technically a canon url

sideblog for silly TES oc stuff

[barfok]

this is a headcanon blog for my morrowind headcanons largely about my ocs and nothing here is going to be super exactingly lore accurate. if you're wondering wtf the context for this is here's my ao3 or just ask lol

oc list (updatedddd)

italics = characters mentioned only by name or only in a single source with limited detail bold = characters with multiple canon references/actual details

FIRST ERA

nord demons (and adjacent):

hoag merkiller son of kjoric the white and mafwe piemaker

chemua the blighter son of chimarvir of mournhold and alleir of winterhold grandson of mem-yet chemua

bhag two-tongue

barfok maid of planes daughter of fokbar and magdabel granddaughter of barfok great-granddaughter of fokbar great-great-granddaughter of barfok sister of magnar, chalda, sonja, sissel, hanse and olafur (rip)

ysmir wulfharth

jurgen windcaller

a selection of other Tongues:

telmo of the wrestling telmos, jarl of dragonstar

ysobel pale-heart, jarl of markarth karth proper

other denizens of mournhold:

queen amun-shae mournim daughter of queen gha-vanya sister of indoril nam, bone colossus afficionado wife of lexival aran (deceased) mother of almalexia (who is not an oc but bears mentioning here)

the ra'athim (and other ebonheart rabble)

serjo sedura mora ilinalta ra'athim (now resident in mournhold) dearest subject of her darling bodyguard midiri marenas most cherished customer of tea vendor and camonna tong spy, cyril of sardavar leed mother of aliss ra'athim, eventually

her aunt, yoriss ra'athim wife of beloved "uncle dren" ex-mother of a worthless exile who shall not be named here

her snivelling brother, cruethys ra'athim ex-husband of shulki-senipu "kanet" eramarellaku

her fantastic yet controversial father, kronin ra'athim brother of yoriss ra'athim (and several other dead ra'athim) son of morseth ra'athim (deceased)

the night mother, hlatha "mephala" mora, leader of the morag tong employer of besa sadrasi, freelance spy and brothel worker employer of maeli mishiki associate of mehrunes dagon cultist mordrin hanin

SECOND ERA

iliah ra'athim, hand of almalexia twin sister of karnalta ra'athim, worm cultist aunt (eventually) of barenziah ra'athim and katariah ra'athim

bthamzual (i.e. branora demnevanni), vestige

THIRD ERA

plays-with-fire, the nerevarine

breda plains-maiden, not the nerevarine but everyone pretends she is

FOURTH ERA

lirilyn (aka liranwe dreth), dragonborn unfortunately

voranil veri, neo-almalexia cultist

masha gra-jan, tribunal historian currently trapped in the mournhold archives

[fairycosmos]

you have GOT to get over god abandoning you when you were 2 like its not even uncommon

[barfok]

this continues to be the most self-indulgent chapter yet

[barfok]

.

of the many many many things chemua and almalexia share in common, despite being royalty who should've been able to expect a reasonable amount of safety and privilege, they were both exposed to severe danger at a very young age and consequently developed pathological levels of self-dependency and paranoia to cope with it. in chemua's case this was much more direct (i don't think one can see their parent assassinated in her bedroom and still ever really be able to feel safe anywhere), and though almalexia never experienced direct violence she was also certainly never sheltered from the idea of it, both from knowing about the assassination and being bluntly reminded of their place in the occupation. they also both combine this with the further mind-breaking experience of gaining a huge amount of power at a young age, chemua by becoming a full-fledged tongue and almalexia when she was coronated. both around age twenty. they both grew up to be very powerful and very scared people with no real guidance in how to exist like that.

like god things would've been very different if amun-shae had survived. if she had maybe five or ten more years with these kids she could've really helped them figure themselves out. getting their power that young damned them both tbh

[barfok]

Tongue training is just interesting bc the customs change so much over the course of the nordic empire. like originally they were only sending adults to throat-of-the-world to learn the thu'um, but at some point someone realised that children actually pick it up more easily and that those who become Tongues younger would have more time to grow into powerful warlords and get better with it. by the time of the civil war the average age for someone to start training with the thu'um was around thirteen. during the course of the civil war that dropped to eleven. chemua was eleven when he climbed, hoaga twelve, bhag i honestly have no idea. for contrast, their parents generation-- chimarvir climbed when he was thirteen, kjoric would've been thirteen. you go further back, well before the war, and mem-yet chemua climbed when she was in her 30s because she only arrived on tamriel in her 20s, and nobody saw her as unusual for it. king harald climbed as an adult but his grandson was up there by age fourteen. it has a real cycle-of-violence air to it, successive generations of Tongues realising that they got a major benefit by being sent up young and deciding to send their children up even younger in hopes that those benefits compound. when you get to the generation after the nord demons-- shela of winterhold was probably around ten or eleven when she climbed, and by then far fewer people were making the climb because the followers of the old ways were losing the war and the alessians were pointing out how barbaric it was, to do that to one's children. anyways i think a lot of Why the nord demons are like that can be traced back to most of them having been subjected to the ritualistic mind-breaking mountain school during their formative years. imagine turning eleven and your parent just tells you welp time for you to go become a living weapon or die horribly trying. it's hard to be well-adjusted in these circumstances.

[ocprompts]

which oc graduated early?

