loosed | canon review notes.

I'm not locking this because I want to be able to check it without logging into my account first.

VEILGUARD

felassan files
Supposedly 40ish. 40ish with great skin care??? maybe just sounds 40ish.
"The second in command of a resistance army. [...] practical, level-headed, and have good sense for what other people are feeling, which makes you well-suited for your role. Your leader [...] isn’t quite the people person you are. You respect him, and are there to help him with whatever he needs - especially when he needs guidance about being the face of a resistance.”
referring to Solas as an "old friend" at the time the rebellion starts, mentions pulling the rebellion together and "when we first started" so also involved in that @ the beginning
"ask for the Slow Arrow"
"those who called themselves our gods"
"I know you’re likely berating yourself reading this. Just remember the faces of the people we saved. We can’t control what the Evanuris do. And yes, we have to keep playing up the Dread Wolf. The people need someone they believe is strong enough to protect them, or they’ll never join us. Don’t worry. I promise to mock you viciously if you ever start believing those stories yourself."
(game files only) "It’s not enough to be right about these things. We have to think about the consequences."
(game files only) "I’m keeping calm in front of the new recruits, but you’ve been dodging me for weeks now. We need to talk about the lyrium dagger. [...] We need to stop the Evanuris, but I’d rather we didn’t destroy the world in the process. If you’re certain you can control its power, tell me that. In those words. No equivocating. Also, you and I both know what this dagger means to you. I don’t cast my best spells when my spirit is unbalanced. Do you? (That’s a real question. Maybe you do!) I’m with you no matter what."
"What are the Crossroads doing? 'The spirits of the Crossroads do as they must, Felassan. As do we all.' Thank you, Solas. That’s incredibly useful. Really helps your old friend pull together a rebellion against the Evanuris.
"This is a holy place. The tree draws strength from the earth, just as the first elves did. Some younger elves grow trees in the cities to honor their ancestors. Roots have a tendency to dig down and gnarl up, then twist around things they aren’t supposed to, though. Hoping that metaphor doesn’t stick."
"When we first started, this was a safe place for spirits who joined our cause to find peace from the stress of battle. Now… I don’t know. Not a lot of spirits use it any longer. Have they grown stronger, or has the fight against the Evanuris made demons of us all?"
references Solas always thinking Mythal would join them -- sounds like Felassan didn't necessarily agree. "I’m sorry, my friend. There was something left for the war to take from you after all."
"He hasn’t been right since what happened with Mythal. He’s planning something with the dagger. And if it were a good idea, he’d have told me. Damn it, Solas. I’m with you as long as we’re protecting the innocent from the powerful, but you make it hard sometimes." nts putting a limit on his loyalty here
"This place used to be full of spirits who flocked to Solas’s cause. When his ritual went wrong - when everything went wrong - he vanished, and the spirits stopped coming. Where are you, my friend? You stopped the Evanuris, but broke the world. Please tell me you didn’t leave me to fix all this alone."
"Look at this place. We planned a rebellion here once. Said we’d change the future of the elves, throw off tyrants, and we did. Now the path outside is fractured. It’ll be hard rekindling all the eluvians. Solas, if you see this: I’ll be looking for you, out in this world and in the mortal one. Don’t cause too much trouble before I get there."
re Elgar'nan: "let the big asshole rant"
Felassan: "You knowingly sent all those spirits to their deaths? Solas… we’re supposed to be better than that.”
Solas: “They died true to there nature, doing what they loved, Felassan. Let that be a comfort, that this war did not corrupt them into something different from what they were supposed to be.”
Revenant fight comments: "His back, turned. A story, unfinished. For the Dread Wolf. For freedom."

INQUISITION

"His friend had to die. Because he thought they were people. A slow arrow breaks in the sad wolf's jaws."

WORLD OF THEDAS

Celene: "He had neither the loyal fellowship of the city elves nor the love of the past that marks the Dalish. It was impossible to say what he truly cared about, but most things I expected an elf to care about seemed to him mere curiosities."
Gaspard: "He didn't look down, and any city elf would have. He didn't look angry, and all the Dalish did. He didn't talk about the old elves like a scholar or a poet. He talked about them like a man who walked those streets himself.

