#oc: ursula dain

[reachfolk]

thinkin bout kaisa again <3

[reachfolk]

1, 6, 13, and 16 for Alexi and Ursula and shoot anyone else you wanna answer for

💛 from @korvanjund

thank you sm for the ask darlin!! i decided to also include my little haglet ophelia since i've been adding more to her storyline today, and it's about time i start talking more about my other character lol.

who are they closest to? how did they meet and what do they like to do together?

i already answered this for alexi here!

ursula: she's obviously very close with her wife, bothela. like i said in her chara sheet, the two met when markarth was under reach control and they worked together as healers. they spend most of their day running the hag's cure together and training their apprentice. when they aren't doing that, they mostly focus on their own little projects and research; bothela seems to somehow never tire of alchemy even long after the shop closes, and ursula likes to tinker around with dwemer texts and tech to see what she can find out. then they get back together and discuss whatever interesting things they learned. she's also super close to her niece and nephew! isobel doesn't love having the kids spend time with her, but the few times they are together, they love hearing all her stories from when she was in the uprising and just stories of the reach in general.

ophelia: she'd literally lay down her life for every single person in her coven dklfjskdj, she's very dedicated to them!! but of course, she's closest to her mother, helle. helle was in the forsworn uprising, and she had ophelia not long after markarth was secured. after it all fell apart, she raised filly to continue fighting for the reach, but the rebellion was never the same after madanach was imprisoned. eventually, the two (along with some of ophelia's closest friends from the forsworn) disbanded and formed an independent coven. ophelia supported her mother through the ritual to become a hagraven matriarch, and she's gladly willing to take on the same burden should anything happen to helle. helle taught ophelia a LOT about everything she knows about magic, and she's working on honing her skills as a seer to better guide the coven. although helle is the matriarch, her daughter is her right hand man of sorts and is just as responsible for everything they do. she runs around the coven doing just about anything that needs doing to help the members, whether it's hunting with hypatia, babysitting honey while beatrice is busy, or assisting esmeralda in her expeditions to old ruins.

on an average day, what can they be found doing after dinner?

alexandria: the short answer is: way too much !! the long answer: girlie has the worst case of insomnia ever and she compensates for that by using Way Too Many stamina potions, so it's usually her companions that even have to remind her to stop for dinner at all. even after dinner, she knows she wouldn't be able to sleep unless she majorly tires herself out, so she likes to run around doing more and more stuff. if her companions are too worn out from the day to do that, she likes to restock their potion supply or practice her spells. if after that she still can't quite fall asleep, she'll usually go on a late night hunting trip. there have been a few times when the local blacksmith tries to open shop and just finds her tanning leather at their station lol

ursula: she's quite the scholar, especially when it comes to the history of the reach! this goes beyond just the reachfolk; she also studies the history of the dwarves in the reach, the dragon cult, etc. she's published a few books covering the subjects, and is considered a leading expert on the matter. if she's not having a chill evening with her wife, she likes to continue working on those books, whether she's writing for them or just doing some research. she makes occasional visits to isobel's family, as the kids absolutely adore her, but those are few and far between.

ophelia: she's a little like alexi in that she does way more than anyone has any business doing kdsjfhd. she doesn't have the same ailment of course, but she wants to take off the pressures of managing the coven from her mother's shoulds, at least as best as she can. by the time they finish dinner, she's already thinking about where to go hunting for the next day's meal. she prays at the shrines to the old gods, who often send her visions to guide her. she checks in on each of the members and their individual duties and their work. she'll sometimes read honey a story before bed or sing her to sleep when her mother is away. she takes care of helle when she's in pain (i hc that the hagraven transformation can be pretty painful and draining, not unlike the briarheart transformation). when she does have a moment to relax, she likes to spend it by the river, soaking her feet and watching the stars.

what special abilities or talents do they possess? did they develop through training or were they born with them?

