#Drelayn

[mareenavee]

New Light

I have been BUSY <3 This fills the writing prompt, Mushrooms.

And it's (melancholy) shippy shit with my new Morrowind OC, Drelayn! >:} Fic Universe Canon, and, btw, this is Teldryn's boyfriend during a great deal of the Nerevarine stuff.

(Technically we do also get a second OC, Drelayn's twin sister, now passed, Dravynea.)

I waffled a little over the ship, until I decided Drel would be here, now, in this moment, after Tel had to do some awful shit to finish filling a prophecy he doesn't believe in. Their paths are parallel in many ways. And Tel was not always as huge a mess as he is in World. This is, technically, before the fall.

A quick thank you to @paraparadigm, @changelingsandothernonsense and @snippetsrus for your endless support of these endeavors <3

~*~

New Light

Drelayn Uvelath looked over at Teldryn, sharp planes of his face made sharper by the light and the twisting, deep purple tattoos that snaked down under his collar. His hair was messy, sides overgrown, crest no longer able to keep its shape. The stubble he’d always been keen to shave away was growing in too, and he scratched at it absently. He was staring into the distance, the sun setting over Tel Vos, its enormous fungal tower peeking through severe, grey-stone Imperial architecture, goaded along by Telvanni magic. 

Nerevarine.

The title felt strange to turn over in his mouth. It was a word tossed around by the Ashlanders, but nobody ever took it seriously. At least, not until now.

Drelayn scooted closer and leaned his shoulder against Teldryn’s, winding his fingers through his. He could feel the tension in them, under the bruises, the callouses. Under the ring, too—Moon-and-Star—whose enchantment buzzed like a distant hive of bees. He brought Teldryn’s hand up and kissed the back of it. That earned him a look, a tiny quirk of a smile. And then he was distant again, head full of plans. Fears. Doubts.

This was the last stop. Everything he’d been through, every deed done, and finally, Aryon would name him Hortator. And that would be that. A prophecy complete. Aside from the runs to Black Marsh he’d been doing for the Lamps, Drelayn had been here much of the way. He smiled to himself and watched as Teldryn hugged his knees to his chest with a sigh and rested his chin on them, making himself small. Always so melancholy. Always worried about the next step.

Drelayn had been there before, where every decision felt like the wrong one. Mercenary work was not for the soft. He’d built up walls, and let ice collect in his core, to numb the shock of having both no voice at all and the specific kind of power it took to hold other people’s lives in his hands. These jobs ranged from watching the blood drain from the neck of the otherwise-innocent, to recapture of…escaped assets. The work was cruel. And he’d gone cold enough that even when it all fell apart, and there wasn’t anything left tying him to Vvardenfell, he still felt nothing. He had been cruel. Before that, his twin sister had taken all of this in stride, and was able to compartmentalize the pieces of this life that made him ill. He often wondered how she’d managed. Sometimes, he still did.

Work is work. Sometimes you’ll have to make due even when it hurts, baby brother, she’d said. She was right. She’d always been. Don’t let it grind you down. -> Read the rest on AO3.

[popsartattic]

just a goofy doodle of one of my ESO characters, Drelayn Sarandas, freaking the heck out

[spectral-cervid]

2, 3, and 44 for the OC ask thingy! (Or any tbh, I feel like I know absolutely nothing about your TES OCs, and I’d like to remedy that…)

2. which ocs are most likely to be caught eating cheese at 3 am? Probably Ferrin. Find your local wildlife expert and you may discover a cheese goblin waiting to be set free.

3. which ocs can, and do, go days without sleeping? Off the top of my head, Vier and Drelayn are the top two offenders. Vier just doesn't know a healthy habit if it slapped them in the face- Drelayn on the other hand just hyperfixates until he's at the point of passing out, or is reminded by someone else to take a break. ...If I think about it, Feth could probably qualify when he's staying up and blaming it on "keeping watch" on the road.

