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

My dreams have been filled with elves, it seems.

First Fenris. That was awesome cute.
Then Zevran. That was awesome sexy.

And last night I got Solas. We went to an Orlesian Museum together and while having a picnic, I flirted with him. Then he brought up Cullen; didn't I like him better? I kissed him on the nose and said, and maybe I like you too. He was startled and interested.

Bah humbug. I wanted my next Dragon Age dream to be about Cullen. 

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays to all  It will be Christmas Day in less than an hour over here. I love Christmas Eve, even though it also brings Christmas Party Hell with it. Thankfully, I have survived said hell for another year.

It occurs to me that I first played Origins right around this time of year. About five (?) years ago tonight, I was escaping the family party at regular intervals to hide in my room and play DAO for five minutes at a time because it was THE GAME I HAD BEEN WAITING MY WHOLE LIFE TO PLAY and I literally could not wait until everyone buggered off home and I could stay up all night continuing my Warden's epic journey. Heck, I'm pretty sure tonight is the anniversary of my first meeting with Zevran.
P.S. I don't have the energy or lore-fu to participate in the Veil discussion, but it is pretty fascinating stuff

Everyone around me had awesome dreams last night, except for me.   Maybe I need to go back to sleep and Santa will bring me some dream elves.


by Bloodrawen

Happy holidays, everyone.

Jealous! I'm still waiting for my Solas dream! I've had a brief one of him but it was just the back of his head when I was flying over him (don't know why I was flying). Stupid brain.

This is a hundred percent legit.

Drat, now I'm not going to get the mental image of Falon'Din as Thranduil out of my head... based on his description, it really fits!

Snow? Ha! Balmy 64 F (17.7 C) here.

Whether you celebrate any holidays around this time or not, I hope everyone that posts in the Blanketfort has a good day. Here's Solas about to give a bitchy sigh.

You get snow in Nevada, in a desert, when I have yet to see any! xD You stole my snooooow!

That must be a really pretty sight with your mountains though!

Well, we do see Cole directly influence people on physical plane. So we do Solas, when he touches Cole's mind (assuming Cole met Solas after the battle and not in the Fade). Heck, even Iron Bull says that human minds are more malleable than we think, and with use of right tools or interrogation techniques one can influence other's mind *without ever* touching the Fade, and as we know, the Qun has a penchant to brainwash many of its followers.

But that's a bit beside the point - the fact that Solas would need to physically enter the Fade to tear it may not be at all related to how the Veil was raised. You don't necessarily destroy something the same way you create it.

Add to that the fact that Solas now is not the same Solas who created the Veil, nor the world is the same as it was before - to either create it, or spring a trap on Evanuris, he had to sacrifice something of himself (Cole in Trespasser: "He broke the dreams to stop the old dreams from waking. The wolf chews its leg off to escape the trap.") and/or expended so much of his energy that he spent millenia in what was effectively a coma and woke up in weakened state. That in itself likely determined his current course of action, including the fact that he either has to destroy or change the world with methods he himself doesn't like one bit.

Besides - what does physicality or non-physicality means in a world where there ultimately may not be much of distinction between both states? This is of course a far-fetched speculation, but since we don't have much to go with, it may as well be that the 'solid state' or possession of a body in the Fade itself may be more or less an expression of someone's will.

That's sort of what I'm aiming at. Like, it doesn't really matter what has jump-started or held the Veil at one point - right now, it may as well be predominantly upheld by belief of people who don't know any other world than the one with the Veil in it. It may be sort of a vicious circle that is hard to break, as many traditions are hard to break, be it in fictional worlds or IRL.

Well, aside from possibility that Solas could simply create rather than destroy a memory (false memories are a thing even IRL and yes - people can have false memories planted in their heads... though, of course, not to extent some fictional tales claim, lol), I don't necessarily think that Solas has to erase everyone's memory of Veilless world in order to create the Veil - he may have simply focused on and removed one crucial detail people may or may not be aware of.

I mean, we do have hints from Cole in Trespasser (also Descent? I don't remember...) that the Titans have been defeated because (likely) Evanuris have made them forget how to wake up. I mean, how do you forget how to wake up? Yet, it's a thing that was effective against them. The Titans are alive, they retain their memories (at least the one in Descent did, it seems), yet they've lost ability to wake up and are therefore subdued. So we don't real.ly know what memory could have been targeted by Solas, IF it was targeted at all.

As for using Titans... welp, I wouldn't be surprised if Titans were involved, although I'm not sure how. From Deep Roads section in Trespasser, and the rune on Solas's mural, it would appear that Solas is scared of what he's found in the mine with clearly alive and angry Titan in it and wants the mine be forgotten and nobody to stir 'its anger'. So if he used the Titans, it's probably not something that has been done directly.

With that said, we don't know what exactly elves have done to Titans, in a sense of utilizing their power - though from descriptions it'd seem that they mined something that has later fed roots of some plants... likely their giant trees? How those things fit into the whole story I don't really know - maybe these trees also have agency of some sorts? In Frostback Basin, when we are in the crater directly below the giant Frostback Basin tree, Cole claims that the trees are angry and they're fighting back as well, or something of the sort 

I wouldn't count that out... especially if we consider that THAT may be exactly the reason why he may be rounding up elves of Thedas (if he's the one doing that).

Then there's the damn Trespasser song:
"Slightest unite then a giant will rise
When the slightest unite then a giant will rise"

It could be that the whole song is metaphoric, same way the mysterious book called Behemoth in Last Court is ("we, the common folk, are of one body. We are a beast that bears all the world on its back. We need only to shrug, and we would shake creation to its roots..."), but it could as well be something literal.

I kinda wonder if this is also why Evanuris seemed to be fairly obsessed to get new followers: from luring them to their temples (according to Geldauran) to enslaving entire populations or waging wars with fellow gods to gain new followers (like Falon'Din did). Because thirst for adulation aside, some codices we can find in Vir Dirthara (like Rising the Sonallium or Signs of Victory) suggest that as much as OP the Evanuris could be, the main power of Elvenhan was based on work of countless people shaping the Fade through rituals that require thousands of people, if not more.