I have been meaning to post this character for months now (literally, I started this draft back in October), but I kept thinking I would finish her story. I beat the game the first time with Selene, and for Victoria I spent a lot of time learning about how to mod Dragon Age: Origins to better tweak how she looked. Unlike with Selene, whose character continually evolved, I imagined myself playing the game from start to finish with Victoria’s final look—a look I kept going back to improve. By the time I found what I ended up sticking with, I’d restarted her game no less than three times (all after making considerable progress).
As much as I would like to, with Dragon Age 2 coming out today, there’s just no way I’m going to finish the game with her any time soon, so I figured I’d post some of the highlights from what I have. Learning how to mod the game to give her a body tattoo was fun, but the screenshots showing it off are somewhat NSFW. I was hoping to get a few from the in-game cutscenes like I did for Selene (which actually self-censor pretty well), but I haven’t gotten far enough along for those. Because of the way textures in the game work, it can be tricky to make body modifications work with outfits. I was only able to make it work decently well with two of them, the best being a frilly outfit that’s a bit outside of the Dragon Age style (it’s okay though, she wore it in the Fade, where anything can happen). Also, I always like to have an idea of the backstory of characters I play, but beware that there may be a few game spoilers within.
Character Story
Victoria Cousland is a twenty-four year old human noble, daughter of Teyrn Bryce and Teyrna Eleanor Cousland. Along with her older brother Fergus, she was born and raised in Highever Castle and trained in both combat and politics from an early age. A rogue class, she typically prefers to fight with a longsword and an offhand dagger. Her physical attractiveness and aptitude for her studies, combined with being the “baby” of her family have made her overconfident in her abilities; however, she has had little opportunity to put her training to practical use. She was very close to her parents and brother and despite thinking she is a weak woman, gets along reasonably well with his wife Oriana.
Notoriously strong-willed, Victoria has been unwilling to consider marriage. Despite urgings from other sin the nobility, her parents are strongly supportive of her ability to make her own decisions. This and her bisexual relationships frustrates many in the kingdom, especially those who would see her succeed her father to the tyrnship over her brother. She is self-assured and a flirt, and tends to be open-minded to the plight of others, such as mages and elves as she is herself has had to deal with others’ response to her sexuality. That being said, she grew up in a house full of elvish servants. She also hates the idea of others being able to control her mind, making her deeply mistrustful of both mages and the Chantry and viewing the chapel in her house as being for the hired help rather than for herself. She has little to no experience with dwarves, although she has been taught some of their major political history.
On the night of Fergus’s departure we find her seducing Lady Landra’s lady-in-waiting, Iona, and hoping to convince Duncan to let her join the wardens. When her home gets attacked she is furious and jumps right into the battle; it isn’t until her father dies that she begins to grasp the gravity of the situation in Ferelden. Arl Howe’s treachery was a painful maturing experience for her, and she swore vengeance on his house that she will not hesitate to take on both him and Loghain. Perhaps as a symbol of how she has mentally changed and her goal as a Warden, she has an Antivan artist in Denerim tattoo a distinctive dragon across a large portion her body.
In the Wilds she meets Morrigan and is intrigued by her brand of magic, and begins realizing how many supernatural forces are at work around her—a realization made all too clear by the events at the Circle Tower. Although she falls in love with Leliana, she forgoes this relationship to marry Alistair, uniting the two highest-ranking families in the country that remain. While not always faithful, it is believed that their marriage will lend legitimacy to Alistair’s kingship and will help to ensure political stability in the wake of the Blight.
2 responses to “Victoria Cousland”
Man, that looks so much prettier than the Xbox version. I take a small amount of solace in the fact that you had to mod it to look like that, and out of the box it wasn’t as nice.
The biggest mod is probably the guy who went through all the faces and improved them using the same exact tools Bioware had. They should hire people like that.