#daimeta

[broodwoof]

the qunari: a watsonian analysis of the idea that they will "go wild" without the structure of the qun

emphasizing the watsonian element of this! i am approaching this entirely in-world!

now, the basic idea as i understand it is that the qun teaches that the qunari - in this case, the implication being that it is the kossith themselves, not the human, elves, or dwarves who become qunari - will go "mad" without the strict structure of the qun. that there is a bloodlust that is inherent to their species, one that must be strictly controlled

i think saying that this is a load of bullshit is entirely fair, especially because it is an amazingly effective tool for the qun to use in order to control their people and that is reason enough for it to exist. but i also find it interesting to consider whether there is - or, more to the point, was - a grain of truth to this

if your inquisitor becomes a reaver, cassandra can tell you about members of her family. now, these are tales passed down, but she speaks of them consuming more and more dragon's blood and becoming increasingly impacted by it, even physiologically; that some of them even grow scales. but the main thing she is talking about is their bloodlust, their wildness, that they begin to lose control

the iron bull tells the inquisitor of a belief among the ben hassarath, that the tamassarans might have added some dragon blood into the mix so long ago

corypheus tells a qunari inquisitor that their blood is "engorged with decay" and that their race is not a race, it is a mistake (apparently kieran says something to a qunari inquisitor about how their blood does not belong to them!)

while this implies that the kossith might have stemmed from another race entirely, it may also refer to the act of mixing dragon blood into their racial makeup. or both! (personally i'm in the 'both' camp, but we just don't know for sure!)

but if we take what cassandra says to have any truth to it at all, it seems possible that the early alterations might have induced violent madness. in which case, the idea that the qunari/kossith are inherently prone to such madness may have been used as an excuse for the behavior of these early experiments (a way to avoid acknowledging that they were experiments at all, framing the dramatic behavior as stemming from something else entirely), or it might have been known at the time, but twisted and muddied by the passage of years and obfuscated by the qun as it grew to become what it is now, in-game

i have also seen people question whether the change was something ghilan'nain did to them, which is an intriguing possibility! going with that for a moment, the story might have been changed by the kossith themselves in order to erase that part of their history, the fact that they were, in this view, akin to lab experiments. perhaps they chose to tell their children, who told their children, and so on and so forth, that their "madness" was just inherent to their people, that it was a burden they had to live with and learn to control

now, do i think the iron bull or a qunari inquisitor would be prone to violent madness without the structure of the qun? no! do i think any of the qunari would be prone to that without the structure of the qun? no! but do i believe there might have been a time when that was at least sorta-kinda true? possibly!

and i certainly believe that the idea of it serves the qun wonderfully. take shathann: she left not out of any hatred for the qun, her work there, or the culture, but because she knew what they would do to taash, how they would use them. teaching the qunari that they will go mad without the qun is a damn good way to keep those like shathann to stay there, because in her case, if she believed she'd lose her mind, if she believed she might become violent towards taash, or if she believed taash might become a maelstrom of violence themselves, she might have stayed in place

i think that shathann is an interesting example of someone who can see through it, perhaps because of her position as a scholar, or perhaps she was just willing to take the risk. it's unclear! it is also entirely possible that the emphasis on this madness is stronger among the warriors and spies of the qun. there are many possibilities! but nonetheless, it's a good way to keep qunari as qunari, to frame a tal vashoth as a being who has lost control, who is a danger, a risk, a threat, a "mad dog" of sorts

