#oc : ilsramel

[allmywardensaresafeandsound]

20 and/or 25 for the asks? :)

where would they like to be buried?

Catherina Hammond expects to be cremated since she was raised Andrastian, and it would pretty much fit her personal beliefs. After the life she's led she would be fine just– ceasing. She doesn't want a tomb, doesn't want her ashes sprinkled anywhere particular, doesn't want a testament of her presence after her life. She is absolutely at peace with the idea that she had her place in the world and now its over, her farm will belong to someone else and nor them nor she will have any responsibility keeping some sort of memory of her alive.

After leading the Inquisition and being the Herald more for less against her wishes, she's just fine with death being the last of her.

Moghrana Lavellan didn't expect to put a lot of thought into it, but after the revelation of Trespasser I think it would start to matter more to her. What happened to Solas and losing her valasslin brought her a lot of introspection to her relationship with the Dalish and what suddenly she realized she was on the brink of losing. She didn't have the best of relationship with her clan and it drove a wedge between her and her culture that Solas' ideologies more or less intentionally deepened, but once the dust settled she was ultimately left alone, with a number of regrets and fears.

The eternal life of Ancient Elves would feel very unnatural to her, just the whole idea of their beings being so untied to the material plane, to the point that death wouldn't possibly affect them would feel very inhumane to her.

Her studies on entropy, Keeper magics and necromancy brought her very close to the essential role of death in the circle of life, and how shifting the equilibrium had a precise price to pay.

Anyhow, all of this to say that dalish funerary practices –not necessarily in the burial vs cremation distinction, but more in the idea of the ceremonies and cultural meaning behind them, would matter more to her after all that happened.

She doesn't want to lose her connections to her people, the forest, the rot, the hallas, the circle of life. She would probably want to be buried/cremated amongst and accompanied by those things.

what did they plan for their life to look like before the events of the game happened?

Catherina Hammond was sent to templar training, but from there to say she had a plan is being maybe a bit optimistic. The situation in the order was already pretty murky, and it could be felt even between the recruits ranks and in Ferelden where the tensions were still pretty mild, so from there to say she had a long term plan I wouldn't know.

I think if she didn't made like, honest good friendships during this time her long time attachment to the templar order may not have come to be, there would have been just too little to hold on to, especially once the order claimed to act independently from the Chantry.

Ilsramel Cousland planned for travels I think. As the second child his role was supposed to be more diplomatic, probably married to some neighboring noble– although as a teen he may have fantasized to marry some nobility in the warm north, where he would happily live as a loyal and proud trophy husband.

Family was always a cornerstone for him, I think he planned to see his nephew grow, his brother becoming Teyrnir, marrying, having children of his own– if he was lucky enough being able to continue slacking off military training and duties.

[allmywardensaresafeandsound]

thinking of actually breaking the promise written in my url and actually killing off one of my wardens 😔😔😔

it's about my Aeducan, Portia. she already dies in her canon worldstate, since she refuses Morrigan's offer, but she was supposed to live in my all-my-wardens-in-one worldstate, but I'm so used to her storyline finishing at the end of origins, and it just doesn't sit right, I feel almost like I'm betraying her character by making her live?

So I think she's actually going to die at her Warden joining (it happens just before the archdemon fight in my multiple-wardens worldstate, since only my Mahariel (Mela) was actually conscripted by Duncan at the beginning of the game, the other "origins" joined the adventure later on by different means. So, yeah, once they meet Riordan they decide to all join, despite the danger. Each one sort of has their own reasons, but Portia does it mainly because she honestly believes that's the only option she has left if she wishes to live in dignity. She lost everything but she can still be worthy of Orzammar if she stands by its values. Killing darkspawn, devoting her life to it, that's her calling now.

And she met people she truly learned to care about, and she bonded with Brosca (Korinn) like with a sister she never had, and learned to see her place as (former) princess of Orzammar in a whole new light, and she fell in love with Leliana and and and... but she needs it, she needs it to make things right, and she's determined, almost happy, she's where she's supposed to be.

And she dies.

While her best friends make it, and have to live on.

