was clearly designed to handle large amounts of blood magic. It has drainage systems specifically for the blood of sacrificed slaves, and the streets are built in the shapes of glyphs. It was very clearly built FOR something, something specific. There’s also an elaborate system of tunnels underneath, in which mages conducted research. Secret research, that they had to keep hidden.

There were also a lot of slaves that went through Kirkwall, but a large amount that went missing from any record. Multiple records were forged to try and hide the discrepancy. Sacrificing slaves for blood magic was pretty normal in those days, so the only reason to hide it would be that you were doing rituals that you didn’t want discovered. The amount of slaves estimated to be sacrificed is in the thousands per year. The power that would generate is unimaginable and there would be very few needs for that much power.

Now, the canticle of silence tells the series of events leading to the first blight from the Tevinter perspective.

The first person to start work on the ritual was the priest of Dumat (corypheus). However after he’d been working on it for a time his first acolyte (which, side note, I think was an executor and this is the extent of the whispering the veilguard scene was getting at) suggested getting the worshipers of Urthemiel (led by urthemiels priest, the architect, because worshipers of Urthemiel were referred to as the architects and the builders) involved. The reason to get them involved was so that they, the builders, could “build [them] a road to the golden city”.

The ritual is said to require slaves beyond counting, and someone disagrees with it and goes to minrathous to tell the archon of it, but the ritual is already completed by the time he reaches it.

So, the canticle of silence describes the ritual as taking place somewhere quite a distance from minrathous. It tells us it took a number of sacrifices so unimaginably large that even some Tevinter magisters were weirded out by it, and it implies that the architect and the builders who worshiped Urthemiel built something specific to allow it to happen.

And then we’ve got a city where the veil is extremely thin which indicates actions taking place there that damage the veils integrity, which is some distance from minrathous with no obvious advantage to its placement that would indicate why a city should be built there, where magisters did secret research, thousands of slaves disappeared from records, and which appears to have been custom built for an extremely powerful ritual requiring powerful glyphs and runes and large quantities of blood.

And they put a spirit of Justice in there

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

Also, the original name was Emerius. I assumed that probably had some kind of meaning but I wasn’t really sure what. The word that first comes to mind is emeritus, but that has no relevance.

However with a bit more googling I found some websites that say emerius can be a surname derived from the word Aimerius, with some sources saying that can mean to rival or to emulate, and with some sources saying that word is derived from aemulus which is the Latin for emulate, and that certainly is relevant.

Not sure how accurate the etymology is there, but it’s feasible that someone saw that being said somewhere while writing dragon age and based the name on that

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

Ive also got the very bare bones of a theory concerning avaar gods

The avaar have three main gods: lady of the skies, Korth the mountain father, and hakkon wintersbreath

The lady of the skies is spirits, possibly specifically mythal and certainly in some instances it has been mythal

Korth the mountain father is titans, possibly a specific titan

So far hakkon wintersbreath has kinda just been there. There’s no clear thing that he is. All we know is that his main domain was cold and that he was bound in a dragon.

For the other two to be such significant things it suggests that hakkon is as well, and he’s not just some guy. Which means there’s a third element we don’t know about. Something with a link to the freezing cold and potentially dragons

Well the mysterious substance Anaris found (which is linked to the devouring storm) is icy icy cold, and the devouring storm is in some way associated with dragons. So potentially hakkon wintersbreath has something to do with the devouring storm, or whatever the devouring storm is

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

I think there’s got to be something going on wrt to spirit names and qunari names (in the sense of what influenced qunari society to work how it does). Because both define someone by their purpose, their name is what they are. But while spirit names represent a concept that the individual embodies (eg pride, compassion, justice) qunari names represent their job title and what they do (eg sten, arishok, hissrad).

Then we’ve got the caretaker, a spirit whose name refers to a job or the thing that they do. They refer to rook as dweller, which is also identifying rook by the thing that they are doing (we could also possibly add maker to this list). Many of the qunari titles we know the literal translation of behave the same way (eg hissrad= liar, tamassaran = those who speak (ie, speaker), ashkaari = one who seeks (seeker) or one who thinks (thinker)).

