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Johanna and Emmrich as young mourn watchers gives me Most Chaotic Lab Partners energy

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"Sounds like something Viago came up with."

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As much as I love Grim and Fatalistic™️ Solas, I do honestly think that this is a symptom of babygirl's depression and that it's not a core part of his identity. It's just an extreme of it. We also have evidence that when he isn't being crushed under the weight of his duty he is a lot more lighthearted and silly

E.g. one of my favourite gdl line deliveries is 'Come with me, vhenan~' right before the Crestwood scene. He's so light and carefree; he knows he's about to put his duty to rest and pursue the only thing he's ever wanted for himself. He's about to tell his soulmate the truth and give himself to them entirely, heart and soul.

It just makes me really warm and fuzzy inside to think of him like this, especially because this is the Solas Lavellan is spending eternity with. You know that once they have their Fade palace all set up that this corny mf is building an entire ballroom for them to waltz around in. That he's spontaneously taking them on trips to the most beautiful parts of the Fade for picnics and sex. Beautiful Veilfire waterfall dates so he can make up for breaking their heart by ending that encounter in Crestwood the way he wanted to; by giving himself to them as completely as he can, without the Veil inhibiting him at all. Solas is canonically very sentimental. A fully realised, living his truth™️ Solas would be so romantic and ridiculous and my Lavellan would fall in love with him all over again every time he decided to woo her just for the sake of it.

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One thing that fascinates me about Solas in Inquisition is that he does a terrible and deeply hurtful thing to the Inquisitor and all of his friends in the Inquisition; but he does it before he actually meets them.

He gives the orb to Corypheus long before he knows of any of these people, then decides to join forces with the Inquisition before most of them have shown up. And once it's done, he is essentially locked in. He can't possibly tell anyone in the Inquisition that he's responsible for everything that's happened at the Conclave and since; they would most likely kill him, or at least immediately expel him from the Inquisition. He really has no choice but to continue the deception. Maybe there's a window in which he could have told the Inquisitor, in the case of an extremely understanding and forgiving Inquisitor, but even for the very kindest of Inquisitors that would be a lot to accept.

So he's in this situation. When he first came to the Inquisition, deceiving them probably didn't seem like a particularly bad thing to do. It was a group of fervent Andrastians, followers of a religion that has committed atrocities against his people again and again. Why should he feel bad about lying to them?

But then - he starts getting to know people. He starts to make friends with them, to care for them. Maybe even to develop a romantic connection with the Inquisitor. And slowly he starts to recognise that he's doing a terrible thing to them, but he can't get out of it. There's nothing he could possibly do at this point other than simply run away, and he can't do that either because he has to stick it out to defeat Corypheus.

Every day he gets closer to them, what he's doing becomes worse. And yet the closer he gets to them, the more impossible it is to tell the truth, because the closer the friendships the more painful the betrayal. It's so fascinating and poignant to think of him stuck in this terrible cycle of steadily increasing guilt and shame and the knowledge that there's nothing he can do to make it right. You can see it in him, after the Temple of Mythal: he's increasingly spiralling and panicking and he just doesn't know how to extract himself gracefully from the situation he's created. This is a terrible thing he's done to his friends, but he did it before they were his friends and really there was no point at which he could have stopped it after that.

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I’ll show you why mages are feared

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I've been playing Dragon Age: The Veilguard. It's pretty fun. [x]

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More Solavellan. Will I ever stop drawing them? Nope. Also do I know what i was trying to do with that background? Nope.

Commission info

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Davrin Week, Day 4: Fatherhood/Childhood

I will fully admit I really just wanted to use this as an excuse to draw some Davrook with my Rook, Meantán, and the family she and Davrin would start together after Veilguard <3 They bring me so much joy to draw!

@datvcompanionweeks

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"Vhenan..."

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― J.R.R. Tolkien

Davrin Week 2025 - Shepherd/Hunter

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rook. like the chess piece?

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Card for Romi (‪feyrion.bsky.social‬) 's Rook, Thegan! Tried to make it match Davrin's <3

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When I dream of you...

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Im picturing scipio just staring dramatically out a window in Treviso. Chain smoking while viago begs him to get off his ass

(I assume emmrich is in his necropolis apartment writing tear stained letters he never sends. Or something)

I swear viago is trying to help

In his own way(hooting and hollering)

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I would also like to add: to the people who think that Solas fans are overreacting on how much vitriol they receive- if you go into the groups feature on Tumblr and type in Solas one of the first ones you see is a group dedicated entirely to hating the character and the people who like him.

man i just dont get when people in the dragon age fandom critique people for liking major characters who the game told us were important. like. of course i do. the franchise asked me to be invested in them, and because i like to play games with my whole heart, i went "ok you got it 🫡" and found the ways those characters were most interesting to me so i could be properly shocked or agonized or triumphant for whatever the series did with them next. you know? because i am here to invest myself in the story they promise to tell.

like DAO does it with Morrigan. you spend a whole game with her, she's one of the first companions who joins you, you build a relationship/learn her backstory over time, you find out more about her complicated family situation (and Flemmeth then turns up anyway in the SECOND game saying cryptic things and preparing you for even more future payoff), and then there's an entire expansion to the game where you go after her and ask for an explanation. in many versions she's got some mysterious ancient power as well with the Old God baby. the game said "this character is important and going to be relevant later" and so i went YAY!! and ate it all up. And so the shock of seeing Flemmeth again and even more grand/mysterious in DA2, and then meeting her again in DAI where she had SO much depth to her character and history based on my past choices (with or without Kieran)--the payoff was great. I was rewarded for my emotional investment (even if i disagreed with some of the things she said/does!). Getting to hear her confront Flemmeth and stand up for herself without needing the player character to stand between them as a shield this time was incredible. the growth! the satisfaction! beautiful. and so basically I see no one going "people who enjoy Morrigan are soooo annoying" or "i'm so tired of all this emphasis on Morrigan as a character!" or "why did the game have to focus so much on Morrigan and her trajectory" because like. she's one of the major NPCs. it's a throughline. just like the games told us it would be.

but then if you do the same thing in DAI. and say "okay game! I will listen to you and invest my heart in who you tell me to this time also", when the game points you at Solas. then ohhhh boy get ready for the fun new names and insults people in the fandom are coming up with to hurl at you now, after you waited 10 years for the story payoff you were promised

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And in that moment, Solas had flashbacks to Sera...

His sigh gives me life.

Senka had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing, but she and Lucanis shared a look of utter delight.