I know I said I wasn’t going to do any more speculation but that was speculation based on a 60 second teaser trailer and a single image. Fuck that for a joke. No, this is speculation based on what we see in Trespasser and what we know of elven lore (as I remember it). So, you know, established facts.
So, I was thinking this morning about how powerful Solas was shown to be in Trespasser. I mean, he didn’t need the Inquisition’s help to deal with the Qunari. He just shoved that dead Qunari through into Halamshiral so our Inquisitors would know that the Inquisition was riddled with spies (I’m sure he realised his own spies would be outed as well but considered it one last act of kindness to the Inquisitor) and so that we could deal with the human, so to speak, end of what the Qunari were doing in Orlais, Fereldan and wherever else.
I mean, from what we see through that last Eluvian and everything we see leading up to that, the idea that Solas needed our help to deal with the Qunari is laughable at best. It’s why I snort and laugh a little derisively at all those posts I see about how ‘so-and-so’ (be it Hawke or Merrill or the Inquisitor or whoever) is going to come along and ‘fuck Solas’ shit up’.
No.
No, they aren’t.
They really, really aren’t. They will end up alongside the Viddasala in the pantheon of really bad ideas.
Solas is kin to the Evanuris, the Elven gods, and no matter how much he denies being a god, he clearly has the same kind of power. We see that in Trespasser, very, very clearly displayed. There is no effort involved in what he does to the Viddasala and her people. He doesn’t have to work for it in a protracted battle which leaves him exhausted. He barely flicks a finger. Dealing with the Viddasala and her people was little more than a minor annoyance to him. (Not so much to the powerful Inquisitor though, eh? Some of those battles in Trespasser were a pain in the butt. So what does that tell you about anyone’s ability to *ahem* ‘fuck Solas’ shit up’? Yeah. Think on that.)
So… if they’re going to allow people to try and kill him in DA4 (ugh, what a waste in my opinion but, eh, you do you) then they’re going to either have to incorporate a way to reduce his power to bring him down to a mortal’s level or allow the MC, whoever that ends up being, to become ridiculously overpowered. Like, god-level overpowered. The MC would have to equal or better Solas’ power.
The kind of power that gets you called and considered a god.
The question is would that gain of power be a temporary thing that will be taken away or dissipate after Solas is defeated, would it be something they can choose to keep or give away or will it be permanent? Because that would certainly make things interesting. We’ve seen from the Evanuris that that kind of power… doesn’t always get used well and I know that I’ve got a couple of Inquisitors (just as an example, since we don’t know if our Inquisitor will appear in DA4) who, if they had that kind of power, would not use it well in the long run. They would become the kind of despots and tyrants that would make the Evanuris look like benevolent sweethearts. Not out of malice but well… they’re the Inquisitor. They know what’s right and everyone else just needs to accept that. That kind of power would definitely go to their heads and they would misuse it.
Maybe that’s what the plot of DA5 will be? The MC in DA5 will be finding a way to defeat the MC from DA4. *LOL* Though that would be a bit limiting for those who try to either redeem Solas or at least talk him down from the edge and try and redirect him into a better path. I mean, as anyone who has done the high friendship path in Trespasser can tell you, Solas actually pretty much says he would like you to stop him. He can’t see a better way but he kind of hopes you can. It makes sense. He’s too close to the problem, too caught up in his grief and guilt. He can’t see the forest for the trees.
Anyway, that’s my mild speculation. I don’t have any favourite theory that I’m desperately married too because it’s way too early to be clinging to any kind of theory or speculation. Remember, we all got excited when we saw the alpha testing stuff from Inquisition and how much of that actually made it into the final product?
Solas talks on and on at length about how it’s the ultimate foolishness to use red lyrium (he says it’s like drinking a poisoned glass of wine) and the other evanuris nearly destroyed the world trying to harness the power of the blight.. he belittles the Gray Wardens for corrupting themselves with darkspawn blood like it’s a good solution… he talks about how foolish it is to underestimate the Blight or try to control it or outsmart it. Solas is smart and he knows what this shit does. I seriously doubt he’s corrupting himself with red lyrium… to the point where all the speculative art about it has been really confusing to me. I had to be like “oh, people think he’s hanging out with that lyrium idol? Like, in close proximity? Even though it’s clearly encircled like it’s contained/imprisoned?”
But then my shoulder devil is like ‘if Solas needed the power of red lyrium to complete the dinan’shiral, he would do it without hesitation’ and I’m like shut up shoulder devil please….
A thought: that idol could represent someone specific. The figure on it kinds looks like mythal to me with its crown, though it was probably originally designed in da2 to look like meredith? Anyway, i could see it being intended to look like Andruil.
Also, it might not be the source of the corruption, but it definitely contains a whole concentrated bunch of it. So clearly it served some purpose long ago. I like the idea that the primeval thaig was a containment chamber for the corruption from the time before the Veil.
Theres a connection, while we’re on it, between the abyss in dalish mythology, andruil (who made an armor of the Void during her escapades into the abyss, which drove her mad and brought plague to the lands hmmm sounds a lot like the blight!!!), the eluvians in the deep roads, titans + their blood, and the fact that lyrium can carry the corruption.
My idea is that the Abyss refers to the deep roads, and that some of the evanuris were sealed there rather than in the Fade, which is the heavens in dalish myth. I believe the evanuris created the corruption in their war against the titans; andruil may have used red lyrium she recovered from the deep roads/abyss to make void armor/weapons. Mythal was eventuallly the one who snapped her out of her insanity, so what if she sealed the corruption away in the idol, or the idol was one of the weapons andruil made? Either way, the primeval thaig is probably elvhen, not dwarven. I think we’ll find out how it all connects once they finally release this fucking game.
pay attention to the use of ouroboros in DA . The red lyrium idol has one including what seems like other snakes. you can see the red eye of the snake eating itself.
– Solas’ voice sounds kind of different, tired/ exhausted? Maaaybe that means we only find Solas near the end of the game? (Hope not.) Or maybe the VA just needs to get into practice again lol
– If he isn’t saying those lines to the Inquisitor I will never trust Bioware with story telling again. (Half-joking but seriously those lines will mean the most to an Inquisitor protagonist, not a random new protagonist.)
– On a sadder note, looking at it, it seems obvious that they really are just in the very early stages of the game development, because they have nothing to show us, except the close up of one 3d model, some concept art, and one line we already heard in Trespasser… I know we already knew this, but I guess I was secretly hoping the development was a little further on.
I'm Dragon Age Trash 