Leliana

The return of Leliana, a companion in Dragon Age: Origins, as an advisor in Inquisition was (and remains) controversial given that her appearance seemingly overwrote decisions the player made in the first game. Some of this was explained retroactively through epilogues, but those did little to alleviate feelings of the spymaster being one of BioWare’s seemingly unkillable favorites. Though she serves as a case study in Dragon Age’s complicated relationship with continuity, Leliana’s story in Inquisition, much like Cullen’s, shows one of the few mainstays of each Dragon Age game finally becoming who they were always meant to be. After saving the world once, Leliana has gone from the once soft-spoken bard to a cunning agent of the Inquisition. She is disenfranchised from the church, but not the people she served alongside. She has the potential to become the leader of the church within the Dragon Age universe, and depending on whether you push her to remain compassionate or steel herself, her reign can be paved with kindness or blood. Inquisition is all about watching the world change and seeing the people who make it happen become who they’re supposed to be, and despite the series-wide complications, Leliana shines once more in her third appearance.

Back in the Origins days, she had none of that baggage and was simply a repentant sister of the Chantry with a dark past and a devout demeanor. She is one of the few bright lights in Origins, even as the reality of who she once was becomes clear. Leliana shifts and changes to match the needs of Dragon Age more than once, but there is something refreshing about looking back at where she began.