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    1. James 7 yrs ago

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7 yrs ago
Current Hello Roleplayerguild! Nice to be here.
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Bio

New kid on the block. I'm here to write stories and drink milk, and I'm all outta milk. I do both fandom & original setting roleplays. My timezone is European. Just ask if you need to know anything else.

Most Recent Posts

Still here! I'll write some rumours and a post hopefully this week.
Balroth would be a reclusive, giant, hairy German car mechanic that lives in a cute cottage in the Black Forest.
I fully expect an Aliens reference at some point during our subterranean horror adventure.
A collaboration between @Lemons and myself.

"Rrraaagh!"

Gaius grunted as he caught the blow of a Dwemer sword on a shield of the same make. Things had devolved rather quickly, and he was keenly feeling his lack of any kind of ranged weaponry; the mages skulking around the back of the Falmer group were by far the greatest threat to any of them. Magical fire splashed around them, threatening to send Gaius into a panic. He clamped down on the rising fear as best he could, focusing on the moment as he jammed his sword up into the jaw of the Falmer whose blade he'd just deflected. It gurgled softly. With a metallic whisper, the sword slid out and Gaius sheltered behind his shield, beginning to lose what little hold he had on his emotions.

Calm down, calm down, calm down, he thought hysterically. It's just fire. It's just darkness.

It didn't do much; he could feel himself beginning to hyperventilate at the cascading magical flames.

The great, shaggy bear-shape of Balroth stepped in front of Gaius and roared his throaty, bestial challenge to their Falmer foes. An unusual bunch, to be sure, using Dwemer weaponry and fire magic, and they were brave and clever to use what they feared most themselves, but that would not dimish their own weakness. Balroth raised one hand and a jet of fire spat forth, forcing the Falmer wielding melee weapons back and giving them some space. This wasn't his first brawl with the Betrayed race. The orc knew what to do.

"Gaius, we need to kill the mages!" Balroth yelled over his shoulder. He hoped that a clear objective would help the Imperial focus and steel his nerves. When no response was immediately forthcoming, Balroth risked a glance behind him and saw Gaius' wide eyes. "For the Emperor," Balroth said, his voice steady and even, yet clearly audible over the din of the battle, relaying with iron confidence the age-old battlecry of the Empire that had rallied armies and turned the tides of battles a hundred times.

For the Emperor.

The calm words cut through Gaius' madness, driving a clear, cold knife down into his fevered brain. His eyes focused. His mind cleared. He swallowed heavily. His sword hand steadied, the trembling that had been running through his body fading away. He raised it into a readied stance in front of him and nodded at Balroth. "For the Emperor." Then, as he prepared himself to face the Falmer mages, his heart began to pound in his ears. This time, it wasn't from fear or confusion. It wasn't from the fire and it wasn't from the darkness. It was from the pride that had sustained him through the Skyrim Civil War: the pride that comes with being a soldier of the Empire. The pride of a Legionnaire.

He threw up the sword, holding it into the air as the firelight flashed off of it. His lungs swelled and he belted out a shout: "For the Emperor!" Holding his shield out in front of himself, he readied his sword and then began to accelerate in a forged steel juggernaut straight towards the mages.

Flashing a grin, Balroth gripped his axe tightly with both hands and folllowed close behind Gaius - now that's what he liked to see. The orc's armor was significantly less formidable than the Imperial's suit and, in particular, the massive escutcheon, so Balroth judged it wisest to let Gaius take point and draw all the attention of the Falmer mages to himself. Meanwhile, Balroth flanked off to the side, skirting at the edge of the darkness. He encountered one of the Falmer there, wielding Chaurus chitin weaponry, and the creature lunged at Balroth with a strangled cry. Balroth caught the blow that was intended for him on the shaft of his axe and pushed hard, forcing the much smaller and weaker Falmer to the ground. With a single, fluid, practiced motion, Balroth's axe sailed up through the air and down into the Falmer's head, splitting it in twain entirely. First blood.

The orc took a deep breath and looked up, eyes searching for Gaius. Balroth spotted the unmistakable shape of the Imperial almost immediately - he was closing in on the mages now and most definitely had their attention. The chaos of the brawl meant that Balroth was unsure whether any of the shapes fighting and moving at the edge of his vision were other members of their party coming to help. Either way, there was no time to wait. Moving as quietly and swiftly as he could, Balroth began closing the distance to the Falmer mages from the side.

