Sour ale, vomit, and the smell of desperation.

character basics.

NAME.	Leto Fenris
SPECIES.	(City) Elf
OCCUPATION.	Warrior, Companion of the Champion of Kirkwall
AGE.	30-ish
DATE OF BIRTH.	Unknown
PLACE OF BIRTH.	Tevinter Imperium
ORIENTATION.	Bisexual
DATING STATUS.	Hawke ⚤ / None (Playthrough Dependent)
DATING HISTORY.	Danarius None
FAMILY.	Mother (Unknown) Father (Unknown) Varania (Sister)
GAME.	Arda Marred   •   Info Post
∴	Post-DA II, Mid-DA: Inquisition
∴	Friendship Route
∴	Present For All DLC Content
∴	Did Not Kill Varania
∴	Received Both Companion Gifts
∴	Joined Hawke on Mage Side

personality.

Fenris is a man with a very dark and traumatic background, a history that has left him with deep emotional scars that still affect him to this day, even if he's on the road of recovery. Underneath a neutral, almost cold mask of deceptive calmness lies a wounded fire of anger and fear.

His first memories are of agonizing pain as he received his Lyrium brands, and that pain stripped him of any memories he had before that procedure. Instead, Fenris' life was constructed around serving his Master, Danarius, as a favored slave and bodyguard. During several years, he was abused in many different ways by both his Master and his apprentice, Hadriana, and as many slaves in his homeland, he was conditioned to accept this abuse with utter loyalty and affection towards his owner.

This loyalty was so engrained in him that he even killed people that helped him at the word of his Master, and only the shock of what he did finally shook him enough to escape.

Still, it is hard for Fenris to break free from the habits of slavery; during the first act of the game, Fenris still looks at the ground when he speaks, having problems looking people in the eye like an equal. Adding the former three years on the run, he's a haunted man ready to fight and flee at any moment, something also reflected in the way he moves during the game. He doesn't idle like the other characters, but instead looks around, shifting his weight and acting like he expects people to jump him at any moment.

Around people, Fenris is a very direct person with intense opinions and an underlying anger that he feel is poisoning his soul. He carries hatred, fear and rage with him every day, and trying to rid himself of it has not been easy. Killing the people that hunt him and even his master doesn't help this anger, and he feels almost as badly chained my these emotions as the chains he wore as a slave. During the events of the game, he starts to come to term with his rage, but it is still a long road to recovery.

Due to his past, Fenris is very distrustful of magic on principle. The magisters in his homeland tend to be corrupted and every mage is just a few mistakes from being just like them. Power is addictive and to Fenris, mages will always want more of it sooner or later. In Tevinter, that usually meant blood magic - and blood magic meant that other people would suffer. Slaves were a nice source of blood, after all. To Fenris, nothing good can come of magic, and he wants little to do with it.

However, after meeting Hawke, he slowly learns to at least trust some people with magic, which is a good thing for his recovery. He even joins Hawke to protect the mages in the last act of the game due to their close friendship (and growing love, if that route is taken), deciding to trust. It doesn't mean he's changed his opinion about magic, but sometimes loyalty is more important; when Fenris forms a friendship with someone, his loyalty is absolute, regardless of their differences in opinion.

Despite all these deep-seated scars, Fenris does have a streak of dry humor and does smile and laugh (more often at the end of the game). If romanced, he's even showing some awkward flirting and reactions to being flirted with by Hawke, and even though he leaves Hawke after the first night they spend together and doesn't continue their relationship until three years later, he's the only love interest in DA II whose model changes, carrying surprisingly romantic tokens through the rest of the game.

Dragon Age II spans nearly ten years, so it is important to note that it takes Fenris quite some time to form trust and make friends. Fighting by their side, he grows from a loner to someone that enjoys playing cards with the ragtag group of misfits, and come along to help them with their own personal quests. Even though the group does eventually split up, the bonds he has made are important to him. With time, he may even make more.

abilities + skills.

Fenris' body is covered in Lyrium brands, this magical mineral grafted into his body in intricate patterns. They span all over his body, down to the top of his feet. (I doubt they're under his feet, as that would make it very painful for him to walk and would have hindered his work as a bodyguard for his master.)

Those brands make him a living enchanted weapon, and as a result he can use magic attacks even though he's not a mage.

Tevinter Fugitive Game Specialization

Lyrium Ghost: Fenris has the ability to change into a ghost-like state, making him more difficult to hit. While it also says it makes him harder to notice on the battlefield, (I'll take this as a game mechanic as he's literally a glowing target sign.)

Spirit Pulse: While his Lyrium Ghost form is active, Fenris can use spirit force to violently push back enemies and even stun them.

Deflect: The intricate designs of his brands help deflect magical attacks, making it harder to harm him that way. It doesn't stop positive magic.

Phasing: The Lyrium patterns make it possible for Fenris to change his tangibility, making it possible for him to push a hand (even with armor on) into another person and then either partly solidify to rip out their heart or simply torture them (somewhat harmlessly) with the pain.

Battle Tempo/Inner Reserves: The markings give him more speed and stamina, temporarily increasing every time he kills in a battle.

Fenris also wields a two-handed sword nearly the size of him that he can swing around surprisingly easily for a lightly-built man (sometimes even with one hand). If this is only due to his actual strength or a side effect of his brands isn't fully known, but I headcanon that it is a little bit of both.

He's quite skilled with it, having both worked as a bodyguard most of his life and killed multitudes of slavers after his escape.

As a Dragon Age elf, he has some limited night vision, with tapetum lucidum that make his eyes reflect light at night. Like most elves in pretty much any canon, he's also generally a bit more dextrous and agile.