44. which ocs have the best senses (sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch)? Without a doubt, Drelayn's hearing is unparalleled by my other OCs- His mechanically-augmented, clockwork-like nature and studies from Sotha Sil allows him to hear things like magic and the land itself. For sight, I would pin Feth, who has a keen eye with a lance and enough situational awareness for a small war party. I would probably tie Smell and Taste to Ferrin, and his wilderness survival skills. Lastly, I'd say Vier has the best sense of touch and tactile.

[mavosathra]

Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong

[dunmeriis]

9 for Drelayn

Send me a number and I’ll write a micro story using the word or phrase [Accepting!]

9. Falling

The last thing I recall with certainty was the sensation of falling. Falling out of the world, out of my own body. Then the world fell with me, coming to pieces. I could have accepted this and continued to fall away. I didn’t. 

Have you ever learned how to fly in one of your own dreams? Perhaps you started to fall, but you stopped, through some force of will, and realized that you were dreaming. 

It was much like that. I stopped myself from falling as the world, everything I held as truth, suddenly fell away around me. Glimpsing what laid behind it.... 

I saw patterns in the cracks, singing of past memories and events forgotten to time. I saw signs in-between and whispers of the current, the ‘now’ as some would say, although such is largely irrelevant. And then, I saw much too far ahead. Though, that implies that this realization came in parts, an orderly queue waiting its turn. It did not. Much like time, it came all at once, a cacophony that drowned out all thoughts and feeling with revelations I wasn’t meant to see.

I’m told that I didn’t show up again for nearly a month. I don’t remember much of it, having most likely spent it in a fugue state while trying to adjust and make sense of it all. 

I see things slightly differently now. I have knowledge of events that have not yet come to pass at my time of writing this. Inevitabilities. I know I’ve been taught never to spurn knowledge simply because it makes you uncomfortable, but this... This is something else, entirely. I would rather not have come to know this at all, but my attempts to make such a preference reality backfired explosively.

 And yet, when I think back, I wonder about the shape that laid behind the cracks. I once considered returning just to make sense of it, but the part of me that still holds to sensibility prevents me from making such an endeavour, or perhaps, mistake. If I have difficulties with the weight of this fractured shard of knowledge, I do not think I would be able to withstand another.

Not yet, at least. 

[imsopopfly]

So I met this priest guy in Vivec, Drelayn Dredayn, and like he has next to no unique dialogue but I drew him anyway because he has the coolest name.

[riddlebot]

i was so excited to give drelayn a husband but now i think??? he should be a single dad oops i guess i have to kill?? his husband???

[dunmeriis]

👿 for Drelayn

Meet The People In My Muses Life [Accepting!]

👿 - An Enemy

“Dram and I used to be something between asssociates and friends, but friends was… Subjective. We shared projects and ideas. Underwent transformations, physical and mental, together, if not for the trust of having someone else who knew what they were doing nearby. But something… Changed him, when reality tore over New Mournhold.

It was as if something took away a key part of what balanced him. He fell hard, and stopped listening to my warnings, then to me entirely. After threatening to destroy a Century for warning him of the consequences of playing with fire, we came to the decision he wouldn’t be coming back. 

I’m not even sure if he sees what he’s doing anymore. In the simplest terms I can explain in, its as if he would destroy the cycle entirely just to grasp at that power he saw one more time. I fear for what would happen if, against the seemingly impossible odds, he succeeded.”

[dunmeriis]

Chili and Spice, for e v e r y o n e

Chili - Do you like spicy foods? 

Feth laughs, nodding with a mirthful sort of grin to his features. “Hah! I remember running through the bazaar as a young child with a fist full of weekly allowance. Myself and a few other children from the area, all tearing through the streets while the guards shouted at us to slow down so we didn’t knock over anyone’s displays. There was a particular stall near the back walls that sold a flame-broiled skewer of guar-meat that was spiced with something borderline deadly. Had you crying and sniffling from every part of your bloody face and left a numbness that very well may have been poison for how long it lasted.

Didn’t stop me or the others from buying one every Fredas afternoon.”  

Ferrin’s features light up with an expression of eager joy. “Oh, do I ever. Nothing can beat that burn up your nose that you can feel in your eyes and ears. Not to mention, it’s the only good way to preserve food for long travel if you don’t want to just salt it to Oblivion and back in a handbasket!”

