The Blanketfort (crying and throwing up) - The Official Solas Thread [Spoilers]

Dec 11, 2018 23:29:56 GMT ellawyn said:

Ahh, I missed this. Endless armchair theorizing over The Deep Lore. I just don't get it from other series. Dragon Age Fandom, I just can't quit you

Dec 11, 2018 17:43:01 GMT Solas said:

it’s Sandal’s prophecy, it’s the future Eleni Zinovia worried about, it’s the eclipse as Fen’Harel stirs, it’s the whisperings of the Ardent Blossom faerie, it’s the giant from Mercy for the Elves rising. here is the world burning in the raw chaos

You know, while I agree that Sandal's prophecy is obviously about Solas, I've always wondered about the Blossom faerie and Zinovia. I always figured her prophecy applied to the Blight (Either the one in Origins or just the Blight in general.) I mean, remember, you can only heart that prophecy during the mage origin (Which is in fact the only reason I played the mage origin.) Maybe it's just because I played Origins long before Inquisition was a thing, so in my mind that was already all wrapped up.

Dec 11, 2018 17:43:01 GMT Solas said:

I don’t read it as Solas opposing himself, opposing the Dread Wolf, fighting with himself or protecting the tree and/or contents in the spheres from the wolf. yes he is conflicted and has more than one identity, and yes ancient elf-spirit connections & Wisdom vs Pride - spirits vs demons. definitely. I just, see both of them encroaching ominously on the spheres, one from either side, a consuming pincer, both red-eyed like red lyrium and corruption, both amidst fire,

I can see it either way - that it's Solas opposing himself or Solas closing in on the world from all sides. Which, I think, is maybe the point? If you've got high approval Solas, it's meant to evoke an image of opposition, with two forces fighting against each other over a middle ground. But with low-approval, it's as you say, a pincer closing in on the prey, working in terrible tandem with each other. The piece's composition is carefully made so that it can be read either way, as appropriate to the Solas in your world state.

Also I didn't pull the quote, because I don't have much more to say on it, but I am increasingly of the opinion that the Old Gods are the Forgotten Ones, not the Evanuris (Or the Evanuris' physical bodies.) The Forgotten Ones are the only major pantheon that we have yet to account for, and my attempts to map the Evanuris to the Old Gods leave me... a bit confused. Like, okay, Urthemiel's the god of beauty, so maybe that's June. Dumat is silence, so obviously that's Dirthamen. Toth is fire so maybe that's Sylaise? Or Elgar'nan? Uhhhh Andoral's is Slaves so maybe that's Andruil? I mean they sound similar and prey is kinda like slaves. And if Razikale's mystery then that's GOT to be Dirtha - oh no, wait, Dirthamen's already Dumat. Uh, and where's Falon'din, I guess Falon'din is night? Kind of?? ah shit and Ghilan'nain's uh uhhhh UHHHH -

It just doesn't shake out very well, to me. Maybe there's some connections there that I'm missing, or maybe I'm just desperate to jam the Forgotten Ones in somewhere because no one else ever seems to!

Poor Forgotten Ones. Their name is terribly fitting.

warden's quest leads them to the basement to consult Eleni. In the basement, veil tears have caused the area’s sentinels to malfunction. Unlike her first appearance in the mage origin, Eleni is noticeably distressed - by the tears. In her panic she states

The prison is breached. I see the encroaching darkness. The.. the shadow will consume all. A hunger, a cage, a yawning void… help me!

The Warden mends the tears and Eleni is calmed and able to direct them in their quest.

Stone eyes are no longer clouded. The darkness recedes, for now. […] The Lights of Arlathan will illuminate the scryer’s path. The Archons possessed them, but they were misused, befouled and lost, like so much the Imperium touched. Some were saved, carried by fugitives from the elven city. Their sorrow awoke the Stone and her children sheltered them. They found a sanctuary in the deep halls of Cad’halash, now known as Cadash. There the Lights of Arlathan lie, shielded from unworthy eyes.

And the Warden goes off to do their thing (after having the option to state “Cadash Thaig? Impossible. It’s not that old.”) The Lights are magical elven lanterns. Now, setting aside Eleni’s account of Arlathan, the Imperium, the Lights and the elves sheltering with the dwarves of Cad’halash (although I think we should be revisiting such lore, given what we now know about the fall of Arlathan, Titans and the Evanuris), I think maybe - 

