#stressedjester

Permission to be annoying has been GRANTED!!! Yippee!!!!! Thank youuuuu!!!

Cassius is my Grey Warden OC for Dragon Age: Origins and in a lot of ways he's a culmination of all the best and worse attributes of my various other OCs (especially my drow OC Vorn and my last dragonborn, Edwin) He is a rogue mostly because I like the combat mechanics of using 2 swords and think it's something he would have insisted on training with as a teenager because he liked being as difficult as he could possibly get away with and always wanted to be different from his brother (even though he also secretly envied him).

So the basics about him are that he's roughly 23 during the events of DAO. Idk how much you're familiar with the game, but he has the human noble background so his entire family was killed by a longtime family friend (Rendon Howe) betraying the Couslands and then the man who saves him is ALSO killed by a separate betrayal and He Definitely Takes This All Super Well And Doesn't Crack At All!!

But his dog (who he named Boulder) survives both situations and that's what really matters!!

For the most part, he's short tempered and arrogant. He's been called mouthy, rude, and a bitch more times than he can count, but a lot of his standoffish personality is seated in deep insecurity because he feels he can't live up to his family name, let alone his older brother's example. He can be witty and sarcastic and quick to a fight, but he's very observant. Not very tactful, but he is honest. He has a reasonably good heart and it's the one thing he hates most about himself because he wants to be cold and calculating and self assured, especially because after becoming a Grey Warden he thinks ruthlessness is a trait he needs to lean into. Throughout his journey during the plot of Origins he learns that a lot of life is about balance and while everyone demands sacrifice and duty from him, he just wants to be allowed to live for what feels like the first time ever.

Some more personal things about him are he is Very Gay but growing up as a noble it was expected he would one day take a wife and continue the lineage of the Cousland name. If his father had it his way, he would have married Delilah Howe (talk about an awkward family dinner) but Cassius thwarted his parents every attempt. All he really wanted to be was a soldier - anything to get him out of the family castle which felt like a prison to him. Leaving the estate is probably the best thing that could have come out of the worst circumstances because it opened his eyes to what the world really was and gave him a reason to care about more than just his own feelings and desires. Despite it being forced on him, being a Grey Warden is something that gives his life purpose, no matter how grim that might be, and he constantly wrestles with whether he is glad or resentful of that fact.

I think the only other main thing about him is he has it BAD for Alistair who is completely oblivious to this fact and is just like. Wow. My best friend who I like platonically sure is a great guy. What an awesome and dependable friend he is :) while Cas is trying to keep his composure (maybe all those stupid etiquette classes are paying off now). He ends up falling for Zevran too because I'm a sucker for a messy love triangle especially when it doesn't get resolved and just makes things worse for everyone :D

I still have more to develop for him once I play the dlcs and the rest of the trilogy (not really sure atp if I'm gonna bother with veilguard) but he's been a fun muse to keep in my brain because sometimes he REALLY sucks but that's what makes him fun!

And um. Spoilers for the end of the game just in case below the cut but: