![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Snowblind app
Player Information
Name: Louise
Age: Still really super old
Contact Info:
Other Characters: Angel
Character Information
Name: Master Neloth (he didn't spend years climbing the ranks of great house Telvanni to have people leave the "master" part off, okay)
Canon: The Elder Scrolls
Age: Really fucking old. Old as balls. Like he was old enough to call a 200-year old a "mere child" in Morrowind, which takes place 200-ish years before Skyrim does. I'm assuming he's lost count anyway. HE OLD.
Gender: Male
Canon Point: Post-Dragonborn
Background Link: Boop
Inventory:
- set of Telvanni robes, which are warm and layered enough that he won't need the freebie coat
- pocket change in the form of thirteen gold Septim coins (he left his coin purse in his other robes 8C)
- a pouch of ground-up canis root, suitable only for making tea with
- a wooden staff, disenchanted on arrival and now basically a fancy walking stick
- two filled soul gems, rendered pretty useless since he can't do his fancy enchanting any more
- the sense of superiority that comes from being a dunmer and not... one of whatever you n'wahs are
Personality:
The first thing that would strike most people about Neloth is his arrogance. It's a hallmark of Great House Telvanni in general - the Telvanni are less of a unified force than the other Houses, and the "every man for himself" attitude is not only prevalent but actively encouraged. In such a group, you would have to have a high level of power and self-confidence to do well.
Neloth does very well indeed. He isn't infalliable or invincible - stealing precious artifacts from him is considered a fun way to pass the time amongst the most powerful and cunning Telvanni, for example - but he's incredibly high-ranking and by the time he appears in Skyrim, he's one of the most powerful wizards in the world. While his arrogance is obnoxious, it's also well-deserved and born of genuine confidence in his abilities rather than exaggeration. In an environment like Great House Telvanni where might is right, this can obviously cause some problems when interacting with lesser people.
Basically: unless you have something to offer him, Neloth gives no fucks about you. You can be the nicest, kindest person ever. You can be rich and powerful. You can have literally saved the world from a dragon god, and Neloth will still not give you the time of day unless you are valuable or interesting to him in some way right at the present moment. This isn't to say that he'll be actively nasty - that would require more effort than he's willing to give. Convince him that you matter, and he's happy to accept that. Otherwise, you probably don't even register on his radar.
The easiest way to get Neloth to notice you is by appealing to his powerful curiosity. At least part of his ambivalence to "little" people is born from how deeply he is absorbed in other matters. He loves learning about things and seeing what makes them tick. That means things like vivisection, necromancy or human experimentation are far from off-limits: as well as his rather grisly experimentation on Ildari (his ex-apprentice), his tower contains a couple of caged spriggans, and if Neloth encounters a corpse in gameplay he can be heard musing about how he'll need someone to bring it back to his lab for him. He even states that he'd love to capture a dragon alive and keep it as a test subject! With all these fascinating things to experiment with, is there any wonder he can seem a touch absent-minded when it comes to less important matters? Yes, he does things like, say, forget that his steward is dead every now and then. But he remembers more interesting, useful things! Gosh.
He also loves demonstrating his knowledge of such things - and sharing it, to a point. He takes on apprentices as a matter of routine (after Ildari died, he quickly recruited a less ambitious replacement), and he's willing to train the Dragonborn in enchanting to a rather high standard. However, when they reach a very high level of aptitude and ask for further instruction, Neloth responds with "I could [teach you], but I won't. It wouldn't do to have you become better than me after all." Reading between the lines, this is about as close to a genuine compliment as anyone can get from him. Acknowledgement that someday, someone could potentially be better than him at something? EGADS. He's not a man to give praise lightly. For comparison: if the player performs a "shout" in front of Neloth (basically shouty magic, which takes years of incredibly intensive and dedicated study under the reclusive Greybeards to learn unless you're the super special Dragonborn), he drily remarks "yes, yes. You're Dragonborn. We're all very impressed."
FUCKS GIVEN: SO VERY FEW. Compare and contrast with basically every other NPC in the game, who generally soil themselves when the player shouts in their presence. This links back to the first point I made - Neloth can't gain anything from the player being Dragonborn, so why should he care? He's certainly not going to praise them for being marked by destiny or any such nonsense.
This may sound a touch like petty jealousy. Which just happens to be another of Neloth's wide list of flaws! If you manage to establish yourself as an annoyance to him, he can be a complete dick. Prior to the events of Morrowind he has a long-standing rivalry with the leader of House Telvanni, Archmagister Gothren, which largely manifests in them sending flunkies to attack each others' homes and/or steal each others' things. It's all very much like petulant little boys arguing over who is the smartest and has the shiniest toys.
