Dragon Age: Origins/Characters/Playable Characters


Playable Characters from Dragon Age: Origins:

The Player Character

The Warden

"I am a Grey Warden. Together we will make our stand. Together we will save this world."

The main protagonist of the game. You become a Grey Warden after going through a unique origin story tailored to your race and background. Afterwards, you go to Ostagar in order to join King Cailan in a supposedly final battle against the Darkspawn. You also need to undergo The Joining, a ceremony in which you are initiated into the Grey Wardens.

Things in Ostagar don't go exactly as planned, so The Warden, along with Alistair, Morrigan, and others who join you along the way, go off into Ferelden in order to gather armies against the Blight.

  • A Parent To Their Men: The Warden spends almost as much time guiding their followers through their personal demons as they do fighting actual demons.
  • Action Girl: If female, then very much so.
  • Affectionate Nickname: The Human Noble, being the youngest, is frequently called "Pup" by their father.
  • Anti-Hero: Without a Karma meter it's very easy to play the Warden as one. As you can inflict crimes ranging from petty theft, mass genocide to child killing the Warden can fall anywhere on the Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes.
  • Anything That Moves: The Warden can definitely be played as such;
    • Can even claim after finding out Shale was once a dwarven woman, suddenly she's very cute.
  • The Archmage: The Mage Warden, despite their youth, clearly shows signs of becoming this, being the apprentice and star-pupil of the First Enchanter and setting an unprecedented record for the "quickest, cleaning Harrowing ever seen" in the Circle. This also may apply if they choose to specialize as an Arcane Warrior. Arguably, they have reached this status by endgame when they battle the Archdemon.
    • Archmage is even the name of the achievement for getting to level 20 as a mage character.
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: If the Warden manages to survive the Blight, they will become Warden-Commander of all the Grey Wardens in Ferelden, which also effectively makes them the Arl/Arlessa of Amaranthine. In addition, a dwarf Warden will become a Paragon, which is not only an honor equal to or higher than that of a king, but also grants them their own house and followers; meanwhile, a city elf Warden has the option of representing his people as the first elven Bann of the alienage in Denerim. Depending on your actions in-game, you can also add a Teyrnir (Dukedom), another Arling (Denerim), the Kingdom of Ferelden (As a Prince or Princess Consort), and a Lord Chancellorship (Prime Ministership) into the bargain, although the latter titles are mostly derived by forcibly removing their incumbents from the position. This all represents quite a lot of legitimate authority.
    • According to Awakening and Dragon Age II, the warden disappears after a few years... so much for responsibility.
      • Although somewhat negated if a Male Warden disappeared through the Eluvian with a romanced Morrigan, in order to see his child. The Warden is taking responsibility for siring an Old God child, knowing full well that if it is malevolent, the Warden will potentially have to slay his own son... not to mention the Old God inside of it again.
      • If the quest Secret Rendezvous and Alistair's appearance as king during DAII are any indication, the Warden ruled Amaranthine for six years, and was competent enough to quickly turn Arl Howe's den of provincial aristocracy corruption into a powerful rival of Kirkwall itself, so apparently Asskicking equaled competent authority
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: In Awakening, a Dwarven Commoner Warden will discover that he/she, a Casteless, has been named a Paragon.
    • A Female Human Noble romancing Alistair can become Queen of Ferelden.
  • Badass: It's mandatory if you want to become a Grey Warden.
  • Badass Bookworm: The Mage Warden in particular, having been the apprentice and star-pupil of First Enchanter Irving.
    • Dialogue implies that Irving often praised the Warden's talents to his colleagues, as both Wynne and Duncan immediately recognise the Warden on sight. Even Uldred, someone who is mentioned to never have worked with any Mages in the Circle, knows of the Warden and mocks them for having been a teacher's pet.
  • Badass Damsel: The Female City Elf Origin. After getting captured by Vaughan's guards, who announce their intention to rape and murder her (and not necessarily in that order), her cousin Soris breaks into the room. While they're distracted by his sudden appearance, he quickly slides a sword across the floor to the City Elf, who immediately picks it up and adopts a fighting stance. Cue two very terrified, soon-to-be-dead guards;

Guard: Oh sod...

  • Badass Family: If a Human Noble, the Grey Warden comes from one of these. The city elf had an Action Mom, Adaia, whom Duncan wanted to recruit into the Grey Wardens, but was talked out of it by elder Valendrian, seeing as there wasn't an urgent need for recruits back then. Their cousins Shianni and Soris are both pretty awesome as well.
    • The Dwarf Noble is a member of the Aeducan royal family, descended from the Paragon Aeducan who united Orzammar, had relatives who served in the Grey Wardens in generations previously and who's current line don't hide their predisposition towards badassery either.
    • Dragon Age II adds the Human Mage to the pile, as both the Amells and their relatives in the Hawke family are incredibly badass. Not to mention the revelation that the Human Mage has other siblings who are mages.
    • Began one if playing as a Male Warden who performed the Dark Ritual and later followed Morrigan through the Eluvian, having sired a child who has two of the most powerful people in Thedas as parents as well as the soul of an untainted Old God.
  • Badass Normal: Every non-mage Warden is clearly this before they undergo the Joining.
    • Particularly the Dalish Origin, where the Warden survives being infected with the Taint through a mixture of their Keeper's magic and their own sheer willpower. They aren't even cured of actively having the Taint until after they've fought Darkspawn in the Brecilian Forest, travelled all the way to Ostagar, and battled more Darkspawn in the Korcari Wilds. Even Duncan is amazed the Dalish Warden survives so long.
    • The Dwarf Noble is no slouch either. With no armor and just a cruddy sword and shield (unless you've been a good boy... in which case the sword is decent), they chop through a couple dozen Darkspawn and track Duncan down in the Deep Roads. Alone. Hell, given how the tunnels the Wardens were in connected to the outside (otherwise they'd never have been able to get the DN to the surface for plot reasons), the DN could conceivably have massacred his way to the surface, since most Darkspawn were gone due to the Blight.
    • The Dwarf Commoner in some ways tops the Noble one. While the entire Proving Arena erupts in a furious uproar when your true identity is discovered, we cut to Duncan stroking his beard in quiet contemplation that a casteless, penniless, sellsword with no formal weapons training whatsoever, nonetheless somehow managed to beat the most seasoned Warriors in Orzamamar and veterans of countless Darkspawn campaigns. Later when he invokes the Right of Conscription, he states that he recognises they have untapped potential that with Warden training would make them even greater.
    • The City Elf leaves Bann Vaughan lying dead in "a river of blood" that runs throughout the Arl of Denerim's Estate, during their Roaring Rampage of Revenge over the abduction and rape of countless elven women (including their cousin Shianni) at his hands. The sheer scale of the destruction wrought is lampshaded by Elder Valendrian and the Guard Captain who comes to arrest the City Elf.

Guard-Captain: Do you expect me to believe that one wo/man did all of that?
Valendrian: We are not all so helpless, Captain.

  • Badass Abnormal: Aside from becoming a Grey Warden in the first place, there are a few various upgrades the Warden can take to become abnormal; specifically the Reaver and Templar warrior specializations, as well as Avernus's potion that allows greater mastery over the taint.
  • Badass Princess: The Female Human and Dwarf Nobles.
  • Battle Couple: With their love interest.
  • Berserk Button: Arl Rendon Howe becomes one to the Human Noble;

Human Noble: I want Howe dead NOW!

  • Betty and Veronica: Depending on how the Romance Sidequest unfolds, this can exist between Leliana and Morrigan/Zevran for men and Alistair/Leliana and Zevran for women. A bisexual PC has the option of picking a Third Option Love Interest.
  • BFS: A special mention to the Dwarven and Elven Wardens: If they wield a two-handed weapon it's bigger than their whole fricking body!
  • Bi the Way: Can be played this way.
  • Blessed with Suck / Cursed with Awesome: Congratulations! You've been selected as a Grey Warden recruit—the highest honor you could ever aspire to! It means any birthright or title you had is now forfeit. But wait, you have yet to become a Grey Warden—first you have to drink darkspawn blood, which will often kill you right away. If it doesn't, congratulations on becoming a Grey Warden! You can now sense the darkspawn and destroy archdemons at the low cost of obliterating your soul if you try the latter. Of course, they can sense you just as easily as you sense them. Oh, and you have about thirty years to live until the taint starts turning you into a darkspawn, at which point the Grey Warden instruction troubleshooting manual tells you to go on a suicide run against the darkspawn hordes. Oh, and good luck ever having children, especially if the other parent is also a Grey Warden.
  • Blood Knight: The Violent voice set.
  • Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: A female City Elf who fights in their wedding dress.
  • Blue Blood: If of the Human or Dwarven Noble origin. The Human Noble's origin icon depicts a drop of blue blood, in fact.
  • Brutal Honesty: Every background has a brutally honest response for when you meet King Cailan. For example, when meeting a City Elf, Cailan apparently thinks of the Alienages as a somewhat poor but fair chance for the elves to rebuild themselves after an age of slavery. A City Elf PC has the option to exercise this trope to correct him:

King Cailan: "Ah, so you're from one of our Alienages. Tell me, how do things fare there?"
The City Elf Warden: "I killed an arl's son for raping my friend."

King Cailan: "You... W-What?!"

  • But Now I Must Go: The Warden abandons his or her life and party members in pursuit of a mysterious mission (or woman) at some point in the decade between the end of the first two games.
  • But Thou Must!: If the protagonist doesn't join the Grey Wardens voluntarily during the origin story, s/he'll be conscripted.
  • Celibate Hero and/or Really Gets Around: As with the hero—anti-hero status, the Warden can be anywhere in-between these two. The hero can get Up to Eleven by having a foursome with Zevran, Leliana, and Pirate Queen Isabela. And then taking the edge off by sleeping with male hookers, female hookers, nugs, a transvestite dwarf, or having some rather unusual things done to you using some rather interesting tools.
  • Chick Magnet / Hello, Nurse!: Aside from various party members (male and female for both genders), serving girls and a few elves are smitten with the male PC and Bann Teagan seems to be considering proposing to the female PC after a few days of knowing her, explicitly stating that it doesn't matter one bit that she's a dwarf, an elf and/or a mage. Oghren points this out in a conversation with Wynne.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: An honourable Mage Warden under the tutelage of Wynne. While their remarkable self-confidence is one of their greatest strengths, Wynne reminds them that Mages should never indulge in Pride because of their abilities, lest it corrupt them.
  • Commanding Coolness: The Warden becomes "Warden-Commander of Ferelden" in Awakening.
    • They also are referred to as "Commander of the Grey" by some characters.
  • Cool Uncle: The Human Noble is very clearly seen as this by their nephew, Oren.
    • The Dwarf Noble and Dwarf Commoner respectively. Granted, while we never actually see their mutual nephew, the child of Bhelen Aeducan and Rica Brosca, one could argue that as one of the legendary Grey Wardens and a Paragon of Orzammar, their nephew Endrin will be hearing the incredible stories about them for years.
  • Daddy's Girl / Like Father, Like Son: The Human Noble and Dwarf Noble are heavily implied to greatly take after their fathers.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The Main Character now has 100% more snarky lines than recent Bioware games. Especially notable if the Warden is given the Violent voice; Suave (for males) and Sultry (for females) are also fairly snarky.
  • Death Seeker: A potential interpretation of the Dwarf Noble and Human Noble Wardens, particularly if these Warden made the ultimate sacrifice at the end of the game.
  • The Dreaded: The Warden becomes this to Loghain and Arl Howe. The latter particularly if you're the Human Noble.
    • During "Unrest at the Alienage", when the Warden runs into a bunch of Tevinter Slavers and tells them who they are;

Guard: Oh no! I've heard of you!

    • In Awakening simply informing a group of kidnappers that you're the Commander of the Grey is enough to reduce one into to a gibbering wreck that he's dealing with the one to slay an Archdemon. Further intimidation causes half of the bandits to run away and one decides he'd rather jump off a cliff to his death rather than have to face the Warden.
  • The Drifter: The Grey Warden, it's practically their raison d'être.
  • The Dutiful Son: The Couslands taught the Human Noble to always do their duty. King Aeducan similarly invokes this almost word-for-word when the Dwarf Noble is proclaimed Orzammar's newest Commander during their Origin.
  • Enemy Mine: The Dwarves and Dalish Elfs can potentially be played this way regarding Ferelden in general, as you have technically no interest in their Kingdom's problems and can play it as being only concerned with the Darkspawn menace against your people.

Loghain: Pray our King is amenable to reason.
Dalish/Dwarf: The Dalish have no Kings / He's not my King.

