She presents herself to the Inquisition as a representative of the Orlesian Court and a self-styled leader among the mage community of Thedas, the world setting of the Dragon Age series, who supports the status quo of cloistering magic users into supervised training facilities known as the Circles of Magi.

Vivienne is the mistress of a nobleman from the nation of Orlais, Duke Bastien de Ghyslain, and is recognized as the official enchanter to the Orlesian Imperial Court prior to the events of Inquisition.

She is originally from Rivain, a realm in Thedas known for its human population's ethnic diversity as well as its unorthodox tolerance of marginalized or minority communities like the elves, mages and Qunari.

[1] She is a member of the Circle of Magi organization, which is under the authority of the Chantry, a monotheistic religion who worship a deity known as the Maker and venerates the prophet Andraste, which mandates that "magic must serve man, not rule over him".

[2][3] Vivienne has very specific views on the roles of the Chantry and the Circles of Magi, and that her motivations for joining the Inquisition to bring peace back into the world are very much ulterior.

[11] Senior artist for Inquisition Rion Swanson recalled that a lot of "back-and-forth" occurred during a collaborative creative process between the game's writing and design teams.

[12] He believes the design team has succeeded in creating a dramatically unique appearance for her, namely “the combination of sleek and powerful shapes with the ornate gold and fine fabrics.”[12] He noted that "watching her move through the world with flowing fabric and using her awesome mage abilities is a real nice counterbalance to some of the other heavily armored characters in your party".

[14] Vivienne, without relying on a mage's destructive magical powers, "can rip her opponents apart verbally, politically, socially—and make ice seem like the gentlest option".

[14][6] Vivienne has also been compared to the ortolan bunting by Kirby, described as an allegory to the character being "caged and suffocated by elegance"; in French cuisine the bird is confined, force-fed and then drowned in armagnac before being roasted.

For Vivienne's subplot, she requests that the player locate and slay a rare species of wyvern for its heart, the purpose of which she only reveals upon completion of the task to be a key ingredient for her attempt to cure the ailing Duke Bastien.

[25] American author N. K. Jemisin praised Vivienne as an "awesome character" in her own right who is "powerful, occasionally vulnerable, subtly manipulating events to her advantage at every turn, and not at all shy about telling the player she’s doing so".

[26] Will Partin from Kill Screen, whose article inspired Jemisin's commentary on Vivienne, remarked that while she is a refreshingly sex-positive character, she never comments on her identity as a black woman in any meaningful way in the game.