#Elissa Cousland

[pumpkincalico]

The Maker smiles sadly on his Grey Wardens, as no sacrifice is greater than theirs.

[sibylance]

Warden-Queen

[queenofferelden]

🌲🐺 Deep in Brecillian Forest we found a ruined temple. 🐺🌲

I think the answers to what happened here lie here.

[elsfinix]

I thought maybe I could say something. Tell you what a rare and wonderful thing you are to find amidst all this… darkness.

an Absolution style piece from the previous year

[defira85]

To Which I Aspire: A Justice Chapter Story

Justice is a concept, an ideal- he embodies all that is good and all that is bad about the mortal concept of justice, and can imagine no other life. A chance encounter with a human interloper in his realm will change everything he is and everything he will be, and he will learn that there is so much more to the world than he could ever have believed.

In mid 2012, @combination-nc came up with a really fun concept for the DA fandom on tumblr at the time - to take a character from one of the games and write 26 little fic snippets using the alphabet for each chapter, to explore ideas and themes without having to commit to a full fic

I immediately committed to a full fic because that's just who I am as a person, and here we are in 2024 having not updated since 2015. But! I started writing a new chapter just a few weeks ago, and I did make it all the way through the alphabet to T before my enthusiasm for Dragon Age waned

I do think my writing from a decade ago is a little clumsy and heavy handed in places, but I'm still extremely proud of it. This fic was the genesis for my canon warden Elissa, and it deals with some very heavy themes including depression, C-PTSD, addiction and suicide. There's not really anything resembling mental health care in Thedas, so Elissa has a rough time of it

Start with Chapter One here, or maybe subscribe to see if we can get me to finish the last few chapters before Veilguard hits!

Not my finest header work but I'm still learning how Clip Studio Pro works. AND it's my birthday so I don't have to try hard

[justasmolweebean]

A few of my Cousland's fits (+A tiiiiny Ser PounceALot). She's a warrior who used to enter gran tourneys under her brother's name. Loves jousting, tea, and reading shitty romance novels.

[thechildofbhaalhasawoken]

The Warrior Queen, Hero of Ferelden. 🌹

[starswritteninourscars]

Elissa Cousland - "Strength" - AO3

I think I must have deleted the ask, but SOMEONE gave me the tarot card for strength for Elissa Cousland. So here you go, mysterious stranger! Tagging @dadrunkwriting for a reblog?

Thank you to @laurelsofhighever for permission to reference this map of her version of Castle Cousland she put together!

It takes Elissa Cousland three years before she’s ready to walk into Castle Cousland again. Repairs are nearly complete by then, and Fergus has had the good sense not to try to restore everything to just the way it was before. There’s no pretending this is the same place it was before the massacre. But it’s a stronghold that’s stood too long and served too well to be abandoned for the sake of trauma. But even at first glance, well… there are paintings where elaborate tapestries once hung, the much-reduced library has been moved to a set of rooms once set aside for honored guests, there’s a memorial to the dead in the courtyard—and the family’s chambers have been moved from the third floor of the keep to the second. Fergus may have returned to the castle practically the moment Queen Anora was crowned, but the new servants tell her he hasn’t set foot on the third floor in the years since.

Elissa doesn't fault him for it, but she won't allow herself the same. On the first Sunday after she returns, right after morning service, she forces herself to climb, one step at a time, up to the old family quarters.

It's… easier than she thought it would be. She almost expected it to be physically painful, the stairs slicing into her feet like caltrops. But the feeling is more yhat of a march, the plodding progress of their slog through the wilds after Ostagar, before the Chasind found them. Step after step, each one a terrible effort, and with no expectation of comfort at the end of their journey, if there is an end. She reaches the top of the stairs, stands in the corridor facing the set or rooms where her parents slept and lives. Through that door is the solar where Elissa sat on her mother's lap as a child, listening to stories of her warrior days, her own determination to be even braver sharpening. To her right are Fergus's tooms. Fergus's, and Orianna’s, and Oren's. To the left are her own, and the stairs to the carle’s tallest tower. She turns right. Their might not be an end to grief, but she will look it in the eye the same way she did Rendin Howe before she slit his throat 

She made it through Ostagar, and months in the wild. She made it north to Highever, and then to Denerim. She made it past Howe’s guards, and she made it, wounded and limping  into the Landsmeet to lend her voice to Alim Surana. Elissa Cousland might nob have fought in the battle of Denerim, but she had fought for her country. For what was right.

