#oc: zanri al anaqi

[saturniandragon]

Sometimes the things we've lost have ways to come back in the most unexpected manners.

Zanri al-Anaqi, my Khajiit ESO Vestige, with Queen Ayrenn, who now has become his mother figure.

After losing his parents as a teenager, Zanri found himself being part of the Aldmeri Dominion family as an Eye of The Queen. But 7 years later, Queen Ayrenn finally finds what he has been missing the most all this time: someone who loves him like his parents once did.

Commission by KSleepyCaffeine@Twitter.

Zanri al-Anaqi by me

Queen Ayrenn by Zenimax

[saturniandragon]

I feel bad now for having only drawn your character once while you've included my mommy-issue boy multiple times

Thank you again, from my heart <3

composition study featuring Draqanar Raitannil by @saturniandragon and my ESO Nightblade Khajiit, Karru'asad. Thank you for letting me borrow him again <3

original comic by https://twitter.com/erskyee/status/1405561213568708613?s=20

(please follow them if you like pretty fanarts and persona 4)

[saturniandragon]

2, 13, 20 any/all OCs from my TES OC ask game :)

Oh my god?? The op herself?? I AM LEGALLY REQUIRED TO ANSWER NOW

2. When they cast magic, what’s their style? Are they flamboyant or reserved? Do they wave their hands around? Do they like making a show of it? Are they verbal?

Zanri (ESO): Zanri knows a handful of spells despite being an archer first and foremost. Over the years mingling around high elves as well as his crush Shazah, the Mane of Khajiit, he has obtained several useful incantations, although none are destructive spells. His favorite is his light orb magic spell that he can instantly weave on the spot, to help light up dim areas.

Adrastea (ESO): An Ebonheart Pact deserter who was known as The Incenerator in his rank, and for a good reason. Everything from the simplest fire-enchanted sword that he carries as a standard, to a sun-powered javelin throw, he has it all. And he is quite verbal about it, especially when he's hyperfocused, although it's mostly just 2-syllable insults and angry grunts. And in his wake, you'd find a trail of smoke, ashes and burnt Earth.

13. What's their hobbies?

Adrastea (ESO): When not working for Queen Ayrenn, you can find him in his "lab" in Western Skyrim, tinkering with various Dwarven metal tools and contraptions, accompanied by his Dwarven spider and his Dwarven ebon wolf. Even long before the Alliance War happened, this is the activity he pours the most hours in. Just try not to get in his way or else... well, you know what will happen.

Zanri (ESO): Books! He's a nerd when his bow and arrow aren't in hand. Quite simple as that really. Mostly history books. Plus points if he has Summerset gingerose tea within arms reach.

Vani (ESO): Knife throwing. No one knows where she learned, or who taught her, but she enjoys lobbing knives at a hay bale or a dummy to keep her aim sharp at all times. Though she's been told to do it far away from Alinor because she is "accident prone" according to her step brother (Zanri).

Merri'sa (Skyrim): Reading and practicing the lute! The music culture in Skyrim is vastly different compared to her hometown in Cyrodiil. Slowly she begins to pick up interest in it. She's learning on her own, although sometimes she will ask for small tips and lessons from inn bards.

20. If you took their bag and opened it now, what would you find in it?

Zanri (ESO): Ink bottle, hawk feather, a small notebook, emergency health kit, a monocular for scouting, and a handful of soul gems to recharge his bow's enchantment. He's not a healer or a standard infantry by any means, but he still has some medical training and wants to be prepared whenever he's out in the field.

Vani (ESO): Several throwing knives, a waterskin, a compass, and a map of Summerset. She tends to lose sense of direction easily. Something she's always had a struggle with.

Merri'sa (Skyrim): Much more of a nerd/bookworm than Zanri, she carries a journal and a specialized hawk feather, an enchanted feather that requires no ink and can be used anytime and anywhere, given to her before she left Cyrodiil. Also some spare clothing because weather in Skyrim is unpredictable at best.

[saturniandragon]

The problematic (affectionate) stepsibling dynamic.

[saturniandragon]

Elder Scrolls Online comic by @blackcatsnooping

My Vestige sees Queen Ayrenn as mother figure after he lost his parents during his teenage years.

And, he's in a... "relationship" with @blackcatsnooping's ESO character.

Zanri al-Anaqi by me Karru'asad aka Asad by @blackcatsnooping Queen Ayrenn by Zenimax

[saturniandragon]

[10% of this snippet was written with the help of ChatGPT]

Zanri reaches the other side of town, where there’s no shortage of wounded civilians to help. Gust of wind from the deserts of Elsweyr briefly brushes some dirt and dust away from his fur and chestplate, still under the warm sun of Reaper’s March.

On the other side of town is Cariel, having returned from Marbruk after delivering report and receiving orders from the higher ups, to be passed to Eyes of The Queen.

“Cari.”

“Are you alright, Zanri? I heard—”

“I’m fine. What’s the order?”

“Wait for evac, get the survivors to safety, and get back to Marbruk to debrief.”

“Alright.”

“I guess for now I need someone with these bloody rags. Can you clean them for me? I need them for bandages.”

“Sure.”

Zanri takes one of the buckets on the table filled with blood-stained fabric, and brings them to a nearby river.

Along the way he contemplates, whether what he’s been saying to Vani was the right thing to say. He’s not proud of what he said, but he’s unsure if his arguments were appropriate for the situation. Everyday in his line of work has never been particularly easy, both for the body and the mind.

Mindlessly he dances his hands on the bloody rags in the stream, watching as the red flows away into the distance. Time to time he rubs the tricky stains with a bar soap.