[broodwoof]

varric is so haunted by red lyrium

I'm da2, he pursued the idol - made of red lyrium - for money. it destroys kirkwall (yes there was a lot more going on, but the idol was significant) and destroyed his family. destroyed his friend's family (again: more going on, but still)

then in dai it had spread even further. the toll was even greater. it had infected the landscape, had been fed body after body, and was (part of) what empowered a being to rip open the sky

in davg, we see how this arc is so, so representative. how in da2, we are shown how modern dwarves, all unknowing, try to profit off the blood of their ancestors. we are shown the core corruption of dwarven society, a corruption at least partly festering as a result of scrubbing the histories

in dai, we are shown how deeply interwoven lyrium is. that game demonstrates its physical presence in the world, an ancient, primordial presence, now red and infuriated and springing forth. but it's one thing to hear about lyrium veins, and another to see huge crystalline growths emerging into the open air, a kind of forcible reclamation of the surface the dwarves were driven from. and it was fed bodies, it grew through and in them, an inversion of how it had been used to grow the evanuris' bodies. a violence once enacted upon it, now enacted by it

and then in veilguard, the circle closes. lyrium in varric's heart, the furious blood of the titans meeting directly with the lifeblood of its descendants, used as a weapon to slaughter one and wielded by one of those who used it to forge a body for himself. after, held by lace, it gives to her the ancient life and history and force of her people. perhaps varric's death unlocked that. perhaps it would have given it to any dwarf who could touch it first in life rather than in dying. but it was a tool of death for one of its distant descendants, then a means of reclaiming an ancestral history for another

and this resonates with bellara's struggles and through her, elven struggles with their own fraught history, recently turned on its head. dwarves have been profiting off the very literal blood of their ancestors for centuries, selling it to be consumed by elves and humans; elves descend from conquerors, tyrants and slavers who drove the dwarves underground

there is so much deep history present here. so much finally addressed, finally seen, finally, properly understood in its real enormity

[broodwoof]

"The Dawn Will Come"

honestly, i've mostly seen this part of the game mocked and derided. which is a little upsetting personally, because i find it one of the most moving parts of the game - i always cry. but to me, most complaints about it are not taking its actual narrative role into consideration

inquisition is overwhelmingly a game about faith. about religion. and the loss of self through title. none of this was ever the inquisitor's choice, and that's the point - they have no real autonomy. "you are theirs," as cole puts it

you are theirs

this song is about othering your inquisitor. this song represents the moment they people see them differently. that everyone, even those who doubted - represented poignantly by roderick - now see them as maker-touched, as maker-sent. that even your advisors sing to you instead of with you

your inquisitor's opinion does not matter here. that is the point

it would be wrong for them to join in the song, as they are the one being sung to. they are the dawn that will come. and why now?

because they sealed the breach. this cannot be overstated: the inquisitor strode forward and mended a massive hole in the sky. they fixed the world. mages or templars were involved, yes, but the people aren't really going to pay attention to them - just like they don't pay attention to the mages who helped cassandra slay the dragon. there's a single figurehead in these stories

and then, because they survived. they survived haven. they survived a direct face-off with corypheus. with the ancient magister-darkspawn. with his blighted dragon. and people saw corypheus. they know what the herald faced

because they survived the avalanche that buried haven. because their survival is once again miraculous, and this time the people saw it. they saw the herald of andraste return from certain death

the song itself can be viewed as a chantry song, but to me, it comes across much more strongly as a folk song. it is meant to bolster the people's spirits. and everyone knows it. granted, everyone who's part of the inquisition probably knows chantry songs by now too, but they might not have all joined in singing them. but this one? the message is, to me, less strictly religious and more general

that's not to say there's no heavy religious themes playing out in this moment, because there absolutely are. the fact that solas pulls the inquisitor aside as soon as the song ends is also relevant. the herald was just declared holy - they had been already, but now they were declared so by the people. not hopefully, but confidently. and solas, someone who knows the weight of being called a god, who knows the falsehood and the truth (in a way) of that title, pulls the herald aside. it is specifically a god-to-god-touched moment

a lot of criticism for this moment wants inquisition to be a different game, with a different core message. to erase the fundamental discomfort of a divinity applied to your character, one in which they -and we - ultimately have no choice in. it is ofc fine to want a different game, but it is also a sound narrative, and one that leads incredibly smoothly into veilguard

[broodwoof]

