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[Bayonet Hipshot]

Greetings. While I was browsing the DA Wiki, I came upon the Wiki entry for House Trevelyan. What I found there is fascinating.

 

Here is the background on House Trevelyan:-

 

Originating in the dual walled Free Marcher city of Ostwick, the Trevelyans are a noble house noted for their piety and connections within the Chantry and the Templar Order. Younger members of the family are often expected to follow a career in service of the Chantry either as a member of the Chantry itself or as a Templar, regardless of their personal feelings or motivations. Many members of the family presently serve as members of the chantry and the Trevelyans are reliably on a first name basis with most of the Chantry in Ostwick.

 

The Trevelyans have relatives among the nobility of Nevarra and the Tevinter Imperium, including House Pavus. The Trevelyans also maintain a relationship with the Montilyet family of Antiva.

 

It mentions that House Trevelyan is very devout, very pious and has close connections with both the Chantry and the Templar Order. Naturally, playing as a mage Trevelyan is an interesting experience to say the least.

 

Did House Trevelyan see mage Trevelyan as a curse brought on by the Maker and this made Mage Trevelyan into a Loyalist Mage ? Or perhaps this made mage Trevelyan very distant and resentful of their family ? Or perhaps mage Trevelyan saw their magic as a gift from the Maker ? Or perhaps mage Trevelyan is not very fond of her magical gifts and wishes to be normal like Bethany ? Or perhaps its something else altogether ?

 

I'm curious and fascinated to learn how mage Trevelyan players approached the relationship between their Mage Trevelyans and House Trevelyan.

 

Cheers.

[Al Foley]

Basically...well as background I think the scions of House Trevelyan basically snuck Benjamin off to the Chantry in the middle of the night so as not to raise social shame amongst the other houses of Ostwick and the Free Marches.  And then cut off contact.  So the kid virtually grew up only with the barest of understanding of who he was and what he was.  So his belief in the Chantry, he was an Equatarian, and his belief in most everything evolved independently of his house. 

[Gervaise]

Mage Trevellyan had been my only human play through thus far and I decided to make him an ultra conservative type, so he got on extremely well with Vivienne.   One of the mages in Redcliffe recognised him as being the First Enchanter's pet in Ostwick, which was completely appropriate for the way I was playing him.  Of course, because his family are so devout and well in with the Chantry, he did get the sort of perks that Vivienne did and was allowed out of the Circle on regular occasions to attend social functions.   After all his own relatives were chock full of Templars so they could guarantee he would be properly supervised.    Naturally he was appalled at the mages signing up with Tevinter, so off he went to seek the help of the Templars.   He is my only PC who has allied with them rather than conscripted.    He struck up a romance with Josie, which is likely to meet the approval of his family.    The only thing is I don't really like him all that much, so I sort of ran out of steam before getting to the end but I've a fair idea that Vivienne is going to end up Divine, since he will be voting for her, and thus things will be looking good for him in the future.    If we get as far as Trespasser, naturally he will put himself at the Divine's disposal as her private army and will want to hunt down Solas like the dog/wolf he is.

[WobbleLikeAJelly]

I imagine my mage Trevelyan's situation to be like this:

She was a devout andrastian, and when her magical abilities surfaced, it shocked both her and her family. They didn't want to send her to the Circle, but they didn't consider there to be another option, and she shared that opinion. Being a noble, she was granted leave to visit the other Trevelyans fairly often, and, overall, was happy with her condition, believing there was nothing to be done about it anyway. She accepted her magic and her Circle, and her family continued to love her from, what they all felt was necessary, a distance.

[veeia]

This is an interesting topic!

