Maxwell Trevelyan (ophiophagus )

## Maxwell Vance Trevelyan

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Lord Maxwell Vance Trevelyan of Ostwick was the sole survivor of the tragedy that befell the Conclave, whereupon it was discovered that he, and he alone, possessed the means to seal the Breach that split the sky immediately thereafter. He was first declared the Herald of Andraste, and then later assumed the mantle of Lord Inquisitor of the Second Inquisition.

## Overview

### **Physical Appearance**

Maxwell is said to most closely resemble his father, Bann Edgar Avery Trevelyan. He inherited from his father his long face, tall stature, broad shoulders, and athletic build in addition to his curly golden brown hair (which, unlike many of his siblings, he keeps shorn close to the scalp.)

Maxwell inherited his mother's speckled complexion, high cheekbones, and hazel eyes. He has some hyperpigmentation and small pock scars on his cheeks from a bout of adolescent acne in addition to a scar on his temple he acquired when he was seven years old.

The Mark on his left hand resembled a long, jagged mass of flat white scar tissue when dormant.

### **Personality**

As a boy, he was regarded as a sensitive soul that spoke little, yet thought a great deal. Maxwell has always been known to epitomize the saying, "still waters run deep." He is a deeply emotional and passionate man with very strong thoughts and beliefs beneath his traditionally guarded and contemplative exterior. It's just not always easy for people to pry them from him—especially if he doesn't trust their motivations for doing so—and trust doesn't come naturally to him.

His reluctance to trust others with the parts of himself he considers important to him in addition to his predilection to think before he passes judgment has caused people to believe he's indecisive and gutless, unable or simply unwilling to stand up for himself or others in the past. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Maxwell is—and always has been—possessed of a tremendous reserve of compassion for others and can't stand to see people suffer needlessly, which made him uniquely suited to leadership of the Inquisition.

No one is more decisive in their decision making than Maxwell when confronted with cruelty and neglect in a position of authority. Where Maxwell falters most is in his interpersonal relationships, which require him to be vulnerable in a way that makes him feel fearful and insecure. He frequently copes with this by being attentive and generous with his affection, focusing entirely on his companions' needs without a thought for his own, and becomes visibly nervous when the focus is redirected onto him.

### **Talents and Skills**

Maxwell is a surprisingly gifted diplomat and leader when he needs to be, and although many assume this to be due to his noble upbringing, it's actually due to the fact that he was apprenticed to the First Enchanter of the Circle of Ostwick. The Trevelyans are responsible for his education, expert horsemanship, and love of nature. Maxwell was originally intended to be a scholar for the chantry, and as such was trained in the art of calligraphy, illumination, and illustration from a very young age.

* **STORM MAGIC** — Maxwell is a master of calling upon lightning and thunder to startle, paralyze, and otherwise smite his foes. This was the first branch of magic he demonstrated talent in as a boy, and spent the majority of his life perfecting his control over.
* **FORCE MAGIC** — Like many other mages born in the Free Marches, he was an able practitioner of force magic, but his level of control over it was nowhere near as fine-tuned as his mastery over storm magic. As Lord Inquisitor, he was trained in the art of **RIFT MAGIC**, which both enhanced the strength and his mastery of force magic.
* **MELEE COMBAT** — As a consequence of his upbringing within the Circle of Magi, Maxwell was inexperienced in utilizing his quarterstaff in a more practical sense until Dorian taught him. Although capable of defending himself with it if he needs to, he still prefers to keep his foes at a distance with his magic.
* **HERBALISM** — Maxwell is reasonably well versed in botany and the crafting of basic traditional medicine, but nowhere near an expert in the field. He abandoned this field of study upon being denied a position in the Formari; therefore relegating it to a mere hobby ever after.

## Biography

### **Early childhood**

Maxwell and Evelyn were born deep in the winter of Haring 9:13 Dragon, the sixth and seventh children to Bann Edgar Avery and Lady Margot Trevelyan. They were the second pair of twins they'd been blessed with over the course of their marriage; however, for the first time out of five children, the pregnancy was particularly difficult and fraught with illness. Lady Margot only just barely survived it with the aid of healers dispatched from the Ostwick Circle, and it was decided then and there that the pair would be their last together, for fear of her health and well being. Newborn Maxwell was noticeably smaller and weaker than his sister, but it was swiftly determined that they were otherwise perfectly healthy babes—or at least appeared to be.

