#templeofsacredashes

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“omg you can make such an ugly character in veilguard! this is proof gaming is dead forever!!!!!”

yeah i bet no gamers play ugly monstrosities in rpg games or push sliders to their limits ever in character creators. literally look up a fucking souls game and see the things people make and play. i’d be more mad if i COULDN’T make an ugly ass motherfucker, to be honest. it’s about having choices, friends!

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if you call bellara 'child-coded' i'm actually going to kill you. she is fucking thirty years old. she is filled with righteous fury and anger. she believes in good, she blames herself for everything ever because she's a control freak, but she truly wants to believe in the good of herself and others. she has a deep love for her culture. she's a successful explorer, engineer, and archivist.

she looks like this:

'child-coded' shut the fuck up!!!!!!!!!!!!

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If the Dwarven people are a part of Isatunoll due to being made by the Titans — and specifically, being made through lyrium — do we think that extends to the Evanuris, and the ancient Elves, who are made from the same material? Is it possible they all could have communicated with each other, if they did not go to war?

Cobbled together from The Veilguard murals and the Black Codex concept art. I've noticed that all the Titans have this mark on their faces; it doesn't look like an extra eye to me. In the Black Codex, after Solas’ attack on the Titans, a Dwarven woman has a wound on her head in the same spot.

Where did Solas, who plays the piano, carries a lute, where did he first ever hear music? Why the interest in music in the first place?

And why does Solas occasionally speak in meter? Where does that inner rhythm come from, when thinking about the past? What is he tapping into? I know the speech is usually connected to the Fade, but his interest in music came before that. DID he hear the Song at all, even if only for a moment, before he cut it off? I HAVE MANY QUESTIONS!!!

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the way that elf fans so quickly dismissed the titans and dwarves and harding’s trauma when veilguard first came out is going to haunt me for a while i think.

the titans and ancient dwarves explicitly faced colonization, and i hate that this word is being avoided in these discussions. the evanuris goal was to take their resources (lyrium) as their own, to force them out of their religion (severing their connection to each other, a connection that was worshipped), and to make their land theirs. this history was then erased and hidden. we have known this since inquisition at least.

and maybe you hate that storyline, maybe you’ve been screaming about this since inquisition. but to deny that this is canon (especially as of veilguard) or to argue “well it was justified, and harding is just a bitch and should shut up about it, she never suffered like an elf,” it’s all getting a little too real for me. i’m sorry the dwarves are small and hairy and the elves are more your aesthetic but that doesn’t mean that you can just deny that the dwarves have suffered all throughout this franchise. their pain should be just as important to the narrative as anyone else’s.

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i think trying to claim any of the evanuris as a true ‘parental figure’ to the rest of the group is missing the actual real horror here. the ‘parents’ of the evanuris were the TITANS, forced to give birth to them all.

it’s very clear to me ancient elven society is based on what elgar’nan and the others saw of the titans, but they twisted it. the titans are the ones regarded as the creators of the dwarves, dwarves that the titans call their children ("children of the stone"). the dwarves came from their bodies, and the dwarves cared for them, worshipped them.

the evanuris also refer to the elves as their children, even if they themselves are not involved with the process of creating an ancient elf, at least not physically. and obviously, elgar’nan declares himself as a godking after defeating the titans in war and literally starts wearing their bodies as jewelry. as medals he awarded to himself. he still clings to a necklace filled with dust from the place he made himself out of, the body of a titan.

elgar’nan’s other title is “he who overthrew his father,” which is in reference to this horrid relationship he has to the titans: they are his 'parents,' his 'creators.' when the titans didn’t want that, want any of this.

the blight, the nightmares of the titan war, is also spread through a violent, forced birth.

and this kind of horror is very common in war! i want it to be discussed!!! especially when it comes to analyzing the crimes of the evanuris: it didn’t just start at mythal and solas making the dagger. it didn’t even start at the first declaration of war!

