Call me Cimba. I’m a traditional and Procreate artist from Oregon. This blog is mainly for my TES art, but I may post original art on occasion. I mostly prefer doing traditional art using a mix of colored pencil, markers, gouache, watercolor, and acrylic. Besides art I enjoy writing fanfictions, video games, baking and cooking, and going for nature walks with my Australian Shepherd, Finn. I’m also an eclectic witch and love reading and learning about witchcraft.
I first played Skyrim in August 2022 (hoping to eventually play Morrowind, Oblivion, and ESO someday once I have a better computer) and since then have been very passionate about the TES universe. I especially love Khajiits and Dunmer. Most of my TES art involves my ship of Teldryn Sero and my Khajiit, Cimba. I first started shipping them 2-3 years ago and they have been a huge comfort for me. I really love drawing and writing about them and their adventures in Skyrim and Solstheim. I mostly draw for myself and my fanfictions but I plan on taking commissions someday and especially would love to draw TES characters/OCs and ships.
I occasionally draw suggestive and NSFW art (full and uncensored on Bluesky), so DNI if you’re a minor 🔞
Thank you for tag @nerevarbean ☺️
Little bit of progress on the background. I was thinking that once I finish this, I want to make a post showing the steps and stages of my traditional art process 👀
Tagging (no pressure) @juliette-has-a-pencil @aspendruid @neloths-tea @thegrunkiest @theflowergrrl @cresu @heavy-metal-dick (Lmk if any y’all want me to tag you in future WIP Wednesdays 🫶)
Hi! I'm $1,081.63 in medical debt because insurance decided that endometriosis treatment isn't that important! And it's only going to pile up more when I see the OBG/YN in January.
Being that I am disabled, I've been unable to find a job within my abilities for about three years, and my husband only makes enough to keep us afloat. But I can draw for you!
These are my rates! I accept P*yp*l, v*nmo, and c*sh*pp, and payment is due before I begin.
I know it's hard out there for all of us, so if you can't afford it, or simply aren't interested, it would still help me out if you reblogged this for me for more reach!
Thank you @thegrunkiest and @neloths-tea for the tags ^^
Tagging @juliette-has-a-pencil @aspendruid @nirnrude and anyone else who wants to do this 🫶
Name: Cimba
Age: 23-26 (depending on what part of her story I’m writing)
Born: 25th of First Seed
Background: Born in Falkreath and taken in by a Nord family. Spent her early childhood living in Falkreath and her teen years outside of Markarth. She always loved exploring and taught herself how to use swords and daggers at a young age. At 23, she met Teldryn after she first visited Solstheim out of curiosity. They now both live together outside of Falkreath and have their adventures in Skyrim and Solstheim. She often does jobs for Dawnguard, the Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood (though she can be picky about which contracts she’ll take).
Notable Relationships:
Teldryn Sero - Her husband/mate and best friend. He’s her “favorite person” and is pretty much dependent on him.
Johanna (my Dunmer OC) - One of her closest friends. Johanna is way more confident and mentally stable so she’s been a positive influence on Cimba and taught her a lot about making peace with her past.
Erandur - While accompanying him in Nightcaller Temple, Erandur told her how he overcame Vaermina’s dark influence and eventually adjusted to the more loving ways of Mara. Cimba viewed that as hope for herself that she could also change and move away from self-sabotaging Daedric influences (She admired Molag Bal and Namira during her teen years, which she deeply regrets and later became a follower of Azura).
Other friends of Cimba’s are Jenassa (Johanna’s wife), Kharjo, Serana, Mjoll the Lioness, J’zargo, Brelyna, and Onmund
Strengths: Kind-hearted, empathetic, and fiercely loyal and protective of those she loves and cares about. Her best practical skills are one-handed, alchemy, sneaking, and lock-picking.
Weaknesses: She has all of my symptoms of BPD and C-PTSD. Intense fear of abandonment and rejection, extreme mood swings, self-harm/suicidal ideation, splitting (which she’s done to Teldryn a couple times), chronic emptiness, unstable sense of self, low self-worth, dissociation, and stress-related paranoia. She often struggles to stick up for herself and is an extreme people-pleaser due to her fear of abandonment. Though throughout her story, her symptoms slowly but surely improve due to her being in a safer and more caring environment.
