#probably I will first post hircine

[zuutiomi]

Lady of the Light

[ervona]

If you're still accepting questions: 2 for Tredayn, 8 and 26 for Llether, and 19 for Merry? 👀

I absolutely am, thank you! in general now if I ever post an ask game and someone wants to ask relatively later go ahead... I always love it

2. How educated is your oc? Did their parents teach them, did they have a tutor or were they apprenticed to a master, or did they attend a university? What university? What are they educated in? How long did their education take? (Learned skills like blacksmithing count here too!)

a very good question for the dayn... I'm still a bit undecided on his earliest years but as the son of nobles and even a duke, he would have gotten the best education one could buy in Morrowind. well, what happened in practice is he probably couldn't follow through with it, because of the interesting decade he was born in. he does receive something, and an education at the College of Winterhold when he's older... he was meant to specialize in alteration and be a mender, very menial work for a mage, he turned out an archivist at the college itself. I think it would help him to take care of his books, so maybe that's what his background is. I think of him as an eclectic mage but not an excellent one. his education continues on and on :)

26. How helpful is your oc, and why? Are they helpful or kind even during difficult situations? Are they pragmatic, or do they have a hero syndrome?

8. for Llether answered here and for this one, I think it depends on what point in his life we're talking about and how his mood swings. now in theory and mostly in practice, he really likes helping people, but it tires him out easily to do it in all the ways he attempts to. he's not the mer who can go into a cave full of monsters and fetch your family sword, it's not something that touches his world in the first place. but he's surrounded by injustice and corruption that he was determined to mend from within from back when he was younger, less disillusioned. today and ever, he would give money and food to the poor of the city but he wishes to help them on a legislative level too. he is pragmatic in the regard that he would often keep his head down and do what was the least problem at the time. he's not proud of it but at the same time acknowledges that someone's got to do it

19. If your oc is a werebeast, how much control do they have over their transformations? Have they ever lost control? What happened? If not, why do they have such strong control? Does Hircine ever call on them, and do they answer?

I planned her to be very in control of herself as a werebear because she's been one since she was born, but it sort of takes the edge off the frightening experience that is being a werebeast. and it is a bit frightening for her. she turns with the full moon and it's not like an instant "see the moon and bam, werewolf" thing because applying that immediately causes problems, instead the moon's presence is something that pushes her over the edge over time and her turning could be called semi-voluntary. she's in an altered sort of state as a werebear, usually spending that time running across Skyrim on her job or hanging out with her family and friends who watch her. she's ended up in trouble on occasion without them. she hates Hircine so ultimately she wants to break free from him, even if she fears losing something deeply tied to her as being a werebear... it's complicated

[umbracirrus]

Hi Meg! I've been thinking about you a lot today and thought I'd send along some questions from the ask game to try and cheer you up <3 1, 3, 4, 7, 16, and 21 please! <3

Thank you, that means a lot 💛

It's been a nice distraction thinking about my writing and fics!! And boy is this long-

1. What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

I tried to write according to a theme - it isn't something I've really done before, I've written and thought of themes which applied retrospectively but not actually written with a theme in mind from the start. It was quite hard, but I think it worked out well for both things which I wrote.

The end results were Purity, based on the quest of the same name with one of my dragonborn, Thea, and Vilkas with a focus on the struggle he was going through at Hircine's whim, as well as a little piece based on Miraak's experience of looking up at the night sky of Tamriel after being freed from Apocrypha.

As for whether I do it again... it would probably depend on themes, if anything stirs up some sort of inspiration.

3. What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer?

That having a network of people to talk to about my fics, to bounce ideas off and do the same in kind is so incredibly invigorating for me. In particular, things that WIP Wednesdays have been a huge part of this and ohhhh my god, I wish I had something like this in the past when I used to post fanfic pre-2020.

4. What piece of media inspired you the most?

I think it would be cheating if I were to say Skyrim/Elder Scrolls, so ignoring those specifically... I would honestly have to say the fanfictions which I read for the fandom. Before I started writing The Perfect Storm, even before I made my account on here, I spent many nights reading Skyrim fanfictions. Admittedly, a vast majority were smutty, but the ones which made me go 'you know, I want to do some writing based on Skyrim' were the ones which I read that weren't just pure filth but had such wonderfully crafted and nuanced plots where sex wasn't just there for the sake of it but instead enhanced the fic as a whole.

I honestly wish I could find a novel which could enrapture me in the way in which those fanfictions did, where I would be in the perpetual state of 'oh, just one more chapter then I'll sleep' until I finished the fic in the early hours of the morning.

7. What character(s) captured your heart?

Balgruuf. Need I say more?

Ahh, there's actually quite a few - though honestly even my own dear dragonborn Elyse holds a piece of my heart. She's bears a fragment of me within her, as my first character for Skyrim who I began to think more in-depth about as opposed to just being a character that I'm playing as. And it's been a downward spiral from there. So many OCs. But Elyse was the first.

21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Ohhhh, this is hard - I have quite a few! So I'll list my top five I think :)

I feel that quite a few of them need context too, so it's a bit more than dialogue too. And it'll be under a read more just to save people's dashboards!

1 -

“You know, I was so proud of you when you said that you wanted to free yourself from the beastblood, Vilkas,” she began, sounding just as proud as she forced on a smile, its hesitance and shakiness as clear as day. “You’ve let yourself suffer for so long, and the least that you deserve is a chance to live without fear of what you can become. And do you want to know why? It’s because you are Vilkas, you are a brave, honourable Companion - one of the strongest people that I know - and you are going to free yourself from this curse and return to Jorrvaskr with me or so help me, I will- I… I will…”

- Thea addressing Vilkas in the aforementioned fic, Purity

2 -

"I see that you received my gift. Danica mentioned when she updated me on your condition that you would need to keep yourself warm after leaving her care, and Lydia said that your warmer clothes were not in the city, so…" he stated, nodding towards the woollen garment. Her eyes widened in surprise at that revelation, she had half been expecting the scarf to have been something that Danica had given to her to be charitable, not for it to have been a gift from the Jarl himself. She brought her hand up to it, and nodded. "I have… thank you. I didn’t know that it was from you."

- Balgruuf talking about a scarf which he got for Elyse ahhhhhh these two-!!!! in chapter 4 of The Perfect Storm

3 -

"You mean that you aren’t the people that the Jarl was sending? But aren’t you the Jarl’s..." He looked as though he didn’t want to finish his sentence as he finally let go of Elyse. A frown settled on Elyse’s face. "Thane?" "Th-Thane...? Yes, yes, uh... Thane...” He trailed off, a hint of uncertainty still in his voice, followed by a shake of his head and a quick but quiet mumble of “That was the word I was looking for..." under his breath.

- Sabjorn not-so-subtly implying that he thinks Elyse is in a relationship with Balgruuf or has at the very least heard rumours of such in chapter 15 of The Perfect Storm

4 -

"Hope you don't mind Brynjolf here joining us, Wynne. If we're talking business or pleasure tonight, he's definitely someone you want around." She pulled a dagger out of her sleeve as her associate took a seat before she scowled as she pulled her cowl down. That was followed by her pointing it in his direction. "My name is Maewynne, Delvin. Not Mae, not Wynne, Maewynne. All one word," she muttered, before looking at the stranger. She was about to ask this Brynjolf whether he was part of the Thieves Guild too, but when she saw the way that he was looking at her blade, as though he was appraising it, she felt that the question was unnecessary. His keen eyes earlier, and his ability to identify something of value seemed to be enough of a giveaway. Instead, she decided to ask something else. "What do you think of my dagger?" "That is certainly an interesting way to introduce yourself, lass."

- An excerpt for a currently unpublished but in the works fic based around one of my Dark Brotherhood characters, Maewynne, as she infiltrates the Thieves Guild on behalf of a former guild member....

5 -

"You heard the news? I've got to say, I feel sorry for those poor bastards up north," he hummed as he dried the inside of a tankard with a cloth, the head of the man he was addressing finally lifting up. "On top of war breaking out, apparently the Empire have requested that borders in and out of Skyrim be closed. Don’t know how long for, either. Imagine being stuck in that icy shithole for the foreseeable future...” The customer laughed loudly at the comments, clearly drunk, with his hand slamming down on the polished wood. “As opposed to this icy shithole? Bruma ain’t much better, what, with all those elves passing through, skulkin’ round that abandoned temple..." He then paused, and let out a puzzled noise. "Wait a minute… ain't most of your business from when those Skyrim folk pass through?” "As I said – I feel sorry for 'em."

- The innkeeper of the Jerall View Inn and one of his customers in the first chapter of Seeking the Sun, prompting a very tired Elyse to cross the border and get caught up in that Imperial ambush, same as-

[the-storytellers-seer]

Hi!!!!

A random ask for you regarding your freshly posted revision! :D I'm so excited to read what you've got. This is gonna be amazing! 🤩

Let's do a bit of a what-if situation. How much would this story have changed if your LDB never did team up with Miraak? How would it affect her story? What about Teldryn's? And also, what about Miraak? :o

Hi! Wow, that's a really great question!

Well, there'd be a few more things to decide, first being if she doesn't team up with Miraak, does she kill him?

Probably not. Sarea's not a good fighter and at that point in the story, she's never killed a living person. Additionally, Miraak's far more powerful than she is and she wouldn't stand a chance in a fair fight with him.

So, in this what-if scenario we have going, she'd probably realize that: 1. She can't fight him 2. She can't persuade him to stop 3. Nothing can be gained from pursuing it further AT THIS TIME

The final point being very important because Solstheim is still under attack. She needs more help. She and Teldryn would go back to Skyrim and attempt to retrieve the horn, find it missing, do the whole meet Delphine jazz and then go back to the Greybeards and inform them of Miraak. But of course, they're not going to do anything.

Sarea would demand to talk to the mysterious leader of the Greybeards and Paarthurnax would be very interested, but largely unable to help. Although, I imagine he'd point Sarea and Teldryn in the direction of the Companions because perhaps they could help directly or they could at least train her.

Now we have this very important side quest on top of the looming threat of Alduin, Delphine bugging Sarea about spying on the Altmer, and increasing numbers of dragons that Sarea and Teldryn are being asked to take care of because they're trying to get in good with the Companions.

But would Sarea become a werewolf? That's a tough question. She wouldn't want to, but in this story, she needs the power, but she'd resent the form because she'd feel out of control.

Meanwhile, Teldryn is doing his best to help a fellow victim of prophecy. But watching Sarea sell her soul to Hircine is...upsetting. And he leaves.

Miraak, meanwhile is just stewing in his bitterness and anger. When Sarea comes back to face him, I like the idea of him tricking her into helping him escape, but then once he's free (the big question being if Hermaeus Mora LET him go or not) he defeats Sarea, but doesn't kill her. She's a dragonborn and he feels like it would be a waste to kill her.

And then we'd go full Miraak villain arc as he goes up against Alduin, but in this case, Miraak builds himself an army.

Meanwhile Teldryn hears some of what's gone done, but people are hailing Miraak as their hero and Sarea is looking awfully compelled at Miraak's side.

Teldryn disguises himself to join Miraak's army.

He remains under cover because it's better to let Miraak and Alduin duke it out and then challenge the winner than take on BOTH enemies at once.

Miraak is able to lure Alduin onto a field of battle without going to Sovngarde. They fight and Miraak wins.

Teldryn frees Sarea and they have to escape, because they can't face Miraak and his army.

The Empire has a bigger army than the Stormcloaks, so Sarea and Teldryn throw their lot in with the Dominion and the Empire for a final battle against Miraak.

The battle is huge, there's much loss, but finally Sarea and Teldryn defeat Miraak.

But the win leaves a bitter taste, because in their victory, they've given the Dominion far more power in Skyrim.

And that's where the story would end. Sarea and Teldryn are together, they've survived, they've defeated Miraak, but they've helped the Dominion gain power.

After that, I'd have to explore the ramifications of that choice, but that'd be a whole new story.

Well, I didn't mean to roughly outline a whole new story, especially one that I don't intend on writing, but it was fun! Giving Miraak a full villain arc would be interesting because even as a villain, he's not expressly evil. He wants to get free of the Daedric Prince who tricked him, he wants to defeat Alduin, he thinks he'd be a better ruler. But for him the ends justify the means. Forcefully conscripting people into his army is fine to him, because it's for the greater good.

