BURST Q&A! - PT. 1 / ?
HEY, SACHA, WHAT'S THIS BLOG ALL ABOUT? ARE YOU GOOD?
First thing's first - I need you to imagine I'm holding your hand for the rest of this post with an ironclad grip. This character has lit a fever in me, and if I don't get all of it Out Of My Brain and into a metaphysical space I'm going to explode into confetti - so forgive me for the ramblings that are going to ensue, and use your imagination because I do not give a fuck about canon. Skyrim is the Dating Brynjolf game now, fuck everything else - I'm kidding, I just need you to suspend your sense of belief by a couple of inches to the right to indulge me.
This is a lore-heavy writing blog, sometimes roleplay blog, but mostly writing blog, for an original character of mine that I ship with Brynjolf from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. For my purposes, his name is Halle, Halle's just a guy - well, a half-giant, but still just a guy, not the dragonborn, there's no dragonborn in this setting, unless someone's writing an original character who happens to be the dragonborn, then we take creative liberty for roleplay reasons and we all get to have fun together.
WHO IS HALLE?
Halle is a half-giant, half-nord, originally from Bleakwind Basin in Whiterun Hold, but currently taking residence at Honeyside in Riften, where he lives with his partner, Brynjolf. He mainly keeps to either Whiterun or Riften and the spaces in-between, him and Brynjolf kind of have a Moomintroll and Snufkin situation going on where Halle comes and goes because that's his nature and Brynjolf loves Halle as he is, even if he misses him terribly.
When in Whiterun, he keeps mostly to ranging the tundra, but he has a pretty positive reputation with the people living inside the city walls as well. He's considered a Thane, and mainly handles diplomatic relations between giants and citizens - keeps them from killing eachother over territory and misunderstanding, which makes him happy, because Halle considers himself more giant than nord, and there's very few giants left in Skyrim compared to what their numbers used to be.
Halle spends alot of his time in Whiterun strengthening diplomatic relations between his people and the citizens of Whiterun, hunting poachers, or in his woodworking shop up in Riverwood.
When in Riften, he keeps mostly to the Ratway or to the surrounding wilds, but occasionally picks up work inside city limits when he isn't working with the guild - it's usually fetch requests from the merchants, but he picks up a few shifts as a baker in the bakery that Dawn of Skyrim adds, a bartender in the Bee & Barb on occasion, and if all else fails, there's always work to be found at the docks.
Despite his associations with the guild, Halle's pretty difficult for locals to hate, because he operates off the philosophy of, well, if you aren't making money, how am I going to make money off you in return? He routinely pisses Mercer off by refusing to kick people while they're down, Halle won't steal from people less fortunate than himself and there's been a few debts settled discretely out of his own pocket that he's had long conversations with Delvin about, but it always ends in the same acknowledgment; coin is coin at the end of the day.
Halle, as a person, is kind - ultimately kind. He has a strong sense of empathy and honor, which are strange qualities to find in a thief, but Halle's not just a thief. His entire affiliation with the guild is.. complicated, to say the least. Halle seems like he would fit in much better with a faction like the Companions at first glance, but Halle has very strong opinions on the way the Companions chew up and spit out people like Uthgerd, Arnbjorn, and others. There's also some bad blood between Halle and the Companions as they've killed a handful of giants before Halle could get things straightened out, because they don't tend to see them as people so much as challenges, and Halle finds that hard to respect. To Halle, the Thieves Guild is a collection of people just trying to make a living by the means available to them, they're survivalists same as him, and down on their luck at that, but still trying, which he finds noble in his own way - he also appreciates that their standards for joining up are basically, can you stay out of the way, and can you defend yourself, which makes them alot more down-to-earth from his perspective.
Halle is compassionate even to those who seem undeserving, and fiercely loyal to those who matter to him, but he will sever ties over dishonorable, careless, or cruel behaviors, although it might hurt, especially if they're close to his heart. He doesn't hesitate to make hard choices, or confront people with poor intentions, and serves as a moral compass on multiple occasions in the guild, both before Mercer's betrayal and after, something that was a point of great contention on multiple occasions that nearly turned into physical fights with the corrupt guildmaster.
