#solstice lavellan

Thank you for the tag you beautiful, creative people! @vhen-harel, @cryptid-catt, @dirthera15! You're all working on such amazing things!

I'm here being slow and planning some scenes between Eclipse/Solstice and Solstice/Solas. Currently replaying through DAV and DAI to take screenshots and references for said scenes (it's going to be a while). Also because I want to involve Lavellan in the events of Veilguard, because there's no way my girl isn't seeing the Lighthouse and Solas' regrets.

Anyway, have a few photos, it's all I have to show for now.

Dumat/Dirthamen's toad feels plot relevant for the siblings

Solstice DAI slider

Tagged by @cryptid-catt who has been hyping me and helping me get this done (much appreciated 🫶).

I have been scribbling a thing.

There are some solavellan scenes that popped up in my answers to OC questions and I would love them to see the light of day. Instead of writing them all as one-shots, I figured I could frame them between "letters". Unaddressed and unsent pages that Lavellan writes about the major events of DAI (perhaps even after that, wherever the winds will take me).

To explain, Solstice mentally addresses the letters to Eclipse, but she doesn't name them, keeping the existence of her sibling a secret as to not endanger another Dalish clan. To spies and prying eyes, the pages should look like a diary.

The regular scenes are third person, following Lavellan's perspective; although I might be tempted to change perspective depending on the scene, but nothing is set in stone yet.

💘What is the most ordinary thing Lavellan does that absolutely wrecks Solas? What about the other way around?

The short answer is: Whenever Lavellan is enjoying something very trivial, like the taste of her food, touching grass on a sunny day, or petting a fluffy animal, it sends Solas down a spiral of how meaningful their short time together truly is. And for the other way around: whenever Solas gets fired up (in a positive way) and nerds out for minutes without end about something, becoming very lively and expressive as he goes on, it makes Solstice wish she could stop time and see him happy forever.

The long answer:

🛠️ What modern Thedas invention does your Solas begrudgingly admit is useful?

[someone please correct me if this wrong] I was unable to find an in-lore explanation for fast travel in Thedas. I get the impression that it is only intended as a game mechanic and that it implies that characters get from point A to point B the old-fashioned slow travel way. But I headcanon that fast travel is an actual concept in Thedas, and it is an invention of the modern age, which Solas secretly admires.

So we know that, besides the Vi'Revas, the Eluvians worked as pairs, or would connect to the Crossroads. So ancient elvhes wouldn't simply teleport from Point A to Point B when they needed to reach a more distant place in the empire, but it would look more like A -> D -> Z -> T -> F -> and then, eventually, B. Much like us, in the real world, would take a train that stops at multiple stations before we reach our destination.

But modern Thedas fast travel would work in the form of the poles or pillars that we see in the games, with runes and spells and specific coordinates. So a thedosian could easily reach any point in the world, if they have the correct combination for the specific pillar. This to me explains why in DAI you need to send forward scouts to unlock an area and only then you can teleport to the new place. The scouts can set up the fast travel point and then the Inquisitor's party can magic themselves there. Solas would definitely appreciate the usefulness of this invention, but would also probably hate that he wasn't the one to think of it centuries ago.

👄 Who talks more while travelling?

This very much depends on whether they are with the entire party, or just the two of them. Lavellan would definitely engage in party banter more often than Solas. There would be a lot of jokes bouncing between her and Varric, Bull, Sera and Dorian, lots of filth and roasting too as they get very familiar with each other. She'd do mental gymnastics trying to decipher whatever Cole is on about at any given time (and I headcanon that sometimes he just speaks in anagrams, but doesn't give any clues about it, so she's basically failing miserably at solving them). And she would engage in long debates about religions, morality and ethics with Cassandra, Blackwall and Vivienne. So, apart from the canonic banter between Solas and the other members of the inner circle, I think he would mostly assume a silent posture, probably biting his tongue trying not to correct their assumptions about the history of the world, as to not give away his identity.

But the silent facade drops when it's just the two of them, because he knows Solstice actually listens and is interested in his experience and opinions. He would share what he could about ruins they encounter, all masked in the way of having explored some already in his dreams; he would impart knowledge about various forms of magic that are entirely new to her and all too familiar to him. They would even gossip about the others or chat about trivial things, develop inside jokes or laugh when one of them gets their foot stuck in something in a hilarious way. I think when it's just the two of them, Solas can be closest to his real self, he can share unfiltered opinions and he definitely has more to say than she does.