And then in datamined files, it says that while the player doesn’t know this, the caretaker is what remains of an ancient dragon. If this is consistent with the lore then that has huge implications, and I think it’s significant that the spirit with that level of connection to dragons is also the one that has a name that is a job title, like the Qunari who are also connected to dragons (if we are adding “maker” to the list, then it’s also worth mentioning that Eleni Zinovia mentions the maker returning to light their fires, and the caretaker saying “the fires are lit again”).

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

Also even though I’ve done both of these routes I didn’t realise the translations were so different. Some of these sentences have very different implications, and for the translations to be that different it could imply that neither are completely accurate

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

“When the adversary came, we mixed our blood with dragons to fight”

“When the great foe struck, we embraced the blood of dragons”

The Qunari translation directly refers to a physical act of combining the blood of the Kossith with the blood of dragons, while the spirit translation is more vague about what they actually did. Embracing the blood of dragons could mean a lot of things, not necessarily mixing their blood with dragon blood (eg maybe they already had dragon blood and now they were leaning more into it£

“Protect those with fire. They see what we cannot.”

“Champions blessed with fire protected us and saw the unseen”

In the Qunari translation, the adaari are who need to be protected, while in the spirit translation they are doing the protecting. The Qunari translation also seems like it’s talking about an ability the adaari have for seeing things that others can’t, while the spirit translation could mean that, but could also refer to that group having recognised a threat that others did not.

“If more of us come from across the sea, then the adversary will follow”

“If more of us flee across the ocean, it means our people failed”

The spirit translation more directly implies that should more of the Kossith (Qunari by the time they actually come) come from across the ocean, they will also be fleeing, while the Qunari translation is more vague and simply states that the adversary will follow if more come. The spirit translation also mentions a failure that the Qunari one does not

Very different implications going on here. I suspect the truth is somewhere between the two

[proffbon]

I know that the 'Why couldn't we help Solas tear down the Veil?' arguments are funny in and of themselves but I especially love it when it's used as evidence of Bioware killing player choice. Yes, I too remember the times when you could help Loghain win the civil war and march the armies you've been collecting throughout the game on Orlais.

[epiphany-jones]

Dipping my toe into the Crumbs edit, and I'm reminded that I decided basically on a whim that the Lighthouse crew uses candle clocks. I think it's a charming way to explain everyone's casual knowledge of time in the sunless Fade (shhh, flowers).

But that did make me think about Lucanis specifically, and his excruciatingly precise timekeeping while keeping Spite locked down, and how, if you hate your host and the prison he's built of himself, one way to really fuck with him would be to destroy the very thing he uses to mark time against you,

and how that could connect to Spite's candle-eating.

[loquaciousquark]

I started a response to this and the draft has apparently wholly vanished? Anyway:

I completely agree with this! I have a lot of headcanons about new & unexpected things Lucanis struggles with after leaving the Ossuary, but one of them (which I think he does bring up in Lighthouse banter early after his move to the Fade) is that it really bothers him that he still can't tell time in this place. Between being underwater at the Ossuary, his deep fear of losing time to Spite, and the fact that he's surrounded by total strangers who could easily make up answers when he asks, I think he would be desperate to have some kind of mechanical, trustworthy metric of the passing hours.

As a result, my Rook asks Bellara to make him a fantasy quantum clock, which is the elven artifact that eventually shows up next to his bed in the pantry.

(I also really love the idea of Spite just eating his time, both figuratively and literally. One of my favorite jokes to write [though I haven't gotten to do it much] is Lucanis constantly waking up with stuff in his teeth and having to guess what Spite ate while he was out.)

[exhausted-archivist]

Dragon Age Media Timeline Visual

Accidentally flattened the work file image so have this until I get the motivation to redo all this work and then the other eras lol

Notes:

Non Canon Material: The IDW comics and Dragon Age Journeys are non-canon and added for posterity.

Short Stories:

Sebastian: Derived from the timeline outlined for his age. He is 28 as Act 3 of DA2. He was given to the Chantry shortly after receiving his grandfathers bow at the age of 13. Additionally, he states not having returned to Starkhaven for 15 years.

Aveline: Derived from the fact story takes place when she first enters Cailen's army and meets Wesley. Cailen's only been king for 5 years as of DAO, thus giving her the window of 9:25-9:30.

