Levi Malone

> *"'Spoiled brat' was the nice term that Irving used to describe the future Hero of Ferelden. I can't imagine what the mean term was"*
>
>

-*On the Heroes of Thedas,* by Enchanter Melara Orsis

**Levi Malone** is a mage from the Kinloch Hold Circle of Magi who would (somehow) become the Hero of Ferelden. A skilled but highly unpopular apprentice, after passing his Harrowing Irving let Duncan recruit the young mage just to get rid of him. Being torn from his comfortable life in the Circle and forced to go on the run and almost singlehandedly stop the Blight forced him to learn some humility, and while he can be rather ruthless, he's ultimately not as much of a jerk as he could have been, especially where his family is involved.

## Appearance and Personality

Levi has been described by many as handsome, and indeed, he takes great pride in his appearance. He often made himself look purposefully scruffy so that he'd look more rugged, not like a "stodgy Enchanter". He has black hair, green eyes, and a bit of stubble. His hands and wrists bear a fair amount of scars from where he's used blood magic.

Of course, the more notable thing about Levi is his personality, which many have described as "uniformly unpleasant". Levi has an ego the size of the Orlesian Empire and he's just as stuck-up as that implies, convinced of his own glory and accepting nothing less than the best of everything. In his youth, he was even *worse -* being given everything he ever wanted and not getting into any sort of serious trouble because he knew he could just complain to his dad made him a spoiled brat and a bully growing up, who looked down on other mages for being "not as good" as he was.

During the Blight, Levi very quickly learned that he could no longer throw his father's name around and that nobody really liked him. Finding out all of this humbled him (at least as much as it could) and he at the very least became more pleasant and more empathetic, even if he still has a lot of arrogance and selfishness going on. And while he didn't really want to be a Warden, he did, in fact, step up to the plate and did his best to help save the world - even if he had a ruthless streak in doing so.

## Biography

### Early Life

Levi was the eldest child of Marcus and Lyra Malone. Marcus and Lyra were Marcher nobles who had been trying unsuccessfully to have a child for years, so when they gave birth to a healthy baby boy, the two were overjoyed. Young Levi got the best of everything, as befits a child born to nobility.

When Levi was seven, it was revealed that he was a mage. Marcus was hesitant to send him to a Circle, but he also thought trying to hide his son's magic would do more harm than good. In the end, while Marcus willingly gave his son to the Circle, he wasn't going to have him be miserable, so he gave a very generous donation to the Templars of Kinloch Hold on the condition that they made sure that his son was treated well.

And that's pretty much what happened. Levi was in the Circle, but it didn't really change much. He frequently wrote his father, who sent him plenty of gifts from home whenever he could. The Templars mostly left him alone and didn't give him much scrutiny - because Marcus made it very clear that the donations would stop if Levi ever mentioned that he'd been mistreated. He grew into a very intelligent boy and a skilled mage, but he was also spoiled rotten, and it showed in the way he treated his fellow Circle mages.

You see, Levi didn't have friends, he had toadies. One was a weedy boy who was just as unpleasant as Levi was, and the other was a cowardly kiss-ass who had clung onto Levi to get a bit of that sweet, sweet special treatment. It's unclear how much Levi liked these boys, but he seemed to hold something resembling loyalty to them, as he helped cover for them when they got into trouble and seemed to genuinely enjoy their company as long as they kept singing his praises.

You know who didn't enjoy their company? Everyone else. You see, Levi was a good mage, but he was absolutely insufferable about it, bragging about his skill to anyone who would listen, lording his superiority over others, and treating anyone who wasn't as good a mage as him like dirt. And there were only one other apprentices who was as good as him: Jocelyn Amell, who was always the only person who was willing to stand up to him. Levi respected her skill, but very little else about her, seeing Jocelyn as an annoying upstart and a teacher's pet. Still, after a memorable incident where Jocelyn sent a psychic blast at him powerful enough to hurl him across the room, Levi stopped messing with her or her friends. After all, much like he had his father's support, Jocelyn was Irving's favorite apprentice and he had gotten her out of trouble at least a couple times.

Until he had his Harrowing, Levi lived rather comfortably in the Circle. He passed his Harrowing easily a few months after Jocelyn passed hers (and to this day, he's butthurt about how she was Harrowed before he was). Jocelyn left the Circle with some other mages (including Wynne and Uldred) to fight at Ostagar, and while Levi wanted to go as well, Irving denied his request, saying that he was too fresh off of his Harrowing. Of course, Levi took the denial to mean that Irving disliked him and (at least in Levi's mind) saw him as a threat.

Finally, Levi reached the limit of what he could get away with: he was caught reading up on blood magic. He was confined to his quarters while the Templars and enchanters decided what to do with him, especially since they couldn't hurt him without incurring his father's wrath. When the Grey Warden Duncan came to the tower looking for recruits, Irving had Duncan conscript Levi to the Grey Wardens just to get rid of him in a way that seemed like an honor.

### In-game decisions

* Helped heal the dog, whom he later named Cormac - he may be an asshole, but he's not a *monster.*
* Saved the mages - Levi saw the Templars' inability to control the situation as a sign that they sucked at their job.
* He protected Redcliffe not out of altruism, but because he didn't think he'd be able to see Eamon otherwise. He told Jowan to scram - part of Levi respected him and thought he deserved better (although he'd never admit it). He saved Connor with the Circle's help - he saw a lot of himself in the boy and wondered if he might have had the same thing happen to him if he hadn't been sent to the Circle.
* Sided with the elves in Nature of the Beast - because he pissed off the werewolves and they attacked him.
* Didn't defile the Urn of Sacred Ashes - because he pissed off Kolgrim and he attacked before giving his offer.
* Made Bhelen king of Orzammar
* Didn't preserve the Anvil of the Void - Shale talked him into siding with Caridin.
* Tried and failed to fight his way past Ser Cauthrien and ended up captured. Seriously wondered if anyone would bother to come and rescue him. Fortunately, Morrigan and Cormac ended up bailing him out.
* Spared Loghain at the Landsmeet. Anora was made queen and Alistair was exiled.
* Performed the Dark Ritual with Morrigan and personally killed the archdemon.

### Awakening

* Protected Vigil's Keep
* Spared the Architect

### Post-game

Levi became more and more withdrawn in the years following the Blight and elected to spend most of his time with Morrigan and Kieran. Surprisingly, he turned out to be a pretty good father. When he began hearing the false Calling, he elected to take the Wardens and go off to search for the Cure, not wanting to leave his family alone.