I just did a poll, and Mage!Lavellan is the most popular Inquisitor on Deviantart.
I don’t think Solas is the only reason though.
As I said on an older post, playing a mage Lavellan is easily the best rp experience you can have in Inquisition.
Lavellan is a mage outside the Circle, so she will have an interesting perspective on magic. Also, the companions will have different reasons to brush off her opinion and/or listen to her opinion because she is Dalish.
Lavellan is an elf, and the plot basically revolves around the elf conflict. Makes basically roleplaying *everything* ten times better than playing a human (no offense human-players) and, ironically enough, a human is the one the story was originally written for (Hawke).
If Lavellan is female, it makes the Andraste/Mythal comparison that happens throughout the game have extra weight (though playing male Lavellan is hella fun, so try it).
You have a more interesting story with both Solas and Sera if you’re playing an elf.
Sera hates other elves and will be really mean to female!Lavellan in the beginning. As female!Lavellan, it takes a lot to earn her friendship (you basically have to deny everything “elfy” about you and pretend to be a human Andrastian because Sera’s a bigot).
Solas will only love female!Lavellan. Depending on which path you take, as an elf, you can yell at him in elven during an argument about institutional racism and how it’s not so easily solved, and your discussions with him about elven culture will have more impact and weight, especially when he’s a jerk in the beginning. For the friendship/relationship to continue, *you* have to apologize (even though *he* was the jerk) and he realizes he was a jerk and tries to be nice to you afterward. Later when your soul is crushed, you can yell at him in elven in the cave.
Solas is also the real antagonist (not Coryphidiot, the Scooby Doo villain) so being able to romance the villain is pretty sweet. I wish that was done more in video games.
As male Mage!Lavellan, there is an interesting dichotomy set up between you and Solas, where Solas might realize that you are the man he should have been and/or the man he used to be, a champion of the people who wins instead of loses and does so without pragmatically sacrificing millions of lives. You are basically the good guy/ unrealistically cartoony hero who always wins and always finds a way around sacrifice that Solas wishes he could be (you are pure-paragon!Shepard to his renegade!Garrus). Lavellan can even mock Solas in a special conversation (enemy path only) where he tells him that maybe he should start winning (which makes zero sense within the context, given the fact that the Inquisitor wouldn’t have a full understanding of just how *badly* the Dread Wolf kept losing. In fact, the entire joke on the Inquisitor’s part felt really meta).
Mage!Lavellan has a far more compelling arc with Cullen, whose story is about overcoming his hatred and fear of magic. (I find it a bit silly that he’d just stop being a bigot overnight but at least the story was written better than most romances …) Cullen is also very Andrastian and still might be the most tolerant romance of Lavellan and their beliefs (his wedding to her in Trespasser is evidence enough).
Male Mage!Lavellan has a great arc with Cassandra, who is basically a super duper templar and Andrastian who distrusts magic, yet stumbles to tolerate Lavellan’s beliefs and “rogue” mage status. I loved playing Mahanon and imagining that her distrust of him stemmed from his magic. Watching her fall in love with a magic man (after losing her other mage lover) was also just pretty epic. She will point out how different the two of you are if you are not human and will be baffled that she could be in love with you, but she will still love you and vow to protect you. Honestly, it’s my favorite romance in Inquisition now.
Mage!Lavellan has a more interesting rapport with Solas (sorry, it’s true) who is a magic snob and actually views mages as better people than everyone else (because in his time, everyone had magic, and modern mages are just people who haven’t lost their connection to the Fade).
Hell, mage!Lavellan has a better story with *every* romance and pretty much *every* character. This game was made for a mage!Hawke, just as DA2 was.
The Temple of Mythal is more depressing intense as an elf character. As an elf, all the characters shit on you throughout the quest and you learn that your entire religion is wrong, and instead of comforting you about it, most of the characters are assholes during and after the quest.
Jaws of Hakkon is especially better if you’re playing an elf, especially if you’re playing female!Lavellan who romances Solas. Lavellan, Cassandra, Solas, and Varric (and to a lesser extent, Cole) were all set up to be the modern day version of Ameridan, his male templar best friend, his smart-ass female dwarf friend, his female Somniari elven lover, and his female spirit friend. It’s especially interesting if you play a Lavellan who keeps to her Dalish faith, whereas American could just be Dalish but had to worship Andraste too because that’s so “awesome”/sarcasm.
Sorry, but I thought it was lame that they tried to make Ameridan look cool and tolerant because he participated in both religions. And yet, we never see human Andrastians worshiping the elven gods alongside Andraste (imagine saying this to Cass in the beginning of the game). It’s the elves who are always expected to bend because the narrative keeps pushing Andrastianism as “right” and the elven pagan religion as “wrong.” Thus, the elves are allowed to keep their silly gods as long as they worship Andraste too … it’s religious intolerance and Inquisition reeks of it.
