Variel Armenius
64 :: Bosmer/Imperial* :: Currently Unaffiliated** :: Wanderer/Mercenary/Former Cavalry Legionnaire***
Currently in: Camped near Merryfair Farm, outside Riften, The Rift
* - see “Raw Material” and “Notes on races and genetics”
** - see “Plot Ideas”
*** - see “Character Background
Character Background
Variel Armenius was born to a young Bosmer mother and an Imperial father 64 years ago. Along with his parents, he left Valenwood at an early age to escape the ongoing Thalmor purges, settling in Cyrodil.
As a young man in Cyrodil, he joined the Imperial Legion and was initially given the role of a scout and courier. He took to riding and fighting on horseback with great ease, eventually being transferred into a small detachment of cavalry auxilia.
By the time the Great War began, Variel had risen to the rank of Tribune, serving in several detachments of heavy cavalry over the years. During the retaking of the Imperial City, his unit was all but decimated. When the war ended and in the aftermath of the White Gold Concordat, Variel resigned his commission in disgust rather than be transferred into an amalgam unit.
He rode east to Elswheyr, spending several years working as a mercenary, mostly guarding Khajiit trade caravans against bandit raids. Eventually he travelled north to Skyrim with one such caravan.
Appearance: Although 64 years old, Variel appears, by human standards, to be in his mid-thirties. While retaining mostly Bosmer traits, Variel's facial structure appears less angular and overall more human than pure-blooded bosmer.Thanks to some of his father’s genetics, he is unusually large for a male of his race, standing at almost 6 feet tall with a muscled, yet not overly bulky physique. It was this physique, coupled with his natural agility, that served him so well during his military career.
Personality: Prior to the Great War, in spite of the prejudices that were common toward ‘half-breeds’ such as himself, Variel was a light-hearted and positive individual, known to frequently entertain his fellow legionaries by singing songs and playing the lute. Five brutal years of war, however, took its toll on him. After losing so many friends and several horses, he had grown cold and distant; unable to process the pain and loss he felt. Toward the end of the conflict, he sometimes found himself revelling in the violence and vengeance he meted out upon the Thalmor, a feeling that both scared and disgusted him. When the White-Gold Concordat was signed, Variel, like so many others, felt betrayed and could not face continued service in the Legion. In his travels since then, he still has yet to come to terms with the scars he was left with by the ordeals he had faced. He fears that should he allow himself to settle, the walls erected in his mind to hold back the pain would come crashing down; as such, he seeks out adventure in an attempt to keep that from coming to pass.
Religion: Growing up with two different Pantheons in his life, Variel found them difficult to reconcile them with one-another. As such, he developed a more pragmatic approach toward religion. He does not actively worship any particular god and rarely prays, but does accept that most if not all of the Aedra and Daedra have some basis in reality. His experiences in war have also led him to be somewhat resentful of the gods, viewing them as distant and uncaring of the plights and suffering of mortals.
Combat style: Due to his background in the Imperial Legion as a cavalryman, Variel prefers to fight from horseback whenever possible, but is equally capable on foot. His interesting blend of strength and agility makes him a formidable fighter when armed with a glaive; a weapon he strongly favours due to its reach and versatility. Like most Bosmer, he is also adept at archery, even from horseback.
Weapons: Ebony Glaive, two Ebony daggers, Bosmer Bow & Arrows.
Armour: Almost always wears Reinforced Bosmer Armour when travelling. He does still possess his Legionary armour, though has not worn it since the end of The Great War.
Magic: Variel has a general disinterest in magic, only knowing a few healing spells taught to him during his time in the Legion
Horse: Variel’s current steed is an eleven year old mare named Freya. Though a beast of burden by breeding, like most horses found in Skyrim, Variel chose her for her slightly smaller size than the other steeds available when he arrived in the Province; he has said in the past that she reminds him of some of the war-horses he encountered during his time in the Legion, and has trained her accordingly.
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki...f_the_Red_Ring
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki...t_the_Dominion
During the Battle of the Red Ring, Variel’s cohort, along with two others, had been assigned to the army under the command of General Jonna. Deployed on mass during the first two days of the battle, they charged again and again, battering the Aldmeri defenders but taking heavy losses in the process. By the dawn of the third day, the operational strength of the nine hundred heavy cavalry had dropped by over fifty percent.
