by the way i never posted my skyrim character tova (: she loves to steal things (:

ALSO sorry I need to bitch. I forgot but earlier was browsing nexus mods as you do and idly clicked on a harkon + valerica + serana replacer and while it was all very airbrushed and devoid of personality and actual Skyrim character as I’ve come to expect from the vast majority of modded character overhauls, it was notable for making valerica and serana paper white… with Harkon being. noticeably dark skinned. incredible how modders will be incapable of making dark skinned characters up until they need to redesign a villain

Oadalupe

She/Her Redguard Late 20's

Birthsign: The Lady

Primary Attributes: Endurance and Willpower

Primary Skills: Armorer, Athletics, Block, Blunt, Heavy Armor, Mysticism, Restoration

Secondary Skills: Alchemy, Blade

Titles: Hero of Kvatch, Grandmaster of the Fighter's Guild, Divine Crusader

Born to a retired Forebear warrior and a Cyrodiilic priest, it seemed natural for Oadalupe to become an Aspirant of the Kynarian Order of her home city of Rihad. Her gentle nature seemed at odds with her martial prowess at first, but her faith in the Divines served as an anchor for her contrasting roles of healer and fighter.

Over time she grew more and more curious of her father's culture and homeland. Rihad and its Forebear Redguards embraced much of Imperial culture, but in the end it was still through a Redguard lens. She decided the time came to learn more of Tava as Kynareth and set out for the city of Anvil to the south.

She remained in the city for some time, the local chapel of Dibella serving as a base and the Fighter's Guild hall a source of income while she established herself in the province. Shortly after making a name for herself, she continued her pilgrimage so as to not overstay her welcome or become prideful and complacement.

Her next destination would be the nearby city of Kvatch and its chapel of Akatosh. Little did she know her previous trials were only preparation for the horrors ahead.

Bonus art and commentary after the break

Some day I'll come up with a hair for post-game/KotN, which doesn't exist because I could never get that far on her saves lol

So my OG followers will know this character as the one I first created here on tonglr dot net, and will also know how fragile her saves were. I don't think I've ever made it to the end of a playthrough before the save ended up corrupted, but I guess there's always the future.

Anyways, not sure whether I go with that spelling for her name or the original "Guadalupe". I figure it's more...lore friendly? to go with Oada instead of Guada given there's no Spain analogue in-universe except maybe Wayrest? But that's far away from Rihad so lol

I think one of the things ESO does right is bringing back random shit from pre-oblivion TES games, like dungeons from Arena or beasts from the fucking Nokia mobile games

screw it. i think imma info dump more useless info no one asked for about skyrim. 

me: gotta refind the hair mod i wnna use for my Kaidan replacer/hurry up & get creative kit n such

also me, suddenly having thoughts(tm): but how the hell would he confidently keep 3b/3c hair open in that environment? without some sort of protective style? what hair products would he use, what's his secret, wh-

I finally have an orc character now.

also i finally have a templar now :O I’m gonna make him a sneaky boy.  ignore the sickle clipping into his clothing at his waist there, just pretend that’s not happening, it’s fine.

also holy moly it’s difficult to make a dude orc who doesn’t look like every other dude orc in the game, with their gigantic square zillion-year-old faces of crags.  I would LOVE craggy old character options for women, but of course we don’t get that. Also the fact that no matter where you put the age on male orsimer in char creation, they look exactly the same is a red flag.  and annoying as hell. and bad design. But i worked with what i had and bam, here we are.

i miss the snout noses from oblivion for orsimer, honestly: you could even achieve similar nose-slit effects in skyrim.  i’d prefer my orcs to not lean into racist caricatures of real human peoples, and also for elven (because orcs are elves) creatures to not just look like regular people with a few accessories put on here and there in my fantasy media... but i digress.

Me when I get see redguard, khajits, or argonian stuff:

hmm

What if all the weird shaped puffy straw hair characters are just people with brushed out curls

Started another Skyrim save today

Oblivion Character Overhaul is fantasatic for the 3 White human races, but it inevitably whitewashes Redguards not just in facial features but also skintone for some reason? Lmao??

should i just go into this calling the other character Nameless Adventurer until i decide who they are or what they look like. idk i might

Another thing that drives me crazy (positive) about elder scrolls lore is that there’s some cultures that straight up hate magic. Orcs, redguards, and nords culturally don’t like magic and yet you find orc, redguard, and Nord mages anyways.