Cousland (Ilsramel), who agreed to the joining, but by the Maker, he didn't want to, he was so scared. He was so happy to be alive, in love, so unwilling to lose any of this, to risk it, after losing so much already. But he drinks from the cup, because he's even more scared of being left alone, and he makes it, and relief and joy turn immediately into cold stone guilt, knowing he made it, but Aeducan didn't. And he'll carry this weight all the rest of his life. He lived, so he must carry her dream too now.

And Brosca (Korinn), after the Battle of Denerim, coming back to Orzammar. And she never cared about politics or it all, not even much about the Casteless, because that's just too big and useless brainfarts to lose time on when she needed to bring food to the table. But now she gets it. Now it's their people, their story, their legacy. And she'll make it better, she'll maker Aeducan proud, and, closer to the Stone like that, she can almost feel her by her side.

[allmywardensaresafeandsound]

Warden Commander || Champion of Kirkwall || Herald of Andraste

Ilsramel Cousland

A sweet and sunkissed boy, born into a castle built out of –maybe– too much loyalty and nobility to prepare him for what was waiting to happen. He never truly abandons his love for stories, heroes and arts, but, as struggles and responsibility catch up to him, he wonders if he's any good a hero himself, and wonders how many more mistakes he can do before he dooms Thedas with them.

He falls all over heels for Zevran, learns how to be a bard from Leliana, makes his best friend king. The stain of cheating his way out dying the wardens' death by accepting Morrigan's ritual follows him to the North –to Antiva first and then Rivain–, where he hides his sorrows with songs and by offering people who have nothing else to lose a chance with the Wardens.

Claire Hawke

Talented at hiding yes, not in shadows but behind masks of laughter, play and sarcasm. Not many know what sorts of guilts and sorrows lingers in the flurry of her smiles, what fears and demons she conceals behind flirts, vanity and a flair for dangerous things. What hides between the disarming charm of the Hanged Man's starlette? A mage, a family-killer, a liar, a fraud, a greedy, unstable young woman that doesn't know when to quit. Or a fiery heart, loving, burning, devoted, beating as fast and hard as a hummingbird's, pumping life in a dragon's rib cage?

She runs from Kirkwall with her Grey Warden brother, with her free, free and beautiful Fenris –he chose to come with her, Maker, he helped the mages, for her–, with Varric's hand too tight in hers, with a broken friendship on her heart as Anders keeps to the shadows and doesn't speak. Magic never betrayed her as much as it did that day.

Catherina Hammond

Second born to a noble Fereldan family, entrusted to be raised a proud templar, until her older brother dies and suddenly nothing quite fits anymore. Duty thickens her blood, but she is a soldier in all the places that are meant for diplomacy, a stubborn stallion where her throne is painted with the smarts and temper of a mabari. She carries her discomfort as she is made Herald, as she is made Inquisitor, as, once Corypheus is defeated, she is tasked to carry the hopes of so many, when the only thing she knows is war.

Once it's over, once she is no longer key to a door she never understood, she retires. Not answering to anyone –be it her family's name, her lieutenant's orders, her people's needs– is new and raw and scary. It's a country house with her husband. It's Divine Victoria's plan to built together a new order of Seekers –a place for templars to discover themselves anew. It's Cole visiting more and more, helping raising the bunnies. It's Dorian talking her ears off from the far far North. It's a new duty she can get behind.

[picrew]

[allmywardensaresafeandsound]

Ilsramel Cousland : Mods

thanks to @iawv​ for the awesome screenshot !! ♡♡

Enhanced Inquisitor Sliders

Skin :

KISS Skin Tones - Custom Tints Sorta Solas (Freckles Complexion) Subtle Human Tattoos Koric’s Makeup

Hair :

Fuse00’s Hairstyles - EMHairPonytail (pb) SK Hair Retexture - (Smooth) Widow's Peak Scalp Edit

Eyes :

GH - Natural Lashes Idris Eye Texture Mod (hidden) Eyebrows 4 Men

Outfit :

Inquisitor Wardrobes - Commoner Wardrobe  alt : Light Adventurer Armor

[allmywardensaresafeandsound]