“Zanri?”

A voice calls from behind him, under the shadows of the trees. Shazah, unexpectedly, is standing behind him, carrying her iconic magic staff on her back.

“Wh… Mane?”

“Oh, come on. We agreed not to use our titles with each other.”

“I’m- um, yes. Shazah. Sorry.”

Shazah notices what Zanri is doing, and kneels beside him. She takes one of the bloody rags from the bucket, and starts washing it in the river with him. An act he didn’t expect from her, but he warmly welcomes it.

“Thanks.”

“My pleasure.”

The two pass the afternoon together beside the stream, cleaning dirty rags thoroughly and putting them under the sun to dry. It’s been a while since Zanri and Shazah got together, so he appreciates the moment with her.

“What’s the occasion?”

“Lord Gharesh-Ri said there’s been conflict here. I wanted to observe.”

“Yeah, we… tried to stop it. But things happened.”

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Zanri and Shazah continue spending the midday together outside the city perimeters, peacefully doing a mundane task in the field that no one expects an Eye of The Queen or the Mane of Khajiit to be doing. But from the looks of their faces, they seem to enjoy each other’s company.

“I met your step sister. She’s adorable.”

“Hah, yeah… only sometimes.”

-

“And um… Raz told me you two don’t get along well.”

“…”

-

“Is… that true?”

“Well, maybe that guy needs to shut up more often.”

Zanri stops what he’s doing to take a breather, staring at the shines of the water in front of him.

“Sigh…”

“What’s wrong, Zanri?”

“This is not a place for her.”

“Why?”

“I just don’t know if she’s ready for what’s to come.”

Shazah also stops what she’s doing, to look at her companion in his troubled eyes. She’s known that he has a strong heart, after their endeavor in Reaper’s March some years ago, but this feels like something else. Something more than just Zanri being protective of Vani.

“But she’s a fighter, I thought? She looks more than capable.”

“She is. I’ve seen her fight, and admittedly she’s very good.”

Zanri hesitated, his mind racing with conflicting thoughts. He knows the saying that describes Vani, “like she’s born with six claws”. But on the other hand, he couldn't shake the feeling of protectiveness and fear that came with being an older brother, not after knowing what Vani has to endure all these years. Losing her family and her friends before that chance meeting of them.

“So, why the worry?”

“I don’t know, I guess it’s a mix of things. We both have lost family. Now I’m the only family she has left, and she’s the only family I have left.”

-

“I see, I know that feeling too when my father passed away.”

“It’s not the whole story but… well, it’s the best I can explain right now.”

Shazah put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. It’s a gesture that he hasn’t had for a while.

“She’ll be fine. You just have to trust her. Like when you trusted me before.”

Zanri smiled back, feeling grateful for her support, grateful to have known her in his time. It’s not everyday he gets to see those beautiful pair of jade eyes in her, but he knows they always comfort him. And it’s true again today.

“Thank you.”

“If you need me, I’ll be by your side.”

The pair continue the task at hand after that wholesome exchange between them, one by one going through more bloodstained rags. The sun now hides behind the trees of Valenwood, but he still feels the warmth from her presence.

“Is that your way of saying you want to be with me?”

“Mhm, I don’t know, do you want to be with me?”

“Well, depends on what you think about—”

“Hey, lovebirds. Not the time. We have injured people to help.”

Their conversation is rudely interrupted by Cariel, standing behind them while giving a slightly judgmental look. They snapped out of it, Zanri giving her the annoyed look while Shazah chuckles it off.

[saturniandragon]

Zanri: What's the dumbest thing you've done?

Vani: Awfully bold of you to assume I've peaked.

[saturniandragon]

4. Maned wolf Formula 1 driver who listens to hip-hop and has trouble with doors more often than he wants to admit.

My OCs in a nutshell

Alien dragon in a polyamorous relationship with three girlfriends. One of them isn't even the same species (Adra, Jesse, Mira, Aeryx)

Archer cat and her lesbian companion (Merri'sa and Elrain)

CIA agent cat, his step sister and a defecting mad scientist (Zanri, Vani, Adrastea)

[saturniandragon]

Zanri: Basic manners. Let's try this again. Here's your tea, Adra. Now what do you say in return? Adrastea: Fuck you? Zanri: No.

[saturniandragon]

I want to headcanon that Zanri has the voice of Captain Price from MW2019/MW2022

[saturniandragon]

Forgot to post this today. A digital watercolor painting of my ESO character, made with love by @spinn-virus.

Please check her blog, she's amazing <3

[saturniandragon]

Queen Ayrenn gave me a better parent figure impression than what my mom did.

[saturniandragon]

Got to play ESO with yet another Tumblr mutual. This time with @spinn-virus and her partner.

And, my god, I got to witness my character in un-pixelated quality for the first time. Fuck, Zanri looks beautiful.

Thanks for having me in your little group <3

Add me on ESO: @SaturnianDragon, I play both NA and EU but mostly EU

Left to right: Zanri al-Anaqi, Solari Isolde, Navi the Silver-Paw

[saturniandragon]

Moodboard or something I don't know

for my ESO character Zanri al-Anaqi

[saturniandragon]

Adrastea: I'm tired of Skyrim weather. When will I get drafted to somewhere warm?

Zanri: Once you start teaching your pet dwarven spider to stop jumping onto people's ribcage like a hackwing.

Adrastea: Shit, you're right. I should teach it how to do shock magic wamasu-style.

Zanri: No!

[saturniandragon]

🌌 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 :)