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

I've never seen that before. It was really awesome. 

Also, I love how everyone is super serious and then... Sera. lol

I mean, I'm sure the official Dreadwolf trailer will be something along those lines. They have to establish who the Dreadwolf is and why he's a threat or else the name will make zero sense to new people, regardless of how inherently cool the term Dreadwolf is when you hear it.

Its just that we all wish they'd get on with it already. But that's the curse of being part of the established fanbase of a series that is taking entirely too long to follow up on a cliffhanger. Only thing worse would be if they never followed up. Knock on wood.

EDIT:
Rewatched that trailer again and it reminds me... I wonder if we'll see the person who made that threat in the Vir Dirthara... psychic impressions? Ghosts? W/e. The one who says "If we get out of here, I will end Fen'Harel." Cus that's always intrigued me. Like... how does she (or possibly he, with just the female spirit reenacting the event) know that Solas did it? If it was a matter of rumor spreading through the people trapped there, how'd that rumor start? Or did she come to that conclusion on her own, somehow, implying she has knowledge about Solas' goals and capabilities that a random elf who just got caught in the library shouldn't really know? And if it is the latter, I wonder how impotent or not that threat to end him really is?

Also, Vivienne's line yet again hints towards what I think we got oblique hints about all throughout Inquisition: "Curious then that the Dalish speak of Fen'Harel as a monster." I mean... as much as the way he did it might have been bittersweet, Solas did "win" his fight with the Evanuris. They were removed from power, technically The People were freed. And, given the implication in WoT that Shartan's story was mixed with a much older tale of a slave rebellion (presumably Solas') and thus his historical figure mixed with Solas in some ways--and Shartan came out a hero--it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Solas was rightly considered an ultimately good figure by the freed elves who survived. Or at least a chaotic neutral one, as implied by the slow arrow story. 

And yet the Dalish in modern times mostly consider him an enemy. I think this all implies that, at some point btwn the Evanuris' fall and modern day there has been a concerted effort to tarnish Solas' image to the elves. Probably sometime after the Dales' establishment, since there seem to have still been statues and such made and dedicated to Fen'Harel in the Dales period. Or they were at least older statues that were allowed to remain whole and maintained. And yet, there were also things like an arena dedicated to Elgar'nan constructed during those 800 years, too, so the Evanuris had also at least started to come back into favor by then, if not much earlier while everyone was still enslaved by Tevinter. Given the outcome of Solas' change in reputation, the campaign against it has likely been done by elves loyal to the Evanuris still. Maybe ancients like Abelas, hopping in and out of cryosleep.

We have agents of the Creators walking about as much as we do agents of Fen'Harel. We have a third faction here that has yet to really reveal itself, but we can see their fingerprints, and I just find that pretty fascinating and love to talk about it. lol


Speaking of the changed reputation, and really what the Dreadwolf's true nature is at all, I really do hope the game named after him lets us do a deep dive into his background, what events really happened back then, and what kind of person he really is. Like, ultimately, people will draw their own conclusions, obviously. But I hope there are a ton of codex entries and some side quests about locations that let us put together a fuller picture. Kinda like Trespasser letting our Inquisitor figure out Solas' identity, but now the mystery is what does that identity really mean? I don't know how they'd satisfactorily balance this against the war btwn Tevinter and the Qun, much less anything about another Blight/darkspawn plotline, but, I really hope they can.

Personally, I could see the double blight of the two final old gods being the cliffhanger at the end of the game; the event we are left anticipating now that we've learned the Blight's true nature via the knowledge of ancient times we've gained in Dreadwolf. The Tevinter/Qun war will likely serve as a secondary backdrop to Dreadwolf, but maybe we'll have to make peace/defeat one faction or the other to be able to continue our investigations in the first place? Like... we need to get to some ruin or a monument that will give us a clue to Solas' background/plans, but its in contested territory and might even be in danger of being destroyed, and we have to deal with that; and that's how the war will intertwine with the dreadwolf plotline.


Sorry for the wall of text. lol Guess that fan trailer sparked my enthusiasm again, too.  XD

In Haven you can have a conversation with Solas where he describes the Fade as "not a place one went, but a state of nature like the wind". A definition that still puzzles me, but following that thought we can think of it this way: someone that has never seen snow cannot identify it, nor identify its absence and there are other natural occurrences like earthquakes than can destroy built structures, so those that never were aware of the Fade blamed the destruction on those.

Elves is more difficult to come up with a reason, I don't know, may be it has to do with how the concept "conscious connection" to the Fade works. If you "lose" your "conscious connection" are you "conscious" that you lost it? 

You could be right about this and, of course, if their lore was acquired from Keepers who searched the Fade for answers to their origins and history, this could account for why some memories are accurate and others fragmented or contradictory. As Solas explained, it can depend on which version of history you are granted access to by the spirits there. Considering the Dalish are wary of using spirits anyway, if an alternative vision of the past was offered, I suppose the Keeper might automatically assume it was the work of a demon and reject it.

