Dragon Age creator David Gaider has discussed taking on the writing of fan-favorite recurring character Cassandra in Dragon Age Inquisition, following the departure of a BioWare colleague.
In Gaider’s latest and seemingly final social media thread about the characters in the series he worked on, the former franchise boss said Cassandra’s romance had been difficult to pin down.
Cassandra was originally being written into Inquisition by Jennifer Hepler, a series veteran who previously worked on Origins, Awakening, and Dragon Age 2. But Hepler left BioWare during Inquisition’s development “around the time a bunch of GamerGate guys decided that “Jennifer was in some way responsible for ALL of BioWare’s failures,” Gaider wrote. “The result was a LOT of nasty harassment.”
“Is that why he left? You’d have to ask him, but it certainly didn’t help,” he continued. “The important thing is that she left and there was no one as superior or as superhumanly quick as her to take care of any pending work.”
Gaider ended up taking on Cassandra himself, but says he struggled to understand how a “pious, self-righteous character” would have romantic appeal. The solution came after she found a fan-created webcomic that joked about Cassandra being secretly some sort of fan of Varric’s books.
CHARACTERS – Day Nine: Cassandra This is the last of the (main) characters I wrote during my time on Dragon Age. I might delve into others and consider moving on to Stray Gods… but I feel like fewer people would be interested and I honestly can’t keep up. So let’s make this the last one, for now.
[image or embed]
— David Gaider (@davidgaider.bsky.social) November 28, 2024 at 8:59 am
Manage cookie settings
This led Gaider to reconsider Cassandra’s “idealistic and uncomfortable passion”, and the fact that he had put the player character, the Inquisitor, on a “messianic pedestal” for being the Herald of Andraste and leader of the Inquisition. In the final game, settling down with Cassandra essentially requires the Inquisitor to convince her that, on top of all that, they can still be a normal romantic couple.
Cassandra ended up being Inquisition’s top romantic choice, Gaider confirmed, “by a good margin.” The least, again “by a good margin” was Dorian.
Gaider has previously talked about writing Dorian’s story and his personal inspiration for doing so, as well as early plans to allow you to bring your Gray Warden character from Dragon Age Origins to Inquisition.
Regarding the recent release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Metacritic recently responded after backlash to that game caused its user ratings to bomb.
.png?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp&w=100&resize=100,70&ssl=1 "Here’s an unused look at Chinese fictional souls like Wuchang: Fallen Feathers")