  • Even the Girls Want Her / Even the Guys Want Him: The men and women who love/lust after the PC are not limited to love interests or even his/her own race, which is somewhat uncommon in Ferelden nowadays.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Despite having established surnames for every origin, only two of these ever seem to get used: Cousland for the human noble and Aeducan for the dwarf noble, since both are tied to the main story. The other names—Amell for a human mage, Surana for the elf mage, Brosca for the dwarf commoner, Tabris for the city elf, and Mahariel for the Dalish elf—appear only in the character creation screen.
    • However, if you played as a Dalish Warden in Dragon Age II, both Merrill and Marethari talk about Mahariel, since they are from the same clan, and were involved in the events of the Dalish Origin.
    • Similarly, if the Warden in an imported game was a human female mage (an Amell, same surname as Hawke's maternal lineage), Cullen remembers her fondly.
    • Lampshaded in the second game, when Teagan says that "The Hero of Ferelden" is back in Denerim, Alistair mutters "S/he has a name, you know!"
  • Fantastic Racism: The Dalish and Dwarven Wardens can display this, though slightly more prevalent in the former given the rather complicated history between the races of Elves and Man.
  • Fighting For a Homeland: The Dalish Warden can be granted the Hinterlands for their people to settle, as their boon for stopping the Fifth Blight.
  • Figure It Out Yourself: The Warden can be played as doing this with companions. Particularly noticable with Alistair, which if you convince him to take the throne, despite his reticence, he proves to be a great leader.
    • Also noticable with a romanced Morrigan, where the Warden's dialogue implies that they have have been aware of her feelings for a long time, but have patiently waited for Morrigan to notice the penny drop.
  • Folk Hero: According to Sigrun in Awakening, the Dwarf Commoner apparently became one amongst the Casteless.
    • By the second game, the Warden is commonly referred to as "The Hero of Ferelden".
    • One of the epilogues reveal that Bevin, the little boy in Redcliffe grew into a famous adventurer and often regailed his companions with the tale how the Warden came to Redcliffe, took up his grandfather's sword to fight off an army of undead, then returned to him.
    • Bella renamed the tavern in Redcliffe, "The Grey Warden's Rest", though in the years to come, travellers found it hard to believe the "tall-tales" of the Warden exploits there.
    • In Awakening you meet an individual calling themselves the "The Black Fox" in Amaranthine. If you did some thievery quests in Origins, you get to call him out that he's not the real "Black Fox", because you are!
  • Gaydar: The Warden's functions with 100% accuracy, ensuring that he/she will never hit on a member of the same gender unless such an individual would at least potentially be receptive.
  • The Gloves Come Off: The Mage Warden, due to having lived for most of their life under the restrictions of the Templars. After becoming a Grey Warden, the Mage Warden is free to demonstrate just how truly powerful they really are.
  • The Good Chancellor: At the end, a particularly honorable Warden can become this to Alistair.
  • Guile Hero: You have to play the game to truly understand the freedom it gives you.
  • Handsome Lech: Potentially. A frightening amount of possible interactions with members of the opposite sex allows the Warden to hit on them, if not outright sleep with them. Heck, a female Human Noble can even hit on Duncan, though he demurs.
  • Happily Married: The Female Human Noble who romanced Alistair and became Queen during the Landsmeet. The epilogue slide even states that during their grand tour of Ferelden, one reason the population love Alistair as their new King is because of how much he openly adores his new wife.
    • By Awakening, Alistair laments how he can't join her coming out of retirement, not because of the crimp it's put on their honeymoon period, but because he would rather be at her side and busting in Darkspawn skulls, than have to deal with the mundane matters at court by himself.
  • Hello, Nurse!: Everyone wants the Warden. Seriously. No matter how long you spend beating your character with the Ugly Stick in Character Creation, he or she (especially she, and especially if she's a human) will constantly be referred to as drop-dead gorgeous.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!:
    • The Reapers have manifested themselves in the form of Dwarven Wardens, and Saren leads the charge.
    • Commander Shepard is an experienced Elf Warden.
    • Fenris took up magic as a human mage warden, while Jowan became a bit more suave and Teagan indulged his violent tendencies.
    • The violent Elf voice sample is Sandal.
    • What the - is that Lil I hear?
    • Zaeed is an experienced human male. Which is true in both games, we guess.
  • The Hero
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Played with. Despite Loghain's claim that the Grey Wardens are responsible for the King's death, the only people who really believe that, and subsequently antagonize you, are either Loghain's men or mercenaries/desperate refugees with their eye on your bounty. There are some people gossiping in various settlements, but their opinion seems to fluctuate from moment to moment. Played straight in Awakening if you start off fresh as an Orlesian Grey Warden. Everybody in Ferelden will hold your Orlesian heritage against you. It's understandable since Ferelden just freed itself from a brutal occupation at the hands of the Orlesians a scant few decades ago, only for an Orlesian to become the new Arl of Amaranthine. Depending on how you play the game, their mistrust can be justified.
  • Hope Bringer: All you have to do is flash the Grey Warden credentials to get most people to listen to whatever you have to say. Of course, it's up to you whether or not you want to fulfill the spirit of this trope.
  • Hot Chick with a Sword: Any female Warden, if not throughout the whole game then at least if she's the one delivering the final blow to the archdemon.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Ruthless but well meaning wardens will find themselves adopting this as their creed.
  • Informed Attractiveness: Even if you make a Warden that looks like the uglier cousin of The Phantom of the Opera that fell down in a vat of acid and has mismatched hair and eyebrows, everyone you ever meet will find him/her especially attractive.
  • In-Series Nickname: Dialogue with Wynne implies that the Human Noble is known as "The Last of the Couslands".
  • It's All My Fault: Every Origin has an event happen that the Warden can blame themselves for. During the "Urn of Sacred Ashes", the Warden undergoes the Gauntlet where they can confront these feelings of guilt or deny having them.
  • It's Personal: The Human Noble vows revenge on Arl Howe for the brutal murder of his/her entire family.
    • The City Elf Warden's Origin has the Male Warden taking revenge on Vaughn for the abduction of his bride and rape of his cousin, while the Female Warden kills her captors and cuts a bloody swathe to Vaughn, whom had planned to rape (and then murder) her.
    • The Mage Warden can appear to display this towards Uldred for his atrocities in the Circle Tower.
  • Join the Grey Wardens They Said
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: You can enter any dwelling and help yourself to anything that isn't nailed down, even if you need to pick locks in the process. Unlike pickpocketing, this never antagonizes the inhabitants, with very few exceptions (these being, if the person who owns the place is afraid you will find the dead body they haven't had time to dispose of).
    • The mage origin ends with your senior mage asking you if you took anything from the dungeon you were just in. Tell the truth, and he'll take away a staff you took.
    • Also, getting caught pickpocketing in Denerim will spawn an army (not an exaggeration) of angry guards while you travel from one point of the city to another.
    • There is at least one instance where there actually are consequences for looting, even if its not pickpocketing. Taking Zathrian's songbook before The Nature of The Beast is completed will eventually trigger a random encounter with a very pissed off Dalish archer.
    • If you hesitate to accept Zevran's gift to you during his romance arc, he'll lampshade it, asking why there's a problem with it when you've picked up every other shiny object you've come across in their travels.
  • Knife Nut: The PC always uses the same knife to murder people in dialogue scenes. Examples include the hungry deserter in Ostagar, the Elven Messenger, Brother Genitivi, Avernus... The knife is known in the Dragon Age fandom as the Murder Knife.
  • Knight in Sour Armor: Can be played like this. A natural fit in particular for an elf—even if you're a Dalish who regards the Grey Wardens and Ferelden as an Enemy Mine situation at best, every human assumes you care about their kingdom.
  • Lady of War: Again, the Female PC.
    • The Female Dwarf Noble is noteworthy as the Origin begins with their being declared Commander of Orzammar's Army, a position that various dialogue is very much deserved.
    • The Female Human Noble, which is lampshaded, albeit mockingly, by Arl Howe;

Arl Howe: Well, well. Bryce Cousland's little spitfire. All grown up and still playing the man!

  • Large Ham: The Warden never outright chews the scenery, but there are some dialogue options that teeter on the edge. This is only exacerbated by some of the voices (such as Violent) whose lines can range from snarky to completely hammy.
  • Last of His Kind: While there are other Grey Wardens left in the world, only you and Alistair are close enough to end the Blight in a timely and decisive manner.
    • If playing a Human Noble, you're also the last member of House Cousland. However your brother is alive, but you don't learn this until the ending and he ceases to be important to the plot after Ostagar.
    • Should the Dwarf Noble put Harrowmont on the throne, then Bhelen will attack and you are forced to kill him, leaving the Dwarf Noble as the last Aeducan (aside from distant cousins).
  • The Leader
  • Like Brother and Sister: The female mage PC and Jowan. He even mentions that he considers her a sister.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: Various epilogues and the Darkspawn Chronicles DLC show that the group falls apart without the Warden. Though they drift apart rather quickly even if the Warden survives to the end (they have things they want to do, is all).
  • Living Legend: The Warden becomes one during Origins.
  • Loved I Not Honour More: Wynne lampshades this, reminding the Warden that they will have to put their duty as a Grey Warden ahead of their romance when it comes to saving the world.
    • By Awakening even if the Warden previously decided to travel with their chosen love interest at the end of Origins, they are back in the fray serving as Warden-Commander of Ferelden only six months later.
    • Possibly subverted in Witch Hunt, where if romanced, the Warden can decide to leave with Morrigan and enter the Eluvian to meet their child. Of course, one could argue that since its been two years since the end of the Blight and Ferelden is at peace, there is simply no need for the Warden anymore.
  • Magic Knight: Mage Wardens can become Arcane Warriors.
  • Manipulative Bastard: You can be an utter douche, kicking dogs, desecrating holy artifacts and supporting crazy dwarves while still having all your most noble companions falling in love with your every word. Just make sure you have a good (and sometimes really good) coercion rank, a lot of gifts, and careful consideration of who you bring along with you and when.
  • Meaningful Name: The Dwarf Noble's last name is Aeducan, deriving from the dwarven word Aeduc meaning "Stone".
  • Modest Royalty: If you are a Human Noble, your entire family is this. Despite being the most powerful nobility beside the King, they frequently talk to each other and allies informally. The Human Noble often has the option to ask other Nobles to just use his given name in lieu of a title when they recognize you as being a Cousland.
  • Memetic Sex God(dess): Is an in-universe case in Witch Hunt.
  • The Messiah - Villain Protagonist: The Warden can be either and everything in between.
  • Morality Chain: Jowan is implied to be this to a Mage Warden if one chooses not to use Blood Magic. While the Warden can defend their decision to attempt to help Jowan and Lily escape the Circle in their Origin, upon re-encountering him in Redcliffe, the Warden berates Jowan for using Blood Magic to escape the Templars and even considering to turn to forbidden magic in the first place.
  • Mythology Gag: In Awakening you are now called Warden-Commander. Similar to what they call that other guy from that other Bioware game. It also sounds similar to the Knight-Commander of Crossroad Keep.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Depending on your options, this can definitely occur more than once.
    • The Warden is indirectly responsible for the Mage-Templar War, having canonically recruited Anders and the Spirit of Justice in Awakening. This takes on a much darker tone after the events of Dragon Age II when Anders, who has become Justice's new host, ends up blowing up the Kirkwall Chantry in order to force a confrontation between the Mages and the Templars, setting up the means for every Circle in Thedas to rise up in rebellion. Made worse that this was likely due to the Grey Warden's philosophy teaching him that Utopia Justifies the Means.
  • Occult Detective: While the Darkspawn are their primary concern, the Wardens do train themselves to be able to deal with any threat.
  • One Wo/Man Army
  • Only Sane Wo/Man: Also a possibility.
  • Only Sane Employee: Given that the only other Warden in Ferelden is Alistair, the Warden frequently comes across as this.
  • The Paragon: The Warden can be played as one.
    • Dwarf Warden can be declared one by the Orzammar Assembly, being a "Living Ancestor".
  • Parental Abandonment: With only a few exceptions, really bad things tend to happen to the Warden's parents in every origin, if they were even present at all:
    • The Human Noble origin is actually the only one where both of the player character's parents are present... but of course, they are both brutally murdered very early in the story.
    • In the Mage Origin, this is played completely straight, but is also explained and justified very well. When a person is found to have magical ability, which they usually display at a very young age, then by law they must be shipped off to the Tower of Magi for the rest of their life. Virtually all mages will never see or have any contact with their families ever again, and the player character is no exception.
    • The Dwarf Commoner's mother is an angsty, abusive and emotionally distant alcoholic. The player's father is never seen, but it is implied that he simply abandoned the family and left them forever when the player character and their sister were very young.
    • The Dwarf Noble's father plays a role in the plot during the origin story, but after that he is never seen again, because when the player returns to Orzammar later in the story, they discover that he has already passed away. The player's mother is nowhere to be found, though when the subject comes up in a conversation with Morrigan, the Dwarf Noble player can tell her that his/her mother died a long time ago.
    • The City Elf’s mother was murdered by humans sometime prior to the beginning of the story. Their father is still alive and well, and actually doesn’t ever end up dying, but after the prologue he isn't seen again until very near the end of the story, because the Alienage is closed off and inaccessible for most of the game. If the player chose to abandon Shianni to be raped by Vaughn in the prologue, he will completely disown the PC and refuse to speak to him/her.
    • The Dalish Elf’s father was killed before they were born and their heartbroken mother disappeared sometime when they were small, leaving Ashalle as a Parental Substitute.
  • Princess in Rags: The Dwarf Noble origin.
  • Protagonist Without a Past: Inverted: Every origin has a clearly-defined past, complete with friends and relatives that have their own part in the story.
  • Punch Clock Villain: The Dwarf Commoner origin.
  • Rags to Riches: A City Elf can become the Denerim Alienage's first ever bann, a Dwarf Commoner will be named Paragon and their family will live in Orzammar's Royal Palace if Bhelen is king, and any origin can succeed Loghain as Teyrn of Gwaren. In the human noble's case it's riches to rags and back again, especially if you become queen-consort by marrying Alistair or king-consort by marrying Anora.
  • Retired Badass: Between Origins and Awakening, though it later becomes a Six Month Retirement.
  • Revenge Before Reason: The Human Noble invokes this numerous times when discussing Arl Howe.
  • Right Man in the Wrong Place: All possible Wardens begin as well-trained but (mostly) unimportant figures and rise to their station through skill and pure luck.
  • The Quest: Played straight or subverted, depending on player choices.
  • Rookie Red Ranger: Became the leader of the Ferelden Grey Wardens one day after joining. Granted, it's just because the other surviving Warden doesn't want the responsibility of leading, but still.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: As a scion of House Cousland, second-highest in precedence among the noble houses of Ferelden, the Human Noble is just one step under being a prince(ss), and can actually become King or Queen of Ferelden by marrying Anora or Alistair (the Warden is Prince or Princess Consort in the epilogue only). The Dwarf Noble is royalty, the second child of King Endrin Aeducan of Orzammar and the exiled former-Commander of Orzammar's Army.
    • The Human Mage is also part of the Amell nobility of Kirkwall, but is unaware of this because mages are legally forbidden to hold titles.
  • Schrödinger's Player Character: Actually averted. No matter which of the Origin stories you choose to play, you'll come across hints in the main storyline that the others played out, with only the fact that Duncan happened to be around during your chosen origin story determining which of the potential player characters became the protagonist.
  • S/He Who Must Not Be Seen: The Warden's actions had a very notable impact on Dragon Age II, and they will get brought up directly by Varric, indirectly by Flemeth, and the loading screen. Depending on your playthrough, they can also be mentioned by Anders, Merrill, Isabela, Bethany, Cullen, Nuncio, Zevran, Alistair, Leliana, Nathaniel Howe, Sophia Dryden, a letter found in the Wounded Coast, an ex-werewolf, several Codex entries, and Hawke themself. Despite this, the Warden never shows up in-game.
  • Shut UP, Hannibal: The Human Noble's defiant response during their final confrontation with Arl Howe.

Human Noble: You lie, Howe. To yourself most of all. I am a Grey Warden!
Arl Howe: There it is, right there. That damned look in the eye that marked every Cousland success that held me back!

  • Silent Protagonist: Inconsistently played straight; you can select your PC's voice from a short list, and sometimes hear comments in battle and exploration. But in any cutscene where the player has dialog choices, the lines go unvoiced.
  • Sink or Swim Mentor: Often can be seen as both this and Trickster Mentor in regards to Alistair, keeping him from falling apart after the loss of Duncan and the Wardens at Ostagar, as well as if they put him forward as King during the Landsmeet.
  • Six Month Retirement: Between Origins and Awakening.
  • The Squadette: The female PC. Alistair even lampshades it by wondering why there never were very many female Grey Wardens.
    • The Female Warden lampshades this too at one point.

Female Warden: I swear, I'm the bravest one here and I'm a woman.

  • The Stoic: Due to the lack of any facial animation you will come off as this whenever the camera switches to you in conversation.
    • Not So Stoic: The Warden looks absolutely horrified after Duncan stabs Ser Jory, and will be visibly surprised at seeing Wynne collapse. In both cases however, facial expressions are largely limited to the mouth, which can come off as Dull Surprise for the player.
  • Superpowerful Genetics: The Mage Warden is revealed in Dragon Age II to have several siblings who were all Mages, much to the heartbreak of their mother Revka, who was forced to watch all of her children get taken away by the Circle, one after another. The Amell family is so prone to creating mages that its become considered something of a stain on their lineage and has frequently jeopardised their noble standing in Kirkwall.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Male Wardens can lapse into this frequently in "Witch Hunt" when Ariane asks about their relationship with Morrigan. Particularly the conversation when she asks if the Warden realizes he unconsciously plays with the Ring he was given by Morrigan when he thinks no-one is looking or if her knowledge of the significance of two people sharing Rings in human culture is accurate.

Warden: We're not married, if that's what you're asking.

  • The Mistress: One outcome of Alistair's romance--the non-human noble Warden can become this for him if he's hardened and king. The human noble can, too, but she can marry him and become queen, too.
  • The Unchosen One: Went from random idiot who survived because Duncan and Flemeth happened to be around at the right times to Hero of Ferelden in about a year. If you complain that you don't have a choice in the matter, Morrigan and Wynne will be quick to point out that you could just sit on your ass and do nothing to stop the Blight—ultimately, you do choose.
  • The Unwanted Harem: Saying nice things to your party members is enough to convince them that they are becoming your Love Interest. Which can lead to awkwardness when one of the Betty and Veronica pair forces you to choose between them.
  • Try to Fit That on A Business Card: If you are a Cousland, your full titles and styles could be, if you play your cards right-

"His/Her Royal Highness, Prince/ss ______ Cousland, Prince/ss-Consort of Ferelden, Teryn/a of Gwaren, Arl of Amaranthine, Arl of Denerim, Warden-Commander of the Order of the Grey Wardens, Hero/ine of Ferelden."

