Hello, I'd like to offer up a contribution to @tes-gala by encouragement from a few friends.
I originally wanted to do something visual, commission an artist, but the last two or three months of my life have been wild and I never got around to getting things lined up for it. But now that I have the design ideas in mind put down, I shared them around to my friends and they liked them and encouraged me to post them even though it isn't what I originally wanted for this. (I also wanted to participate last year but didn't have enough put in place for these characters for me to commit to it, but I might still make those designs later. I especially am interested in Telilu as Azura.)
The characters presented here will be two characters I made up for the story and two canon characters, but since I haven't posted much about the story and certain elements, I'll provide some context as well as my designs and brief thoughts about my choices under the cut. I didn't have any specific story thing in mind, I really just wanted to dress up the characters in fancy, themed clothes, which is part of why I would have preferred a visual submission.
Thank you tes-gala for hosting the event! It's nice to see everyone come together for something like this!
So for some context with the canon characters, I'm including Brynjolf and Etienne Rarnis of the Thieves Guild. The ldb of this story, Serelynn, frees Etienne (who, for my purposes, is 17 in the story) from the Thalmor Embassy when she's in there. She is disgusted and appalled that they would torture a kid half to death, and while she's preoccupied for a short time, she eventually goes looking for Etienne to make sure he made it home ok and is doing ok after all he went through. Brynjolf, everyone's favorite swindler, strung her along by being the only one who knows where he is, baits her into joining the Thieves Guild, and at first she does not like him, but he grows on her when he drops the suave, cool guy charade around her a few times. He does end up being her engame love interest, and for my purposes he's 36 at the time of the story. Serelynn herself is 33 at the time of the story, and she's an Imperial from Cyrodiil. She's technically from a noble house, though they are of lower status, and they're matriarchal in nature, the head of the family being passed down through firstborn daughters. She is the heir. Her father is a Nord, so she's a bit tall and a bit pale for an Imperial, and I have gotten several commissions of her and others (two of which you can find in the yapping tag below, the only two that have been posted) so some of her features are there. She has black hair and green eyes, a straight nose and fine features. She's deceptively strong, but still built pretty well because her mother's family are architects and masons, often hands-on with the building process. Additionally to her blood family, Serelynn takes on Etienne as a sort of surrogate son in my story, growing quite attached to him after deciding she wanted to keep an eye on him and make sure he's safe and ok after all that happened. Serelynn's family's house colors are blue, black and silver mostly because I really like that aesthetic, I prefer darker colors, I love blue, and when it comes to silver or gold, I'm partial to silver. Plus, as a lower status house, it makes sense that they'd be silver, but they're also nobles of Chorrol, so the blue and silver match there, too.
The fourth and final character is one that has piqued the interest of many: Telilu Relvayn. She is a dark elf, part of a noble family of much higher status that are historians. They're notably unaffiliated with any guilds, as they strive to remove bias from historic events and do what they can to present them as fact. Her and her father are especially interested in obscure histories, beyond ancient civilizations such as the Ayleids, Dwemer, and Chimer, and lost knowledge. Being of higher status, they often attended fancy events, so Telilu is well versed in dressing up. The Relvayn house colors are earthy greens and browns, and gold. Telilu herself has a darker complexion, as seen in one of the commissions I've gotten that was posted, and her eyes have a dark sclera and a bright red iris, she very often wears a bold red lip and more glamorous eye makeup. She has naturally curly hair and it is Red. Quite red. And she has features like a young Almalexia, there's actually a piece of fanart on here of Almalexia that I use as my example for her face. She met Serelynn when she was 19, and she was very interested from the get go, and they started courting soon after. Telilu was eccentric and bold, she made the first move and didn't care that she was going for someone beneath her status, much to the dismay of her other suitors. She loved Serelynn very much, and Serelynn loved her just as much back. They would have gotten engaged, Telilu even got an engagement ring commissioned for Serelynn (the design of which I can post if anyone is interested), but unfortunately, Telilu died before she could ask. The how and why will be saved for the story. I haven't come up with an age for Telilu yet, but elf ages are weird anyway, so for now I just think of her as young enough that her courting a 19-24 year old human isn't out of the ordinary.
Now, because Telilu died nine and half years before the story, this is in a bit of a strange, non canon pocket dimension thing. Serelynn doesn't tell anyone she meets in Skyrim that she's a blueblood, but Brynjolf and Etienne know about that here, and obviously Telilu's presence is a big deal. And they're Totally not late and it's Definitely not because Serelynn spent three days crying and hugging Telilu upon her return to the living, stalling their chances to get ready and be on time.
Now! Time for what the post is actually about! The outfits of my four characters and my brief explanation/thoughts on my choices!
Note: All of the "star shaped" things or stars that aren't part of constellations are the four-pointed-curved-lines ones. The ones that are part of constellations are dots.
