META ;; sometimes when she's concentrating or anxious, you'll notice val using her nails and/or teeth to pick at the skin of her lips. the more anxious or the more focused she is, typically the more torn apart her lips are. and when i say concentrating, it's usually when she's doing intensive (months long) research, or working on a particularly hard build. not something short like a quick puzzle in dungeons or reading. there are times it really isn't a big deal, but there are always periods of time where she makes herself bleed accidentally and she'll have temporary scabs until healing salves clear it away.
META ;; early years in the museum were spent, yes, following auryen around and learning history through him relatively naturally, but as she aged, he was also set on subtly teaching her the arts needed to upkeep displays and restorations without taking time away from tasks that needed to be done. meaning, val wasn't set down to have painting lessons. she wasn't taking hours of the day to have a teacher come and have her learn about sewing or dying yarns or color theory. she was taught very practically.
one evening might be spent in laborious study of the illustrations in a great herbal book he kept, with the requirement that the next day to collect six samples that matched those illustrations. he wouldn't tell her how or where to find them (whether they were in the museum or not) so she'd set about town to snatch them up, and learned much of observation in the process. through this, he could tell her these were the ones he was using for a past to fix some cracked canvas because of their properties to dry properly, or that they were used in paint.
another day he may give her a skein of yarn to take down to the tailor because he was running low but to inquire idly of the dyes used. while a bit more direct, she'd've been taught memory skills that would help her retain the information given to her and she'd have to report it word for word back when she returned and learn how to match dyes if there were no tailor skilled enough.
in order to learn on picking up details and picking them up quickly, they'd play a game of colored stones where he'd show her a group of stones of different colors for only a few seconds. once hidden away he'd ask how many of one color or if there were more of one than the other. this especially helps her with puzzles later on in different ruins and caves.
before they agreed to have her travel with haldir, they subtly trained her in subterfuge. haldir would pretend they were being mischievious and may task her to hide a set of paintbrushes from auryen without him noticing. or to move displays around without being caught (then put them back to normal) to freak out the guards. this way he knew he could have her hide away or escape somewhere dangerous even if she didn't have the fighting skills yet.
META ;; val is very much a stalker/pacer when her mind has settled onto killing or hurting someone. if she's in conversation with them and especially if she can tell they're playing games, easy to beat or they've actively hurt/affected someone she cares about, she will just maintain eye contact and words with them and just slowly begin to walk back and forth, or even circle them. it's almost like a switch goes off, her vision tightens and she's just completely focused on finding a moment in time where she has the advantage to strike. which made her a really good assassin while she was one.
so i want to outline the synopsis of val receiving her first soul and shout. i say this blog is canon divergent simply because the modlist changes a lot of things (for instance alternate start allows val to just start the game at the solitude docks, and another mod makes the spawning of dragons start at random/you don't go to helgen to start the main quest) so her start at the game is, in my opinion, a bit more natural. anyways, debrief aside, lets go.
at least a week goes by that's normal. val kick starts in solitude, travels to whiterun after being in contact with kodlak about wuuthrad, and just starts adventuring for a bit. while trading some ancient nord coins she found in dungeons for current currency, she hears the trader complain about missing something and the bandits bringing it to bleak falls barrow. once she sets outside, for the first time in centuries, a dragon is in the sky. with the help of some guards, she takes it down. after a few moments, she immediately falls to the ground screaming as the soul of the dragon is rushing into her body. it's sharp. and it feels like all of her skin is being set aflame. the local blacksmith lets her rest at his house for a couple hours, and while doing so she sends a letter to her father back in solitude so he can start researching what could possibly be happening.
meanwhile, she sets west to bleak falls barrow.
upon entering the inner sanctum, the softest whispers start echoing. it's easy for her to think they're just the rustling of bats in the cave but the sound is incessant and gets louder the closer she gets to the massive wall that curls around a tomb. val recognizes the markings on the lower half as dovahzul but she has no way to translate it.
