Dragon Age: Origins/Characters/DLC Characters

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Characters from Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, and other Dragon Age: Origins DLC:

Awakening Characters

Awakening Party Members

Anders

"Most people enjoy being kicked in the head to be woken up each morning. Me, I'm just so picky."

An apostate who despises blood magic almost as much as the chantry does. Despite this, the Chantry still sees him as a threat, and keeps him locked up. Since Anders values freedom above all else, he has made many, many, many escape attempts. Joining the Warden is probably the only one that succeeded. He returns as a companion for Hawke in Dragon Age II. Voiced by Greg Ellis.

  • Combat Medic: His default specialization is Spirit Healer.
  • Crazy Cat Dude
  • Cute Kitten: Ser Pounce-A-Lot, the kitten that you can give him. In Dragon Age II, he says that the Wardens made him give it up for "making him soft".
    • Also had one in the Circle called Mr Wiggums, that later got possessed by a Rage Demon and killed at least 3 Templars before being defeated. Anders considers that Mr Wiggums' proudest moment.
  • Cuteness Proximity: Towards Ser Pounce-A-Lot.
  • Deadpan Snarker

Nathaniel: Do you always wear robes?
Anders: Not when I'm naked, I don't.

  • Determinator
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: A surprising number of fangirls (and fanboys) wish Anders was romanceable. After Alistair and Zevran, he probably generates the most sexy fanart.
  • Expy: People have come to call him as "Mage Alistair," with his similar sounding accent, hair color and snarkery.
  • Foreshadowing: If questioned, he reveals that he's actually really pissed off with the Templars and wishes he could have "a harem, a banquet and the ability to rain fireballs upon every Templar in creation". Doubles up as Harsher in Hindsight when you learn that the latter basically sums up his personality and actions in Dragon Age II.
    • He also comments, "bet they regret that rule", when explaining that the only reason he's avoided being made Tranquil is that it's illegal to do that to a mage who has passed their Harrowing. In Dragon Age II, Anders rages that things are so far gone in the Kirkwall Circle that the templars are disregarding that rule.
  • Genre Savvy: "A dwarf who smells like a brewery. Never seen that before."
  • Irony: If you make him a Blood Mage, he lampshades the irony of it all.
  • Mind Rape: Suggested in his comments during the Joining that he may fear being made Tranquil, as further evidenced by what happens to mages in Kirkwall in Dragon Age II.
  • Not So Different: Between Nathaniel, who he notes is also hated for who they are. Nathaniel is slightly annoyed by the oversimplification.
  • Perma-Stubble
  • Ship Tease: His banter with the female PC is as close as Awakening gets to an actual romance.

Velanna

"I know a human crime when I see it, I have experienced more than enough of them."

A Dalish elf who has been attacking human caravans to avenge her clan. Voiced by Grey DeLisle.

  • Absolute Cleavage
  • Actor Allusion: Velanna starts off knowing all four fire spells. Her actress, Grey DeLisle voiced everyone's favorite psychotic firebending princess, Azula. She even voices Velanna with "Azula's voice".
  • The Atoner: While she'd never admit it, part of her reason she joins the Warden is to make up for being an unwitting pawn in the Architect's plans.
  • Berserk Button: She's very sensitive about her ears. Any implication of them being oversized sends her into even more of a fit than usual.
  • Can't Argue with Elves: Oh yes you can. To her credit, pointing out her volatile temper and calling out some of her hypocrisy generally has good or at least neutral results, making her seem more immature and misguided than genuinely pretentious.

Velanna: You make me out to be some kind of shrill harpy!

The Warden: My mistake. Yelling is clearly out of character for you.

  • Does Not Understand Sarcasm: Which of course doesn't help in a party (aside from Justice) composed of Deadpan Snarkers.
  • Fantastic Racism: Towards humans. The Warden can make her become more tolerant.
  • Gaia's Vengeance: Her abilities lean towards offensive nature-based spells.
  • Jerkass: Think Morrigan, but replace the snark with outright hostility.
    • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's buried deep under her anger, but she does care for people and was horrified that she had been tricked into killing innocents.
    • To be fair, Morrigan got a whole 60+ hour game's worth of development. Velanna, a character in an expansion pack, got almost none.
    • Although one epilogue has her protecting humans from a bandit attack, a far cry from when the Warden first meets her.
  • Jesus Was Way Cool: Velanna holds Andraste in high regard due to her role in freeing the Dalish from slavery.
  • Knight Templar Big Sister: Her entire motivation is to find her sister Seranni. Seranni's working for the Architect.
  • Luck-Based Mission: Her companion quest can only be triggered through a random encounter that has a low chance of occurring. Many players cannot even trigger the encounter at all.
  • Never Found the Body: If the Warden leaves her at Vigil's Keep and doesn't abandon Amaranthine, then this happens to her.
  • Playing with Fire: Aside from her nature-based attacks, she seems very fond of flames.
  • Ship Tease: With Nathaniel.
  • Tsundere: Normally none too fond of humans, she does get deredere towards Nathaniel when the two start chatting.
  • When Trees Attack
  • Unwitting Pawn: The whole attacking human caravans thing? She was tricked by darkspawn into believing humans had destroyed her clan.

