#Hadvar/Nyenna

[mareenavee]

If Anyone Can Do This, It’s You

For the prompt: Riverwood Thank you to @kookaburra1701 for your amazing Calder in your fic universe!!! I NEEDED to write a pining Good Bean Nord after all you've shared! Hadvar was the perfect candidate. Thank you to @changelingsandothernonsense also for ALL the word sprints and for helping me keep my spirits up in the middle of a hurricane of chaos. This is for you guys <3

This is an AU where we answer the question: What if Nyenna and Hadvar traveled together to Whiterun, and then went on to Solitude to join the War effort?

Main Fic Universe is Dragonborn & Far-Star Marked and its prequel series is The Heart of the World. Caught up on The World on Our Shoulders and want to read more AU situations? Check out the series If Only Time Changed Its Mind or Take My Hand, Erase the Past Forever.

Without further ado:

If Anyone Can Do This, It’s You

Riverwood was peaceful, despite the raging chaos of Helgen burning in the distance, and the giant black dragon that had flown off over the mountains only hours ago. It was ridiculous, come to think of it, that things could still be so idyllic. That the river still flowed with water and not blood and fire seemed like some kind of illusion. Or miracle.

Hadvar held Nyenna’s hands in his own. He’d closed her fingers around a pouch of gold that his aunt and uncle had given him for her. She was meant to go to Whiterun, to tell the Jarl about the dragon—but he was having misgivings about sending her off alone. There was something different about her that he couldn’t quite place. The way she’d fought that bear in the cave, it was as if she’d become someone else entirely. It was like all fear melted from her as she aimed that borrowed bow. He knew Bosmeri folk were generally trained to be archers, but she’d said otherwise. That she’d been sheltered and could still do that was incredible.

“Nyenna,” Hadvar started, unsure exactly what he wanted to say. What would all this accomplish, asking her to stay with him? Would she take it the wrong way? They’d just survived a brush with death, after all. But it wasn’t exactly like that…was it? He cleared his throat. “What if we go to Solitude instead?”

She looked up at him, orange eyes almost startled. “Didn’t you say I should go to Whiterun?”

“Ah yes, but…you could join the Legion. Maybe do some real good once you’ve gotten in some training, what with the War going on.” It wasn’t exactly what he meant to say. It was more that he didn’t want her to go. She had a strange pull to her. He hated reading, normally, but being around her reminded him of the kind of book that draws you right into the story so much so that you forget reality for a moment.

“I am no soldier,” she said, pushing a stray silver curl back behind her ear. “That, and who is going to get word to Jarl Balgruuf if not me?”

“We can go together, then take a carriage to Solitude. Hopefully General Tullius made it out of Helgen just fine. If not, there’s contingencies, and I’ll need to be debriefed before I get sent on my next mission. And you can enlist, then begin your training.” Hadvar let go of her hands and folded his arms over his chest. The coins in the pouch he’d given her clinked together, the only noise in the silence as she thought about her answer.

“Do you really think I can make a difference like that? That I am…good enough to be a soldier?” Nyenna asked. Her voice was so soft. She still looked baffled.

“Of course you are!” Hadvar said, perhaps too quickly. He felt his face flush and closed his eyes for the barest second. He heard Nyenna chuckle which only made him even more embarrassed. He let out a sigh. “I mean, yes. You’ve already got skill. All you need is training.”

Nyenna nodded and tucked the bag of coins in her bag. “Alright. The worst that can happen is they turn me away, right?”  -> Read the rest on AO3.

[mareenavee]

⭐️ mages and literacy

Director's Cut -- Mages and Literacy in The World on our Shoulders

FRICKEN FANTASTIC. Thank you so much for asking about this specifically.

Actually, on a side note, my mom and I were talking about how strangely well read the people of Tamriel are considering the setting. I really love it even though it's relatively odd. We only ever meet a few authors in game, and never anyone who transcribes professionally. Certainly no printing presses. Maybe there are and we just don't know it.

On a more serious note, since literacy seems very common in the setting, generally speaking -- obviously like everywhere there will be exceptions to the rules, I'd like to talk just a bit about arcane text specifically. I'd mentioned before that becoming a mage, or at least becoming more skilled at the use of magic requires time, effort and study. Some people are naturally more inclined to do so, and some are not. There could be a myriad reasons, culturally or biologically or what have you.

