Solas is a character in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise. He first appears in the 2014 video game Dragon Age: Inquisition, where he serves as a party member. He presents himself as an elven outlaw mage who operates outside of the edicts of the Chantry, the dominant religious organization in Thedas, the world setting of Dragon Age. Solas joins the Inquisition and serves as an expert on the Fade, a metaphysical realm that is tied to Thedas which is normally accessible only through dreaming, and its denizens. His knowledge and expertise prove instrumental in aiding the Inquisition's struggle to close the Breach, a massive dimensional tear in the sky that allows multitudes of demonic spirits to pass through into the physical world through dimensional rifts. A post-credit scene of Inquisition reveals his true identity as Fen'Harel. Trespasser, the final DLC pack released for Inquisition, provides further insight into his backstory and motives, as well as his involvement in the current world state of Thedas.
Solas was the focal point of pre-release promotional efforts for the fourth mainline entry in the Dragon Age video game series – titled Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The game opens with the protagonist Rook disrupting Solas' ritual to bring down the Veil which unleashes two blighted elven gods that Solas had sealed away. The disruption magically ties Rook to Solas; throughout the game, the player has the opportunity to uncover Solas' memories and regrets around historic events he was involved in. He is voiced by Welsh actor Gareth David-Lloyd.
Development
Solas was written by Trick Weekes, with heavy input from lead writer David Gaider, although the character was originally conceived and named prior to Weekes joining the project. In an interview, Weekes said that aspects of Solas' characterization was based on David Tennant's Doctor Who performance, who successfully conveyed the character's humanity as well as ancient nature in their view. Weekes noted that writing a character with hidden depths like Solas provided a great deal of both difficulty and opportunity. In a video uploaded on BioWare's official YouTube channel titled "What Makes a Good Character?", Weekes used Harry Potter as a metaphor to explain how Solas perceives himself as the hero of the story; he feels he is "this luckless, unfortunate person who by an unpleasant destiny and the simple fact that no one else has the ability to do it, that it has to be him and that someone else would get it wrong".
Originally, Solas was not available as a romance option in Dragon Age: Inquisition; according to Mike Laidlaw, BioWare redesigned him as a potential love interest for a female elven Inquisitor when they extended the game's development for a year. Weekes noted that this was an opportunity to increase the basic sadness of the character. Solas will initiate the breakup of his relationship with the Inquisitor at the conclusion of the romance subplot, regardless of the player's choices. Jessica Barnes of GameRant noted that Solas is "only romanceable by female elves" which is "due to the revelation of his role as an antagonist in the final moments of Dragon Age: Inquisition" – BioWare limited "his romantic interests" in order "to avoid the harmful tropes of the villainous bisexual character".
During a Q&A session at the Phoenix Fan Fest 2015, Gareth David-Lloyd revealed that he recorded voice work for Solas over a period of two and a half years. He was provided with a simple outline and some lines on a screen to work with in lieu of a comprehensive backstory for Solas; he eventually developed a stronger idea of who the character is about three or four months after he started. In Inquisition, Solas sometimes speaks in poetic meter, and the player character will gain approval when replying in kind. This is a deliberate design choice, given his characterization and personality.
John Epler, creative director for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, commented that "there was never a version of the story of Dragon Age 4 where Solas was not at the center" as they felt that when ending Trespasser that they "were making a promise, a commitment to our fans of, 'This is the story we're going to tell. This is where we want to go with it'". Epler highlighted that Veilguard's protagonist Rook creates a connection with Solas after getting in his way and becomes "almost a mirror of Solas" which leads to "interesting interactions and reactions between the two of them". During Veilguard, players will be able "to see some of Solas' memories" – Epler explained that through Rook they could "explore some aspects of Solas' personality". Elper and Game Director Corinne Busche stated that the ending options in Veilguard's were primarily focused on the different "fantasies of dealing with Solas". They wanted a redemption path for players who like the character along with an additional variant for romance fans "who wanted their Inquisitor to have that tragic embrace in eternity with Solas". The fight option was for players who wanted to "beat the crap out of" Solas and saw him as just "the bad guy"; the outsmart option was to give players the "opportunity to pull one over on him" after Solas spent the game "needling" Rook in a "condescending" manner. They highlighted the differences in tone where the fight ending leaves Solas "angry" and "frothing" while the outsmart ending has Solas acknowledge he has met his match and retain a "bit of smugness" for his mentorship of Rook. The fourth ending, where all of Rook's companions die, is "more of a pyrrhic victory than the other ones" as luck runs out if the player doesn't also have "preparedness".
Visual design Solas is envisioned by Weekes to be a middle-aged man in his early to mid-forties. His appearance is reflective of a wandering nomad's lifestyle, who journeys from place to place without a set destination. BioWare's designers intended Solas to appear as if he is wearing all that he owns, and that his items of clothing are meant to look like homemade improvisations born from necessity. Then in Veilguard, the designers wanted the character to have "cast off his hermit disguise" and instead don "the ancient elven god equivalent of a business suit". This version of Solas wasn't designed to be "flashy" but instead "calculating and intentional".