THE MASKED EMPIRE

APPEARANCE & PERCEPTIONS

“his face hidden beneath the hood and his movements fluid and compact, like a hunter moving through the woods. He stalked to Briala’s seat in silence, gliding through the room and ignoring the curious looks from the café patrons.”
lots of casual leaning on things while other people fret
leans on staff when tired
lip chewer when close to eluvians
smiles that reach his eyes vs do not

OPINIONS/BELIEFS

humans invented the Maker
bad idea to cede power to religious people
just let them get tired of killing each other
doesn't consider the elves his people
the dalish would never see the point of helping city elves; dalish are pompous idiots
empire-threatening political problems are interesting: “A thunderstorm is interesting. A wildfire is interesting. I have stood in the middle of both and watched things change.”
“Love is not offensive. Awkward, doomed, or ill-timed, perhaps, but not offensive.”
“There’s a small flower that grows in this part of the forest. If left to bloom and die on its own, it stays small and inconsequential, but if it is uprooted, a whole host of flowers will sprout from the area where it was torn.” He rubbed the leaves between his fingers. “I have always loved the idea of life that could only grow from violence.”
still angry about ancient elven empire e.g. mistreatment of servants in that era. briala says she can imagine arlathan and he's like can you. really. can you also imagine who was scrubbing the floors.
distrusts Celene because she's human but more importantly: "I distrust her because she has successfully ruled an empire. No one who does that cedes power. Even if they are wise. Even if it is for the best, in the long run. Even if failing to do so will ultimately destroy everything."
irreverent, stands out in dalish camp for not even looking at the statues of the gods when passing them
“Are we violating any customs of the ancient elves?” / “None that matter,” Felassan said cheerfully.
"she deserves a chance" & "they're stronger than you think"

PERSONALITY

swears on the Evanuris in TME (Mythal's bosom, sweet Sylaise)—imo part of faking being Dalish/a joke he is telling to himself
tells stories and uses metaphors
chews bark :)
"serenity and silence"
dislikes being indoors too long, calls garden/tree patch "tamed" with some scorn but still prefers it to inside
minimal interest in details like how humans are related to each other
"Felassan’s attitude seemed closer to a court fop than the ancient figure of wisdom she had expected … but he had taught her as much as Celene, in the years she had known him.”
"And for all that, he didn’t bother to put on boots, and he wore clothes that would better suit a woodsman than a living myth. He told bad jokes and refused to take anything in the world of men seriously. She wondered if that was why he moved through the world untouched.”
kind of bitter and tired by TME: “Do you ever tire of it, Briala?” he asked then. “Walking among the fools, bending them to your will with a word here and a gesture there?” Briala started to answer, then stopped at Felassan’s stare. It was intent, almost angry, his eyes glittering inside the shadows of his cloak. She thought of the chatelaine, the captain of the palace guard. She thought of the countless nobles who ignored her or called her “rabbit.” She thought of Celene’s soft fingers trailing down her bare arm. “I believe I am doing good work,” she finally said. Felassan nodded and looked away. “Yes, that lasts for a while.” [...] “It’s getting better.” “Of course it is. I’m here.” As Briala chuckled, Felassan added, “And you’re doing good work. And the day when you can accept that they’ll never really understand, or appreciate it, or know just how much you did…” “What?” Briala asked. “Is that the day it gets easier?” “Mythal’s bosom, no!” Felassan chuckled. “Honestly, it makes your heart shrivel up and die inside you. Put it off as long as you can. ”
flippant about magic threats: “Have you ever wondered how hot someone’s fingernails have to get before they melt right onto their fingers?” Felassan asked as he leaned against the bar, pulling his hood back slightly. “Because it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.”
unoffended and yawning about being called a knife-ear
gentle smiles @ briala
"my ancient bones"
appreciates nerve: “The Dalish elf grinned. “You wear stolen armor and ride a stolen horse, shemlen. You have no empire at the moment, and your big offer is your favor?” He turned to Briala. “I like her.”
sympathetic @ Michel for spending his whole life pretending to be what he isn't, "quiet sadness better suited to an old veteran"
“Once, my people walked this land as gods. We worked magic that would blind you with its beauty. Now, we lurk in the deep forests and prepare for the next time you shemlen do something that upsets the balance of this world. Do you know what I was in my time, boy?”
literal eyebrow waggling about Celene and Briala
cheeky while being yelled at by Dalish keeper
smiling but kind of scary and chilly about when he thinks he might have been made, circles briala while considering whether he has to kill her
made briala "this way" (noticing everything he said, blackmailing him)
predatory grin about killing annoying people
doesn't stop Michel from freeing Imshael, tells Imshael to have fun tormenting the Dalish, but seems more about pragmatism + blaming the Dalish for messing with Imshael in the first place + needing the eluvian keystone + being aware he could not take Imshael in a fight anyway. (tells the others if they tried to stop them Imshael would just see which of them made the most noise when their skin was ripped off.)
in burial chambers shows real grief about specific elf who "could have helped" being killed in their sleep, possibly ancient or more like ancient elves vs. the others?
"Beside them, as Celene’s moment of victory slid sideways off the path and into the darkness, Felassan began to laugh."
on hug and forehead kiss terms with Briala by the end
knows he is in trouble & savors his last meal before his meeting with solas in a way that suggests he's fully aware he is doomed but is relatively chill about it
despite knowing he's at real risk of dying, still frames it in a light way, "what's the harm in letting them try?" like this shouldn't be a big deal vs. trying a more passionate argument

