name: aiden cousland race: human gender: male age: 19 (in 9:30) class: warrior (sword & shield) main specialization: templar

aiden ardal cousland is a member of the grey wardens who eventually went on to become the hero of ferelden. while he initially did not wish to join the order and was conscripted into it against his will, his complete lack of interest in heroism and glory made him somewhat suited for the role - though he first needed to temper the rage which encased him following the unjust murder of the majority of house cousland. a normally relaxed, stoic individual, aiden's grief upon the fall of his house had a permanent impact on his personality, as he gained a viciously cold streak for a large portion of his journey. however, with time, aiden began to heal and become himself once more as he turned his attentions to avenging their deaths as well as making the most out of the life that his parents managed to protect. while he gave up his titles as per grey warden tradition and stopped being a noble upon his introduction into the order, aiden always indulged himself in keeping the cousland name.

extremely skillful with a sword and shield thanks to a childhood packed with self-imposed training, aiden turned to lyrium in order to access abilities that he believed would help him avenge his family. this decision had no shortage of drawbacks, but aiden still embraces the templars' techniques and does his utmost to keep himself steady and focused. a man who cannot be moved, he always endeavors to do what must be done. his brusque nature and complete lack of tact can be quite alarming to those who interact with him, particularly due to his natural taciturnity and perpetually deadpan expression - but his wits are far quicker than they seem.

aiden absolutely adores his dog, marty, and his partner, zevran. in fact, they often make him smile. the scandal of it all...!

aiden has white skin and black hair which rests against the nape of his neck. he has absolutely no interest in prettying up or anything of the sort; he rarely ever preens over himself. (however, he isn't opposed to being fussed over by those he cares about. if someone wants to give him a haircut, he'll let them do whatever they want without a single complaint.) he is very tall and muscular; his towering physique tends to give him a highly intimidating air. to quote the esteemed old barlin of lothering fame: "that warden fella's built like a brick shithouse." prior to joining the wardens, aiden often wore armor around castle cousland, much to his family's amusement. he swapped this armor out for the standard grey warden-issued heavy armor upon joining their ranks.

while journeying with his companions during the fifth blight, aiden began wearing a gold earring on his left ear. this earring once belonged to zevran, but it was gifted to aiden as a token of affection. with the aid of morrigan's fire magic, zevran pierced aiden's ear for him while at the party camp. (it was an ordeal and a half for pretty much everyone except aiden, who was simply chillin', and sten, who was also simply chillin'. alistair screamed when the heated needle went through aiden's flesh. when wynne pointed out that they see far worse on the battlefield, alistair insisted it was 'different.')

upon becoming warden-commander, aiden began wearing the heavy armor associated with the role. no matter how high he rises in the ranks, he still uses the cousland family sword as well as the shield of highever in combat. this is much to the chagrin of various blacksmiths, who craft him supposed "weapons of legend" which otherwise go untouched... or which get lost entirely.

aiden is very, very difficult to read - his expression is almost always completely serious. those close to him tend to eventually gain some skill in recognizing his various moods, but some people also never quite 'get' him. even though he appears quite tactiturn, aiden has a sense of humor and jokes around often. he rarely gets angry - but, when he is, he gets extremely cold.

aiden's grief over his family continuously teaches him that life is to be cherished; as such, even with his adherence to his duty, he firmly believes that it's okay to do things for yourself. he has a soft spot for animals - in particular, mabari hounds.

aiden is the second son of teyrn bryce cousland and teyrna eleanor cousland. his middle name, 'ardal,' is a reference to his ancestor, ardal cousland - a warrior who gave his life in order to defend the fereldan king vanedrin during the battle of lothering in 8:24. his parents bestowed this name upon him in order to honor ardal's sacrifice and instill courage in aiden, but aiden never found much pride in it, as he thought that ardal's sacrifice was pretty damn useless. (king vanedrin did not see military success in repelling the orlesian forces which threatened ferelden and also died the very same year, likely due to falling off his own horse.) history aside, aiden always maintained a lot of pride concerning his immediate family and cares for them a great deal.

