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

Great response I seem to miss a lot in all my many hours of gameplay   In response to the connection between the Avaar gods and the elven gods, I definitely see where you're coming from, especially in regards to similarities between Arlathan's fate and Belanas's, but a lot of mythologies in the real world have a lot in common. Many polythestic religions have gods of the hearth and trickster deities, so I don't know if I'd buy the connection between the Avaar's gods being based off of the elven gods just yet. 

I am also very curious as to why no one in Thedas, at least that we know of, has tried to explore the far reaches of the map. The South is cold, okay I wouldn't want to go exploring too far down there either, and perhaps the mountains to the West are too difficult to surpass, but if the original human settlers in Thedas were sea goers, why didn't they retain a connection to their homeland or ever try to go back? Were they fleeing from something? A natural disaster or some other threat? Either way, that still doesn't explain the lack of interest for modern Thedasians. What is to the North and East? Some humans have to have a scholarly interest in where humanity came from, and just regular curiosity should have enticed people to attempt voyages to the great unknowns.  Perhaps they have and they've all been failures and our protagonists just haven't come across the information.

And now that I'm thinking about it-- are the elves and elven civilization, completely centered in Thedas? The Crossroads could open up the possibility of across the world travel, but all the important elven things we've seen so far have happened or are, or were, in Thedas. If they had the whole world at their finger tips you think they'd have spread out a bit more.

I really like your idea of how humanity got the ability to use magic! Although, and I don't remember how I got this in my head, it might be someone else's theory or a bit of lore I've come across, I thought that it was thought that if dwarves weren't exposed to so much lyrium all the time their race could have magic users, making it seem like magic use is a natural occurrence for all the races. 
I really like what you said about the Dalish! They get a lot of flack for their beliefs and legends being so off, but in the grand scheme of things, they did retain a lot. They had thousands of years of lore to carry through their generations while being a nomadic people without the ability to create mass monuments and libraries to retain their stories.

Awesome video I like the song you used a lot too!

I interrupt this important broadcast to ask... what color are Solas' eyes? The general consensus seems to be blue, but I've seen grey, green, "dark," and "the color of regret and heartbreak."

Asking for a friend. And by friend I mean myself, because it's come up in my fic I'm writing

Ok, now I'm worried about my color perception I was watching screenshots with different lighting conditions and in almost everyone they look blue to me

edit: watching them again, I don't know, maybe this kind of (what to me looks) blue, a little dark and not very bright, it's what people would call grey... it's true that it's not a distinction that I usually make, maybe that's why I'm missing it... I don't see the purple at all though, shame, I'd like to

I'd have called that blue, so my problem must definitely be that I'm not familiar whith what is usually called grey eyes (not entirely my fault, I think it's not often used here )

Grey eyes are often mistaken for blue. All right, here's a close up of a Solas eye. No sweet FX or other reshades.


No, I have not spent time using flycam to examine every companion's eyes up close. On PS4 I called them blue or blue grey. I also had no idea that there was a second color in there until I started playing on my uber PC.

Ok, I now see it: deinitely grey with a little purple. Very beatiful seen up close, btw

He uses the same eye texture as Leliana and Josephine. They also have a purplish ring, albeit smaller, since their pupils and irises are smaller than Solas's elven ones.

Thanks so much guys!! I had initially written "blue" but I'm going to change it to "blue-grey." I think that sums it up best, and this is a line spoken by the inquisitor, so it doesn't have to be too in-depth/technical (i.e. "blue-grey with flecks of gold and purple" lmao) but at the same time should be fairly accurate since, you know, he is sort of in love with him...

Only thing I can figure out is that the ancient elves (like Solas) were almost an entirely different people; they were immortal, for instance. So the present day elves don't even compare, and Solas doesn't seem them as worthy of saving. 

