Art Blog

• Solavellan • • Dragon Age • • Mass Effect • • Baldur's Gate 3 • • Tomb Raider •

[celesenova]

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Art Tag

My OC's:

DAI: Leilah Lavellan | Nydhalen Lavellan | DATV: Asaren Thorne 'Rook' | DAO: Salysa Surana | DA2: Lucia Hawke | FFXI/FFXIV: Luciana Corso

I mostly post about Dragon Age because it's my obsession but I'm human and my interests are bound to flop around. Though probably not for the foreseeable future.

Dividers: saradika

[vhen-harel]

#The Wolf In Minrathous With the end of all things drawing near, years of restrained longing refuse to remain buried. Desire has waited patiently for far too long, and it will not be denied. Solas x Saethre Lavellan

[vhen-harel]

Vhenan - A Sacred Term

I think of the term vhenan as quite sacred a word - to me it has always felt like a declaration of commitment, like a vow. And so I researched the use of it in Thedas and found it was a very rare term indeed.

There are only three instances across Dragon Age where the term vhenan is used for someone.

Merrill to a romanced Hawke.

Solas to a romanced Lavellan and vice-versa (Lavellan is the only protagonist to use this term)

The spirit preserving Telana's memories crying out for Ameridan.

Sera never uses it for a romanced Inquisitor, Veilguard gives us two elven companions who don’t use it and even elven Rook never uses it for their LI. A non-elf Rook acts as though they have never heard of the term before when talking to a romanced Lavellan - so rare indeed.

And naturally my brain started looking for patterns between Merrill, Solas, and Telana (aside from all being mages and elves) and why, do they reserve it for only one person in their romanced narratives?

The first thing that stood out is that all three are stubborn people. Once they've decided something is worth pursuing, they're incredibly difficult to sway. Merrill obsessed with restoring the eluvian, Telana refusing to leave Ameridan and Solas spending years pursuing veilfall.

The second thing they share is that love and loyalty sit at the centre of many of their choices. None of them are primarily motivated by power, status, or personal gain. Their lives are shaped by devotion, whether that's to a person, a cause, their people, or a belief.

The third is their willingness to go it alone. Merrill becomes clanless and is willing to endure solitude for her goals. Telana dies alone searching for Ameridan. Solas repeatedly chooses paths that leave him apart from the people he cares about (ending the relationship with a romanced Lavellan to walk the din’anshiral).

Merrill, Telana, and Solas are all characters whose stories revolve around holding onto something despite great cost, and all three choose someone they remain devoted to through hardship, distance, pain, and time. (And yes, I include Solas in this. Even after years of separation, he writes to Lavellan, vows never to forget her, and slips right back into calling Lavellan vhenan.)

Considering vhenan is 'my heart' there is very strong symbolism. We may love many people throughout our lives, but we only have one 'heart' and it's required for living.

Solas seems most 'alive' when he's with Lavellan. Lavellan draws him into the present moment, out of the Fade and into the physical world, a world he’s trying to deny. Lavellan is someone who pulls Solas back toward living rather than merely existing or heading down a path of death. There is a second layer of symbolism as well: Solas refuses to let Lavellan witness what he will become. In a sense, it’s almost as though he leaves his heart behind for safekeeping, that Solas, who he wants to be, can remain beating with Lavellan.

When Ameridan disappears, Telana refuses to let him go. She waits, enters uthenera in the hope of finding him through dreams, and dies still searching for him. The heart is the organ that sustains life, and Telana spends her final days searching for the person she considers hers. She dies with her search unfinished, her body unable to live without her heart.

For Merrill the heart symbolism is a bit different, I think it lies in what a heart does. A heart sustains the body by continually sending blood through it. Hawke occupies a similar role in Merrill's life. Her ambitions, and pursuit of the eluvian remain unchanged, yet Hawke becomes woven through it, a constant presence that helps sustain the life she's chosen to live.

Merrill's use of the word is particularly interesting to me because she's one of the modern elven characters most invested in recovering the knowledge and traditions of ancient Elvhenan. She also recites In Uthenera, an elven ballad that contains one of the only other uses of vhenan in the series. Given her fascination with preserving the past, it feels fitting she'd use a word for Hawke that appears so rarely and carries significance.