Fenris: Derived from the fact when we recruit him, he's been on the run for 3 years, putting the earliest this story can happen at 9:28. Given that the story doesn't specify where it takes place other than outside Tevinter, it give us the time frame of 9:28-9:30.

Merrill and Varric: Stated to happen before the events of Act 1.

Anders: He has a dedicated window of becoming an abomination post Awakening which means he specifically has a window of Month 7-12 of 9:31 for this to happen.

Isabela: Is stated to arrive in Kirkwall after the Tome of Koslun is stolen. It is noted to be stolen in 9:31.

The Next One: Evka isn't with Antoine at this time. But we know that Antoine joins the Wardens at the earliest in 9:45 due to the short story Hunger, which has the time frame of 9:45 when the Wardens were summoned back to Weisshaupt.

Ruins of Reality: Occurs after the Tevinter Night Anthology of Three Trees Till Midnight.

The Wake: Lucanis states in Veilguard that he's been missing from Treviso for a year and was declared dead. Meaning this has to occur in 9:51.

As We Fly: Lucanis states that the Antaam started occupying Treviso in his absence/"death".

Comics:

The Missing: Is supposed to lead directly into Veilguard. We also know Rook is recruited after these events and Rook has been with Varric and Harding about 6 months prior to the events of Veilguard.

Games:

A Tale of Orzammar: Events happen before DAO. DAO is stated to begin in the first month of 9:30, leaving this to take place in 9:29.

The Last Court: States it is early summer/late spring. Inquisition takes place 1 year after the Mage Templar War is declared, meaning that Inquisition presumable starts in late autumn/early winter when referencing the start of the war in Asunder.

If there's a typo or something lemme know. But I think I got most of it. If you have any questions or would like me to expand on something lemme know.

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

I know the popular theory is that Sera is Andruil/possessed by Andruil but I just can’t see how Andruil would get there

But there’s definitely something up and I think the answer is that she’s a spirit who became real, like Cole, but so long ago she’s forgotten

Her memories about where she comes from are vague, she can wield a bow without training, and Solas refers to her as though they are part of the same people (which he pointedly does not do with any other elf), that people being spirits who took physical form

Also her name is a word in the elven language, like Solas’ name which is the word for pride. We don’t know what it means, just that it is in a phrase one would use to excuse oneself (Ara seranna ma). I bet it translates to a type of spirit or demon name

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

Girl what is up with you??

[raven-6-10]

I can't believe this fandom is still taking Cullen's "Leliana has a blind spot about Wardens" at face value when the first words out of her mouth after recruiting Blackwall is how he's not at all what she expected.

She knows! She absolutely fucking knows. She had a transcript of a whole ass speech Warden Blackwall gave during the Fifth Blight, she knows he couldn't be in Ferelden. She knows the Blackwall that Inky brought back is a fake.

She just doesn't give a damn. Having a convincingly fake Warden allowed the Inquisition to make use of the Treaties to requisition resources to fight Corypheus. Leliana is pragmatic enough to go along with a lie if it gets the job done.

I bet the report on Mornay wasn't an accident either. She had her agents looking into Blackwall's background just in case somebody came along and exposed the ruse.

[raven-6-10]

Chewing on a thought that maybe it was Leliana's people who tipped off the Orlesians to Mornay's location. After all, if you are parading a fake around then there's better not be anyone around who can see through the deception.

It's nothing personal, really. Just tying up some loose ends.

[dreadfulsanity]

Say, how do y'all interpret the "I release you from my service" line?

If that discussion is already done (probably) I wouldn't mind if you could point me to some nice write-ups.

[ekjohnston]

I see it as a formality, and a callback to what Bellara says about Ancient Elves expressing emotions differently. Basically, she's telling him something he already knows, but this is like...the scientific proof. Their personal method of communication.

Cole's line in Trespasser is "he burned her off his face", and there is obviously significant power in freeing yourself, but it makes sense that Solas (who cannot change, and has to believe that NOTHING can EVER change its nature in order for his worldview to stand up), doesn't shift until the only God who learned HOW to change gives him permission to.