Now I think if you befriend him or even fall in love with him, he mourns your perspective loss, but he still plans to go through with it, apparently. I guess it's sort of like falling for a lesser being, and being sad they're going to die, but, ah well, they ARE a lesser being, and you're immortal, so you'll probably get over it, give or take a hundred years lol

Well no - we know that Solas doesn't just believe that people are different, because there's one fundamental difference between modern Thedosians and ancient elves: modern Thedosians aren't immortal.

That in itself is a MASSIVE distinction between the two, that ultimately must come with different outlook or pace of life. I mean, look at us - we live from two to four time longer than our ancestors and our own life is - in many respects - very different from how it was, plainly because we have much more time for ourselves to pursue more than just basics of surviving, settling down with a family and popping out a few kids, only for them to do the same thing all over again. So imagine how different the life had to be for people who had even more time than that and didn't really have to worry about getting senile the way we do.

As for different, more or less subtle differences: well, being blind to magic certainly is a big issue too. And I don't think this is limited to being unable to see, touch and manipulate Fade; there are obviously other talents shared between ancient elves and spirits. Just like mages can sense things non-mages can't sense, Solas and Abelas seem to immediately notice things that are apparently unnoticeable to others. So does Cole. And we don't really know the extent how having such special abilities impacts people who have or don't have them. Perhaps they're inter-connected?
An example from real life: did you know that people who either din't have or lost their sense of smell - aside from losing sense of taste, since it's directly related to how things smell - oftentimes are plagued with depression and memory loss? That's because our sense of smell is directly connected with parts of our brain responsible for memory formation and feelings. So we don't really know how much loss of 'magical senses' impacts people, other than Solas (and Abelas) certainly see a big, pretty much irreconcilable difference between how people were and are now.

And then there are differences that can only come from pressures of society and environment. I'd like to point out that Solas does seem to be the guy who pays greater attention no nurture rather than nature, and many of his comments critical of humans/Qunari/elves/Vints/whatever focuses on criticism of them being raised in a specific way, that either shuts them further from the Fade, or makes some groups prone to violence or crime, because they were either taught wrong or said that they'd be lost and 'wrong' without supervision (the Qunari and Circle Mages) and don't know any better, or perpetuate the cycle of wrongness, because they're taught that certain thing is nothing but wrong (blood magic).

Considering that, and the fact that the Veil - according to Solas - makes true understanding of the Fade and spirits very unlikely AND short lives of modern people I think that Solas (at the beginning at least) considers modern Thedosians as would-be people, because they're hardly ever able to realize their full potential. 

I mean, most of the time Solas seems to look at Thedosians with pity rather than disdain. Like, they're fundamentally the same or similar as they were, but because of nature of the world with the Veil in it and all the crap they're going through in their short lives, filled with conflicts and fear of demons and Blight, basically stunts them. And I think the major thing that surprises Solas with Inquisitor (and to varying extent, with other people) is that despite that, they're thriving, or at the very least are resilient enough for the world to not wear them down, and despite all the fear and despair around they're open to change and therefore open to greatness.

As a lawyer, I was brainstorming this idea with fellow lawyers and others who played Dragon Age. Magic comes from mana, which is ultimately a bodily aspect of each individual and only exist only in mages. They are born with it and itcourses through their body like blood does or like an organ attached to the body. When a mage kills you with a fireball, they are not actually using a tool, its no different than choking someone with your hands. They are using part of their body to do it, and tranquility is not taking away their tool, its like cutting an organ from their body. They are born with mana, and ability to use magic. So if they can magically spawn water from thin air, that water belongs to them without any question or doubt.

So given this analysis, the veil literally belongs to Solas. Its his property and he can do anything he pleases with it. Not to mention its entirely possible his death will remove the veil anyway, which is my theory that regardless of what we do the veil will be gone as part of story. (Let Solas remove the veil or kill him and it gets destroyed automatically). So far in the games, when a mage dies, any magic cast by them stops working. Its just a theory of course, but my main point is Solas has sole ownership of the veil.