    • You're also first in line to the Teyrnir of Highever. Though, as the heir presumptive of your elder brother, you may be pushed down by his issue.
  • Walking the Earth: The Grey Wardens go where they are most needed.
    • The Dalish Warden is from a culture that lives a nomadic existence.
  • Warden Senses...Tingling. Your PC may actually say this at the start of combat, depending on which voice you chose for them. Hell, s/he'll say it even before becoming a Warden.
  • Warrior, Mage, Rogue: Your class options.
  • Warrior Therapist: If you want your party at maximum effectiveness, the warden will exemplify this trope.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: Warden enrollment is a lifelong deal. Mages get this by default from their respective homes even before becoming Wardens. Several Wardens just don't have any home to go back to at all, especially Elven Mages, whose combined elven heritage, magic powers and human upbringing make them outsiders to basically every culture.

The Warriors

Alistair Theirin

"Just so you know, if the King ever asks me to put on a dress and dance the Remigold, I'm drawing the line. Darkspawn or no."

One of the junior Grey Wardens and Duncan's protege, he's the first true party member to join the player's party (unless the player is a Human Noble, in which case it's the dog). A former Knight Templar in training, he's a central character to the story, especially when he's forced to reveal that he's the bastard son of King Maric, making him heir to the Ferelden throne. A possible female Love Interest. Shale refers to him as 'the second Warden'. Voiced by Steve Valentine.

  • Adorkable
  • Adult Child: At times, his decisions are more reminiscent of a temperamental teenager than a defender of the whole land. These are often potential Jerkass moments. He gets called a lad/boy several times; assuming a few things from The Calling, he's around 18-20. And his favorite gifts are practically action figures and finger puppets. No, really.
  • The Alcoholic: Should the player spare Loghain, Alistair can leave the party, becoming a drunkard rambling about how he used to be a prince and a Grey Warden. You can find him at the Hanged Man in II - thankfully, Teagan shows up and persuades him to come home and make a fresh start.
  • Always Save the Girl: If romanced, brought along to the final battle, and Morrigan's ritual hasn't been completed, he refuses to allow the female PC to deliver the finishing blow to the archdemon. Unless hardened, he's under the impression that he'd make a worse king than Anora. This way, he can go out a glorious king and save the woman he loves all at the same time. However, this can also be averted if the player decides to leave him behind.
  • Arranged Marriage: The Warden can organise one between him and Anora, leaving both a Theirin and a competent, experience ruler in charge of Ferelden. Or two, if he's hardened.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: His description of what's wrong with Orlais at the moment if he's king in II.

Alistair: Oh the usual, attempted assassinations, uprisings, fancy parties with stinky cheeses

  • Berserk Button: Loghain becomes Alistair's Berserk Button.
  • Betty and Veronica: Very much Betty to Zevran's Veronica
  • Broken Pedestal: Like most, he holds Loghain in high-regard before the Battle of Ostagar, privately admitting that while Cailan is the King, its Loghain they have to look to for victory. Then Loghain retreats from the battle, leaving the King, the Grey Wardens and Duncan to an ignoble death. From then on, Alistair has an undying hatred for the man and it becomes very personal.
  • Buffy-Speak:

Alistair: "You stole them, didn't you? You're some sort of... sneaky... witch-thief!"

  • Butt Monkey: Everyone gets a turn to mock him. Even the dog.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: Morrigan accuses him of doing this while traveling to Lothering.
  • The Creon: Alistair intentionally avoids mentioning the fact that he is actually the senior Grey Warden - because he doesn't want to lead. In fact, he even refuses to take the throne of Ferelden for exactly the same reason.
  • Dare to Be Badass: The Warden can often invoke this if they convince Alistair to take the throne.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Like father, like son: Maric snarked just as much as him.
  • Disappeared Dad: Although he understands why King Maric couldn't acknowledge him as his illegitimate son.
  • Dork Knight: While Alistair is heroic, noble, and brave, he also lacks confidence and bumbles talking to women.
  • Ensign Newbie: During the Korcari Wilds mission, but he soon makes his clear that he'd rather have the Warden take this role. Morrigan even lampshades it. The Darkspawn Chronicles DLC shows what would have happened if he hadn't been able to pass the buck. He manages to make it all the way to the Archdemon. But then it ends badly.
  • Entendre Failure: He'd happily hop borders with Zevran given the chance - after all, he's never been close to leaving Ferelden.
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait
  • Evil Laugh: He has a very impressive one that he breaks out on a couple of occasions, such as when revealing his nefarious plan to make the other party members mutiny and have him take over as group leader. In a subversion, he once breaks into a cough mid-evil laugh.
  • First Girl Wins: The female PC is the first woman his own age he encounters in the story (having been sent to the Chantry at age 10 to be a templar and then being a part of the Wardens, who in Ferelden have no women in the order). Unless you count that one time in Denerim...but those women were not like you.
  • Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: His reaction to you propositioning Isabela. If he's hardened and you invite him along, he'll eventually succumb with a sudden "What can I say? I am a weak, weak man." Even if he's not hardened (and therefore willing to give it a go), at you and Isabela he'll note, "And here I am, awake and everything..." Also, if he confronts you about choosing between him and Leliana, and you choose him, he'll ask what about her? "I mean- sure- hot. But-" and so on.
  • Happily Married: Provided you're a Human Noble and you're persuasive enough to convince the entire Landsmeet as well as Alistair privately that the infertility issue is not a problem. Otherwise, get ready to be dumped like a sack of potatoes, true love or not, unless he's been hardened.
  • Hair of Gold
  • Half-Human Hybrid: Zig-zagged--the novel "The Calling" written by David Gaider implies that Alistair's mother was actually Fiona, an Elven Grey Warden and lover of King Maric. However, the children of elves and humans are always human.
  • Henpecked Husband: In Dragon Age II, if he's King and married to the Female Human Noble, its clear who wears the trousers in the relationship.

Alistair: Just because she killed an Archdemon, she doesn't scare me!
Teagan: You just keep telling yourself that, your majesty.

  • Heroic Bastard: And a royal bastard at that. He notes he should use that line more often.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: If you refuse Morrigan's ritual and allow him to finish the Archdemon (he'll insist on it no matter what if you're in a romance).
  • Hilariously Abusive Childhood: His party banter brings his former status as Eamon's ward to this. Among other things he slept in the kennels and was left in a cage an entire day after accidentally locking himself inside it.
  • Hurting Hero: He rarely says it outright, but the deaths of Duncan and the other Wardens scars him pretty deeply, such that he harbors an intense and bitter hatred for Loghain.
  • Idiot Hero: Morrigan and Anora both accuse him of being one. Although he has his moments, they're never at critical junctions. He even calls himself an idiot hero at times.

Alistair: Look, I can't be king. Some days I have trouble figuring out which boot goes on which foot.

  • It's Personal: Towards Loghain for causing the death of the Grey Wardens and Duncan in particular.
    • Best shown during the Landsmeet if Alistair is the one chosen to duel Loghain.

Loghain: So there is some of Maric in you after all?! Good!
Alistair: Forget Maric! This is for Duncan!

  • Knight in Sour Armor: Although he's aware Grey Wardens often must do pretty bad things for the greater good, and lives in a world that has rarely shown him any kindness, he still feels as if it's still worth being a decent person and protector.
  • Knight Templar: He was training to be one, though only in job description—he flat out states that a life devoted to single-mindedly hunting down maleficars was not for him, and didn't get to choose whether he would be raised as one or not.
  • The Lancer: Alistair is the only member of your party that you can't kick out, as well as the only other Grey Warden, and main character outside of your PC. Fits this trope completely, if the Warden is on the darker end of Grey and Gray Morality.
  • Love Interest
  • A Man Is Not a Virgin: Averted. Alistair is a virgin, at least, when you first meet him. Although he's a little embarrassed to tell you, he is otherwise very normal and adjusted, and will say outright that he's in no urge to rush anything since he may not even survive the Blight. This can become a point of his character if you romance him, or if you decide to have him sleep with Morrigan to conceive the god baby.
  • The Mistress: One outcome of his romance--the non-human noble Warden can become this for him if he's hardened and king. The human noble can, too, but she can marry him and become queen, too.
  • Orphan's Plot Trinket: Averted—he had an amulet from his mother, but threw it at a wall and smashed it. The player can find it after his foster father Arl Eamon painstakingly glued it back together and give it back as a gift, but it has no further relevance to the story.
  • Parental Abandonment: Both his mother and father weren't present in his upbringing, primarily due to reasons of death.
  • Properly Paranoid: His suspicions that Flemeth had ulterior motives for sending Morrigan with the party are completely correct.
  • Raised by Wolves: He jokes about this to the Warden if s/he gets pushy before he's ready. He was raised by dogs. With wings. Who were devout Andrastians. And hated cheese.
  • Revenge Before Reason: A heroic example. No matter how you present the argument for needing more Wardens, Alistair never stays in the party if Loghain is recruited.
  • Rousing Speech: Gives a good one to the Warden's army before the assault on Denerim, if you made him king (otherwise Anora gives one).
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: If Alistair becomes King at the Landsmeet, he makes it perfectly clear that he'll be on the frontlines and leading the charge during the Battle of Denerim and the assault to take down the Archdemon.
  • Sad Clown: The game doesn't expect you are fooled, however: you can outright say "This is the part where you deflect questions with humor?". He responds "I'd use my shield, but I think you'd actually see me hiding behind it." None of his party members are fooled either, and his humor is often found irritating to other people.
  • Shutting Up Now: Most obviously when the female Warden rejects his confession of love and when she's the one to suggest sex first. Each for different reasons.
  • Sibling Ying Yang: Unlike Cailan, who merely thought himself the Warrior Prince, Alistair proves to actually be one.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: With this trope in mind, his romance is certainly one of the best-written ones for a female PC.
  • Spare to the Throne: Unfortunately he's a bastard, so he wasn't raised to the task. Needless to say, he's not happy about the idea of becoming king after being trained for something completely different and being quite forcefully assured that his illegitimate status would prevent the question.
  • The Talk: Wynne starts giving him one when he begins an intimate relationship with the female PC. Once he realizes what she's going on about, he interrupts with a highly-embarrassed "Andraste's flaming sword, I know where babies come from!".
  • Turn Out Like His Father: Oh yeah.
  • Warrior Prince
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • He lets the hero have it if they resort to killing either Connor or Isolde to resolve the situation at Redcliffe instead of taking the third option. He will also be outraged and immediately quit if you spare Loghain, even though you're condemning him to death, one way or the other, by forcing him to do the Joining.

Dog

The faithful Mabari hound of the PC with human-level intelligence and a mean bite. Can be cute when he needs to be, though; even Morrigan is moved by his puppy eyes once. The player may give Dog any name they wish, but according to writer Mary Kirby, his "official" name is Rabbit.

  • Arch Enemy: Oghren considers him this.
  • Bilingual Dialogue: Late in the game Dog goes running off in the market in Denerim, and comes back with a human boy he wants to keep. The Warden's response options make clear that Dog is capable of making fairly complex statements using his array of yelps, barks, and whines, and that the Warden is capable of understanding them. Perhaps justified by the fact that Mabari are supposed to have human-level intelligence, but they do just sound like standard dog noises. (A proverb mentioned many times in game is that mabari are "smart enough to talk, wise enough not to".)
    • He will also have full-blown conversations with Loghain in Origins and Ariane in Witch Hunt.
  • Canine Companion
  • Defector From Decadence: the mabari hounds were created by the Tevinter magisters to help them with their conquest: when they came to the lands that would become Ferelden, the Mabari defected and chose to side with the ancestors of the Fereldans
  • Dogs Are Dumb: Averted; Mabari were bred by mages to be incredibly intelligent. As the game will remind you over and over and over again, a Ferelden proverb has it that mabari are smart enough to speak, and wise enough to know not to.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog:
    • In the "Stone Prisoner" DLC, Dog will immediately sense that something's very very wrong with "Kitty". Either that or he just hates cats like any other dog.
      • Not that the special powers of an Evil-Detecting Dog are really necessary to recognize something amiss about a cat that talks and has glowing purple eyes although he starts growling before any of that comes into play.
    • Dog goes absolutely apeshit the first time you encounter Witherfang, barking furiously.
    • Dog will also start growling at Zathrian, perhaps sensing his connection to the werewolf curse.
  • Hello, Insert Name Here: The only party member besides the player character that you can name. One of the more popular choices (and referenced in one DLC) is "Barkspawn."
  • Heroes Love Dogs: Ferelden culture is heavily dog-friendly. You'll see dog motifs all over...their torches, wardrobes, support beams...
    • Heck, it's even on the royal coat of arms: Instead of Lions Rampant, you have Mabari Hounds Rampant.
    • Some nobles, exemplified by Brice Cousland even adresses their children "Lad" and "Pup" as Terms of Endearment.
    • Which goes along with Ferelden being the Fantasy Counterpart Culture to Britain. During the days of the the Roman Empire Britain's most famous export was its dogs. The Romans would import them all the way across the continent to use as guard dogs.
  • Heroic Dog
  • Improbable Weapon User: Not exactly, since being a dog he attacks with his teeth and/or claws, but you can enhance his physical attacks by equipping him with... paints. And different fancy collars.
    • Not entirely odd, though, considering this is a world where magic is very real and magical weapons and items are reasonably commonplace. The paints and collars are probably enchanted.
  • Killer Rabbit / Shout-Out: Dog's "official" name is "Rabbit", which could be a Shout Out to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • Mini Game: Has a couple, one being a territory marking game and another trying to collect all the objects he can find in various areas of the game world.
  • Non-Human Sidekick
  • Puppy Dog Eyes: Even Morrigan is affected by his manipulative whine.
  • Team Pet: The only members of your party who don't get along with him are Oghren...and Alistair, oddly enough.
    • Oghren gets along well enough with Dog... he's just pissed that dog doesn't want to be the first of his "Wardog Charioteers." That, and in one of his drunken rants, he believes the dog has stolen his pants. Even though Oghren's wearing them at the time.
    • Alistair has some difficulty remembering that Dog is a sentient war hound and should be treated as such. Dog doesn't cut him any slack for this. Alistair also probably didn't score any points with Dog when he got too close to his food and accused him of eating people.
  • Undying Loyalty: No matter what you do, Dog will always have a 100% approval rating.
    • The Mabari breed abandoned the Tevinter magisters to fight alongside the "barbarians" who would become the Fereldan people: more than a thousand years later, they are still part of the elite force of Ferelden's millitary.
  • Urine Trouble: One of the Dog's minigames involves finding landmark objects for him to pee on. Seriously. He's marking his territory. It makes him stronger.
  • What Happened to the Mouse??: Your loyal hound does not follow you in the Awakening expansion because he was busy repopulating Ferelden's mabari kennels. However, he returns in the "Witch Hunt" DLC.
  • Worthy Opponent: What Sten considers him to be.

Sten: You a true warrior and worthy of respect.
Dog: *Happily* Ruff!


Oghren

"If you've ever heard of me before, it's probably all been about how I piss ale and murder young boys who look at me wrong. And that's mostly true."