At no point in the entire franchise does Solas let someone else make the call. He has to believe he's the only one who can. Mythal, but more importantly the part he murdered to steal power from, tells him it's time to give that up. And after fucking eons of being a dick about it, Solas decides to listen to her. That maybe compromise is okay. That maybe the world people built after he disappeared is worth something. That he's done. That he can leave her, and everyone else, and go back to observing, which was all he wanted in the first place.

It's not absolution. He's nowhere close to that yet. But it's permission to change his nature, and Solas has needed to learn how to do that since the beginning.

[ikarons]

the thing about possession in dragon age is that it's the big scary. the main evil we're warned of the thing that justifies harrowings and tranquility with the unspeakable threat it poses. if you let a demon in your head it will ruin you it will use you to break through to the material world it so covets and kill you in the process of breaking free. if you let a demon in it will destroy you and then set its sights on everything and everyone else still in reach. and yet the major possession cases in dragon age are. lifesaving

faith possesses wynne to save her. anders allows justice to possess him to save him. even lucanis and spite (...) band together out of a mutual need to survive. they save each other at great risk and knowing that not doing so would make the surviving half's life infinitely easier and less dangerous (minus lucanis and spite. don't worry about it.), and then they continue to negotiate that shared existence with like. really comparatively a lot of care. like we definitely do, in dragon age, see possessions that are violent, not really consensual, fatal to the mortal, but we also spend a Lot of time with cases where... the big fears around possession... are just visibly not True. which is not even beginning to talk about spirit healing in general (and how the Two "we merged because i love you and i don't want to lose you" abominations are spirit healers).

possession!

[exhausted-archivist]

The Mountains and Hills of Thedas

@rookbubu for you, I will tell you everything. I apologize for the length and that it took this long lol

I love mountains just as much as I love deserts. I've lived in both and they just hold a special place in my heart.

Key Named Mountain Ranges of Thedas

Frostback Mountains

Gamordan Mountains

Hunterhorn Mountains

The High Reaches

The Hundred Pillars

Vimmark Mountains

Wandering Hills

Notable, Unnamed Mountain Ranges and Hills

These are either mountain ranges shown on the map and not labeled. I've also included some suggested mountain ranges based on lone mountains as well as the in-game geography.

Unnamed Mountain Range in Rivain - This one doesn't have much information on it, but given what we know about the area as well as Antiva, they're probably pretty warm and tropical. (I have some thoughts on these but need to update my biome map for Thedas.)

Unnamed Mountain Range in Seheron - These are likely akin to mountains in Southeast Asia in general. Seheron grows a lot of spices from that region so I'd put my money there.

Unnamed Mountain Range in Antiva (Connected to the White Spire) - Given what we see in Veilguard around Treviso and the general arid climate in lower elevations, I'd assume that these are alpine like.

Unnamed Mountain Range in Arlathan Forest - These are seen around the crater of Arlathan. Though these are also possibly coming off of the White Spire range, and one of the mountains we see in the game could be the White Spire. It is hard to tell as the location is never really solidified in the game. But presumably it is near the edges.

Anderfels Mountains

Wandering Hills/The Weathered Pass

These are red like the rest of the Anderfels. There is also an image of Andraste carved into the cliffside that is referred to as the "Red Bride". In the gorge where she is carved is set deep within the Wandering Hills where it holds a cavern system. The location used to be called the Shrine of the Red Bride, but is now known as the Red Bride's Grave.

Other then that we know that like most of the Anderfels it is arid, near-lifeless, and battered by sand and dust storms. Something that isn't super well known about the Wandering Hills and the Anderfels in general is that in the winter it does snow. The Anderfels and the Wandering Hills aren't a desert with low precipitation, they have a significant amount of it actually. But due to the blighted desertification, during the summer it is a hot, arid climate that can't sustain significant life. But in the winter it is bitterly cold and wet.

I actually wonder if due to the events of Veilguard it will actually be able to recover. If it can, I imagine the Anderfels will gradually (or quickly) return to the lush forests and plains that it used to be prior to the blights.

Antiva Mountains

The White Spire

Not much is none about this mountain, it is often depicted as snow capped and that is about it. When taking the game into consideration, it is likely an alpine area. Something I think we could look to Italy or Spain for reference. Though considering it is near some lingering blighted lands, I do wonder about the effects it has on the area.

