#Bryce cousland

[thedragonagebigbang]

The Seawolf and the Soldier

Written by: Thea Illustrated by: Zaz

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Content Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Fandom(s): Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age Novels and Comics Major Pairing(s)/Character(s): Bryce Cousland/Eleanor Mac Eanraig (Cousland)

One last great battle at sea will end the Ferelden Rebellion; one final test for both future teyrn Bryce Cousland and notorious raider Eleanor Mac Eanraig. Their antagonism is legendary, but to face their common foe and end the war with Orlais they'll have to learn to trust. There's no one else Bryce would trust as his partner, but is there any point in longing for something more when his duty and her hard-won freedom lie in conflict?

More from Thea: @psalacanthea | bsky More from Zaz: @zazrichor | bsky

Full art by Zaz:

[zazrichor]

Judgmentally, she stared down her nose, voice cool. “Your soldiers don’t smarten up when you walk by. They don’t respect you.” As he walked up to the bottom of her perch, the Captain leaned forward, folding her arms on the railing. Her posture was loose and comfortable, but her expression did not relax an iota, lips drawn tight. Bryce imagined she was attempting to look down on him, but he felt more like a boy peeking up at a lady’s balcony from the garden. He’d never seen her with her hair down. Being so closed-off and cold was not at all what he’d been expecting from a raider, but she ran a tight ship. A little too tight. Mistakes were punished by her hand with a swiftness and severity that made him uneasy, but her sailors seemed to expect it.

☠️ The Seawolf and the Soldier ⚔️ by @psalacanthea

[illusivesoul]

Knowing the lore of Rendon and Bryce makes the whole human noble origin hit different

[edenxroseyposey]

​fast forward to Howe’s betrayal where she’s begging to not be left to do things by herself… </3

[lavenderstobins]

The Cousland family in my main world state! Close-ups and details under the cut because I'm a little obsessed with them

Eleanor and Bryce

My warden Jaemi has brown skin and I wasn't particularly vibing with her looking adopted so I mainly played around with Eleanor so recreate her how I personally picture her. She grew up on the seas! Raised on a warship! There's next to no information on her actual family (afaik anyway) so I like to think her mother was from Rivain.

Bryce I didn't change too much aside from giving him brown eyes instead of blue. Also, considering the game made them look ancient when they're in their late 40s/early 50s, I made them look younger than the game does.

Fergus, Oriana and Oren

Fergus I tried to keep similar to his in-game appearance while also keeping him consistent with the redesigns of his parents and the appearance of Jaemi. He looks more like Bryce, but he has Eleanor's eyes and complexion.

Oriana is from Antiva, so I based her appearance more similarly to Josephine's, and her appearance in the mod Oriana Cousland of Antiva. Oren then is a mix of both of his parents.

Fergus later adopts Amethyne, Iona's daughter in the Denerim Alienage, and I think maybe he'd end up in a relationship with Nathaniel Howe but I'm still figuring all that out right now so they are currently missing from the tree </3

Jaemi, Alistair and their children

Jaemi, in the tree, is starting to show the effects of the Blight, but its progress has slowed considerably thanks to Avernus' research. I'm choosing to retcon 'Grey Wardens are basically infertile' since it's stupid and we have both Alistair and Kieran with no real explanation as to how Fiona managed to have him (to my knowledge).

Jaemi would keep her surname as she and Fergus are the only ones left of her family, but I think as queen she'd let her name be Theirin-Cousland. I do think that all of their children are Theirin-Cousland too, but with the favouritism shown to Calenhad's line they'd be known more as Theirins.

Alistair I think has pointy ears but they're not super visible. I kinda love the headcanon that Eamon had Alistair's ears clipped when he was a baby to hide his elven parentage, but idk if I want to incorporate that or not yet, and the sims hates elven ears anyway, so.

Eleanora is their firstborn child. She was conceived during the Blight (specifically during the long venture through the Deep Roads which is a little hilarious to me) and she was born sometime after Jaemi returned from Amaranthine in 9:31 Dragon. She's older than Kieran by a couple of months (Kieran and Morrigan aren't on the tree solely because I haven't recreated Kieran yet) and therefore the heir to Ferelden's throne. She's very headstrong and adventurous, like Jaemi, and Fergus jokes that it's karma for all the trouble she caused their mother.

