Dragon Age II, the second main video game in BioWare's Dragon Age series, features an ensemble cast of characters. Several returning characters from its predecessor Dragon Age: Origins may appear in a major or minor capacity, including Flemeth, Anders, Merrill, Isabela, Alistair, Zevran, Leliana, Marethari, Bodahn and Sandal Feddic.

The player character is Hawke, a human who lived in the Ferelden village of Lothering prior to the Fifth Blight. The overarching narrative of Dragon Age II chronicles Hawke's rise from an impoverished refugee of the Blight to become the Champion of the city-state of Kirkwall in the Free Marches. The plot of Dragon Age II is a character-driven narrative which is more concerned with examining the interior worlds of distinct personalities instead of an epic, save-the-world storyline seen in other RPG games, and unfolds within a smaller chunk of the world of Thedas compared to the Warden's story in Origins.

Although Dragon Age II was affected by the game's compressed development schedule, the game's companion cast has received an overall favourable reception, with retrospective coverage discussing the game's greater emphasis on a smaller cast and a more character-driven story compared to Origins,

Concept and creation Former BioWare producer Mark Darrah characterized Dragon Age II as a game whose strengths lay in its character building, serialized structure, and depiction of Kirkwall over a decade rather than in a conventional world-saving plot. Charlotte Reber, author of Boss Fight Books' volume on Dragon Age II, described the game as unusually dependent on its character writing. She noted that its appeal comes from its player character Hawke, its narrator Varric Tethras, and the rest of the companion cast rather than from an epic fantasy plot.

Dragon Age II implements a friendship-rivalry continuum for Hawke's relationships with his or her companions, which can be described as a system of evaluative continua by which Hawke's actions are assessed. These continua are specific to each companion, and often contradicts those of other companions, requiring the player to make gameplay decisions that may have the potential to cause conflicting and sometimes severe consequences. Unlike the approval-disapproval meters for companions in Origins, incurring rivalry points with a companion does not lead to the character leaving the party or turning on Hawke, although it is still possible for companions to leave the party as a result of certain decisions made by the player character throughout the game's narrative. A companion who is on a rivalry path with Hawke gets unique gameplay bonuses that cannot be obtained if they are on a friendship path, and vice versa. Former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider explained that the friendship-rivalry meter is expressive, not something that a player needs to fill up in order to be playing the game correctly. Gaider later explained that the game's companions were intended to provoke strong reactions from players, because the writing team wanted each companion's worldview to be internally justifiable rather than neutral or broadly agreeable.

Dragon Age II uses an updated version of Origins Eclipse engine, internally called the "Lycium engine", with some graphical improvements. The artstyle was intended to be more distinct and "stylized yet still realistic". Dragon Age II has improved "facial topology" in order to make emoting more expressive, improved facial texture density, and a more realistic eye shader. The compression settings for textures were also altered, allowing for "higher visual quality per asset". ZBrush was used for characters in Dragon Age II, and proved useful in creating head variations. Every character head in Dragon Age II is based from a single mesh with a morph applied, which allowed the mesh to be "stretched and pulled" in different ways to create a unique character.

With the exception of Sebastian Vael, who is the sole heterosexual love interest, all other potential love interests in Dragon Age II are bisexual and available for either a male or female Hawke. Gaider admitted that making a romance available for both genders is far less costly than creating an entirely new one.

Cut character concepts In a 2021 interview with Kotaku, lead writer David Gaider said that a hypothetical revised version of Dragon Age II would restore contextual dialogue in which non-player characters remembered whether they had previously met Hawke, whether Hawke was a mage, or whether they had interacted with a player character in Dragon Age: Origins. He also identified a cut storyline in which a mage Hawke would nearly become possessed while trapped inside their own mind, a plot he regretted losing because Hawke is otherwise unusual among mages in the series for never having to confront possession directly. Gaider further said that he would have liked an expanded opening that gave players more time with the siblings of their player character, Bethany and Carver, before the Darkspawn attack, a romance path with Varric, and a final option allowing Hawke to side with neither the mages nor the templars.

In a 2026 interview with TheGamer, Gaider revealed that BioWare had initially considered bringing multiple companions forward from Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, including Anders, Justice, and Velanna. According to Gaider, Anders was not originally conceived as Justice's host; the idea that Anders would carry Justice, whose nature had changed into Vengeance, emerged later in development. Velanna was also considered, but Gaider said she was cut because the team felt players had been too ambivalent toward her in Awakening. Gaider recalled that Velanna would more likely have occupied the role that was ultimately filled by Merrill, rather than competing with Anders for the Justice storyline.