DAI's Narrative & Mechanical Cohesion

i was working on a different post when i veered straight into exploring dai's mechanics and how they reflect on the narrative, so y'know what, if my brain wants to go here, let's go here

i think the best example of what i'm talking about is the war table missions. yeah, that thing like half+ the fandom hates? yeah. that.

dai is a choice-based rpg, as are all the other dragon age games. but each da game is also unique; not just as a game (bc no duh), but in terms of which genre(s) it taps into. dai is strongly political at the foundational level

in dao and da2, we interact with political systems, of course. even significantly at times. but we do not directly conduct politics; we are not a political agent, but a disruptive one. the inquisitor, by contrast, is an explicitly political figure. and a holy figure! and it doesn't matter whether they're either of these things willingly or not, which is a fundamental tragedy in the narrative

so, the war table missions. they take time - real time - and the results cannot be seen, only read about. the inquisitor cannot control the outcomes or ride in to save the day when things look bleak

all of this IS the political narrative!

the orders. the waiting. the results being reported. they cannot be changed: they have happened. these are the consequences. there are no good answers, no good solutions, no perfect way to always save the day

and if you play it at a pretty typical clip, you will not be able to fulfill all the war table missions. that, too, feels intentional and narratively poignant. you have to make choices. and the choices? are not just meant to be "who do i send on this mission" but "do i take time for these missions, or do i focus on [sealing the breach/taking down corypheus]?"

do you take the time, as a political leader, to help your companions find closure, or comfort, or answers? or do you focus on strengthening the inquisition as an entity, recruiting members, gathering materials, and making yourself a more powerful force in thedas?

i'll grant that the game allows for you to do it all. but the fact that you have to commit real time to it feels relevant; it discourages many people from doing it all. it encourages you to make choices, to favor certain types of progression over others

a common complaint about dai is that it's long. and yeah, even a quick run is still lengthy, but the true length comes from completionism. i'm such a completionist in dai so trust me, there's no judgement here lmao, but i do think something interesting can be inferred by the fact that you have to dedicate either huge amounts of time or a preference on how to spend less time in order to achieve the narrative goals. i think that's interesting and fitting to the overall tone and message of the game

dai is different from dao, and da2, and davg, just like all those games are different from each other. it's natural that people will gravitate towards a or multiple favorites, because they all touch on different narratives, different types of stories. but all of them tell the story they are trying to tell, and they tell it well

[broodwoof]

"He did not want a body, but she asked him to come. He left a scar when he burned her off his face."

cole can say this during trespasser, and honestly, i suspect this is where 90% of this view comes from: the view that mythal sees solas as something inherently lesser, unimportant aside from fulfilling a function, a tool to be used and then discarded. a slave

but... isn't it just literal?

"he did not want a body" - veilguard confirms this. he did not want a body. why? he did not want to leave the fade. also reasonable to infer that he did not want to make the earth shake again (unclear if they knew at the time what they were doing/what it was doing to the titans/what the titans even were)

"but she asked him to come" - again, veilguard confirms this. it is literal. she asked him to come. and note that even cole says "asked". cole is known for not softening the edges of truth. had mythal bound solas, i see no reason that cole would phrase it this way

"oh, but he's just reading solas' memories, and solas obviously has a rose colored view of mythal"

i'll grant the rose colored part is entirely true. but we see cole being able to read past the individual on multiple occasions. he can tell dorian what his past partner thought. he can tell bull about his tamassaran

i mean, yeah, you could keep arguing that solas is too powerful (except that cole does read his mind multiple times), or that mythal is too powerful

and she is very powerful, but cole seems able to read memories - memories likely stored in the fade, according to both what solas tells the inquisitor and what we see in game. with corypheus and justinia. with the inquisitor finding their own memories in the fade

solas says mythal was the best of the evanuris. granting his rose colored glasses once more, i still think there is some element of truth to that. for one thing, solas was leading a rebellion to end slavery in arlathan. i can't see him retroactively painting mythal in such a flattering light if she genuinely, 100%, was just as bad as the rest of them

and yeah, if we continue to assume all the information presented to us thus far is wrong or a misdirect, we can continue to say that, well, he was her victim, she manipulated his thoughts and emotions, maybe even controlled them. perhaps he's been under her geas this whole time. maybe everything he did, he did because she was puppeteering him...

