Personality: Okay, so, growing up in a swamp with a thousand-year-old witch does not exactly do wonders for a young woman's social skills.
Morrigan isn't necessarily a bad or mean person, but her complete estrangement from civilization has given her a very Darwinian perspective on the world. As far as she is concerned, every person should be left to handle their problems on their own - if they survive, fine; if they don't, it's because they're weak and there's no point feeling sorry for them. Throughout the game, she repeatedly scoffs at the player-character for stopping to do typical RPG-hero things like fetch quests and learning the intimate details of every peasant's life problems - at one point, she'll even suggest that the PC leave an entire village to defend itself against a darkspawn attack alone because, well, it's not her problem. War happens. People die. Sentimentality is useless and stopping to help every farmer who's lost his kitten will only slow you down on your actual quest to, you know, save the world. This caustic bluntness extends to her personal interactions with other people, and she has no reservation about calling out an idiot where she sees one. And, well, by Morrigan's standards? Most people are idiots.
On the flip side, spending her life in isolation also means that Morrigan is terrible at social niceties even in the rare instances when she does feel like expressing them, and is very inexperienced when it comes to things like friendship and love. Her understanding of the world revolves around practicality, cynicism and survival, and she's accustomed to it. She'll happily pursue a sexual relationship with a male player-character shortly after meeting him, but if he pursues the romance plot and starts talking about love, she freaks out. Even in the best possible scenario, she tries to break up with him more than once. A female player character can't complete Morrigan's romance quest, but if she forms a positive relationship with her she can get an awkward, fumbling thank-you from Morrigan for being a good friend. Long story short: When it comes to actual mushy emotions, this witch is in way over her head.
The thing that Morrigan values most highly in the world is her freedom. Although I'll be taking her from before the end of the game, I think some of the actions she takes in the epilogue really reinforce this part of her personality: no matter what the player character does, whether she loves them or hates them, whether they pursue her romance subquest or not, she leaves them. Forever. Because Morrigan isn't a person who can settle down, and she's got goals and ambitions that don't revolve around anyone else. Not even if that anyone else has saved the world and/or loves her very much. Not even if she loves them back.
Tying into the freedom thing! She completely despises the Chantry, the primary religion of Ferelden, because it believes all mages need to be kept locked in towers (or "Circles") so they don't burn down the world with their powers. Of course, she also despises the mages who submit to this system. Again, it's a social Darwinist thing: those who allow themselves to be caged deserve to be caged. Freedom is for those strong enough to take it, and Morrigan has always considered herself stronger than most people. Better than most people, if she's honest. She can be very condescending to others, especially when talking about magic. Those who have grown up in civilization, she thinks, have been brainwashed by the Chantry into labeling apostate witches like herself as evil, and grouped the spirits of the Fade into representations of sins and virtues because they're too stupid to understand the world without arbitrary moral distinctions.
Admittedly, she does kind of have a point, but she's awfully rude and self-righteous about it. She also scoffs at the idea of governments for a similar reason. YOU DON'T GET TO TELL MORRIGAN WHAT TO DO, KING SO-AND-SO.
All that said, even someone as bitter as Morrigan does have a fluffy side. For someone who grew up in the swampy, foggy wilderness, she's got an enduring soft spot for pretty jewelry and admits to being somewhat vain, even if beauty isn't worth much from a survival-of-the-fittest world perspective.
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Morrigan isn't necessarily a bad or mean person, but her complete estrangement from civilization has given her a very Darwinian perspective on the world. As far as she is concerned, every person should be left to handle their problems on their own - if they survive, fine; if they don't, it's because they're weak and there's no point feeling sorry for them. Throughout the game, she repeatedly scoffs at the player-character for stopping to do typical RPG-hero things like fetch quests and learning the intimate details of every peasant's life problems - at one point, she'll even suggest that the PC leave an entire village to defend itself against a darkspawn attack alone because, well, it's not her problem. War happens. People die. Sentimentality is useless and stopping to help every farmer who's lost his kitten will only slow you down on your actual quest to, you know, save the world. This caustic bluntness extends to her personal interactions with other people, and she has no reservation about calling out an idiot where she sees one. And, well, by Morrigan's standards? Most people are idiots.
On the flip side, spending her life in isolation also means that Morrigan is terrible at social niceties even in the rare instances when she does feel like expressing them, and is very inexperienced when it comes to things like friendship and love. Her understanding of the world revolves around practicality, cynicism and survival, and she's accustomed to it. She'll happily pursue a sexual relationship with a male player-character shortly after meeting him, but if he pursues the romance plot and starts talking about love, she freaks out. Even in the best possible scenario, she tries to break up with him more than once. A female player character can't complete Morrigan's romance quest, but if she forms a positive relationship with her she can get an awkward, fumbling thank-you from Morrigan for being a good friend. Long story short: When it comes to actual mushy emotions, this witch is in way over her head.
The thing that Morrigan values most highly in the world is her freedom. Although I'll be taking her from before the end of the game, I think some of the actions she takes in the epilogue really reinforce this part of her personality: no matter what the player character does, whether she loves them or hates them, whether they pursue her romance subquest or not, she leaves them. Forever. Because Morrigan isn't a person who can settle down, and she's got goals and ambitions that don't revolve around anyone else. Not even if that anyone else has saved the world and/or loves her very much. Not even if she loves them back.
Tying into the freedom thing! She completely despises the Chantry, the primary religion of Ferelden, because it believes all mages need to be kept locked in towers (or "Circles") so they don't burn down the world with their powers. Of course, she also despises the mages who submit to this system. Again, it's a social Darwinist thing: those who allow themselves to be caged deserve to be caged. Freedom is for those strong enough to take it, and Morrigan has always considered herself stronger than most people. Better than most people, if she's honest. She can be very condescending to others, especially when talking about magic. Those who have grown up in civilization, she thinks, have been brainwashed by the Chantry into labeling apostate witches like herself as evil, and grouped the spirits of the Fade into representations of sins and virtues because they're too stupid to understand the world without arbitrary moral distinctions.
Admittedly, she does kind of have a point, but she's awfully rude and self-righteous about it. She also scoffs at the idea of governments for a similar reason. YOU DON'T GET TO TELL MORRIGAN WHAT TO DO, KING SO-AND-SO.
All that said, even someone as bitter as Morrigan does have a fluffy side. For someone who grew up in the swampy, foggy wilderness, she's got an enduring soft spot for pretty jewelry and admits to being somewhat vain, even if beauty isn't worth much from a survival-of-the-fittest world perspective.