#firienposting

[elfinismsarts]

lend me a feather, i will turn it into white wings

First completed work on 2024 and 1/12th of the way to my one piece per month goal! And of course it’s Firien and Croak because I love them. The armor isn’t exactly lore friendly but who cares lol

This was gonna be a word wall but then I decided to do the lovers stone instead bc it’s my favorite.

[elfinismsarts]

wip what day is it

I was tagged by @boethiahspillowbook x amount of days ago to do this but it's that void between Christmas and new years and it's been one of the weeks ever so needless to say I have no idea what day it is anymore lmfao

tagging uhhhhh @friend-of-giants @wildhexe because they'll yell at me if I don't lmao if you wanna do this feel free to say I tagged you

context: I discovered The Guardian and the Traitor in my current playthrough and decided it's a perfect chance to finally have Firien tell Farkas about what happened in Apocrypha because the poor dude is still in the dark about it.

-

"Firien? Are you alright?"

She started slightly at the sound of Vilkas' voice. He was at the end of the corridor, having just left his room. His gaze was concerned as he watched her approach, and Firien gave him a faltering nod.

"Aye," she said. "Just thinking."

"You look ill," he said. "Perhaps you should get some rest." As he spoke, his gaze fell to the book in her hands. "What is that?"

Wordlessly, Firien offered it to him. He accepted it with curiosity plain on his face as he scanned the cover and then flipped to a random page, his brow furrowed. She watched as his eyes flicked back and forth over whatever words he read before him, his frown deepening the further along he read.

"This... Guardian," he began slowly as he looked up at her, "wouldn't happen to be Vahlok of Solstheim, would it?"

"It is," she said quizzically. "How did you know?"

"I'm more surprised that you know," said Vilkas. "When you self-impose a competition with no one to read as many historical tomes as possible in your youth, you pick up on a few things. What is the significance of the Guardian, eh? Light reading or...?"

"Not the Guardian," said Firien, almost fearfully as she held her hands out for the book. Vilkas returned it to her curiously and she hugged it to her chest. "The Traitor."

"Concerning, but I am definitely curious about your thought process here," he said with a weak smile. "Come, let us sit for a while and talk about this."

Firien shook her head. "No. I... I must tell Farkas about this first."

"Tell Farkas about what?" he asked, his frown returning. 

"Miraak." As always, his name felt like a curse upon her tongue, foreboding and ill-induced, like it was a shameful confession. And it was, in a way.

"Miraak?" Vilkas raised his eyebrows. "Is that...?"

"The... Traitor." Her hands tightened on the book reflexively as she spoke. "I knew him."

"What? How? The story of Vahlok is from the Merethic Era. If he truly is this... Traitor that Vahlok fought and vanquished, Miraak has been dead for thousands of years."

"Not dead," Firien murmured. "Trapped. In Apocrypha."

"But—"

"Vilkas, please," she said firmly. "You must let me have this discussion with Farkas first. I need him to know first."

"Very well," said Vilkas, his expression perturbed. "But I must ask you something, as his brother. You guard your secrets well and always have, but this feels like more than that. If you did know Miraak, however that may be... did you love him?"

She knew this was what he would ask, especially once he mentioned his place as Farkas' brother. Still, it was not the first time she had been asked this, and her answer remained unchanged.

"No," she said bluntly. Vilkas visibly relaxed. "I will tell you what little I told Farkas, and leave it at that until I am able to tell him everything. He was the First Dragonborn, and Vahlok the Jailor defeated him when he tried to incite rebellion against the dragons, but Hermaeus Mora claimed Miraak as his own, and he was trapped in Apocrypha ever since. Miraak... believed he loved me, but the feeling was not mutual. The only emotion I bore toward him was a very significant kinmanship and... obligation, I suppose. He was what I could have become, what I still can become. I wanted to help him in ways I likely cannot even help myself. And I failed him. Miraak is dead."

"Oh. I... I'm sorry to hear it."

"No need," she replied, tone flat. "I have accepted my failure and the consequences of it. It is a repeated cycle."

"What do you mean by that?" he demanded. He sounded unusually offended.

"You know what I mean," said Firien, frowning. "Elerien, Kodlak, Miraak, and now Tahir. A repeated cycle."

"Firien, you cannot—"

Firien quelled his argument with a glare before turning her back to him. "We will talk about this later. Good night, Vilkas."

She ignored his protests as she entered the luxurious room she undeservingly shared with Farkas. She leaned against the door for a moment, listening to see if Vilkas would try to enter after her. Fortunately, he only muttered something indistinguishable under his breath before leaving, his muffled footsteps on the plush running rug quickly fading away as he left the corridor.

After waiting a few more moments, she slowly crossed the room, setting the book down on the table as she went, and sought her pack from where it had been left against the wardrobe. She knelt before it, hands trembling, and stared at it blankly for an immeasurable amount of time, her mind somehow simultaneously empty and a maelstrom all at once. Finally, she moved against her own will, first opening her pack and then sifting through it, searching for the hard, polished unknown material. It took all of seconds for her fingertips to brush against the face of the mask, sinking into the grooves and the crack from where that stupid, useless axe struck.

Firien inhaled deeply before she pulled Miraak's mask from her pack.

It looked the same, as cold and bleak as it had been the last time she saw it. The empty eye holes stared back at her with as much emotion as she currently felt. She traced along the sinister, horn-like crown of it, wondering what it was made from. It did not feel like wood, nor did it quite feel like metal either, though it had rang as such when the blade of the axe collided with it. 

"Destruction is in our nature."

Firien smiled grimly as she recalled those words again. For once, she felt them with a tinge of bitter amusement. Whatever this mask was made from had to be sturdy, and yet, she managed to leave it with remarkable damage using only a flimsy training axe from Jorrvaskr's yard.

[elfinismsarts]

nothing to see here just Firien vibin in sovngarde moments before she beats Alduin's ass 🌚

[elfinismsarts]

I’m still working on Firien’s actual birthday piece but it’s been a busy day so I’m not sure if it will be done tonight so have this one instead! I started this back in August when @thana-topsy shared his “everything brush” for procreate with me and have been sloooooowly chipping away at it. Finally finished it today just in case!

Anyway happy birthday to my babygirl!!!

Click for full res cuz I just KNOW tumblrs gonna d e s t r o y this lmfao

[elfinismsarts]

begging xbox to adjust their camera angle settings so she's not awkwardly standing to the left of the frame every damn time i wanna take a screenshot of her

[elfinismsarts]

They soon got banned for improper use of the training yard 😔

Anyway just some silly doods that got out of control. I realized that something like doing pull ups is a Farkas thing and Firien’s version of working out would be something like yoga which is where the other one came from hehe

[elfinismsarts]

until the day when you bring her back home to me

This is my first ever redraw! 12/23 (left) vs 7/21 (right). I remember the original was supposed to remain a sketch and I’ve always wanted to redo it but never got around to it. So I decided to do it for my week two submission for @tescheer for the prompt kiss! I like to think it’s what would have happened between Firien and Farkas if I had finished my one shot series for tescheer last year oops

I swear my next submission will be something original LMAO

[elfinismsarts]

i was just telling @friend-of-giants that there are certain parts of the dawnguard questline I would want to write just because they sound fun to explore from Firien's perspective but i realized that Serana is a fandom sweetheart and Firien would be so fucking mean to her.

like obv i can write whatever i want but Firien already gets enough flak for her personality and she would not tolerate Serana's bullshit for long.