The Amell family is a noble family from Kirkwall in the Free Marches whose bloodline dates back to the Fourth Blight.
History[]
Lord Aristide Amell was one of the most wealthy and influential men in Kirkwall, known for the opulent balls he would host at his mansion. Following the arrest of Lord Viscount Perrin Threnhold by the city's Templar Order, it was universally agreed that Lord Amell would succeed Threnhold as Viscount.[note] Even the Templars agreed that the Amells were worthy successors; however, the family was tainted by a number of scandals in the early Dragon Age and Marlowe Dumar was appointed as Viscount instead.
Revka Amell's firstborn child was found to be a mage and subsequently taken to the Circle, Revka weeping in the streets behind the templars. In 9:05 Dragon, Aristide's treasured daughter Leandra shamed her parents by eloping with the apostate Malcolm Hawke and running away to Ferelden. Damion was accused of smuggling and his father, Lord Fausten, went bankrupt trying to defend him. When that wasn't enough, Fausten borrowed from the Council of Five, a Kirkwall organization known for ties to mercenaries and slavers. Despite his efforts, Damion was thrown in prison and Fausten eventually wasted away and died. Revka disappeared one day and her husband took their four remaining children away from Kirkwall (according to Leandra, all children were later found to be mages as well).[1]
With Leandra gone, her brother Gamlen was left to care for the aging Lord and Lady Amell through a wasting sickness and three bouts of cholera. Lord Aristide eventually forgave his daughter and created a will that stated that Leandra and her children were to inherit the estate, while Gamlen was to live on a stipend, controlled only by his sister. Yet when he and his wife finally passed away, Gamlen kept the will a secret and became the new de facto Amell lord. Leandra failed to return home for her parents' funeral because she had recently given birth to fraternal twins, Bethany and Carver.
Lord Gamlen proved ill-suited to the position. He quickly gambled, drank, and whored the once vast Amell fortune away. He also married a commoner, Mara, with whom he had one daughter, Charade. Mara left Gamlen without ever informing him of his child. The Council of Five sought out Gamlen to repay his uncle Fausten's debts. With no other options, he eventually sold the once-proud family mansion to slavers to pay off his debts, and was forced into a Lowtown hovel.
The Fifth Blight struck Ferelden in 9:30 Dragon, overrunning Lothering three years after the death of Leandra's husband. Fleeing the horde that destroyed their home, Leandra and her three children made their way to Kirkwall. Unfortunately, one of her children was killed by an ogre before escaping Lothering.
Upon the family's arrival in Kirkwall, Leandra was shocked to learn what had happened to her family's estate and fortune. To pay for their family's entry into Kirkwall, as well as settle some of his own debts, Gamlen sold the Hawke children into indentured servitude. The Hawkes served their term for a year, living with Gamlen during that time.
The Hawke siblings eventually learned of their uncle's misdeeds regarding the Amell estate, and kicked the slavers out of their ancestral home. While Leandra Hawke arranged a meeting with Viscount Dumar to ask for the mansion back, the eldest of the Hawke siblings financed a Deep Roads expedition. The expedition made them rich, and provided them with the funds to buy back the Amell family home.
The same expedition, however, led to the loss of Leandra's second child, who either died from the Taint contracted in the Deep Roads or was subsequently recruited into the Grey Wardens, the Templar Order, or the Circle of Magi. Either way, Hawke and Leandra became the only residents of the Amell estate after Hawke bought it back using the Deep Roads treasure.
Three years later, tragedy struck the family again. Leandra was abducted by an insane serial killer, and murdered by him. The head of the family was now her eldest child, who was later declared Champion of Kirkwall for defeating the Qunari who declared war on the city.
Viscount Dumar was killed in the conflict. Meredith Stannard, Knight-Commander of Kirkwall's Templars, became steward of the city. She used her position to stop a new Viscount from being appointed, until ever-increasing tensions between the mages and the Templars resulted in her demise.
Hawke sacrifices themselves in the Fade to atone for freeing Corypheus during the War against the Elder One. With Hawke distracting the Nightmare demon in the Fade, their Senior Warden ally and the Inquisitor are given a chance to escape. Hawke likely dies in the Fade.
Known members[]
- Lord Aristide Amell
- Lord Fausten Amell
- Revka Amell – mother of the Circle Mage
- Damion Amell
- Lady Leandra Amell
- Gamlen Amell
- Hawke – the "Champion of Kirkwall"
- Bethany Hawke
- Carver Hawke
- Charade Amell
- The Circle Mage – they may conditionally be known as the Warden / the Warden-Commander
- Revka's four unnamed children
Family tree[]
Aristide Amell | Bethann Walker | Fausten Amell | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mara Hartling | Gamlen Amell | Leandra Amell | Malcolm Hawke | Damion Amell | Revka Amell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Charade Amell | Hawke | Bethany Hawke | Carver Hawke | Four unnamed mage children | Human Circle Mage | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Codex entries[]
Notes[]
- Lord Aristide died in 9:11, 3 years before Perrin Threnhold assumed the title Viscount. There are other timeline discrepancies in the Amells' history. For example, while Leandra says that she was unable to attend her parents' funeral because of her twins' recent births, Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 2 states that Aristide and Bethann died a year apart.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Dragon Age: The World of Thedas, vol. 2, pp. 150-157