Meanwhile Teldryn has to deal with his past as he watches Sarea make choices he wholly disagrees with in order to gain the power to defeat their enemies and it feels too similar. Can Teldryn forgive his younger self for making those choices that he felt he had to make to fulfill his prophecy?

And finally, Sarea feels like she doesn't have much agency in this story. And to a certain extent, that would be her character arc. Does she have to parcel herself out for the power to defeat Miraak and Alduin? Is it better to parcel herself out than use others as Miraak does? How can she see herself as more than just the prophesied Last Dragonborn. Okay, the arc is on the weaker side and I'd need to flesh it out.

Wow, alright! I hope that answer is sufficient! Honestly, kinda got a brainworm from it and if I didn't already have a bunch of stories planned, I'd go at it. Maybe after I finish the Tales from Tamriel series, I'll write it with a different LDB!

[danse-or-farkas]

TESFEST22 Day 1: Dreams

June 11th – Dreams / Bees

I lied, I had something after all! I remembered a WIP unopened for literally years that could be cleaned up enough to be postable. Its just the first chapter of something bigger that I might never finish but I can at least say I did this much. It works as an odd little standalone, a chance encounter between two characters who have never even heard of each other.

Also posted to AO3. Just slightly over 3000 words.

Farkas arrived at the hall just as the sun was starting to set, finding it oddly empty. He had no intention of doing anything other than sleep, but made the choice to at least check in with his brother and Aela before doing so.

The city was currently sat under a lingering storm, circling back and forth for weeks unable to settle. It was thick with Red Mountain ash carried far too far from Morrowind. He didn't much like it, the hair on his arms standing on end and the fur inside stood hackles raised.

Vilkas had seen these storms before on his travels, had described them himself upon his return. The air tasting like magicka and something that might have been either meat or metal, heavy and insistent against senses made sharp by the gifts of Hircine.

Athis had once recounted the history of the ash storms and their darker cousin the blight storm, Vilkas dutifully listening and Farkas entertaining a mug of good mead instead. He almost regretted it now. Almost. Vilkas was the sort to have his eyes on the past, Farkas found the present more than enough for him to care about.

The job had been less than completely successful, the bounty recovered alive but not as intact as had been requested. The captain of the guard had insisted they be brought in for interrogation, and the bandit had insisted considerably more that he would be never be taken in so long as he had hands to hold his axe. Farkas found a compromise, much to the sheer horror of the guard and the temple healers that had to bandage and salve two bleeding stumps. Farkas had at least kept the axe, along with a set of hands just in case they could be reattached. They could not. He didn't consider it a great loss. The bandit probably did.

The fire was lit, the doors unlocked, so they were not all away on duties.

He found near the whole guild assembled in the training yard, forming a half circle. All but Kodlak, and that alone was never a good omen. His absence always led to chaos.

The newest recruit was cheering, blood pouring from their nose and arms raised in the air. Athis was on the floor, the bruise around his eye already ugly and blotchy. If his eyes were not already a deep red at least one would most certainly have been now.

“Who’s next?” They bellowed, turning a swaggering full circle and issuing the challenge to all assembled.

Aela nudged Vilkas, motioning over her shoulder with just her eyes. Farkas didn't have time to duck away, his scent had caught on the wind and tipped her off to his arrival.

“I volunteer my brother.” Vilkas looked to him, a raised eyebrow and a look daring him to refuse.

Farkas swore under his breath as the crowd collectively turned. Now that his honour was at stake he had no choice, and certainly Vilkas and Aela both knew it.

Geir grinned like a fool, kicking his heel into the dust and licking his lip expectantly. Newest of the guild but with the arrogance of a seasoned Circle veteran, carrying himself like he had some great destiny to fulfil.

“I’ll give it a try.” He shrugged his travel pack off and entered the arena.

“Don’t feel too bad when I beat you down, I know how that Nord pride can get.” They were a Nord too, pale in skin, hair and eye, but their accent had a Colovian Imperial lilt to it that betrayed their birth outside Skyrim.

Farkas took his place a handful of steps apart from him, raised his sword and shifted his feet to a more defensive posture. He knew that his opponent preferred a much heavier offensive style with little regard to defence, Skjor many times calling it ‘undisciplined’ at its best.

The new recruit just flashed him a sharp smile and raised his own sword with a flourish, shooting a proud smirk to the assembled Companions.

Vilkas and Aela both rolled their eyes at him, hoping that Farkas would strike the whelp and his ego back down.

Geir struck first, Farkas shifting back with a feint before lashing out and narrowly missing.

There was another strike, the angle too high and easily deflected away by Farkas.

The pattern was easy and familiar to him, his opponent the sort to tire himself out too quickly to be a true threat.

The next strike was born of frustration, too much weight behind it. With the opportunity dragged open by his mistake Farkas caught him with the pommel of his sword right above the arch of his eyebrow, the wound flowing freely and quickly.

Geir staggered back before Farkas could press his advantage, pressing a hand to the cut and streaking his face and hair red.

He managed to back up just enough to miss the edge of Farkas’ swing, the blade whistling past him, putting him on the back foot and parrying.

With a moment of boldness Farkas took the offensive with a wide swing carrying his weight behind it, a considerable measure more control over it than his opponent. He could have sworn there was a shimmer of blue as they managed to somehow weave under the blade lightning fast, a deliberate flick of their wrist splattering his eyes and mouth with their blood.

He stumbled past his smirking opponent, heart thundering as he felt it rise in him. He turned, baring teeth a little too sharp with a snarl. It mattered little as a knee connected with his stomach and knocked the air from him, an elbow to the back of his skull knocking him to the dirt.

“I call foul.” Aela stormed in separating them, shoving Geir back hard enough he almost fell back on his rear.

Vilkas helped his brother to his feet, hissing something under his breath that Farkas couldn’t quite understand through the hunger and the need to tear at warm flesh.

“I won.” Geir pounded at his chest with his free hand and crowded into Aela’s personal space with none of the respect due to the Circle.

“By dishonourable means.” Aela had dealt with more than her share of pups that thought they had teeth sharper than hers so did not flinch nor move, fully ready to put him back down where he belonged if needed. And he certainly needed it. “Go clean yourself up.”

Geir opened his mouth to protest, drawing a sharp breath that Vilkas almost swore carried some threat with it before deciding else wise. They simply stormed off, jaw clenched and fire behind their eyes.

Farkas stumbled slightly as he was pulled upright by his brother, the taste of blood and ash and lightning still rich on his tongue. He shivered, having to take a steadying breath and push down hard on the feeling until it subsided. He had to wonder just what potion was still in his blood for it to be so rich and strange.

The rest had scattered quickly partly in disappointment, part in fear Aela might turn her wrath toward them.

The Whelps carried Athis away to be healed now that the evenings entertainment had turned sour, Aela and Vilkas staying near. Skjor had chosen to follow Geir, giving Aela a knowing look as he left. He was uncertain that the newest recruit would reign their temper in before doing something that might land them in the Dragonsreach dungeon for a week or two, and someone needed to be present before he embarrassed the whole guild.

Once Vilkas was certain Farkas was well his mood shifted, concern melting away to brotherly contempt.

“What in Shors name was that?” He stood up tall, folding his arms across his chest.

“I got sucker punched by that dishonourable bastard and that's all you’ve got to say?” He hadn't been expecting sympathy, only some restraint. Vilkas was perpetually short on both when it came to his dearest brother.

“All I’ve got to say?” Vilkas scoffed. “I should be dragging your bed back to the Whelp quarters after that. Swap that skyforge steel for wood.”

“That bad?” That stung, Farkas drawing a whistling breath through his teeth and almost taking it seriously.

“It was bad.” Aela snorted a laugh. “Worry not. We can drown your sorrows, forget your losses and remember the victories.”

“We got a fresh batch of mead in, few ills can’t be soothed by a good honey brew.”

“I hear that.” Farkas smiled broadly, getting a near matching one from Vilkas.

“You’ll not be hearing the end of this for a while.”

They returned to the hall, mood lifted and in a surprisingly great mood for a man beaten into the ground.

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Farkas was pleasantly warm, well fed and more than well filled with mead. The Markarth Bronze always had such a nice afterglow to it, slow and molten in his veins and in his head, leaving his thoughts delightfully clouded. It had paired well with the slab of roasted pork Tilma had served, Farkas’ portion just the slightest bit more generous at the expense of Geir, and not unnoticed too from the way the recruit had watched him every time he though he wasn't looking.

He found his bed easily, kicking off his boots and finding no energy or will left for anything else. Sleeping in his armour was now a problem for the sober Farkas yet to be.

Face down in his pillow sleep took him quickly. He would have been out cold until long after dawn had been and gone if not for the chill wind that stirred him to consciousness. He had thought through a sleep addled mind that the inn had left its doors open, as had once happened in Winterhold on a particularly awful job. It returned quickly that he was home, deep enough underground that no breeze could ever reach him.

Without opening his eyes he took a shallow breath, scenting the air. Old and stale, wrong, damp, heavy with salt. It wasn't even the familiar salt of sweat and blood, it was more like the stagnant salt marsh of Morthal without the rich earth beneath.

Awareness and sobriety came too easily, Farkas on his feet and reaching for the spare candle and striking stone he kept near to his bed. Even late into the night Tilma kept a few lanterns burning in the hall, a trickle of light under his door enough to navigate by and now starkly absent.

He got a spark, just enough that the candle sputtered to life with a too pale light. The dark retreated a little, but not near as much as it should have. The corners of the room stayed inky black, textured and heavy, and Farkas was almost certain, watching.

His door opened not to Jorrvaskr, but to a stone floored corridor illuminated by pale orbs floating in the near dark like anglerfish. Something unseen fluttered nearby, the sound most certainly living but like no bird nor bat he had ever encountered.

He raised his light high, something small and chattering retreating away from him and dropping the thing it had been gnawing on. He approached, tapping it with his foot. A book, small and unmarked, leatherbound and oddly shiny.

He crouched low, sweeping it up swiftly without taking his eyes off the way ahead for any danger. It was oddly stiff to the touch, considerably heavier than its size suggested.

He tried to shake it open onto a random page and found them stuck together, only the first page free and blank. After rattling it a few times it seemed it didn't want to cooperate.

He made the mistake of trying to turn the page with the hand holding his candle. He snapped away from it with a hiss, throwing the candle doing so, sucking on the pad his thumb to stop the bleeding. The pages were razor thin glass etched with words in some shifting language unreadable, and Farkas was quite certain there was a hint of aggressive intelligence there. It fell hard, landing flat soundlessly. Farkas kicked it away, a splash telling him there was deep water in the gloom and that he ought to watch his step.

The candle rolled away from him, the dark coiling up around the flame and choking it.

“I expected more.” The voice rolled down the corridor, accented and smooth.

Farkas reached to where his blade should have been on his back, a well practised move. So well practised Oblivion did not protest when the image he pressed on that thinner reality shifted just slightly to accommodate.

The stranger raised their hand with a flourish as they approached, casting a pale light that did little but illuminate the gold of their mask.

“You brought me here?” Farkas took a step toward them, a flicker of reflection and the turn of his stance suggesting he was carrying some kind of blade. No blade Farkas had ever seen writhed and squirmed, but he had heard stories of the Dunmer making weapons from flesh and bone.

They drew a breath to speak, then paused, tilting their head ever so slightly as if only now really seeing Farkas.

“Grohiik sunvaar.” The man hissed, words carrying a resonance Farkas swore he recognised, clearly irritated at what thing they had seen in him. “I call for kin and get this instead.”

“What did you call me?” Farkas knew an insult in any language. He also knew what to do with someone bold enough to think they could speak ill of him and keep all of their teeth inside their face.

“In your inelegant tongue, werewolf. A half made thing cursed by Hircine.”

“Better a wolf than a coward hiding in the dark.”

“I am no coward, and you are not who I called.” He pulled his hand close to his chest, lightning coiling ready to be thrown.

Farkas moved at the last moment, crossing the space at a sprint with his sword ready.

Their blades met, a foolish move on both their parts. If their swords were real they would have destroyed the edge of both. Farkas knew Eorland could fix his, the stranger might have a harder time reforging whatever monstrosity they wielded.