Thinking about how he treats his enemies leads neatly into how he treats his friends. Which is a pretty easy question to answer, since he doesn't really seem to have any. It's extremely obvious by now that he isn't an easy man to like - he's cranky, arrogant and assigns most people the same level of importance that you might give to a recently-used handkerchief. In Skyrim, the NPCs living near(ish) to him in Raven Rock consider him to be dangerously insane and definitely a person to be avoided. They're not entirely wrong.
Still! When he's treated with intelligence and respect (but not overt grovelling and gushing - he has little patience for that), he can be surprisingly unobjectionable. He'll always be very frank and forthright about his views and if you say something stupid he will instantly call you on it, but he's not doing it to be nasty. What's the point in faffing about? He's willing to help and/or work with people if it benefits him, he'll answer questions about almost anything as long as they're not stupid questions... To put it simply: if you're reasonably intelligent, don't mind being spoken to bluntly and can tolerate a level of condescension, you'll likely get along with Neloth just fine.
Flavor Abilities:
Dunmeri fire resistance - Dunmer aren't immune to fire or anything, but they're twice as resistant to it as other races are. This will, of course, be incredibly useful in fucking Norfinbury.
Yer a Wizard, Nelly - He won't be able to keep his cool magic spells, obviously, but it's safe to say that there's some kind of magical enhancement going on that keeps Neloth spry and sharp-minded despite his age. If he could keep that, it'd be swell (it's nothing huge - he'll be no fitter than the average person, and he's still prone to getting aches in his joints).
Suitability:
Neloth is being plucked straight from the island of Solstheim, which is fucking cold. He won't have a cozy mushroom tower to retreat to, but he's used to living in a snowy environment filled with unnatural, aggressive creatures. Weird cults, brainwashing and the potential for tentacle monsters being at the bottom of things are old hat, too. Try harder, Norfinbury. He's used to your shit.
What he isn't used to is being helpless. He's a master wizard, and being without his powers is going to be the absolute weirdest thing possible. Also where are his servants? And his apprentice? Where is his morning cup of canis root tea??? He's going to be utterly disgusted with the lack of all these things. Do you even know who he is, @ADMIN? Ugh.
At least all the puzzles and interesting
RP Samples:
1:
@masterneloth; video;
[ As usual, Neloth is holding his tablet at arm's length with a look of vague distaste. He hates this tablet thingy. It's so inelegant. And woefully mundane. Much like the people on the other end of it, honestly. Dunderheads, the lot of them, though at least there are a scant few specimens that at least seem to have some semblance of a brain. Maybe half of one, if he's being generous.
Meridia's bloody armpits, he can't believe he actually needs to talk to these people. ]
Rubble dust.
[ The term emerges from his mouth dripping in contempt like some kind of gross metaphorical afterbirth. "Rubble dust" sounds stupid. Neloth doesn't do stupid. ]
I am aware that the substance has been applied to other materials in order to bestow its properties upon them - for weapons, tools, etcetera. Indulge my curiosity: has anyone ever gone so far as to consume it?
If so, I would be very interested to hear about the results. And if not, well. One of you should. Preferably where I can see it and take notes on the effects.
[ He can't trust anyone here to take their own notes, after all. Are people of the lesser races even literate...? ]
2:
It would be accurate to say that Neloth is no stranger to bizarre and dangerous creatures. It would be an enormous understatement, honestly. Hell, he's created a few of them. He's lived a long life, and he's seen a lot of shit.
Still. These anomaly whatsits are rather interesting nonetheless. He stares out of the window of his current shelter, squints, and twirls his beard thoughtfully as he appraises the one that followed him here. It looks vaguely dunmeri - pointy ears, ashen skin, thoroughly cranky - but it's hard to see much more than that with the blizzard going on outside. Blast it. This is why he misses his servants: it'd make all this ever so much simpler if he could just shoo one of them outside to serve as bait. Then he'd not only get a closer look at the anomaly - he'd be able to watch it devour its prey! Imagine!
Oh, well. Perhaps he'll put in a request to the lady in charge later and prompt her to bring the help over. For now, he'll have to settle for squinting at the snow. You know, he thinks the thing might resemble Gothren a little bit. Something about the nose, and also the way it's trying to break into the house and murder him.
He can't help but smile a bit at that. Just like old times.
Extra:
Old tdm thread in case more is needed