Solas, the Dread Wolf, will most likely be the antagonist in BioWare’s upcoming Dragon Age 4. Though Solas was a companion in Inquisition, his true identity as “Fen'Harel” was only revealed late in the game, leaving some fans with questions about his true story.
Solas is one of the oldest characters in Dragon Age. Using everything known about the character and the game's timeline so far, it is possible to tell just how old Solas must be at a minimum by the events of Dragon Age 4.
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The elves of Thedas used to be immortal, ruling over a magical empire known as Elvhenan, meaning “place of our people.” This empire was ruled by a group of powerful elven mages who eventually became known as gods, calling themselves the Evanuris. Its capital was Arlathan, which would eventually be razed when the Tevinter Imperium used blood magic to destroy their elven rivals. However, the elves had already been in decline.
Elvhenan was intrinsically connected to the Fade, the world of magic, which the elves simply called “the sky.” The Evanuris kept slaves who were given facial markings known as vallaslin depending on which god their master was or favored. To protect the institution of slavery the Evanuris would eventually kill the most compassionate of their own kind, Mythal, whose soul would later inhabit Flemeth, the witch of the wild.
Solas led a rebellion against the other Evanuris and became known as the Dread Wolf. Unable to defeat them, he hatched a plan to seal them within the Fade by creating a barrier between the Fade and the material realm known as “the Veil.” The plan worked, but with disastrous consequences for the other elves who lost their connection to the Fade and eventually began to age and die, becoming mortals. Solas himself fell into a deep sleep and wandered the Fade for centuries after erecting the Veil, awakening before the events of Inquisition.
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These events took place during the “Ancient” era, before the establishment for the Divine Age following the death of the prophet Andraste. It has been around 900 years since the establishment of the Divine Age and Thedas has been through multiple subsequent eras. Humans arrived on Thedas around -3100 Ancient, which was already after the Veil was created.
The elven calendar is different to the Chantry’s one, however. It begins in 1 FA, which stands for the founding of Arlathan. This took place in the equivalent of -7600 Ancient, or around 8500 years before the events of the Dragon Age games. It might seems unlikely that Solas was born before Arlathan was founded, but the immortality of elves at the time and the fact that he was among their most powerful mages makes it possible.
Solas was born well before the human arrival on Thedas, as the Veil already existed then. This means Solas is over 4000 years old at the very least. It’s likely that Arlathan was founded by at least some of the elves who would later become known as gods. If Solas was among them, he would be over 8500 years old, and would likely be older considering the power he would already have had to have accumulated by that time.
The founding of Arlathan, however, is one of the earliest checkpoints in the Dragon Age timeline. It’s possible that Solas is tens of thousands of years old, having lived through the entire rise and fall of Elvhenan as one of its gods. All of this said, it’s likely that Dragon Age 4 will go deeper into Solas’ past and the entire history of Thedas, helping fans pinpoint Solas’ true age in the future.
Dragon Age 4 is in development.