If not for Miraak’s mask Farkas would have immediately headbutted him. He instead stopped to consider it for almost a half second before doing it anyway. Miraak had just enough time to see his fate coming, and not enough to do anything about it.

Farkas struck hard enough that his sight grew blurry, stumbling backward and falling on his rear.

Miraak swore in dragontongue, tearing the mask from his face as blood streamed from his now very crooked nose. He cursed Mora for putting that bastard wolf in his presence, wondering if it was some twisted joke. The last time his master had shown him even a passing interest was two centuries prior, when Miraak had been quite entertained by the Bloodmoon hunts and Azura’s pet fumbling their way through them. This felt like a pointed message, a lesson about paying more attention to werewolves than the pursuit of knowledge.

He stood up, clutching his broken nose and failing to even slow the tide pouring between his fingers. With a wet crunch and a howl of pain he twisted it back into shape.

He took several deep breathes through clenched teeth, drawing up healing magic to dull the pain and speed the recover.

With his guard lowered he didn’t see Farkas rise to his feet too, and he had no defence when Farkas ran his blade through him.

Miraak stumbled back, Farkas barely having time to swear when they took a deep breath and shouted.

They should have been dead, Farkas had never seen a man refuse to die with a sword sheathed front to back in them, and for the mistake of assuming what he fought was entirely mortal he took the full brunt of an Unrelenting Force to the skull. The last thing he saw was those black eyes so full of quiet rage before being thrown. Had he been physically present there would have been little left of his skull intact, less so what was inside.

Miraak grasped at the hilt, dislodging the length of skyforged steel from his chest awkwardly. With each pull he had to grip farther along the length of the blade, gouging his fingers more than once, finally freeing himself from it and letting it fall to the floor with none of the care or reverence a blade of that calibre typically deserved.

He took a rattling breath, insides burning but vaguely held together by his pact and the pressure of Oblivion upon it. In one hand he pulled at the light spell snuffing it out, with the other pulling at the threads of his ritual. With a clenched fist he severed the coiled layers of intention and invocation meant to bring the Dragonborn to him, the glyphs scored into the stone floor burning green and extinguishing in a cascading pattern inwards.

Farkas was already on his back with ears ringing so loudly it had struck him blind, suddenly falling as if into water and dragged down into the sea of Oblivion. He struggled, flailing as he sank, taking a deep breath and getting a chest full of cold liquid entirely without flavour or texture.

He emerged coughing into his quarters, tangled in his sheets but otherwise entirely unscathed.

For a long moment he searched for danger, by sight and then scent, finding nothing but the familiar and comforting. As his heart slowed and calm thought returned he tentatively put the whole experience down as just having been a dream. He gripped at his now crumpled bed sheets, letting a breath free, a sudden sting of pain and the scent of blood catching his attention. Just faintly by the light coming in under his door he could see three deep cuts running across his thumb, already healing but darkened as if tattooed. Alongside the blood was just the slightest hint of salt water, ink, and something like spent magicka.

[kagrenacs]

Explaining the Iceberg #4

I covered most things in this, but not everything. Every previous post I’ve made describing the tes iceberg I found on google image search can be found here x

Lorkhan’s purposeful failure: Lorkhan was the first spirit to go beyond the universe to see the tower, but didn’t achieve CHIM. He likely did this on purpose to show others how not to do it, and to demonstrate that it was difficult for et’ada to achieve this state because they simply don’t have the boundaries (such as death) that mortals do.

The World-Egg: The universe and the 12 previous Kalpas, everything within existence

The Khajiit Tower: this reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/3oh7wf/the_khajiit_tower/ for everyone’s sake i’ll spare you the details of Jungian psychology, TL;DR the khajiit are a ‘tower’ made to hold up the universe and aspects of this

The Grabbers: Mentioned in the 36 lessons, a race of people in Lyg who are said to ‘have never built a city of their own’ there are theories that these are in fact Magne-Ge, due to their connection to Lyg by Mehrunes Dagon

AE: ‘is’ in ehlnofex, can be interpreted as a state of being

Shezzar became Akatosh: The only solid reference i could find was this thread, that immediately discusses how this is probably incorrect http://www.gamesas.com/could-lorkhan-have-jyggalag-t74581-25.html

The Monkey-Truth: Markuth’s teachings, also a website of tes fanfiction writers and roleplayers 

Red Moment: The potential Dragon Break at Red Mountain

The Provisional House: Mentioned in the 36 Lessons, called ‘a space that is not a space’ that Vivec observes the events of Nirn from. It may possibly protect Vivec from dangers associated with this.

Alandro Sul: The Shield-Companion to Nerevar. Sometimes called ‘the immortal-son of Azura’. After being blinded by Wulfharth, he went to live with the Ashlanders of Vvardenfell and is credited with spreading the idea that the Tribunal killed Nerevar

CHIM: To put simply, the process and state where a person realizes their place within the universe and is able to manipulate the laws of the universe as they see fit. Often associated with the concept of ‘Love’

Skaal Secrets: Discussed in the Dragonborn DLC, it’s unknown what their secrets are, but the Skaal report that they’ve kept them a secret from Hermaeus Mora for generations

The World’s Teeth: Mentioned in the 36 lessons of Vivec, sermon 17. Vivec takes Nerevar to the edge of the world, where they see ‘the bottom row of the world’s teeth’ as Vivec states. This may possibly reference a glitch in Redguard. (as a side note: The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, a game that’s confirmed to have taken inspiration from the Elder Scrolls, has an area on the map, near the edge of the world with a row of spikes similar to what’s described here. This might be just coincidence, but I sure enjoy it)

Dagoth Ur’s Endgame: Speculation on what Dagoth Ur’s final plans actually are. He speaks of his desire to remove the Empire from Morrowind, and unite the Dunmer under the 6th House, but beyond that there’s little to go off of.  Ultimately this is just speculation and theories, mostly on what he plans to do with the Anumidium, and how that could possibly have adverse affects on reality.

Pelinal Cyborg from the Future: Another bit of obscure MK lore that’s not implemented in-game. This derives from the description of Pelinal having a ‘left hand made of a killing light’  ‘PELIN-EL [which is] "The Star-Made Knight" [and he] was arrayed in armor [from the future time].’ and his survival of being decapitated. While the text directly states he is from the future, there’s no ingame canon text stating he is a cyborg.

Reymon Ebonarm is Reman: The thought that Ebonarm, a God of War is the same person as Reman, emperor of Cyrodiil. There’s several theories dedicated to this, with different variants on the specifics.

The Enantiomorph: Directly tied to the concept of mantling and the Fourth Walking Way. Put simply, there are three participants in this. Two combatants who are very much alike and trying to become the ‘Ruling King’ and an observer who determines who wins, this observer usually becomes maimed as a result of this. 

The Third Moon: Two different things, a metaphorical or literal secret moon important to the Khajiit that only appears when Masser and Secunda are aligned, preceding the birth of a Mane. The second option is the Necromancer’s Moon, the godly form of Mannimarco.

The Walkabout: A concept in Yokudan religion. The process of spirits surviving one Kalpa to the next, facilitated by Tall Papa

White-Gold Doomsday device: I remember reading this theory a few years back, unfortunately I cannot find the exact page for the life of me. The Tl;DR on this is the White-Gold Tower is a weapon of mass destruction, either literally or in metaphysical terms (being connected to Akatosh and it’s status as a Tower). The closest thing I can find to it is this thread which describes the motives of Umbra in the novels, and how it could potentially take over Tamriel using the White-Gold Tower http://www.gamesas.com/doomsday-scenario-t69430.html

Jiub was the Nerevarine: Self explanatory, headcanon that Jiub was the Nerevarine, similar to a headcanon on tumblr that stated Teldryn Sero was the Nerevarine

House Dwemer: Mentioned as a House within The War of the First Council (which is written by an Imperial for Western Scholars) and The Lost Prophecy (written by a Dunmer) This could be interpreted in a couple different ways. A) The first book was certainly written for western readers, while there is no evidence for this being the case for the latter, it can’t be ruled out. ‘House’ is used as a simplification B) The Dwemer were considered a house, but perhaps not in the way we would initially think (being on the Great House Council)  They were grouped into a singular entity, rather than distinct clans within a cultural group (either during the First Council or posthumously) 

When Dead Gods Dream: https://www.imperial-library.info/content/when-dead-gods-dream referencing this thread. Discusses the mechanisms of Dagoth Ur’s godhood, the thread explains it better than I can here, TL;DR Dagoth Ur is not alive, but he is within the realms of gods and therefor is able to ‘project’ himself onto Tamriel and the minds of his followers.

Khajiit ended the Metheric Era: Nothing found for this

Parabolic Kalpa: A parabola is a symmetrical U-shaped curve. This theory essentially tries to explain why Skyrim is so low magic, compared to it’s history or even ESO. The thought is that as time goes on, the world becomes less connected to Divinity. Towers are destroyed and the gods are gone, but eventually things will begin to kick off again, and there will be a rise in magic, technology and the connection to these beings. Essentially tries to explain why C0da and Loveletter from the 5th era are more high magic compared to the actual games. 

Sithis: Secret Lesson from Vivec: Connects the both Sithis with the 36 lessons by terminology (The Sharmat, false dreamer ect.) and proposes Vivec may have written the book

Bendu Olo: Colovian King, may have been related to Olaj Olo, nordic demigod of mead. Also used as a placeholder name for the player character in Oblivion and the name of the dev’s test character in Skyrim

Trinimac still lives: An ESO lorebook states the Ashpit, realm of Malacath, extends into Aetherius. Some orcs also believe Malacath is nothing more than a demon presenting himself as the remnants of Trinimac. A r/teslore theory states that Malacath wears two faces. While I assume this is the Iceberg author’s sole reference, I propose this could (should) refer to another theory. (Another theory is similar to this on teslore, proposed around the same time, but this one connects the dots)  https://boethiah.tumblr.com/post/621058598373588993/tsun-is-the-shield-brother-of-shor-and-trinimac 

The Aedra are Dead: Seemingly a common topic on teslore. A basic concept in tes, the Aedra gave most of their powers to Mundus to stabilize it.  Their bodies remain as planets, and they can only have limited interactions with Nirn. 

Divayth Fyr was the Hero of Battlespire: An old theory that looks at artifacts in Divayth Fyr’s possession and ties them back to the tes spinoff Battlespire. There are holes in this theory (Divayth Fyr was a seasoned mage at the time the hero was an apprentice)

Three Talin’s: The default name given to the Eternal Champion is Talin, a character creation scenario proposes that their father was also named Talin, and finally Uriel Septim VII’s general was named Talin Warhaft.

Pelagius I was killed by the Underking: The Arcturian Heresy states that the Underking appeared as an advisor to Pelagius I, who was assassinated by the Dark Brotherhood. This theory is a possibility considering the amminosity between Tiber Septim and both components of the Underking. 

Tsaesci Goa’uld: Goa’uld are a species from Stargate that are parasites towards humans. This theory proposes that the Tsaesci are similar, explaining the inconsistencies of their appearance within the lore.

Lunar currency: The thought that the Aedra and Daedra use mortal souls like currency

Historic Star Inconsistencies: Possibly referring to the variations of the number of days within the year in Arena, not sure about this one

Mnemoli/Star Orphans:Mnemoli is either a specific Magne-Ge (spirits that fled the creation of Mundus after Magnus), or a group of them that only appears during a Dragon Break (often nicknamed the ‘Blue Star’) MK states that they’re the writers and distributors of the physical Elder Scrolls (however this contradicts ingame books, so take it with a grain of salt). Star Orphans may or may not refer to Magne-Ge as a whole. Vehk’s book of hours state's them as a ‘group or tribe’ regardless, Mnemoli falls under this secondary classification (along with Merid-Nuda and Xero-Lyg, I have my own thoughts on this which would be better explained in another post) 

Bosmer Hircine worship: Seemingly referring to a thread on 4pleb, I will not be summarizing this theory here because I’m smart and not going onto 4pleb of all places. But from canon content, Bosmer do not worship Hircine, and consider him a force that goes against Y’ffre and wants to return everything to it’s original state of chaos before the earthbones (Y’ffre being among them) stabilized things 

Septimus Signus Zero Sum: The theory that the aforementioned zero-summed at the end of Discerning the Transmundane in Skyrim. Essentially Septimus is in a fragile state, delving into the secrets of the universe and is being pushed by Hermaeus Mora, who may see him as a lab rat, into discovering things he isn’t meant to handle as a mortal, and consequently Zero-Sums. There’s holes in this, namely Zero-Summing supposedly removes all trace of existence. 

