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Vaenlen is not like most Altmer. He inherited his long, shaggy dark hair from his father, a Breton, as well as his increased muscle mass. He took after his father in looks too, inheriting the basic facial structure of Altmer from his mother, as well as the height- standing as tall as a large Nord. Nowadays though, he looks harder and meaner. Cold, flat eyes look at the world and offer the same message as the frown. Years of service to the Empire has weathered his face, not to mention the events of his life prior to this.
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【
Full Name】
Vaenlen 【
Alias】
None 【
Race】
Altmer 【
Gender】
Male 【
Age】
Human equivalent of early-thirties.【
Birth Place】
Arkay’s Hand, a ship fleeing Alinor to Sentinel 【
Nation/Allegiance】
Independent 【
Profession】
Guerilla/Sellsword --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
【
Personality】
Vaenlen is a man with a tendency to become far too engrossed in his mission to see around him. It’s what’s made him hard to be friends with, and people often struggle to keep up with him and struggle through something with a man with his work ethic. For him, his work is his life. He is a man consumed and defined by one enemy: the Thalmor. The old pain never left him after the Night of Green Fire, and he still bears the scars from that night and many more after. Any humor left in him is a dark or morbid sort, of the type where people sometimes struggle to know if he even is trying at a bit of humor. Although he may be a man that is hard to connect with, he is a man who is easy to be loyal to and easy to bear his strong loyalty on oneself. Those he fights with are his true family.
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【
History】
4e42 - Night of Green Fire - 12y/oNight of name-day, Thalmor attack. Father fights back while mother flees with Vaenlen, father dies, mother is badly burned and he is gravely wounded himself, catching an arrow in the stomach and suffering a broken leg from jumping from a window. He and his mother were badly burned as they fled and she died the next morning. He wanders the streets, largely and cruelly ignored. He is caught by a man and his dog trying to steal their food and is beaten by the man while suffering from bites from his dog. He is left in the gutter, slowly dying from wound-rot before being taken in by another Altmer by the name of Laskaria Vingaldo.
Laskaria slowly gains his trust and respect by treating him like one of her own sons, whom she lost on the Night of Green Fire. She heals Vaenlen over the next two days, helping him rehabilitate himself after his severely broken bones and horrible infections. She gives him a choice - stay with her and serve her unquestionably or leave and never see her again. She asks for no payment should he leave. He decides to stay.
4e50 - 20y/oHis lessons in swordsmanship and war magic are going well, though it seems his Altmer blood is muddied and clouded to the point that he lacks skill in all magic, not able to progress beyond the level of an apprentice. This is made up for in his ability to fight well with the short blade and the long, utilizing an Altmer fencing style using a sidesword and a long dagger in tandem. His footwork is superb, he takes to the blade as if it was as ingrained in him as breathing and can fight well with his hands as well. He is a fast and aggressive fighter, able to overwhelm any fencing partner.
It is with these skills that he will serve Laskaria, stepping onto Alinor's shores. They will spend the next eight years planning their next moves and gathering allies among the noble houses that despise the Thalmor, no matter for what reason, so long as they view them as their enemies.
4e58 - 28y/oThough Vaenlen is a prodigy in the martial arts and competent enough with magic to be a good spellsword, it is not with these skills that they fight the Thalmor. Their first steps to fighting the Thalmor's already strong grip on Alinor is to fight them in the council chambers and during the meetings of the noble families with the King and Queen. The days turn to weeks, the weeks to months turn to years.
4e62 - 32y/oThe Thalmor's grip on Alinor steadily grows, but Laskaria and her allies still argue for the King and Queen to outlaw the Thalmor as a political faction. Vaenlen grows impatient with this, not seeing how this will bring vengeance on the Thalmor for his parents and Laskaria's family. Finally, after winning over a good majority of the nobles, the Thalmor start to feel threatened and make some of their newfound allies disappear or die in terrible accidents as messages to Laskaria and Vaenlen to cease their meddling. Vaenlen itches to be set loose, but Laskaria's cooler head prevails. For now.
4e80 - 50y/oLaskaria's alliances with the families of Alinor begins to weaken as they fight a losing battle against the Thalmor. More and more families either abandon the cause or outright swear loyalty to the Thalmor, making them that much more powerful to the common folk. Laskaria becomes more and more desperate and jaded by the day, something that- looking back on it now, he regrets wholeheartedly- Vaenlen subtly encourages. Laskaria scours Alinor for literally anyone who will speak out against the Thalmor, but as the political faction's grip tightens and becomes more aggressive in their campaign to purify Alinor, she finds little support.
