DA Costume Primer

Summary

This slightly doofy but always hilarious and endearing warrior started out a Templar (the guys that keep mages in check), became a Grey Warden (the guys that keep horrible mutated things called Darkspawn in check), and - depending on the player's actions - can end up king of Ferelden. If your (female only) character romances him, that means you get to be queen!

There is a handy tutorial on how to make one of his armours!

A chronic Circle runaway who ended up becoming and then leaving the Grey Wardens and agreeing to be possessed by either a crafty demon or a good spirit who he personally screwed up enough to become a demon. Mage rights Activist of the worst kind. He likes kittens and healing the poor, but is also a hypocrite and terrorist.

Aveline is a very upright soldier, city guard, and general paladin-type whose friends are basically all chaotic. She handles this surprisingly well, though with some understandable exasperation. She and Varric are obviously intended to be the closest friends the main character has, though of course player decisions can change this.

Bethany is the main character's younger sister and twin to Carver. She's also a ray of sunshine who tries to stay optimistic even when things keep going from bad to worse. She's a mage, typically statted as a healer.

Grey Warden with a secret

Carver is the main character's younger brother and twin to Bethany. He's also got a huge inferiority complex and in some playthroughs ends up becoming a Templar even though 3/4th of his family are mages. He may have some altruistic reasons for this, and he is loyal to his family when it really counts, but he's mostly motivated by not wanting to be in his older sibling's shadow.

A Seeker (Templar-detective), Cassandra takes no shit, but has a fondness for terrible literature (like the kind Varric writes).

I have no idea what's up with Cole. All I know is that he's a rogue and I think he might be a people-suit for a spirit of some sort.

Cullen is a templar and has been in all the main games, which means he has seen some shit and always seems to get caught up in it somewhere on the sidelines.

Dorian comes from fantasy-Rome, where he was one of the ruling class of mages, but I guess got sick of their shit and ran away to become a main character. He's also ~fabulous~ and a necromancer, which is a hilarious combination.

Fenris comes from fantasy-Rome, where he was enslaved to one of the ruling class of mages there who infused his body with painful, toxic, magic-enhancing tattoos which incidentally wiped all Fenris' memories. Understandably, he's not a big fan of mages even after his escape.

Flemeth is definitely a crazy old witch who lives in the swamp and certainly not secretly an immortal dragon-goddess.

Hawke is the main character of DA2 and all the companions listed here are their friends (or rivals). Hawke can be either male (default name Garrett) or female (default name Marian); a warrior, rogue, or mage; nice, sarcastic, or aggressive.

Leader of a mercenary group

Lusty, scantily-clad pirate/thief with suspect motives. She basically hits on anything that moves and cheerfully antagonizes Aveline.

Some kind of fancy bard.

Krem is Iron Bull's lieutenant and a rare and magical creature in fiction: a canonical trans-guy. He also seems to be a generally good person.

A shady bard/rogue/spy who essentially became a nun, but didn't let that stop her from...continuing to be a shady bard/rogue/spy. Charming and vaguely French.

Merrill is the gosh-darn cutest little horrible blood mage who makes deals with demons you'll ever meet. She's either charmingly naive or much smarter than others giver he credit for, or most likely both. She's part of a Dalish tribe, so differs from the city elves (Fenris, Zevran) culturally. Also adorably Welsh.

Raised by a a manipulative witch in a swamp, Morrigan is a shape-shifting mage who sees little reason to play nice with people who annoy her. She's got a sharp wit and no tolerance for useless social norms and can eventually turn into a dragon, which is pretty rad.

She also has a ballgown outfit rather than the...um, scarf she normally wears.

Fairly stereotypical alcoholic dwarf

Born as a prince of Starkhaven, he misbehaved so much in his youth (drinking, whoring, etc) that his pissed off family sent him to the Chantry to become a priest rather than deal with him. Unfortunately, they all got murdered, leaving Sebastian the only heir to the throne. He's on the fence between his clerical career - which he genuinely took to - and going home to rule a country. He's an archer and the paladiniest rogue.

Very un-elfy elf rogue

Shale is a golem that used to be a dwarf. It/she loves shiny gems and birds and crushing things to death.

Untrustworthy egg with magic.

Sten is a Qunari from before they got redesigned to have cool horns. Most Qunari follow a religio-philosophy so strict that they don't even have names, just rank/cast designations. Sten is a scout sent to investigate the Blight in ferelden and is pretty much a standard Stoic Warrior Race Guy.

Felicia Day as an elven rogue.

As a surface dwarf, Varric is more like Pratchett than Tolkien dwarves. A storyteller, merchant, and probable mob boss, he's set up to be the main character's other best friend besides Aveline. The only thing he likes more than Hawke is his crossbow, Bianca.

Unlikely to appear in this cosplay group.

Wynne is an older, no-nonsense mage and spirit healer, both of which are seen as pretty sketch by most people in the world. She's been in the Circle her whole life but resisted promotion within it because she prefers to be more hands-on.

Zevran is elven assassin!Antonio Banderas. He's glib, he's seductive, he was sent to kill the main character and ended up joining them instead.

Here's the wiki, go nuts.