A former dwarf warrior from Orzammar, Oghren is now best known for his drinking and the fact that he was forbidden to carry weapons; a great insult to his status. He was shamed when his wife Branka left with the entire clan to search the Deep Roads for something important to her, leaving only him behind. Shale's nickname for him is "The Drunken Dwarf." He returns in Awakening, where he becomes a Grey Warden himself. Voiced by Steve Blum.

  • A Date with Rosie Palms: After he imagines the relationship between Hespith and Branka.
  • Aesop Amnesia: Regardless of whether he decided to try to become a better person, he's back to being a disreputable drunkard in Awakening
  • The Alcoholic: Talking to him at camp frequently results in him going on drunken (and hilarious) tirades.
  • Acquired Poison Immunity: His decades of alcoholic mistreatment of his body has left him pretty much impervious to the negative affects of drinking things. Even The Joining doesn't give him more than slight indigestion where it knocks everyone else out cold in seconds.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Gets lampshaded. Apparently, this is his strategy for wooing women. Standing still while looking mysteriously angry does wonders.
  • Anti-Hero: Either Type III or Type IV on the Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes.
  • Badass: How much? In Awakening, when he drinks Darkspawn Blood to become a Grey Warden, he simply burps and essentially says, "That's it?". This is the same stuff that will at the very minimum knock you unconscious for a few hours, and is potentially lethal.
  • Badass Boast: Oghren's final words before the The Very Definitely Final Dungeon to fight the Archdemon are both Badass and a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming:

Oghren: This is it, Warden. "When from the blood of battle the Stone has fed, let the heroes prevail and the blighters lie dead." As one of the blighters, I sodding salute you. Let us show them our hearts, and then show them THEIRS.

  • The Berserker: His fighting style of choice.
  • Berserk Button: Aside from the literal one he gets from his specialization, there's also this:

"No one touches Oghren's junk and LIVES!"

  • The Big Guy: Which is rather ironic if you consider that only Dog is shorter than him.
  • Blood Knight: A deconstuction. Oghren at one points laments that Dwarven society trains you to become a Blood Knight and the Deshyrs applaud when it wins you victories in the Deep Roads. But the moment you're back in Orzammar, unable to stop your training kicking in, accidentally killing someone during a Proving, they immediately throw you to the Deepstalkers for it.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Deconstructed, as he is shunned by almost everyone for his behavior, ruined his relationships because of it, and he knows his life is a mess beneath all that drinking and fighting.
  • Casanova Wannabe: He hits on all female party members, the PC included. Most often under the influence of alcohol and to the disgust or snarkiness of all of them.
  • Contractual Immortality: There is no combination of choices that the PC can make that will result in Oghren being killed at the end of Awakening. Every other companion can be revealed to have died in the Where Are They Now? Epilogue, but Oghren will always ride off into the sunset. Probably while intoxicated.
  • Cruel Mercy: Oghren accidentally killed someone during a Proving that was meant to be to first blood. Because of his victories in the Deep Roads, they did not exile or execute him, instead they stripped him of all his weapons and forbade him their use in city limits. Oghren's a warrior forbidden from fighting.
  • Deadpan Snarker

"Oh, you can't keep the archdemon waiting. You hurt its feelings, it might just turn the whole Blight around and go home. Nobody wants that."

Oghren: I swear. The things I could do to you.
Morrigan: Ugh. It is leering at me once again...
Oghren: Oh. Did I say that out loud?

  • Disappeared Dad: Ran off on Felsi and his child to join the Grey Wardens. He does feel guilt about this later on and can be convinced to try and be a part of his child's life via letters.
  • Don't Explain the Joke: Oghren is prone to this.

(on seeing the Circle Tower) Ooh, that's huge. (giggles) I wonder how long it took to erect it. (giggles) Get it? Erect it!"

    • Also, this:

Oghren: (to Shale) Sounds like you're passing a stone, there. (laughs) Get it? "Passing a stone?"
Shale: I do get it, yes.

  • Drowning My Sorrows
  • Eat the Dog: Leliana's pet nug just makes him hungry.
  • Elves Versus Dwarves: Invoked, and inverted, subverted, and played straight by turns - Oghren denies any interest in an elf vs. dwarf rivalry with Zevran when the latter asks about it, but the two do develop something of a friendly rivalry nonetheless.
    • Played more straight (so to speak) with one of his stock lines in the Awakening:

Oghren: Look at me! I'm an elf! Trees are pre~tty! Tra-la-la!

  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Oghren gets an axe in Awakening which he dubs "Darkspawn Ravager." Its special effect? + 10 damage to Darkspawn and explosive hits. The weapon's description: "Oghren named this axe the Darkspawn Ravager because that's what it does."
  • Expy: Of Black Whirlwind, right down to the missing relative, drinking, the axes and the general Blood Knight attitude.
  • Flanderization: In Awakening, where his crude and drunken habits are emphasized.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Oghren has supposedly been banned from fighting or even bearing weapons in Orzammar upon pain of exile, but when he joins the party (in the city) he's carrying a battle axe, and from that point on you can traipse around the city having him kill as many Dust Town thugs and Proving contestants as you like without anyone saying peep about it.
    • Look at it this way. Would you go up to the drunk violent dwarf with a large instrument of death who's cheerfully gutting people in plain view in the company of three other people who all give off the 'those guys are bad news' vibe each in their own way, possibly including a giant golem, a Qunari (which is more than twice a dwarf's size and similarly built like a brick) and a dog larger than most adult dwarves, and tell him he can't do that crap? Dwarves may be duplicitous, but they aren't suicidal, usually.
      • When Oghren first approaches you he's at the entrance to the Deep Roads, where he is allowed to carry weapons (his weapons ban only applies within city limits, he can still kill all the darkspawn he wants as Warrior caste). The guards are politely ignoring his axe because he's clearly loaded up for an expedition and obviously he has to get his gear to the entrance somehow. Also because every time they let Oghren go off on a Deep Roads raid, they can hope this is the time he doesn't come back.
    • There's also the fact that simply being part of a Grey Warden's entourage seems to excuse you for a lot of things, like being an apostate mage.
    • In Oghren's case, he mentions that leaving Orzammar with you will officially make him a surface dwarf. At this point Orzammar's laws no longer mean shit to him, and they allow him back in the place only temporarily and if he's with you (as the Grey Warden travel pass for Orzammar appears to apply to 'Grey Warden and party').
  • Gargle Blaster: His homebrewed ale will knock the PC out if s/he doesn't have a high enough constitution. To him, Darkspawn Blood is barely this.
  • Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: Both over Hespith and Branka, and if a female PC brings him to the Pearl and gets a female whore, Oghren interupts:

Whore: "Oh... that's just (shriek)"
Oghren: "Oops, heh heh, wrong room."

    • You can also short circuit his mind if you as a female PC propose a threesome with hot pirate Isabela and Leliana.
  • In Harm's Way: He becomes a Grey Warden in Awakening because his Blood Knight nature couldn't accept simply settling down with Felsi.
  • Innocent Innuendo: Mentions "Polishing his weapon" to relieve tension to Alistair, as well as mentioning to Wynne that he sees Alistair "Twirling his pike" when no one sees him. Apparently he's talking about actual weapons (he says).
  • It Has Been an Honor: He can say this to the Warden during the final battle.
  • Late Character Syndrome: According to the developers, this is why he returns in Awakening.
  • Love Martyr: He gets better, though.
  • My Greatest Failure: If he's there for the Gauntlet, he straight-up tells the Guardian that he feels that he's ultimately failed Branka and his family, believing that if he'd been a better husband, she might not have gone for the Anvil, taking the rest of his family along to their deaths.
  • Plucky Comic Relief
  • Redheaded Hero
  • Retcon: If the Warden hooked him up with Felsi, achieved a high approval rate, and fell to the Archdemon, the epilogue will announce he sobered up and happily married Felsi, naming his child after the Warden. This is not to be seen as an Orlesian Warden.
  • Shout-Out: Oghren's battle cry "let's see what yer innards look like!" is very similar to that of another drunken, bloodthirsty dwarven berserker in a BioWare game, Korgan Bloodaxe, who shouted "let's see what yer guts be lookin' like" on entering combat.
  • Slap Slap Kiss: Apparently, Felsi isn't so negatively disposed to him after all. They're even married by the time of Awakening, though when he decides to join the Grey Wardens for real after confessing to her that he just wasn't cut out to be anything more than a warrior, the marriage dissolves.
  • A Tankard of Moose Urine: One of his gifts in Awakening is Dragon Piss, which the description says that it may be figurative but no one knows for sure. Of course, one may only wonder where he gets his own home-brewed ale, as hinted by him and Zevran in party banter in Origins.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: His wife, Felsi, in Awakening, is quite a looker among Dwarven women.
  • Un Entendre: For a dwarf with a perverted mind, Oghren makes a few of these when talking about weapons in party banter.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Zevran, perhaps as a small homage to Legolas and Gimli. And again with Anders in Awakening.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Oghren may love to solve problems with an axe but killing Connor will casuse a huge loss of aproval from him, even more so than from idealistic and moral teammates like Alistair and Leliana.

Shale

"The darkspawn are an evil that must be destroyed, it's true. Though not as evil as the birds... damnable feathered fiends!"

A golem of the old dwarven kingdoms who was found by a human mage called Wilhelm in the Deep Roads and brought to the surface. Shale was paralyzed after Wilhelm died (Shale killed him), and has spent the last thirty years frozen as a statue in the village of Honnleaf, completely conscious but unable to move. Abhors birds above all else because of it. Voiced by Geraldine Blecker.

  • Amnesiac Dissonance: Shale is amnesiac and cannot remember much of what life (for a given value of "life") was like previous to Honnleaf. It is possible, through bringing Shale to The Anvil of the Void to meet Cairdin, to unlock some former memories. Learning of of them, especially that Shale used to be a dwarf, has this form of effect.
  • And I Must Scream: Was frozen in place in a village for three decades, was fully aware the entire time, and could do nothing about the abuse and humiliation from people, dogs, and especially birds. Mostly played for laughs. Played less for laughs was Shale's indeterminate amount of time spent in complete darkness in the Deep Roads before Wilhelm found it.
  • Another Side, Another Story: We will see what became of Shale in the next novel, Dragon Age: Asunder.
  • Anti-Hero: Type IV on the Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes.
  • Arch Enemy: Birds, the damnable feathered fiends!
  • Badass Normal: Caridin mentions she was an unparalleled warrior and the first woman to volunteer to become a Golem. He also suspects that Shale's free-will is due to the fact that Shayle was a highly stubborn and determined dwarven woman.
  • Become a Real Boy: In one of the possible Where Are They Now -Epilogues she mentions how she wants to find a way to become mortal again. She succeeds in at least one as well, although no details are given.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Birds.
    • The description of Wilhelm's death suggests that Shale may have been called 'Golem' one too many times. Though the real circumstances are left to speculation, Shale does nothing to dispel the impression.
  • The Big Guy
  • Companion Cube: You can give Shale a pet rock as a gift.
  • Curse Cut Short:

Leliana: I do not understand why you hate birds so much.
Shale: It is because I had to endure their chirping, their perching, and most especially their constant sh-
Leliana: No, I understand that part.

Shale: I see it found some augmentation crystals. I was not even aware it knew about them... well done! So? What does it think? They don't make me look any wider, do they? I find I am already too wide as it is.

Oghren: I think I had a wife like you, once.

Shale: I could watch you fight all day long. The skill you display, the form... how the light plays on its muscles... I mean, yes. Well done. With the fighting.

  • Golem
  • Good Is Dumb: Shale's quite a bit less powerful than enemy golems.
    • At first, anyway.
  • Hand Wave: Shale being significantly smaller than other golems is explained as a result of being chiseled down in order to fit through doors. This is a developer in-joke referencing the fact that Shale's original, larger character model caused problems in development, partially because it couldn't fit through doorways.
  • Heroic Comedic Sociopath: "Crush their skulls and be done with it. Fast. Efficient. Fun." Played much more for laughs than either Morrigan or Zevran, making Shale the by far most clear-cut example in this game.

Alistair: So, Shale... when you were standing there all that time? Did you... sleep?
Shale: I have no need to sleep. My body does not tire or do -- ugh -- other flesh-related functions.
Alistair: But don't you get bored? Wouldn't you want to dream, at least?
Shale: I do not dream. This is what it does when it sleeps? It paws its nose and mumbles incoherently.
Alistair: Yes, of course. I thought we all -- huh... you watch me?
Shale: I watch all closely when they are still at night. There is little else to do.
Alistair: For... hours and hours?
Shale: I count the breaths. it helps to overcome the overwhelming urge to CRUSH their faces while they sleep.
Alistair: Well. I won't be doing much of that anymore.

  • Homage: To a certain organic-hating droid.
  • Improbable Weapon User: They're explicitly stated to be magical, so it's somewhat justified, but Shale attacks with crystals in lieu of conventional weapons.
    • Technically speaking, Shale is a Bare-Fisted Monk, and the crystals enhance the punches. Still, removing the arm crystals does reset Shale's punches to some rather pathetic unarmed damage.
  • Informed Ability: In dialog Shale is often described as being superhumanly strong and Nigh Invulnerable, but in actual gameplay is no more powerful or less squishy than other warrior-type characters (albeit for understandable reasons).
    • Funnily enough, Shale's actually a horrible tank at higher levels. The golem does make a pretty good buffer/aoer though, due to the unique way the skill trees function, but Shale throws out a lot of friendly fire.
  • Jerkass: Shale is quite open about feeling contempt for most everybody.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Tell it that being different is not so bad and it'll ask whether you're easy to please or just fishing for approval.
  • Madden Into Misanthropy: After having been experimented on, used as a slave, paralyzed for 30 years in a small village and fully aware the entire time, Shale has not come to have any love for "squishy" organic creatures.
  • Made Of Stone: Quite literally, not that it's apparent in actual gameplay.
  • The Nicknamer: Shale never refers to people by name (with the exception of Sten, one one occasion), instead preferring to use epithets (and, should they protest, shamelessly insulting epithets). Except for the main character. The main character is "it".
  • Pet the Dog: In Asunder, Shale is spotted mourning Wynne's death with Leliana.
  • POV Sequel: Shale and Wynne's story will continue in Dragon Age: Asunder.
  • Punny Name: Has an appropriate name for a being of living stone. Funnily enough, it's her original dwarven name, though spelled differently.
    • Lampshaded by the the Warden;

Warden: Is that your name, or what you're made of?

  • Samus Is a Girl
  • Ship Tease: With Sten.
  • Super Soldier: Golems were originally created to serve the Dwarven kingdom as such. Shale herself was a dwarf who volunteered to become a golem in order to better defend her homeland.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Not actively malicious, but decidedly amoral, indifferent to acts that could be deemed as such, and often in favor of more violent solutions.

Shale: Oh, please, somebody kill somebody!

  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Leliana's girly-girl. Their dialogue is mostly Leliana trying to bring out Shale's good side. They disagree for a lot of it, but they seem to compromise on both liking pretty things and nice shoes.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Cairdin, whom she will protect if the Warden attempts to fight him. In her forgotten dwarven life as Shayle, she was similarly the most loyal of his friends.
  • Unwinnable By Mistake: The map for Shale's nightmare in the Fade during the "Broken Circle" quest has poorly drawn movement zones, making it possible for the Warden to get stuck there with no way out. Fortunately you don't need to do so to complete the quest, and can re-load a recent save and go on, though it does mean defeating the Sloth Demon with at most three party members, and missing the Traveler achievement.
  • Verbal Tic: Shale always refers to all 'organics' as 'it', which is especially noticeable considering the way Shale always speaks of people in the third person, even when directly talking to them.
    • If you manage to get her happy enough, she'll actually catch herself, and refer to the Warden as "You" rather then "It" when you talk to her during the ending.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Seems to have some respect for Wynne in a few dialogues (especially in Asunder), though the casual snark and insults never really stop, and Wynne certainly fires back sometimes. A friendship with the Warden also comes off as this.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Turns on you should you decide to battle Cairidin.

