Cassandra Inquisitor Who Is in Charge Here Funny

Main Character Index > Recurring Party Members > Alistair | Anders | Cassandra Pentaghast | Leliana | Loghain Mac Tir | Merrill | Morrigan | Varric Tethras

Cassandra Pentaghast

First Appearance: Dragon Age II

Voiced by: Miranda Raison (Games), Colleen Clinkenbeard (Anime)

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    Tropes In Dragon Age II and Dawn Of The Seeker

A member of the the Seekers of the Chantry who interrogates Varric in order to understand the true nature of the Champion's story. Though she starts off suspicious of the Champion's actions, she eventually grows more amiable as she listens to what really happened.

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• Big Brother Worship: When recalling her deceased brother Anthony, Cass remarks that he was "everything kind and good," and she loved him very much.
• Boyish Short Hair: Given that she's ostensibly a soldier, she presumably finds long hair to be somewhat impractical. She cuts it very short somewhere between Dawn of the Seeker and Dragon Age II.
• Character Development: Despite only being a part of the framing device, Cassandra seems to mellow out as Varric tells the story. In the beginning, she's rude and nasty, even threatening Varric with a near-Groin Attack by plunging a knife through a book on his lap. By the end, she's quite willing to hear out Varric's story, and even lets him go without incident.
  • Initially, she assumes that Hawke was the Big Bad and responsible for instigating the Mage-Templar War, but because of Varric's tale, she comes to understand that instead they were a heroic figure who simply tried to do the best they could with an already bad situation. By the end, she realises that Kirkwall was a ticking time bomb and there was little anyone could have done.
  • In Dawn of the Seeker, she initially hates mages because of her Dark and Troubled Past, but slowly learns to grow out of it and realises they are people, too. That said, her prejudice isn't completely gone by II, since her initial assumption was that Mage Hawke was an apostate dissident who intentionally sowed discontent to bring down the Chantry. (Of course, she thinks Hawke was a dissident who did this no matter what class they are; but she seems a little more angry about it if Hawke is a mage.)
• Conspiracy Theorist: Maybe not so much as the Chantry in general, but some of the ideas the Seekers have about the events of the game are a bit... out there.
• Contralto of Danger: Cassandra has a sharp low-tone voice with a heavy Prussian (or, in-universe, Nevarran) accent.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She's basically part of the Thedas equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition, wears all black, and is extremely grouchy... and she's also trying to stop a major war from breaking out for entirely selfless reasons.
• Decoy Protagonist: Cassandra can be arguably considered the protagonist of the Framing Device set in the present, attempting to learn the truth of Hawke's tale as told via Varric's recollections.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Over the course of the Varric's tale, she becomes less irritable, softer-spoken and in the end, even decides to let Varric go.
• Dual Wielding: Favours this style of combat in Dawn of the Seeker.
• Freudian Excuse: As Dawn of the Seeker shows, she hates mages (and blood mages in particular) because maleficars killed her beloved brother... right in front of her, when she was twelve years old. They wanted him to get them dragon's blood for a ritual and he refused.
• General Ripper: She initially assumes that Hawke is the mastermind of the war that's about to tear the world apart and that everything that has led up to this point was all part of their Evil Plan. However...
• Good Is Not Nice: While she's initially portrayed as antagonistic to Varric and is implied to want to bring Hawke to justice, she's revealed to actually be trying to prevent the Mage-Templar war and wants to recruit Hawke to help stop the fighting.
• Great Big Book of Everything: The Seeker record which she carries around. It apparently contains character portraits of Hawke's companions, (presumably) Varric's exaggerated version of Hawke's tale, as well as images of Flemeth, Morrigan, and - for some reason - Shale chasing pigeons...
  • However, Inquisition party banter indicates that the book she stabs in Varric's lap isn't a Seeker record at all - it's Cassandra's copy of Varric's book The Tale of the Champion, which accounts for a lot of what's in it. (Shale's appearance remains unexplained, though.)
• Groin Attack: Comes close to doing this to Varric during the introduction, when she shoves a dagger through a book to get him to start talking about the Champion of Kirkwall.
• Hero of Another Story: She is the main character of Dawn of the Seeker.
• Hero-Worshipper: Varric implies that Cassandra is being swept up in Hawke's legend. She'll deny it (and Varric's belief she's developing a crush) if it's male Hawke, but with female Hawke she has no problem admitting that she has respect for a woman who built herself up from nothing.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even though she's kind of a bitch to Varric in the beginning, it turns out that she's trying to prevent the Mage-Templar war.
• Hot-Blooded: Her initial reaction to Varric throwing Blatant Lies at her is to pull a knife on him and threaten him with a Groin Attack.
• Internal Affairs: The job of a Seeker is essentially to keep an eye on the Templars and ensure they do not abuse their powers and/or stray from the will of the Chantry. The events of the game serve to indicate how bad things can get when the Seekers drop the ball.
• Magic Skirt: Wears this in Dawn of the Seeker.
• Pet the Dog: At the end of the interrogation, she actually smiles at Varric, keeps her promise to let him go, and asks that the Maker watch over him.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite being essentially part of the Chantry's Inquisition, she does seem quite willing to hear Varric out, even if what he has to say doesn't put some parts of the Chantry in a very good light. She's also willing to believe Varric, instead of denying what he says or twisting them to fit her preconcieved notions.
• The Reveal: Finding out that she's working with Leliana in the last scene of the game.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She is both a member of the Nevarran royal family and a Templar Seeker.
• Throw the Book at Them: Does this to Varric to get him to start talking. Literally.
• Tsundere: Especially if Hawke is male, as Varric will imply that she has a crush on him, which she promptly denies. She also has this relationship with Galyan in Dawn of the Seeker.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: Varric's opening tale portrays Hawke and whichever sibling will survive the prologue delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle to darkspawn and Flemeth coming to their aid as a dragon. (If the sibling is Bethany, he also enhances her figure.) Cassandra calls bullshit and Varric repeats the story - which happens to be mostly true.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Between narrations, she adamantly tries to pin the blame of all the events of the game on a Big Bad. There is none. Varric says that even Meredith, corrupted as she was by the Artifact of Doom, was irrelevant.

