I am obsessed with the fact that the Veilguard all gathers round to watch Solas's saddest memories and then dissects them like it's an episode of Desperate Housewives. 10/10 no notes, exactly what he deserves.
Okay so I'm giving @corseque 's super-important audio of all Solas' comments about the Blight a second (or fifteenth, whatever) listen and taking notes as I go.
Solas doesn't think for a second that once the archdemons are gone the Blight will be gone. Which really makes sense because it's the Blight that makes them an archdemon, not the other way around. Supposedly, they're blighted when the darkspawn reach and corrupt them. But of course that begs the question of why it's only darkspawn (and uh, honorary darkspawn like the Wardens) that hear their call. Anyway, the way he says it, it sounds more like the archdemons are a limiting factor than a driving factor.
Varric: "What's so confusing about endless darkspawn?" Solas: "A great deal!" So yeah, whatever the plan was, he didn't foresee darkspawn as a consequence. So did he not foresee them existing at all, or not foresee them being free to cause problems? Worth noting that it's really clear both in general and in Descent that dwarves as a whole were a huge blind spot for him.
He is really really surprised that the Western Approach ever recovered from the Blight. Pretty clear he didn't think that was possible.
He thinks that everything the Wardens have done up til now is a deeply misguided effort that's served (mostly accidentally) as a delaying tactic. Gotta say, with the information we have at hand, this point pairs about as well with the last as a nice dry red with spicy pickles. If the Wardens shouldn't have done what they've done, but he didn't think recovery from the Blight was possible, I'd love to hear what he thought the alternative was.
Same dialogue as above, but when Solas talks about stopping the Blight and when Blackwall and Varric talk about it, one gets the distinct impression that they're talking at cross purposes, because Varric and Blackwall are talking about the experience of Blights, as in, periodic events, whereas I think Solas is talking about THE Blight, that is, its true nature, which is yet untouched.
He thinks Erimond is dumb as shit, which is fair and valid. "That's madness! For all we know, killing the Old Gods could make things even worse!" he says. Well, he knows a lot more than "we" know, but it's entirely possible that he doesn't for sure know this. Increasingly clear that he thinks it, though.
I'd forgotten just how pissed off he was about the Grey Warden plan to kill the Old Gods before they were corrupted. It really doesn't give "hey you're killing my relatives" energy. It really gives "wow that would fuck us all" vibes.
Of course, with a side of my remembering that Solas' besetting flaw was always thinking people should know better even though they don't have access to the knowledge he has. That flaw I WILL grant. He displays it repeatedly--you could even say the writers went out of their way to make the point.
"The Blight is the real problem"
"The fools who first unleashed the Blight on this world thought they were unlocking ultimate power." Anyway yeah those are the absolute core of everything here. The Blight is the real problem and the Blight was deliberate. Deliberately made or deliberately freed.
Even during the events of Inquisition, Solas obviously sees Corypheus as secondary to the Blight as a danger.
Cassandra suggests that the archdemons were really just dragons--"Pets to those who no longer exist", by which she probably means the Old Gods, not specifically the gods of Elvhen, just because of her cultural background. Solas finds this suggestion amusingly wrong--a quiet snort, and "I would not go so far as that."
Last notes: he doesn't sound like he thinks the Blight can be stopped, and he's adamant that it can't be controlled. Which is presumably why he broke the world in an attempt to contain it, assuming I'm right that that was the underlying reason for the Veil. That it didn't quite work the way he'd hoped is also pretty evident, though I wanna be clear that I assume he was working from a place of desperation, and that not knowing every possible outcome of an action is not a condemnation of having taken it.
V: Me? Take down the Dread Wolf? I'm flattered. No, I just came to ask you a question. You went up against the other gods and it was a disaster. Then you imprisoned them and created the veil. That was a disaster. What's so different this time that it will work out any better? Tell me that!
S: I understand your hesitance, but what I'm doing now must be done. The [unintelligible] past your comprehension.
I'm sure someone will get that audio cleaned up in no time, but for now I hope this helps 😂.
What do u think about that solas quote "They called me the dread wolf, what will they call you once this all over?" It striked me a bit odd but I saw someone say on Twitter that it might suggest he's not the main baddie in da4, that the protag and solas are more alike than we think. It's interesting cause the devs say our protag is someone without power who's trying to make changes that ppl in power aren't addressing. Solas understands that better than most
The very first line Solas says to you alone is, “Every great war has its heroes. I’m just curious what kind you’ll be.” It’s key to the thematic material of the series about people making difficult choices for understandable reasons. So now he’s saying it to another hero. Solas himself is like a hero from a previous Dragon Age game walking the earth, and you can’t control what he does or what difficult choices he makes. “Not unlike Inquisitor, I suppose,” as he says in Trespasser.