The Soft Doctrines of Magnus Invisible: A very obscure text by Douglas Goodall, discusses the binding of various gods

Abnegaurbic creed: An overly fancy word basically meaning religious beliefs, seen in Nu-Hattia Exerpt 

Dunmereth: A Nordic term for the area of Morrowind, during their occupation of it

Fifteen-and-One Golden Tones: A Dwemer term, possibly referring to the spheres of the Daedra, counting Sheo/Jyggalag as a singular entity. Also, the Dwemer swear by these 

Ideal Masters are God of Worms remnants: As Mannimarco is often said to be the first Lich, the existence of the ideal masters seems to contradict this (similar story with Azidal) this tries to rectify this by proposing that the Soul Carin is the Necromancer’s Moon, and the ideal masters are remnants of Mannimarco. This theory doesn’t hold up when examined, but is cool nonetheless. 

Sermon 37: Found in ESO, an extra sermon to the 36 lessons, ties in concepts present in c0da like amaranth. (interestingly on this list Sermon Zero is never mentioned, despite it being older and more interesting imo, but to discuss that would require lots of work)

Flying Whales: Mentioned in Aldudagga. A now extinct species. The bone bridge of Sovngarde could potentially be a reference to this.

Joy-Snow: It’s cocaine 

Mankar=Tharn: A theory that Mankar Cameron is Jagar Tharn, doesn’t hold much weight and relies mostly on the connection of Mehrunes Dagon

Sharmat: A term used to describe Dagoth Ur, an opposite to the Hortator, a force uniting people for evil. Implied to mean or be associated with ‘the False Dreamer’ a person whose view of the universe is similar to someone whose achieved CHIM, but sees themself as the center of it all, rather than a droplet in the ocean of the universe.

Pankratosword: A forbidden Yokudan sword technique that could ‘cut atoms’ similar to our modern day Nuclear Fission. A bit of etymology here, ‘Pankrato’ seems to refer to the word ‘Pankrator’ meaning all-powerful or almighty. 

Landfall: A concept from MK, a future event where Nirn is destroyed by the Numidium, and the people remaining relocate to the moons. 

Cylarne: The oldest ruin in the Shivering Isles, rumored to be the original capital. Home to the Cold Flame of Agnon

[farshores]

You made the post about when Tei met the followers in realtion to the events of Helgen. How did Tei get caught up in all of it? Did they try and pass the border and get caught? Did they just find Helgen in shambles? Love to hear what happened and how they recooped with everyone if they did get separated at all.

The events of Helgen are going to be following how the mod Alternate Perspective puts it (for now! this could change come Extended Cut lol). Which is essentially: Your player character goes to Helgen's inn to rest & wakes up to Ulfric's execution currently going on, in which Alduin soon attacks.

Working this in for Tei: I'm having it where they chose to rest at Helgen after either a bounty or two, or waking up in the morning after a night of werewolf shenanigans & needing a place to recuperate. [Everyone they met so far is more or less doing their own thing, but Khash and/or Kaidan might tag along for this trip idk yet] Said rest is interrupted with a sudden, intense feeling that something isn't right & overhearing other patrons exclaim that Ulfric & his Stormcloaks are being carted into the town for execution. Tei went to check out the scene, Alduin descends, & the destruction of Helgen more or less plays out as it would had I gone the vanilla route!

Rather than head straight to Riverwood, Tei immediately heads to Falkreath to check on their friends there - & in turn tell them the not-so-fun news. This is probably where they might end up running into Nebarra too tbh? Not sure yet lol. But either way it is a very not fun experience for Tei, especially since after spotting Alduin something in them woke up & became very restless in a way they have not felt since they first came into contact w/ Hircine's gift ;)

[reachfolk]

🏡 💐 fooooooor Lexi and Ophelia!! I just………. I love tjem and I need to kno

💛 from @korvanjund

thank u sm for the ask sweetness ♥ i went off with the first one bc i have a Very Specific image of what their endgame lives are like lol

🏡 describe your ocs ideal house! give us a tour around! what’s their garden like? their bedroom? kitchen? where is it and how many people live there?

alexandria: ooo, this one's a little tough, because lexi kinda has a little bit of cognitive dissonance going on lol. she loves home and she always wants to be able to return to the reach, but she also is a very adventurous person and wants to explore the world! i think she has to strike somewhat of a balance between those two things (and she does eventually with the help of lucien). she does, ideally, want to have a home in markarth. it's kinda out-there, because before she can really do that, there's a LOT that has to go into rebuilding the rebellion, etc etc, but let's skip over that and say that things are all settled for the sake of the question. it's about idealism not realism lol.

she would want a pretty big house, not out of some materialistic thing but like !! she wants a big family (i talk abt children in this post), and she wants to be able to host big gatherings between all her friends, and she wants to have people stay with her when they visit. she wants a home that's just very open and welcoming and full of love, just like her. she would absolutely want to have a garden, as any alchemist would, and most of it grows ingredients like flowers, mushrooms, etc. she'd also like, cut off an arm and a leg if it means being able to plant as much jarrin root as she can, so that would def be there in her fantasy garden. and of course, she'd wanna have her alchemy lab right there for easy access.

for the bedroom, it's like entirely decked out in religious paraphernalia; hanging taproot, antlers, furs, spriggan heads, skulls and bones, and literally sooo many things like that. she has a habit of decorating any place she stays in more than a few days with at least a few of her religious touches, so if it's a permanent home? it's just one big shrine to namira and hircine. for her kitchen, i don't think she's that into cooking, but she'd have a modest kitchen. she mostly cooks to Not Starve, but she has a few recipes that she's very emotionally attached to (salmon stew and juniper berry pie to be specific), so she'd a nice oven to make it whenever she wants to give her family a little treat!

ophelia: filly is much more traditional than lexi; she was born in markarth, but hardly spent more than a year there before leaving. she grew up in the reach, travelling between different camps, and i think she really loved it. she's very fond of the karth river and would want easy and immediate access to it. so her #1 ideal place to live would be karthspire camp! an island right in the middle of the river?? sign her the fuck up. the city is stuffy, the homes are too quiet, and it's all far too dwarven for her taste. she doesn't like the carved stone; she's much more fond of the natural view of the mountains as they are, of living under the open sky, of hearing the rushing current of the karth at all hours of the day.

karthspire is a pretty large camp, so they definitely should have a decently sized garden to sustain themselves! there's a good bit of alchemy ingredients there, but most of it is probably food for the whole community. as for a kitchen, it's probably very big because it's all just one big, shared space. she probably does enjoy helping with the cooking, as they have to make large batches to make sure everyone's fed and so it's a process that takes quite a few people every time. she does rly enjoy it though!! she loves helping her community and it's always a fun social thing to cook together.

her bedroom though is the main thing she cares about cause like. she's a vaermina worshipper. she spends like 50% of her time sleeping lol, it's part of her job to the community. she usually only sleeps 12 hours a night, but there have been accounts of vaermina worshippers sleeping for days or weeks on end, so it's very important for her. that's part of why she likes living literally right on top of the river; the water acts as a great white noise to lull her to sleep. unless it's the dead of winter, she likes sleeping in the open tents, surrounded by fresh air and the creaking of the wooden planks as people walk back and forth while patrolling the area. she has a nice bed, not one of those stone atrocities you'd find in markarth, covered in nice furs and surrounded with lavender. she also definitely likes the staple hanging taproot!

💐 does your OC like flowers? what are their favourites? do they keep a garden of some sort? what flowers would they use in a flower crown?

alexandria: we all know lex, she LOVES flowers. like yes, they're pretty, but she's an alchemist, so she sees them as ingredients rather than decor lol. i feel like she probably ends up developing a little bit of a taste for 'em bc of her work so she ends up baking flowers into bread and pies sometimes.

i actually have a stupid anecdote about this! when she was around 19, she had a brief fling with this cute redguard boy who was staying at the inn for a few months. her brother, robin, gave him a little tip. "she loves flowers! you should bring her some when you see her :)" so he got his hands on some nice desert flowers and made a bouquet to give her when they met for a date. and lexi, who's never seen this type of flower, got super excited. the boy was like "ah yes i've successfully wooed her," but then she just. plucks one from the bouquet and eats it, and he just:

it's dumb as hell LMAO, but anyway that's how he learned that alexi is a huge alchemy nerd. the gesture did fly tho, because the #1 way into an alchemist's heart is dope ingredients.

as for what her favorite flower is, she loves red mountain flowers! they're great for restoring and fortifying magicka, so she uses them a lot. but in terms of appearance, she definitely likes yellow mountain flowers best! yellow is her favorite color, it reminds her of markarth a lot ♥

ophelia: she also loves flowers! both as an alchemy thing and just because they're pretty lol. many of vaermina's followers are extremely good alchemists, so she appreciates flowers a lot for their uses. her favorites are lavender, because they help her sleep easily so she always keeps some on her and in her room. i don't think she's the sort to make flower crowns very much (she's more partial to using things like polished bone or antlers), but if she did, she'd probably like to loop nightshade flowers around the horns of her forsworn headdress !!

[curechocolattymilk]

TES DRAWTOBER DAY 24 - Descendants

All my drawtober stuff is here! (I skipped a few days, unfortunately)

FINISHED DRAWING THIS 30 MINS B4 MIDNIGHT LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOO (It’ll probably be like 1am when i post this bcus i ramble when typing though oops)

but uh ye all 4 of Jeer-Tei’s kiddos here! But w rough guesses of their grown up looks cus i was struggling drawing kids

From left to right, below cut!

Ram-Ku Perdes (My Little Hatchling Mod) - Technically the middle child since he’s younger than Star, but Tei & Ru’s first adopted kid! He ends up joining the DB like he intended to when younger, trained by Listener Jeer-Tei themselves. P nice guy otherwise though, gives awesome hugs.

Chases-Starlight Perdes (Adoptable Argonian Hatchling) - Eldest of the four! Star is 100% a daddy’s girl with all 3 of her dads & may or may not have used that to her advantage at times. She ends up being a scholar & teacher, focusing mainly on astronomy! Vry tall & lanky as an adult too, almost rivaling Rumarin in height.

Liliana Mei Perdes (oc) - Baby of the 4 alongside her twin. Liliana has more notable Argonian features than her brother Hallin, with having more scales, a tail, & claws ‘n all; however she lacks gills. Lili was born blind, but she’s doing just fine, using magic or enchantments to assist her when needed. Not too sure what she does yet (debating if she becomes a historian/librarian in Paarthurnax’s library rn), but for right now she studies at the College of Winterhold bcus hoo boy, did she inherit all the magical talent. If you want to know about her lineage/experience being half-Argonian she’s the one to ask; if you aren’t being rude about it, she doesn’t mind answering some questions. Fair warning though: she tends to ramble about it, or anything you ask her about really. Some poor classmate asked how her & Hallin could have two different dads (genetically?) & she went on a mini lecture about heteropaternal superfecundation.

Hallin Otero Perdes (oc) - Don’t let his resting bitch face deter you, Hallin is actually rather friendly, even if he’s grumpy. Granted he has a bit of an inferiority complex as well but hey that’s not important now uh. Hal’s just doing his own thing, hunting, running around as a werewolf (it passed down from Tei onto both twins, but Liliana suppresses it w/ Hircine’s ring that Tei gave to her/is planning to cure herself), doing training for being the future of the Dragonguard for when Kaidan steps down despite not really wanting that but also not sure how to say that cus he doesnt want to disappoint his parents/lineage bcus haha hey, kid of the LDB and the last Akaviri everybody. He’s more reserved than his siblings, having Tei’s habit of making rude/sarcastic quips at others, & is rather unsure of his future at the moment, but if you need a good ally/friend Hal is there for ya.

[the-drunken-huntsman]

1, 7, 8, 12, 17, 21, 28, and 30 for Anais (and/or anyone else if you wanna talk about them !!) pls? -stars☆

I answered all of them for Anais and threw in a few others here and there :3

1. What's your oc's most irrational fear? Is there a specific reason this fear came about?

Anais has not really a conscious fear, but more of a subliminal aversion to starting new or unfamiliar books. After opening the first Black Book having no idea what it was or what it would do to her, her brain kinda went "hmmm let's maybe never do that again."