No Interest In: Lying, exploiting, and manipulating others or causing harm to innocent people.
No Concept Of: Self-worth and self-respect. She hates that she’s always hard on herself over her past mistakes and thinking she’s never good enough.
In Battle: Prefers dual-wielding katanas. Very agile and has quick reflexes due to her being a Khajiit. Also has a very good sense of smell (she uses it like the “detect life” spell) for detecting enemies.
Distinguishing Marks: She has a scar across her snout and two black rose tattoos on her chest that I have myself. Also has a few self-harm scars 💀
Trivia:
Cimba is bisexual and mostly attracted to Dunmer and female Khajiits.
She’s inspired by and based on my snow leopard fursona of the same name. When I first created her in Skyrim I tried to make her look as much like a snow leopard as I could.
Since Cimba was born and raised in Skyrim, she’s always been somewhat disconnected from Khajiit culture and beliefs. Most of what she knew about her people was from speaking with Khajiit caravans. Despite this she still has some typical mannerisms of Khajiits such as speaking in third-person, having a big sweet tooth, and an affinity for sneaking and agility.
Cimba’s comfort foods are cheese and potato soup, beef stew, and Elsweyr fondue. Most sweet foods are comforting to her as well and her favorite sweet treats are apple pie and sweet rolls.
She’s very passionate about alchemy and loves foraging and learning about properties of ingredients.
Cimba and Teldryn both revere Azura. They occasionally travel to her shrine near Winterhold and visit the temple in Raven Rock (whenever they return to Solstheim) to pay their respects.
Unlike a lot of Khajiits, Cimba loves the cold and snow. She adapted to having much longer fur than the average Khajiit.
During her teen years, her adoptive Nord family had a wolfhound named Scruffy (inspired by my German Wirehaired Pointer I had growing up) who she loved dearly and always took him with her while exploring The Reach.
Like myself, Cimba is also an artist, writer, and practices nature-based magic (due to her passion for alchemy). She has an art journal she loves sketching and painting in and even makes her watercolors using berries, flowers, and other natural ingredients.
Thanks for the tags @heavy-metal-dick and @nerevarbean! ^^
Haven’t worked on art much lately but here’s a vent-ish sketch I did a couple weeks ago. Inspired by the song The Way You Lived by CKY.
Trying to get back into traditional art since I haven’t done it in over a month and I’ve missed doing it. I’ll be painting the background for this during my days off work.
A piece of gift art and 3 little raffle pieces I made for peeps I interacted with on my TES blog, @nirnrude !
Including:
Cimba belonging to @darkcimba
Sifkni belonging to @hircines-hunter
Fjora belonging to @stormbeyondreality
and Elisette belonging to @kittycat1238
Was a fun thing working on these! :3 This fandom has such cool OCs fr <3
Heya. I just wanted to say, I'm so so sorry that you've been treated so poorly by some people over your ship with Cimba and Teldryn. It's such a petty and ridiculous thing for people to be hateful about, and you never deserve that kind of treatment.
I really love your art. The way you use color and detail is beautiful. I look at it, and I can feel the emotion you put into it. Honestly, I think your ship with Cimba and Teldryn is adorable, and I'd love to learn more of their story.
Hello, thank you so much for this sweet message! 🥺♥️ That really means a lot and I'm happy to hear you're interested in Cimba and Teldryn’s story ^^
When Cimba first met Teldryn and hired him as a mercenary, he approached her with the same pridefulness he always carried, making it clear that if she needed a sword and someone who knew Solstheim, he was available (for the right price, of course XD). At the time, she was just looking for someone to travel with and there was something about his confidence that caught her attention. Part of her genuinely wanted company, even if she wouldn't have admitted it at the time. She told herself she hired him simply because he was experienced and knew Solstheim but more than anything, she was tired of being alone and relieved she wouldn’t have to walk the roads alone for a while.
