#yeah orlesian undergrad arguing that their fave shitty romance book is good actually. as is their right.

[kirkwallguy]

17 for trevelyans or amells? i dont know which one would be crazier

omg thats so fun ty....this one got away from me a little. here's an orlesian undergraduate essay that mentions the trevelyans

---

When we look as far back as the 9th era, we have to remember that much of what we consider to be common knowledge is more speculation than anything else. Lady Mary Trevelyan, for example, was one of the most well-known figures in the South for the latter half of the century and yet we have little concrete evidence that she even existed prior to 9:41, with even less being known about the home she grew up in. While there are records of her family spanning several centuries, the waters begin to muddy in the 8th era with the birth of her paternal grandmother. Famously, Dr Thomas Alexan has posited the theory that there was some complicated traumatic event that led to the purging of so many records and the subsequent reclusive nature of the family: a child borne out of wedlock, an affair, a crime of passion. There is, as many have argued, no real evidence of this. Alexan's writings were accused by peers of being all theory and no evidence, "he claims to hear the dragon's roar but can't show me its scales or shit" (Milland, 14:76).

But what do we do when all we have is the dragon's roar? From salvaged records, we are able to determine that the Inquisitor was the youngest of at least four siblings. Her oldest known sister, Jane Trevelyan, was reportedly sent to the Starkhaven Circle as a teenager (c.9:14) though what became of her is unknown. It is likely she either perished or slipped through the cracks after the tower was destroyed in 9:31, given that there is no record of her ever arriving at Kirkwall's notorious Gallows.

We know a little more about Julien Trevelyan, her older brother, due to the Templar order's meticulous bookkeeping. He was stationed at the Ostwick Circle in 9:13 and stayed there without incident for several years before being sent to Kinloch Hold in Ferelden. Unusually, his reasons for being sent away were redacted in his official records; given that Ostwick rarely shied from its soldiers' crimes (setting it aside from several other Circles at the time) this is doubly strange. We can only speculate as to whether the redaction was due to his noble status or due to a particularly personal or terrible crime. Either way, all communication between him and his family ceased immediately after. Any records of him in Ferelden also disappear around the time of the Fifth Blight, though many of Kincloch Hold's Templars were lost around that time.

Rose Trevelyan, of course, has been widely speculated about. While some depictions of her (such as Lily Smith's sensationalised 15:02 romance novel The Thorn) are largely fictional, many are based on what we have gleaned from letters exchanged, strangely enough, by members of the Hawke-Amell family. Through Bethany Hawke's letter to her brother, (see: The Bird's Shadow: A Collection of Bethany Hawke's Writings 9:35 - 9:61, 'Something terrible happened yesterday...', p. 65), we know both the cause and date of Rose Trevelyan's death, something unusual for a Circle mage of her era, particularly a Circle mage from Kirkwall just prior to the uprising. Many historians are rightfully irritated by the mytholisation of Rose, making claims that it is "disrespectful to treat dead women's trauma as a romantic fantasy" (Clark, 15:91), and expressing worries that it "conflates fact with fiction in a way that pollutes the truth as understood by wider society" (Angel, 15:43).  In my own reading of Smith's novel, however, I find that there is far more accuracy than she is given credit for. Her dedication to exploring 9th era Andrastrianism, for example, is commendable, especially compared to other notorious erotic historical romances, such as the works of George S. Flay or Steven Mire.

It is likely that even Lady Trevelyan knew little of these siblings. As far as we can tell, she never acknowledged them publicly - though, of course, her hardline beliefs on mages (including her apparent hand in Divine Victoria's ascension to the Sunburst Throne) may have given her reason to stay quiet. Interestingly, her relationship with her parents also appeared to be strained, with there being little recorded contact between them after the disbandment of the Inquisition. Given the family's secrecy, we can only guess what went on behind closed doors by pressing our ears up against them and listening for the roar.

[An excerpt from 'Historical accuracy, Lily Smith, and hearing the dragon's roar' - Maria Lapi, Orlais University, Undergraduate

Note from supervisor: Clark's issue with Smith's novel was probably more about the gratuitous nature of the sex scenes rather than the historical inaccuracies - have you read her analysis of sexuality and 9th era mages in Tethras' Tale of the Champion? Also, perhaps look further into redactions of Templar crimes at Ostwick to see if you can spot any patterns. We can discuss when I am back from the Entropy conference.]