Dragon Age 4may still be an agonizingly long way off, but there’s a few things we know for sure about it. Among those things is the looming presence of Fen’Harel (or Solas), the Dread Wolf.
By the end ofDragon Age: Inquisition, and more specifically its final DLCTrespasser, the Dread Wolf had established himself as a likely enemy in the nextDragon Ageentry. But there’s more to Solas and Fen’Harel than even the game’s plot reveals, and for those who don’t want to go through every codex entry throughout the current trilogy, here’s a handy profile of the Dread Wolf and his role in the world ofDragon Age.
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Let’s start with the basics:who the Dread Wolf actually is. To elves, he’s the dark trickster god of betrayal, the Bringer of Nightmares. He takes the form of a great black wolf with six eyes, and he runs in many divine circles. Fen’Harel is known by elves to be kin of both the Creators (the evanuris, otherwise known as the elven gods) and the Forgotten Ones. As the god of betrayal, many blame Fen’Harel for the fall of Arlathan, the great elven empire, claiming that because of him, the Creators were unable to prevent its destruction.
Fen’Harel himself is not known to be friendly to the elven people, something confirmed bySolas' reactions to the Dalishin-game; legends say he spent centuries after his biggest betrayal either wandering the Fade feasting on the souls of mortals, or sitting in a far corner of the earth giggling madly in glee. However, the truth of Fen’Harel’s whereabouts, and his motivations, are more complicated than that.
The Dread Wolf’s current “relationship” with the Dalish elves is a tenuous one, as they generally paint Fen’Harel as an evil-aligned entity. Invoking his name is often an expression of dismay, anger, or fear (“May the Dread Wolf never hear your steps” is a wary goodbye for the Dalish), and it is the duty of Keepers to protect their clans from him. However, clansdopay homage to the Dread Wolf in their own way; some still have statues of Fen’Harel, and keep them outside the camp at night either as a form of appeasement or to ward away trouble. He isn’t worshipped like the other gods are, but he is acknowledged as an important part ofDalish andDragon Agelore.
The Great Betrayal
All elves know that Fen’Harel is responsible for sealing the evanuris away in the Fade, preventing them from ever returning to the world of mortals. But the circumstances of that act are quite murky.
Elven legends say that Fen’Harel offered a truce to the Creators; others claim that Fen’Harel sent the Creators to the heavens in search of a blade that would end a war, and the Forgotten Ones to the abyss for the same reason. Either way, Fen’Harel tricked them both, sealing them away forever inside the Fade. According to elves, the Dread Wolf may have done this in an attempt to rule either the Fade or Elvhenan without the rest of the gods' interference.
Events inDragon Age: InquisitionandTrespassercontradict those claims. It is suggested that while the Dread Wolf did indeed seal the rest of the gods away, he did so because he felt he hadno other choice. Fen’Harel may have in fact done it with a great sense of regret, believing that it was the only way to prevent further civil war between the elven people. At the Well of Sorrows, Abelas also hints that one of the Creators, Mythal, was not imprisoned at all, but rather murdered by the rest of the evanuris–Fen’Harel being the only one of the gods thatwasn’tto blame for her death.
Furthermore, Fen’Harel may have sealed the evanuris away because he’d been in the process of leading elves in rebellion against them. The evanuris dubbed him “Fen’Harel,” the “Dread Wolf,” and he embraced that name as part of his uprising, calling upon his followers to abandon the “false gods.” The creation of the veil and sealing the gods away was Fen’Harel’s last resort, and in thenextDragon Ageinstallment, he plans to undo that work.
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The New Plan
In present-day Thedas,Fen’Harel/Solasawoke from his thousand-year slumber and found that the elven people hadn’t prospered as he’d hoped. In dismay, the Dread Wolf formulated a new plan to restore the elven people to glory: tear the Veil back down, returning the world to its previous state before the Fade and the real world were separate–even though doing so would destroy the world, and its elves, such as they are. That remains his plan, though he’s still working to see it to fruition.
As it turned out, Fen’Harel is the real reason the events ofInquisitionhappened at all: he gave Corypheus the Orb of Fen’Harel, hoping that he could unlock its power and thus use it to tear down the Veil. Then, when the Inquisitor stopped Corypheus (with Solas') help, the Dread Wolf amended his plan: rather than use the Orb, which broke with Corypheus' defeat, he’d use the Inquisitor’s mark that now bore the Orb’s power.
That’s whereTrespasserleaves things: Solas makes off withthe Inquisitor’s arm, taking the mark with it. InInquisition’s post-credits scene, he is also seen absorbing Mythal into himself. By that time, Solas had also wrested control of the eluvian network from Briala, and formed a cabal of followers across all of Thedas; byTrespasser, his spies are embedded in the Inquisition itself. Thus, it’s not entirely clear whatexactlySolas is going to do next, but it is clear what the Dread Wolf’s goals are: amass power across Thedas, and use it to tear down the Veil, destroying the world for the supposed glory of the elvhen.
How, exactly, the Dread Wolf intends to keep gathering power will have to be revealed whenDragon Age 4finally makes its long-anticipated debut.
