If Mythal can be in two places at once, why shouldn’t Solas also be able to do that? Proposed: Felassan is Solas, but a rebellious incarnation with too much sympathy for the modern elves.
Arlathan is not actually the capital city of Elvhenan – it’s just the last large city still standing in the wake of the Veil. There is no capital city, because the empire is split along factional lines, see ‘Dirthamen’s city’ and … I know there’s another reference to … Mythal’s cities, maybe? Something after the war started. Point is, it’s more likely something like Ferelden, which is composed of a grand multiplicity of loosely allied tribes, who kicked each other’s asses on a regular basis before Calenhad, who established a nation with a capital in Denerim. (On top of which, there’s also the Forgotten Ones, and whatever the hell they were doing.) Alternately, Arlathan was the capital, weirdly far from the birthplace of elvhen civilisation, but no longer functionally served as one, once the evanuris started getting shitty with each other.
Assuming, for a moment, that Solasan has nothing to do with Solas – not actually a bad assumption, considering that ‘Solas’ is simply the word for ‘pride’ and the pride demon that presumably was responsible for the name is trapped there – what the fuck was the actual purpose of this place, before its last inhabitants sealed themselves in with the demon, in the hopes of containing it?
Why do all these fucking castle/fortress/ruin layouts make no actual practical god damn sense? I’m serious, though. Where the fuck is the light coming from? Why is there a fucking sarcophagus in the middle of what is probably a linen closet? Yeah, there’s three libraries and a random altar, but where the fuck do people sleep? I found what’s probably a kitchen, but there’s no dining room, which I should be able to step into from the kitchen, or at least from like … one anteroom away.
Perhaps this is what @thebearmuse was referring to, but it reminded me of the legends saying that Fen’Harel would cut off pieces of himself in order to escape like chewing off his own tail. Perhaps there are or were other aspects of Solas that he has had to cut off over the years?
If this is the sort of shit that comes out of you when you cut in, you should probably do it more often.
The story in question is in a conversation with Merrill:
“You know what the Dalish say to their dogs? “Take the Dread Wolf by the ear if he comes.”“
“Long ago, a clan lived on the Silent Plains. It was a terrible, lonely place where the sun was forbidden to shine. Their Keeper
had a coursing hound. They had run down deer and hares and wolves
together when they were young. But they had grown old together, Keeper
and hound, and now only dozed before the campfire, dreaming of hunts.”
“But then the Dread Wolf came, for the Keeper was
wise and kind—the things Fen’Harel hates above all else. At night, he
tried to steal into the Keeper’s dreams, to twist his mind and turn him
against the People. But even in dreams, the courser guarded his master.
He caught the Dread Wolf’s scent and gave chase across the Fade.”
“Fen’Harel tried to shake his pursuer, but the hound
ran as coursers can only run in their dreams. Even the wind couldn’t
have fled that hound. He ran the Dread Wolf down and grabbed him by the
tail! Fen’Harel howled, so loud that the Veil shook and even the stars
scattered in fear. But the hound wouldn’t let go.”
“Neither hound nor Wolf gave in. Finally, Fen’Harel
bit off his own tail to escape, and away he fled. Ever since, the Dread
Wolf thinks twice about playing his tricks when dogs are on guard.”
There’s a lot in here that wants a second look:
Dalish legend often converts ancient stories to make sense with the Dalish lifestyle – clans and keepers, where cities and high priests might have been more accurate. So, there are some elements of truth here, most likely, but hidden under a hundred generations of ‘that doesn’t make sense, are you sure you don’t mean…?’
“even in dreams, the courser guarded his master“ What the hell kind of dog is this? That is some serious shit. That is at least a mabari, that it goes to the Fade in dreams and has the necessary control to continue guarding its master. I have questions about whether that’s actually a dog, rather than a Dreamer or a spirit given form.
Have we seen Dalish dogs anywhere but here? We know the Emerald Knights travelled with wolves. [x]
Dogs, in the common parlance, are a reference to Fereldans. The Alamarri used to live in relative peace with the elves, likely during the last days of the empire. Ferelden also has some interesting legends around wolves and dogs.
