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Rosamunde Cousland
Canon Introduction
Some lands are ruled by men and women who believe that they have been elevated to their rank by the Maker Himself, but in Ferelden, rulers must earn their place. The nobility is not suffered gladly, as the Orlesian Empire discovered to its dismay when it attempted to occupy the land.
The Couslands have stewarded the lands of Highever for many generations, dating even to before Ferelden's first king was crowned. They have persevered so long because of their reputation for justice and temperance, as well as their willingness to lead men into battle. With the rise of the darkspawn horde in the south, it thus falls on the Teyrn of Highever to send out the call once again: duty demands that an army be sent to King Cailan's aid at once.
As the Couslands will quickly discover, however, the evil horde to the south is not the only darkness in Ferelden; treachery stalks the halls of Castle Cousland as well.
As a young scion of the Cousland family, the duty of carrying its banner will fall to you. Will you live up to your family's proud heritage? Or will you forge your own path, and damn the consequences?
Contents
✧ Visual Reference and Stats
✧ Stat Focuses
✧ Talents
✧ Skills
✧ Relationships
Visual Reference and Stats
Updated at Level 14.
In-Game.
Stat Focuses
Favored Stats: Dexterity and Cunning
Dexterity - Rosamunde would not be alive if not for her quick reflexes and ability to turn intuition into action. While her father saw to it that she learned to fight, she was never as big or as strong as the mostly male sparring partners she faced. Learning from her mother and others who did not have size to their advantage, Rosamunde made it her goal to be quick and not to get motion-sick easily.
Cunning - Rosamunde grew up knowing that her entire life was political. While Teryn Cousland was permissive and encouraged his daughter to learn all the necessary talents and lessons to consider her a fit second-in-line for his seat of power, she knew her life was not likely to be so simple. She knew the burden being a woman in her position carried, no matter how many might claim it otherwise. She learned that, rather than trying to strike a blow first, as a woman in her world in particular that often the best weapons were her sharp eyes, studious ears, and crafty tongue.
Talents
Rogue: Rosamunde is particularly skilled in hitting her opponents where it hurts and misdirecting their attention with her cunning mind. She learned how to pick locks as a part of her lessons against being captured or taken advantage of as the daughter of a teryn.
Duelist: Rosamunde received training in how to use her cunning in battle even more precisely from Isabela when they met in a brothel in Denerim.
Power of Blood: Rosamunde received this power when she drank from an ancient concoction found in the tower at Soldier's Peak. She did not know what would become of her as a result, but she thought that it may hold the key to fully understanding what was happening at the haunted place. So soon after the Joining, she convinced herself: "What more could it hurt?"
Thus far she has not tempted this ability, no matter how it has made more darkness stir in her veins.
Dual Weapon: Rosamunde relies on being quick-witted and quick in her reflexes in order to hold her own in battle. She generally wears light armour and uses two blades. These are easiest for her to hold, and they make her feel less vulnerable than a bulky, heavy shield would.
Skills
Rosamunde's special skills include Coercion, Poison-Making, Combat Training, and Combat Tactics. She learned Combat Tactics in the hard road that has been before her since she left Highever. Before that, she never imagined that much of her combat skills would be put to good use, though she was not sure she particularly wished for them to be.
Coercion is the result of learning to be cunning and collected in conversations with the important people her parents brought into their home throughout her life. She has heard skillful liars and moving truth-tellers alike, and she knows that she does not have the luxury not to become both. She is generally honest - too honest for some of the more traditional men Bryce brought into his court - but she will often feign interest or compliance when she senses a person is likely to have complex or ulterior motives.
Poision-Making is a craft Rosamunde learned from books and quiet questions when her tutors cautioned her against the poisons present in wildlife and even in the kitchen. While Rosamunde loved her parents, her mother's increasing anxiety about finding her a husband made Rosamunde all the more certain that her own fear of poison must be trained into a potential strength. While she has no desire to kill innocents, she knew tales of crafty murderesses who saved themselves or other women from a lifetime of misery. She keeps this skill tucked away in the back of her mind, in case anyone should ever try to entrap her, be it in a cage or into a marriage devoid of respect.
