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

Interesting. I’ve never banished the Wardens or had her ignore me in her personal quest so I’ve never had these experiences you’re talking about.
That said, even in my game BioWare made her another victim of theirs, bludgeoning her with the Idiot Stick so many times despite telling us how competent she is. And yeah after that while I didn’t want to necessarily disband the Inquisition, I definitely wanted a new spymaster and commander. Josephine is the only advisor that’s always actually good at her job.

In retrospect, that whole post came out a bit harsher than I intended, but this tends to be a sore spot for me because I knew a couple of Bioware writers before they 'were famous'. I remember they were just as big geeks about the games and the stories and the lore as any one of the best of us so I tend to look at their work through that lens. Definitely still means there are mistakes though some (like Orsino) come from somewhere outside the writers room. Remember, the Inquisition team even threw in a shout out to how bad that was. If they had more time, I think they would have given a little more context before dropping us into Trespasser, but they had a metric *ton of lore to drop including several things that completely blew previously accepted lore apart. Something else I just now discovered, have you ever watched a video of ALL the conversation options available in Trespasser? It loops back over and over, of course but the sheer number of different options acknowledging what the Player had done in the main game is staggering (and occasionally enlightening or funny).




Knowing those two writers and imagining that they are the type of people that Bioware would hire...I doubt that's as accurate as you think. We do have the advantage of being a million monkeys, but I am sure there are some pretty deep discussions that make me look like the hack I am. Thanks anyway. Hope we all can enjoy Veilguard.
I do, however, knowing those people, doubt

Apology accepted though none was needed in my mind. No offense was really taken by either post. Like I said, I tend to jerk a little hard on this topic.

Hopefully it will be this month, whenever the next big info dump is.  Isn't there some sort of gaming...thing...coming up?  Or maybe a comic book thing that game devs also show up to?  I can never keep all these things straight. 

SDCC is what I was  thinking of.  It's at the end of this month.  

Will Solas be more akin to Valkarion from Swtor than Silverhand?
Since we are now permanently tied to the Fade and can make use of the Lighthouse do we become a Dreamer, special mage who can use the Fade like Feynriel from DA2 or Solas in Inquisition?
Why is Solas so certain that killing the Evanuris is not feasible? Is he lying to us and using their power to supplement his own, or does he not have the proper means to destroy them.
The other Evanuris did successfully kill/diminish Mythal where she became a mere wisp and had to body hop across generations of human women to sustain herself.

I await further details but if it is Solas who tells us we are tied to the Fade it is likely that he is holding back the full details of why this should be. Feynriel seemed to have no limit to his range since he was able to influence the minds of the men on the Sword Coast to kill one another when he was up in Tevinter. In Masked Empire Mihris said that the Dalish believed the Dreamers of old were capable of this, contacting their allies, giving them orders and sending spirits to aid them whilst in Uthenera and it would seem what she said was true. (When they found the murdered Dreamer in the pocket realm in the Crossroads, Felassan said it was a pity as "This one could have helped".  With what I wonder?  He seemed truly distraught that they had perished.)  When we spend time in the Fade with Solas in DAI it may be assumed it was the anchor that allowed this but, now we know who he is, perhaps it was always just Solas controlling our mind. Remember he continued to haunt the dreams of a Lavellan who romanced him even though the anchor was now gone.

So, I am still deeply suspicious of the whole business and the explanation for why he can speak with us from the Fade. Even his claim to be trapped there is something I would prefer being independently verified. For Solas to be "trapped" in the Fade is not such a serious prospect as it would be for an ordinary mortal and given he normally manifests in the Fade as the Dread Wolf, it is likely he is more powerful there than outside it. With this permanent link does that mean he could kill us any time he wants to if we don't do as he demands?

