Leliana

Unless you’re highly familiar with the setting and plot, we suggest that you first read our Dragon Age world primer.

This profile is about Leliana’s early life, up to when the game starts. Her game stats depict her as the party leaves Lothering.

The pictures use the variant From Ashes model by Endeavour1934 .

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• This profile assumes a specific video game playthrough. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.
• This profile features tabletop RPG mechanics about the video game’s gameplay. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.
• This profile features non-canon hypotheses about in-game events and mechanics. See our video games writeups FAQ for more.

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Background

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Powers & Abilities

Leliana is fast, agile, daring, smart and multitalented.

An early cinematic trailer depicted her as superhumanly lithe, but that seems to have been exaggeration.

There are a number of “builds” that can be used for Leliana. In this playthrough her main abilities are :

• Archery. Leliana usually fights from the rear as fire support, carefully placing her arrows into a variety of personages’ sensitive parts.
• Leliana has significant close combat skills, usually with a pair of large daggers. She doesn’t train as intensively with those as she used to, though.
• General stealth, intrusion, thieving, athletic, seduction, acting, etc. skills. She is a professional spy and assassin.

• Leliana is particularly good at blending in and passing herself for what she isn’t. Depending on the mission can look striking or completely forgettable. She has solid disguise and infiltration skills.
• Minstrel skills including singing, dancing, playing the lute, storytelling, etc.. Plus a solid culture in basic history, politics and current events, legends and folktales, geography, etc.. Plus some knowledge of theology.
• Bardic skills – in the Dungeons & Dragons  sense. These battle hymns have quasi-magical effects on allies or enemies. At this point Leliana chiefly sings a song that bolster her allies, making them better fighters.

Leliana also has a remarkable power of intuition when it comes to reading people and sensing hostile intents. Part of it is her espionage and acting training, but mostly it’s gut feelings.

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The Orlesian Empire

Leliana hails from Orlais. Here’s the skinny about this place.

Orlais lies to the West-North-West of Ferelden. It enjoys a milder climate thanks to the mountains in the Orlesian South. Orlais is the most powerful and influential realm in Thedas, though certainly not the most popular due to its history of imperialism.

Orlais is also where the Chantry was created, and remains the religious heart of Thedas.

Orlais is a rich and bountiful land. However, most of the wealth is captured by its sprawling and somewhat useless nobility. Orlesian nobles are famed for their sophistication and love for the arts. Culturally, they avoid being seen bare-faced, wearing either elaborate makeup or specially crafted masks when they go out.

The backbone of the military of Orlais are a knightly order, the chevaliers d’Orlais. These brutal, heavily-armed and armoured knights are strictly regimented. They have a strong “death before dishonour” ethos.

Orlais is strongly inspired by medieval France . The Orlesian language, names and accents are rendered in-game as quasi-French.

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Jeux interdits

Minstrels in Orlais are what they seem – travelling entertainers, musicians, raconteurs, singers, witty conversationalists and quite often seducers. However, many of them are more than that, yes ?

Nobles in Orlais play a complex game of intrigue. The goal is to damage the credibility and influence of rival nobles through subterfuge and manipulation. It is called the Game, or the Grand Game.

Nearly every Orlesian noble is involved in some form of the Game. The decadent nobility has far too many members and too few responsibilities, and good Game players are admired.

Though the Game is played in secret, there is tremendous gossip. It is thus easy to see whose opponents have a marked tendency to get embroiled in scandals and losses of face. Everybody is tracking who is gaining ascendance and who is losing ground.

Bardic services

Bards being always in demand to combat the ennui at noble houses, they have easy access. Some of them leverage that by acting as mercenary Game agents. Such minstrels are often competent spies, thieves, fighters, assassins, saboteurs, provocateurs, etc. who can design and implement complex manipulations.

Among knowledgeable Orlesians, “bard” specifically designates a Grand Game mercenary. Those without such skills are called minstrels. Bards are well-paid and respected… until they make a mistake. Then they will soon fall to their colleagues’ blades.

While entertainers are known to be possible spies, Orlesians cannot live without the arts, entertainment and performances. They will routinely take the risk of letting potential bards in when hiring minstrels.