but like... realistically, how does a genuine analysis hold up if we discount not only everything solas has said (and yeah, he's a deeply biased account), but also everything cole says, and also everything the game itself tells us, and everything veilguard tells us...? like, at some point, it's just an au. and that's cool! but... that's what it is

"he left a scar when he burned her off his face."

so he wore mythal's vallaslin. and this from solas, who developed a technique to remove the vallaslin from the faces of slaves. i get it. i do

but there are a few terms used to describe people in relation to the evanuris.

slave

chosen

beloved

these are different terms. i think assuming they are entirely interchangeable synonyms is... odd. in veilguard, morrigan - who may or may not have drank from the well of sorrows, who may or may not be under mythal's geas - calls solas the beloved of mythal

not her slave

her beloved

solas wore mythal's vallaslin. but as what? her slave? her chosen? or her beloved? no one - not cole, not morrigan, not solas, not any version of mythal, not even elgar'nan in the murals or in person, for that matter - refers to solas as mythal's slave. the closest elgar'nan - in the mural - comes is calling solas her lap dog

the emerald knights. "knight enchanters," the original ones, fighting alongside wolves. solas, who can transform into a wolf... if he was her dog, i'm inclined to think it is more literal than not. her chosen. her wolf. perhaps even the first iteration of this dynamic. not a slave, though; more of a knight. perhaps a bodyguard. but more likely something far more complex than any of these simple titles. but whatever the relationship, it was sufficient for him to be marked for her

morrithal refuses point-blank to fight solas. what's more, she sounds absolutely miserable at the prospect. that's not coming from morrigan herself. why would it? she barely knew solas. no, that's from mythal. from her memories or her aspect still living in morrigan or however you choose to interpret it, that refusal is still more of mythal than it is of morrigan

he speaks of how the evanuris were generals, then kings, then seen as gods. it was the gods who enslaved the people. what of the stage of generals? of kings? what did vallaslin mean then?

mythal's deaths

watcher!mythal similarly refuses to fight solas. she tells rook she loves him

in arlathan, mythal - on solas' word - confronted the evanuris about using the blight. she was murdered for it

at the end of inquisition, flemythal, so much more powerful than solas, knew that he was coming. she was prepared. and she let him take of her. she let him destroy what she was, and take what she had painstakingly accumulated over millenia

in veilguard, watcher!mythal, if rook convinces her that they are right for this job, will willingly yield her essence. that word might provide a comfortable degree of separation, but for this mythal? this particular incarnation? the watcher herself? it's not some abstracted part of her power that she's yielding, but her very being. her life. her consciousness. her spirit... and this, from a spirit

if solas was nothing more than a pawn, a tool, a weapon... nothing more than her loyal dog, trained to heel at her command... if he was nothing more than an extension of her will...

why would she die for him?

the first time, in arlathan, it is unclear if she knew the threat she went towards. but afterwards? twice, she either died or risked death for him

what wielder would do this for what tool?

it's not a retcon. it's not a rewrite. it's the path that's been laid out, quite clearly

mythal was never meant to be the enemy in this story. morally complex? yes. flawed? yes. twisted, bitter, at times profoundly cruel? yes

but the enemy? solas' enemy? the "bad guy"? no

mythal is not saint. flemythal's relationship with morrigan is... fraught, to put it way too simply. but her relationship with morrigan is not reflective of her relationship with solas, nor the inverse. she is an ancient elf, from the time of arlathan. one who has, in some form or another, stayed awake and conscious from then to now. contrasted with solas' awakening one year before inquisition

given how uhhhh Morally Grey he became in that one year, why is it surprising that mythal has become morally grey? why is it so uniquely reprehensible in her case? (sighs. asking as if i don't know.)

