Never has there been a character more brave, beautiful, and brutal than Isabela the Pirate Queen. Her role in the Dragon Age world has persisted through almost every game, giving players a familiar face to recruit should they decide they need a pirate on their team.
Isabela has earned herself many fans throughout her time, inspiring admiration and crushes alike (especially if you ask TheGamer’s Stacey Henley). Her character has gone through changes, however, and the hidden lore of such a well-known character will satisfy any long-time fan of this queen of the sea.
10 She Has Inconsistent Specializations
It’s known that Isabela is a queen when it comes to debauchery and good fun, but the details of her swordsmanship skills change depending on the game. In Dragon Age Origins, she’s listed as a Duelist.
In Dragon Age 2, Isabela is a Swashbuckle, but she reverts back to a Duelist in Dragon Age Inquisition. Both titles cover relatively the same aspects, but the shifts are still noticeable to the keen-eyed player.
9 Her Name Is Not Isabela
On the seas, traveling with your real name is dangerous – especially when you start making enemies. Isabela’s name comes from a pet name her first ship captain called her meaning “little beauty.”
Her birth name is Naishe. She was born to another woman with an adopted name: Madam Hari. And, judging by how their relationship goes, the fact that Naishe dropped her birth name and fully embraced Isabela as her new identity isn’t too surprising.
8 Mother Doesn’t Always Know Best
Madam Hari, Isabela’s mother, was a known thief and once posed as a Rivaini seer for payment. When she got bored of helping people, she left the village to con and rob with the help of young Isabela because of her natural sticky fingers.
However, Madam Hari became obsessed and disillusioned with life, ultimately selling Isabela into marriage when she wouldn’t convert to the Madam’s newfound religious practice. Isabela was only eighteen. Her relationship (or non-relationship) with the Qun ultimately lead to Hawke having to make one of the hardest decisions in the franchise.
7 She’s Claustrophobic
Life on the sea adapts sailors to the freedom and space of open water, so Isabela’s reluctance to leave this environment isn’t too surprising. But even the fearless Pirate Queen has fears, and tight spaces are one of them.
If you choose to bring Isabela into the Deep Roads, she’ll uncomfortably remark that she “doesn’t like tight spaces.” She’ll still go with you, but she won’t like it.
6 Fun And Fists
Isabela values fun, freedom, and whatever it takes to get ahead of her adversaries. She favors the version of Hawke that is clever and devious, willing to break a few rules in order to get the job done.
She will get annoyed if you help people without reward, as that feels like a waste of time and there’s no currency in being a good person. The more of other people’s business you avoid, the happier Isabela will be. Seeing Isabela in her element and her story in Rivain explored really helps make her position feel solidified and her fists hit twice as hard.
5 Her Romance Option
Isabela has one of the most detailed and open romance options in the games, giving players time to get to know Isabela as well as other characters in the game.
One of the more rambunctious events that can happen is a multiple-person encounter between Isabela, the Warden (if the Warden is female), and a combination of either Leliana, Zevran, or Alistair.
4 A Makeover Between Games
Alistair points this out in a quick encounter where he notes that Isabela looks different than he remembers. Isabela responds cooly, saying that everyone looks a little different.
This could be referring to the fact that Isabela’s appearance, specifically her skin tone and piercings, became more prominent and definitive in later versions of her character. The developers say she’s always looked like this but the lighting in other games washed out her coloring. They made sure her representation was adequate in later games.
3 Her Travels With Bastard Prince Alistair
Franchise fans who have delved into the other material like graphic novels and books will recognize these images. They’re from Isabela’s delightful romp with Alistair and Varric, of all people, to potentially recover King Maric.
Over the course of the story, much is revealed about Isabela’s history – including that bit about her origins and her real name. But, more than anything, we get a glimpse into what Isabela treasures most: loyalty, honesty, and connection with others.
2 Her First Marriage Didn’t End Well
After her mother sold her into marriage, Isabela’s husband treated her as a plaything rather than a person. He hired tutors to teach her to read and write but also threatened to rent her out to his business acquaintances in order to quell her rebellious streak.
He was assassinated a week later. Isabela has differing accounts of her role in his death, sometimes claiming she didn’t have him assassinated and sometimes admitting to doing that very thing. Either way, she won out in the end.
1 A Woman Of Many Talents
Isabela has six available talent trees, two with natural inclinations and talents that she starts out with. She can fill out the Scoundrel, Specialist, Swashbuckler (specialization), Subterfuge, Sabotage, and Dual Weapon ability trees.
Her initial selected talents are Backstab, Stealth, and Evade, but players can fiddle with her setup quite a bit to really hone in on how Isabela dominates the battle.
NEXT: Dragon Age: 10 Things In The Video Games Only Fans Of The Books Understand