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Video

An example of Leliana’s speaking voice and singing voice.

 

The song she’s memorised might be one of the longest surviving texts in Elvish.

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The Chant of Light

The Chantry is the setting’s equivalent of the medieval Catholic Church, with roughly comparable downsides and upsides.

It was founded by the prophetess Andraste. Andraste sung the Chant of Light as the holy text establishing the Maker as the one true god. The core commandments of the Chant are –

• Do not murder.
• Do not steal.
• Do not bear false witness.
• Honour the Maker as your only god.
• Do not suffer the rule of magic over man.

Drakon, Emperor of Orlais, founded the Chantry — the church teaching the Chant of Light — 170 years after the death of Andraste. The prophetess was slain during her jihad against the Tevinter magocracy.

Even the remnants of the Tevinter Empire eventually converted to the worship of the Maker. However there was eventually a schism and the Tevinter priests became the Imperial Chantry.

Hear the song to the Maker

Most of Thedas follows the Chant of Light, or at least gives it lip service. There aren’t really other theistic religions in the setting. The closest would be the gods of the Elves, but even Elves don’t know much about these.

The Dwarves celebrate their ancestors but there are no theistic aspects to this. The Qun is a non-theistic religion. The remaining barbarians tend to be animists.

Over the centuries, the Chantry followed in Andraste’s footsteps. Thus, they called several Exalted Marches (crusades) against their enemies – rebellious Elves, the Blight, Tevinter interests, the Qunari, etc.. Such major decisions are taken by the Divine, the equivalent of a Pope.

Based on Andraste’s example, all priests are women. They are addressed as “mother”. Or “revered mother” for the most senior priestess at a given church.

The Chantry hopes to convince the Maker to return to the world by converting everyone to the Chant of Light.

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Life and death of the Prophetess

The prophetess Andraste was born more than a millennia ago, at the end of the first Blight. She was Human and a member of the Alamarri nation – a loose and turbulent coalition of barbarian tribes.

The Alamarri peoples lived in what is now Ferelden and lands South of that. They are the ancestors of modern Fereldans. See Alistair’s profile for more about Ferelden.

Prior to Andraste, the dominant Human religion was the worship of the Old Gods of Tevinter, pictured as dragons. Andraste’s monotheistic gospel was a radical departure from that, especially as she condemned magocracy.

The gospel of Andraste

The prophetess claimed that her god, the Maker, had abandoned the world centuries ago. This happened when the sins of Tevinter ruined the very heavens and triggered the Blight.

The Maker only returned to the world to reveal Himself to Andraste. He originally appeared in her dreams, which she sung about. According to the Chant of Light, the Maker fell in love with Andraste and her song, and wanted to make her His bride. However, she convinced Him that He should return to the world instead, once mortals had redeemed it.

Andraste’s preaching was enormously successful. Entire tribes converted to her Chant of Light. Her husband, an Alamarri warchief named Maferath, leveraged this by conquering Northward.

When the barbarians reached Tevinter, Andraste’s song triggered huge revolts among the Human and Elven slaves therein. This greatly weakened Tevinter and reinforced the tribals.

Faith and warfare

The prophetess declared slavery abhorrent to the Maker. She even gave lands to the revolting Elven slaves. These lands became the Dales. But centuries after Andraste’s death the Chantry turned against the Elves for attempting to reconstitute their old religions.

Andraste herself fell to treachery. Her husband had grown jealous of her love for the Maker. He also resented being overshadowed by his wife, whom hundreds of thousands revered as their saviour. When Maferath felt that the conquest of Tevinter was bogging down and it was time to stop and consolidate, he bought peace with the greatly diminished Empire by selling his wife out.

The mages of Tevinter burned Andraste at the stake, and once again the Maker allegedly abandoned the world.

There is a whole body of legends about a disciple covertly gathering the ashes of Andraste, storing them in an urn and fleeing back to her homeland, where the ashes were hidden. And of course multitudes of street peddlers will be happy to sell “authentic” bones of the prophetess and other such “relics”.

