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saturniandragon · 2 years ago

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Mega post warning: a compact backstory of Merri'sa, my current Skyrim character.

Word count: 2704 words

Full name: Merri’sa Alt name: Marisa (for people who can’t pronounce her Khajiit name) Nickname: Mary, Aunt Mary (used by kids in Bruma) Race: Khajiit (Cathay) Sex: F Pronouns: She/her Place of birth: Unknown, presumably Elsweyr Date of birth: Unknown, approximately 4E 177 Family: Unknown Parents: Mettius (adoptive father), Avinia (adoptive mother)

Story:

Merri’sa is something else when it comes to what common people think of a Khajiit. She doesn’t know where or when she was born. In fact, her earliest memories were the cold air of Bruma and the sight of white Jerall Mountains in Cyrodiil.

A couple of years after the aftermath of the Great War, approximately in 4E 177, Mettius, a lieutenant in the Imperial Legion found a Khajiit cub in ravaged remains of a trading caravan, just outside Bravil, when he was returning from a routine horseback patrol. He found no trace of the cub’s biological parents from the ruins, aside from a torn piece of paper with “merri’sa” written on it. That day was under constant downpour with no sign of sunshine, but Mettius rushed back to his assigned outpost carrying the cub in his arms. Upon the Imperial commander’s approval, he was allowed to return home before the other soldiers.

Back in Imperial City, Mettius’s wife Avinia were surprised to find his husband coming home early, even more surprised to see him carrying a kitten wrapped in linen. After a brief explanation and some discussion, they agreed to adopt and raise the cub as their own child. They were rather desperate after failing to produce an offspring 2 years into their marriage, so they took any chance they could get.

Avinia’s parents didn’t quite agree with their daughter’s decision. Adopting a child of another race was very unheard of in their local community, let alone a Khajiit. They feared of the married couple raising a thief or a criminal. After days of arguing, Mettius and Avinia were “persuaded” to leave for Bruma and settle in the cold county. Mettius was then reassigned to a different military post near Cyrodiil-Skyrim borders, and Avinia took up new professions in Bruma as a textile merchant and an occasional teacher.

Having anything except the slightest knowledge about the cat people of Tamriel, they could only go off the only clue that Mettius picked up from the caravan, thus the cub was given the name Merri’sa. Whether it was the cub’s name or the cub’s biological mother’s name, neither Mettius or Avinia had any idea, but they felt it was fitting for her.

Merri’sa didn’t receive any Khajiiti culture during her youth years. Everything she’d learned was of Imperial values, from her father’s combat methods, her mother’s trading and speechcraft lessons, to the Eight Divines of the Imperial pantheon. Both taught her how to read and write, and soon she became fully literate at 15. She harbored all common traits that Imperials were well known of, from kindness and respect as well as intelligence and wisdom. She also found love in reading books, she thought it’s the only cure during a bad day or a good side activity when the weather didn’t permit her to go outside.

Being a Khajiit, she’s very skillful in agility, stealth and marksmanship, although on the other side she’s struggling with close range combat such as sword fights. Mettius was concerned that his daughter wouldn’t have enough skills with blades to survive outside of home, but noticing Merri’sa’s exceptional performance with bow and arrow, and situational awareness across all ranges, he decided that she was “good enough.” At the same time, she would often face minor difficulty attempting to trade with locals due to her animal-like appearance, but her mother’s teachings had given her better and wider possibilities.

At a tender age of just 18 she began making a name for herself, mainly by doing social works such as helping out the civilians all over Cyrodiil. From the cold reaches of Bruma to the conflicted corners of Leyawiin, occasionally she would take up mercenary duty such as retrieving stolen belongings and cleaning marauder dens. Although as a “benevolent mercenary” as she would refer to herself as, because she still held the law high as an upstanding inhabitant of Cyrodiil.

She was also a skillful hunter, frequently selling deer hide, venison and antlers to butchers, innkeepers and common merchants alike. She returned to her parents’ house once every few days, often spending nights sleeping in city taverns. Other than that, she spends the rest of her time in libraries reading books of the Empire’s history on Tamriel.

