Hey guys & gals! I'm a brand new RP'er so thought I would post the backstory of my character I'm choosing to play for my very first RPing ever, in the Elder Scrolls Online!
I'm tasked with trying to create a believable backstory for how my Breton is now a part of the Ebonheart Pact (a rival faction to the Breton's own Daggerfall Covenant).
I'm looking for any and all suggestions, criticism, hate, love, anything that I can use to improve my character (& my writing!) This is seriously my very first piece of fiction I've written in a long time, so please don't be shy to comment ;]
For those fellow nerdy RP'ers who care for some quick info on my character, here ya go:
Name: Arya Brolus
Nicknames: Skammr ("short" in ancient Nordic)
Age: Although Arya has lived for 28 Summers, her appearance would match the shorter-lived Nord, Redguard, & Imperial equivalent of only 20 Summers
Sex: Female
Year Born: 2E 555
Place of Birth: Wayrest of High Rock, the Daggerfall Covenant's capital city
Height: 5'3
Eye Color: Dark brown
Hair Color: The deepest brown to match her eyes
Race: Breton
Divine Worship: She has long since lost faith in more ways than one, Arya follows nothing but her heart now & nature
Now for the actual writing part.
Physical Description:
While short (even for a Breton), she has a body that is both curvy & elegant, yet if you were to look more closely at her you would be sure to notice the finely toned muscle hiding underneath her leathers, speaking of a hidden strength to be found in her small, but powerful frame.
Hair the colour of earth in a storm at midnight, she likes to wear it short, lest it get in the way. Her eyes are a piercing brown, so dark they tend to blend into the ashen eye-markings she has chosen to wear until the day she has brought honour back to House Brolus & cleansed their name of the taint her father had placed upon them.
You will normally find her in the same attire day-to-day. Agile enough to get around easily while still offering decent protection, you will find her wearing hardened leather armour, of which she is sure to have hand crafted herself. Despite her love for leather armour, Arya still chooses to outfit herself with iron pauldrons, boots, and gauntlets for extra protection, which comes in handy as she does battle wielding two blades, of which are always found strapped to her belt.
Covering most of her body is a tattoo she earned from her mentor, Elmar the Wise, gifted to her after many years of training with the Nord shaman. That tattoo symbolizes Mans many ancient histories and how they must learn from their errors or end up falling into Oblivion. She wears it with pride.
Background:
Born in the spring of 2E 555, Arya lived her earliest years in Wayrest, the Daggerfall Covenant capital, and was born into a merchant noble family, with her father specializing in relics & ancient artifacts. Her life was that of a normal young Breton child in a large city; full of excitement and wonder in the many things that this busy merchant city had to offer.
When Arya was but 8 Summers old, her father had been found to have commited a most heinous of crime, when the investigation being led by the Lion Guard into the recent tales of necromancers uncovered his very own coven; He was a member of the The Order of the Black Worm, a necromancers cult that were trying to bring back their leader, Mannimarco. Her father was found guilty of treason, dark magic, murder, and conspiracy to overthrow the Covenant. He was swiftly executed by beheading.
While the Lion Guard could never prove or disprove her mothers involvement with the cult, they opted to simply banish them both. For Arya, her life had been turned upside down in the matter of days. She was leaving home. Her father was dead. She was devestated.
Outcast & with nowhere to go, her mother led them east towards Skyrim in search of a new home. All of their assets were seized when her father had been found guilty of necromancy, so the only coin they had was what her mother had on her when they were cast out.
Thankfully, with the help of kind strangers & good-hearted travelers, mother & daughter made their way as far east as Riften. Here, Arya's mother had found work at a fishery, and rented a cheap shack by the water for them to make their new home.
Arya was put to work too, often helping the local smithie out with whatever she could. A few extra coins here or there really helped, so she would take any odd job a 14 year old Breton could handle. Anything, really, to keep her mind off of what happened in Wayrest with her father.
Her mother had resisted for a while when asked by Arya what father had done to warrant the ostracization of their family & his death. When finally told the truth, Arya became infuriated.
Her family was destroyed because her father was a necromancer & used his magic for evil purposes. She would never see her home again, all because of his mistakes. Simply put, she hated him. Despised him for what he's done to them, if not to others. She would loathe necromancy and all those who practiced it for the rest of her life.
For a few years, life was starting to seem normal again.
She came home one evening after helping out at the smithie to find the front door to her shack broken down. Instantly worried, she barges in without hesitation or thought. She looks frantically to the left then to the right, searching amongst all the thrown & broken furniture for any sign of her mother, or what possibly had happened to her home...
Then she sees it.