He's thoughtful, with a strong attention to detail, especially where people are concerned - Halle notices things about others and keeps them in mind habitually. Despite his thoughtful nature, it doesn't extend to himself, and he can be impulsive when it comes to exploration, diving into caves and ruins without a second thought for his own safety. He's also naive in matters of Nordic culture, like the time he wore an Amulet of Mara he'd found because he thought, huh, that's pretty, and nearly gave Brynjolf a heart attack.
With his even temperament, Halle and Brynjolf are both natural mediators, and it's something that they admire equally in one another. Halle's priority is always keeping the peace, but he won't hesitate to stand up if his values, or his companions, are threatened.
WHAT DOES HALLE LOOK LIKE?
Well, Halle's about 7'2, which doesn't make him very stealthy in broad daylight or tight spaces, but he makes an excellent distraction - in circumstances other than bright daylight or tight spaces, however, Halle tends to surprise people with how quiet he can really be. His size makes him quick, and his feet are thickly padded from a lifetime of walking everywhere he needs to go, because, as a fun fact, Halle actually can't ride a horse due to his size.
He has long red hair - a dark cinnamon color. He keeps the sides of his hair cropped short, the rest kept long in the back and worn in two braids. He has deep-set eyes, blue-green, and his skin is tanned from so many days spent out under the tundra sun. He has a strong jaw that lends itself to a relatively handsome face despite his crooked nose, and broad shoulders that speak to a powerful build. Halle keeps a decent beard, not overly long or wild, usually unbraided except for special occasion.
Halle has a variety of scars, but the majority are ritualistic. The giant language is made up of various swirls and pointillisms, and the scars on Halle's body are essentially sentences in Giant stating who he is, where he's from, his temperament, and his values. The rest of his scars are from a mix of animals and blades, he briefly wrestled bears for money while on hard times and while it developed his grappling skills, people don't pay well for short, quick fights with little bloodshed to be had.
Halle mainly wears the bare-chested variant of the fur armor, or one of two leather armor sets - the usual chestnut-brown travel leathers, or his ink-black thief's raiment.
WHO ARE HALLE'S CLOSEST ASSOCIATES?
Brynjolf, first and foremost, but a close second would be Lucien Flavius, who has been his road-companion for many, many years now. He's quite close with Vex as well, treating her like an older sister. Delvin is someone who Halle can always trust to be frank with him as well, and they've forged a bond of their own ever since Mercer was dealt away with, and Delvin was made guildmaster.
WHAT ARE HALLE'S VIEWS ON THE CIVIL WAR?
Halle takes no particular side in the civil war, not finding any sense of kinship with the Imperials, or even in the more giant-friendly Stormcloaks. His half-brother is a Stormcloak officer, but him and Halle have no contact, though each are aware of the other’s existence. Halle doesn’t care for the fine points of the civil war, only how it affects the land - this changes slightly when Halle rescues Etienne post-Mercer's betrayal from the Thalmor, and finds the dossier on Ulfric Stormcloak. It spurs him into becoming more involved in his own way, not with the Stormcloaks or the Imperials, but by tying a bond with the Forsworn instead - there's also an arc I'm currently writing for Halle travelling to Solstheim and retrieving the initial fungus that rendered the Falmer blind from the depths of Apocrypha, and striking a deal with Nocturnal in exchange for his fealty that results in the resuscitation of the Snow Elves.
HOW DOES HALLE FEEL ABOUT THE DRAGONS?
For Halle's storyline, the dragons don't actually return to Skyrim until Halle and Lucien leave to Solstheim to follow up on a research lead, and are present when Miraak returns. This is after Mercer's betrayal. Halle's first encounter with a dragon is when Riften comes abruptly under attack after his return, and it's a mess. Lucien and Halle evacuate the civilians, and Halle bodily forces Brynjolf through the opened portal to Ivarstead before it closes, in a fucked-up self-sacrifice moment where he and Lucien nearly both die trying to take down the living legend. So, safe to say, he's not very fond of the dovah.
WHAT ARE HALLE'S FEARS?
Largely, a loss of control. Halle's very big, very strong, and that's all lovely for aesthetics; but in action, he has to take alot of care not to accidentally hurt those around him, and not to be intimidating, and not to speak too loudly and upset the guards. On principle, he has a bone-deep fear of Hagravens. He's seen his giantkin be made into Briarhearts before, and it's never pretty. He tries to stay out of the way of mages that can cast spells like Frenzy, and Mercer using the 'Agent of Subterfuge' boon on him instead of Brynjolf is singlehandedly one of the most traumatic moments he's ever endured.