The Team

Every early game conversation with Solas starts with "why on earth are you talking to me" "I like you" "oh ok" and it's the funniest thing ever

Something something elvhen spirits brutally using lyrium to create physical bodies for themselves, as a war crime, and generations later the dwarves, now overrun by darkspawn aka the embodiment of their own anguished severed dreams, brutally using lyrium and stone to forge vessels for enslaved dwarven souls in an act of war and desperation.

Something about how much was taken from the dwarves, how much they forgot, Orzammar's obsession with ancestors and bloodlines and recording their history in lyrium, how they were once all a part of one whole and now the worst punishment they can conceive of is a dwarf's existence being erased, forgotten, severed entirely or never remembered at all.

solas stans who go “i hate him and i love him i love to hate him grr stupid egg etcetera etcetera” stronger than me cause im too far gone he has never done anything wrong ever sorry. killed varric? love you so much king but you wrestled a guy for a knife while your tits were out. oh he betrayed rook? good

UHM EXCUSE ME but did any of you know that the elven woman from that Gaatlok barrel scene in Trespasser who turns out to be one of Solas’ agents is present in that very last cutscene at the Winter Palace when the Inquisitor declares the future of the Inquisition, standing all by herself behind a pillar in the back corner of the room eavesdropping without anyone noticing….. or was I supposed to discover this with the flycam just now???

Dev quotes on Solas from the PAX panel

(Rewatch panel here)

Solas was a challenge for us [re: design, translation] because it was very important to us to make sure that he was interpreted as a very kind person.. that everybody in the world mattered to him, how they were treated, to try and get that across…

Solas is sympathetic and hunky

Solas is never looking where the other characters are looking [in concept art]. He’s looking at you [the Inquisitor]. He is intrigued by you.

When people new to DA say things like "I didn't play any of the previous games before I played Veilguard" that's fine, but to then turn around and say "well, because Veilguard says [lore thing] that means everything in the previous games is false" makes you look willfully ignorant at best and [redacted] at worst. Veilguard did not do a good job with three games of established lore. New players apparently came out of datv not knowing what a Circle is, for crying out loud???

People who wanted to see the Veil removed have a basis for the belief that it might usher in a new age for Thedas that could ultimately make things better for elves, mages, and spirits. Or at least change the world in an interesting, exciting way. That basis was given to us by the first three games. For example:

Flemeth

"We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss. Watch for that moment . . . and when it comes, do not hesitate to leap. It is only when you fall that you learn whether you can fly." (DA2)

PC: "Why did Mythal come to you?"

Flemeth: "For a reckoning that will shake the very heavens."

Morrigan: "And you follow her whims? Do you even know what she truly is?"

Flemeth: "You seek to preserve the powers that were, but to what end? It is because I taught you, girl, because things happened that were never meant to happen. She was betrayed as I was betrayed--as the world was betrayed! Mythal clawed and crawled her way through the ages to me, and I will see her avenged!" (DAI)

Sandal's Prophecy

"One day the magic will come back, all of it. Everyone will be just like they were. The shadows will part and the skies will open wide. When he rises, everyone will see." (DA2)

Cole

"The Veil isn’t real. It’s false, fake, fabricated to forbid. Isn’t it wonderful?"

"Cole: Is there a way to save more spirits, Solas?

Solas: Not until the Veil is healed. The rifts draw spirits through, and the shock makes demons of them.

Cole: Pushing through makes you be yourself. You can hold onto the you.

Cole: Being pulled through means you don't have enough you. You become what batters you, bruises your being.

Solas: Yes, exactly. Deliberately crossing the Veil requires that a spirit form will, personality.

Solas: That concept of self gives a spirit the chance to maintain its nature.

Solas: Wrenched into this world unwillingly by the rifts, spirits suffer the same fate as my friend.

Cole: Then we will help them." (DAI)

Morrigan

"Change is coming to the world. Many fear chance and will fight it with every fiber of their being. But sometimes change is what they need most. Sometimes change is what sets them free." (DAO: Witch Hunt)

"Mankind blunders through this world, crushing what it does not understand: elves, dragons, magic . . . the list is endless. We must stem the tide, or be left with nothing more than the mundane. This I know to be true." (DAI)

I haven't even touched on what Solas says, due to his bias/the way some people refuse to consider his insight at all, even though he knows the most about the Veil of any character in the series ever. For obvious reasons.

Due to the above evidence, I completely agree that the Veil coming down would probably be catastrophic to some degree. I disagree that it would have "destroyed the world" or "drowned [it] in demons" as Veilguard loves to repeat over and over, mostly from characters like Varric who don't know jack about the Veil, magic, or spirits. And I disagree that people who wanted to see what would happen if the Veil came down are wrong or misguided--they obviously just paid better attention to what the overarching narrative than some. It isn't their fault that this more interesting and dynamic narrative was retconned to shreds and buried in the backyard.

Scanned in all the pages with Solas from The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard :D love the concept arts so much

I just love that solas is an artist

he speaks in poetry, he covers his homes in murals that permanently alter the walls, plays stringed instruments, and composes music

the world he was shaped by rang together in song and beauty created from the force of life itself and even if he’s irrevocably changed how that world works, he’ll keep creating — if only to remind himself that his bloodied hands and shattered voice are still capable of it