Concept art displayed in The Art of Dragon Age: Inquisition book shows the creative process for Solas as the team develops his look after many renditions to match the ideas provided by other creative teams. After exploring many different hairstyles, the final decision was made to design Solas with a bold, bald head. This is intended to evoke a sense of ageless wisdom required by his character. A side quest in Veilguard allows Rook to see memories of Solas during the rebellion he led – this younger version of the character had hair. The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard noted "that hair loss would be the only outward indication of an ancient elf's age" so while both Solas and Elgar'nan are bald, the latter wears a wig.
Fictional appearances
Dragon Age: Inquisition During the opening sequence of events in Inquisition, Solas is encountered fighting demons alongside Varric Tethras and a few Inquisition personnel. This follows the aftermath of a massive explosion at a peace conference which killed everyone present, except for the protagonist, who was discovered emerging from a Fade rift. Solas presents himself to the fledgling Inquisition's leadership as a self-taught hedge mage who spends much of his time dreaming in ancient ruins and learning about what lies beyond the Veil, a metaphysical barrier which normally prevents direct physical access between the physical world and the Fade. This enables him to wields powers developed outside of conventional teaching and who has no affiliation with the Chantry-sanctioned Circle of Magi or any Dalish clan. Claiming that he is able to help the sole survivor of the Divine Conclave's explosion and the suspiciously glowing mark on their hand with the use of healing magic and minor wards, he is granted permission to study the survivor and one of the smaller rifts in order to find a way to seal the Breach. He later helps the survivor seal a small rift shortly after their meeting, and then follows them to the Temple itself to close the first and largest rift, which he theorizes would stabilize the Breach.
After the survivor assumes the role of the Inquisitor and successfully enlists the help of either the mages or the templars, Solas provides assistance with closing the Breach itself. Following the destruction of the Inquisition's base in Haven by Corypheus, the perpetrator of the Breach, Solas explains that the orb that Corypheus wields is meant to channel ancient magics and of elven origin. He worries that if the orb's origin were to be revealed, it may have negative consequences for the reputation of the elven people. He then guides the Inquisitor to Skyhold, a disused fortress located in the Frostback Mountains that the Inquisition could claim as its new headquarters.
When the Inquisitor finally defeats Corypheus and stops him from opening another rift, with the orb being damaged permanently in the process, a distraught Solas laments the destruction of the orb as the loss of yet another elven artifact. He disappears shortly afterwards without a trace. In the post-credits scene it is revealed that Solas is Fen'Harel, an ancient being who is a member of the elven pantheon of gods, and a recurring trickster figure in Dragon Age lore.
Trespasser In the midst of investigating a Qunari plot to invade Thedas, two years after the defeat of Corypheus, the Inquisitor encounters several elven ruins and learns that the elven pantheon of deities, the Evanuris, were in fact extremely powerful mages as opposed to being divine beings. The Inquisitor eventually encounters the Viddasala, the leader of the Qunari plot, and learns that agents supposedly working for Fen'Harel have been disrupting the Qunari plot; concurrently, the Inquisitor is losing control of the Anchor, threatening their life. The Inquisitor foils the plot and follows the Viddasala into the Eluvian network to confront Solas, despite the Anchor growing increasingly out of control.
After petrifying the Viddasala, Solas calms the Anchor and explains his motivations to the Inquisitor. He confesses to being Fen'Harel, who led a rebellion against the Evanuris after they became corrupt and abused their power. He created the Veil to seal away the Evanuris after they murdered Mythal, sundering the physical world and the Fade permanently, and in doing so dooming the civilization of the ancient elves to collapse due to its dependency on magic. Remorseful over his direct role in the downfall of his people, Solas now plans to unmake the Veil he created millennia ago and restore the ancient elven world by reuniting the physical world and the Fade, being fully aware and regretful that this act may potentially destroy the world in its present state and killing countless lives in the process. He also admits to engineering the events which led to the Breach, albeit inadvertently; he arranged for Corypheus to obtain his orb, anticipating that the ancient darkspawn would unlock it on his behalf as he had awakened from millennia of slumber in the Fade and was too weak as a result. Anticipating that Corypheus would destroy himself in the subsequent explosion. Solas intended to retrieve the orb and use the Anchor to achieve his goal. Realizing later that Corypheus survived the orb's destructive power, he joined the Inquisition to guide the organization into defeating him and his forces. Solas also reveals that he has double agents working within the Inquisition and he deliberately allowed the Qunari's Dragon's Breath plot to be discovered so that the Inquisitor may discover and thwart it. He then amputates the Inquisitor's arm to prevent the Anchor from killing them and leaves.