Duncan is their secondborn and their first son. His full name is Duncan Bryce Theirin-Cousland, because Alistair wanted to honor Duncan and Jaemi wanted to honor her father. He's the complete opposite of his older sister, being a quiet bookworm and socially awkward. He was born a year or two after Eleanora in 9:33 Dragon.

Isobel, Rose and Lillian are triplets (obviously not identical). They were intended to be the third and final child, and Alistair briefly fainted when the third baby was delivered. They were born 9:35 Dragon.

At this point, Jaemi started her search for a cure for the Calling, though mainly it was research and communications via letters etc. Rhys, their second son and sixth child overall, was an unplanned baby, born in 9:39 Dragon.

When he turned two years old, Jaemi embarked on a journey to find a cure. As much as she didn't want to leave her family, she couldn't risk them losing her and Alistair to the Blight. Honestly, I think there could be some fuckery here with Eluvians, but I need to look into it further/

Their last child, Ffion, is born in 9:45 Dragon, after Jaemi has returned from her search. She wasn't exactly planned, either, but this time it was more of a "if it happens, it won't be unwanted" rather than actively trying for a baby. Her name being similar to Fiona's is unintential on their part, though I like to think sometime after this Alistair finds out about Fiona being his mother.

Eleanora and Lucanis

Eleanora is my Rook for this world state. She romances Lucanis and she's 'technically' a Grey Warden, by which I think she has a sort of immunity to the Blight on account of both of her parents being Grey Wardens. Also because the surname Thorne 1000% sounds like she went to say Theirin and then panicked because she didn't want to reveal her identity.

Everyone in the Veilguard assumes that she's an only child because she avoids the topic of her family (not wanting to accidentally reveal her heritage or, yknow, status of Heir to Ferelden's Throne). Lucanis definitely assumes her family is small, like his, so he has quite a surprise when she finally confesses everything to their group.

[phantabula-interactive]

I have accumulated enough WIPs over the course of a year or two I felt like I could dump some of them. My little warden commander

HOF hairstyle meme found here!

[vulptilla]

don't talk to me or my overly modded dragon age origins ever again

[slutauthority]

2nd attempt at sketching young Cousland parents, i love my mom and dad

[gryffneedsabreak]

dragon age: origins

jessalyn cousland + family

[wylldebee]

Just a reminder that the Couslands once fought werewolves in the past. Haelia Cousland became a Teyrna after rallying an army against werewolves. You can't tell me the Couslands didn't have trophies from Haelia's time safely tucked away somewhere and brought them out at parties. BONUS: Someone joked about how ironic it is that Bryce went and married someone called the Seawolf. Bryce joked Eleanor infected him with love. She kicked him off her ship and banned him for three days.

[cosmic-cris-draws]

I can’t stop thinking about my dead parents help

[illusivesoul]

Why Rendon Howe is evil

This is a little theory thats been going around in my head for several days.

Rendon Howe. Evil personified. Probably one of the most despicable and hated characters in the Dragon Age series. One of the characters thats most easily defined as being just plain bad and evil, with good reason. Even in the game itself no one likes him (with 1 exception that I'll mention later in this post)

In the game, we really aren't given many reasons as to why he is the way he is and why he does the thing he does beyond saying he's evil, power hungry, and like he himself says as he dies, "I deserved more!" But recently I started to become curious about him to try to find out what had made him become like this, cause I prefer villains to have some complexity that goes beyond just "He's evil just because".

Rest of the analysis under the cut.

.

My main theory of why I think Rendon became "evil" is cause he may have suffered brain damage due to his injuries while fighting against Orlais with Maric and his rebels. My first thought for this came cause historically, Henry the 8th of England suffered several brain injuries during sporting events, and its believed that his injuries led to him having a severe personality change, which led to him become more radical, tyrannical and murderous.

After the death of his father and the Howe family joining the rebellion, Rendon joined Maric's forces and became close friends with Bryce Cousland, future Teyrn of Highever, and Leonas Bryland, future Arl of South Reach. The 3 of them fought together in the Battle of White River, which was the worse defeat the rebels suffered in the war against Orlais, and only 50 of the initial thousand soldier strong fereldan army survived.

Rendon was very badly injured during the battle, and Bryce and Leonas had to dragged him away to safety as the rebel army was crushed by the orlesians. Bryce was injured in the arm while trying to save Rendon from a chevalier. They got Rendon to Redcliffe and stayed with him for a month while he recovered before leaving to rejoin Maric and the rest of the rebel forces. While Rendon recovered in Redcliffe, he was tended to by Leonas's sister, Eliane, until he eventually recovered months later. He eventually proposed to her and they got married.

