8 Year timeskip

Solas is going to feel really silly when he realises he could have saved 4 years had he simply learned to cast Haste first.

That's a good point! Maybe one of the big challenges the DA4 protagonist will have to overcome is convincing a skeptical public to take the threat seriously. Maybe the protag and their allies come to be seen as a doomsday cult. Maybe there are vocal end-of-the-world deniers who need to swayed or silenced. Maybe Solas' agents (since they are mostly elves and more likely to go unnoticed) will be working behind the scenes to sew seeds of doubt and discredit the protag and their allies. Idk. It would be a really interesting plot point, though.

I was going to expand upon my comment on the first page (re: "I have several thoughts but I’m not sure how to accurately put them down in words, so I’ll make a more coherent post later") but I honestly forgot what I was going to say. Something about the Grey Wardens. What happens to them during this timeskip? I hope we learn more about the internal schism in the Order in DA4. It could have something to do with Avernus' research, or the Architect, or the cure for the Calling... I am curious to find out how the HoF's quest resolves. Sorry, my thoughts are scattered. Point is, something big is going down in the Wardens, and I hope it's relevant to the plot. Oh, and I'd love to see a return of griffons. Even if the mount system in Inquisition was terrible and useless. Because griffons. Those baby griffs Isseya found should be full-grown by 9:52.

If I recall correctly, that promo video in Summer 2020 said something about you being the one to take action when those in power are ignoring the threat. (I can't quote exactly as currently my PC doesn't play back sound from the Internet and the reader doesn't always translate words correctly). Anyway, it is possible to think of several examples where this might be relevant:

Grey Warden plot - the leadership are refusing to take the warning about the Horror of Hormack seriously. They are too busy embroiled in internal politics.

Tevinter - there is still too much corruption and political power play in the Magisterium to properly deal with the Qunari threat. Meanwhile the ordinary Soporati and Laetans out in the wider Imperium are struggling to survive.

The Qun - the Antaam are too busy focused on conquest, whilst the Ben'Hassrath are insisting the Solas is still the real threat.

Grand Necropolis - the Mortalitasi are too embroiled in internal politics to examine and deal with a disturbing development in the spirit world.

Solas plot - most human leaders refuse to take the threat seriously, think the Inquisitor made up a lot of it just to maintain power and that even if Solas did threaten to destroy the world, was just an apostate elf with delusions of grandeur who had adopted the name from Dalish mythology to frighten people. Most witnesses who could verify the story are now dead or petrified (which pretty much amounts to the same thing), apart from the inner Circle from the former Inquisition, who most people will think are biased.   The Qun could also confirm the threat but who is going to trust them?

I would also mention that I think Solas wants Tevinter and the Qun to be at each other's throats because that will allow him/his agents to be missed among the chaos.   I'm pretty sure that the agent in Tevinter Nights who was trying to escalate the conflict to bring in Par Vollen, and make any sort of truce with Tevinter impossible, was doing so with his approval.   Also, they targeted the Qun's mobile Darvaarad, their base for studying magical energies and artifacts and how to deal with them.  Gatt said they had moved it to a ship in order to keep it on the move and maintain secrecy about its location but this clearly hadn't worked where Solas was concerned.   It is also said in another story that the Ben'Hassrath know more about Solas' movements than anyone else.   Of course, the Qun's agents are frequently elves so might well be in a position to acquire more information, possibly as double agents.     However, what I took from those stories is that not only are the Ben'Hassrath focusing their energies on finding and neutralising Solas but that he does regard them as a threat.

I’m certain the Grey Warden plot has something to do with their leadership being too entrenched in politics. I don’t remember ever seeing anything about a “Horror of Hormack,” but it’s possible I missed something. Where is this mentioned?

As previous poster says, it was in the volume of short stories called Tevinter Nights that was released in Spring 2020. The Horror of Hormack was particularly thought provoking and could point to a number of plot threads in the next game, not just concerning the Wardens. However, it is a Warden who makes the discovery and was going to report back to HQ. You would think that would be something the leadership would make top priority but the First Warden is said in World of Thedas to be deeply embroiled in Anderfels politics and we know from the epilogue to DAI that there would seem to be problems at HQ resulting from the southern Wardens reporting back after Corypheus, so there does seem to be a lot of problems the First Warden has to deal with.

However, the time skip to 9:52 may minimise the amount of attention they give to that plot resolution hanging over from DAI. The slide ended with:

What becomes of Hawke/Loghain/Stroud/Alistair is unknown – save that all news out of Weisshaupt soon ends.
Does the sudden silence indicate a battle within... or something far worse?

Now, of course, they hand waved away the sinister implications if Hawke was the one living and you ask Varric about it. He just makes some jokey comment about Hawke leaving the place amid explosions or something and then in the epilogue to Trespasser Hawke is back in Kirkwall, with nothing more said on the subject of the Wardens. The "something far worse" could easily be shown to be some sort of problem related to what was found in Tevinter Nights, or something else entirely but I'm hoping it will be addressed properly next game. Whatever the case, it seems pretty certain we will finally be visiting the famous Grey Warden fortress, judging by the concept art that has been released and the number of short stories featuring Wardens, Evka in particular.

