From the outset, the design brief for Janix, along with every aspect of Maul – Shadow Lord, was to convey a loose, impressionistic style. According to Joel Aron, Lucasfilm Animation’s Director of Lighting, Cinematography, and Visual Effects, “there's a more painterly style in the assets and in the buildings and the ships and in the matte paintings. Even in the smoke and the fire, everything has a hand-painted look. It's still CG, but we wanted to push those bounds.”
Aron worked closely with Senior Lighting and Visual Effects Artist Valerie Perez to develop software tools that allowed them to directly incorporate brushstroke accents into their CG paints and textures. Aron took that one step further by actually applying physical swatches of different paint colors onto clear glass (not unlike a traditional matte painting) and then photographing them as high-resolution elements to be utilized in CG. Soon Aron’s entire team was painting brushstrokes onto glass.
“Senior technical director Alex Shaulis came up with a really cool method of using brush strokes to distort even more of our visual effects. [...] The practicality of it is the soul of everything.”
Building Lucasfilm Animation’s New World for Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord
Elvhen language really is just Spirit language, isn't it?
Considering Elvhen is a language where feeling, rhythm, and context matter, it fits spirits perfectly. What are spirits, really, if not beings made up of essence and emotion? They’re vibrational in nature, so it makes sense they’d have a language that matches the way they exist.
It also makes sense to me that the first elves who manifested would just keep speaking the language they already knew as spirits - but that also it would evolve over time.
And Solas’ title of Spirit-Speaker reads a bit differently with this in mind. Out of all the Evanuris, he seems to be the one who retained the language the most. He speaks to spirits, yes - but literally, he still "speaks in spirit".
Solas Ar dirthan'as ir elgara, ma'sula e'var vhenan.
Sera: Pppbbthh!
Solas: Excuse me?
Sera: Excuse yourself - whatever you said and what I did, same difference to me.
Solas: I'd hoped... well, our people can sometimes feel the rhythm of the language despite lacking the vocabulary.
I went looking for how people have interpreted “Ar dirthan'as ir elgara, ma'sula e'var vhenan" and I think Dumped, Drunk & Dalish broke it down really well: I speak in/from the very spirit-place, the song of our heart OR I speak to you from the Fade, in the language of our home.
Spirit language.
The conversation between Solas and his Wisdom friend is entirely "spirit speak". Solas speaks to Abelas in Elvhen when talking about finding a new name. Names are tied to essence and purpose - he is speaking to Abelas spirit to spirit.
His argument with Elgar’nan becomes really fascinating in this context. Solas mocks him for using the common tongue so on the surface it’s like a sarcastic dig. But now it feels like it could be disgust or disappointment (mourning?) at how disconnected ("out of tune"/out of essence) the Evanuris had become from their spirit nature.
Mythal is fascinating in this context too. In VG, she never once speaks to Solas in Elvhen. These two are supposed to share one of the deepest spiritual connections in the series, and yet they never speak to each other in the language of spirits, not in Solas’ memories nor the atonement ending. Interpret that how you will.
For me, it’s why I’ve always viewed Solas and Mythal’s relationship through a lens of decay and disconnection. Solas constantly acts like someone trying to preserve his connection to Wisdom, while Mythal became increasingly worldly over thousands of years. One part of her remained trapped in the Crossroads for centuries isolated, while the other passed from host to host, evolving. After all that fragmentation it makes sense she may no longer identify with spirit language.
So when she “releases” Solas in the common tongue, she's no longer a spirit speaking to her companion spirit. This is two ancient beings standing at the end of a relationship that spiritually died a long time ago.
And honestly, I think that’s the real release Mythal gives him in that ending. Not just freedom from service or obligation, but the severing of the last spiritual tie between them. Because as former companion spirits, Elvhen should theoretically be the most natural way they communicate. But that deeper resonance is gone. They no longer “speak the same language,” spiritually, literally, or metaphorically.
Which of course leads to the only character in the series written to speak to Solas in Elvhen - Lavellan. The relationship is heavily defined by Solas being drawn to Lavellan’s spirit. Lavellan makes Solas’ own spirit sing. But it also says a great deal that Lavellan speaks Elvhen back to Solas. What exactly that means is up to each individual lover of their relationship to define.
I’ve always interpreted Solas as a character trying to remain connected to what he originally was:
Solas: I apologize for disturbing you, Cole. I am not a spirit, and sometimes it is hard to remember such simple truths.
But I see through a new lens as well. I don’t think Solas speaking Elvhen is just about clinging to his past out of desperation. I think it shows that part of him is still genuinely connected to what he once was and that his time in DAI helped in that. If Elvhen is Spirit language, then the fact it still comes naturally to him says a lot.
The Dread Wolf Rises quest can't be completed in the journal, even if you cheat the game and load after the ending.
However, in the script you can find post-game journal entry depending on the ending that was not included in the release.
Elgar'nan and his Archdemon are dead, and the blight is once more imprisoned safely.
If Rook defeated Solas:
After a final bare-knuckle fight, Solas has been banished into his prison as well, his life force now sustaining the Veil.
If Rook outsmarted Solas:
After attempting a double-cross, Solas was undone by the team's clever trap and banished to the prison as well, with his life force now sustaining the Veil.
Redeem:
After an appeal from old friends, including a remnant of Mythal herself, Solas saw reason and willingly tied his own life force to the Veil to keep it in place.
Alone:
He entered the prison voluntarily, ready to do penance by trying to heal the pain of the blight and bring the Titans peace.
Solavellan:
He entered the prison voluntarily, ready to do penance, and was joined by the Inquisitor, who never gave up on him. Together, the two will find happiness by trying to heal the pain of the blight and bring the Titans peace.
The world—for now, at least—is safe.
Checking what spells Solas casts as a companion. Some names are familiar from the game, but these deal more damage and mostly have unique animations. Except for the heal and teleport. Fun fact: Anaris, Hezenkoss, some revenants, and venatori magisters use the same teleport. Target direction and damage aren't shown because they need to be triggered separately, which is beyond my skill level at the moment.
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