Victory or Sovngarde

by Arcolin

Set sometime before Skyrim's Civil War, an outlander finds himself... well... dead. A story about the afterlife and 'living' there, the nature of heroism and heaven, and those pesky gods' wills. I've indulged in deliberate heresies against the Queen's English to try to differentiate between characters from different eras, and tried to curb my penchant for exposition.

1. Author's Notes

As I've been writing this some points have come to mind which may (or may not) be of interest to the reader.

First and most important, comments and constructive criticism are welcome, as long as they're presented civilly. I actually want them.

Story Creation

There are parts of the story and some characters I personally think are flawed and need work. On the other hand, I don't feel required to 'like' everything that goes into my work, or that things necessarily need to be 'complete'. Sometimes it's good to have a little dissonance, some unexplained mysteries, some loose ends. It makes things seem more organic.

By way of example, I've been stumbling over an as-yet-un-introduced character that I felt was something of a stereotype and challenges my real life beliefs. It'd be much easier to dump the character and storyline and move on. However, I decided to keep the character, flesh out the story, give the character some depth and in the process explore the motivations actions of a person I'd… probably not get along with in real life.

On reflection, my proposed timing for the story has to be refined. This tale probably occurs just before the Skyrim Civil War, in which case Scalathrax was likely the very first dragon awakened by Alduin. If it occurred far in the past, before the Blades wiped the Dragons out, the culture and historical references would probably have to shift.

Given a pre-Civil War setting someone would have remarked on the return of the Dragons. At some point I'll have to rework things to put that in. Of course, Alduin will have to make his presence known in Sovngarde at some point…

I kind of like the 'pre Civil War setting' because it'll force me to deal with how the afterlife views and handles the Civil War. After all, Mundus reflects Aeterius and Aetherius reflects Mundus.

Aelfir Lightspear will get considerable fleshing out. She's obviously the Nord point of view character for the tale, just as Gaius Marcus is the Cyrodiliic one.

Yes, I imagine some romantic character arcs developing at some point. They're a necessary and usually positive aspect of life and afterlife. An interesting question… can the spirits of the dead procreate? (Already answered in an unpublished chapter...)

I'm deliberately intending to avert or invert some standard literature tropes in the course of this tale to keep things interesting. Like many authors, some current real-world cringe parallels will raise their ugly heads, though hopefully in an entertaining and subtle way. This is partly because there are considerable parallels between the Time of the Dragonborn and 21st Century Earth, but mostly because I'm dealing with overarching questions of morality, loyalty, ethics, faith and theology. Hopefully no one will be offended by my efforts. More importantly, I hope it causes readers to think... myself included. We'll see how successful I am.

I've got probably twenty more chapters written but unpublished at this point.

Rome vis-a-vis the Elder Scrolls Empire

My vision of the Empire is a more Roman Empire-esque than that of Skyrim's creators. This is partly because I am fascinated by the historical Romans and partly because I've always felt the Elder Scrolls Empire was a bit bland, a trifle too 'stock-medieval-RPG'.

I've already had Imperial soldiery lock shields and throw javelins at Scalathrax, very much like historical Romans 'forming testudo' and throwing pilia (Roman javelins). To my knowledge javelins are not used by Skyrim's Empire and Imperial troops don't use the testudo. This could be jarring for Elder Scrolls purists. If it detracts from your enjoyment of the story I'm truly sorry.

In yet to be published chapters I use Roman names for the main character's sword ('gladius') and his dagger ('pugio'), though not consistently. I also envision visits to places reminiscent of classical Roman villas and cities where the characters dine on grapes and olives, use olive oil in place of butter, and drink wine while reclining on dinner couches. I'm looking forward to the Nord character's reactions to Roman (Cyrodiliic) customs and traditions, much in the same way that Gaius Marcus has had to struggle with ending up in Sovngarde (Valhalla).

Yet I've avoided (so far) calling Gaius Marcus' shield a scutum. The iconic octagonal Imperial shield is nothing like the historical Roman curved, rectangular body-shield. I've also avoided calling Imperial javelins 'pilia', which was a very specific – and clever – Roman javelin design.

That's enough boring stuff for now. Enjoy!

- Arcolin