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thinking about how mythal is visualized with and connected to the moon, but elgar’nan describes himself as the lord of day and night and can literally control the sun and moon to cause an eclipse. her role in the evanuris as a peacekeeper, immortalizing her as mother and wife forever. how flemeth described herself as nothing “but a shadow, lingering in the sun.” how when the mythal fragment trapped in the fade describes solas’s regrets, it’s recollections “cultivated like a tree twisting to catch the sun.” elgar’nan being the main person described whenever talking about mythal’s first death. how she reveals herself primarily to women who are hurt and abused by men over and over throughout history, reliving betrayal after betrayal for centuries…

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SOLAS META: THE ASSUMED VALUE OF ‘INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT’

I've been thinking a lot about how Solas did what he did to the Titans, and what that means in regards to his... well, everything. Solas in Inquisition is a very prejudiced person, who the Inquisitor can either work with to open his mind more or be used to further justify his end goals of opening the Veil.

There are people who read Solas as an elf supremacist, or only obsessed with spirits—I do not agree with this reading, at least not entirely. However, I do think that Solas believes he knows what is best for all others, and that guides many of his actions throughout DAI and DATV.

Solas very often justifies his bigotry and violence towards groups of people based on the wisdom he personally feels is displayed by them. I think now with the added context of Veilguard, we know more on why. It’s not even just being a spirit of wisdom—what Solas seems to value most, over all else, is individual thought. Which doesn't inherently sound like a bad thing... until it's used to justify the indefensible.

THE TITANS

I do think Solas' values on wisdom were how he justified his own actions back during the Titan War, at least for a short time. For those who don’t know, The Titans and the ancient dwarves were originally in a hivemind, they were connected. Isatunoll. It is only after the lyrium dagger is used that the dwarves are split from this and the Titans can no longer move. When Solas turns on Elgar'nan and the other Evanuris, he yells, "So, we did not fight for freedom, but to conquer this land and our own." Why did Solas ever, at any point, believe that they were fighting for freedom? Freedom for WHO, exactly? The elves from the Titans? The dwarves from the Titans? Perhaps both?

The Well of Sorrows has ancient elves that whisper that the ancient dwarves were “witless, soulless,” and that their death would be a “mercy." This is a belief that is 100% held by Solas (and the Mythal shard in the Crossroads). This is also a common thought when it comes to the treatment of Tranquil mages (I'm thinking of what Anders says and can do concerning Karl, the idea that death must be preferable to Tranquility).

At the base of both acts here is that it is agreed upon that having the ability to think for yourself as an individual is presumed to be the most important for the other person; that death would be preferable to their current existence. And hey, you can argue it makes sense that Solas values this as a wisdom spirit! He wants people to question, to gain new knowledge, and he’s seen what happens when people are forced to obey, forced to serve others. Nothing good.

… But. It is still a form of bigotry, in a world where some people just happen to be a part of a hivemind and have absolutely no issue being that way, even preferring to be that way. The dwarves and the Titans never asked to be severed from each other and never consented to anything the Evanuris did.

The value of individualism does come up quite often with Solas in Inquisition. He speaks about the dwarves and Qunari specifically very disrespectfully, and for most of that, it comes down to how they treat their people as individuals. As in, under the Qun, there is no individual, and with the dwarves... I don't think Solas VALUED them as individuals.

THE DWARVES

Let's look at how Solas treats Varric and a dwarven Inquisitor.

Solas mostly refers to Varric as a "child of the Stone," which I'm sure makes Varric laugh. It's not a term people use when it comes to surfacers, as they do not have access to Stone sense. And sometimes, this is said explicitly in a hostile tone--I'm thinking of how Solas talks down to Varric about Cole. "This is not some fanciful story, child of the Stone. We cannot change our nature by wishing." Solas uses the term AGAIN to shut Varric down if Cole is made more spirit: "Would that have made him happier, child of the Stone?"

He's using the term like a knife, to tell Varric he is lesser than, not as knowledgeable. However you feel on the Cole decision, Solas is not trying to teach Varric that he's wrong about the nature of spirits--he is YELLING at him, he is pushing him away, preventing any further understanding Varric could possibly gain about spirits.

The reason that Solas says he doesn't know a lot about dwarves generally is that he has never had access to them. He says to Varric: "Dwarves alone were lost to me, save scattered fragments of memory where some spirit cared to watch." However, he also reveals in this same conversation, in my opinion, that he didn’t ever think much of the dwarves either, not enough to seek them out and understand them. Solas calls dwarves the severed arm of a “once mighty hero,” and “although it might twitch to give the appearance of life, it will never dream.” That doesn’t sound like someone who sees dwarves as an equal.