19 years old was when she didn’t have to do everything on her own. When she was visiting Kvatch, a female Bosmer by the name of Elrain came to her asking for her aid, revealing that she was hunted by the Aldmeri Dominion for partaking in a coup in Valenwood and sought refuge in Kvatch, the nearest Imperial city from the borders of Valenwood. After witnessing the terrible condition that Elrain had been living in just to keep her skin intact, Merri’sa decided to help by hunting down the Thalmor assassin at dead midnight, ridding the most pressing threat for the Bosmer.

Elrain repaid her kindness by offering blade and bow service. Merri’sa thought it would just be a one-time assignment like any other tasks she’d done, but the two ended up being best friends. Even more so when Elrain decided to move to Bruma, Merri’sa’s hometown, to begin living as her neighbor. When Merri’sa introduced her parents to her, Elrain silently questioned how a married Imperial couple came to have a Khajiit daughter, but she felt it wasn’t her place to ask and decided to let it slide, and assumed it was just a fairly normal adoptive family.

After receiving a very warm welcome from her parents, Merri’sa and Elrain grew inseparable. They complemented each other skills very well, and after a while they could emerge from a fight unscathed without even a single communication between them. Their favorite activity being a friendly archery competition, involving a very tall cliff edge and several empty glass bottles. And in all cases Elrain always ended up losing to Merri’sa, but that only strengthens her feelings towards the female Khajiit.

4 years later Elrain admitted that she had “a special feeling” for Merri’sa. Initially, Merri’sa thought it’s just a silly way for her to say how she valued their friendship, but soon realized that her Bosmer companion meant something else entirely. And she was conflicted. Not because she didn’t find Elrain attractive, but because she “doesn’t have the same kind of attraction” to women, and she didn’t quite know how to say it without shattering her feelings.

(In case it’s not obvious, Elrain is a lesbian and Merri’sa is a heterosexual)

Elrain accepted her choice with heavy heart. Merri’sa assured her that they would still remain the closest as friends, and they promised not to leave each other.

By this time period, Mettius retired from the Imperial Legion as lieutenant, spending the rest of his days at home in Bruma with his family, occasionally serving as an advisor to Bruma guard captain. Avinia continued working as a textile merchant. Elrain began to feel more at ease after Merri’sa’s parents regarded her as family member.

The year was 4E 201. Merri’sa was now 24 years old, and this period of her life soon became the worst period yet. For 24 years she had been firmly believing that she was an Imperial like her parents, until she closed her last book about Cyrodiil and picked up another book that told the story of Khajiit and the province of Elsweyr. She rushed home from the library, carrying the book with her and showed it to her parents, where then she asked about her actual origin.

Mettius and Avinia revealed that they have been meaning to tell her that she was adopted, although they could never find the right time in fear that she would not receive the news well. And it’s true that she didn’t receive the news well. Not the rage, angry or throwing tantrum way, she ended up developing identity crisis, and depression followed soon after. For days she would lock herself in her room, reading the same book over and over again and questioning who her actual parents were, and who she was meant to be. Consequently, this news also shocked Elrain, who thought that Merri’sa already knew she was adopted.

A festival night was held in Bruma, amidst the ever-snowing weather in the northernmost county of Cyrodiil. Merri’sa was still in grief, refusing to leave her room to join the crowds outside. Both her parents and Elrain tried to comfort her and persuaded her to get some light back in her mind, only to be met with silence from the other side of the door. They decided to give her some space, and join the festivities without her.

A black dragon with blazing red eyes (Alduin) suddenly appeared from behind the peaks of Jerall mountains, flew closer and closer towards the city of Bruma and began unleashing fiery destruction to the citizen of Bruma. What was once a peaceful festival night turned into flame-fuelled nightmare, as the guards were almost caught off guard and were helpless in defending the civilians against the winged monstrosity.

Elrain was going to make a run for it, but she remembered her Khajiit companion who was still at her home. She rushed back to the housing district, only to find the Imperial family home already set ablaze. Avinia was just outside, crying and calling out to her daughter, only to be held back by her husband to prevent her from running inside and potentially killing herself.

Elrain met up with Mettius, who told her that just moments before the dragon attack, he went looking for Merri’sa who had mysteriously gone missing from her room as the front door to the house was found unlocked. More confusion as Elrain didn’t remember seeing Merri’sa anywhere outside the house. Against his better judgment, Mettius took up initiative and tasked Elrain to help the city guard captain round up the civilians to the city chapel, where its stone walls could protect people from dragon fire.

