Dorian Pavus is one of my very favourite characters within Dragon Age Inquisition. With his dry sense of humour and ride or die attitude to the Inquisitor it is difficult to dislike him.
His personal quest involves Mother Giselle receiving a letter from his father, requesting he meets with a retainer the family has hired. The Inquisitor is tasked with bringing him to Redcliff, Dorian can be brought there under false pretenses or forewarned. When you reach the tavern, it is revealed that Dorian’s father was the one waiting for him.
Dorian gets very upset by this, an argument breaking out about how his father tried to ‘change’ Dorian. Dorian is gay, and this went against the plans they had to marry him off to a woman so the Pavus line could continue. Magister Pavus turned to blood magic to try to ‘change’ his son’s sexuality.
Angry and in tears, Dorian stands at the bar. The Inquisitor can influence what happens next. As a queer person, I had no qualms about getting him out of there – what his father felt he had to say paled in comparison to the atrocity he tried to commit. There was no forgiveness to be had, asking Dorian to forgive in itself an act of cruelty. Nothing he could say would make that ok.
I understand that Dragon Age: Inquisition is about redemption and forgiveness. From the main character’s arc beginning as a prisoner to rise as the saviour of them all, to Blackwall’s treachery and redemption as a Warden or servant of the Inquisition. Blackwall’s crimes were terrible, but I could forgive the attempt he made to rebuild himself into a better man. Magister Pavus offered little but pretty words, nothing concrete.
Not being able to trust your family with your authentic self is one of the hardest things to cope with, and Dorian did that by running off to join the Inquisition. He has a home there, amongst the ragtag members of the inner circle. The Inquisitor themselves – often an outcast in society, doubly so if an elf – needs a place to belong as much as any.
The Inquisition sees its members through some hard times but in the end what they are is a found family. Sure, not everyone gets on, but the feeling of community and camraderie – whether in cutscenes or party banter – cannot be denied.
As the saying goes – the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. It’s okay to cut off people who have hurt you to the point where you feel you can’t be around them. Family or not, some things are just unforgiveable. Dorian will forever have a home in my Inquisition.