On 7-27-24 I redeemed an All Levels Reward token split between my characters.
Quintilian gained 12 mastery points.
Hedge Mage Nature Sense Free Foci: Zomancer (Intermediate)
As a Hedge mage, Quinn appears about a decade younger than he actually is.
Quintilian was born under the name Teo De Luca to parents of mixed nationality, players in a traveling Antivan theater troupe. He was brought up communally with a loose handful of other children, receiving a very eclectic education between performances. Sewing and stock characters, how to rile up or slip through a crowd in a hurry, a bit of pick pocketing.
All was well until his magic began to show. The troupe had the misfortune of being in Kirkwall at the time, a city where the veil was notoriously thin. Teo heard voices – in dreams at first and then in the waking world, the constant maddening thoughts of those around him. Flashes of prescient insight he couldn’t explain. His family sought help.
What started as a brief interview with an old templar spun quickly out of control. Teo was a mage, a terrible danger to everyone around until he could be properly trained. Taken directly to the Gallows, he never saw his family again.
Though Teo’s background was unusual, he was still young and adaptable enough to take to Circle life. While he missed his family and his freedom, there was some small relief in knowing that at least he wasn’t going mad and in learning to use his powers properly. His talent for storytelling earned him many friends among the other young mages.
Which was not to say he enjoyed his time in Kirkwall. The abuses of the templars escalated over the years, from whispered rumors to daily matters of fact. Many of Teo’s fellows turned to extreme measures in their attempts to fight back. This, on the whole, seemed to go poorly for them more often than not. Teo was no less angry than anyone else, but his efforts to resist power were more subtle. At first.
During this time, Teo met Bethany Hawke – a young woman who was a bit of an oddity, having come to the Circle as a young adult. Teo’s curiosity was piqued. He began a flirtation with her on a whim but came to enjoy her calm, level headed outlook.
He did not expect her connections beyond the Circle to save his life.
Teo’s spying on the templars eventually went foul. When he was caught, every ounce of resentment and fear bubbled over and he refused to shut up and secure. Teo lost the ensuing scuffle quite badly and was slated for Tranquility. Bethany put him in contact with the mage underground the very next night.
Soon he was off to seek asylum in Tevinter with a new name.
Now styling himself Quintilian Frey, most often shortened to Quinn, his first few months in Tevinter were tense, filled with investigations and tests of his magic. And when the magocracy decided it could indeed make use of him, it was first as a soldier. If he survived four years of that, he would become a free citizen.
It was the best option open to him. Quinn hardly even heard of the mage rebellions in the south, so busy was he trying to turn his Circle-trained skills into weapons in the Seheron jungles. His units skirted traps and ambushes far better than most, earning him a reputation as a good luck among the other soldiers. Quinn encouraged this – he’d need every connection he could make once he was out.
Freedom and the adjustment period after it came on very strange. At least the Tevenes were never ones to leave him guessing where exactly he stood: somewhere between Liberati and Laetan. Weak without a family or House behind him, but better off than the magicless majority. With a lump sum of four years wages, Quinn began investing with his former comrades in arms.
Gradually, he discovered a talent for business – going so far as to represent the interests of nobles who could not dirty their hands with work. With his friend Enzo Pavus, Quinn purchased a stake in the Blind Eye and began growing his fortune in earnest.
Then the Veil went down and the barrier came up. It changed the flow of trade in Minrathous dramatically – the rich island city’s port becoming isolated overnight. Imports and smuggling dried up and the Archon’s secret police rose to unprecedented power. It was a good time to be selling credit and vice.
Even better now, five years later. With things appearing to return to something like normal in the Imperium, it’s the perfect time to collect.