While she was trying to rescue as many civilians as she could, Elrain found herself face to face with the dragon, who suddenly landed right in front of her and stopping her in her tracks. Her mind was never prepared to face such a gigantic creature, and she was stuck on her feet. And just mere seconds away from being blasted by a wall of fire, Merri’sa appeared out of nowhere and shoved her out of the way, saving her from imminent fiery death.

But it wasn’t the same Merri’sa she knew. She was carrying the same bow that she’d always used, but she was full of rage and had no time for idle chat, as she commanded Elrain to go to the city chapel while she fought the dragon by herself. The two entered a very heated (pun unintended) argument, because Elrain promised she would never leave her side. But that only spiked Merri’sa’s rage level even higher. After one last warning, Merri’sa dashed away and left Elrain to do what she was told to.

Merri’sa joined the city guards and the captain in a fight against the dragon, in the battleground-turned city where the streets were littered with ash, rubble, blood and fire. Hiding behind cover, Merri’sa proposed a way to defeat the dragon by using herself as a bait while the guards took aim at the dragon’s eyes with their bows. It was a daring and audaciously bold strategy that the guard captain blatantly refused. She insisted it was the only way to save Bruma.

She swapped her bow with the guard captain’s sword, left her cover and began shouting at the top of her lungs to gain the dragon’s attention. The dragon landed in front of her and roared at her face, but she stayed her ground. She raised her sword high shouted again, an indicator for the surviving city guards to barrage the dragon with arrows. She didn’t waste time, and began attacking the dragon head on with almost no regard to her safety.

Back and forth they traded blows with each other, ultimately it appeared that it would come to an end when the dragon flicked its massive scaly tail to hit Merri’sa with it, separating the sword from her hand and knocking her back several meters. A surge of pain as a solid pile of rubble broke her fall, the dragon crawled closer and closer to her, helpless without a weapon.

She saw her life nearing end, from the sheer heat building up in the dragon’s maw right in front of her face. Elrain came to her rescue, launching an arrow that pierced through the smokes and just missed the dragon’s right eye. Distracted by the wood elf, Merri’sa took the chance to retrieve another sword from a nearby fallen city guard, before finally running up to the dragon’s head and stabbed its left eye.

The winged monster roared in pain, but she wasn’t done. She held on to the sword, forcefully trying to stick it deeper into its skull as a form of revenge against the destruction of her hometown. It violently shook her head in an attempt to break her off, and she was launched into the air, again landing on solid stones. She watched as it shrieked louder and louder, before finally taking off into the northern black skies of Bruma and disappeared from vision.

Elrain tried to help her Khajiit friend up after experiencing two hard falls, only to receive a forceful hit to her face and impact the ground. Merri’sa was furious, discovering that Elrain didn’t heed her words to get to safety and risked her neck just to save her. She was on the verge of throwing hands until the guard captain managed to cut her off before the town’s death toll increased by 1.

Even after her seeming victory against the dragon, she didn’t find peace in the slightest after sunrise, silently burying her guilt as she realized the things she’d done that night. She blamed herself for not acting fast enough to deter the dragon, she fought with her companion, and to add salt to injury, she also inflicted a physical violence to her one and only best friend. But she stayed quiet. Her parents were ecstatic to find that their daughter survived, but she was emotionless.

For 3 days she decided to punish herself by taking a security watch, on Bruma’s north gate. She sat on the snow, watching the Jerall Mountains day and night to make sure she was the first to respond if the dragon ever returned. It never happened, but she hadn’t stopped blaming herself for it. After a very lengthy persuasion involving the guard captain, she returned to her civilian life. And even then she didn’t want to stay idle, opting to help the survivors of the dragon attack in any way she could. All with emotions hidden, she had changed almost completely. But Elrain tried to keep her end of the promise by never leaving her side.