The story about Fen'Harel is a case in point, since we do have two different versions of it, that of Gisharel and that of Merrill. The former taught that Fen'Harel offered to negotiate a truce and act as mediator in ending the war, the latter says he offered each side the possibility of the ultimate weapon to win it. In view of what we now know from Trespasser and the general attitude of the Evanuris towards Fen'Harel (we don't know about the Forgotten Ones), it seems much more likely that Merrill's version is true but that he likely did use an intermediary to dangle the temptation of the weapon rather than doing so personally.

I think Fen'Harel or his followers spreading a rumour to coax the Evanuris into his trap might explain some of this and then, perhaps, when the gods disappeared, his followers celebrating his success might have confirmed his responsibility. However, I thought it might equally be possible that the person was actually one of the rebels, who was only expecting the disappearance of the gods, not the wholesale destruction that followed and this accounted for their anger towards Fen'Harel. After all, knowing how Solas only ever tells as much as he sees fit of his plans, the creation of the Veil was something he kept to himself and so they would feel betrayed by the outcome.

One thing that has always puzzled me is what became of Solas' rebels. As the preface to the Canticle of Shartan says there was a folk tale among that Dalish that clearly seemed to be about his rebellion, there had to be some among the earlier inhabitants of the Dales who were promoting this but, as with the Keepers who promoted to Creators, may be they were getting their lore from the Fade and perhaps the connection wasn't made with Fen'Harel but assumed to be from a more recent period, for example an earlier rebel against the Imperium shortly after their assault on Arlathan Forest. It is also possible that the Forgotten Ones were simply the leaders of the rebellion against the Creators, all coming under the umbrella term of Evanuris, and that Solas deliberately entrapped them at the same time as he didn't want them taking control either. There were definitely said to be elves who worshiped the Forgotten Ones in the Dales and naturally the Keepers of the Lore would portray them and their "gods" in a negative light but may be they were the descendants of a rebel faction who had resided in the south and came out of Uthenera when disturbed by the new arrivals. That would at least explain the old poem Where the Willows Wail, an original copy of which was found in the ruins near the Temple of Mythal and also turned up in altered form in Alamarri poetry, that clearly referred to the Wolf and his plan for freedom in a more resigned light.

The alternative explanation is that the rebels are "the People" who need him, the majority of whom are still in Uthenera waiting out the years until he restores the world of the elves. So, shortly after the raising of the Veil, Solas spoke to his followers from Uthenera and suggested this course of action. However, they cannot stay there forever and may be time is running out for them.

Incidentally, I still puzzle over those large wolf statues in the south.   It seems inconceivable to me that during the comparatively short history of the Dales, that lasted barely 270 years that the inhabitants would have found time to create any of them, let alone that huge one overlooking the Exalted Plains, so I presume  they must date to an earlier time but were perhaps cleaned off when they became associated with the wolf guardians of the Emerald Knights.       That is also interesting since the Emerald Knight came to be seen as the nobility of the Dales and Solas says the Arcane Warriors were the guardians and protectors of the nobility in ancient times, so I wondered if in fact they were known as wolves and depicted as such (wolves being known for their loyalty to the pack), which is why Fen'Harel was shown alongside Mythal as a Wolf even before he acquired his name during the rebellion.    Solas also says that no one doubted the honour and integrity of the Arcane Warriors, so if he had been one of their number, even perhaps their leader, it would account for why it was seen as such a betrayal when he rebelled against the Evanuris and he became known as the DREAD Wolf.

I don't think it was said to be specifically a blade.

A further thought on what the Tevinter mage was attempting to do with the idol. The ritual was intended to attack the Qunari by:
"Directing the course of the Fade against the Antaam, so that every dream, every demon, every half interested spirit would urge them back north, away from humanity. Their resolve would weaken, their invasion would crumble....."
Now it is not clear if the ritual would have involved summoning demons into the Waking World to attack them, as was the case with the previous Venatori plan involving demons in DAI, but it definitely seemed to be intended to unleash a spiritual attack on their enemies. In some ways, this would be even more deadly than a physical attack. We know that such a spiritual attack is possible both from Tevinter lore, where Dreamers were said to slay their enemies in their sleep, and in Tevinter Nights, where a similar thing happened even to dwarves who are said not to dream, at least not connected to the Fade. In Masked Empire, Mihris says how the ancients in Uthenera could view the world from the Fade, communicate with their allies and direct spirits to aid them. Felassan mocks her ideas, which likely means she was somewhere near the truth, seeing as before this he adds to the list "they could kill their enemies where they slept", as though it was the ultimate exaggeration, which we know in fact to be possible. So, it seems to me that if even the Dalish know this is possible, it is something that was widely acknowledged to be an attribute of Dreamers. Thus, if a weapon was created that could magnify such power, not only would it be deadly to their enemies but also extremely dangerous both mentally and physically to the inhabitants of Thedas generally.

