SKYRIM OC: SPEAKS-TO-HEART
Speaks-To-Heart was born in the Windhelm Argonian Assemblage, not long after her mother arrived by there by ship. As such, she was never really bonded to the Hist early in life-- she later received its blessings but she claims she did not become different afterward. It's possible she's just not very spiritual; she hasn't ever felt incomplete for it or bereft in any way.
But she has felt unwanted. She didn't know many children her own age and even when young she could feel the disapproval radiating off of Windhelm in waves. She knew they were poor, she knew others were rich, and even from an early age she had a good idea of why; the Nords just didn't share anything at all. Not their city, not their money, not their land or even simple respect.
Perhaps because of this and the icy feelings she sensed all around, she was a very quiet child. While obedient, honest, and playful, she associated only rarely with anybody besides her mother and very few, older children. Her name comes from that when she did first speak, it was actually a full sentence. She'd been able to speak before but simply held it back because she had very little to say. Her mother named her after the joy she felt to hear her daughter's voice.
Her daughter's voice would prove to be of utmost importance, for as she grew she became an able negotiator and cunning bargainer, setting terms and agreeing wages for loading jobs and fair sales to traders. Her mother fished as always, and with steady hands Speaks-To-Heart repaired and knotted her mother's lines and traps at night as supper cooked in the Assemblage.
But be careful, her mother would always warn-- the silver fish of your tongue cannot escape every net.
She was a young woman when her closest friend, Ren-Gaz was taken, pressganged by the Blood Surf pirates. Beside herself with anger, she took a boning knife, a spare lantern, an old hunting bow and some decrepit arrows, and some spare septims and told her mother she was leaving for a few days. Her mother did not stop her. She assumed her daughter would only get a day down the road and then turn around, never having left the Assemblage before.
Her daughter was gone for a day. Two days. Then a worrisome week.
But Speaks-To-Heart returned, with not only Ren-Gaz in tow but all the pirates' loot she and her friend could carry. The assemblage paid for medicine, clothes, and food for months afterward-- and then Speaks-To-Heart began to get "errands." Help recover a lost shipment. Look for missing persons. Investigate dangerous caves upriver.
And dutiful as ever, Speaks-To-Heart would do them. Years of outmaneuvering the racist violences of Nords and negotiating with Dunmer in the Grey Quarter gave her a natural affinity for stealth, a budding talent for tactics and strategy, and a deep understanding of the reactions of others-- all of which combined with her unusually steady hands from knotting line after line after line nurtured a fine scout and archer in her, and a keen and cutty foe. She studied and practiced with a ravenous passion, to do all things better, faster, smarter, and most importantly six steps ahead of everybody else before they knew she even had moved at all. The avid competition with herself only escalated as she became literate. Then well-read. Then dangerously well-read.
When her aging mother died, she had enough loot saved up not only to leave Windhelm but to set up a small fund behind her to pay for medicine and warm clothes for the Assemblage for years afterward. She left an esteemed adventuress, minor hero, shrewd tactician and benefactor... as well as newly with child. The father, to her, was not of incredible importance.
She meant to journey south, pass the border, and then continue far on to Black Marsh where her child could receive the proper rites where she had never had any, and then return to Skyrim and settle someplace less miserable. She augmented her purse along the way with spoils of many adventures-- some while heavily pregnant.
She did give birth somewhere in Cyrodiil, and did make it to Black Marsh where she and her child came before a Hist for the first time-- she herself was mostly unchanged, but she did feel it was important for her daughter. Her pilgrimage done, Speaks-To-Heart traveled north again, plus one.
The journey back was more eventful.
She was so close to making it to Skyrim unbothered when border bandits assaulted her caravan. With limited ability to fend them off with her daughter beside her, Speaks-To-Heart was forced to run, and cross the border illegally far from the checkpoint.
For once in her life, she didn't get away with it. And this time, her kind words did not aid her. She was captured by Imperial soldiers, put in a cart along with felons to be executed, and shipped off to Helgen for processing. She was not to receive the death penalty, due to her dependent, but certainly didn't appreciate the misunderstanding.
That was when, of course, the dragon attacked. Carrying her daughter in a sling, she managed to fight her way out of the chaos and escape to safety... for the time being. Discovering she was Dragonborn, and then being faced with the return of Alduin, and the threat of war all around her, was somewhat less safe. Especially for an Argonian-- and quickly discovering those who also faced rampant discrimination would remain in danger long after the ancient menace was handled. That, combined with limited childcare options for her daughter, now named Under-Stars, compelled the infamous adventuress to start her own guild: the Undesirables.
The Undesirables are dedicated to supporting races called "provincial" in Skyrim, and protesting racial supremacy on all sides of conflict, providing safe refuge for victims of social violence and peaceful as well as armed employment for those willing to join. It has offices outside several major holds, such as Haafingar, the Reach, the Rift, and Whiterun-- as well as a minor wayhouse in Falkreath. The Undesirables support neither side of the war directly-- Nord supremacists consider them a den of foreign migrants demanding Nord land and wealth and the Thalmor considers them a potentially dangerous social and political bogey that is not so easily manipulated as Ulfric and his followers.
Speaks-To-Heart, veteran of hundreds of adventures, ancient ruins, dragons, her voice fully-realized in the Thu'um, Dragonborn, mother, and leader, delves into the deepest dungeon of all: the heart of Skyrim's intrigues, fighting for the treasure of equality and respect for all those who follow her.
