Thedas Calls - Dragon Age Day Trailer (2023)

I did say that this part was under the general comment about the game from Bioware, not Corinne's interview. So, this would mean the marketing team have got it wrong and no one on the rest of the team picked up on it. Thus, I think it was deliberate and suggests that the writing team may have been tinkering with the backstory again.

I've mentioned before how ridiculous the idea is that Solas could have been Shartan unless he died and was resurrected. Alternatively, perhaps he did a body sharing trick with an elf called Shartan, so when Shartan perished, the spirit of Solas/Fen'Harel, or whoever he really is (Rasaan claims Solas is not his true name), returned to his body wherever it was located. There is no doubt that Shartan was a real person (regardless of what the "scholars" suggested in WoT2) and his death is remembered by the Dalish (Dalish origin) and recorded in the Canticle of Apotheosis, although he is referred to there as the Liberator, no doubt a move by the Chantry to conceal his identity but consistent with the oral tradition of the Dalish recorded in the Canticle of Shartan where Andraste makes him her Champion of Freedom (after he saved her at the Battle of Valarian Fields).

To be honest, I think that Solas is more likely the Maker who spoke to Andraste than Shartan. Let's face it, he did create the current state of Thedas and was not happy about what the rulers had done with it since then. Also, again according to the Dalish, Andraste's main emphasis was on freeing the slaves from the tyranny of Tevinter, which we know now bears great resemblance to set up in ancient times under the Evanuris, so that would be consistent with Solas, or alternatively Mythal, influencing Andraste. According to the Canticle of Andraste she called out to various gods (likely Alamarri/Avaar) to aid her people to no avail and then basically said "is anyone out there who can help me?", after which the "Maker" responded. It is entirely possible that Solas did speak to an elven slave called Shartan via the Fade and encouraged him to lead a rebellion at the same time. Of course, if there was some element of co-existence or he was Solas himself, then following his "death" he would have needed several centuries to recover and even reform his body. I hope the latter is not the case, though, as I would like to keep at least one genuine elven hero I can admire.

None of this would actually contradict their assertion that they would never prove or disprove the Maker since just because the person identifying themselves as the Maker was not in fact the Creator of the ancient world, does not mean it disproves his existence. All it would do is disprove the Chantry's version of the Maker, which wouldn't be that shocking since the writers have been doing that continually both in game and in associated writings.

However, I do agree that if Solas was in some way involved with Andraste's rebellion then that could account for why he has ruled out changing the ruling order by conventional means. It is also possible that he was not aware of how badly the Blight had affected the world back then, so thought it possible to improve things without dropping the Veil. The reason he woke when he did before DAI was the discovery of the ancient thaig and the bringing of red lyrium to the surface. This is the only thing that I can think of that would account for him waking when he did. His agents had already been active in the world for many years but something caused him to revive as a matter of urgency and then plan to take action when he was still weak from his slumber. I suppose it could have been because of the activation of the eluvian network but he seemed content to let Briala use it initially and so I think red lyrium was likely the driver. This might well fit with why he locked up the Evanuris in the first place. If he did it to prevent them from bringing red lyrium to the surface then his plan had been thwarted and so he needed to take drastic action to remedy the situation.