growing up, aiden didn't have many close relationships beyond his family. it wasn't a source of sadness to him, as he wasn't lonely - but he just didn't click with anyone his age. this was mostly due to his seemingly indifferent demeanor, which tended to puzzle other children. since it didn't bother him, aiden made no effort to amend it. he made his first friend when he was around ten years old, as his parents decided to gift him a mabari hound. according to the kennel master, the pup was named martell - but aiden instantly began referring to him as 'marty.' the nickname stuck and became marty's actual name. the two got up to ample mischief around the castle through the years and became each other's stalwart companions. marty never had problems with reading aiden's moods, and the two would train and spar against each other.

aiden took to swordplay quickly; his father often joked that aiden could swing a sword before he could even walk properly. it was a skill that aiden was happy to pour a great deal of time and effort into honing through the years, as he enjoyed the challenge of it and the way that it made sense to him. he never bore any ill will or jealousy towards his older brother, fergus. in fact, aiden was glad to not be the heir to highever, as it gave him more time to spend doing whatever he wished. he never quite settled on a definitive life path and instead figured he'd come up with something someday. he also figured that 'something' would involve a sword. until he worked it out, he was content to spend his life surrounded by his family within their castle's walls.

as a teenager, aiden steadily became friends with a few of the knights who pledged their service to the couslands. ser roderick gilmore - a young knight who was around aiden's age - was one such friend. aiden actually developed a bit of a one-sided crush on him, though this never went anywhere and was more akin to puppy love. in an attempt to gain political power for themselves, quite a few nobles tried to arrange marriages with aiden. arl rendon howe was one such noble, as he tried to marry his daughter, delilah, into the cousland family via a courtship with aiden. this went absolutely nowhere, as aiden was 1) super gay and 2) super not interested. (delilah would later go on to regard aiden as 'stuck-up'; to be honest, aiden couldn't fault her for it, as she was pretty much right.) when fergus got married to an antivan noblewoman named oriana, aiden was very happy for him. he'd regularly help his brother and sister-in-law with looking after their child, oren, and promised to train him in swordplay when he was old enough.

a few months after aiden's nineteenth birthday, bryce and fergus received summons from king cailan, who requested their aid in battling darkspawn at ostagar. much to aiden's chagrin, he was left out of this summons... and subsequentially left in charge of highever during their absence. aiden felt slighted by the king and repeatedly expressed his annoyance over this, but ultimately decided to rely on his mother's guidance in keeping highever safe.

shortly before his father and brother left for ostagar, a grey warden named duncan visited castle cousland. he was seeking out recruits, and aiden was admittedly Deeply Chuffed when duncan noted aiden's skills in battle and remarked that he'd make a fine warden. still, he knew that it wasn't an option for him and didn't have any interest in pursuing it. he was mildly perturbed when he found out that duncan was likely going to recruit ser gilmore instead, but got over it upon seeing ser gilmore react to the news with excitement. along with the rest of his family, he bid his father and brother farewell, wishing them luck in ostagar - as, without his sword and shield, they were surely at a disadvantage.

later that night, aiden's life was changed forever. tragedy struck as a supposed family friend, arl rendon howe (yes, the same man who tried to set his daughter up with aiden, smdh), betrayed the couslands and attacked the castle shortly after fergus departed for ostagar with the bulk of their forces. the token force left at the castle was quickly overpowered by leagues upon leagues of howe's bannermen. with marty's aid, aiden managed to fight off the soldiers who stormed his bedroom. he then managed to find eleanor, and the two of them scrambled to find bryce, who had not yet departed from the castle - fighting off soldiers all the while. as they battled their way through their home, they were horrified to see that eleanor's close friend was killed in the conflict, as was her son and her lady-in-waiting. furthermore, both oriana and oren were brutally murdered in their room.

as they made their way around the castle in their continued search for bryce, eleanor suggested that aiden go into the family treasury and save what he could. there, aiden found what would be his formal blade and shield for the rest of his life: the cousland family sword and shield of highever. ironically enough, the shield of highever once belonged to the man who inspired aiden's middle name: ardal cousland. aiden began using these weapons immediately after retrieving them from the cousland treasury. when aiden, marty and eleanor entered the castle's main hall, they saw ser gilmore with a few other cousland bannermen engaged in a last-ditch effort to hold off howe's forces. ser gilmore told them that he had seen bryce heading for the servants' exit in the larder, urging them to make their escape as he bought them extra time. the encounter would be the last time aiden ever saw him.

