Magnus Trevelyan

Magnus Trevelyan
mmm, look at those default skin textures
Real World Information
Reddit Author	criticalmode
Game	Inquisition
Biographical Information
Birth Year	9:09 Dragon
Gender	Male
Race	Human
Class	Warrior
Specialization	Champion, former Templar
Affiliation(s)	The Inquisition

Magnus Trevelyan is the brother of Argent Trevelyan, and is sometimes the Inquisitor.

Overview

Physical Appearance

Magnus is tall and burly, unlike most of his family. Compared to his shorter, more slender family members, he strikes quite the imposing figure. He shares their dark complexions, though, and his eyes are the same green/gold variety of hazel as most of his siblings. He likes to be cleanshaven, but he is also a bit lazy about shaving, and is usually sporting some scruff.

During his major conflict in the Mage/Templar War, Magnus was grievously wounded. It left him with a scar on the left side of his face, running from his forehead to his jaw and blinding his left eye. Another wound left him partially crippled and unable to walk for long distances, so he uses a cane to get around.

In the timeline where he is Inquisitor, his injuries are less serious, and he recovers completely from all of them. (He still gets the scar on his left side, however - it just only splits his eyebrow in half.)

Personality

Anyone in a room always knows when Magnus Trevelyan is in the proximity. He is loud, open, and always cheerful when in the company of others. Frequently, his personality has been compared to that of a puppy: friendly, intensely loyal, and optimistic even in the worse of circumstances.

Magnus values human worth above all else, and is openly critical of nobility and other such systems in the habit of oppressing others. While a noble himself, Magnus does his best to remain civil around people of similar social standing, and uses his position to garner favors when he can. He will do everything in his power to protect helpless others, often at the cost of his own well-being. As a result, he often recklessly charges into situation without considering alternatives, much to the frustration of his peers.

He addresses conflict directly. If someone has a bone to pick with him, he will address it as soon as possible, in the kindest way he can manage. Magnus is well-aware that he can come off as aggressive, and does his best to approach a situation gently.

Talents and Skills

Magnus is a two-handed fighter, and has preferred greatswords since he began his Templar training. His impulsively protective nature means he leans natural towards defensive tactics. He was a tower shield wielder as a Templar, and eventually combined his defensive skills with his preferred weapon to become a very effective Champion. Need a tank that will literally never lose his guard? Magnus is your dude.

Outside of combat, Magnus is a skilled woodworker, though this rarely comes in handy in his line of work. He also has a ridiculous tolerance for alcohol, and has very neat handwriting.

Biography

Like his other siblings, it was assumed from a young age that Magnus would serve the Chantry later in his life. Though initially shy as a child, Magnus quickly grew into his loud and boisterous personality when his younger sister Argent was born. He realized very early on that he wanted to protect those weaker and less vocal than himself when he grew up - and was set upon joining the Ostwick City Guard.

Magnus found he had little patience for classroom settings, and though he was always polite to his tutors, he always wished he was doing something with his hands or running around outside instead of learning in a classroom. He loved to whittle little toys for his kid sister during lessons, and often played swords with her in the courtyard. This continued even into his teens, as Argent had few peers her age on the estate.

Her magic reared its head when she was nine years old, and Magnus was 14 - they were reenacting some Chantry story or another, and Argent set Magnus' toy sword ablaze when he charged for the training dummy he was attacked. She was sent to the Circle shortly after, and Magnus decided to follow her to the Circle: he would become a Templar, to protect his mage sister and those like her. His parents were pleased with the choice, and had absolutely no qualms sending him off to the Chantry.

Magnus found he quickly excelled at the physical aspects of Templar training, though he openly admitted he was not the most studious apprentice. He kept in contact with Argent while training, though the two were allowed scarce visits, and was knighted at age 18. He was transferred to the Starkhaven Circle shortly after, but dutifully wrote letters to his sister whenever possible.

Starkhaven, and the War

Long-standing doubts about his Templar training quickly began to surface after Magnus was knighted. He found that using his abilities made him feel ill - beyond the physical strain and use of lyrium, the idea that he could take power away from an innocent being he knew by name was nearly intolerable. He kept his head down, insisting it was for the greater good like he had always thought. A part of him always wanted to befriend the mages and get to know them like he knew his sister, but the divide between mages and Templars kept him at bay. He took his duties seriously, and assumed he would eventually get used to using the Templar powers.

Word of the Tranquil solution eventually reached Starkhaven. Magnus had grown to love his fellow Templars and parts of the Order's code and missions, but this solution made him absolutely burn with rage. He began to rebel as best he could without fully betraying his fellow Templars; he defied orders he thought were unnecessarily cruel, used his abilities as little as possible, and began to take as little lyrium as he thought he could manage. The destruction of Kirkwall's Chantry triggered revolt in all the Circles, and Starkhaven began to crumble. Mages were escaping, openly rebelling, and many of his fellow Templars ran off to chase these new apostates. Magnus stayed in Starkhaven to protect citizens of the city from any fighting that could endanger them.