With a bellowing cry, Gaius barreled towards the nearest of the mages. He didn't bother slowing down; shield held out in front of him, he slammed his entire body into the creature, letting himself rise off his feet. His momentum carried the two for a fair length until they crashed into a great pillar, and there was a loud, sickening crunch from the Falmer beneath his shield. It went limp, slumping to the ground beneath him.

A hissing sound caught his attention and he came to his feet as fast as he could, catching the majority of the cloud of ice on his shield. Even so, he could still feel the cold beginning to sap the strength from his limbs. As he shifted his grip to block an enormous icicle that soared at his face, he pulled his sword into readiness and began to accelerate again, lumbering towards the smaller, more agile creature and beating away the palls of frost as best he could. An arrow bounced off of the back of his cuirass and he winced. This needed to get done fast.

I just...need to...get to it...

Try as he might, though, he couldn't quite make it through the walls of ice that the Falmer was throwing at him. Every time he got close enough to try, it scuttled backwards. His armor was beginning to encrust with ice; he could feel it crackling whenever he tried to move, and the joints were becoming stiff. "Balroth!" He called, voice strained, "Help me with this thing!"

It was a good thing that the Falmer could not understand their speech or Gaius' call for aid would have been a sure sign for the mage to turn around. Balroth arrived just in time and attacked the foul creature from the side. Another jet of flame disrupted the Falmer's concentration and the stream of frost magic it was casting on Gaius ceased as it flinched away from the heat, but the reach of Balroth's battleaxe that followed close behind was too great for the Falmer to evade.

"Eat this," Balroth growled.

Balroth could feel a split-second of resistance when his low, sideways swing encountered mage armor that covered the Falmer's skin, but Balroth's strength was unyielding and the axe pierced the magical barrier. The mage gave a brief cry as it was ripped asunder at the waist, the sheer force of the blow scattering its dark blood and guts in a wide arc, and the two halves of ex-Falmer were thrown to the ground. It was instantly, irrevocably dead.

The magical ice created by the Falmer melted away into nothing near-instantly, and Gaius felt the numbness flee from his limbs. He didn't need to check to make sure the mage was dead. After all, there's only so many creatures that can live after having their torso forcibly removed from their legs. There was no time to spare for a sigh of relief, though; the Falmer that he'd plunged past in his mad dash to kill the mages were beginning to encroach on them. There weren't very many left, but there were enough to pose a threat.

"Good work," he spared the time to grunt, hopping in place a little bit to limber up, and then settled again into his stance.

The first impact was a Dwemer warhammer, smashing into his shield hard enough to push it back against his chest. He winced as the sheer shock of the blow traveled up his arm and into his shoulder, threatening to push the arm from its socket. "No more of that," he snarled, and lashed out with his sword like a snake, darting it beside his shield. It deflected off of the heavy Charus plate armor on the first strike, but as the Falmer pulled its arms back for another crushing blow, he jabbed it straight into its exposed armpit. It gave a strangled cry and dropped the warhammer, giving him just enough time to swing his shield forward with all the strength in his arm, shoulder and hip, rotating on his feet as he snapped it straight into the Falmer's face. Its head whipped around far past where it should've been able to, and with a single choke, it crumpled to the ground.

It pleased Balroth to see that Gaius had overcome his moment of fear with vigorous resolve and he nodded in thanks when the Imperial complimented the Orsimer on his handiwork. There was no time for further chit-chat, however, as it now became apparent that their best course of action would be to fight their way back to the ruined structure that the rest of the party was using as their fortified position.

Where Gaius used the defensive advantage provided by his shield, Balroth decided to press the attack and capitalize on his greater reach and mobility. The orc stalked forward and swung his axe at the first Falmer that approached, who was forced backwards to stay out of the battleaxe's range. This tactic often resulted in Balroth's opponents tripping over their feet (or a pebble, or anything) while backpedaling but the Falmer were sure-footed creatures and Balroth merely found himself driving the creature closer towards its allies. Another Falmer stepped forward and lifted a heavy shield that looked superficially similar to Gaius's bulwark. Balroth decided to test the Falmer's strength and slammed his axe down on the Dwemer shield. It rang like a gong and the Falmer's knees almost buckled, but it held. It growled and screeched, like it was communicating, and two other Falmer suddenly advanced quickly past the shield and lunged towards Balroth's abdomen with wicked chitin swords.

