#Eleanor 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:

[illusivesoul]

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

[harrycollins]

When Arl Rendon Howe's forces attacked Castle Cousland and murdered most of the Cousland family, the Hero of Ferelden escaped to safety with Warden-Commander Duncan, who then recruited him into the Order.

[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!

[flightofthefaeriedragon]

Bryce Cousland went from fighting Orlais in the rebel army to being Maric's trusted liason with Orlais after the war.

Eleanor Mac EanRaig Cousland was sinking Orlesian warships as a teenager.

I love the implication of, "we're happy to trade with you now that we have peace, but if you try anything we *will* sink your ships."

(I just love love love Eleanor's backstory in general.)

[elfroot-and-laurels]

DAtober Day 1: Family

Birsingh Singh of House Cousland first encountered Eleanor Mac Eanraig at an illicit meeting of King Cailan's supporters in 8:98 Blessed when the two were seventeen years of age. While he shortly became infatuated with her, the two would not meet again until Cailan's coronation ball in Denerim in 9:03 Dragon. It is said by those present that Birsingh would dance with none other all night, and that Eleanor hardly looked at any of the other attendees. They were engaged within the week and married by the end of the summer, and welcomed their first child, Fergus Singh of House Cousland, near the end of 9:06 Dragon.

DAtober Prompt List

[cosmic-cris-draws]

I can’t stop thinking about my dead parents help

[vigilskeep]

It does not matter in the grand scheme of lineages and succession drama but. It is important to me that people know about the Soldier and the Seawolf song. You probably know already. But just in case. Top tier Cousland lore.

it means everything to me

[kanis-things]

ma'am 😳

[lykegenia]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤️

Thank you for this ask! One thing it's made me realise is how many fics I have now - twenty new ones since I last counted - and I have no idea how that happened. My five favourites?

On Last Song - Oneshot, Dagon Age: Origins. The last stand of the Eleanor Cousland, the Seawolf. This one I love because it switches up the perspective usually seen in the Cousland origin and lets Eleanor have the hero moment she deserves. The fic actually started with the poem I wrote for the codex entry in the notes, and I'm still really proud of it.

Like Glitter and Gold - longfic, The Wayhaven Chronicles, Leah Kingston x Nate Sewell. The body of a murdered supernatural is found behind a bar, and Detective Leah Kingston must solve the crime (while dealing with the tempestuous budding romance between her and a certain suave member of Unit Bravo). This was the first murder mystery I've ever written, and it taught me so much about plotting and consistency. I also loved getting to explore the relationship between Leah and Nate as they both learn to open up and communicate. Also love for this one because you bound it for me so now it's sitting on my shelf where I can read it like a real book.

The Falcon and the Rose - longfic, Dragon Age: Origins, Rosslyn Cousland x Alistair Theirin. To the surprise of absolutely no one I'm still super proud of my AU where instead of a Blight, the only thing our heroes have to worry about is a civil war. The intricacies of Fereldan politics, the lore and worldbuilding, the relationships between Alistair, Rosslyn, and Cailan, and the fact that I actually finished it are all reasons why this is still my favourite of all the things I've written.

The Things We Hide - longfic, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Zutara. An AU where the Southern Water Tribe only fell to the Fire Nation with the help of Sozin's Comet, with Katara taken to the Caldera as a political prisoner where she works to undermine the rule of the Fire Lord from within. More political intrigue, Katara and Zuko both being awesome, classic enemies to lovers. Even if the title still hasn't grown on me, I'll always be fond of this one because I almost, almost didn't post it but people ended up loving it.

Unlocking The Door - oneshot, Dragon Age: Inquisition. An exploration of Cullen's (headcanoned) asexuality. This one I love because so many people responded to it so positively to say they felt represented, and as someone who also identifies as ace that feels important.

[dilfgmancoolatta]

[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.

[harrycollins]

➔ DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS I REPLAY (4/?)    

“I love you both, so much.”

‘Then live, darling. Become a Grey Warden, and do what is right.’

[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.” 

(Read more)

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

[puffy-shirt]

The Couslands of Highever

From left to right:

Fergus, Eleanor, Mason, and Bryce Cousland

A family portrait of my Warden Mason's family taken when he was little. Something that was miraculously saved after Castle Cousland was sacked, now it hangs in the Royal Palace at Denerim.

I was trying to do something a little different and out of my comfort zone with this one! I worked on it on and off over a couple months and never really felt great about it but that is OK! I also wanted to redesign the Couslands with a more historical costuming... IDK how I feel that went for poor Bryce x'D

In the future I would like to do an accompanying piece of Mason's family with Anora.

Commission info

[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.