4e100 - 70y/oWith the end of the Void Nights, news comes from Elsweyr that they are becoming increasingly receptive to the Thalmor, further setting Laskaria's plans back. It seems all is crumbling around his mentor and he does all he can to help her keep her head against everything telling her to give up and go into exile. All seems hopeless though, as there is no one at all speaking out against the Thalmor. The general opinion has become that of 'show your support or show nothing at all.' It is around this time that Laskaria and Vaenlen are approached by a man talking of solidarity and that they are not alone in this fight. Nothing else comes of it though, and they see nothing more of the man. Laskaria offers her counsel to the King as an advisor on his council, but is turned down for a Thalmor member named Finlas.
4e115 - 85y/oElsweyr splits itself in two and both states pledge their allegiance to the Aldmeri Dominion. The King and Queen offer their blessing and accept, after taking counsel with Finlas, of course. Laskaria burns with hatred for the man and barely suppresses it in his presence. They are offered spots as courtiers in the royal court. She accepts, hoping to at least influence some on the royal council, or better yet, the heir.
4e117-170 - 87-140y/oWith their new positions as courtiers living in the royal palace's grounds, Laskaria and Vaenlen enjoy the ability to form alliances and keep tabs on Finlan. Laskaria makes many allies in their long time at court and Vaenlen busies himself with tailing Finlan and paying the maids and servants for any rumors and gossip about the man. Sadly, Finlan leads a close-knit life, and the only thing Vaenlen figures is that he is away from court for long periods of time. This is obviously so he may meet with his Thalmor benefactors, but he can extrapolate nothing else from the information. Vaenlen meets dead ends wherever he goes, but Laskaria has a veritable host of allies by the time the talks of war with the Empire start to be whispered about through the halls.
When open debates are held in the court, Laskaria and her allies argue for peace, but the Thalmor-aligned courtiers and nobles will have none of it. Recently, the Thalmor have found numerous Blades agents among the populace, serving as maids in low courts to retainers of the most dignified families in Alinor. Such treachery must not be taken so lightly, or at least, that is the attitude that prevails in these talks. Laskaria's pleading and reasoning falls on deaf ears, as Thalmor propaganda about the Empire sanctioning this espionage abounds. The public now cries out for retaliation, and as if the propaganda was not enough, the scandal would tip everything in the Thalmor's favor.
In 170, the heir would be gravely wounded in an attempt on his life, thwarted by his Thalmor appointed bodyguards, of course. Vaenlen and Laskaria, on the same night, were visited again by the same Altmer man that contacted them several years before, telling them to flee. Laskaria is nowhere to be found on that night until Vaenlen returns to his chambers to find her corpse. Vaenlen flies into a murderous rage, barging into the royal hall during the meeting and impaling Finlas where he sat. The royal guards rushed in and took Vaenlen down with a good fight, wearing him down and throwing him into the dungeons.
He spent a week inside a dank cell before he was scheduled to be moved to the headsman's block for to be executed for treason against the Dominion. He'd been tortured for nights before in attempts to find out about any accomplices he may have who may try to take the heir's life or that of the King or Queen. Little did they know, the Thalmor were behind it all, but no one would listen. By the end of it, he'd had to grow back all of his fingernails and toenails, his nose is still slightly crooked and an array of scars cross over each other along his body. Before he could get to the chopping block, his escorts were killed and he was whisked off with a potato sack over his head.
He awoke to three men staring down at him, one was the Altmer man who'd contacted him and Laskaria before but he did not recognize the other two. They were revealed to be Blades agents, and they were going to flee Alinor with him in tow. Vaenlen didn't have much of a choice, he was wanted in all of Alinor for treason, his allies were all dead or turned against him and Laskaria was dead. There was nothing left for him in Alinor.
4e170-175 - 140-145y/oReturning to the mainland, the Blades agents Argyllien, Daerenis and Pyrrel begin planning out what to do. Their first move is to go to the Imperial City and warn the Emperor of the impending war, but they are denied audience time and time again, much to the frustration of everyone. Argyllien begins to suspect the Thalmor even have a hand in Cyrodiil that is guiding events in their direction. Though, they do get aid from a few in the Penitus Oculatus who have connections to the Blades of old. They are offered money and lodging in return for training their personnel in the arts of espionage and asymmetric warfare. They agree, of course, and Vaenlen gets some much needed training in these areas.
When the emissary from Alinor arrives in the city and is granted an audience with the Emperor, their nightmares are realized as the heads of every Blades member in Alinor are presented. Daerenis wants blood and Vaenlen wishes to follow him, but Argyllien keeps them in check. When the Great War begins, they will have enough blood to drown in. And they did have it. The war was a long and brutal affair. Pyrrel lost his life in battle and Daerenis succumbed to his wounds soon after. Argyllien put up his sword and settled after the war. Vaenlen stayed in service to the Penitus Oculatus and was inducted into their ranks as a fully-fledged Inspector of the Penitus Oculatus.