[broodwoof]

solas cares about ppl

his entire history is about working for the freedom of enslaved ppl - smth he continues to do while pursuing his ritual

he imprisoned tyrants who were destabilizing the world

he bonds with all members of the inquisition

during dai, he values taking the time to help regular people

during trespasser he manipulates events in part to inform the inquisition of the planned assault from the qunari, wanting to spare people

he also relieves the inquisitor's pain and pointedly credits them for their own successes if they thank him for skyhold

all actual evidence throughout the canon - not just solas' own word, mind - indicates that if he had left things alone, there would have eventually been massive destruction

he has repeatedly made the brutal choice to put the many over the few, no matter how much he values the few

up until the end of veilguard, tearing down the veil remained all but necessary for the safety of the world itself as a whole - remember, the veil is a consequence of the prison. they are inherently related, and while neither we nor solas can say for sure if destruction of one would cause the destruction of the other, it's a completely reasonable theory, and they would almost certainly impact one another regardless

however, as we see, there was another option - releasing the remaining evanuris and slaying first their archdemon/dragon thrall, and then slaying them

this route is far riskier and also caused significant destruction, but in the end it was achieved without the veil being removed

[broodwoof]

leliana compels me, but esp one version...

chantry lay sister who believes herself to be the chosen of the maker and andraste, joins the hof to change the world and fulfill her destiny

close with morrigan, flemeth's daughter

morrigan, who finds her mother's grimoire (*cough* flemeth's deliberate red herring *coughs*) and believes that her mother will steal her body to extend her own immortality

killed by the hof in dao during the andraste's ashes questline; killed at the temple of sacred ashes

she comes back to life, iirc with the aid of a spirit

ends up working for divine justinia, who uses leliana as a weapon (ofc, justinia's position was rough, too; highly polarizing political positions always are rough)

attends justinia's conclave, where the divine - and almost everyone else - is murdered. the divine in particular seems to have been used as a means of unlocking the orb

begins the inquisition at the ruins of the temple of sacred ashes, the place where she was killed and reborn; specifically at haven, where the mythal-dragon-worshippers used to live

works with the herald/inquisitor, who is also seen as "reborn" at the temple

works with solas

works again with morrigan

inky & co. are led through the fade by divine justinia - or a spirit who has become her, in some sense

later, leliana is supported as divine by the inquisitor, and so is chosen

approaches her new position in no small part through emulating andraste, emphasizing love, welcoming non-human races into the fold, etc.

they are facing corypheus, who appears for all intents and purposes to be a man who was led deeply astray by his own fractured faith - traveling to the golden city only to see the throne empty

like leliana, corypheus takes matters into his own hands; like leliana, he forges his own faith; like leliana, he takes center stage within it. both of them are so desperate to believe that they will become the focal point in order to preserve it

flemeth is revealed as flemythal - holding an aspect of one of the ancient elvhen gods; more specifically, a spirit turned flesh, a powerful mage, one of the evanuris

solas is revealed as fen'harel

leliana - who believed herself to be the chosen of andraste and the maker - has been working alongside the ancient elvhen rebel-god-betrayer (depending on the story) and the daughter of mythal, the all-mother, one of the most powerful of the evanuris

morrigan, who later willingly accepts being the next host to mythal's aspect and not losing herself... but still seeming to have more of mythal than "just" her memories, at least by my judgement

solas' ritual ends up going wrong and elgar'nan and ghilan'nain - two of the other evanuris; again, spirits-turned-flesh - rise and wreak havoc across thedas

this happens while leliana is the southern divine...

