![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
STE application
OOC Information:
Name: Louise
Are you over 15? Yep
Contact: Derpriffic (via plurk or aim)
IC Information:
Name: Master Neloth - reincarnated, he's known as Nathaniel Mithryn.
Canon and medium: The Elder Scrolls games
Age: We have no idea about his canon age other than DANG HE IS HELLA OLD. He's already an old man in Morrowind (referring to a two-hundred year old woman as a "mere child"), and he's still alive and kicking 200 years later for the events of Skyrim. His reincarnation is 73.
Preincarnation Species: Dunmer/Dark Elf
Preincarnation Appearance: What a beautiful and majestic creature.
Any differences: HAHA WOW YES. He's less alien looking in general - no impossible cheekbones, pointy ears or brow ridge, though he still has somewhat harsh features and that nose. His skin is no longer grey and his eyes are blue instead of blood red.
Preincarnated History:
Oh shit son you just gave me free reign to babble about The Elder Scrolls.
The Elder Scrolls series takes place on the planet Nirn, and more specifically the continent known as Tamriel. Only one province of Tamriel is of major relevance to Neloth, but here's a handy-dandy image to summarise the entire continent:
This is a 100% true and fair representation that is in no way sullied by any kind of personal bias.
As you can see, the only place worth noting as far as this app is concerned is a little place called Morrowind - which also happens to be the name of the third installment in the Elder Scrolls games. The game largely takes place on that big island in the centre of the province known as Vvardenfell. When the game begins, Vvardenfell is in a bit of a state. They're having problems with the blight, a cult known as the Sixth House is stirring up shit, the living goddess Almalexia is going completely bugfuck insane and some douchebag demi-god asshole called Dagoth Ur is partying with his gross tentacle-faced buddies in the bowels of a giant volcano called Red Mountain. And by "partying" I mean "wearing a ridiculous mask and constructing a giant brass robot god thingy called Akulakhan."
He parties hard.
The natives of Morrowind - the dark elves, or Dunmer - are really not particularly happy about this. But that's okay, because the player character (the "Nerevarine," an alleged reincarnation of the Dunmer hero Nerevar) comes along to fix everything. A very tiny part of doing so involves visiting each of the Great Houses of Morrowind in turn and asking to become their war leader, or Hortator. When visiting the councilors for Great House Telvanni, one of them answers the Nerevarine thusly:
"Do you want the job? Are you qualified? Good. Then go ahead. I don't care. Be the Hortator. Now go away."
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Master Neloth. That's literally his only involvement in the main questline of Morrowind. I think I'm justified in being incredibly brief about the rest of the game and summarising it simply with "the Nerevarine killed Dagoth Ur and also some other guys, the end." Neloth survives the events of the game and continues to sit around in his mushroom tower doing wizard things and kidnapping the daughters of nobles from the other Great Houses. It's a perfectly reasonable hobby to have, okay.
Then six years later, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion happens. Which is to say that the Emperor of Tamriel is murdered, gates to the hellish Oblivion realms open up all over the continent and start spewing monsters, and once more it's up to a (different) heroic player character to save the day. Neloth breaks his existing "least screentime" record by not showing up at all in this installment of the series. It's safe to say he would have witnessed the Oblivion gates opening up on Vvardenfell, though, and considering the type of person he is he probably investigated them in some way. Likely by sending in other people to explore them and bring back souvenirs if they survived. Anyway: the player character saves the world, everything is super. Ish. Since there's still no Emperor, and the ruling bloodline has been completely severed. That's kind of a problem, and the Empire basically descends into chaos. Five years after the resolution of the Oblivion Crisis is when this begins in earnest, with the Red Year.
The Red Year can basically be summed up as "Morrowind gets fucked up, yo." A meteor crashes into the city of Vivec. This causes the eruption of Red Mountain, basically destroying Vvardenfell. The Argonian lizard people decide this would be an excellent time to invade Morrowind, while the native Dunmer generally run away to Skyrim.