 

I haven't played all the way through my mage Trev, but my concept for her is that she enjoyed relatively high social standing in the Ostwick Circle and was given a lot of privileges and power because of her family and their connections. Because she had family members in the Templar order, she was never removed from access to her family like other mages, but in some ways its not really a boon for her. In that PT, the Trevs are a very traditional family that prioritize hard work and faith based actions. Her family view her status as a mage as "unfortunate", but it's no excuse to not contribute something meaningful to society. They accept the status quo, but they also expect anyone in their family to be "above" whatever limitations their roles may place on them. So while she's still connected to them, it manifests in ways that are really annoying to her because they still have expectations for her even though she has none of the benefits of being a member of the family.  She was the youngest of many children, and so the values of house Trevelyan were not as instilled in her as her older siblings before her magic manifested. (Basically she was kind of spoiled and indulged in ways her siblings weren't, until it was discovered she was a mage, and now she's got the harshest restrictions) She's kind of resentful about the whole thing, because she'd like to get married and get to do fun things. She has no interest in magical research, so she mainly attempts to play petty power games in the Tower and her vague goal is to become a First Enchanter, but at the point when the story opens, she's not nearly smart enough to ever achieve that, tbh.

[Catilina]

My Trevelyan only moderate andrastian, and rebel mage of course. He totally refuse the Circle system, but not totally refuse the chantry's beliefs. Despite the fact that this was the reason to leave his family, he think his talent is blessing, not curse. Nevertheless he will never forget that the templars and narrow-mindedness deprived him from his family, and his nobility. He does not vengeful, but never will support the Circle, unless it is changed radically.

[Merengues 1945]

I really didn't care at all and went on a full libertarian agenda while playing as Trevelyan mage, which landed me in Vivienne's bad side. Knowing Alistair and Cullen and having read Asunder, I have more understanding of the templars but really in Inqusition pretty much every templar you get to know is more on the Meredith side of the order which makes easier to eff them, and the chantry people you get to know are mostly asshats or bigots posing as pious like Giselle, so renouncing the maker's side and Andraste carried no regrets.

 

Being a noble mage has to be hard; yes you could have end up in a comfy position like Viv or be regretful of how your rightful inheritance was taken away by virtue of people's fear of magic and end up wishing to take arms against those who oppressed you. I know for sure that having all the power of the Inquisitor I would have marched on Ostwick and sent all my family to prison, striped from their titles and possessions and then have it all for me.

[GoldenGail3]

Eh, I dunno about my Mage Trevelyan, but I do know that her brother was a Knight Captain at some point. I would like to think she was a Senior Enchanter though; probably in line to be the First Enchanter before the Conclave got to her.

[Dai Grepher]

I'm curious and fascinated to learn how mage Trevelyan players approached the relationship between their Mage Trevelyans and House Trevelyan.

The game lets you play it however you want thanks to questions Josephine asks you. She asks how you found the Ostwick Circle to be, and there are a range of options. She also asks about contacting your parents for support in dealing with the Chantry and such. Another range of options there.

My male Trevelyan mage played it as the Ostwick Circle being abusive when he was a teen to mid-twenties, and then after getting some help from his family the Circle was reformed due to Chantry influence and his family's connections. He himself is Andrastian, though he took no position on whether the figure seen in the rift was Andraste or not, because he is also a man of reason and logic. He knew it was reckless to make claims without proof. He was also on good terms with his parents and told Josephine that he would handle it, since he hadn't written to his parents for a while anyway and was planning to.

So I headcanon that he resented his parents at first when he was young. He was rebellious early on and the templars took a brutal stance with him, which is why his face has scars. But eventually he mellowed out and learned temperance. But the templars were cold as stone to all the mages, so he figured out ways to deal with them by getting outside help from his parents. After that he matured and pursued knowledge and wisdom (British Male voice). I also believe that he became a senior enchanter in the Ostwick Circle, and mentored many apprentices.

The only thing you really have to watch out for here is a conversation with Vivienne about some senior enchanter colleague of hers. Answering that you agreed with the senior implies that you were a young student of hers or something, which would logically make you younger than Vivienne (which could be true actually, not sure how old she is, but the implication was MUCH younger). My mage answered that he never worked with her or didn't know her well, or something like that, and this response dodged the implication of my mage's age being much younger than what I wanted.

The human mage has many more opportunities to define his past than the other classes and races. I think he also has the best Wicked Grace story to tell.

[veeia]

The human mage has many more opportunities to define his past than the other classes and races. I think he also has the best Wicked Grace story to tell.