@whereismywarden cause it was getting extra long for a simple reply :'D

My non-Mahariel Wardens technically only become wardens at the very end of the game, when Riordan reveals to Mahariel and Alistair what needs to be done to kill the Archdemon. Well, even after that, technically, when Morrigan comes to Mahariel with her offer. She romanced my Tabris, and Mahariel doesn't want to go behind his back, and that makes stakes rise suddenly. The situation quickly travels thru the whole group, and Tabris wants to go through the joining, because well, it's his relationship in game here, and, anyway, he's in Denerim and barely managed to go unscathed by the guards so far because Denerim is a bit in chaos atm, and Mahariel has been sort of shitting her way around pretending Tabris had already gone thru the joining (she would have before, but I suppose Riordan is the first Warden they meet who knows how to prepare the Joining ritual cup). So, yeah, if there's a chance it's not Alistair who has to get Morrigan pregnant Tabris is happy and stubborn enough to take it and face the damn Archdemon eye to eye for it. (Morrigan thinks he is ridiculous and they have a fight, half not wanting to lose each other and knowing they will have to give up things, one way or the other.)

Aeducan, after loosing everything, had longed wanted to feel like she belonged somewhere again, and contributing to her darkspawn-bane duty was her way to fullfil her purpose, so she asked to join too. And if she died, well, she had already been through death once when she had been exiled, it couldn't be worse.

Brosca had nowhere to go back to either, well, maybe she sort of did, but she liked this new chance, this new life, new freedom, this new place. Being able to go back and forth through surface and Orzammar? Proving that being casteless didn't stop her from having a damn cool future? Being Warden sounded like an adventure, and she trusted she had survived worse than a fat, crusty blighed bat-spawn.

Surana wants freedom from the Circle and the threat of Tranquillity, but of the group she is the one being the more appalled by what Mahariel confesses of her Joining and the Wardens' rules. The Blight, running in their veins, the ruthless way to keep the secret. The overall mystery makes her almost sick with it, the religiosity mixing with the idea of sacrifice; the magic, the blood, the Maker, the sheer wrongness. She joins, but it's almost a challenge. She's the one that will later go look for the cure. She cannot accept that someone decided this is how things were going to be and no one challeged it. She already had to go through it in the Circle, she wasn't going to allow her new family to suffer through this again. She wasn't running anymore.

Cousland.. unexpectedly was the one that got close to just.. run. He was the sun-kissed, noble and soft-hearted boy, raised on tales of knights and honor and love, idealist to almost a fault, adoring of the Wardens, who had seen his family die in front of his eyes, suffered from survival's guilt; who had learned how to be a bard, who had music on his fingertips and a smile able to enamour full crowds. Who had fallen for the sharp and beautiful Crow, who was brave and had succeeded almost single-handedly to keep the most ridiculous band of misfits together, simply because he was nice, and positive and believed in people. But suddenly he was so scared, at the idea of losing it all again. Of dying when he was almost truly happy again. It's a fight of will, and in the end the idea of seeing his friends possibly dying in front of him while he cowered takes hold of him and he has to accept the Joining before he goes insane with it.

My Aeducan and Brosca are possibly different in every way they could be, in both character and upbringing, but weirdly enough it's what makes it work.

For what is of the Orzammar situation in particular, well. Aeducan has only one word, her family will be avenged. She can't possibly look Bhelen in the face, she can't forgive him, even if she wanted. It's non-debatable. Aeducan and Brosca are similar in the way they are not really political per se; Aeducan believes in honor and transparency (she's a sort of House Stark archetype, a lot of bad decisions for the purpose of mostly good intentions), Brosca believes in people and freedom, so they generally succeeds in seeing each other for what they are, even tho Aeducan is the one with more preconceptions to dismantle. Luckily Brosca is good at dismantling stuff while keeping her good humour.

It's still not easy, but Brosca understands how Aeducan cannot trust Bhelen on the throne, but hard deals are made with Harrowmont. Simply put, little Endrin is the last Aeducan-blooded heir to the throne, and is to be raised like such, Rica and Harrowmont at his side. The Castless are just as able to fight darkspawn as anyone else, and Aeducan doesn't mince words in saying they need all the people they can spare if the dwarves are to survive this and the next Blights.