alexandria: she's always had a knack for alchemy, like i said in the other post! it was why her tutor encouraged her to apprentice at the hag's cure, where she built on that natural talent with a lot of hard work. despite her young age (around 22-27 depending on her point in the story), she's practically a master alchemist already. she'll insist she's not a master—"well i don't think anyone could ever know everything there is to know about alchemy. it's an evolving discipline and—" she's the worst lol. but the point is, she's one of the best ones you'll find around!! she's not an expert in things like sword fighting or marksmanship, but she makes up for it with her potions and poisons, making her a formidable foe.

ursula: she's pretty well rounded i think, having been a fighter and a healer for much of her life. she's also fairly good at alchemy herself. a lot of those things weren't really inborn, but she had a lot of great guidance from the other people that were part of the uprising. since it was in the works for many years, and ursula joined in during the early stages of its planning, she had a lot of time to hone her skills. by the time of the main story with lex, she's pretty much a master at restoration magic in particular, as that's the one she's used most in the 30 years since the city was reconquered by the nords. when the temple of dibella is closed, she's looked to as the town's primary healer.

ophelia: like i said before, she's a seer. it was always an inborn gift she's had, but her training with her mother as well as her devout worship of the old gods give her visions a significant boost. she's most devout to vaermina, who shows her visions of omens and looming threats to both her and her people in her dreams. she's actually the one that told alexandria to go to helgen, because she got a vision of what was going to happen and knew alexi was central to it. her visions can sometimes come in the form of metaphors rather than exact tellings of what'll happen, so she thought that alexi being personified as a dragon in these visions was some odd metaphor, as was helgen being burnt to the ground. needless to say, she later realized those visions were more literal than initially thought lol

how do they like their baths/showers? hot/cold, long/short?

alexandria: like absolutely scorching lol. when she bathes, she often uses a flames spell to get the water damn near boiling before she hops in. when it's revealed that she's the dragonborn, she makes a lot of jokes that it's because of her dragon blood, but tbh she's just Like That.

ursula: warm, but not as much as lex. she's still spry and healthy, but she is Old (tm), so she finds a warm bath nice and soothing, yk? especially since most of her work is on her feet.

ophelia: cold or lukewarm at best. she loves bathing in the karth river, and she appreciates it regardless of the weather. the karth is practically sacred to the reachfolk, and she finds the embrace of the cold water bracing and energizing! lord knows she needs that considering how much is on her plate.

[reachfolk]

1, 15, and 17 for both your oc's 😊

tysm for the ask sweetie!! it was so fun to write ♥ oh and fyi, bothela is actually a vanilla npc, she's just not a major one. she runs the hag's cure in markarth. ursula is my reachwoman oc (the auntie of my main girl, alexandria) and bothela's wife.

what’s their love language?

quality time is their shared one! they literally are always together. they work together and spend all their free time together. they look after muiri and train her together, even though it ends with them bickering over the right way to work with a certain ingredient. they also used to train alexandria when she was still in markarth. a lot of the community work they do (usually helping the people in the warrens), they do together. but bothela is also very much an acts of service person and tries to make her partner's life easier however she can. ursula, on the other hand, loves physical touch!! she loves kissing bothela's hands especially, bc they're very scarred from the years of working with alchemical tools and she just thinks it's amazing how much good she's done with those hands. it's very mushy, and bothela will act like she hates it every time, and then ursula whines like, "why can't you be more romantic!! you're breaking my heart!!" these women have been together for over 30 years i can't stand them.

who’s the first one up in a morning?

the old ladies would make their apprentice muiri open the shop lmao, but i think they both wake up around the same time. over the decades they've spent together they kinda ended up sticking to the same schedule and got used to waking up and going to bed around the same time. like if one of them isn't in bed, the other can't sleep because they got so used to falling asleep together. they're just very synced. but if one of them does wake up earlier, it's usually bothela. she'd let ursula rest, make her some breakfast, and take care of the shop until she gets up. then she'd give ursula shit for sleeping in as if she didn't 100% let her lmao.

who is the better singer?

they both insist it's them, and they'd force their nieces and nephews to vote lmao. it's ridiculous. but fr, they're pretty average, but it's mostly ursula that sings around the shop. bothela likes to focus really hard on what she's doing, so her wife's singing is a really pleasant background music to her. it makes the place feel alive, yk? ursula will usually end up singing old cheesy love songs and impromptu serenades her wife, taking her away from her work and spinning her around in circles to dance. bothela tells her to stay on track but she couldn't wipe the smile from her face if she tried.

