#templeofsacredashes

THE TITANS

I do think Solas' values on wisdom were how he justified his own actions back during the Titan War, at least for a short time. For those who don’t know, The Titans and the ancient dwarves were originally in a hivemind, they were connected. Isatunoll. It is only after the lyrium dagger is used that the dwarves are split from this and the Titans can no longer move. When Solas turns on Elgar'nan and the other Evanuris, he yells, "So, we did not fight for freedom, but to conquer this land and our own." Why did Solas ever, at any point, believe that they were fighting for freedom? Freedom for WHO, exactly? The elves from the Titans? The dwarves from the Titans? Perhaps both?

The Well of Sorrows has ancient elves that whisper that the ancient dwarves were “witless, soulless,” and that their death would be a “mercy." This is a belief that is 100% held by Solas (and the Mythal shard in the Crossroads). This is also a common thought when it comes to the treatment of Tranquil mages (I'm thinking of what Anders says and can do concerning Karl, the idea that death must be preferable to Tranquility).

At the base of both acts here is that it is agreed upon that having the ability to think for yourself as an individual is presumed to be the most important for the other person; that death would be preferable to their current existence. And hey, you can argue it makes sense that Solas values this as a wisdom spirit! He wants people to question, to gain new knowledge, and he’s seen what happens when people are forced to obey, forced to serve others. Nothing good.

… But. It is still a form of bigotry, in a world where some people just happen to be a part of a hivemind and have absolutely no issue being that way, even preferring to be that way. The dwarves and the Titans never asked to be severed from each other and never consented to anything the Evanuris did.

The value of individualism does come up quite often with Solas in Inquisition. He speaks about the dwarves and Qunari specifically very disrespectfully, and for most of that, it comes down to how they treat their people as individuals. As in, under the Qun, there is no individual, and with the dwarves... I don't think Solas VALUED them as individuals.

THE DWARVES

Let's look at how Solas treats Varric and a dwarven Inquisitor.

Solas mostly refers to Varric as a "child of the Stone," which I'm sure makes Varric laugh. It's not a term people use when it comes to surfacers, as they do not have access to Stone sense. And sometimes, this is said explicitly in a hostile tone--I'm thinking of how Solas talks down to Varric about Cole. "This is not some fanciful story, child of the Stone. We cannot change our nature by wishing." Solas uses the term AGAIN to shut Varric down if Cole is made more spirit: "Would that have made him happier, child of the Stone?"

He's using the term like a knife, to tell Varric he is lesser than, not as knowledgeable. However you feel on the Cole decision, Solas is not trying to teach Varric that he's wrong about the nature of spirits--he is YELLING at him, he is pushing him away, preventing any further understanding Varric could possibly gain about spirits.

The reason that Solas says he doesn't know a lot about dwarves generally is that he has never had access to them. He says to Varric: "Dwarves alone were lost to me, save scattered fragments of memory where some spirit cared to watch." However, he also reveals in this same conversation, in my opinion, that he didn’t ever think much of the dwarves either, not enough to seek them out and understand them. Solas calls dwarves the severed arm of a “once mighty hero,” and “although it might twitch to give the appearance of life, it will never dream.” That doesn’t sound like someone who sees dwarves as an equal.

He mentions dwarves not dreaming again to Cadash: "Dwarves are practical. They do not dream. They cannot even imagine a world beyond the physical. But you have shown subtlety in your actions. A wisdom that goes against everything I know of your people."

Practical is an interesting word, given the ancient dwarves were described as "workers." And while he does say "a wisdom that goes against everything I know of your people” to all high-approval Inquisitors regardless of their lineage, I feel like it's especially important here.

When would Solas have ever deeply interacted with a dwarf before joining the Inquisition? He doesn't mention having contact with any dwarves in his year before the Inquisition, when he awoke in modern times. It reads to me like the only other time would have been on the battlefield against the Titans. The fact he keeps mentioning how dwarves cannot dream also seems really cruel due to this, given it's his own actions against the Titans that stopped dwarves from being able to dream.

The Mythal shard in the Crossroads acts just like him too! She also calls dwarf!Rook child of the Stone, even if that word wouldn't be accurate. She also just assumes that the dwarves are unable to feel for what happened to the Titans, whether it was ages past or not. "You are not the one to whom I would apologize. Whatever pain Solas and I inflicted on the Titans, it is nothing to you." (Also notice they both don't mention what pain they specifically brought to the ancient dwarves!!!!!!)

Combine that with the earlier ancient elf codex with the Well, and it reads to me that the ancient dwarves just weren't respected as a people, weren't valued. Both Mythal and Solas have to have their minds changed on this in order to start caring about their plight.

THE QUNARI

Because of how long this is already, I'm not going to go too deep into explaining Qunari belief. At the most basic level, the Qunari believe in being part of a whole. That every person is part of a system, a singular body.