Vier seems to give a so-so motion with their entire body, humming indecisively, “It... has it’s place I suppose, and I don’t mind spice, but it’s got to have a purpose. I don’t like spice for the sake of spice and I certainly don’t like spice for the sake of burning my tongue, it’s only got to add something to the meal. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Drelayn thought for a moment, as if it took him effort to recall. “When I was a child, to an extent. My mother made a soup in the colder months with a potent spice that had the curious effect of keeping you properly warm for hours, almost like the tingle of alcohol without the inebriation. Though after that all turned to dust… I stopped eating anything heavily spiced for a time. Perhaps it made me home-sick at first, but after a while I simply stopped thinking about it. 

Ah… Well, not that I can actually eat regular food these days.”

Nchuanamz looks to try and hide an embarassed laugh with a rub of her neck. “Spicy food? I ah... don’t have much of a tolerance for it. I do enjoy it, still, but I’ve never been able to handle it at all.”

Spice - Do you like to cook? Do you cook often?

Feth returns a blank expression. “...I can burn water if I set it in a pot on the fire.”

Ferrin doesn’t even need to stop and think. “I do most of my cooking on the road, but it’s a perfect way to wind down the evening. I can preserve food as well, through spicing or salting it, and magically in some cases. It’s a great way to bring a bit of variety onto a long road that would otherwise be punctuated with breaks of nothing but hard-tack and dried mushrooms.”

Vier stares off into thought for a moment in consideration. “I cook for myself whenever I can- granted, I do live alone, and have trouble eating something if I don’t know exactly what’s in it. I would say I enjoy it, though; There’s something relaxing to it, ritual almost, and a reassuring thought that I can often make exactly what it is I need or want on a particular night if I care to put the effort into it.”

Drelayn rose a brow again. “I...don’t need to cook for myself these days, and Nuaane would rather make her own meals. I’m told I’m a decent cook, however, when I need to for whatever reason.”

Nchuanamz laughs a little, “I’m afraid I never quite got the hang of cooking- At least, anything that I didn’t learn when I was young. It’s hard to get some of the ingredients now, so I find the only thing I’m able to cook is breakfast.”

[dunmeriis]

I had a discussion with a friend about the likeliness or circumstances for each of my characters to commit murder, and I think this is what we found.

Drelayn is disarmingly calm and I’m not sure if many non-morrowind-living people would think of him with much suspicion, but if he thinks your death will be to a long-term overall benefit, he probably wouldn’t have thought twice. If it’s of particular weight this might even outweigh friendships- It has, twice, in the past, though he doesn’t enjoy it or think that he’s absolved of any fault or wrongdoings. He’s fully aware that there’s blood on his name, and doesn’t try to hold moral high ground over it.

Ferrin has only killed in a kill-or-be-killed immediate circumstance. He’s just.... too gentle. He would, however, not be above turning a blind eye to someone else committing a murder if it was particularly justified.

Feth, surprisingly, is relatively clean, up until 4E 207 where he carves a considerable trail of blood through Vigilants of Stendarr and Imperial soldiers both. Granted, in his mind, it was absolutely warranted, but you’d really need to push him over the edge to spur him into such a thing.

Vier is the mer in the corner of the tavern that threatens a drunkard harassing them with “I’ve killed over less.” The thing is they absolutely meant it, and put a concerning amount of planning, effort and detail into it each time. They know they’re rather unassuming and disarming, and in cases of corruption and certain traits or actions they would find despicable, that unassuming guise works startlingly to their advantage. 

Nchuanamz has only killed once in cold-blood, a circumstance I’ve already written about once or twice before. Not a very crowning moment of glory. Nchuanamz isn’t one for violence and murder. She’d rather talk it out or otherwise out-wit them. 

[dunmeriis]

[Today is the 14th of Sun’s Dusk. AKA, Drelayn’s birthday.

Happy birthday you absolute bloody disaster. ]

[dunmeriis]

Ink for everyone!