A year later, Bann Edgar Avery woke to the sound of his wife's screams and discovered Maxwell convulsing with fever in their shared bassinet. Again, a healer was dispatched from the Circle, and again the healer assured them that while infant Maxwell might have been a little under the weather he was otherwise unharmed and not to worry. The healer gave them a satchel of herbs grown in the Circle to help soothe his fever and written instructions on how best to keep him safe during his fits before he departed. Maxwell continued to suffer periodically from fever-induced fits for seven years, which eventually led to local competitors of the Trevelyan family spreading increasingly vicious rumors in an effort to damage their reputation.

Many things were said during this time, but one of the more notable of the rumors were that Maxwell and Evelyn were the product of a scandalous affair with another nobleman and that's why Maxwell was born sick. No other Trevelyan child had taken ill in such a way before, and so it stood to reason that *something* had to be afoot. Later, it was decided that Lady Margot ought not have had them in the midst of winter and, from that grew the most vindictive rumor of all, borne in the insidious soil of conveniently misremembered superstition:

> *"Should mage blood run through your line, no matter how distant the relation, avoid conceiving in winter." — A book of superstitions.*
>
>

Lady Margot fought tooth and nail to put down rumors that her young son was possessed by a demon as the slander they were and was mostly successful, owing to the fact that no one wanted to be publicly associated with or caught out engaging in rumors about a boy barely out of the cradle. Maxwell inevitably overheard some of the rumors regarding his illness from other children, many of which already considered him peculiar and altogether too different from them, and made a promise to his mother that he would get better soon. And he did when, at the tender age of seven, the very last of his childhood fits gripped him at the top of a flight of steps.

Evelyn, who had always been very accurate at predicting when his fits were about to happen, tried and failed to rescue him before they fell. Evelyn was mostly unharmed save for a sprained wrist from trying to soften her fall on the landing. Maxwell, on the other hand, suffered a nasty laceration to his temple from one of the steps on the way down and had to have it stitched by one of the Bann's men til the healer arrived. Only this time, when the healer attempted to use his magic to heal the stitched wound, dormant arcane energy began to spring up from within Maxwell. Faint and delicate as it was, the healer chose not to expose it to the world so early, and instead cautioned young Maxwell to never listen to the voice of his dreams.

Maxwell experienced the pull of his magic as a strange urge to do something without knowing what, which grew in both frequency and strength with each passing month. Evelyn—just as she'd known when her brother was about to have a fit—averted many instances in which Maxwell nearly manifested his magic by distracting him from these brief trance-like states. Occasionally, spirits (or demons) would approach Maxwell in his dreams, only to be told that he wasn't allowed to speak with them and summarily ignored. However, as his power grew so, too, did the increasingly frightening spirits hounding him in his sleep at night.

Maxwell eventually fell into a trance his sister found herself unable to snap him out of during a storm that had blown in from the sea, and he sundered the hundreds year old tree in the courtyard of the Trevelyan estate in twain with a tremendous bolt of lightning. Bann Trevelyan's men ushered Evelyn indoors for her own safety while a quietly devastated Edgar Avery comforted his son.

### **The Circle of Ostwick**

The discovery of Maxwell's arcane coming of age settled over the Trevelyan family like a pall. Lady Margot took the news the worst of all, having spent much of his young life defending him against those who would tear him down just to hurt their family, just to have them proven even partially correct in their assumptions about their son. Haunted by the unkind rumormongering of her peers, she blamed herself for their son's less than idyllic life—from his illness to his magical inclination—no matter how often or convincingly her husband reassured her that it wasn't. They fought, too, over how best to handle his newfound talent at first. Lady Margot wanted to contact her relatives in Orlais in the hope of having him fostered and cared for there, where it wasn't uncommon for talented mages to be permitted entry into noble households after their Harrowings.

Edgar Avery argued that their respective families held significantly less power and influence in Orlais, and that at the very least if they kept him in the Free Marches they could utilize their reputation to keep an eye on and protect him. He eventually convinced her that they could see him released for a short time on a fairly regular basis with enough money and social maneuvering, and that it would be better for him to be surrounded by the familiar than to be ensconced in a country he'd never been to before under the supervision of relatives he'd never met. Lady Margot reluctantly agreed to this arrangement, but could never quite master the rage she felt at having one of her children taken from her.

Evelyn was confused by the sudden and stark difference in their capability—alienated by it, even—but it quickly turned to overwhelming fear upon realizing that she would be separated from her twin for the rest of their lives. They had been utterly inseparable from the cradle up til then and Evelyn couldn't conceive of their lives being any different from what she had always assumed they would be.

