nipuni:

corseque:

I think it has to be something like that, or he wouldn’t get so worked up. But I don’t think the Archdemons are imprisoning the Evanuris in particular, cause the Evanuris’ prison is the Veil itself, and Solas wants to take down the Veil - he seems to agree that tearing down the Veil would free the Evanuris, but says he ‘has plans’ for dealing with that. Whereas he gets very upset at the idea of killing the Old Gods and freeing whatever they’re holding back.

Solas had been fighting the Evanuris for a while before he finally put up the Veil, so there was a tipping point, and it wasn’t just Mythal’s murder. So what else could killing the Old Gods possibly unleash? I’m reminded again of the scene description I found in the game files of a particular hard-to-find ruin in Trespasser:

Other details too:

“Hail Mythal, adjudicator and savior! She has struck down the pillars of the earth and rendered their demesne unto the People! Praise her name forever!“

For a moment, the scent of blood fills the air, and there is a vivid image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire.

The vision grows dark. An aeon seems to pass. Then the runes crackle, as if filled with an angry energy. A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic.

Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast.

A voice whispers: “What the Evanuris in their greed could unleash would end us all. Let this place be forgotten. Let no one wake its anger. The People must rise before their false gods destroy them all.“’ (x)

• “The runes say the Evanuris fought the Titans. They mined their bodies for lyrium and… something else. It’s not clear.”
• ”-each time she entered the Void, Andruil suffered longer and longer periods of madness after returning. Andruil put on armor made of the Void, and all forgot her true face. She made weapons of darkness, and plague ate her lands. She howled things meant to be forgotten, and the other gods became fearful Andruil would hunt them in turn.“ (x)
• “The fools who first unleashed the Blight upon this world thought they were unlocking ultimate power.”
• “He broke the dreams to stop the old dreams from waking. The wolf chews its leg off to escape the trap.”
• “They made bodies from the earth. And the earth was afraid. It fought back. But they made it forget.”

It’s not the Evanuris themselves, it’s what the Evanuris were doing. Something so bad that Elvhenan had to be destroyed (and the world cut off from the Fade) to stop the Evanuris from unleashing it. Something that Solas never even hints at in passing lest it be discovered. “Every alternative was worse.”

We’ve seen two different illustrations of what exactly the Seven Seals (presumably the archdemons) are holding back. I think both the many-eyed thing and the lyrium idol are representing the same thing. At this point, I’m taking the red lyrium idol to be a symbol and not what is actually locked away.

So what could it be? What are the ‘old dreams?’ What is sleeping that would be angry if they woke up? It could honestly be anything - the impossibly large sleeping Titans waking up/becoming blighted and striding the land, destroying everything with earthquakes, a Blight beyond reckoning that is only barely being held back, the Forbidden/Forgotten ones, or, yeah, I guess it could be the Evanuris themselves, Blighted beyond recognition. Or it could be something else we haven’t seen - they’re still introducing new concepts.

But whatever it is, Solas is worried af about it, but he hasn’t talked openly about it.

Sharing here because I see so many theories and posts I agree with for the most part and have great in depth analysis but corseque’s are always the ones that make me go YES EXACTLY 🙏