"It would be kinder in the long run. But losing you would...."

Celestine Black

Pairing: Josephine Montilyet & Solas (gen) Characters: Josephine Montilyet, Solas Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition Archive Warnings: None Applicable Other Tags: Classism, Fantasy racism Summary: Though Skyhold's guests may be of noble blood, their manners often leave much to be desired. When one insults the Inquisition's resident magical expert, who just so happens to be an apostate, Josephine takes it upon herself to remedy the situation. In typical Montilyet fashion. Written for TheSilentBard on AO3 for the @solas-lovers-exchange

“Apostate!” The word is an accusation upon Lady Verise’s lips, cutting as the shattered glass on the rotunda floor.

Josephine catches no more than a glint in the corner of her eye before she hears it break. By the time she looks it has scattered, broken pieces crawling across the stone like a plague of translucent roaches. Wine slides down Solas’s temple. Thick and viscous, it dries a violent plum purple where it landed on his sweater. The delicate slope of Lady Verise’s nose rather resembles the bellows of an accordion as she snarls in his direction.

The rest of the room looks on in a mix of shock and amusement. A knowing smile curls beneath the porcelain moustache of Lord Maigny, a sure sign that she ought to have expected this. Anticipated it in some way. It had seemed improper, showing off the murals without giving the artist his due, especially not when he stood so close at hand.

But it was a mistake, that much has been made evident.

Solas is the first to speak, dabbing at his face with a paint cloth as he does. “It appears our guest is in need of another glass,” he remarks, in a tone remarkably dry for one so damp. He levels his gaze towards the guest in question, then ducks it, deferential. “You are of course correct, my lady. I have never known the Circle’s guidance, although the loyal mages within the Inquisition have made it their mission to remedy the oversights brought about by a hedge mage’s education. Should you have the opportunity to speak with Enchanter Vivienne while you are here; I am certain you will find her insight as to my insufficiencies invaluable, and how she has endeavoured to correct them.”

Josephine bites the inside of her cheek to keep from smirking (a critical skill for an elder sister and ambassador to possess). Although she possesses no limit to her admiration for Vivienne, she had sat in on one of their discussions long enough to become well-acquainted with Solas’s. Still, if asked, she has no doubt Vivienne will play along. She has tied her reputation to that of the Inquisitions, and undermining that, as well as her own influence within it, is not how the game is played.

“Madame de fer was among the few dissenters in Empress Celene’s court after she invited the swamp witch into our midst,” Lady Verise tsks. “Why would she abide an apostate’s company?”

Seeing the chance to retake the reins of the situation, Josephine steps in. “If I may be so bold as to speak on Enchanter Vivienne’s behalf: Master Solas has behaved with the utmost propriety since joining our ranks. Any reservations we had regarding his position here have long since passed.”

Read the rest on AO3!

"In depth of his bewitching I felt secure and warm – I was in flowing haze that is muslin's and mistful milk of skies, and it rocked gently all my cells, and I flew into him as fallen drop, and it was weaved and volant kind of mutabors."

There is no tone of gratefulness and of adore that could suffice and form the shades that I behold to beauty that's demure and delicate and dulcet so, the one that came from @tmxpvksl and glory of their talents and abodes<зз

Solas spends his days in the rotunda, meanwhile...

Lavellan is lost in thought.

"Darling, if you are not carefull one of these days a book will drop down and crack an egg."

"Hm? What did you say Dorian?"

solavellan brainrot sketchdump 😔👌

what if we kissed in the weave

Sera and Serina my beloveds 🛐❤️

emotional support wolf

- “You weren’t wrong, though.” - “Thank you, Cole.”

da2's arishok is a good villain. if you have a fundamental understanding of the qun and listen to his thought process, the things he does makes sense. he uses the qun to justify slaughtering kirkwall's people, which is utterly inexcusable and what makes him a villain, but his character is complex enough to make dealing with him that much more thought provoking. he sends agents to kill petrice because she was killing his people, he doesn't give up the elves because they committed their lives to the qun, no matter how recently they converted, and he refuses to leave without the tome (and isabela) because his idea of justice hasn't been done. his logic makes sense, generally, though it is wrong on more than one occasion. he isn't moral, but he is methodical.

i feel this way about solas, too. i like da2's arishok for the same reasons that initially draw people to solas, i think. when we meet them, i find them interesting and educational to talk to, someone worthy of respect, and someone very honorable in their own way. similarly, many of my issues with solas compare with flaws in the qun/the arishok.

