Thanks! Nothing pleased her more than returning to the orphanage and killing Grelod. At first she wanted to slit her throat without being seen but then changed her mind, so Sybil's face was the last face which Grelod saw.

I finished the DB years before, yes, it was with Aard, but he was a completely different character than Sybil, he was a part of the DB because he earned well, he didn't particularly care for their members or the Night Mother.

Thank you! I expected that the quest will kick in once Grelod is dead but as it turns out, one has to actually talk to Aventus to start the quest and then it automatically finishes as you tell him that Grelod is dead. So that was the real reason for traveling to Windhelm, because I expected that Sybil will be snatched away in her sleep already in the Ratway.

Though she's been around for a while, I've never properly introduced her.

Full name: Ameena Souissi

Nickname / Name in game: just Souissi. Since her youth she prefers to be called by her surname only

Race: Imperial

Gender: female

Age: 35

Birthsign: the Atronach

Class: rogue

Main skills: Block, Conjuration, Light Armor, One-Handed, Speech

Place of birth: Waterfront, Imperial City

Home: none

What she does for a living: her main source of income are valuables found when adventuring, occasionally she'll accept a job that befits a mercenary

Factions: none

Companions: occasionally

Love interests: none yet

Eyes: brown

Build: slim

Physical Appearance: here she is

Weapons of preference: shields and axes

Clothing: light armor

Mental Profile/Personality: she's a former highwaywoman and smuggler, who's trying to change her life to better ways

Dragonborn: no

Biography/Life History: Souissi was born in Cyrodiil, her mother was an aspiring Imperial conjurer in the Mages Guild, while her father was a Redguard sailor and was more often on high seas than at home. When her mother passed away after a long illness, Souissi was taken with her father on the ship, where she found out that he is in fact a pirate and a smuggler, not a sailor on a merchant ship as she had believed. Having not much choice, she followed in his footsteps. After some years on the ship the entire crew was caught close to Morrowind's coast while smuggling skooma, and both Souissi and her father were arrested.

Elderly members like her father were sent to prison, but young members were sent to work on a plantation of some wealthy Dunmer noble. After two years Souissi managed to escape and not knowing what else to do, she continued her career as a highwaywoman. Despite attempting to find her father in prisons all across Morrowind, she's never heard of him again, neither she's met anyone that'd know him.

When her exploits became too well-known and she became interesting for the authorities, she escaped from Morrowind by boarding Orphan's Tear, a smuggler ship. Familiar with the coast, Souissi helped smugglers avoid dangerous areas and seeing that they could profit from her, they asked her to join the crew. After a few years of smuggling illegal goodies between High Rock and Morrowind, Orphan's Tear was attacked by the Imperial Legion and wrecked at Skyrim's north coast.

While Souissi was on a hunt for food, the crew of Orphan's Tear was found and killed by the Imperial Legion and Souissi decided that it's prime time to try and change her life and make a living by some more honest profession. Since then she's been traveling over Skyrim, exploring dungeons of all kinds, and making a living by selling found valuables. Most of the time she travels alone, but occasionally she tolerates a company of some follower. Yet her favorite follower remains her flaming wolf, which she can summon at will.

Aw damn, she doesn't know what happened to her father. That's so sad. Well, it's good she's been added into this thread. Good to have for referencing purposes, and all that.

This had a long time coming, but tonight I decided to finally make the jump. I'm playing Skyrim again. :v At first I was going to pick up an old save where I left off, but I decided to ease into it again with an old favorite of mine.


Name: Alois Durant

Race: Breton

Gender: Male

Age: 24

Sign: The Lord

Birthplace: Skingrad, Cyrodiil

Class: Spellsword

Physical Appearance: Yeah - Ingame

Eyes: Dark Blue

Build: Athletic with a bit of cushion

Weapons of preference: Swords. The more magical the better.

Mental Profile/Personality: Generally loud and friendly. Tries not to life get him down too much, and does his best to make sure others feel the same way.


Biography/Life History: One of three heirs to a long line of Cyrodiilic heroes. His family doesn't have the prestige it used to, even though his parents were instrumental during the Great War. Though they were never outright shunned, his family was always treated with suspicion. Especially his mother and eventually his siter.

Even within his own family he was never the favorite, his mother taking his sister aside to groom the family's next matriarch, and his father--originally a knight from High Rock--would spend his time imparting the intricacies of High Rock society to his brother. Not really having a head for politics and a tendency to get into trouble, it's no wonder he ended up joining the Fighter's Guild while his sister was sent to study with the Synod. Soon after their mother disappeared, his brother and father moved back to High Rock. He chose to stay, leaving him alone with the house and many bitter memories.