[reachfolk]

8, 11, and 12 for Ursula and Bothela then!!! And if you wanna pick a random ship for Alexi to answer them for go for it!!

💛 from @korvanjund

aaa thank you sm for the ask!! bothela and ursula are my emotional support lesbian moms so i'm glad to have an excuse to rave about them more lol <3 for lexi, i decided to just go for the little team i've got for her in my current wip, which is her, lucien, inigo, and vilja !! it's the one i've been posting some promos for, so i'll be posting more about them later this month.

who shows affection through touch?

bothela & ursula: definitely ursula !! growing up, she and her sister were extremely close and very touchy and physically affectionate. even though the sisters grew apart over the years, i think ursula still has that streak where she loves being as close as possible to the people she loves. her favorite thing hugging bothela from behind while she's working at the alchemy lab and giving her a kiss on the cheek. bothela would call her out for being a distraction, but she secretly loves it too lol. they've got that old married couple banter. "stop doing that, this is a sensitive mixture!" / "what? i just wanted to remind you to dilute the ash hopper jelly more. it's not watery enough." / "it's perfectly fine." / "you know, this is why my health potions are better than yours." / "why you-! you're fired." meanwhile muiri is trying to figure out how this relationship lasted 30+ years dkdflkhsd

lexi's polycule: oohh my god it's alexi by FAR. i mean, vilja is also very affectionate too, but alexi will be all over whoever is in her vicinity. she's her mother's daughter in that regard and it almost confuses people who aren't used to affection cause she's so casual with it. she will find a way to cuddle in any position--by lifting their arm and putting it around her, or sitting in their lap, or hugging them from behind. will not go an hour without giving someone a kiss on the cheek. it makes vilja so happy and she returns it enthusiastically. inigo sometimes teases her for it, but he lets her get comfortable and loves it all the same. lucien gets very flustered by it, because he's not exactly used to having a woman all over him like this, and definitely not one so scantily dressed (forsworn armor and whatnot). he gets used to it eventually, but no matter how long it's been since they've gotten together, he still ends up blushing a little.

how do they comfort each other?

bothela & ursula: a lot of the time their way of comforting can be seen as a little harsh i think? it's part of how they were raised as reachwomen; they don't sugarcoat anything and tend to focus on practical solutions to problems. they aren't insensitive by any means of course, and they won't dismiss the other's feelings, but they also won't let them wallow in it and make themselves feel worse. so when bothela is having a rough time because of her nephew being in the mine, ursula would tell her there's nothing left to do but take care of each other and their other loved ones as best they can. when ursula is anxious about her niece alexi going off to do gods-know-what, bothela assures her that no matter what, alexi's choices are her own and ursula gave her the self-assuredness to make them for herself. they often opt to distract the other from their worries by drawing their attention to their work or to something pleasant and relaxing. walks along the karth river are their go-to.

lexi's polycule: alexandria is more gentle with her words than her aunties, seeing as she spent much of her childhood acting as a peacekeeper between her family. she's really sensitive to people's moods and feelings, and she's very emotionally supportive, but she feels bad that she doesn't always have the wisdom to give advice on what to do. lucien is a great listener as well, and he's really great to talk to when one of them is feeling confused and torn over something because he's really good at asking the right questions and helping to make sense of what they're feeling. he also tends to offer rational solutions and offer help however he can. vilja is super understanding and always has a shoulder to cry on, but i think she's also someone who's able to lift someone's spirits when they're down. she's great if you need a distraction or change of pace. there's a little scene in my fic where she helps alexi down from a panic attack by singing her favorite song and giving her a hand to grasp to ground herself. lastly, inigo's been through hell and back, and so he's very sympathetic and gives really great advice on how to cope with a lot of difficult things, especially grief and guilt. he's just a warm person and a comforting presence. and like vilja, he can help lift someone's spirits just by his sense of humor! he can get someone laughing even if they're having the worst day of their life.