Eventually, Knight-Captain Cullen called for Templar aid to set Kirkwall back in order, and Magnus accompanied the remaining Starkhaven knights to the city. Along the way, they encountered a group of apostates, and some of the Templars wanted to pursue them; they group ran off without Knight-Captain Rylen's permission, and Magnus pursued to convince them to stop. He only caught up to them when they had encountered the mages, and had a heated debate with his comrades. The Templars were frustrated with his insistent reasoning, and the mages were frightened out of their minds and convinced it was some sort of trap; when a Templar struck Magnus out of rage, the mages jumped in, and Magnus was fatally injured in the ensuing battle. He managed to escape when the mages and Templars turned onto each other.

He was discovered on the battlefield several days later by a kindly traveling merchant named Crisa, who took pity on him and decided to nurse him back to health. After he was stabilized, she took him back with him to her home on the island Niska, an incredibly remote island off the coast of Ostwick.

Recovery and the Resistance

Slowly, Magnus was nursed back to health by Crisa and the Niskans. By the time he could stand again, his sister Argent had been named Inquisitor. He was walking when she stopped the Orlesian Civil War, and able to work at some capacity by the time Corypheus was defeated. Niska was a rural, agrarian island with very little contact with the outside world - it was pure fate that Magnus was rescued by Crisa on one of her rare trips to the inland Marches. News of the Inquisition did not reach Niska until the Exalted Council, during which time Ostwick inquired about formally annexing the island. It was only then that Magnus heard news that a mage, a child of House Trevelyan, had saved the world time and time again.

In the meantime, Magnus recovered slowly. His injuries were too serious to land him back at 100%; he had lost all sight in his left eye, and an injury to his spine left him crippled, unable to walk long distances without a cane. He used his woodworking skills minimally at first, carving toys for Crisa's young daughter and the other children of the villages. Once he could stand and work again, he quickly became the go-to carpenter on Niska, readily helping any resident who needed assistance. Eventually, Magnus and Crisa were married on the tiny island, making their little family with Crisa's daughter official. Sometimes, things can be cute.

Magnus felt he couldn't leave Niska, nor that he could even find a way to contact his sister. He worried.

After the Exalted Council concluded, and the Inquisition's small arm of the Chantry dissolved, Sister Nightingale began to reach to the far corners of Thedas to rally up strength against a threat that no one fully understands. This included the island of Niska, and it was the resistance that eventually reunited Magnus and Argent. They crossed paths during one of these underground meetings while Argent was visiting Ostwick for a variety of reasons, and promised to never lose each other again. Aww.

House Trevelyan

The family tree! Look at all these names I had to pick out!

For as long as Ostwick has been a bannon, House Trevelyan has served as the city’s Bann. Much like the rest of the Free Marches, the Trevelyans have quite a mixed heritage – they are a blend of Fereldan, Marcher, Antivan, and distant Tevene.

Magnus and Argent hail from this ruling branch of Trevelyans, who have their own particular brand of nobility. The Trevelyans of Ostwick have garnered a reputation for being cool and collected, even in the present chaotic state of Thedas.

• Marcos Anagyros Trevelyan is the current Bann, but only in title. Once a soldier, Marcos is a boisterous fellow who seems to be mellowed out by his wife, Faustinia Algaia Trevelyan, who is seen as rational and detached, but kind and unassuming. They are not to be underestimated; these are personas they wear. Though they have little taste for the Grand Game of Orlais, the couple is very intelligent and calculating, and they are almost always acting on some ulterior motive.

• Evander, born 9:02 Dragon (age 39), is their first child, and acts as Bann Regent. While his title is technically “lord” and his parents are the Banns, Evander has assumed all the duties of a Bann while his parents do all the networking and schmoozing required by nobles.
  • Evander thinks very technically and analytically; in another world, he would have excelled as an engineer rather than a noble. He has a tendency to be cold and distant, and frank to a fault. This is an issue he’s well aware of, and he actively tries to sympathize with his fellow humans.
  • He likes things to be in order. Evander is well-groomed, and always keeps his long hair tied back with a black ribbon.
  • Evander is married with two twin daughters and a son. They live on the Trevelyan estate in Ostwick.

• Maia, born 9:04 Dragon (age 37), is the eldest daughter. She handles many business affairs of House Trevelyan, and thus works in close tandem with her brother Evander. She is married to a minor lord in Markham, and splits her time between her two home cities.
  • Maia is blunt. She takes no shit. If she wants something, there is nothing that can stop her from getting it. She is dreadfully smart and an excellent player of the Game, but her personality is very aggressive compared to those of her siblings, Magnus aside.
  • She has two sons with her husband, and they spend the summers with her in Ostwick.