    Tropes In Dragon Age: Inquisition

"I see what must be done, and I do it! I see no point in running around in circles like a dog chasing its tail."

"We will close the Breach; we will find those responsible; and we will restore order."

Cassandra joins the Inquisitor's party alongside Varric in Dragon Age: Inquisition, in hopes of ending the Thedas Civil War and uncovering the truth behind the demonic invasion from the Fade after moonlighting as a framing device in the previous game. She is a romance option for a male Inquisitor of any race.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: The Trespasser DLC features her reading excerpts from Varric's latest book while the credits roll. When she finally finds her own cameo in the pages, it pretty much amounts to her begging for Varric's forgiveness. Instead of being offended by it, she's delighted to be part of his story, and declares that she's going to "read the shit out of this!"
• Amazonian Beauty: Much like Aveline, this isn't seen while she's in armor or, uh, naked; but in the epilogue for the Trespasser DLC she's seen with some very bulky forearms.
• Art Shift: Of all the recurring main characters she seems to have undergone the most noticeable shift in the appearance of her character model. In Dawn of the Seeker and Dragon Age II she has a very Bifauxnen appearance, whereas in Inquisition she has rougher, more masculine, and more Westernized features.
• Ascended Extra: Served as a skeptical listener for Varric tell his story to in Dragon Age II's Framing Device and Foreshadow the Mage-Templar War. Then she got her own movie, Dawn of the Seeker, and now she's the starting party member.
• Badass Family: Subverted, actually; despite the Pentaghasts' reputation as dragon slayers, Cassandra reveals that these days, most of them are fat nobles living off the old glories of dead ancestors. Only she and her late brother, Anthony, lived up to the ancestral badass-ness.
• Badass Longcoat: Some of Cassandra's armor designs have her wear one over the armor itself.
• Badass Preacher: She can potentially become the Divine herself in the epilogue to Inquisition.
• Betty and Veronica: She's the Veronica (blunt, intimidating, and a degree of leadership) to Josephine's Betty.
• Big Brother Worship: As noted in the other folder, she idolized her elder brother, Anthony, who secretly taught her to fight and promised to take her away to hunt dragons with him. Then he was murdered in front of her; she was twelve at the time. The way she describes her history to the Inquisitor suggests that, even though it's been more than twenty years at this point, Cassandra reveres him as much now as she did when he was alive. Party banter between her and Cole reveals that she cherishes a locket with his portrait inside, which Cole rescues from a rat.
• Blemished Beauty: She is acknowledged in-universe to be considerably attractive, but also has facial scarring. Her scars are indicators of her experience in battle but do little to detract from her appearance.
• Bling of War: In Trespasser, if she's made the Divine she starts off with a unique golden armor set.
• Braids of Action: The epilogue to Trespasser where she doesn't become Divine and serves as an advisor to either Leliana or Vivienne reveals she has adopted this as her hairstyle. Ironically, this is after she's semi-retired from being a warrior. She has a braid wrapped around the crown of her head as well during the time frame of Inquisition, so it's possible she's simply letting it down in the epilogue sketch.
• Broken Pedestal: Once Blackwall's past is brought to light, she will never treat him the same way again. Their relationship never recovers.
• Can't Take Criticism: Regarding the Chantry, Templars, Seekers, and everything in between. Any instance the Inquisitor makes statements that allude to them either supporting mage rights or not believing in the Maker, the Chantry's laws, or being The Chosen One earns a significant amount of disapproval from Cassandra. In fact, simply telling her that the Chantry has failed in its duties causes her to greatly disapprove.
• The Chains of Commanding: If made Divine, she will beg the romanced Inquisitor to allow her to continue to be in his adventure party just to get away from all of the sycophants and paperwork.
• Character Development: She becomes more relaxed over the course of the story. For instance, Iron Bull flirting with her at the start would probably cause her to respond with the below mentioned Character Tic in annoyance. But come Trespasser, she just laughs.
• Character Tic: (Disgusted Noise).
• The Clan: She comes from one. Despite being the 14th cousin, nine times removed, of King Markus, she still has the name Pentaghast, which means that the male line of the family alone is huge. She says as much if the Inquisitor talks to her about it, noting that it requires large charts to keep track of just how her family members are related to each other.

  Cassandra: And they have them. Oh, yes.

