A while back, I had considered restarting Morrowind with a new character because I had felt that using a Nord of the Skyrim Province who was supposed to be a reincarnate of a heralded Dunmer (Dark Elf) hero was a bit far fetched. I thought that playing a Dunmer would be more appropriate. After I had thought about that decision and slept on it, I continued with my Nord, just to see what would happen and if the main quest line would make any more sense with an "Outlander," believing that Bethesda knew what they were doing, otherwise when beginning the game, you would have only been able to choose to be a Dunmer. In the end, I am very glad that I continued as that decision gave rise to my new character for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the Dunmer Ashlander, Talaq Ashburnab (same-ish name as the other Tal'aq, but different alltogehter. I just like the sound of the name).
First off, how Valgrin of Markarth, the incarnate Nerevarine of Indoril Nerevar, a Dunmer General from the 1st Era influenced the events that take place in Oblivion.
Emperor Uriel Septim VII sees that in the future he will be assassinated, his death is already foretold. In this vision a prisoner helps him seal the gates of Oblivion which his assassination have brought about. This is the in-game plot for Oblivion. In the game Morrowind, Uriel Septim VII sends a prisoner who is born under a specific star sign, whom he believes will fulfill the Nerevarine Prophesy and release Morrowind and those living in Vvardenfell from the blight brought about by Dagoth Ur, who is residing at the heart of Red Mountain, in the center of Vvardenfell. This is the in-game plot of Morrowind.
In Morrowind, I chose to be a Nord because it seemed like a good idea, having just played 150+ hours in Skyrim and I knew that I wanted to play a tank-like character. Thus, Valgrin of Markarth was brought into being. During the main quest, your character comes upon many different factions of Dunmer throughout Vvardenfell. One of these is a tribe of Ashlanders, the Urshilaku, who are the group that sets your character ahead on his quest to fulfill the Nerevarine Prophecy and the first group/clan/tribe to recognize him as such. I decided that this is where Talaq would originate from.
So Talaq was influenced by an Outlander being the Nerevarine. This opened up his view of other races and began to deteriorate his prejudices of other races that were not Dunmer. Knowing that the Nerevarine was a Nord (using my game from Morrowind as a canon storyline), Talaq wished to visit this land that the Nerevarine came from. Being an Ashlander, a relatively poor nomadic tribe of Dunmer, Talaq had very little in the way of way of payment to find travel into Skyrim. In the village of Khull, the Khajiit shipmaster S'virr tells Talaq that he can give him free passage to Skyrim by way of Solstheim after picking up/dropping off a shipment. Free passage is dependent on Talaq transporting goods to both Fort Frostmoth and to the port in Windhelm. Talaq agrees to this.
Unbeknownst to Talaq, S'virr fell in with the Nord smuggler Brurid and is smuggling Skooma and Moon Sugar. While disembarking, members of the East Empire Company call attention to S'virr's boat and Imperial soldiers begin searching the cargo and find the contraband. The imperial guards begin questioning Talaq on the docks. A group of Dunmer witness the Imperial's verbal and physical abuse of Talaq and rush to his unasked-for aid. During the skirmish, one Imperial is killed along with the two Dunmer who attempted to help. Talaq was imprisoned as he was believed to be connected with the two dead Dunmer. Because Imperial soldiers were killed, Talaq was taken to Cyrodiil and imprisoned under the charge of "an assault on the Emperor's men, is the same as an assault on the Emperor".
While being processed, Talaq chose the surname "Ashurnab," after the Daedra shrine Assurnabitashipi to the west of the Urshilaku Camp. Talaq did not wish to disgrace his family, yet chose and slightly altered a word/name that he already knew. Coincidentally, in reality and in-game, the Assurnabitashipi shrine is dedicated to Mehrunes Dagon, the instigator of the Oblivion Crisis.
The way that I see this story unfolding, is that Uriel Septim saw an Ashlander at the time of his death and his visions regarding the Nerevarine Prophecy came to him, he saw a way of bringing an Ashlander, a group not normally seen outside of Morrowind, to Cyrodiil. Uriel, however did not know anything about the Ashlander that he saw in his visions, only that by perhaps helping to fulfill the Nerevarine Prophecy, would this Ashlander somehow end up in Cyrodiil.
And now, I present to you Talaq Ashurnab, freshly released/escaped from prison:
Without a helmet on, Talaq sports the traditional Dunmer top knot. I do wish that I could have figured out a way to make his cheeks a little more gaunt, similar to the way that the Dunmer look in Skyrim, or you know, Danny Trejo. I didn't have a specific age for Talaq, hence not bringing up the year of his birth in relation to the storylines of Morrowind and Oblivion, and really, it's probably not that important.
I see Talaq as someone who, having seen the power and influence of an Outlander Nerevarine believes that helping people, to a certain extent can be beneficial. As with other Ashlanders, he will not question the decision to kill someone who insults or threatens him. And as with most/all Dunmer, he has a strong dislike/disgust for necromancers (which is how I justified diverging from the main quest so early on and routed a keep full of necromancers and their ilk.
He is still pretty naive though, because he is still pseudo-young so he's bound to do some stupid things. Sure, why not.
So that's my character that I've created to play, at least through the main questline, in Oblivion.
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