(no subject)

[virevas]

SOLAS
DRAGON AGE

BIO INFO

AGE. 9000+
CANON POINT. Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition Trespasser expansion
WIKI LINK. If applicable.

HISTORY

CANON HISTORY. Romanced Lavellan who largely made decisions Solas agreed with or at least understood.

Formative Experiences

FIRST EVENT. Solas existed as a spirit of Wisdom prior to being convinced by his close companion Mythal, a spirit of Justice and Benevolence, to take a physical body. To do so, spirits had to steal blood from Titans—lyrium—which was causing war and destruction, even by the time Solas took his body. He was reluctant, and never wanted a body, but Mythal convinced him she needed him, and he couldn't deny her. It was the first in a long line of personal compromises he made for Mythal.

SECOND EVENT. To end the war with the Titans, Solas and Mythal worked together to create a knife of lyrium, which, among other things, could cut the Titans off from the Fade and render them emotionless and dreamless—Tranquil. Solas considered this a terrible thing to do, but again, Mythal convinced him it was necessary, and so he performed the ritual that tranquiled all the Titans. This had the unintended consequence of creating the Blight, Thedas' largest existential threat.

THIRD EVENT. After the war, Mythal and the other elvhen generals—the Evanuris—began amassing more power and influence, eventually calling themselves gods. Solas could not accept the title of god and despised the rest of the Evanuris for doing so, and began to rebel against them under the moniker of Fen'Harel, the Dread Wolf. As he carried out his rebellion and freed slaves, he tried to convince Mythal to join him, or at least to leave the Evanuris, but she refused every time. This culminated in him warning her of the rest of the Evanuris using the power of the Blight, which she confronted them over—and they killed her for it.

FOURTH EVENT. To contain the Blight—and in no small part as retribution for Mythal's murder—Solas devised a spell to imprison the Evanuris and the Blight together in the Fade, held there by a Veil which could hold back the Fade. This Veil ended up covering all of Thedas, leading to the fall of Elvhenan while Solas fell into the depp sleep of uthenera to recover from the magnitude of the spell.

FIFTH EVENT. Solas woke from thousands of years of sleep to, in effect, a post-apocalyptic world he felt personally responsible for, and duty-bound to fix. Too weak from sleep to do so, Solas tried to use one of the Magisters Sidereal to get him the power to begin fixing things, and when that failed he joined the Inquisition to fix that mistake. In the Inquisition, he made friends and fell in love, and came to see modern Thedas as more than a nightmare world. His duty, though, hasn't changed.

Worldview

In his own words, Solas believes in "cause and effect, wisdom as its own reward, and the inherent right of all free-willed people to exist." It is the most succinct and accurate worldview one could provide for him—but it isn't complete, either. He believes strongly in duty, to the detriment of a lot of other things like ethics and morals—if you have the ability to positively change some thing, you have a duty to do so (he has a duty to do so), even if it could cause suffering. One must minimize suffering where they can, but some work is ugly no matter the precautions one takes. He vehemently does not believe in the elvhen gods, but he isn't opposed to the idea of any higher power at all. More than anything, though, he believes in people—in his view, all the world's greatest triumphs and tragedies can be traced to people. while he believes in people in a general sense, however, on the more personal end he believes he cannot trust anyone, that no one will understand his goals. he expects betrayal and compartmentalizes information to minimize losses. When unable to live in accordance with his principles—which is often, due to his power, knowledge, and circumstances—Solas rationalizes and justifies his actions... and also wallows in guilt, regret, and self-recriminations.

Relationships

Elgar'nan has referred to Solas as a lapdog, and the comparison is not without merit, at least so far as Mythal is concerned. His utter devotion to her led Solas down paths he never would have chosen on his own, constantly putting him in positions where he had to compromise his own ethics to help her. Blind to, or just (intentionally ignoring) of her faults, Solas called her "the best of" the Evanuris, even into modern Thedas, and refused to ascribe her any of the responsibility for the things he did on her behalf. Through Mythal, and without ever blaming her for it, Solas come to expect his counsel would be ignored, his talents bent toward destruction, and his friendship sidelined for power and "the greater good". By contrast, the Inquisitor of Solas' world state listened to his counsel, if not heeded it, and respected him as an advisor and a friend. More than that, she fell in love with him, and he with her—despite his better judgment and attempts to avoid it. Lavellan showed him, along with his other friends in the Inquisition, that modern Thedas was not just a nightmare from which he needed to wake up, but a real world full of real people. It hasn't changed his ultimate goal, though it has heightened his regret—but then, in Solas' own words, there are some regrets he cherishes more than his victories.

Temperament

Solas is deceptively social—while he does not often seek people out and he is not adept at making friends, he values people highly, and enjoys talking with them. Discussion and debate are some of his favourite pastimes, and he is constantly asking others their opinions and interpretations. He's kind, also, willing to go out of his way to help others when he can. He's by no means extroverted, but he is, in a very real sense, very much a people person. He is also shockingly ruthless, capable of murdering his oldest and closest friend when he feels he's been betrayed. He's condescending, outright rude, and pragmatic to the point of cruelty whenever he deems it necessary. Working in a group is familiar to him, but he has always been a leader in such cases, or at least a trusted advisor. He has very little concept of how to defer to others, or to not offer his unsolicited opinion, and if he thinks someone is stupid or immoral he has no compunction against letting them know, loudly, and in the way he's determined will best piss them off. Of course he'd rather work with others in peace—he really does genuinely like people—but he will not suffer fools, especially not arrogant ones.

Suitability

Solas is uncomfortable with and unaccustomed to intimacy, but he is very familiar with making himself uncomfortable for the greater good. He isn't very socially adept when not actively manipulating people, but he does likepeople in a general sense, and very much values them, so he will be eminently willing to pitch in and do his part. he's lived both opulently and rough, and while he is most used to having at least a few creature comforts (or at least someone around to set up his tent for him) he is wholly capable of doing things for himself. He hasn't survived thousands of years of war and rebellion by being absolutely clueless, after all.

Skills

ARTIST—Solas is a visual artist whose medium of choice is fresco, but he can translate his skills reasonably well to painting and sketch.
CHESS—can hold a whole chess game in his mind over multiple days, perhaps weeks to months, and win.
CARDS—very good at card games and bluffing.
MULTILINGUAL—speaks Thedosian Elvhen and Trade fluently, has familiarity with Qunlat, Tevene, and Dwarvish.
MUSICIAN—plays harpsichord and lute.

Abilities

As an ancient elf, a spirit of Wisdom embodied, Solas is a powerful mage, made even more so by absorbing Mythal's power after Inquisition. While his power within the game could reasonably be described as "whatever the plot requires", in play he'll be limited to the following:

autoheal, barrier, big bang, blizzard, calcify, dispel, dread wolf, dream walker, frost nova, mental manipulation, meteor, mind blast, peaceful aura, stonefist, telekinesis, teleport, veil strike.

Inventory

Fancy wolf pelt armor with Mythal's face on the knees

SAMPLES

Links to two samples, at least one of which must be prose, written within the past two years.

FIELD. Sample Link
FIELD. Sample Link


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