I have a scene in chapter 2 where Hadvar gives a spell tome to Nyenna that he'd taken out of the keep in Helgen. The scene starts after she quickly understands and memorizes the words for the flames spell:

“How curious… I had no idea this could be so simple,” she said. “My mother never saw sense in trying to teach me. My purpose was to unite houses, and that’s it. At least according to her. It was a miracle I learned even the tiniest alchemic recipes in all the time I’d had to observe her work.” Hadvar looked at her, again with his eyebrows knit, making his broad face seem even wider than it was. She returned the confused stare. “Wait, is it not simple?”

“Magic definitely isn’t simple, no, I can assure you. I can’t make any sense of those scribblings no matter how many hours I stare at them. I know they’re written in Common but they start to swim around on the page like they’re not meant for eyes like mine,” Hadvar said, reading over her shoulder.

We're not exactly sure what language magic is written in, or if it exists in all languages, or is something else entirely. We're not sure if it's a manifestation of the blessings of Magnus or Julianos on Nirn, even. In my hc, sometimes the text is very difficult to read. Some people can't read it at all, though it's possible they could learn the spells if the words were ever spoken to them. Some people, especially considering the social attitude toward magic in Skyrim in this case, accept that arcane texts are more trouble than they're worth -- as Hadvar might in this scene. Or maybe there's more to it that we can't know.

I like to think the arcane texts are themselves magic of a sort, that spells and the intentions behind them are found in the shape of this language -- even if it's actually written in Tamrielic/Common. It's possible, for some, it's simply not something they're willing to put the effort in to comprehend.

Even if many people in Skyrim/Tamriel own and read many more books than would normally seem possible in such settings, arcane texts are probably on a different level. I would imagine that's probably why there's not very many spell tomes sitting around on peoples' bookshelves in their houses or anything like that. Usually one must go to where the mages are to borrow their copies.

There's probably a lot more we can extrapolate on this question, but there's surprisingly little lore about the mechanics of why spell tomes work. (Or really, why they get destroyed in game when you're done with them.) In the end, I think there's a lot of factors that influence why someone might become a mage, and perhaps a lot more as to why someone else might not, and some of that reason could be the difficulty of the craft and the amount of study and work that probably has to go into it under most circumstances. Less literacy, and more cultural and aptitude based.

(I like to think it's like any art in real life. Some people have natural affinities to do creative work, some don't. Anyone who wants to improve their skill in said art will need to put in the work, no matter how easily or not it comes to each specific artist.)

Thanks! This was fun to mull over :D

[mareenavee]

for the fanfic asks, 1, 3 and 15!

Hello! :D Thank you so much for asking these. I particularly love this set of questions.

The ask game is just here.

Fanfic asks for my fic, The World on Our Shoulders!

Without further ado, onward to the answers! :D

1. What inspired you to write/update this work?

I did talk about the origin of my fic a little bit here. What inspired me to update it? Well. I could talk about the ground-up edit.

I had been writing this as sort of a challenge mode back in February, getting the draft down on paper and posting every day just to prove to myself that I could. By the time the challenge ended, I had over 100k words, which was more than my goal (it was more or less a NaNoWriMo challenge I made for myself) and I was able to go back, read it with fresh eyes, and realize pieces that weren't hitting the way I wanted them to. So I decided to go back in and edit iirc somewhere before April. I had something like 52 chapters posted by then lol. So it was a big undertaking. I had plot threads I'd dropped, I had characters whose voices weren't coming through in the way that I hoped. There'd been some waffling about phrasing and word choices and scenes that just felt rushed.

This time, though, instead of simply just feeling awful about my work I decided it could do with some love. So I took the time to start revisions and didn't post anything until I had a big chunk of the story ready to be proofread and edited more ahead of a posting schedule. I've been adding in an extra chapter update or two here or there on certain weeks. But anyway, the inspiration behind updating this is because I want it to be the kind of story I wanted to read, but could not find, even in its first iteration. (: All I can do is hope I'm doing it justice.

