🖊 Niamh pls...obviously lol
So for those who have played through the Cousland background in DAO likely know that your character is nicknamed “Pup” by your father Teyrn Bryce Cousland.
In chapter 8 of OtSttCA, I revealed that Niamh’s brother Fergus nicknamed her Highever’s Storm Wolf in an internal monologue as an homage of sorts to their late mother. However, the nickname is actually an updated version of the one her family gave her at birth due to the unique circumstances surrounding it, and it will be touched upon in a later chapter of the story.
The following is a bit of dialogue from Niamh’s Aunt Eithne (my own creation since we were never given the names or gender of Eleanor’s siblings):
“By tradition, my family often gives titles to those deserving of them either by deed or by momentous occasion. My younger sister—Maker, bless her soul— was renowned as the Sea Wolf for her ferocity upon the waves along with her raiding prowess.”
Even in Leliana’s youth, stories of the famed Sea Wolf had still been told from time to time. Eleanor Mac Eanraig was respected in Orlais—if not feared—as a brilliant strategist out on the Waking Sea, for she had cowed more than a few captains and admirals of note at the time. The woman sank Orlesian ships nearly as fast as they could be replaced out on the water, and no matter what routes her enemies used to try and bypass her fleet of ships, she was there to meet them head-on.
Idly, she began to wonder if that was where Niamh received her penchant for tactics from. Saoirse had been more than capable as a leader, but even her mind for stratagems failed in comparison to the almost negligent ease in which Niamh could often outmaneuver her opponents. Leliana came out of her thoughts slowly as the woman before her continued speaking.
“With Niamh… Well.” Eithne chuckled a bit. “Her birth certainly counted as rather memorable. We teasingly titled her the Storm Pup because Eleanor delivered her beneath a dreadful squall. Worst one we’d seen in years then, truly. The rain came down in near solid sheets, and the skies were roaring an utter symphony of madness...” Weathered features warmed then. “But when my wee little niece breathed her first breath? The weather outside just seemed to slowly calm itself, as if heralding the birth of the one who would later become the absolute epitome of them.
“To our surprise, our title proved exceedingly accurate for her as she grew. She never feared storms of any kind, you see,” she revealed to Leliana, smiling all the while. “No, her eyes would grow wide with each dance of lightning she saw outside the window, and she’d clap her little hands with delight at the droning thunder calling to her beyond the mountains. While my nephew and nieces didn’t grow up on warships as my siblings and I did, we still wanted them to always know of their heritage, to know that the sea was their home as much as the land. With Niamh’s temperament, I knew she would take to a ship like a fish to water, and I couldn’t wait to have her aboard.”
Those familiar grey eyes soon lost some of the vibrancy, and the smile that had been playing on the woman’s lips for several minutes gradually fell away. Understandable, given that Leliana knew what happened next.
“And then she was taken away to the Circle...”