the amount that leliana's story intersects with faith and also spirits is fascinating to me

the way that leliana and morrigan intersect... the way that morrigan and mythal obviously intersect... the way that leliana and solas intersect... the way that solas and mythal intersect... the way that solas and corypheus intersect... the way that leliana and corypheus do not directly intersect but are nonetheless a kind of mirror of each other...

at all times, leliana is right next to or a step removed from supposed divinity. and what makes a god/dess a god/dess? is it power? is it difference? or is it faith? and the divine - literally, the divine - is what leliana (can!) become

a spy. an assassin. a brutal strategist

so like the evanuris. so like justinia. so like corypheus. but different, ofc! individual! unique! the sum of her experiences! but her position, her constant proximity to faith, to spirits, to divinity, ough....

[broodwoof]

Solas' Motivations

i will never understand where ppl get the idea that he doesn't care about ppl. like i understand that they're focusing on certain bits of his dialogue, but it also feels like a really, really fundamental misreading of his character

bc in terms of action, we have...

began a rebellion in order to end slavery and free the enslaved

opposed the most powerful mages in the world in order to end slavery and free the enslaved

removed the markings of slavery from the liberated slaves - but also left it when they wanted it to be left (felassan, lavellan if that's her choice)

valued helping individuals during dai

informed the inquisition/the inquisitor of the pending qunari invasion - which, as i have said before, was actively detrimental to his goals, because he let the inky know about his goals when that was unnecessary, AND he helped stopped a conflict that would have distracted ppl from pursuing him - in part to spare people and allow them comfort while time remained

i mean, i won't deny what he planned to do or the toll that would/might have taken (might have because i don't think even he knew for sure if ppl would die or not, but he certainly had cause to suspect they would)

and you can hate him for that! the inky can hate him for that! as can rook!

but the thing is, the core part that solas-haters seem to totally ignore, is that he wasn't just doing what he wanted, but what he felt - with cause! - was necessary

he had imprisoned the evanuris. they were too powerful for him and his rebellion to kill outright and he had already tried to convince them to stop what they were doing. imprisoning them was really the only option left

the veil was an accident, a consequence of a spell massive enough to contain all the most powerful mages in the world

and the prison was failing. with each death of an archdemon, the bindings were weakening, and the prison itself was weakening; it would either fail or become something that the remaining evanuris could break, unleashed suddenly upon a wholly unsuspecting world. considering the damage elgar'nan and ghilan'nain did when their emergence was immediately known and shared and combatted right from the start, having them emerge with none the wiser until they decided to strike would have been devastating

what's more, the destruction of the prison might have impacted the veil. a consequence of the creation of the prison, its not a stretch to imagine that the prison breaking would have broken the veil as well, forcing the fade and the waking world together in a sudden burst

it's also entirely possible that the blight would have been unleashed once the prison broke, or that the remaining evanuris would have found it (again) and unleashed it, but it's definitely implied that either the prison or the veil or both are holding the entirety of the blight back, with only a tiny sliver having seeped into the waking world and yet causing centuries of ongoing destruction

so, like...

"solas just wanted to restore arlathan because he's a selfish monster with nostalgia" is a weird takeaway. it's just weird. solas stood against arlathan. he stood against the evanuris. he stood for people. he believes in people - he says as much to cassandra. i am sure he is genuinely trying to reduce the damage done by taking down the veil on his terms

will there be damage? entirely possible, even likely. will there be death? again, entirely possible, even likely. less suffering is still suffering. less death is still death. but it is, also, less. it is wounding the world instead of killing it

now, were there better options? yes! in a way! rook & co. figured it out, but i will note that their route was also really, really risky and did lead to a lot of suffering and a lot of death as well, and a great deal of fear beforehand. that they worked together with so many people and so many groups allowed them to succeed where solas - and solas alone, always alone - would have failed had he tried their route, but it is worth noting that his route was more guaranteed

they both have their benefits and their drawbacks, but the bigger point here is that solas has always cared about people. and he cares about modern people, too! he tries not to because it would make it easier to do what he plans to do, but he still does