#daniel cousland

[blackjackkent]

Epilogue stuff!

First of all, once Solas has disappeared, we get a quick cutscene resolving the REALLY important question:

Did Bellara survive?

Not only did she survive, but she punches her way straight out of a prison of ossified blight, which is badass.

And her eyes are back to normal! Hooray!

Helena has a nice smile about this.

The game doesn't show it, but after this Helena definitely barrels all away across the arena and body tackles her, mumbles something that sounds reasonably close to her name, and then starts bawling with adrenaline letdown.

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Next we get a nice little scene of everyone crawling back down the blight stem:

and being cheered on by local Minrathous-ites digging out of the city wreckage:

Bellara does a SUPER cute little bouncy wave at everyone which i love. <3

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And then we get the traditional post-game slideshow!

We've been getting these little stylized sequences narrated by Varric over the course of the game, which I haven't really included in the liveblog particularly because they didn't really add much in my opinion. But he also narrates the epilogue (along with a bunch of other people) and it's pretty positive for our intrepid heroes!

Varric> "With Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain dead, and Solas off to fix his mistakes and right an ancient wrong, it looked like one of the biggest stories this world had ever seen was finally drawing to a close."

Helena> "The story of the Veilguard, a team of heroes who stood strong against evil... no matter the cost." Davrin> "Whatever it takes..."

Feeels. <3 Davrin, buddy.

Evka> "Like the story of the Grey Wardens clearing the remains of the blight so that flowers can grow again."

Awwww. (This art doesn't look remotely like either of them but Antoine and Evka are the best so this still gets an aww. I'm ASTONISHED that nothing bad ended up happening with Antoine. <3 )

Tarquin> "Or the story of Archon Dorian Pavus dragging Tevinter into a new era with bold and forceful measures."

BRING THE LIGHT! \o/ There are a lot of ways that the reconstruction of Minrathous could go terribly wrong but I'm choosing to believe that Dorian does a good job and slowly but surely (and with the help of the Shadow Dragons) begins to accomplish the reforms that are necessary.

Eventually Helena's city flourishes again.

Caretaker> "Or the story of a caretaker, standing watch for new heroes."

I had very little investment in the Caretaker so this feels like a bizarre insertion, honestly, but I'm glad she keeps living her best life.

Teia> "For the Antivan Crows, it would be a story of bringing a traitor to juustice and reclaiming Treviso from the blight."

I mean, Ivenci is already super dead so that part is sort of already handled I think. I wonder if the blight retreated from Treviso the same way it did from Minrathous after Elgar'nan died. Hope so!

Strife> "Among the Veil Jumpers, the fall of the last elven gods meant Arlathan was reborn."

I bet Bellara is going to be SO excited about all the weird magic shit entailed in this. XD Helena is... less so.

Helena> "At their heart... stories are about change."

Emmrich> "A man exploring worlds beyond mortal existence."

Neve> "A woman standing watch against anyone that would threaten Dock Town."

Lucanis> "An assassin driving out the darkness in his city - and himself."

Bellara> "A student of history helping the elves regain what they lost."

Taash> "A dragon hunter forging a new life for themselves."

Davrin> "Or the griffons finding a new home in Arlathan, protecting a world that once thought them lost for good."

Harding> "Or the anguish of finally understanding the Titans and forever altering those who carry the memory."

Big hugs for all our buddies. <3

Bellara> "There are stories of love..." Helena> "But those stories aren't over."

Aww. I assume this slide is different based on who you romanced?

Helena> "And we will always be grateful to those whose stories brought us where we are today..."

Helena> "...and those those stories will live on with us forever."

<3 <3 <3

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This then leads into the credits, and then an after-credits cutscene. But a few quick, self-indulgent personal worldstate notes before we move on to that.

DANIEL COUSLAND, Warden-Commander and Hero of Ferelden, reunites with Morrigan and their son in the wake of the battle in Minrathous. He's been doing what work he could to assist the Inquisition in stemming the blight in the south all this time, keeping in touch by numerous letters with Morrigan, and with Kieran who has spent most of his young adulthood being shuffled between various Inquisition safehouses.

