#I thought you could add symbol decals to clothes but apparently not - only blood

[nine-blessed-hero]

OCs - Who the hell is: Kellandra Rhiannon Lorinda Rue

(A "short" Original Character primer)

➼ Universe:

TES IV: Oblivion (vanilla)

➼ What does she look like?

Rin, like many redguards, is tall, well-built, and has dark skin. She uses a combination of lye and citrus juice to bleach her hair, for backstory reasons.

She's most comfortable in her armour and tends to stick to the Knights of the Nine full-plate mail. However, when she's performing alchemy, she prefers to dress in whatever light robe or clothing is available. Usually, this is her Apprentice Robes (another stain or two won't make a difference), but she's also been known to wear the Light Blue Regalia too, as this is what she considers to be "civilian" clothing.

➼ What's she like?

Rin is very forthright, law-abiding and stern. However, she also has a penchant for not understanding sarcasm, being awkward in social situations, and taking instructions very literally.

Despite being very intelligent, she's not very worldly-wise (unsurprising due to her cloistered upbringing) so she's missing a lot of "common" knowledge. This cloistered upbringing and an abusive father also means she has some self-esteem issues, and often feels she's in the way or taking up time and resources that she shouldn't be.

➼ Who are the main important people in her life?

Marz – As the Healer in the Chapel of Mara, Marz is the one who taught Rin the basics of alchemy, against her father's wishes. Marz was also one of the few positive influences in Rin's early life, and Rin looked to her as a mother figure. Rin was devastated by her death at the hands of Umaril's Aurorans, far more so than when Rin learned of her father's death.

Methredhel – Rin and the thief became fast friends after going out for some "no hard feelings" drinks after their competition to get into the Thieves guild, and have remained close – and maybe a little more – ever since.

Baurus – As a fellow redguard whom she's "allowed" to become close with, Rin looks up to Baurus a lot and often takes his word on redguard culture as gospel.

➼ Can you give us a highlight reel of her life?

A foundling of Bravil, Rin was adopted as a toddler by Soliril 'Rue, a priest of Mara.

As soon as she could hold a broom, Rin's life was duty, subservience, and toil.

In her pre-teens, Soliril enrolled Rin in Castle Bravil's Junior Guards*, so learning weaponry and warfare were added to the already strenuous list of activities expected of her. It was here she saw the power of Alchemy in Marz's hands.

Rin didn't get the courage to speak to Marz about it for another few years. They spoke while at Chapel, and Rin was amazed at the power a few leaves and petals could have. Marz then began techning Rin in stolen moments.

Eventually, Marz thought Rin was good enough to enter the Mages guild. She spoke to Ardaline, the Bravil Chapter Alchemist on Rin's behalf. Ardaline, not knowing this was a secret, spoke to Soliril, who became furious that his "stupid" daughter was trying to learn magic. He flew into a rage and beat Rin. She fled the city and was caught on The Green Road trying to steal food from an Imperial Guard. He took pity on her distress at being taken back to Bravil, so she was dumped in an empty cell in the Imperial Prison.

After meeting Martin, she was plagued with nightmares of his death. That, and her sudden freedom, was what turned her from further helping in the Main Quest for a while. Instead, she finally joined the Mages guild. While in Anvil, she heard the prophet, and back in Bravil she looked through the mysterious door – but didn't stay long**. Likewise, she became ashamed of herself for being drawn by the allure of the Grey Fox and never got higher than Prowler. After taking the pilgrimage again, Rin turned her attention to the ever-growing threat of the Oblivion gates, eventually returning to Martin and joining the Blades in their fight.

* I don't have a better name for what this might be, so hush for now...

** I'm retconning a lot of stuff mentioned in Not Alone to better suit how the character has developed. At some point, I'll rewrite that story.

➼ What points in her life are you writing about?

From the start of the game forward. I haven't really felt inclined to write much about her backstory.

➼ Who is she in real-world development terms?

Rin is an offshoot of my main playthrough (Rowan/ This-Page-Left-Blank-HoK being the other). Over the past few years, Rin and Rowan have diverged considerably, and I now consider them to be very separate characters, each taking a different path through the quest lines.

As the two characters diverged, I realised Rin needed a real name. My character name in-game is Dru I (I somehow forgot this wasn't a hardcore game and I wouldn't need to re-roll a dozen characters and name them Dru II-XII), so I decided to reuse a name which has blessed many of my characters. Unlike the others, this K'Rin L'Rue prefers being known as Rin or Rhiannon. I don't yet have a good lore explanation for her long-ass name, though it could be related to the Aldmeri tradition of lengthy full names (even though her name is only passingly lore-friendly in that regard – if you tilt your head a squint a bit).

Re: Rin's unusual hair – I have a habit of setting my character's hair to be the lightest possible so I can find them in games, forgetting entirely that Oblivion is a First Person rather than a Top Down game, so I wanted to find a lore-friendly reasoning for why it's that colour... and ended up with racist father...