The Life and Times of a Dunmer in Windhelm
Kaviris Mstravos was a Dunmer of 26 winters; a number that he himself is all too familiar with, as the notoriously bitter blizzards of Eastmarch nearly claimed his life on more than one occasion. Life in Windhelm is generally comfortable for its citizens…excluding the Dunmer. For you see, nearly 200 years ago, an event known as the Red Year was heralded in by the massive eruption of Red Mountain, causing the destruction of the Dunmeri homeland of Morrowind. A mass migration was sparked and the surviving Dunmer from the northern reaches of the Morrowind began to trickle into the neighboring lands of Skyrim (which remained generally unaffected from the cataclysm) stopping at the first city they stumbled upon, Windhelm. Kaviris's grandparents were members of this migration.
For the most part, the Nords of Skyrim are a warm and honor-bound people, but there are always those outliers. The inhabitants of the eastern holds of Skyrim still bear the memories of the ancient wars with the inhabitants of Morrowind all the way back to the time of the Dwemer in the First Era. Due to this, these backwards Nords still harbor a pointless intolerance towards the Dunmer, and while the refugees were allowed to settle within the stone walls of Windhelm, they were not met with open arms. These Dunmer were forced to live in the squandered and cramped underbelly of the city of which is now known as the "Grey Quarter"
Life in the Grey Quarter is raunch with danger. Some of the luckier inhabitants were able to acquire dilapidated shanties providing a poor barrier to the freezing winds that permeate the city at nearly all times of the year; others, like Kaviris, weren't as lucky, and were truly blessed by the Divines merely if they found enough food to survive though the week, shelter of any sort was almost out of the question. However climate was insignificant compared to the other forces at work in the Grey Quarter. Kaviris's childhood would be filled with sights of theft, murder, and vice; all of which would influence our protagonist in his adult years. Bearing witness to his parent's homicide by a Nord gang (no doubt due to not paying some debt on time), he would soon embrace the shadows as his greatest ally, as the shadows themselves were the only thing shielding him from joining his parents fate; truly Nocturnal was on his side.
Now an orphan and left with only what remained of his old shanty after it was set ablaze, Kaviris would be forced resort to his skills of stealth to obtain what he needed, stealing what food he could to just remain alive. However with age, the mer grew ambitious and vengeful, and would soon turn to profit from others losses, pulling off numerous heists within the wealthier homes if the city. His ambition would eventually lead to his downfall, as poorly planned heist in 4E 201 would seem lead to an ill-timed doom.