Once Minrathous is safe, Morrigan pretty much disappears overnight and she, Daniel, and Kieran have a joyful reunion in Ferelden a week or so later. Daniel, who had been working pretty much non-stop on seeking a cure for the blight, finds himself suddenly at loose ends; they end up rejoining the remaining Wardens in their rebuilding efforts and Daniel ultimately becomes close friends with Antoine and Evka.

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ELLIOT HAWKE, as previously mentioned, completely disappeared along with Fenris after the fall of Kirkwall to the darkspawn. He had been responsible for helping a large number of civilians get away to safety and then vanished into a remote corner of the Anderfels, where he and Fenris find an abandoned cottage and live out the rest of their days not having to deal with people anymore. They're pretty content; occasionally their old friends (and Carver) receive letters from them, and eventually after a few years they do deign to receive visitors, but for the most part they are happily secluded from the world for the rest of their lives.

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DOMINIC TREVELYAN returns to Skyhold and straight into the arms of Cassandra. Sadly, he has a lot of work to do before he can really properly rest - mostly involving helping thousands of refugees return to their homes as the blight recedes, and then heading to his own home in Ostwick with his brothers and sisters and beginning the rebuilding effort. Cassandra is still the Divine and so the two of them are still repeatedly separated for a number of further years before Dom, finally free with no further battles left to fight, returns to her side and stays there.

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As for Helena... we'll go over that in the next post. XD

[life-is-no-sugarlicking]

I have Zevran Feels so i made a new Warden.Daniel Cousland. Knight.

My Icon for him looks like this

Ingame he looks like a puppy

a hurt puppy

and thats while his family is still alive! Just wait dude..

[blackjackkent]

I would say Karlach is your trademark but that's a little too easy so I'm gonna say your trademark is having OCs that look like they could kill you but are cinnamon rolls

(Reblog if you want your followers to tell you what your trademark is.)

This made me smile a lot, haha. I like this as a trademark!

And it sent me down a self-indulgent rabbit hole to find super fierce faces from my cinnamon rolliest OCs. XD

[blackjackkent]

3, 4, 10, 11!

(Dragon Age: Veilguard Hype Q&A)

3. Do you usually play as a warrior, mage, or rogue? Which class are you planning to try first this time around? Which subclass?

I've played a pretty equal distribution of all the classes in the previous games. I haven't fully started solidifying a decision on which type of char I will play first for Veilguard but a Spellblade mage sounds pretty cool. Seems like it might be a good culmination of the worldstate I'm going to use first, which was a warrior Warden and Inquisitor and a mage Hawke.

4. What does your worldstate look like going into DAV?

Oh hey, perfect transition. :P

I have three different worldstates I could play with but the one I'm going to use for my initial playthrough was my second worldstate of the first three games. Past characters were:

Daniel Cousland - painfully earnest and sincere son of House Cousland, deeply devoted to his father's memories and the lessons Bryce instilled in him, became seneschal to King Alistair post-game but eventually disappeared to follow his love Morrigan into the Fade and raise their son together. Currently off to parts unknown investigating the Calling.

Elliot Hawke - Angry, grumpy, antisocial mage; a somniari like Feynriel and terribly afraid of his own powers. Dogged by a rage demon in his dreams. Deeply in love with Fenris and would be quite happy if he never had to interact with other people besides Fenris ever again. Survived the Fade at Stroud's expense. Last seen helping Varric rebuild in Kirkwall.

Dominic Trevelyan - Goofball golden retriever Inquisitor, raised as a Templar trainee but never actually took vows. Good man from the start but sheltered by his noble/Templar upbringing and has had his worldview opened up considerably during his time with the Inquisition. Devout Andrastean who suffered a bit of a crisis of faith over the course of the game but became more resolute (and older and much much more tired) in the end. Romanced Cassandra and was somewhat shattered by the fact that she ended up appointed Divine; the two of them have been carrying on a much more subtle love affair since then. Has (presumably) been orchestrating the development of the Veilguard.

