Key Takeaways
- Dragon Age: Inquisition’s final DLC, Trespasser, stated that elves across Thedas were joining Solas’ cause.
- However, as fans are now pointing out, they’re nowhere to be seen in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
- Concept art suggests they were going to be in The Veilguard, but were scrapped at some point in development.
Mild spoilers for Dragon Age: The Veilguard aheadDragon Age: The Veilguard opens up with Solas performing the ritual he teased at the end of the Dragon Age: Inquisition DLC, Trespasser. With this in mind, it seems that the story follows on pretty directly, even if there’s a ten-year time jump.
However, as some fans are noticing, there’s a huge omission from The Veilguard’s story: Solas’ followers. Despite this being a huge plot point set up at the end of Trespasser, Solas doesn’t actually have the army of elven followers that we were expecting, as no one seems to mind if Rook puts an end to Solas’ plans.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Seemingly Dropped Plans For Solas To Have An Army Of Elven Followers
As highlighted above, an ending slide in Trespasser set up the idea that elves across Thedas were joining Solas. The text on this slide reads as follows:
After the events at the Winter Palace, elves left the Inquisition under mysterious circumstances, as did elven servants across Thedas. None could say where they went, but those who believed the Inquisitor’s story about Fen’Harel wondered just how large the Dread Wolf’s forces were… and what the ancient elven rebel had planned.
Further still, the fact that Solas had agents within the Inquisition in the first place was one of the reasons we were given to disband it. So, if you broke up the Inquisition out of fear that it would clue Solas in on your plans, I suppose you had nothing to worry about after all.
Some of us thought that one of our companions, namely Bellara, would be an agent of Solas.
It does seem that this idea what going to be carried over into The Veilguard at some point in development. There’s concept art of elves trying to protect Solas, getting in the player’s way. This could have made for an interesting conflict, since the elves would have been incredibly sympathetic, given that much of Thedas mistreats them. Tevinter, which we finally explore in The Veilguard, even enslaves elves, further explaining why many would want Solas’ plans to succeed.
For whatever reason, this was scrapped, and Solas largely works alone. In fact, no one even jumps in to stop Varric and Rook from disrupting his ritual at the beginning of the game. If he does secretly have an army of elves ready to help him, he’s sure keeping that quiet.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.