Sten

"The arishok asked "What is the Blight?" By his curiosity, I am now here.

A qunari warrior sent to scout out the situation in Ferelden, Sten slew a whole family of farmers that saved him from death. Now he is imprisoned in Lothering by the Chantry, where the priestess might be persuaded to release him into Grey Warden custody. Shale has no nickname for him beyond "Qunari," but Sten refers to the golem as "Kadan". Voiced by Mark Hildreth.

  • Anti-Hero: Type IV
  • Anti-Mutiny: Will try to pull this at Haven if he's at low approval. If he's at high approval instead, he'll just state his opinions and put it at that.
  • The Atoner
  • BFS: Like most qunari warriors, he's extremely attached to his. Even though he no longer has it.
  • The Big Guy
  • Blatant Lies:

Sten: (after Leliana witnesses him playing with a kitten) ...There was no kitten.
Leliana: Sten, I saw you. You dangling a piece of twine for it.
Sten: I was helping it train.

    • An alternative version of the above that can occur:

Leliana: Outside, you were picking flowers!
Sten: ...No, I wasn't.
Leliana: You were!
Sten: ...They were medicinal.

  • The Comically Serious: Particularly when he's chosen to break the Warden out of prison.
    • Interestingly enough, Sten does appear to have a sense of humor. If you comment that you find his deadpan snarking funny, you'll even get a big approval bonus.
  • Commander Contrarian: Prone to questioning your actions once in a while, though he'll respect you more if you actually stand your ground in an argument.
  • Cool Sword: The traditional weapon of Qunari warriors, to truly get on his good side, the Warden has to help him recover it.
  • Cultured Badass: Oddly enough.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Another one, and a master of the "deadpan" half.

The Rescue the Warden Scenario
Leliana: Aren't you having fun? Infiltrating a fort? Isn't it exciting?
Sten: Yes, truly my life has reached its apex.

  • Dumb Muscle: Thoroughly averted. Despite having the fewest lines and shortest dialogue of any member of the team that doesn't communicate by barking, Sten is pretty clearly the most intelligent member of the party overall. His fondness of paintings implies he may even be the most well-rounded.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Qunari refer to themselves by their ranks, their names are mostly just social security numbers to them.
  • Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: For some. And Shale.
  • Fish Out of Water: Much of his interaction with both the Warden and the other members of the party consists of him questioning what to him are the odd ways of the Fereldans.
  • Gentle Giant: He loves cookies, plays with kittens, enjoys paintings and is highly upset that the cake is a lie.
  • Going Native: To a minor degree. He starts to affectionally refer to The Warden and Shale as "Kadan", gains a love of Cookies and reinterprets his orders that the only way he can properly answer the Arishok's question, "What is the Blight?" is to remain in Ferelden until after it is over.
    • Some of the writers have suggested that after his lengthy debriefing, he will have to go for some re-education by the Ben-Hassrath because of the bad habits he's picked up whilst in Ferelden.
    • Sten seems somewhat aware of this if he and Dog are the ones to rescue the Warden from Fort Drakon;

Sten: And now I am talking to an animal. I have been in this country too long.

"You mean I should remark upon the weather before I cut someone's head off?"

  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Sten is almost twice the size of a female Dwarf Warden.
  • I Call It Vera: His sword Asala.
  • Joke Weapon: The Butterfly Sword DLC, a 2-handed sword that flashes rainbows and has butterflies coming out of it. Just giving it to him initially will cause him to lose 50 respect points for you. Partial subversion, however, as it's actually a pretty good early-game weapon.
  • Karma Houdini: Killed a family of eight, including children, in a blind panic when he lost his sword. While this haunts him, he never really pays for it.
    • Although he freely admits when he joins you, he never expects to survive following the Warden against the Blight and that his certain death will be his atonement.
    • Thus he is on a quest with you.
    • When the Guardian questions him on this during the Gauntlet about whether he believes he failed his people letting the Qunari be seen in that light;

Sten: I have never denied that I failed.

  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again: When Leliana sees him playing with a kitten and/or picking some flowers. She constantly calls him a "softie" ever after.
  • Literal-Minded: Since the language of Ferelden isn't his native tongue, this leads to amusement.
    • ""Wonders of Thedas"? What does that even mean? Do they sell geography questions?"
    • Also, if the Warden says that he/she would never have thought that Sten would have a sweet tooth, Sten responds with confusion: "None of my teeth are sweet."
  • Meaningful Name: Sten is a Scandinavian name which literally means "stone".
    • Though it's pronounced completely different, and in fact is not his given name, but rather his rank. Despite the similarity in spelling, the connection is almost certainly coincidental.
  • No Sympathy: Sten believes in action and duty. Angst, navel-contemplation or sappiness, no matter how justified, just annoy him. As such, conversation options that tend to earn the highest approval are those which you stand your ground instead of backing down compliantly.
  • Not So Stoic: Leliana teases him about this a lot.
  • Old Soldier: Has elements of this character type in that he doesn't initially respect the leadership of the (much younger and less experienced) Warden.
  • Optional Party Member: Can lead to Guide Dang It, if you couldn't persuade the Chantry to let him go from his cage. Useful tip: Have Leliana pick the lock.
  • Perpetual Frowner: Sten disapproves.
    • He does crack a smile if you get his sword back for him, and if you nominate him to lead the group holding the gates in the endgame.
  • Planet of Hats: At least partially subverted, though we don't really meet any other qunari to talk to.

Warden: "Tell me about the qunari."
Sten: "No."
Warden: "Well, that wasn't what I expected to hear."
Sten: "Get used to disappointment. People are not simple. They cannot be defined for easy reference in the manner of: 'the elves are a lithe, pointy-eared people who excel at poverty.'"

    • He later acts surprised when Leliana assumes he is typical of his people. Non-soldier Qunari are apparently quite different in behaviour and interests.
    • If his Fade sequence is anything to go by, he may not even be typical of Qunari soldiers; his fallen brothers appear happy, humorous, and perhaps boastful. Though, given that the fade sequences for several other party members got personalities of other characters wrong, this isn't a given.
      • If asked in his Fade sequence if this is what other Qunari are like, he says no.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Actually may be a subversion; Sten acts surprised if the Warden assumes his values or personality are typical of his people. Their society is divided into a strict caste system and the implication is that non-warrior qunari aren't necessarily anything like him, though the player never encounters any of them to confirm this.
  • The Quiet One: Dislikes talking to the point that he'll reply to the Warden's questions with single word answers whenever he can.
    • After telling a parable in regards to mages:

Grey Warden: That's more words than I've ever heard you say.
Sten: I've been saving them up.

  • Ship Tease: Oddly enough, his conversations with Morrigan can be considered this. At one point, he even compares her to a beautiful flower. Admittedly, a beautiful flower that traps and devours insects, but still.
    • His conversations with Shale are an even better example. He even starts calling her "kadan" after a while.
  • Stay in the Kitchen: He has a very comprehensive list of the professions of women, as the qunari believe these are the jobs meant for women - choice has no factor in it. The same is true for men, however. The former are shopkeepers, artisans or priests; the latter are laborers and soldiers. With the PC being an Action Girl, either she isn't a woman or isn't a warrior. The former is what he questions.
  • The Stoic
  • Sugar and Ice Personality: He can eventually come to see the Warden as a close companion as he becomes a True Companion.
  • Sweet Tooth: He has a fondness for cookies, something they don't have where he comes from.
  • Terse Talker: When he's being deflective.
  • Undying Loyalty: If the Warden recovers his sword and befriends him, he explicitly states that he trusts them with his life and calls them kadan, which is a qunari word meaning something akin to 'close to the heart'.
    • Some fangirls bemoan the lack of a Sten romance. Mary Kirby (perhaps jokingly) pointed out that it's there. You just have to know how to look, apparently.
    • Another Word of God states that Qunari don't have sex to show affection like humans do. Sex is solely for breeding and a qunari who has sex with someone they love is considered a serious oddball. So he could be in love with the Warden, it just has nothing to do with sex. Also, the Qunari act as described to Morrigan doesn't sound so fun.
      • Though, considering Sten's personality, it is quite possible that he could have been exaggerating just to goad Morrigan. Or not.
      • We learn a bit more about qunari and sex in DA3. Short version: qunari do have recreational sex, but apparently only with a specifically designated qunari caste of what are, basically, sex workers. It's intended to be purely physical pleasure divorced of affection or family ties, and is apparently only allowed because attempting to ban sex entirely would obviousy fail.
  • Worthy Opponent: Is very fond of the Dog, viewing him as a warrior worthy of his respect.
    • Also sees the Warden as this when his approval becomes high. When he voices his objection that the Urn of Sacred Ashes is taking them away from their goal of the Blight, he gains respect for the Warden when the Warden doesn't back down and bests him in a duel to decide who leads the group. Once the Warden helps him recover his sword Asala, Sten admits that he was wrong about the Warden and declares them a warrior worthy of fighting among the Beressad, later stating that the Qunari will inevitably invade Ferelden one day, but if that day comes Sten will not look for the Warden on the battlefield.
      • If the Warden sacrifices themself, Sten explicity states to the Arishok when asked if he found any worthy warriors outside Par Vollen, he only found one. We later learn in Dragon Age 2 that to be considered "Basalit-an, an outsider worthy of respect" is the highest form of praise a Qunari can give.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: He will get angry anytime you aren't focused on getting to the Archdemon, like going to Haven.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: He has this outlook on life, which is common to his people. If someone's destiny is to be a farmer, he can't become a merchant. Even if he opens a store, he's still a farmer, only now he's pretending to be a merchant. Just like he's destined to be a warrior. Of course, that doesn't mean he has to like it.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: Not if you're a qunari warrior of the Beresaad and you lose your weapon, you can't.
  • You Do NOT Want to Know: Apparently having sex with a Qunari is at the least lethal for humans. Morrigan is initially interested, but Sten dissuades her when he tells her that she'll need some armor and that he might try to snuggle...
    • Word of God is that Qunari don't have sex to express love(they feel love, just don't associate it with sex) or for pleasure, just for reproduction. It's likely he's just trying to freak Morrigan out to get her to drop the teasing. But with Sten, you never know.

The Mages

Morrigan

"Apparently everyone seems to agree that a blight is the perfect time to start killing each other. Marvelous, really."

Daughter of the mysterious Witch of the Wilds Flemeth, Morrigan is a Lady of Black Magic forced to join the party by her own mother for reasons that are very unclear at first. Eventually, she reveals that Flemeth sent her so that she could get impregnated by one of the Grey Wardens, have the Archdemon killed and make its soul meld with the child, so that she could thereby give birth to an Old God. Why, she refuses to tell. Shale's nickname for her is "The Swamp Witch." Voiced by Claudia Black.

  • Absolute Cleavage: Combined nicely with Sideboob.
  • Abusive Parents: Being raised by Flemeth definitely qualifies. Particularly heartbreaking is the story of how as a young girl she stole a golden mirror as she had never been given beautiful gifts, only practical ones. She ran back to the Wilds with it tightly in her hands for fear she would drop it, only for Flemeth to find out and smash it against a wall.
  • All Amazons Want Hercules: While not physically an amazon, Morrigan does have a wildly independant and Social Darwinist personality, valueing strength and power. Accordingly, the only characters she expresses interest in are a male warden, and Sten. While the former is subject to change, they're generally strong-willed, very competent, with decisive personalities, while the later is displays both incredible mental and physical strength. This keeps with the spirit of the trope, that strong women are only interested in stronger men.
  • All Guys Want Bad Girls: Definitely if you romance her. Goes both ways if the Warden is a bit morally ambiguous himself, although more noble-minded Wardens can win her over as well. While she tends to get irritated by your more decent actions, being nice to her and providing her with gifts can do the trick. See Tsundere below.
  • Animal Motifs: Being a Shapeshifter, this is to be expected.
    • Shale comments that Morrigan resembles a bird, particularly the way she gazes at people.
    • And, as commented below, she does have a rather magpie-ish interest in jewelery.
    • Some have compared her attitude to that of a cat.
    • Sten knows a viper when he sees one.
  • Anti-Hero: Type V on the Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: She passes through an Eluvian to a place that is neither Thedas nor the Fade. It is impossible to know if this is simply another dimension, or another Plane of Existence.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People: The most ruthless and unpleasant of the companions, she starts off with spells tilted toward destroying things and screwing with peoples' minds.
  • Berserk Button: Morrigan greatly values freedom and hates it when people are imprisoned, such as Sten and Jowan. Those who willingly submit to imprisonment - such as the Circle of Magi - earn even more of her contempt. Also, as a Vain Sorceress, she has another fear:

Morrigan: You... do not truly think I look as my mother does, do you?
Alistair: Have you really been thinking about that all this time?
Morrigan: I am simply curious.
Alistair: And not insecure in the slightest, I'm sure.
Morrigan: I think I look nothing like her.
Alistair: I don't know. Give it a few hundred years and it'll be a spot-on match.
Morrigan: I said that I look nothing like her!
Alistair: All right. Got it. Totally different. I see that now.