• Combination Attack: Due to having the same abilities as a Templar Inquisitor, Cassandra can create her own eldritch detonations without assistance from other party members by using Wrath of Heaven and following it with Spell Purge.
• The Comically Serious: Despite being the most straitlaced party member in a team of snarky, unstable misfits, Cassandra has some of the funniest moments in the game by virtue of her awkwardness and disgust at her friends' misbehavior.
• Conflicting Loyalty: At the start of the Mage-Templar War, she was forced to choose between her duty to the Seekers, who had led the Templars away from the Chantry, and her duty to the Divine. Cassandra ultimately chooses the Divine, since the Divine seeks to end the chaos while the Seekers are contributing to it.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Her suspicion seems to have carried over from the second game. She meets the Inquisitor-to-be striding relatively unharmed out of a catastrophe that consumed an army and assumes (not unreasonably) that they had a hand in making it happen. Unlike most conspiracy theorists, however, Cassandra proves entirely willing to reconsider when the evidence begins to suggest that her theory is wrong.
• Contralto of Danger: Like before, she's low-pitched, sharp, and with a heavy Nevarran accent.
• Cool Big Sis: Cassandra slowly takes on this role for Sera, even proposing to teach her Seeker tricks against magic to fight her fear. But the sentiment is one-sided. While Sera likes and respects Cassandra, she is also attracted to her, which puts a damper on any potential sisterly feelings.
  • She can also take on this role for a female (or non-romanced but befriended male) Inquisitor. Since Cassandra is in her thirties or forties by this point, the potentially younger Inquisitor can look up to her greatly. If her approval maxes out over time, they become very close friends.
• Covert Pervert: She enjoys Varric's smutty literature series, Swords and Shields. How bad is it? Dorian may comment that he "feels dumber for having tried" to read it, and Varric himself sees the series as an Old Shame.
• Creepy Uncle: Creepy cousin, more accurately. In party banter with Dorian, he describes a Pentaghast with whom his mother is acquainted, and Cassandra is surprised to find that, despite the sprawling size of her family, she actually knows who he means: "Cousin Loren, with the wandering hands."
• The Creon: Like Leliana, Cassandra was essentially considered a de facto leader of the Inquisition, before the attack on Haven and the realization that it was actually the Player Character - the person she had initially accused of everything - who had been leading them. With no desire for power, she graciously steps down, something Solas finds amazing.
• Crisis of Faith: While she appears to handle it far better than Leliana does, cracks in Cassandra's faith start to show here and there. The best example comes after learning that Varric knew where Hawke was the whole time (including during his narration of the second game). If this is all the Maker's plan, then that would mean everything that happened since the Conclave was all part of His plan. In fact, The Nightmare says that the lingering doubt that there is no Maker — and thus no greater good in the world — is her deepest fear. She has another one when she discovers that Seekers gain their powers not from meditation but from unknowingly communing with a Spirit of Faith after being made Tranquil. She wonders if the only reason she has faith is because of the Spirit, though Cole later assures her that it is the other way around; the Spirit was drawn to her by her faith.

  Cassandra: ... It's difficult to know who [the Maker's plan] truly benefits. Or how.

• Defector from Decadence: Cassandra quits the Seekers when she realizes that they are leading the world into chaos. This was also the reason she joined the Seekers to begin with; she had grown tired of the decadence of Nevarran nobility.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She puts up a very tough, cold, and pragmatic persona when her duty is at stake, but inside she's actually very warm, unshakably decent, and convinced she isn't living up to her own insanely high standards. This comes to the fore as she gets to know the Inquisitor better, and especially in a romance.
• Deuteragonist: Probably the most important character in Inquisition next to the Inquisitor themselves. She actually was the one to call the Inquisition in the first place, and operated as its de facto leader until the Herald of Andraste was chosen to be Inquisitor.
• Double Standard:
  • Tends to condemn the rebel mages for the exact same actions she excuses or ignores for the Templars and Seekers; something pretty much every companion and adviser calls her out on at least once.

    Cassandra: Do you see this? The apostates have gone mad with power!
    Solas: I see just as many Templars.
    Varric: The Templars aren't looking any better!

  • Cassandra believes the Dalish should add the Maker to the list of gods they worship, but doesn't believe humans should worship nor even respect elvhen gods.
• Drowning My Sorrows: If her approval of the Inquisitor drops low enough, she deals with it by getting utterly hammered.
• Everyone Has Standards: When Lord Seeker Lucius tries to convince Cassandra to join him in creating a new world order, Cassandra doesn't deign to reply; she just draws her sword.
• Expecting Someone Taller: Inverted. After meeting Hawke, Cassandra mentions that she was expecting them to be shorter.
• Face of a Thug: Not exactly a thug (though Chancellor Roderick calls her one), but she has a very square, angular face, a striking scar on her left jaw, piercing eyes, and eyebrows that naturally curve inwards. All of this means she can muster an impressive look of disapproval... which isn't much different from her resting face.

  Scout Harding: Seeker Cassandra came through here earlier looking like a storm cloud. (Beat) That's just her face, though, isn't it?

• Fangirl: At some point between reading the Tale of the Champion to find clues about Hawke's whereabouts and capturing Varric, she started reading his other, fiction books (ostensibly solely in hopes of finding more clues there) and became a hopeless fangirl of his writing. She is very closeted about it, though.
  • She is also one to Hawke, asking Varric if Hawke would be willing to sign a copy of The Tale of the Champion for her.

    Varric: Doesn't your copy of The Tale of the Champion have a big hole in it?
    Cassandra: ...Yes. But it could also have Hawke's signature on it.

  • She can potentially be something like this for the Inquisitor too, especially if she's female; Cassandra notes that, as with Andraste, the future of Thedas lies in the hands of a woman who brings hope to the masses.

    Cassandra: It makes me proud to know you.