The Silent Plains, though? Tevinter. IIRC, the resting place of the entire city of Barindur, though I can’t find that reference right now. [x]
“a terrible, lonely place where the sun was forbidden to shine“. Holy fuck, where do I even begin to unpack that? The Sun, in elven legend, is the “father” of Elgar’nan and Mythal, the essence of the Fade, as the Stone is the essence of the earth. So, I’d be tempted to read this as ‘this is a place where the magics of the Fade do not reach’. Assuming Barindur, which legend says was destroyed by Dumat, but Solas says was buried in ash (like Pompeii). Titans control the earth – they cause earthquakes. Would it not make sense for a titan to also be responsible for a volcano? And… there is something in here about titans and dwarven magic (Valta and Sandal), which is from the titans, and not from the Fade. IDFK, there’s something here, and I’m not quite sure how it goes together.
If the hound runs down the Dread Wolf once, what exactly stops him, the second time? Fen’Harel bites his tail off and just starts running. This time, the hound doesn’t go after him.
But, yeah, you may be onto something there, about Fen’Harel shedding wisps to escape. There’s another story that Felassan tells to Briala, where Fen’Harel is caught by Andruil, but in this one, he chews through the rope, not part of his body. Still. I like the idea of trickster-wisps bitten off in battle and left to fend for themselves.
For some reason I was sure that there was another story of Fen’Harel losing a limb in order to escape, but I must have been thinking of the rope.
The Dalish legend you quoted is great – I never gave it much thought before but there is so much here! This dog certainly sounds like some kind of spirit.
As for the Pompeiian Barindur, I wonder if there’s any chance that the ‘real’ story takes places after it was covered in ash. Maybe the Keeper and the hound were still seated, both physically, and maybe spiritually trapped in place. I love the idea of Dwarven magic and Titans being involved in the disaster.
And lastly, what is the real reason the Dread Wolf went after this particular Keeper’s dreams? Did something happen to the hound to make it stop running? Did the tail turn into something else?
another story of Fen’Harel losing a limb in order to escape
Weirdly, I thought so too, but I just went diving for it and I can’t find it. Also checked werewolf legends, just in case, which brought up an interesting line:
The ability of normal dogs to detect a werewolf even when it is in a
human guise is what first led Fereldans to adopt dogs as indispensable
companions in every farmhold. [x]
Which… makes me think the Dalish keep dogs because they can detect both werewolves (frequently demon-possessed) and the Dread Wolf. And probably elves possessed by or composed offragments of Fen’Harel.
And yet? We’ve still never seen a Dalish dog, that I can think of. (Somebody please correct me. I’m probably forgetting something from a novel.)
what is the real reason the Dread Wolf went after this particular Keeper’s dreams
Consider what Solas says about it. He talks about having tried to communicate with the Dalish again and again, only to be chased away. There’s a pretty good chance he was trying to start a rebellion. Very likely to also pass on elven history, but… I’d say that post-Dales – which since he’s talking about the Dalish, it is – there’s a non-zero chance he’s trying to rally the remains of the elves against the Chantry, just as he may or may not have rallied them against Tevinter. And on that note…
… So, you know how Mythal talks about having nudged and/or shoved history during most of its important events? Yeah, the intro to the Canticle of Shartan in World of Thedas 2 documents, without reproducing, elven legends about a ‘trickster warrior’ leading ‘a rebellion against tyrants’.
If I’m right about Felassan, one also wonders about Shartan. It is said no clan claimed Felassan and no one was ever quite sure where he came from or if he was Dalish at all. *gestures to the failure to locate an actual Shartan in historical record* I’d venture that Felassan and possibly even Solas show up pretty much nowhere in future records.
I also suspect the legends in question are actually the story of Fen’Harel vs the Evanuris and/or the Forgotten Ones.
Ooooooh.
So why are dogs special?
Is it because they smell the difference, like some dogs can sniff out cancer/blood sugar drops/whatever before they happen, and anything with a similar sense of smell could do that? (Dogs being handy because packbonding and responding to intruders)
Yeah, I’d venture they can smell the difference… which… oddly just pushed me off into somewhat unrelated territory… If they can smell werewolves, can they also smell abominations? Since, for the most part* in Thedas, werewolves are a subset of abominations. in which case the Hawke mabari not taking Anders’s arm off might should say something
And the other question: Do the dogs need to be trained to notice the difference, or is this just something they do instinctively? The quote makes it sound like something dogs just do – a reason to take a dog into the family, rather than something you can train the family dog to do.
* Some werewolves are not demon-possessed, but change form for other reasons like curses. I’m looking at you Zathrian…
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