  • Betty and Veronica: The Veronica to Leliana's Betty as far as female love interests go. Later subverted somewhat, as the two characters aren't as different as they at first seem.
  • Black Widow / Death by Sex: She tends to respond to men hitting on her with threats of this sort. Like mother, like daughter.
  • Break His Heart to Save Him: She attempts to invoke this on a male Warden who romances her. Straight up begging him to say he doesn't love her at one point.
  • Broken Bird: Has the detached, cynical personality, the troubled backstory, and the dark Gothic look, but slightly subverts it in that there's no evidence she ever had a more innocent or idealistic personality or changed as the result of a particularly traumatic experience. The closest that might count is the mirror.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Immediately after initiating a relationship with a male Warden, she will repeatedly and in no uncertain terms tell him that they do not want any sort of romantic connection and that, in particular, she "[has] no designs on [his] independence." She lies. She will tear the Warden a new one if she catches him trying to seduce other women or carrying on a relationship with another companion. But Maker help him if he actually tries to get her to admit that she has feelings for him or anything crazy like that.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: Towards the motives of Flemeth. She casually admits that she wouldn't be surprised if Flemeth wasn't her real mother and hadn't simply abducted her as a child, as well as noting that while she's never seen her legendary other sisters, she doesn't discount the possibility that they might exist somewhere else.
    • Turns out, she was right. While it was initially assumed that all were simply possessed by Flemeth's ritual, its recently been revealed she has at least one other sister in Antiva called Yavana, who claims the ritual was actually a "gift".
  • Dark Action Girl
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Subverted. When the Warden first encounters Morrigan, she muses about whether they'll immediately assume she's evil because she's one of the (legendarily evil) Witches of the Wilds. Once she's spent a little time on the team, though, she turns out to have a very nasty Darwinist streak and in the end game, it turns out that she's been assigned to help the Wardens solely to perform a dark ritual and capture the soul of the Archdemon for purposes unknown. She gets a little closer to playing this trope straight in the ending of Witch Hunt, given that she's apparently had enough time to defrost a little further, but how close she gets is up to the player.
  • Deadpan Snarker: And she hates Alistair. Thus their banter is highly snarky.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: If you romance Morrigan, this trope is upheld in classic style for most of the trip and then subverted all to hell when Morrigan panics at actually feeling something for your character, and immediately cuts you off and frantically retreats back into her snarky persona. Of course, the Witch Hunt DLC can end with the male Warden leaving Ferelden with Morrigan to see their son, making this Double Subversion.
  • Deus Sex Machina: Though not used to titillate the audience, for once.
  • Druid: A bit of a Deconstruction of the type. While not fond of cities, she doesn't go on about it. Though she's clearly a Social Darwinist, she doesn't go out of her way to try to get anyone killed but Flemeth, and that only after she realizes that Flemeth's working on killing her. She's clearly modeled after the D&D druids, but doesn't care for such notions as balance.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The first half of which is odd, considering she has spent most of her life outdoors. Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you remember her Voluntary Shapeshifting hobby.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Morrigan immediately expresses disgust that Sten has been caged like an animal in Lotharing to serve as darkspawn chow by the "mercy" of the Chantry. Though he did kill innocent people, the game makes it clear that being captured by the darkspawn is one of the most horrible fates imaginable that nobody deserves.
    • Also, Morrigan's values system has the typical barbarian outlook on death (it's cheap, part of the natural life cycle, and not to be especially avoided), but holds freedom as an essential virtue. To her mind its actually crueler to cage someone than to kill them.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The very idea of acting altruistically seems to be both alien and offensive to her for most of her time in the group, presumably due to Flemeth's teachings.
  • Evil Counterpart: Could be considered this to a heroic Mage Warden.
  • Expy: Of Viconia from Baldur's Gate
  • Eyes of Gold
  • Femme Fatale: Something of a subversion, however, in that she doesn't actively try to seduce the Warden. At least not in the manner of a typical Femme Fatale.
    • Two-part banter with Sten in which they speak about the qunari act
    • Multiple instances where she talks about women only needing to bat their eyelashes to get men to do what they want.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: And vice versa. The only people who get along with her to any degree are Zevran, the Dog, and possibly the Warden him/herself.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: When you ask about her shapeshifting magic, she says that she's studied many of the creatures of the Korcari Wilds and learned to assume their forms. When she joins your party, however, the only shapeshifting form she's learned is Giant Spider. Possibly justified as being the only form she finds useful in combat- the form of a bird (which she mentions) and a wolf (which you witness) aren't strong enough for her purposes.
  • Hates Being Touched: Well, at least when it comes to simple greetings. Morrigan's just not a handshake person.
    • This doesn't seem to include more intimate touching. Of all the possible lovers, she requires the least amount of approval to get her to sleep with you.
      • Fridge Brilliance: Considering what her plans are, she wouldn't need to like the Warden to start sleeping with him.
  • Hollywood Atheist: Not so much in the reasons for her non-belief, which are fairly realistic, but in that her atheism goes along with being selfish, misanthropic, and actively contemptuous of religious people.
  • Hot Witch: Lampshaded, not that it's all that unusual for the setting.
  • The Immodest Orgasm: According to some dialogue that didn't make it into the retail game but can be accessed on the pc via mods;

Leliana: So you're saying you're wild and uninhibited? I suppose he must like your shrieking, you sound like a genlock being murdered--a sweet, sweet sound to a Grey Warden. You should try a little harder next time he takes you. I don't think they heard you in the Anderfels.

  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: The blouse of her 'robes' are loose and draping from the shoulders and down the front, yet has a laced cinch at the back. It's possible but difficult to make and impractical to wear. Especially implausible as most of what she knew about humans came from observation, but there are no role models shown for her design.
    • Remember that we don't see much of how Chasind women dress, and that's the human culture she's actually most familiar with.
  • Ineffectual Loner: Morrigan's not a "people" person. In camp, her tent is placed far from all the others.
  • Insufferable Genius: According to Alistair, who tries to use a Chantry-related question to mock her for it.
  • Jerkass: At times Almost all the time. The only people who seem to get along with her are Zevran, Dog, and the Warden him/herself.
  • Lady of Black Magic: Self-explanatory.
  • Licked by the Dog: By Dog, of course.
  • Longest Pregnancy Ever: If you sleep with her early in the game, and don't again in the game in Witch Hunt you find out she bore your son. Who isn't the OGB, but still. The pregnancy lasted all of Origins and never ever showed...
    • Actually the events of Origins AND Awakening (and the time between them) happened in only a year, as the sequel states.
  • Love Interest: Potentially.
  • Love Is a Weakness: Morrigan has a conversation with Leliana where where she expresses with venom her feelings that love is a cancer; she doesn't want to love the Warden, as it only complicates her plan, and begs him to leave her be or tell her that he doesn't love her.
    • When reuniting with a romanced Warden in Witch Hunt, she points out the ironic role-reversal;

Morrigan: And you once argued with me that "love is not a weakness"...

  • Love Redeems: Averted. She notices that a romance does soften her up and desperately backpedals into her old bitchiness out of fear of such unfamiliar feelings. Then potentially played straight at the end of Witch Hunt.
    • Wynne invokes this in banter with Alistair when they discuss the Warden's relationship with Morrigan. While Alistair believes she will lead him astray, Wynne points out that he may be a good influence on her.
  • Magic Bra: Whenever Morrigan strips down to her underwear for any reason, she's always wearing a white bra and panties, even though she clearly doesn't wear a bra with her standard outfit.
  • Meaningful Name: The Morrigan was a shapeshifting Celtic deity of war and death, but she averts the trope, since the lead writer said that Morrigan is named after a character of a friend of his and all similarities with the Celtic goddess are coincidental, as they are with Morgan le Fay.
    • Seems the outfit designers didn't get that memo. The crow feathers on her shoulder are symbolic of Morrigan.
  • Name's the Same: Don't confuse her with a certain other Morrigan, even though they're both very beautiful.
  • No Social Skills: She is largely tactless and ignorant of/annoyed by social mores (she considers shaking hands an offensive breach of her personal space, for example). This is because she was raised in the wilds, largely forbidden to interact with outside world.
    • It should be noted however that she is not blind however to this fault, but has long given up trying to learn.
  • No Sympathy: A big part of her character. Morrigan just doesn't do empathy. She may surprise you every now and then, however—once befriended, she genuinely cares about the PC and their feelings, expressing sympathy over their mother's death or having girl talk with the Grey Warden.
    • Interestingly, she shows a little bit more kindness to Alistair when the Warden reawakens in Flemeth's hut. She still accuses him of blubbering, but she is nowhere near as caustic about his grief while talking about it in private than she is to his face in front of the rest of the party. Perhaps she simply thinks that ripping into his angst is the quickest and simplest way of getting him to deal with it and become more effective.
      • You're likely on to something there. Looking at Morrigan's mother, its not surprising she'd think that the only way to deliver emotional support is with a club. Flemeth herself is a master-level devotee of the Harsh Truth school of education.
  • Not Good with People: She freely admits that due to her time in the Korcari Wilds, she's better at understanding animals than people.
  • Not So Different: To Flemeth.
    • Potentially can be seen as this to a Mage Warden. The Mage Warden was trapped in the Circle Tower for many years under the watchful eyes of Templars who molded the Warden into the type of Mage they deemed acceptable; in contrast, Morrigan was trapped in the Korcari Wilds for years under the watchful eyes of Flemeth, who molded her into the Mage she wanted. Both can thus be seen as somewhat naive when it comes to the outside world at large. Morrigan herself seems somewhat surprised when the Mage Warden admits to finding the Circle sometimes suffocating and actually believes the traditions of magic she learnt are worth preserving and would be willing to learn them, unlike the Chantry puppets she assumed Circle Mages to be who foolishly live under the thumb of Templars without question.
  • Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Entirely possible, if you romance her. Of course, if you've already played the game through and are aware of her true objectives, there's nothing oblivious about it.
    • In the Witch Hunt DLC, she appears surprisingly sympathetic and nice, and seems actually surprised and sad if the Warden decides to kill her. And she even says that she is sorry for everything.
  • Odd Friendship: Any friendship she forms given her complete lack of social skills. Especially notable with a more heroic male Amell Warden who does not romance her.
  • Pet the Dog: She does this literally (kind of) in Witch Hunt. When you finally catch up to her, both she and Dog are quite happy to see each other and she even cracks a rare smile.
  • Please Dump Me: One of the conversations in the romance line.
  • Pre-Climax Climax: With the PC, Alistair, or Loghain, potentially.
  • Sarcastic Devotee: As much as she snarks at both the Warden and the other companions, and as easy as it is to earn her disapproval by doing anything heroic or altruistic (even if the motivation for it is completely pragmatic), it's actually pretty difficult to piss her off to the point that she'll leave the party. Furthermore, there is no single moral choice in the game that will cause her to leave if mishandled, which with the exception of Dog is not the case for any of the other companions. This is perhaps because she has a reason for following the Warden besides helping him/her fight the Blight.
  • Sequel Hook: You just know the child she conceives by one of the Wardens at the end is going to show up again.
  • Shoo the Dog: If you're intimate, have helped save her from Flemeth, and gotten her approval above 90%, she gets desperate to get you to break up with her, down to flat out begging you to say you don't love her.
  • Sideboob
  • The Smart Guy
  • Social Darwinist: Flemeth raised her to be a pretty severe example of this. As a result, Morrigan believes that people who can't solve their own problems without help are worth less than nothing. It actually explains many of Morrigan's more "Stupid Evil" tendencies. Perhaps best shown in the Broken Circle quest, where she insists you leave the Mages to their fate, claiming that their current plight is their own fault for a) agreeing to be caged in the Tower in the first place and b) not being strong enough to stop Uldred before things got out of hand.
  • Stalker with a Test Tube: Her real reason for joining the party is that she needs to become pregnant by a Grey Warden in order to complete a dark ritual.
  • The Starscream: To Flemeth, albeit out of self-defense rather than ambition.
  • Stripperific: Her default costume. Although every human female in Thedas shares the same body type, Morrigan is the only one who can wear it.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Morrigan falls into this when she realises she's actually started to fall in love with the Warden.
  • The Tease: Towards Male Warden, Sten, and even occasionally Alistair.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Unlike Zevran or Shale, who with some exceptions merely fail to object when the Warden does "evil" things, Morrigan actively disapproves of acting selflessly and helping others.
  • Too Many Belts: Her default outfit features a skirt that appears to be made out of rags and strips of cloth stitched together with belts.
  • Tsundere: Type A, mostly tsuntsun, but being nice to her and/or romancing her brings out the deredere (as much as she is capable of, anyway).
    • If you get her approval high enough, she even apologises for her behaviour in a very roundabout Tsundere-ish manner.
  • Tyke Bomb: One of many raised by Flemeth. Unusually, she ends up defusing herself to a certain extent, planning Flemeth's death the moment she realises her end-use; it's not until Witch-Hunt that she finally slips her leash altogether, though.
  • Useless Useful Spell: Her shapeshifting powers sound cool in theory, but in practice are nearly useless as they don't enhance her combat ability all that much, take far too long to activate, and prevent her from using her other spells. Although her swarm form is easily the quickest method of moving around as long as you don't mind the other three characters trailing a mile and a half behind you.
    • Building Morrigan into a tank-mage with the Arcane Warrior specialization, however, makes her shapechanging powers much more useful. She can kite, she can tank, she can beat-down opponents in melee, and she can do everything an Arcane Warrior does. The only problem with Shapeshift is like it is with any other skill: if you don't develop it and learn how and when to use it properly, it won't be useful.
  • What Does He See In Her: She'll pretty much ask a male Warden this word for word if he chooses to romance Leliana instead of her.
    • The other companions say the same thing if for a male Warden who does romance her.
  • Vain Sorceress: She's a magpie when it comes to jewelry.
  • The Vamp: Played with for Male Wardens. Morrigan fully intends to play this trope straight when she joins the Grey Warden, and every member of the party is certain that this is what she is, but how it all comes down depends on you. If you romance her, she begins to panic when she actually starts to feel something for you. Several times, she tries to warn or mock you in order to force you to break up with her. If you don't listen, she only becomes more upset and flat out begs you to say you don't love her. And then, in the ending, she uses you for her own purposes, regardless of what her feelings may be.
  • Verbal Tic: Almost all of her dialogue is spoken in a sing-song rhythmic style, which is not that noticeable at first but becomes far more apparent the more you talk to her. She also has a noticeable fondness for the word "'tis" and she uses the "over" insted of "too" as in "over long and "over much".
    • Fridge Brilliance: She largely learned to speak from books, which would have been written in a more archaic language than is in common use, and would have often been written using a meter to aid memorization.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting
  • What Is This Thing You Call Love?: The very concept of forming attachments to others confuses and terrifies her.

Wynne

"I'm not the sort of person that leaves things unfinished. I'll see this through, I promise."

A senior enchanter of the Circle of Magi, Wynne is a notable voice among the mages, preferring action over sitting around in the Tower. She volunteers to go to Ostagar and battle against the darkspawn, eventually joining the party. Shale's nickname for her is "The Elder Mage," much to her chagrin. Voiced by Susan Boyd Joyce.

  • Badass Bookworm
  • Can't Live Without You: Wynne is dependant on a friendly Fade spirit to keep her alive.
  • Cool Old Lady: She may be relentlessly nice, but she's a tough old broad, too.
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Vessel of the Spirit weakens the spirit that keeps Wynne alive, further reducing her life span.
  • Dead All Along: She is already dead when she appears in your party as a Heroic RROD. A spirit from the Fade helps her to stay in the material world a little more.
  • Dead Man Walking: Wynne is already dead due to the benevolent spirit from the Fade. She has no idea how long she has left.
  • Evil Counterpart: Wynne is arguably the good Counterpart of Flemeth. Wynne and Flemeth are both old ladies that are powerful mages and are the hosts of a benevolent Fade Spirit and malevolent Demon respectively. A key difference, besides alignment, lies in how each treats their students. After her Greatest Failure Wynne is devoted to her students and willing to die to protect them. OTOH, Flemeth raises her daughters and teaches them her magic just to make it easier for her to bodysnatch them. To a lesser extent she is also a good Counterpart to Uldred, another Humanoid Abomination.
    • In-party, she serves as Morrigan's almost exact opposite; their values almost always oppose one another, making it difficult to bring both along without upsetting at least one. Probably done to cut down on the number of mages you'll be using. Not suprisingly, their banter is some of the most vicious dialogue in videogame history.
  • Foreshadowing: One of Wynne's first conversations with you are about the nature of abominations. Later, you find out why she's grateful if you tell her that if an abomination doesn't behave evil, it really isn't an abomination.
  • Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: She has really smooth skin for someone her age, and her body model is exactly the same as that of the younger Morrigan and Leliana. Zevran comments a couple of times on her 'magical bosom.'
    • She was not amused: "Zevran, I'm old enough to be your grandmother."

Zevran: You say that like it's a bad thing.

    • Parodied by Shamus Young here.
    • Oghren seems to think so too.
    • Also jokes when Alistair compliments that she looks younger everyday, that he should watch who he flirts with... its not the first time she's woken up to a younger man beside her in bed.
  • Hidden Depths: You really wouldn't expect a sweet, grandmotherly old woman like Wynne to know so much about alcohol; one of the best gifts for her other than books is a bottle of wine. She even enjoys Oghren's homemade ale--the same stuff that can KO the Warden if his or her Constitution is too low—and manages to correctly identify the ingredients he uses for spicing. This surprises Rhys, Adrian, and Evangeline in Asunder, when they stop at a local inn to rest and eat.
  • Heroic Fatigue: Starts to show signs of this early on in Asunder. Which leads to...
  • Heroic Sacrifice: She sacrifices herself to save the Knight Templar Evangeline in Asunder.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Ironically, despite being probably the most moral of any of the party members, she'd count as one by the standards of at least some Templars.
  • Knight Errant: She's firmly convinced Grey Wardens are supposed to be this, which is her argument for why the Warden should be a Celibate Hero (though you can convince her otherwise).
  • The Last Dance
  • Living on Borrowed Time
  • Meaningful Name: Wynne's name has many appropriate meanings in Old English and Welsh, as seen here. All apply to the character. It may just be fan opinion, but Wynne is pronounced "Win" for a reason.
  • The Medic / Combat Medic
  • Missing Mom: Wynne is this to her own son, assuming he is even still alive. She was forced to give up her son to the Chantry, as is the policy for all children borne to magi. She reveals this to Alistair, and admits that she would have liked her son to be like him.

