Solas is always talking about HIS people and he feels little kinship with the dailish or city elves, and yet with Sera he does talk about OUR people? Been a while since I played but it felt like he tried to remind her about her elfiness all the time
(big spoilers for Inquisition, also speculation)Â
Itâs very interesting, isnât it? Solasâ kinship (or non-kinship) with other elves is something that heâs ultra contradictory about through the whole game.Â
When heâs talking to the Inquisitor, he says over and over again that he doesnât consider the elves of Thedas to be âhis people.â At one point, he comes out and says that he considers mages to be more âhis peopleâ than elves. He can get really defensive about it. some examples:
âI do not consider myself to have much in common with the elves.â
âI simply see no way to help the elves, oppressed as they are now.â
Yet, whenever he talks to Sera, ITâS EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE, and itâs weird!!! He seems struck by how negatively she speaks about elves, how she âeschews all things elven.â This is basically the only thing he talks to her about, it bothers him soooooooooo much.Â
He tries to convince her that sheâs an elf, that sheâs âthe furthest from what she was meant to be,â that she is âapart from herself.â When he talks to Sera, he talks about elves completely differently, not at arms-length, but with the plural possessive noun âweâ and âourâ:Â
âOur people can sometimes understand the rhythm of the languageâŠâÂ
âWeâre not so very far apart, you and IâŠâÂ
âOur people used to be here.âÂ
âWe lived at a pace that would sustain us for agesâŠâÂ
âYou dislike your own kind so muchâŠ?â
He also talks about elves like thereâs some natural Way For Them To Be, that anything else is going laughably contrary to their very nature, and that she should know that, even if only subconsciously.
After the Temple of Mythal, Sera tries to get Solasâ goat about how Elvhenan had dissolved into civil strife rather than being conquered like everyone had thought, but Solas just says:
âYou cannot upset me with what we found there. My genuine sorrow for the tragedy of our history cannot be diminished for a single moment. That you do not feel this, well, you have my envy⊠and pity.â
some other weird elf stuff:
Solasâs manipulative complete reversal toward Lavellan directly after the avalanche (this scene is completely different with the non-elven Inquisitors): âThe humans have not lifted one of our people so high for ages beyond counting. Her faith is hard-won, lethallin, worthy of prideâŠâ âThe orb is oursâŠâ âThe orb is of our peopleâŠâ ETC ETC everything about that scene. (Compare how he talks in that scene to the scene after Halamshiral, and youâll get whiplash.)
when walking around in the Dales (the second elven kingdom, the one Solas had nothing to do with), Solas will say, âMy people built a life here. It must have been something to see.â
Solas calling Abelas âlethallinâ and identifying himself as âElvhenâ
When Dorian asks Solas whether he wants to go look for more Ancient Elves like Abelas, Solas finally responds, âPerhaps Abelas will go look for them.â -> so Solas doesnât seem to see even the remaining few Ancient Elves as His People, either. I mean, to the extent that he would want to go find them and try to start a new life with them as a real possibility.Â
(also, when doing the Temple of Mythal quest, he will attack the Ancient Elves if thatâs what the Inquisitor chooses to do. He wonât be happy AT ALL about it, but heâll do it. So he is willing to sacrifice living Ancient Elves in order to defeat Corypheus/further his end goals.)
Again, when talking to Dorian: âYour nostalgia for the ancient elves, however romanticized, is pointless.â
Solas says he considers himself more a mage than an elf, but when Dorian tries to get along with Solas by virtue of them both being mages, Solas is like, âThe differences between us are not technicalities to be discarded.â (specifically after Dorian had stuck his foot in his mouth about elves)
The only time that he truly sounds like heâs talking about His People is when heâs talking about Ancient Arlathan as it was, and how the world was without the Veil.
also, of course: âThe People, they need me.â
Why solas acts like this is a very interesting question. I have some very strong suspicions, but Iâm not sure thereâs a cut-and-dried answer to it yet.Â
(My suspicion? the formation of the Veil physically changed elves in a very real way (âimagine beings who lived forever, for whom magic was as natural as breathing⊠that is what was lostâŠ.â), and he canât admit true kinship until both that mistake is fixed and âeverything is exactly as it wasâ and âeverything sings the sameâ again. So even the still existing Ancient Elves arenât really kin to him, theyâre so diminished, but all elves can possibly be his People again, if he plays his cards right. And he is canonically very, very good at cards.)
Anyway, it must have been really frustrating for the Inquisitor, especially Lavellan, to listen to him talking to Sera like ELVES ARE OUR PEOPLE and then go talk to him privately and only hear OH I DONâT CONSIDER MYSELF TO BE AN ELF
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
andulkaphoto
stormborns
janainaart