Serelynn:
Her hair is done up in a low bun near the base of her head with two braids leading to it on either side of her head like Serana has, but one braid each side and a little further back on her scalp so that the face framing pieces are loose around her face. She's wearing a silver circlet with a simple band set with two smaller emeralds crowning a slightly larger sapphire in the front, two crescent moons back against the sapphire and cup the emeralds. The circlet goes under the braids and has a silver chain on either side attaching at the temple and hanging down towards her shoulders before coming back up and attaching near the back of the head (like Pyrrha Nikos's headpiece from RWBY, without the dangling gem). Her eye makeup is dark and bold, not quite black with a touch of blue in it as a gradient, getting slightly lighter and more blue towards the back of the eye and a black two-winged cat eye eyeliner. She's wearing a dark lip, also not quite black. The top of her outfit consists of an undershirt of a deep, dark, blue-green fabric that covers the whole of her chest and shoulders with a high collar, but with no sleeves. Over this is a long sleeved tunic with a wide, v-shaped collar to show off the undershirt and a long, v-shaped bottom to compliment her hips. The trim on the collar and bottom are silvery gray with the main color of it being black, the long sleeves are a little loose and feed into navy bracers that have silver trim and black laces with silver aglets. She is also wearing fingerless gloves with the same dark blue-green as her undershirt. She has slim-fit, black half-pants on that has navy laces with silver aglets down the sides and ends just above the knees, as well as black boots with a riding heel that come partway up her shins, showing off some of her lower leg tattoos. Around her waist is a wide, dark blue-green belt that matches the undershirt, tied together in the back with corset style black laces, also with silver aglets. There are constellations and unaffiliated stars embroidered into the belt, the constellations present are the one for the Restoration skill tree in Skyrim (though turned upside down) in the middle, the Lover turned on her side on the left and the Shadow on the right, which is technically her birthsign (but I like the theory some people pose that the Birthsigns are a little more complicated than just their birth month). Attached to this belt is an overskirt that is wide open in the front and goes nearly to the floor, consisting of a dark blue fabric with black macrame netting on the back of it with the knots of the cords being a silvery gray, giving the appearance of stars against the night sky. Her engagement ring is still on a chain around her neck over the undershirt, visible to everyone at the party.
The general idea is that she is the night sky, she's not beholden to one constellation, and the blues and greens are meant to represent the aurora (and the parts of the sky that has our Milky Way in it), since her father is a Nord and one of her favorite parts of ending up in Skyrim more or less against her will is the aurora. I already mentioned why the Shadow was chosen, but I also chose the Lover because that's my favorite standing stone in Skyrim for its affects and I find the location pretty neat, and I chose the Restoration constellation because she only knows the two spells she started with in game. Her grandmother taught her the healing spell and Telilu taught her the flame spell. The destruction constellation isn't present because there is only so much belt before they just become too small to tell what's happening and I like the idea of having other stars on the belt. There isn't any real reason I chose to turn the Restoration constellation upside down or put the Lady on her side.
[Restoration, Shadow, Lover]
Notably, Serelynn has characteristics of multiple signs. Unintentionally, and especially unrelated to my interest in Birthsigns not being so strict as to be just birth month.
Telilu:
Her hair is braided and put up in an intricate, high bun with some of her curls allowed to hang down in the back and around her face. Around her head, sitting on her forehead and under the bun, is a crown made of golden stars. She has golden eyeshadow with a simple black eyeliner, and her signature bright red lip. She's also wearing a lot of gold ear jewelry, all either star themed or simple. She's wearing a wide belt of dark green, nearly black fabric that is tied in the back like a corset with actually black laces and gold aglets. It's embroidered with the Lady and Lover constellations in gold. Coming out of the top of this is black fabric covering her chest and connecting to a collar of gold around her neck, giving her chest the shape of a teardrop. The collar has star carvings in it as well, and the top leaves her back almost completely exposed, connecting over her stomach and around her back under the belt. The top part has a few star shaped gold embellishments. Going down after the belt is a complex, layered skirt, the base layer of which is a black mini skirt ending about a quarter of the way down her thighs. Next is a sheer fabric of navy blue, starting with full coverage but splitting in the front about halfway down her thighs, opening all the way quickly and ending in a point behind her rather close to the floor. The next layer is comprised of a dark green skirt that matches the belt and splits just under the belt down the sides, ending up as two obelisk-shaped panels of fabric in the front and back, covering the space between her legs. It has a thin, gold trim and gold embroidery of the constellation for the Speech skill tree on the front and all three in a line on back (Lady on top, Speech in the middle and Lover on bottom). Finally, over the whole thing, there are several gold chains attached to the belt in different length loops connecting in different places from front, back, sides or anywhere in between. The chains have star motifs on them as well. She's wearing sandals that have golden silk straps wrapped up her legs almost to her knees, tying off in a bow on the back of her calf with star-shaped golden aglets. She has golden stairs painted onto her arms and shoulders, and if you look closely, you'll see some of the constellations present elsewhere on her outfit without the connecting lines to make it easier to tell.
