Daylen Amell

> "*Said the one calling me Lord. Just Amell is fine. I doubt my family name holds any value nowadays. Or reputation, if any.*"
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## Biographical Information

### Affiliation(s)

Circle of Magi (formerly) · Mage Underground (formely) · Inquisition

### Love Interest

Cullen Rutherford

Daylen Amell (Born at 9:07 - 9:08 of the Dragon) is a human mage of the Circle of Magi of Ferelden**.**

He takes a role in the Inquisition as the **Arcane Adviser** and is refered by the title "**Instructor**" of their magical forces.

## Overview

### **Physical Appearance**

A tall man with broad shoulders and a slender waist, Amell catches the eye pretty easily. With short, mullet-like spiked black hair and a pair of icey intense blue eyes, he is generally considered fairly attractive on the standard beauty and it's an appeal he surely knows he has, bording the tasteful handfdul of vanity. He usually sports an incipient beard or a clean short one, but either one of those it's clear he puts attention on his self image a reasonable amount.

Not as athletic as he may look, he is fairly good at combat and defensive magic to compensate this.

Being raised on Ferelden, his taste on clothes fall much more on that fashion once he left definitely the Circle and left robes, choosing for open plain colored shirts and leather pants than anything fancier and less functional. He also has the habit to roll his sleeves (even when he wore robes) up to his elbows, and attaches his grimoire to his belt. There's a piece of a long red fabric he possesses and it's a symbol of his family colors.

### **Personality**

With a great sense of humor, Amell is a positive man with a relaxed demeanor, mischivous harmless ideas and although he could appear the serious type, he is quite playful, affable and always speaks with a soft voice. The kind of person who can't help but having a certain remark or a comeback ready.

A conversation with him may be difficult at first, as he is not as straightforward as he could seem, with that laid back energy he mantains. He is actually highly vigilant about the people that surrounds him and he won't speak his mind if his trust is not personally gained, did he learn this through the years. Which means he enjoys witty games and banter with anyone willing to, but won't share his own opinions easily, always masking them under jokes and mysticism, his intentions and standing always dubious at best.

Kind of a bookworm despite his looks, he furthered his studies in arcane researches as an scholar and he is rather educated, expected from a Circle mage at least.

He also tend to judge orders and organizations rather than individuals, Amell might be somewhat naïve or faithfull about people's true nature some times, despite being aware of how easely are these corrupted, and he will be willing to give second chances if it means there can be an understanding. Mages rights is the only thing that gets him heated if he is clearly confronted, even if once he was more neutral leaned on that matter.

### **Abilities**

 **Healing magic** (Creation school)
 **Shapeshifter** (Specialization)
 **Runecrafting** | Picked the interest and skill from a tranquill friend, and was the common study of the lyrium infused artifacts that made them bond. It partly granted him the Senior Enchanter title. Because of this, he supervises Dagna's work in the Inquisition.

## **Biography**

Firstborn to Revka Amell, hailing from the noble Amell family from Kirkwall in the Free Marches, Daylen was taken to **Kinloch Hold,** in Ferelden when he was merely a baby to separate him from his family. He never met his parents or siblings.

Amell grew up at the Circle Tower, making him a **Circle Mage**, and eventually befriended Jowan, his closest friend, and Finn**,** a nervous brilliant apprentice. He also made friends among the very few Loyalists mages and started to attent the Chantry services voluntary at the Tower chapel, which created a pro-Chantry image of himself between other appretiences. Despite this, he always held an open ambigious stance about his religious beliefs, and jokingly refused to share more about them with others, but never denied being an Andrastian.

It is hinted that this was one of the reasons why Cullen, a young templar, started to have a youth infatuation with him which lead Cullen to hold and express positive opinions about his persona, then later the feeling developed into a full fledged crush. Being aware of this, Amell tried to approach and friendly tease him in a reciprocate manner, though it never turned into anything more by Cullen's negative.