A week went by, Merri’sa came up to her father. She proposed another bold plan, to travel to Skyrim and track down the dragon and finally end its life for good. A chance to avenge the innocent civilians that the dragon had killed, and a chance for her to find peace with herself. She broke her promise with Elrain by planning to go on her own, insisting that she would only be a liability in a foreign land. Against her wishes, Elrain respected her choices, mainly because she didn’t want to invoke the fierce side of Merri’sa again after that dragon incident.

4 days it took for Merri’sa to reach Helgen, the nearest city to Cyrodiil borders from Bruma, only to find it has been completely decimated by fire. Weirdly, amidst all the destruction, she found a destroyed horse carriage, a chopping block, a dead Imperial commander, and a list of three names; Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak, Ralof of Riverwood, and Lokir of Rorikstead…

#skyrim #the elder scrolls #khajiit #oc: merri'sa

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saturniandragon · 2 years ago

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Yo, no. 10 on the skyrim prompt if you’re doing it still! 😁

10. Acting as leader of a guild

Characters:

Merri'sa (Khajiit female, main character, Harbinger of The Companions) Bikhai (Khajiit male, Merri'sa's husband, Khajiit Will Follow mod) Vilkas (Nord male, Companion inner circle)

"Vilkas."

"Yes, Harbinger?"

Merri'sa calls out to one of the twin wolves in Jorrvaskr basements. From the doorway that leads to the bedrooms underneath the building, she can spot Vilkas reading a book by the main dining table. The other wolf twin is visible in the background, cleaning his steel sword with some rags from some bloodstain.

"Where's Aela?"

"She's out to Riverwood, Harbinger. Do you want me to get her?"

"Right, and bring your brother. We're welcoming another member to our ranks."

Vilkas puts down his book and calls out to his twin, yelling at him from across the hallway and telling him to ready up. To an outsider it would be a very weird sight of a Khajiit commanding a guild of mostly Nords in Skyrim, The Companions even, but she's proven herself well to be the successor to Kodlak after his passing. And after being personally blessed by Kodlak's spirit himself, her title is unquestionable.

Merri'sa goes back upstairs to the main hall of the Companions. Underneath the upside-down-boat style building lies a massive fireplace in the middle for cooking and warmth, surrounded by long tables and chairs to accommodate every member of the guild.

Sitting on one of the chairs, nervously tapping his feet and fiddling with his fingers, is Bikhai. A male Khajiit with muscle mass, height and swordmanship comparable to Ysgramor, although unfortunately he doesn't quite have the courage or the boldness of Ysgramor. A rather closed, introverted and shy individual, Merri'sa first met him some months ago in the Jorrvaskr basement, not wielding a sword and shield like a warrior, but rather a broom and a dirty rag, sweeping the floors of the living quarters.

After some lengthy discussion and persuasion with Kodlak, he was permitted to stand with the other members as a full fledged two-handed fighter, and after the defeat of the World-Eater he happily sits beside Merri'sa as her husband.

But not quite a true Companion.

"Hey."

"Hm? Oh, sorry, this one is... a little nervous."

Merri'sa takes a seat beside him, wrapping her arm around his shoulder in an attempt to pacify Bikhai's constantly conflicted mind. Bikhai has always dreamed of being a true Companion, something to place his mind into, for a chance at some kind of redemption of his past troubled life, before he came to Skyrim.

(author note: won't spoil for those who haven't yet tried the Khajiit Will Follow mod)

"Lighten up a little, alright? This is your day. Something you've always wanted."

"Yes, but, sigh..."

When Kodlak was still alive he never found the right time to ask. Always feeling it wasn't his place to ask the Harbinger, and indeed he was only permitted to hold a weapon and don a cuirass by Merri'sa's suggestion. And even some days when Kodlak was still "in charge", Merri'sa would sometimes spot him taking hold of the same broom and rag.

Now that Merri'sa has taken the Harbinger title, she's using it to help her love further. The dream that always seemed out of reach to him, it's now well within grasp. And yet, something is still troubling him.

"What's wrong, love? Please tell me."

"This one is... worried. What about the others?"

...

"What do you mean?"

"The others... Aela, Farkas, Vilkas, what would they think of Bikhai? He's still just a... cat from Morrowind."

Merri'sa has heard this before. Her husband is very insecure about his origin, a fear of not being accepted in Nordic society. Indeed he didn't really have much choice since Skyrim was the first region he set foot on after his escape from Morrowind.