Here lies the guardian
Keeper of dragonstone
And a FORCE of unending
Rage and darkness
without knowing the language, she's still drawn closer and closer to the wall until, once again, she's brought down to the ground in pain as the word FUS lights up so brightly her eyes start to burn. unbeknownst to her, she now has the tools to fully use her first shout. it isn't until she visits the greybeards, under the direction of her father, that she can finally wield it.
META ;; can i just say how you can see the lengths in which val doesn't take care of herself by how little she eats when adventuring? and even when she's home. once she's set on something, it's almost like horse blinders fall on her and she becomes all about getting something done whether it's traveling, clearing a dungeon, getting something home or finishing her research. when she's alone adventuring, she really will just eat some bread, drink some water or ale and be on with it. maybe cook up some meat if she happens upon it. at home, if i'm being honest, she just expects food to appear because likely auryen is keeping tabs and will place a meal in front of her when it's time. i say it's a 'self-worth' thing because even if you're caught up in something, when your body tells you it's time, you can usually justify needing to take a break to eat, even if you miss a meal here or there, but for val it's this mindset of 'i don't deserve nourishment until the job is done' despite knowing that if she doesn't perform at her best she could get hurt. it's like setting herself up to get hurt, frankly, because she deserves that.
and yet, when she does cook? when you do shake her out of it? she really does enjoy it. she loves food. especially hearty, spicy meals or something a bit more mediterranean that's lighter but full of flavor. it isn't necessarily a love language of hers, but it's something she loves doing with other people because there's a tangible thing at the end they can share. the thing is, if you like doing something with other people. . . you need to have them there to engage with it. so if you're always traveling alone (or preferring to travel alone) or if you're shutting out loved ones because you're in a bought of self-doubt and guilt, that thing falls to the wayside and you don't get to enjoy it.
other muses will notice her not eating, will notice her forgoing food to keep her focus on something else, and as stupid as it is, they'll have to near shove the spoon down her throat to get her to snap out of it. i think this really rears it's ugly head during a)the dark brotherhood quest and b) during dragonborn, especially in apocrypha because she is just so dead set on revenge, vengeance and fixing something that nothing else, not even herself, matters. whenever she gets the chance to just stay at the museum and work idly on galleries and exhibits, it won't be as bad.
𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: bg3 happens after the timeline of skyrim and val has taken a couple of years off to rest before building a new museum in baldurs gate, a new plane. she's traveled to faerun occasionally before when with her father haldir. she's a glasya tiefling, trained in hand crossbows, still titled dovahkiin (though this won't immediately be known to the party) and perhaps in talks with one particular lord of knowledge and memory. she can be found in the grove upon entering, with a crossbow pointed at aradin's head before tav or origin character's step in, looking for information on the artifact and the nightsong (and eventually the crown).
more information below
𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝: valvari is a gloomstalker ranger/assassin rogue multi-class, with feats in sharpshooter and crossbows, and in most situations she will initiate fights first though will do so under direction of origin characters and tavs. she wears light - medium armor and will use shortwords/daggers when someone gets in close. she doesn't know a lot of magic, but knows a couple small spells (like thunderwave or burning hands) for defensive moments.
𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞: val is extremely mobile during fights, especially when fighting larger beasts/monsters. she will run, jump, climb, and use every advantage the battlefield may have. while she prefers ranged attacks, if she runs out of bolts or needs to get in close, val will close distance and use blades or her fists and while not very skilled in it she can create distance if she's cornered by using magic.
𝐛𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞: i'll go more in depth further down, but val will only use dragonborn powers at the end of act ii, when fighting myrkul. this will be when she admits to being the chosen hero of tamriel's god akatosh and will use dragon shouts to aid in battle. these shouts can range from normal fire breathing, to teleporting around the space, to providing her dragon like armor. she can also call upon hermaeus mora for aid, this appearing as a mix between hunger of hadar and evard's black tentacles, where herma mora can appear and help hold down myrkul. she can only call him once per long rest, similar to 'channeling divinity'.
i'll also make a small note here that i haven't yet fought ansur or the red dragon at the end, but having val will allow for her to use bend will, which can keep them 'prone' for a few turns. she will also attempt to speak to them in dovahzul but that can be something plotted out.
𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: as mentioned above, the party will come across valvari upon walking into the grove, with her having aimed a crossbow at aradin's head, ready to shoot. tav/origin characters can de-escalate the situation in whatever manner they choose, val will not kill aradin. she can be found again hanging around dammon, who will be adjusting her crossbows and talking shop with her about tinkering the weapons. for all intents and purposes, val is just a normal tiefling, though heavily scarred and with blackened veins in her right arm. she comes off a bit aloof, but will explain she adventures around looking for artifacts and relics for a new museum she's opening up in baldur's gate. she'll offer to join the party under the pretense that relics she finds along the way are sent to baldur's gate for replication.
if not recruited in the grove, she can be found again in the underdark, at the last light inn (having helped the tieflings) and then in rivington with them in act iii. if not recruited at any of those times she will not share who she once was, but will be seen fighting alongside the githyanki and riding one of the dragons. she will approach the group about the artifact and the crown at the end, again reinstating they should be replicated before destroyed to preserve history.
𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭: in the beginning of having valvari in your party, she tends to keep to herself either tinkering with her crossbows or writing notes in a small journal. conversations with her will lead to her admitting she writes down important locations the group comes across as they travel so that she can send guild members back to investigate for any relics she may have passed. otherwise she'll divulge vague information about her fathers always having run museums, them being elves, her being adopted, and how she has grown up helping them as the years passed.
when asked about her adventures, she'll happily regale stories about fighting monsters such as spectators, minotaurs, werewolves, harpies and such. she may slip up on the word 'harpies' and mention 'hargarvens' instead. a successful passive insight check will allow someone to push on that and she'll wave it off as another word for the beasts. initiatally if asked about her scars, she'll become cheeky and motion to ones that clearly were from battle, not the ones actually asked about that are runic in nature. she can't be pressed to talk more about those, her attitude towards someone will lower if so and she'll mention something along the lines of no one being able to have personal information. while walking around, her banter typically consists of dropping nuggets of information either about structures/curios or creatures they happen upon, she'll usually bond pretty tightly with wyll, lae'zel and karlach.
a successful passive insight check will have someone notice a change in valvari's demeanor upon first meeting the githyanki and the red dragon. it's subtle, but she'll keep near constant eye contact with the dragon, but otherwise the interaction proceeds as normal. she will not talk about it and instead wave it off as anxiety about the creature with some fascination in seeing one in person.
during act ii, val becomes a bit caught up in the kids and what's happening with them. having been orphaned and adopted, there's a bond on her side and during the battle at the last light inn, she's immediately moving over to them in an attempt to protect them. throughout she's a bit dour, although this shifts once the group delves down into the sharran temple to fascination. she'll pick up any scroll or book she can get her hands on, and encourages clearing the curse so that she can send her guild in here. she'll mention knowing a similar deity who worked in shadows by the name of nocturnal, someone who thieves often pray to and are gifted luck if the deity is feeling generous.
she'll be in constant talks with lae'zel and shadowheart about her taking the relic once this adventure is at a close, and tav/origin characters can decide whether or not she's allowed. her attitude towards the player will lower if denied. when the group learns of who the nightsong is, val drops any inclination of taking on the "relic". she has no preference on what choice shadowheart makes. it isn't until the fight with myrkul that val unleashes two important nuggets of who she is. as the team learns the way the avatar fights, val will call upon hermaeus mora, a deity from a different plane, to help. her arm that has black veins will send out shadows and ink from which the prince will appear and help keep the avatar of the god of death still so the party can better fight him. she will also start using dragon shouts. both instances cause her a lot of pain and anguish, she will likely knock out at the end of the fight and need to be transported back to camp.