• Fantastic Racism: Downplayed. Cassandra tends to trust and support Templars but distrust and want to restrict mages. She also believes the Dalish should worship the Maker but humans shouldn't worship nor respect elvhen gods, and makes some pretty awful anti-elf comments if brought along to Mythal or along the questline of the Jaws of Hakkon DLC.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Becomes this with Varric. Before the move to Skyhold, they're civil, although Varric never lets her forget she kidnapped him. This civility falls apart once Varric reveals he knew where Hawke was the whole time, and things become extremely tense between them. Over time, though, they become friends for real; they clearly have a lot of respect for each other, and at the same time playfully mock one another in party banter. The fact that she gets the first copy of his book about the Inquisition in Trespasser really says it all. If Hawke sacrifices himself, her first thoughts are how Varric will be unable to handle it.
  • Also develops this relationship with the Inquisitor if they max out her Relationship Values. When they first meet, the Inquisitor is her prisoner; bound, interrogated, and harshly accused of a crime they did not commit. Cassandra is also slow to trust them, even at first denying them a weapon to defend themselves against demons. However, working together to close the Breach at Haven causes her to change her mind and trust you. From there, if the Inquisitor is not needlessly cruel or mocking toward her feelings or beliefs (and/or does enough things she approves of), working together within the Inquisition to restore order and save Thedas (first from the Breach, then Corypheus) eventually causes Cassandra to consider you two True Companions, and she swears Undying Loyalty to you. It's even more poignant if the Inquisitor is a mage or Qunari.
• First Girl Wins: For male Inquisitors who choose to romance her; she's the first character they meet in the game.
• Foil: To Leliana. Both are faithful women who serve the Divine, but they have different standings on the Chantry and the Inquisitor's opinion of it. Cassandra is so loyal to the Chantry to the point that she disapproves if the Inquisitor has negative things to say about it (even if they raise valid points against the Chantry); while Leliana is loyal to the Divine but is completely aware of the Chantry's flaws, as she understands if the Inquisitor doesn't trust the Chantry. They also have opposing opinions on mages and Templars, since Leliana supports the mages and distrusts the Templars whereas it's the other way around with Cassandra.
• For Want of a Nail: In her case, the nail was her brother Anthony; she ruminates on this in conversation with the Inquisitor when she finally tells them about him. Since it was his murder which led to her becoming a Seeker, she wonders what would have become of her if he had lived, with being "married to some noble fool, a mother of three" one of the possibilities.
• The Gadfly: Not Cassandra herself, but her rigid demeanor tends to elicit this behaviour from her comrades.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Her specialization is Templar, even though Seeker abilities are completely different from Templar abilities.
• Gilded Cage: These are the exact words she used to describe being born into Nevarran nobility. She lived in luxury, but had little freedom and didn't see "the real Nevarra" until much later in her life. In any case, it all disgusts her.
• The Glomp: Delivers one to a male Inquisitor at the consummation of their romance.
• Going Commando: Sera asks her in party banter about the color of her underpants; Cass replies that she doesn't wear any. It's unclear whether she's telling the truth or just trolling Sera right back.
• Graceful Loser: She bears no ill will against Leliana if she is named Divine instead of her. She initially is fine with Vivienne as well, but two years later in Trespasser, Cassandra comes to view Vivienne as a tyrant and eventually quits the Exalted Council in disgust.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: She's picked up some, most noticeably the one on her jaw/left cheek.
• Guilty Pleasure: She's a fan of Varric's works, particularly the "smutty literature" series Swords and Shields. The best part is that Varric himself considers it more "fluff" than smut, meaning Cassandra basically reads WAFF-y romance novels in her spare time.
• Heartbroken Badass: As it turns out, after Dawn of the Seeker she wound up having a relationship with the mage Galyan. He died in the opening of the Breach. No wonder she was so vicious with the Inquisitor-to-be at the start; she lost her first love and Divine Justinia in one fell swoop, and possibly other friends/acquaintances as well.
• Hero-Worshipper: Cassandra still has an extremely high opinion of and respect for Hawke. They were one of Cassandra's first choices to lead the Inquisition, and one of the reasons she is so enraged at Varric for hiding Hawke the whole time is that she thought that Hawke could have possibly saved the Divine had they been at the Conclave.
• Hidden Depths: She'd never admit it outright (though everyone seems to know anyway), but she's a hopeless romantic that dreams of a beautiful "ideal" romance - candles, flowers, poetry, all that hokey stuff. Given her rough personality, she thinks that such a "flighty" side is too silly to indulge, since Men Are Uncultured. Doing those sorts of things for her anyway (or admitting he enjoys them too) is a good way to gain some affection; an Inquisitor who isn't romancing her can gain approval points by telling her that they like her passionate side. Conversely, the Inquisitor can grumpily tell her, "This is why you're alone." ^note This is even harsher than it sounds, since Cass is grieving for a dead partner at the time.
  • She's also into literature. She specifically enjoys Varric's stories, her favorite being an Old Shame romance novel. Cassandra says she sees the mastery of what he writes, but Varric himself has to be talked into writing more, which he does simply to see her reaction.
    • Trespasser ends with her doing hilariously bad impersonations of everyone while reading and critiquing his book on the Inquisition.

      Cassandra: [reading a line of the Iron Bull's dialogue] "Come on, the dancer with the great rack is on in five." That is... spot on, actually.

• Hypocrite:
  • Cassandra is a Chantry loyalist and always disapproves if the Inquisitor badmouths it by saying that it's inherently corrupt, unnecessary, or beyond saving. She will also agonize over whether or not the Seekers should be reformed after she learns their Dark Secret. Both organizations have had long-lasting conspiracies that have persisted from their inception. And yet, she is unwilling to forgive Blackwall, even though his lie was about who he was and not his reasons or actions.
  • On that note, while Cassandra gets very upset whenever the Inquisitor criticizes the Chantry, Templars, or Seekers (even if they're a mage and/or elf and therefore has very good reason to do so), if said Inquisitor opts to respect the rituals of Mythal, Cassandra scoffs, "Why are we wasting our time with this heathen nonsense?" Apparently respecting the Chantry is required, but respecting the elven religion isn't.
  • Cassandra will encourage a Dalish Inquisitor to believe in the Maker, but yet doesn't volunteer to start worshiping Dalish gods in the interest of fairness.
  • In her first conversation with Blackwall, she commends him for joining the Wardens, saying it is never too late to turn one's life around to do good. When the truth comes out, however, that Blackwall is not actually a true Grey Warden but a criminal posing as one, she can barely stand to be around him and never really forgives him. This is despite the fact that his pretending to be a Warden was actually his attempt to turn his life around to do good, as he really was going to be inducted into the Wardens but the real Blackwall died before the Joining ceremony was complete.
  • As stated above, she advocates for reforming the Seekers and the Templar Order, believing that they deserve a second chance despite the atrocities they've committed. However, she strongly objects if the Inquisitor does just that to the Grey Wardens, even though the Wardens committed atrocities out of good intentions whereas the Seekers and the Templars committed theirs out of malicious ambition and pride.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Mixed with a dose of Unequal Pairing. If the Inquisitor flirts repeatedly with Cassandra, she will eventually express her worries that such a powerful figure is taking an interest in someone as far beneath his station as her.
• I Should Have Been Better: She holds herself to punishing standards and tends to dwell on what-could-have-beens.