Growing up, Murza heard stories about the angry Nord dead coming back when their rest was disturbed and it terrified her to no end. How could you kill something that's already dead? She still gets uneasy stepping into barrows to this day.

7. What song reminds you of this oc? Does this match up with the type of music your oc listens to?

Honestly I don't think my music taste matches up with anyone in Tamriel lol

Raise Hell by Brandi Carlile fits Anais really well, especially the first verse. I think if you switch out Gabriel for Akatosh and angels for dragons in that one line the metaphor works real well

SING by My Chemical Romance fits Endurys really well. I think it really captures why he wanted to become a bard in the first place.

Alone Together by Fall Out Boy is my favorite for Murza. "I don't know where you're going but do you got room for one more troubled soul?" really fits how she started her adventures.

And for Reyvi I gotta say Like Suicide by Seether, it's a song about a dangerous woman and I couldn't ask for anything more fitting for my murder queen. Maybe one day I'll post my playlists for them all :)

8. What's it like inside your oc's mind? (Literally or metaphorically)

Anais is very "shoot now, ask questions later," which has gotten her into some trouble here and there but generally comes in handy. There have been a lot of people who've followed the mighty dragonborn and asked "so what's the plan?" only to be answered with "Oh, we don't don't do that here."

Reyvi, on the other hand, is very methodical. There has to be a plan for everything. She has a check list to go down before she starts any job. What is the goal? How are we getting in? How are we getting out? What are we willing to leave to the wolves if things go south?

12. How does your oc handle talking to someone they can't stand? What if it's a situation where they're forced to work with this person?

Anais tries to avoid talking to such people as much as possible. She'll grin and bear it if she absolutely has to, but on the subject of working with said people? She'd find any way out of it she possibly could. She doesn't dislike people without reason and sonthe idea of having to do anything for them let alone beside them makes her insides twist.

17. If your oc had a social media page, what would it be like? What would they post about? How much personal information would they feel comfortable posting on it? How often would they update it?

I think Anais and Murza would probably have some sort of web show similar to Trixie and Katya's UNHhhh on YouTube. They probably wouldn't be as open about personal stuff but they have a relationship similar to them so I think it would fit them. They probably wouldn't upload too often, they're far too busy for that, but it would be fun to occasionally see the Dragonborn and the Arch-Mage talking about like, self care or drugs or something for 15 minutes.

21. What's a fact you haven't shared about this oc?

Anais is a worshiper of Hircine, another thing that was passed down from her father (they're not lycanthropes though). It's why she always wears the Savior's Hide and her title as his champion is among her favorite that she's garnered.

28. What's your favorite thing about this oc?

Kinda stupid since I'm the one who came up with her arch, but I really love how far Anais has come. She went from feeling she had no place in the world, no purpose, and no real reason for surviving to having found her new family among her friends, a healthy loving relationship, and a place of respect among the people. It just makes me so proud of her.

30. Tell a random fact about this oc.

Anais's favorite color is purple and her favorite flower is lavender.

Murza is a little far sided and uses illusion magic to help her read better.

Along with helping on his father's farm, Endurys also worked at Sadri's Used Wares to save up to get out of Windhelm to get to the Bards College.

[ivisite]

First thing I need to address is that, wow, cats and cat like creatures are so hard to draw? please excuse my attempt at a Khajiit and a smol version of said race. Also bearded men? I’m used to drawing pretty korean boys 

kind of a timeline ( ?? ) but also some family doodles even though Saoirse hasn’t claimed to have one of those in years (but what protagonist has parents these days, amirite-) A Poorly Paced and Terribly Written Origin Story by Me, an actual Potato When wee lass Saoirse was about 11, her father, an “Ex-Foresworn”, took her aside one day and told her they were going on an adventure and not to tell her mother or sister. A few days later, they ended up in the Reach atop some cliff and it is from this pivotal moment that Saoirse’s Daddy Issues™ started. He grabbed her by the arm, threw her down to the ground and yelled nonsense about the Old Gods and Hircine. Plot Twist, he was still a crazed Foresworn and wanted to appease Hircine by offering Saoirse up to be “BleSsEd” with the werewolf business. Before her very eyes, her father warped and twisted into a terrible beast and set his eyes on her. 

Not about that, Saoirse tried to run off and pretty well got away from him but did sustain a nasty couple of scratches to the back in the escape. From there, she ran through the hills and cliffs for hours until coming across a Khajiit Caravan camping for the night. Bleeding and probably ugly crying, she scampered off into the camp and begged for help and the oldest member, the Matriarch named “Qu’Ra”, took pity on her and agreed to let her stay with them and their other little orphan, the aptly named “Snaggle”. 

Not one for the whole “sweet motherly love” thing, Qu’Ra was more on the tough love side of things. Saoirse got to travel with the caravan but also had to learn to barter and trade so she was at least useful (or would be when she was older.) 

Once she got older, probably 14 or so, the Caravan started sending Saoirse into the towns that the Khajiit themselves weren’t allowed into to sell their wares. Naturally gifted with a quick wit and light on her feet, she had no trouble at all selling and sneaking around to avoid concerned Guards. 

After leaving Skyrim for a bit, the Caravan finally returned to the frost coated land and put Saoirse to work selling their wares inside cities. The first stop was uneventful, but the second stop in Riften is where all the fun stories Saoirse likes to tell Lucia about red headed men come from. Upon entering the city she came across the market area and heard a familiar type of accent and tracked down the source.  “Is that your real accent, or just the one you use to sell your snake oils?” Saoirse said with a coy smile to the red headed vender settled happily in the stall she leaned against. 

“It’s 100% real, just like my Draugr tonic.” he replied with an equally suave smile of his own, catching sight of a potential customer nearing the stall. “It’ll keep you alive and kicking for years.” he continued as the curious onlooker walked closer. 

He gave the curious man a charming smile and leaned forward a bit to continue his sales pitch, all the while Saoirse watching with an amused expression. “Why would I buy this? Draugrs look horrid from what I’ve heard.” the man asked, brow raised in suspicion. 

“Oh aye, but you have heard of them, then? Somethin’ has to keep the beasties skulking around all day, ya ken?” Saoirse retorted, stepping into the stall next to the fellow con-artist.   “I took time out of my day, risked my own life to search several draugr infested tombs just to find the secret to their liveliness and bottled it up just for the likes of you.” the red headed man added. 

Between the two of them, the poor man seemed to have fallen into the well worded trap, nodding thoughtfully to the red headed man as he spoke and mumbling to himself whenever Saoirse threw in her own septim or two.  “Draugrs do skulk around all day, something must keep them up and about, huh? ....I’ll take one.” the man said after a few more moments of banter and coaxing.

After paying a hefty price of 200 septim for what could have literally been sewer water with flowers tossed in for good measure, the man walked off happily clutching his bottle and muttering to himself about it all. 

“Good at making coin, aren’t you lass?” The red headed man asked, dusting his clothes off a bit and giving Saoirse what she could only imagine to be his most practiced, handsome smile. 

He was a crafty one, for sure, but she couldn’t help but poke at the fire, if only out of her own curiosity. “Practiced that smile for weeks, didn’t you lad?” She cooed playfully back. The gesture was met with a chuckle from the man. 

“What say you to sticking around the stall the rest of the day?” he asked, a cheeky smile parading onto his lips. It was the first genuine thing she’d seen off him thus far and it was perhaps more charming than his more practiced one.  “Maybe, but I do charge a small helpers fee, of course.” She cooed. 

and BOOM a terrible partnership of con-artistry began in which she would get to sell her wares from the caravan at his stall so to avoid paying business taxes and he would get a small cut and help selling his own “wares”. Did she know better? Of course. Did she talk herself into thinking she was smart enough to avoid getting hurt? Of course. Did she get her heart broken into pieces after bonding and romancing this man only to find out a few months into it that he’d been “borrowing” some of her wares, making her come up short when returning to Qu’Ra and profiting off them for himself all the while? You bet your sweet roll she did. 

So naturally, as anyone might do, she crept down to his guild quarters, buttered him up and tuckered him out for the evening before running off into the night with 5000 of his personal money and several thousands worth of job related trinkets and jewelries he’d hoarded to give to the clients in question the next day. 

And what did she do next, you might ask? Well, naturally she marched around the entirety of Skyrim and hand delivered all the stolen goods back to their owners in spite of him and then fled the country because she low key owed a powerful guild hella money and ain’t no one got time for that.

The next few years of her early twenties would be spent traveling literally anywhere but Skyrim doing odd jobs. Need someone to take out some bandits at your mine? Saoirse was all about it. Some questionable magic guy need help getting into a crypt to get a weird book? Sure, why not. Some rich person need help getting an heirloom that somehow ended up deep in the bowels of a falmer infested, centurion guarded Dwemer ruin? Sure but like double the payment because Centurions are scary. 

It was a simple life and she ended up traveling all over the continent before returning to Skyrim in hopes of making it to Windhelm unnoticed by anyone that might be looking for her so she could hop a ride to Solstheim. 

Of course that didn’t work out and instead she ended up getting caught up in an imperial raid on a stormcloak post while she was trying to trade herbs and potions for their sick in exchange for arrows and such. 

On a moral ambiguity scale of black to white, she’s like a solid light grey for the majority of her life, like she would for sure talk you into giving her your shirt and then talk you into buying it back from her for double you paid for it, but also buys a room for the local orphan kid to sleep in for the night because it’s raining. not the best person but also not the worst, like a solid C+ human (∪ ◡ ∪)

the whole Helgen thing makes her start to rethink her life choices and thus starts the grueling journey of character development (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ and it all starts with her deciding to pick the warrior stone instead of the thief stone while Ralof rambled on about draugrs and stormcloaks in the background

[anurasarts]

This was first posted on my random fandom sideblog @frobby-monarch but I figured I should post it here too

Lykor Moonbeam is my Elder Scrolls OC. He is a lilmothiit and the demiprince son of Hircine. His alignment is probably somewhere around chaotic neutral, if not chaotic good.

🍂commissions open🍂

[ansu-gurleht]

okay so i went through the datamined books from eso, taking notes as i went. @boethiah sent me a message this morning about it, asking what i thought. so i figured i might as well get real comprehensive about taking down notes to answer decently, or at least do it to organize my thoughts. 

before she sent me that i hadn’t heard about this, so i went into it bright-faced and intrigued. i didn’t think my notes would end up too long, so i just figured i’d send them to her when i was done, even “talking” to her in the notes (you’ll see what i mean by that). 

but uh. as all things lore-related, i got a bit carried away. stopped almost halfway thru to go to class, and by then i’d started to notice some really weird, kinda silly shit in it. and then i noticed everybody in tesblr talking about it, and finally realized, “oh. so it’s like that.” so i figure i’ll post it here publicly instead.

despite the uh. obvious nonsense in a lot of this, i think there’s a lot of interesting things hidden away. so what i’m going to do is just post my notes under the read-more. i’m too lazy to organize them into something more coherent lol. they’re basically just me commenting on certain lines and stuff. 

i won’t like, really go into why most of this is stupid, bc other people have already done so, and better than i probably could’ve. but you’ll know. somethings i quote things and just. have no idea how to even address them other than, at best, “??????” either bc it doesn’t make much sense, eludes useful analysis, or is just stupid.

anyways, here goes:

book 1:

azura: - "the Path"? am i wrong or has a "Path" never been referenced in khajiiti lore?

khenarthi: - alkosh comforts khenarthi after lorkhaj died? yeah right. - khenarthi's role as psychopomp for azurah mirrors kyne's role for shor. but azura doesn't factor into nord/atmoran mythology at all.

jone and jode: - azurah cares for jone and jode? interesting. (also, "Bright Moons"? full moons?)

lorkhaj: - lorkhaj as "White Lion?" - namiira (the Great Darkness) followed lorkhaj as his burden? - mention of a "path" again, made by lorkhaj with purpose. sounds yokudan. - "in conflict with himself" & "represents the duality of the Khajiiti soul" ... desert and jungle ... strife, hardship, and life, love ... both tainted deadly by nirni, according to ahnissi - "We honor his sacrifice by walking the Path with purpose and resisting the call of the Dark." ... the Path again ... the Dark? namiira? - (the khajiit seem to conflate namira and nocturnal. this isn't a new concept, as they both genuinely do overlap in many ways, but an interesting one.) - "the true spirit of Lorkhaj will sometimes appear" ... "by Azurah" - nerevar/ine, "or Khenarthi" - hjalti, "or by his oldest name" - ...ysmir?