Ink - Write your autobiography in one sentence

Feth - “And just when it was getting better, it got worse.”

Ferrin - “How to successfully wing your way through every pivotal moment in your life and somehow come out alive”

Vier - “...No.”

Drelayn - “Testing the limits of a god is not a wise decision, but I’ve done it anyways.”

Nchuanamz - “Four Thousand Years of being Incredibly Lost and Confused.”

[dunmeriis]

For any one of your characters: Imperial, Sandstone, Laurel, Emerald, Onyx

Imperial - Are you in any position of power or authority?

Feth laughs softly. “I was asked by Karthilia a while ago, if I could take up a captain’s position with the Peacekeepers and teach them some of the old training regimen I was taught under. I’d count that, to an extent- I don’t consider leading the Spectre much of an authority position, anyways. We’re all just men and mer that want to hit things for coin, and I just happen to have the most experience doing so.”

Sandstone - Who in your life has been the most healing for you?

Nchuanamz thought carefully for a few moments. 

“...Myself. I am of the mind that there are times where you need to stop waiting for others to lift you up. To stop waiting for someone else to show you a sign, and be the change and shift in thinking that you’d like to see. ...If you cannot be kind toward yourself and realize this, I don’t think you can expect to be kind to others with the same results.”

Laurel - Is there a major victory you’ve achieved in your life? if so, what is it?

Ferrin grins. “I think I’ve seen a few, but there’s one that really sticks out. After the Red Year, the Silt Strider populations were decimated- Everyone knows that. The larvae and eggs couldn’t survive the blistering heat and change in climate, and the species would have died out entirely within a decade. Would have. There were a little under a dozen of us, dedicated to saving them and setting up conservation efforts. I’m glad that I got to work with them- they were some of the most dedicated people I’ve ever met.”

Emerald - If you could be immortal, would you want to be? 

Drelayn lapsed into pensive thought, stroking his chin. 

“...I don’t think I’d terribly care for it. I’d enjoy the prospect of being able to work unhindered by the approaching call of my Ancestors, but I feel like that finite time is what drives us to discover and create so. When there is no longer a limit to one’s time on Nirn, why continue to press yourself, why constantly seek to improve and better your imperfections?

If it were presented to me, perhaps I would take the offer. But I would not go seeking it out.”

Onyx - What are your nightmares most often about?

Vier slowly rocked their head back from left to the right, a faint frown creased in their features. “...Past events, mostly. Reiterations thereof, each one a step further removed from the reality, yet hitting just as hard none the less. Memories tend to do that- Distort over time, yet remain strangely true.”

“They’re all quite vivid, no matter how far they stray from the events themselves; Sometimes it is kin turning on each other, sometimes it is kin turning into monsters. I often have trouble discerning which one really happened, until I wonder if it was, perhaps, both.”

[dunmeriis]

muse: Drelayn Areth Telvanni

BASICS

▸ is your muse tall/short/average? Tall. Beanpole tall. ▸ are they okay with their height? He doesn’t care for it either way. ▸ what’s their hair like? Unremarkable- Not too smooth, but not wiry or thick. A cool grey with tiny hints of white showing just above the ears if he pulls it back to show. No longer progressing. ▸ do they spend a lot of time on their hair/with their grooming? Enough to keep it out of his face and prevent it from getting singed off, but otherwise, not really. ▸ does your muse care about their appearance? As the Arch-Magister of the Korus Mages’ Guild, he did because he had to. It was more maintaining an appearance more than anything else, but he personally cares little for it all.  ▸ does your muse care about what others think about them? Not very much, no. Drelayn would rather have gone unnoticed and unremarked, but fate had other plans.