I still suspect that whilst his "plan" for the Evanuris may not have gone entirely as he intended, we were still an integral part of it. That is why he told the Inquisitor about his intentions for the Veil, why he left the breadcrumb trail for Varric and Harding to follow in the Missing, so ensuring that they were exactly where he wanted them to be when he began his ritual, conveniently leaving an eluvian open so they could reach Arlathan Forest. Also, he had previously told Charter that the world would end when his ritual completed and it was implied it had already begun. He said that elven rituals of that magnitude normally required years to complete, so that would be consistent with him waiting to tell the Inquisitor until after it had started and then just saying they were in the final countdown so enjoy it whilst you can.

So, I think the Devs allowed this much information to be released in order to increase our enthusiasm for what is to come but there is likely a lot more to it than we have been told so far.

Well that is debatable. Clearly he knew enough to split his soul with his dragon, which I assume is an elven trick since Mythal did it with her amulet and that is why Solas thought Cory wouldn't know how to do it. Of course, there is also the whole body hopping thing with the Arch-demons, so may be he learned it from Dumat when communing with him through his dreams. I was never clear about this because he body hopped to the Grey Warden in Legacy and yet instead of killing them both, he simply possessed them. I've suggested this is because he was controlling their mind so they weren't unwilling to accept him but it is something of a puzzle. Also, when did he soul share with his dragon, before his capture or after his release? He also knew about the connection of the elves with the Fade before his ritual because that is why he knew to use elven slaves for it. So, it seems likely he must have uncovered some ancient writings or "Dumat" speaking to him informed him of the fact.

As for knowledge of the Blight, well obviously he knew nothing before they went to the Black City (which they expected to be golden) but according to his memory crystals once they discovered the "Darkness" they quickly realised the potential power and happily embraced it. Then they got burped back out again; I wonder if that was some fail safe security measure of Solas.

Also, once he had the orb Corypheus seemed to gain a lot of knowledge from there as there was a codex in the Arbor Wilds (that I can't seem to find in the Wiki) where he told either Samson or Calpernia (I think it was the former) that was why he knew about the Well of Sorrows. So, that may account for various other statements he made that seemed to suggest knowledge from ancient times. He was also undertaking a ritual to unlock the orb/create the anchor and enter the Fade at the Conclave. Where did he acquire that knowledge? Presumably from the orb if it also acted as a sort of magical book but otherwise did someone tell him?

And who showed them how to do that? Solas. They had no idea that is what it could do until he grabbed their hand and held it up to the rift. That is what I am saying about Corypheus. He may not have known exactly how the orb was constructed but he knew enough about what it could do to create the ritual at the Conclave and knew it would open the way back into the Fade/Black City. He was clearly correct about this because of course we did open a rift and entered the Fade ourselves later on without consciously thinking what we were doing. I seem to remember discussing this with either Solas or Dorian after the event and being advised not to try it again because clearly if we had done it once there is no reason to think we couldn't repeat the feat.

Now, Dorian also mentioned he had seen foci in pictures of the ancient Magisters in the archives of the Circle in Minrathous. We also learn in JoH that the priests of Razikale were apparently using lesser foci in their rituals, so the concept of using a magical orb to focus magical energy was not unknown to people of Corypheus' time. Thus, using the orb to channel power was something he may have already had the requisite knowledge for but what about the ritual? The priests of Razikale were simply trying to contact their goddess, not open a way into the Fade. In any case, it does seem that Corypheus had a degree of knowledge of these items but not the full extent of the uses to which they could be put. It would seem he only discovered that once the orb was in his possession and unlocked. I don't really see how it was relevant whose orb it originally was or how it was created. He knew enough that he was able to use it and that it would enable him to achieve his objective of entering the Black City a second time once he had created the anchor. I'm assuming that was what the ritual was intended to do since he was holding up the orb in front of Justinia during the ritual, she knocked it away in our direction and then when we touched it the anchor transferred to the Inquisitor, automatically opened a rift that took us to the Fade but left the orb behind for Corypheus to recover. At the very end, we somehow knew how to use the anchor to draw the orb to us and then use it to close the Breach. So, having full knowledge of an item and who was the original owner did not seem to be a requisite to being able to use it effectively. Likely Cory didn't care so long as it could fulfill his purpose.