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History

During the Orlesian domination of Ferelden, Leliana’s mother lived in Denerim, Ferelden’s capital. She had come with her employer Dame Cécilie (pronounced Say-see-lee) Vasseur. Leliana’s mum loved Ferelden, and deeply regretted having to leave during the rebellion.

Even though the servant had a child out of wedlock, Cécilie agreed to keep her in her service.

Leliana’s mother died when Leliana was but four. But Dame Vasseur, who had no child and had grown attached the Leliana, agreed to have the fatherless stray live on her Val Royeaux estate.

As a little girl Leliana was a bookworm, devouring Vasseur’s collection of tales from Orlais and Ferelden. She would even ask Elven servants about stories of their people.

By the time Leliana was a teenager, Cécilie was elderly. Since Leliana had such an interest in stories, recitations and songs Cécilie had her trained as a dancer, singer and storyteller. In this way Leliana could entertain her, as Cécilie no longer could leave her estate.

Marjolaine, toi si jolie

At age 16, Leliana met sultry spymistress, seductress and assassin Marjolaine. Soon, Leliana left with her to become a bard. Together they roamed through Orlais and bits of Antiva.

Marjolaine wanted to extend the Orlesian games of scandal and deceit to Ferelden. Thus, she and her crew came to Denerim to shake things up and establish themselves.

In the field Leliana operated with a Dwarven warrior, Tug , and an Elven mage, Sketch . The pair had been her friends and wingmen for months.

Front to back : Marjolaine, a young Leliana, Tug, Sketch.

Leliana was enthralled by Marjolaine. Marjolaine was everything she wanted to become as well as her mentor and her lover. She would have done anything for her – and did.

Though Leliana will not discuss this part of her past, it would appear that she killed many people and was a redoubtable agent of chaos and deceit.

Betrayals

However, an operation to plant compromising documents in a noble’s bedroom broke bad. Leliana accidentally discovered that the papers were Orlesian military secrets.

Leliana did not want to betray Orlais. Furthermore, she was aware that she couldn’t finesse her way out of charges of treason. Thus, she petitioned Marjolaine to abort the mission and steal back the documents. Marjolaine reluctantly agreed.

After Leliana and her wingmen stole back the documents they had planted, Marjolaine betrayed them. She knifed Leliana by surprise and triggered an ambush. Beaten and abused, Leliana was thrown into a dungeon by the guards of the Hard Line mercenary company. Leliana was to be sold to Orlais as a traitor.

The great escape

A high-ranking Orlesian priestess in Ferelden, the Revered Mother Dorothéa (pronounced Doh-roh-tay-ah), felt kinship with Leliana. Dorothéa slipped her a knife and key so she could escape.

Reunited with Sketch and enlisting a poacher named Silas, Leliana freed a number of prisoners. Together, they broke out of the Hard Line dungeons despite her wounds. After Leliana passed out, Mother Dorothéa hid her in Lothering. She had Chantry sisters heal the fugitive.

Among the prisoners Leliana freed from the Hard Line’s gaols, unbeknownst to her, was Alamen Tabris’ mother, who had been there for some years.

What happened to Adaia Tabris remains unrevealed. She never was seen again in Denerim and her alienage believed her dead. She may have been killed while fleeing. Or she may have been forced to leave Ferelden without seeing her family again for everybody’s safety.

(You’ll) Never make a saint of me

After conferring with the charismatic Dorothéa, Leliana tracked down the commander of the Hard Line and defeated him. She allowed Silas to kill the man, since he had suffered at the Hard Line’s hands far longer than she had.

Leliana recovered the Orlesian documents, thus preventing a disastrous war between Orlais and Ferelden. But she let Marjolaine go. Dorothéa then reluctantly revealed that she was the owner of the documents. Marjolaine had seduced her to steal these secrets and plant them in Ferelden.

Leliana found refuge with the Chantry. She became a lay sister  in the village of Lothering, in Southern Ferelden. She was affirmed, but didn’t take her full vows.

Her joining may have been facilitated by her vocal talents, given the role of singing and recitation in many Chantry rites. Having a great singer makes a Chantry church feel much nicer.