He mentions dwarves not dreaming again to Cadash: "Dwarves are practical. They do not dream. They cannot even imagine a world beyond the physical. But you have shown subtlety in your actions. A wisdom that goes against everything I know of your people."

Practical is an interesting word, given the ancient dwarves were described as "workers." And while he does say "a wisdom that goes against everything I know of your people” to all high-approval Inquisitors regardless of their lineage, I feel like it's especially important here.

When would Solas have ever deeply interacted with a dwarf before joining the Inquisition? He doesn't mention having contact with any dwarves in his year before the Inquisition, when he awoke in modern times. It reads to me like the only other time would have been on the battlefield against the Titans. The fact he keeps mentioning how dwarves cannot dream also seems really cruel due to this, given it's his own actions against the Titans that stopped dwarves from being able to dream.

The Mythal shard in the Crossroads acts just like him too! She also calls dwarf!Rook child of the Stone, even if that word wouldn't be accurate. She also just assumes that the dwarves are unable to feel for what happened to the Titans, whether it was ages past or not. "You are not the one to whom I would apologize. Whatever pain Solas and I inflicted on the Titans, it is nothing to you." (Also notice they both don't mention what pain they specifically brought to the ancient dwarves!!!!!!)

Combine that with the earlier ancient elf codex with the Well, and it reads to me that the ancient dwarves just weren't respected as a people, weren't valued. Both Mythal and Solas have to have their minds changed on this in order to start caring about their plight.

THE QUNARI

Because of how long this is already, I'm not going to go too deep into explaining Qunari belief. At the most basic level, the Qunari believe in being part of a whole. That every person is part of a system, a singular body.

And Solas very clearly does not agree with the Qun teachings, talking down anyone even associated with the Qunari. He picks fights with The Iron Bull throughout many interactions. Bull argues in a conversation that he believes that Orlais and Ferelden would be better under the Qun, but doesn't want the Qunari to invade, that war would be too brutal. Solas is very clear in why he is upset with that thinking, and it’s not the violent war part of that sentence: "You said this world would be brighter if all thinking individuals were stripped of individuality." He says of an Iron Bull that loses the Chargers that he is unable to make choices, that "as a mindless, soulless drone, you could never make any." Mindless, soulless drone? We’ve heard that before.

I also think a lot about what a low-approval Solas has to say about the Qunari in Trespasser. How he had to disrupt the Qunari plot, both because he wanted people to be free of the Qun before he opened the Veil... but he also had to stop them because they offended him.

Gatt, a viddathari elf, asks Solas, “Have I done something to offend you?” Solas responds with, “You joined the Qun.” Which is… wild, given Gatt didn’t have options, he was rescued as a VERY young child from slavery by the Qunari. Where was he supposed to go?

Well! Solas tells Gatt that HE WAS BETTER OFF STAYING ENSLAVED, because “A slave may always struggle for freedom. But you among the Qun have been taught not to think.” Does everyone understand how truly awful that is to say to someone, anyone? And especially to GATT, given the nature of his enslavement?

It feels like for Solas that as soon as someone gives up their ‘individualism,’ especially of their own will, they are no longer a person worthy of saving. He could’ve said ANYTHING to Gatt, about having other ways to exist. Instead he’s cold and writes the entirety of the Qunari off. “And the Qunari offended me.” He’ll tell Adaar that ‘their kind’ are SAVAGE CREATURES. When Adaar is explicitly not even Qunari!

But that term, creatures... where else did Solas describe someone as a creature?

YOU'RE MYTHAL'S CREATURE NOW

SOOO, The Well of Sorrows! It does two things: It gives the Inquisitor access to the memories of all the ancient elves that worshipped and served Mythal and gave their knowledge to the Well; and it will bind the drinker to her service.

If the Inquisitor drinks from the Well and has high approval, Solas FREAKS out. In his eyes, to drink from the Well, to be in service of another, is always a terrible thing. It doesn't matter how he even personally believes that Mythal was a good person, the best of the Evanuris. "You have given up a part of yourself." No longer an individual.

