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

I'm not entirely sure why it could be on a dwarf (though some tribes of Ferelden and dwarves do seem to have a peculiar recurring connection), but the style on the right reminds me of the Avvar. It looks like she's wearing similar body paint. I would imagine Tevinter dwarves to look more sophisticated than this, considering their social standing. 


Solas art:

Well I just hope that whatever comes next, Lavellan will still be Comtess / Comte in Kirkwall and they left Wycome in a 'happily ever after' kinda state.

Not remotely an 'elvhen sovereign land of their own', but I'd rather keep my expectation 'reasonable' to avoid dissapointment

I'm not really sure I understand the issue... that whole scene set up to be a unique experience: Solas was about to tell his beloved that he's the Dread Wolf. And she was supposed to be the only Inquisitor to find out, since we never get an inkling that Solas is seriously considering to tell any other Inquisitor about his secret identity, no matter how dear of a friend other Inquisitors are. Whether it happened or not doesn't change the fact that only romanced Lavellan was this close to him being honest with her - but he gets flustered, and she gets to get an information that is only revealed to the rest in Trespasser.

I'm not sure how that doesn't make sense. In fact, it also makes sense if you look at DA story structure - a lot of meaty reveals about the story are gated in variety of ways. It's been like that since the beginning of the story, with DAO's origin backgrounds. That's how Dragon Age story rolls, hence some information or experiences will be locked behind specific choices or outcomes.

Sera's reaction is Sera's reaction, not the reaction of Bioware. I don't think it's fair to treat Sera's comments as if whole story makes fun out of Dalish, or as if they're the only group that are "made fun of", in a sense that we get to see some informative reveals.

Sera has a lot of growing up to do and holds many outrageous views as well as a lot of pent up insecurity; and if you help her to grow up, she actually does make an effort. In fact I actually find it a boon that is unique to Dalish Inquisitor's character if they are patient with her and help her grow despite her deep reservations.

The killing of Clan Lavellan is entirely optional, and it's a bit disingenuous to try and portray as if only Dalish elves were the ones that were being specifically picked on and killed off. We see or hear of whole villages being decimated, the mages or Templars get slaughtered by droves and forced to be slaves of Corypheus depending on side we choose, the Grey Wardens are profoundly compromised and on verge of extinction, the Orzammar situation is alluded in Descent to be an absolute nightmare, no matter if we pick Bhelen or Harrowmont in DAO, the poor peasants from Emeald Graves are being shipped in droves to Emprise du Lion to die horrifying death in the red lyrium mine; I could go on and on. Thedas isn't a fair place for elves or Dalish, but it's not like many others are being treated much better.

I'm also not sure why is Cassandra's comment an issue? The comment speaks of her attitude, not the attitude of a game - in fact, considering Cassandra's statement naive, but endearing. Considering her faith she could be much more hostile towards non-Andrastians, pressuring them to accept the fate or reject theirs - instead she just asks to reconsider going a syncretic route and doesn't push on them either way after that.

As for 'three mage rule' or TME being a 'whipping child for devs' - I just don't see it that way. The Dalish are established to differ between one another, sometimes greatly, and Merril's transfer to Sabrae clan alludes that mage trading is a thing and variants of 'three mage rule' exists, as is different treatment of mages in different clans (we can outright tell Minaeve that she wouldn't be chased away from clan Lavellan, plainly because they have different rules).

While you're obviously entitled to feel the way you do, I can't help but to disagree here. The DA story has always been written as one that is subjective, and just because the Dalish Origin 'hits the right notes' doesn't mean that the presented perspective is the Only One That Is Correct - that rings especially true in DAI, with all the revelations on pretty much every level of the story.

Also - tragedy and farce oftentimes comes hand in hand. The thing about life is that it's oftentimes ironic or funny in a sad way - and that's certainly true to the whole of Thedas. After all, the one thing that Dragon Age doesn't lack for the slightest is the profound sense of irony attacking us from every corner - so it's unrealistic to expect that the Dalish or elves are going to be spared from it.

That's not to say that I'm amused by the fictional abuse, perceived or not. I just don't think they're being as picked upon as much as it is sometimes assumed, or more than others - or that they're immune to doing or thinking stupid things.

Dunno, maybe it's just the way how I was raised, or rather - where I was raised (and in a sense I was raised in quite "Dalish" fashion), that makes me a bit more like Dorian - caring a lot, but also being sharply critical even of things I care about.

midnight tea

It doesn't make sense if Solas trusts an elven Inquisitor. I have never played a romance in a BioWare game that used such a big lore reveal as the special moment for the romanced player. I felt that it was a bad call on Patrick Weekes' part to be honest. If he wanted to give something special to the player that romanced Solas, he coud have come up with something else. I wil never understand or agree to gating such a big lore reveal.