Sigrun

"A wise man once told me never to argue with someone better armed than the entire warrior caste on parade."

A member of the Legion of the Dead, a group of dwarven warriors who are symbolically dead and spend the rest of the their lives fighting Darkspawn in the Deep Roads to atone for some crime they have committed. Prior to her "death" she was a casteless dwarf. Despite this, she's actually managed to keep her optimism, even after having her entire squad slaughtered. Voiced by Natalia Cigliuti.

  • Action Girl
  • And That's Terrible: Leave it to the ex-criminal to underscore the wrongness.
  • The Atoner: She's not proud of her past as a Carta member. She especially regrets framing her best friend for theft, getting her exiled to the surface.
  • Attending Your Own Funeral: Standard induction into the Legion of the Dead.
  • Bolivian Army Ending: If the Warden leaves her at Vigil's Keep and doesn't abandon Amaranthine, she leads the charge against the invading darkspawn despite the hopeless odds. This time, she did not run.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Death Seeker: Her dream in life is to do a Heroic Sacrifice, though it's not as if she complains if she lives though a fight. In fact she cracks jokes about surviving and how she'll do better next time. She can drop this if the Warden is nice enough to her.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: Was being carried away by Darkspawn when the Warden first encounters her and her dialogue implies she knows all to well what happens to the women they taken prisoner.
  • Even Heroes Have Heroes: Her reaction to learning the Dwarf Commoner Warden is Paragon Brosca; the Casteless Dwarf who beat Orzammar's finest warriors, became a Grey Warden and ended the Fifth Blight.
  • Meaningful Name: In some variations of Norse Mythology, Sigrun is the leader of the Valkyries.
  • Plucky Girl: Surprisingly upbeat despite being a Death Seeker. Lampshaded by Nathaniel, with Sigrun responding that she could always choose to Wangst about everything. Nathaniel tells her to stick with "Perky".
  • Sole Survivor: Of the Legionnaires that entered Kal'Hirol.

Mhairi

"Allow me to say: I'm very proud to serve under your command."

An idealistic female knight who joined the Grey Wardens to repay them for saving Ferelden. She fails to survive her joining. Voiced by Alyx Wilton Regan.

The Spirit of Justice

"I have no name, only a virtue to which I aspire."

A benevolent Fade Spirit trapped in the corpse of a Grey Warden named Kristoff. Voiced by Adam Leadbeater.

  • Bald of Awesome
  • Berserk Button: Suggesting that he's Not So Different from demons. Unfortunately, he does indeed become a demon in Dragon Age II.
  • Character Development: Starting off as disdainful of the material world and more dutiful than anything else, Justice can eventually come to learn that the world is beautiful in its own way and be a true Knight in Shining Armor protecting that which he has come to care for.
  • Chaste Hero: He has no clue as to why Oghren keeps on asking him about his memories of Kristoff's marriage.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: His flesh is decaying and he wears the dark colored Armor of the Sentinel in his trailer.
  • Does Not Understand Sarcasm
  • Foreshadowing: His eventual transformation into Vengeance and connection to Anders in Dragon Age II is heavily foreshadowed in his dialog, with Anders, Nathaniel, and the Warden. At several points, the Warden can even outright ask him if he desires vengeance for Kristoff.
  • Honor Before Reason: As a sort of embodiment of justice, he believes that wrong-doers should be dealt with accordingly, even if it may not be the most pragmatic decision. Unless he's talked down, he'll turn against the Warden-Commander should the latter decide to ally with the Architect.
    • After seeing the injustices Mages face, he ends up causing his new host, Anders, to blow up the Kirkwall Chantry in Dragon Age II, which in doing so, ignites a World War between the Mages and Templars throughout Thedas.
  • Humanoid Abomination: A good one, but still.
  • Knight in Shining Armor: His true form and personality, though he starts off seeing it more as an obligation.
  • Large Ham: In his spirit form. Considering the Spirit of Valor encountered in the Mage Origin, this may be common to all benevolent fade spirits.
  • Literal-Minded: Takes a while to understand that Sigrun's death is symbolic.
  • Magic Knight: His default specialization, Spirit Warrior.
  • Shout-Out: He's not the first embodiment of justice trapped in physical form. He's just a lot nicer about it.
  • Warrior Poet: "A world so full of beauty that beauty goes overlooked."
  • What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Justice finds himself envious of the love between Kristoff and his widow Aura, but also associates such feelings with Desire Demons.