It's not ideal, Aeducan sees what is left of her family and sees the shambles for what they are, but, honestly, she can't deal with any of it anymore, even if she wanted. Harrowmont is the only person she trusts to leave it to, and she shares that belief with Brosca. Brosca.. well, she is happy her family is safe, she's allowed that pinch of selfishness. She's worried about other things, but, unlike Aeducan, she is still ready to fight, and she's seen how it can get better, wherever the dwarven ways help you or not (they didn't, in her case, but eh, doesn't mean they are necessarily wrong), she knows there's ways now.

Post-DAO Aeducan stays as Warden-Commander at Amaranthine, and Brosca handles sort of unofficial ambassadorial duties between the Legion of the Dead and the Wardens of Ferelden. She travels often underground, accompanying Wardens, scouting the lost Thaigs and trying to find useful stuff, of lost Wardens or dwarven story, and works with Orzammar to evaluate possible expansions or security measures. If she can represent the Casteless doing so, damn good, she's not easy to forget. She is also the one of my Wardens that believes the most into recruiting, and doesn't really hesitate to remind those she believes capable of Joining of a second chance, that there's a life for them on the Surface, somewhere else, if they wish so.

(Either they are both made Paragon or neither, Aeducan was clear on this. It's not about politics to castes, it's about two dwarven women that couldn't have done it without the other, and not turning a blind eye to it. So, yeah, I haven't decided yet what the Assembly will do, since there are more Wardens, and so the merits probably are more dilluted too. But still, I do believe they made dwarven history, in their own way, and it will be remembered one way or another.)

[allmywardensaresafeandsound]

Ilsramel Cousland - Travelling Bard | One of the “Heroes of Ferelden” | the Golden Boy 

[allmywardensaresafeandsound]

Multiverse : Introduction

Duncan finds Kamela Mahariel fighting for her life, first, and saves her. Then he discovers her begging for her death, for a casket next to her companion, for a place to rest next to her clan’s, and still, he saves her. Through the curses, and her eyes like grey moons, and the wolven growls of her denial, and the cutting edge of her words. And he takes it. He will haul her over his shoulder kicking, will endure the bites of her pack, but she will survive, she will heal and she will mourn. But she will thrive, and he promises so. Marethari looks in his eyes, and understands. 

Kamela walks the way out of her forest, her home, with steady feet and a broken heart. She doesn’t turn back, knows she can’t, and as her wolves howl her loss in her stead, as she raises her eyes with more bravery than Duncan has seen in entire armies, he knows it was a bargain worth making. 

Ilsramel Cousland escapes Howe’s attack, escapes the promises he made, the hopes he had and the boy he was. If he weren’t pulled through the secret tunnel by Sir Gilmore, heart hammering with shame, with fear, with a yearning so strong he thinks he’ll grow deaf from it, then he would still be hugging his nephew’s corpse, he would be begging his mother to hold him tighter as he cried. His lungs are filled with anguish, guilt and smoke, but the dry, burning air of his past in flames awaken his heart with fury. He knows what his duty is, the blood in his ears singing of vengeance, of retribution. He will reach his brother at Ostagar, will have to say the words and stand the claim justice for his family’s blood with Howe’s head.  

Mephis Tabris awaits his sentence for Vaughan’s murder in a dark cell. Suddenly there’s commotion outside, sounds of fighting, shouting. Then his lock clicks open. When he moves the corridors are empty, littered with dead guards, and a note stabbed to a wall with a dagger whispers of a way down the sewers, signed RJ.

He slowly works his way South and meets Cousland and Gilmore on the road. Stabbing happen, quickly forgiven, and he is convinced to travel with them, to seek safety with the Wardens.

When they encounter Mahariel, Alistair and Morrigan outside out the Korkari Wilds it’s only to discover they were too late, but adversity tied them together, and thus they go forward.

Korinn Brosca is exiled to the tunnels, condemned for getting Orzammar rid of its Carta leader and for making the Proving Grounds’ Champion a Duster. She would almost find it ridiculous, but she’s too busy killing darkspawn with her fists aching, finally managing to loot a rusty sword from a corpse- too busy surviving. She survived so much already, she’ll survive this as well; no filth, no brawl, no fate worse than what she’s been through her whole life.