For an ancient culture that was both spirit and form, there may have been few declarations more intimate and more sacred than telling another person: you are my heart. You are the thing that keeps me living in this biological form. In this sense, Solas' denial of Lavellan almost feels like a denial of himself, he regrets manifesting so much that to accept his love for Lavellan is also to accept the world and himself physically in it.

In all three cases, vhenan is given to someone who is so woven into the speaker's life despite distance, hardship, pain, or time. That's why the word feels sacred to me. Much like the heart itself, they have become so woven into the being of the person who bears them.

Note: I understand vhenan is probably used more often in-universe than the games show us. But when a term appears this rarely in officially written narratives, I can't help looking for patterns and symbolism in who uses it and why. Whether that was the writers' intent or not, those patterns become part of how I interpret the word and then integrate it into my own world state.

2nd Note: In Uthenera is about loss, mortality, separation, and the approach of death, which I find fascinating given that those same themes run through these 3 relationships associated with the word.

*Also if I'm missing any use of vhenan elsewhere in the universe please let me know.

[mrs-gauche]

“Well said. Perhaps I was mistaken.”

[vhen-harel]

Despite everything Solas kept going. Even tying himself to the veil was a choice to keep going.

It seems Solas found Varric’s words hitting close to home and never forgot them.

[celesenova]

[celesenova]

Happy Pride!

These two demi-sexuals wish everyone a very happy Pride Month.

Love is love.

❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜

[vhen-harel]

Thinking about Felassan and Solas lately. I think Felassan would’ve seen Solas at his absolute lowest. Even lower than Mythal ever did. With Mythal, I think over time the masks started to appear and build with her first. Solas knew how to stand straighter around her, how to bury pain beneath his duty, how to sound certain even when he was uncertain of everything. The bond between Solas and Mythal carried expectation, duty and service. He could slip into the role she needed from him quickly and instinctively.

But I think Felassan would’ve seen the real Solas. The vulnerability after heated debates, after the plans, after the victories that cost them way too much, after the failures where they all should have known better. He would’ve been there to pull Solas back to himself when the burden of becoming Fen’Harel started consuming the person underneath it. He would’ve seen the anger, the guilt, the doubt, the fear that Solas could never afford to show publicly while an entire rebellion was looking to him as a symbol.

And what makes their friendship so painful to me is that even though Felassan loved him enough to see the damage being done, he still helped build the legend of the Dread Wolf anyway. And Solas let him.

Felassan encouraged it because the symbol worked. The Dread Wolf inspired people and the rebellion needed something larger than life to rally around if they were going to stand against the Evanuris and free their people. Felassan understood that better than anyone. He knew stories had power and so even while watching Solas disappear deeper into that dark role, he still helped build it forward because the cause demanded it.

There’s something so sad in imagining Felassan watching his friend become darker, more hardened, more isolated, more willing to sacrifice himself and others piece by piece for victory, and never quite finding the moment to say to him, you can stop now. You don’t have to keep turning yourself into this weapon for everyone else.

And maybe part of the reason Felassan never said it is because he couldn’t stop either. He was trapped in it too. Two people trying so hard to save the world and their people that they kept justifying what the cost would be later, until later never came.

That’s why their dynamic feels so sad to me. Two best friends, soul-kin, brothers-in-arms, blood brothers, who genuinely cared and believed in each other, and who still, despite all of that love, both failed each other.

[pooyaaaaan]

Texts with your OC and their partner.

Thank you for the tag @celesenova 💚

This was so much fun, so everyone please do it too! 😆 Text generator here📱

They are more of a phone-call couple, so most of their texts are just practical little updates. But every now and then, I think they would tease each other like this. 🥰

[rosieofcorona]

fen’harel ma ghilana

(wip)

[vhen-harel]

WIP Today

@celesenova you tagged me for WIP Wednesday but I'm late lol. So WIP today! This is one in development with Cabot and Saethre after the heartbreak of Crestwood.

Cabot eyed the Inquisitor. Anyone looking at Cabot who didn't know him well would think it was a look of disdain or annoyance, but he was watching the Inquisitor closely with concern.