## Involvement

### ***Dragon Age: Origins***

Once he success his Harrowing and turns into an official Mage, Amell is called by Jowan to meet him and Lily, a Chantry initiate he has a secret affair with, back at the chapel Tower. Amell recognizes her from recent services but still jokes about Lily actually "existing", annoying Jowan with this. Ultimately, Jowan asks him for help to destroy his phylactery as they plan to flee the Circle to be together. Amell seems desinterested about escaping himself and rejects the idea when is offered with destroying his own philactery as well, but is convinced and accepts to at least aid them out of loyality for his friend.

They are eventually caught by First Enchanter Irving and Knight-Commander Greagoir before they are able to complete their quest and Jowan reveals to be a Blood Mage, proving the allegations and rumors about him to be true. He escapes thanks to this after Lily rejects him, but Amell is left behind, leaving him to Knight-Commander Greagoir judgment and fury. Amell speaks his truth about not knowing this, but the Knight-Commander inmediately calls for death penalty for helping a Maleficar. Irving chooses to believe Amell though, and is able to reason with Greagoir, suggesting a less imperative punishment. Feeling betrayed, Amell is punished with isolation during an extense time after that.

During this time, he drifts to the Fade in dreams every night, allowing him to piece together small memories that come back to him of what happened at his Harrowing with a disguised pride demon called "Mouse". Thanks to these little amounts of information reaching him, he slowly develops a solid knowledge in the almost forgotten magic of shapeshifting, and starts to train it by mimicking the mice, his only companions during his imprisonment. This later turns to be his specialization, although he keeps it mostly a secret.

By the time Uldred’s conspiracy brokes and the Circle is rampant with abominations, demons and blood mages during the Fifth Blight, Amell is able the free himself and leave his cell definitely. Reaching Wynne's group, he stays with them to protect the children and other injured mages. Though he never showed any kind of ill feelings towards templars, Greagoir's decision of abandoning mages and templars alike inside the Tower makes Amell to react very frustrately at the situation. He voices these opinions to the Warden if asked, and mentions Wynne to be too comprensive for the mages sake. He also voltuneers to join them the same way Petra does, but is entrusted with the security of the group as well. He ultimately asks the Warden to help the survivours they might encounter, and specifies he hopes they find a templar by the name Cullen between them.

With the Tower secure again, he may be shown helping a survivor Irving to walk, and inmediately rivalizes Cullen’s request about annuling the entire Circle, showing negative and distrustful intentions at the order for the first time.

#### *Witch Hunt*

When encountering Finn back at Kinloch Hold and going to the repository, he mentions how two of his closest friends made a mess of the place once before the Blight, refering to time Jowan escaped. He wonders then how Amell is doing back at Kirkwall, since he got recently transfered to the Gallows, in search of new talent. He describes Amell as a very talented mage, as he was the youngest apprentice that joined the Circle at the age of two, and that he believes he could be easely promoted to Enchanter or even Senior Enchanter in just a few years. However, he never striked for an ambitious one to Finn, and didn't look very happy in going away. He hopes Amell writes him.

### *Dragon Age II*

Some time after the Fifth Blight, Amell was sent with others to The Gallows and eventually comes in contact with a few members of the **Hawke family**, his distant relatives, and the Champion of Kirkwall among them.

Hawke encounters Amell for the first time in Enemies Among Us, while looking for a lost templar recruit named Keran. When reaching the Sanctuary located under Darktown, the party sees the mage in front of Keran's cage, and mistakenly assume he is the one keeping him hostage. A brief banter happens with Amell saying they got the wrong idea. If Bethany is present, she let's out a incredule *"It can't be. Carver?"*. If otherwise Carver is there, he voices his surprise about his resemblance. When Tarohne appears and the battle happens, Amell explains he was after the ones kidnapping the templar recruits, suspecting they were blood mages using vulnerable apostates for some type of scheme. If asked about his identity or his true purposes, the mage gives vague responses until he gives his name, and it is revealed he is a member of the Amell family, one of Revka's children, and a second cousin to Hawke. If Anders is a companion, he is also able to recognize him as a Circle mage from his time in Ferelden's Tower. After giving insight about Keran's current state, Amell suddenly dissapears at the party's back.