  Inquisitor: You're too hard on yourself, Cassandra.
  Cassandra: Not hard enough, I think.
  Inquisitor: You can't believe that.

• Incompatible Orientation: A female Inquisitor who is nice and flirts with her at every opportunity actually makes Cassandra seem a little frightened, and after a while she will politely spell out that any relationship is not possible. If you flirt with her only a few times, though, it helps max out her approval.
• Informed Ability: She claims to have the power to bend mages and Templars to her will by causing the lyrium in their blood to burn. She never displays this ability in-game when facing the various mage and Templar enemies.
• Insecure Love Interest: Noted by Blackwall when he offers the Inquisitor romantic advice about her: Cassandra is used to being a soldier, rather than being treated like a woman, and she has a bit of a complex about it. She's a hopeless romantic that dreams of nothing less than the "ideal" romance (candles, flowers, poetry and all that). Thus, she feels it's unlikely the Inquisitor (or many other men, for that matter) would be interested in her. the Inquisitor can disagree and try anyway, or he can tell her "This is why you're alone".
• Irony: In Trespasser, the Inquisitor comes across a dragon that's been chained and tortured by the Qunari so they can use its venom, and they must neutralise it as a threat. One of the party members will suggest killing it, but Cassandra says the poor creature deserves better than to be simply put down after such torment and wants the Inquisitor to free it. That's right: the dragon-slayer from a clan of dragon-slayers wants to avoid slaying the dragon.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: She invokes the trope with some trepidation when investigating the Shrine of Dumat. Unsurprisingly, the creepy, ancient, seemingly abandoned temple to a (hopefully) long-dead corrupted Old God is infested with demons.

  Cassandra: It is far, far too quiet.

• Jack-of-All-Stats: Of the three Warrior companions. She can't deal as much damage as Iron Bull or take it as well as Blackwall, but she has more damage potential than Blackwall and more durability than Iron Bull. Her "Templar" specialization has no particular dependency on the durability of either the Sword'n'Board or damage rate of Two-handed weapon configurations, unlike Blackwall and his Champion spec, or Iron Bull and his Reaver spec, respectively.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Her anger towards Varric for hiding Hawke's location is understandable considering just what was going on at the time.
• Knight in Shining Armor: A rare female example, but Cassandra is highly idealistic and romantic in her view of justice. Her views on the Chantry and the Seekers is that they should be serving the people.
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Carried over from Dragon Age II, Cassandra has a high admiration for Hawke. Hawke was her first choice as leader of the new Inquisition. She even wants Hawke to autograph her knife-stabbed copy of The Tale of the Champion. She can grow to have a similar admiration for the Inquisitor.
• Lady of War: She's a calm, regal warrior who is actually quite feminine.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Her frequent "ugh." Everyone knows it as *disgusted noise* (courtesy of the subtitles).
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: After the Inquisitor stumbles upon her reading "smutty literature" written by Varric.

  Cassandra: Pretend you don't know this about me.