3. If this work is an update/new chapter, how do you stay motivated on multi-chapter works? 

I am motivated to keep updating this thing because the story is living rent free in my head, and what else am I going to do but write it if it's allowed to clatter around in there anyway? (: LOL But no, seriously, I'm invested in the characters at this point. It's a personal challenge besides that, which I was going over here and here. I just wanna write a fun story besides all that. I figured, what is the most dramatic thing that can happen to an NPC who discovers they're the dragonborn? WELL. After a series of bad decisions on her part, we have the prologue of World lol. It's more than that, of course, but still. (:

15. What is one question you wish someone would ask you about this work? Ask it and answer it.

OH another one of these, my poor brain LOL. Okay. Here goes nothing! (Thank you, btw. I love having to really think about my work like this!)

Are there alternate ways this story could have gone? Do you have plans to make what-if sort of stories for this series?

I've been wanting to write a series of shortfics or one shots that go over alternate events counter to what happens in World, really, because I think it's important for writing practice and for reaffirming that, while the alternate story is fun and good to think about, you're on the right path with how you've been going in your project (:

Some of the questions I ask myself are:

"What would have happened if Nyenna and Eris actually made it to Solstheim as intended?"

"What if she stayed with Hadvar and went straight to Solitude?"

"What if Nyenna rejected Athis?"

"What if she never learned magic?"

"What if she wasn't the Last Dragonborn? Who would be?"

Among so, so many others. All of them would have affected her character arc in some significant way. Most of them would still have her being pulled into her destiny, though, except that last one. Most of them would have her missing out on trusting herself to get stronger, especially the first one. Some of them would shift the whole setting of the story to a different part of Skyrim altogether, and a setting shift has the ability to change the tone of the whole story, if you think about it.

I want to take a minute to answer those what-ifs briefly.

1: She'd have never been guided to reconnect with her power. Teldryn probably would have seen her just as another traveler, not as a patron. He might have left for Skyrim without her the following morning. She'd have to be saved from a dragon, likely, instead of do the saving or escaping on her own, before the whole soul absorption thing happens.

2: She'd have joined the Legion, likely, convinced she could be anything she put her mind to. She'd be a good soldier, and of course would stand and fight a random dragon with Hadvar in the battalion at her side. She'd discover her powers and then Tullius would, sensing an opportunity, use her in his plans to end the war as quickly as possible. If either of them survived to the end of either quest, she'd probably hire Hadvar as her housecarl. Or maybe marry him instead.

3: Athis is quite smitten with Nyenna at the beginning of their story. If Nyenna wasn't so rash and grabby-hands about that kind of attention, she'd probably have been nice enough to him, but would have focused on recovery first and then moving on toward Solstheim as was her original intention. I like the idea that she'd discover she's Dragonborn on Solstheim rather than at the watchtower, though... it'd be interesting considering she'd not have trained at all in this situation, too.

4: If all went exactly as the fic was going, but she never learned Flames to begin with, she'd not have known she had a bit of an unusual aptitude for magic. It would affect how she'd fight. She'd probably still focus on archery, I'd assume, but also would need to have an even better handle on fighting with weapons that actually have weight to them. I feel like she'd fit the image the Nords have of the LDB a little better. Also, without healing magic, Athis probably would have died at a certain point. Twice she'd been there to staunch the bleeding and close wounds when others couldn't or didn't. So that would have complicated things.

5: If Nyenna wasn't the Dragonborn but everything went exactly as the fic is going, I'd have given that to Athis, I think. He wishes more than once over the course of the story that he could have been chosen, mostly regretting being unable to take the burden off of her. If that was the case, I wonder how Nyenna would have reacted to being the wife of the Dragonborn. I feel like Athis would have prioritized her anyway, even in the wake of the quest. I don't know if Nyenna would have stayed home per se. She'd probably have still been training and retrieving artifacts. She'd probably have gone with Athis on some pieces of the quest, too, because he wouldn't have thought HE was the one causing the chaos and danger as Nyenna believes in World.

So yes. Alternate what-if fics :D If I were to write a one shot of any of these, would you guys like to see a specific one? Feel free to comment or send me asks and I can also write fragments out, maybe, of certain changed scenes as writing practice. <3

[mareenavee]

Oh, this looks like fun too!

🍉: Does your OC have a particular piece of jewellery that they always wear or refuse to part with?