 

Huh, interesting. I didn't have that perception of it, but then again I haven't finished that playthrough, so maybe I haven't encountered some of them.  It's my impression that all of the races get two conversations to talk about their background outside of class/race specific dialogue options: one with the convo with Josie @ Haven, and one with an NPC later. All I can remember off the top of my head right now are Human Mage with Vivienne, Cadash with Blackwall, and Adaar with Iron Bull (or Krem? I forget). What else is there for human mage?

 

edit: There's also a quick conversation with Flissa (I think that's her name, the bartender at Haven) that has a background specific question where you have multiple options. I forget what she says for anyone else, but for Cadash she talks about the Stone.

[Asha'bellanar]

Mage Trevelyan is my favourite Inquisitor for a lot of reasons.

 

My female Mage Trevelyan was specifically created to romance Cullen and the world state was that the HoF was a female mage, and we all know Cullen had a bit of a crush on her (with my mage, that was mutual, for as far as it went). Mage Trevelyan bore a passing physical resemblance to the HoF, which is what first got Cullen's attention (and, hey, maybe he's got a type, right?).

 

I played this mage as being quite moderate, very much the Aequitarian. The Ostwick Circle was known for being fairly sedate, not a lot of trouble, and her family had a lot of Templars in it, so for her, going to the Circle was not happy or fun, but it wasn't horrible. She got to visit with her family now and then and receive and send mail (it helped that her family are nobility, of course), and she sometimes used her influence to make things a little better within the Circle when she could. Nothing super political or anything, but little comforts and so on. None of the Templars in her Circle were horrible or abusive. They mostly left the mages alone (which is how it's actually supposed to be in the Circle system; the mages are not meant to be prisoners, and are supposed to have reasonable autonomy, and the Templars are supposed to just be guardians and not jailers). She went to the Templars for aid with the Breech because she absolutely refused to strike bargains with a Tevinter magister who shouldn't have been there in the first place. She also actually agreed with Vivienne that Fiona's motion to rebel had possibly the worst timing ever and Fiona had shown absolutely shockingly bad judgement in other matters, and so Mage Trevelyan didn't trust Fiona any more than she trusted the Tevinters. Plus she was horrified at what was done to the poor Tranquil, and didn't want to work with any group that would do such a thing (at the time, she didn't know about the Venatori, etc., but she had talked to Minaeve and heard about the way the Tranquil were basically abandoned). She felt like if the Inquisition allied with the mages, it would seem to make all of these incredibly stupid and/or immoral decisions seem somehow legitimate, and if she conscripted them, she'd be no better than yet another oppressor.

 

This Mage Trevelyan went through the game being fairly moderate about these things and ended up with Cassandra as Divine, as you might expect.

 

My other Mage Trevelyan was male and was very much the Libertarian, quite anti-Chantry and anti-Circle. When he had to leave his family for the Circle, he felt unfairly imprisoned and abandoned, despite the occasional contact and letters from his family. He resented that what he saw as his natural place in society had been taken away from him simply because of some fluke of nature that made him a mage. He didn't hate his magic, per se, but he hated that people locked him up and treated him like crap because of it. He was a social reformer, even if it meant complete destruction of the Circle system and the Templar order. He did ally with the mages because he couldn't stand the thought of going to the Templars, especially after the show they put on in Val Royeaux with punching old ladies in the head. To him, it just reinforced the idea that Templars are jackboots. (He did manage to be friendly with Cullen, but only because Cullen had left the Order, and Mage Trevelyan came to respect Cullen's willingness to work through his issues and move in a new direction.)

 

This Mage Trevelyan romanced Cassandra and got Leliana as Divine, which suited him very well, indeed.

 

 

[GoldenGail3]

Mage Trevelyan is my favourite Inquisitor for a lot of reasons.

 

My female Mage Trevelyan was specifically created to romance Cullen and the world state was that the HoF was a female mage, and we all know Cullen had a bit of a crush on her (with my mage, that was mutual, for as far as it went). Mage Trevelyan bore a passing physical resemblance to the HoF, which is what first got Cullen's attention (and, hey, maybe he's got a type, right?).

