Dragon Age/Characters/Expanded Universe Characters

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Characters from Dragon Age's Expanded Universe:

Novel Characters

Novel Protagonists

King Maric Theirin

The protagnoist of The Stolen Throne and The Calling. After his mother, Moira the Rebel Queen was betrayed and murdered by Bann Ceorlic, he took command of the rebel army and overthrew the Orlesian usurper Meghren. He married Rowan Guerrin, who died a few years after giving birth to Cailan. He later lifted the ban on Grey Wardens entering Ferelden. He died about five years prior to Origins.

He finds it difficult to make decisions regarding the lives of others, and desperately wants to be a good man but many of the decisions he makes as king make him feel that it is impossible.

Queen Rowan Theirin (nee Guerrin)

Wife of Maric, mother of Cailan and sister of Eamon and Teagan , Rowan is the female lead of The Stolen Throne.

Katriel

An elven spy brought from Orlais to Ferelden to seduce and betray Maric, before succumbing to her growing feelings for him. She causes a battle plan to fail catastrophically, and after Loghain and Rowan find out about it, she willingly allows Maric to kill her, just not before leaving detailed instructions on how to take Severan down.

Fiona

An elven mage and Grey Warden. She accompanies Maric, Duncan and the others into the Deep Roads and shows Maric how to live again. In Asunder, she re-emerges as the Grand Enchanter of the College of Magi.

  • Action Girl
  • Body Horror: When possessed by the Demon and as the darkspawn corruption spreads.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: To Maric when she realizes he is not like the Count.
  • Fantastic Racism: A victim and perpetrator of it.
  • Hot-Blooded: She has a tendency to let her temper get the better of her all the bloody time.
  • Older and Wiser: After 30 years she returns still incredibly hotblooded and stubborn, but a bit more willing to listen to reason.
  • Rape as Backstory: Only it's actually relevant. She was the sex slave to an Orlesian noble from ages seven to fourteen, and assumed that all noblemen if not all humans were like that.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Maric isn't convinced he isn't doing this.
  • Tsundere: More Tsuntsun, but she eventually shows her deredere side.

Rhys

The protagonist of Asunder. Rhys is a Senior Enchanter of Orlais' White Spire Circle of Magi who is suspected of murdering five apprentices. He is also Wynne's son, although he does not get along with her.

  • Calling The Old Woman Out: Rhys has several choice words with his mother over the course of Asunder.
  • Combat Medic: Like mother, like son.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Demonic Possession: Lambert implies that Cole is not actually a mage, but a demon subtly influencing Rhys, and will eventually make him his host throughout the novel. Rhys asserts that this is not the case. It is confirmed at the end that Cole is a spirit and was influencing Rhys in some way, but whether Cole is demonic or even malevolent is ambiguous. Given Cole's childlike mentality, as clearly evidenced both by his actions and his POV, that he would be capable of manipulating a senior Enchanter, not to mention the rest of the group, so readily seems unlikely.
  • Heroic BSOD: He all but shuts down after witnessing Lambert banish Cole and mortally wound Evangeline while he was too weak to stop either.
  • Only Sane Man: Among the Libertarians, and especially Adrian, he ends up playing this role more often than he'd like.
  • Parental Abandonment: Being born in the Circle, Rhys never knew either of his parents until Wynne sought him out after the Fifth Blight. The fact that his father was a Templar as well didn't do him any favors.
  • Parental Substitute: Has this vibe at times with Cole.
  • Refusal of the Call: Although Rhys is charismatic, popular and hates the Chantry control over the Circles, he is very reluctant to become involved in Circle politics.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Throughout Asunder, Rhys is used to further the schemes of at least four different parties.

Evangeline

The Knight-Captain of the White Spire Circle. Evangeline is an idealistic Templar who believes that the Templars exist not only to defend the people against mages, but also to defend mages against the common folk, demons and other threats.

  • Action Girl
  • Capulet Counterpart: To Rhys.
  • Defector From Decadence: Once it becomes apparent that Lambert is looking for an excuse to wipe out the mages, she decides to join the mage rebellion.
  • Disney Death: Lambert mortally wounds her at the end of Asunder, but Wynne sacrifices her life to bring her back from the brink of death.
  • Humanoid Abomination: She becomes the new host of the Spirit of Faith by the end of the book, but she does note that she's not sure if this changes anything for her physically or mentally yet.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Though she had growing doubts throughout the story, Lambert ignoring a direct order from the Divine and leading a large contingent of templars into the Enchanter's conclave causes her to lose faith in the order as it was being run and join the defecting mages, if only for Rhys' sake.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: She'll always eventually pick the "good" option if forced to choose.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist

Adrian

Rhys' best friend and former lover. Adrian is also a Senior Enchanter of the White Spire Circle. She has a very bad temper and is very vocal about her hatred of the Templars.

