elkattacks

[elkattacks]

There's love that is a saviour But that ain’t no love of mine My love it kills me slowly Slowly, I could die And when she sleeps, she hears the blues Sees shades of black and white

Treated myself to painting a little solo portrait of my favourite dreadful girl! I have too many thoughts about Luella’s post-trespasser decisions, send helppp

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A Mirror Reflection

"That night in Crestwood, when I shared the truth about your vallaslin… you do not know how close I came to breaking." "I could have shared the truth, or even put my plans aside and simply stayed with you as Solas… as I wanted."

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before the Breach 

adsfjasfasjl from May that I haven’t posted yet 

SOOOOOOLAAASSSSSSS—

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My Inquisitor costume is done so here's some process pictures of another piece of it- the grey side skirts

Here they are attached to the final costume:

And here's a screenshot from Inquisition

The skirts are 6 different pieces in 4 different patterns/textures and the little grey side ones with the "lightning pattern" probabaly gave me the most headaches since I wasn't sure how to create that 3D effect.

I tried a few different things and ended up creating the shapes using sewing pins, painting over it with fabric stiffener, and taking the pins out once mostly dry so it wouldn't dry with too stiff of shapes. A huge headache.

Here's a shot of the pins in the correct placement

Once dried, I added the hems

I sprayed them with a couple layers of water proofing and then chicago screwed them to a belt with the rest of the skirts. They ended up being stiff but still flexible and kept the 3d shapes really well.

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loish-inspired color study with solas

some details under the cut:

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Finally i have some progress to show on Romanced Solas!

I interlined the dupioni with silk organza by hand basting it :']

Next is lining the top and attaching the lower tabard. Then I can move on to embroidery! Yippee

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I drew a deck of Dragon Age II themed playing cards! Each suit represents one of Kirkwall’s factions: the Templars, the Mages, the Law, and the Mercenaries

Now I finally hope to send them off to print, and soon you'll be able to find them in my little ko-fi shop!

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I watched a couple of interviews taped at PowerCon with Gareth David-Lloyd (Solas's voice actor) and I took a few notes because that's fun for me!

These notes are in no way exhaustive or the whole interview, I just wrote what I was interested in and edited to remove filler words like "ums" or backtracking to get to a point.

First video was an interview with Gareth David-Lloyd (Solas) and Joseph Capp (Elgar'Nan)

Joseph Capp to GDL: "What's your favorite of the Dragon Age games?"

GDL: "Oh Inquisiton... if you romance Solas" (grins)

GDLs favorite Veilguard character is Solas because of his arc, he's an asshole but he's like an anti-villain. Its so much fun playing him. And not knowing what he's going to do next or what he's going to say or what his real plan is.

Talking about making player characters, the actors and interviewer are saying they make their first character often as like themselves as possible.

GDL: "When I first did Inquisiton I was a human warrior, male. By the end I was a female elf mage. So I could romance myself more than anything"

JC, answering a question about how he did with doing the elven lines

"I think for the most part they gave me free reign on how to pronounce it. In terms of getting into the world and the lore I kind of binged on DA when I got the role. I played Origin and Inquisition simultaneously, which I don't recommend doing. I got very confused and I was also listening to a lot of Ghil Dirthalen's videos and like Jackdaw and Dragon Age lore videos and like there a podcast called "lorecast" I think"

GDL: "a lot if Solas's lines were in verse and absolutly beautifully written.. Trick Weekes was, they created Solas, and its such a beautiful, so beautifully written, its a pleasure to read the lines. So I remember most of it"

"I started Veilguard three years ago [video is July 2025] and I think Inquisiton, including the DLCs that took three, nearly four, three and half, years to do all of it. But it's not in one go, you go and record a bit and then they go make a bit and then a month later you go back and record another bit. So it's not intensive but it's a long process"

JC: "I think quite a lot of Elgar'nan was rewritten closer to the release of the game because I went in for a few sessions where I did quite a lot of the stuff that ended up in the game there"

July 2025 PowerCon Panel- Gareth David-Lloyd https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvGvyLWUcyE

GDL: "I didn't have any pictures of Solas from Dragon Age until about three months into recording. And I was surprised. I thought 'oh he's bald and he's uh you know, he's quite buff. He's wiry, wiry wasn't he?'"

Q:Have fans come up and said a character has resonated with them?

GDL: "as far as Solas goes, I haven't had anyone come up and go 'you've made me want to sort of destroy the world' so, not yet" ... "but as far his sort of relationship, his tortured relationship with the playable character if you decide to go down the romance option, yeah people have come and said, you know, it's given them the feels it's reminding them of a relationship that they've had that's been difficult. And that's always nice to hear when you strike a nerve personally with somebody"

"I have had a few people come up and say 'Solas destroyed me' and they look like they want to hit me. Because they felt really betrayed. I suppose that's one of the things when you've got romanceable characters and you can actually get into a relationship with them, if the betray you, then you feel betrayed."

Q: (the interview mentioned earlier they take something from the character they're playing to relate to/latch on to play the character) What did you take from Solas?

GDL: "the first ever sort of thing I took from Solas was definitly his sarcasm, his dry sense of humor."

