Sasha Cousland: Biography

Background

Sasha Cousland was born on the 8th of Kingsway, 9:11 Dragon in the Teyrnir of Highever to her parents, Bryce and Eleanor Cousland. She had a comfortable upbringing without much conflict, though she wished that she was taken seriously as a warrior, like her brother Fergus. She grew up feeling like she was being coddled and prevented from pursuing her ambitions of being a soldier in the king's army.

As a noble, she did recieve weapons training, preferring large two-handed weapons.

She was always a bit of a troublemaker and, when she got older, had a reputation for being "easy". A reputation that wasn't entirely unfounded, but was definitely exaggerated. She had slept with people of all genders and never really felt any type of way about her sexuality. She was the younger sibling, so she never felt too much pressure to produce an heir.

Dragon Age Origins

In 9:30 Dragon, her brother and father were preparing to leave Highever to join King Cailan's army at Ostagar to battle darkspawn and Sasha was to take over their estate in Highever. While she certainly had the education for it, she argued that she should be allowed to come with them to help fight. She was tasked with instructing her brother to leave with the rest of the soldiers. She also came into contact with Duncan, a Grey Warden. Her impression of him was positive. She grew up on stories of Grey Wardens and would have been eager to join them, had her father allowed it.

After helping with the preparations, Sasha had a brief sexual encounter with Iona. Late in the night, Howe's men ambushed the castle and killed Iona in the process. Sasha was able to lead her mother safely to the exit in the larder, but her father was gravely injured. She said her goodbyes and left to join the Grey Wardens.

She struggled with her place in the world as a result. She had always been the rebellious type, shunning the path her family wanted her to follow, but with her parents dead and her brother's whereabouts unknown, she felt conflicted. She didn't want this to be the end of the Cousland legacy, but she also wanted to pursue her own ambitions for once.

The events of Dragon Age Origins take place after this, and I'd rather not detail the plot of an entire game. I'll give the key points and elaborate on things that I feel left an impression on her.

Important Events

• For sure had a one night stand with Daveth
• Helped Redcliffe prepare for the attacks. Flirted with Teagan a bit.
• Sided with the mages during the Broken Circle quest (1)
• Brokered peace between the elves and werewolves. (2)
• Helped Burkel create a Chantry. (3)
• Helped Harrowmont. She didn't actually know his positions, she just helped whomever she felt would get her troops the fastest.
• Married Alistair and became the queen of Ferelden. (4)

(1) She had very little, if any, exposure to magic before this and it terrified her. She's Andrastian and firmly believed in the "magic is meant to serve man, not rule over him" stuff, but seeing the Circle radicalized her a little bit. She could relate, in a way, to the lack of autonomy. She was denied a level of self expression and ambition due to being born into a noble family and she recognized that mages were being denied autonomy because of their birth as well. The templars were ready to just kill everybody inside without checking to see if anybody survived. Mages did not choose to be born with magic and circles felt like they existed only to further other mages from society. The mages were only dangerous because they were reacting to mistreatment. This experience upset her very deeply.

(2) This was her first interaction with Dalish elves and it made her feel a bit negatively towards them. It would take a while for her to meet a Dalish elf that broke her from this negative image she had of them.

(3) She is a pretty devout Andrastian and feels that the Chantry can only inspire positive change in Orzammar. She disagrees with the more extreme views some Andrastians hold, but she does believe in the Maker and believes the Chantry is, overall, good.

(4) She is conflicted about this. She feels that this helps continue her family legacy, but she also feels like she has to be a good ruler in some ways, which makes her feel even more trapped by the circumstances of her birth. Luckily, she loves Alistair dearly and he makes everything worth it to her.

Post Origins

After the events of Origins, she stayed in Amaranthine for a short amount of time, then traveled to try and find a cure for the Calling. She would, of course, visit her husband as often as she was able. Before entirely disappearing, she trained some warden recruits on occassion to help rebuild the order. She did eventually come into contact with the Inquisition and, while she regretted not being able to assist Asena, she was impressed by her. She was especially impressed that a qunari mage was able to gain so much support.

During the events of Veilguard, she returned to Denerim the moment she heard the news from the north. She was still a warden and she was still the queen of Ferelden. While she was no longer as strong as she once was, due to the progression of the taint, she refused to go down without a fight. She fought long and hard in Denerim before eventually being struck down.

For reference, her age throughout the series: 19 [DAO], 20 [Act 1], 23 [Act 2], 26 [Act 3], 27 [DAI], 29 [Trespasser], 41 [DATV].