Aveline is the daughter of a chevalier named Benoit du Lac, who fled from Orlais to Ferelden after losing his patron to assassination. Raising her on stories of knights and adventures, he hoped Aveline would be a knight, even naming her after Ser Aveline, the Knight of Orlais. He eventually sold everything he had to sponsor her into King Cailan Theirin's service. Aveline met and married Wesley Vallen while in the Fereldan army, where she was an officer. Her company was part of the first charge. However, Loghain's betrayal at the Battle of Ostagar forced them to flee the darkspawn horde. She ordered a scattered retreat and told her people to make their way home. She and Wesley eventually made their way to Lothering's outskirts, where they met Hawke. After the death of her husband, she joins Hawke and together they manage to arrive at Kirkwall's city where they work together through a plethora of events to earn wealth and prestige. After the Qunari attack on the city, Aveline would become captain of the city's guard.

Born in a carriage halfway between Cumberland and Val Chevin, Cassandra is the seventy-eighth in line to the Nevarran throne. Cassandra was raised in her family's estate in Nevarra City. In 9:10 Cassandra's parents, Lord Matthias and Lady Tigana, took the wrong side in the second attempt to overthrow King Markus Pentaghast and were executed by the king. At the suggestion of his court, King Markus ordered the execution of most of the conspirators' immediate families, fearing reprisals from vengeful relatives down the line. Cassandra and her brother were spared because they were only children at the time and family to the king; most importantly, they had an influential relative to vouch for their behavior. Their father's brother, Vestalus, was a senior member of the Mortalitasi and as such beyond the reprisal of the king, and he took them in as his wards. Cassandra and her brother moved to the Grand Necropolis of Nevarra. She left behind her life of privilege and wealth and began Seeker training at the fortress of Montsimmard, apprenticed to a senior member named Seeker Byron, where the majority of the focus was on her religious rather than martial education. Though this frustrated her at first, she eventually embraced her studies and excelled. She underwent her vigil at the age of fifteen in a remote castle in the Blasted Hills of northern Orlais, the youngest Seeker to do so since the Storm Age. Though of noble birth, Cassandra turned her back on a life of wealth and privilege to join the Seekers of Truth. The ancient order serves as a watchful eye over corruption and magical threats, granted ultimate authority in its investigations by the Chantry.