Balroth punished them for their eagerness, catching one of the Falmer on the chin with a backhanded swing of the battleaxe while he sidestepped the other attack. Thinking fast, Balroth let go of the axe with one hand and used it to envelop the over-extended Falmer, carried forward by the momentum of its attack, in a stream of fire. Balroth's skill with Destruction wasn't sufficient to sustain the kind of fire magic that could truly immolate one's opponent, but the Falmer screamed in pain all the same and stumbled backwards, putting out the embers that burned its skin. That was when Balroth realized that the first Falmer wasn't dead quite yet, rising to its feet with blood dripping from its disfigured jaw, and the Falmer with the heavy shield moved in as well.

"Gaius!" Balroth called out. Now it was his turn to ask for assistance.

"On it!" Doing his damndest to avoid looking too hard at the fire Balroth was conjuring, Gaius jogged forwards. His eyebrows raised as he saw a Falmer wielding a shield that was, at least in structure, similar to his. "Poor workmanship," he muttered.

"I'll take out the shieldbearer," he shouted aside to Balroth. "If you can deal with the swordsmen until I'm done with it, then I'll help you finish them off. I have a feeling you'll be able to butcher them pretty handily, though." With that said, he completely forwent any pretense of using the shield as a shield and instead used it as a battering ram, running the last few meters in between him and the creature and slamming his shield into the Falmer's as hard as he could, leaving it no space to retaliate with its small, chitinous axe. It grunted and screeched, but other than the two that Balroth was currently working with, the rest of the Falmer were either dead or fighting the rest of the party. Gong, gong, gong, gong, gong. The cacophony was deafening.

"Come on! Where's your poison now? Where's all that ice?" He drew his shield back further this time, coiling up all the strength he could in his crippled arm, before lunging forward and giving one last, intense strike of shield on shield. The Falmer shrieked, the shield falling like dead weight as the creature's elbow snapped like a dry twig. A single slash of the sword later and its head topped from its body. Wasting no time, he turned towards the two sword-wielding Falmer pressing in towards Balroth. "Fight me!" he roared at them, moving forwards slowly shield held high.

The two Falmer in question had learned from their mistake and kept their distance now, listening carefully for Balroth's movement. The one that the orc had struck on the chin looked quite gruesome as blood ran down its body and Balroth admired the creature's tenacity - it had sustained what was a fight-ending injury for most people but kept coming for more. The other was now covered with unsightly burns and its breaths were haggard, nostrils flared, but whether that was pain or fury Balroth could not tell. It did not matter. They would die now, by either Balroth's axe or Gaius' sword.

Or fire, if it were still available to him, but Balroth's magicka reserves were limited and he did not feel like he could call upon another use of Destruction magic. Balroth stepped forward swiftly and swung his axe in a wide arc but the two Falmer were wise to him now and dashed backwards faster than he could catch them. The sound of Gaius smashing his shield against that of the third Falmer rang throughout the cave now and Balroth could tell it distracted and agitated the Falmer, so he tried again, aiming for the blood-covered Falmer.

The burned Falmer had other ideas, however, and darted forward to strike Balroth mid-swing.

Balroth grit his teeth as he felt the tip of a chitin blade pierce his leather armor and the skin of his upper arm. He instinctively let go of his axe with one hand, smacked the Falmer away and pulled the shortsword out. He groaned when he felt the familiar, searing pain of Chaurus poison flaring out from the wound, but shook his head and regained his focus. Balroth saw Gaius approaching the Falmer from behind, having taken care of the third one, and the burned Falmer turned its head to listen.

That's when Balroth slammed his battleaxe into the Falmer's ribcage with a ferocious, two-handed uppercut, shattering bone and crushing lungs. Balroth opened his mouth to mutter some kind of satisfying one-liner but all he managed was another groan as the pain of the poison made his head spin. He doubted it would kill him - it was only a small drop and he'd pulled the weapon out almost immediately - but it hurt like hell.

