Origin Stories Part III: The Elder Scrolls: Arena

I just finished The Elder Scrolls: Chapter I: Arena earlier in the week after I don't know how many hours.  The point of the game is to traverse across the continent of Tamriel to find eight pieces of a staff that was broken in order to defeat a battlemage masquerading as the current Emperor, Uriel Septim VII.  Think the first The Legend of Zelda set in Tolkien's Middle Earth.  There you go.

As previously stated, fast traveling between towns is a must since walking 1 km in-game will take about two hours in real time.  A lot of cities are 100+km apart (or at least the ones that you need to get to) and that's just in the same province.  I had previously gone into my method of playing the game, but that was before I seriously began collecting the pieces of the Staff of Chaos.  By about the fourth piece, I changed my tactic quite a bit as ransacking random dungeons became tedious and there was no long a point to collecting gold as I already had upwards of 200,000 at any given time.

But that's not the point of today's post.  Today, I wanted to nerd-out about the story and the lore behind the games in the Elder Scrolls series and anyone who has been reading knows that I like (have to) create origin and backstories for characters and why they're doing what it is that they're doing.  So I'm going to be doing that again.

The Elder Scrolls: Chapter I: Arena begins with your character being thrown into the dungeons underneath the Imperial Palace in Cyrodiil (then unnamed beyond "Imperial Province) and the year is 3E 389.  I figured that my female Bosmer (Wood Elf) Silandra was some kind of assistant/handmaiden to whomever the delegant from whichever city state she hailed from in Valenwood at the Imperial Court was before Jagar Tharn impersonated Uriel Septim VII and imprisoned everyone else.  That's when the game of TES: Arena takes over.  It was a simple backstory that didn't require too much thought or planning.  

I didn't have anything else for Silandra before she became a handmaiden to the court delegate.  It wasn't important, at least to me, so I went with it without any further additions.

Then the gears started moving again once I began my search for the final piece of the Staff of Chaos which turned out was located in [SPOILER] Red Mountain in Vvardenfell, Morrowind, or also known as Dagoth-Ur.  Yes, the same as that Dagoth Ur, but without the hyphen.  So here is what happened, at least in my Elder Scrolls universe:

Dagoth Ur's body/spirit was resting/building strength in the heart of Red Mountain, but still not at his full strength.  When the person later to be known as the Eternal Champion entered Red Mountain (passing under the Ghostfence and avoiding Vivec's Ordinators) and claimed the last piece of the Staff of Chaos, it emitted a surge of power that gave Dagoth Ur a renewed source of energy that allowed him to spread the blight disease beyond the Ghostfence surrounding the base of Red Mountain. 

In my game time, this happened around 3E 394 Rains Hand, (Lore time span in 389-399) and it would still be another 33 years before the events in Morrowind would take place.  It would be interesting to note that in 3E 400, members of the Sixth House would use the tunnel found/created by the Eternal Champion to re-establish themselves outside of Red Mountain in their former stronghold of Kogorhun, north of Red Mountain.   Additionally, the power from the reformed staff allowed would Dagoth Ur to reclaim Sunder and Keening (two Dwemer artifacts) when Almalexia and Sotha Sil re-entered Red Mountain to strengthen the Ghostfence in 3E 417.  This ultimately leads to Almalexia and Sotha Sil withdrawing from "public life," leading to the "downfall" of the Tribunal. [/SPOILER]

I'm sure there is more that I could integrate from the official lore of the series, but I am not entirely that knowledgable and I haven't completed all of the expansions for Morrowind (Tribunal & Bloodmoon).  And thinking about this now, once I finish with Oblivion, I'll probably go through Skyrim again with all of this completed backstory in mind but at the moment, I'm not sure how I will work in my character and the events in Daggerfall, but that might just have to be something that develops as I play the game.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Caught By Your Divine Spell

Return to Morrowind: The Fall of the Nerevarine

I finished Morrowind quite a while ago although I never wrote a followup to my First Impressions article, mainly because I couldn't think of something insightful to say that hadn't already been said my the people who already love that game over all other games in The Elder Scrolls series.  I will simply say that I love Morrowind too for what it was back in 2002 and for what it is here in 2014.  

Just as a warning, there will be SPOILERS in the following section that cannot be avoided as they pertain to events that happen to the main character in the game relating to the main storyline.  You have been warned.