Cimba has severe mental trauma from past friendships/relationships and an intense fear of abandonment. She was constantly afraid that people she cared about would leave her. Teldryn picked up on that much sooner than she realized. He admired and respected how capable she was in battle but also saw the emotional wounds she tried to hide. He wasn't always sure what she was going through but he saw how guarded she was and how hard she was on herself. At first, he was unsure of what to do with that. For a while he mostly tried to help in the only ways he knew how, watching her back and ensuring she was safe. Teldryn’s dry-humor, clever remarks, and sarcasm becomes more playful and affectionate towards her. A lot of times he uses it specifically to lift her mood. It was one of the ways he learned to comfort her. As they became much closer, he helped her slowly let go of some of the loneliness she carried for so long. Whenever she gets lost in her own thoughts or dwells on painful memories he’ll sit beside her, wrap an arm around her, or simply let her lean against him until she feels safe again. He’ll remind her that she's stronger than she believes and that she'll never have to face those dark moments by herself again. But more than anything, he wants her to see herself the way he always did; a kind-hearted but strong and capable person who can fight beside him. And over the years, she slowly does. She doesn't become free of her past, but she grows beyond it.
They eventually settle in Lakeview Manor (always thought it was fitting for Teldryn since he mentions he wouldn't mind living in Riverwood). As much as they love exploring Skyrim, taking on jobs, helping people they meet along the way, and occasionally returning to Solstheim, they’re just as happy coming back to a place where they can rest and simply enjoy each other's company after long days. Cimba makes sure their home feels cozy and peaceful. She bakes and cooks for them, they go for walks in the forest, and they love cuddling together on rainy afternoons by the fireplace. They’re both deeply loyal and protective of each other. Cimba gave Teldryn a reason to leave Raven Rock and he gave her the safety, comfort, and stability she spent most of her life searching for.
I’m glad I have the opportunity to draw and write about them and help me escape from reality into their world where it feels safe and comforting. It’s my way of coping with trauma and emotions and holding onto the hope that I too can heal from it.
Thank you @nerevarbean and @neloths-tea for the tag! Anyone can feel free to tag me in future WIP Wednesday posts and lmk if you’d like me to tag you too :)
I haven’t worked on personal art much lately but I recently did this sketch for a friend/mutual on Instagram of their badass Dunmer OC :3
Sorry for slow AF replies, been super busy with work this week. Thank you to those who sent me asks/messages/tags! I’ll get to them as soon as I can✌️
I don’t want to post too many vents but I need to get this off my chest. I am SO mentally exhausted of being treated badly by other people in the TES fandom who also love Teldryn and ship their characters with him. I’ve had several people on Instagram put me down for shipping Cimba (my Khajiit) with Teldryn but now a few people here have done the same thing. I really don’t want to leave the TES fandom and I don’t want to stop doing art and fanfictions of Cimba and Teldryn. They’ve been such a great comfort to me over the past few years and have gotten me through a lot of shit including the worst break-up I’ve had and the deaths of my ex-partner and cat. I have BPD, C-PTSD, and struggled with self-harm/suicidal thoughts for most of my adulthood and Cimba is a reflection of all of that. Writing fanfictions about her and Teldryn’s relationship has really helped me cope with and process my mental struggles. The fact that others in the TES fandom are willing to take that away from me is just so fucking hurtful. I really wish I didn’t care, but I cannot handle being treated like this by people who also love the same character as I do (and the fact that these people are much older than me). I’ve literally cried over what these people have done to me.
I had a really rough week and was actually starting to feel better yesterday, but I’ve fallen back into that depressive pit again. I’m probably going to feel very unmotivated to do art for a while… I’m just so tired of how disrespectful and immature people in this fandom can be.
Thank you to those who has been kind to me and supportive of my art, it really does mean the world to me ♥️
I cannot handle being alone with myself. I’m literally my own worst enemy and I hate myself so fucking much. I’m tired of waking up everyday feeling empty and numb. I scare myself because of my own obsessive self-destructive thoughts. I’ve felt so fucking alone and miserable for the past several months and I’m at my breaking point. Can’t help but feel like I’m a lost cause…
Three years ago today I lost my dog, Rose, to mouth cancer so I wanted share this memorial art I did for her last year. Inspired by the song The Wolf by Billy Talent (the song is about cancer/terminal illness).
