#ildari

[vidvana]

A bit too late to submit for @nerevar-quote-and-star pin-up challenge but I loved the prompt ideas sm that I couldn't resist painting spellcrafting Ildari :3

[elfcyclopedia]

Fic Lines! Tag Game~

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Thanks @thana-topsy by tagging me :3 And therefore recognizing me as a fellow writer even though I still haven't posted anything online. Yet.

The fragments are from two fanfics I'm working on, both telling the story of Ildari Sarothril from her perspecive. They are namely:

"She Looks so Beautiful in Her Grave: A Prelude" and "Ashes Feed My Revenge"

As I said, I haven't posted them yet. But if you get interested feel free to dm me, I'll gladly share my work so far with you :3

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Ok, so here we go:

A line from your fic that makes you sad

He looked around the graveyard once again. The dawn greeted him with shy, pinkish rays dispersed in the morning mist. Lighting the sea, the grave… The beautiful and deadly nightshades painted ornate, slender shadows on the ash. The dawn, the time of the Mother of Roses. Silver tears filled his eyes. Oh what a lowly mortal he is, in the face of death, in the face of the Gods. He leapt down on his knees, facing the rising sun, and prayed, prayed ardently being sorry for Azura, Boetiah and Mephala for what he’s about to do. But he couldn’t help it, he couldn’t help it!

(from "She Looks so Beautiful in Her Grave: A Prelude")

A line from your fic that makes you want to punch a character

Master fucking Neloth. Ulves’ face was hued red with anger. It was him who killed her. He coaxed Ildari into performing some unfortunate experiment on her. Two days ago Ulves floated up into the main tower to bring his master food when he casually informed him to dig a fresh grave. His blood boiled from the sole thought of it. He wished to kill him with his whole heart. But he felt so powerless. The old sly wizard would fry him down to a crisp before he could even unsheathe his axe. The only option would be poisoning his meal… but it was very probable that this ash-sucker would survive somehow. And that would mean the end of Ulves’ life. And even if his master, what would that change? There was nothing that Ulves wanted to do after that.

(from "She Looks so Beautiful in Her Grave: A Prelude")

A line from your fic you want to talk about more

Imagine silence. But in its foulest form. The silence that is only found in places of death, sending shivers down the spines of the living. The stillness of a burnt-down village. The void that fills the space after a man has uttered their last words. Somewhere, all among that silence a faint sound could be heard. Ildari’s heart started beating.

(from "Ashes Feed My Revenge")

A line from your fic you're proud of

And there she was outside, barely treading, yet irate enough to kick the ash left and right with a sour grimace. The grim landscape stretched before her - all was only ash and burned-down trees, with suggestions of the shoreline and the mountains of the other side. But they were distant, covered by the thick clouds of wind-swept ash. […] As much as she hated the musty air in the tower, outside it wasn’t much better. Even though the wind was merely a breeze, she already choked a few times on the ash that got inside of her windpipe.

(from "Ashes Feed My Revenge")

A line from your fic that's full of symbolism

Her mind was failing her, it was like a barren soil that couldn’t hold onto any seeds of thought, and certainly not let them develop. After a whole eternity of torment, she couldn’t help but close her eyes.

(from "Ashes Feed My Revenge")

A line from your fic that makes you laugh

“Knock, knock! Can I come in?” chirped Niyya right outside the door of her room. That was weird. She was getting suspiciously friendly so quickly. Well, so far it was harmless. She’s probably one of those people that take all of their life’s pleasures in serving the others and have the reputation of a saint in the society - unless you are the one they are actually helping - then they become really annoying.

(from "Ashes Feed My Revenge")

A line from your fic you think could have been better

“Is everything all right?” How dare she ask such a question? Of course it wasn’t! Just look at her.

(from "Ashes Feed My Revenge")

A line from your fic that contains an Easter egg

[I don't feel like I've ever written one, sorry ): ]

A line from your fic that's shocking WARNING: suicidal ideation

She put the book down and covered her face with hands. It only takes so much to strip a man off the will to live. What if the voices are never going to subside? And the pain? She can’t live like that! What will she do? Will there be anything to live for? She imagined herself, lifeless, half-buried in ash, like this poor young Bosmer necromancer not unlike her, rotting away - only to be found by a flabbergasted traveller that wouldn’t even have the guts to give the final rites. No voices would be heard then. No pain would trouble her. Not a single tormenting thought would ever cross her mind. Tempting. She heard footsteps coming.