Really hope something nice ends up happening to all of them because god they've earned it. XD

10. Which location are you most excited/hoping to explore in-game?

NGL I was really intrigued by the gameplay preview of Minrathous. It is NOT what I was expecting at all and feels like a neat departure from the areas we've seen in previous games. Smidge of scifi with the panopticon space station. XD So I'm pretty excited to see more of that and how we fit into it.

11. What's one thing you'd really like to see in this next game?

So far as I know we only are likely to actually see the Inquisitor as a character in Veilguard but I hope we continue to get references to the Warden and Hawke as well to see snippets of their story continued. And I hope that whatever we end up doing in fighting the Evanuris turns out to cure the Blight so that Daniel and Morrigan can go off and live long and happy lives together. XD

[blackjackkent]

how about 8, 11, and 20 from the group questions section of the OC Asklist?

(OC Asks: Put Those Guys in Situations!)

I'm not sure which group you/the prompt had in mind, so we're going with a scenario of all my OCs somehow isekaid into the same situation, because I think it'd be funny. XD

8. Your characters have been invited to a fancy dress ball, and their costumes must fit a group theme. What do they wear?

The group immediately sorts out into three categories:

a) So excited, psyched to come up with a theme: Philip, Riley, Daniel, Dom, Caden, Joan

b) Meh, will do whatever the group deems appropriate: Matty, Jaksa, Randa, Hector.

c) Would rather do literally anything else: Jenna, Adi, Elliot, Hayden.

Group A comes up with a very nice theme of everyone in black and deep jewel tones of each person's favorite colors, super coordinated, gorgeously designed, everyone looking their best. The whole group wears it without complaint, except Joan, who (despite having been super into the planning) decides at the last minute to show up instead in a skimpy spangly number slit all the way up to her hip just to fuck with everyone, and she and Jenna almost get into a fistfight in the entrance hall.

11. Your characters are sharing stories around the fire. What story does each character tell? Whose story is the most popular?

All of them have lots of adventures to share from their respective universes. Some of them are... definitely better storytellers than others. Jenna and Hector in particular flat out refuse to participate, each claiming that they're no good at telling stories. Joan makes up an outrageous tall tale. Most of the others are pretty sincere though not flashy, telling some minor adventure while knowing deep down that there are much worse things they could speak about. Dom tells some hilarious misadventure with incredible detail and has everyone howling.

20. Your characters are trapped in a joint dream or simulation that recreates their greatest fears. They can only escape if each one of them faces their fear. What are these fears? How do they overcome them? Who overcomes theirs first, and who takes the longest?

Oh man. I was gonna avoid writing one out for every char cos I have quite a collection at this point and I knew it'd take forever, but this is pretty juicy and I can't resist indulging myself. Let's see.

a) Jenna> A room full of the burning corpses of her friends. Overcome through major support from the others in the group; oddly enough the only person who is really able to get through to her is Matty, the older marine, who does not try to reassure her that everything is all right, but simply reminds her quietly (hating the words as he says them) that she has pushed through worse.

b) Matty> The blue light of the Reaper hive mind. Faced as he faced it in real life, with pistol shots directly into the source until the way is clear. Everyone is mildly surprised given how cerebral he is in other contexts.

c) Philip> The room is CRAWLING with bugs of all sorts, all sizes. This one is almost a relief after Jenna's corpse room, but everyone quickly realizes that just helping him squash them all isn't the answer. Philip, in the end, sits in the center of the room and makes very unhappy noises while letting them crawl harmlessly around on him, while Hector and Adi sit next to him for moral support.

d) Jaksa> Something very similar to the DAO gauntlet - a reunion with Tamlen, only it's the blighted version of him with darkness pouring out of his face. She tries multiple times to lash out at this vision and the room simply resets, only allowing them passage when she does not strike but instead waits; the bleak vision drifts closer, lays its mutilated hand against her cheek for a moment and then vanishes.

e) Riley> An empty, bleak, blank Hightown mansion, devoid of family, devoid of life. All lost, all gone... The others sit at the table with her, eat a meal, help fill the space with voices again where it has been empty for so long.