Gaius grit his teeth at the look on Balroth's face. He'd never personally been exposed to Chaurus poison, but he'd known enough old soldiers to have a vague understanding of the effects. A large amount could cause swelling of the brain and a stopped heart, both of which inevitably led to death. Luckily, it didn't seem like the old orc had that much in him, since Gaius didn't see any large wounds or arrows sticking out of him, but there was no way to tell without getting him to an herbalist, and Bryn was just as occupied at the moment. He'd just have to hope that he was alright.

Approaching the last of the Falmer around them, he attempted to give it the same treatment as its former comrade: a series of skull-rattling, bone-jarring bashes with Empire's Aegis until it either died of blunt force trauma or gave him an opening to slide his sword in through its guts. That wasn't...quite what happened. There was no opening that needed giving. The creature screamed its rage at him and leapt recklessly, heedless of anything about it, straight for him. He turned calmly to the side and let the blow glance off of his heavy pauldron before whipping his shield back around. It caught the sword in one of the ridges on the side and tore it from the Falmer's hands, sending it whirling off into darkness. He struck back with his sword, but the creature's chitin armor, though nowhere near as nice as steel, deflected the blow just as well. Gaius, body's momentum halted as his armor continued forwards at rapid speed, overbalanced. He tottered for a moment, then fell, catching the impact on his side.

There was a scream and a sliding sound as the creature ripped a wickedly-barbed chitin dagger from its rudimentary belt. It plunged downward, sliding between the gap above Gaius' left gauntlet and shearing through the chainmaille as though it wasn't even there. The instant, frigid shock of the blade in his arm was replaced near-instantly by a feverish heat.

He found his grip on his sword again and whirled it around, this time neatly eviscerating the creature. It mattered little, though. The damage was already done.

Coming to his feet, he staggered over to Balroth and put his hand on the orc's shoulder for support as he began to feel dizzy. "Come on," he wheezed, "we got the mages. Let's get back to the others."

Balroth's eyes went wide with alarm and concern when he saw the blood dripping over Gaius's gauntlet and the wheeze in the man's breath. Maybe it was just the injury itself, but Balroth was worried the last Falmer's dagger might have been poisoned too. He nodded, wrapped one arm around the Imperial's waist and supported him as they hurried back to the party, trying to ignore the pain in his own arm. "Medic!" Balroth yelled as they approached.


Thank you very much for accepting Balroth and myself, and I look forward to the start of the roleplay immensely. So much so, in fact, that I already wrote a little scene from Balroth's past. I couldn't help myself.





Oh, I never specified the amount of septims that Balroth has on his person. Is that something I should do?
Balroth gro-Umanak by James

*Fantastic job on the physical description of Balroth; it was easy to immediately get a sense of what the character looked like, his mannerisms and gait, and aspects of his personality shine through through the detail in his appearance. Not a critique; I just wanted to say I’m impressed - Dervs

*Minor detail in the Smithing skill section; you wrote hooves as an item he can make. I think you might have meant Horseshoes - Dervs

*I literally have no problems with this sheet! It is extremely well thought out, you’ve got a great writing style that’s easy for me to see and envision Balroth as an orc, and a person. - Foxey

*I love how he turned from the bullied tiny kid and basically did a 180 for expectations and suddenly became the supreme version of the bullies he hated and became enthralled by it. The fact that it was this newfound hubris, something of his own making, that set him up for spectacular failure is something I don’t see enough of and I think it really helped set the stage for the decades ahead. His cycles of self-loathing and self-destructive behaviour that completely erode the successes he made in life are captivating reads and it’s an incredible amount of character building in even a few paragraphs, and in the end it was forced responsibility to care for someone other than himself that tempered him. Honestly, I love this character. You knocked it out of the park. - Dervs


Thank you for the kind words! They're very much appreciated and I'm glad you like Balroth as much as I enjoyed putting him together. I knew what kind of person I wanted him to become at the end of the ride but not quite how we'd get there when I started writing his history, so the major plot points of his life were decided more or less organically as I encountered them by asking myself how someone with that kind of upbringing and childhood would react to trauma. I'm glad the sheet's length wasn't a problem for you. I've had people complain about that to me in the past.

And yes, I did mean horsehoes. I'll rectify that in a bit.
You don't really believe a man can become a god, do you? The dark elves were wrong about that too.
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