when recovered, she'll admit to the party she grew up in tamriel, a different plane with different gods. while not in a traditional 'warlock pact', she's still aiding herma mora in gaining knowledge about faerun due to her tie to him as dragonborn. she'll explain the events of skyrim, admitting that she's a once hero who saved the plane from being overrun by dragons, by consuming their souls and learning their language (the shouts she used in battle). it isn't a power she wants to use often, as it takes a heavy toll on her.
act iii has val taking a heavy back seat in many situations, though she'll offer her two cents when asked. there can be an argument between her and gale about the crown that can be diffused similarly to shadowheart's and lae'zel's, again with her wanting to have the crown sent to the museum for replication. should she be denied after being denied many times, val will leave the party, and with her, her powers/status for the final battle.
if allowed, she'll finally admit to how her scars came to be, explaining that the reason she's so adamant about people learning the atrocities these kinds of things can bring about, is because she touched something similar that caused her father, haldir, to die. in grief, she carved ruins and protective spells across her body in hopes no one she's close to would ever suffer for her mistakes again.
val will be an asset when it comes to battling ansur or the red dragon later on, as she'll use her dragonborn powers again to keep them prone. she will also speak to them with dovahzul, though that can take plotting if we want it to work or not.
i will fill more information in here if it becomes relevant as i play through act iii.
post-game will see valvari running the museum in baldur's gate rather successfully. her father, auryen, will finally travel from tamriel and make a minor comment that his daughter seems to constantly be swept up in rather world-ending business. should someone have a successful perception check, they'll notice some small tieflings in the shadows of the halls running about. valvari will admit she offered mol and the kids a place to have as a base camp, that she doesn't care about what they do, only that they have somewhere safe to return to.
and that maybe they would like a job once they get older in retrieving artifacts.
META ;; if i refer to val as 'ari', its just her fathers nickname for her. typically only allowed to be used between close friends and family, they started calling her that as the word in elfish for 'good' or 'noble' (sometimes 'sunlight' or 'warmth' depending upon which derivative we're talking about). they started using it more often when they noticed val becoming a bit insecure about being a tiefling, so it always served as a reminder to her that, at heart, she is a good person. again, it is something she doesn't mind people she's close to calling her, whether it's friends or partners once she tells them about it.
META ;; the amount of time she spends with paarthurnax when first introduced isn't as quick as the game pushes you through. val spends at least a week up there learning YOL, more specifically how to wield it accurately. yes, you gain understanding of the language and the dragon shouts through consuming souls (or the greybeards/paarth providing you that understanding at will) but it's still a mortal body attempting to brandish something meant for much larger magical beings. she gets knocked back, is unstable, can't control how large or small the wave of flames would be. or how to be extremely accurate with WUULD NAH KEST. any of them that she's learned before climbing the mountain.
and oh how good it feels to be under tutalage again. yes, paarth begins to take haldir's place. she feels comfort again. the grief isn't as painful. they sit together against the wall and she will fall asleep in the snow listening to paarth talk on and on about dragon culture and history. it becomes a coping mechanism for her to be spending time with a 'guardian-figure' again.
META ;; there will be moments where your muse is just sitting minding their business (maybe reading, maybe adjusting their armor or just stargazing) and suddenly val will just come up behind them, seemingly from out of nowhere, as quiet as a mouse, with a training dagger to their throat. it's all in good fun. it's all for practice. maybe she gives them a playful little smooch on their head somewhere for playing along. maybe it devolves into actual sparring. which can devolve further (cough). hope they like their adopted tiefling cat
with almost every museum, valvari's family lives above and/or within it. this allows them to respond to any emergencies quickly and it was known early on between haldir and auryen that it'd take a lot to drag auryen away from his work. so it was decided living inside or on a home attached would be best. this new museum is val's first home by herself, whereas her father has his own office just off the main foyer of the building. they do spend a lot of time together in the home, but at the end of the day auryen is sleeping down on the main floor. none of this valvari really asked for, this was just something auryen wanted to gift her now that she was the main source of relics and curios for the museum. she does, however, love her home and is willing to share it with any friends she may make along the way.
below is a breakdown of the rooms within her home
── entryway - a space for parties or company, fit with a fireplace and sitting area, a small bar and a desk for valvari to keep leads, notes, scrolls and keys she collects over time. auryen will also put her share of anything he sells of hers that she gathers on her adventures and donations from the museum in a small chest here. overall, val doesn't spend time here unless she has guests. it feels too large for her to just sit and read or drink on her own. there's a thin layer of dust over the mantle and much of the seating area as a testament to this.