And here is the first bit of evidence we get of Rendon's attitude and behaviour completely changing after that battle and his wounds. From the wiki: "Leonas had become concerned by the changes in his friend's behavior since the battle and attempted to prevent the marriage." And some other quotes from Leonas that we get to her in dao: "Rendon Howe was no friend of mine. The boy I knew... died at the Battle of White River" and "That he didn't die years ago is the only thing worth mourning here." Leonas cut all contact with Rendon after he told him that he was only marrying his sister for her dowry and connections.

This goes back to what I mentioned earlier about the one person that seemed to care for Rendon. That person is Bryce Cousland.

Bryce and Eleanor were the only people that attended Rendon and Eliane's wedding, and even though Rendon was treated as a pariah by almost everyone in fereldan nobility, Bryce still maintained a friendly relation with Rendon, and seemed to have an almost protective attitude towards him, which contrasts greatly with how Leonas feels about Rendon. And this is where I came up with another theory about why this is. I believe that Bryce feels personally responsible for the injuries and near death that Rendon suffered during the Battle of White River and feels that he is somehow obligated to look after him. I can only hc why these could be, but maybe Rendon got injured while protecting Bryce, or maybe Bryce's actions during the battle led to Rendon's injuries. Maybe that's why Bryce seems to have keep pushing for the friendship that he once had with him, even though he clearly no longer was the same person. Cause Bryce felt responsible for the way Rendon had turned out.

Its possible that Rendon was just always like this, and those months he spent recovering just made him become super resentful against everything and everyone, but I do believe that the near death injuries he suffered during that battle, including possible head injuries and brain trauma, led to his personality changing and to him becoming the sheer villain we see ingame.

And to finish, a bit of background as to why Rendon would have hated Bryce even despite of this, here's a bit of info about them and about the relation between Highever and Amaranthine.

Rendon's father, Tarleton, supported Orlais during their occupation of Ferelden, and was eventually hanged by the Couslands before the Howes officially joined the rebellion. Adding the fact that Highever was once part of Amaranthine before they rebelled to gain their independence and annexed a good part of southern Amaranthine after winning their independence war, it adds some context to how Rendon could have seen this part of his greater vengeance against the Couslands and Highever for killing his father and taking away land from Amaranthine.

TL,DR: Rendon Howe suffered grieveous injuries during the war against Orlais, including possible brain injuries which may have led to a complete personality shift and to him becoming the person that we see him being in the game.

[villaincousland]

The return of the Couslands to Highever, after nearly seventy years of absence, was greeted with shock by its people. The banns and freeholders of Highever were anxious to meet Bryce and swear allegiance. Many of the freeholders along the Amaranthine border came to swear fealty to the new teyrn instead of their arl, adding further complication to the proceedings. Teyrn Bryce spent four months receiving oaths and taking possession of his ancestral home, and every day without fail he sent a letter to lady Eleanor—sometimes more than one a day. One letter was reportedly just a stick-figure drawing of him sitting in Highever's great hall looking bored.

An icon

[laurelsofhighever]

Fandom: Dragon Age: Origins Characters/pairings: Alistair x Cousland Chapter: 10/? Rating: G Warnings: None Fic Summary: The story of the Fifth Blight, in a world where Alistair was raised to royalty instead of joining the Grey Wardens.

Read it on AO3

--

“I don’t see why I had to come along. Fergus is the one who’s going to be the teyrn.”

The high, plaintive voice could barely be heard over the thunder of rain on the window glass, the speaker further muffled by the thick woollen blanket that had been wrapped around her shoulders to try and chase away any chills she might catch from being caught in the unexpected downpour. Her sodden boots and outer clothes had already been removed and placed on a rack in front of the fire, and the cooking smells wafting up from the inn’s kitchen confirmed that the servants were well into the preparation of a warming evening meal.

Bryce Cousland observed his daughter’s sullen lower lip with a tickle of amusement fighting through his practiced stoicism. When they had set out almost a week before, Rosslyn had been more than eager, sitting proud on the back of her pony as their entourage followed them out of the gate with pennants streaming and armour aglitter in the sunlight. He knew for a fact that she had been boasting for days to Ser Edgbert’s lad about being old enough to join the yearly progress to collect the teyrnir’s dues. It was only the change in weather, the distance of the warm castle and Nan’s baking as she shivered, that doused her excitement now.