While Jonna’s Nordic Legions held the road, the survivors of the cavalry cohorts, including Variel, were now charged with making their way down the Yellow Road into the Niben Basin. Their goal was to harass and disrupt Aldmeri reinforcements on the Eastern bank of the Niben River as they attempted to advance North toward Jonna’s army. By this point, the Legionnaires had now resorted to sleeping in the saddle whenever they could, often passing the reins to their fellows and sleeping in shifts. The importance of their role kept their morale from dropping too much, despite their losses and exhaustion.
At around noon on the third day, their scouts reported a large host of Elves marching north along the Yellow Road, past the town of Cropsford. Spurring on their horses, the Legionnaires rode south, before arraying themselves in depression atop a steep slope overlooking the road, hidden from view. As the day wore on, they began to fear that the Aldmeri had decided on a different route. Their fears were unfounded however, as the afternoon sun began to sink low in the sky, glints of gold could be seen in the distance. Although heavily outnumbered, the remaining officers of the cohorts agreed to press the attack.
As the vanguard of the elven forces passed their position, the Imperial Cavalry sprang the trap. Roaring their challenges and war-horns blowing as they crested the hill, nearly four hundred Legionnaires thundered down the slope toward their foes. With their bloody, battle-damaged armor still shining silver in the setting sun, they fell upon the panicked column of elves with great force and violence.
Though the Imperial Cavalry caused grievous losses at first, as the battle wore on the Aldmeri forces began to rally and tip the scales in their own favour. Of the Imperials who had begun the charge, only one hundred and fifty-six remained by the time the withdrawal had been sounded. The Aldmeri casualties from the ambush were reported to be over triple those of the Empire.
Over the next two days, they continued their harrying of Aldmeri reinforcements and supply trains, resorting to more guerrilla tactics to compensate for their lack of numbers. By the time the battle was over, only ninety-four of the original nine hundred remained; most of them wounded and many sharing horses or dismounted, having lost their own steeds in the fighting.
Plot Ideas
Existing Relationships
- Most of the men and women he served with during his time in the Legion were killed in the Great War. Although there are likely survivors scattered across Tamriel, Variel has not been in contact with any of them in several years.
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Current Plots
- What Is Yours Can Be Mine - Variel enters Riften to pick up some supplies, encountering Jessamine Moonflower in her Alchemist's Shop, but all is not as it seems...
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Notes on race and genetics, found on Reddit:
"Our best source on questions of race and genetics in Tamriel is Notes on Racial Phylogeny and Biology. What many people forget when citing this text is that most of its statements are prefaced with words like "typically", implying that exceptions do occur. Mixed-race children are apparently born with enough frequency that the Council of Healers was able to find multiple living examples. They note that on their research, such children typically bore more traits from their mothers, with occasional indicators of their father's race. The Gray Prince from Oblivion is an in-game example - his mother was an Orc and his father was Imperial (and a vampire), and in appearance he's simply a very pale-skinned Orc.
Basically, the conclusion to be drawn from the text is that heritance in Tamriel seems to favour the genetic mother, probably by design - since there are differences in average size, weight, and gestation time, too much variation between the gestational parent and the developing fetus could be fatal for both. We have an example of this, too: in ESO, Lyris' father was half-giant and much larger than the average Nord. Because of that, Lyris' mother died during childbirth. It's ambiguous as to why, but the nearest implication is that Lyris had to be delivered surgically, which could easily be deadly without sufficient medicine or healing magic.
So basically, the reason there's no such thing as a "half-elf" in Tamriel is because, like in real life, reproduction isn't as simple as smashing two things together. Genetics are far more complex than that, and there are other barriers to hybridization beyond genetics. Bretons, to hammer the point in, are not half-elves, nor does anybody in-universe consider them that. Centuries of intermarriage produced not a simple hybrid, but a genetically distinct population, with their own unique traits that are influenced by their mixed descent."
Variel Armenius - Bosmer Cavalryman
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