With Sera, I do lay the responsbilty at the feet at the writer. This doesn't mean I'm declaring any sort of dislike or anything personal towards Lukas.  Even with as immature and childish Sera can be, that scene didn't have to be there. In fact, Sera didn't need to comment on it.

More than that, it doesn't make sense to me at all. How would she have found out? I can't see Solas telling her that. The player that befriended her doesn't tell her about it. Sera just laughs at her and starts mocking her the next time you go to talk to her after the breakup.  No one could have spied on Solas and the romanced IQ.  The idea that it was supposed to be special falls flat with Sera's reaction.  

I know that everyone has a much different experience and felt that the vallasin reveal was for the romance-only.  I can fully respect that.  This is just my opinion but any BioWare writer/creative director should never put big lore-changing reveals locked behind a romance.  

Farce is not usually meant to be taken very seriously even when pared with tragedy. I have yet to see another race, group or organization treated in such a fashion in Dragon Age. I do think that they got it right with the Dalish in the first game. Not just with the Warden's clan, but with the other clans too (including in DA:A.)

It isn't that the Dalish should be without flaws. They aren't even my favorite race and frankly, they'd be very boring without them. My problem is the extreme that this has gone to. I'd be fine with more fleshing out except the writers have taken it too far in the other direction.

However, I know that they are always changing and re-examing the lore as they write new stories. I may not be happy about how the elves were dealt with in Inquisition, but I'm also a big fan of the lore and I know that things can change. I'm not quite as angry as my previous post might have suggested I was. That was my bad.  What does remain is that it is a decision that I don't agree with and I never will.

Yet I'll roll with it, same as I did with finding out about the treatment of mages by the Qun (which we learn about come DA2,) or that Alistair was actually the son of an elven former Grey Warden mage who's father drank dragon's blood. Or his comments about lyrium and templars being proven untrue via lore changes in later DA materials. There are several other quirks of the story that don't gel with older lore. If I didn't know how to roll with it, I sure wouldn't have bought DA:I for the second time just to play it on the PS4.

Sounds like we were raised the same way. I'm also passionate but very critical about what I care about and why I care about it. We won't see eye to eye on this, but that's okay by me.   I enjoy reading your posts.

It says a lot to me that we're having this conversation years after the game came out. Despite some of my grumblings and despite some of the flaws, I love DA:I for the good, the bad and the weird.

Anyhow, I'm off to bed. I hope everyone has a good one.

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Of course you did play a romance in Bioware that held back a huge lore reveal - or made a decision that had that reveal held back till Inquisition. I'm talking about Morrigan and OGB. That kid is a Walking Lore Reveal and has entirely unique Fade scene that is way meatier and emotional than an altar scene.

Neither PW or Lukas write separately and the game devs later tie the plot together with a piece of string - so you can't blame the writer alone, since the writer alone doesn't decide what goes into the game. The team has decided that Sera is polarizing and has controversial opinions - that still doesn't make Sera's comments an equivalent of whole of Bioware's opinion on elves or whatever; just a perspective of a character who is established in the game to be heavily opinionated and still has growing up to do.

Also - Sera mocking what they've found in ToM is a different scene that is entirely unrelated to her reaction to vallaslin (and she could find about what they've found in ToM from any companion or befriended Inquisition member. After all it's not just Solas we can take to the Temple) - and she only learns about vallaslin if Inquisitor decides to tell her. Lavellan can just brush Sera off and Sera can just be 'alright, fine - your face, your business' about it.

That makes no sense at all. How is Sera's reaction on 'elfy stuff' suddenly so influential? Have I not noticed something and Sera is a central figure to the whole story, similar way Solas is ? And I don't hear many people saying that whatever Solas says is absolute truth or that his opinion on all matters trumps opinions of others - so why are Sera's comments suddenly given so much gravitas?

Sounds to me like cherrypicking.

Farce is oftentimes very, very tragic. Solas losing his oldest friend to a bunch of ignorant mages is a farce - it doesn't make it less tragic. In fact it's tragedy stems from the fact that the whole situation is farcical.

And yes, I have seen a group treated in a fashion that is way worse: neither the Dalish or elves in general can even come close to the tragedy of living as the Casteless. The dwarf origin has left me genuinely upset, and the fact that Orzammar is not getting any better in DAI and the dwarven capital struggles with famine and revolt is heartbreaking.

And if you mean the treatment as dismissal or dismantling of their most cherished beliefs - well no, that is simply untrue. Practically every group has to deal with swallowing quite a few bitter pills the farther the story went. In fact I find Andrastians elevating a person to sainthood, even though the nature of powers they wield and the barrier they fix is undeniably *elven* is a prime example of Bioware's signature irony that I love so much. 

But even that amusing irony doesn't change the tragedy of Thedas as a whole - people have elevated the Inquisitor to the position of demigod because they're genuinely desperate to find a shred of hope. So like I said - farce and tragedy at the same time, and t touches pretty much everyone.