🍎: Do they share any features or traits with any family members? (mentally gathering references)

🍷: What's one of your OC's pet peeves concerning food?

Hey hey hey :D Thanks so much for asking these! AND I appreciate asking for references with a spoilery question LOL but I will do my best.

Anyway this'll be

ODD OC asks for Nyenna from my fic The World on Our Shoulders!

ask game is here.

🍉: Does your OC have a particular piece of jewellery that they always wear or refuse to part with?

Nyenna would have loved to keep her earrings her step-father gave her, but it was impossible. She and Eris needed the money to keep going. At the moment, she kind of doesn't keep a ton of jewelry on hand. She knows what it is to be sized up as a mark, having done that herself to others plenty of times. Right now, her wedding ring is kept on under her gauntlets and she wears her gold and ruby circlet from Jarl Balgruuf. It was the first thing she enchanted, albeit weakly. She assumes it helps with archery. She almost always wears it these days.

🍎: Do they share any features or traits with any family members? (mentally gathering references)

Right well. [Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler.]

Okay to be fair I can talk around this a little bit. She doesn't look much like her mother except maybe her eye shape. What we do know from the fic: Her mother is fairly short even for a Bosmer, and especially for a Bosmeri woman. Somehow Nyenna ended up taller than her mother and taller than the average Bosmeri man -- right around average for Bosmeri women. (HC all around but I heard you needed references lol) Her mother did say clear as day that Nyenna looks exactly like her father. It was a line that stuck with Nyenna for a long time because she'd never known her father -- according to Delphine in a later chapter even then the snippet I'll share below, Nyenna's father died in the Great War.

From Chapter 2, regarding her looks and her mother's opinion on them:

“They’re awful, those Thalmor. I’m half-wondering if they had something to do with what happened here today,” Hadvar answered, puzzled. “I’m sorry you’ve been through so much, though. Did your brother have any clue as to why you’d all be targeted?”

“Mother was loud about her distaste of the Thalmor. She took in refugees from other purges in other places in Valenwood, but she kept the details close to her chest. I was supposed to be a dutiful daughter, seen but not heard. Sheltered. Betrothed for financial reasons, to be shipped off to another estate to become someone else’s problem. The nicest thing she’d ever said to me in all my years was that I was the spitting image of my father. She didn’t even smile then, though. You can imagine she never once talked politics with me,” Nyenna said wistfully.

She has been looking for a long time for other Bosmer that share her sort of bright tone. Generally (hc, of course because mods and sliders and stuff for the game can make any character anything you want) Bosmer are known to be a rather earth-toned people, by most observations, and so far, Nyenna hasn't come across another one that would have looked like her. She also hasn't seen a great deal of Bosmer now that she's outside of Valenwood. A few now and again, but not nearly as many as it used to be. She feels like maybe her father and her shared the same sort of pale anomaly or it ran in his family and she has yet to find any others in his line. But yeah. Long answer short, she looks like her father.

🍷: What's one of your OC's pet peeves concerning food?

Nyenna does not like having to eat food with her hands if it's not a food that should be eaten as such. This is probably a holdover from being raised in a noble household where having food is dining and dining is a ritual and a performance. There were RULES. Granted, she doesn't need to follow them anymore, but there's a certain bias she has for messy foods, foods that mess up one's hands and messy eaters. It can't always be helped especially on the road, but she'll still do her best not to make a huge mess. I have a fragment in Athis's point of view which observes this against his own actions, lol (:

From Chapter 4:

“Nonsense!” Nyenna exclaimed. “I wasn’t raised Green Pact.” She took the plate and looked around for a moment. “Eh, not to be difficult, but is there a fork or something I can borrow?”

Athis was already starting on his own dinner like some kind of barbarian, apparently. Nope. He would not be embarrassed. Him? No. No chance. 

“A moment,” he said, trying to keep his voice even. He stood woodenly and left the room to forage around for silverware. Silverware! How could he be so thoughtless? Not everyone in the world ate like a pack of wolves like they did around here. He grabbed a fork from a nearby table. A knife, too, for good measure. They were dusty, which was unsurprising, really. He wiped them off on a clean dish towel, somewhat of a miraculous find.

Returning to her side, he noticed she was swirling around the potion in the mug he had placed nearby. She took an apprehensive sip. Her eyebrows raised in surprise, and she downed the rest of it, visibly relaxing.

