#nathaniel howe/cousland

[snuffysbox]

Nate and Cousland and the versions I've done of them over the past years.

[eleni-anz]

grey wardens hiring poster

[blighted-elf]

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening - 2024 Replay

[ndostairlyrium]

It kinda deserved its own post 💛

[knuttydraws]

Today's pro tip: if you feel uninspired, steal your friend's ship. Bonus points: your friend lives on the other side of the world so you are safe for another 5 to 6 hours. Brianna Cousland belongs to @kittynomsdeplume and Nathaniel Howe belongs in our hearts.

[edenxroseyposey]

Still mourning the complete lack of a personal response from the Cousland Warden when it comes to meeting Nathaniel </3

[vigilskeep]

regarding the amaranthine/wardens vs kirkwall plot happening in the background of da2, how does minerva handle that?

oh she’s running that show.

i doubt she engages in trade and combat on the waking sea personally, there’s an image to maintain, but it’s definitely her people. definitely it’s her people out there asking shady kirkwall mercenaries to take out those trying to stop her.

she’d be so into throwing amaranthine’s weight around a bit, and of course defending the fereldan crown’s interests on the high seas. (while they’re platonic divorced, king alistair and warden-commander minerva still get a kick out of doing things in each other’s interests, both out of devotion they can’t otherwise act upon and because it lets them get an inch of the moral high ground on each other. it’s as weird as it sounds. and for more pragmatic reasons, the closer she can politically tie him and anora to herself, the more indispensable and integral and convenient she is to them, the better. as a sensible ward against them ever being able to turn against her or cut her loose.)

i’d love to see a saga of her joining hands with the sons of the sea wolf—in my heart my tristan cousland still exists as well as fergus, though god knows what happens to him—to do it. highever & amaranthine have always been closely bound for a reason, sharing the northern coast, and i would love to see minerva negotiating that dynamic after its, ahem, complete breakdown under her predecessor, while categorically refusing to swear the fealty the howes once did. really fun. she’d be incredibly in her element in all of this and i’ve been thrilled ever since i found out that da2 hints at it

[loustica-lucia]

DAO/DAA — Fereldan Nobility

Fergus Cousland & Nathaniel Howe... 🏳️‍🌈👀

I dunno, I had insomnia and thought this was a cute ship and now it's canon in my World State lmao

Hair alt & original sketch

[storybookhawke]

If there's one thing I know about my Handers War AU prequel is that Nathaniel survives to the end of the war and finally gets to marry his lovely nurse lady, Corinne.

[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.

[agonydearest]

The partners aren't the problem here, it's the protagonists I created. They're all hot messes.

Esmareld Cousland is a knife-wielding little shit who can't take anything seriously

Alexander Hawke is hot-tempered asshole

Damon Trevelyan is trying in vain to keep Hawke and Cousland in line

Hal Laidir is taking advantage of the chaos to try and pickpocket everyone

[inquisimer]

even as I stumble on the path

Some self-indulgent Cousland/Nathaniel that I've had sitting in my drafts for a while and finally found time to revise!

✨ read it on AO3 here! ✨

Female Cousland/Nathaniel Howe | T | 3092 words | No Warnings

While grieving an anniversary, Ember seeks refuge in the Chantry. Nathaniel finds her instead. - “They told me you wanted to be alone.” “So what are you doing here, then?” “You shouldn’t be alone, Em,” he said softly. “Not today. And I—“ he swallowed “—it doesn’t have to be me. I know you probably don’t want it to be me. But you shouldn’t be alone.”

Addt'l Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, past Alistair/Female Cousland, Enemies to Lovers, Developing Relationship, Character of Faith, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Chant of Light

DAFF Reading List: @warpedlegacy | @rakshadow | @rosella-writes | @effelants | @breninarthur

@ar-lath-ma-cully | @dreadfutures | @theluckywizard | @oxygenforthewicked | @exalted-dawn-drabbles |

@blarrghe | @leggywillow | @plisuu | @hekaerges | @queenaeducan

[it-holic]

a commission for Nate and my Warden Cousland (the second one) by @ Hava

thanks to dear Andrastini, I finally got a chance to romance him in DAA

[andrastini]

Nathaniel Howe and Elsa Cousland in scenes from the new Romance mod.

[oldowlshollow]

honestly, i have mixed feelings about the new dragon age game that will be coming out soon. i liked DA2 and inquisition okay, but it just didn't hit for me like origins and awakening did. i felt like i had more attachment to all my party members (especially zevran and sten) and my cousland warden and the story than i ever did hawke or the inquisitor. i did like a couple of the party members in DA2 and inquisition (carver and cullen), though not enough to play it to death like i did DA:O and awakening. i have so many stories and head canons in my brain for alec cousland and nathaniel howe, and my original warden will forever be my favorite OC i've created. so, here's my OTP boys because i love them to pieces.

[deimcs]

CODEX ENTRY / LETTER TO RENDON HOWE

Some of the men are not pleased with your plan. They will incite others against you. For the plan to succeed, our forces must be united. If word gets out, if even one of them informs Cousland, it will be your head on a plate. I say this with all due respect, ser.

Your captain, Lowan.