I heard the same thing about Wardens or Mages. DAO was just a starting point - not a thing that sets certain groups or views in stone. And I'm not going to say that people shouldn't feel upset that, say, a group of heroes that was hailed in fist game and of which PC was part of was later portrayed as a bunch of still heroic, but gullible fools, or that situation with mages proves to be way more complicated than what it was shown in DAO.

Butt that's sort of where the story goes and it appears to be on that BW has always wanted to tell - things get complicated. And nobody's immune from that.

I'm not going to claim that BW has everything 100% figured out, or that things don't change or get adjusted along the way - but I think getting irked by 'lore inconsistencies' in a game the writers of which constantly underline is meant to be subjective and that no lorebook or presented viewpoint in it isn't tainted by someone's bias or lack of knowledge of in-story characters is not really a way to go... otherwise the future reveals might or might not be even more upsetting.

And it's not like we can't establish certain things, especially that we - as a collective of fans - actually have more knowledge or perspective than any individual character in the story... but at the same time we don't yet know many things. There's obviously more story to tell, and that story likely has many twists and turns. Either way, I'd prepare myself for at least a few paradigm shifts, considering how eager Bioware is with breaking many of ours (or in-game people's) preconceived notions about the workings of whole of Thedas' reality

I enjoy our conversations as well! And that we can still converse about realities of Thedas years after the release of last game. Here's hoping that it'll last till BW injects us with more topics to talk about (which I hope is sooner than expected!).

Calling the Dark Ritual a romance scene is reeeeaaaaally stretching it, especially since you don't even have to do it and can easily pawn it off on Alistair/Loghain. I think the issue here is that this knowledge is exclusive to players - who likely make up a very small part of the entire playerbase - who romanced Solas and saw it through to the end. While you obviously can lock yourself out of the OGB, you can still do it regardless of who you're romancing, and given that it's one half of a binary choice rather than one option among seven others (Eight if you consider not romancing someone at all. Nine if you consider Harding, which I don't, really.) the Dark Ritual's lore is a lot more accessible by the wider player base.

Not that I necessarily agree that it's a bad thing this reveal was locked behind Solas' romance. I don't really have an opinion there one way or the other. 

And anyway, the Fade scene isn't half as interesting as the mysterious nonsense OGB Kieran blabs about, at least as far as the lore goes. 

I actually did mention that you can make a decision to create OGB outside of romance - the point remains that large lore reveals happened ever since first game (and in fact the payout can occur only 3 games later).

It's been like that from the very beginning actually - after all, large chunks of essential details are locked behind every origin story we choose and hardly ever we get as substantial or impactful info on those matters for PCs from other origins. 

It's just a quirk of the non-linear storytelling BW does - we're building the fuller picture the more we play and the more specific choices we make, which include surprises that we may find out if we go through a very specific path. I love it - it may actually be one of the most enjoyable aspects of BW games for me, personally.

Oh I do find it very interesting indeed - not only we learn that with enough power the eluvian can lead directly to the Fade (oy! I guess Corypheus was right!), the interaction between Morrigan and Flemeth is on entirely different level, and we see that OG and Evanuris who - if they're not the same thing - are likely cut from the same cloth. Those are some meaty reveals, that elude everyone who didn't choose to create OGB - which, from what we know, was actually most of DAO players, as Warden is dead in significant amount of playthroughs.

Nope. For Sera to know these details, Lavellan would have to choose to tell her about them directly. After the vallaslin scene Sera asks what's the deal with Lavellan's face being bare, for which we get an option to summarize what they learned from Solas or refuse to talk about it, after which Sera drops the subject.

There's no indication that Sera is aware that Solas and Lavellan had broken up at that point.

Some people require more time to actually grow up. I know many people IRL who are past 30, yet haven't reached that age on mental level whatsoever. Basically Sera suffers from severe detachment from anything or anyone, and Inquisition offers her a place where she can put roots and actually grow. It's no coincidence that she gets more considerate if Inquisitor takes care of their relationship, even if it takes her time to get there.


But Sera *does* question Chantry rhetoric - even earlier than she does the Dalish. Remember the dialogue after reaching Skyhold where she goes on the tangent that some thing scan't be 'true-true', because not even fanatics want those things to be true? How she joined the Inquisition to see if all of this Chantry sh*t is even real? And how Inquisitor can encourage her to keep doubting, because it'll keep Inquisition leveled?

Sera dislikes reflection and her reasoning have logical gaps in it, sometimes as big as Grand Canyon - but she's certainly not written as pious Andrastian, even if she identifies as one, and for sure doesn't buy the whole 'Herald Of Andraste' thing, considering how she talks to Inquisitor, whom she treats more like a fresh addition to the ruling class she's not fond of.

He's tweeted this page once already, a while ago. I wonder whether this is some sort of large hint we're supposed to get, or did he just forget that he's tweeted that image before?