The ending of Dragon Age: Inquisition, its subsequent Trespasser DLC, and the marketing material released for Dragon Age 4 so far all point to Solas the Dread Wolf being the next game's main villain. His plan is to tear down the Veil between Thedas and the Fade, destroying the barrier that separates the magical realm from the material world. In doing so, he hopes to restore the ancient Empire of the Elves that he once had a personal hand in destroying.
In Dragon Age 4's trailer, Varric's voice over sums up Solas' motivations: "there's always someone bent on breaking the world." The problem is that both Varric's description and the depictions of Solas seen in the game's marketing so far seem to assume that fans will have a far less sympathetic view of the Dread Wolf than his story might give them. Unlike Varric, BioWare can't afford to be reductive when it comes to Solas' villainy, or to assume where player's allegiances lie. Here's why Dragon Age 4 can't take its villain for granted.
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One of the biggest mistakes Dragon Age 4 could make is assuming that its players will be unsympathetic to the Dread Wolf's plans. It is very possible that BioWare will give the player plenty of options and major choices in the next Dragon Age like previous games, but that those options will all assume that the player sees the Dread Wolf as the ultimate threat to Thedas. This is the assumption the trailer makes, and there are a few reasons it would be a misstep for the game's story to make as well.
Solas' goals are not entirely unsympathetic once the player knows the history behind them. The Dread Wolf was seen as a malevolent figure by the Dalish, but Dragon Age: Inquisition reveals that this reputation was undeserved and that Solas himself is embarrassed by it. Inquisition reveals that the Dread Wolf was once a member of the Evanuris, a group of powerful Elven mages who became revered as gods long before the arrival of humans on the continent. They built a large empire known as Elvhenan. Before the Veil was created, the Elves called the Fade "the sky," and had access to far more magic and, apparently, immortality.
It wasn't long, however, before these "gods" began enslaving their own kind. Elven slaves were marked with Vallaslin, facial markings which showed which god they belong to, or the one their master worshipped. Not all of the Evanuris were comfortable with this turn. One of them, Mythal, objected, and was killed for doing so. Her spirit would later return and possess Flemeth, the witch of the wilds. Mythal's murder led Solas to start a rebellion, freeing many of the Elven slaves and magically removing their Vallaslin. It was this act that gained him the name Fen'Harel – Dread Wolf.
To win victory over the Elven gods Solas created the Veil, trapping them in the Fade. The exertion caused him to fall into a long sleep, wandering the Fade and observing the world. From there, he saw the unintended consequences of his actions. When humans arrived on the continent the Elves, now deprived of much of their magic, were slaughtered. The Tevinter Imperium enslaved many of the Elves again, and Elves still make up the majority of the slaves in Tevinter by the time Dragon Age takes place. The Imperium used blood magic to raze the Elven capital. When some Elves tried to reclaim their ancient culture years later, these new Dalish tribes viewed the Dread Wolf as the traitor who turned against their gods and led to their downfall. By destroying the Veil, Solas hopes to undo the consequences of his actions.
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Destroying the Veil is likely to have huge consequences for Thedas, but BioWare cannot assume that players – especially those who play Elven characters – will be unsympathetic to Solas' goals. The studio should certainly not assume that players will be more sympathetic to the Tevinter Imperium, which still relies on slavery and blood magic, rather than the Dread Wolf. Of all the major factions of Thedas by the time of Dragon Age 4, the Dread Wolf's may even risk being the most sympathetic.
Tevinter is an extremely hierarchical Empire based on slavery. The Qunari are conquerors who either force their victims to convert to the Qun or drink Qamek, a poison that turns them into mindless slaves. The Dwarves are a conservative society with long ties to Tevinter despite the Imperium's actions. In contrast, the Elves Solas is trying to liberate have spent centuries either living in Alienages under the thumb of the Chantry, or wandering the continent as part of the Dalish tribes.
This doesn't necessarily mean that Solas isn't a villain, albeit a tragic one. After all, he clearly hasn't learned that exercising great power has unpredictable consequences, and that destroying the Veil could be just as likely to have unintended consequences as the act of creating it. BioWare will need to do a lot of work in Dragon Age 4's story, however, to make sure players aren't playing through a narrative where they're more sympathetic to the villain than any of their allies.
The Dread Wolf is not a mindless, monstrous threat like the Darkspawn in Dragon Age: Origins. He also isn't a purely malicious, power-hungry being like Corypheus in Dragon Age: Inquisition. If BioWare takes the player's sympathies as a given, Solas' own complexity could make the game's story fall flat. Instead, the story will need to show exactly why he's the biggest threat to Thedas, or give the player the opportunity to side with Solas. If the game tries to convince players that Solas is simply trying to "break the world," it will fall victim to a frustrating reduction of his story so far. However, if BioWare attempts to overcome the problem by making the Dread Wolf more malicious or vengeful, Dragon Age 4 will not do the character justice.
Dragon Age 4 is currently in development.
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