magrus: - all of this magrus stuff is new, to my knowledge. - the importance of him fleeing from "Boethra and Lorkhaj" probably excites you :P - "fell into the Moonshadow" ... "too full of fear to rule a sphere" ... "tore out his other eye" (odin parallel? a "failed" odin, maybe? unless seeing "out of one eye" is metaphorical) - "Varliance Gate"???? "Aether Prism"???? they're the sun, but those names are brand new afaik. overall a strange alternative to the story of magnus and the sun - "Some sorcerers hold that Magrus left the eye willingly" - more odin stuff

book 2:

- azurah knows all the names of all the spirits, their protonyms? that's interesting. a lot of that "protonymic" lore is derived from the whole "true names have power" stuff, popular in magical circles from sources like kabbalah thru the lens of crowley. - "And Fadomai told stories of her children and her favorite aspects of each of them. When she reached Azurah, she smiled and told her favored daughter she could not decide. And Fadomai died." ;----; - "sat in the Great Darkness for timeless ages" ... sat with namiira? - seems to have carved moonshadow from the great darkness. (the great darkness seems to have dual meaning as both oblivion and namiira. then again, i think only clan mother ahnissi said the great darkness was namiira, so that (morrowind) lore might be outdated.) - this scene with lorkhaj and his empty dark heart is......interesting. - "UR DRA NA MII RA UR DRA NA MII RA UR DRA AZU RA" - you can pick out "namiira" and "azura" in this, but the meaning of "UR" and "DRA" elude me. - lorkhaj gets his heart torn out YET AGAIN. very rude azurah - the "Moon Beast" and its hunger remind me of the yokudan sep. - i think once upon the time "dro-m'Athra" referred to daedra in general, but i think eso has made them a specific type of daedra resembling khajiit. even more specifically, some kind of "dark khajiit" born from dead evil khajiit. - "lighting the fire with lanterns of love and mercy" - your vivec is showing, azurah. or i guess, the other way around. - this "ashes of Lorkhaj" bit gets me thinking about ysmir, again. but i'm not sure what to do with that.

book 3

sheggorath: - now THIS is a not shitty interpretation of sheggorath! he's not a "god of madness," but a god of mental fortitude, a god who tests convinction. - more stuff about "the Path" - "must be ... overcome before a Khajiit can visit Hermorah's library"? - "Sheggorath is dead and has been replaced by something Other" - the hero of kvatch? but if this is from eso, that hasn't happened yet? unless the mantling of sheogorath is a pretty common occurrence; i remember someone on tumblr suggested that this might happen every era.

orkha: - "Orkha ... followed Boethra back through the Many Paths" ... what does that mean? - "Lorkhaj, Khenarthi, and Boethra battled the demon in the ancient songs" - ... as trinimac? - "but Orkha could only be banished and would not die" ;) - "serve as tests along the Path" - so far these princes are being painted similarly to their house of troubles counterparts

dagon (also called merrunz.) - no reference to merrunz being the kitty cat. :( next - ...okay not really. "explore the Great Darkness rather than the Many Paths"? - molagh "tortured him until the creation of the World?" but "the wife of Molagh freed Merrunz"? who is "the wife of Molagh"?

molagh (balls) - "twelve Demon Kings"? should probably look into how they got that number - "Boethra and Molagh fought to a standstill before the lattice, but it was Azurah who shackled the Demon King with secrets only she knows." - i dont have anything to say about this really, just an interesting line i think. - "you will overcome him with the might of Boethra, the Will Against Rule." - interesting...afaik, aside from HAVING a khajiit name, boethiah never really factored into their faith that much, and wasn't ever mentioned in clan mother ahnissi. i wonder if azurah at some point attempted to unify her plans for the dunmer and the khajiit.

merid-nunda - interestingly, the khajiit seem to call her by her magna-ge name. - "False Spirit of Greed"? - magrus "loved only himself and his own creations"? idk if this seems all that congruent with the magrus from his own description - "cold spirit, born of light without love" - interesting - "blame her for orchestrating the death of might Lorkhaj"??!?!?!? what?????????? - "When Merid-Nunda dared assault the Lattice, Azurah struck her down before the Varliance Gate and dragged her away from it. She then cast Merid-Nunda into the Void and bound her there with mirrors. The nomads say she has since escaped." this whole thing is interesting

book 4

nirni: - nothing interesting on nirni.

y'ffer: - y'ffer "corrupted by the Great Darkness," (namira), who apparently killed nirni???!??! what??????? - worth noting that ahnissi doesn’t paint y’ffer as “corrupted” or evil or anything. in her words he’s kinda just a moron who doesn’t *get it* and does his own thing instead.  - don’t get the obsession with making namiira some like. crazy super evil being. feels like eso took a look at the list of princes and was like “who hasn’t tried to destroy/take over the world yet. that’s what daedric princes do right”

hircine - hircine doesn't get a funny ta'agra name, i guess. - graht-elk?

hermorah - hermorah helps azurah maintain the ja-kha'jay?

sangiin - according to what this says about sangiin, khajiit are actually NOT one of the most hedonistic races on tamriel. suuuuuuuuure, buddy.

book 5

- a look at the khajiit afterlife w/ azurah in moonshadow. - first you walk the sands, then you walk the glass, then you walk the thorns, then you have a good time, then azurah sends you back to nirn do something else (reincarnated)? but it might just be this one guy who goes off to do something ("Bring my children back"), he seems kinda special. no idea who he's supposed to be.

book 6

- all this shit about akha and alkosh and alkhan is bullshit. the fuck is akha even supposed to be? according to his name you'd assume an association with akatosh, but alkosh is akatosh, right?

akha: - this book says akha is the first cat. ahnissi says alkosh is the first cat. - "Pathfinder and the One Unmourned" - are we talking about akatosh or dagoth ur here. - "Many Paths"??? again?? what are they. knockoff walking ways? - "mated with the Winged Serpent of the East [akavir], the Dune Queen of the West [yokuda], and the Mother Mammoth of the North [atmora]. He then went to the South [pyandonea] and never returned." then alkosh shows up and says "yikes that akha guy was a little fucked huh?"

alkosh: - alkosh is "The Dragon King" and "Highmane." association with the Mane of the khajiit - "In time, the children of Akha overthrew [Alkosh] and scattered his body on the West Wind." ...??? is this a reference to the middle dawn? seems unlikely - apparently khenarthi put him back together. also seems unlikely

alkhan: - oh so the khajiit recognize alduin now too. cool.

boethra: - and boethiah i guess, why not????

mafala: - mafala has always been part of khajiit religion, tho, afaik. she is the og clan mother. - "She watches over Eight of the Many Paths, each of which a Khajiit must walk in time." ?????????? wtf are the many paths!!!!! why are there eight of them!!!!!! is this a reference to the spiral skein, or satellite realms (the spokes) of it? - forreal i think they gave up on pretense here when they started listing allies and shit. - "Her numbers are Eight and Sixteen, and these are two of her keys." this just sounds like something from the 36 lessons tbh. this doesn't sound like khajiit lore at all

book 7

lorkhaj (moon beast): - confusingly, lorkhaj as fadomai's favored son and lorkhaj as the moon beast are called by the same name, and despite this have separate entries in these books. - wonder if there's some equivalent in other myths to the moon beast. he seems pretty interesting, being "born of the dark heart of Lorkhaj" - there's UR DRA again, attached to namiira, again, who is apparently an enemy of the khajiit.

namiira: - apparently eso has rebranded namiira as like, an absolute enemy of the khajiit, with the dro-m'athra as her corrupted-khajiit minions or something? except i thought dro-m'athra originated from the moon beast? anyways, ahnissi only said that the great darkness became namiira. didn't say that was a bad thing necessarily. - also, her khajiiti ta'agra name, namiira, just so happens to be her protonym, NA MII RA.

noctra: - oh, so they do have nocturnal, as "noctra". - wait, so she's the "daughter of twilight"??? isn't twilight, idk, azura's thing???? (i feel like i've heard nocturnal be associated with twilight before, but it still makes little sense. it was probably from eso, too.) - boethra separated noctra from namiira. one could say she *stole* noctra from namiira ;) - noctra is ok by the khajiit, whereas her progenitor namiira is not. ok?

varmiina: - ok we have vaermina now too i guess. why the fuck not. - "The Lost Daughter. This spirit was not of any litter, but was born from Fadomai's fear of losing her children." - "Azurah killed this dark spirit in the Underworld" what the fuck is "the Underworld". they just be making shit up now

[?????] (no, really. that's what it says. dunno if that's a placeholder or intentional): - "[?????] A spirit of vengeance. It has no will of its own, as it was born from Azurah's grief after the death of Fadomai and Lorkhaj." ????? - "It sometimes appears in songs as a black panther, a warrior in ebony armor, or as a hidden sword." idk about "a black panther," but the "warrior in ebony armor" evokes ebonarm, who's technically still canon, and "a hidden sword" could be umbra. not sure what the connection here is.

[lumi-klovstad-games]

I have entirely too many OCs and I won’t ever stop

So, I will list all my OCs here, active or not. I couldn’t just keep reblogging my earlier masterlist with updates because, well, wall of text much?

I try to make sure I have at least 1 character representing each race. Not all of them are canonically Dragonborn, but I’ve marked those who are with (DK) after their name, short for Dovahkiin.

And yes, this is just my Skyrim OCs. Mostly because I play it the most (hi, endless supply of easily installed mods!), and because if I added my ESO, Oblivion, Morrowind, Daggerfall, and Arena OCs, this list would almost literally never stop.

Feel free, nay, ENCOURAGED, to drop asks about these characters because I live to blab about them to anyone in earshot (why else do you run a TES blog?).

First, the actives.

Dunmer: Radene Valos. Great-granddaughter of Queen Barenziah. Nords call her “The Red Wolf” because of how ferociously she fights, usually out of a fearful and begrudging respect. Staunch revolutionary; real Magneto/Lenin red-ragger type. She’s out to improve the lot of the Dunmer in Skyrim by any means necessary and woe betide any who stands in her way or fails to help. Member of the Morag Tong and champion of Azura, Mephala, and Boethiah. Worming her way through the Stormcloaks so she can engineer a situation where all the rotten eggs of the Stormcloaks are in one basket and then blow up the basket. Also steadily poisoning most of the Black-Briar family in slow motion.

Altmer: Tarwen Verenandes (DK), a former Thalmor battlemage during the Great War. Disgusted by the violence on full display during the conflict, she resigned after the war and became a priestess of Auri-El. Her devout piety led to her being chosen by Auri-El/Akatosh to be the Last Dragonborn, and she was also gifted with being able to use Auri-El’s divine light as the basis of her spells.

Khajit: Sonn-Ja Sableclaw, an expert martial artist and assassin. Works for the Dark Brotherhood and is utterly loyal to Astrid. Prefers fisticlaws to weapons, and is absolutely lethal with them. Keeps a massive collection of knives and daggers anyway. Chose to be best friends with Arnbjorn purely for the irony. Worships Rajhin and Baan Dar.

Argonian: Murders-For-Cash, who is exactly what it says on the tin. Also Dark Brotherhood, and a Shadowscale like Veezara, who he treats like a brother. Willing to supervise children and surprisingly good at it but charges exorbitant rates for it. Worships Sithis.

Nord: Lady Gwendolyn Triggs (DK), a knight and thane in the service of Elisif the Fair and also her companion and lover. Noted for her bravery, loyalty, strength, skill in battle, and being steadfastly impossible to kill. Not part of the Imperial Legion any longer, but assists them in their operations during the Civil War anyway to both safeguard Elisif’s claim as High Queen and further her own political standing so that marriage can be an option for them. Worships the 8 post-Concordat Divines, but gives special devotion to Stendarr.

