#potema

[alki-studio]

Binding: The Wolf Queen, from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

This binding is a compilation of all 8 volumes of The Wolf Queen from Skyrim. Please consider reading my making-of process here!

Thank you for the commission!

Process: Part 1 | Part 2 | Final Results

[elderscrollsconceptart]

Potema Banner

Art asset for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

*Artist Unknown* If you know comment below

[teenagers-from-outer-space-1959]

slowly reading through all of the in-game TES books and it’s so fun to continue to have lightbulb moments when I connect book lore to gameplay

I first played Skyrim, then Oblivion, then a bit of Morrowind, then quite a chunk of Arena and Daggerfall and then, finally, Morrowind again (and this time finished the game) - and had this lightbulb feeling multiple times with e.g. the disappearance of the Dwemer.

at the moment I’m reading the The Wolf Queen series - of course I’m connecting this with memories of playing Skyrim. The Potema Solitude side quest and the Pelagius/Sheogorath side quest - wondering how (exactly) Pelagius went mad

And now in the book, I’m assuming, Potema gifted Pelagius an amulet which will poison his wisdom. And my jaw dropped. I love when things are starting to make sense

[buonsai]

Potema, The Wolf Queen

#girlboss

[shapelytimber]

Heeeeyyyyy I finally had the time to do some more cards !

II - THE HIGH PRIESTESS (Almalexia) (Thanks @werevampiwolf​ for suggesting Almalexia and Potema :) )

III - THE EMPRESS (Potema Septim)

XI - JUSTICE (The Gray Fox ft. Nocturnal) (And thanks @neospacez​ for suggesting the gray fox ! :D)

(Part 6/8? (I fucking did the maths wrong omg)) Well, here it is after nearly 4 months ! I am still playing morrowind, loving it, even tho I am really slow (begining to think I’ll finish this project before I start Tribunal-)

I hmmm still have a card idk who to do so hmmm if anyone have an idea for Judgement, I am all ears :)) 

Like always, I added these to my redbubble if you want a sticker !

PART 1 - PART 2 - PART 3 - PART 4 - PART 5 - PART 7 - PART 8

[aesfocus]

Potema Septim

[scribeofskyrim]

Fredas, 8th of Frostfall, 4E 201

We're at the Winking Skeever, trying to get the chill out of our bones.

I wish I was just talking about the weather.

So, we got up earlier than we usually do so we could have a nice hot breakfast before trudging back up the mountain. It was bitterly cold, and a heavy snow started to fall as we made our way up a path we hadn't tried before.

We ran into an "old" Orc at the top of the hill, surrounded by dead sabercats.

He said that he was old, and that Malacath had given him a vision of a glorious death, so long as he waits right there. He wanted to know if I could give him one.

Yes, he was asking me to kill him. I tried to convince him that he wasn't that old (seriously, he didn't look old at all) and had no reason to die. He was still clearly a strong fighter, and could do a lot more if he wanted to. He explained that Orc men don't like to stick around too far past their prime, for fear of becoming "useless."

He then told us to leave unless we were there to give him the death he wanted.

I wished him luck, and started to walk away when Erandur stopped me, then asked the others to huddle in for a talk.

He begged me to reconsider!

I was shocked that a priest of Mara would ask me to kill someone, but he explained that leaving the Orc here to wait for his death isn't an act of kindness or love at all. It's cruelty. This is his last wish. I granted one to Nurelion; why not him?

I cussed in as many languages as I could, but he was right. There was a problem, though - I'm me, and the Orc was a huge warrior twice my size who clearly had no problem taking out multiple sabercats all at once!

Valdimar argued that maybe the Orc's god was right. He was to wait there, and who should show up but the Dragonborn? Being slain by the Dragonborn would surely be a noble death, right?

I know having some great "Destiny" sounds fun and exciting, but in reality it's short for "Work You Never Asked For And Can't Get Out Of Because The Divines Said So."

Lydia sighed and said that she'd step in if I needed her to.

So, I went back and challenged the Orc to a fight.

He gave me a once over, saw the mage robes, almost complete lack of armor (I have boots), and that I was more than a head shorter than him, and asked if I was sure about that?

I told him to prepare to die in as fierce a voice I could muster (I know it's not very intimidating. I heard Valdimar and Lydia wheezing, then Erandur try to shush them while also holding back a laugh.) and then we fought. I made sure to use a Shout on him so he and his god would know who he was fighting!

Lydia did have to jump in, but honestly I think that made it better for him, if you think about it. The Dragonborn challenged him, and she needed backup! That should sound good in the afterlife, right?

Erandur did a bit of Healing for me, then he and Valdimar set the body aside as respectfully as they could. He said a prayer thanking Mara for the opportunity to share Her Warmth and Benevolence in a such a cold place.

Lydia whispered she always thought all priests were a bit strange in the head, but he was the strangest.

She doesn't know the half of it.

The funny thing is, that felt Real to me. Thinking back to when we met him in Dawnstar, when he was trying his best to calm the townsfolk and everything, it felt a bit… I don't know, kind of like a show? I mean, his care and everything IS real, but how he was doing it felt "off" to me. I could tell he was lying right from the start.

I think I picked up that some of it was fake, like his accent. Went about as well as the time the little theatre troupe that likes to set up in Tiber Square hired a swordsman to play a swordsman. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but in the end it was awful because the swordsman was a swordsman, and not an actor.

Seeing Erandur standing by the dead Orc, in all that wind and ice, saying a prayer while Valdimar stood quietly next to him with his helmet in his hand… That was Real. He was the only warm thing there, like back in Shroud Hearth Barrow.