Incidentally, I've mentioned previously on other threads the similarity between the image of Solas holding the blade/item aloft, with the swirling vortex of magic around him, and the description of the Mortalitassi of how it looked when the Tevinter mage started his ritual: 
"All around us was light and colour, a dizzying array of magic that makes up the world of spirits, and it swirled around the Tevinter mage and his ritual knife as though he were the eye of a hurricane".
Doesn't that make you think of this?

The only argument I have against the connection between the idol and world destruction is that if that was the case, and Solas knew about it back then, why on earth was it left just lying around unguarded in the Ancient Thaig? Surely, secreting it in some pocket realm in the Crossroads would have made more sense? However, I suppose it is possible that it was originally hidden there (or linked to it in some way) but the location transferred wholly to the Waking World after the creation of the Veil and the collapse of elven magical constructs.   Nevertheless, if it was that important, wouldn't he have at least tried to locate it from the Fade and then sent one or more of his followers to secure it?

Still, leaving potential dangers unguarded seems a feature of the plots in Thedas. After all, the Grey Wardens knew what a danger Corypheus was and the peril to casual passers by from his prison if they should inadvertently enter it, yet after resealing it with magic from Malcolm Hawke, it was pretty much abandoned.

The idol has the potential to destroy all creation and yet someone decided to leave it unguarded on an altar in the Deep Roads, which presumably was long before they became infested with darkspawn. It seems to me it was pure accident that someone hadn't discovered it long before the events of DA2, even a Tevinter mage in ancient times, as they were accustomed to using them when the dwarves still controlled them.

I do wonder about that whole business with the sarcophagus in the comic series. The idea seemed to be that you needed the sword to be linked to the warrior through the lyrium. Yet, previously all you needed to be an Arcane Warrior was the correct instruction. This is not only found in DAO but also World of Thedas in connection with the multi-player character Cillian. He apparently found an ancient shrine associated with the Arcane Warriors and spent time there, presumably either communicating with the spirits or translating ancient texts he found there, which gave him the knowledge to become an Arcane Warrior. Since all elves in ancient times had at least a bit of magic, it cannot be that the sarcophagus was necessary if trying to make an Arcane Warrior from a non-mage. Besides which, Fenris didn't acquire any magical abilities from the process other than the ability to morph in and out of the Fade.

However, considering everyone among the races seems to have suffered from amnesia about the events surrounding the creation of the Veil, I suppose it isn't that surprising that perhaps Solas suffered a bit of memory loss at the same time too. So, may be he did forget about the idol and his knowledge of it only returned perhaps during his time with the Inquisition talking with Varric.

That image of Shartan in World of Thedas 2 is very peculiar if it is meant to have been an illustration done by Chantry scholars. I really don't know what to make of it. Did someone from the Chantry find an old elven image and imagined it to be showing Andraste and Shartan when really it was a completely different pair? Was it an image that the Dalish showed to the scholars charged with writing down their oral tradition? Were they the artists or was it a picture that they found and attributed to their tale of Shartan? Did it actually show that older elven folk tale of the trickster warrior?

I certainly don't think it is a portrait of Shartan based off the real life person, any more than the stained glass window in Redcliff Chantry is. Nor do I think him being shown in sentinel armour would necessarily be significant even if it was a life portrait. Given how many ancient elven artifacts were appropriated by Tevinter, I wouldn't be surprised to find more examples of that sort of armour in the collections of the Altus families and Shartan was said to be a slave warrior in the Tevinter army. What I have always found more interesting is the origin of the sword Glandivalis that Andraste gifted him with, since it came originally from her mother and she was Cirianne, so possibly her tribe was from the same area as the later Dales. Since elements of an ancient elven poem, a copy of which is found in the Temple of Mythal, found its way into Alamarri poetry, I wonder what sort of connection there was there with the elves prior to Andraste's meeting with Shartan.

In Tevinter Nights, there is this moment when an elf called Iria mentions that people tried to recruit her into Fen'harel's cult.

That made me realize there is an interesting and likely possibility that at some point, someone approached Lavellan to convince her to join the Dread Wolf's cause. I like to imagine how that interaction would go. Which reminds me... I hope she still does go outside rather than being permanently trapped in a dark meeting room.

Ah. Well, I imagined there might be such invitation because to some people, Lavellan may appear to be just another elf.

The plan to escalate the war between Tevinter and the Qunari is kind of a problem, because Solas claimed that he wanted people to enjoy some peace before he tears down the Veil. Either he was lying to us or his agents have been getting ahead of themselves. And yes, I also want to know if he has deliberately sold false promises to these not-real elves.

Or, and hear me out on this, Solas is full of shit and only said that to try to appease his conscience and ego. After all we know he couldn’t care less about anybody since he is currently trying to murder them all to make a world he likes.