[barfok]

don't think i'm gonna sleep much tonight thanks to the rabies vaccine maybe i should try writing smut again

[hotboyproblems]

all of these have the same energy

[barfok]

clan mournim absolutely have a megalomaniacal streak but it inconsistently skips generations. almalexia needs no explanation. her uncle, indoril nam, was singularly obsessed with the brothers of strife and tried to summon a bone colossus at every inconvenience. her grandmother gha-vanya accidentally catalysed the creation of great house indoril by getting a little too tyrannical about public gardens. her great*4-grandmother, vel-arsha, lived for 800 years and was probably loaded to the gills with artefacts. between these you have so many nice normal people who aren't power-hungry maniacs but where's the fun in that?

[barfok]

this fic being almalexiacentric, and this chapter being The Kagrenac Chapter, forces me to consider whether its time for kagrenayem as a ship to make a comeback here

[barfok]

it makes sense if you think about. kagrenac keeps being responsible for almalexia acquiring powerful artefacts (key to karstangz-bcharn, hopesfire, the tools of kagrenac) and there's simply nothing almalexia finds more irresistible than people who will give her power. she is exclusively attracted to people with some matter of arcane power she can steal. i bet she found kagrenac so sexy

[barfok]

yeah this is going to be the longest chapter of rolecall by a long shot, i've only written about 50% of what i want to include in this chapter and this is only the first draft (things always expand on editing because my 1st draft pacing is fucked). yahoo etcetera

[barfok]

.

one of my 'would be cool one day' writing projects-- tbh i wanted to do this as an rp but for logistics it'd probably just make more sense as a fic-- is to go through and, under some pretence, have nerevar meet the nord demons one by one and actually have to speak with them and reckon with them on a philosophical and political level. i don't know why the idea of nerevar being forced to interact with these losers is so fun. i have a lot of vague scenes and snippets of dialogue for this but ultimately no real good structure or setting for it, and i don't think my characterisation of nerevar is solid enough to make it really worthwhile pursuing. hence why i wanted to do it as an rp or cowriting project way back when. but i guess my idea of nerevar is as someone who was never forced to consider himself as a political or philosophical actor-- he was far more comfortable being the 'just tell me what to do' guy, hence his habit of surrounding himself with thinkers while his own attitudes remained ambiguous-- nor did he ever entertain the nords as complicated political/philosophical actors. i just think him being forced to acknowledge that in himself and others would be so fun.

[barfok]

1E706

Vivec tries to pray. Nerevar does not appear. He opens the eye inside of himself and sees Mephala--

--The mortal Mephala, the Ebonheart pimp with her pomegranate-red eyes and her hands tattooed black. She is cross-legged in a throne of cobwebs, clad in the simple roughspun black tunic she liked to wear when Vivec worked for her as a child. The Spiral Skein wraps around them both in the shapeless form of a dream.

"Mephala," he greets her, pleading.

"Nobody loves a murderer, Vivec." Her voice is smooth and androgynous, her eyelashes dark. "Believe me. I would know."

Vivec bows his head. "I am not here for love. I only want counsel."

"How very Nerevar of you." She shifts her weight; she seems weightless. "Asking counsel while demanding love. When did the counsellor become the counselled?"

"Nerevar is dead by my hand."

"So now you've murdered everyone who ever sold you." When Vivec looks up again, Mephala is examining one of her own black palms. "And you take his place, not mine. Shame. You should have been the Night Mother after me."

"Not every wife is destined to become a mother."

"Oh, there is no destiny for the likes of you and I."

"Mephala, give me counsel. I have to make a hard choice."

Her eyes still seem to burn into him, even in death she listens too attentively. If Vivec stares too closely he knows he will fall into that gaze. And yet--

"I made an… oath, to someone important to me. A dying oath upon a Daedric Prince in a ritual. Now I have been asked to break that oath." His voice catches. "If I break it, I could save thousands of lives. I could stop anyone from ever suffering the way you made me suffer. There are a lot of reasons I should--"

Mephala raised her hand to silence him. "Mephala can sense your lies and secrets."

He bites his tongue.

"I know you, Vehk." Her eyes burn. "I saw you when you were but a fragment buried within the Netchiman's Wife. I know your nature like I know mine. You are not the type to be torn between duty and benevolence. No, tell me your true conflict, and I will counsel you."

Once more, he bows his head before the Daedroth.

"If I keep my oath, my dearest friends will hate me." He whispers, knowing she will hear it. "And if I break it, I fear the world will hate me."

"And what counsel do you seek?"

"What choice will make me more beloved?"

From the corner of his eye he sees her beckon. He approaches, to within arm's reach, and Mephala takes his hand between her vampiric-cold palms.

"Nobody loves a murderer," she tells him. "They cannot help but love a god."

[barfok]

almalexia and sotha sil as kids tbh

[barfok]

this fic being almalexiacentric, and this chapter being The Kagrenac Chapter, forces me to consider whether its time for kagrenayem as a ship to make a comeback here

[barfok]

i'm making sotha sil such an asshole in this chapter but like yknow. he is.

[barfok]

idk why that is getting reblogged because it was about my highly specific fanfiction and i know people are not reading all that. i want to know who other people think almalexia's second treacherous slut-loving boyfriend is. is it vivec? is the nerevarine vivec's treacherous slut?

[barfok]

canon would never be brave enough to assert that almalexia's political career is built on backstabbing evil bisexual men. michael kirkbride hasn't the strength