Guess where the next Elder Scrolls game takes place?
After two hundred years of fighting/political bullshit that is entirely irrelevant to this app, the events of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim begin. This is also almost entirely irrelevant to this app, but fear not. I will still sum it up with all the detail and gravitas it deserves:
Game of the fucking year.
If you are a cheapass who hates fun, this is where the game ends (as far as Elder Scrolls games do end). However! If you are the kind of person who doesn't mind paying for DLC when that DLC cashes in on your deep love for Morrowind, then this is where the Dragonborn DLC storyline comes into play. Technically it could have started before the end of the game, but narratively it makes most sense to start when Alduin is dead. Shh. This is where things start to get relevant again. Golly.
So. While the Skyrim player character is the last Dragonborn, they weren't the first. That honour goes to a guy called Miraak, who apparently died a long-ass time ago. Except the player finds themselves accosted by cultists who were apparently sent by him. So that would, uh. Kind of indicate he's not as dead as previously believed. The trail leads to the island of Solstheim, which is that teeny wee island between Skyrim and Morrowind up on that map I linked earlier. On that island, the Dragonborn finds
Okay, not that familiar. He's had some work done, okay. Gained a few polygons and higher-resolution textures. You know how it is. But yes, it's Neloth! Who is as dismissive of player character shenanigans as ever, until the point where the Dragonborn discovers that Miraak's power is sourced from the Elder Scrolls' equivalent of Cthulhu: the Daedric Prince of knowledge, Hermaeus Mora. At this point Neloth's interest is piqued and he accompanies the player on a little adventure into an old ruin in the pursuit of one of the god's Black Books. It's all very cool and at the end - WAIT FOR IT - they fight a dragon. In this game? Shocking.
This is where Neloth's compulsory involvement in the DLC storyline ends. The Dragonborn becomes Hermaeus Mora's new champion, gains some cool powers and beats Miraak. There is also more dragon fighting. Because Skyrim. However, Neloth has his own set of optional quests which are considered canon for the purposes of this app. Yes, more text. I'm almost done with this shit, I promise. I'll be really brief, and this isn't as lame as the main questline crap. It doesn't even involve any fucking dragons.
The Dragonborn can offer to help Neloth in several ways. The first is offering to become a test subject for his magical experiments, which is about as sensible an idea as it sounds. The first of these tests leads to the player gaining a boost in vitality, which is great! Until it rains or they otherwise touch water, at which point they discover that their health is significantly decreased. Oops. Similarly, they can offer to assist Neloth in his research into silencing spells! Which leads to their eyes being temporarily replaced by a set of tentacles.
The greatest wizard in Tamriel, everybody.
The player also discovers that Neloth has been having a few problems. His mushroom tower has suffered damage, his territory keeps getting attacked by strange ash creatures, his steward has been murdered and he can't get a decent cup of canis root tea. The Dragonborn helps him with all of these problems (except the last. His life is pain), and it's then discovered that everything can be traced to a common source: Neloth's old apprentice, Ildari. He has been doing experiments centred around increasing a person's power and lifespan, and at one point hypothesised that a "heart stone" - a glowing magical ball of ash and volcanic matter - could be used to actually replace a person's heart. Ildari volunteered (yes, really) to undergo the procedure. Unsurprisingly, it went wrong and she died.
Except then she came back, and the heart stone is causing her to hear voices and experience constant pain and paranoia. Oops!
Neloth asks the player to kill Ildari and end the entire sorry affair, and is very pleased when they do so. He gives them a magic staff and - more importantly - inducts them into Great House Telvanni. Everyone who played Morrowind cries noisily into their hands as nostalgia overwhelms them, and everyone reading this app breathes a sigh of relief as they realise Louise just got to the end of this long-ass history section.