PREFERENCES

▸ indoors or outdoors? Indoors ▸ rain or sunshine? Rain ▸ forest or beach? Forest ▸ precious metals or gems? Precious metals ▸ flowers or perfumes? Perfumes ▸ personality or appearance? Personality ▸ being alone or being in a crowd? Being aline ▸ painful truths or white lies? Situational- prefers painful truths towards himself ▸ science or magic? Both. He can absolutely employ both. ▸ peace or conflict? Peace through conflict ▸ night or day? Night ▸ dusk or dawn? Dusk ▸ warmth or cold? Cold ▸ many acquaintances or a few close friends? A few close friends ▸ reading or playing a game? Reading

QUESTIONNAIRE

▸ what are some of your muse’s bad habits? Isolating himself, sometimes willfully letting himself forget about anything but whatever he’s working on. Trying to bury his emotions when they get to be too much. Forgetting he’s still a mer as well. Being terrible at keeping up relationships, platonic or otherwise.

▸ has your muse lost anyone close to them? how has it affected them? The loss of his entire family is basically what formed his entire storyline. He was too young to fully, totally grasp it at the time, so there’s something unmourned deep down there that he’s turned into a very well-disguised but bitter resentment towards daedra, especially those that were allegedly ‘protecting’ them.

▸ what are some fond memories your muse has? Raising chaos with the other village children. The tang of the sea-breeze along the coasts. The comforting rhythm of clockwork, and the brief respite it brought to re-assemble, over and over. Poring over theories and ancient texts with Nchuanamz. Explaining long trains of thought to Haj-Tei, even if he didn’t fully grasp them. A quiet moment in the library with Karthilia.

▸ is it easy for your muse to kill? If he believes it to be for good, then absolutely.

▸ what’s it like when your muse breaks down? Drelayn almost never breaks down in the company of others. He’s too good at controlling himself, measuring himself, knowing when to depart to do so in solitude. You’d be hard-pressed to understand him when he does. If he chooses to speak at all, the coherency will be worrying. 

I don’t think Nchuth, Mychen-Zel or anyone capable of understanding that particular form of communication would want to be near until he’s calmed down.

▸ is your muse capable of trusting someone with their life? Yes, but only very specific people. Karthilia. Haj-Tei. Nchuanamz. I don’t think he’s reached that point with anyone else.

▸ what’s your muse like when they’re in love? Restless, agitated. A little panick-y and visibly unlike himself. Tries to ignore it until it goes away. He’s not... ready for a relationship like that, to be honest, he’s still hurting from the last one.

[dunmeriis]

Don't chase the rabbit, Drelayn. [Lets look into his ashlander youth!]

“Yenshah-Pal, go find your sister! Dinner’s nearly ready.” 

The young boy was startled from his daydreams by his mother’s voice. He quickly jumped up to his feet to respond, but she’d already disappeared back inside. He closed his mouth with a small huff as he swallowed his words, and turned to depart, running down the path through the camp, then out past the threshold. He darted past the guard keeping watch on the roads, and off into the wilds of the Grazelands.

The terrain was easy for him to traverse. He knew the lands like the back of his hand, like any self-respecting Ashlander did. To know to avoid the more aggressive wildlife, how to find or make an impromptu shelter in an ash-storm- It was all second nature. He grew lost in thought as he wandered through a tangle of brambles and twisted fungi, making his way to the coast where he knew his sister would be. 

She probably lost track of time looking for shells again, he thought. As he drew near, the salt-breeze began to greet him. It caressed his cheeks and left a pleasant, fresh scent behind. It was faint at first, a whisper, but soon turned into a warm and welcome embrace. A “welcome back,” as he reached the sandy beach proper, and felt his feet sink into the sun-warmed grains. He had to stop just to breathe, to appreciate it all. 

His eyes snapped back open as he felt something small and hard smack the back of his head. He let out a sharp cry borne more of surprise than pain, but it smarted, and he clapped his hand to the back of his head to nurse it as he looked around for the source. 

Amasibbi-Yan. Of course. There she stood up on a little rocky pillar, bits of driftwood piled in front of her. That must have been what she threw at him. Her hands were propped onto her hips proudly, beaming at her brother as he pouted back at her. So certain was she in her little victory! She shut her eyes to dramatically proclaim her triumph to an invisible audience, grinning ear to ear, until Yen took the moment to pitch the scrap of driftwood back up at her. 