Edgar Avery tried his best to shelter Maxwell from the very high level of mixed emotions from his mother and twin sister by reassuring him that everything would be alright, that he would continue to take care of him like he always had. He explained that Maxwell's talent for the arcane was a gift from the Maker and that he needed to learn how to wield such a rare gift with wisdom and imperative. However, despite his father's best efforts, it came to be that Maxwell interpreted his own coming of age as a sort of death that everyone around him was in the process of mourning.

Lady Margot and Evelyn were barred from attendance on the order of Edgar Avery when the Knight-Commander of the Ostwick Circle arrived with his entourage to escort Maxwell from their estate. He feared that his wife and daughter would lash out at the templars, and wanted his son's farewell to be as calm and reassuring as could be accomplished, given the circumstances. In an effort to console his son and impress upon the Knight-Commander his intent to pursue recompense, he chose that moment to gift Maxwell his very own family signet ring. The Knight-Commander permitted the personal effect out of respect for the Trevelyan family, many of whom had been inducted into the Order over the course of its history in the Free Marches, up to and including some of Maxwell's own older siblings.

None of which had served in the Ostwick Circle in a very long time, as Maxwell soon discovered. The Knight-Commander was a largely humorless and taciturn middle-aged man with as strong a sense of duty and conviction as one might expect of a seasoned templar, but he was not known to be particularly cruel or unkind to the mages under his purview. His steady, permissive demeanor frequently put him at odds with his hot-tempered Knight-Captain and some few lower ranking templars, who believed in a much more heavy-handed approach to the running of the Circle.

Even so, Maxwell was immediately stripped of his finery save for his family ring upon arrival, and inspected by Senior Enchanter Lydia—who had, by then, inherited the position of her now deceased master as their professional spirit healer. Scars, among other physical deformities, were to be documented in an effort to curb the use of illicit magic and each mage was required to submit to an annual exam from arrival. Fortunately, Lydia was a master at setting her patients at ease and Maxwell quickly came to feel comfortable in her care—just as he had come to trust her predecessor.

First Enchanter Hallam, on the other hand, was a visage that Maxwell came to dread. Hallam was nothing like what naturally came to mind when one thought of mages; he was tall and thickly built as an oak tree and every bit as inflexible. He was responsible for the creation of phylacteries and thus his first impression for many new arrivals was that of fear and pain—a sharpened ceremonial knife cutting into the palm of his hand to harvest his blood while he thrashed and screamed. Maxwell was escorted to the Circle proper to be formally introduced to his peers afterward, and his interactions with the First Enchanter were quite limited after that.

Maxwell was, unfortunately, just as unpopular with his peers within the Circle as he'd been without. Although his family was generally well loved and respected by the people of Ostwick, many of the children of the Circle came from disadvantaged families without the means or, sometimes, the desire to maintain contact with them. This overpowering sense of abandonment in addition to his initial inability to cope with such a drastically different environment fomented genuine resentment in his peers—with one exception.

His bunk-mate Ainsley had been there the longest of their age group and commanded a certain respect as a result. Ainsley, while not precisely *nice* to Maxwell, frequently stepped in to defend him when the bullying became too much. They became friends in earnest when Maxwell asked if Ainsley could accompany him when the Trevelyan family arranged for his release for the first time on the week of his name day. His request was flatly denied but, for Ainsley, it meant the world that he'd thought to ask at all.

First Enchanter Hallam bid Maxwell deliver a missive to his father each time he was permitted to leave, the contents of which he remained unaware for some time, but eventually came to suspect were thinly veiled appeals for financial assistance from his family in exchange for his cooperation. Bann Edgar Avery never breathed a word of it to his son, yet with each year the quality of goods and basic commodities within the Circle improved markedly.

Maxwell, in the meantime, proved to be a naturally gifted mage but a disappointingly mediocre student. He found himself thoroughly disinterested in and unimpressed by magical theory and arcane academia, preferring instead to spend his time rooting through the Circle library for historical and botanical works. Ainsley, on the other hand, was both magically gifted and an excellent student; so much so that there were whispers the First Enchanter was considering appointing Ainsley as his apprentice, provided he passed his harrowing.