I wouldn't go that far. The threat posed in Horror of Hormak is considerable, but not in a "NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME" kind of way.

(Also, the threat was kind of hilarious, unless you were one of the people who was terrified by Spliced.)

Please don't do that! We're off topic anyway. But definitely read Tevinter Nights!

Heh, I’m now picturing the IRL equivalent: a retired military general suddenly starts babbling about some ancient god (from a religion they don’t even belong to, in many worldstates) who is definitely, for real going to destroy the world any day now, I swear you guys. Especially considering that all the recent world-ending threats got mopped up incredibly fast, with only small pockets of Thedas bearing the brunt of the damage.

This is why I thought it might be argued that most people outside of the Inner Circle might be rather skeptical of the story. Of course, it isn't anything new as a plot device. In DAO people were questioning if it was a real Blight, except those in the south who were actually overrun with darkspawn, which is why Loghain got the support he did in opposition to the Wardens; in DA2 (MoA) Hawke discovers the Qun have a network of spies across southern Thedas but people refuse to believe them (which is odd if the events at the end of Act 2 have already happened and they have seen waves of local elves attacking with the Arishok); in DAI the initial doubts come over the legitimacy of the title Herald of Andraste (which turn out to be valid objections although the Inquisition suppress the truth). Then at the end of Trespasser the slide specifically says concerning the elves disappearing across southern Thedas that "those who believed the Inquisitor's story about Fen'Harel wondered just how large the Dread Wolf's forces were... and what the ancient elven rebel had planned."

Two points here, it definitely suggests that some people who were warned about Solas didn't believe the story and even those that did seemed to be speculating what the ancient elven rebel had planned. Note that they do not view him as an elven god but just an ancient elf who was once a rebel in his own time and surely they know what he has planned, he is going to destroy the fabric of reality. Clearly that last part is too much for people to swallow. They prefer to believe that he is gathering elven forces for perhaps some sort of rebellion, which they feel they can deal with, rather than a ritual of world changing magic as the Inquisitor has told them.

Exactly. We know that the orb Corypheus used belonged once to Solas and what it was capable of, even without the trip to the future. We were prepared to believe that the old Dalish stories were true and the elves once did have universal magic that was stripped from them at some point, for which Solas claimed responsibility. We saw the various proofs of his claim throughout the eluvian network. Other people didn't. Why wouldn't they suggest that it was the ravings of a deluded apostate elf and the desperate attempt of the Inquisitor to justify leaving their organisation alone. You will recall that as we approach the Exalted Council at the end, Teagan can be heard talking and he does seem more concerned about Solas escalating tensions with the Qunari rather than the threat posed by him directly. It would also seem that they didn't even take seriously the fact that Solas had saved them from invasion by the Qunari through his interference.

It is noticeable in Tevinter Nights that the people who are willing to co-operate with the shadow Inquisition are more from the fringes of society. There was a member of the Carta, a underworld criminal organisation; a member of the Mortalitasi who had been engaged in illicit magical activity in collaboration with an individual from Tevinter that technically would have broken the Llomerryn Accord had it succeeded (so likely not with official approval) and an individual representing the Executors, a shadowy cult of dubious origins. There was not one representative from the legitimate leadership across Thedas (bearing in mind that the Inquisition itself should have been disbanded in some world states). There wasn't even a representative of the Crows, the acknowledged power behind the throne and protectors of Antiva. Not exactly a united front in attempting to trace and deal with the threat Solas presents.

Charter said that the Tevinter Sicarri were invited but declined to answer the request. So that could be because they don't trust the Inquisition (who could have been working with their enemies at one point), don't take the threat of Solas seriously or simply are too wrapped up in dealing with the Antaam overrunning their country.

Apparently the Ben'Hassrath also didn't answer. Now since she admits they know more about Solas' movements than anyone else, that could be because they knew he would infiltrate the meeting. They certainly may not have wished to share information with anyone else, knowing how Solas is watching people and not trusting others to keep it secret. However, they do seem to be co-operating with the Inquisition to some extent because Gatt seemed to know that Varric was co-ordinating the response to Solas' threat. So it is possible that Charter was lying and never invited them because they were already sharing information and she knew the Qun didn't want it to go any further. It is noticeable that the Executors were particularly curious about the lack of involvement by the Qunari and questioned if they were afraid to "speak with us." I wonder if by "us" they meant the gathered party or just the Executors? Does that mean the Executors know there is a reason the Qunari might fear them?

The Lords of Fortune are just a loose knit guild of Fortune Hunters so no real reason to involve them unless the Inquisition wanted to recover a particular item (as happened in one of the stories) but I still think it odd the Crows weren't invited and that no one else remarked on their absence. Perhaps the meeting was simply for those who had experience of direct contact with the Dread Wolf, although that would be telling with regard to the Executors. Why were they invited to the meeting. Did they approach Charter or the other way around?