Portia Aeducan walks the tunnel with a relic of a past burned in betrayal, her only possession now. She plans to die with dignity, may her blood to the Stone cleanse the Aeducan shame. She doesn’t expect it when she raises her sword to a shadowy attack, meeting eyes that aren’t corrupted by the now-familiar milky, lifeless glaze of taint. Her hand stills just as the stranger's does, and the clash of the fight quiets, and flickers instead the flame of new hope. Together, they make it out of the tunnels, right where flows a river of corpses. Darkspawns, and humans dressed with griffon insignias, under the pale light of the sky-ceiling and the shadow of a fortress so high they can barely see the tip of it without their eyes aching. 

They follow the roads carefully, but greedy with curiosity, with the inebriation of freedom, and lands on the borders of their first human city: Lothering.

They meet all that remains of the Wardens, and Aeducan has sworn war to the Darkspawn since she was still her father’s daughter and pleads her cause with no fear of condemning her life. Brosca had to renounce to a sister, but won’t do it twice, and joins the company with a smile and a thirst for more.

Malaad Surana was always defective. Conte Amell had kept her alive more than once, had kept the Templars away from her failures, had kept her company in the longest nights, hidden in a nook of the library, practicing twice as long to make sure she was ready to be tested the day after. He was there when the thought of Anders alone in his cells for weeks made her choke for breathing, made her hands and arms stiff with a sheen of uncontrolled ice. He was the warm hearth to her cold fears, but the night of Uldred attack he is not there, and she is drowning. 

She loses herself somewhere in misty skies, between changing groves, in the depth of the oceans she only ever read about in books. She never had legs and fingers and arms in her dreams, only wings, and shells, and paws and fins. Never bothered by demons, never noticed, never chased. She is safe. But a voice whispers for her and slowly she is back, ice changing back to skin, water to blood, his warmth hers again. She falls into Conte’s arms, and when he rushes her to go, now, now that they aren’t paying attention to who survived the Tower and who didn’t, to go with the Wardens, the Saviors, and he will cover for her. He will find her, he promises. 

She goes, for him, for their promise, for the Harrowing everyone expects her to fail. She finds the elf with the markings on her face and the griffon on her shoulder, the golden man with kind smiles and a lute on his back. She sees the red elf, with black eyes like coals, as sharp as the blades by his side, the two dwarven woman, as different as they can be; one as straight and hard as stone, the other quick like a cat and bright like the first ray of sunshine after the rain. They see her, dangerous like the first kiss of winter, wild in a way that seared the bars of her prisons on her skin like scars. She’s one of theirs before she even speaks.

clearly inspired by @laurelsofhighever ‘s incredible post here, I only hope it doesn’t look to plagiarizing, I just loved how it managed to find a way out for every origin (omg the Jennies saving Tabris, omg my heart). I JUST LOVED IT AND IT MOTIVATED MY TO COMPOSE THE MULTISTATE TO BEGIN WITH so omg thanks. ;3;

[allmywardensaresafeandsound]

Worldstate 1

Heroes of Thedas

Warden : Ilsramel Cousland (tag)

Class : Rogue / Archer (Bard)

Pairings : M!Cousland x Zevran

Raised with tales of great adventurers and knights and wardens, kind-hearted and sun-kissed.

Alistair is made king (softened) because Ilsramel trusts his best friend to learn and be the best he can be for himself and for Ferelden.

Accepts to go through Morrigan’s ritual. Since they always were good friends they do meet when they manage so, and he always has a small gift for Kieran and a warm hug for his favorite witch.

Becomes a bard, joins Zevran to Antiva to help him dismantle the Crows after DAO.

He feels guilty, believing he didn’t hold up to the great heroes, for all the death, the mourning, the taint of the warden order, for realizing great stories are filled with sacrifice and for feeling like he cheated his way out of it, for surviving his family, for using dark magicks to survive the Archdemon, and for all the compromises.

He travels north, a bit to run from his role as hero. He starts to study and evaluate the socio-politic situation in the frontiers with the Qun, worried about the invasion that he is certain is about to come.

Helps orphans and people in need as often as he can, also thanks to Zevran’s newfound authority in Antiva.

