Dragon Age: Inquisition Character Profiles, Continued

BioWare’s official Dragon Age: Inquisition website keeps getting updated at a brisk pace, and this time we get the chance to read the character profile of Solas, an elven mage and one of the game’s companions. Here’s a snippet:

[DA]: Without the Circle to provide training, how did he learn to control his power?

[PW]: Solas is largely self-taught; while he can comfortably defend himself, he cares more about exploring the Fade than he does about hurling fireballs.

[DA]: What makes the Fade so interesting?

[PW]: Okay, so, the Fade bear with me, this gets a little weird the Fade is the spirit side of the Dragon Age universe. It’s this incredible place full of dreams and memories, imprints left behind by powerful emotions or events in our world. Solas has trained himself to do something a lot like lucid-dreaming. He goes to ancient ruins where the Veil is thin, goes to sleep, and actually experiences the history of places no one else has seen in centuries.

[DA]: Is that sort of vision accurate?

[PW]: Absolutely not. It’s based off people’s memories, right? Ask ten different witnesses at a crime scene to describe what happened, and you’ll get all kinds of conflicting information. Solas knows that everything he sees in the Fade is subjective and imperfect. It’s like a gigantic Wikipedia entry full of ([citation needed]) notes, but still, Solas has found some amazing things.

[DA]: In past games, the Fade has been a dangerous place, full of demons.

[PW]: Yes. Most people in Thedas think of the Fade as demon-land. and Solas believes this is part of the problem. If you go into a realm that by its very nature reflects the thoughts and fears of living people, and if all you’re ever taught in the Chantry is that the Fade is this terrible place that wants to kill or possess you, then when you get there, of course it’s like that.