[hider=Tylmaesa]Character Name: Tylmaesa Hlaalu

Race: Dunmer

Age: 77
Sex: Intersex, slightly female-presenting

[hider=Physical Description] Although their bluish-grey skin isn’t terribly unusual for a Dunmer, nor are their blood-red sclera, there is little else about Tylmaesa’s appearance that is typical for their species aside from their long, pointed ears.

Towering above most of their kin at an impressive 7’3”, Tylmaesa is, in a word, imposing, and everything about them aside from their hairstyle is cultivated to enhance this. Years upon years of incredibly harsh physical training have sculpted a body that would otherwise be disconcertingly lanky into a brick shithouse of a figure, a body packed with powerful, battle-toned muscle from head-to-toe. They’re not especially curvy as a result, likewise, having forgone femininity in favour of the pursuit of physical perfection. Their black hair, though not shaven down completely, is pulled together into an almost-painfully tight bun, kept well out of the way both during and outside of combat, rarely (if ever) framing the sharp, chiseled angles of their face.

The attention they pay to their appearance, then, can mostly be described as meticulous maintenance, rather than any effort to look pretty. They keep themself generally quite clean, though their skin is nonetheless badly marred by a number of scars, the most notable of which is a wicked gash across their chest. The skin on their left forearm has likewise been left mottled by an extremely old electrical burn, and a large bite mark is situated beneath their right shoulder blade.[/hider]


[hider=Art (Commissioned)][img]https://i.imgur.com/ONypJjl.jpg[/img]
[spoiler][img]https://i.imgur.com/cQzRz5X.png[/img][/hider]


[hider=Faith] As with most Dunmer, Tylmaesa pays service to the three “Good Daedra”, Azura, Boethiah, and Mephala. Their faith in them is not necessarily worship, however, and is more accurately described as high respect for some of the ideals within their spheres, for a rebellious, counter-traditional Dunmer holds little love for dogged rules and persistent conservatism. Much of Their ‘faith’ follows this pattern of eclectic, syncretic ideals, so much so that Tylmaesa even pays respect to the Sugar God, though this is perhaps less surprising in the context of the last several years of their life.  Among the Three, they most favor Boethiah.

At the forefront of their belief, however, is Saint Vehk - more specifically, the hidden notes of dogged self-actualization in its purest form scattered throughout his Sermons. His works, if one looks closely enough, are a guideline to perfection and independence of the self, much in the same way that the Khajiiti Two-Moons Dance is a guideline to another kind of self-perfection. In this sense, Tylmaesa’s faith verges on the cynical, despite the genuine respect they hold for the beings they draw their beliefs from.[/hider]

Position: Auxilia

[hider=Magic]Although they don’t use magic, through their intense, decade-long (and still ongoing) study of the Khajiiti Claw-Dances, Tylmaesa is able to produce effects similar to magic, though they lack the potency of true magecraft. Their preference for Goutfang allows them to manipulate the flow of energy in themself and those they strike, enhancing the power of their blows, hardening their body, or disrupting the flow of magicka. Their study is still in its relative infancy, however - so while they make a fearsome warrior, they are well eclipsed by true masters of the arts, evidenced by the necessary use of weapons to supplement their budding skill.[/hider]

[hider=Core] Born into a wealthy branch of the Hlaalu family, despite the recent misfortunes of their House, Tylmaesa had an ostensibly bright future ahead of them. Morrowind’s relatively rapid recovery under the watchful eyes of House Redoran offered plenty of opportunities for the growth of a business, even if it was in the ruins of the once-glorious House Hlaalu. Her parents took advantage of this situation to buy up enormous amounts of highly fertile farmland at extremely low prices, though Tylmaesa had far more interest in the business of their father - the captain of a mercenary company - than their mother, a merchant and full-blooded Hlaalu.  She threw themself into swordwork wholeheartedly, often hunting down dangerous creatures simply to fight them. What time they didn’t spend fighting, they spent socializing or engrossing in the folk tales of their people; in particular, they found Vehk’s sermons to be the most interesting.

By the time they reached adulthood, Tylmaesa had become a fully-fledged warrior; an intelligent, powerful built woman that revelled in the thrills of battle. Still, despite the many duties they now  found themself saddled with as both a mercenary and a noblewoman, they always managed to find plenty of time to immerse themself in the debauchery only the wealth of a noble could afford. In their case, that meant frequent trips to Elsewyr to spend time among the Bandaari, a developing tolerance for Moon Sugar, and a scandalous excess of lovers and other flings. Nonetheless, they remained mostly effective at their duties (when they bothered to pay them any attention, at least), leaving them plenty of opportunities to indulge in their various adventures.

With the beginning of the Skyrim Civil War and the death of their parents due to old age, Tylmaesa found themself thrust into a position of leadership, managing their family's branch of the House. She quickly found themself more interested in the opportunity offered by the Civil War, offering their services to the Imperials as a mercenary. Though the Stormcloaks outwardly despised the Empire, Tylmaesa could not abide by the rampant racism in their ranks (though the Empire was itself hardly immune to such things), and their more politically savvy hatred of the Altmer made them see a strengthened Empire as a necessary bastion against the Aldmeri Dominion, especially with the continued control of their Khajiiti friends, many of whom, they insisted, had been duped into loyalty that was slavery in all but name. Her stint of service, though somewhat meritorious, was brief, quickly moving on from it as they did many other things. 

Eventually, however, they were made aware of the Empire's attempts to bring Morrowind back into the fold, and although they preferred their home country's independence, their opinions on the Dominion hadn't changed. More importantly, however, they grew increasingly dissatisfied with Dunmeri politicking, to the point where it eventually became naught but a distraction from their self-perfection. Increasingly shifting their duties to trusted, skilled advisors, they eventually departed Morrowind to study under Khajiiti masters of the Claw-Dances, abandoning spellcraft entirely, in hopes of honing their body into a powerful weapon all on its own. They spent the next decade in deep study, until the Empire declared war on the Aldmeri Dominion. 

Tylmaesa was quick to offer their services as a mercenary yet again, and was shipped off to Skyrim, hoping to temper the drastic shift in their martial focus in the hostile North.[/hider]



Misc.: Due to the unusual, esoteric nature of the martial arts Tylmaesa practices, Tylmaesa uses a pair of unique weapons to compensate for their lack of claws - clawed weapons with protruding blades, similar to some forms of the Indian 'tiger claws' of the real world. She fights mostly unarmored, though their fighting style and experience make them more resilient than normal, as might be expected of someone born under the Steed. 

[/hider]