Time to count your crushes.
If there’s one thing I’ll be daydreaming about ahead of launch, it’s all the romance options in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Characters have always been one of the best parts of the Dragon Age series, thanks in no small part to detailed personal quests and really compelling romances. Romanceable companions in the series have inspired no small amount of loyalty and fanaticism in the fandom. If you don’t have a Fenris versus Anders feud in your friend group, well, I envy you.
So far, we know at least a little bit about all of Rook’s companions in The Veilguard from its trailers. For those of you who’ve done your homework by reading Tevinter Nights more recently than me there are also short stories involving several companion characters to glean more info from. But we’ll be hearing a lot more about all of them during the “companions week” that BioWare has scheduled to start on August 26. Until then, this is everything we know about how romance works and who you can pursue.
How does romance work in The Veilguard?
(Image credit: EA)
Romancing companions in The Veilguard will work pretty similarly to Dragon Age: Inquisition, from what we know so far. You’ll take on quests relevant to your companions’ backstories and, if you want to be more than friends, choose flirtatious dialogue lines at opportune moments.
This time (as in Dragon Age 2) all seven of your companions are pansexual and are open to a relationship with Rook regardless of race or gender. Importantly, those you don’t choose to have a relationship with might wind up dating each other—like how Dorian and The Iron Bull had an alluded-to relationship in Inquisition if neither were with the Inquisitor.
As is the usual for Dragon Age, romance with different companions will involve sex scenes later in the game as things get more serious. Though just how far the nudity in those scenes extends is something BioWare said it wants players to discover for themselves, apparently.
Bellara
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Bellara Lutare
Class: MageFaction: Veil JumpersWritten by: John EplerVoice: Jee Young Han
Bellara is an elf and member of the Veil Jumpers who explore ancient elven ruins. BioWare has explained that the gauntlet she wears was created to make manipulating magic easier when working with artifacts and constructs found in those ruins. Based on all that, I’m assuming she’s a mage, though we have seen her gauntlet turn into a bow and arrow as well. While there hasn’t been much of Bellara’s personality revealed yet, she seems inquisitive and upbeat in the brief lines she’s spoken in trailers.
Davrin
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Davrin
Class: WarriorFaction: Grey WardensWritten by: John DombrowVoice: Ike Amadi
Davrin is an elf and Grey Warden with a griffon companion called Assan who everyone is understandably already in love with. The blight-battling Wardens were the focus of Dragon Age: Origins and have made appearances in other parts of the series as well, so there’s plenty of established lore about his affiliation, at least. His personality isn’t too obvious yet, but based on all most of the Wardens in the series he’s likely to be a very earnest, knight-in-shining-armor-type guy.
Emmrich
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Emmrich Volkarin
Class: Mage (Necromancer)Faction: Mourn WatchWritten by: Sylvia FeketekutyVoice: Nick Boraine
Emmrich is a human necromancer and a member of the Mourn Watch, one of the guardians of the Grand Necropolis in Nevarra. He’s also got a skeleton familiar called Manfred who’s being voiced by Matthew Mercer.
He turned up briefly in the Tevinter Nights set of short stories, though I admit I read them a while ago and don’t recall his personality. One thing we do know, specific to his romance, is that he’s “a gentleman necromancer,” BioWare told IGN, who “is more intimate and sensual.” Based on how I’ve seen a lot of you acting on social media, that description is really resonating.
Harding
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Lace Harding
Class: RogueFaction: Formerly the InquisitionWritten by: Sheryl CheeVoice: Ali Hillis
Lace Harding, formerly Scout Harding of the Inquisition, is a dwarf and a rogue with a slightly dry sense of humor but a positive outlook and a lot of empathy. She definitely has the most established background and personality prior to The Veilguard. Harding grew up in The Hinterlands, the first major explorable area of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and joined up with the movement as a scout.
She didn’t actually have that much screen time in Inquisition but she made a big impression on fans by always turning up to introduce the Inquisitor to a new explorable area with a kind word. There were a couple opportunities for the Inquisitor to flirt with Harding but it didn’t turn into a full romance like with other companions.
Harding has been seen a lot in Veilguard so far in various trailers and the gameplay reveal, making it clear she’ll meet Rook very early in the plot and help introduce them to Minrathous and other companions.
Lucanis
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Lucanis Dellamorte
Class: RogueFaction: Antivan CrowsWritten by: Mary KirbyVoice: Zach Mendez
Lucanis is a human rogue and a member of the Antivan Crows who also appeared in the Tevinter Nights short stories. I’m assuming he’s a rogue given that he’s a Crow and he’s got several daggers but he does have some kind of magic adjacent thing going on based on those giant purple wings you can see in the release date trailer.
Everything we’ve seen of him suggests he’s going to be standoffish and mysterious, but maybe he’s not quite as tight-laced as he seems. “He is the sole dumpster fire of the crew,” Mary Kirby posted in June. “I wrote him specifically to be a bisexual disaster of a human.” There you have it. Zevran enjoyers, please come collect your man.
Neve
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Neve Gallus
Class: Mage (Ice)Faction: Shadow DragonsWritten by: Brianne BattyeVoice: Jessica Clark
Neve is a human mage, a private investigator, and a member of the underground Shadow Dragon faction in Tevinter. So far we’ve seen a decent bit of dialogue with her in the gameplay reveal suggesting she’s clever, witty, and maybe a little flirtatious. She’s also the only one whose romance scenes we’ve actually seen hinted at. “You and me, Rook. Maybe that’s what scares me.” She says, a little coyly, in the release date trailer.
Not for nothing but I’m also taking a little bet that she might be the mage who betrays me this time around. Having one pulled over on you by a magical lover is something of a series tradition at this point—please accept my condolences, Solasmancers.
Taash
(Image credit: BioWare, Electronic Arts)
Taash
Class: WarriorFaction: Lords of FortuneWritten by: Trick WeekesVoice: Jin Maley
Tash is a qunari warrior and member of the Lords of Fortune, a guild of treasure hunters based out of Rivain. That explains all the gold jewelry and the emerald horn. Tash is also referred to as a “dragon hunter,” which totals up to a lot of similarities to The Iron Bull, a romanceable companion from Inquisition also written by Weekes. That’s not to say we can expect exactly the same kind of romance—Bull’s was pretty dang memorable—but I’m betting a known treasure hunter warrior has a similar level of swagger.
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