Inquisition Dossier: The Herald of Andraste
Name: Conan Trevelyan
Age: Late thirties, Early forties
Born: City of Ostwick, Free Marches
The Herald's life despite his noble birth wasn't always filled with easy years. He grew up in a family of six, with him being the youngest. His mother and father already had their hands full dealing with their shipping business within the city without having to deal with all the kids, and their father felt it necessary to pay top price for their eldest son's education, so there were no nannies for him. He was raised by his sister, who was a young woman during his childhood, soon to be promised to the chantry, to her father's relief. In fact, besides the eldest son, all of their children would be promised to the chantry order, in exchange for positions of power within them given later, while the Trevelyans continued to give their support and help with distribution of chantry lyrium in the Free Marches.
In the Herald's years, he got into all sorts of mischief without his parent's watchful eye. Even adventuring and almost getting himself killed when he wandered into the Dalish clan Lavellan. Seeing this human noble brandishing a weapon almost cost the young man his eyes, which would have been filled with arrows surely, but clan Lavellan was more understanding than what he'd been lead to believe. It was the eldest hunter who'd had the most experience with humans that decided to spare him, as he recognized that the young man was genuinely curious in their way.
The clan sent him on his way of course, but being a noble and stubborn by nature, the young man eventually convinced them to let him speak. They did not say much, but they tolerated his presence and curiosity occasionally. They never stayed for very long anyway. Eventually he was treated as an exotic animal that occasionally liked to wander close to camp.
This 'relationship' would prove useful in the coming years as the youngest of the Trevelyans would be called to take his place within the Templar order. He wasn't given much advance noble education, but he was educated still, trained in some of the discipline and combat skill that is associated with the Templars without knowing the intent. After his time with the elves, he'd grown more and more resentful of his fate to become one. When the mage rebellion came, it put his recruitment on hold. He'd managed to stay from it already by beginning his own rival shipping business on his own with money he was given, rather than spending it on silly frivolous clothing like other noble children did.
It was small and barely kept a foot off the ground, but even that was a feat in Ostwick with their family business running at full speed from the war. Papa Trev was impressed. His elder brothers volunteered to sign up with the Templars despite their cut from the Chantry, which also made his parents reluctant to throw their youngest remaining boy away. These good graces were soon lost in the coming years. And it started with a little smuggling.
Conan took small samples of Lyrium from his father's supply business to trade with the eldest Dalish hunter who spared him for his people. They only had a few mages, and they did not use lyrium as much as Circle mages, but they still needed a trustworthy source, and Conan was that source. He also traded meats and metals that they wouldn't have access to otherwise. Even waxes and oils that they just couldn't make for themselves, which was good for many things, but mainly for keeping bow drawstrings in better condition than normal animal fats could.
Sometimes, things got bad enough that he'd have to rely on the unreliable arrivals of the elves for trading and to stay in business.
The war brought on many changes, one being an increase in strange travelers claiming to escape this war front or that. It was often assumed that they were mages themselves, which lead to tensions within the city itself due to Templar presence. Meanwhile, adult Conan actually runs into a mage woman. An elven mage woman supposedly from the alienages; homeless, cold and using her magic to conjure herself a fire. She had long raven hair running past her shoulder, and eyes the color of the fire that she wielded. The man had never experienced love, but at that moment, he could feel the sensation. He took her into his home away from their parents. Clothed and fed her, kept her safe for a time. And during that time the two had grown close.
He wished to marry the girl, but he knew it couldn't be, as did she. He grew resentful of their situation and the war, and together, they started thinking of ways that they could improve the lives of her fellow mages despite the presence of Templars in the city.
Trevelyan immediately got to work, first making good on contacts he'd received from Dwarven surfacers that heard rumors he could get them Lyrium, and were looking to spread their influence in the Free Marches. The Carta. He of course refused to do so before, knowing that they had no solid information to blackmail him with, and that they only assumed he had access to it, being who he was. But with the mage wars and Templar oppression running rampant, Conan gladly accepted the offer now. His men were now allied with theirs, and he gained influence from outside the city, which got him more gold, once he used his connections as a noble and his father's son to steal even more Templar Lyrium. Not just any Templar Lyrium of course, but his family's like before, but in much greater amounts. This went on for months without Papa Trev ever knowing why he was losing profits or Lyrium, and as the Carta's influence grew, so did Conan's.