 

I played this mage as being quite moderate, very much the Aequitarian. The Ostwick Circle was known for being fairly sedate, not a lot of trouble, and her family had a lot of Templars in it, so for her, going to the Circle was not happy or fun, but it wasn't horrible. She got to visit with her family now and then and receive and send mail (it helped that her family are nobility, of course), and she sometimes used her influence to make things a little better within the Circle when she could. Nothing super political or anything, but little comforts and so on. None of the Templars in her Circle were horrible or abusive. They mostly left the mages alone (which is how it's actually supposed to be in the Circle system; the mages are not meant to be prisoners, and are supposed to have reasonable autonomy, and the Templars are supposed to just be guardians and not jailers). She went to the Templars for aid with the Breech because she absolutely refused to strike bargains with a Tevinter magister who shouldn't have been there in the first place. She also actually agreed with Vivienne that Fiona's motion to rebel had possibly the worst timing ever and Fiona had shown absolutely shockingly bad judgement in other matters, and so Mage Trevelyan didn't trust Fiona any more than she trusted the Tevinters. Plus she was horrified at what was done to the poor Tranquil, and didn't want to work with any group that would do such a thing (at the time, she didn't know about the Venatori, etc., but she had talked to Minaeve and heard about the way the Tranquil were basically abandoned). She felt like if the Inquisition allied with the mages, it would seem to make all of these incredibly stupid and/or immoral decisions seem somehow legitimate, and if she conscripted them, she'd be no better than yet another oppressor.

 

This Mage Trevelyan went through the game being fairly moderate about these things and ended up with Cassandra as Divine, as you might expect.

 

My other Mage Trevelyan was male and was very much the Libertarian, quite anti-Chantry and anti-Circle. When he had to leave his family for the Circle, he felt unfairly imprisoned and abandoned, despite the occasional contact and letters from his family. He resented that what he saw as his natural place in society had been taken away from him simply because of some fluke of nature that made him a mage. He didn't hate his magic, per se, but he hated that people locked him up and treated him like crap because of it. He was a social reformer, even if it meant complete destruction of the Circle system and the Templar order. He did ally with the mages because he couldn't stand the thought of going to the Templars, especially after the show they put on in Val Royeaux with punching old ladies in the head. To him, it just reinforced the idea that Templars are jackboots. (He did manage to be friendly with Cullen, but only because Cullen had left the Order, and Mage Trevelyan came to respect Cullen's willingness to work through his issues and move in a new direction.)

 

This Mage Trevelyan romanced Cassandra and got Leliana as Divine, which suited him very well, indeed.

Ah, my Male Mage Lavellan was also a Libertian (but he hated what the mages had done to Redcliffe and decided to recruit the Templars instead,)

[Melyanna]

I played my mage Trevelyan as a very religious Andrastian and a pampered noble both at home before discovering she was amage, and during her days at the Circle.
Her views on the mages situation are very similar to those of Vivienne, however, my Trevelyan had only basically ever seen the nice, easy, and positive side of things in life. Due to her sheltered life, before the events of Inquisition she had no idea of how bad things could be, or that non religious people could have very valid opinions.
She is a good person, just a very spoiled child.

[Lulupab]

There is no real information about how mage Trevelyan was treated, but there is the conversation with Josephine in which you can choose how you were treated as a mage. This way you get to choose it so anyone wanting to roleplay something will have wider options.

 

You can choose you were treated well and your family status made your life easier in the circle, or you can choose it was a living hell and you are glad to be out of it. There are several other choices. It doesn't end there, you can also choose your relationship with your mentor when taking with Vivienne, aka First Enchanter Lydia.

[Havyn25]

I usually play my Mage!Trevelyan as quite young, 16-19 years old and he'd been in the Circle since he was a child, around 5 or 6. He'd never really known anything else and didn't really know what to do when the mages and templars rebelled. He gets letters from his parents and sometimes his templar brothers were allowed to visit him in the Circle and he was allowed to visit his family because he was noble. I head canon that he lost two of his brothers in the temple explosion.

