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ICYMI: notes on "The Gift of Death" quest (since a lot happens very fast) (obviously spoilers and big ones)

"Where's Vanus?" During the courtyard scene pre-Colored Rooms, you'll notice Vanus is there but notably Farinor isn't. And in the Colored Rooms, she is there and shapeshifts from Vanus to herself. This means that she was "Vanus" in the courtyard, she and Wormblood planned to double cross us too from the start, and the real Vanus is alive and still imprisoned on the other side of the Wall

"How did Mannimaco return if we purified the Gift of Death?" (this one is really blurry on details) When we pulled Wormblood and co. into the Colored Rooms, this sped up the plan to use the Gift to bring back Mannimarco (likely due to the urgency of realizing the Stirk Fellowship had betrayed them), and so they summoned the sarcophagus to the Colored Rooms to perform some ritual right then using Soul Reapers on cultists, and planning to use the Gift. I personally think the Soul Reapers channeling on the Worm Cultists was final preparations of the corpse of Mannimarco, since the Gift requires no prep to use. For some reason, it was known by Gabrielle that using the Gift would prevent Wormblood from being able to use it (there was no cooldown or one time usage ever mentioned before, but she did suspect it was a Light of Meridia), and so she did (when circumstances aligned). Wormblood's failure to acquire the Gift resulted in Mannimarco, already being channeled during the ritual and no longer able to return to life in his own body using the Gift, deciding to possess Wormblood instead. This was likely not the intended result, as Wormblood expressed surprise at his own demise (or maybe just on the possession side, and expected to be the trade using the Gift. Hard to tell). We did interrupt Mannimarco regaining some of his power by using the Light on the Soul Reapers and freeing the souls, and our companions suspect being in the wrong body will be disorienting for him and not be at full power.

"Darien wasn't truly dead, how did the Gift work on him?" The Gift of Death allowing one to trade one willing life for another dead one is predicated on the idea that Darien was actually dead (which he was arguably not). As we know, Darien wasn't a mortal and arguably didn't even have a mortal soul - as he was a Light of Meridia, a Vessel. But I think since the Gift was a corrupted Light, and the fact Lights have been used as narrative multipurpose tools to accomplish whatever is needed for the plot, I think it's fair to say if the user of the Gift has a strong enough concept of the "life" wanting to be returned, it can work regardless of the person "death" status. The necromancers of Solstice just may have wanted it to work as a trade between living and dead, and so it did that. But because we (us and Gabrielle) wanted to use it to bring back Darien, it still worked. Additionally, Walks-in-Ash comments (after we find Mannimarco's sacophagus) that necromancy shouldn't work on Mannimarco since his soul is sworn to Coldharbour, and then the player comments on the Gift of Death (implying maybe it can get around this). It's possible then that the Gift can get past the gate of one's soul being trapped in a realm of Oblivion, like the Colored Rooms.

"Does Darien remember Summerset?" Darien seems to talk more about Coldharbour and his disappearance there than his Summerset one. Whether this is a flaw in the writing to only toss a single line about DLC content our way, or it is narratively important that he barely remembers Summerset, I'm not sure. We had the "time works differently in Oblivion" line back in Summerset, but there is a possible threat of Meridia having partially wiped Darien back to default. I'm certainly worried by his lack of details on Summerset and just rolling with what the Vestige says. "yep she must have called upon her Light again" can you sound more certain on this please? I'm afraid...

And: we still don't know who Vanus' ally on the other side of the wall is. We know this ally 1) convinced Vanus he cannot escape while the Wall stands and 2) knew where the Gift of Death was, down to the name of the shrine on Solstice and its bloody history. Writhing Wall is scheduled for October per ZOS, so we have a lot of time to sit in our thoughts and theories.

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It cracked me up hearing Skordo go on about just being here to smash things like he wasn’t the ambassador for a third of the continent. Buddy, you are well known and respected enough to be in this role. I know probably the real reason he's the DC representative is because he is a memorable DC character (that isn't already serving some other role in this story), but I like to think it's just character development. He's moving up in the world but he's still has to maintain his Brand.

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They didn't 😔

Are they going to bring up Skordo’s alfiq (not)girlfriend in Solstice or are they going to ignore that that happened

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*vestige in sotwc part 2* so, who‘s this gabrielle benele y‘all keep talking about

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i hate to admit it but i'm in a difficult spot financially this month. if you'd like to support this queer artist during pride month consider checking out my shop, itchio or my commission info! sharing this would also help. thank you! 🌻

print shop

itch.io (sketchbook collection)

commission info

ko-fi tip jar

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The Remnant of Meridia's Light

Reimagined sketch from this post of mine.

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I had to wait at least a week after the console release, and June is almost over, but... HAPPY VANNIMARCO'S RETURN EVERYBODY (?!!?!)

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They weren’t late for the TES Gala, Darra and Teldryn were there all this time in the Sovngarde event lingering in front of the buffet.

2025 @tes-gala : Daedra and Divines.

Darra is in theme as a dragon priest embodying a mortal form of Alduin as the Atmorans would have acknowledged them. Teldryn wears the snake of Boethiah (but it can also be interpreted as the symbol of Orkey. He doesn’t really care.)

They walk in among all the well-dressed people and look like cultists. This was clearly a mistake.

Teldryn has to leave his sword at the door, but he gets to keep his knife. Darra carried in an embroidered but completely empty bag that is waterproofed inside. (Red carpet? What red carpet? The only red that matters is the free flowing red wine.)

On the real-world equivalent for the clothing:

All woven patterns are (crudely) drawn from and inspired by T’nalak weaving, plus this sick dragon obi i saw on Yahoo auctions.

Darra’s garb is inspired by sarong. Teldryn’s is a mix of deel, salwar kameez, and keffiyeh.

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Happy SOTWC P1 :)

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UESP asked people to name first ten tes characters that come to mind, what are yours?

Lifts-Her-Tail

Uriel Septim I

Uriel Septim II

Uriel Septim III

Uriel Septim IV

Uriel Septim V

Uriel Septim VI

Uriel Septim VII

Uriel Septim VIII

Scouts-Many-Marshes

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hey darien could you please sound a little more confident on the events of summerset okay thx

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Close enough

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I made up a guy so Martin can safely take a nice nap somewhere pleasant 😴☀️🌳🌄

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mother morrowind

Again just wanted to draw somebody in a nice outfit… I wonder what she was like in her earlier life.

Uncolored under the cut wahaha

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She’s in there!!!