Cullen Rutherford

"No one ever listens until it's too late."

Cullen is a Templar who can be found during the Magi Origin story and later during the Broken Circle quest. He initially is a somewhat timid person, but is later revealed to have acquired a deep prejudice toward all mages.

Background
Not much is known about Cullen's past other than that he joined the Chantry and became a Templar. He was assigned a post as a guard in the Circle Tower to watch over the Circle of Magi where he developed hidden feelings for one of the mage apprentices - which a few of the other apprentices gossip about.

Involvement
During the Magi Origin, Cullen is the Templar assigned to execute The Warden if he or she should fail their Harrowing and become an abomination. It is later revealed that he has a crush on a female mage Warden and hated the idea of having to be the one to kill her, but had to put duty first as he states. If the Warden tries to pursue relations with Cullen he ends up becoming extremely nervous and runs away with the excuse of attending other duties.

Cullen will be found once again later in the game where he is the last surviving Templar in the upper levels of the Circle Tower during the Broken Circle quest. When the Warden meets him trapped inside a magical prison (conjured by Uldred) he tries to dismiss the Warden as another illusion which points out that, that is how Uldred saw fit to torture the Templars he had had captured.

If the Warden is a female mage, Cullen will reveal his infatuation towards the Warden which opens up a few dialogue options. "...How far they must have delved into my thoughts.. tempting me with the one thing I always wanted but could never have." "Sifting through my thoughts, using my shame against me... my ill-advised infatuation with her... a mage, of all things."

Once Cullen has calmed down, he will try to convince the Warden to kill all the mages in the Harrowing Chamber, not just Uldred and the abominations, as he fears they may be Blood Mages in hiding. He has come to fear and hate mages due to the torture and deaths of his friends at the hands of Uldred and the abominations.

If the Warden does not side with him, then he will try one last ditch effort to get the mages killed by complaining to Knight-Commander Greagoir, which does nothing as Greagoir values Irving's word more. When siding with Cullen, the Warden will have the chance to agree with Cullen's complaint to Greagoir, which in turn even leads Irving to agreeing as well - in this event the mages are all put under the watch of Cullen until something can be decided to do with them.

Epilogue
Cullen has little involvement in the Epilogue unless the Warden is a mage or the Warden sided with him during the outbreak of Abominations in the Circle Tower:


 * If the Warden sided with Cullen, or was of Mage Origin and did not grant the Tower autonomy, then Cullen will eventually become Knight-Commander of the Circle Tower after Greagoir retires, watching over the Magi with a much more strict and cruel regime than even Greagoir had.
 * If the Warden was of Mage Origin and did not side with Cullen, and gives the Tower autonomy, he endures festering mental scars from his experience in the Tower. This leads to an eventual mental breakdown during which he kills a number of Mage Apprentices before fleeing.

Trivia

 * If the character got imported from Origins to Witch Hunt, with female Magi Origin as background, is it hinted by the talking Mages in the Apprentice Quarters, that Cullen had a crush on The Warden.


 * When speaking to Cullen as a Female Mage in the Magi Origin, if Jowan is in the party he will comment on Cullen liking her.


 * Cullen will be making an appearance in Dragon Age II, and will have achieved the title of knight-commander. This may contradict the ending of Dragon Age: Origins where he flees the Circle or if the ending is achieved, he may not make an appearance at all.