Ferelden Mountains

Belenas

Once stood where Lake Calenhad is, suggesting it was once a volcano as the lake is a known caldera. As far as Belenas is concerned, it likely mirrored the main ridge of the Frostbacks and pushed out the foothills farther. Leaving over half of Ferelden in more or less a short growing season freeze. Additionally, given that its supposed location is a caldera and the suggestion of a Belenas previously being a volcano; the volcanic rock we see in the area makes a lot of sense.

As far as what the area is like, well we've all been around here. So we know that it is a pretty heavily wooded, temperate mountainous region. It is technically in the foothills of the Frostbacks on the western shore, so that area has a short growing season of about 4-6 months according to the lore. Freezes early, thaws late. A lot of reliance on hunting and fishing with a lot of pickling and foraging methods.

We also know the region is fairly well favoured for livestock. People finding meadows or clearing out small areas to seasonally graze. The eastern shore is lined by the Bannorn which is Ferelden's breadbasket. It is warmer, ideal for agriculture, and thaws sooner while freezing later. It also seems to be less heavily hit by the heavy rains that washout most of the rest of Ferelden and rendering it a muddy trek, but not by much.

The Frostback Mountains

This is more of an extension on what I was mentioning in the Belenas section, but the Frostbacks are interesting. While we're all very familiar with the Ferelden side, the Orlesian side seems to be warmer and prone to less harsh conditions. Likely due to it being the theoretical rain shadow of the Frostbacks.

Additionally, due to the warmer climate of the Arbor Wilds, it seems to lend itself to a temperate rain forest being possible in the region as we see in Jaws of Hakkon as well and given there is a river system that leads out to the Arbor Wilds.

Southern Hills and Dragon's Peak

We don't have a ton of information on these aside from what we know about the Brecilian Forest and Ferelden. So, likely temperate and probably an old site of volcanic activity. Given that to the west is one of the largest known calderas in Thedas and that Dragon's Peak is a dormant/extinct volcano. One that let off highly explosive eruptions that let off massive clouds of ash that went across the Waking Sea.

Free Marches Mountains

Vimmark Mountains

Things we know about these is that they are tall enough and get enough precipitation to have year round snow caps, they're in a temperate region with alpine forests near the peaks. They have a lot of cave systems, and have a section of the Deep Roads beneath them.

Orlais Mountains

Arl Dumat

It is a volcano and that's about all we know. It is in the Gamordan mountain range by the Western Approach. It is on the boarder of a more temperate region - one that presumably the Western Approach was prior to the blightification. Which we actually know it was an area of massive plains! On the other side of it is the Sea of Ash which is a hot bed of volcanic activity, so a volcano here makes sense. Especially given the Nahashin Marshes to the east of it are the second known larges caldera in Thedas.

Blasted Hills, Gamordan, and Hunterhorn Mountains

These are going to be one section, though they are labeled on the map separately. I'm putting them together because there are some contradictions about where the Hunterhorn Mountains ends. Whether it extends down to the Abyssal Reach, or if it stops at the mountain named Arl Dumat. Additionally, it is suggested that the different ridges have other names; such as seen with the Blasted Hills. However, we are never told what those other names are. As far as connected mountains, it does seem that the Gamordan Mountains are like the Blasted Hills, connected to the main range.

There isn't much info on the following mountains but you can speculate a bit based on their location. Most seem to be temperate of some flavour, with the mountains close to the Sea of Ash and the Sunless Lands being locations of either glaciers, permanent snow caps, or other frigid environmental factors.

The Blasted Hills

Gamordan Mountains

Hunterhorn Mountains

Tevinter Mountains

Unfortunately for the following mountains there isn't a lot of information on the area around them to really speculate past these are mountain ranges in tropical environments. Some of them may be heavily forested, but others might not as they lead to rather arid steppes.

The High Reaches

The Hundred Pillars

Unnamed Mountains and Ranges

Rivain

Serheron

Beyond Thedas

Sea of Ash

[madamebadger]

Character Headcanon: Poor Master Dennet

You know, I always feel a little sorry for Master Dennet. The Inquisitor is like, hey, I need a horse expert! Here is a horse expert! And he comes along to be your horse expert.

And for a while all is well. He brings his own fine horses, and the Inquisitor adds to the stable as she finds new breeding stock—often excellent. Where she got the charger from, he doesn’t know, and he feels too honored by having it in his care to ask.