Reincarnated History:
Nathaniel was born in England in 1940 to a moderately well-off family. He had two brothers - both older - and as the youngest child he was babied considerably (though not exactly spoiled, since his early years kind of took place during the war). The favouritism went over with his brothers about as well as you'd expect, and Nathaniel's childhood was largely spent whining to his mother about how unspeakably horrid his big meanie brothers were being to him.
He may have played that up a little to get his brothers into trouble on occasion. He wasn't the most pleasant child. As such, he wasn't often invited to play with his siblings - or, indeed, most of the other children who lived near them. Whiny Tattletale Nathaniel (tm) spent most of his time reading as soon as he was able to do so, deciding that books were far preferable to fools like his brothers.
As children tend to do, Nathaniel grew up. Golly. His childhood quarrels with his brothers faded over time, he stopped being an unpleasant crybaby, and he became a normal functional young adult. Still, his early conviction that books were better than people never quite left him. Plus, his habit of devouring every book put in front of him led to him acquiring a reputation for being educated and erudite. He very much enjoyed being thought of as the intelligent brother, rather than simply being favoured as the youngest brother. Far more prestigious.
So - as he reached adulthood, his life was very much centred around education. He studied hard, went to university and even went into lecturing himself for a brief period. A very brief period. He quickly discovered that he had little patience for irritating know-it-all students asking him idiotic questions (not that he'd ever been that kind of student himself, clearly), and decided that teaching wasn't really for him. Neither were any of the other jobs he attempted afterwards: administrative work was beneath him. Working in his father's shop was intolerable. An ill-fated attempt at becoming a writer was both unsuccessful and, in hindsight, humiliating. Eventually he found a job as a librarian that stuck. It wasn't perfect - a man of his caliber was supposed to be doing greater things, after all - but it worked out well enough. He was surrounded by books, for one thing. And when he got grumpy or bored (which was often), he could take his moods out on hapless idiots browsing for trashy literature!
The children who were reading worthy books were never harassed, naturally. He saw far too much of himself in them.
Life pootled along until thirteen years ago, when a sixty-year old Nathaniel met Mildred. She was smart. She was kind. She was a no-nonsense lady well-equipped to cope with Nathaniel's grumpiness. He might also have said she had a beautiful pair of eyes, were he inclined to notice such frivolities, which he absolutely wasn't. In short, she quickly became the love of his life. He couldn't even hold the fact that she was American against her (Nathaniel's views do not represent the views of me or my country it's just a joke oh god don't hate me). After a couple of years, they married - but not before Mildred explained that she wanted to return to the US. She had a daughter and some property there in New Jersey, and Nathaniel agreed that it was sensible for them to move there at some point.
So, ten years ago, they did just that. The "property" Mildred mentioned turned out to be a small shop, along with a small flat above it. They moved in, and on Mildred's suggestion turned the empty store into a little bookshop. It was, as far as she was concerned, a good way to ensure Nathaniel met new people and made friends in his new home. This wasn't particularly successful, but it was doubtless moreso than if he'd just holed up in the flat with his books.
Four years later, Mildred died very suddenly of a heart attack. Nathaniel inherited the shop, there was a degree of unpleasantness with Mildred's daughter and the will, and he was essentially left in a very isolated position in a country that didn't feel like his home. This only encouraged him to wallow in his grief, and when he finally felt up to opening the shop again it was as an even grumpier old man than he had been previously. Without Mildred's influence, he's once more prone to being incredibly acidic towards customers he considers "unworthy" - resorting to petty bullying in order to derive any enjoyment from his job.
Still. He's not about to retire or go back to England. He's far too stubborn for that. It's not a matter of sentiment or anything, obviously. Now get off his bloody lawn, kids.
First Echo:
Nathaniel's first echo was gained ten years ago, shortly after he first came to the US. Upon being asked by his wife what he thought of Locke City, he responded dismally that it was acceptable, he supposed, but that it was simply impossible to find anyone who could make him a decent cup of tea. He was instantly struck with a hollow pulsing sensation and a memory of a strange grey man called Drovas, who apparently made a dreadful cup of canis root tea.