Three years later, she wonders if she’ll ever be able to stop fighting.

[daflowerzine]

🌺🌻Introducing our next writer, Lysmune!🌻🌺

twitter / ao3

[brennacedria]

Personally, I'd recommend skipping the first chapter but here's Elissa's full story, more or less. (There are also ficlets in the series.) Posted as promised earlier for some Elissa's Birthday Spam. (Portrait by @queendread)

(it's Elissa's birthday today, it's my birthday tomorrow, and I haven't promo'd this fic in like 12 years so I figure why not?)

[stupid-tes-nerd]

What’s up nerds. New video went live on my channel a few minutes ago! We get jumpscared by spiders, meet a bald elf who we don’t trust, fight some werewolves and meet a talking tree!

[pumpkincalico]

Alistairs voice line triggered for the first time mid battle after my wardens and Id like to imagine it was a sweet bonding moment for them 😌

[samzikei]

self indulgent drawing of all my current Dragon Age protags... Cousland, Hawke, and Trevelyan! I usually don't but this time I played all humans for each game :p

twit

[queenofferelden]

We lit a signal fire. But we had no idea what was going on below.

[ruiningsalads]

Happy DADWC day! How about picnic gone wrong for Cousland/Nathaniel Howe?

for @dadrunkwriting

ahhhh this pair! always so nice to write.

a fluffy drabble.

--

"Can I look yet?"

"No." Nathaniel's voice was amused yet firm as he gently led her forward.

Elissa huffed an impatient sigh, earning a soft chuckle from her companion. "Anders wouldn't tell me what this was about, either."

"Good. I won't have to follow through with my threats."

"You threatened him? With what?"

"I didn't threaten him so much as his cat," he admitted.

"Ser Pounce-a-lot is innocent in all of this!" She sounded so indignant that he laughed again.

"Don't worry, Commander, I wouldn't actually harm his cat. But the look on his face when I threatened him was worth it." He tugged her to a halt. "Alright, you can look now."

She yanked her blindfold off and blinked furiously, suddenly blinded by the bright sunshine. When she could see again, she beheld a blanket laid out with a basket, a bottle, and two goblets. "Oh, Nate," she sighed happily. "This is wonderful!"

He rubbed his neck nervously. "You like it?"

"Of course I do!" She flashed him a smile and sat by the basket. He joined her, looking equal parts embarrassed and pleased. "But how did Anders factor in?"

"He helped set this up without you knowing. He's the one who brought all this out here." He pulled the basket towards him and reached to flip it open. "He said he spoke to the kitchen staff and--"

Suddenly, he coughed and sputtered as flour burst from the basket and hit him squarely in the face. The basket was empty, save for a crude drawing on a scrap of parchment at the bottom.

"I'm going to kill him," Nathaniel snarled.

Elissa was laughing so hard that tears streamed down her face. "M-maybe...you shouldn't...threaten his cat," she gasped, struggling to contain herself.

"He won't have to worry about cats where he's going." He moved to get up, but Elissa grabbed his arm and held him in place. It took several more moments for her laughter to subside, during which he tried and failed to pull from her grasp.

"Hold on," she gasped, clutching at her ribs with her free hand.

"This isn't how I wanted today to go," he groused.

"No, but it's certainly memorable." Her breathing finally back under control, she produced a handkerchief and gently wiped his face clean, smiling. "There, all better."

He grimaced. "Except for my pride."