Alistair: Do you ever think about him?
Wynne: ...All the time.

    • You'd think this would be her personal quest.
      • If the previews are right, it looks like he'll be turning up as a major character in the next Dragon Age novel, Dragon Age: Asunder. His name's Rhys.
  • Mentor Archetype: Especially pronounced with a mage Warden.
  • My Greatest Failure: Her first teaching assignment ended very badly. She was apparently such a bitch to her student that he fled the Circle Tower. He was hunted down by the Templars and presumed dead. The only silver lining of that incident was that it taught her how to be a better mentor to new mages (something the Grey Warden can point out). You can help Wynne find closure in her Personal Quest by discovering that her former student actually survived and bears her no ill will.
  • Never Mess with Granny: She survived Ostagar. Enough said.
  • Not Afraid to Die
  • Power Strain Blackout: Wynne's plot power Vessel of the Spirit leaves her stunned and disoriented after every time she uses it. This effect is only alleviated after completing her personal sidequest.
  • Sequel Hook: If you speak to Wynne at the end of the story, she will explain that she will be travelling with Shale, claiming that Shale wants to become organic again. As Shale is inspired by the Warden they apparently travel to Tevinter to see if there is a "cure" of somekind.
  • The Smart Guy
  • Mrs. Robinson: Hints at it when she flirts with Alistair in Return to Ostagar.
  • The Talk: Teasingly given by Wynne to Alistair in a bit of party dialogue after the female PC begins a romance with him.
    • She will also (more seriously) engage with The Talk with the Warden if he/she is engaged in a romance, express her disapproval, and offer a recommendation of No Hugging, No Kissing. She will, however, eventually change her mind and apologize to the Warden, provided you get your love interest's approval rating high enough. She'll even defend your relationship with Morrigan to Alistair during party banter.
  • Team Mom: Alistair likes to act as if she were his grandmother. If the Grey Warden is a mage, she has a great deal of additional dialogue, some of which imply, if the player chooses, that the Grey Warden does in fact look up to Wynne in an almost parental fashion due to The Corps Is Mother approach of the Circle.
    • She plots to knit a sweater for Sten. How much more motherly can you get?
    • Yes, she has a son. His name is Rhys, and he appears with her in Asunder.
  • Token Good Teammate: Out of the entire party, she is the only who starts with and refuses to abandon her selfless sense of morals. Alistair and Leliana can be hardened and convinced to turn a blind eye to most evil, self-serving actions. Not Wynne.
  • Your Days Are Numbered: She survives the massacre at the Circle Tower only thanks to the intervention of a spirit of faith, which soon begins to weaken, meaning that she is literally living on borrowed time. Apparently she has more time than she thought, considering several of the epilogues mention her leaving to travel the world for several years, or becoming the head of the Circle of Magi after the current one dies.
    • She meets her end in Asunder, sacrificing her life to save Evangeline.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: She will get pissed if you make unscrupulous decisions, especially if you destroy the Urn of Sacred Ashes, which causes her to attack you or abandon you depending on whether she is present when you do it. Any romance concerns her as well, but she will relent if the romance blooms to Love.
  • White Magician Girl


The Rogues

Leliana

"I came to Ferelden and the Chantry because I was being hunted. I walked where the Maker led me and he has rewarded me for my faith. I found you."

Leliana is a former Orlesian bard and a lay sister at the Chantry in Lothering. After receiving a prophetic dream about the Blight, she decides to join the PC on his/her quest. A bisexual/nun/ninja/entertainer, she's complicated like that. Shale's nickname for her is "The Sister." Voiced by Corinne Kempa.

Raleigh: I still remember that scared little girl in my cell!
Leliana: I remember her too. This is for her.

  • Pushes him backwards off of a cliff*
  • Anti-Hero: Type V or IV in her past, currently repentant but can slip down to a Type II if hardend by the player.
  • The Archer: Her specialization.
  • The Atoner: Though more in her backstory than in the game itself.
  • Badass Normal: The only human party member who is neither a Warden nor a Mage.
  • The Bard: Her specific character class to boot.
  • Beautiful Dreamer: Part of her romance - she likes watching the PC sleep. The Warden can reply to her that this is creepy.
  • Becoming the Mask: She originally adopted the guise of a simple, pious, religious convert in order to escape the notice of Marjolaine, her former employer and now mortal enemy. It was only later, when she found herself content in that life, that she actually started to become that person for real.
  • Betty and Veronica: Betty to Morrigan's Veronica. She's not as Betty-like as she seems, however.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: INDEED.
  • Bi the Way
  • Blatant Lies: "I'm just flushed from the... heat!"
  • Blue Eyes
  • The Cameo: Shows up at the end of Dragon Age 2 and appears as a agent of the Divine in the Exiled Prince DLC. She also appears in the novel 'Asunder'.
  • The Chick: To an almost ridiculous degree.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: If romanced, she's extremely affectionate to the Warden, but makes it clear she in no way approves of the Warden even looking at another woman.
  • Corrupt the Cutie: A tame example. You are given the option of "hardening" her. Subverted however in that Leliana is not actually the naive innocent she at first appears to be.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The Warden can mistake her for one at first, as Chantry Sisters aren't generally renowned for their fighting ability and she can seem a bit loopy at times. Leliana's no ordinary Chantry Sister however.
  • Culture Clash: With an elf Grey Warden. Leliana tries to talk to the Grey Warden about the situation of elves from what the Grey Warden will recognize as a rather warped perspective. Said Warden can bite her head off about her notions about the elves and directly call her and everyone in the society she hails from a bunch of naive fools... and gain approval for opening her eyes.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Surprisingly.
  • Dogged Nice Girl: Due to a dialogue glitch, she may act like she is in a relationship with the Warden even if the Warden has made it clear that they are not interested in her.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: A dream which she interprets as being about the Blight is what convinces her that she was meant to join the Grey Warden's quest.
    • But then it gets subverted when it's stated by a mind-reading guardian ghost that Leliana made up the dream - or at least, her steadfast belief that it was a direct message from The Maker - in order to draw attention to herself in the frustratingly quiet Chantry. Leliana denies this.
      • It was simply questioning her resolve in herself. Whether you believe she made it up is up to you.
  • Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Many players think so.
  • Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Her reasons for fighting the Blight are reminiscent of Joan of Arc. Moreover, she's from Orlais; Joan is known as the Maid of Orleans. She even has a very thick French accent, and looks a bit like Joan.
  • Fan Nickname: Based on an in-game Alistair line, "Princess Stabitty-Stab"
  • Femme Fatale: Used to be one.
  • Gay Option: For a female PC.
  • Heel Face Turn: In her backstory, from murderous troublemaker to pious bard.
  • Heroes Want Redheads: Possibly.
  • Hitchhiker Heroes: Although she has her reasons, the way she joins the party fits this trope to a 'T', which the Warden can Lampshade by asking her why she's so eager to go off adventuring with someone she's just met.
  • Honey Trap: She used to prefer this tactic to actual murder as a bard. Not that she didn't use both at times.
  • The Immodest Orgasm: Alluded to in the second game if she had a threesome with the Warden and Isabela in Origins;

Isabela: *Laughs* "Sister Nightingale" indeed, I remember it didn't take much to make you sing.

  • I'm Taking Her Home with Me: She just loves the nugs in Orzammar. You can actually get her one... and she names it Schmooples.
  • Informed Ability: She is supposed to be a skilled storyteller, but her storytelling skills really don't rise above the rest of the cast. Also by her accounts, the smooth talking, courtly-connivers seem to be stock in trade and a survival necessity for Orlesian bards. Yet her repartee is less evident than her loss of words; she's often flustered and easily embarrassed. Perhaps it's because she's less articulate in Fereldan, and therefore stumbles for correct phrasing, or perhaps her lack of verbal sparring explains the cause of her exile from Orlais.
    • And if the Warden sleeps around on her, she comes off as painfully naive and easily lied to.
    • In hindsight from DA3, its looking more like Obfuscating Stupidity here all around; Leliana is shown there to be epically hard to fool and very subtle when she has to be. In DA1 she was apparently doing her best to convince the Warden that she was not a risk to travel with and so deliberately played up that while she was still useful in a fight she wasn't actually a skilled manipulator and assassin, honest.
      • Which ties in both with Marjolaine's warning in DA1 that the Leliana you thought you knew was not the real her, and the part where Zevran (another assassin) never treated Leliana as anything other than a professional equal.
  • Innocent Bigot: She'll make some well-intentioned but racist comments to you if you're playing as an elf. If you tell her you're offended, she'll apologize and thank you for opening her eyes.
  • Jeanne D'Archetype: Action Girl? Check. Devoutly religious? Check. French (or the equivalent)? Check. Visions telling her to fight? Check. Case closed.
  • Jumped At the Call
  • Lady of Adventure: To some suprise, as well as her former partner in crime (and bed) Marjolaine.
  • Lipstick Lesbian: Since it's BioWare, and since she's a party member, she is a combination of this and Action Girl.
  • Loveable Rogue: At the beginning of the Leliana's Song DLC.
  • Love Interest
  • Magic Music: Standard for a bard.
  • Mata Hari: Orlesian Bards fill this role. Leliana eventually admits that part of her enjoyed it.
  • Meaningful Name: Close enough to Leliana (apparently without a meaning) is the name Eliana, which means 'God has answered' in Hebrew. This fits her reasons for joining very well.
  • The Mistress: Can become this (if Hardened) for a Male Warden who has asked for the Queen's hand. Leliana decides to stay by the Warden's side in Denerim, and even sends him a letter if he is exported to the Awakening expansion pack. However, perhaps due to a glitch, this can only happen if the player stops talking to her altogether (atleast until the epilogue) after having made the decision to marry the Queen. If talked to before the epilogue, she will immediately end her relationship with the PC, even if she was previously Hardened.
  • Naughty Nuns: Zevran definitely wishes. Leliana herself seems to, a little.
    • Oghren wonders if the Chantry girls wear anything under the robes too.
  • Parental Abandonment: Her mother had her out of wedlock and died when she was young.
  • Rape as Backstory It should be noted that this is not stated explicitly, and therefore should be taken with a grain of salt.
    • Due to the brutally pragmatic environment bards usually work in she also seems to have come to terms with it much more efficiently than most examples of this trope.
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: Leliana's Orlesian (French) accent is criticized as sounding fake, although her voice actress is actually French.
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: If romanced, she and the Warden come dangerously close to this if Wynne and Morrigan are to be believed.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man or Woman: Her romance path requires a Warden to be particularly kind-hearted to NPCs and/or extremely generous with gifts.
  • Spoony Bard: Averted - bards in this game (and Leliana in particular) are extremely deadly if built and utilized correctly.
    • What makes it noteworthy is that all of Orlais seems determined to avert this one - there, "bard" is more or less a synonym for "assassin." One wonders what their music lessons are like.
  • Technical Pacifist: Sort of. She's a quasi-nun and interested in peace and contemplation, but while she prefers non-violent solutions she's perfectly willing to resort to bloodshed when she has to.
  • That Woman Is Dead: What she tells Marjolaine when she's asked about her past in Orlais.
  • A Threesome Is Hot: She'll join the Warden and Isabela for some fun if hardened.
  • Unexplained Recovery: If you killed her in Origins, she basically says "I got better" to Hawke in The Exiled Prince, suggesting 'God Was My Co-Pilot' as the explanation.
  • The Unfair Sex: Played with for laughs, as one of Leliana's quips when nearing the end of her Romance Sidequest, after she'd told you how she felt, and then gets flustered after you tell her you feel the same way.

Warden: I thought you felt comfortable around me?
Leliana: (stammers) Well yes, but...D-Don't question me! I am a woman, and I reserve the right to be inconsistent!

  • Together in Death: If the player complete's Leliana's romance and and then sacrifices himself or herself to kill the Archdemon, the epilogue says that Leliana had a vision that showed her a way to be reunited with her love. One possible interpretation of this epilogue is that she killed herself.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: With herself, no less. Her love of shoes, fashion, romantic starlit evenings, cute animals, etc. doesn't mean she can't also be a dungeon-crawling, arrow-slinging Action Girl.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Her account of her betrayal by Marjolaine and capture doesn't quite match up with the events of her prequel DLC (though she seems to be narrating that as well).
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Averted/subverted. Despite a fairly violent and traumatic past Leliana is the resident idealist in a story that is on the whole pretty cynical, and it's usually difficult to write a character like that without succumbing to the temptation to either condescend to, belittle, or fundamentally alter the character's worldview. The writers avoided those traps, however, and managed to create a multi-layered personality who fits in well and demonstrates how idealism is possible even in a very dark world. She's even quite nice to Loghain, who hates her on sight.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: She turns on you if you destroy the Urn of Sacred Ashes in front of her and she is not hardened.
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Triply subverted. As a bard, she was taught to become "the woman people fall in love with", whatever that might be depending on the situation. She became a genuine Yamato Nadeshiko after Marjolaine decided it was time to Break the Cutie. Subverted again in that she remains an Action Girl despite this.

Zevran Arainai

"We all do our share of murdering around here, don't we?"

An elven assassin from Antiva sent to kill the remaining Grey Wardens. Upon defeat, he offers his services to them, figuring he's as good as dead anyway, and the player has an option to kill him or let him join the party. He's unabashedly bisexual and a romance option for male or female Wardens. Shale's nickname for him is "The Painted Elf," which Zevran rather likes. Voiced by Jon Curry.

  • Affably Evil: Despite being a professional assassin with no morals to speak of, he's almost perpetually cheerful - as he notes, he's an eternal optimist. It's a defense mechanism, as you quickly learn if pursuing a romance.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: Lampshaded in a conversation between Alistair and Leliana:

Alistair: ...he's an assassin who's tried to kill us more than once...do women go for that sort of thing?
Leliana: Where I come from they do, oh yes.

    • Subverted when it becomes clear that even his bad boy persona is mostly an act - if romanced, he stays with the Warden no matter what, practically proposes to them and calls them the best thing that ever happened to him. If dumped, he lets them go with dignity and even considers the other love interest's POV when suggesting that the Warden decide between them.
  • Anti-Hero: Type V on the Sliding Scale, potentially moves to Type IV if he does not Face Heel Turn. In Dragon Age II he is dedicating his life to killing and bringing down the Antivan Crows showing that he has settled down on to Type IV.
  • Anything That Moves: Or at least "Anything That Moves and Isn't Oghren." Maybe. We're hoping that he really was just kidding.
  • Assassin Outclassin'
  • The Atoner: Subverted: Wynne assumes he wants to leave the Crows because of a crisis of conscience.

Zevran:"That is precisely it."

