I saw this going around and thought I’d have a go. It looked fun. And I write a lot of Eskel. Me and him, we go way back. All the way to... those handful of pages he had in Blood of Elves.
I write modern and “canon-verse” Eskel, and he always has core traits that I refer back to, with a twist depending on the setting.
Eskel, the Dragon of Kaer Morhen
He is an absolute gentleman.
In the books, he chastises Lambert for staring at Triss’ tits, and kisses her hand when apologising for their general behaviour at Kaer Morhen, before asking her humbly for help. Oh yeah; add being humble as all hell to the list. The Simple Witcher, Wolf thing is from the gods-damned heart. Yen, in W3, will also default to him to clean the vomit up because even she recognises he’s good people. When he’s bored of what you’re saying, he won’t interrupt, he’ll just struggle to keep eye contact. Guaranteed, he said his ‘pleases’ and ‘thank yous’ while huffing drugs off that succubus and then sleeping with her. Probably the politest railing she’s ever received.
He is intelligent and curious.
He dragged a katakan home to just... figure out why it was weird. He was concerned it might turn into a pattern. Geralt takes the piss, but not everyone has plot armour, Geralt, so fuck off. I also headcanon him as into anything and everything interesting/that requires skill; he wants to know how to play the lute when he meets Jaskier, he carries books with him when he travels the Path. Canonically, he carries ‘The Curse of the Black Sun’ full of notes and annotations... written by himself. He gives it to Geralt while they’re clearing the mine. This is especially heartbreaking because it shows he’s still not come to terms with Deidre. He’s still working through that. More on that later.
He’s mature and reliable.
Vesemir’s words. They don’t always see eye to eye. In the books, their relationship is actually quite... cold (compared to how I and others write him anyway; I tend to soften it up)? But, when the going is tough, Vesemir knows he can rely on Eskel, and those massive shoulders can carry the burden. I headcanon that he was the first to arrive after Vesemir post-Purges. Eskel cleared the laboratories, built the pyres, dragged hundreds of corpses, because Vesemir was lost for days in grief. And you know he doesn’t open the gate during the Battle of Kaer Morhen? That’s because he realises that if Caranthir is left unattended, they’re all absolutely, royally screwed. He goes in knowing he’ll lose. That he’ll probably die; this is a guy that has been bred to be deadly/the best. But he has to be the obstacle in the way of death and his family...
He is a ball of quiet anxiety, and has many regrets.
He’s always trying to do the right thing, and sometimes, because life’s a bitch, it just doesn’t go the way he wants. He left Deidre because he believed that the life of a princess - in a fuckin’ palace - was better than any cursed existence he could give her. How was he meant to predict what happened? How is he - a single man - to blame for the machinations of state? He isn’t. He still blames himself. He touches those scars when he’s uncomfortable not because he’s embarrassed by his appearence, but because they’re a physical manifestation of everything that makes him feel shit about himself.
He loves fiercely.
He was willing to let Caranthir kill him to buy his family some time. He threw everything into training Ciri. I think his attitude towards Yen probably comes from what he’s been told by Geralt of her actions towards him (and then her ‘grand’ entrance before the BoKM), warranted or not. I also headcanon him and Geralt as childhood sweethearts. I know I write all pairings, but there’s just something about their dynamic; the way they banter, the thought of them suffering through everything together, of mucking around and sharing punishments, and then always coming home to each other’s arms every winter. No matter what. But Eskel won’t demand love at the expense of someone else’s happiness, and he wants Geralt to be happy. That’s why he heads north after the destruction of Kaer Morhen.
NSFW/Misc Headcanons
He was nicknamed the Dragon of Kaer Morhen because of the strength of his Signs and the size of his... personality.
He is a Service Switch. He doesn’t care what he’s doing as long as his partner is loving life.
The boy can sing. Yep. It’s deep, slightly rough and untrained, but like drinking hot chocolate on a winter’s day to listen to. I take no criticism.
He either finds Jaskier annoying, overwhelming, enchanting or hilarious depending on my mood. Either way, Eskel learns to love him.
His hands vibrate for sorcerers/sorceresses. He’s regularly hit up for a good session between the sheets. It gets really annoying when he’s trying to negotiate a contract and one of the fuckers just drops out of a portal (he said he doesn’t fraternise with sorceresses, note).
To be continued... probably. I’ve written so much about him, I’ve probably missed at least 25% of it.