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Published:
2022-11-28
Updated:
2023-01-04
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6,744
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3/?
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The Laurel of Highever

Summary:

Adaia Elthea Cousland is a figure shrouded in mystery. Younger sister of the Warden Commander, and Teyrn Fergus Cousland, records of Lady Adaia had been mostly wiped from Ferelden history. After the tragedy of Highever and the Blight, she had become a mere memory and ghost of a time long gone. Little is known about the woman, only a portrait of her likeness and diary accounts of her character survived the destruction of Highever.

Now, in the year 9:55 Dragon, under the order of Teyrn Oren Cousland, historians of House Cousland and Highever are set to restore the lost remnants of her life.

The surviving members of House Cousland proclaimed one thing as they began their research:
She is to be known as the Laurel of Highever.

*Regular updates on Saturdays...sometimes lmao

Chapter 1: Prologue

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

PROLOGUE

‘The Maker has seen it fit to take her again.  May he have mercy upon my soul, but I cannot forgive him.  Ragged little breaths and cries haunt me in every waking hour.  She isn’t to make it, the nurses and mages say.  What did this child ever do to deserve a fate so cruel?

-Entry taken from the private journals of Eleanor Cousland 9:15 Dragon

On the eve of 9:12, Adaia Elethea Cousland was born to Teyrn Bryce Cousland and Teyrna Eleanor Cousland.  Lady Adaia is noted to be the only daughter of the Cousland family, and last child born to the Teyrna at nearly 33 years of age.  

The birth of Lady Adaia was recorded as a somber event.  Believed to have been stillborn, the third consecutive for the Teyrn and Teyrna, Lady Adaia arrived before her time.  

What happened next has been disputed.  One recount of a nursemaid present stated that the Teyrna had wept tears, clutching the babe to her chest and begged for the child’s life.  Another from a soldier’s report comments that the Teyrna cursed the Maker and his so-called mercy with a fury known only to few.   Regardless of the truth, both accounts agreed that soft, muffled cries were heard as the Teyrn prepared to announce both the birth and death of Highever’s laurel.

It was believed by the people of Highever that Andraste herself had breathed life into the child, answering the grieving mother’s pleas to spare the girl.

Despite her miraculous birth, Lady Adaia had been blessed with a fragile, weakly constitution, which plagued her for the rest of her life. 

In 9:15, a deadly fever had spread across Highever, and the child of three became victim once more. Against the advice of his counsel, and close friend, Rendon Howe, Teyrn Cousland enlisted the aid of the best and brightest mages from the Circle of Magi.  After weeks of watching and waiting, the child’s fever and chills had subsided, and her life spared once more.  Not without cost, however. 

Lady Adaia would thereafter suffer from bouts of severe illness, leaving her sheltered for most of her early life. 

It wouldn’t be until Lady Adaia was seven years of age that she would leave Cousland Castle with her family for the Arl of Amaranthine.   

On that trip in 9:19…

~Historian Aldous II

Notes:

The Cousland family has always fascinated me. I feel that no matter what ending it is, theirs always ends on a bittersweet note even if you are the warden and are alive. This is a bit of a passion project, but I wanted to craft a story of a non-warden Cousland. I've read and enjoyed several throughout the years. I decided to try my hand at it.

I tried to get an idea of the relative ages of the warden during the Blight. Once we get to Blight era these would be the ages of the characters:

Adaia (my OC)- 18
Damien- 21
Fergus-27

I noticed when first researching for this that there's kind of a big age gap between Fergus and the Warden. I head cannoned that after Fergus, Eleanor had several miscarriages, and stillbirths, which is why she's fiercely protective of her children and didn't have anymore.

Thank you all for reading! :)