what’s an ideal evening for them?

bothela & ursula: i actually think they're both very sociable, community-oriented people! their favorite memories are in group settings, surrounded by family and loved ones. usually potlucks and big family gatherings. sad as it is, those memories are long gone. much of what's left of the reachfolk perished in the markarth incident or were thrown in the mines (including bothela's family). it left ursula and her sister constantly at odds, and it tore up the community they had grown to love. they do still have a few people left that they love spending time with; namely robin, marceline, and muiri (and alexi before she left of course). they never had kids of their own, but they took on a very parental role with muiri, and they treat her like family. and of course, ursula loves her nieces and nephew with all her heart. they'd usually invite the kids out to a picnic overlooking the karth river. ursula would make her famous juniper berry pie, and bothela makes a great salmon stew which is a classic reach dish.

lexi's polycule: kinda different things for all of them! with lucien, alexandria and he are both absolute nerds, and they often spend hours on end discussing their research (their interests mostly overlap in history, but lucien learned a lot about alchemy from her and she learned a lot about philosophy from him). basically, study dates!! with vilja, i think she enjoys a calm evening. she loves walking along the coastlines and looking for pearls, and alexi loses her mind when finding new ingredients, so it's a pleasant way to spend time for both of them. with inigo, i think he's got the most adventurous spirit of the bunch, and he always brings it out in lexi! she's most fond of nordic ruins (inigo's worst nightmare lol), but they find their common ground in smashing giant spiders !! lexi insists they're cute in their own way, which pretty much always leads to playful bickering between the pair, but they have fun regardless (and lexi gets tons of ingredients, which is like christmas for her)

[reachfolk]

okay, so i figured i'm gonna put off making a compilation of all my ocs so long as i keep fussing over how to format it right and everything, so here's just a brain dump of all my oc's, organized as reasonably as i could muster! be warned that i truly with all my heart couldn't be bothered to study naming conventions for these different races and just went with my gut on what sounded fun. also, all these characters are perpetually in development and subject to change based on whatever the hell i wanna do 🧚🏻‍♀️✨💖

alexandria silver-blood is my main oc and the dragonborn in my playthrough. a half-nord, half-reachwoman, she grew up in markarth where she had a... less than normal upbringing. her mother isobel dain had married into the silver-blood family, so alexi's existence as a whole was seen as some sort of scandal. while she did, for all intents and purposes, grow up living in the lap of luxury, it also came at the cost of sacrificing the connection she had with her heritage as a reachwoman. her mother often insisted she simply push through the hardship and continue on the path she'd carved out for her children, whereas her aunt ursula dain remained true to their roots and had no issues against teaching alexandria about the history, traditions, and magicks of the reachfolk. eventually, alexi grew tired of the paranoia that haunted her as she lived with her parents and struck out on her own. running off to join a small coven in the reach, she proceeded to reconnect with her heritage.

my writing for alexandria could include two versions: one in which she's the dragonborn and one in which she's a follower to a generic ldb stand-in.

alexandria's family, excluding her uncles thonar and thongvor, are:

isobel silver-blood: alexi's mother, a reachwoman. she grew up in karthwasten, and was one of the few survivors of ulfric's massacre. after escaping the torn up town, she made her way to markarth where her sister, ursula, was living in hopes of staying safe. unfortunately, she only walked into yet another violent conquest, as ulfric only pushed farther west and retook the city. it was there that she met branor silver-blood, who she married in an attempt to stay safe from the persecution of her people and help her sister be pardoned from cidhna mine. despite the favor, after everything they'd experienced, she and ursula both had developed very different outlooks on the oppression faced by the reachfolk that tore a rift between them. isobel was of the belief that the best choice was to assimilate into nord culture and forgo the old ways. she became a very controlling parent to her three children, leading to a lot of tension between them, but her controlling nature stems from paranoia and a genuine love for her family.

