If the Veil is the reason that the elves “quickened” and became mortal, how come the Elvhen like Abelas and Solas have not also become mortal? Aren’t they as cut off from the magic of the Fade as today’s elves?
Spoilers for Dragon Age – Abelas and Solas are immortal because they are Dreamer Mages and spent the past however many thousand years in uthenera. The Visual Dictionary talks about how Solas barely eats anything – in uthenera, you sleep and go to the Fade, and you don’t even need to eat, you take your food from the land of dreams. Elves sleeping in uthenera are literally not of this world. Their bodies might be in Thedas, but their minds are living in the Fade where time doesn’t exist.
This is sort of speculation, but I think it has to do with the spiritual makeup of elves – that elves are literally pure spirits/strong concepts/immortal feelings who eventually took on physical bodies (stole the earth from the dwarves). When an elf goes into uthenera, it’s like they reverse that process, abandoning those bodies in sleep and returning to the world of spirit where they were born (and truly belong).
Abelas and Solas are actually still immortal because they’re Dreamer Mages and can enter the Fade at will. The Veil tears the elves apart from their true natures as spirits and traps them in a land that is slowly, inexorably killing them. It’s yet to be seen if being in Thedas is actually aging Solas and Abelas for the time that they are awake, or if taking their food from the Fade is keeping them immortal – it’s one of the questions I’m curious about.
However we see that this is not true for all dreamers – both in DAO and DA2 we find many, many elves that slept in Uthenera and still died.
Yes. Those are, iirc, mostly the bodies of Dalish elven elders who attempted to go into uthenera long after the Veil had been in place, correct? If you aren’t a Dreamer Mage, and you don’t understand the Fade, you’re going to have a hard time with that. And we know from Feynriel that it’s also not enough to be a Dreamer – you have to know what you’re doing, too. Zathrian was found out to be lying about the source of his long life. The only ones we know who were successful in uthenera were Ancient Elves like Solas, Abelas and Felassan – ones who knew how to do it. We also know from DA:O that other dangers in the Fade could kill a wandering incorporeal dreamer, which could explain the bodies that started to decompose suddenly. Solas was able to navigate the Fade like his motherland, so that wasn’t a problem for him.
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