(from "Ashes Feed My Revenge")

A line from your fic that makes you go 'aww'

“Um… Ildari” Niyya hesitated. ”I think you are… pretty.” The Redguard’s face turned dark red. Now Ildari understood why Niyya was so suspiciously friendly. But, she was a girl - a mere miner for damn’s sake. And there she was, making goo-goo eyes at her. Ildari wanted to puke.

(from "Ashes Feed My Revenge")

• • • • •

I don't know much fellow writers (yet) but I feel like @katastronoot and @greyborn2 might come up with something interesting :3

[razaks-wheel]

What an odd looking Telvanni tower, Ildari thought as Tel Vos came into view.

At first, she wasn’t sure if she was even heading in the right direction. It looked more like an Imperial outpost. But no, as it grew closer, she could see that it also had the distinctive mycological touch unique to Telvanni architecture. She cast her levitation spell, a spell that she had learned so early in life and yet used so rarely growing up in the Imperial City, and was now able to use more freely than ever before. The thrill of watching the ground fall away beneath her swept away most of her nervousness as she ascended to the tower’s entrance.

The tower’s wizard, Master Aryon, looked at her curiously until she introduced herself as Ildari Melas, and his eyes lit up in recognition. She wondered how much of that recognition was from the present task, or from her recent reintroduction to House Telvanni—this mage was, coincidentally, the one people had suggested that she consider seeking out as a patron for her studies. She assumed it was a mix. Either way, he took the package she had been instructed to deliver to Cosades and set about decoding it.

“Strange,” he said after a few minutes of work. “Normally the Imperials use the carrier’s name for these codes. This should be trivial to crack. Did they change ciphers…?”

He seemed to be speaking mostly to himself, but Ildari responded anyway.

“Try Llothri instead of Melas. That’s another name the Imperials might have used.”

“Llothri…yes, that might work.” He returned his attention to his work for a brief moment, but then paused and looked back up at her with the same curiosity as before. “Any relation to Talvini Llothri?”

“I’m not actually sure, serjo,” she said. “I don’t know my family very well, other than that I have some Telvanni ancestry. So if she’s from the House, then it’s possible.”

“She’s a Master rank in the House, as it happens.” His gaze fell back on the coded package as he spoke. “Has a tower over by, uh”—he waved a hand without looking up—“somewhere in the Bay. One of those cloaked towers. She’s not the type to get too involved in the outside world these days.”

He put his quill down, scanned his decoded copy quickly, and then slipped it into his robe pocket with just enough interest on his face to make Ildari even more curious than she had been.

“Come to think of it, I don’t even know if Serjo Llothri’s still alive,” he continued as though there had been no pause. “She must be around a thousand. Last I heard about her was probably ten or so years ago, when rumors say she got into a screaming match with the Tribunal after they got her wife killed on some Buoyant Armiger mission.” He chuckled. “She’s got guts, that much I know. I doubt she’d let anything kill her, least of all age.”

“She sounds…interesting.”

“Where’d you get the name Melas, then?”

As much as Ildari wished for the conversation to return to what was in the letter, she had a feeling that it was for the best to play along.

“From my mother—my adopted mother—Faryn Melas. A friend of my birth parents. They were…well, they died when I was a baby.”

Aryon’s eyes narrowed in even more interest for just a moment, but rather than explain, he said, “I’m sorry to hear that. I think Faryn Melas studied under Llothri back in the day; I remember reading some papers they co-authored. She probably is your ancestor.” He paused, his hand floating toward the letter in his pocket, and then added, "Don’t go seeking her out, though. She likes her seclusion and all that. I’m sure she’ll come to you if she wants to connect.

“That said, you might want to consider using the name Llothri, at least when it comes to House affairs. It carries more weight than Melas. And on that note, Ildari Melas-or-Llothri, I hear you’re looking for a patron.”

[tonal-modulator]

2 and 4 for your Nerevarines

Do they trust Caius? How much?

So funny thing. I like to use a mod that lets you go through Aryon instead of Caius, though everything else is the same: you still get the package for Caius, you just take it to someone else. So Caius still exists and is still on their radar, but they're just like nope! None of them wants anything to do with him.

Do they know/feel that the Empire is using them as a pawn? What do they do about it?

I think they are all some form of "they know, but they go through with it anyway, trying to keep the Empire out of it as much as possible," but they all have their own version of it. It's also of note that all of my Nerevarines are indeed Nerevar incarnate, and the prophecies are "real," so it's not like the Empire is the sole actor in the complicated web of events.

Ildari is very aware. Her life has pretty much been dictated by Uriel trying to make this happen. She doesn't approve, but she doesn't know exactly what to do about it for a while other than go through the motions hoping to keep the Empire out of it as much as possible. When the Nerevar (et al.) memories kick in, she gains a stronger sense of purpose and understanding of what her goals need to be.