Thwack. It nailed her in the forehead, where she stopped mid-sentence, mouth forming a surprised “o” as she processed what happened. She quickly matched his wide grin with a mischievous curl of her own, and at once she had skipped from the rocks to the sand. Yen took off for the water’s edge, Sibbi hot on his tail, but both laughing raucously as they wound around the beach. 

Yen had entirely forgotten about the time. They had run through the foam and the tides for what felt like hours, playing without a care in the world until the sun was so low in the sky that it lit the entire sea a brilliant, glowing gradient of orange and red. 

Their mother would scold them, but they both knew that it was worth it. 

[dunmeriis]

42 and 43 for Drelayn, Nchuanamz, and Feth

Drelayn

42. What are their goals? What would they sacrifice anything for? What is their secret ambition?

Before Drelayn became a Transicant, his goal was generally to just... build cool shit and learn while doing it. But now? He has a deep-seated need that I’d say is something bordering on instinct to... protect, and preserve the nature of the world. That, he believes, is worth the sacrifice of anything to maintain. To help protect and assert the laws of reality, which incidentally includes a lot of dealing with the Thalmor. He’ll gladly fuck their day right up if asked. 

But secret ambitions? Hah. ...Hahahah. Oh, dear, welcome to possibly the most terrible idea you’ve ever heard of. Drelayn.... Has a general awareness of the beat and tempo that the Aurbis works to. Not a conscious and active one, but a sort of.... “extra” sense of it that he’ll subconsciously work with and keep in line to. And his own research has him considerably aware of how Lorkhan’s Heart ties into that. But where is the heart? That’s right, the Nerevarine played hot cross buns on it and now, if the Thalmor are to be believed at least, if it’s still even corporeally present, it no longer functions as the “stone” or tether of the Tower it’s attached to, that Tower being Red Mountain. 

...He’s come to the theory that in this fucked-up state, the beat will be more prone to screwing itself up and coming off the rails, that the heart is supposed to “regulate” and stabilize that tempo. And if the heart can’t be found or fixed, someone will just have to make some sort of vessel that safely replaces that function until it can.

43. Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of non religious people? 

Not actively/zealously, but his research and world-views are a little bit of a religion in its own right. Still- He hates Daedra to a point he doesn’t follow the Reclamations at all, and he never really followed the Tribunal either. His “relationship” with Sotha Sil is more a student-to-teacher than follower-to-god than anything else.

He’s fine with religious and non-religious folks both, and he figures it’s a pretty important thing- Spirituality is a good way to balance yourself out mentally, in his mind, when practiced in moderation. 

Nchuanamz

42. What are their goals? What would they sacrifice anything for? What is their secret ambition?

I touched on this earlier in a written bit, but she doesn’t want to see the knowledge of Tonal Architecture die. She’s torn between the warnings that echo at the back of her head, that its too dangerous, too easily abused, and her own view. A view that in the right hands, it can be a great tool for good. ....She just hopes, more than anything, that she chooses the right hands.

43. Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of non religious people?

She’s not really religious. I mean, she knows that Aedra and Daedra are around, but she doesn’t care for any of them and doesn’t see why they deserve worship, her worship, her time and energy that she’d rather spend at work. She doesn’t really feel anything towards religious or non-religious folk, but she feels very wary around zealots for obvious reasons.

Feth

42. What are their goals? What would they sacrifice anything for? What is their secret ambition?

Preferably, to not get impaled a third time He’s honestly between ambitions right now. Following the 4E 207 Council, he’s kind of completed a big, major goal he’s held onto for nearly 200 years. So now? He’s content to return to Korus and do what he does best. Run the Spectre, train recruits and ignore his own well-being by prioritizing other things above it before he can think about it. He’d lay down his life to defend Korus- It’s come to be home for him, just as much as Morrowind was. Yes, the politics infuriate him sometimes, but he figures that that’s bound to happen just about anywhere. 

43. Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of non religious people?

Feth is a very devoted follower of the Reclamations, though he would no longer consider himself a zealot. He knows what that leads to. Having been an Ordinator, he’s seen how intoxicating it is, and frowns upon others who uphold their faith in the same violent manner.