eleanor, marty and aiden rushed to the larder, where they found bryce. the teryn had sustained heavy wounds and was covered in blood; he could no longer stand, much less move. he revealed that howe's soldiers attacked him, but duncan managed to fight them off and bring him to the larder. fending off more of howe's bannermen, duncan soon joined the family, revealing that the castle was surrounded and that its fall was imminent. moreover, bryce's wounds were far too severe for him to continue on. he was going to die there.

the typically stoic aiden was gripped by a type of rage that he had never felt before. it changed him; he could feel it changing him. but he didn't care. he gave into it, lashing out to the situation with extremely harsh denial. he insisted that he could save his father and that he could kill howe and all of his soldiers, right then and there. naturally, these were all impossible courses of action. eleanor refused to leave her husband's side, but bryce begged duncan to save aiden. duncan agreed to do so - but only if he could recruit aiden into the order of grey wardens.

a suggestion which aiden interpreted as a compliment earlier on in the day now sounded like a fate far worse than death. bryce agreed that duncan could recruit his son, but aiden refused the call vehemently. if he couldn't save his family, he'd rather die alongside them. he insisted that it was unfair that his mother could do so while he could not. duncan didn't ignore his protests but he also didn't respect them, as he grimly invoked the right of conscription. implemented during the very first blight that thedas faced, this right had the power to force anyone into the order upon being invoked - no matter their circumstances or their feelings on the matter. aiden was thereby forced into the grey wardens.

aiden still wished to defy this right; however, he soon realized that someone had to survive in order to tell fergus what happened. if they all were to perish in howe's attack, the story could be twisted against the couslands - and the thought of this was so horrifying to aiden that it managed to pierce through his indignant rage towards duncan. with his parent's gentle reassurances that they would always love him and that they were so proud of him, aiden succumbed to their wishes and accompanied duncan out of castle cousland. along with marty, the two made their escape from the castle and began the journey towards ostagar.

aiden was traumatized for the entirety of their journey and did not speak with duncan. duncan respected aiden's wishes and did not press conversation, silently guiding aiden and marty along the roads to ostagar and keeping them safe. aiden directed a lot of anger towards the senior grey warden, irrationally blaming him for the fate which befell his family. still, he listened to duncan's commands and went along with what was now expected of him, as he had to find his older brother... and he had to make rendon howe pay with his life.

the group of them made it to ostagar, and the hero of ferelden's legend began.

more information about aiden's journey during the fifth blight will someday be on the world state section of the dragon age: origins page.

aiden is brutal in combat. he doesn't care for backstabbing or being sneaky - it's all a show of raw strength for him. he finds a lot of joy in overpowering his enemies with his shield and tends to get quite excited when the odds are seemingly stacked against him. (thanks to his unexpressive demeanor, this excitement might not show all that clearly until his weapons have begun swinging, but i digress...)

at times, aiden's aggressive streak tends to lead him to bite off more than he can chew. this was particularly an issue during the first few months of his journey, where his self-preservation was at its absolute lowest. a few members of the party took great issue with how aiden would rush off into battle without a single care for himself. initially, it was a huge point of contention between him and wynne. thankfully, he got his shit together eventually, but it still made for situations akin to this:

as i mentioned previously, aiden began taking lyrium and training in the templar style of fighting during the course of his journey. he thought that the power that templars were capable of dipping into was admirable and wished to harness it for himself. it was definitely not a healthy approach to learning a new skill, but, hey! it is what it is, and aiden grew to become an absolutely fearsome templar.

in order to cope with the lyrium's impact on him as well as the typical grey warden nightmares which accompanied the blight, aiden would spend many nights thinking about the many gruesome ways in which he wanted to get revenge over howe. upon getting his revenge, he replaced this coping mechanism by listing the names of the people he loves, instead.

several years after becoming the hero of ferelden, aiden began the process of weaning himself off lyrium. his extremely high constitution made him slightly less privy to its negative effects, but it's still something that he struggles with to some degree. should the need arise, he may also be convinced to rekindle his templar abilities once more.