Sorry if this comes off as rude, but I'm curious, how do you write Velehk? Since he seems different to how he is in-game. Aka what is his personality? Is he still a cruel pirate lord or is he just hanging out?
Not rude at all! I’ve changed up Velehk Sain quite a bit, and I’ve been needing to lay it out for a while. His story goes a little something like this:
Velehk was a serving dremora, one of two dremora types in Coldharbour, the other being power dremora. Serving dremora are treated as little more than property in Coldharbour, and Velehk was no different. Wanting to escape, he struck a deal with Molag Bal, managed to trick him, and left Oblivion in the 2nd Era.
Now on Nirn, Velehk found it difficult to find a place that would accept him for shelter or work. He eventually found himself boarding a pirate ship and serving under its captain. He enjoyed a life of pirating and began to pursue it, eventually working himself up to his own ship, crew, and many titles.
Velehk was particularly known for his cruelty in the 3rd Era. He fought as hard as he could to separate himself from his old life of obedience, and because of that he demanded the upmost respect from his crew. He would crack down on these rules to the point of extreme violence, and it eventually led him to chasing away a few of his closest crew members. Still, he doubled down and continued with his cruel streak.
With the Oblivion Crisis came Caspian, a Thalmor sea lord determined to keep the Abecean Sea clear of any daedric influences. Through many scars he’d find that banishing Velehk was no easy task to accomplish, and eventually became Sheogorath-touched in his maddening pursuit of Velehk (though he’s in denial about his madness). Their two-century long rivalry has turned into something of a game between the two of them, where neither wants to see the other quite dead or gone. They’ve even secretly aided each other when facing common enemies.
Then, in 4E 180, Velehk vanished from his ship. No one knew what happened or where he had gone, and without a captain the crew of the Blodea Mahree scattered and the ship was taken by the Thalmor.
Velehk had been summoned and bound to a gauntlet in Winterhold by a group of overzealous students at the Mages College. However, all these students died in the process due to extreme conjuration burn, and Velehk was left trapped.
He remained in a tiny pocket of Oblivion for 20 years until he was freed in 401, where he then made his return to Hammerfell and reclaimed his title as captain. There he collected a new crew and recruited some older members. These older members noticed a stark change in his demeanor, though: he was easier to startle, and seemed to lash out less (though was still just as easy to annoy). His time in the pocket plane had changed him significantly, as he had two decades to reflect, but it also left him with new mental scars (he’d developed claustrophobia, for example, and ordered very specific changes to his quarters).
The rest of his story (and more specifics of his backstory!) will be shown in Salt in the Wound, a collaborative work between myself and a few others in the tes fandom who offered me their lovely lovely characters to work with. I plan on writing SITW after TDI is done with. For now, I hope this gave a broad overview of his backstory. I can pick parts from these events and go into heavy detail, but for now have these simple silhouette shots. Thanks for the ask!