In oblivion there’s a Redguard mage you meet who admits he moved to cyrodiil to study magic and he still has some personal hang-ups about certain kinds of magic. Illusion magic in particular makes him uncomfortable.

In Skyrim at the college of winterhold an orc runs the library and you can meet a new student who’s disappointed he’s the only Nord there but not surprised.

You also across the series meet high elves who don’t practice magic and run horse stables or work as bakers or military captains, Bretons that are pure fighter types, see mages in the halls of sovngarde, dark elves that work as priests for the imperial pantheon, Khajiit who talk like men and mer, former bandits turned knights, and many more people who don’t fit the cookie cutter mold you’d expect from their archetype.

Yes nords in general don’t trust wizards. Yes every single regional leader in Skyrim understands the utility of having a court wizard and employs one despite their peoples superstitions.

It’s one of the few more nuanced things I think Bethesda gets right. Probably because they’re decent at environmental storytelling and well the people in the world are part of the environment. We’ve got complex societies here with some incredibly ham fisted writing thrown on top.

Five Skyrim Lore Facts You May Not Know!

And unlike some of the clickbait videos on Youtube, these ones are absolutely true. Let me address some of the most common lore confusions I regularly see. As a Listicle, because why not? (It's easier than writing out long lore posts.)

The Blades never served the Mede Empire. Martin was the last Emperor they served. They then devoted themselves to looking for a new Dragonborn and working against the Thalmor. Titus Mede I created a new organization called the Penitus Oculatus, which handled all intelligence and security for the Mede Dynasty. The Penitus Oculatus has been the official Imperial organization for more than 175 years, while the Blades have been an independent force. It makes the Mede decision to outlaw the Blades a lot easier to understand if you know they weren't their employees at all. The Blades were loose cannons they couldn't control.

Ysgramor didn't destroy the snow elves. The stories about Ysgramor say he and his 500 Companions showed up in Skyrim, killed or sent the snow elves into exile, took all of Skyrim, and then wandered over to pick fights with the neighbours. In reality, the Falmer weren't completely driven from Skyrim till the reign of King Harald, thirteen generations after Ysgramor. In the interim, there was a whole Dragon cult and war, culminating with Alduin being flung through the time wound. It's a long period. The real Ysgramor definitely clashed with his snow-elf neighbours but he's accumulated the stories of hundreds of years around his mythic name.

The Companions haven't been a Nord-only organization for a very long time. You might think that a bunch of warriors venerating the legacy of Ysgramor and his Companion would be Nord only, and that was probably true way back in the First Era. But by the end of the First Era, the Companions had boasted both a Redguard and Elf (Altmer or Bosmer) Harbinger. Cirroc and Henantier are some of the most famous Harbingers in the history of the Companions. We're in the Fourth Era now, so if you're playing a non-Nord, you're following in a long tradition by joining the companions. (As is Athis.)

The Imperial Legion didn't win back most of Cyrodiil in the Great War. People often ask why Titus Mede II agreed to the harsh peace of the White-Gold Concordat after his army had destroyed the Dominion army in Cyrodiil and taken back the Imperial City. But that's not what really happened. The Legion destroyed "the main army". Other Aldmeri armies are mentioned in Cyrodiil. After Red Ring, the Dominion still occupied Anvil, Skingrad, Bravil, and Leyawiin. "The Great War" doesn't say that any of these cities were liberated. Put those territories together and you'll realize the Empire never got back its coastline or the Niben river. Titus Mede made his deal while the Dominion still occupied half of Cyrodiil. Maybe he could have won if he'd pushed on, but his decision is a lot easier to understand with this context.

The Bretons Don't Worship Talos. This is one of my favourite lore bits to explain. Talos is not a god in TES II, Daggerfall, though he is a historical figure, Tiber Septim. He's only introduced as a god in Morrowind. So, a lot of people assume that he's been retconned into the Breton religion, like he was into the Nord/Imperial religions. This is not true. In both Morrowind and Skyrim, the book Varieties of Faith in the Empire does not list Talos/Ysmir as part of the Breton pantheon. They worship the Eight (and sometimes Y'ffre, Magnus, and Phynaster), as they always have. Tiber Septim is an important historical figure whom some Bretons regard as one of their own, but he isn't an official god. I love this tidbit because it makes the White-Gold Concordat absolutely brilliant. One remaining province, Skyrim, gets all upset while High Rock wouldn't care. Cyrodiil is presumably somewhere in the middle. It's a perfect way to drive a wedge among the provinces. (Hammerfell's left the Empire, but for the record, they don't worship Talos either.)