Elyssa Cousland

Elyssa Cousland

STAND YOUR GROUND, THE DAWN WILL COME

Elyssa was born to Teyrn Bryce Cousland and his wife Eleanor, their second and youngest child, and their only daughter. She and her older brother Fergus were quite close as children, and could often be found sparring in the courtyard. Elyssa was what one would call a troublemaker as a child. She liked to climb things. In fact, when she was five, she ended up falling out of one of the trees in the courtyard, giving her a scar that ran from her knee to her ankle. This never stopped her, though, and once she recovered she was right back to climbing trees. She was just more careful from then on.

She started studying swordsmanship at the age of seven. She actually started by secretly watching her brother's lessons, and then her father decided that they might as well start teaching her. Better for her to learn from a true teacher, after all, than to have her practicing in secret and risk serious injury. Eleanor was against this at first, but she soon agreed as well. On Elyssa's fifteenth nameday, the castle's mabari breeder gifted her with the strongest of the puppies from his hound's most recent litter, and Elyssa named the hound Kenai. The imprint was successful, and he only listened to her from that day on.

Elyssa grew into a strong young warrior, and she had a special place in her brother's wedding to Oriana, a woman from Antiva, and she grew close to their son Oren as well.

And then the Fifth Blight began, not long after Elyssa turned twenty.

Arl Rendon Howe and Teyrn Bryce Cousland had been friends since they were young, fighting together during the Orlesian Occupation. They were supposed to ride to Ostagar together, to help King Cailan fight the darkspawn. But the Arl said his men were delayed, and Bryce sent the majority of the Highever troops to Ostagar with Fergus. Lady Landra, Bann Loren's wife, and her son Dairren were staying in Highever Castle for a few days, and Eleanor was going to go with them when they left. Elyssa was to be the only Cousland left in the castle, to look after Highever's affairs. But things do not always go as planned.

The day started off simple. Elyssa was called to the main hall, where her father and Rendon Howe were talking. There was a less-than-subtle attempt by Arl Howe to propose marriage between Elyssa and Thomas Howe, one of Arl Rendon's sons. Elyssa attempted a polite decline, and it was reaffirmed by her father. Once she was dismissed, Elyssa was met by Ser Gilmore, one of the castle knights. He accompanied her to the larder, where Elyssa's hound Kenai was once again riling up the cook, who everyone in the castle affectionately called Nan. Once the rats in the larder were all dead, Elyssa went to search for her brother, to pass on the message from Bryce. On the landing, she met her mother talking with Lady Landra and Dairren. She had always liked the man, and so she went to meet him in the study. There, Dairren agreed to come to her room that night, once everyone else had gone to bed.

Dairren shared her bed that night, but they were awoken sometime between midnight and dawn when Kenai wouldn't stay quiet. Dairren opened the door, only to end up with an arrow through his chest, dead. Elyssa fought, and with her mother the two of them went to the treasury to get the Cousland sword and shield before making their way to the servants' exit in the larder. There, they found Bryce, fatally wounded. Under heavy persuasion from her parents, Elyssa escaped, though she felt terrible for leaving her parents to die.

She escaped with Kenai and made her way south, to Ostagar. There, she met King Cailan, and he swore to her that he would turn the army north after the battle, to help her reclaim Highever from the traitorous snake Rendon Howe. But, as usual, things didn't go as planned. The battle wasn't a battle. It was a massacre. Elyssa barely escaped with her life, somehow ending up in Lothering. Once she had recovered from her injuries, she left Lothering and hid herself in the Bannorn.

When word reached her that Arl Eamon had recovered from his mysterious illness, she made her way to Redcliffe. Bann Teagan recognized her as the youngest child of Bryce Cousland, and he took her to Eamon. Since the rest of the nobles that were going to take part in the Landsmeet all thought her to be dead, Eamon decided to use this to their advantage. So Elyssa disguised herself as one of his servants, and got into the Landsmeet that way.