solas asserts that all of his beliefs are correct, and we're never allowed to challenge him on any of it. if he has high enough approval, he'll approach you to go, "yknow, i thought you were all [insert prejudice or stereotype] but YOU showed me that some of you guys are actually okay," which is NOT what it looks like for someone's beliefs to be challenged.

brief aside, i want to be fair in that we don't get this opportunity with many of the companions, and it's not even an inquisition specific issue. the dialogue format is agree, joke, be mean, and it's flawed, but it works in the majority of interactions. we don't really get to engage in nuanced discussions with characters, but there are positives and negatives to the system overall. it is possible to challenge and shape a character within this dialogue system (i.e., garrus vakarian) but in dragon age that really only comes in the form of harden/unharden. it was a little more doable with origins' system, but it really hasn't been a huge part of any dragon age game. most characters' beliefs remain largely unchanged by you regardless of how you play.

solas also possesses a strong sense of duty and purpose, though what duty he has, what his true goals are, he keeps hidden as long as he can. the most damning comparison though, to me, is how willing he is to destroy the world and bring back "his people," while the qunari fight to conquer the world and homogenize society into "their people."

in any case, with both him and the arishok, you can see the wheels turning in their heads. you can see why they do what they do, even if it's wholly immoral. it makes their threat a lot more personal, a lot scarier, psychologically, that a "normal" person, who doesn't want to cause suffering, can hold such specific beliefs and such strong conviction that knowing that they'll hurt people doesn't give them any pause. the root of their motivation is understandable. solas wants to right his wrongs, at his core. the arishok implicitly believes that the qun is safer, better for its people than life outside the qun. we can see that they're taking it too far, but they don't care. it makes them good villains.

"i am not corypheus, i take no joy in this." sure, which is a very similar sentiment, emotionally, to the qunari sense of duty. you can say you don't enjoy it all you want, you're still committing genocide. you can hate the qunari all you want, but you fight with their ferocity, their unshakeable faith in their own cause. their need to "do what's right," no matter who's caught in the wake.

i understand why people like solas, i go back and forth on it myself, but i don't think he's all that different from the arishok in method and motivation. they're each thrust into a world so different from what they believe is "right" that they demand it change around them. if we had to kill the old arishok, then if solas refuses to give up, he will have to die. he doesn't get to do genocide just because he's romanceable. he's a good character, he's a good villain, but he's not a good guy, and unless he stops before he does any real harm (which he will not do), he should share the arishok's fate.

I can't believe that dragon age took THE most interesting and unique thing in its setting (the intractable conflict between mages and templars) and squandered it offscreen in favor of turning the whole franchise towards ~elven gods~. I'm still so sore about this.

The wolf must die for the lamb’s sweet dream

Pairing: Anders & Solas (gen) Characters: Anders, Solas, Justice Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition Archive Warnings: Major Character Death Other Tags: Low Approval Solas, Bad Templars, Justice Positive, Anders Positive Summary: When Anders is brought to the Inquisition in chains, his days are numbered. Though time is short for them, Solas is determined to make sense of him before it is up.

Skyhold’s cells were home to a new prisoner.

They brought him at the crack of dawn, before the sun had risen over the peaks of the eastern mountains. His arrival roused the castle to an early start. Guards quit their posts and kitchen cooks left breakfast simmering over a low flame to bear witness to him. Even the rotunda sat empty. Solas was among the last to join the onlookers. At first he mistook the commotion for a lively spar in the newly-built combat ring, but the din grew steadily louder and more dissonant, until curiosity forced him from his study.

The crowd gathered in the courtyard jeered as the Templar guard escorted their new captive through the fortress, wary of the mounting hostility surrounding them. From its birth, the Inquisition had been an order divided, brought together upon a mountaintop with a song.

They came together now in a different chorus, bleating mindlessly for bloodshed. The air grew heavy with their hate, a thick and oppressive atmosphere Solas moved through like a fog. He sought answers in a world beyond questions, where justice could be memorized like the lyrics to a song.

Conversations ran through the crowd like an electric current. Onlookers cried, “He ought to pay for what he did,” while others asked in worried tones if it was safe to house him here. “What are we to do with him?” the ambassador asked, to which the commander replied, “Keep him alive until the Inquisitor returns to pass judgment upon him.” Then, with a grim face, added, “I had begun to doubt Kirkwall would ever see justice. I’m looking forward to this business being behind us at last.”

Only then had Solas begun to recognize who he looked at.

Read the rest here on AO3.

His Light

'Harellan'

Solas: Dragon age

Mixed media on paper

This is a doodle of Solas from Dragon Age that I drew on my notes in histology that I’m really proud of