• Lightning Bruiser: Cassandra is the middle ground of the Inquisitor's three warrior companions. When used as a sword and shield tank, she can create her own eldritch detonations to cause large amounts of damage while still acting as an effective damage sponge. When used as a two-handed damage dealer, Cassandra's ability to stun large groups of enemies combines well with her various guard generating abilities to keep her alive while dealing damage. She can't quite match the Iron Bull's damage output or Blackwall's survivability, but Cassandra can excel no matter which role the player gives her.
• Like Brother and Sister: Some of her interactions with Cullen suggests that they have this sort of dynamic. It's made more readily apparent through ambient dialogue with the Skyhold messengers, who are following her orders to check on him and report back to her (so she can monitor his lyrium withdrawal). She even comments with some amusement that she knows that she's annoying him, just like a big sister might. There is little to no romantic tension between them whatsoever - she's not even remotely eager to watch his walk of shame after the Wicked Grace game, for example - but they clearly respect and like each other a great deal. Trespasser shows that she's very supportive of his romance with a female Inquisitor (and if they get married, she's overjoyed for them).
  • That said, Cullen does leave her flustered and coughing when he has his Walking Shirtless Scene in the trailer that was created to thank the players for DAI being nominated for 2014's Game of the Year. Varric is thoroughly amused.
• The Lost Lenore: It only comes up in a specific series of party banters with Varric following the conclusion of his "Well, Shit" quest, but as noted under Heartbroken Badass, Cass's first love died at the Conclave. It's a downplayed version of the trope, since their romance was already over at that point and she's eventually able to move on, but she still remembers him fondly.
• Made of Iron: Interestingly averted; the game subtly suggests through dialogue, gameplay, and her armor that Cassandra is a scrappier brand of warrior than the usual brick wall sword and board users in the series has had. Before Inquisition, it was even up in the air whether she was a warrior or rogue. That said, her skill trees can be built well enough to basically turn her into this, making her able to withstand battles which bring down the rest of the party.
• Memento MacGuffin: It's only mentioned in party banter with Cole, but she prizes a locket she inherited from her grandmother, which contains a portrait of her brother Anthony. It becomes this trope because she loses it, and Cole returns it to her after fighting a rat who was hoarding it.
• Meaningful Name: Her surname, Pentaghast, sounds almost identical to "Pentecost" — a Christian holy day that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles. A fitting name for a devout Andrastian.
• More Senior Subordinate: Played With. At the start of the game, the Inquisition is so new an organization, any differences in seniority between members are marginal, at best, but the old Chantry personnel, like Cassandra and Leliana, definitely hold the sway. The Herald, despite leading the Player Party on exploration excursions and making important tactical decisions, is technically the lowest-ranking member of the leadership, having been forcefully conscripted for their unique ability to close Fade rifts. Their standing, however, makes a 180 turn by the time the Inquisition relocates to Skyhold, as the entire organization now recognizes their leadership potential, and its founders proclaim the Herald their supreme leader.
• My Greatest Failure: Specifically, the Seekers' greatest failure. Their inaction and poor handling of the upcoming Mage-Templar war, in addition to their change in focus, disillusioned her to the group and has caused her to blame herself in part for the conflict. Talking to Cole gives her a new perspective as to how horribly many mages were treated by Templars and how much of this the Seekers overlooked or possibly ignored, which horrifies and disgusts her. On a personal level, she believes that her absence at the Conclave (meaning she couldn't help Justinia) was a failure on her part as well. Vivienne assures her that this isn't the case.
• Nephewism: She and her brother were raised by their uncle after their parents were executed for being on the wrong side of an attempt to overthrow Nevarra's king. He was an aloof guardian, being a Mortalitasi (sort of an undertaker Up to Eleven) with no understanding of how to care for children; however, party banter with Cole suggests that he really does love his niece.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between:
  • Takes the role of the Nice one among your three female party members, compared to Vivienne's Mean and Sera's In-Between. She's headstrong, empathetic, open-minded towards many things that challenged her beliefs, and believes in the better virtues represented by the Chantry. She is available as a romance option, unlike Vivienne, and her romance with the Inquisitor - be they a Mage, non-human, an atheist, non-Andrastian, or any combination of the above - is much smoother than Sera's romance with a Dalish Inquisitor.
  • Takes the role of the In-Between among the three Divine candidates compared to Leliana's Nice and Vivienne's Mean. She chooses to reform the Circle, the Templars and, if so persuaded by the Inquisitor, the Seekers to the virtues they were meant to represent. This is also shown through her support of the Inquisition as Divine: She requires a positive approval (Leliana unconditionally supports the Inquisition) but still maintains a strained relationship even if you have negative approval (Vivienne seems to completely severe any ties with the Inquisition).
• Noblewoman's Laugh: It doesn't happen often; but when she laughs in party banter, it sounds very much like one of these.
• Not So Above It All:
  • She admits that she enjoys Iron Bull's flirting with her, so long as he understands that nothing is ever going to happen between them. She even teases him back a few times, such as when she talks about taking a bath.
  • Cassandra is one of the most idealistic and least corruptible characters in the entire franchise, to the point that she walks away from power without even once thinking of taking it for herself. And yet, when talking to the Inquisitor about her favorite book from Varric's series, she will excitedly, gleefully suggest that they could command Varric to finish it. She's only halfway through making this point when she stops herself and then says to pretend that this side of her was never known.
• Odd Friendship:
  • She is a Seeker, essentially a member of the Templar secret police, and yet she trusts and befriends Solas, a hedge mage who would be considered an apostate if the word hadn't lost all meaning in the Mage/Templar War.
  • In spite of her uptight behavior, she also gets along remarkably well with the Iron Bull. She seems to enjoy his flirting, and he very obviously respects her. Of particular note, he doesn't press for details about how she became the Right Hand of the Divine, which surprises her. He says that he can see she doesn't like to talk about it, so he's willing to let it drop. Then he adds, "Bet you looked good doing it, though," which makes her chuckle.
  • She is, at first, very firm with Cole, making it clear that she will kill him if he betrays their trust. When he calmly agrees, she is taken aback; and she is even more surprised when she discovers that Cole killed Lord Seeker Lambert. However, she eventually comes to accept his reasons for doing so, and develops a gentle and affectionate tone towards him (except for the occasional flustered reprimand when he peers into her romantic memories). This is all probably because she realizes that he is a benevolent spirit, like the spirit of Faith that communed with her when she was initiated as a Seeker.
  • She also gets along rather swimmingly with Dorian, despite him being a mage from Tevinter. They have no animosity between them at any time (except, of course, when he criticizes her fondness for Varric's books), and in one string of party banter he goes so far as to call her "darling Cassandra".
  • It takes them a while, but after having initially been at each other's throats, she and Varric eventually develop what could be considered a friendship.
• Older Than They Look: She looks like she's in her twenties despite DAI taking place 20 years after Dawn of the Seeker, which means she's actually in her late thirties or mid-forties.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten
  • The Inquisitor can tease her about her romance novel fascination in dialogue after they convince Varric to finish his series for her. And it's all but a foregone conclusion that Varric will eternally torment her over it as well.
  • Varric will also never let Cassandra forget that she kidnapped and interrogated him, but his barbs slowly lose their spitefulness as they become friends.
  • When she first arrested Varric in Dragon Age II, she stabbed a copy of his book Tale of the Champion, which event comes up several times in her party dialogue with Varric in Inquisition.
• Only Sane Man: There's a reason why she has her famous *disgusted noise*. She just wants to be serious about the task at hand, while everyone else is off cracking lame jokes and getting up to Maker knows what kooky shenanigans.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Briefly but incredibly jarring. She's (mostly) very respectful to those with non-Andrastian views... unless the player chooses to take her to the Temple of Mythal, in which she starts spouting very anti-elven views and show little to no respect for elven history or the ancient elves. She does something similar, though to a lesser extent, in certain parts of the Jaws of Hakkon DLC. Again, it's extremely jarring for such an otherwise open-minded character.
• Overly Long Name: Revealed if you take her with you to the Halamshiral Ball. It's implied that if she hadn't interrupted, the announcer would have kept going, meaning she has many more names that weren't revealed.

  Announcer: Cassandra Allegra Portia Calogera Filomena—
  Cassandra: Get on with it!
  Announcer: Pentaghast.