  • Back Stab: His primary combat M.O., and a vital ability (both literally and figuratively) for an Antivan Crow to have.
  • Badass Spaniard: His voice actor apparently summed him up with a "So he's like a sexed-up Inigo Montoya?" before recording started. Ironically, Antiva is based on a prototype Venetian state according to Word of God.
  • Because I'm Good At It: He fully intends to continue is assassin career even when he gets away from the Crows. One reason is this trope; the other is that he notes his lack of other skills that wouldn't get him arrested for performing in public.
  • Becoming the Mask: Inverted, if he gets romanced. Falling in love with the Warden breaks his confident ladykiller facade to bits.
    • Beneath the Mask: Bring him along during the search for the Sacred Urn and it's shown that he's not as apathetic as he pretends to be.
  • Blithe Spirit: Antiva seems even more uninhibited than Ferelden, really. Add to that that the Crows look for a willingness to cross certain limits in their assassins...
  • Betty and Veronica: Veronica, with Alistair as Betty.
  • Blond Guys Are Evil: Potentially subverted.
  • Brutal Honesty: Most prominent after the Warden defeats and revives him.

Zevran: "Ah, so I am to be interrogated? Let me save you some time. My name is Zevran - Zev to my friends. I am a member of the Antivan Crows, brought here for the sole purpose of assassinating any remaining Grey Wardens. Which I have failed at, sadly."

  • Break the Haughty: As if Rinna's death wasn't enough, the Crow master who assigned them the mission already knew of it and was very quick to remind the two surviving assassins that they were entirely expendable tools worth little more than nothing to even the Crows.
  • The Cameo: If you upload a save from the first game, he can appear in Dragon Age 2 for one mission. Predictably, if in that save the Warden banged Isabela, Hawke, he and Isabela can have a threesome.
  • Captain Obvious: If you recruit Loghain and put them in your party together.

Zevran: You know who I am, yes? I was one of the Crows you hired to kill the Grey Wardens.
Loghain: I thought you looked familiar.
Zevran: Well, I just wanted to report that I failed my mission, Loghain.
Loghain: You don't say.
Zevran: I'm terribly broken up over it.
Loghain: Hmm. Well thank you kindly for informing me.

  • Cartwright Curse: All of his love interests tend to end up dead. Rinna, Taliesin, his first mage lover, a romanced PC who sacrifices themselves...
  • The Casanova / Chivalrous Pervert: He apparently specializes in being a Latin Lover as part of his job, along with a healthy dose of Stealth Hi Bye. Curiously, when it's not part of a job, he becomes the latter. If romanced and the Warden survives, he ends up developing into The Charmer.
  • The Chick: Peculiarly, yes. Make of that what you will.
  • Child Soldiers: Buy them young and raise them to know nothing but murder. Trademark recruitment motto of the Antivan Crows.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: A must if you want to make your way among the Antivan Crows, it seems. If you're not careful to cultivate his loyalty, Zevran has no trouble adding the Warden to the list of people he's backstabbed.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Was apparently subjected to this by the Crows as a means of building up pain tolerance - as with all their recruits.
  • Combat Pragmatist: When explaining the assassin specialization, he mentions poision and crippling one's opponent as his preferred strategies. Alistair even wonders why the Crows didn't send their best on the task of killing the Wardens, mentioning that Zevran is no master of straight-up combat.
  • Contract on the Hitman: Avoiding this trope is his primary reason for asking to join the Warden; the Antivan Crows have a very bad "retirement package", as he himself mentions, so the only way to get out is to have them assume you died or sign up with someone even they can't touch. Subverted with Master Ignacio, who tells Zevran that other Crows might hunt him, but he's already dead in his eyes. Once Taliesen shows up to finish the job, this can be either subverted when Zevran accepts the offer to rejoin the Crows and turns on the Warden or played straight if he refuses and avoids the battle/fights against his former comrade.
    • In Dragon Age 2, he is still alive after seven years, and he is still killing Crows who have come to hunt him.
  • Dark-Skinned Blond
  • Deadpan Snarker: Not too heavy on the deadpan bit, but he does get snarky when Alistair questions his motives, when he's trying to coerce Leliana into telling him about her vision or when Wynne assumes that his reason for wanting to leave the Crows is a crisis of conscience. He's more fond of cheerful sarcasm.
  • Death Seeker: You read that right. He eventually admits that he took the assignment to kill the PC mostly in the hopes that he would get killed in the attempt. He settles for searching for a new beginning later.
  • Death by Sex: Apparently, this is his favorite assassination strategy.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: And, if he gets his way, Redemption Equals Sex.
    • Zevran's later potential Face Heel Turn makes this a partial subversion. It's more like "defeat means a chance at friendship".
  • Depraved Bisexual: Well, he's depraved, and he's bisexual, but the trope doesn't apply unless the two are related, which they are not. He swings both ways, has a thing for leather, and has no moral compunction against killing. Would qualify for Bi the Way if he wasn't very open about this - he even laughs in the male PC's face if he gets a somewhat taken aback response to his propositioning, only later apologizing for forgetting that he wasn't in Antiva anymore.
  • Easily Forgiven: He goes from being an assassin hired to kill the player to a companion rather quickly. Of course, the fact that he wants to get out of the Crows - which he never wanted to join in the first place - helps. To top it all, his Redemption Equals Sex, if the PC wants it to.
    • It works both ways, no less. If he doesn't like you enough the Crows will forgive him for his betrayal and welcome him back... provided he turns on you, which he does without a second thought.

The Warden: You tried to kill me!
Zevran: Unsuccessfully! Besides, someone in your position can't take these things so personally can you?

  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: Lampshaded when he lists "stand around and look pretty" as one of the various skills and services he can offer you as an ally.
  • Ethical Slut: Eventually evolves into this assuming he doesn't Face Heel Turn.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He tolerates most evil acts, but acts of genocide disgust him.
    • He tends to react badly to pointless cruelty, such as when the Warden torments a widower in the Dalish Camp by refusing to tell him about his dead wife. He may be an assassin, but at least he gives his victims a quick death.
    • He also has issues with slavery, but then, with his background, it's to be expected.
    • He also disapproves of anything you do against elves, such as massacring a Dalish clan or sacrificing city elves with blood magic. He also doesn't approve of killing the mages for the templars, though he doesn't lose actual points if you go through with it.
  • Everyone Is Bi: In Antiva this is the case, or at least so Zevran implies.
  • Extreme Omnisexual: In short - for any Optional Sexual Encounter the Warden has, Zevran has stories about five similar, wilder ones.
  • Face Heel Turn: If the player fails to keep a close eye on Zevran's approval ratings, s/he will be in for an unpleasant surprise when the party runs into another Crow.
  • Fetish Fuel Station Attendant (drumroll, please, because he gets the most points - the Crows intentionally employ this trope to their advantage):
  • Freudian Excuse: Oh dear, where to start? His father (is implied to have) died before he was born, his mother died giving birth to him (which he seems to blame himself for), and he was raised in a whorehouse. At the age of 7, he was auctioned off to a ruthless assassination syndicate and had to endure severe torture. He then fell in love with one of his colleagues, who was accused of betraying the Crows, and he was forced to watch as she was killed. He later found out that she was innocent.
  • The Gadfly: See Likes Older Women, though that's not the only way he harasses Wynne. He also does it to Leliana, but if hardened she gets to call his bluff on the lecherous behavior at least.
  • Gallows Humor: It's his preferred way of dealing with a bad situation, as you will discover if you interrogate him when you have him at your mercy after his failed attempt to assassinate the party. Given his backstory, it's almost certainly another defense mechanism.
  • Gay Option: For a male PC.
  • Genre Savvy: Correctly identifies The Hero in both games, and knows how to appeal to the player to save his life. He approaches The Warden with a bit of a death wish, but later he's very opposed to dying at the Champion's hands.
    • Also lampshades in the second game why Mooks seem to believe they have any chance of being able to kill people like The Champion and The Warden. Also counts as a moment of Self-Deprecation that he himself was introduced as a Mook doing this very thing.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Was in love with one of his fellow Crows who was accused of betraying the organization; he laughed and watched as she was killed, and then found out that she was innocent.
    • The player has the potential to (permanently) turn him into this a second time if the Warden romances him and then performs a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the game; Zevran returns to Antiva, takes over the Crows, and continues his Casanova tendencies without ever loving anyone again.
  • Heel Face Turn: He is a possible party member.
  • Heroic Comedic Sociopath:

Zevran: So let us pretend that I do, indeed, believe that murder is wrong...

  • Hidden Depths: He puts effort into trying to convince the player he has none. Some gamers are quick to write him off as a highly one-dimensional character.
    • Protip: check out his remarks on your surroundings and his thoughts about the current situation (he'll have something to say when you're talking to a significant NPC). Don't forget his conversations with other party members, especially Sten and Morrigan. Basically you gotta put him in your party a lot to actually see these.
      • Even Leliana remarks on it, as she can comment that there's "more to him than he lets on, isn't there?". Admittedly, Leliana seems to have been watching him very closely...
  • Hitman with a Heart: Double-subverted: He does actually have one, under all the Crow training, but after his First Love turned out to be a supposed traitor to the Crows and he watched her killed without remorse only to find out that she had been innocent, he's not at all keen to let such sentiment surface again.
  • Hunter of His Own Kind: In Dragon Age II, if he survives the first game.
  • In Love with the Mark: It takes a while and it's carefully subverted in places, but the romance does have elements of this.
  • Intimate Healing: His solution to the PC's apparent tiredness is a private massage.
  • I Uh You Too: Like Morrigan, he gets highly confused by falling in love with the Warden, but eventually doesn't shirk away from admitting it, in a fashion.
  • Ladykiller in Love: And it works without being cliche. If his earring is refused the first time on the grounds that the Warden will only accept gifts with a meaning behind them, he offers it once again later. That leads to an exchange made of this trope and a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming:

Zevran: I... still have the earring. I would like to give it to you... as a token of affection. Will you accept it?
the Warden: That almost sounds like a proposal.
Zevran: (slowly) Not unless you wish it.

Zevran: It has meant a lot to me but so have -- so has what you've done.

Wynne: "Zevran, I am old enough to be your grandmother."
Zevran: "You say that like it's a bad thing."
Wynne: "And what would you do if you had me, hmm? This is a game you play, nothing more."
Zevran: "Oh, you are a cynical woman, Wynne. Cynical and powerful. It drives me mad with desire!"

Zevran: I couldn't help hearing about your... predicament. Forgive me if I am prying...
Wynne: Yes, you are.
Zevran: ... but what does it feel like being possessed by a spirit?
Wynne: Why does this interest you so?
Zevran: I simply wish to get to know those that I travel with. Is that wrong of me?
Wynne: No, of course it isn't. Well... let me see. It is hard to describe. It is comforting... I... I feel safe, loved.
Zevran: Comforted, loved, yes...
Wynne: It is like being held close, cradled... the bond is so complete that I am unable to extricate myself, nor do I wish to. Wait... why do you have that look on your face?
Zevran: Mmm, I... I am simply imagining it. Continue, please.
Wynne: And there is a constant warmth, that spreads outwards from the very center of my being, infusing my body with--
Zevran: Ooh...

Wynne: Andraste's grace, what are you thinking about now? No, I don't want to know. I feel dirty. Do not speak to me.

  • Lovable Rogue
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Most of his interactions with other party members seem to revolve in some way around sex, although he's obviously turning it Up to Eleven with Wynne and Morrigan just to irritate them.
  • Love Lust At First Punch: Even after getting beaten within an inch of his life, bound and interrogated by the party, he wastes no time in propositioning the PC. This is especially pronounced with the female PC:

the female Warden: (after Zevran proposes to join the party): You must think I'm royally stupid.
Zevran: I think you're royally tough to kill. And utterly gorgeous. Not that I think you'll respond to simple flattery. But there are worse things in life than serving the whims of a deadly sex goddess.

  • Love Interest
  • Love Redeems: Actually averted - being on The Dark Side isn't really his choice, so he makes the Heel Face Turn almost on his own account, if given enough incentive.
  • The Mourning After: See Heartbroken Badass entry above.
  • Nothing Personal: After failing to assassinate you, he explains that he has no idea what Loghain's issues are with you and that you that can't afford to take that sort of thing personally.
  • No Pronunciation Guide: Appears to be a literal case when the time came to record the dialogue - poor Zev is the only one who pronounces his name correctly (emphasis on the second syllable, not the first).
  • No Sneak Attacks: Despite admitting easily that he wasn't planning on a fair fight, singing praises about poison usage and crippling one's opponent, he tries to take the PC head on (subverted in the fact that he's somewhat Crazy Prepared with tons of traps, archers and even a mage). Most likely because of the fact that he's a Death Seeker.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: His conversation with Morrigan after completing her personal quest is basically, "I know your mother sent you here because she had a plan, and I know you're here because you have a plan." And if the Warden is in a romance with Morrigan, Zevran will note that she is 'biding her time'. Pretty much what Genre Savvy players want to say to her face.
  • One-Man Army: A codex entry in Dragon Age II reveals that he's single-handedly decimating the entire Crow organization. Publicly, his former employers are still trying to assassinate him out of principle. Privately, however, they're all terrified of him.
  • Parental Abandonment: He's the son of a whore who died in childbirth.
  • Playing Hard to Get: A possible response to repeated propositioning from the Warden. Zevran playfully considers it for about two seconds.
  • Professional Killer
  • Punch Clock Villain
  • Really Gets Around
  • Sad Clown
  • Sarcasm Mode: He's quite fond of it.
  • Second Love: The Warden becomes this for him if he gets romanced; the first girl was killed because she allegedly betrayed the Crows.
  • Son of a Whore
  • Stepford Smiler: His backstory almost makes him The Woobie; if the PC enters the mage tower with him, his nightmare shows the torture he was made to endure to become an assassin. Aside from that, he allowed the woman he loved to be killed for betraying the Crows while she was professing her innocence and love for him - it turned out later on that she had indeed been innocent. Most of his cheerful perversity is the result of trying to accept his cruel and twisted upbringing.
  • Tattooed Crook: Some of the tattoos (like the one on his face) have certain meanings within the Crows organization. Others (such as the ones that he implies are around his...* ahem* ) are just there for decoration.
  • Training from Hell: Take him along to the Circle Tower and watch his nightmare. That should give you a general idea.
  • Token Evil Teammate: More pragmatic than outright evil, but yes, this game has three of them.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: Rebuffs Morrigan's threats of bodily harm with this but averts it in the Fade, where he briefly becomes The Determinator in his nightmare.
  • Troubled but Cute: An elf with layers upon layers upon layers of defense mechanisms covering up an incredibly traumatic past. He goes to great pains to deny this until befriended/romanced deeply enough.
  • Turncoat: Very willingly when the Warden beats him.
  • Unusual Euphemism: When he tells the Warden about how he misses the smell of Antivan leather, the PC can ask if he's using this trope. In a subversion, he bursts out laughing and admits that he may as well be, but isn't (this time).
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Oghren, perhaps as a small homage to Legolas and Gimli.
    • Lampshaded when Zevran asks whether they're going to engage in the standard elf/dwarf banter. Oghren's response is "Nah."
  • Weak but Skilled: Dialogue with Alistair and his own recounts of his past reveals that Zevran isn't exactly the best fighter. He even reveals to Alistair that he was commissioned to kill the party because he was the only member of the Crows who actually signed up for the job. This can, of course, be subverted in gameplay.
  • What Does She See in Him?: Alistair loudly invokes this trope after Zevran joins the party and the warden gains some favor with him, asking if the hair and clothes aren't too much and if women really go for men who tried to kill them. Leliana promptly responds that a) the elf is attractive to some and b) where she comes from, they very much do.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Hinted at. In The Stone Prisoner DLC, if you choose the 'best' result and free the little girl of the demon, Zevran nets a higher approval than Alistair.
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