Dragon Age: The Missing (Comic Miniseries)

My first thought on this was that Solas probably is using the kidnap victims in an experiment of some sort. Maybe to determine what is going on with their blood, maybe to determine what to do in terms of making an army with the pools from Hormock. But there is some logic to your suggestion since the Blight/ Darkspawn Blood/ Red Lyrium can weaken the veil then maybe he is planning to just get a massive amount of Darkspawn together and do a little blood letting to breach the Fade. Or alternatively the Inquisition could just be hunting down any lead. 

I suppose this could be part of his "plans" for dealing with the freed Evanuris. Alternatively, if the Evanuris are corrupted, may be he is looking at a way of controlling them. Another possibility is that he is simply researching ways of curing the Blight. There have been hints that may be he took action against the Evanuris to prevent the Blight from escaping into the world at large, with him containing the corruption within the Eternal City. With that plan overturned by the action of the Magisters Sidereal, he knows the world will ultimately be doomed unless something is done to deal with it. Whether that also means he is simultaneously researching alternatives to destroying the Veil, only time will tell.

Then again, the comic series blurb linking it to Solas may be nothing more than a red herring, although, as others have said, it might involve another dangerous group, like the Executors. However, the fact that in issue 2 they head for Vyrantium, the hotbed for Venatori, suggests to me that the kidnap victims are more likely to have something to do with them. After all, they apparently have enough red lyrium that they can afford to waste it of trivia like wig making. That suggests they must have a major red lyrium farm somewhere in the area and need victims to grow it. Perhaps they have also discovered you can grow it quicker with darkspawn.

The thought was in the back of my head as well. That the Inquisition hears about some weird circumstance, connects it to Solas, and decides to investigate any lead they can, which then leads them to the real threat of the comic mini series. And the Venatori seem a lot more likely culprits then anyone else. They have the motive, the definite morality, the magic, and the expertise (thanks to Red Lyrium) to maybe control the Darkspawn and have them do their bidding. Of course this does raise the rather freightening possibility of the Venatori with a force of Darkspawn at their beck and call...and well remember that Corypheus did have some ability to maniuplate the taint both with his Dragon, his false calling, his manipulation of the Wardens at various time, and then the ability to possess tainted creatures so its not that far of a leap.  

Reading between the lines and with some supposition of what is going on in a lot of these stories I think the Inquisition and their allies are basically throwing darts at the dart board and are so desperate for any information that they are hunting down as many leads as they can no matter how incidental. Though it does occur to me I don't think we know exactly yet how they get on this little quest of theirs in the first place so who knows what the exact rumors are. But yes, I doubt the Inquisition has any solid pieces of information on Solas so they are likely trying to gobble up any ancient artifacts or leads with even a whiff of Solas. The Circulum. That one thing in the Short Story with the Lords of Fortune and their little heist in TVN. Brother Genitivi Dies in the End. The Dreadwolf takes you. The list goes on. 

That’s ironic, considering their first appearance was in the story “Hunger” from Tevinter Nights.

Good find!

www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/FEB230423

Maybe we'll get a few sneak peeks of places we'll get to see in the game...

Thank you for sharing! Where did you find that image?

This is a distinct possibility based off her short story. It said there she could sense something powerful beneath Minrathous. If Solas is in the city then that could be the reason. Even if that isn't the reason, I'm sure there are artifacts in their archives that he would be interested in. After all, Dorian told him he had seen pictures of ancient Tevinter Dreamers holding foci and Solas pretty much stated they must have been stolen from the elves.   Calpernia would seem to have been party to much of what Corypheus knew about the elves too.

However, if it is Calpernia, I think we are going to discover she is no longer with the Venatori but has been using information gained from them. I cannot see how Calpernia would associate herself with the sort of people we encountered in the Wigmaker Job. In fact I did wonder if she was connected with the mysterious sponsor of Lucanis. Anyway, if it turns out to be Calpernia, this could be the connection with the game as she will be one of our potential companions via her encounter with Harding and Varric.

In which case, the mage in this concept art is likely Calpernia and the team are trying to infiltrate either the Circle of Magi (former temple of Razikale) or the Cathedral of the Black Divine (likely a former temple to one of the other Old Gods) in search of this artifact.

I found source. Cover art for 3 is from local comic shop catalog.

Yes. Leggit.

Good memory - It's been a while since I've read her short story...

Yeah, she's long been on my "potential companion" list, and this would be a good way to fill in the gaps since DA:I.

She might still have a faction of Venatori loyal to her, just as she has her group of loyal spies (freed slaves).

That's definitely Calpernia's character model (based on her previous concept art), but I'm always leery of lending too much weight to early concept art. Esp. since we've seen them use Assassin's Creed for inspiration.

I wasn't either but if the mysterious "Venatori" in issue 4 does turn out to be her, then this concept art becomes more credible.