Whatever that was.
Preincarnation 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 mentioned earlier in the app, 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.
Any differences:
I could probably just type "he isn't a Telvanni" and that'd be self-explanatory. BUT HERE WE GO!
Nathaniel is a perfectly ordinary old man. He isn't absurdly powerful. He can't manipulate the fabric of the world. He doesn't employ servants or train apprentices. He doesn't have a massive lifespan in front of him or hundreds of years' experience behind him. He's just a mundane human man with a bookshop. That's it. So while he retains some of Neloth's innate snootiness and superiority complex, it's not even close to being on the same scale. Unlike for Neloth, people are absolutely people to Nathaniel. He's even capable of forming actual attachments. He had a wife. Imagine!
His relative weakness also has other effects on him. Nathaniel is very aware of his own mortality. He's an old man, essentially alone in the world. He has regrets, fears, moments of frustration and helplessness. Neloth takes a rather blasé attitude to any failed experiments or missed opportunities because he'll be around for centuries - he's playing the long game. The time Nathaniel has left is significantly more limited, so he's more easily prone to instances of genuine anger or sadness. It's a lot harder to be above it all when you're... well, not.
His morals are also significantly more in line with modern western society and not ridiculous Dunmeri codes of bullshit. Even if he were to suddenly become as powerful as his canon self, he wouldn't think it was suddenly alright to go around taking things from weaker people without a second thought. Similarly, some of Neloth's nastier habits are a no-no for Nathaniel. Vivisecting things or performing painful experiments on them without consent? No thankyou. He's not a shrinking violet - he'd be able to kill an animal to fill a soul gem if he couldn't get someone else to do it, for example - but that would be about his limit.
Abilities:
Neloth is a Telvanni mage lord who has studied the schools of magic for centuries. As such, he has an entire buttload of magic-based skills. I'm mostly basing the specifics on his appearance in Skyrim, as that's his most recent canon point.
Enchanting: It's safe to say that by the time we see him in Skyrim, Neloth is the most accomplished enchanter in the province (and likely one of the best anywhere in Tamriel, because dude is hella old). He is capable of enchanting objects with a wide variety of effects, and he is also capable of constructing and using a staff enchanter. This allows him to produce magical staffs that can then be used by anyone regardless of their own talent for magic. To enchant things, he must possess filled soul gems (for regular items) or heart stones (for staffs).
Conjuration: According to dialogue in Morrowind, he's a master at this. It's essentially the art of summoning things - in Skyrim, he is restricted to conjuring up Ash Guardians and Storm Atronachs. The summons generally don't last very long before dissipating - even if they're not defeated by an enemy.
Alteration: Neloth can cast the Candlelight spell (which creates a small ball of white light that hangs in the air for a few minutes). He can also cast defensive spells (Ebonyflesh and Ironflesh) that act like magical armour.
Destruction: Most of Neloth's destructive spells are lightning-based - he can hurl balls of electricity from his hands. He also knows the Whirlwind Cloak spell, which engulfs his body in a wind that damages anyone who comes too close to him.
Restoration: He's capable of healing himself and throwing up magical shields - though the latter requires constant concentration while the shield is up, and it's only large enough to protect himself.
Illusion: Neloth only knows the "calming" set of spells from this school, which work as one would expect - they pacify the target and make them less willing to fight.
Spell creation/adaptation: Neloth is all about thinking up new ways to magically meddle with things. Hells yes. He's shown to create several spells in canon - "conjure ash spawn" and "whirlwind cloak" are both his creations. Sometimes his experiments are less successful - as detailed in the history section of the app. (I'm aware that this ability could be ridiculously godmodey if left unchecked - should Neloth/Nathaniel ever learn enough magic to regain this talent, I'd be happy to always consult a mod before having him cook up any new spells. Or stick to tiny little silly things. EITHER WORKS.)