 

Some of the other mages and templars in the tower didn't like that he was allowed out for trips and he was bullied both by some mages and templars. He was very shy and had a crush on one of the templars, but was too shy for anything to ever come of it and he kept quiet. He was a student of Lydia, Vivienne's friend and got on well with Vivienne because of that but he doesn't agree with Vivienne on everything.

 

However, he was not a complete Circle Loyalist. He'd like the Circle back, but with reforms. He wants to make it more of a university, where mages can study magic etc. and not be imprisoned there. That they are free to travel and visit their families etc. He doesn't want Vivienne to be Divine and has supported Cassandra, as she seems more level-headed at the moment.

 

He's a faithful Andrastian but he isn't sure whether or not he was saved by Andraste in the Fade and still has an open-mind on that. During Here Lies the Abyss he was saddened and upset when he finds out that it wasn't true and it was the Divine, as he had such a will to believe it.

 

He's romancing Dorian and the following conversation cheered him up. "I don't believe in the Chantry, but I do believe in you."

 

Trevelyan still has doubts himself, but he wants to believe very much in a higher power.

[Ieldra]

Greetings. While I was browsing the DA Wiki, I came upon the Wiki entry for House Trevelyan. What I found there is fascinating.

 

Here is the background on House Trevelyan:-

 

 

It mentions that House Trevelyan is very devout, very pious and has close connections with both the Chantry and the Templar Order. Naturally, playing as a mage Trevelyan is an interesting experience to say the least.

 

Did House Trevelyan see mage Trevelyan as a curse brought on by the Maker and this made Mage Trevelyan into a Loyalist Mage ? Or perhaps this made mage Trevelyan very distant and resentful of their family ? Or perhaps mage Trevelyan saw their magic as a gift from the Maker ? Or perhaps mage Trevelyan is not very fond of her magical gifts and wishes to be normal like Bethany ? Or perhaps its something else altogether ?

 

I'm curious and fascinated to learn how mage Trevelyan players approached the relationship between their Mage Trevelyans and House Trevelyan.

 

Cheers.

I imagined that Maelyn Trevelyan (my mage Inquisitor) retained good relations with her family, as far as possible. She was never devout, and always somewhat rebellious, so she was actually relieved to turn out mageborn and escape service in the Chantry. Her parents were no fanatics and did want their daughter to be happy in spite of their disagreements, and so neither side saw any reason to cut their connection.

 

I imagine she wrote a few letters to her family, complaining about all that silly "Herald of Andraste" business and people's inexplicable devotion to her. Or about the irony of being the least devout of her family and ending up being seen as a religious figure.

 

As for Circle life, she was a little privileged because she came from a noble family, but she also saw her status as an obligation. Her life in the Circle was circumscribed but comparably comfortable, and she yearned for more freedom but didn't become as angry as some others.

[Wulfram]

I saw my Trevelyan as a quite privileged Mage who had initially used that for mischief, but as she grew up increasingly used it to protect her friends and then the mages in the Ostwick circle generally.

Her family were a little distant, but still family.

[Big I]

I think he also has the best Wicked Grace story to tell.

 

The qunari one has donkeys. Hard to beat donkeys.

[Dai Grepher]

Huh, interesting. I didn't have that perception of it, but then again I haven't finished that playthrough, so maybe I haven't encountered some of them.  It's my impression that all of the races get two conversations to talk about their background outside of class/race specific dialogue options: one with the convo with Josie @ Haven, and one with an NPC later. All I can remember off the top of my head right now are Human Mage with Vivienne, Cadash with Blackwall, and Adaar with Iron Bull (or Krem? I forget).

And Minaeve for a Dalish.

What else is there for human mage?

Linnea in the Gull and the Lantern. The Herald can say he remembers her, and I think she says you were always teacher's pet or the most talented or whatever. Not really that much of a background development, but it could be used as an indication that some mages envied you.

Ellendra, technically. Only the human mage can recruit her by referring to himself.

In Solas' companion quest there is an option to say that while you were in the Circle you studied the type of magic those three mages used to bind Solas' friend. Though I'm not sure if the warrior and rogue have this option only with a different quote. The symbol that appears is that of Arcane Knowledge, but the second option of saying that Rift magic could work has the same symbol (if I recall), so this could indeed be human mage specific.