What I hope this means is that the new hero will have to make AS difficult a choice as Solas had to, and I hope that new hero will be reviled for it as well.
I have actually been preaching this whole time that Solas is… at worst a Thranduil figure in a series where Saurons and Melkors VERY MUCH exist. Like, he’s an antagonist, and so he’s there to portray another facet of the same material as the protagonist, but people misunderstand him and simplify his character’s probable narrative function and complexity because they had an emotional reaction to him. Every single piece of new material makes me double down on this. I think that the concept art of him, plus his appearance in Tevinter Nights, is all very 👀👀
I’ve been loving everything they have shown us of Solas. He is not so different from the Solas I knew from previous material, which has been a massive relief.
Solas says that he went by Solas first, then Fen’Harel was a name he picked up in response to being called that by his enemies. It was not a name he selected, but one he chose nonetheless. It was, to him, a curse he inverted to “a badge of honor.” It inspired hope in his allies and fear in his enemies.
Now, present tense, they still call him Fen’Harel/the Dread Wolf. But it is no longer a badge of honor. It is a reminder of how badly the past has been twisted, and how far his people are from where they once were.
He is saying, this is what they call me, now that it is all said and done. He uses the term “they” here, contrasted to “I” in Trespasser – it is how it started versus how it ended and the change in how he is perceived, perhaps how he even perceives himself. We talk about perception informing reality in Dragon Age, and this is it. The title is the sum of it all - the good intentions and the bad outcomes. What will they call you one day, when people look back on what you have done? Will they understand you?
lol yeah unexpectedly angry and I was just like “yeah you’re reading about it because you’re not sure”. There’s a codex with all the books he was reading on the topic.
I know it’s not their fault, but Rook thinking they’re disrupting the ritual and instead accidentally unleashing two OP blighted gods is like. Almost Peregrin-Took-waking-the-Balrog levels of tomfoolery.
hate solas or not romance him or not whatever like. i dont understand how he doesnt drive everyone CRAZY as a character.
like. have you ever just sat and thought about. what it must be like. the trauma. the shakespearean sadness of being the only person that remembers DEATH not being a thing.
and you feel so insane because youre going around telling people “no you dont understand the world as it exists now is fucking horrible people used to not DIE.” and theyre like “its fine as it is just let it be and let us live and die as we are”, desperate for you to acknowledge their personhood. Meanwhile your entire race is the victim of genocide and slavery and cultural erasure, what little magic remains in the world is shunned and mages are systematically imprisoned for being fucking born and people die of old age and its because of you. and now its your cross to bear to atone for ALL of that and justify to people that the world could be better but no one else knows anything different so they dont get it and just know they dont want to die.
And so the only way you can cope with the trauma of that is by treating the world and everyone in it like it’s a bad dream.
Its just so existential. It’s like what if you could talk to God and ask him why he made the world but he was just some vaguely pathetic dude and his answer was “it was a mistake and i regret it every day”.
“We stand upon the brink of a precipice. We peer into the abyss—we grow sick and dizzy. Our first impulse is to shrink away from the danger. Unaccountably we remain... it is but a thought, although a fearful one, and one which chills the very marrow of our bones with the fierceness of the delight of its horror. It is merely the idea of what would be our sensations during the sweeping precipitancy of a fall from such a height... for this very cause do we now the most vividly desire it.”
- Edgar Allen Poe, The Imp of the Peverse
“We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment… and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly.”
- Flemeth, Dragon Age 2
These two quotes have entirely different meanings. The Imp of the Perverse is about self-destructive tendencies and doing things merely because we feel we should not.
Flemeth’s quote is more of a prophecy, it’s unclear how or if it will become relevant in a later game.
Still, this segment from Poe’s work was so jarringly similar I wouldn’t be surprise if it offered some inspiration to whoever wrote it.
Concept art of the idol was posted on Twitter so of course, I had to do a quick breakdown because there are some new details which weren't in other versions of it.
The most obvious new detail is the snake-like creature on the right. I originally thought it was a tail of some sort, but if it is in fact a snake, it is a peculiar difference. It instantly reminded me of the Tevinter heraldry which features a dragon and snake/serpent.
Mythal is the embodiment of the dragon, and she has also been described as a serpent in the lore.
The snake detail in the concept art makes me wonder why exactly snake symbolism is so widely used in Tevinter when dragons are surely considered more powerful. There must be something about snakes we don't know about yet..? It could also just be a reference to the ourobouros, which has featured a few times in the games and art.
The central figure in the idol also looks like they have black tears running from their eyes. This corresponds to characters in the series who have used blight magic; their eyes form inky black tears.
Mythal stole the knowledge of the Void from Andruil so I have wondered what she did with that knowledge, and if that knowledge could be found within the Well of Sorrow's voices.