Redguard: Akivasha, an ancient Yokudan vampire Witch Queen who has awakened in the modern era. Practically a physical God. Hangs with the Dark Brotherhood because it’s the only group that has Gabriella in it. Far and away my most overpowered OC and in no way does it make her less fun. Worships Mephala and Boethiah, and begrudgingly acknowledges Molag Bal as the forefather of all vampires.

Imperial: Yezka of Vabonne, an OC who began as just a Rule 63 Geralt of Rivia. She’s a Witcher*. Like Gwendolyn, she’s easily picked out of a crowd due to her pronounced Warrior’s physique and tapestry of battle scars (I have a type). She dislikes political games, roundabout language, beating around the bush, social injustice, marginalization of the vulnerable, and has come to have a steady slow-burning hatred for humans as a general category because of the way she’s been treated over her six decades of monster hunting (she’s 93, but Witchers age super gracefully no matter the timeline). She fits in far better among Orcs, Elves, and the Beast Races who have also been so often mistrusted and ill-treated and has a lot of contacts in those communities. Oddly enough, she has a friends-with-benefits thing going with the vampires Hern and Hert at Half-Moon Mill in Falkreath because they only prey on humans and she’s never been hired to kill them. Worships Reyman Ebonarm, The Divine Black Knight.

?????: The Marked Cinder (DK), a mysterious figure completely shrouded from head to toe in rusty mail and plate that totally obscures his appearance, hiding the fact that he is essentially a charred and withered husk given new life by The Nine Divines. Doesn’t know it, but is no stranger to saving the world as the previous life of that body came to be known as The Eternal Champion during the events of Elder Scrolls Arena. Doesn’t really like or dislike anything, essentially serving as a walking meat grinder with a hunger for the forces of evil. Is closest to Arkay and Akatosh, but tends to regard the gods with equal authority and reverence.

* In my headcanon, Witchers were a kind of Spartan-II-esque initiative by the Vigilants of Stendarr to create “Super Vigilants” that could basically handle anything and everything. Thanks to the systematic alterations done to their physiology, the Witchers proved too difficult to control and due to the body count that arose whenever one went rogue it was a short-lived initiative. Yezka is among those that stayed loyal to the mission, if not to the Vigilants themselves. She’s easily my tallest character, towering over most fellow humans and slightly edging out a fully grown female Altmer due to the mutations she underwent.

Rest in Pepperonis: Inactive Characters I ran out of story for

Bosmer: Vynna the Magpie, a highly talented thief and general renegade with a fiercely vengeful streak towards the Thalmor, and Elenwyn in particular, thanks to their purge of Vynna’s family and village. Married to vengeance, will sleep with everyone else. Best archer of her era. Despite her gruff and macabre bearing and demeanor, plays the organized crime game well enough to be called the Queen-In-Shadows. Worships Y'ffre and Hircine.

Dunmer: Ineria Resvalyn, a Telvanni-descended blood mage and necromancer (her magic is big on total recycling) hailing from House Sadras. Scholar and surgeon first, adventurer second. Eccentric and catastrophically bad at dealing with normal people but makes up for it by having an indispensable skillset. Probably Asperger’s. Can Dunmer even have that? Big on Azura worship.

Breton: Fynnic Ironverse, privateer and bard by trade, full-time Casanova and pain the the ass insufferable know it all by nature. As quick with a blade as he is with his wit. Known far and wide for being the Troubadour who brought the Chicken Dance to Skyrim, for better or worse. His major at the Bard’s College was probably leaning against lampposts at night while taking long drags from his cigarette. Atheist, but his lifestyle aligns neatly with Sanguine’s domain.

Imperial: Alessia Laguardia (DK), former centurion in the Imperial Legion. now a top-tier monster Hunter. Big muscles, bigger scars, even bigger prey. Lives a largely solitary existence except for her dog, Flavia. Fond of impossibly gigantic swords and bows. Largely averse to what most would call decent clothing. Worships Kynareth.

Orc: Khauma Relaadri (DK), winner of Skyrim’s Unluckiest Parentage Award. Half Orc, Half Dunmer. Spat upon by both. Found acceptance in the Imperial Legion, and fights for the unified Empire she feels it represents. Her greatest goal is to be a hero, as it would both please Malacath and serve as a positive role model and example to other put-upon people throughout Tamriel that they can rise, no matter their circumstances. Worships Malacath.

There’s a ton of other characters that I’ve played as over the last 8 years, but above you’ll find the characters I was attached to enough to actually care to remember or keep playing.

[hircines-meatloaf]

Tagged by : @ash-yam-stew (thank haha)

Rules: answer the questions and then tag 20 people

name: can call me Kat :)

nicknames: Katlyn

zodiac sign(s): Pisces

gender: female

sexuality: shrug emoji I’d go with ‘straight, probably’

favorite color: I don’t dislike many colours! But most of my favourites usually lie somewhere around red, purple, blue, teal and green. So like half of the colour wheel lmao

time right now: 14:11

average hours of sleep: it’s either 4 1/2 - 6 or straight up 12, almost never inbetween

the last thing i googled: “do insects have blood or just goo”

number of blankets: 6 excluding my duvets and such

favorite fictional character: I mean it would be impossible for me to give just one answer for this but 1. I agree with @ash-yam-stew because I would die for San from Princess Mononoke and 2. idk I’ve fallen into a rabbithole again and am once again really feeling Quicksilver from the X-men films because I love him so much

what are you wearing right now: Skyrim t-shirt lmao, a blue hoodie thing, marauders map pajama bottoms and wolf socks

favorite book: I mean haven’t read a whole lot for a long time but I like graphic novels a lot - The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is really good (written by Gerard Way too) and I’m going to take this opportunity to promo my other blog ;))) @beyond-the-furthest-zones because it’s related to it. The book-books I’m reading rn are Miss Peregrine’s and The Gospel of Loki

favorite musician/group: ok this one is also impossible to answer bc my music taste is all over the place. I basically like anything from Lady Gaga to Celtic Woman and Songleikr to My Chemical Romance and other pop punk and stuff to Rammstein to Eurodance to like Vocaloid so I mean, take your pick lmao

dream job: cryptid, Entity, ancient powerful Being, malicious voice in someone’s head, dragon. I’ve got options

number of followers: 14 currently on this blog!

when did you create your account: no idea my dude! I apparently made my first post about a month ago though so probably around then

what do you post about: I try to keep this blog mostly about Elder Scrolls stuff, but some other shitposts and stuff get mixed in sometimes because I have no self-control! As I sais I have a few other blogs but the only one you should probably worry about is @beyond-the-furthest-zones which is all about Danger Days and killjoys!

what made you get an account: Liked the idea of it, sent someone a message who was very kind and encouraging (Thank you so much Ray!) because I didn’t know if I should, and then ended up doing it! Not much more to it I don’t think

when did your blog reach its peak: It’s probably already gone who knows. Hopefully not since this blog is still a tiny fetus of a blog though

do you get asks on a daily basis: nah haha. But I do get really excited when I do :D

why did you choose your url: ...Hircine..meat..lof,,,,,,,Funnie

tagging: I don’t think I know 20 people in real life so ummmm sorry everyone I’m just tagging the same again! Don’t do it if you don’t want to! So idk @powerovernothing, @mudcrabby, @bakedsweetroll (because I feel bad for spamming your blog constantly)

[dalekofchaos]

Reasons to side with The Stormcloaks

So I made a post on why I believe The Imperials is the right choice in The Skyrim Civil War. An anon requested I do some suggestions for why The Stormcloaks are right. To be fair. I believe that both The Imperials and Stormcloaks are right and wrong in their own way. I just think it’s smarter to side with the Imperials. With that out of the way, let’s start with the pros and cons of the Stormcloaks

Pros

The Stormcloaks are right to rebel. When The Great War ended and The White-Gold Concordat was signed and The Empire and The Aldmeri Dominion made peace. Not only was the worship of Talos banned, The Blades were disbanded, the cession by the Empire of a large portion of southern Hammerfell to the Aldmeri Dominion and the right for the Thalmor to move throughout the Empire after the Empire didn't enforce the White-Gold Concordat, to hunt down both worshipers of Talos. So not only was the worship of Talos banned. But The Blades who guarded The Emperors for generations were forcefully disbanded, The Empire allowed The Thalmor to take a limited control over a portion of Hammerfell, showing Hammerfell how weak the Empire became and causing resentment to the Empire and The Thalmor Justiciars kidnaps and rounds up anyone who dares to worship Talos in secret or openly. When you allow the very force that you were fighting  in The Great war to kidnap innocent civilians in the dead of night from their own homes and for them to be tortured for their right to worship, you have shown Skyrim that you have failed her. The Stormcloaks are right to rebel

When The Empire made peace with The Aldmeri Dominion, the province of Hammerfell had to withdraw/be kicked out of The Empire and continue fighting on it’s own. The Thalmor has not managed to achieve their goals in Hammerfell, and the resistance is very much alive and well there. If they can do it, so can Skyrim.

Ralof is the first friend the Dragonborn makes regardless of what race you choose if you choose to go with him. 

Yes The Stormcloaks and mostly the population of Windhelm are racist. But it’s not as black and white as it may seem. The Gray Quarter. The assumption is that Ulfric forces The Dunmer to live in The Gray Quarter.  But with some research you would realize this to be quite untrue. The Dunmer are not forced to live anywhere. The live in nanny for the Cruel-Seas, and the owner of the Hlaalu farm do not. If Ulfric truly wanted to segregate them why do two Dunmer not live there? Consider this, the Dunmer probably moved to Windhelm right after the eruption of the Red Mountain or the Argonian invasion. Both of which happened before Ulfric was Jarl. So they must've lived in the Gray Quarter before Ulfric was in power. For whatever reason it must've fallen apart and became what it is today. You might be thinking, "Why doesn't Ulfric fix it?" He's in the middle of a war, it's a rebellion fighting an Empire, it's not going to be easy. Another reason is if they did ruin it on their own, it's not Ulfric's responsibility to fix it. If they destroyed it on their own, why would the Jarl have to spend tax payers dollers to fix something that's not even city property? The next is the Argonians, I actually don't think they are completely forbidden from entering the city. It's never said they can't go in at all? It's just said they can't live in it. Maybe they can't live in it because their is no room. Do you know four empty houses in Windhelm they could move into? Also, Shahvee bought an amulet of Zenithar. Where would she have gotten that from? Inside the city perhaps? Finallly, the Khajiit Caravans aren't allowed in any cities, Stormcloak or Imperial. So you can't just blame the Stormcloaks for that. Brunwulf Free-Winter says Ulfric only helps Nords who are in trouble as opposed to the other races. You can get a bounty form Jorleif to kill a giant that is attacking travelers. Which shows that Ulfric did do something for the non-Nords (I assume travelers are people foriegn to Skyrim). Also, even if he did do this he fails to consider something. That their are obviously more Nords in Skyrim then the other races. Meaning if a Nord village gets attacked a lot of innocent people will be hurt or die. While if a couple of Dunmer or Argonians are wondering around Skyrim less people would be hurt or killed. It's a needs of the many outweight the needs of the few sort of mentality.  

There has not been a true High King Of Skyrim for several generations. Generally when the High King Of Skyrim dies, The Emperor picks somebody to be his pawn King Of Skyrim in order to ensure that the people of the province is under Imperial control. In other words, The High King is sure to be somebody who foremost looks after the interest of The Emperor instead of the interests of his own people.

The Markarth Incident is a pro-Stormcloak argument. The book written in the game was propaganda. The Markarth incident was started by the Empire, not Ulfric. They were the ones who promised free worship to the Nord militia led by Ulfric due to being desperate. Ulfric did not do this because he was asked by the Thalmor, or as a plot to start the civil war. He simply wanted Nords to be able to freely worship and not hide like daedra worshippers. Igmund himself. They made the deal, Ulfric did his part of the deal, and then when the elves find out about it, what did the Empire do? They went through this short checklist. Is the province in question Cyrodiil? (Y/N) Since it's not. they threw Ulfric under the bus and reneged on the deal that THEY themselves made. So the Markarth incident was actually another pro-Stormcloak argument showing how exactly the Empire treats any province that isnt Cyrodiil (sacrificial lambs).And, the funny thing is, the entire reason the Forsworn Uprising even happened is because, yet again in Igmund's(A Empire supporter) own words : "When the Aldmeri Dominion invaded the Imperial City, the Legion all but turned a blind eye to the other provinces. Many of the disgruntled natives of the Reach used the opportunity to depose the Empire, and founded what they called an independent kingdom. It was little more than a chaotic uprising, but the Reach was removed from Imperial authority for two years before we reclaimed it." So from the start until the end, everything was the Empire's fault yet again.