Bryce and Eleanor insisted upon some Combat Training for their daughter. Rosamunde enjoyed it more than she was supposed to, however. She enjoyed feeling strength and agility building in her every day, and she liked that she was doing what her older brother got to do every day. She learned showy tricks with knives and the places to hit that would stun even the strongest man into stillness. If nothing else, she wanted to make sure she always had the chance to run away, and never imagined that she would be wading into war.
Relationships
"Canon" Romance:
Alistair
When Rosamunde met Alistair, she was not in the best mood to trust anyone or make new friends. Her mother, father, sister-in-law, and nephew were all dead, betrayed by someone they had been meant to trust. Duncan had more than proven his trustworthiness and value as an ally, but when he directed her to go and find another Grey Warden when she was ready to go through with her Joining of the Grey Wardens, she was not very hopeful about people in general.
The first time she heard his voice, he was arguing with someone else and seemed quite confident in himself. She did not think she would like him. However, he quickly proved to be a steady ally and trustworthy mentor.
After the Joining, Rosamunde found herself the only survivor among her freshmen Warden recruits with a heavy heart. Seeing what Duncan had no choice but to do with Ser Jory, Rosamunde found herself feeling camaraderie with Alistair that she could feel with no one else. She hardly knew him, but he was the only other person who had known what she had witnessed, and Duncan seemed so distant and resolved about the necessity of such a terrible thing.
When Loghain betrayed his king and country, whatever his reasons, and she and Alistair the only known survivors who were not part of Loghain's army, Rosamunde had even greater reason to value Alistair's loyalty. He even insisted that she be the one to decide what to do next. He wanted her to lead.
While this had never been a true ambition, Alistair's faith in Rosamunde's ability made her capable of putting one foot in front of the other after losing two lives so quickly. No sooner had she imagined consigning herself to the Grey Wardens for the rest of her life than she had to reassess what it would even mean to be one, but with Alistair at her side, she began to learn to make it mean something.
After surviving their unexpected trip into the Fade, Rosamunde approached Alistair to tell him how glad she was that he was alive, well, and by her side again. Seeing that his nightmare was simply the thought of leaving a world in which he belonged, she ached to make him feel that he belonged with her. She confessed that she thought he was handsome, trying to break the tension and prove a point.
Following this, in their travels together, Rosamunde and Alistair learned to trust each other more and more, and that trust also gave way to ever more passionate love.
Morrigan
Rosamunde was never quite as skeptical of Morrigan as Alistair was from the start. She was a bit frightened of her and what powers she might have, but in terms of wit and cunning - whether she was being naive or not - Rosamunde believed that she could hold her own with the mage of the Wilds.
From the time she found that Morrigan and Flemeth were her and Alistair's saviours, Rosamunde wanted to find a way to understand the woman. Their help was puzzling to her, and as much as she suspected an ulterior motive to both the assistance and Morrigan's promised help, she believed that something good could come of it. Perhaps she had to.
It took quite some time for Morrigan to hold any such regard for Rosamunde, but Rosamunde kept trying to use her silver tongue and her earnest desire to make her see that the world was not such a cold place that no one ever helped another without wanting unfair advantage in return. Eventually, Morrigan warmed to her some, particularly after Rosamunde, Alistair, Shale, and Wynne killed Flemeth at her behest. While Alistair had the killing blow, Morrigan credits Rosamunde with this favour almost entirely. Perhaps, in trying to find a way to help Morrigan, Rosamunde is helping herself believe that that world is not the place Morrigan believes it to be, even when some evidence is there in the mage's favour.
