#TG Teldryn

[mareenavee]

WIP Whatever? Yeah.

Hi Everyone! I have been buried in some work for Skywind lately, and I am tired.

But I have been writing for prompt fills for the most part so, stay tuned for a few words. :>

I was tagged to share some writing by the amazing: @thequeenofthewinter, @dirty-bosmer, @kookaburra1701, @rainpebble3, @ladytanithia and @skyrim-forever!

Tagging: @paraparadigm, @thana-topsy (🫂), @orfeoarte, @changelingsandothernonsense, @saltymaplesyrup, @snippetsrus, @archangelsunited, @gilgamish, @throughtrialbyfire, @miraakulous-cloud-district, @nuwanders, @viss-and-pinegar, @late-nite-scholar, @greyborn2 AND YOU -- yes, you, if I've forgotten your tag, you're more than welcome to be tagged honorarily and tag me back so I can read some words >:}

For now, here's a bit from my prompt fill for Harvest -- it's from Galathil's POV and is World Canon. It happened a few years before Nyenna's story begins. Untitled so far. Below the cut! Just shy of 800 words.

Galathil felt the shift in the Ratway before the stranger’s arrival, if she was being honest with herself. There was a certain nervousness in that liminal place between solving the Mercer issue and everyone’s attempt at starting over again. And if anyone knew anything about starting over, it was her. One was never content to simply reap what they’d sown. She would not be part of the Guild, nor be seated here on a bench crafted of sodden wood in a seedy tavern under the worst possible of cities if things had gone to plan, after all.

She watched as Delvin plunked crates of fresh vegetables on the table across the room from her, his brow creased with worry. The harvest in this case would go solely to feeding the stranger who had settled into the Warrens, himself averse to the consequences of his actions— or existence. Galathil hadn’t managed to parse exactly what his trouble was, but it was enough to stir up unease. Mention of Thalmor had floated around, and, while it had made her nervous…she’d used her own power on herself long ago. It didn’t stop them from trying to find her. Her magic was rather…unique. The fear of that recognition gnawed at her in an abstract way. She would be defended against Thalmor inquiry without needing to ask for the Guild’s help, true. But then the debt would once again stack in their favor, even if they never came to collect. She still felt outside of things, despite her years settled in the damp amongst them, and despite their hospitality and their attempts at including her.

She fussed with the edge of her sleeve, though even this was going threadbare in places. She’d learned to do without, to stop accumulating social debt and asking for favors, nervous to be seen and, therefore, known. She could never outrun her crimes—the ones from before she fled. The jobs she was forced to do on pain of death for treachery. That she had made it out of Valenwood by the end at all was by the grace of one god or the next. And she had to live with what she’d done to escape, as well as just what she’d run from, and all the consequences of the path she’d chosen to walk.

That was likely why she felt so distant from most—there was a certain trepidation about what they all would think if they really knew her. It was better not to let them in, not to answer their questions with any semblance of truth. But one, of course, managed to worm his way in. And it was because he, too, carried a secret like one might carry a festering wound.

Teldryn Sero, bravado set aside for once, grit his teeth as he sat down next to her. The bench groaned in protest. He was silent for a moment, the only sound the steady clunk of chitin as he bounced his knee, agitation and nervousness palpable. His eyes were distant and dark in the poor lighting. She gently brushed her fingers over his gauntlet, and he grasped her hand. He was shaking. She knit her eyebrows and looked up at him in concern.

“They’re housing a Blade here, Galathil.” He picked his helmet up off of her table, where he’d left it before he’d gone off to assist Vex and Brynjolf with the stranger. “He knew me. He looked right at me, and I… How? How could that be possible?” He paused and closed his eyes. Galathil squeezed his hand.

She knew why he was here, then. Since the Mercer issue, he’d been distant enough, which was to be expected. He’d said once he’d never meant to get roped into cults and guilds. He wasn’t necessarily the best thief she’d ever seen, either, to be perfectly fair. He would be running again. She knew that peace was fleeting, if it even existed at all. And they had had peace, even if it was just for a moment. Consequences seemed to demand it as payment whenever they caught up.

“You can’t know for sure if he recognized you, Teldryn.”

“I can’t be sure he didn’t.” He still gripped her hand. She could see, even through the armor, the tension in his shoulders. Could hear it in his voice, too. “Galathil…please. I just. I know what I said about your skills. I know. But I’ve changed my mind. Can you help me?”

“And rid the world of a face like yours?” she asked. Her smile was wistful.

[vinndas]

have you ever talked abt held’s story in skyrim? he’s so cool, i would love to hear about him. what quest lines he does and what characters he’s close with?

lol oh uhm I tried to make this short but its kind of still a whole page and skims everything only at a very surface level. 

So his story in Skyrim is very basic. Most of his lore is stacked upon the fact that he and my HoK are like parallel characters? Like both went through hell in their early childhood and teens but while my HoK had no support network at the end, Held did and that's why their stories end very differently.

Why Skyrim?