SKILLS & ABILITIES

somniari
scrying/locating people with personal belongings (michel with his feather)
anything elemental/primal mages can do he can do bigger: freezing, throwing boulders, earthquakes, fire, pulling the earth up to form a protective wall, lightning storms terrorizing a whole camp, telekinesis, anti-magic, repelling rain with no visible barrier, light to brighten spaces
limit: earth wall + throwing four big fireballs at sylvans in succession tires him out, he says he would prefer not to find out how many more he can do, running from them after also exhausts him
can spin his staff like a show-off
taught briala to keep caches throughout the city
can tell whether human's boots are expensive by sound
shrinking mage staff
moving silently
contributed to teaching briala to read people
coordinated (wineskin game)
hunting
can walk a lot without seeming tired
scouting skills like judging whether armies are moving nearby by whether birds are stirred up
attuned to conflict/politics: “We never know where the lightning will strike in the dry forest,” Felassan said as he sat down in the grass, “but I can smell the smoke.”

TIMELINE

Imshael is freshly summoned and probably hasn't been around for 1,000 years judging by the 1,000 year rule for the Forbidden Ones, so comment about him & Felassan seeing mortals do this and that doesn't necessarily mean they've been wandering around the whole time
Imshael references the eluvians being fully dormant/lost only when Orlais took Halamshiral, which didn't happen until the Glory Age, and Felassan seems to be genuinely piecing together what was going on at the time they did go dormant, so maybe asleep then
Mentored Briala for at least 15 years before they parted ways. (Rescued her in her teens and mentored her after that; she spent several years plotting to kill Lady Mantillon but didn't do so until she was 20; she was 33-35 by TME.)
Clan Virnehn, the clan he was in contact with, worked for years looking for a way to reactivate the eluvians -- he probably latched onto them because of that? or gave them the idea. in either case was working on getting the eluvians back for solas for a long time before TME, not a spur of the moment thing.

BEST PART

“You know, you’ve got a good point,” Felassan said. “Fire and swords are dull. But what if something bigger was coming?”

“I’m listening, Slow Arrow,” said the demon. “What could you possibly do that you and I have not seen a hundred times before while the sweaty mortals lusted and grappled and bled their lives away?”

Felassan said nothing, just smiled, twisting the tattoos around his face.

“Oh, my,” Imshael breathed. “Is that a promise?”

“Well, I was going for more of a threat.”

Imshael turned to Celene, who stared at him uncertainly. “Empress,” he said, “best of luck to you. I do believe you’re going to need it. Whatever happens, I believe that Orlais is going to be quite exciting for the next little while.”