What I'm here to talk about is the evolution of my character, Valgrin of Markarth, whom I briefly covered in my first post about Morrowind.  In that post, I said that Valgrin was born somewhere in the province of Skyrim, probably sometime around 3E-400 (27 years before the beginning of Morrowind).  Stuff happens around the city of Markarth that lands him in prison, possibly Cidhna Mines and as there is little known history as to how long Cidhna Mines have been in operation as a prison, we'll still go with that story.  Eventually he is shipped off to Morrowind by decree of Emperor Uriel Septim VII as is told at the beginning of the game.

The story events happen in Morrowind including Valgrin contracting Corpus Disease although the symptoms are nullified through events in the game.  Additionally, Valgrin receives the Wraithguard gauntlet from Vivec in the later stages of the game.  I decided that Wraithguard, upon equipping it, has fused to Valgrin's arm.  I haven't decided if this has to do with the Corpus Disease or if it is simply something that just made sense in my head.  I also based the following events on what is known to have happened to the Nerevarine from various sources of information.

So Valgrin of Markarth, now known as the Nerevarine has a disease that affects the mind and body as well as a gauntlet that has fused to his arm.  

The main reason for all of this is that I wanted to increase the stats of the skills that I did not focus on during the main campaign and do side quests in both the main game and expansions that I did not have a chance to do the first time around.  My Light and Medium Armor skills were very low, so I began equipping bits of armor I found, replacing the Nordic Mail I had been wearing since starting the Bloodmoon expansion.  So I have decided that Valgrin was becoming slowly crazy, as an explanation for wearing non-matching pieces of armor.  It made sense in my head.

If you recall from my initial post, when I started the main storyline in Morrowind, Valgrin looked like this:

By the end of the game, roughly 120 hours later, he had developed into an ass kicking Nordic tank sporting primarily Ebony and Daedric armor; I apparently did not care about wearing the heaviest armor in the game.

Although his outward appearance has started to become erratic, I have not changed his overall behavior towards the other NPCs and I am continuing to complete quests as they come in.  He still acts the same as he did before the effects of the Corpus Disease and Wraithguard, but he is not outwardly carrying himself as he did before.  During one of the quests in the Bloodmoon expansion, I came across a creature that used a severed Nord leg as a club that I have held onto.  I figure that along with Valgrin's conglomeration of armor from various sources, that he will end up only equipped with this semi grotesque clubbed weapon (not depicted here however).

Yes, a bug helmet.

I think my endgame is that eventually he will act erratically enough that he might start killing people just because (although that might be pretty extreme), although I am sure that most of us have gone on killing sprees right after saving knowing that we would not be saving after.  After I have decided that I am done playing Valrin, he will be lost from Vvardenfell, possibly becoming a hermit, with history only remembering that an Outlander was found to be the Nerevarine and was never heard from again after a certain amount of time.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
And Everything Needs A Reason To Be

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion ~ New Character Story

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.  

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Instrumental

And Thus, Do We Begin Anew?

Roughly 68 hours is the amount of time that I've currently invested in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.  That's quite a bit of time, but not necessarily so for a sandbox game (do sandboxes still exist?).  That being said, I just started doing the main quest portion of the game.  Whut!?  For those who have not played Morrowind, I was told by the main quest giver to go out in the world and learn some things, gain some experience before coming back.  I took that shit to heart and now Valgrin of Markarth has become the guildmaster of the Fighter's Guild in Vvardenfell.  With the exception of an in-game week spent trudging around Solstheim, most of my time was spent trudging throughout Vvardenfell, typically to areas that I could not travel to either by boat or Silt Strider.

So I feel like I am at a crossroads of sorts.  For nearly 70 hours I have been playing as Valgrin of Markarth, a Nord from the Skyrim Province.  The story of Morrowind is that your character, as I currently see it, is The Nerevarine, a reincarnated Dunmer (Dark Elf) general from 1E-416 (roughly 3828 years in the past) who will reunite the fractured houses of Morrowind and banish all outlanders/foreigners.

So here is my dilemma.  Why would a Nord be the one that reunites the houses of the Dunmer?  Wouldn't it make sense for their "savior" to be of Dunmer blood?  Do you think that an entire nation would rally around a foreign born person whom some people believe to be this, Nerevarine?  Not to mention that there are some houses that are purely secular and vehemently oppose the Nerevarine Prophesy.  Why not then create a Dunmer for this story to make sense to me?