She leaned forward and planted a kiss on his lips. "I have some ideas if you want to get back at Anders. But right now, talking isn't what I have in mind."

"Really?" He looked surprised, but hopeful. "Even with this mess?" He gestured at the scattered flour on his tunic.

Her answering grin was wolfish. "There's a river nearby."

Nathaniel's eyes gleamed with interest. "Perhaps I should thank Anders instead of killing him."

[defira85]

Rereading so much Dragon Age stuff now. Reread Justice and Elissa, Category 5 shipping event in progress, thousands dead

Look at this, this is insane, how did I write this over a decade ago, THE YEARNING IS CATACLYSMIC

Frustration bubbled up inside him, a bitter feeling that he did not possess the wherewithal to manage in any efficient way. “Perhaps, but the point is moot, for I do not have access to a living body,” he snapped, harder than he meant to.

Nathaniel seemed unaffected by his faltering mood. “Indulge me for a moment, and just imagine. What if the opportunity were to present itself right now? Could you do it right now, right here, just because you wanted to?”

“I would not. Such a thing is abominable, to possess a living host and there are certainly no alternatives in the vicinity.”

“Even if the host was willing?” Nathaniel leant back against the wall of the inn, arms crossed over his chest and a piercing look in his eyes. “Just imagine it- what would you fight for, if you had the strength of the living at your disposal?”

“I do not,” he said flatly, his eyes fixed on Elissa so that he did not have to look at Nathaniel and see the kindling hope in his face. Her antics were drawing a crowd now, the knives twirling dangerously fast, flying through the air to be snatched by her nimble fingers as she spun and twirled along with them. She showed no hesitation at all, nothing to indicate that only a fortnight ago she had been plagued by an agonising lyrium burn on her palm. Her movements were flawless, the blade moving so fast that it whistled slightly. “I do not have a living host, willing or otherwise, so there is no point to dream of what I might have. To desire something is to succumb to temptation, and such a path will change me irreversibly. That is the path to darkness, where I will lose myself and become a demon.”

Elissa laughed in delight, the sound echoed by the crowd who clapped and cheered approvingly at her increasingly elaborate performance.

“It is not evil to desire something,” Nathaniel countered, gesturing futilely with his hands, as if that would drive his point across more decisively. “It is only evil to covet something so desperately that it becomes something dark and twisted and hateful within you. Desire in and of itself can be a powerful and miraculous force in the world- the desire to do good, to help others, to save others, to love others. The desire to see change come about, for the betterment of others.”

He sounded like Elissa; it was amusing, how strained and awkward their rapport was, given how similar they both were. “You can use anger to drive your actions,” she had said so long ago now, “and that doesn’t make you a rage demon. You are passionate about justice, and you pursue that with quite a lot of aggression- but that doesn’t make you a rage demon or a desire demon. As long as you always have the fortitude and the courage to turn aside at the right moment, then intent will never eventuate into action.” They were both of them wiser than they realised they were.

“Love is a desire and you admire the love Kristoff had for Aura,” Nathaniel continued, unaware that his audience had been distracted for a few moments. “Do you find that love to be dangerous?”

“It is a path to darker lusts,” Justice bit off, frustrated at his friend’s persistence, if nothing else. He did not have the answers Nathaniel clearly sought, and he had no idea what this circuitous and confronting conversation was leading towards. “It is as you said- desire may turn to covetous desperation, and I must avoid that at all costs.”

“I didn’t say that,” Nathaniel said, frowning slightly.

HE KEEPS!!! LOOKING AT HER!!! HE DOESN'T KNOW HE'S IN LOVE!!! HE WON'T KNOW HE'S IN LOVE UNTIL HE MERGES WITH ANDERS AND ANDERS GIVE HIM CONTEXT FOR WHAT HE'S FEELING AND THEN IT'LL BE TOO LATE!!!!!!!

I need to finish this goddamn fic, I'm going to die, they're going to kill me