Death in the Fade (Part 1 of 3)

Thanks for the ask!  I hope we are the right blog, because you gave us an excuse to research some of our favorites: Spirits, Justice, Cole, and Fade shenanigans.  Ironically, I was writing about spirits and Fade crossings for another post when I got distracted by Elgar’nan.  Here’s what Decima and I are thinking on this:

Theses (I don’t often get to use the plural!): Justice is trapped in the mortal world due to his own desire to fulfill his purpose, his (mostly) mistaken belief that he will fade away and die without a host body, and his growing fascination with the waking world.  The spirits and demons that possess sylvans and corpses return to the Fade as energy, like any other spirit, unless outside forces intervene to continue their purpose.

Death in the Fade 

First let’s back up for a minute and review what we know about spirit death.  Our best sources for what happens to spirits who die after crossing over to the physical world come from Solas, Cole, and the Avvar.  

The impression we got from Solas’ conversation after the All New, Faded for Her quest is that all spirits return to the Fade when they are killed, but as energy rather than as a sentient entity.  They might reform in time, but they typically lose all the will, purpose, and sense of self they have accumulated over the ages.  Spirits already have a hard remembering things (video).  This helps them stay pure but also makes it rare for spirits to develop the will to form a purpose.  

(Interestingly, when Cole’s connection to the Fade is strongest, he doesn’t need to eat or sleep.  As this bond grows weaker, he will in all likelihood begin to eat, sleep, and do everything else mortals do.  It is almost the perfect reversal of elves who achieve the ultimate connection to the Fade in uthenera and no longer need to eat.  All of their physical needs are met by the Fade.  All of this is echoed in the darkspawn’s connection to the taint.  They also don’t need sleep or food.  But I digress...)  

Once a spirit becomes interested in an idea, they develop purpose and their motivations can become increasingly complex.  More sticks to a spirit in this state, but they still tend to shuck off any memories that would be detrimental to their purpose.  That becomes very difficult, however, if the spirit is pulled across the Veil.

If a spirit is pulled across the Veil against its will, the waking world is often too much for them and they can be driven mad or are so frightened that the spirit lashes out violently.  The result is that most become demons.  Justice shows, however, that some spirits can withstand even the trauma of being sucked into the mortal world.  His ability to overcome the horror of waking up in Kristoff’s body is testament to his fortitude.  (More on what this usually does to spirits/demons in a minute.)  Still, that resolve may well have cracked if it were not for his burning desire to stop the Baroness.  He had watched the people of the Blackmarsh suffer, likely for decades, and finally decided to act some time before the Warden arrived.  His battle with the Baroness likely gave Justice enough focus to help him to withstand the initial trauma of crossing the Veil.  If he had been twisted from his purpose immediately, as Wisdom was, things might have gone down very differently with Justice.

The pain and confusion of being forced across the Veil and the shock of reality seems to block a spirit’s natural ability to clean itself of pain and memory, preventing it from resetting itself to realign with its sense of purpose.  Death seems to be the ultimate restart.  If the spirit reforms at all, it may be very different than who they were before unless the memory of the previous spirit helps to shape them.  Cue the Avvar:

So mortals can influence a new spirit to take on the purpose of a dead spirit, even assuming its identity if the memories are strong and clear enough to shape it.  We witness the beginning of this cycle in the Jaws of Hakkon.  The Avvar will use their collective memories to influence another spirit to become their god.  Voila! Spirit reborn...sort of.  There are even hints that the original energy of a dead spirit could be influenced to remember it’s old life if enough time, thought, energy was dedicated to that purpose.  So why doesn’t Solas just hang out with Wisdom’s energy in the Fade and tell her all about her old self until she remembers who she was?  One: He’s going to be very busy with his plans for Thedas.  Two: He doesn’t seem to be planning to survive the next war.  There is evidence that creating the Veil almost killed him before and he hints that removing it will finish the job.  T_T  Without Solas, Wisdom is very unlikely to reform since she seems to have had little contact with mortals.  As Cole said, “he knew wisdom, as no man or spirit had before.”

-MM

We’ve answered part one of this ask in Death in the Fade, but it was a very long answer.  Let’s see if breaking it into three pieces will make it more user friendly.

Part 1: Death in the Fade

Part 2: If a Sylvan Falls In a Forest…

Part 3: A Baroness of Purpose - Justice Outside of the Fade