This is where I am at.  Also keep in mind that I have only completed the first quest in the main questline. I do not think that Bethesda and Zenimax are foolish enough to create a storyline that would only make sense if you chose a particular race.  I feel that there should/needs to be an explanation as to why the Nerevarine could potentially be a female Breton who dabbles in magic and not the expected male Dunmer tank.  I need to believe that this is possible.

Last night upon realizing that in the main quest that my character would most likely be the Nerevarine, I saved the game, paused it, looked over at Conklederp and simply said, "Ah, well shit."  I then tried to explain my feelings without sounding like a complete anal retentive idiot.  I think I may have succeeded.  So I went ahead and created a new character who would follow a different path than Valgrin.

I present to you Tal'aq Nevalu.  A Dunmer, originally from Firewatch in the North-East of the Morrowind Province.  In 3E-412 Tal'aq was imprisoned in the Cyrodiil after attempting to steal from an Imperial caravan headed for the Imperial fort.  Of the five theives that attacked the caravan, three were killed, one escaped and Tal'aq was captured.  Because two Imperials were killed during the skirmish, Tal'aq was sent to the Imperial capital to be imprisoned for crimes against the empire.  Tal'aq spent 15 years in the prisons of the Imperial City, until Uriel Septim VII begins sending those born under a specific birthsign.  In 3E-427, Tal'aq is chosen as one to be sent to Vvardenfell and is given a pardon upon reaching the shores.

***BREAKING NEWS***

While doing research for this article, I have discovered something that might "allow" me to continue to play as Valgrin and complete the main questline.  So Indoril Nerevar died/was killed in 1E-416 during a war with the Dwemer against the Nords at the Battle of Red Mountain.  So, so, SO, it could be possible that Indoril Nerevar could have been reincarnated into the body of a Nord due to their connection around the time of his death.  This little bit, may be the thing that validates using Valgrin for the remainder of the main questline.

That being said/discovered, I don't think I will get rid of Tal'aq Nevalu as I would like to experience the different storylines associated with the Thieves Guild and I might even (eventually) create a mage-type person to complete the quests of the Mage's Guild.  That's just how I like to play.

So thank you Two Boys and Their Blog, for possibly saving me from having to bulk up a new character (although it is a character I like) in order to complete the game and possibly add another 30+ hours before finding out what happens with the main story.  Whew!

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Have We Lived In Vain?

Long Overdue: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC)

Disclaimer: The following article is written from the perspective of one who has only finished Skyrim and played parts (the beginning) of The Arena and barely started Daggerfall, so all judgements aside.  I would also like to disclaim that I am probably going to be all over the place and while this would normally fall under the "First Impressions" heading, after 35 hours, I feel like I've glided past First Impressions and moved to "OMG, here's stuff about how I've played the game," but that doesn't sound as classy.

I bought The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind sometime around the beginning of this year when it was X% off through a Steam sale (which is pretty much how/why I buy most/all PC games now), mainly because in the last year I've become a fan of the Elder Scrolls series.  I am also a fan of the composer Jeremy Soule, who a while back I found out was the composer for the Elder Scroll series, Icewind Dale I & II and the Neverwinter Nights series.

First off, So Morrowind was released way back in May of 2002 on both PC and Xbox, although I will only be referring to the PC release.  The in-game chronology takes place in 3E-421, whereas The Arena takes place in 3E-399 and Daggerfall in 3E-405.  For reference, Skyrim takes place in 4E-201 with the 3rd Era ending in 3E-433 after the events in the Oblivion Crisis (Oblivion 4E-433).  

Upon booting up the game, I was happily surprised that the Dragon Imperial logo was used here and I later found out is really the symbol for the Imperial Legion and Cyrodiil.  While playing Skyrim, I thought it was just a "oh, that's a nice coincidence that the Imperials have a dragon logo and LOOK!, there are dragons which have turned up for the first time in forever!"  That was my first thought upon starting up the game and I hadn't even played it yet.

With Morrowind, you can play in either POV or third person.  For me, most of the game I will play in third person but switch to POV whenever I use my bow (which isn't too often) or when looking through boxes for loot (the POV mode uses crosshairs).  The control scheme is pretty much identical to that of Skyrim, although I had to move a few of the keys around.  Since Morrowind moved away from the strictly POV mode that The Arena and Daggerfall followed, you now only have to "click" in order to attack and no longer have to drag the mouse to perform a specific attack.  However, you still have the option to chop/slash/thrust, which is determined by how you are moving at the time of attack.  Forward/back: thrust; left/right: slash; non-moving: chop.  Each attack, based on what type of weapon you are using bears different results and damage.  Like the previous and later games, you still have health, magic and stamina meters.