• Lucan, born 9:07 Dragon (age 34), is the elder of the twin brothers. He was a Templar lieutenant in Ostwick, before being transferred to the Chantry in Tantervale shortly after being knighted. He perished at the Conclave, where he was a representative for his family.
  • Lucan, like Maia, was blunt - but unlike his sister, he was softspoken. Serious from a young age, he was always deeply connected to the views of the Ostwick Chantry, and became a Templar with full faith in the Order’s missions. He did so with a fervent belief that what the Chantry was doing was benefitting someone, somewhere - though by the time of the Conclave, the shine had come off the apple. Still, he firmly believed the Order and the Circle were necessary in order to protect all citizens, mages included, and did so from a non-zealous point of view.
  • Both Lucan and his twin Valens grew up with the same sword and Chantry training, but only Lucan became a Templar. He always chided his brother about it, but the two remained on good terms..

• Valens, born 9:07 Dragon (age 34), is the younger of the twins. Like Lucan, he grew up playing with swords and being lectured by Chantry mothers, but he went down the nonmilitant path. Valens is a brother in the Ostwick Chantry, and serves as a historian and scholar.
  • Valens has been sickly his whole life, and thus prioritizes his health above others. He is quiet and keeps to himself, and has an eidetic memory - anything he sees, he automatically memorizes. He is very intelligent, and that combined with his retention skills has made him a bit smarmy. He is the kind of person who will interject into a conversation to correct a fact that someone got wrong. For the most part, he prefers to mind his own business, and is very loyal to his family and few close friends.
  • Valens was a breach baby, and thus was born several hours after his twin brother Lucan due to complications. Their mother went into labor late at night, so it was a joke on the estate that the twins had different birthdays. Healers assumed he wouldn’t survive a week, but he’s still kicking many years later.
  • As a Chantry brother, Valens has sworn an oath of celibacy. He is not married, and never will be.

• Magnus is the youngest son, and detailed on this very page. He has more or less separated himself from the main branch of Trevelyans, as he tries to live under the radar as of Inquisition.
• Argent is the second daughter and youngest child overall, detailed on the linked page. She is the only mage in several generations in Trevelyans.
  • She married a Fereldan commoner-turned-commander, and while their children use Cullen's surname, they are considered part of House Trevelyan. Evander's children are first in line for the title of Bann, and frankly, the Rutherford-Trevelyans are grateful for that.

Relationships

Family

As you may have inferred, Magnus is very close to his sister Argent - they were each other's only line of emotional support for many years, and are usually not far from each other's minds. Magnus is one of few people Argent feels she can be completely open with, and the two are quite cheerful and silly in the other's presence. They're close, and were very glad to be reunited after the Inquisition disbanded. He is a very enthusiastic uncle to her children, and mentors her oldest daughter in swordfighting.

Magnus has little patience with nobility, but is aware his position as a son of House Trevelyan allows him much political leverage that he can use to better the situation of others. Magnus openly disparages old tradition, but conducts himself politely in the company of his noble family. As a result, his extended family knows him as a lovable rogue: they think he needs to learn to hold his tongue, but find his spunk and conviction refreshing among all the courtly intrigue.

He loves his immediate family, and knows they are not bad people, but they are prone to arguing. Magnus is hot-headed, and his family knows this and wishes he would stop starting arguments with nobles when he disagrees with them. They worry greatly when Magnus goes missing, but Magnus took his absence as an excuse to withdraw himself from the formalities of being part of a noble family.

Inquisition

Magnus joins the resistance against the Dread Wolf after the Inquisition's disbanding, but as a result, he's met a good deal of the members. Leliana finds him a hassle, but well-intentioned and a good leader; Josephine finds his bravado refreshing and charming, in its own way. Magnus and Dorian have nothing in common and chat sparing, but share a respect for each other. Dorian served as Argent's pseudo-brother during the Inquisition when Magnus couldn't be by her side, and Magnus is grateful she had someone to fill that role. Dorian recognizes Magnus' influence on his pseudo-sister's life, and genuinely appreciates that someone was looking after her in that barbaric southern Circle.

Cullen is Magnus' brother-in-law, and they get along well. The two share similar views on Circle life and the Templar order, and Magnus finds his efforts to rehabilitate Templars suffering from lyrium withdrawal admirable. (Magnus has also kicked lyrium, over a much great amount of time then Cullen; he is astounded and impressed that Cullen's willpower let him come to terms with withdrawal under so much stress and over the course of just a few months.) The two get along quite well, though Magnus initially scared him by threatening to break his arms if he ever hurt Argent. He was joking, but Cullen has always been a little wary. Just a little.

Miscellaneous

• Magnus made his own cane by hand - it's a simple thing, polished and undecorated save for a brass ring just below the handle. Really, the cane has a blade sheathed in it, and the band simply notes where the sheath begins. He is always prepared.

Gallery

• magnus in his natural habitat
• "i've made a huge mistake" - magnus trevelyan, 9:41 dragon
• magnus boutta hit some enemies
• the trevelyan siblings

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