A few more stories about the dread wolf.

Fen'Harel's meeting in the beyond with his dreamer, his "somniar virelan," his vhenan, his beautiful dream.

My canonical inquisitor, Theneras Lavellan, is a dreamer.

-- "When you come to me in a dream,

I will run to meet you.

And your tears

will burn through my frozen heart.

But if you are no longer on earth,

I will also have no need for myself in eternity."

-- "My heart will betray neither of us. My heart is forever yours."

Under the cut, the version with clouds. I can't decide which is better.

This is the last picture in this series about the Dalish gods. And I've finished my three-color Inktober.

I wanted the image to feel like a fresco. (This statement is also true of the previous picture.)

And the last picture is, of course, the story of the dread wolf and his heart.

One day, Fen'Harel met his heart. And since then, he who hunts alone has never been alone again.

And at the Dalish camp, they now erect two wolf statues, always facing each other.

I'm continuing to experiment with gold and a limited color palette.

I also really love the theme of dreams and fade.

The Dreams of Inquisitor Lavellan.

Theneras Lavellan is a dreamer and a mage. She loves dreams, loves spirits, and fades. And the wolf was always after present in her dreams. Even if she didn't notice it. It was there, all these ten years.

I think Fen'Harel in dreams should be all-encompassing and omnipresent. And I wanted to depict exactly that feeling: a small dreamer and the shadow in her dream is a wolf, a wolf all around her.

As part of an experiment with gold and a limited color palette, I came up with a story using several illustrations. I'll show them all at once later, but for now, I'll show them individually as I'm drawing them.

This is the first picture, Third picture, Fourth picture. The fifth picture.

This is the second picture.

The order of reading is: tower, chariot, death, judgment, world.

These are tarot cards that tell of metamorphosis, rebirth, and change. This short story ultimately tells the same story.

Of course, I based the story on solavellan. I love this love story.

In this short story, I explored and retold the love story of Solas and Lavellan as an interpretation of the myth of "Orpheus and Eurydice."

Although there is also a fairytale element to the story about the animal groom and the kiss that dispels his spell.

I believe Lavellan is Orpheus, and Solas is Eurydice.

Lavellan vows to save Solas from himself. His greatest fears are loneliness and becoming like evanuris. Solas denies being a god, even though his actions are divine in essence. For him, divinity is the worst version of himself, a denial of his own nature. He wants to be himself. To be simply Solas. Being a god for Solas is a direct path to hell.

The only person who has seen His himself, Solas, in all this time is Lavellan. She continues to see him as Solas even under the skin of Fen'Harel. She wants to save Solas from his personal hell, a hell full of regrets and fears. What matters to her isn't whether he removes the veil or not.

(And this trolley problem has only one solution: the veil must be removed. But by a group of mages, with experiments, meetings, and so on.) What matters is that during this process, he remains himself (that is, remains Solas) and stays alive. And she saves him (in DAV, I consider all of Rook's decisions regarding Solas's affair with Lavellan to be gameplay conventions. My Lavellan would have protected Solas, as he promised him back in Haven. No matter the cost).

This is the story of Lavellan saving Solas from Fen'Harel's skin. Lavellan saves Solas from his own personal hell.

Essentially, Lavellan is the only one in his many millennia of life who promised to protect him and cared for him. Who respected his choices and gave him the right to decide. Who saw not Fen'Harel's skin, but Solas. It's no wonder Solas tells her that she saw more behind his mask than anyone else.

Solas is trapped by his regrets and duty. He locks himself in his mind, like hell. But Lavellan, having overcome his trials, will destroy his prison, teach him to dream again, and take him home.

Var lath vir suledin. Banal nadas. Ar lath ma, vhenan.

Only lovers will survive, right?

Another story in the form of a tarot card spread about the wolf and his bride is here.

About tarot cards as a form of storytelling.

I'm continuing to draw in a limited color palette. I'm also exploring static composition and the use of ornamentation. But I'm trying to stay within the confines of my style, simply expanding my visual language. I'll also try to draw more narrative compositions in this technique.

A continuation of

(apparently there will be a series provisionally titled "Defenders of the People"). These are portraits.

This is an attempt at elven (Dalish) iconography after DAV. Or rather, instead of DAV.

My slightly (or not so slightly) alternate universe. The sphere was preserved. I know nothing about any dagger. Lavellan and Solas work together.

My Lavellan is a mage. I like the Dalish Keeper magic from the first two Dragon Age games. So I wanted to draw her Magic as Keeper's magic. There's also a reference to Vhenadahl, as the Tree of the People. Lavellan, as a Keeper.

Her costume is a fantasy of what a Dalish costume might look like in civilian life. It's unlikely they wore armor the whole time.

And yes, Theneras Lavellan does possess Dalish Keeper magic. She is still the first of her clan. So when Solas says that the Dalish have finally figured something out and let's grow a tree, Theneras grows a tree for him.

I continue to paint in a limited color palette. At the same time, I'm exploring static composition and the use of ornament. But I'm trying to stay within the confines of my style, simply expanding my visual language.

Solavellan again!

This is an attempt at elven iconography after DAV (and although for me, the removal of the veil is canon). But in any case, I think Solas and Lavellan would have received divine significance in Dalish culture. My Lavellan doesn't like all this. And Theneras especially doesn't like this icon. Because my Lavellan is actually tall. And here she's depicted much shorter than Solas. (Although I simply wanted him to rest his head on hers (and compositionally, it looks good. Solas looks protective of his vhenan). And Solas likes another image created by Dalish, where Lavellan is depicted sitting on a wolf.