Now, for why you are all here, or maybe not, I now introduce you to my character the Nord, Valgrin of Markarth:

Hello there ladies. . .

His backstory is not very developed as I was not (and still am not) sure what the overarching story is here in Vvardenfell, the interior volcanic island in Morrowind, where Morrowind takes place.  You start out on a ship, travelling from the mainland of Morrowind to Vvardenfell and you are a prisoner, soon to be pardoned by Uriel Septim VII for reasons unknown to you and your parole officer.  The backstory I created, was that Valgrin was a prisoner in the Cidhna Mines in Markarth (in the Skyrim Province), possibly imprisoned for thievery; although chronologically this doesn't make sense, unless Cidhna Mine was used for prisoners before the Silverbloods took over after Ulfric Stormcloak retook Markarth in 4E-176, roughly 185 years earlier.  Because birth signs are an important part of your character, I will assume that Uriel Septim VII has been looking for someone born under a particular star sign and sending people off to Vvardenfell.  Maybe, I don't really know as I have yet to finish the game.

The first thing that I learned about Morrowind is that the game doesn't pull punches.  There's a cave right outside the starting town, I encountered a villain and was promptly killed.  I think I landed one blow on the foe out of many swings.  It turns out that my accuracy in hand-to-hand combat left something to be desired.  I quickly decided that I would play as a tank-like character, which was a good soul searching decision as that was how I set up Valgrin's attributes when creating him.

Unlike Skyrim, your character in Morrowind does not regenerate either health or magic.  Regeneration occurs only by consuming health potions, casting heal spells (which unless you have a decent Intelligence score, which is not below 30, you will fail casting your spell and thereby wasting your magic points) or resting until healed.  I'm sure a good portion of my time has been spent running out of a dungeon, finding a legal* area to sleep and sleeping off my injuries.  Every town I come to (which I'll get to in a minute) I always try to buy as many healing potions as I can.  And you have to be careful with those potions, as I have had potions "spoil" if I don't use them within a certain amount of time.  I think that's what is happening anyway.

*You can only sleep in legally designated areas, which means not on the streets of a town/village or within the near vicinity of a town.  If there is an inn or a guild that you are a member of you can sleep there

Another "no-holds-barred" example in Morrowind, is how often I have gotten stuck.  Stuck in multiple senses.  While climbing/walking over mountains, I have found myself in a rut that I couldn't get out of.  The only solution was to reload from a previous save.  I have since learned to frequently save before I go exploring.  I have been "stuck" in another sense when I was attacked by a blighted something-or-other.  I lost my strength, became encumbered and was unable to move.  I tried sleeping it off as I do with low health, but that didn't work, so I had to restart from a previous save.  Most recently (as in yesterday), I had to reload a number of times because an enemy I had to defeat so I could get to my bounty because he always summoned a creature that would drain my strength thereby making my carrying capacity down to 0.  After miraculously surviving the battle, nothing I used seemed to cure my ailment.  Reload.

This is either going to be a very long or very short battle.

Fast travelling!  Until recently, there was only one way of doing this and it makes sense in-game.  In Vvardenfell, there are large insectoids call Silt Striders, which have been domesticated and used to travel from town-to-town for a small fee (usually 35 -50 septims).  Upon looking up information about how to complete a certain quest, I discovered that members of the Mages Guild can fast travel to other Mages Guild houses.  If you're not a member, you can't use this free service.  Personally, I can't see Valgrin even attempting to be a mage, despite him knowing spells (healing spells).  So, the majority of travelling I do through Vvardenfell is done on foot.  Coming from Skyrim, that doesn't sound too bad.  In Morrowind, "by-foot" might bother a lot of people.  Un-modded, and without a lot of skill points put towards fast moving, this is what over 50% of my time is spent like:

Sorry for the not-so-great video quality.  I don't have a capture card, just a cellphone.

Yes, you have two modes of moving.  Walking and slightly faster walking/running.  Thankfully, when you run out of stamina, you are still able to run, but your experience in "Athletics" no longer increases.  Honestly though, this doesn't bother me at all.  I'm one for looking at the landscape and general adventuring.  However, there have been times where travelling from one end of Vvardenfell to the other has been tedious.