They have discussed it before, and she thought they've been over it by now. Now it seems it has come back to haunt Bikhai again.

"And I'm a cat from Cyrodiil, so, what's different really?"

"..."

"Listen, don't fret about the others, alright? I know you don't spend much time with them, but they all are good people. As long as you have this."

Merri'sa puts her pointer finger on Bikhai's steel plate, just above where his chest is. She knocks it lightly 2 times with her claws.

"Uh... what?"

"Your heart, Bikhai. That's why we're here. We all have a heart to do what's right. I know you have it too."

"Merri'sa..."

"Others will understand slowly. Just be yourself, and they will also see that you're worthy to be here, just like everyone else."

Hailing from Imperial family has taught her many lessons about interaction with people. Compassion, understanding and humility have enabled her to go a very long way in establishing a positive social connection. And she's applied it again with her husband.

She understands full well Bikhai is naturally a very anxious individual, even after their marriage he's constantly overthinking about the littlest of things. Fortunately Merri'sa has a seemingly endless supply of patience, especially when it comes to her loved ones.

Noticeably his fingers are no longer furiously fiddling, an evidence that he has calmed down to some degree.

"How are you feeling?"

"Hmm... this one doesn't know. But for you, Bikhai will try his best."

"That's what I want to hear."

#oc: merri'sa

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saturniandragon · 3 years ago

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Born a Khajiit, raised an Imperial.

#oc: merri'sa #tes #the elder scrolls #skyrim #skyrim oc #art #digital art #khajiit

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saturniandragon · 2 years ago

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🌌 MILKY WAY: What was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

For your TES OCs

Oh, oh goodness, Nebu I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to ramble a million words so things sort of make sense. I hope you have the patience to read this entire thing.

🌌 MILKY WAY: What was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

---Skyrim---

Draqanar: (I practically never talk about this dude anywhere in my blog, because he's pretty much retired, but I want to tell the story anyway)

It's a bit complex, Draqanar (Khajiit male) was both my first and my second Skyrim OC I've created. He is first, in a sense that I first completed the game with this character, although he is second in a sense that he's not the first character I produced from the character creation menu.

Technically speaking the first Skyrim character I created was an Argonian, predictably named after, you guess it, Adrastea. I came into Skyrim totally blind, not knowing anything like naming conventions or the lore about the universe (hell I didn't even know you could create your own character), other than "arrow in the knee" references in memes. He chose the Warrior stone, with sword and shield equipment.

Bleak Falls Barrow was the time I realized sword and shield did not fit my style at all. I consulted to my best friend who was pretty much a Skyrim veteran that time (and by that time, I mean, 2019 lol, I was that late to start playing the game) and asked which race would be suitable for more of a stealth play style. He suggested Khajiit, so then Draqanar was born.

So he was created because I wanted a stealth playstyle. I wasn't aware yet that you could go back to previous saves or choose a different standing stone.

I used a Khajiit name generator because, like I said, I have zero idea of Khajiit naming convention, and I wanted to be fully immersed in the game. His full name is Draqanar Raitannil, but after some hours into the game and discovering that Khajiit NPCs only have single-word names, I unofficially removed his last name.

His appearance was pretty much bare. I think I chose one of the available presets, modified it a bit and just decided it was good enough. I thought I would make this dude an evil reckless character, hence the dark coloration, but he ends up being possibly the nicest guy you would ever meet. And with him I also discover just how effective stealth archer playstyle really is, in Skyrim.

He's married to Shahvee. After some 600 hours with him, I decided to retire him since there's no more lore to develop for him.

Adrastea: And then Adrastea. The proper Adrastea. Not an Argonian this time, but an Argonian-based race which was pretty much an Argonian-dragon hybrid called Draconian. By this time my copy of Skyrim was filled to the brim with mods.

No inspiration this time, I just wanted to insert the Saturn Adrastea into Skyrim to see how close I could replicate him.

The second reason is I wanted to try a proper sword and shield style, after canceling the first Adrastea (why yes I just realized, I have too many versions of Adrastea across the board, but fuck it). And for funsies, I messed around with console commands to make him noticeably taller than most NPCs, by setting his height value to 1.05.