🍵What habit did they pick up from each other?

Swearing! Solstice would throw a lot of "piss off" and "go fuck yourself" in the face of enemies, and even at inanimate objects when she is too tired to untie her sleeping bag, for instance, or when she stumbles her pinkie in some rock; basically any thing or concept that is mildly inconvenient gets told off. So, involuntarily, Solas picks it up.

The first time Solas tells a branch to piss off, it takes him by surprise, because why would he curse an object?! That's how accustomed he got to her behavior. But it happened when it was just the two of them and it made Solstice laugh so hard, he decided to stick with it. The second time, he directly quotes her: "as our inquisitor would say, piss off!" After that, he decides to teach her some ancient elvhen curses in return. Cultural exchange, basically.

What does your Lavellan understand about Solas that makes forgiveness possible without excusing what he’s done?

Is there something your Lavellan fundamentally misunderstands about Solas, and that Solas fundamentally misunderstands about your Lavellan? What finally allows them to understand each other more clearly and how does that understanding come?

What is the dynamic between your Lavellan and your Rook?

If your Rook comes to know Solas primarily as an adversary, while your Lavellan’s experience is coloured by their love and history together, where do their interpretations of him overlap - and where do they differ?

Hi Vhen, thank you for including me in the lovely questions, they really made me ponder!

On Solas and Solstice misunderstandings and forgiveness:

She drastically misunderstands the breakup and his motives. At first. It takes her a long time to process. But even without the full picture, she eventually arrives at the conclusion that the big reason Solas left was not because of “having bigger plans to enact”, because there were no bigger plans than their love. Him insisting in Trespasser that what they had was real put her on the path of understanding that Solas doesn't see himself as someone who deserves to be loved. He doesn't believe he is worthy of her.

It's right there in how he phrases everything around their breakup. “I distracted you" , "the fault was mine", "it was irresponsible, selfish of me". A man whom she has only ever known as selfless is calling himself selfish. A man whose only crime, in this context, was loving her, is blaming himself for it. All this while he was the first one to say “I love you”, all this immediately after he brought her to Crestwood to tell her how much she meant to him. He isn't taking the blame for loving her, he is taking the blame for her loving him back. He backs away the moment Lavellan tells him “and you (mean everything) to me.” He was more than happy to love her, even from afar, unreciprocated if he had to, but couldn't handle being loved in return, because he doesn't feel like he deserves it.

Her unanswered question remains “why”. What could have possibly happened to Solas to make him believe such a thing? Maybe he never experienced unconditional love in his whole life, which becomes apparent during VG events. He has only ever been used or worshipped, but not seen or loved for what he truly was.

In her mind, he becomes someone who has always tried to do the right thing, but the right thing was never good enough for anyone else, not even for himself. He always pushed to do more, always tried to fix something.

Whatever mission he's locked into, it doesn't matter to her, because it started before they met. That's his past, and what matters to her is their future. She knows that if she can reach him, she can show him what true love feels like, and convince him to come back from the downwards spiral.

Thank you for this lovely question, Catt!

I'd love to read your answer to the same question, @cryptid-catt

The simple answer is that it is a vow to recover and protect the secrets of the Dalish, which falls in line with the role of a Keeper. Being children gifted with magic, both Eclipse and Solstice trained as apprentices, with the idea that one of them will become First to Keeper Deshanna and the other will have to assume the role of First with a different clan, but they both needed the same education and commitment.

The long answer allows me to look a bit into how they grew up:

24. Who remembers things?

37. Do they celebrate birthdays, valentine’s day, anniversaries?

47. How do they make up after a fight?

Thank you for these lovely Qs! <3

From Big Fat Domesticity Questions Meme

24. Technically, Solas does, 'cause he's got... magic memory. There's eons of information in there. But something funny happens when people live together for a long time, they start borrowing each other's brain power. Therefore, sometimes, Solstice remembers things he doesn't.

37. They don't celebrate as in doing anything special about it, but they do remember their first kiss every year. They acknowledge that's when both of them got irrevocably pulled into this relationship. Solas also pampers her at midsummer, because he knows she used to celebrate her name day with her clan, and she misses them.