Hawke

Voiced by: Nicholas Boulton (Male) and Jo Wyatt (Female)

Hawke is the family name of the main protagonist of Dragon Age II. Hawke's father Malcolm was an apostate mage who died three years before the beginning of the game, while their mother Leandra is a former noblewoman from Kirkwall. Hawke has two younger twin siblings, Carver and Bethany, who are mutually exclusive potential companions in Dragon Age. The Hawke family and Aveline Vallen were rescued from the Darkspawn hordes by Flemeth, who helped them to arrange for travel to Kirkwall; in return, Hawke has to travel to Sundermount at some point in time to deliver an amulet to Marethari of the Sabrae clan. In Kirwall, players experience Hawke's relationships with their mother, siblings, lovers and other characters develop over the length of a decade.

Companions Varric Tethras

Voiced by: Brian Bloom

Varric is a surface dwarf, a member of Dwarven merchant's guild and a known associate of Hawke. The video game's introduction shows him captured and interrogated by Cassandra Pentaghast, a Seeker of the Chantry; thus Varric becomes the narrator of the Dragon Age II story. Varric first meets Hawke roughly a year after the Hawke family has arrived in Kirkwall and makes them a partner in an expedition into the perilous region of The Deep Roads. They remain close friends or frenemies until the end of the game, when they are inevitably separated.

Varric wields Bianca, a unique repeating crossbow. He likes storytelling, and often takes liberties from factual accuracy to make his stories more interesting.

Bethany Hawke Voiced by: Rebekah Staton

Bethany is a mage and one of the Hawke twins. She fled Lothering to escape the Blight with his family, and travels arrives to Kirkwall, where the City Guard is denying access to all Fereldan refugees.

If Hawke is a mage, instead of Carver, Bethany will die protecting their mother from an Ogre as they flee the Darkspawn onslaught of Lothering. If Bethany survives and is taken to the Deep Roads, she dies from contracting the Taint unless Anders is also in the party. To save Bethany's life, Anders will implore Hawke to search for a nearby group of Grey Wardens and persuades their leader, Stroud, to recruit her into the Grey Wardens. If left behind, Bethany is captured and forced into the Kirkwall Circle of Magi, though she will excel in her position as a Circle Mage. In either case, Bethany will not be available until the end of the game or during certain DLCs.

Bethany employs magic in combat. Her specialty is Force Magic which involves the use of telekinesis to hurl, knock down, stun and harm enemies.

Carver Hawke Voiced by: Nico Lennon

Carver is the elder of the Hawke twins and a warrior. Carver tends to have an antagonistic relationship with his elder sibling, due to their having taken over their father's role as head of the household after his death, and possibly due to Carver being the only non-magical child in the family. He fled Lothering to escape the Blight with his family, and travels to Kirkwall, where the City Guard is denying access to all Fereldan refugees.

If Hawke is a rogue or warrior, instead of Bethany, Carver will die protecting their mother from an Ogre as they flee the Darkspawn onslaught of Lothering. If Carver survives and is taken to the Deep Roads expedition, he will contract the Taint and die unless Anders is also in the party. To save Carver's life, Anders will implore Hawke to search for a nearby group of Grey Wardens and persuades their leader, Stroud, to recruit him into the Grey Wardens. If he is left behind, he joins Kirkwall's Templar Order and remains resentful of his elder sibling. In either case, Carver will not be available until the end of the game or during certain DLC campaigns. Carver favours wielding two-handed weapons, and has access to the anti-magic combat specialization of the Templars, allowing him to prevent enemies from using special techniques.

Aveline Vallen Voiced by: Joanna Roth

Aveline is the daughter of an exiled chevalier from Orlais who was born in Fereldan and served in the army of King Cailan before his death. She and her Templar husband Wesley meet the Hawkes on their flight from Lothering; Wesley dies during their escape in a mercy killing by either Hawke or Aveline to stop the Darkspawn taint from turning him into a ghoul. Aveline joins the Hawkes in escaping to Kirkwall, where she eventually becomes a member of city guard. She is later promoted to the Captain of the Guard after exposing the former Captain's corruption. During the course of the game, she falls in love with Donnic, a guardsman under her command, and can marry him with Hawke's encouragement. Donnic may appear as an ally in the final battle against Meredith, if Aveline is in the active party and if they are married. Aveline adopts her husband's shield during the Prologue and remains such throughout the game. Her specialization is Guardian, serving as a tank, attracting and absorbing hostile fire.

Aveline is a companion with whom Hawke cannot initiate a romance. Gaider explained that he likes characters "that play against type, and Aveline was a female character who was strong and independent yet also vulnerable, and at the same time she didn’t exist simply to be romanced".

Aveline was very well received by multiple commentators. Cory Banks from PC Gamer named her as his favourite companion, as did Hayley Williams from Kotaku. Kris Ligman from PopMatters was amused by her adversarial relationship with Isabela, calling it part of an evolving rapport between two well-written female characters. Aveline's voice actress, Joanna Roth has received praise for her performance.

Anders

Voiced by: Adam Howden