fallingleavesandtears - Tumblr blog

[fallingleavesandtears]

The Price of Knowledge ft my Inquisitor Ianthe Lavellan

[fallingleavesandtears]

it's a damn shame bioware doesn't capitalize on the whole Arlathvhen thing. it could be so much fun. you're telling me that a people that meets up to exchange information every 10 years don't all know each other? come on now. just think.

Lavellan: it's a damn shame about Mahariel. Figures she'd sacrifice herself tho, she was always dramatic like that

Varric: you knew the hero of Ferelden?

Lavellan: Oh yeah, she used to spike my drinks with hot peppers as a prank

Varric: ....huh.

--

Lavellan: How's your Keeper?

Dalish: oh I don't know, I've been gone for a few years now

Lavellan: (nodding) do you want me to send a message for Istimaethoriel to pass on?

Dalish: No. Wait.... yeah, no.

--

Lavellan: man. I wonder what Felassan's up to. No one's seen him since the last Arlathvhen

Solas, sweating bullets: damn that's crazy. who's Felassan

Lavellan: oh he was a Keeper, we used to drink together

Solas sweating even bigger bullets: oh haha he was a friend of yours?? damn I hope you find him. crazy stuff

[fallingleavesandtears]

It's been a long 10 years

[fallingleavesandtears]

They were insane for this Cole dialogue btw.

[fallingleavesandtears]

"You summoned that demon... You made it kill. Twisted it against its purpose."

[fallingleavesandtears]

Nalia Lavellan! My Inquisitor, she's in her early 40's now 🥺 AHH I missed drawing her so much!!

[fallingleavesandtears]

[fallingleavesandtears]

They’re on some it started out w a kiss how did it end up like this type shit

[fallingleavesandtears]

the healer has the bloodiest hands

[fallingleavesandtears]

part of what makes tragedies tragic is the story being preventable from the outside but unpreventable from the inside

[fallingleavesandtears]

Thinking about Lavellan post-DA:I without her Vallaslin. There's rumours going around it's because she truly is the Herald of Andraste. The betrayal in their eyes when she meets other Dalish, she was supposed to be fighting for them and now she has turned her back on them? Would she try to explain it to her clan? Would they believe her? And even if they did, would they understand? Taking them away was supposed to be a sign of freedom but all it did was make her lonely and rootless. And the only person who could maybe understand is busy trying to destroy the fucking world. He didn't let her die from the anchor and thus forced her to be the person who is trying to stop him.

[fallingleavesandtears]

Hi, this is my first post on tumblr!

Dragon Age is still alive! And this is a sketch with my future wife~

[fallingleavesandtears]

Hello, my new hyper-fixation ;-;

[fallingleavesandtears]

Theory: Solas isn't doing it to save the elves, he's doing it to save the spirits.

With the new information coming out about Solas's plan in in DAV and the much-memed back and forth between Solas and Varric, I think we may have gotten the wrong end of the stick regarding what is at stake, or why Solas is doing what he's doing. There has been increasing back and forth about whether the Veil should come down in the decade since DAI, but a lot of conversation has focused on a) the collateral damage necessary to do so and b) elven immortality. The assumption being that Solas has decided that any collateral damage (with opinions varying from 'some' to 'apocalyptic' in what they expect that to look like) is worth it to bring back ancient elves, aka 'his people'.

However, repeated dialogues throughout DAI and Trespasser paint a different association - Solas refers to the elves as 'our people' when convenient (eg when trying to get the Inquisitor on side following their first confrontation with Corypheus). When you or other characters ask him about what he considers to be 'his people' he either dodges the question, or to Abelas:

Solas: There are other places, friend. Other duties. Your people yet linger. Abelas: Elvhen such as you? Solas: Yes. Such as I.

While this seems pretty straight forward, it begs the question what the ancient elves, what the Elvhen actually are. Think about the origin of Elvhen as a deliberate identifier, rather than just using 'elves' which Solas repeatedly rejects. Breaking down the word the answer may have been staring us in the face this whole time: vhen is translated to 'people', and El is the root for spirit. I think there is a very good chance Elvhen literally translates to 'spirit people', and that has been the key distinction all this time.

What that functionally meant before the Veil (spirits that chose to manifest personality/bodies, spirits that were bound to bodies, perhaps 'possession' or symbiosis was the norm) is yet to be determined. But the connection to spirits is what Solas considers his people, which is why appeals to save 'this world' will ultimately fail for him, even in a state where he acknowledges mortal beings are 'people':

Inquisitor: We aren't even people to you? Solas: Not at first. You showed me that I was wrong, again. That does not make what must come next any easier. Inquisitor: You'd murder countless people? Solas: Wouldn't you, to save your own?

While many players would consider the current world state 'acceptable' to those living in it, that discounts the perspective of those trapped on the other side of the Veil. The spirits are very clearly suffering, which will not improve while the Veil remains, and it's why Solas can't just live with 'this world'.

[fallingleavesandtears]

Emmrich when he gets a little too silly sometimes

[fallingleavesandtears]

The Solas and Varric scene is the heart wrenching pain of two friends who have lost too much desperately trying to save one another and disagreeing about how to do it. It's the story of two men who would give anything to not have the pain of losing another friend, of seeing someone else they care about destroyed by a cruel world that chews up heroes and spits them out. It's about both of them being willing to be heroes for one another, and wanting desperately to do it before something awful happens to the other person.

It is the heartbreaking realization that neither of them know exactly how to be the hero and do the saving and still come out of it with both of them intact and their friendship whole.

It is... ultimately... two men who have spent their entire lives mourning... looking into one another's eyes and mourning each other together.

[fallingleavesandtears]

Kisses in The Lighthouse, pls 🥹