2nd of Last Seed

We're still at Jorrvaskr. I've spoken to Athis about his feelings on werewolves. I was right and he knew that all of us were werewolves - Kodlak, Skor, Aela, all of us. He was even able to tell me, with in a couple of days, when I became one because my smell changed. His objections revolved around not wanting to be turned into one. He actually doesn't care if Aela is or isn't. He just didn't want to be one himself. He put it about that he hated werewolves so that they'd not bother asking him. We had a long talk about the Silver Hand, Skor, Kodlak, and the witches.

Athis says that Torvar isn't going to be happy if he's allowed into the Circle and Torvar isn't. I told Athis that until Torvar sobers up permanently, that neither I nor the rest of the Circle is interested in adding him to the Circle. Once he sobers up, we'll have to see what manner of man he is. Until then, we wait to see what he does. Maybe he will, maybe he never does. Athis agreed that this seems reasonable to him and that he's had his quarrels with Torvar a few times, mostly over Torvar's drunken idiocy. The Circle are advisors to the Harbinger and that's not the place for drunken idiocy. He's a stout fighter and seems like a mostly decent person, when he's not three sheets to the wind. The problem is that he spends most of his time firmly planted at the bottom of a mead vat when he's not out fighting. Even when he is fighting, he's often not sober.

Athis asked why I'd want him, a Dunmer, on the Circle. I don't care if he's a purple silt strider with orange spots. He's got a clear head and gives good advice. I drug him into the Harbinger's rooms and pulled out all the hidden archives. I started dragging out instance after instance from the archives showing where the Circle, when it was functioning well, had helped guide the Harbinger through some very tough decisions, often quite successfully. I also pulled out some records showing what happened when the Circle wasn't functioning well. This included things like Terrfyg's terrible decision to accept the pact with the Glenmoril witches that ended only recently. Oddly enough, this is somewhat obliquely documented in the song "The Wolves of Jorrvaskr" which a few of the bards seem to know. For something that's supposed to be a huge secret, how is it that the bards found out and made a song about it that gets sung in taverns? That bears looking into one of these days when I have time to pick it up.

I think all this rocked Athis a bit but he said it still didn't explain why him. I need advisors who will see things I've missed or misunderstood. I need calm, sane voices to tell if I'm off track or could just do something better or differently. I explained why I haven't done anything about Grelod the Kind or the orphanage in Riften and how the Circle advised me on all that. Athis chewed on this for a while. Finally, I shrugged, "You've never been shy about telling me when you think I'm screwing up. You're always calm and rational. Your criticisms have always been well-founded and designed to get me to be better, to do better. They don't come from a place of personal animus, unlike Njada. That's exactly what I need from my Circle. I inherited this position far too soon. Kodlak hasn't been here to guide me into growing into it. Vignar's not much help either. Balgruuf is the only one who's been helpful, when he's had the time for us to talk. I've floundered a bit, having to find my own way. In some ways, I'm still floundering as Harbinger. I'm asking for you to be one of the voices to speak up and tell what it is that I need to hear, not what I want to hear." Athis thought this over for a time before he nodded and told me that he'd be happy to help, Circle or no Circle. Him being on the Circle just formalizes that.

I'll take this up with the rest of Circle and see what they say. If they approve, I'll speak to Eorlund about creating a light version of the Wolf Armor that the Circle wears since Athis prefers to trust his ability to dodge and move quickly in lighter armor over the heavy stuff that I've come to love, especially when fighting dragons. You have to be able to withstand a chomp or a swipe to do that. Dragons are tricky to fight with since they're large, agile, and have multiple innate weapons. Breath isn't the only weapon a dragon has. They're not afraid to use their teeth, claws, tail, or even just their own body weight to try to crush you. You can sit with most bows and plink at them for ages to have any effect on them all. Their scales make pretty effective armor which is why I use them in mine. All the while, they're still trying to kill you. The only way around it is to get a big group, get them on the ground and get in close with a good blade that can really deal some damage while the archers continue poking holes in their wings.

3rd of Last Seed

It's official. Athis is on the Circle and moving into Skor's old room which leaves us with another empty bed to fill. I've laid out my plan to create a set of local outposts that aren't officially part of the Companions to deal with more minor issues like wild animals, the lone highway men who pop up from time to time, and all the lesser items that don't rise to the level of needing the Companions. If any of our outposts get anything they can't handle, they can send the request on to us. We still have to come up with a name for it, but so far everyone's in favor of the idea. I've proposed Grah-Zeymahzin as the name since it literally translates to Battle Companion Ally. Everyone thinks its too hard to pronounce. I don't care overly much what we call it as long as we do it. The next item was who would run it until we can build their command structure. I've proposed that this be Ria and Ralof for the interim. The Circle is considering this but they'd like to consider my housecarls.