As you might be able to guess, having put 35 hours into this game, I am very much liking it.  And, even with all that I have said here, there is a lot more that I haven't even covered, such as leveling up, the vast number of skills and attributes, the way you have to talk to/persuade people for information (the scripting for dialogue), wear-and-tear on equipment, the different components for dressing (pants, shirt, body armor, greaves, L/R gauntlet/bracers, L/R shoulder pieces/pauldrons, helmet) and absolutely no GPS on your map (someone says "it's in the south-western region. . ." you have to go explore the southwest region looking for a cave).

So if you are looking for another game in the Elder Scrolls series that isn't Skyrim and are interested in a challenge with a very steep learning curve (your hand will not be held), Morrowind might just be what you're looking for.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
I Saw The Coming of the End

And Now: A Dramatic Too Much Shit's Happening Selfie

Origin Stories Part II: Aeliana of Chorrol

Back in June, I wrote a post about the process and subsequently created back story for a character I created in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the sole purpose of going through the Civil War quests on the side of the Stormcloak rebellion.  Shortly after I completed that storyline, I created another character so that I could do the opposite side of the Civil War quests and join the Imperial Legion.  This character backstory saw greater change from its initial conception.

First, I started off with a general idea of where I wanted the character to come from.  In the Stormcloak quests, there was a mission to infiltrate an Imperial camp to deliver false reports/orders.  This is where the kernel of the new character was created.  I thought it would be fun to have a female soldier be chosen because she's a woman (but also happens to be a very capable warrior/soldier) in order to seduce an officer to wreck havoc in whichever camp she's infiltrating.  While it's true that on both sides, not all officers/generals are male, I found this idea to be amusing (albeit somewhat clichéd).  Thus began the process of creating a female character that would fight on the side of the Empire, how she found herself to be in the Skyrim province and most importantly, how she managed to be captured by the Imperials and threatened with execution at Helgen.

Since I wanted my character to be a supporter of the Empire and since I hadn't ever played as a native of Cyrodiil yet, having her be an Imperial was an easy starting point.  I also needed a city/village for her to originate in and not having played Oblivion yet, I had to do some research on the cities of Cyrodiil and find the right city.  Additionally, knowing that the citizens of Cyrodiil have Romanesque names, I felt that my character should have a name that at least sounded something akin to Latin.

The first story that I had concocted, was that the character (then unnamed) grew up in the city of Chorrol and when she was 7-8, she joined a local thieves guild and was involved in a robbery turned murder, left behind by her guild members and was arrested.  Due to the fact that the people who had been murdered [a noble-ish family (second cousins to the Countess) consisting of three children, a mother and two maids], she was sent to prisons of the Imperial City.  The girl was not executed due to her young age.  My idea was then to have her act as a patsy for a noble, but somehow "performed well" and was sent to a minimum security ward and every so often, she would perform "dirty" jobs for various nobles who needed things taken care of secretly and couldn't be traced back to them if she were to fail.  Eventually she would be offered a pardon if she would travel to Skyrim to help quell the ongoing rebellion there.

So where does the name come in?  I had wanted to have her forget her original name and be given a name while in prison.  Not knowing much/anything about Latin, I thought something like "Broken Child"  or "Lost One" Latinized would be cool sounding.  Alas, that was not the case.

As you can tell, the top half of the page was spent writing out the meanings of various words into Latin and a lot of what I was coming up with, not only did not sound very name-like to me, I also felt that I could not alter the names enough and still have resemble Latin and have a meaning similar to what I was aiming for.

Eventually I settled on the name of "Sola Rupita."  The "Sola" still meaning one or only, but I'm not 100% sure what "Rupita" was a conglomeration of, just by looking at what I had written down.  Perhaps the "Ruo" from "Fall" and the "Cantita" from "Broken?"

Either way, we all know that Sola Rupita ended up not being the name that I decided upon, as you can clearly see from the title of this post.  I'm not sure where I found the name Aeliana, but it is infact a real name, being the feminine form of Aelius, possibly derived from the Greek word for "sun," "helios."  This name, I apparently, and actually still do, find to be a better name than what I was coming up with.