The third reason is I wanted to marry Mjoll the Lioness with a different character. Like Draqanar however, he also ended up retired. He has no lore to begin with, and no lore to end it with.

By this point I was pretty much running out of ideas to do in Skyrim. All vanilla marriage candidates are pretty boring, added by the fact there are no Khajiit marriage candidates.

Until I ran into a mod that adds 4 fully-voiced Khajiit marriage candidates, Khajiit Will Follow. They are Ma'kara (F), Bikhai (M), Nanak (M) and S'ariq (M).

Dar'sien: Dar'sien is a lost character, lost in a sense that his save file was in my previous laptop and it broke down to the point it's not recoverable. Basically he's like an alternative Draqanar, but he's orange furred instead and has cowardice trait. Purely created him to marry Ma'kara.

This is the only image of him that I can gather.

Ma'kara questline was long, but it was well written and well constructed. I was blown away. Like, holy shit, if Ma'kara questline was this good, I needed to try marrying the other Khajiit from this mod.

Merri'sa: And now here comes Merri'sa. My current active Skyrim character. Like Dar'sien, she was created purely to marry one of the Khajiit from the mod. This time I chose Bikhai.

Another obstacle, of running out of Khajiit designs and names, especially because I've never designed a female Khajiit before. I turned to Google, and found a female Khajiit preset that looks so good yet simple to replicate, with a fitting name included in the package.

Merri'sa - Khajiit Racemenu preset

Yes, I'm kind of ashamed that Merri'sa is not a name that I came up with (well, I guess Draqanar isn't either, because I used a generator). But the preset looked so good, I just had to grab it. Once in-game I applied some minor modifications, notably the eye color, but largely it's similar to the preset.

And I grew attached to her. Never before I've seen a character look so good. So attached, I decided to develop a mountain of lore that isn't even completed by the time of writing this tumblr post.

She did end up marrying Bikhai. Bikhai's questline doesn't quite have the same quality compared to Ma'kara questline, but I loved it regardless. Plus, I have a female Khajiit to be obsessed about. In fact now she has much longer lore than any of my previous Skyrim characters.

Now the lore is that she was rescued by an Imperial soldier from a burning caravan wreck when she was just a cub, somewhere along the roads of Cyrodiil. The soldier and his wife have suffered 2 years of childless marriage, so they decided to took her in and raised her as their own.

But why she decided to move from Cyrodiil to Skyrim remains to be seen :)

---Elder Scrolls Online---

Now a new title of Elder Scrolls for me, Elder Scrolls Online. Like Skyrim, I came into ESO completely blind, only carrying with me the bare basics of informations of TES races from Skyrim. May 2021 was my first touch in ESO.

Yes, I suppose I did refuse to read the Steam page of ESO before I downloaded the whole thing. But I wanted it to be that way, I want to start from the closest I can be to absolute zero.

Except, those information from Skyrim can't be used here, not in ESO. I was surprised to learn about factions in character creation screen, and every race is tied to at least one of those factions except Imperial race. Which I didn't have, I was playing base game ESO.

More surprise for me to find that Khajiit race is tied to Aldmeri Dominion, a faction that I think a good portion of Skyrim players dislike, especially Skyrim players who have no experience with ESO. I was conflicted, already too accustomed to playing as Khajiit in Skyrim.

I think I was going to choose Argonian, but Ebonheart Pact just sounds way too foreign for me. At least I've heard of Aldmeri Dominion before. So a bit reluctantly, I decided to roll a Khajiit as my first character.

Zanri al-Anaqi:

Now this is a name that I took way too long to come up with. It took so long that I was kicked from character creation screen because of 10 minutes of no activity. If that's not the record for the fastest a player has been kicked from ESO, I don't know what is :))

"Zanri" is a play of "Ryzen", derived from AMD Ryzen, a CPU brand name. I swapped some letters around and added flavor so it sounds Khajiit/Ta'agra.

Next I wanted to add a twist of my own. During my time of Skyrim I notice that Khajiit names have a small Arabic influence in them. In fact, apparently in Arena and Daggerfall "Mohammed" is listed as a possible Khajiit name.

