Dragon Age 4 will see players take on the Dread Wolf, a powerful Elven mage who plans to tear down the barrier between Thedas and the magical world of the Fade. This mission will take fans north to the Tevinter Imperium for the first time, the oldest human empire on the continent and the setting's only known mage-dominated society.

Dragon Age: Inquisition revealed the Dread Wolf to be the Inquisitor's companion Solas. However, that isn't the only time the name "Solas" has sprung up in the Dragon Age series. There's another time the name appears in the Dragon Age lore - as the name of a location, and based on what's known about this second Solas, the area could end up being key to the Dread Wolf's plan in Dragon Age 4.

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A Town Called Solas

Tevinter's map is full of locations that players should be excited to finally get the chance to visit in Dragon Age 4. There's Minrathous, the capital of the empire guarded by giant golems; Ventus, a portside city taken over by the Qunari in 9:44 Dragon; as well as one location that has drawn a lot of fan attention despite players having learned next-to nothing about it over the series so far. Just above Tevinter's Silent Plains, to the east of Perivantium, is a location simply named "Solas."

The fact that Dragon Age 4 will take players to the Tevinter Imperium, and that Tevinter happens to have a location named after the upcoming game's main villain, is hard to consider a coincidence. With so little information about the location marked on the Imperium map, fans have struggled to draw conclusions.

This challenge has been made even more difficult by the lack of clarity surrounding certain details in the Dragon Age lore. It's known, for example, that Solas only gained the name Fen'Harel - the Dread Wolf - after he led a rebellion against the other Elven "gods" during the days of the ancient Elven empire. However, it isn't made clear if Solas is the name the Dread Wolf gave himself after waking up from the Fade and assuming the identity of the apostate in Inquisition, or if Solas really was the name he had before turning against the other Elven gods.

If Solas really is the character's name, then the location named Solas marked on the Tevinter map could be the ruins of an Elven town named in honor of one of their gods. It might still be an active town to this day, repurposed by the Tevinter Imperium after their successful campaign to destroy Arlathan and oust the Elven empire.

While there are a few places in Tevinter that have a significant amount of lore, Solas is not one of them. Neither is the nearby town of Perivantium. The Silent Plains region as a whole, however, may be the key to explaining why there's a location named Solas in Tevinter, how it connects to the Dread Wolf, and why players may find themselves in the area in Dragon Age 4.

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The Silent Plains

Inquisition Dalish Concept Art

The Silent Plains are the location that the First Blight was defeated by the Grey Wardens after two grueling centuries of fighting. The area is believed to be haunted, which in other places in Thedas has been shown to cause the Veil between Thedas and the Fade to grow particularly thin. By the time Dragon Age is set, the Dalish Elves are among the few groups willing to live in the region.

It has been mentioned in Dragon Age that some of the elders of the Dalish clans in the Silent Plains had been contacted by the Dread Wolf while he was still wandering the Fade. These Elves will likely compose the bulk of Solas' army if he has one in the next game, but their presence also helps point to the role the town of Solas might play.

The lore of the Silent Plains and its potentially Dread Wolf-worshipping Dalish Elves makes it seem likely that Solas is the name of an Elven ruin. The fact that the Veil is thin in the region as a result of the deaths that took place there during the First Blight could explain how the Dread Wolf was able to contact the Dalish to begin with. It could even be the case that Solas isn't a ruin, but the name of a Dalish settlement the Dread Wolf was able to help establish from the Fade.

It seems likely that Solas will journey to the Silent Plains in Dragon Age 4. His plan to bring down the Veil will likely require forces - the Dalish Elves - and a place where the Veil is thin. The fact that BioWare has established so little about the Solas marked on the map could let the studio refit the town for an important role in the story. It could be the ruins of the city that was once the seat of Solas' power as a member of Dragon Age's Elven pantheon. It could be the location he created the Veil in the first place, and key to its destruction.

Even if the name of the location on Tevinter's map was originally a coincidence, the lore of the surrounding area and what's known about the plot of Dragon Age 4 so far makes it likely BioWare will make the location significant. It could be the site of a central battle, or an important location for players to uncover how to defeat the Dread Wolf by learning about his past. The two Solases seem unlikely to remain unaddressed. Dragon Age 4 has the potential to answer some major questions from Solas' early life to the origins of the Darkspawn. The location named Solas - be it a ruin, Dalish settlement, or Tevinter town - could end up being where some of those series secrets are revealed.

Dragon Age 4 is in development.

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