f and g) Adi and Dom get roughly the same room, one right after another. Adi's is an enormous Chantry building, full of people all watching her and bathed in glowing light from an indistinct figure in a throne at the far end. Dom's is exactly the same, but no one is there, no one is watching, and the throne is empty. In both cases the place seems to ask of them only that they look steadily at the possibility and then walk forward nevertheless.

h) Daniel's room is bleeding darkspawn taint from the walls, which close in slowly on all sides while a distant young boy's voice screams at him - "You can't die, Father! You can't leave me alone!" Leaving aside his greatsword he smashes the blighted wall open with his own fists, opening a path beyond. Hector, insightful as he is, asks, "The boy screaming. Was that your son? Or you to your own father?" Daniel doesn't answer.

i) Elliot faces down an enormous rage demon, and alone of all the group does not seem surprised, just angry and tired. Without even waiting to consider the matter, he steps forward, slams his staff straight through the creature and then sets off an explosion within it, sending bits of ectoplasm slapping into the walls. "That didn't take you long," Jenna says dryly. "I've had a lot of practice; I fight it every night in my dreams," he answers.

j and k) Hayden and Randa's rooms are also similar - massive, high-ceilinged ornate places full of mocking, laughing voices. Jenna offers to beat the shit out of all the onlookers calling Hayden "knife-ear" and Randa "ox", but neither of them agrees. Randa just points out, in her morose, taciturn way, that it is better not to acknowledge them; the door opens for her as she stalks through the hall looking straight ahead. Hayden, vibrating with rage, says they don't matter, and the way to move on is to prove she is better than any of them ever were. Whether the room agrees or not is unclear, but when she stalks to the dais at the front of the hall and burns a Grey Warden symbol into the wall with magic, the door opens for her.

l) Joan, like Elliot, is greeted by the demon that dogs her - the desire demon that latched onto her when she came to Kirkwall, and that she thought she left behind when she left the city. Astonishing everyone, she - usually so cocky - goes completely blank and almost seems to panic. The demon just laughs. "You don't have it as easy as the others," it purrs. "There is no easy way to face me down, because deep down, I'm not what you fear, I'm what you want." It vanishes, the door opens. Everyone is somehow more rattled by this than anything else.

m) Caden's room is like another of Irenicus's dreams - he faces a blank-faced man that morphs into the Slayer, which scares the shit out of Hector. The only way out is to beat it into submission, just as he always has before within his own mind - but when they kill it, the room resets. The true answer is to hold it down as his friends once held him in a moment of transformation, to wait for the anger to bleed from it until it fades away.

n) Hector's room is, again, something of a relief after some of the past ones. He has many, many things he can think of fearing, but is instead presented with a giant red dragon which opens its mouth to shoot a burst of flame into his face. At first he panics, but, roused by the presence of the others around him, he forces himself forward and leaps onto its back instead. The others follow suit and the dragon leaps into the air and carries them free of the prison.

[blackjackkent]

🌿 for your cousland ?

(16 OC questions)

Eyyy, good old Daniel. :D

🌿 What is something true about your OC that they refuse to admit about themselves? Is there any reason to this besides embarassment?

Hmmmmm. Daniel is actually one of the more well-adjusted of my OCs overall so he doesn't have a ton of candidates in this regard. But I think him gallivanting off with Morrigan and abandoning his role as the king's seneschal at the end of Witch Hunt, without even leaving a note for Alistair, was probably, on some level, irresponsible. XD (And it definitely worried Alistair a lot until Daniel eventually got back in touch, which took a while.)

But Daniel would never lay claim to that, because his responsibility as a father to Kieran is far more important to him (especially given how close he was with his own father). And also because, to be honest, he was such an upstanding guy for so long that he feels perhaps that he is entitled to a small bit of selfishness on such an important matter.

Luckily Alistair is also an upstanding guy and so I think he didn't hold it against Daniel in the long run. But it was definitely a jarring decision for him to make, for all those who knew him in Denerim.

[blackjackkent]

I just really like Daniel’s face okay, don’t judge me.

[blackjackkent]

earnest puppy boy needs hugs

protect him