The Fall of House Cousland (Dragon Age: Origins - Volume One)

by The Fly In The Ointment

In the seaport city of Highever, far from rumored unrest in the southern Wilds, young Liam Cousland believes his path is already set. Alongside his friend, Aeron Gilmore, he prepares for a life of civic duty; his only dream is a future with his lover, the elf Iona. But there are more than rumors in the Wilds. As the Fifth Blight dawns, tragedy and change loom over Liam's future...

2. AUTHOR'S NOTE

AUTHOR'S NOTE?*

This project is a novel-length retelling of Dragon Age: Origins.

It's written for my wife, who loves to read, and loves fantasy, but can't play video games. She's often remarked to me that she wishes someone would turn Dragon Age into a novel or even a television series. I've never done a fanfic before, and haven't really done any creative writing singe middle school. However, I love to read, and my job entails a great deal of technical writing, so I thought – why not write it down for her?

Since this is my first attempt at fanfic, any feedback is greatly appreciated. The prologue and the first two chapters are up as I write this note, and I have completed five more chapters that are still being edited. I'll post those chapters, and all that follow, as often as I complete them.

The next few paragraphs are for any Dragon Age nerds (like me) out there, who stumble onto this fanfic. Anyone else can disregard.

My story begins with the Cousland (human noble) origin, and from there will generally follow the events of my canon play through (with quite a bit of head canon thrown in besides). I've taken pains to avoid any changes to the lore, the world, the major events of the game(s), or the personality and characteristics of the main characters – because those are the things I really want my wife to experience, and the things that draw her interest when I play the games. That said, there are (and will continue to be) some changes.

The most substantial changes are to volume one, where this work substantially fleshes out the Cousland origin. Changes include expanded roles for Iona and Ser Gilmore, to fit with my head canon; the changes are also made in order to introduce some of the ideas and themes of the setting that the game slips in through NPC conversations and, especially, the codexes (some of which I am including portions of, as well).

For you DA nerds: please, please, please feel free to call me on any mistakes with the lore. I haven't given any of this to my wife yet – posting this stuff to the interwebs is sort of like putting it in beta before I let her read it, so if I've screwed anything up, there's still time to save her! (The plan is to give her each part of the novel as its finished, sort of like a serial novella.)

Anyway, beyond that, thanks for reading, and thanks for any feedback you can send me.

* Do we do author's notes in fanfiction?