Things that got left out of Skyrim but he'd totally still know this shit: Wow what a useful descriptor there. Basically: levitation and teleportation spells were both in Morrowind, but were removed from Skyrim because of technical bullshittery. Since Neloth has lived in mushroom towers in isolated spots for hundreds of years, it'd be impossible for him not to know these spells.
All these skills (aside from enchanting) draw from Neloth's magicka reserves (ie, a generic RPG mana bar). Magicka can be restored via potions and the like or regenerate naturally over time.
As well as his magic based skills, Neloth has some additional abilities:
Dunmeri fire resistance: Dark elves are naturally resistant to fire. They're not completely immune or anything, but flames only damage them half as much as other races.
Knowledge of (Tamrielic) flora: - He's able to grow his own mushroom tower, and since he has alchemy equipment in his tower it's fair to assume he has basic knowledge of how to use it.
Grumpy old man sass: God damn.
Roleplay Sample - Third Person:
It was Wednesday. Nathaniel hated Wednesdays. Hated them. Bloody despised them. If it were up to him, he'd have them abolished. What was the use of them, anyway? Who ever managed to get anything of any importance done on a Wednesday? Certainly not anyone he ever heard of.
He was in the middle of musing about exactly how long it would take him to start researching major events and inventions to try and prove that Wednesdays were indeed a black hole of human achievement when a voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Hey. Do you sell Twilight? I can't find it."
Nathaniel's eyes closed. He let out a low "urgh," leaned over the shop counter, and opened his eyelids just enough to be able to look down his nose at the speaker.
Girl. Teenager-slash-adolescent. Chewing gum. Too much jewellery and a "Team Edward" t-shirt.
Of course.
"I'm so sorry..." He wasn't. "... But I'm afraid I don't seem to have it in stock." He pursed his lips together beneath his beard in a mock-sympathetic expression. The insincerity was apparently lost on the customer.
"Can you check the back?"
"Oh, the back." Nathaniel placed a hand on his forehead, feigning amazement. "Of course. Allow me to go and delve into the vast stockroom that I clearly have squirrelled away at the back of my humongous shop." He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "It really is rather enormous. You might want to pop out and get some lunch while you wait. I could be some time."
He didn't move. Neither did the girl. After thirty seconds of pointed staring, Nathaniel decided he'd have to be a little more direct.
"You're being really very stupid. And it's tiresome. Go be stupid elsewhere." He shooed the girl towards the door, blowing an irritable breath through his beard. Honestly! There was nothing quite so irritating as customers entering a bookshop. Ugh.
Now, where was he? Oh, yes, Wednesdays...
Roleplay Sample - Network:
[ A handwritten notice gets posted on the network. In very thin, loopy lettering it proclaims: ]
Hiring apprentices to assist in matters of testing magical items.
Payment comes in the form of said enchanted objects. You test it, you keep it.
All applicants welcome regardless of age, fitness or level of magical aptitude.
NO TIME-WASTERS.
[ Smaller writing at the bottom of the notice indicates that all interested parties should consult Mr. Mithryn of the creatively-titled "Mithryn's Books." The address is helpfully provided. GO SEE HIM, GUYS, WHAT COULD GO WRONG? ]
Any Questions?
I have purposely omitted as much information about the Elder Scrolls player characters as possible, since the games are far more open-ended in that regard than (for example) Mass Effect or Dragon Age. PCs can be one of ten races, either gender, a multitude of character classes, can join/not join a host of different factions, can skip entire questlines or do a billion fetch quests for kindly old ladies.
While I'm not likely to ever get castmates, for the above reasons I hope it's okay to just not specify anything about the player characters at all? And if Neloth were to ever echo back memories of the Dragonborn or Nerevarine, he simply wouldn't remember their appearance?
IF NOT I'll go super generic with them and say the Nerevarine was a Dark Elf male and the Dragonborn was a Nord female.