Could the Evanuris have killed her for access to that information, and destroyed her temple with hopes of finding that knowledge of the Void? Solas even makes a point of saying that he has never seen a group share their power equally, no matter how noble their intentions.
Then, there’s the vines.
Dark Fortress spoilers below.
In Dark Fortress, Francesca uses her vine magic to bury the sarcophagus deep underground where it can't be found. When I saw the concept art, the vines just reminded me of the panel below.
It could just be an uncanny resemblance...but still.
If Mythal was corrupted in some way, it makes sense that the ancient elves would attempt to bury her body underneath the stone, as this is a method that has been used in other events in the universe to prevent evil from escaping (veilfire rune in the deeproads / Horror of Hormak).
Francesca's magic is also supposed to be reminiscent of the magic the Emerald Knights used, and they had some rather interesting connections to the ancient elves if you go deeper down the rabbit hole.
For a moment, the scent of blood fills the air, and there is a vivid image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire.
The vision grows dark. An aeon seems to pass. Then the runes crackle, as if filled with an angry energy.
A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic.
Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast.
A voice whispers:
"What the Evanuris in their greed could unleash would end us all. Let this place be forgotten. Let no one wake its anger. The People must rise before their false gods destroy them all."
Mythal's knowledge and power could have been used in an attempt to create a monster- something that made the earth afraid.
In Tevinter Nights, the dread wolf claims the idol is 'his', but is it Solas' or is it Mythal's?
Solas can turn people into stone, a sign of magic derived from the titans who we know Mythal defeated in a war. Solas can also affect people through their dreams, even dwarves who have no connection to the fade. This seems to confirm the note we found in the deep roads, the one that says Mythal gave dwarves dreams.
I am empty, filled with nothing(?), Mythal gives you dreams. It fills you, within you(?), Making our leaders proud. My little stones, Never yours the sun. Forever, forever.
When the dread wolf claims the idol is his, he could really be referring to Mythal's ownership of her being within the idol, because she is technically now a part of him.
The idol was found deep underground in the primeval thaig, which was untouched for centuries. It was also found on an altar, and was seemingly revered by the dwarves.
I have a theory the dwarves had access to a fragment of her, and this is how she oversaw the elves' lyrium mining operations. When the dwarves learned that Mythal was killed, they could have crafted the idol in an attempt to bring Mythal back.
So at this point I would be more surprised if Mythal wasn't involved in the origin of the blight, considering all of these weird connections.
a detail - Solas makes this last gesture with his left hand, which is really weird because he’s right-handed. His left fist then flashes.
It’s weird until you think the Inquisitor always had the Anchor in their left hand.
This might have been obvious to other people, but I always thought that, since the Anchor was so unstable, that it meant this was the end for the Anchor. Goodbye, see you later.
But I mean, looking at this, there’s a good possibility that he now has the Anchor in his left hand, isn’t there? - that the flashing means it was transferred, and stable again. Only he can control it and live, right? Well, it’s not going to melt down on him. It likes him.
So all the powers the Anchor could do… the Mark of the Rift, the overpowered projectiles barrier… the explosions… opening and closing rifts… over powered. I don’t want to fight that (too).
Saving the Inquisitor (for now) is really nice, but so is getting the Anchor back under his control. Two birds, one stone, and all that. I won’t be surprised if his hand is glowing later, is what I’m saying.
@corseque If I remember correctly, Weeks said in twitter that Solas “takes” the Anchor. So I was speculating about same thing since. I mean he IS really practical and I doubt he would do something like this without at least some benefit for his cause. “Remember your goals and do nothing that does not further them.” his own words, aren’t they? I believe he knew that anchor can be used safely only by him from the very beginning. Imo he definitely tried to take it from Inquisitor while he was watching over them after the explosion of the Conclave, but he didn’t have enough power. (Inquisitor in Threspasser: “How were you able to control the Anchor?” S: “In the same way as when i stopped it from killing you at Haven.. although I am stronger now.”)
If Solas needed more power to take back his Anchor, why couldn’t he do it after absorbing Mythal’s power? I was thinking about it and come to a conclusion: because he is really good tactician. He waited 2 years for: 1) time when aftermath of defeating Corypheus will be over. Life will get back to more or less normal and fame of the Inquisition will begin to slowly fade. In Trespasser both Orlai and Ferelden do not want the Inquisition the way as it is. 2) Some kind of distraction, which will create chaos- Viddasala and qunari are perfect for this. 3) And something, which create discomfort for Inquisitor personally- and boom, the Anchor suddenly starts hurting as hell. Now, call me paranoid, but if Solas can control the Anchor, can’t this control go both ways? As in “making it better” and “making it worse”. I find it odd that for whole DAI the Inquisitor didn’t have problems with it (even at the start of Trespasser) but after finding out about qunari and going through eluvians his/her left hand isn’t in control anymore. And when is it in the worst condition? Yes, in the temple of Fen’Harel, right before you have to meet Solas.