And then the Inquisitor starts coming back with like… deer. And Dennet scratches his head, because he knows horses, and just because it has four hooves and you can put a saddle on it doesn’t make it a horse. Hell, the food and space and exercise requirements for a cob and a draft horse aren’t the same—a goddamn deer is presumably completely different. But he goes around Skyhold rounding up Dalish elves until he finds one who knew something about halla, on the principle that that’s probably the closest thing, and they work it out. (He’s always respected the way Dalish treat their halla, so it’s not that big of a leap. And even though Dalish—the Charger—doesn’t know anything much about how to raise halla, he looks the other way when she wants to spend half a day in the deer’s box stall being all affectionate at it. Can’t hurt.)

But deer of various kinds are at least still… well… grass-eating hoofed animals. Things don’t begin to really go sideways until they bring back the first dracolisk.

It’s a lizard. It’s a giant meat-eating lizard. Dennet is a master of horse, and he will stretch that to deer in a pinch, but asking him to figure out the care and feeding of big spiky lizard things is a bit much. It is—he tries to explain, first to Cullen and then to Josephine and finally to the Inquisitor herself—as if someone had decided that because you knew how to knead bread, you were obviously a master pugilist, because both things involved punching things. For his trouble he got a friendly clap on the shoulder and a “Just do your best! We can free up some funds to hire you more help!” (help from where? was he to hang up fliers somewhere for dracolisk handlers? where exactly was one supposed to go for that?).

(We will not even discuss the zombie horse with a sword through its head. We will not. The zombie horse got a stall to itself and was studiously ignored, on the principle that it was dead, and not much Dennet did could either help or hurt it.)

Dennet knew that he was in over his head and then some when the Inquisitor showed up with a charming grin and a giant fucking nug, and all he thought was, “Better see if any dwarves know what to feed it.” (Dagna does, but he’s a little afraid because she keeps having these ideas for ‘experimental feed,’ and….)

At least his life is never boring.

[siriusdraws]

Poor Master Dennet

[syn4k]

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[mmelete]

[carby]

[voidsentprinces]

[autism-official]

[autism-official]

obligatory reblog of this after I forgot to bookmark them (again)

[aces-to-apples]

I do like Cullrian quite a bit but I feel like I don't give enough credit to how good Cullen and Dorian could be as weirdass friends. Like if Cullen was into dudes then he'd probably be into Dorian, he's his type for sure, but he's not so instead he and Dorian are just wildly invested in each others' lives in intensely platonic ways. Like if Cullen married and had children then he'd go all in on Dorian being their "uncle up in Tevinter" and maybe if they developed close relationships then he'd even slip sometimes and call Dorian one of their dads, and whoever Dorian ends up settling down with has to deal with a "You, Me And Steve" situation where Dorian is not in love with his best friend but his best friend does get to have opinions on their relationship and life choices. I just think it could be good for them both, Cullen having a flamboyant nerd bestie to tell him when he's leaning too hard on old Chantry logic and Dorian having a tragically straight and Fereldan bestie to tell him when he's being needlessly overcomplicated and Rich People Bullshit about something. Idk, weird Cullrian friendship ftw.

[godofliestreacheryandrebellion]

In the same vein as my thoughts on Vivienne and Solas. If the Geas theory is true, or was intended to be true at one point, then I wonder if Solas' thoughts on the Qun and Bull have more to do with the Geas' effects on him than anything else?

this one in particular:

feels like a loose comparison of the Tal-Vashoth to Solas' rebellion? Solas defied the Evanuris but believed Mythal - at the very least - to be Good and Kind regardless of her actions or who she supported.

If Solas was under a Geas from Mythal, especially if said Geas was part of what was driving him to tear down the Veil (which... Mythal needing to release him from her service at the end of Veilguard kind of feels like it was?), then he too would have little ability to choose for himself, and any rebellion he could form would be under the restrictions put in place by Mythal.

Maybe the Geas theory isn't true and this is nothing, but maybe it was going to be something in the same way Sera was going to be a mage? it got retconned but not soon enough to remove all traces of it from the game? same vein as Solas & Blackwall's elven beard dialouge not bein canon.