An elf!Inquisitor has a better arc with Dorian (in my opinion) who has a typical (shitty) opinion of elven slavery. Especially if you bring Dorian to Mythal’s temple.
Elf!Inquisitor has a great moment with Flemeth, where she praises the Inquisitor as doing the People proud. It’s literally the *only* moment in the game when Lavellan is praised for all she’s done because she is in an elf and not *in spite* of being a horrible evil scum elf. It’s the *only* moment in the game when it’s actually great to be elven and our character is not made to feel like utter shit for being their race.
Elven Inquisitor is the most fun to play at the ball (right up there with qunari, I think) because there’s the conflict with Briala (who hates the Dalish) and also Celene and Gaspard (who are both elf-hating bigots). Celene fetishes the elves and doesn’t even see them as people (Briala is her pet, she casually slaughters city elves in the book), so it’s interesting to roleplay a female!Lavellan who uses sex appeal to manipulate her. Gaspard, meanwhile, just straight-up hates the elves, so it’s great to have his head on a platter. It’s also great to make Briala swallow her ridiculous hatred of all Dalish (really, hating all the Dalish because one clan was crap? She couldn’t be anymore like Solas if she tried. Felassan was right) and work with a hated Dalish.
Mage/Elf!Lavellan can also roleplay being more familiar with the Fade and the realm of spirits than most people (a Dalish mage should be) and would thus have a greater rapport with characters like Cole and Solas (I still think Solas is actually a pride demon made flesh when he put up the veil. Just wait for DA4).
Lastly, elven Inquisitor has the best arc with Corypheus – and I do my best to say that without laughing, because Cory basically has no arc, like, at all. Being an ancient Tevinter, Cory hates the elven people and sees them as bugs. He was part of the people who gladly enslaved and subjugated the ancient elves. So to have one of the People put him down is pretty awesome. Also, his insults during the last battle are way better and more personal if you’re playing elfy.
Even though the entire game was written for Andrastian, human Inquisitor … it *accidentally* wound up working out best for Dalish elf Inquisitor.
And *that’s* why Lavellan is so fucking popular.
It’s not all about Solas.
I'm sorry. I said I was leaving here and that I was putting this foul website behind me, but I have to post this.
The other day I stumbled across a reddit thread where people were putting down elf fans for thinking their way of playing is the best. Then they proceeded to go on about how THEIR way of playing (as a dwarf or a qunari) was the best -- in the most hypocritical manner EVER.
I will never understand why some people are so bothered by what other people think. Why the fuck do you care if I like playing as female Lavellan the best? If it's what works for me, how does it impact your gameplay experience whatsoever?
Yes, I feel playing as a female Lavellan who romances Solas will give you the most amount of story. But I also feel it is the most miserable experience you can have with Inquisition given all the sheer hatred, bigotry, and intolerance Female Lavellan faces from NPCs and her own followers/romances alike. In fact, I've written several extensive nerdy posts on here joking about how much it actually sucks to play female Lavellan.
I also have a dwarf character who I love dearly (there is a pic of her on this blog somewhere), as well as a qunari, and my favorite Inquisitor was actually a male Lavellan who romanced Cassandra -- best playthrough ever.
But playing as female mage Lavellan, I got the most out of the story. It wasn't the most fun, but I got the most lore and had the most roleplay options. Which is why I said it's the best ROLEPLAY experience. Not the best experience.
But again, why the fuck do you care? And why does someone else's opinion of a video game matter so fucking much? I will never understand gamers for this reason. Always so hung up on other people's opinions. It's a fucking video game. Who cares?
Playing as female Lavellan actually made me hate Dragon Age and Bioware. I guarantee that I will never buy another Dragon Age game again after the clusterfuck that Inquisition and racist narrative.
Anyway. I know I said I was leaving here, but it seemed fitting to end this blog with a post about the game that inspired me to start the blog in the first place.
One that note, I stand by my theory: Solas is a pride demon. A PRIDE DEMON. He spent the entire game lying to us. Why wouldn't he lie in Trespasser? Oh I'm sorry -- lies by omission. /eye roll/
I learned a lot from my time here on tumblr -- mainly that fandoms suck and are full of stupid, obnoxious nutjobs who live for likes and the worship of the clueless teenagers who stroke their ego by asking questions about the lore they could just look up on the wiki.
Now I know not to engage, bother sharing meta, or bother sharing theories since fans are such vicious assholes with a pack-like mentality, always so ready to attack anyone who they *think* is a threat to them.
Fuck all of you Dragon Age fans. Fuck you with a rusty spoon.
And goodbye.