“Thank you. Someone’s a very talented alchemist. That barely tasted like medicine. It really helps,” she said. She dug into her food as soon as Athis handed her the silverware. He wiped his own hands on his shirt. Indeed, all very barbarian-like. He resolved to be less…like that. He doubted very much it would impress her much if he was consistently as gross as Farkas. Old habits, though.

She didn't voice her judgement here, but there was some judgement. At least Athis decided not being a messy eater was a change he could manage if it meant impressing Nyenna. LOL. But that's a whole different question, I think.

[mareenavee]

The World on Our Shoulders | Chapter 3: A World of Fragile Things

18th of Last Seed 4E 201

“If you’re going back to the Legion, just try not to get yourself killed,” Nyenna said, as she gathered up the dishes from their very late lunch. Hadvar was washing the stew pot in a basin off to the side of the hearth in his uncle’s house. “You didn’t survive a dragon just to get stabbed by a wily Stormcloak.”

“Have more faith in me than that,” Hadvar laughed, waving a dishcloth around, splashing suds onto the bricks at the side of the fireplace. “Besides, I’ve never met a single wily Stormcloak. Not even once.”

“Not even that Ralof?”

“Especially not Ralof.”

She laughed as well and deposited their dishes into the basin, going back to straighten up the table and put away the remaining bread and cheese from their meal. It was the least she could do. Alvor, now repairing the sword she had brought with her out of Helgen, had insisted she stay and rest for the day. She didn’t want to impose, but she couldn't simply refuse. They had made space for her to wash her face and sleep. They had given her more than they needed to in food supplies, besides, and still fed her at meal times as if she was already family. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. She hoped they were just happy their nephew was back and still in one piece, and were just friendly, hospitable people. She had nothing with which to pay them back. She supposed she could always send them some of her future earnings, if she could find work in Whiterun, in return for their kindness. There had always been exchanges in Valenwood, and especially in Cyrodiil. Of late, money for silence, mostly, but still. Nothing was free, usually.

“Are you heading out soon, Nyenna?” Hadvar asked quietly. He was drying his hands on a clean towel, which he then laid over the back of a chair. She nodded and he walked up beside her. He took her hands again, but this time placed a pouch of gold in them. She tried to protest but he just shook his head. “No, please take this. All of it is the least we can do. Your help is invaluable. I’m only staying here for a few days before I need to rejoin General Tullius in Solitude. I don’t have a choice. But you do. Your word will protect my family longer than I can, if the Jarl will hear you. A little gold is nothing in return for such a thing.”

“I – I’ll do the best I can,” Nyenna said, shocked at this kindness. She closed her hands around the gold, but Hadvar still held her wrists, strong but gentle. He leaned in and kissed her cheek. Always these things held more meaning, conveyed a certain owing or expectation, but she saw in his eyes that this time it didn’t. She hadn’t known before it could simply be a warmer gesture of respect and gratitude. Eris hadn’t been able to protect her from everything – rather, everyone – after all. This was strange and different, but welcome nonetheless. Hadvar was a good man, and honorable. So few of them had ever crossed her path these last few years. She beamed at her friend in pride and with her own measure of gratitude.

“It’s been an honor fighting alongside you. Stay well, would you?” he said, grinning back. “And don’t waste your skills, no matter where your path takes you. Go become exceptional, my friend. Hopefully we’ll see each other again.”

“I’m not exceptional,” Nyenna insisted with a chuckle. “But as I said, I’ll do the best I can.”

“Sometimes the smallest among us can make the biggest difference,” Hadvar said pointedly. There was a pause in the conversation, leaving just enough space for her to realize it had been a cleverly disguised joke. He grinned. How hilarious. She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t make fun of my height,” Nyenna answered calmly, plucking a stray thread from her sleeve and letting it fall to the floor. They both burst into laughter, even as she pulled open the door to Alvor’s house. She tucked the money Hadvar had given her away in her bag. Three hundred Septims, some food, a repaired iron sword, and a handful of dusty potions. That’s all she had as she walked onto the road that would lead to Whiterun. She turned one last time and waved to Hadvar and his family, the late afternoon sun warming the image of them there on the porch in her memory. -> Continue reading on AO3