Role of Inquisitor and Inquisition in DA4

imgur.com/NreJVVN

How about some concept art speculation? So some people are saying the guy kneeling might be the inquisitor. Same armor with insignia on the front, face similiarities to the inquisitor in the Art of Inquisition book (though to be fair, there is no shortage of dark haired, bearded dudes in the franchise). Or other random member of the inquisition?

Well i'm hoping the Evanuris get their vengeance on Solas.

Ahh Felassan will be relieved to know he was murdered for not behaving like a slave by a misunderstood rebel hero

Everyone has differing views on Solas. He’s hands down my favorite character as of now. I don’t think he deserves a happy ending but I also don’t think he’s evil. I enjoy reading how people see him even if I don’t agree. I don’t think him not killing the Inquisitor is stupid on his part mainly because, as of Trespasser, he seems open to the possibility of a different outcome. If they find it in time good, if not then so be it. I’m interested to see where they go with that.

What I’m curious about is that during the mage storyline, the breach had expanded quite alot, right? Most of the castle was floating and the fade structures had melded with a lot of things. That was two years later? Yet the only deaths spoken of were by Cory’s demon army. Could it not be done slowly in the same way? I started out knowing where I wanted to go with this and now I’m realizing I don’t remember that quest as well as I thought. I guess it would be harder to control that way but people were alive and it wasn’t raw chaos. At least not how I picture it being if he drops the curtain all at once.

I’m morbidly curious how it would be if he succeeds but also don’t see it happening. Not by him at any rate.

I do wonder though just how he acquired the reputation he has with the Dalish, particularly as even Felassan portrays him as having a dark wisdom, just as the Dalish maintain, in his stories to Briala and since she know nothing of the the Dalish legends, he didn't have to go along with their idea of him.

Also, he is only on the good side if you believe him that Mythal was the one good god among the rest of them. Even there, he was supporting her in her subjugation of the dwarves and he admits after WEWH that he enjoys the intrigue and scheming of the Game. Felassan also suggests to Briala that life among the elven elite was very different to that of the Orlesian Court and their attitude and treatment of servants was pretty much the same too. So it seems to me that Solas was quite happy with his tyrant run magical world for the first few thousand years of the elven empire. He only changed because of what they did to Mythal but what if their actions were justified because of what she was doing?

Incidentally I leave Ghilan'nain out of the main group of Evanuris when making these observations. From everything we have been told, she was not originally one of them, did a lot of things in secret and was powerful enough they essentially they had to bribe her to stop. Then having invited her into their ranks, she seemed to respond by fermenting trouble, so I wouldn't be surprised if she was behind the murder of Mythal.

Actually it was only one year after our going to the castle. So far as I understand it, the reason things were bad but not totally destroyed was that the breach tore the Veil apart over time and it had yet completely gone. Nevertheless, with demons generally roaming the countryside, it was a pretty dangerous world to live in and not much survived outside the protection of the castle. Still, it was pretty chaotic, which is why people argue the destruction in dropping the Veil might not be absolute and there could be survivors.

The intriguing part for me are those concept pictures of floating aravels and land masses. At the end of DAI this is what happened in the area of the new breach created by Corypheus. I was never entirely sure if this was simply because of the magic leaking out of the Fade or his use of red lyrium channeled through the orb. There was, after all, a fair bit of red lyrium lying around at the site of the Sacred Ashes and it might well have grown and spread since we were last there. Anyway, are the floating aravels and rocks in a localised area of, say, Arlathan Forest, where the short story Ruins of Reality hints that strange magic is occurring, or is it an indication that Solas is going to succeed in his ritual but it doesn't pan out quite as he anticipated? Which you have to admit, wouldn't be the first time.

If we're talking about the Dread Wolf 'legend', he's certainly not a benign figure. Although it's a fair point that he has both a good and dark side, as Bioware itself is using the symbolism of his elven appearance the the monstrous wolf to rapresent this.

I also wouldn't say Mythal was that 'good'. She might've been, compared to the other Evanuris, but she still did her fair share of horrible things. I don't think howewer that his change was due of Mythal. From what I understood, he was the leader of the rebellion against the Evanuris before Mythal's murder, and he wasn't actually a member of the Evanuris. Admittedly, though, we don't know the full story and why he rebelled against them, and who he was before that. But his hate and opposition of the Evanuris seems to predate Mythal's murder, by all indications.

While I wouldn't certainly bet on any Evanuris being 'good', it is possible that they're not a monolitic group, and that some could be worse then the others, while others could have their 'good' side. As with Solas, we know little about that time and them. It's certainly one thing I want to explore more in the following game/s.

What he did in regards of the Veil wasn't good, certainly, with the exception of sealing the Evanuris. But I don't think the conflict was simply a matter of different ideological stances.
Based on what the Evanuris seemingly did during that time (and while it's true that we could learn more and have a different version from what Solas told, there are also other hints of them being as he described them), they were uber powerful, evil tyrants that treated lesses people as servants, if not worse. They were basically the Imperium before the Blights, only stronger then magisters.

Solas *seems* to have been leading a rebellion against them. If this part holds true, he was definitely on the good side, at least in the part of leading a rebellion against the Evanuris. Could we learn that he had his own selfish reasons to do that? That he wanted to rule the world, or even learn more of his backstory that would make him look no better then the Evanuris he described? Certainly. But if that happens, it would mean that both sides were bad. It's like the war between the Imperium and the Qun, to me at least.

There is no information that paint the Evanuris as being simply kings and rulers of a succesful thriving empire, if not for the earlier stages of their rule. Even the hints in Descent and Tevinter Nights about them paint the picture of greedy tyrants with little care about others, and more busy in fighting among themeselves then caring about their subjects. With perhaps one exception, and even her had her dark side.

To be clear, I don't care if, as a plot twist, it'll be revealed that Solas was lying all along, that any other hints of their evil acts were false, that even the Vallaslin wasn't used to mark slaves, and that Solas was trying to overthrow the Evanuris to get to rule Elvhenan. I don't have any stake in this debate, and I don't care which side is bad, or if both were bad. But there's no indication, right now, that the Evanuris were good, benign rulers and that Solas was simply a terrorist. If you want to believe that everything Solas told is a lie, fair enough.