#oc: Cordaelia

[persephinae]

"What does it mean to be Dragonborn?"

I drew my Dragonborn, Cordaelia. :3c

[persephinae]

i found out you can dive further into the CC, so i gave her almost half-elven ears and tweaked her face a bit. Also gave her some muscles

[persephinae]

i finally, FINALLY, was able to find some mods that actually worked to make bretons not look like 70 year old grandmas

finalllyyyyy got a good hair mod that actually works with everything. the only tiny complaint i have about it is that the red color is just auburn. i was hoping for actual red :T

now i'm wondering if there's any pose/camera mods so she doesn't look so stiff

also i lovvveee the bigger trees mod i downloaded. such a vast difference and actually makes the world feel like wilderness

[persephinae]

Cordaelia & Ghorbash

[persephinae]

might have to go back to my playstation save since i can't get the mods running on pc (i'll have to find a yt video for how to set up the mods but i'm too lazy right now)

Cordaelia is a breton who was disowned from her family for not conforming to their standards. She's very self sufficient and knows how to defend herself. She has some magical skill with lightning and fire, but never felt called or compelled to attend the College of Winterhold to pursue a mastery of magic. She is however, extremely skilled with a bow, almost supernaturally so, and pretty proficient with a sword or knife. However much she swears she can be hardened badass (she's absolutely not), she's forever giving spare coin or food to those that need it and always helping others. She dreams of finding the place she belongs, somewhere she can be utterly herself, but in the meantime she's out seeing the world and earning coin. She's kind, friendly and warm, but slow to trust and prefers her solitude. She's kind of feral from living outside of cities for so long, and really dislikes the games/politics and rules of the cities (it reminds her of her parents).

Ghorbash met her while chopping wood outside his village. She almost fell out of a tree in front of him, but she just smiled brightly and said hello, offering one of the apples she had been picking. He was instantly fascinated with her. She started chatting with him like he was a person she had just met in Solitude, asking him about himself and his village. He answered her absently as he stared at the sunlight shining down on her bright red hair. He later followed her into the village as she stocked up on supplies and wondered how such a soft bit of a thing (by orc standards) could have survived so long by herself. When she initially left, he tried to put her out of his mind, but he kept remembering her face in the sunshine as she smiled up at him.

[persephinae]

Ghorbash fell in love with her from the start and was like "is anyone going to protect her?" then not wait for an answer

Cordaelia had so much shit going on in her life she was just grateful that she could depend upon him. When she finds out later that he loved her he was like "have been the whole time, thanks for noticing"

he can't be mad at her however because she's right, she has the worst luck in the world. if they were having a peaceful picnic in some sunny meadow her luck would bring a dragon roaring down upon them or rando vampire cultists. he would just sigh and pick up his axe

[persephinae]

made some collages for my breton dragonborn Cordaelia :>

she's a breton that can use magic, however she prefers her bow and arrows, along with her sword.

she can take care of herself however ever since she stepped foot in Skyrim it's been one wtf moment after another. Never would she have thought she'd get into half the shit she stumbled into while in Skyrim.

she's a loner, and tries to stay that way, however she just can't help being kind to others and listening to whatever sob story they have.

Ghorbash fell in love with her fearlessness, but soon discovered that it was just her never thinking things through and was like "babe.... you're killing me..."

However he became impressed after witnessing her many deeds and had to growl at any other orc that expressed interest in her, practically getting into fights over it

Cordaelia would be fretting about letting Ghorbash and his tribe down that she was human, but Ghorbash would be like, “Shit.. babe.. you’re the Dragonborn.  When I met you, bested my brother, the Chief of my tribe with nothing but your bare hands.  That guy is 300lbs of pure muscle, and I love you with all my heart, but you’re like 125-140, idk what that would be in human terms, but dove of my heart, you look like a skinny scrawny weakling that would die in the first blizzard.”

“Babe, light of my life, fire in my heart, you’ve killed giants, bandits, sabretooth cats, a shit ton of bears and wolves, dragons, and that one random dude, but I know it was an accident. *waves that one away with his hand and clutches her shoulders*   You are badass.  All the other orcs are super jealous of me.  In fact, I have to now work twice as hard just to be worthy to be by your side.  Fuck... they’re writing songs about you.  Malacath said you were worthy when you killed all those giants for that shitweasel dick Yamarz.”

*kisses her cheek*  “Babe, you got nothing to worry about.”

Ghorbash would be that meme of lifting his scrawny beautiful human wife and be like "she may not look like it, but this is what peak performance is."

in his heart, Cordaelia is basically a :3 face

i just like thinking about the dynamic that she's a fearless dragonborn wandering cryptid hero, and Ghorbash just thinks she's adorable

[persephinae]

Cordaelia is a breton, she's used to sun and forests. As she travels in Skyrim, she likes the areas that kind of remind her of home or forests full of lingering summer and greenery. To see this is just makes her shiver and want to be anywhere but there.