As a historian and belonging to a house of higher noble status, Telilu loves to wear extravagant outfits reminiscent of the Chimeri style worn by former queen and goddess Almalexia. Clothes that show off a lot of skin and betray her status and wealth, including the tattoos she's got on her legs and back, and body paint is something she's always been fond of, even after getting tattoos. She took the Lover as one of the constellations she's representing to match Serelynn, the Lady felt right as an addition, and I felt Speech fit for a historian who can't fight for herself and often has to talk her out of or even in to situations and to get what she wants or needs for her work or personal curiosity. Telilu is also dead by the events of Skyrim and by the time Serelynn meets her other two tag-alongs, but for the sake of the event and for fun, she's around for it and only competing with Brynjolf a tiny bit.
[Lady, Speech, Lover]
Brynjolf:
He has a black tunic with very loose sleeves tied down with very dark brown bracers with gold eyelets and aglets on the leather laces. Over the tunic is a navy blue vest with a thin, gold trim, buttoned together in the front and laced together up the sides, the buttons are black and the lacing is a pthalo green (or in-universe equivalent that isn't toxic, but still that rich, dark green that pthalo green is) with gold eyelets and aglets. The vest has gold embroidery of falling stars on it as well as silver embroidery of stable stars, the left bracer is embroidered with the Lockpicking constellation from Skyrim's skill tree menu, and the right has the Pickpocket one, both in gold. The vest was long, but only buttoned and laced down to a belt around his waist that is more or less a plain leather belt with some metal on the leading edge and several small bags on it like he intends to relieve some people of their jewelry tonight. One of the small bags has a hidden Lover constellation on it to match Serelynn. After the belt, the vest continues down beyond his mid thigh, but not quite to his knees. His pants consist of black leather with pthalo (or equivalent) green laces up the sides similar to Serelynn's, but they are full length pants, the ends of which are tucked into tall black leather boots with gold stars embroidered in them. He's also wearing multiple gold rings, a star themed one, two plain ones, and one with the guild Shadowmark, and he has a star shaped earring dangling from one ear and a plain gold cuff on the other. His hair is tied back in a low ponytail, but two braids Serelynn gave him on the side of his head are hanging loose out of it. He's also wearing a cloak that was black fabric inside and pthalo (or equivalent) green outside with the Thief constellation embroidered in gold on the back with more silver, unaffiliated stars on the rest of it and it's trimmed in golden fabric as well and pinned around his shoulders with the guild Shadowmark cast in silver as a brooch. His outfit is inspired by the artistic interpretations of the thief constellation.
I wanted to keep Brynjolf simple but also have him show off his figure and be decked in gold because that just seems like how he'd do this? I don't know how to explain it, but even when he dresses in "fine clothes" before we join the Guild, he wears the simpler of the two styles, more modest but still shows he's better than you by wearing the blue one over the brown one. And obviously the Thief constellation speaks most to him, but his skills in Lockpicking and Pickpocketing deserve to be represented as well.
[Thief, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, hidden Lover]
Etienne:
Serelynn had done his hair, taking the two braids she's added to his head and pulling them back with some of the hair on the top of his head, making a small ponytail in the back and the rest of the hair is down, similar to the "windbound" hairstyle in Oblivion. Serelynn also gave him a dark lip matching hers and some black eye makeup that makes him look more roguish. He's wearing silver cuffs on his ears and the same dark blue-green fingerless gloves Serelynn is wearing. He's wearing a tunic with a close collar and a bottom similar to Serelynn's, just less long, and the sleeves are only a little loose like hers. His tunic has a base of navy blue with silvery gray trim on the collar and bottom and the sleeves were also cuffed by black bracers with silver trim and eyelets, and silver aglets on the navy laces. He isn't wearing a vest over the tunic, only a wide belt similar to Serelynn's, but black with silver embroidery of the Shadow constellation. Instead of an overskirt attached to the belt, he has fabric tassets on the sides and back that went down to his knees that was pointed on the ends (similar to the tassets on Verillas's website, just without the quilted pattern and the back is fully separated like the coattails on a tuxedo jacket). The fabric is the same dark blue-green as his fingerless gloves, and on the front left, there was a silver embroidered Tower constellation, and the right had a Sneak skill tree constellation. The are another Sneak and another Shadow on the two back panels as well as unaffiliated stars all over, and the tassets have a thin, silver trim. His pants are simple and black, tucked into boots that come halfway up his shins. The boots are also simple and black with a riding heel, having silver aglets on the black leather laces, overall leaving the tassets and belt as the primary focus.
I wanted to keep Etienne's outfit similar to Serelynn's since he's her surrogate son and all. He wanted her help with the style overall, and she was happy to help out and she was happy to learn he's partial to silver like she is. In the story, she doesn't tell anyone about her lower nobility status, but for fun and for the event, Brynjolf and Etienne know and Etienne is happy and excited to wear the family colors of blue, black and silver. He has the Shadow to match with Serelynn as well, and I thought Sneak fit as that's what he's best at for thief skills, and I liked that Tower gives attributes of finding more gold and being able to get through locks.
[Shadow, Sneak, Tower]
And there they are! I hope you enjoyed reading this, I probably blabbed a bit too much in my context or somewhere else in the post. But regardless, I hope you liked it and these things, and maybe you'll be around when I start releasing the story whenever that will be. Three years deep and I'm still not ready to release oops.