The Iron Bull is a fictional character in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise. He appears in the 2014 video game Dragon Age: Inquisition, where he serves as a companion party member. He is a Qunari, a member of metallic-skinned race of large humanoids who live in the northern part of Thedas, the setting of the Dragon Age series, that venerates a civil religion known as The Qun. He is a spy commissioned by the Ben'Hassrath, the secret police of the Qunari government, to operate in southern Thedas. As part of his cover, he leads a mercenary company known as the Bull's Chargers. Freddie Prinze Jr. voi
The Iron Bull is a fictional character in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise. He appears in the 2014 video game Dragon Age: Inquisition, where he serves as a companion party member. He is a Qunari, a member of metallic-skinned race of large humanoids who live in the northern part of Thedas, the setting of the Dragon Age series, that venerates a civil religion known as The Qun. He is a spy commissioned by the Ben'Hassrath, the secret police of the Qunari government, to operate in southern Thedas. As part of his cover, he leads a mercenary company known as the Bull's Chargers. Freddie Prinze Jr. voi
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The Iron Bull is a fictional character in BioWare's Dragon Age franchise. He appears in the 2014 video game Dragon Age: Inquisition, where he serves as a companion party member. He is a Qunari, a member of metallic-skinned race of large humanoids who live in the northern part of Thedas, the setting of the Dragon Age series, that venerates a civil religion known as The Qun. He is a spy commissioned by the Ben'Hassrath, the secret police of the Qunari government, to operate in southern Thedas. As part of his cover, he leads a mercenary company known as the Bull's Chargers. Freddie Prinze Jr. voices the character.
The Iron Bull's critical reception has been positive, with Prinze praised for his voice acting. Various merchandise has been made around him, including T-shirts, character dolls and collectible statues.
Character overview
The Iron Bull is a Qunari, literally "People of the Qun" in their native language. Within series lore, it is an umbrella term used in Thedas, the setting of the Dragon Age series, to describe the society that governs the settlements where these beings reside. "The Iron Bull" is not his real name, but a nickname he chose for himself; this is because the Qunari do not have a concept of personal identity, using their job titles instead of names. If the protagonist meets Gatt, a former elven slave and a convert to the Qun (known as a "Viddathari") whom Bull nicknamed and recruited in the past, he reveals that the Iron Bull is in fact known as Hissrad (meaning "one who creates illusion" or "liar") among his own people. The Iron Bull used to hunt spies, rebels, and deserters on behalf of his superiors prior to being transferred to Orlais to gather intelligence and collate reports on behalf of the Ben-Hassrath. While he still maintains his duties to the Qunari government, he has become accustomed to life outside of the teachings of the Qun, such as indulging in hedonistic pursuits or maintaining interpersonal relationships.
Conception and creation
The Iron Bull is written by Patrick Weekes; Weekes stuck to movie soundtracks for most of his writing involving the Iron Bull, as they do not usually contain lyrics, and fades into comfortable mood music quickly enough for him that he could handle the same several albums and be fine. Weekes' playlist includes original motion picture soundtracks for The Avengers, Battle: Los Angeles, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 3, Thor, Salt, and the expanded score for Transformers.
The Iron Bull's character concept was primarily developed by Casper Konefal; art director Matt Goldman delegated the task to Konefal. He bears a set of horns deemed to be impressive even by the standards of his species. His battle-scarred body is sporadically covered by leather armor; loose pantaloons and leather boots give him the agility he needs in battle. He is one-eyed and covers the other eye with an eye patch.
Appearances
Iron Bull is the central focus of a 2014 cinematic trailer, where he appears alongside The Bull's Chargers, promoting the release of Inquisition which was uploaded on multiple EA-affiliated channels. Like most of Inquisition's companions, recruiting the Iron Bull is optional. Iron Bull is designed as a pansexual character. If he is pursued as a romantic interest, the Iron Bull will reveal his interest in consensual adult sadomasochistic activity.
The Iron Bull may be recruited if the player character, the Herald of Andraste, initiates a conversation with Krem after he appears at Inquisition's base of operations in the village of Haven. Krem conveys the Iron Bull's interest in having their mercenary company being retained by the Inquisition as its agents. The Inquisition may then travel to the Storm Coast region in Ferelden to meet the Chargers. The Iron Bull will openly admit to working with the Ben-Hassrath after his initial meeting with the Herald of Andraste, and he will explain that he will be relaying information about the Breach and Inquisition to them at certain points. However, he will also relay information to the Inquisition as well. If the protagonist is Qunari, the Iron Bull will burst out in laughter; they have heard that the Herald of Andraste is in fact a Qunari mercenary, which Bull initially brushed off as a fanciful r
After the protagonist of Inquisition gained renown as the so-called Herald of Andraste, the Iron Bull eventually joins the organisation they lead, the Inquisition, to act as a double agent on instructions from the Qunari leadership. He openly admits this to the Herald during their initial meeting, having anticipated that the Inquisition would eventually discover his duplicity; this effectively makes him the Qunari's representative within the Inquisition if he is accepted into the organisation. The player may gain insight into Qunari culture, physiology, society, and politics by conversing with the Iron Bull, though he reveals little about himself in any specific individual sense.
Konefal said the first thing that came to his mind when designing the character was a "hulking giant of a warrior that had a career ending disability to over come". He wanted the Iron Bull to have "something more to his character", a challenging trait which showed his strength both physical and mental. Noting the underrepresentation of people with disabilities in entertainment media, Konefal had at one point considered making Iron Bull a warrior who had suffered a crippling loss of one of his fighting hands, and thought that "it would be cool to change that." Reflecting on his design work for the character, Casper notes that he always had an image of the Iron Bull "grabbing his sword by the hilt with his good hand, smashing it down on an enemy still in the sheath, the sword sheath and all cutting half way down the guy then Iron Bull using that to pull the sword out of the sheath and fight on". One iteration had the Iron Bull's hand outfitted with a cannon prosthesis. Design work for a unique fighting style was eventually discontinued due to budget and technical constraints.