Audience Q: "thinking of Solas's character arc over the two games and how much was revealed in the latest game, knowing that there's a few endings of how it could go, what one would you choose from?"

GDL: "In Inquisition I always ended either friends or romancing Solas.. so there's always been part of me that wants to redeem and make him see the error of his ways and reach that humanity that's still inside him, deep down inside somehow. And I think, I don't want to spoil it, but there's an ending that sort of does that"

Audience Q: "if somehow what you voiced was live action, would there be anything you'd take from your character's wardrobe?"

GDL: "Anything that Solas wears is awesome. Especially the last thing he wears in Trespasser" .. "I'd be owning that all night"

Audience Q: "when you had to do the elvish dialog, did you find that harder?"

GDL: "The Elvish language, well I mean altogether between Inquisition and Veilguard I've probably been working on the game going back and forth to the studio for about four or five years. So about three years into that I sort of got a grasp on the pronunciation of the Elvish. But yeah at first it was scary seeing this language which doesn't exist come up on the screen. They're like "go". There are phonetics to help you, they sort of guide you through it. But yeah, especially when you've got a big long speech or paragraph or it's even worse when and it's cut into English, where you're speaking English and then there's a line of Elvish thrown in and you've got to switch between the two. Yeah it's daunting but it takes a while to make these games. After a while I got more comfortable with it"

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Yikes, this guy was sitting in drafts forever. It's already on my (neglected) bluesky hurhur. I started painting this when Veilguard's release date was finally announced. Happily playing dress-up for 24895075 years, imagining what could be... aaaaand my hand went numb + surgery so I stopped. Another thing that wasn't meant to be, huh?

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Been busy with work and comms but nothing can keep me from drawing him

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You think that I can't see

What kind of man that you are

If you're a man at all

Well, I will figure this one out

On my own

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When I played Veilguard for the first time, I took notes so I could remember what I was thinking before I knew anything else or the ending. It was fun! Here's just a few of my notes from 10/31/24:

"The street musician right outside the beginning bar was playing a tavern song from Inquisition 🥲"

"Bellara points out ruins and says it's the ancient capitol city Arlathan.. so if she's right, there goes my other theories!"

"Rook has a room with fishes! Huge windows to fishes!"

"Oh fuuuuckkkkk.. Solas's prison for the evanuris is the Black City!! Solas is so bitchy.. loooollll I love it"

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🌿 ℌ𝔢𝔞𝔳𝔶 𝔦𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔠𝔯𝔬𝔴𝔫 🌿

[elkattacks]

My Inquisitor costume is done so here's some process shots of the copper belt piece!

Screenshot from Inquisition:

This piece kinda drove me nuts because the screenshots really show its puffy and quilted.. just sewing lines on top of fabric wasn't cutting it (I tried) Also, I really wanted to get the number of quilted pieces to match the Inquisition screenshots exactly.. so I made a pattern for the shape of the whole thing and then basically cut it up and added seam allowances to make each little piece.

Here's how it looked at the very start!

And here's much further in the process!

Once done, I sealed all those loose threads in with a solid backing and sewed the whole thing together.

Here it as at "centipede stage" all pinned together for sewing

I never could find a vinyl or fabric that I was satisfied with the color so I painted it using Angelus leather paint in copper. 2 coats and a clear topcoat worked really well!

I made (and hand sewed) belt loops to it, also the correct number to exactly match my screenshots. It fastens at the side with velcro that's very hidden in pictures. This is a piece that really matched my vision and I'm very happy with it!

Here it is, my final costume front and back!

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Nothing and everything changed 🌄

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Have you heard anything... about a Dread Wolf?

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I still can't believe the first time Lavellan sees Solas after nearly a decade apart, is him beaten and roughed up.

I feel like it is such a gut punch for Lavellan to see the state he's in. The trials he's gone through in the long years of his absence manifesting physically in his wounds during the final battle. But also his body language.

He's bleeding from his face and SHOUTING while waving that fucking dagger. And immediately as her voice cuts through what I can only describe is the beginning of a mania as he's about to FINALLY tear down the Veil, he immediately and I mean IMMEDIATELY turns around and IMMEDIATELY lowers himself. Lowering that dagger and from when he held his head high about to enact his grand scheme he lowers his head in shame.

Because the fucking SHAME of his heart seeing him LIKE THIS? Wearing the damage and loss pursuing the fall of Veil has gotten him? And that (in that moment) she'll have to witness him breaking her heart AGAIN because he is still going through with the plan?

Like REALLY think about how it feels for her. To see her man, the elf called PRIDE, physically retreating under the weight of the shame and guilt her presence alone musters (as it should). Lavellan who, and I understand the frustration for some players if this ISN'T how they wanted their Lavellan to act, but who HAS already forgiven him seeing him like that?

Idk I just think about how heartbreaking it is for HER to see Solas like that. Just so broken down and visibly in pain. I wonder if she thought he would be standing proud and without conflict when the moment finally came that he tore down the Veil. The same "proudness" he carried himself with back in Trespasser, the last time she saw him physically. Not...this.