• The Paladin: Cassandra is basically a Paladin in all but explicit title. She is a knight sworn to the service of a religious order, whose supernatural holy powers come after years of reflection, training and solidifying her devotion. Said powers allow her to cause immediate harm to a specific type of enemy. And on a personal level, she's devoted to the spirit of her religious order, and not its teachings, which means she rebels in order to do good.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: First, she rebelled against the Seekers to side with the Chantry when she felt the Seekers stressed order over justice. She later rebels against the Chantry, when they demand the same.
• Parental Abandonment: Her parents were executed for treason when she and her brother were children. They were raised by their Mortalitasi uncle, who didn't really know how to raise children. This is one of the reasons why Cassandra chose to abandon her family to become a Seeker.
• Percussive Therapy: It's her favorite way of dealing with her anger. Books, training dummies, walls (according to Vivienne); she's not too picky about her targets.

  Varric: Define "calmed down" in terms of who or what she's punching right now.

  • She also punches trees. According to a party banter with Blackwall, she has terrible allergies, and when she was younger, her brother had playfully suggested she punch the tree to get back at it. For some reason, she says, it actually seems to help.
• Perpetual Frowner: She's a... forceful personality, which makes her look and sound angry even when she isn't:

  The Herald: You would have done differently, I suppose?
  Cassandra: (looking genuinely surprised) ... Oh, I do sound like I'm blaming you, don't I? I don't disapprove. In fact, you did well.

  • Harding can also comment on it, if you speak to her in Skyhold:

    Harding: Seeker Pentaghast came through here looking like a storm cloud... but that's just her face, isn't it?

• Pet the Dog: After butting heads with Varric for hiding Hawke from her all along, she is the first one to try to console him if Hawke sacrifices themselves in the Fade. It doesn't work, but she tries.
• Poor Communication Kills: After Hawke arrives at Skyhold and Cassandra chews Varric out, Cassandra half-admits, half-realizes that Varric lied about not knowing Hawke's location partly because she didn't explain why she needed Hawke. She had been so harsh and demanding that Varric naturally believed that Hawke would have been arrested or worse had he revealed his friend's whereabouts, and Cassandra feels like her poor communication is what led to the current mess. Subverted in that Varric and the Inquisitor can both point out that there's no proof that Hawke could have saved the Divine, and Varric not telling Cassandra might be the only reason they're all still alive.
• Pragmatic Hero: She tends to favor pragmatic decisions over softer approaches.

  Dorian: The voice of pragmatism speaks! And here I was just starting to enjoy the circular arguments.

• Precision F-Strike: An absolutely hilarious one during the credits of Trespasser.

  Cassandra: That dwarf, he... he... he put me in the book! [giggles] I'm in the book! I'm reading the shit out of this.

• Quickly-Demoted Leader: At the start of the game, she is one of the four de facto leaders of the Inquisition. In fact, she is the one who declared it. But she quickly loses all of that authority and becomes a party member with no more power than, say, Varric or Vivienne: well-respected, to be sure, but that's about it. Solas actually commends her on being able to walk away from her de facto leadership once the de jure leader was picked.
• Reality Warper: Inverted according to a conversation with Solas, who says that Seekers and Templars make the world more stable, blocking the Fade from transforming it.

  Cassandra: Well, no one's ever accused me of "reinforcing reality" before.

• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite her often harsh demeanor, Cassandra is willing to give prisoners a chance to explain themselves and lets them go free with no strings attached if convinced of their innocence. She also handles her subordinates fairly and deals with the complaints of the mage/Templar forces who join the Inquisition. If she's Divine, she shows incredible tolerance and wants to give everyone a chance to prove themselves, including the College of Enchanters, which is directly in opposition of the Circle of Magi.
• Religious Bruiser: Cassandra's faith is her sole motivating factor in everything she does. She implies that the only way she copes with everything that goes wrong in her life (and the world at large) is to believe that everything is part of the Maker's plan. To wit, she will constantly approve whenever the Inquisitor says or does something that reaffirms her faith or demonstrates that a good end comes from a bad beginning. Solas corroborates this in his "Friendship Conversation", stating that the difference between the Inquisitor and Cassandra is that if Cassandra had to choose between her faith and reality, she would always choose her faith.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Cassandra does not believe the Dalish pantheon is worthy of worship. This is due to her absolute faith in the Maker, of course. However, given what is eventually revealed about the Evanuris, particularly the fact that they were not gods , she's this trope.
• Romance Sidequest: She is a romance option for a male Inquisitor of any race.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Pentaghasts are the Nevarran royal family, who originally rose to prominence as dragonslayers. In fact, they were largely responsible for nearly bringing about the near-total extinction of the species during the Steel Age, three centuries ago. That being said, she points out that she's actually very far down the line of succession. She's 78th in line for the throne, and at the Winter Palace ball, it's stated that she's King Markus's 14th cousin, nine times removed. So her connection to the royal family is more a matter of technicality than anything. She finds the whole business deeply annoying and would rather act like it doesn't exist. Much of the rest of the family are fat aristocrats who rest on ancestral laurels. Cassandra, on the other hand, is made of cast iron and has killed a dragon like the Pentaghasts of old. If made Divine, she will still ditch the vestments on occasion to help rebuild the Seekers, wearing quite provincial clothes. If the Inquisition is disbanded, she'll meet with the Herald in her old armor to discuss plans to stop Solas — all this while still being Thedas' Pope.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Cassandra believes that doing what she knows to be right is more important than law or duty.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: If Vivienne becomes Divine Victoria, then Cassandra eventually abandons her position in the Exalted Council and as the Right Hand of the Divine due to her belief that Vivienne is too much of a tyrant.
• Second Love: If the Inquisitor romances her, he becomes this to Cassandra; her first love was Galyan.
• Shield Bash: Powerful enough to clear obstacles.
• Shrouded in Myth: If the stories are to be believed (and according to Cassandra, they are not), she has killed seventeen dragons.
• Sibling Team: She remarks in conversation that, if her brother Anthony was still alive, they probably would be slaying dragons together.
• Squee: She comes just shy of doing this while gushing over Swords and Shields to an amused Inquisitor.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: The Stoic is her default mode, but she occasionally shows a softer side, especially during her romance.
• Superior Successor: If the Inquisitor romances her and she becomes Divine, the Chantry experiences a golden age under her reign.
• Tautological Templar: Very, very slightly. Cassandra will always do what she feels to be right and doesn't slacken her morals when it's convenient. She will always defend good and fight evil. The problem, though, is that she's often too quick to assume which is which, and once her mind is set, it's hard to change it. But even then, when confronted with proof that she was mistaken, she is very hard on herself.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Twice she's been presented with this choice: follow the Templars and Seekers into rebellion or stay in service to Divine Justinia as Her right hand, and later to obey the orders of the remaining Chantry hierarchy after Justinia's death or form the Inquisition without their support. She makes the latter choice in both cases, disobeying the chain of command because they are not doing what she believes to be right. She can even have a discussion with the Inquisitor about following the letter of the law as opposed to the spirit; she believes in helping people more than following arbitrary rules.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She mentions, in party banter, that she hates wearing dresses, and to all appearances she qualifies as a tomboy. However, she's got "a true romantic heart," as the Inquisitor can say teasingly, and enjoys things like love poetry, romantic novels, and candlelit interludes.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • After the death of Divine Justinia V, Cassandra later becomes one of two possible candidates to replace her (the other is Leliana). If Cassandra is chosen over Leliana to become Divine Victoria, she enacts reforms for a new Templar order and a new Circle of Magi, and re-dedicates the Seekers to being protectors of the innocent.
  • How she regards Cole develops as this. At first, she's much like Vivienne, regarding him as a potential demon and wanting him to be sent away. But as Cole helps her untie all her own emotional knots, she warms up to him and shows gratitude for his efforts, and eventually doesn't take umbrage much at all when Cole starts reading her.
• Tragic Keepsake: The locket mentioned above; it belonged to her grandmother, and contains a portrait of her beloved and ill-fated brother.
• Tsundere: She still waves this flag on occasion; a shining example is if the Inquisitor romances her. If the Inquisitor straight-up tells her that he wants her love, she becomes flustered and states that romance is not what she wants, walking away and slamming a door... before coming straight back and saying yes, that's exactly what she wants.
• Unexpected Successor: Justinia's death makes Cassandra and Leliana candidates to replace her.
• Unfit for Greatness: One reason she relinquishes leadership of the Inquisition to the Herald. She believes that she isn't the kind of person who can fill the role of The Hero.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: She eventually develops this kind of dynamic with Varric, if they're together often enough in the party. In Trespasser she even admits, in a roundabout way, that she's missed him.

