Cassiopeia Auria Trenus

**Race:** Dwarf

**Origin:** Dwarf Merchant

**Class:** Assassin

**Level:** 5

**Player:** Cham

## Biography

Cassiopeia is the first-born child of the Trenus family of Tevinter, a proud clan of dwarven merchants who have made their fortune through Imperium's booming lyrium trade and close alliance with Orzammar. Despite being longtime surface dwarves, the Trenus family and the families associated with them still work alongside the Merchant and Mining Castes of Orzammar to ensure the safe passage of their cargo from the port in Jader to the Tevinter Imperium. With a healthy mix of fierce warriors and shrewd merchants in their ranks, the Trenus clan is feared by bandits and thieves' guilds across Northern Thedas, and often manages to make their way through the designated trade routes with nary a scratch on their carriages, save for the occasional scuffle with the unwise.

For a generation, Cassiopeia and Agrippa's father—Hostus Asinius Trenus—ruled the company with an iron fist and a keen mind. As the eldest in the family, it was always expected that Cass would inherit her father's position as head of the clan and take over trade operations once he retires. The moment Cass learned how to read, her education began. Cass was shown cargo manifests and the company's books of accounts, taught which crates were labeled how and why, learned the names and reputations of every family even tangentially associated with the Trenus' business. From arithmetic to geography to history, Cass was provided the best education money and connections could provide. Even combat—which her father valued just as highly as raw intelligence—came naturally to her, and Cass quickly learned the art of the dagger with an ease one could only describe as innate.

However, despite how well she took to her studies, Cass' heart longed for something beyond the four walls of her father's office.

In 9:29 Dragon, the year she turned 19, one of the many Trenus cousins came to Cass with a request: a thousand Imperial Tesserae for a clean kill. Some human or other had failed to pay their mountain of debts, and it's far past time for any leniency. This cousin was not a patient or benevolent man; to him, a life was owed to him, and so he is free to take it as he pleases. Cass accepted.

She wishes she could say it was difficult to carry out, but it wasn't. Much like when a caravan arrives untouched in Minrathous after a jaunt across Thedas, Cass looked down at the empty eyes of this man and saw it as nothing but a job well done.

And so began her double life, under the alter ego Sienna.

By day she took on responsibilities in the family business—balancing books, coordinating routes, meeting with other merchants and clients across the city—but by night Cass donned a cloak and disappeared into the shadows of Minrathous, her blade just as profitable as her pen and her smile.

With the Blight in Ferelden coinciding with the death of King Edrin Aeducan of Orzammar and the resulting unrest in the Assembly, Cass and her father had their hands full handling the waves of change that erupted from their ancestral kingdom. Business relationships had to be mended, decades-old trade routes had to be redrawn to accommodate the effects of the Blight, and any possible risks had to be accounted for. And societal turmoil brings out a lot of people's desperation; Cass had no shortage of requests. The stones under her feet ran red.

In 9:38 Dragon, Hostus Trenus laid down his pen and his sword. On the eve of Cass' 28th birthday, Hostus handed over the books to Cass and she officially succeeded him as head of the Trenus family.

## Vox Neglecta

Cass' clandestine activities brought her to the attention of the Inquisition spymaster, and Leliana has come to rely upon her and her merchant family as a source of support in Northern Thedas, in particular as one of the lyrium suppliers to the Inquisition's templars. This, in turn, might have given the Inquisition cause to send an agent—Celene Maedril—to assist her.

However, consorting with magisters is a dangerous task, and against such dangers it's best to have those you can trust beside you. And as such, when Cass was asked to assist the Lucerni with a crucial mission, she turned to her long-estranged brother, Agrippa, for aid.