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

Well the Altus families claim they are the direct descendants of the Dreamers and the first of these pre-date the Imperium by roughly 1600 years, so plenty of time to forget there was ever an elven connection. The Dalish lore says that some elves were actively interacting with the human tribes and since the others felt this had a bad effect not just on their constitution but their behaviour as well, it is likely they were banished from the elven settlements so really had no choice but to integrate with their human friends. The timeline also says that the arise of the Dreamers, who learned magic from the Old Gods via the Fade, caused a power shift among the human tribes, probably from the physically powerful warrior leaders that had previously dominated to the Dreamers who became magical priests and kings among the tribes. If it became apparent to the tribes of the benefits of having half-elf Dreamers in their families, then they probably did actively encourage interbreeding, whether voluntary on the part of the elves or not. As the elven features would have been lost in one generation and even breeding back to elves still left human appearance as dominant, they may even have thought (and the Old Gods may have encouraged the idea) that the elven connection wasn't worth remembering. 

That elves had to have been absent from the landscape for some considerable time seems evidenced by the fact that the majority of Tevinter citizens regarded the elves in Arlathan Forest as something totally new to their experience. However, I do wonder if there was some record in the archives that the priesthood at least had access to that reminded them of a far off elven connection with their families' rising to power. The reason being that when their citizens started to be attacked, the initial response of the Imperium was to send delegates to broker a peace with them and then even after they failed to return and were assumed dead, all they did was build a fortress on the edge of the forest to monitor it and it took several more decades plus the wholesale disappearance of Tevinter settlements on the edge of the forest before the Archon finally decided to take direct action. Could that have been because they feared what magic might be employed by the elves? Once they did attack, that one elven city was able to withstand the might of the Imperium for six years and nearly broke the fledgling Imperium through the war's drain on their time and resources, so their initial reticence would appear to have been justified.

In Corypheus' time he knew that elves of old were tied to the Fade and that he needed the magic in the blood of elves for his ritual. Did Dumat give him that information or did he learn it from the lore of his priesthood on the matter? In Calpernia's tale she is fearful of being used for magical experiments because it is known that mages' blood is more potent, just like the elves, so did people just assume this was a coincidence or, again, did the archives state why this was? I also wonder if the reason the pictures show Dreamers in ancient times with foci is that they didn't just dig them up or find them in ruins but the elves who married into the human tribes freely gave them to their children and showed them how to use them as well as teach them about other magical techniques of the elves.

Hey nerds! Haven't posted in some time, but I do read the thread every few weeks. Hope everyone is well, and best wishes to all.

So I may have visited with old family friends at a winery (and have alcohol pouring through my veins), but decided to chime in on a point...maybe two. *shrugs*

Regarding the "running out of time" for Solas and his mission, I am still of the belief that the veil is coming down. Coming down ON it's own. However, without control and thoughtfulness, it would/could be messier and in stages. This is a construct - magical in origin, but a construct created by a fallible being (as all people are). Solas (and weirdly, my spell check wanted to call him Salad ) would need to act fast in order to ensure that the veil was removed safely for his people. Yes, we know he speaks about "entering the fade, and tearing down the veil..." with the aid of the orb, but that doesn't mean he didn't (doesn't) have a way of doing it with more finesse and control. Or at least believes he does. Unlike Cory who just wanted to tear everything apart for the sake of reaching the Black City and claiming Godhood. My point is - after staring too long at a spider crawling on my ceiling - is that time is of the essence due to the instability of the veil in and of itself. It is deteriorating. In my belief. Solas knows this, and needs to take control of this.

I am one of those who welcomes the veil coming down, since I think it would be a helluva ride in a game. New game-play mechanics and fun story wise. But I do understand that others do not feel the same way. So no shade on those that do not wish for this to happen. However! I do truly suspect the veil will come down whether Solas is involved or not. Better that the original creator of this construct is around, than it haphazardly disintegrating while everyone has their pants down.

Nothing more than my buzzed-brain .02 cents.

