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Dragon Age Origins Awakening Romance

The Dragon Age games by BioWare have captured the hearts and imaginations of thousands of players worldwide since the release of Dragon Age: Origins in 2009. There are multiple fandoms creating fan fiction, fan art, merchandise, and more to celebrate the enchanting storylines and characters that players have enjoyed with this series for over a decade. Dragon Age: Origins is an epic fantasy role-playing game featuring a rich story, personality-driven characters, and tactical, bloody combat. It is considered a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series. LELIANA, BARD / RANGER. I now use the Sacred Ashes mod from Dragon Age Nexus, which allows me to significantly alter the appearance of either Leliana or Morrigan. I used it to change Leliana's appearance to more closely resemble what she looked like in the Dragon Age television commercial. Here's the link: Sacred Ashes Mod. Travel across the vast and varied lands of Ferelden; from the conspiratorial halls of the last great dwarven city, Orzammar, to the untamed snarls of the Kor.

There are posts for other characters as well.

Obviously this post contains information about Leliana, so if you don’t want spoilers, please do not read any more.

Note: I had an opportunity to play on the PS3 recently. The approval rates vary slightly from the PC. This is for the PC version, but it should get you close on console, as well. The unique gifts (Andraste’s Grace flower and the Cute Nug) seemed to boost approval much more on the console than they do on the PC.

Leliana is bisexual so you can romance her as either a male or a female Warden. She’s also the most difficult of the four to actually consummate the romance, so you’ll have to be more patient with her than with the others. If you’re a male Warden who is in it for the fun you can always romance Morrigan and / or Zevran first as you work on Leliana then decide which one you want to stick with once their approval gets high enough (if you want to have your Warden with either one.) If you’re playing a bi female you can romance Zev or Alistair for awhile and do the same. Just be prepared for the backlash. They don’t like you messing with them, and some will hit you with massive negative approval when you break it off. (Varies depending on which character.)

Spend a lot of time talking to her in camp and click on her when you go into a new area of the world. She’ll often have something to say, and will even adopt a Nug named Shmooples in a side quest at Orzamarr.

Leliana is a “Girl Scout” at heart and approves of good deeds over mercenary ones. She rolls better with Wardens who are at the very least neutral if not good. If you’re playing a pretty evil Warden, you may want to leave her at Camp most of the time and rely on dialog or gifts. She’s very into the Chantry, stories, and love. You can get approval from her by telling people to keep the faith and all will be well, doing good deeds for people, donating to the Chantry, and overall making the “nice” decisions. Like everyone else in your camp, she responds well to being flirted with and agreeing with her views on the world.

Make sure to initiate the romance as quickly as possible. She doesn’t seem to have nearly as many triggers to begin a romance that the others do. I had to practically dodge Alistair and Zev as a female, and Morrigan was hit on my men even when they didn’t necessarily return the interest. An option came up where she asked if he’d ever thought of her as more than friends. Leliana is best if you make your interest known as early as possible.

Note: If you just want to be friends with her, it’s petty easy to stay out of a romance, unlike some of the others. The dialog which triggers her interest is usually fairly obvious. You’ll want to avoid the line “She was special to you, wasn’t she?” after the personal quest as an uninterested female, but that’s the only one I’ve stumbled across on accident when I didn’t intentionally want romance.

Bugs: Unless you use a mod like Dialog Tweaks you can get some slightly odd reactions out of her. With really high friendship approval, she may act like she’s in a romance if you’re a female Warden who marries Alistair, even if you aren’t. I also had trouble actually dumping her with a male Warden even when he’d decided the Pearl was where he’d get his fix and ditched Morrigan and Leliana both. I’m not sure if that was a one time incident with my game or if it’s common, but she turned into Crazy Chantry Stalker Chick on him.

I haven’t personally confirmed this one because it’s the only thing I haven’t done as of writing this post, but a PS3 playing friend had her attack the Warden when in the party while poisoning the Sacred Ashes and the Warden was forced to kill her. If you plan on doing that, best to leave her in camp.

I’ve only actually romanced her as a male Warden, but I have stumbled across a couple of her romance triggers on accident. There may be more than just these.

As a female: When she talks the Warden woman’s hair there’s a line in the dialog line “And do you often enjoy the company of other women?”

After her personal quest, you can also say: “She was special to you, wasn’t she?” and it will trigger romance.

This is break down of my dialog was done as a male human noble and a male city elf.

You can start working on Leliana’s approval right away in Lothering. Just outside the Chantry there are some merchants arguing with a Chantry sister. If you convince the merchant he’s being unscrupulous Leliana is happy. Try and kill them and she’ll chew you out and give you negative approval.

+2 Approval (You will need at least 1 block persuasion for this to work)
– Is your profiteering ruffling a few feathers?
– You don’t think you’re being unscrupulous?
– I think you can compromise and still make a profit, no?

Due to the Reaper’s Cudgel from the Golems of Ammarack DLC I usually have over 300 gold at this point. I never have actually used it as a weapon and presumably the +4 strength makes it worth over 300 gold, or something else on it. At any rate, I don’t worry about the gold levels in my game. You may want to keep the gold if it’s not as free flowing in your game.

To get another +4 Approval, donate 5 sovereigns to the Chantry. She’ll give you approval for the donation of silver, too, but this is the most Approval for the fast track.

Give her the Bronze symbol of Andraste found in a chest for another quick +10

Once in camp approach and talk to her.

+2 Approval
– This vision of yours….
– You dreamed of the Blight?
– And this made you want to help me?
– I suppose I couldn’t sit by either.

+2 Approval
– What was life like in the Chantry Cloister?
– Condescending? How so?
– I prefer your ideas to those of the Chantry.

+ 6 Approval
– What was someone like you doing on Lothering’s Chantry?
– You know, a beautiful charming woman like yourself (not sure if this is exclusive to the men or not, but this is obviously one of her romance triggers.)
– Those initiates can’t have been more lovely than you. (Avoid asking her if her fruit is forbidden. I think she considers this cheeky and can get cranky.)
– Affirmed?
– So your skills were learned before your time in the Chantry?

+5 Approval – listen to all her stories. As long as you ask her to continue and listen to all of them you’ll get the Approval.

+1 Approval
– Why did you decide to come to Ferelden?
– What happened to your mother?
– You were young, that’s understandable.

+1 Approval
– Do you miss anything about Orlais?
– It sounds wonderful.
– What sorts of things?
– Were they ridiculous shoes? (I think you can get another point if you’re into shoes yourself and select “Oh! I love shoes!” my guy just wasn’t quite that into footwear.)
– Wouldn’t that be hard to walk in?
– You don’t need fancy shoes to make you beautiful. (Male option only, I think.)

+2 Approval
This conversation is critical to get to her personal quest.
– I heard in Orlais minstrels are often spies?
– I don’t remember.
– I thought minstrels were bards.
– What sorts of services does a bard offer?
– You seem to know quite a bit about these bards.
– I’d never leave that, it sounds too exciting.

Head out of Camp as she’s now chatted out. For a few quick points, go off to the Dalish camp.

Leliana is the only one in your group who actually gives a +2 for sparing Zevran. Others will either give you negative or have no opinion.

+4 Approval – help

Dragon Age Origins Romance Leliana