#rinasu

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today on ‘shitposts i spent far too long on’

[peacefiresky-archive]

sleep soundly

or, a guild mage dabbles too far in the dark arts, and begins to re-evaluate her priorities after a chance visit

The mossy rock was cool and damp on Rin’s back. The sounds of the cave were quiet, and there was no undead to claw at her or vampires to maim. There was no tension in her body, no sense of urgency - only an easy, blissful peace, swirling around lazily. She heard footsteps and hesitantly forced her eyes open, peering around in the dark.

As her vision came into focus, she saw a figure standing over her. Tall, Altmeri, possibly – she could not see his face, only long strings of white-blond hair dangling out from under a black hood. She recognized the red skull of the Necromancer on his robes only as he lifted his dagger --

“You sleep rather soundly for a murderer. Good. You’ll need a clean conscience for what I’m about to propose.”

The mage acted quickly, summoning a dagger into her hand only to feel the point of the already-drawn knife the man held resting languidly on the flesh beneath her chin.

“Ah, ah, ah. I would advise against sudden moves.”

It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, before she could make out the shape of an Imperial man - not an Altmer, she realized with some semblance of relief, before she remembered the very pointy knife he held. His voice was like gravel, and once Rinasu forced herself to release the bound dagger, he took the point off her neck.

“If this is about the necromancy,” she began, voice still heavy with sleep, “I can assure you, that was a one-time thing, and they were Necromancers themselves, so I don’t feel particularly bad about it.”

The man laughed, and she pushed herself up in her bed roll. The cave was still dark, the burnt-and-electrocuted bodies of the Bloodcrust Vampires littered around the cave.

“You know, Monsieur, I think I ought to rethink some choices I’ve made in my life.”

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elegance; in which archmage rinasu tries to woo the reader

aka a very self indulgent attempt at a different writing style

it’s odd, the feeling around her. even without her robes, you could tell she’s a mage -- feel how magicka bent around her, as if flowing through. it follows her as she walks, and bends to her whim - a result of five centuries of perfecting her craft, five lifetimes to properly study the nature of the world around you both.

she’s busy, she says, but not really. not busy enough to shoo you away as you step into her quarters.

it’s messy. papers and books and inkpots and quills are thrown around as if a thunderstorm blew through. and yet, hunched over her desk and scribbling away in a leather-bound notebook, rina (as she’s insisted you call her) looks impeccable as always.

“do you keep the illusion even when alone?”

your voice startles her, and she glances upwards. her face cracks into a wide, beaming grin at the sight of you, but she clears her throat and forces her lips into a polite smile instead. “you never know when you’ll have unannounced visitors,” she replied, closing the notebook. “not that i mind. not if it’s you.”

“charmer,” you say, and she wrinkles her nose a bit.

the dunmer stands and walks around her desk, and you offer her your hand. she pauses, surprised at the small action, but takes it anyway with a playful bow. “i wasn’t aware i was being escorted anywhere today,” she says, the near-musical tones of her vvardenfell accent mingling with the cyrodilic speech. her voice is ashy, almost smoke-like, you think. deep and gravelly and leaving a pleasant feeling in your chest.

her hand is rough in yours. it appears as smooth and soft as the rest of her, but you know her well enough to be aware of the spells she uses to disappear her scars and bruises and callouses.

“i wanted to surprise you,” you say, matching her playful tone. “or scare you. both, preferably.”

“aren’t i the lucky one to have such a lover?” she laughed, shaking her head, and you led her to the stain-glass teleportation pad.

“you know it.” you kiss her cheek, and step onto the glowing portal.

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local hero of kvatch remembers vowing to outlive septim empire as martin defeats mehrunes dagon, proceeds to want to slap past self

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so heroforge got a color update,

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ooh could you tell us a bit more about rinasu's religion / relationship with mephala? sounds like an interesting dynamic (-jiub)

!!! oh boy could i

it’s very much a sort of maternal relationship, in a bit of a twisted way — when rinasu was young, she would follow around a local morag tong assassin named fadryn in his time off, who initially introduced her to the worship of mephala. he left on an assignment and didn’t come back, but rina would still pray to mephala, and would sometimes find those prayers answered.

as she got older, she took her worship more seriously, and by the time she was a teenager, she was already a skilled mage. she was able to navigate local politics with ease, often planting the seeds of strife and stirring up all sorts of trouble, mostly at mephala’s orders but sometimes of her own volition. mephala would reward her with knowledge, mostly, and in that way rinasu followed hermaeus mora just a bit, too - but she would sometimes reward her with simple words of encouragement and affection, something that rinasu was desperate for. rinasu very much looked to mephala as a mother, and mephala would at least treat rinasu as her child

during the oblivion crisis and the return of mannimarco, rinasu justified some of the less morally-upright things she did as threads woven by mephala that she had to tug loose. it was when she found herself in charge of the arcane university when she started to honor mephala in less ,,, bloody ways.

rinasu was very much just a needle for mephala to weave her tapastries, but i like to think that the webspinner did/does care for her little protege. any relationship between a mortal and a daedra lord is extremely complicated at best, but it does clear up once rinasu takes on the mantle of sheogorath and can face her as an equal. she regrets some of the things she did in mephala’s name and at her command, but she doesn’t resent mephala for it — and even after she completely swears off the dark arts and, yknow, murder, she does continue to honor the prince.

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5, 29, 41, 89 for the oc asks!

5. What’s their relationship with their parents like? What about other relatives?

‘horrible’ would be putting it very, very lightly. so horrible, in fact, that she openly claims that mephala was more a parent to her than they were. she openly despises the sixth house and camonna tong despite her family claiming direct ancestry from the founding family of house dagoth. she has a somewhat better relationship with a few of her cousins, but they don’t keep in touch

29. How would they describe their own personality?

she’d call herself a trouble-maker first and foremost, and a scholar. beyond that, she doesn’t really think about it much.

41. What does their laugh sound like? Do they snort when they laugh? How often do they laugh?

she doesn’t laugh often, but when she does, it’s either a Sensible Chuckle or loud, echoing peals of snorting laughter. there is absolutely no in between

89. What is their D&D alignment?

chaotic neutral! overall, she does ‘good’ things and cares about people and society as a whole, but she’s also down for like, some casual murder legal assassination. yknow, as a treat

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37, 38 and 39 for rinasu

i’m going to assume you meant the not-so-nice asks -- correct me if i’m wrong !!

37. Have they ever had their freedom taken away?

in both a literal and metaphorical sense, yes. her mother was cammona tong and her father was a sixth house cultist, and she was Very Much Pressured to follow in their footsteps. saving and befriending the last septim is very much a giant middle finger to them both

38. Have they ever been imprisoned?

yeah !! she got “caught” practicing necromancy, so she tried to flee to cyrodiil -- only to get caught and brought into the imperial city prison as she tried to cross the border.

39. Have they ever been accused of something they didn’t do?

sort of? she was accused of necromancy, but the people accusing her didn’t know she was actually doing necromancy. her necromancy was ‘ethically sourced’, in her own words.