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illusivesoul · 9 months

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Why Rendon Howe is evil

This is a little theory thats been going around in my head for several days.

Rendon Howe. Evil personified. Probably one of the most despicable and hated characters in the Dragon Age series. One of the characters thats most easily defined as being just plain bad and evil, with good reason. Even in the game itself no one likes him (with 1 exception that I'll mention later in this post)

In the game, we really aren't given many reasons as to why he is the way he is and why he does the thing he does beyond saying he's evil, power hungry, and like he himself says as he dies, "I deserved more!" But recently I started to become curious about him to try to find out what had made him become like this, cause I prefer villains to have some complexity that goes beyond just "He's evil just because".

Rest of the analysis under the cut.

My main theory of why I think Rendon became "evil" is cause he may have suffered brain damage due to his injuries while fighting against Orlais with Maric and his rebels. My first thought for this came cause historically, Henry the 8th of England suffered several brain injuries during sporting events, and its believed that his injuries led to him having a severe personality change, which led to him become more radical, tyrannical and murderous.

After the death of his father and the Howe family joining the rebellion, Rendon joined Maric's forces and became close friends with Bryce Cousland, future Teyrn of Highever, and Leonas Bryland, future Arl of South Reach. The 3 of them fought together in the Battle of White River, which was the worse defeat the rebels suffered in the war against Orlais, and only 50 of the initial thousand soldier strong fereldan army survived.

Rendon was very badly injured during the battle, and Bryce and Leonas had to dragged him away to safety as the rebel army was crushed by the orlesians. Bryce was injured in the arm while trying to save Rendon from a chevalier. They got Rendon to Redcliffe and stayed with him for a month while he recovered before leaving to rejoin Maric and the rest of the rebel forces. While Rendon recovered in Redcliffe, he was tended to by Leonas's sister, Eliane, until he eventually recovered months later. He eventually proposed to her and they got married.

And here is the first bit of evidence we get of Rendon's attitude and behaviour completely changing after that battle and his wounds. From the wiki: "Leonas had become concerned by the changes in his friend's behavior since the battle and attempted to prevent the marriage." And some other quotes from Leonas that we get to her in dao: "Rendon Howe was no friend of mine. The boy I knew... died at the Battle of White River" and "That he didn't die years ago is the only thing worth mourning here." Leonas cut all contact with Rendon after he told him that he was only marrying his sister for her dowry and connections.

This goes back to what I mentioned earlier about the one person that seemed to care for Rendon. That person is Bryce Cousland.

Bryce and Eleanor were the only people that attended Rendon and Eliane's wedding, and even though Rendon was treated as a pariah by almost everyone in fereldan nobility, Bryce still maintained a friendly relation with Rendon, and seemed to have an almost protective attitude towards him, which contrasts greatly with how Leonas feels about Rendon. And this is where I came up with another theory about why this is. I believe that Bryce feels personally responsible for the injuries and near death that Rendon suffered during the Battle of White River and feels that he is somehow obligated to look after him. I can only hc why these could be, but maybe Rendon got injured while protecting Bryce, or maybe Bryce's actions during the battle led to Rendon's injuries. Maybe that's why Bryce seems to have keep pushing for the friendship that he once had with him, even though he clearly no longer was the same person. Cause Bryce felt responsible for the way Rendon had turned out.

Its possible that Rendon was just always like this, and those months he spent recovering just made him become super resentful against everything and everyone, but I do believe that the near death injuries he suffered during that battle, including possible head injuries and brain trauma, led to his personality changing and to him becoming the sheer villain we see ingame.

And to finish, a bit of background as to why Rendon would have hated Bryce even despite of this, here's a bit of info about them and about the relation between Highever and Amaranthine.

Rendon's father, Tarleton, supported Orlais during their occupation of Ferelden, and was eventually hanged by the Couslands before the Howes officially joined the rebellion. Adding the fact that Highever was once part of Amaranthine before they rebelled to gain their independence and annexed a good part of southern Amaranthine after winning their independence war, it adds some context to how Rendon could have seen this part of his greater vengeance against the Couslands and Highever for killing his father and taking away land from Amaranthine.

TL,DR: Rendon Howe suffered grieveous injuries during the war against Orlais, including possible brain injuries which may have led to a complete personality shift and to him becoming the person that we see him being in the game.

#dragon age #dragon age meta #dragon age lore #rendon howe #illusivesoulrambles #nathaniel howe #delilah howe #couslands #bryce cousland #eleanor cousland #ferelden #maric theirin #denerim #amaranthine #highever #the landsmeet #dragon age origins #dao #da:o

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illusivesoul · 1 year

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Why Leliana is half dwarf

My hc theory on why Leliana is half dwarf.

The rest of the post is under the cut.

1 - Her mom was a servant to an Orlesian noble, and dwarven servants are common in Orlais. Nobles: Don’t be an idiot. How could the Herald of Andraste be a dwarf? Nobles: Maybe it’s just a servant.

The comments Orlesian nobles make towards a dwarf inquisitor in the Winter Palace. 2 - As it's seen in the mission In Hushed Whispers, Leliana has a very strong resistance to the Blight sickness. Dwarves are naturally resistant to the Blight sickness due to their constant proximity to the darkspawn. And in another example, the dwarves of Kal'Sharok have adapted and "become inmune" to the blight disease, similarly to Grey Wardens. So it'd make sense if she had inherited this same resistance from her mom.

3 - She likes nugs and is very passionate and caring about them. Granted, she doesn't want to eat them like all dwarves do, but still, she's the only human (afaik) in the series who has shown so much interest for nugs. Also, following with the possibility of her mom being a dwarf, I wonder if she told her stories or had figurines or something about nugs and thats why she's so fond of them.

4 - She's in awe of Orzammar and really likes the city.

5 - The epilogue for lyrium ghost Leliana in Trespasser very much sounds like the song of the Titans, and the corrupted version of it which its what imo prompts the darkspawn to seek out the Archdemons.

Like this comment that Cole makes about the Titans’s song: “It’s singing. A they that’s an it that’s asleep, but still making music.”

Also, we all know lyrium is a titan’s blood. So a dwarven blooded Leliana becoming a “lyrium ghost” after “dying” could actually be pretty similar to what Valta becomes at the end of The Descent DLC. Also to note is that Valta somehow revived Renn after becoming connected to the Titan and acquiring its “magic”. This could also explain why Leliana returned to life after being killed in the Temple of Sacred Ashes", cause she would have a special connection to lyrium from her dwarven blood.

6 - She has super strong thighs that can break a person's neck. Clear sign of dwarven genes.

Venatori: "You will break!" Leliana: "I will die first! Or you will"

Thanks for reading my very serious theory.

#leliana #dragon age #dragon age meta #dragon age lore #dragon age dwarves #illusivesoulrambles #dragon age leliana #leliana dragon age #sister nightingale #orzammar #i spent more time on this than i should have lol #this is half silly half serious but i do actually have this hc for her #the pieces match!

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