  • Anti-Hero/Villain Protagonist: Type V of the former.
  • Black Magician Girl: An older example, but with the proper personality. She explicitly states that she doesn't know any healing spells.
  • Dark Action Girl
  • Evil Sorcerer
  • Fiery Redhead
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Even among the Libertarians, only Rhys is able to get on her good side, much less want to befriend her. How she ended up the new First Enchanter of White Spire at the end with that kind of popularity is anyone's guess.
  • Jerkass: Rhys is the only person she seems able to get along with. Until she betrays him to start the revolution.
  • Karma Houdini: Her murder of Pharamond is one of the leading factors in how the incident at Kirkwall became a full fledged world war. As of the end of Asunder, only Rhys knows of this, and while he was furious with her, he did not tell anyone else about it
  • Knight Templar
  • Motor Mouth
  • Not Good with People: Type 2. While she initially does not like horses at all, (and cannot get along with most people on a good day), they eventually bring out a gentle side of her.
  • Playing with Fire: Almost every spell she uses is a fire spell.
  • Poisonous Friend
  • Spanner in the Works: She deliberately derails the careful plotting between Wynne and Divine Justina to ensure that there would be full rebellion.
  • Too Dumb to Live: She has a tendency to antagonize the Templars at the worst possible times.
  • Tsundere: One who's dere side may actually even more difficult to find than both Fiona's and Morrigan's. It only seems to come out around Rhys (and later the horses) and even then it's mostly when she's drunk.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Although she broke off her relationship with Rhys, her jealously of Evangeline makes her realize that doing so was a mistake. She blows any remote chance she had of being with Rhys when he learns of her murder of Pharamond (framing him for the deed) and decides that he doesn't want to have anything more to do with her.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: She claims to be willing to do anything to free the mages. Then she murders Pharamond to start a revolution.

Cole

A mysterious young man who has somehow become invisible to everyone except for spirit mediums such as Rhys and Wynne. Cole has killed at least five mage apprentices in order to prevent himself from disappearing completely.

  • Ambiguously Evil
  • Anti-Hero: He's very sympathetic, but he's still a serial killer.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: The real Cole was starved to death by the Templars in one of the cells in the Pit. The Cole in Asunder is a spirit or demon that decided not to let Cole die alone and assumed Cole's identity after he died, eventually forgetting its true nature.
  • Chaste Hero: Doesn't seem to understand the real reason why Evangeline would be perturbed by the thought that he saw her changing. It doesn't even occur to him that others would object to him watching until that conversation. When she kisses him on the forehead later, he stumbles back very confused.
  • Determinator: Followed the party through half of Orlais to keep Rhys safe after he becomes convinced Evangeline might be a threat. This, despite having no memory of life outside the White Spire and being absolutely terrified of most of his surroundings.
    • In the fight with Lambert at the end of the novel. Even after an absolutely vicious No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, he just keeps. Getting. UP.
  • Ghost Amnesia: Though he may or may not be a ghost, he has no clear memory of his previous life.
  • Knife Nut
  • Mercy Kill: His victims are all people who were in such misery that death would be a relief.
    • Eventually subverted when he stops killing people, because he realizes that doing so only brings Rhys trouble and makes him unhappy.
  • Never Learned to Read: Implied.
  • No Social Skills: Living most of your life unable to interact with anyone will do that. Or being a very confused spirit.
  • Poisonous Friend: To Rhys.
  • Psychic Nosebleed: After overusing his powers near the end of Asunder.
  • Self-Made Orphan: His father killed the real Cole's mother after learning the Cole was a mage. Cole accidentally asphyxiated his sister while trying to quiet her when they were hiding from their father. Cole eventually managed to kill his father with the knife that... whatever this being that believes him/itself to be Cole is uses throughout Asunder.
  • Serial Killer
  • Sympathetic Murderer
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Lambert manages to banish him with the Litany of Adralla, forcing Cole to accept that he is indeed a demon. Or a spirit. Honesty, we're not sure at this point.
  • Took a Level in Badass: He eventually discovers how to use his invisibility to give him a huge advantage in combat.
  • Undying Loyalty: He would go to the ends of the earth to save his only friend, Rhys.
  • Unperson: Happened to him sometime in the past. With the exception of Rhys, the people that see him forget him shortly after. It eventually turns out that the Templars erased all evidence of the original Cole to cover up the mistake they made by accidentally killing him.