If Solas’es motives were only to safe Inquisitors life, why then he locked first eluvian you face entering the Crossroads, which leads to him? Instead he made them fight with qunari, make their way towards him.(how qunari encounter eluvians is another question. Yes, he says they stumbled across this section independently. But he says as well that he can override the magic of eluvians- meaning he could also override it with section qunari were using, preventing it from being under their control).
At the end of Trespasser he has Inquisitor who is in physical pain, mentally exhausted after Exalted Council and just exhausted after fighting with lots of enemies. Isn’t this situation better suited for removing Anchor as opposed to one when Inquisitor can actually fight against Solas? At the end of Trespasses Inquisitor don’t have the Anchor, organisation lost a lot of power and qunari are dealt with. How lucky for Solas, isn’t it?
(I’m not sure I buy that he controlled the Anchor’s meltdown, since he seemed to need to be near the Inquisitor to control it, the Anchor had been gradually breaking down since before Trespasser, and Solas said the Anchor would kill anyone but Solas eventually).
My question was always - why didn’t he come remove the Anchor right after confronting Mythal? He says he knew the Anchor was getting worse, and that it was on a very delicate time scale. Yet after rocking the Viddasala, Solas seemed like he was just going to walk away (before the Inquisitor caught up with him).
A lot of it was very planned - Solas deliberately lead everybody in a goose chase through the eluvians, places that just happened to reveal details about himself (that he wanted revealed) and info about what the Qunari were doing. Then, he dispatches the Qunari really easily, and gets the Inquisitor alone (and very weak) to have the Chat Between True Equals and take the Anchor. Solas could have just taken the Qunari out without talking to the Inquisitor at all, but he deliberately sent the dying Qunari through the eluvian.
To bait the Inquisitor into his eluvian maze, so Solas could get the Anchor? To test the Inquisitor one last time, to see if the Inquisitor is worthy of hearing Solas’ story (and worthy of having a tiny say in things)? Because Solas ‘owed them an explanation?’ Giving Solas ‘the chance to save them, at least for now?’ All of these at once?
I think it was mainly about the Anchor (and grudging respect for someone who was able to save the world without destroying it), in the case of an Inquisitor he hates. In other cases, it gets kind of beautifully complicated.
He can’t help the Inquisitor, even one he loves, without betraying his all-consuming cause to a degree, so he carefully considered exactly how he wanted that exchange to happen, how he could remove it, save the Inquisitor’s life, still be safe himself, and even have a little Cry For Help even as he’s steamrolling the situation. That level of planning, strategy and manipulation is very intimidating.
i think the traces of his magic we find are what caused the anchor to destabilise as quickly as it did. dorian actually remarks that the mark reacts around elven magic if you take him into the vir dirthara.
the anchor is a key to the fade, but it’s also magical energy using the inquisitor’s body as a container and conduit. think of it this way: what happens if you overcharge a battery? it fills up and up and up, and if the container can no longer contain the charge, it eventually explodes. something similar must have been happening to the inquisitor. if the inquisitor hadn’t come across solas’ magic, it might’ve been years before the anchor’s condition deteriorated to the point at the end of trespasser. solas might’ve thought it wouldn’t be as bad as it was, hence turning to walk away before he’s stopped by the inquisitor.
on some level, he wanted to help the inquisitor and inquisition, too. there were spies in the organisation who went undetected for years. “it was your mistake to fix,” he tells us if we ask. he’s right. the buck, as they say, stops with the inquisitor.
true, he could’ve just weeded out the qunari and killed them for us, but then we would know nothing of the plot, or he would have had to tell us and say “take my word for it.” and what? we’re supposed to do that after he put spies in the inquisition? after he lied to us by omission? after he gave corypheus his orb? no, he had to show us, even if we were the woman he loved who loved him in turn. perhaps especially if that were the case.
as for why he waited, i believe there are two reasons: 1. he had to rebuild and gather his forces. 2. thedas had to rebuild, and the inquisition and inquisitor were its best shot. there are populations to resettle and aid, red lyrium caches to clear, red templar and venatori to weed out, etc. etc. who better to help than the organisation that was in the center?
and there are remaining rifts. solas wouldn’t be able to focus on his plans if he were running around with the anchor trying to close the rifts and stop spirits–beings he considers friends–from twisting into demons and destroying populated areas. but at the end of two years, we could assume that the inquisitor and inquisition have done their best to do the thankless job of closing the rifts and repairing the damage.
to be someone that calculating? time would be an invaluable resource for him, even as an ancient elvhen god.
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