4e188-201 - 158-171y/oIn 4e188, to curb the amount of skooma coming in from a destabilized border region with Elsweyr to a still somewhat lawless southern portion of Cyrodiil, the Penitus Oculatus were tasked with the destruction of the biggest skooma traffickers. The team sent in included Vaenlen, and through many false-flag operations, they managed to goad the two rival skooma traffickers into a fight that somewhat spun out of control and swallowed Bravil. Large riots erupted in the streets and there were rumors that even the Dark Brotherhood was effected. They were denied a reward, but otherwise congratulated with the completion of the objective.
In the same year, Vaenlen was tasked with accompanying senior members of the Penitus Oculatus to Wayrest to investigate the rumors of a large offensive being planned by a notorious band of pirate captains that were at the head of the largest combined fleet on the Gold Coast. Once they confirmed that it was going to happen, they rushed the important members of the families of Wayrest away from the city, but were too late to muster a good defense. Wayrest had fallen to the corsairs, but he was not allowed to continue the investigation into how or why such a large force of pirates would sack Wayrest. He still has his suspicions to this day.
When the Civil War in Skyrim blazed across the land, he was put in an observer role, tasked with keeping an eye on the Thalmor Justiciars there, as well as making sure Ulfric does not achieve a victory and to alert Tullius of any moves he may not know of. In the end, his and the efforts of his team working behind the scenes help to secure an Imperial victory, though Tullius and Elisif are both lost. He is given a medal for his service in the Civil War.
4e201-224 – 171-194y/oAfter the Great War, Vaenlen was given leave to pursue any projects or cases of his own. He considered digging deeper into the Wayrest case, thinking that the Thalmor could have something to gain by destabilizing the centers of power in High Rock, but he was soon sent back to Skyrim to investigate the assassination of the Emperor on his visit to attend his counsin's wedding. His prying almost lead to his death, as he awoke to black-clad men crawling through his window. He dispatched of them well enough, but that settled his suspicions, it was indeed the Dark Brotherhood. Again though, he could only see the Thalmor having anything to gain by a slain Emperor. When Janos ascended to the throne but was assassinated in the months following, there were even more whispers among the Oculatus that the Thalmor were mounting another offensive.
These whispers were largely ignored, and Vaenlen felt like he was echoing Laskaria as he pleaded for the Penitus Oculatus to consider that the Thalmor may be behind these things. After the death of the Emperor, the threat of another interregnum like the one the Medes ascended to power in was looming on the horizon, and the Penitus Oculatus put him and the other Thalmor-Obsessed Inspectors on cases to pacify any of those who would try to take the throne by force while the Elder Council had their hands full.
By 220, the state of Tamriel was giving the Penitus Oculatus a lot to chew on. With new leadership coming in with no experience, Vaenlen and a few others went rogue when reports of body snatchings began to come in. No investigations could find a culprit and they turned to cold cases and locked away in a box in the basements of the offices. Those with a mind to kept investigating the Daedra cults, while some others- Vaenlen included- followed any leads that pointed to the Thalmor. In a year, it wouldn't be ghosts of Justiciars he'd be chasing, as very real soldiers clambered onto Cyrodiilic soil once more without warning.
Doing the only thing he knew, he waged a war with a small group of men he'd gathered from the old days, disrupting supply lines and raiding camps. They killed scouts, messengers, officers, tried to muddy the water as much as they could for the Dominion. Their efforts proved to do little, but they were only happy they did anything. It is now 224, and Vaenlen is busy fighting a war not for the Empire, not for the Penitus Oculatus, but for those he should have been fighting for all this time: His father, his mother, Laskaria, Argyllien, Pyrrel, Daerenis and all the others...
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【
Skills and Abilities】
Expert skill in one-handed weapons both long and short, as well as the dual-wielding of.
Expert skill in sneaking and hand-to-hand
Somewhat skilled in pickpocketing and lockpicking
Somewhat skilled in destruction and alteration magic
Somewhat skilled in field medicine
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【
Weapons/Tools and Magic】
Weapons/Tools/ArmourWields a steel sidesword in tandem with a long knife
Carries bandages and medicinal herbs
Is very lightly armoured, clad mostly in leather, with a few pieces of iron. Owns a cloak as well.
Magical SpellsDestruction - Flames
Fire Rune
Firebolt
Fireball
Alteration – Magelight
Ironflesh
Telekinesis
I'll actually have to make room in my schedule for that one!