I always thought that "Solas greatest fear" discovered in the Fade was, uuuh, made-up? Like - I can’t reveal what is his real fear, c’mon, let's put this “die alone” in that tombstone, which is the most common fear - Or Solas tricked (lol) the demon somehow or, most likely and personal opinion, the demon did it on purpose because spoilerish reasons, since it speaks to him in an untranslated Elvish too…
“Dying alone” is really, genuinely his true greatest fear, but it doesn’t mean what people assume it does. You’re right - he’s not afraid of the common fear of dying without someone nearby, or dying without being loved (though I’m sure those would be sad). Instead, he’s specifically MOST afraid of betraying himself by giving up, by living his life without doing his best to walk the dinan’shiral. He’s afraid of dying alone - dying passively as the last of his People.
The specific phrase “dying alone” appears only twice in Inquisition (I’ve searched with the modding tools). Once on his gravestone, and once in this conversation:
Solas: Once, in the Fade, I saw the memory of a man who lived alone on an island. Most of his tribe had fallen to beasts or disease. His wife had died in childbirth. He was the only one left. He could have struck out on his own to find a new land, new people. But he stayed. He spent every day catching fish in a little boat, every night drinking fermented fruit juice and watching the stars.
Varric: I can think of worse lives.
Solas: How can you be happy surrendering, knowing it will all end with you? How can you not fight?
Varric: I suppose it depends on the quality of the fermented fruit juice. […]
Solas: You truly are content to sit in the sun, never wondering what you could’ve been, never fighting back.
Varric: Ha, you’ve got it all wrong, Chuckles. This is fighting back.
Solas: How does passively accepting your fate constitute a fight?
Varric: In that story of yours—-the fisherman watching the stars, dying alone. You thought he gave up, right?
Varric: But he went on living. He lost everyone, but he still got up every morning. He made a life, even if it was alone. […]
His greatest fear isn’t just dying alone - that doesn’t quite fit his personality and what we know about him. Rather, his greatest fear is living and dying like the Man On The Island: passively accepting the world, not fighting back, and giving up. Just living the rest of his life, staying in the same place, accepting, surrendering, and dying just like that. That’s what he’s afraid of more than anything else.
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