She had put away far more alcohol than he remembered her drinking before, and certainly more than her usual one or two glasses of red wine. Cabot had chosen bartending because he found being behind the bar gave him an advantage. Look into the eyes of those at the bar after a few rounds of drinks and you could really see what was going on beneath the surface.

And Saethre's eyes were hollowed by pain.

He had heard the rumours about her and Solas. The biggest one was that she had returned to Skyhold barefaced. Tongues were wagging within the hour of her return.

And this was the face he was looking upon now. A fresh face free of the vallaslin he was so used to seeing on her, and it left her emotions exposed all the more. Her eyes had always stood out from her face, almond-shaped with those large steel-blue and grey eyes flecked with lavender, always watching. But now, without the strange, elven markings framing her face, her eyes jumped out even more, they seemed larger, more intense. And those eyes were hurting.

Cabot caught Maryden's eye and she nodded back, already moving to shoo out the last of the stragglers. No one needed to see the Inquisitor at her worst.

Saethre finished another drink and motioned for him to pour another. He walked over and grabbed her glass.

"I've got an unopened Sun Blonde Vint in the back room. Join me in the back for a taste before I close for the night."

She stared at him without really seeing him and nodded, getting up from her seat, wobbly and clumsy and not caring, the Herald's Rest empty now.

Saethre slowly made her way to the back room behind the bar, holding a hand against the doorway before Cabot pulled out a chair and motioned for her to sit. He reached for a bottle with golden lettering while she stumbled towards the chair, reaching out with both hands before easing herself into it.

Cabot busied himself with finding a couple of glasses, thinking on who he could get to discreetly get the Inquisitor back to her room and decided if it came to it, he'd make up a cot here in the back room for her.

"I'm not feeling very good, Cabot," Saethre slurred.

Cabot nodded.

"I don't imagine you would be, Inquisitor. Not with what you put back tonight."

He poured, only a little in each glass to make it look good, and turned towards her.

She was bent over in her chair, elbows on her knees, head down. She was shaking. Cabot started thinking about finding a blanket for her if she was cold until he realised she was laughing.

"No," she said, shaking her lowered head, the long braid of her black hair almost touching the floor. "Not that kind of not feeling good."

I'm behind in tags but if you read this, consider yourself tagged!

[rhoxxia]

Texts with your OC and their partner

Thanks for the tag @celesenova and @dirthera15!

This was fun to do and I’d like to tag @fenharels-chewtoy @lana-writes @thatskasterborous No pressure but I would be curious to see yours!

You can find the text generator here

So everyone who knows Elora knows her love language is touch and she really cant get enough of Solas 🤣 not that he's complaining. She also loves using emojis and no punctuation.

In my mind, Solas is this ancient mature being who is a keeper of vast secrets...who loves trash TV, good wine, and gossip with his vhenan. Also note how charged his phone is compared to hers, because hes a luddite.

[litafordvsferrari]

that makes me curious

do you think you could beat up your blorbo in a fistfight if you had to

yes

no

nuance i guess?

Remaining time: 3 days 9 hours

[topaz-carbuncle]

Texts with your OC and their partner

This is so sweet, thank you for the tag, @celesenova!! <3

text generator can be found here.

Alastor x Mori; RadioReflection:

Mori is a modern woman in Hell, phones are second nature to her, much to Alastor's distaste.

Meanwhile, Al hates any and all modern tech, so lets just pretend he only has a phone to easily contact her for the times there schedules pull them apart!

Tagging: @vhen-harel, @sh00kspeared, @daylinlavellan, + anyone else who wants to do one! <3

[celesenova]

Texts with your OC and their partner.

Thank you for the tag @exia-1 these are so cute and so much fun to read. 🥹💚 (Sorry I noticed a mistake on my previous post so I deleted it, oops.)

Gently and no pressure tagging: @rhoxxia @pooyaaaaan @topaz-carbuncle @for-the-love-of-treviso

You can find the text generator here.

Solas x Leilah - Solah

Listen... they're both two old people when it comes to electronics in my mind, both can use it but prefer not to. The type that put each other's names in their phone when they met and never changed it. The type who mostly text about groceries and their fur babies.