Elyna is what I like to call my most well-adjusted Nerevarine, and she approaches it with maybe the most measured response. She knows that the Empire has a hand in it, but as a loyal (albeit thoroughly Dissident) priest of the Tribunal she is also aware that it is time for a transition, and that she needs to stay very cognizant of every thread to ensure that the Empire does not really gain from the events and that Morrowind maintains cultural self-determination. For example, she becomes Archcanon on Vvardenfell and works with Gavas and Vivec to ensure a smooth transition away from the Tribunal and to the Good Daedra so that the Empire doesn't prey on the people's religious anxieties as a way to further proselytize and, you know, employ cultural genocide.

Adyn struggles a lot to understand their role in things. They're aware of the Empire's involvement but they aren't really experienced enough in politics to do anything but fulfill the prophecies and work with those around them to prevent the Empire from gaining much. They just have to hope that those around them also have the best intentions.

[crysdrawsthings]

Hey, FMK: Neloth, Talvas, and Ildari. House Telvanni🍄

Fuck-Marry-Kill/Kiss prompts, accepting more!

I must say, that I know exactly nothing about all three of these people, so answering is really hard.

I guess kill Neloth, I don't feel like being berated.

Fuck Talvas? And marry Ildari? She seems to be better dressed.

[silusvesuius]

fly high

[the-sunlit-earth]

[nerevar-quote-and-star]

Nixiel Veres: What the Dunmer in Raven Rock don't understand is that weird noises always come from the Ashlands and we just ignore it. If you go out to investigate and get got, that's on you. Ignore it and go back to sleep like a rational person.

Talvas Fathryon: Master Neloth once told me not to be scared of noises in the wastes because if something was going to kill me, I'd never hear it coming. I'm fine now, but my predecessor was apparently too scared to leave the tower.

[kettlequills]

ildari should get to fucjin eat neloth and take over tel mithryn with her ash warriors. no no neloth's staff should realise she's alive and then go knock on the door and ask if she has any jobs for hiring because they're tired of working for neloth and the risk of death is, let's face it, just as high. the brave adventures of master neloth trying to find somebody in solstheim who can brew tea and put up with his awful personality

[vidvana]

A power-mad ancient wizard with dubious morals and a smug, self-seeking witch of an apprentice.

What possibly could go wrong? :3

___________________

But I secretly do hope that in one of the parallel universes nothing wrong has ever happened and they live happily together. 🥺

[dovakiind]

Ildari Sarothrill - Skyrim

Sketch request from @onionloverboy

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This one took a bit, I hurt my wrist bowling a bit ago so its been a little painful drawing recently. I wanted to keep at this sketch tho so here she is! I definetly need to keep practicing mer, their eye angle is hard to nail.

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If you want to request a TES sketch, check out my pinned post!

[oxalisvtesblog]

Ildari's journal

"I'm still weak from Neloth's betrayal. He promised me power and glory. He failed to mention the constant pain. And the voices. By the three, I would do anything to not hear the voices."

"When my strength returns, I will have my vengeance upon my former master. I can feel the power of the heart stone beating inside me. I need to find a way to tap into its power. Then he shall pay in blood and fire and ash."

"I can't attack Neloth directly, he's too powerful. But I can make his life uncomfortable. I've killed his steward. I've withered his home. Maybe I should poison his precious tea."

[madam-whim]

for your character meme: ildari sarothril, faralda, and elisif the fair! (you needn't do all three if you don't want!)

Ohhh nice choice of characters!

Ildari

First impression: I found her to be an annoyance and didn't have a solid opinion on her, but I did think she was taking things one step too far, and murdering innocent people because of her desire for revenge and for no really understandable reason made me dislike her.

Impression now: I've come to dislike Neloth a lot more over the years, and I feel like now, I can understand Ildari a little better. She trusted that man, and he didn't care what happened to her. If someone who I looked up to and who was supposed to teach me treated me as nothing more than an experiment, I would snap too.

Favorite moment: Sadly, I don't have one as she gets so little actual screen time.

Story idea: The Dragonborn, who is also mad at Neloth after being experimented on and experiencing severe side effects, teams up with Ildari to mess that old man up.

Unpopular opinion: idk if this counts as unpopular, but the player should have been given the option to actually talk to her instead of just being able to read some journals.

Favorite relationship: We don't know of any outside the one between her and Neloth so... I can't really answer this.