The Veil could be gradually deteriorating. It was already badly thinned in some parts of Thedas even before the Breach. Also we definitely know that the Crossroads is failing. A mage Inquisitor can sense this and mention the fact to Morrigan. Given how everything else in Elvhenan was shattered by the Veil it is surprising the Crossroads survived at all but that may be because it was already between worlds rather than straddling the two like everything else. So it might be a case of accepting the inevitable and allowing Solas to do a controlled removal if that is the case, as we know from the Dark Future in Hushed Whispers that a piecemeal merging of the world and the Fade is not good for anyone. However, as others have said, why not say this?

I suppose one reason is that it is not inevitable. The Viddasala was working on an idea to strengthen the Veil. Just because her initial concept was a failure, because Sarebaas pumped up with the lyrium necessary just went crazy, that doesn't mean it might not be possible in some other way. When we used the anchor to close the Breach, Solas is the one directing operations. We either use a unified increase of magic from the mages channelled through our anchor to do this (which seems similar to the Viddasala's idea) or we use the combined force of Templars to push back against the magic and "reinforce reality" as he describes their power to Cassandra. So in theory just as it is possible to weaken the Veil with magic, it may also be possible to strengthen it again.

So that could be why Solas was reluctant to reveal "too much" because once people realise it might be possible to reverse the decline in the Veil, they might well opt for that solution rather than removing it altogether, which is precisely what Solas doesn't want.

What I meant was once people know they need to do something more to strengthen the Veil because it is in decline. At present the Inquisition would think that the Veil is fine provided Solas leaves it alone, so they need to be alerted to its deterioration, if that in fact is the case, so they become more pro-active.

Of course it is also possible that people like Dagna are already looking at ways to maintain the Veil as a counter to any action that Solas might take. I should imagine that the Qunari have not entirely given up on that idea either. However, their aim seemed to be able to reduce the flow of magic even further, not keep it as it is currently. This would appear to have been their aim even before they discovered the threat of Solas, presumably because reducing the flow of magic from the Fade would weaken the chief weapon of their opponents against them, their mages. So I imagine the researchers on Par Vollen have continued with their work and would do so even if the Ben'Hassrath did manage to catch up with and contain Solas.

I actually thought of the artifacts as something like a network that could measure the strength/weakness of the Veil over a large area.  However this whole side quest for Solas may have just been a test on his part, like ok the artifacts could strengthen the Veil but could he also control them to weaken it, which as you said was them causing the tear in a controlled manner.  It wasn't a prediction so much as a test of if he could use them to do what he wanted.

...It will turn out that Solas simply wanted to activate the 5G mobile network

The strange thing about those artefacts was that whilst some of them were in out of the way places and so may have escaped notice for centuries, others were sited in habited placed like Old Crestwood (which was only submerged during the Blight) and even in comparatively modern buildings, like one or more of those in the Hinterlands. So do you think they had always been there or had someone placed them there more recently so that we could oh so conveniently find them?

OhDaniGirl, I think that codex refers to the shards that we use the ocularums to locate? Not to the ancient elven artifacts that Solas asks us to activate.

No worries.

But you bring up a very good point that things could be hidden or inactive before the breach.  It's not to far of a stretch to assume something like this for the elven artifacts.  What if they are similar to Solas's orb, it needs to be charged to work, and if no one charges it, it would just be a weird stone object; a curiosity at best.  It takes Solas to know what they are and how to activate them, which could just be simply putting magic into them and no one has ever tried that before, or maybe it requires connecting them to the veil via the anchor.  Don't really know what to think about the idea, but it has a lot of potential.  Don't sell yourself short, you gave everyone a lot of food for thought!

Holy frick yes! I was kind of thinking this subconsciously but it didn't really get through until you said it. But now I'm just wondering what the heck stars are. Like, seriously, what are they?


Well we know that basically all of Tevinter's knowledge of magic comes from the elves (strictly all if you think their gods were the same as the elves or were at least their high priests, because dragons=highpriests) so its possible that they were simply recreating something they had seen or dreamt. I don't recall dialogue or codex entries on what elves think of the stars. Were they there before the veil or, possibly, are the stars the actual veil? (probably not but its a fun idea)