  Varric: Be still my heart. I've grown on you!
  Cassandra: (almost playful) Like fungus.

• Vow of Celibacy: If she gets elected Divine: while more progressive than Vivienne, she isn't nearly as willing to make changes as Leliana. And allowing the Divine to marry would be a great change. It doesn't stop her and the Inquisitor from remaining faithful and loving to one another.
  • In Trespasser, she is still very much in love with the Inquisitor, and makes no secret of the fact that they are a couple.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Downplayed. Varric will not let Cassandra forget that she kidnapped and interrogated him. In party banter, she gently reminds him that she could have used harsher methods to make him talk. Varric calls her out on it, saying she doesn't get a prize for not adding torture to her list of other crimes against him. Cassandra wisely drops it.
• Warrior Princess: Although her Royal Blood is of no real interest to her, she's this; if asked for her opinion of Cassandra, Josephine explicitly calls her "a princess of Nevarra." Despite being very distant from the throne, she is perhaps the most like the Pentaghasts of old in terms of martial prowess in comparison to the rest of her rather large family. She even has a dragon-slaying notch on her belt (and can add more during the course of the game), further living up to her ancestors' legends.
• What the Hell, Hero?: When Varric reveals that he's been in contact with the "missing" Hawke all along, she is furious.
  • Her codex entry has her doing this in a letter to her superiors in the Seekers, accusing them of exacerbating the chaos of the Mage-Templar War by breaking away from the Chantry instead of trying to restore order.
  • Out of all the characters, she is by far the most outraged at the Inquisitor if the player chooses to pardon Blackwall after his secret is exposed. She eventually forgives the Inquisitor, if her approval is high enough otherwise, but Trespasser reveals that she really never does forgive Blackwall.
  • If her approval drops low enough, the Inquisitor can find her getting drunk and taking them to task for the wrongs they have committed. She will never leave, though, just like Varric and Solas.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Countless forum threads have been dedicated to this questions, yet still nobody seems to be sure where to place Cassandra's accent. A mix of Germanic and Austrian inflections spoken by someone who spent a long time in an English-speaking country seems to be the most widely accepted answer so far. What a whole lot of people do seem to agree on is that Miranda Raison's voice work is exceptional, and that Cass's accent is incredibly sexy.
• When She Smiles: Cassandra is one of the most stoic characters in the franchise and a Perpetual Frowner to boot, but there are a few opportunities to make her smile even for Inquisitors that aren't romancing her, and when it happens, it's a wonderful sight to behold.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: A Brick Joke from the previous game crops up in Trespasser when Varric gives her, essentially, Dragon Age: Inquisition: The Novel. She first can't get over the title, All This Shit Is Weird, then has a blast reading out and imitating the characters and pointing out the accuracy (or lack thereof) in each portrayal.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The Inquisitor has the option to tell her this after her row with Varric.
• You Know I'm Black, Right?: Can invoke this reaction from a non-human Inquisitor, especially early in the game when she asks if/why don't you believe in the Maker? A non-human Inquisitor can point out and they're not human and/or they have their own religion.

  Cassandra: I'm curious. Do you even believe in the Maker?
  Lavellan: I'm Dalish. I believe in our own gods.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/DragonAgeCassandraPentaghast

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