He can be found at the Gallows courtyard, being watched by the present templars, after informing the situation to Cullen. If Hawke tells him about a rogue mage that helped them against the blood mages, Cullen would find it curious but say he didn't recieve any informs of permissions out the Circle or escapes recently. Initiating a conversation with Amell will make him comment amusedly about "telling on him" to the knight-captain and to joke about if that's what having siblings (or cousins, in this case) suposses to mean. He then thanks Hawke properly for his assistance, but advise them to watch out for their implications with the Order and its consequences. He also warns them about the movements and uprising of Blood Mages, as a lot of mages had been retorting to this lately. While he didn't want to have anything to do with them, he was aware Tarohne's group were capting and using vulnerable apostates for their plans, something they wanted to stop. When asked who he is refering to or how he sneaked away, he goes back to vague and ambigous responses, implying the Gallows are never safe.

Several conversations also reveal important information about him: he is an Enchanter at the Gallows, not an apostate, and he actually grew up at the Fereldan Circle until he was transfered some time after the catastrophe at the Tower. He explains this is the reason why he personally knows Knight-Captain Cullen, and jokingly calls them "*old friends in not very good terms at the moment*" for "*nimial discrepancys on beliefs, you know*" with a sarcastic tone. When he finds out that the Hawkes are his extended family, he admits that meeting them in Kirkwall is surprising enough, but makes him content as they probably might never have met otherwise. Althought he seems rather indiferent about the noble status they are trying to earn back, he behaves friendly and looks open to know more about them, even mentioning to write to Leandra sometime.

He also takes Bethany under his wing if she is sent to the Circle, promising Hawke he will take care of her.

As years pass, Amell slowly becomes more radicalized and angry while witnessing the abuse the mages suffer at templars’ hands at Kirkwall, abandoning the neutral opinions about mages rights he held once. Some rumours among the circle mages also places him working with apostates and mage sympatizers in a network called the Mage Underground, which makes him keep a low and solo profile to not risk his envolvement, helping mages to escape the Gallows from the inside the Circle. Mistress Selby, a woman at the docks, mentions an important member of the secret Underground railroad called "Mouse" who has been strategizing escapes and running out and back to the Circle escorting mages to secured places in the city while dodging templars thanks to a strange magic. This is later revealed to be Amell's shapeshifting magic, elluding the Order while transformed in the form of a mouse. He is later promoted to **Senior Enchanter** and becomes a close assistant to First Enchanter Orsino, who he has been supporting in his efforts to protect the Circle mages.

This was, until Knight-Commander Meredith and First Enchanter Orsino declared their open war in the last years, and blood mages and templars persecution become the norm, resulting in the Chantry blown up incident, that he started to realize the breaking point the city reached and stepped down from supporting the radicalized side. When both Meredith and Orsino perished by their own actions and the war started, Amell was forced to become an apostate as the Circles fell.

### *Dragon Age: Inquisition*

Tracked down and captured by Cassandra Pentaghast in her search of Hawke’s location, Amell reveals to have no knowledge of this or any of his family situation once Hawke disappears from Kirkwall and so, no way of being helpful at all to her cause. Cassandra probes this to be not true then when she forces him to join the Inquisition forces in need of personnel, and in exchange she wouldn’t execute him for apostate and aid provider in the mage rebellion. Accepting this, Amell is tasked to talk with Cullen, an “old friend” and recruit him for the Inquisition forces as well, alluding to their old relationship, even previous to Kirkwall. While Cullen is given the Commander role, Amell gains the Advisor title in Arcane instruction and coordinates magical reasearchs for the Inquisition from the war table. Coming back to his more moderate reasoning about the templar-mage conflict and his beliefs of individual worth before organization judgment, he also gives refuge to the few rebel mages that decide to follow him instead as he advocates for mages rights as free individuals and their general welfare. Though he may clash with Cullen in these matters from time to time, they work together to mend the fractured relationship between the templars and mages in their improsived alliance, as well as their own personal relationship too.