The next stage of development was deciding that Aeliana would be in the Imperial City with her father, but still maintaining the fact that a family (now her family) was murdered.  In this iteration, Aeliana had always been angered that her family's murder was never avenged.  Aeliana and her father then lived just outside the Imperial City (why would they be in the Imperial City in the first place?) with Aeliana joining the city watch.  Basically the Kate Beckett story.  (I like to have a reasonable explanation as to how/why your character knows how to proficiently use weapons and fight in armor and this avenue gave me a good explanation for her abilities at the beginning of the game).  Her father then decides to marry her off to a pseudo-wealthy land owner.  Not wanting that life and the chance to avenge her family's death, she hides among a caravan headed for the Skyrim province; which doesn't then make a whole lot of sense.

The final iteration I wrote up, I did while at work and took some paper that we normally use for labelling washing machines and dryers.  I maintained that Aeliana's family was killed by members of a theives guild, but this happened while she was somewhere else (I guess I still never came up with a reason why she wasn't killed.  Successfully hid from attackers maybe?)  She was then sent to live with her Uncle who was known to have lived just outside of the Imperial City; Aeliana was around the age of 12 at this time (4E - 200).  At 14, her uncle deemed her too ugly to be marriageable and was allowed to join the city guard (in an auxiliary role).  When she was 15 (4E - 203), her uncle found a boy for her to marry (a young 11 year old boy who had a sickly mother and dead father) as he wanted to expand his own land and holdings (element continued from previous version).

I thought then that she would disguise herself and escape to Skyrim upon a caravan, which is where she befriended a girl from Chorrol (hence all the backstory now belonging to someone else and does not apply to our character), but I didn't ultimately like that idea.  I felt that being given the "okay" from a captain/sergeant from the city guard to leave with a regiment to Skyrim rather than be married off (as he felt that she would be too good of a soldier to lose to marriage).  The captain/sergeant knows of a regiment heading for Skyrim to assist in the ongoing rebellion and thinks that after a year or two, she can return to Cyrodiil and continue the life that she not only wants, but one that he can see that she excells at.  

I then changed the story so that the decision to have Aeliana as part of the regiment was a last minute decision, her name was not added to the "official" roster.  The caravan/regiment was then ambushed by Ulfric Stormcloak, seeing it as a way of helping to furnish the Stormcloaks and harm the Imperial Legion at the same time.  Ulfric then was ambushed himself and taken to Helgen.  This then gave me an explanation as to why your character's name is "not on the list" at the beginning of the game when you are about to be executed with the Stormcloaks.

With all of that in mind, I present to you Aeliana of Chorrol.

Yes gentlemen, here's a lady who's not afraid to get her hands dirty:

Marriage Material?

I plan on playing her as a staunch believer in the good of the empire.  While I might have her go through cities that side with the Stormcloaks, I won't have her spend money in those cities as she might feel that doing so supports the rebellion.  She's that kind of a person.  I could easily see her story becoming one where she sees the "dark side" to the empire, but that's not the story I want to tell with her.  Aeliana believes that what she is doing will help to preserve the good and the stability of the empire.

Unlike Gherard of Farrun, I don't see myself altering Aeliana's appearance as she grows as I don't think she needs to grow visually as Gherard does.  That's not the part of her story that is important.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

Creating An Origin Story

Doc Torpots' last post got me thinking.  I too, in my youth, sometime in jr. high, began the process of writing video game fan fiction.  Not in the traditional sense of fanfiction, but I took the existing storyline from Final Fantasy and intended to flesh out characters and places that already existed within the game.  I think the characters I used were my go-to group for whenever I created a party: Fighter, Black Belt, White Mage & Black Mage.  I think I even went so far with artistic licensing to make the Black Belt blind from some event that happened before the events of the game and that the Fighter had been his companion, probably since the incident that took the Black Belt's sight.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is interesting in how many different storylines exist within the game.  There are any number of plots that will take you in one of two directions, such as the Stormcloak/Imperial civil war quests, the Dawnguard Vampire quests, each having you choose one of two sides.  That alone, if you want to complete requires at least two characters.  With my initial character, I couldn't see them joining either side in the civil war and while I did start the Dawnguard quests (and even the Black Brotherhood quests), I can't don't think I will finish them.