Or… or maybe not

The exact events around the Orlesian military secrets, Marjolaine and her betrayal, and Leliana becoming a lay sister may not have taken place as chronicled above.

This version of the tale is the one in the Leliana’s Song DLC. This is a retelling of her past by Leliana herself. And she clearly states that she changed “a few things” to “suit her audience”.

There are major contradictions between this version and the other account she gives of her past. Unreliable narrators definitely happen in Dragon Age games, and Leliana often has a arm’s length relationship with the truth.

In another telling, Leliana states that she accidentally discovered during an assassination mission that Marjolaine was selling Orlesian documents to multiple foreign countries. She told Marjolaine, as she was afraid that her mentor would be tried as a traitor.

In this telling, Marjolaine framed Leliana for her own treason to escape Orlesian justice. Leliana was tortured and imprisoned in Orlais, but escaped to Ferelden and hid by joining the Chantry.

It wouldn’t be surprising if there is a third (and a fourth…) different version of her past she might tell. Likewise, Leliana’s account of being such a naïve and sheltered little thing vamped by the big bad Marjolaine does not sound entirely credible.

Leliana also once explained her joining the Chantry as just looking for refuge from a storm and having had an epiphany when she entered a church. But that was a hasty lie and doesn’t quite count.

Lest darkness fall

Just over two years after Leliana became Sister Leliana, the Fifth Blight hit Ferelden from the South. Refugees came to Lothering as they fled northward. The small Chantry church there helped them as they could.

Among the refugees Leliana cared for were Leandra Hawke and her kids, who would later play an important role in Kirkwall . Sister Leliana told stories to the Hawke children and other kid refugees to soothe them.

Right after a vivid dream about falling into darkness, Leliana saw that a long-since dead rose bush behind the church had somehow grown a live rose. She made the considerable leap of assuming that the rose was a miracle from the Maker, and that her dream was a vision telling her to seek hope and life amidst darkness.

When two Grey Wardens came to Lothering, she assumed that the Maker wanted her to join them. She did so after helping the Wardens in a bloody tavern fight.

It would seem that Leliana was actually terminally bored with Chantry life and wanted to return to a life of adventure. But it would be a while before she’d admit that it might have been the case — even to herself.

Leliana became one of the core allies of the Grey Warden Alamen Tabris, and eventually her lover.

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Description

Leliana speaks with a readily audible French accent. For instance she pronounces the “t” in “often”, or says “alas” with two flat a’s. Obvs, she pronounces Orlesian words (such as the city of Val Royeaux, or the title of chevalier) correctly.

Though her grammar is excellent there are little signs that it is not her native language. She often ends sentence with a “yes ?” or “no ?” for emphasis, or formulates things in a way native speakers wouldn’t (“was it very terrible ?”).

But her vocabulary is broad, and what she says is always easy to understand. The mistakes are just charming details.

She has a killer singing voice, significantly higher than her speaking voice. She’s a soprano.

Sister Leliana is a gorgeous, tall-ish redhead. When not in the field she prefers to wear her Chantry robe, plus her favourite footwear. This a very… distinctive pair of powder blue satin shoes with wrapped ribbons, gold trim and ridiculously twee golden lucky puppy figurines as decoration. In the field she wears leather armour and boots.

To Orlesians, Leliana looks distinctly Fereldan, with her bare face and bright red hair. To Fereldans, she clearly looks Orlesian, with her accent and taste for frou-frou.

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L’âge de garce

How old is Leliana ? What could be a simple question becomes complicated due to the non-interference pact between truth and Leliana.

Specifically, she mentions that she was born in Ferelden, which is chronologically odd. The Fereldan war of independence ended in 9:2, and it is unlikely that Dame Cecilie could stay in the country after that.

There are two main takes.

Leliana is in her early 20s during DA:O

In this take she was born circa 9:8. Unless something weird happened, she’s lying when she says she was born in Ferelden. A comment she once made — that she’s older than she looks — is a smokescreen lest somebody points out that her lie doesn’t work.