Lydia is another person who would follow me to Oblivion and back. With Jordis still missing, that leaves Argis, Calder, Rayya, Lydia, or Jenassa. Lydia is also the Steward for Lakeview and I need her and Bjorn there to keep all the things that randomly show up there in check. I swear that plot of land has a curse on it. Lydia's so loyal that she'd do anything I asked, but I don't see her wanting to do this. She's pretty happy at Lakeview and training the new pup. I thi8nk there might be a bit of a romance going on there. I hope there is. Lydia deserves to be happy. With her parents gone and that first dragon taking quite a few of her friends, whatever makes her happy suits me.

I got Korik to name Jenassa as my housecarl from Winterhold. It solved a few problems for Korik, Jenassa and me. Normally a Thane is assigned a housecarl and Korik had no one to assign. It gives Jenassa some standing as a housecarl who's nominally a part of Korik's court. It keeps a lot of snobby people from blocking her entry when I go places. I can say in all honestly that she's my housecarl and as such, if I'm not barred entry, she can't be either. Jenassa really isn't interested in taking this thing on and running it and neither is Rayya. I won't make them do it if they don't want to. That's never been my way and I see no reason to change now. Calder or Argis might be interested but I'd have to go talk to them to find out.

There's another person that I've tossed into the mix to take this on and run it on a more permanent basis and that's Valdimar. I can probably get Valdimar away from Sorli pretty easily. I know he wasn't very happy about having to go back and serve under her when I told Sorli to sod off. He and I discussed it before I went to turn in the weapon from the Morthal armory that was my badge of office. Instead of letting me do it quietly, Sorli demanded to know why in front of her whole court. I tried to beg off but she wouldn't hear of it. Since Sorli kept forcing the issue, I told her plainly to stop asking questions to which she does not want to hear the answer. That only made her more insistent so I answered her question in blazing and gory detail. She got told, in no uncertain terms, exactly what I thought of her greedy, grasping, power-hungry, manipulative, underhanded, dirty-dealing, cowardly ass. I talked about the conditions that she forces the miners to live in along with the recent cave in that was due to nothing more than a failure to order 200 septims worth of timber to be delivered and installed to shore up the rock face that collapsed. Since four people died, that must mean her price for a human life is only 50 septims.

Then we got into some of things Sorli's tried to order me to do and which I've refused to do. I'm the Harbinger of the Companions. If you want someone dead for no particular reason, get your axe and go for it yourself. If you want someone to steal something for you, go do that yourself. Don't call on me to do your dirty work or participate in your underhanded schemes. One of her court asked who it was she wanted me to kill. It wasn't just one person and it was most of her court. One of them asked me if he was on the list. He wasn't but it was his farm that she wanted to steal. She tried to order to me to steal the deed so that she could claim it for herself. Sorli was quite enraged about having her dirty laundry aired, but she's the one who insisted that I must explain myself to everyone present. When she started ranting at me for telling everyone her business, after demanding that I do so, is when I told her to sod off.

I punched Ulfric in the jaw and shouted at him and he's High King. Sorli's lucky that I didn't do the same with her. I won't be Thane to her as I was to Idgrod. Idgrod might have visions and be a little odd, but Idgrod genuinely cared about her hold and all the people in it. Sorli mainly only cares about Sorli and maybe a little about her brat of a son, Sirgar.

Valdimar understood why I told her to sod off and he never renounced his oath to me, so he's still technically my housecarl. Pactur, Sorli's husband, and Sirgar, her son are both asshats to the miners who work for them. They force them to live in tents and refuse to even build a bunk house for them. They're tiny tents like the hunters use out on the tundra and completely insufficient for winter as far north as Morthal. That the rockfall that killed several of the miners was due to insufficient timber being used to shore up the mine simply because Sorli and Pactur are too cheap to spend the coin to get some timber delivered. Sorli also likes to follow Falion around trying to catch him doing something she can arrest him for. In short, the whole family isn't very nice. Valdimar's no fonder of Sorli than I am, so he's made himself scarce around Sorli's court which is probably good for him. He's been living in the house I built across the bay from Solitude and basically acting as my steward there. Sorli's the type to take out her anger at me on Valdimar. Refusing to be her Thane made her angry. Now that everyone in Morthal calls her 50 septim Sorli instead of Sorli the Builder, that anger isn't likely to go away anytime soon. Still, my rather public snubbing of Sorli does seem to have put an end to some of the worst of her prior behavior.

They're thinking about Valdimar and for now, he's the leading candidate to take it on. I'll swing through and drag Valdimar back to Jorrvaskr so that the Circle can get to know him before I leave for Bruma again. He's a stout fighter but likely needs some training. As a housecarl, he's had some instruction on how to deal with people including court etiquette, which he'd need for this position. He's also used to commanding the guards since as a housecarl, that's part of his responsibilities. I'm just not sure how well he can train a some farm kids to swing a sword. In any event, that's something I think he can learn. It solves a few problems so I hope this works out for all of us.