Solas, of course, did horrible things in service to Mythal. He also has seen people bloodbound to and enslaved by the other Evanuris. To see someone else who is now bound to her again is going to cause the man to panic (or for a low-approval Inquisitor, to celebrate) and assume Mythal will make the Inquisitor her puppet, and take full control. That’s what ‘hivemind’ means… right?

But, HOWEVER you personally feel about this plotline ending where it does... This does not happen. The ancient elves share their knowledge with the Inquisitor through their newfound connection. They help the Inquisitor defeat Corypheus! They teach them the secret greeting of Fen'Harel! If the Inquisitor romanced or befriended Solas, they can work to redeem him and save him, and the Crossroad Mythal shard and the shard present in Morrigan don't whip around to try to control the Inquisitor to do anything else. Mythal is also shown over and over to not engage in total possession or forces people to accept her power. Flemeth says that much to Morrigan: “A soul is not forced upon the unwilling.”

(To be clear: Flemeth is NOT Mythal, and using her individual actions as an example does not inherently disprove this. However. Flemeth, regardless of all the wrong she did, did not use a binding or charm to make Morrigan accept Mythal’s shard, and her control of the Inquisitor in one scene is also not an example of a forceful possession/complete takeover of the Inquisitor. Everyone here is still a person!)

So, this is another example of a hivemind-like situation where Solas jumped to and assumed the worst would happen, and was incorrect. The Inquisitor never lost themselves to the Well, and the relationship was mutually beneficial… And calling the Inquisitor a creature was DEHUMANIZING them as soon as their thoughts were joined with another.

As he has done, over and over and over whenever someone gave up having ‘individual thought.’

THE POINT

While I could list all the other times Solas mentions individualism (I'd say it's his main argument on why he despises a low-approval Inquisitor, for example), these keynotes were most important to me.

It's clear that Solas always will value people having the ability to think for themselves, alone in their own mind. And that IS admirable, and in most cases, a good thing! Even the examples of bigotry above, I think it is important that both in-universe and fandom-wise, people do often justify and agree with Solas here. People note that the Qun and the Qunari are flawed, Mythal was flawed, The Titans were killing elves and flawed, and that modern dwarven society is flawed. Those are all true.

But to me the thing that tips Solas from "guy who is just being kind of mean in a maybe rude, but understandable way" to "this is explicitly a prejudice that, even if informed by good intentions and his own past, is a bad thing," is that Solas uses this belief, that his way of thinking is better, to then justify his acts of violence and cruelty.

Remember in Trespasser that Solas says that he woke up, and “It was like walking in a world of Tranquil.” That he then assumed death would be preferable to that existence. THIS is the pattern: Solas assumes his way is better for everyone and uses that to justify his actions. Let’s say he really DID wake up and everyone was Tranquil—Does that mean Solas is right then, in destroying everything, because everyone has a different way of thinking and experiencing the world from him? I don’t think so! It wasn’t right back with the Evanuris, and it isn’t right now!

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okay it isn't funny anymore. flemeth is flemeth. mythal is mythal. morrigan is morrigan. flemythal is a useful term when talking about how solas killed flemeth to steal mythal's power in her body, and how flemeth obviously used parts of mythal's knowledge and power. same with morrithal.

STOP SAYING FLEMYTHAL IF YOU'RE JUST TALKING ABOUT FLEMETH. flemeth is her own woman with her own thoughts and beliefs and responsible for her own actions, she’s not just a vessel for mythal. how many times did these games say that mythal's shard is not a possession? mythal is a different character from flemeth!!! that’s why flemeth SCREAMS “SHE was betrayed as I was betrayed!” notice she does NOT say WE, or only that “I was betrayed.” she says she and I. two separate people, one body, perhaps a shared goal; but NOT the same person. you can’t hold mythal as the person wholly responsible for flemeth’s actions, and you can’t hold flemeth responsible for mythal’s. this also extends to morrigan in veilguard. both inquisition and veilguard say over and over that it’s not possession, it is a sharing of knowledge, it is a sharing of power, but IT IS NOT POSSESSION. I HATE TO TELL YOU THIS BUT. THESE WOMEN ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS, it’s really shocking but women do indeed have thoughts of their own volition. including evil fucked up women! thanks!!!