This is the more likely hypothesis. Leliana eventually admits that her memories of her mother, in a villa on the Waking Sea, are probably imaginary. She was simply too young to remember. Leliana likely made up fantasies about her dead mum when she was a little girl.

Leliana is thus about 22 during DA:O, and about 33 during DA:I. Amusingly, her lie about years having but a slight impact on her appearance… thus turns out to be a fact.

Leliana is in her early 30s during DA:O

In this take she was born circa 8:98, at the close of the Blessed Age. It is thus true that she was born in Ferelden, and true that she’s older than she looks. That makes her 32 during DA:O, and 43 during DA:I.

This doesn’t seem to work. It would mean that she was in a relationship with Marjolaine for 16 years, which doesn’t align with anything else. It also makes it a bit odd that she’d describe Joséphine Montilyet — who is about 27 during the DA:I events — as an old friend.

On the other hand, it seems credible that she’d look in her late 20s even at 43. Several Dragon Age characters, particularly women, barely seem to age. There’s no reason to assume that this isn’t an accurate depiction in-universe, just like it seems true of comic book ageing.

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Personality

A warm, pleasant, empathic, youthful nun. Leliana is a free spirit, determined to find her own way and meaning in the world.

She trusts her heart and intuition, and is unusually friendly and open-minded. Her free-flowing, spontaneous, from-the-heart nature means that she’s prone to randomly babbling. But she knows a lot of stories and legends, so even her babbling can be educational.

There should be an emphasis on “can”, though. Leliana is forever telling random little anecdotes. But most of these seem, well… completely pointless.

Leliana tends to make decisions with her heart rather than with her mind. She’s in for strong emotions, freedom and beauty, not risk/reward calculations.

Gotta have faith

Leliana has an intimate, almost sensual rapport with the Maker. As far as she’s concerned the Chantry is wrong, and He never left the world. She can feel His presence all through nature and the elements. She is very big on doing His will by making the world a better, more compassionate place.

She likes the Chantry and life as a nun. She’s not burnt out about it like Alistair is, since unlike him she feels sincere faith. She likes talking about theology. She also treasures symbols and works about the Maker – especially if they have artistic value.

Her naïve but enthusiastic attempts at converting the Maker-denying, Chantry-hating Morrigan get on Morrigan’s nerves. But then everything does.

Leliana’s beliefs arguably constitute heresy. The one person the Maker made his presence known to after leaving His world was the prophetess Andraste. Thus, Leliana’s claims of a vision and divine rapport could be interpreted as claiming to be a prophetess like her. Thankfully, Leliana is insulated from the Chantry hierarchy by the Revered Mother Dorothéa.

All things sweet and pretty

The Orlesian bard often acts like a twee girly-girl, squeeing at all the cute things and the pretty colours. In particular she loves nice shoes and cute animals, though collecting shoes in the middle of a war zone would present logistical issues.

She’s generally an upbeat person. She could easily be called “sweet” if not for her whole professional killer/trickster thing. She loves telling stories and giving musical performances.

Leliana’s twee side can get oddly… enthusiastic. Her babbling about the beauty of the Maker’s world or nice clothing, shoes and fashion occasionally make her sound a bit nuts.

She even once crept out Morrigan (!) by gleefully exposing the colours, fabric and cut she had in mind for a dress for Morrigan, and what sort of frontal cut would put emphasis on the witch’s breasts and neck and how they should go shopping for shoes together.

(Amusingly, the killer dress that Morrigan wears a dozen years later in DA:I is pretty much the design Leliana was imagining in DA:O.)

Like many people throughout Thedas, Leliana is bisexual. But in practice, she seems markedly more interested in women. For instance she was putting more effort in interacting with Morrigan than with Alistair, despite Morrigan being so much less approachable (and straight).

Growin’ up

As a youth Leliana was a freewheeling hellraiser. She delighted in the thrills, chaos, danger and violence of her missions. She considered that the Chantry were a bunch of boring, moralistic stuffed shirts. She was fascinated by Marjolaine, wanting to be just like her.

Young Leliana and her team had a certain contempt toward regular people and authority figures such as guards. The crew considered that they bardic types were so much cooler than stupid merchants or spear carriers.