Nathaniel Howe

"The Howes are pariahs now, those of us left."

A human rogue and son of Arl Howe, who he sees as a patriot who fought for his nation. Feels the Grey Wardens are traitors for allowing Orlesians into Amaranthine. First seen in a comic from Penny Arcade. Voiced by Simon Chadwick.

  • The Archer: In gameplay terms a particularly deadly one.
  • The Atoner: He honestly wants to make up for how his Father single-handedly ruined his family's name.
  • Badass Normal: It took four Grey Wardens to incapacitate him.
  • Broken Pedestal: He eventually comes to realize that his father was a selfish prick who brought his fate on himself.
  • Chekhov's Gun: He mentions that he was squired in Kirkwall, a major city in the Free Marches. In Dragon Age II, Hawke is the Champion of Kirkwall.
    • While this doesn't actually play a part in Dragon Age II, he does appear in a late-game sidequest.
  • The Comically Serious: He's dead serious (if snarky) all the time, leading to much annoyance and exasperation on his part when paired with the more upbeat companions (Anders, Oghren, and Sigrun).
  • Cruel Mercy: What he see's becoming a Warden as. Only later does he realise the reason for his Conscription was because the Warden thought he'd prove to be a better man than his father and wanted to give him a chance to redeem his family-name.
    • Becomes more meaningul if playing as a Human Noble, who lost everything to the machinations of Arl Howe.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait
  • Generation Xerox: The subversion is particularly poignant if the Warden is the Human Noble. Both Nathaniel's grandfather and father, Tartleton and Rendon Howe, betrayed the Couslands and fought against Ferelden during the Ferelden Rebellion and Ferelden Civil War respectively. Nathaniel on the other hand, if befriended, remains loyal, redeems his family name and even saves the Human Noble's brother in one of the epilogues.
  • Ship Tease: With Velanna. Nathaniel calls her "my lady" and tells her that he finds her lovely, and she yells at him to stop saying that, in an embarrassed tone.
  • Sins of Our Fathers
  • Tall, Dark and Snarky
  • Troubled but Cute

Oghren: The whole "quiet and stoic" thing must get you a lot of action, huh?
Nathaniel: I take it you're an admirer, Oghren?
Oghren: What? No! No! Well, not unless - no!


Awakening Antagonists

The Mother

An insane broodmother who leads the Disciples. She seeks vengeance on the Architect for severing her from the Old Gods. Voiced by Dee Dee Rescher.

The Architect

A darkspawn emissary who wants to end conflict between the darkspawn and other races by giving all non-darkspawn the taint and killing the Old Gods. He first appeared in The Calling and reappears in Awakening. He is very polite, but does not understand the concept of morality. Voiced by Jamie Glover.

