Speaking of apostate mages, they’d been tearing **** up all over, and Redcliffe is basically a total clusterfuck. This is partially this guy, Alexius’s fault. He was holed up in the keep. The demo guy switched Dorian into the party, since he wanted to get special dialogue between Dorian and his former master, Alexius. So they got into the castle and found Leliana tied up and being tortured, though when the inquisitor shows up, she grabs her torturer around the neck with her legs and snaps it. According to the producer, they had made a decision earlier on in the playthrough to send Leliana in to spy or something, and she’d gone dark (presumably because she was caught), so this was kind of an extraction mission, as well as a mission to take out this nut, Alexius.
Leliana seemed (understandably) super bitter and hardened in this demo, and she really did not seem to get along well with Dorian. Dorian’s whole deal is that he’s a Tevinter Imperium mage and he wants to restore the honor of his homeland. So he seems like a noble, maybe a bit idealistic dude. So anyway, he started asking Leliana questions about what had happened to the castle (which is sitting basically in a Fade rift), and she’s just like stop talking. Dorian asked why, and she said because he was just trying to fill the silence. Basically, Leliana told him to shut the **** up.
Anyway, when they got to the room with Alexius, they tried to get some information out of him on how to stop the rift stuff. Meanwhile, there was this abomination crouching on the ground, which was apparently Alexius’s son, Felix, at one point (he was def long dead tho). Dorian was like, dude that’s not Felix he daid what is UP with you, and then the inquisitor asked for some amulet and Alexius was like nah, but then Leliana put a knife to Felix’s throat and the inquisitor gave the guy an ultimatum: give her the amulet and you get your “son” back. Alexius tried to just say GIVE ME MY SON BACK AND YOU CAN HAVE THE AMULET and Leliana was like **** that, and MERCILESSLY slit Felix’s throat.
This triggered a battle with Alexius and they showed off the tactical view a bit, which was neat. Once they beat him, they got the amulet and the inquisitor was kind of apologetic and was like “I know you cared for him.” Dorian seemed kind of bitter/hurt/maybe mildly conflicted? about this and was like, he died a long time ago. It’s a bit hard to convey exactly what about this interaction made me think that Dorian is interested in men, but I think it’s a distinct possibility that he’s bisexual or gay.
After that, they got the amulet and Dorian was like okay, give me an hour an I can reverse engineer the spell. Leliana was like, we don’t have an hour (demons were basically bearing down on the keep). She seemed super mad. Meanwhile, Sera and Iron Bull volunteered to go out of the hall doors and defend Dorian and the inquisitor while they worked on the spell to seal the big ass rift I guess. Leliana said “you have as much time as I have arrows”. And shortly thereafter, the horde stormed the doors, having clearly killed Sera. I didn’t see Iron Bull. Leliana got shot in the shoulder with an arrow and the inquisitor moved to help her, but she was like NO IF YOU MOVE, WE ALL DIE, I guess because she was helping Dorian with the spell. Then Leliana looks like she’s about to get killed when SURPRISE THAT’S THE END OF THE DEMO