Once time came for the decision to be made, Elyssa revealed herself. "Highever stands with the Wardens!" was her declaration. There were a number of outbursts, people claiming that she couldn't be who she said she was, other people professing their joy at the fact that she was alive, and others simply stunned by her sudden reappearance. At the end of the Landsmeet, Elyssa presented herself to Alistair, who offered his aid in reclaiming Highever once the archdemon was dead.

As the troops mobilized, there were a surprising number of Highever's troops that had survived the Battle of Ostagar. She took command of the troops, who willingly followed her into battle. Elyssa's troops worked to help evacuate the few people who were left in Denerim. The battle was won, but not without casualties. Elyssa herself ended up with several new minor scars, though she seemed naturally immune to the darkspawn corruption. Alistair convinced her to stay in Denerim until the coronation. Just days before, he surprised her by finding Fergus and bringing him home. That was the first time since the attack on Highever Castle that Elyssa had felt true joy.

After the coronation, Elyssa and Fergus returned to Highever, working together to clean out Howe's troops. Highever was back with the Couslands, where it belonged. Fergus became the new Teyrn, and Elyssa became one of the commanders of Highever's troops. Together, Fergus and Elyssa worked to rebuild Highever.

At the age of twenty-three, Elyssa agreed to an arranged marriage with the son of one of the lesser nobles in the teyrnir, who had since been renamed Guard-Captain of Highever, and together they had a set of twins, a girl and a boy. The girl was named Eleanor, and the boy was named Bryce. Elyssa was twenty-four at the time the twins were born. Her husband got into a bad scuffle with a few of the remaining soldiers who were still loyal to Howe, and died as a result of his injuries only months after the twins were born. Though she hadn't truly loved him, she had cared for her husband. This was only the first attack on their family, but they didn't realize it yet.

A year after her husband's death, just after she turned twenty-six, there was a new elven servant who started working at the castle. His name was Aval, from a Dalish clan that had passed near Highever. The two of them became surprisingly close over the course of the next year, and when she was twenty-eight, Elyssa gave birth to another set of twins, a boy and a girl. The boy was named Oren, in honor of Fergus's son. Her daughter was named Vhena by Aval. As these twins grew, there were more elven features in their faces than was normal for elfblood humans. Their eyes were larger, their cheekbones higher... Small details, but just enough to make them seem not quite human.

Ten years after the Blight, there were demons everywhere. Since they had no way of closing the odd tears, all Elyssa could do was have a guard rotation stationed around the rifts. Then the Inquisition came around and closed the rifts, brought safety back to the teyrnir. Elyssa and Fergus agreed to offer what help they could, though they were still dealing with residual issues from when Arl Howe had taken Highever. Her late husband was one of the casualties from the rebellion. Around the same time, the new mabari breeder requested Elyssa's presence, about two months after the birth of a new litter. One of the pups, a female, picked Elyssa as her partner. Elyssa named the hound Karina, and it didn't take long for Kenai and Karina to start getting along. Karina followed Kenai around, and Kenai became quite protective of the puppy.

They believed the rebellion to be quashed around four years after the Exalted Council, but when Elyssa was patrolling the grounds, she was ambushed. If she hadn't been such an able fighter, she would not have survived the attack. Meanwhile, her two children were under attack from assassins that had been hired. The older twins, thirteen at the time, had already begun their weapons training. They worked together to fight off the assassins until the guards got there, and the guards dispatched the assassins. The number of guards was upped after that, but it kept happening.

The number of assassinations just kept coming, even going after Elyssa's younger twins. Aval gave his life when he jumped in front of Vhena, saving her from an arrow that would have killed her instead. At that point, Fergus decided to write to Leliana, who he knew was still with the Inquisition, to request that Elyssa and her children be allowed to stay there for their own protection. The assassins were hired by Howe supporters, who knew that Elyssa and her children were going to be the ones to take over the teyrnir should something happen to Fergus. When her reply came, plans were secretly made to sneak all five of them, and Elyssa's two mabari of course, out of the castle.

[b]COTE DE PABLO[/b] as [i]Elyssa Cousland[/i]