Marjolaine’s treason devastated Leliana. It forced her to completely reinvent her life. She was utterly burnt out of the Grand Game, and she couldn’t trust anyone in Orlais anymore.

“Leliana is bright colours in the dark”

Lost and tired, she let the charismatic Mother Dorothéa, who implied that she had a past very much like Leliana’s, convert her. Albeit she will not discuss it, Leliana is haunted by what she did out of love and immaturity. She wants to genuinely atone.

Though on first contact Leliana’s faith is the core of whom she has become, things are a fair bit more complicated. She doesn’t fit in with the Chantry and its doxa.

She misses the excitement, violence, sex, romance and stimulation of her troubled past. Though after Marjolaine’s betrayal she couldn’t take it anymore, it is arguably who she is and what she does. Being a lay sister could only last for so long.

Leliana’s love for the Maker and His world, her artistic proclivities, her love for love and life in general and her violent, adventurous nature have a hard time reconciling.

Sparkly facets

Leliana is a professional spy. No matter how friendly and outgoing she might seem, she keeps her cards close to her chest. She also routinely takes liberties with the truth. Yet, she’s proud to say that she’s trying to be a better, kinder person to redeem herself after all the… exciting things she did.

But while her faith seems sincere, it is hard to tell in which proportion she is lying to herself with her redemption narrative. This is what she seems to aspire toward, but the thrill of being a bad girl is in her blood.

In her heart of hearts, a young Leliana craves attention and affection. Her approach to faith, her nonconformism, her (occasionally over-the-top) adorable/twee behaviour, her career as a performer, her efforts to be a cool, exciting, adventurous bad girl, etc. boil down to wanting to be noticed and feeling loved. But this recedes as she matures.

For Leliana, though Marjolaine betrayed her the Maker wouldn’t. Albeit after some months a more earthly form of love became desirable.

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Quotes

“I wasn’t born in the Chantry, you know. Many of us had more… colourful lives before we joined.”

“There are so many good things in the Maker’s world. How can I sit by while the Blight devours… everything ?”

“I can feel the Maker in the world. I can see Him in the sky and waves, I can feel Him in the sunlight that warms my skin. I know what I know, and no one will ever make that untrue. I know what the Chantry says about the Maker, and what should I believe ? What I feel in my heart, or what others tell me ?”

“I-I know it sounds… absolutely insane — but it’s true ! I had a dream… a vision from the Maker !”

(Dragging away the corpse of a Fereldan) “Oof. How do they get so heavy on such terrible food ?”

“There was always music in Val Royeaux, streaming from the many windows — quiet refrains and triumphant choruses… and always, floating above that all, the Chant, coming from the Grande Cathédrale. It was magnificent.”

“I’m glad you found it in your heart to spare their lives.”

(Blabbering) “I so miss the fine things of Orlais… Dresses… fine dresses and furs. And shoes, of course. One can’t mingle with nobility with bad shoes, you see. Orlais is very fashionable. Almost ridiculously so. Ahhh… but the shoes. Living with those ridiculous trends was worth it for the shoes. When I left Orlais, the fashion was shoes with delicate, tapered heels and embellishments in the front — a ribbon, perhaps, or embroidery. In soft colours, of course ; it was spring.” (blah blah blah, continues raving about shoes on and on, badmouths ugly but practical Fereldan fur boots) “Sometimes, a girl wants to have pretty feet, you know ?”

(Randomly blurting out) “Ooh ! A windmill. I once took a ride on the sails of a windmill. It didn’t turn out well.”

(A propos of nothing at all and in the middle of an unrelated conversation) “I suppose we all have our little gifts. Back in Orlais, I knew a noble lady who was like most of the other noble ladies — fair of face and slow of wit. Anyway, Catarina had the most uncanny ability to tie knots in the stems of cherries, using only her tongue. It was very impressive. The men, especially, loved watching her.”

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By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Dragon Age: Origins. Leliana voiced by Corinne Kempa  (singing voice by Aubrey Ashburn ).

Helper(s): Darci. Variant From Ashes Leliana model by Endeavour1934.

Writeup completed on the 22^nd of August, 2014.