The tears in the veil cause Eleni distress. Eleni can see the future. She speaks of a prison and a cage - Solas created the Veil to seal away the Evanuris, effectively imprisoning them. The “prison” is breached because of the rips in the present at the time, and it’s breached in the future that she’s likely seeing (The Breach and whatever Breach Mark 2 Solas has in mind for tearing down the Veil). We know tearing down the Veil will unleash the Evanuris. Solas claims to have a plan for dealing with them, but he doesn’t provide details and he's failed in the past. The darkness and shadow is the Evanuris’ encroaching dickery (for lack of a better term, they’ll likely be out for blood, vengeance and reclaiming their former power/empires), the burning chaos Solas suspects will occur as a result of tearing down the Veil, Mythal's reckoning when she comes back (cuz she aint gone) to take her revenge on the released gods (cuz thats been her plan all along) and possibly also the Evanuris being corrupted by the Taint and or red lyrium AND OR unleashing the Source of the Blight- see below for that (wow, run on sentence). this sounds like im shotgun blasting at the wall but its all interconnected rite

anyway The darkness “recedes” because the Warden has mended the Veil - only “for now” because as we know it’s going to tear again in a big way, Breach 1 and Solasbreach. () The Evanuris likely hunger for vengeance and power, but more than that, hunger and a void… recall Andruil’s stalking in the Void, and how she suffered periods of madness, forgot things, made weapons of darkness and plague ate her lands. Sounds like Blight and corruption to me. I think it all ties in to how the Evanuris were mining lyrium and “something else” from the bodies of Titans and seem to have dug too deep (LoTR dwarves and balrogs) and unleashed something terrible, and peoples’ excellent theories which float around on the links between the Evanuris, elves, dwarves, Titans, the Blight and red lyrium, hell and possibly the old gods too. those codex entries about elves collapsing caverns and fleeing are vvvvvvvv interesting

A side note I thought was worth mentioning, if Eleni’s words do refer to the future as a result of Solas’ plans, they seem to paint a picture which is in stark-contrast to Sandal’s much nicer “the magic will come back, all of it” description.

Of course this is mere speculation and she could be talking about something else entirely, Solas and the Evanuris are hardly the only great threat to Thedas.

Here’s what it says:

Deviating from the plan. No accounting for whimsy. Small differences lead to fatal consequences. I’m sorry. 

“Corypheus should have died unlocking my orb. When he survived my plans were thrown into chaos.” “The plan was for Corypheus to unlock it, and for the resulting explosion to kill him. I did not forsee a Tevinter magister having learned the secret of effective immortality.” “I’m sorry.” Fatal consequences: The Breach and all the resulting deaths, Flemythal’s demise, the Inquisitor’s impending death-sentence from the Anchor.

Not time to come out. No. Not yet.

During the events of Inquisition, it was not yet time for Fen’Harel to drop his simple-apostate facade and reveal his true identity. Also, until he tears down the Veil, it’s not yet time for spirits (likely such as the speaker, who I suspect is a spirit of some manner) to come back into the world.    

He’ll remake the world to suit his desires. His chosen to reign.

“Not unless we collapse the Veil and bring the Fade here so I can casually reshape reality, no.” “Some hope remains for restoration. I will save the elven people, even if it means this world must die.” “The world of the elves.” Obviously he’s going to tear down the Veil in order to remake/reshape the very fabric of reality as we know it to suit his desires [plans]. His ‘chosen’ are ancient elves. When they regain their immortality, intrinsic tie to the Fade, power, glory and everything else they had that was theirs - reigning.    

Pulling back the curtain. Let the light in. Let it burn.

Clearly refers to tearing down the Veil, the very curtain between worlds. Also pulling back the curtain on himself exposing himself/his true identity - the reveal. Light: Reference to Sandal’s prophecy, “the shadows will part and the skies will open wide”. Also a metaphor for the good things that will return to the world in so doing - spirits coming back & the return to the marvelous and beautiful state of nature that there was before, Elfness restored, “the magic will come back, all of it”, the time Yavana speaks of “before the mysteries were forgotten”, the countless “marvels […] dependent on the presence of the Fade” that were destroyed. And, if his comparison of modern elves & other peoples to Tranquil are anything to go by, like shining a guiding beacon for people lost in a hazy fog. And the burning? “Even if it means this world would die.” “As this world burned in the raw chaos…” That marvelous and beautiful state of nature up there? He also acknowledges it as dangerous. Most modern Thedosians are not adapted, prepared or equipped for that sort of world. The loss of life will be catastrophic. And like a phoenix, this world is to to be scoured with flames and made anew. How much of that is metaphorical or hyperbole? Anyone’s guess.

Bring faith. Bring hope. Bring dreams of life.

For one thing, Faith and Hope are spirits, so it might be a reference to the return of their like. For another, despite the seeds of doubt that he seems to display in DA:I and Trespasser, he has faith and hope that his plans will work and are needed and the new world will be good enough to be worth the cost. He has a dream of life-that-used-to-be and of life that can be restored, a dream to restore what he sees as “life” to a world where the people are not-people akin to Tranquil and basically not alive. And hell… if folk are to survive the change that is to come, they’ll sure af need faith, hope and dreams of life. Also as Illyria aptly puts, “I think that’s showing that there’s a chance to stop Solas. He has to see that this world is not worth destroying to save his.”