The character made his debut in 2011's Dragon Age II, where he appeared as part of the game's framing device as the unreliable narrator of its plot.

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Varric reprises his role as narrator while also acting as the mentor for Rook whom he'd recruited to help him stop Solas from destroying the Veil.

Varric is listed as the first author; the actual novel is written by Mary Kirby, a former[1] BioWare employee who was one of the main writers of the Dragon Age franchise.

He is depicted as wielding considerable de facto political power by virtue of economic assets derived from his family's involvement in trade and commerce.

He is considered a merchant prince among the surface dwarves of Thedas, the setting in which the Dragon Age franchise take place, and has a reputation for being the best dressed man in Kirkwall's Lowtown.

Solving problems and gaining an advantage through diplomacy, lying, and blackmail impresses him, whereas he finds straightforward violence and outright thuggery to be distasteful.

The events of Dragon Age II evoke his compassion and selflessness, revealing Varric to be a goodhearted person who appreciates kind and thoughtful acts, and who is determined to rebuild Kirkwall after being elected as Viscount following his adventures in Inquisition.

[5] Varric was originally written as a sleazy and untrustworthy character, one who "knows a good shirt can sell a story, and the right clothes are every bit as valuable as coin".

[2] The development team later decided that given all the opposing personalities in the party, a companion who would stand up for the protagonist of Dragon Age II was necessary, and Varric was eased into that role.

[10] His dress style is described as "a subtle snub to tradition, foregoing the typical beard while making light of ostentatious merchant families".

Bartrand vanishes after the Deep Roads expedition, and Varric has to divert his attention from searching for his wayward brother to keeping the now-abandoned family business from falling apart.

He reveals that after Bartrand left Varric and Hawke to die in the abandoned thaig, he started hearing voices, claiming the lyrium idol was 'singing' to him.

Varric is brought to the Temple of Sacred Ashes, located near a town called Haven, by Cassandra to provide the Chantry with information on Hawke.

An explosion at the temple is triggered by an entity known as the Elder One and his agents, which creates a massive portal in the sky known as the Breach, allowing multitudes of demons to escape from an otherworldly realm called the Fade into the mortal world.

He later joins the Inquisition along with the protagonist, who is hailed as the Herald of Andraste due to their newfound power to banish demons as well as close the Breach and any similar portals of smaller size known as Fade Rifts.

After the Elder One's subsequent attack on Haven forces the Inquisition to move to a fortress known as Skyhold, Varric informs the Herald of Andraste, now known as the Inquisitor, that he knows someone who might be able to help.

The Inquisitor may eventually encounter a dwarven woman talking to Varric at Skyhold, discussing a possible lead on Corypheus's source of red lyrium.

Eventually revealed as his on-and-off love interest, Bianca Davri, she informs the Inquisitor that the location of Bartrand's Folly has been leaked, and that there are humans carting red lyrium out by the handful though the Valammar entrance.

The nobles feared the responsibility of running the city state, considering the fates of their past leaders, but could not leave the throne vacant out of concern that it could facilitate a foreign invasion.

Dragon Age: Hard in Hightown is a fictional crime thriller novel by Mary Kirby using Varric Tethras as her pen name, released on July 31, 2018.

[9] Kirby noted that then-Creative Director Mike Laidlaw offered her the opportunity to flesh out and publish Hard in Hightown as a novel following the conclusion of the development cycle for Inquisition downloadable content.

[9] Kirby described Hard in Hightown as a mystery crime novel with "more swords", and that the plot is inspired by a combination of buddy cop films from the 1980s and the works of Dashiell Hammett, in particular The Maltese Falcon.

"[21] Alluding to Varric's in-game reputation as a best-selling author in addition to being a "kick-ass crossbow rogue", Ray Ivey of Just Adventure notes that Varric's character arc in Dragon Age: Inquisition "leads into several interesting directions, including plagiarism, spies using faked versions of his works to send nefarious messages and, hilariously, a reveal that one of the other party members (the stern Cassandra) is an almost obsessive fan of his romance serials".

[9][24] The results of a match-up poll of Dragon Age characters hosted by Bioware as part of a March Madness theme in March 2015 revealed that fans voted the Dragon Age: Origins Warden protagonist, Alistair, Varric, and Morrigan as preferred party leader, warrior, rogue and mage in an ideal party respectively.

[25] Varric's abundant chest hair, a signature physical cue of the character, and his perceived sex appeal has become a running gag both in-universe and with Dragon Age fandom.

[26][8][27] In response to the announcement that Hard in Hightown was being published as a real-life novel, Ethan Grach from Kotaku felt that it was "an odd time" for the publication of a Dragon Age book, noting the meta-referential nature of the novel and that Varric's "writerly success is more of a punchline than anything else as evidenced by the title".