  • Affably Evil
  • Anti-Villain: "I apologize for what I must do."
  • Apologetic Attacker: If challenged to a fight, he apologizes to the Warden for being forced to defend himself, and to Utha for being unable to fulfill his promise to her.
  • Beware the Nice Ones
  • Big Bad: In The Calling
  • Blue and Orange Morality: He's literally has no clue as to why people object to his willingness to sacrifice millions of people to save billions.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Or at least, it tries not to be with questionable success.
  • Enemy Mine: If the Warden decides not to kill him
  • Eyes Do Not Belong There: His eyes are in the wrong part of his face, and badly misaligned.
  • Heel Face Turn: Sometime after the events of The Calling, he discovered that Grey Warden blood can be used to sever the darkspawn's connection to the Old Gods, ending the Blights without killing as many people as he would have with his previous plan. He's still as morally ambiguous as before, though.
  • Horrible Judge of Character
  • Lack of Empathy: He has a very hard time understanding non-darkspawn.
  • Mad Scientist
  • The Man Behind the Man: His attempt to turn Urthemiel into a Disciple caused the Fifth Blight.
  • My Greatest Failure: Creating the Mother and turning Urthemiel into the fifth Archdemon.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much
  • Name's the Same: He shares the same name as a character from the second and third Matrix films. Unlike the Mothers, however, the Architects have little in common.
  • Nice Hat: With a nice dash of Body Horror, as it appears to be a part of his body.
  • Nice Job Breaking It Antivillain: Pretty much everything that happens in Awakening, and for that matter, Origins, can be traced back to him and his own efforts to combat the Blights. The Mother? His doing. The death of all the Wardens and most of the soldiers at the Vigil? His attempt to forge an alliance there that went wrong. The awakening of Urthemiel and the beginning of the Fifth Blight in the first place? His doing!
  • Never Trust a Trailer: He was advertised as being the expansion's Big Bad, but only appears in it a couple of times and can become an ally.
  • Non-Malicious Monster: Sort of. Compared to the other darkspawn he's practically a saint and he doesn't seem to possess any genuine maliciousness, but that doesn't mean he can't cause problems accidentally or as a result of his plans to 'save' Ferelden. Go ask Urthemiel.
  • Not So Different: Both he and the Grey Wardens seek to end the Blights by any means necessary.
  • Power Floats
  • The Rainman: From his perspective at least. He compares his difference to other Darkspawn with what a mentally-handicapped person with unusual skills is to other races. By human standards he's not handicapped at all, but it's clear that his alienation from the rest of his race bothers him.
  • Red Right Hand: He looks like a pale human unless he removes his mask, which reveals his disfigured eyes.
    • Decidedly different from the novel's description, where he looks like just another Hurlock Emissary that happens to act disturbingly politely.
      • Though he does look considerably more like the redesigned emissaries in Dragon Age 2.
  • Skippable Boss
  • Ubermensch
  • We Could Have Avoided All This: His attacks on the Wardens were ill-conceived attempts to forge an alliance with them. The Architect admits that it was stupid of him to assume that the Wardens would react positively to a horde of darkspawn marching on their keep.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: His only goal is to find a way to end the conflict between the Darkspawn and the rest of the world in a way that allows both sides to coexist. However, a tenuous grasp on concepts like morality and lack of understanding of basic human nature lead him to employing rather monstrous methods, less out of ruthlessness and more out of simply not understanding how horrifying they are to others.

Utha

A Silent Sister who joined the Grey Wardens. She later joined the Architect in order to end the Blights. She first appeared in The Calling and makes a cameo in Awakening

  • Anti-Villain: She only follows the Architect because she believes that he will end the Blights.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: In The Calling, although she does use a club occasionally.
  • The Cameo: In Awakening.
  • Dead Little Sister: Her family was killed by the darkspawn. Her best friend Kell might also count.
  • The Dragon: To the Architect
  • Face Heel Turn
  • The Quiet One: Subverted. While she is mute, she uses sign language to speak fairly often.
  • Retcon: In The Calling she fights with her fists and after the Architect accelerates the spread of her taint, she resembles a genlock. In Awakening, she uses a sword and looks like a dwarf with decaying skin.
    • This is because of the game engine, namely the fact that fighting with your fist sucks.
  • Skippable Boss
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist

The Disciples

The Disciples are Darkspawn, mainly Hurlocks, that have shown a keen cunning and intellect all but unheard of in regards to Darkspawn. They are the only Darkspawn, aside from Emissaries, that can speak intelligently.

The Withered

The first Disciple encountered in the game. The Warden encounters him leading an assault on Vigil's Keep, intent on capturing him/her. It turns out that he was sent by the Architect to attempt a peaceful negotiation with the Warden, but the Withered gravely misunderstood his orders, leading to the attack on the keep.

The Seeker

An unseen Disciple serving the Architect. He is the one who arranged for Velena's clan massacred and her sister kidnapped, and coverly manipulated her into believing humans were responsible in order to sew chaos along Amaranthine's highways and thus preventing Vigil's Keep from obtaining supplies.

The First

One of the original Disciples, as indicated by his name, and general of the Mother's armies. He murdered the Grey Warden Kristoff as plot as a plan to ambush the Warden and trap him/her in the Fade. Unfortunately for him, however, the Mother neglected to tell him that he would wind up stuck in the Fade too.

The Messenger

A Disciple that serves the Architect. If the Warden chooses to save Amaranthine in the endgame, the Messenger will offer to help fight off the Mother's forces. Afterwards, his fate is up to the Warden.

The Lost

A Disciple loyal to the Mother. He and his forces have taken the ruins of the dwarven city Kal'Hirol, using it as a breeding ground for their Broodmothers. When the Warden confronts him, he is already under siege by Darkspawn loyal to the Architect.