The Herald used that influence and the men at his disposal to devise an underground effort to sneaking mages out of the city past the watchful eye of the templars to stay on a base he had built just outside the city, where they'd live in secret until he could relocate them again. There were a lot more mages in the city than he thought, and his base soon turned into more of a colony, which he knew would be problematic if he waited too long to move them.
This effort would go in vain however, as the Templars finally caught wind of what was going on due to their desperate need for lyrium, and so they sent their spies to figure out the source of the thievery and eventually got the name Trevelyan after a dwarf or two was tortured mercilessly, then dispatched. When his father got the news, he had little choice but to offer any support he could, so he sent his remaining two sons that hadn't yet gone off with the others to serve as Templars and help track down their brother.
The Herald had no idea that his brothers were after him, and when the Templars caught him with a group of elven and human mages outside the city close to Dalish territory, they immediately attacked, assuming him a traitor who was willingly feeding Dalish combat prowess with mage firepower. This normally would not be the reasoning of Templars, but they were also lead by a Chevalier champion who too had heard reports of mages fleeing to Dalish clans in other parts.
These were lies, of course. Nothing more than paranoia of the Chantry and Templars, when in reality, the elves would never risk such attention from humans. It didn't help that the Carta secretly monitored Conan's movements out of paranoia, and knew he gave the Dalish the stolen Lyrium, which the templars now knew as well because of it.
Things came to blows, magical attacks flew, and when the templars used their abilities to stop Trevelyan's mages' powers, the young man blew his battlehorn and immediately, the forest burst forth with dwarven rogues. Daggers and arrows flew, cutting down many Templars before Trev and his hired men charged the Chevalier and his two brothers. Obviously, he came prepared, even if he didn't know about the attack. Young Trevelyan was no fool.
The Chevalier killed many of them, and Conan's elven mistress was almost one of them, suffering from a thrown dagger buried in her shoulder. This sent Trevelyan into a rage, killing several Templars surrounding the Chevalier before brutally murdering him as well. He suffered an injury to his left eye, but the elven woman quickly healed it before he lost it all together.
His men were all but wiped out, but the Carta managed to kill the Templars all to the last man. He had no idea that he'd murdered his brothers at all. It wasn't long before more Templars came, and this time he was in no shape to fight them off. They would surely die if he tried. Instead, he said his goodbyes to his mage friends, and goodbye to the elven woman, choosing to lose her so that she could live.
He ordered them to reach their colony, then run for the Dalish clan and ask for help from his Hunter friend, but when they found them, they would only accept the elven amongst them at most, as they came with too many people which would surely cause the Templars to come hunting them as well.
Instead, they kept a dozen elven mages, then sent the rest of the city elf mages with their hunters to go find clans that would take them in. Trevelyan's mistress and her people had found safety, but the human mages were once again alone, and on the run. This also gave the Templars someone to chase, and reason to ignore the Dalish.
Meanwhile, Conan turned himself in, and he was dragged back to Ostwick to his waiting parents. When the Templars told him what they found, and that he'd killed his brothers, his father in a rage ordered his imprisonment, where he'd be tortured before execution. The news that he'd killed his brothers hit him hard, especially since his sister claimed to disown him and spat in his face. But when he saw the Tevinter mage his father managed to acquire for him with their distant family connections, his resolve strengthened, and he gave up no knowledge about the whereabouts of apostates. His hate for his father and Tevinter grew with each day that he was under his care.
After a week, the youngest Trevelyan finally gave up what information he knew, even about his lover. However, he still managed to avoid leaking information about the Dalish involvement. By then, the apostates were long gone anyway. His father ordered his execution. However, his mother would not have it and threatened to leave Papa Trev if he dared killed her child.
It was because of her love that his life was spared. But the Templars demanded satisfaction for his many crimes. Even if his parents could forgive his stealing from their business and attacking their very livelihood, they could not forgive the deaths of their men, and would not. So, his father did the only thing he could. Still in chains, the Herald was dragged before them all, and promised to serve the Templar order then and there, and if he ever refused or tried to run, he would be killed.
This however was not enough for them, and the Templars promised that if he ever tried to run or was anything less than faithful, his family would pay dearly for his crimes. This was how the Herald of Andraste would find himself at the conclave, forced to serve on the opposite end of a war he chose to take part of, whether he wanted to or not.
Needless to say, when the Templars, as well as the mages were killed at the conclave and his family once again free from danger, for now, it could only be seen as the will of the Maker.