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biinarysttars · 3 months

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11, 14, 18, & 27!! for etheara questions :D

YEAAAA Toby I owe you my life <3333

11. If they had a pet or magical familiar as in ESO (excluding the dogs in Skyrim) what creature would it be?

So!! First off-- he does actually have a horse. Her name is Cinnamon and he gets her in Windhelm to travel to Winterhold. And second off, in Heavenfall, before we saw Etheara at all he was established to have a service animal for mental health reasons since he seemed to struggle w psychosis and would steal from the library & then lock himself in his dorm for days on end. The way I'm translating this is by using a nix-hound!

They're native to Morrowind, and physically massive enough to get in the way of Etheara engaging w his triggers (books). Also look at it. That thing's got 0 brain cells <3

14. What is their personal favourite place in Skyrim- a town, hold, home, dungeon, or just a natural spot they happen to have a fondness for?

Etheara loves the hot springs by Windhelm! I'm p sure he hates the cold, so he also loves the areas closer to the Cyrodiil border, too, like Falkreath. I think the dude needs to relax a little bit though, so, while I haven't actually played through a game where he spends much time there, I like to imagine him & his little party chillin over there together :)

18. Your Dragonborn is now an actual dragon- what do they look like? Do they possess any unique features or abilities?

[GRIPS THIS] So I went and did a bunch of research on the anatomy of TES dragons because I wanted to describe a unique take on it. So first, let's start with a serpentine dragon base:

But rather than blue undertones, I would want green undertones I think.

Next, I'd want him to have more eyes because of his strong connections to Hermaeus Mora. More on his face for sure; but I think I'd want it to be a situation where the more you look, the more you realize that he is covered in them. Maybe they're mostly closed; but I think that whenever they open, they are off looking in a different direction for a second before centring on You, y'know?

Idk I think I would also want him to bleed black goop. I'm not 100% sure about any special abilities but something that drains Intelligence would probably be really fitting :)

27. If your Dragonborn were an in-game boss fight, what would their lair be like? What enemies would help them in the fight (if any) and what quest might lead to another hero having to fight them?

I LOVE THIS QUESTION because here's the thing: Etheara does actually have a "boss fight" in Memoir Maormer.

Some context for that is that I found Ancano to be an extremely entertaining but also an extremely shallow and stupid character, boring in every way other than personality. So I wanted to spice him up. I presented him with a character to bounce off of (Kyryi, the Maormer in question), and I gave him motivation for him to do the things he does. Is "motivation" the right word? I fleshed out his actual thoughts and feelings on the Thalmor's goals and considered how much he knew about their end goals AND considered how much he agreed with those end goals; I thought about his loyalty to them and his specific placement at the college- Idk I thought about a lot of things.

What I came up with is, I think, extremely interesting-- but this is not about what I've done to Ancano, this is about Etheara! So part of the reason Ancano responds the way he does to the Eye of Magnus is because of Etheara-- because Etheara is being influenced/watched by Hermaeus Mora, and that maddening drive to acquire knowledge is contagious & exacerbated by sheer nature of being at a school. Ancano and Etheara, who have exactly none emotional intelligence, are both very deeply affected by the Vibes. So they both become obsessive and territorial over the Eye, and it's their informal rivalry on the matter that provokes Ancano to act in the College.

But as I said in my previous post, Etheara is not the hero of this story-- he stays right by the Eye himself, locked in a stalemate with Ancano. It's Kyryi that takes off to Labyrinthian to acquire the Staff; and when he gets back, Etheara has bested Ancano and is looking to take the Eye's secrets for himself (/Hermaeus Mora). So Kyryi fights Etheara in this situation.

BUT! That's not what this exercise is about-- that's just genuinely part of his story.

I think if he had a lair, it would take the shape of a Telvanni mushroom tower; but when entered, is dizzyingly bigger on the inside. Same vibes as when you go into any of the Vivec City compounds for the first time. He would reside at the top of the tower, but getting there would involve solving a lot of puzzles (and that's probably why he's trapped at the top; he could not solve those puzzles himself lmao). The closer you get to the top, the more everything starts to look like Apocrypha-- the walls start to be made out of books; the lighting is green; there is a black ooze on the ground and I imagine there's an acrid scent in the air.

I think that he would be able to summon Seekers to help him fight :) That would be cool

The story that I imagine leading up to this would be an AU where either Kyryi denies Etheara when he asks for help, or one where Etheara never asks for help at all. Etheara's greatest flaw is that he sees himself too much as the "helper friend" to ever let himself be helped in kind-- so as time goes on and his connections to Apocrypha strengthen and his grip on reality weakens, he ends up in a position where he has one last chance to ask for help before his mind-- before the holes in his psyche can never be repaired.

The reason he has this crisis of conscience is because his travels have lead him back to Solstheim, back to a place that looks and feels like home; and has, coincidentally, lead him back to Kyryi. He doesn't remember the end of what happened at the College; but he remembers Kyryi's unique ability. Surrounded by this familiarity, and the certainty of being seen, Etheara is able to pull himself together for a couple of days. His travelling companion at the time, Melanarto, goes to Kyryi and begs him to help-- and in exchange, Melanarto will pull some strings with the sailing company he used to work for in order to get Kyryi back home to Pyandonea.

Kyryi turns down the offer, unless Etheara himself asks him for help. He is not eager to get involved in Etheara's business again-- not after almost losing Ancano. In this AU, Etheara either wouldn't ever ask him; OR Etheara asks him, and he turns it down anyways. So Kyryi never goes home; and him and Ancano are taking refuge in Solstheim, hiding from the Thalmor.

Years and years later, the contagious effect that was seen at the College is ravaging Solstheim-- particularly Raven Rock. And I think Ancano would once again start to succumb; and in a horrific way, he sees and knows what is happening to him, but there would be nothing he could do to prevent this. And Kyryi, watching the love of his life twist this way, would find the strength to go after Etheara, and put an end to him once and for all.

I think that he would have to make the first move against Etheara. I think he's surrounded by books, swirling in a tempest all around him that he looks over, not understanding, flitting back and forth and holding the information without absorbing any of it. But ultimately, Etheara is a pacifist at heart, so he wouldn't attack you for entering his space; he wouldn't attack you if you spoke to him, or disturbed him, or even attacked him directly-- no, you'd need to hit him where it hurts: the only friends he has left: his books.

#THANK YOU TOBY I OWE YOU EVERYTHING DKFLJHGDFKJGH #[makes an AU] [makes an AU] [makes an AU]#I LOVE A GOOD TRAGEDY OKAY .#UGH strongly considering making THIS the real ending to Memoir Maormer and having the happy end be the AU #LIKE. I love the tragedy so much. I love the finality of it all #UGH this tragedy is such a good and fitting end for Kyryi but the happy end is so good and fitting for Ancano #AAA Idk what to do #Obviously the happy end is happy for Kyryi too but like. It specifically forces Ancano to reflect on his biases and come to terms w #the fact that he is not a good person. He has to grapple with his own fascist ideals and dispel them #He has to acknowledge WHY what happened at the College happened; why his sense of superiority was targeted to force him to act in That Way #AAA explodes #Idk I'm probably going to stick with my first thought because I think I like it more. Like it speaks to me more as a story #But MAN. This tragedy AU is making me insane also <3

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