Leliana's Song Characters

Tug

A surfacer dwarf who works for Marjolaine. Voiced by Mark Meer.

Sketch

An elven apostate mage who works for Marjolaine. Voiced by John Ulyatt.

Silas Corthwaite

A man who Leliana rescues from prison. Voiced by Adam Howden.

Harwen Raleigh

The leader of the Hard Line mercenaries.

Witch Hunt Characters

Ariane

A Dalish Elf looking for Morrigan after the latter stole a tome detailing elven lore from her clan. Having a common goal, she joins the Warden-Commander in searching for the witch. Voiced by Corri English.

  • Action Girl
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Dual-Wielding: Her default fighting style of choice.
  • Hyper Awareness: After noticing the Warden fiddles with the ring that a romanced Morrigan gave them when they think no-one else is looking, becomes aware the Warden might have more personal reasons for finding her;

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

Finn

A rather foppish Circle mage. A bookworm at heart, about the only thing that will make him leave the Tower willingly is if he has a chance to delve into some ancient Elven or Tevinter history. Voiced by Yuri Lowenthal.

  • Adorkable
  • Adventurer Archaeologist: His sole motivation for joining you is to hopefully learn more about the Eluvian.
  • Badass Bookworm
  • Berserk Button: Improper handling of Ancient Books! The Warden literally first meets him when he chews them out for doing so.
  • Camp Straight
  • Combat Medic: His default specialization is Spirit Healer, and he’s heavily invested in the generally defensive Creation school of magic.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: Due to his Overly Long Name, most just shortened it to "Flora." Not liking this at all, he decided to go with "Finn" instead.
  • Foreshadowing: The oracle statue in the Mage Tower tells him they will not speak again, and Finn—in a moment of Genre Savvy—wonders if this means something will happen to him. Nothing does over the course of Witch Hunt, but time will tell if he appears again.
    • Given the implied time in the lore at which Witch Hunt takes place, it's probably close to the onset of the Mage-Templar War begun in Dragon Age II. Maker only knows what happens in the Fereldan Circle then....
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: His Ghastly Hat isn't much uglier than the hideous things mages normally wear on their heads.
    • May be a case of Take That Us, what with many fans finding the mage hats ugly.
  • I Call It Vera: His staff is literally called Vera.
  • Neat Freak: To the point that he is one of the few mages who doesn’t enjoy any outings from the Tower.
  • Non-Action Guy: Before meeting the Warden, at least.
  • Not So Different: To the Human Mage Warden. Both are from wealthy family's, both are implied to be highly academic and mentioned as being considered highly talented mages within the Circle. The only difference is that when the Mage Warden left the tower, they ended up fighting a War!
  • Overly Long Name: His full name is Florian Phinneas Horatio Aldebrant, Esquire.

Finn: "Can't forget the Esquire."

    • You can't, it confirms that Thedas has lawyers.
  • Shout-Out: He possesses a weapon called Vera and a Ghastly Hat that he doesn’t wear. Hmmmm...
    • He's also a magic user who works with an organization of "Wardens", and wears clothing that he himself enchanted to protect against magic, arrows, and unsightly stains. When selected during combat, he may respond with a battle cry of "I am mage, hear me roar!"

The Darkspawn Chronicles Characters

Hurlock Vanguard

The player character for the Darkspawn Chronicles, a powerful Darkspawn who fights and kills most of the Dragon Age cast in an alternate universe.


The Golems of Amgarrak Charcaters

Jerrik Dace

A dwarf noble who requests the Warden's help in investigating Amgarrak Thaig. Voiced by Brian Bloom.

  • The Beast Master: Summons a bronto to fight alongside the party.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Unlike the rest of House Dace, who wrote Brogan off as dead, Jerrik funded the entire expedition out of his own pocket in order to rescue Brogan.
  • Dual-Wielding
  • Jerkass: If you warn him that reviving Caridin's research is a poor idea, he'll snap that you ought to spare him your moralizing.

Brogan Dace

Jerrik's missing brother.

  • Badass: Brogan is mentioned to have been on the frontline of every assault into the Deep Roads in recent history.
    • Handicapped Badass: He's more than a little shell-shocked after what he's been through, but there's a reason he's the last one standing in Amgarrak.
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Brogan's mental state can be partly attributed to lyrium exposure, but seeing the horrors of what The Harvester got up to didn't help matters. Probably the shell-shock mentioned above didn't hurt.
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