── workspace - a large door on the right of the fireplace will lead you into a space where val can either enchant items, create potions she may need, or patch up her armor. she can also be found here if she's working on recreations and wants more privacy than the larger recreation room down in the museum. armor that she wears often and needs to keep its shape will be on the mannequins that are in the center of the room. val is very organized within this space, as she's found that knowing where everything is keeps her from making mistakes in her enchantment and potions. (keeping in mind this is few and far between. she's not an avid crafter, but she can throw something together if she's in a pinch.)
── kitchen/dining area - the door on the left of the fireplace will bring guests immediately to a dining room with a large bench table, then a separate room further in that's a kitchen kitted with a freezer and pantry as well as a cooking area. while valvari does like to cook meals, this is usually only during downtime, not when she's stopping between jobs. if auryen is given enough time in advance, he will make her meals and keep them in the kitchen for her to pickup when she's on the run. unlike potion crafting, she does adore cooking when she can. learning about different cultures and their foods has her always testing out recipes she's learned, and over time she's discovered a propensity for spicy things, especially in colder months.
── bedroom - up some stairs on a loft is valvari's bedroom. here she keeps her clothes for events, sleeps in a large down bed, has a desk for quick note taking or transcribing she may have to do and a small washbasin if she needs to clean quickly. the next photo does show a room that is a larger bathroom with a heated bath. within some shelves and closets are salts, oils and herbs for longer soaks as well as towels to dry off. after an especially long adventure, she's in here for a soak for hours, paying special attention to her hair and horns.
── hidden bank - hidden within her bedroom is a switch that opens a sliding door where she keeps money made on jobs and treasures that the museum doesn't need. this is kept for people she may come across who need it or friends. valvari doesn't need a lot in life, so most of this money just sits until she finds use for it. reasons could be to help towns build buildings they need, someone entering the winterhold college, fees for stables that someone can't afford, etc. she can and will be someone's sugar mama if she loves them enough.
META ;; the thing is, consuming dragon souls can not be an easy process. you’re taking in a ferocious and prideful entity into a smaller vessel that has to accommodate for it. as it’s happening, vals entire body feels like it’s inflamed, as if she's standing in direct line of a dragon's breath and it sinks deep all the way to her bones. once it settles, she's either doubled over or on the floor in excruciating pain as the soul fights inside of her and it can normally take her out for the rest of the day. alduin's and miraak's soul almost kill her. it feels like her body is being torn apart piece by piece and when she wakes up back in tamriel both times she's completely incapacitated for days. especially with alduin's soul, he lashes out in the confines of her body, untamed and setting fire to every nerve he can get his hands on, making it near impossible for valvari to move or stop screaming.
"i know how dead you are inside, how worthless you feel. i know how you look into a mirror and hate what you see. [ ... ] i mean you're going to hell, and you won't lift a finger to stop it, talk about low self-esteem. then, again, i guess it's not much of a life worth saving, now, is it ?? i mean after all you got nothing outside of your father. you are nothing. you are as mindless and obedient as an attack dog. what are the things that you want ?? what are the things that you dream ?? your home ?? that's dad's. your clothes -- dads. your weapons -- dads. do you even have an original thought ?? no. all there is is 'watch out for that curse, val!' 'look after the museum!' you can still hear your father's voice in your head, can't you ?? clear as a bell. i mean think about it, all he ever did was train you. boss you around. but his husband ?? his husband, he loved. your father knew who you really were -- a good soldier and nothing else. daddy's blunt little instrument. you know dad doesn't care if you live or die -- why should you?"