Novel Antagonists

King Meghren the Usurper

The Orlesian-appointed King of Ferelden. He has a nasty habit of piking heads to the castle walls and having rape-and-torture parties in the castle. Other hobbies include exploiting and demeaning the people of Ferelden while begging his cousin the Emperor to let him return to Orlais.

  • The Caligula: Well, torture and rape parties, raging mental instability, seems to fit.
  • Incest Is Relative: It's a rumor in Orlais that he was the Emperor's lover and that is why he was sent to Ferelden.
  • Kick the Dog: He mistreats the Arl of Amaranthine just for kicks.
  • Miles Gloriosus: Starts fancying himself as a great warrior after his forces win a major battle over the rebels, even though he was never near the battlefield.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica: Technically the reason he is the current regent. He frequently begs the Emperor to bring him back to Orlais.

Severan

A cunning advisor and mage to Meghren. He uses his position to take liberties that no other mage could dream of short of being an apostate. He plays Meghren's insanity to his favor but makes the mistake of crossing Maric.

Genevieve

A female Commander of the Grey whose obsession with finding her brother borders on insanity. She is from Orlais, but despite Loghain's suspicions is not working to overthrow Ferelden. She is willing to do anything and sacrifice anyone to find Bregan, even if it costs the lives of her entire squad and the King of Ferelden himself.

  • Action Girl: Despite her faults, Genevieve is a skilled fighter. She lands the final blow on a high dragon the Wardens encounter in the Deep Roads.
  • Hero Antagonist: She is doing what she is doing ostensibly to end a Blight before it begins.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: So she claims.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl: Although pretty is only if you like hyper-manly women. In the Fade Vision she does become much more feminine.

Bregan

A Grey Warden who, when he went on his Calling, was captured by the Architect. He eventually joins him in an attempt to kill all the Old Gods before they can be made Archdemons and free the darkspawn, as well as achieve lasting peace with them by turning all humanity into ghouls, if they can survive the Joining.

  • A Father to His Men: Bregan was apparently well-liked by his fellow Wardens, which is why he was promoted ahead of his sister.
  • Body Horror: His corruption makes him almost completely resemble a hurlock.
  • Heel Face Turn: Bregan turns on the Architect when the latter kills Genevieve, even though he'd been trying to kill her himself.
  • Redemption Equals Death: He has Maric order his death to atone for his sins.
  • The Resenter: Bregan never wanted to become a Grey Warden, but the recruiter refused to allow his sister to join the Order unless he signed up as well. His resentment of Genevieve is partly why he tries to kill her at the climax of the book.

Lambert

The leader of all Templars in Thedas. Lord Seeker Lambert is a ruthless man who takes control over the White Spire Circle when it became apparent that the Knight-Commander stationed there could not solve the murders.

  • Badass
  • Big Bad: Of Asunder
  • Blood Knight: He gets very excited during the final confrontation and is disappointed at how easy it is for him to put down the Mage Rebellion.
  • Freudian Excuse: He used to believe in mage's rights, until his mage best friend betrayed him.
    • He used to work in the Tevinter Chantry. Enough said.
  • Gray Eyes: The type that indicates his coldness.
  • Jerkass: Nearly all characters in the book despise the man for his unrelenting attitude, but most fear him too much to do anything about it.
  • Karmic Death: He's implied to have died by Cole's hand after forcing him to remember his inhuman nature.
  • Knight Templar: In the purest sense of the trope. He'd sooner see the Divine fall than relent on any of his conclusions.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He eventually grows so dissatisfied by the perceived lack of control over the mages in Orlais that he invokes withdraws the templars from the Chantry.
  • The Stoic
    • Not So Stoic: He takes obvious pleasure in the brutal beatings he dispenses on Rhys, Evangeline, and Cole in the finale of the book.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Emphasis on "extremist". Absolutely nothing will prevent him from bringing the Circle back under control.
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