And Solas very clearly does not agree with the Qun teachings, talking down anyone even associated with the Qunari. He picks fights with The Iron Bull throughout many interactions. Bull argues in a conversation that he believes that Orlais and Ferelden would be better under the Qun, but doesn't want the Qunari to invade, that war would be too brutal. Solas is very clear in why he is upset with that thinking, and it’s not the violent war part of that sentence: "You said this world would be brighter if all thinking individuals were stripped of individuality." He says of an Iron Bull that loses the Chargers that he is unable to make choices, that "as a mindless, soulless drone, you could never make any." Mindless, soulless drone? We’ve heard that before.

I also think a lot about what a low-approval Solas has to say about the Qunari in Trespasser. How he had to disrupt the Qunari plot, both because he wanted people to be free of the Qun before he opened the Veil... but he also had to stop them because they offended him.

Gatt, a viddathari elf, asks Solas, “Have I done something to offend you?” Solas responds with, “You joined the Qun.” Which is… wild, given Gatt didn’t have options, he was rescued as a VERY young child from slavery by the Qunari. Where was he supposed to go?

Well! Solas tells Gatt that HE WAS BETTER OFF STAYING ENSLAVED, because “A slave may always struggle for freedom. But you among the Qun have been taught not to think.” Does everyone understand how truly awful that is to say to someone, anyone? And especially to GATT, given the nature of his enslavement?

It feels like for Solas that as soon as someone gives up their ‘individualism,’ especially of their own will, they are no longer a person worthy of saving. He could’ve said ANYTHING to Gatt, about having other ways to exist. Instead he’s cold and writes the entirety of the Qunari off. “And the Qunari offended me.” He’ll tell Adaar that ‘their kind’ are SAVAGE CREATURES. When Adaar is explicitly not even Qunari!

But that term, creatures... where else did Solas describe someone as a creature?

YOU'RE MYTHAL'S CREATURE NOW

SOOO, The Well of Sorrows! It does two things: It gives the Inquisitor access to the memories of all the ancient elves that worshipped and served Mythal and gave their knowledge to the Well; and it will bind the drinker to her service.

If the Inquisitor drinks from the Well and has high approval, Solas FREAKS out. In his eyes, to drink from the Well, to be in service of another, is always a terrible thing. It doesn't matter how he even personally believes that Mythal was a good person, the best of the Evanuris. "You have given up a part of yourself." No longer an individual.

Solas, of course, did horrible things in service to Mythal. He also has seen people bloodbound to and enslaved by the other Evanuris. To see someone else who is now bound to her again is going to cause the man to panic (or for a low-approval Inquisitor, to celebrate) and assume Mythal will make the Inquisitor her puppet, and take full control. That’s what ‘hivemind’ means… right?

But, HOWEVER you personally feel about this plotline ending where it does... This does not happen. The ancient elves share their knowledge with the Inquisitor through their newfound connection. They help the Inquisitor defeat Corypheus! They teach them the secret greeting of Fen'Harel! If the Inquisitor romanced or befriended Solas, they can work to redeem him and save him, and the Crossroad Mythal shard and the shard present in Morrigan don't whip around to try to control the Inquisitor to do anything else. Mythal is also shown over and over to not engage in total possession or forces people to accept her power. Flemeth says that much to Morrigan: “A soul is not forced upon the unwilling.”

(To be clear: Flemeth is NOT Mythal, and using her individual actions as an example does not inherently disprove this. However. Flemeth, regardless of all the wrong she did, did not use a binding or charm to make Morrigan accept Mythal’s shard, and her control of the Inquisitor in one scene is also not an example of a forceful possession/complete takeover of the Inquisitor. Everyone here is still a person!)

So, this is another example of a hivemind-like situation where Solas jumped to and assumed the worst would happen, and was incorrect. The Inquisitor never lost themselves to the Well, and the relationship was mutually beneficial… And calling the Inquisitor a creature was DEHUMANIZING them as soon as their thoughts were joined with another.

As he has done, over and over and over whenever someone gave up having ‘individual thought.’

THE POINT

While I could list all the other times Solas mentions individualism (I'd say it's his main argument on why he despises a low-approval Inquisitor, for example), these keynotes were most important to me.

It's clear that Solas always will value people having the ability to think for themselves, alone in their own mind. And that IS admirable, and in most cases, a good thing! Even the examples of bigotry above, I think it is important that both in-universe and fandom-wise, people do often justify and agree with Solas here. People note that the Qun and the Qunari are flawed, Mythal was flawed, The Titans were killing elves and flawed, and that modern dwarven society is flawed. Those are all true.

But to me the thing that tips Solas from "guy who is just being kind of mean in a maybe rude, but understandable way" to "this is explicitly a prejudice that, even if informed by good intentions and his own past, is a bad thing," is that Solas uses this belief, that his way of thinking is better, to then justify his acts of violence and cruelty.