Favorite headcanon: I like to think that she idolized Neloth a great deal, and she was young and naive enough to believe that he cared about her, and that's what really makes her so angry - not that he got her "killed", but that he didn't care.

Faralda

First impression: Lady ffs it's cold out here and you expect me to summon an atronach here when I have about 120 points in magicka?! No, but for real... she seemed pretty high and mighty at first.

Impression now: Still a bit high and mighty, but her heart is in the right place.

Favorite moment: When she rushes to protect Winterhold after Ancano messed with the Eye without hesitation.

Story idea: Her finally getting fed up with Nirya's shenanigans and deciding to do something about it.

Unpopular opinion: I... really don't have one?

Favorite relationship: Faralda and Mirabelle.

Favorite headcanon: I firmly beliebe that she has a mischievous streak that she never allows herself to show. But she has probably pranked Ancano once or twice, only nobody ever found out it was her.

Elisif

First impression: Sweet, very young and naive, but I always saw her as brave.

Impression now: She cares deeply for her people, and she's got so much potential. It annoys me how much the people she relies on belittle her - Falk Firebeard most of all, although I suppose he kind of means well. How the hell is she meant to become High Queen when nobody believes she can actually do the job?

Favorite moment: The moment she trusts the player with the task of getting Torygg's war horn to a Talos shrine. She has to know she's taking a huge risk, and she's doing it anyway because she feels like it's what her husband would have wanted.

Idea for a story: I don't know how yet, but one day I want to write a story in which there's a scene where Ulfric Stormcloak thinks "Oh fuck, she's frighteningly competent now." I have no idea how to get there, but one day I will.

Unpopular opinion: She is a lot smarter than people give her credit for. Her ideas and her orders are not stupid, she simply doesn't have the knowledge she needs to make informed decisions because Falk and Tullius shelter her to the point where she has no idea what is going on in her own hold. And I hate that it appears like she's slowly losing confidence with every dismissed idea, with every time Falk talks over her.

Favorite relationship: Elisif and Sybille Stentor. I feel like Sybille's the only one in that court who doesn't actively look down on Elisif.

Favorite headcanon: Believe it or not, I currently can't think of one :(

[sasquach-scratches]

Yeesh I forgot how bonkers the Heartstone lore from the Dragonborn DLC was.  I love how it ended up taking a backseat to Mora’s pathological need to categorize and store away something Yet Again lol

Also I forgot that Neloth mentions that creating a Briarheart warrior takes threading their spiritual thread three times, which brings to mind the Breton’s 3-pointed knotwork design they’re associated with in ESO.  Wonder if there’s any relation given the Bretons of High Isle associate it with the 3 druid groups of the Systres.

[alexanderdragonborn]

Anara and Ildari Sorathril

Ildari: Anara?

Anara: Hmm?

Ildari: I'm sorry. I know you were eager to work with him.

Anara: I'm not upset. Besides, there are other members as well. I'm not giving up.

Ildari: I know that. Though I think you should try again later.

Anara: What do you mean?

Ildari: I know House Telvanni is your dream. I know you'll make it someday, but you're still young. Maybe you should travel. See the world for yourself. I heard there was a college in Winterhold

Anara: Leaving home? To the freezing cold in Skyrim?

Ildari: *chuckles*

Anara: You really think I should wait?

Ildari: I'd say it would be a good idea. Practice your magic, learn new skills, maybe make a few friends? Get your head out of the books once in a while

Anara: I'm not that obsessed with books.

Ildari: Oh please, you have a library that could rival Hermeaus Mora himself.

Anara:...Fair enough. But wouldn't it be strange to the other Dunmer? I won't be a member of a House?

Ildari: True, but you know what? Who cares what others think of you. I know that someday you'll make a name for yourself that could rival your enemies

Anara: *scoffs* when I make enemies. You know what? You're right. I'll need to pack my things, and I'll head on out. Thanks, Ildari! *runs off*

Ildari: *chuckles* That's my sister.

[the-sunlit-earth]

crossover of Skyrim + Spirited Away :) Talvas and Haku share the same voice actor, so I drew my fav dunmer as a dragon 🐉.. but it turned into a whole project, so here's the rest of the Tel Mithryn crew, too ^^

Talvas Fathryon / Haku as sweet adorable apprentice   |   Neloth / Yubaba as antagonist enchanter who's in charge   |   Ildari Sarothril / Zeniba as enchanter's enemy   |   Miraak / No-Face as oblivious masked weirdo who hangs around   |   Elynea Mothren / Lin as beloved friend and motherly figure   |   Ulves Romoran / Kamaji as guy who slaves over a hot stove all day   |   my cute Breton OC as Chihiro :)