With that in mind, I decided to create a new character for the sole purpose of joining the Stormcloak side of the civil war against the Imperials.  At the same time, I also wanted to create a tank.  Then I started thinking, what's a tanks general weakness?  Magic.  So how would I create a tank that wasn't as susceptible to magic?  I would make them a Breton.  That was when story mode kicked in for me.  I needed to have a reason as to why a Breton tank was captured and taken to Helgen to be executed with the leader of the Stormcloaks, which is how Skyrim begins.  I then created my Breton tank but upon looking him over, all bearded and scraggly, I felt that I didn't know the character.  I had this image of what I wanted him to be, but I wanted to know where this guy came from.  Who was he before he became all bearded?  Over the course of the next day at work, I managed to come up with the following story:

In the 4E 184, a noble from the city of Farrun in the High Rock province of Tamriel is sent to the city of Whiterun in Skryim  as a dignitary for a now unknown event, possibly a wedding.  This male noble is sent because he is not well liked by the reigning king of Farrun but it is expected that a noble be sent to Whiterun nonetheless.  The unnamed male noble, while he doesn't like the cold of the Skyrim province, is eager to gain favor with the King, accepts the "honor" of representing Farrun.

While travelling through Skyrim, the noble's caravan made stops in Rorikstead on the initial trip before arriving in Whiterun and Dragon Bridge on the return trip before arriving back in Farrun.  At some point, the noble slept with an unnamed woman who worked in one of the taverns of Rorikstead or Dragon Bridge.  Some months later when the woman realized she was pregnant and fearing being outcast by her parents, the woman leaves to work/live on a farm owned by her aunt and uncle some miles away.  Her aunt and uncle have not issue with their pregnant niece.  

In 4E 185, the woman has her child, but dies during childbirth.  The uncle swears to the woman before she dies that he will take the child to Farrun (since the mother knew of the father's originating location) so that the child could live with and be taken care of by the father.  The following morning, the uncle leaves for Farrun.

The evening that the uncle crosses the border into High Rock, the farm is attacked by Forsworn and the aunt is killed while the crops are looted.  Upon reaching Farrun, the uncle and child request an audience with any of the nobles.  Word gets around to the unnamed male noble that a man from Skyrim is looking for a Farrun noble who had visited Skyrim the following year; there is no word of a child.  The noble sends out a hitman to kill the uncle.  The assassin is sent to the inn to kill the uncle and in the process finds a baby.  The assassin follows through with his contract, but takes the baby to an orphanage, leaving it on the doorstep and disappearing into the night.

The child, a boy, is raised in the orphanage.  Unlike his fellow Breton children, the child has red hair and is frequently made fun of, most likely because of a negative stereotype that Bretons of Farrun hold toward the Nords of Skyrim.  The child, taking the name of Gherard after a ferrier/blacksmith in Farrun whom the boy begins an apprenticeship with in 4E 193.  While growing up, Gherard embraces his rumoured Nord heritage as a way of hardening himself against the taunts of the children of the orphanage and the citizens of Farrun.

In 4E 198, Gherard vows to leave Farrun for Skyrim to search for his heritage.  He has an ornamental beard tattooed to each side of his face, still being too young to actually grow a beard.  Gherard also begins having his hair fashioned in a very un-Brenton fashion which only brings about more ridicule from other Bretons, but strengthens his resolve to leave.

In 4E 201, when Gherard is 17, he has saved enough money from his work and buys his way out of the orphanage.  Upon crossing the border into Skyrim, Gherard is caught up in an ambush between Imperial Legion soldiers and members of the Stormcloak rebellion.  Gherard is captured by the Imperial Legion and is taken to Helgen, in the south of Skyrim to await his execution.

Yes, I felt I needed all of that to justify creating a Breton tank who would join with the Stormcloaks for that one, single, quest line.  And now, I present to you young Gherard of Farrun:

At the moment, I do not have a picture of Gherard in his developed state as I have yet to make it to Riften to  see the Face Sculptor, but after I feel that he's actually grown enough, I will make him all bearded and rugged like.  His future is written, just not played out yet.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental


[P.S. I just found (6/28/2013) some pictures that I took while composing Gherard's story while at work:

I thought I was finished after coming up with this.  During the remainder of the day, I kept having more ideas for Gherard's story.  As you can see, originally I had the father originating from Hammerfell due to it's proximity to the western edge of Skyrim, but I later decided that High Rock would work better for the strong vs. magic tank.  You can also see that early on, Gherard's mother would be alive for part of his life rather than dying during child birth.  I ended up further developing it on the back of my work schedule-sheet until it looked like this by the end of the day:

This is probably an accurate depiction of what it looks like inside my brain.]