With a sigh, he knelt and folded her hands into his so he could chafe some warmth into them. “It never hurts to have knowledge of things, Pup,” he told her gently. “Fergus will be teyrn, yes, but one day you might have your own lands to govern, and a Cousland should govern well.”

“If I do, it’ll be somewhere with less rain,” she grumbled, shrugging deeper into her blanket.

He chuckled. “I’m afraid neither tithing nor battle stop for rain.”

A long moment of silence followed as Rosslyn chewed over the old saying, her pale face scrunched in a frown. Aldous, in his dry, dour way, had taken care to teach her the basic principles of a ruler’s duty, impressed with the weight of tradition so the lesson stuck, but she was bright, and getting old enough to question the simpler truths of earlier childhood.

“The Orlesians tithed too, didn’t they?” she asked eventually, uncertain. “That’s why we fought them.”

“Yes, Pup,” he said, “and you should remember that, so that you don’t become like them.” With a creak of cold joints, he eased himself up next to her on the threadbare sofa and guided her onto his lap to better rub feeling back into her arms, using the action to craft his next words with care.

“You see, the Orlesians took too much. They did not care whether the people would have enough to keep themselves in hard times, and they did not use what they took for common good, only to fatten themselves up.”

“Like pigs!” she cried, with the vindictive relish of the young, and giggled when he poked a teasing finger into her ribs.

“Like pigs,” he agreed. “They only took and took and took, and a pig only gives back once it’s butchered. When we take, we must do so only so we can return the cost in kind.”

“But…” She frowned again. “We don’t give the coin back?”

Bryce smiled, glad for her inquisitiveness. For three days the strongcart and storage wagons had been filled with the tithes owed by Highever’s freeholders and merchants, each one marked off in the ledger he carried in his own saddlebag and which now lay over the end of the corner bed. She had watched the transactions from a vantage point secure on his knee so that she might learn the way of things, and helped her fill in the tallies when she wasn’t doodling in the margins.

“Not as such, no,” he explained, as the rain made a renewed assault upon the inn’s roof. “But we use it for things that the freeholders wouldn’t be able to get for themselves.”

“Like what?”

“Well let’s see…” He stroked his beard. “We maintain the roads, so that travellers don’t lose their cartwheels or injure their animals, we outfit the militia in case they’re needed, we manage the woods and the fields and store grain for bad years – all sorts of things.”

“But how do you know not to take too much?” she asked, after another thoughtful pause.

“Well, what have you learned since leaving the castle?” he countered.

Aldous often complained of his young charge’s flightiness, her preference for the lists over the library, but her memory was honed like a blade edge, wielded with the attention to detail required of a future swordmaster. As she recounted the story of the wolf troubling the flocks in the Culodhne Hills, and the wilt that had taken the crops near Tarleton, he caught a glimpse of what she would become, dutiful and clever, a blossom for the court that, like the blackthorn in the field, would yet hide iron strength beneath its flowing white mantle. For now, however, he caught the droop of eyelids made heavy by the storm’s chill, the way her head nodded against his arm, and chuckled to himself. The future could wait until after bedtime.

[saltlordofold]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Characters: Duncan (Dragon Age), Male Cousland (Dragon Age), Bryce Cousland, Eleanor Cousland, Oriana Cousland, Oren Cousland, Original Characters, Alistair (Dragon Age) (brief appearance) Additional Tags: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Suicidal Thoughts, lore dump, Child death (mentioned), Animal Death (Fish), Highever (Dragon Age) Summary:

My telling of Duncan's brief's stay in Highever, and the bloody events that unfolded there.

“As a general rule, Duncan seldom allowed himself the complacency of optimism. Too much of it, life had taught him, often proved counterproductive: not unlike a healing salve, optimism had a tendency to dull the senses against incoming dangers. It lulled the unsuspecting mind into illusions of security, which in turn could fester into over-confidence - and over-confidence, in his line of work, had always proved to be risky business.

In Highever's great stone hall, however, bathed in the warmth of a dozen fires, with a full cup of wine in his hand as he stood watching three young couples’ hands be joined in marriage, Duncan searched his heart for at least a sliver of the perilous sentiment. On the eve of battle, he had decided, a morsel of hope was the most fitting gift he could think of offering the newlyweds.” 

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I finally lore dumped about the Couslands and life in Highever right before, uh, you know what.