a conversation val has definitely had with herself , a la supernatural
ages 0-14: found by haldir while investigating a cult of glasya, valvari lived through a catastrophic culling event that left her parents and their compatriots within the cult dead. she's brought home to auryen where the couple agree to raise her themselves in the museum. (this museum is located in summerset isle, the two high elves home.) the years growing up are spent in normal childhood lessons and then lessons more specific to the running and curating of the museum. val stays home with auryen while haldir travels to gather anything his partner finds that would be of interest. this is when val learns skills in restoration of old oddities, building exhibits and organizing events.
ages 14-24: fully coming into her own, a growing valvari has troubles dealing with mood swings brought on by age and a mounting anger neither father knows what to do with. it's agreed that in order to give her a better outlet, she travel with haldir where she can channel her rage into fights that naturally arise when adventuring. here there's freedom on where she can go, for instance they can be anywhere in tamriel or faerun or thedas. most of the time during this decade is nothing more than training and traveling with her father.
it all comes to a halt when val is 24. while searching through a tomb for a relic, val grabbed onto the oddity without taking the time to listen to the caution her father was advising. the item was cursed and started to suck the life from the tiefling, the veins in her arm that held to it starting to turn black. without any regard, haldir shoved his daughter away and grabbed onto the relic in order to divert the curse that was now loose. costing him his life. sensing something was wrong, auryen cast a doorway spell, finding the aftermath of the chaos, and dragging his daughter to the safety of the museum.
ages 24-25: after burying her father, val locks herself away in her room to deal with her grief. wrought with guilt, convinced it was her fault, val gathers books of protection spells and rites, and begins carving sigils in to her skin in an attempt to keep something like this from happening again. auryen once again finds her on the floor, bleeding out. wanting to keep the scars, val is set on healing naturally and stays in her room under a guards protection until her wounds are mostly closed.
ages 25-26: giving her a simple task to get out of the house, auryen sets val out to start adventuring for him on her own, with the support of a hired group. halfway through getting the requested relic, the group decides they could make more money by keeping it themselves and selling it to the highest bidder, so they leave val for dead after throwing her off the top of a cliff. once again, auryen has to take his broken daughter home.
ages 26-33: the events of skyrim take place. auryen having bought land in solitude and built the shell of their new museum, he sends val to start scouting the country and gathering things of interest. due to my play style, all the major quests pretty much happen in tandem with each other, but for basic "timeline" purposes they are as follows:
main quest begins when val is sent to helgen after hearing rumors of a dragon attack -> the companions -> the college -> the thieves guild -> dragonborn -> the dark brotherhood -> dawnguard -> end of main quest
also a few general notes that are more important than tiny details amongst the timeline
as far as the companions go, val does not become a part of the circle. more so just a trusted outsider due to her newer title as dragonborn and once she explains what she's doing in skyrim in the first place. specific secrets can be kept from her, inner workings and rituals can be kept from her, but she will agree to aid in hunting down the silver hand if the companions are willing to let her borrow wuuthrad once it's completed so she can make a replica.
similarly, she doesn't officially join the thieves guild or the college, it's more along the lines of collaborating and assisting. she does nothing for the blades. she does not engage in the war.
the only guild she actually initiates into is the dark brotherhood and that's simply due to a moment of weakness because of her waning energy and confidence (a lot of it due to miraaks taunting and death) and the mounting pressures of alduin. by the time the brotherhood gets a hold of her, she's fully addicted to skooma, is barely sleeping and is struggling to keep up with nightmares she has whenever traveling to solstheim. it's no wonder she's able to be convinced to kill an emperor. once she escapes from the ship at the end of the quest and near drowns, paarthurnax actually descends from the throat and picks her up from shore, dropping her back off at jorrvaskr, wordlessly returning to the greybeards. when everything is said and done she'll renounce sithis and allow nazir and cicero to take over the brotherhood. (she'll keep in contact but purely out of business)
battling alduin in sovngarde takes days in real time. it feels like only hours to her. but any companion she takes who has to wait in tamriel for her will be waiting multiple days for her to return.
ages 33+: any other high fantasy verse goes here (such as bg3, dragon age, general fantasy) or any continuation of elder scrolls. once alduin is defeated and her general purpose is completed, val will just continue on adventuring as she originally intended. this can mean continuing to build up the museum in skyrim, or traveling to different "realms", but my point is, as stated before, the events of skyrim do always happen to her, no matter what crossover we're writing in. they may become generalized or not, depending upon your knowledge of either world.