[persephinae]

some headcanons for cordaelia x ghorbash:

Cordaelia was actually a completely normal person before she stepped foot in Skyrim, but as soon as she did something felt off and wrong - then everything went wrong at Helgen.

As she becomes the dragonborn, more and more she feels compelled to follow the words of power, whispering just beyond hearing sometimes, but a deafening roar once she stands before the walls

She hates the loss of self. Sometimes it's like waking up from a dream, and she finds herself standing victorious in some musty old cave, dead draugr fallen around her feet, and a wall of dragon words before her

When it gets too much, she wishes she could disappear into some forgotten forest, far away from Skyrim. She envies the spriggan.

Ghorbash grounds her and saves her from herself.

Even before he realized he loved her, he was forever protecting her from herself or from pushing herself too hard. And he hates to see her sad, it feels like a knife in his heart.

At the same time, as Ghorbash comes to realize that his squishy human is dragonborn, he feels compelled to push himself harder to keep up with her, which scares Cordaelia and makes her worried for his safety.

Sometimes, despite not even being anything an orc would do, he finds himself picking wildflowers and presenting them to her when she feels sad.

Cordaelia finds Ghorbash very comforting to have near, his deep rumbling voice soothing to her. Especially when she finds herself waking from one of her episodes, with no memory of how she now finds herself standing before a dragon wall.

She also looks after him, as either her heritage or dragonborn powers give her heightened senses. Sometimes it feels like she's leading someone who's blind - it feels weird that he can't sense or see some of the things she can. She tries hard not to lose her temper as it's not his fault, but sometimes it is very discouraging when he accidentally sets off a trap for the 15th time in a row.

[persephinae]

.

things about Cordaelia continued:

her father, being a huntsman, taught her everything about the bow and how to defend herself

he was extremely strict, but his teachings stayed with her:

never rush blindly in

always keep to the periphery of the path

always keep your eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary

When hunting your prey it's best to know their weaknesses. When hunting your enemies, it's best to hunt at night and keep to the shadows

always keep your eye on your target

patience will see your enemies fall and keep your belly full

keep your quiver full, your knives sharp

(Her mother has the same political philosophies on how to navigate the nobility and upper crust)

Cordaelia's not sure if it's her dragonborn heritage or her throwback elven heritage, but she has an almost supernatural awareness of traps and walking lightly

once she ran away from home, she became really feral and avoided towns and cities, but because of current circumstances and Ghorbash, she's learning to people again

[persephinae]

her family is still in High Rock :<

[persephinae]

anyway, updated her hair again because I didn't want instagram boho hair or whatever

her hair would be messy and windblown from being outside all day, even when she tries to wrangle it into a braid

[persephinae]

as an expansion on my other post

Cordaelia grew up in a merchant family, her mother a wealthy heiress of minor nobility, her father a merchant who knew how to run a business well for their location

Her father, however, grew up as a huntsman and taught his daughter everything he knew. He was very strict, but out of all their children, his daughter took to his teachings well. She was more comfortable in nature - gardens, parks, forests, etc. She had a stronger connection to her half elven heritage than any of her immediate family, a complete throwback.

She hated being groomed to follow in her mother's footsteps and when she finally had enough, she left both home and High Rock. She does dutifully write home every few weeks to let them know she's still alive.

She's proficient with basic spells like fire and lightning, but mainly uses her spells to light campfires or in very extreme cases of defense where she doesn't have her bow. She prefers her bow, however, as she's almost supernaturally gifted with it, making fantastic, deadly shots.

Also, she's not sure if it's just her weird heritage or if she's cursed or blessed, but she's known to those who have witnessed it as Mistress of Rains. When she's on the hunt for bounties or enemies, sometimes the skies break with torrential downpours to hide her hunt in the rain. She'd prefer "Mistress of Storms" but for some reason that one never took off and she's really disgruntled about it. "Mistress of Rains" just sounds like some poor chump who's unlucky enough to get rained on all the time.

She used to love storms, but since discovering that she was dragonborn and actually fighting multiple dragons, she now watches the thundering skies in trepidation, fearful that it might actually be a dragon.

She's proficient with playing the lyre due to her mother's lessons. She also loves to read and steals books that she thinks are interesting whenever she's up to no good (two for one bargain in her mind).

She's very smart and patient when hunting, but sometimes she really does have the worst luck.

[persephinae]

she's so pretty 🥰

[persephinae]

went to tweak my face a bit and i like how this shot was between Cordaelia & Ghorbash

[persephinae]

my dragonborn Cordaelia

(now with face paint)