Champion : Claire Hawke (tag)

Class : Mage (Eclectic Formation)

Pairings : F!Hawke x Fenris

Purple Hawke.

Bethany dies in the prologue.

Carver becomes a Grey Warden.

Becomes more and more detached with her family, starting with her having having to lay low from being an apostate in Lothering, and all the petty fights it brought her to have with Carver and sometimes Leandra, to feeling guilty for losing Bethany, coming to Kirkwall and taking upon herself to make her mother’s expectations meet reality but constantly believing she is failing.

Has a very playful, charming, sarcastic, and (in appearance) nonchalant personality.

Sides with the mages, and spares Anders because she could never kill someone she considered a friend, not even to pretend a sense of righteousness. She couldn’t do that to herself, but she didn’t forgive him. The lies and the angst and the fear and the death, all too much.

Spends the years between Kirkwall and DAI struggling with herself and her choices, and only really starts to get out of it after surviving HLtA.

Inquisitor : Catherina Hammond (tag)

Class : Rogue / Archer (Tempest)

Pairings : Catherina x Cullen

Second child of a Fereldan noble family, devout and meant to join the Templar order, but only a recruit in training by the time of the rebellion ; she has an adopted brother that is at the Conclave with her but doesn’t survive in this worlstate.

She follows her former Knight-Commander to the Conclave and the rest is history.

Allies with the Templars to try and look for her former companions in the midst of the survivors of the Order.

Isn’t really interested in politics, simply does what she has to do to defeat Corypheus, first and foremost. She doesn’t believe she has enough understanding of the Mage situation to offer a valid solution, and is more versed in military matters.

Gaspar rules Orlais.

Stroud is left in the Fade, Wardens are forgiven.

Her eyes and hair are unnatural colors because her parents, fearful of seeing their daughter die of the Blight as well, attempted to “vaccinate” her with the help of a mysterious apostate, using blood magic and dubious, lyrium-based concoctions. It is unknown if it actually worked or not as she was never really infected to try it.

Is able to cast some Templar abilities without taking lyrium.

Believes she was saved by Andraste, and takes her responsibility as Herald with gravitas.

Cassandra is made Divine and the Inquisition is disbanded.

Retires with Cullen and their mabari after Trespasser, taking some time to heal, but is making plans with Cassandra and Cullen to rebuild the Seekers as a healthier, moderate, integrated alternative to Templars. While also preparing to kick Solas’ ass.

[allmywardensaresafeandsound]

Ilsramel Cousland ;

rogue | bard | overall sunshine

Mephis Tabris ;

warrior | reaver | not very nice

Malaad Surana ;

mage | shapeshifter | strong but brittle

picrew here~ tag me of you do it, I would love to see!

[allmywardensaresafeandsound]

Worldstates Masterpost

Worldstate 1 : Heroes of Thedas Warden: Ilsramel Cousland; Champion: Claire Hawke; Inquisitor: Catherina Hammond

Worldstate 2 : Sharp Blade of Freedom Warden: Mephis Tabris; Champion: Nicholas Rovver; Inquisitor: Ilamar Hammond

Worldstate 3 : Magic, Knowledge and Blood Warden: Malaad Surana ; Champion: Conte Amell; Inquisitor: Moghrana Lavellan  

Worldstate 4 : Of Noble Birth Warden: Andrea Amell; Orlesian Warden: Cato Beauchêne; Champion: Ariel Bourgeois; Inquisitor: Juleka Trevelyan  

Worldstate 5 : Dwarven Mischief Wardens: Portia Aeducan & Korinn Brosca; Champion: Malika Cadash; Inquisitor: Kasimir Cadash  

Worldstate 6 : Found Families Warden: Kamela Mahariel; Champion: Abbassira; Inquisitor: Asala Adaar 

The Multiverse Worldscape

Introduction :

DAO ; the Heroes of Ferelden 

DA2  ; Hawke’s Crew (WIP)

DAI ; Inquisition Forces (WIP)

The Last Court ; Dimitrian de Serault

OC Pages :

Wardens; Hawke’s Crew; Inquisition Forces

+

Link to the au/dark Worldstates Masterpost