Dragon Age: Inquisition released in 2014 and introduced players to an incredible open-world, brilliant new characters, a plot filled with twists and turns, and more. Fans of the Dragon Age franchise are waiting in anticipation for the next installment, Dragon Age 4, and in the mean-time, many are replaying their old favorites to get their Thedas fix.
One of the main story characters of Inquisition is Cullen Rutherford, Commander of the Inquisition, one of three advisors to the Inquisitor and a possible love interest too. While players might have spent their fair amount of time with the dashing commander in the game, there may be a thing or two about him that they weren't aware of.
10 Cullen First Appeared in Origins
Even if they've played the entire Dragon Age series, many fans are surprised to hear that Inquisition wasn't the first game that Cullen appeared in. He actually first appeared in Dragon Age: Origins in a small role as one of the templars assigned to execute the Magi if they turn into abominations.
Players can attempt to romance him, but he will make some awkward excuses and run away. Additionally, this earlier introduction of Cullen does not paint him as a great character as he will attempt to convince the Warden to kill all the mages during the Harrowing as he is worried they are blood mages.
9 Cullen Also Appeared in Dragon Age 2
Many players also missed Cullen's return in Dragon Age 2, where he has since become Knight-Captain and is now second-in-command to Knight-Commander Meredith. It is revealed that Cullen was sent to Kirkwall by Knight-Commander Greagoir after the events in Origins.
Fortunately, Cullen's character in the sequel has been better developed and he is now dedicated to protecting the mages in the circle as much as protecting people from magic. Though still a small role, Cullen is instrumental in helping Hawke to stop Meredith during the main storyline.
8 Three Writers
Cullen has appeared in all three main titles in the series, but interestingly, each time his character was written by an entirely different Bioware writer. This could explain his changing character, which arguably does not match up with all three games.
His appearance also changes, but that is likely due to the constraints of the graphics at the time, as Alistair's appearance in Inquisition has also had a glow-up since Origins. In Origins, Cullen was written by Sheryl Lee, he was written by Jennifer Hepler in Dragon Age 2, and finally, was written by Brianne Battye for Inquisition.
7 He Almost Wasn't a Love Interest
In the original plans for Inquisition, Commander Cullen was not going to be a romance option for the Inquisitor, but Mike Laidlaw explained that Bioware decided to revise this when the game was given an extra year of development.
Cullen is a fan-favorite character and a very popular love interest, so it's strange to think he almost wasn't included in this way. If the Inquisitor is a female elf or human, they are able to pursue a romance with Cullen.
6 Cullen's Helmet
In the Enemy of Thedas trailer that released before the launch of the game, Cullen is shown to be wearing a helmet that is fashioned to look like a lion. However, during the events of the game, Cullen is not shown wearing his helmet.
It was explained by the Bioware team at PAX South in 2015 that the reason Cullen is wearing his helmet during the trailer was that his character model had a glitch where the lip sync wouldn't work for his mouth, and so the helmet was to cover this. The helmet actually brings Cullen's outfit together and makes his furry mantle make more sense as it becomes like a mane, as well as explaining his war table pieces being lion-shaped.
5 Mass Effect Reference
When at the war table in Inquisition, the advisors will talk amongst one another and occasionally have a bit of banter. There is a point where Cullen talks about calibrating the trebuchets and Josephine replies with "Again? How many times will you be doing that?".
Many fans take this to be a reference to Garrus Vakarian from Bioware's Mass Effect series, as Garrus is known for spending too much time calibrating the guns aboard the Normandy, so much so that it has become a running joke.
4 Past Choices
If players imported their save data from previous games, there is a chance that Cullen will reference past events in Dragon Age 2 depending on the decisions made by the player in Origins. For example, if the player was a Human Mage Warden in Origins, Cullen will mention how he knew an Amell once, with the exact lines differing depending on the gender of the Warden.
However, regardless of whether the player sided with Cullen in Dragon Age 2 or not, in Inquisition, Cullen will be introduced as "former Knight-Commander of Kirkwall". Despite Cullen only being promoted to Knight-Commander of Kirkwall if Hawke sided with him, as he remains a Knight-Captain if they did not.
3 Cullen Can go AWOL
There is a glitch that can regrettably make Cullen go missing permanently in Inquisition. There is a point in the game where Cullen cannot be found in his office and an Inquisition agent will explain he has gone to speak to Cassandra. However, if players have already completed Sera's prank quest before speaking to the agent, they will not be able to interact with the agent at all.
As a result, Cullen's side story cannot be progressed, so he can never be found and will permanently be missing from his office. Bioware did release a patch to fix this, but some players have still reported the glitch happening after this patch was implemented.
2 Inquisition Multiplayer Reference
Dragon Age: Inquisition was the first game in the series to add a multiplayer option. This four-player co-op mode sees players take on the role of a group of Inquisition irregulars attempting to defeat enemies.
Even in the multiplayer mode, Commander Cullen is referenced, with the rogue character stating that Cullen "smells like elderflower and oakmoss". Interestingly, it is revealed in Cullen's side quests that he is struggling with lyrium withdrawal, and elderflower is often used as a pain reliever in traditional medicine. It could be that Cullen smells like elderflower as he is using it to relieve his withdrawal pains.
1 Scary Cullen
In the book The Art of Dragon Age: Inquisition, there are many conceptual designs of characters, locations, and more from the game. However, amongst the awesome designs of Cullen, there is also notably a rather horrifying version of Cullen included too.
The book does explain that "If the final images are unsettling, it is because they mimic something genuine". Genuine terror perhaps. Either way, fans of Cullen will find it hard to forget these terrifying images and might think twice about romancing him on their next playthrough.