It was around this time that Maxwell and Ainsley's tentative friendship suffered a major set back and the two drifted apart for a time. Ainsley pursued other friendships, which had always come easily to him, and Maxwell withdrew to pursue a potion crafting position within the Formari in the hope of being released more frequently to assist the tranquil. Maxwell, unlike almost all the rest of his fellows, came to genuinely enjoy and prefer the company of the tranquil there. It was whispered that he might one day become one himself.

## **Relationships**

### **Family**

Bann Edgar Avery Trevelyan (ROGUE) — Maxwell has idolized his father for as long as he can remember, and it's not difficult for the layperson to see why. Bann Edgar Avery is famously well loved by the people of Ostwick for his attentive and considerate nature; he frequently eschews decorum in favor of getting his hands dirty micromanaging minutia other noblemen wouldn't touch with a barge pole. He leaves the social element to his wife, Margot, more often than not.

Lady Margot Elise Trevelyan née Beauvan (BARD) — Lady Trevelyan, popularly referred to as the Lioness of Ostwick, is considered the crown jewel of the family. She ensures their family name is always on the lips of the most powerful and influential across the Free Marches by any means necessary and, as such, has accumulated significant favor over the years. Maxwell loves her dearly, and vice versa, although he harbors a great deal of guilt for how his arcane talent damaged her reputation.

Lady Evelyn Maryse-Odile Trevelyan (ROGUE) — Maxwell considers his twin sister Evie to be the other half of his very soul. Born only minutes apart from one another, they were preternaturally close from the cradle and couldn't stand to be apart for too long a period of time. Evie is famous for being the life of any party; bright and bubbly and almost insatiably curious. Where Maxwell is curious about the world, she's curious about the people who live in it, and loves nothing better than to snoop purely for the sake of learning more about them.

### **Friends**

Cole — Maxwell and Cole are two peas in a pod; they're both naturally inclined to do whatever it takes to help people who are suffering, even when others don't quite understand their methods of doing so, up to and including each other. They don't always agree, yet rarely argue because each one knows the other is only trying to help. Maxwell trusts him more than many of his companions do, and listens when Cole tries to warn him about things.

Sera — Her positive outlook on life and sunny demeanor reminds Maxwell a little of his twin sister sometimes, and his beloved students at other times. He appreciates her relentless drive to bring cheer to an otherwise grim world and considers her a valuable mouthpiece for the common people and servants. Sera makes him feel like he's reclaimed some small part of his stolen childhood with their shared pranks and her uncanny ability to needle him into saying silly things he wouldn't dare consciously say to, or even in front of anyone else.

Blackwall —

Varric Tethras —

Cassandra Pentaghast —

The Iron Bull — Maxwell is inexorably drawn to and fond of The Bull for one very important reason, and that reason is that The Bull seems to understand him on an almost profoundly fundamental level. Out of all his companions, second perhaps only to Cole, he feels the need to explain himself the least to The Bull. Rationally, he knew this understanding was quite dangerous—given his particular brand of allegiance to the Qun—but the greater part of him was almost too relieved to care. The Iron Bull shouldered some of the pressure he was under on the field, and facilitated moments where Maxwell felt comfortable enough to just be himself, even if only for a moment. He was one of only three capable of doing it, too.

Madame de Fer — Maxwell and Vivienne might disagree on how best to improve the lot their fellows, but he respects the fact that the Iron Lady is trying, in her way, to do just that. Maxwell is not nearly as dismissive nor derisive of her Loyalists as many of the rebel mages under his care; he understands they're a force to be reckoned with all their own, and they're not going anywhere any time soon. A part of him understands, too, that some mages yearn for the comfort of order and guidance and thinks it's unfair to just ignore them. Vivienne, for her part, might very well think him misguided—maybe even a little naïve—but another, lesser recognized part of her has grown to care for and respect him even still.

### **Lovers**

AINSLEY —

HALLAM —

DORIAN —

## **Miscellaneous**

What else happened, or what else can you tell us about Your OC, bruh? Think of things like likes, dislikes, fears, strengths and weaknesses, etc. This is as close as you'll get to being able to word-vomit about your OC while keeping the article organized and will probably be the longest section. Feel free to add sub-headings as necessary with sub-heading 2:

## **Links**

### Reddit Headcanon Threads:

Life Advice & Relationships

Religion & Role Models

Ask Me Anything feat. Maxwell Vance Trevelyan

D&D Alignment & Musical Themes

How Does Maxwell Cope With Stress?

Companionship & The Bad Future

Birthday Celebrations & Complicated Feelings

Betrayal, Shining Personality & Home Decoration

## **Gallery**

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