A unified Skyrim with all its fierce warriors will be a match for the Dominion. And with a probable alliance between Skyrim and the weak but still standing province of Hammerfell, The Aldmeri Dominion will have a real fight on their hands. The other provinces(Cyrodiil and High Rock) will have to either stand by and watch the war, or join this new “Alliance Of Tamriel” against The Dominion. Since everyone more or less knows that the war between Mer and Men could and will start any day now, these provinces will probably have to join in pretty soon in order to in longterm protect/save themselves. Cyrodiil will have to go back to being a kingdom when Skyrim becomes independent, since High Rock probably doesn’t want to be part of a two province only empire.

With The Stormcloaks in charge of Skyrim, the disbanded and scattered Blades now have a safehaven where they once again can gather and regrow, protected by the people and armies of Skyrim from The Thalmor who have been hunting them for decades within the very borders of The Empire.  The Blades might play a big part in uniting the various armies against The Aldmeri Dominion.

You might be thinking that Skyrim and the Stormcloaks aren’t strong enough to fight The Thalmor, well no. First of all, the Nords have been fighting Elves for years. Why would the Dominion be any different? Most would say, “the whole Empire couldn’t beat them, how would only the Nords do it?”. Actually, though the Empire was wounded, the Dominion was also very weakened. Their main general was killed and every soldier in Cyordiil. That was one of the largest armies ever assmbled in Elven history. And since Elves reproduce slower, they would probably have a much harder time recovering. Hammerfell alone was able to beat them, and they were just as hurt as Cyordiil from the Great War, they also had a civil war between the Crowns and the Forbears before that. So Hammerfell was not in a good position and yet they still beat the Dominion. Why can’t Skyrim? Also, they could make an alliance with Hammerfell and the two of them could work together. Also, the Stormcloaks offered High Rock an allaince, they didn’t instantly reject them which shows that they might be thinking about it. These three nations would put up one hell of a fight for the Dominion.

Despite what the dossier of Ulfric said. Ulfric is not an agent of The Thalmor. The reason the Thalmor would consider him an asset is because he might help start a war in Skyrim. That's what the Thalmor want, a long drawn bloody war. They actually say in the Dossier "A Stormcloak victory is to be avoided". If the war is ended quickly the Thalmor won't get the benefit because little lives and resources will have been lost.

If The Dragonborn aids The Stormcloaks. We have a likely chance of the story of Tiber Septim being paralleled with The Last Dragonborn. Right hand man to the High King Of Skyrim. Master Of The Voice eventually becoming Emperor. In Morrowind The Nerevarine unites the five houses of Morrowind and the Ashlanders, brings an end to The Tribunal, stops Dagoth Ur thus completing the Nerevarine Prophecy, completes the Bloodmoon Prophecy(in which he fucking fights The Daderic Prince Hircine!), kills the god Almalexia, gains the corpus disease and becomes immortal and goes on a expedition to Akavir. In Oblivion The Hero Of Kvatch/Champion Of Cyrodiil finds the heir to the Emperor, helps Martin Septim become Emperor, shuts down the Oblivion gates stopping the Dadera horde, Martin Septim sacrifices himself and becomes the avatar of Akatosh to stop Mehrunes Dagon and ends the Oblivion Crisis. The Hero Of Kvatch becomes The Champion Of Cyrodiil  and is known and celebrated throughout Cyrodiil for what we did to stop the Oblivion Crisis. then finds the relics of the crusader, becomes the divine crusader and defeats Umaril the Unfeathered. And lastly The Hero Of Kvatch goes to The Shivering Isles, does the bidding of Sheogorath, ends The Greymarch, stops Jyggalag and becomes the new Sheogorath. As for Skyrim, The Last Dragonborn fulfills the prophecy as Dragonborn and stops Alduin from ending the world, stops Harkon from plunging the world in eternal darkness and travels to Solstheim to stop Miraak, The First Dragonborn. I feel that Miraak is the true climax of the story. The First Dragonborn fighting The Last Dragonborn. Fight to the death between Dragonborns. That for me is basically the ultimate culmination of the game.  But I find it dissatisfying because it just doesn’t feel like anywhere near the level to The Shivering Isles or Tribunal. We don’t become a Daedric Prince or immortal. If anything I feel a new story DLC should be given where The Last Dragonborn becomes the new Emperor of Tamriel. Not High King, Emperor. Tidus Mede II is dead, we know nothing of heirs of The Meade Dynasty and it shouldn’t be unthinkable to assume that the Last Dragonborn can’t become The Emperor. Talos was Dragonborn and it was the Dragonblood that made the Septim Dynasty and a dragonborn who made Tamriel united. Skyrim was on the verge of seceding like Hammerfell did, most likely The Imperial side won canonically(which is for the best, Ulfric did exactly what The Thalmor wanted to divide and conquer so the Empire can fall easy in the next war) as for The Blades, the next duty of The Blades would be to guide The Dragonborn on the path of becoming Emperor because what else are they meant to do? What else can they do? Alduin is dead and it is the duty of The Blades to guide The Dragonborn and to protect The Emperor. The Dragonborn as Emperor can make the Empire stronger reunite Tamriel and unite a strong Tamriel against The Thalmor. Here’s why with The Dragonborn The Stormcloaks has a chance at stopping The Thalmor. Dragons. Depending if you choose to kill or spare Paarthurnax. You either gain Paarthurnax as an ally who spreads the way of the voice to the other Dovah or The Dragons recognize your Thu’um as the strongest and Alduin’s lordship is passed on to you.  Either way after Miraak’s defeat, The Last Dragonborrn becomes the most powerful being in all of Tamriel. He is the Harbinger Of The Companions, so The Companions can aid The Stormcloaks with their most strongest warriors, The Dragonborn restores The Bllades to their former glory. Guildmaster of The Thieve’s Guild, so Thieves can steal powerful artifacts that benefit The Thalmor, Archmage Of The College Of Winterhold, while Nords do not trust Mages, they will trust their Archmage and The Mages’ power of the arcane can rival that of the High Elves. Listener Of The Dark Brotherhood. As The Listener The Dark Brotherhood, he can arrange the deaths of important and high up Thalmor in power. He is the new Lord of the Volkihar Clan(let’s face it, absolutely no one chose to side with the Dawnguard) The Dragonborn is Champion to the Daedra. And with The Dragonborn being in service to  Hermaeus Mora, we have a chance to obtain Thalmor knowledge for our Daedric Prince of knowledge. Skyrim’s leadership needs to change. The current leadership of Skyrim needs to be destroyed. And that’s because Jarl Balgruuf can’t even maintain his own hold. It’s a crumbling piece of ruins, even before the dragons came back. Whiterun was a shadow of it’s former self. It used to be this massive trade hub, under Balgruuf, it’s garbage. Riften is a den of corruption and Jarl Lalia who has a carriage ready in case Riften falls to Imperials. It’s fitting that at least Riften’s leader survives but leaves it’s people to the mercy of Maven Black-Briar or the dragons. Each Jarl in Skyrim is equally incompetent. If Skyrim becomes independent, they will all be incompetent together meaning the province will fall that much faster. The only potential that Skyrim has to endure for a good period of time is get better leadership. The Thalmor do not want to conquer  men. The Thalmor want to deactivate the towers, destroy the race of men and remake Nirn so that they can be gods again. And it is our duty to stop this. With the Civil War over, Aludin, Harkon and Miraak defeated, what is there for the Dragonborn to do? Become Emperor and bring an end to The Thalmor. In almost ever Elder Scrolls games, the guild questlines are canon, so The Dragonborn kills Emperor Titus Mede II. The Dragonborn would lead the Stormcloaks to victory and The Dragonborn declares himself the new Dragonborn Emperor of the true Empire of Tamriel. He began a war with the old Empire of Tamriel and conquered it. Let’s say The Dragonborn walks into the Elder Council chambers and declares he killed Titus Mede II and declares himself Emperor. And pretty much everyone is calling for the Dragonborn’s death. But guess what the Dragonborn does next? BEND WILL! The Dragonborn uses the Bend Will shout on the Elder Council and the Elder Council declares you the Emperor of Tamriel. Now not only do we get a new Dragonborn Emperor, but we also have an army of dragons to join us. Paarthurnax could be convinced to join and lead the dragons on the path to the way of the voice to fight for The Dragonborn or if you do kill Paarthurnax, you gain Alduin’s lordship and the dragons will follow you. So you have an army of dragons and Paarthurnax as your ally. Where Tiber Septim had his personal dragon Nafaalilargus, The Dragonborn has Odahving. So with the combined might of  The Last Dragonborn, Dragons, the guilds and the Stormcloaks, The Thalmor will be stopped and The Summerset Isles will  be burned to ashes.  

Cons

Ulfric is power hungry and his bigoted nature and making Skyrim independent and isolationists will be a disaster. Ulfric does not care about Nords or Skyrim, all Ulfric cares about is Ulfric. and in his Thalmor Dossier, it is said that the war benefits the Thalmor, dragging it on bleeds the empire, divide and conquer.

The Stormcloak Jarls are either just dicks or generally incompetent. Skald is so dumb and arrogant to believe that Dragons have returned because of the Talos ban.  Laila-Law Giver is so blind to the corruption and crime that Maven is behind it all and she turns a blind eye to it. The Silverbloods gain power in Markarth. The bastards who jailed us for asking questions become Jarl. They are responsible for the majority of deaths in the city and used the Forsworn as slaves. Korir is blinded by his hatred of the mages to see they weren’t responsible for the great collapse. Vignar may be an asshole but he is willing to fight for Whiterun. As far as I’m concerned, the only Stormcloak Jarls worth keeping in power are  Sorli, and  Dengeir

The mistreatment of non-Nords in Windhelm is bad enough(not even Imperial smith in Whiterun is allowed to do anything in a Stormcloak Whiterun), but for all the holds, that will just bite Ulfric on his ass.

A free and independent Skyrim sounds good on paper but not so convincing in practice. It would only last so long before some spin-off of the Empire got pissed at the Stormcloaks. Probably people who aren’t Nords who are sick of being treated as second-rate crap, so there’d likely be yet another Civil War that would further destabalize the northern province.

The fight between High King Torygg was not Traditional Nordic Duel, it was not the old way. Yes Ulfric did challenge Torygg to the old way. But The Voice was not a just and fair combat. The Greybeards forbid the use of the voice in combat and it is not The Nords’ way.  Given what Torygg tells the player in Sovrnguard, he did have a chance to defend himself.    "When Ulfric Stormcloak, with savage Shout, sent me here, my sole regret was fair Elisif, left forlorn and weeping."   "I faced him fearlessly - my fate inescapable, yet my honor is unstained - can Ulfric say the same?" Now, with dialogue from Sybille Stentor, We can start to see the Duel/Murder of High King Torygg was unnecessary, and Ulfric was more into taking the throne than succeeding from the Empire. She states that Torygg, if asked by Ulfric, Torygg may have stood up against the Empire. Skyrim could have seceded peacefully, like Hammerfell did long ago. Instead, with the killing of Torygg, war sparked. The civil war began.

Skyrim seceding from the Empire would be bad. From Sybille Stentor you ask about Torygg and said he respected Ulfric and that why he killed him is because Ulfric needed a symbol and if Ulfric asked him to declare Skyrim’s independece he might have done so. But Torygg knew that would be a bad idea. Why didn't Torygg ever declare independence? "Because the Dominion is a sleeping beast that Skyrim cannot slay alone. Because many Nords are part of the Imperial army even now. Because the food and resources we get from the Empire are important to our people. Because even if we can't openly worship him, Talos the god was once Tiber Septim the man, and this is his Empire. And Torygg wasn't ready to let it fall apart."

A Stormcloak victory is pretty bad.  Skyrim will no longer be part of the Empire. You now have a weak Empire and a weak Stormcloak rebellion. The Thalmor/Aldmeri Diminion will war with them, defeating the weakened Empire with ease. Though, unlike the Empire, the Stormcloaks have more of a chance to make allies, the Thalmor is large enough to defeat the singe-Provence rebellion.