Though I do believe Solas loves randomly texting Leilah the sweetest, most romantic things because he knows she gets flustered. She loves it though and pays him back in other ways. (I.e. sending him risque selfies that he gets even more flustered over.)

Also, I'm a socially awkward loser so I....I tried my best with these but conversations aren't easy for me, not even when they're fake lmao.

[exia-1]

Thank you @fadetouchedlurker, this looked like so much fun, I had to jump on it immediately. Here is the fake text creator.

And then Solas tossed his phone across the room and kissed her silly.

(Fun fact, I do plan to have a situation kinda like this is my story. Where Solas does save a young man in the woods, and he does develop a crush, and then actually falls in love with Solas. Spoilers!)

Open tag for anyone who wants to, but I'd love to @celesenova with your Leilah, and @sunlight-shunlight, and of course @ashillayn.

[celesenova]

In my own mind Solas originally meant Wisdom. It could possibly be a dual meaning word Wisdom/Pride, Wisdom denied it's purpose becomes Pride and Elvhen is a language that relies heavily on intent from the speaker so it could mean Solas depending on the context used would mean wisdom or pride.

So for me, Solas is Wisdom but also Pride depending on context used but through propaganda from the Evanuris, even years into the future all the way to modern Thedas the meaning of Wisdom attached to it was lost.

This is where I came to that conclusion, every translation has Solas as meaning Pride but as we know Solas is/was a spirit of Wisdom.

So when Lich Emmrich calls Solas 'Dread Wolf', Solas replies with 'I prefer Wisdom'" also when he tells the inquisitor "I was Solas first." He's saying 'Solas is Wisdom'.

Obviously this is just my head canon for his name. Because I always found it interesting how adamant he is that his name is Solas, and how attached to the fade he stayed throughout his long years. To be known as his spirit self even after all that time. Solas.

[fortheloveofsolas]

100% Agree! I even thought of the quote you mentioned too, "I was Solas first. Fen'Harel came later. An insult I took as a badge of pride." Wisdom was first, pride came later.

[mylosingdogs]

This interpretation especially makes sense with the other instances of the word that we see in the game

Re: Solasan, the Elven temple in the Forbidden Oasis.

The inscriptions inside read:

The meaning behind the flowing, ancient script is obscure at first, but slowly forms: "May the path bestow the favor thou hast earned." For a moment, there is an image of figures kneeling in meditation. A bright light envelops them. Then it fades.

Faintly carved into the stone is a figure bound in chains. Two other figures have turned their gaze from the central image. The script below the image is ancient, though Solas is able to provide a partial translation: Pride in our accomplishments and in our hearts. That same pride became (a word meaning corrupted or altered) within him, he sought to claim (indecipherable), cast from favor and so he was bound. Hidden from mortal eyes, death lies within.

Using the shards you collect via the ocularums, you unlock a variety of elemental resistances by defeating shades and demons.

To me, this all speaks of wisdom. The meditating figures, the other figures bound in chains and the latter description evoking the imagery of those chains being ignorance - wisdom and pride in oneself being what sets you free.

Clearly wisdom comes first before the fall.

[celesenova]

WIP Wednesday

I'm so sorry this took so long, last week was....not a great week for me but anywho, thank you for the tag two weeks ago @mogwaei I promise I didn't forget you Vhenan!And last week @topaz-carbuncle 🥹

I appreciate you both so much 💚💚💚

Gently and no pressure tagging: @annahenriart @gaiabloom @vhen-harel

I made a little progress on this, painting the fur has been an experience lol but we're one step closer. 😭

And of course my brain had two ideas at once so I had to get them out....the first I just wanted to show off the Vallaslin on Leilah's back because I don't get too very often and the second one is more complex and well we'll see if I can pull off the vision in my brain. 🥲 So many handsssss 🫠

[celesenova]

Not a big deal obviously, I'm not offended but I got a lot of tags on my last WIP as well of this tagging Solas....

The wolf is NOT Solas.

It's Leilah's companion wolf she saves as a pup between trespasser and VG, his name is Fen'an, he fights alongside her in Minrathous and she leaves him with Dorian and Bull when she joins Solas in the fade.

Anywho just thought I would clarify for anyone who cares 😅

I did put it in the tags but I guess those are easy to miss especially if they're reblogging from someone who isn't me.