And what other things that are known to have Arabic names? Stars in the night sky! Astronomy was a major thing during Islamic medieval period.* The star Gamma Andromedae is known in its Arabic name as "Almach", itself is derived from "al-‘anāqi", which is Arabic for caracal or desert lynx. I've never laid eyes on Elsweyr, but there's been multiple accounts of Elsweyr being a desert region (there's a reason Skyrim Khajiit NPCs use "warm sands" as greeting). So, naturally a perfect fit.

(*in fact to this day astronomy community around the world still use some Arabic names for stars, like Aldebaran)

Let's use that. Zanri al-Anaqi. Still sounds perfect to this day.

Appearance wise I went with gold/orange fur color and green eyes. Who else has green eyes? Adrastea (Saturn), although I only realized that these two have green eyes after a few months of playing as Zanri, a lucky coincidence.

Oh how times have changed :)

My decision to roll Aldmeri Dominion character in my first playthrough proved to be immensely worth it because of figures like Razum-Dar and Queen Ayrenn.

Ahravani al-Karim:

Ahravani, Avani, Vani or Karim for short. She was created because I wanted some kind of companion character to go alongside Zanri. Something that's closer than just a friend, but not as close as a girlfriend or a wife, if that makes sense. So, step sibling.

I couldn't make her his sibling, because Zanri's lore was already set on him being the only child in his family.

I was going to apply the same naming convention as I did Zanri; Ta'agra first name and Arabic-esque last name. And I also wanted her last name to be derived from a star name, like Zanri.

At first she was going to have "Ainrivva al-Debaran" as her name. Al-Debaran is a star name in Arabic, meaning "the follower", because she was meant to follow Zanri everywhere. But then something changed, I felt her name was a bit off, so I set out to find a replacement.

(eventually Ainrivva al-Debaran became a name for a Khajiit character I have in PCNA server)

I couldn't come up with another fitting name for her. "Ainrivva" was good but felt a bit off for whatever reason. I went back to Khajiit name generator, and obtained "Ahravani" as a replacement.

But I wasn't done. "Ahravani al-Debaran" sounded a bit too long now. I went back to wikipedia, look for another Arabic star name, but couldn't find any other that fits her. Still, I wanted her to have Arabic-esque last name.

Then I remembered, there's a character in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) named Farah Karim. She's like this very fierce militia leader, unorthodox in her ways but a benevolent character overall. I took her last name as inspiration, modified it from just "Karim" to "al-Karim." Al-Karim is Arabic for "the generous."

(A weird train of thoughts I had just to name a Khajiit character innit lmao)

So there you have it; Ahravani al-Karim. Nowadays I'm a bit lazy to type the entirety of her full name, especially when writing fics, so often I shorten it further to just Vani al-Karim.

Adrastea Drago:

Same case as with Adrastea (Skyrim). No inspiration at all, I just wanted to insert Adrastea (Saturn) into ESO to see how close I could replicate him. Although I did eventually develop some Elder Scrolls-compliant lore about him, so that's something.

Well, that concludes it. That was a hell of a roller coaster from start to finish, even for me as the author :)

#oc: draqanar #oc: adrastea (skyrim)#oc: merri'sa #oc: zanri al anaqi #oc: ahravani al karim #oc: adrastea (eso)

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saturniandragon · 2 years ago

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From your most recent ask game I thought 18 and 19 sounded like they would be fun to combine. Oh and 32 looks interesting if you wish to add that as a bonus. 36 too in fact but don't worry if that's too many. With any OC of yours that you wish to choose. Although I would very much like to see your TES characters if I may request that :D

Trying to be careful not to accidentally delete an ask draft like that one time I tried to answer your anon ask from a while ago.

And yes to anyone's wondering, spinn-virus is the anon that has been sending me oc asks. I've obtained permission to reveal her identity.

18. How easy is it to become their enemy?

Zanri: Zanri isn't one to hold grudges often. Except if you commit acts that in real world would be the equivalent of Geneva convention violations. Terrorism, unlawful torture and executions, taking hostages, to name a few.

Or insult his mom Queen Ayrenn.

Vani: The fighter Khajiit from Orcrest has no more family left, so when Zanri adopts her into his little Dominion family, one can be sure whoever brings her step brother into harm's way will not see the light of day again. Awkwardly they are being overprotective of each other, and they're not fully aware of it.