She found her darling mother lying still on the dirt floor of their shack, her neck was twisted at a weird angle & her clothes were torn. At the sight of everything she had & loved in this world, lying broken on their floor... It was all too much for 14 year old Arya to comprehend.
She fled their hut & Riften altogether and ran. She ran for what seemed like forever in the direction of the rising moon. She ran until all she could feel was the pounding of her heart & the burning in her lungs. There she collapsed in one big heap at the foot of what she thought must be the tallest mountain in the world, where she cried herself to sleep under the darkness of the new moon.
Her next memory was one of pain, as she was awoken with a swift kick to her stomach. When she eventually opened her eyes after she could breath again, she looked upon a stout eldery Nord, with a massive beard & cerulean eyes that drew her in instantly. He was excessively large, even for a Nord, but that didn't scare Arya. She was too numb.
The man angrily demanded to know why she was sleeping on his land, as apparently when she had collapsed last night, it was beside the garden of his hut. Not knowing what to say as the memories of lastnight came crashing back, Arya stared at her hands in her lap, with her lower lip quivering. She didn't know what to say to this stranger. Seeing that she was distraught, the Nord stranger took pity on her and asked what was upsetting her so.
In the end, she ended up telling this old man the sight of what she had found lastnight, and eventually even shared the story how her & her mother had ended up in Riften, all those years ago.
There was something oddly comforting and nurturing about this old man, who quickly introduced himself as Elmar the Wise. He was a shaman, and a craftsman who loved to not only nurture all life, but create beauty.
After calming down Arya and setting her up with furs, food, and drink by his fireplace in his hut, he thought to himself of the situation as he watched her drift back off to sleep. He sympathizes with her, and wants to help. With his mind made, he leaves her in his hut & heads to town.
After half the day talking to the girls neighbours, the city guard, and even the random beggars, he came to the conclusion that the tragedy that had befallen Arya's mother was nothing more than a random attack with no true motive but greed & lust. He inquired as to any other family members of the young girl, but no one could say. The two Brolus' who showed up in Riften 5 years ago have kept their life private from others, it would seem.
When Elmar arrived back at his hut he found Arya still asleep, exhausted from the shock & grief of the past day. He studied her for a short time then, wondering what happens next & if the girl would be alright. After spending some time in his garden to help him think, he went back inside and woke the girl up.
Arya was dumbstruck when she heard his proposal.
"If you wish it, you will stay with me & help me with my duties. You will have a roof over your head, a fire to keep you warm, and food for your belly. You will help me with cleaning, tending the garden, cooking when needed, joining me when I go to harvest materials for my creations. Before you ask, that means you are to hunt, to gather, to fish, and to mine when I head up the mountain.
It will be hard work, I will not lie, but it will make you stronger for it. I will teach you many skills; those of survival, those of purpose, those of life. But most importantly, I will show you the ways of nature.
What say you child; Will you come under my protection and become my apprentice, or will you test your fate elsewhere?"
And so the legacy of Arya Brolus truly started. She spent the next 10 years living with Elmar the Wise and learning from him.
Turns out the man was a genius with his skills in the crafts, based on an intricate way that he retrieved his raw materials. The man was also an avid healer, and taught Arya important spells that might save her or others life one day. He taught her to live off the land, to hunt, to fight, how to rely on herself, but most importantly he taught her compassion, and that there is plenty of good & beauty to be found in all corners of Tamriel.
In 2E 579, Arya awoke one early morning to find her mentor to have fallen asleep, only to not wake up in the morning. Elmar the Wise died at the age 82.
With nothing left to keep her near Riften, Arya made the decision to leave, deciding on the direction of East.
Since the day that Elmar died, Arya has been wandering the provinces of Morrowind and Skyrim, helping out those in need with their health, hunting down any necromancers she finds, all while making a means to survive by selling her crafted wears. On a good month, she will make a few sets of leather and iron armour for the brave adventurer to buy, or offer her services as a healer on one of their adventures.
That is where we leave off with Arya, and her adventures in 2E 583 truly begin.. She is driven by the need to make amends for her fathers sins, all while trying to find her place in a Land she was not born into.
The Nords call her Skammr, making fun of how small she is, but that suits her fine. The less others know of what she's capable of, the better. This makes when she out drinks the Nords at the local tavern even more sweet. Thank Elmar for all those years of tedious lessons on brewing!
Thank you to anyone who might have read through this. It's a pleasure as I try to figure out this character, and I hope her backstory above is a good start to finding her true self as I RP with her in ESO ^-^
I can be found online in ESO LadyWarden 3
Please do comment or review. Let me know if I mucked up too much Elder Scrolls lore, or any and all critiques! They only serve to make my writing, and also my character better :)
Cheers! :D