I think there were a few others, but I can't remember them at the moment.

[veeia]

I think that dialogue option for Solas is open to any class that has the Arcane Knowledge perk, but it's different dialogue for non-mages. Could be wrong though, haven't played it with a non-mage who had the perk in awhile.

 

I'm not sure I'd agree mage Trev has more meaningful ones than any other race/class combo, tbh. I remember little things like that peppered through my PTs for other races. For example, Cadash can recruit Ritts by referencing their background, has little comments about the Carta in relevant missions that shed some more light there, etc. It's possible mage Trev has more specificity in some of those kinds of conversations though, particularly in conversations where the dialogue doesn't offer several options or is auto, since the function/life of a Circle mage is more easily defined than the others. I could see that how would feel more grounding. 

 

Anyway, thank you for the detailed response! I'm always interested in conversations where you can make definitive assertions about your character's experiences, because they're fairly few and far between in the game.

[Dancing_Dolphin]

I think that dialogue option for Solas is open to any class that has the Arcane Knowledge perk, but it's different dialogue for non-mages. Could be wrong though, haven't played it with a non-mage who had the perk in awhile.

You're right.

Ellendra, technically. Only the human mage can recruit her by referring to himself.

Ellendra can be recruited by anyone with the Arcane Knowledge perk.

[Daerog]

Eh, it's just a family/community background. One can be a rebel or a part of it.

A dalish mage could be indifferent to the Creators and traditions, but still be forced into it due to the rules of dalish society.

So, a dalish, mage or no, could be indifferent (and possibly convert to Andrastianism) or be all for elfy elf stuff, and seeing the temple only encouraging their thoughts (it's true, the details/assumptions were off, but the "Creators" were real and there was an elf empire).

(Since everyone is sharing) My canon Inquisitor is a Loyalist Trevelyan, and it was pretty fun. The background easily fitting was a bonus. I imagine my Warden as an Aequitarian (and Hawke was a warrior).

[DarkAmaranth1966]

My human mage never questioned being Adrastian or going to the circle. As soon as she suspected she had magic, she told her parents and asked to go to the circle before anything bad happened so, she went young. As a Noble she did have freedoms others did not and, because she was trained even before her magic fully manifested, she became a very skilled mage. She would have been content living in the circle had the rebellion not happened, and even then remained loyal as did Vivienne.

 

Of course the Conclave changed it all and, with House Pavus being related, she trusted Dorian right off so, had to stop Alexius, with behind the scenes profuse apologies to Cullen and the other former Templars in the Inquisition but, they understood why she conscripted the mages.

[KaiserShep]

There is no real information about how mage Trevelyan was treated, but there is the conversation with Josephine in which you can choose how you were treated as a mage. This way you get to choose it so anyone wanting to roleplay something will have wider options.

 

You can choose you were treated well and your family status made your life easier in the circle, or you can choose it was a living hell and you are glad to be out of it. There are several other choices. It doesn't end there, you can also choose your relationship with your mentor when taking with Vivienne, aka First Enchanter Lydia.

 

 

This is something I really enjoy about my mage Trevelyan. I was able to play it up that she enjoyed a greater level of freedom and privilege thanks to the family pulling their connections with the Templars and Chantry, so was able to be educated both in and out of the Circle. 

[Patchwork]

Although I wish we had playable origin stories BW did give us some freedom to craft those backstories ourselves. 

 

My Trevelyan enjoyed a lot of privilege in the Circle which didn't go over too well with the common born mages but as he grew older he learned how to charm and share in a way that won him more friends than enemies. The nastier templars didn't dare go near him because of that incident when he was 14 but he's never forgot and he's seen what a lifetime of lyrium can do to a templar, Crazy Uncle Asta wasn't always crazy. Things with his family are complicated, he loves his parents and siblings, his extended family are a source of both amusement and frustration but he's One Of Them and while not frothing at the mouth anti mage/magic there's a casual prejudice there that's difficult to ignore.