As for the Blight, once again I doubt Corypheus was that bothered about its origins but merely that it gave him power. Presumably he had enough knowledge to prevent it destroying his mind as it did to most of those mortals infected with it. Perhaps being infected at source had something to do with that. Obviously Solas knows far more than he let on about the Blight. I can understand him being careful what he revealed when he was still playing the part of a humble apostate but I do feel that if its origins and threat to the world are important with respect to his determination to proceed with his plan, then I fail to understand why he couldn't have told us in Trespasser. Of course, it may be that cleansing the world of the Blight is not his main aim in dropping the Veil but he just anticipates it will be a by-product of that action. Even so, it would be helpful in allowing us to know why it might be beneficial to let him succeed. Also, knowing how the Blight originated or what red lyrium is did not stop the Venatori using it to further their plans. As with Corypheus and the Darkness, all they likely see is a source of power regardless of the consequences for others, which is probably very much like the original Evanuris.

There are two different things being considered here. Starting with the second one first, how important is the idol going to be? Well, we have been speculating that the blade Solas was using in his ritual was taken from the idol. Certainly Tevinter Nights confirmed that such a blade could be used to open a conduit to the Fade if not actually remove the Veil. Fen'Harel said to the mages attempting a ritual there that they were dabbling with forces they didn't properly understand and were threatening all creation as a result. Pretty strong stuff. So even if we never see the idol again, because the same story suggested he had recovered it, it would seem from the promo poster that we may inherit the ritual blade. As for the blade appearing normal and not infected red lyrium, well Merrill was able to cleanse her eluvian of the blight through knowledge given by the demon, so I assume Solas would have the necessary know how too. Perhaps we will learn more once we get past the prologue of the game.

As for red lyrium itself, I am sure that is going to feature. There has been plenty of concept art and screen shots showing mutated darkspawn that appear to have been enhanced with red lyrium. We also know the Venatori have been using it and are probably farming it since they seemed to have it in such abundance that Forfex was using it for something as trivial as fashion wigs. We were told by our researchers that it can grow on practically any living organism, which was bad news when it came to preventing its spread. Finding a way to reverse the corruption in the lyrium may well be a major plot thread.

Well the extent of it did depend to some extent on which path you took, mage or Templar. The latter was the one that resulted in the most red lyrium spread. However, in view of the fact that we are unlikely to return that far south, they will either quietly forget it or just have some vague codex concerning the matter, saying that people they are still researching the matter without being too committal on how much it as spread, if at all. Of course, they might say that Dagna eventually perfected a method of cleansing a limited area and then they even bring it into the plot by getting us to discover a way of extending its effectiveness over a wider range. I will be disappointed this time round if they don't give us more on the actual origins of the taint and thus a potential way of countering it. If nothing else solve the riddle of whether red lyrium came first, somewhere in the depths of Thedas, and then turned into the blight or vice versa. There was some mention of discovering that the ancient elves had perfected a way of incorporating lyrium into their architecture, so there may be a clue there why the golden city ultimately turned black.

That's really sad to hear. Not being facetious but have you tried a different chair? Some years back my job entailed sitting at a desk all day and I had problems until I got a chair with better back support. After that I wouldn't give it up under any circumstances. My firm changed office space and was getting all new furniture but I absolutely refused to part with my chair and in the end my boss gave in and let me keep it, even though it didn't match with anything in the new offices. I found a similar chair to use at home and still do. Also, the advice to get up and walk around at intervals is a good one, as is taking regular exercise outside of work or walking at least part of the way to work. I'm not sure which of these worked for me; perhaps it was a combination of all three but my back is still holding up so far in my advancing years, touch wood.