META ;; the thing is none of what she is doing helps val's self worth issues in the slightest. like objectively when we look at her role in skyrim, she is being told again and again that her only worth is what her body can do for other people. be it selling it to a god of death (dark brotherhood), using it for acts of vengeance (companions), acts of revenge (thieves guild), and in four cases that she is the only one standing between world wrecking magic/magical beings (college of winterhold, dragonborn, dawnguard, and main plot). she doesn't want to be any sort of hero, but in order to do the things her father needs, she is constantly putting her body through the ringer. no one wants to just help her out of the idea that contributing to the museum would be good for the whole of tamriel.
you want this important thing of mine? give me the pound of your flesh i deserve and then maybe we'll talk.
VALVARI'S SCARS - a warning for self harm mentioned below
i try not to go into intense detail when it comes to the bodily scarring that val has because i know it's a touchy subject in general, so consider this a bit of a master post. but if i haven't made it clear, most of the scars on her body are self inflicted through an intense bought of grief and guilt after haldir died. while val has a couple of smaller scars from close calls (a couple on her face and some just sort of scattered around) and there being one long, black mark on her left arm that was left behind by the curse that inevitably killed haldir, the rest were by her own hand. some are in daedric/infernal language, seen most prominently on her face. others are elvish or orcish symbols/words, anything and everything she could find that was meant to protect against magic. the further down her body they go, the more jagged and disconnected they become, most marks or 'dots' seen being the start of something she couldn't finish because of the pain.
they vary in size, language and readability, and they only appear in places she could easily access. auryen and their museum guard avrim found val in her room surrounded by books that were used as references to different protection spells and runes. the idea being that she could keep someone safe from her own impulsivity if she can be protected by every possible curse imaginable. (something to note is that this clearly isn't the case. she already is proving here that her impulsivity really can cloud her judgement since you can never account for every possible magical curse or spell that could cause you harm.) the pair found her bleeding out and immediately tried to bring her to a healer. she stoutly refused and pleaded, appealing to her father.
the next few months were spent in their museum healing naturally rather than magically. auryen really didn't have to ask what drove his daughter to do this, as he gathered the books and papers she'd collected, he was able to piece it together himself. it's only when she's healed enough to not stop moving that he decides it's time to move away and try to pick up new in a different continent, wanting to get her mind off of haldir's death. he leaves her for about a month to scope out a new city and sets up a shell for their museum. when val arrives via boat, that kicks off the events of skyrim, her with fresh scars and a rather. . . despondent attitude.
under the cut are more accurate photos of what her scars look like. they are black only so they are clearly visible, the only black one would be the long, veiny mark on her left arm from the curse. the rest are in different stages of healing depending upon how deep she cut or where they were on her body and reopened due to her moving about.
META ;; she smells like toasted vanilla and the nostalgic musk of an aged book. like earthy cedarwood and grass right after a summer rain. like ink stained fingers and a freshly brewed savory tea.
META ;; valvari's morning routing is honestly just waking up before dawn in the mornings to work out. lifting heavy swords so that her own smaller ones move much quicker in combat (like baseball players with weights on their bats). wrapping her hands so she can land a couple of shots on a training dummy. she does a regiment her father taught her every morning that starts with heavy lifting and ends with quick movement practices because he knew her strength would be in moving quickly around a battlefield while his was in his mass. by the time people are waking she's usually finishing her aiming practice to keep her fingers moving fast on the trigger and getting ready to take a bath before she eats breakfast.