In general Held comes to Skyrim as a member of the Cyrodiil Thieves Guild because he heard the one in Skyrim is struggling and he likes a challenge. The game intro happens and Held is in denial over being Dragonborn and throws himself into work instead.

Start

The first half of the TG questline happens but during that he and Mercer have a thing (very much unlabeled and weird bc Held insists he's not a part of the guild and talks back to Mercer all the time and it sets sth off in that man). Held figures its Mercer behind everything and not Karliah but he keeps it to himself because he doesn't really have a personal stake in the whole guild drama. Meanwhile Mercer figures out Held is the Dragonborn and gets weirdly jealous over being a world changing person but realizes his chances of getting rid of Held is probably near to impossible because of it all.

Interlude

Held goes on a detour to Solstheim for a bit (so basically just doing some random quests there) because he used to live there for a while and hits up his old acquaintance Teldryn. They spelunk together for a bit before Teldryn tells Held to face his problems and get his shit together. So the TG quest continues and Held begins to play with the thought of following the call of the Greybeards for the first time.

End of TG

Mercer and Held start noticing the tension between them and Mercer confronts Held about being the DB and accuses him of being a coward and idiot. Held asks if Mercer is behind all the TG drama. Mercer gives no answer and they go to find Karliah. Mercer stabs Held in an attempt to kill him (and Held kind of immediately forgives him for it bc childhood trauma). Karliah sees sth is going on between the two and tries and fails to get Held really angry and riled up about it but he still offers to help. Secretly he hopes to talk Mercer into running away (Held has killed people before and stolen a lot of stuff so he feels like a hypocrite condemning Mercer all that much).

Brynjolf kinda feels bad for Held but they all go after Mercer like in the mq. Final fight between Mercer and Held ensues and Mercer lets himself get stabbed by Held, while dying he tells Held to face the music and to stop being such an idealistic hypocrite, thinking at the same time that was the part  he liked about Held the most. Freaked out over having killed the man he (kind of) loved, Held runs and doesn’t return to Riften for a long time.

MQ

After that the MQ happens. Held tries to stay out of the CW because he can’t work with the Empire anyways (He’s considered a terrorist by the Dominion bc of past happenings) and he doesn’t like the stormcloaks either so he just pretends to not see it ( Is that a good solution? Probably not but facing issues is sth he dislikes so he just runs usually).

After the MQ he settles down in Solstheim and often visits the Skal to get some alone time. At this point he also runs an information network and helps people escape the Dominion.

His besties are probably Irileth, Erandur, Teldryn, Jarl Balgruuf (they are around the same age (technically not bc elf) and like to drink and eat good food), a lot of my other ocs I never talk about (LOL), Delvin and Tonillia. Surprisingly he and Karliah get along really well. Lowkey had a falling out with Brynjolf bc of the Mercer thing. He admires Mjoll for her tight grasp on her morals. At the end Freya and him kinda have a teacher student dynamic. He also has a weird connection to most of the Daedric princes, especially Sanguine seems interested in him.

[colonel-killa-bee]

Just saw your post about how you don't understand why people like Balgruuf and Brynjolf so much. Teldryn Sero I have no experience with. With Balgruuf, I felt like he was a close friend, even if he didn't express it to me. I was told to join Imperials by my friends who have played Slyrim years before I did and when I saw Balgruuf armored up, I felt an even stronger battle bond with him and Irileth. Brynjolf was just super friendly to me and I liked him the nost out all of the TG members.

I won’t trash you or others for how y’all feel about a character, clearly I’m missing something since so many people feel as you do, so don’t think I think y’all are wrong or anything like that.

Maybe it’s just a difference in how we see people. For me, I did like him at first, when he talked about Whiterun and how much he cared for it, and my first time in Skyrim when he gave me Lydia I was excited. 

I lost some of that excitement when I learned more about Ulfric tho. And how they have a grudge, or rather Balrguuf does since childhood. I got mad even when I heard him constantly bad mouthing Ulfric, but Ulfric only had good things to say about Balgruuf. That compounded when Galmar was begging Ulfric to take Whiterun already but Ulfric wanted to wait for Balgruuf to change his mind. 

Then even Tullius got frustrated since Balgruuf was effectively dragging on the war and increasing the pain for both warring parties by not taking a side, officially, yet every player who spoke to Balgruuf knew he’d never side with Ulfric.

I guess I just lost respect for him, and for me, a leader can be a likeable human being, but not have my respect, and respect for me is far more important.

That’s why I have a hard time seeing that bond people talk about. I was actually caught off guard when he was like “and YOU!! A stormcloak?? I thought better of you”.

Like, all I did was save whiterun from a dragon, as I did many holds, and for that honor, Balgruuf ALLOWS me to buy a house, lol and calls me his thane. Maybe if Bethesda did more with it, but to me it was just too short a relationship to call it a relationship. Perhaps that’s Bethesda’s fault for the game being so.... shallow. But either way, Skyrim’s future as a whole to me was far too important to be put on hold for Balgruuf. So I cast him aside and didn’t look back.