But my question is who do you think started that belief? Because it really does benefit both the evanauris and Solas's followers.

Since there apparently were more evanuris than just eight, and Solas successfully killed some of them, it really doesn't make the survivors look very godly if one of their number got taken out by some average Joe with a grudge. So they deify him, hope to kill him, and nobody else will be able to take his place because they're clearly not a god. It's sort of a last ditch attempt to control the narrative once they realize they can no longer just brush him off.

But Solas's followers also definitely benefit from that narrative because it's so difficult to take beings worshiped as gods and humanize them (if you'll forgive that term). That can give them hope that their struggling isn't pointless, that they aren't raging helplessly against these cruel gods, because they have a god on their side as well.

This is something that plays out during Inquisition as well. While technically none of their followers are calling the Inquisitor a god, people definitely believe Inky is more than just a simple person and you can't convince me that in another century or so a break-off group starts worshiping them (probably started by that cult in the Hinterlands). And on the other hand, Corypheus repeatedly talks about Inky like they're also trying to become a god, like he is. And it doesn't matter how much the Inquisitor may try to protest, everyone is trying to elevate them to be more than human (elf/dwarf/qunari).

Skyhold.

The Sentinel of the Frostback Mountains.

Scene interpretation of my Inquisitor Ilaan Lavellan with her Dread Wolf. She would be right in the middle of that final battle the whole time! Face close up under the cut.

What can I say… I like my blades as I like my babes. Sharp and deadly. Amazing characters, who’ve struggled a lot, went through abuse and came out of it still smiling and slaying, trully they are daily inspirations for me.  

They just deserve a lot more attention from this fandom. A lot more. A lot.

Solas & Adahla Lavellan: new growth.

I commissioned this piece from the unbelievably talented Hotwe, who is one of the most intelligent, thoughtful, deliberate artists I've ever had the pleasure of working with. I cannot express how grateful I am for the kindness shown towards my imaginary dolls at every step of this process. Thank you! <3

This is a paired piece to this one, also by Hotwe, which I commissioned immediately after finishing Inquisition for the first time. Once I finished Veilguard and filled out how the story ends for these two, I knew I desperately wanted the other half of this diptych.

Close-ups and lengthy notes on the incorporated symbolism are below the cut.

There are several conversations before this where Lavellan and Solas grow closer, but I still think the conversation after she returns from the time-travel incident feels especially meaningful.

Lavellan does not simply say, “You’re special.” Instead, she tells him he is “not most people.” And somehow, I think that is exactly the kind of compliment that would reach Solas in this moment.

She even says she appreciates him not being most people.

Because after waking from uthenera, Solas must have known the loneliness of not being most people. He woke into a world that no longer remembered the truth he knew. When he tried to tell modern elves about the past, about the Veil, about being Fen’Harel, they did not believe him. He was even attacked for it.

So when Lavellan says she appreciates him not being most people, it feels like a quiet reversal of that loneliness.

The very thing that has isolated him — his difference, his distance from the world around him — is, for a moment, treated as something precious.

She is saying she is glad he is not like everyone else.

Glad that he is, in some quiet way, himself.

Maybe that’s a bit much, lol. But still.

And Solas, of course, answers by lightly deflecting with a joke about Orlesian fashion and magical surprises. But I think the softness still lands.