We were back on the road after that, looking for the bandit's hideout.

It wasn't far, actually, and we found out that Falk Firebeard and the people of Dragon Bridge were wrong about the place. Wolfskull Cave was NOT full of bandits. It was full of Necromancers and the undead!

Also an ancient evil, but I'll get to that.

Out first hints were the skeletons guarding the place. I actually checked the map again, just to be sure. There's a lot of caves up here, but it looked like where the steward marked, so in we went.

It was fairly standard as far as caves go as we went down. It looked like some mining had been going on at some point, and there were a lot of empty wine bottles around. We mostly fought draugr as we went, along with some more skeletons, but soon we ran into a necromancer. Shortly after that we came to a small but high chamber, and a handful more burst out from behind a doorway set into the stone wall, along with their undead minions.

We took care of them, though it was a hard fight. My exploding fire familiar came in handy!

We took a moment to heal up and have some food before continuing through the doorway. Erandur said he could feel an Evil here, and the others nodded. Maybe I felt it, too, but it might have been just because the place was a little creepy.

It got a lot creepier after we went through the door.

We could hear chanting, and a whooshing sound like a strong wind as we went further down. It sort of reminded me of the sound I hear when I learn a word from a Dragon Wall. Before long, the passageway opened up to reveal a massive cavern! There was a huge keep with a big tower built right in the center of it!

Shreds of white -blue light were coming out from cracks in the cave walls, in a series of streams. They came together on top of the tower, and were semi-formed into a glowing feminine figure that floated above the building. It was quite pretty, actually, and I said as much.

Lydia smacked the back of my head, and Valdimar tried to suppress a laugh. Erandur sighed heavily, and I know he had his face in his hand.

The lights were pretty! I mean, if you ignored the fact that we could understand the chanting now, and could tell that the necromancers on top of the tower were trying to summon Potema, the Wolf Queen, it was actually very pretty in that ethereal way, even with the whole "manifestation of evil" thing. It just wasn't a good thing!

On a practical note, we could see several mages performing their ritual on top of the tower, one wandering below us, and a handful of various types of draugr wandering in various levels of the keep. I gestured everyone in for a talk, and said that our usual tactic of going in swinging was probably NOT the best idea, here.

I had a good bead on several of the draugr, so I suggested a combination of stealth and full-on battle. They agreed that was a good strategy, and took up positions on the earthen ramp that led up to our little landing from the main area. I took out as many as I could with my bow (not the best, but good enough) and then we pressed forward, going as quietly as we could.

I just want to say that Septim's such a good boy! He earned himself a mammoth steak tonight! He was very quiet and hardly barked the whole time. He's such a good boy!

Anyway, we went down the ramp and circled through a small tunnel before getting to the keep itself. I hadn't gotten all the draugr, but I had thinned them out enough that we were able to handle them singly, until we ran into several Necromancers on a bridge above us.

Normally that wouldn't be great for us, but I summoned a fire atronach right up next to them! It kept them occupied while Erandur, Valdimar and I hit them with magic. Those two took a while because they kept bringing back the draugr we'd killed, but I'd looted the draugr already, so they weren't able to do much. Septim and Lydia were behind us, literally keeping the undead off our backs.

We made our way quietly up to the top of the tower, but the spirit of Potema sensed us coming. She warned the summoners we were there, so we rushed up the steps. By that time there were only a handful of mages left, and like most mages, they were terrible at fighting up close. Septim attacked the main conjurer, and made her stop the ritual while I got out my axe. The other necromancers tried to block me, but I pushed past and let the others take care of them.

After we killed the main summoner, the ghostly white light - Potema's spirit - rushed out through a hole in the ceiling. I had the distinct feeling it was running away.

With her gone and the ritual interrupted, we took a moment to look over the tower. There was a large circular altar-type slab that took up most of the space. It was covered in a huge sigil written in blood. Valdimar muttered something under his breath and spat when he saw it. Erandur, like at the Butcher's, gave the markings a close examination with his hand over his heart.

Dark Magic, obviously. He whispered to me that he'd seen some of the worst of it during his time with Vaermina, and this… This was Bad. He said we had to get back here, to Solitude, as quickly as possible.

There was a drawbridge that led to a small ledge that took us back near where we had first come in. I hadn't seen it at all when we'd walked past it, but I suppose that's the point. Very handy if you need to escape the cavern in a hurry!

It wasn't that late when we emerged, and I decided to head towards Solitude to see if there was a more direct route down the hill. There's a stone arch on top of some steps leading down not far from the cave, so I went down.

I could see some sort of ruin through the mist and the trees, and when we got closer, I froze in my tracks as a voice suddenly filled my head. It was Meridia!

As before, back when I'd found the Beacon, the others said my eyes glowed white and I spoke in a voice that wasn't entirely my own. Meridia complained about how her temple lay in ruin, and she wanted me to put her Beacon back in its place to claim my destiny!

When I came back to myself I turned right around and went back up the steps.

I've had enough of "Destiny" for one day, thank you very much.

As we went back the way we came (forget looking for another way down, I didn't care) I explained to a very confused Erandur what that was all about. I showed him the Beacon, and he couldn't believe that I had been hauling around a Daedric artifact this entire time.

Me, neither! I can't seem to get it out of my pack!

I mean, I want the space back, so I'll have to do it eventually, and he was reassured that we'd be cleansing the place of evil, so… It can't be that bad, right?

But I'll do that later. By the time we got here it was too late to go see Firebeard, so we're calling it a night.

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[jiubilant]

what if you failed to stop my resurrection and we were both girls

insp [x]