ursula dain: isobel's sister, and alexi's aunt. unlike her sister, ursula never once let go of her pride in her people and remained an active follower of the old ways, albeit in relative secrecy. when she was only 20 years of age, she left the town of karthwasten to join madanach's growing rebellion, where she served as a healer and wisewoman. when the reachfolk took markarth, ursula remained in the city where she met and began to work closely with bothela, her now-wife. after ulfric's invasion of the city, ursula was thrown in cidhna mine for several years before her sister was able to get her pardoned. since then, ursula has been running the hag's cure with bothela. she still hopes for a new forsworn uprising to return to the glory days, but for the safety of her family, she remains in place. however, she never agreed with her sister and never turned her back on the old ways. while she knew her sister was against it, she took every chance she could get to tell her nephew and nieces about the history of the reachfolk and of the old gods.

branor silver-blood: alexi's father and the oldest of the silver-blood family. unlike his brothers, he doesn't really harbor the same resentment to the forsworn, especially not after meeting isobel, who quickly captured his heart and bore for him his three children, whom he'd do anything for. despite the family tensions caused by his relationship with her, thonar and thongvor can't exactly do much about it, since the deed to the mine that keeps them in power is under his name, as the eldest sibling. they've made several unsuccessful attempts on his life and the lives of his wife and children, but the attacks could never be traced back to them. branor mostly is in charge of business ventures with the other holds, hence why he, his wife, and his children often make trips to the other hold capitals.

marceline silver-blood: alexi's younger sister and robin's twin. of the three siblings, she's the most intrigued and involved in the politics of both the reach and the whole of the empire. she's quite skilled in the art of speechcraft and often uses this to help her siblings in all manners of shenanigans (mostly fooling with the guards and their wealthy family friends across skyrim). despite her stubborn and hotheaded nature, she's learned to keep a level head even in situations that anger her deeply. although she remains quiet about it, she believes in her aunt's ideals of a reach uprising to retake their homeland. however, she has a strained history with the forsworn after the many attempts made on the lives of her and her family. she later learns those were orders that came from her uncle, and soon began to assist the forsworn in secret to rebuild the rebellion. she mostly pitched in by keying them in on crucial information of the comings and goings of the jarl, the imports and exports of the mine, the political climate of the city, and confidential information of the local government.

robin silver-blood: alexi's younger brother and marcy's twin brother. a thief at heart, robin was the sort who made a game of snatching up the valuables of just about every stuffy, rich family friend that he's ever come across. this habit of his soon spread to his sisters, who often play along with him and run their own little heists whenever they joined their parents on one of their many business trips. he's very much a robin hood type (lowkey the inspiration for his name), as he's also the most empathetic of the trio. unlike his twin, he focuses less on the large-scale intricacies of the empire and its politics, and more so on the impact on the individual people affected by it all. despite his often hot-headed personality, he's a natural leader, who often butts heads with his mother. and uncles. and the guards. and the jarl. and really, most people who seem to either accept the injustices of the reach or intend to keep them in place. much like his sisters, it took him a long while to fully join the forsworn rebellion, but once the forsworn connection to thonar was cut, he began sneaking supplies and stolen gold to help rebuild the rebellion from scratch.

the members of alexi's coven are:

helle: the matriarch (aka, the hagraven) leading the coven. a loyal and proud reachwoman, she sacrificed her humanity in order to grow stronger to defend her tribe and be a better leader for them. while she can be vicious to anyone who threatens them, she's very affectionate with her followers and gladly shares with them her wisdom as matriarch

ophelia, aka filly of the grimseer clan: helle's daughter, and the next in line to inherit the role of matriarch should anything happen to her mother. she's one of the most gifted at magic in the coven, but rather than focus on offensive spells like those in the school of destruction, ophelia uses her talents as a seer to help guide her and her coven as best she can alongside her mother.

esmeralda, or esme of the doomfang clan: born with an odd talent that allows her to associate sound with certain lights, esmeralda found herself especially drawn to the dwemer and their tonal manipulating technology. due to her uncanny ability, she was able to understand it on a deeper level than most others.

others including; hypatia, runa, beatrice, honey (descriptions tba)

other reachfolk oc's apart from the coven include: jiannah from the bear-heart clan + others tba