Leliana
Leliana was insistent from the first hour they met that it was destiny for Rosamunde and herself to meet. Rosamunde was more skeptical, but she did not discount her vision or her passion for her faith as necessarily insane. Rosamunde believes in the Maker and the things the Chantry taught her, if with a reserved drop of skepticism. This made Leliana's philosophical openness about her beliefs refreshing. Rosamunde likes to hear her stories and her opinions on things, even if she sometimes finds her quickness to put one's whole-hearted faith in another person a little heavy and intimidating.
Sten
Sten was one of the first hard decisions Rosamunde had to make in a long line of them after Ostagar. She had never seen a person like him before, and she only heard tale that he might be very dangerous. Even he did not deny this, though she could tell that he was not a crazed murderer. At least not in the moment.
Desperate for help and not knowing how easy it would be to get it, Rosamunde decided to assume the risk of letting him go. The fate those in Lothering had planned for him was too cruel after what he had gone through, and Rosamunde hates to see anyone in a cage. She would rather see them fight for what they believe, even if it kills them and even if it is wrong.
Sten took a long time to warm to her at all, and Rosamunde sometimes regretted asking him to come along with his impertinent, rude demeanor and skepticism of any effort she made to befriend him. Bit by bit, she managed to get at least a small crack in his tough exterior, and they are at least on companionable terms.
Wynne
At first only an ally in a desperate battle to save the innocent members of the Circle from their own members who had betrayed them in an ill-conceived bid for indepedence and freedom, Wynne quickly became one of Rosamunde's most valuable allies. Her wise, kind words are a great comfort to Rosamunde that no one else among her friends and allies is able to provide. She has the voice of a mother, even if she is not Rosamunde's own mother. As guilty as it makes her feel, Rosamunde sometimes believes that Wynne understands what she needs now better than her mother ever did in the time she had with her. Her mother taught her to be strong, witty, and cunning, but she expected her to hide some of what she was for the sake of political expediency and expediency toward more grandchildren. Wynne tells her to be honest with herself about both who she is and who she needs to be now, and Rosamunde is very glad she met her.
Zevran
Rosamunde has made a few overtures toward trust and understanding toward Zevran, but she is still holding him at arms' length, given that he tried to kill her upon their first meeting. She ins interested in his free, easy demeanor and the way it contrasts with what seems to have been a life in, as he said, "a guilded cage." She can relate to this terminology just a little, though she does not envy his particular experience of it.
While he seemed cool toward her prying questions about his way of life as an assassin, she is intrigued by his skill-set. The way he talks about it, it seems that it may be more merciful than all the other methods of death she has witnesssed and, indeed, had to carry out.
Shale
Rosamunde accepted the merchant's offer of Shale's control rod without really knowing what to expect. It was a wild story, and it was on her way to do the favour requested by Morrigan. If nothing else, making sure the control rod and the golem did not fall into worse and less qualified hands than hers was something to be said for it.
Finding a village so ravaged and broken by the darkspawn was terrible, but she was glad she went, if only to rid the place of the darkspawn and the desire demon there.
Shale immediately struck Rosamunde as having a good sense of humour, at least. While she does not yet know what to make of Shale, she has provisionally accepted her allegiance.
Oghren
After accepting Oghren's rather insistent help in searching for his estranged wife in the Deep Roads, Rosamunde accepted his offer to come along with her. She had come to understand what a significant loss it was for any dwarf to voluntarily go to the surface, giving up their home and their remaining ties to their culture. Even though Oghren had already been stripped of much of his honor and respect among his peers, she recognized that if he was willing to come along even after she pressed him on the subject of losing his home forever, he was likely to be a loyal companion.
She also agreed to help him, once on the surface, search for a lost love of his. It did not go very well, which was not very surprising to Rosamunde after she had spent more time with Rosamunde. Alistair seems to like his company, but Rosamunde finds it a little oppressive to have very large doses of Oghren. She has become accustomed to a much less pampered life than the one she had known until her family was betrayed, but Oghren's joy in being so crass presses the limits of what she finds particularly amusing. She feels compassion for him, but he has been the hardest for her to learn to relate to, even considering some of her allies have come from even more unusual backgrounds.
