#Eleanor Cousland

[seratlantisite]

Ferelden should have an incredible sailing culture

Gwaren is wedged between a massive forest and the ocean - they need to sail. its their lifeline. they'd be the heart of a ferelden ship building industry. Plus they'd be fishing and whaling as a major food source. (and fighting sea monsters on weekends)

Lake Calenhad is huge, spans nearly the entire length of the country, and connects directly to the waking sea. the Calenhad Docks should be a massive port town in its own right, animation limitations in Origins aside. and there should be a couple more dock towns on the lake at the mouths of rivers dane and drakon. The western half of the bannorn would probably find boats way more convenient for transporting food than caravans. Especially with the major river that goes all the way from the lake to Denerim itself. that river should be full of traffic, a major backbone of travel of all kinds.

Highever is incredibly mountainous and has the most coastline of any single territory, which would make sailing along the waking sea far more tempting than roads. Plus all of the free marches are right there, a short boat trip away, begging to be traded with. In fact everywhere but the bannorn is very mountainous in ferelden, the rivers would be great for efficient travel.

And, of course, Eleanor Cousland's entire family spent the Orlesian occupation as pirates. they wouldn't just give that up, and it'd be fun if they were sailors before too. Ferelden has far more coast than Orlais does, sailing would be a point of national pride just for bragging rights alone. Slap an Admirals hat on Fearchar Mac Eanraig and you'll have no end of trouble for orlais on the waking sea.

[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

[hallaslin]

I love you character portrayals of the complexity of the concept of motherhood in dragon age. I love you Brosca family, I love you Eleanor Cousland, I love you Adaia, I love you Leandra, I love you Grand Cleric Elthina, I love you Keeper Marethari, I love you Divine Justinia V, I love you Morrigan, I love you Flemeth, I love you Mythal.

[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!

[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-moved]

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

[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.

[gryffneedsabreak]

dragon age: origins

jessalyn cousland + family

[cosmic-cris-draws]

I can’t stop thinking about my dead parents help

[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.

[kanis-things]

ma'am 😳

[slutauthority]

Save me young Cousland parents