## **Relationships**

### Amell family

* **Hawke** (second cousin):
* **Bethany** Hawke (second cousin)
* **Carver** **Hawke** (second cousin)
* **Leandra** **Amell** (first cousin once removed)
* **Gamlen** **Amell** (first cousin once removed)
* **Charade** (second cousin)

### Kinloch Hold

* **Jowan**
	+ His best friend. They grew up together at Kinloch Hold and had a close friendship where they were confidents, joked and covered for each other. Amell was always the one more carefree and mischievous of the two, while Jowan tended to put them through potential scolds thanks to how easily he convinced Amell to do anything. When Amell started to notice Cullen's infatuation with him, Jowan got worried and reminded him how dangerous it was for templars and mages to have affairs together. After Jowan's escape and revelation of him being a blood mage, Amell felt betrayed for being used and lied to, which led him to turn away from Jowan once he returned to the Tower, not accepting any kind of apology from him, even if Jowan confessed being jealous of Amell's magic talent back then. They spent years with no contact at all until Amell is seen reading a letter from Jowan during his time at the Inquisition. He admits he grew worried about his old friend situation after the Circles' fall, asking Leliana to track him down as a favor and feeling better knowing he survived, implying they got in contact after that and Amell eventually forgave him. Only then Amell realized he might have held feelings for Jowan in the past, but none of them were aware at the time.
* Finn
* First Enchanter Irving
	+ His mentor, and a prominent figure on his formation. Since Amell started prematurely to learn magic due his very young age, a couple mentors tutored him until Irving was informed of his early talents and took him under his wing, claiming him "prodigy", as something that had to be properly nurtured. This granted him some favoring but also put on him great expectations in the Circle, ones he never understood fully. He was always trusting of Irving, but learnt to hide things from him in his teenage years. However he always expected some type of approval from him, which was the principal motivation to face his Harrowing. Amell shows concern for an Irving that survives the broken Circle and defends him when he is accused of being potentially possessed.
* Knight-Commander Greagoir
	+ A watchful authority figure, and someone Amell learnt to keep a distance with. Being the Knight-Commander, Greagoir never had much direct contact with Amell, but being aware of his title and what he represented was enough for Amell to know he was supposed to not catch his attention. Which he did in a couple times thanks to him not take very seriously some of the lax rules as an apprentice. Amell considered him one of the most inflexible templars and was proven right when Greagoir tried to execute him.
* Carroll
	+ A templar with a bad reputation, and one of the examples Amell used to have for "jerk templars" due to his behavior. Amell was no exact victim though, since he kind of pranked on him more than once and generally had tension with him.
* Wynne
* Lily
	+ Good acquaintances. They met at the Chantry services the initiates offered at the Tower chapel. Mages weren't openly allowed to assist, but Amell made friends among them and visited frequently. He was not surprised when Jowan revealed Lily was the girl he was talking about, but Amell wasn't really interested in their love affair, even behaving a bit bothered. Either so, he tried to defend Lily when Jowan escaped.

### Kirkwall

* Anders
* First Enchanter Orsino
* Knight-Commander Meredith
* The Mage Underground

### The Inquisition

* The Inquisitor
* The advisors
* Cassandra Pentaghast
* Varric Tethras
* Solas
* Dorian Pavus
* Vivienne de Fer
* Sera
* Cole
* The Iron Bull
* Blackwall
* Mother Giselle
* Morrigan
* Fiona
* Lace Harding
* Dagna

## **Trivia**

* Since his prefered form is a mouse, Amell mentions he developed a big distaste for cats, calling them *"Stupid furball-coughing beasts"* and their hunting skills to be a "*mice mennace*", alluding to one time where the tower mouser stubbornly chased him around while he was training his shapeshifting magic.
* It is mentioned several times how very physically similar he is to Carver, in the same way their mothers also looked very similar being cousins, probing he is unmistakenly blood-related to the Hawkes.
* Varric's nickname for him is "*Pretty eyes*".
* He enjoys male company exclusively, and is open about it. However Amell reclutantly admits he had something purely physical with Anders back at the Tower during the night of Wicked Grace in Inquisition and annoyingly thinks of it as a "youthful mistake".
* Amell seems to usually introduce himself using his family name mostly, but rejects the idea of being "appropiately addressed" if using a noble title with him. He reminds Josephine of this several times in Inquisition, but she still uses the "Lord" title to mostly tease him.

## **Gallery**

Dragon Age: Origins AmellDragon Age II AmellProclaiming the InquisitionAmell at the Arcane Advisor officeCullen and Amell at the Winter PalaceAmell discussing Cullen's use of lyriumCullen and Amell at the War Table