Adrastea (ESO): Just step on his pet dwarven spider, whether on accident or intentional. Or bring him cold tea. The man is unpredictable on what will trigger him and what will not.

Merri'sa: Merri'sa possesses similar demeanor as Zanri regarding combat. She's by no means a soldier of the Imperial Legion or related to any armed forces in any way, but her Imperial father was. And she has inherited his teachings of battle.

19. How easy is it to become their friend?

Zanri + Merri'sa: You make a perfect friend of Zanri and Merri'sa if you're an archer, not a racist, a scholar, or any combination of them. In general though, anyone socially decent and respectful can be their friend regardless of background.

Vani: Do you like knives? Close range combat? Making the biggest mess possible in the kitchen? You will like Vani, and she will like you. Whether her step brother will also like you is another matter.

Adrastea (ESO): You have to be educated. Like, extremely educated. Especially on Dwemer. The way he filters out fake friends from real ones is by throwing in some Dwemer-related terminologies in his sentences and see how long they will last. And you have to know how to make a good tea. It's a bit unclear if those are requirements to be his friend or his servant.

(yes I just realized I'm basing his personality off of Neloth from Skyrim)

Adrastea (Saturn): Adra has plenty of interests so chances are one of your interests will align with him. Supercars, firearms, trance music. Or sometimes about adult stuff. He's horny.

Aeryx: Aeryx behaves almost like a house cat. Give her a little affection and she will probably cling to you for a while. Even just complimenting her coffee is enough to make her ecstatic.

32. If they could change one thing about themselves what would it be?

Zanri: Zanri wishes he can read people better. Numerous times he felt he was used or lied to because he couldn't take hints except the obvious ones. Sarcasm is his enemy because it can take a few hours to a few days before he realizes what his interlocutor actually meant. This stems from him not wanting to judge people too quickly, which has proved to be a little bit of a double-edged sword.

Vani: Vani has been trying to take her step brother's advice of "chill the fuck out a little", though she hasn't been able to because she was born with 6 claws according to the old Khajiiti saying. Admittedly on day to day life she has learned how to keep her temper down since Zanri adopts her, but it's gone out the window when blades are out.

Adrastea (ESO): Does he need to change anything about himself? If anything, being full of himself is one. Though he believes it's just because he's still being stationed in Western Skyrim when he would appreciate somewhere warmer a lot better.

Merri'sa: Merri'sa currently seeks to be better in close range combat. It's never in her blood to be proficient in a fight that takes place within 3 meters, other than when she stealthily assassinates a bandit from behind with her dagger. Granted she is rarely involved in close range combat, but it's a skillset she wants to have.

36. Would they ever kill someone? Have they already?

Not applicable to my Saturn ocs because they're all upstanding civilians :)

Zanri: Zanri has taken plenty of lives, probably unnecessarily too many, although none has been civilians or non-combatants. From simple bandits to Dremoras he has seen a lot of blood splatter caused by his arrows. It's easy to brand him as a cold-hearted assassin who blindly follows orders from his Queen, but he knows that some evil are necessary for the greater good. And he's perfectly willing to forgive anyone who wishes to abandon their wrong ways. Except Mannimarco.

Vani: Vani doesn't have anywhere near the same kill count as Zanri. As a hot-tempered fighter however she is more willing to draw blood as her way of solving a problem. Like Zanri however, she won't fight those who can't defend themselves.

Adrastea (ESO): Adrastea used to be a Pact sergeant before he deserted, and he's slain a few dozen soldiers from other alliances, Covenant and Dominion alike. Some Pact soldiers used to call him the Incinerator because of the amount of charred corpses he left in his wake from his aggressive use of sun magic. Though it's not a name he's particularly proud of.

Merri'sa: Merri'sa has killed a lot of bandit leaders in her time, both in Skyrim and back in Cyrodiil. Though she wonders if it's possible to form a society where execution or assassination isn't necessary to solve the worst of problems. A world where there's no need to carry out a war or a battle, despite how impossible it may sound. For now she has been treating her enemies as archery target practice.

#oc: zanri al anaqi #oc: ahravani al karim #oc: adrastea (eso)#oc: merri'sa #oc: adrastea #oc: aeryx

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