Eight years later his sister came back from the Imperial City with a few new trinkets and a proposition: sell the house and move out to Skyrim with her and join the College of Winterhold. The thought troubled him at first, since she made the decision to sell their mother's house without any input from their father and brother, but the thought of finally leaving Skingrad County to see more of the world was appealing. Eventually he caved, and the pair set off for "the arse end of Tamriel", as his sister put it. He got the feeling there was more to her decision than disagreeing with the Synod's practices, but he shut it down quickly.

Alois was about to find more excitement than he bargained for.

Nice! He totally resembles that drawing. The drawing looks more demonic though. Interesting that his sister, who seemed to have a superiority about her, comes back to fetch Alois so they can both go to the College.

He is a Spellsword yet he merely joined the Fighters Guild in his backstory, does he already have knowledge of spells then?

Kinda. The family line is particularly talented with magic, the founding matriarch being a master wizard, and his mom was a battlemage in the Legion, so he ended up inheriting a few useful tricks but little else. Just some things to give him an edge in a fight and keep his insides where they belong. The other, bigger, brainier magics are beyond him. For now at least.

Working on my next character, and really enjoying RaceMenu for the special edition. Adds a ton to character creation! Anyway, here is the work in progress:

Linnèa, daughter of Kirin and Lydia.

Nice. I've never tried Race Menu, I've got a couple other mods I use. But honestly, i mostly use them for females in this game, to get rid of that "scowl" face that's so persistent. With males I usually stick with vanilla stuff, except extra beards / hairstyles.

Edited

Nice work on Raven's background, DE!

Thanks Acadian!

I worked on Draken’s profile even more. There were major changes. I’ll post it later on!

I’m spending time reading all these pages! So many awesome characters!

It was fun to read your Raven profile, DE. I'm looking forward to Draken's!



Good to know that there's RaceMenu for SE. As much as I look forward to playing it, I'm not thrilled about starting from scratch with mods.

Edited

Name: Celeste Yael

Created: 6:03 pm, February 25, 2020

Platform: Xbox, transferred to PC

Status: Wanders, but not lost.

Race: High Elf

Gender: Dame

Age: 25

Birth Sign: Unknown. She was not created through Character Creation Overhaul.

Home: She stays in Arcadia's Cauldron mostly. Otherwise hasn't got a home yet

Spouse:

Home Country: Summerset Isles

Faction and Rank or Guilds(if none, tell us what they do for a living):

Faction Description:

Class: Healer / Illusionist

Class Description: Celeste will focus heavily on healing spells, so she can heal those she travels with.

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Dragonborn?

Dead is dead?

Major Skills: Alchemy, Restoration, Illusion, Blade

Minor Skills: Literacy, Horsemanship, Enchanting

Spells: Fury, Heal Self

Physical Appearance: I greet you

Eyes: green (I think)

Build: slender

Weapons of Preference: She prefers not to use weapons, but does carry knives just in case.

Clothing: her attire will probably be robes and light armor pieces. It'll be important that Celeste be agile.

Miscellaneous: Celeste Yael is my first character for the year 2020. My plan is to eventually do all those side quests none of my others have done yet. I used a picture of Steffi Graf to create Celeste. Celeste looks nothing like Steffi of course, but I used that pic to "aim" towards.

UPDATE, Jan 2024: Celeste's game started on Xbox but got moved to PC. She never did pick up any quests 'others didn't get to'. Nowadays she's pretty much a straight up Healer, and Alchemist.

She has some sort of confidence in her personality. She is intelligent. She is very much a gatherer, always picking ingredients. She is also not so good at defending herself, not yet, anyway. As her magic improves, this shall change, of course.

She is mostly vegetarian, but will occasionally have fish or chicken. Eggs are always okay, as well as cheese. She's not a milk-drinker though. 🍼

Bio / Backstory: Celeste comes from the Summerset Isle, and has an academic background, with some very weak combat
training.

Considering their long life span, aren't High Elves at the age of 25 just out of diapers?

Welcome Celeste!

Celeste curtsies

You know, I have some real problems with the supposed long lives of elves. Think about it. If they're supposedly living so long, why are they sometimes so short of wisdom?

Renee: That's because for the first 200-years or so they are still in their teenage stage. As we all know teenagers' brains aren't wired right. They're all hopped up on hormones. Well that's what Kaleah tells me anyways.

:blush: Okay, fair enough.

For a moment I thought her spells included Furry. Which gave me a very different idea from what you probably intended.

She has pigtails. Too bad you cannot do alternating colors per tail. Otherwise she could be an elvish Harley Quinn (she'd be Chaotic Neutral then though).

Celeste does look like Steffi Graf. It is nice to have an idea to aim for, rather than just a vague idea of "I want to look good".

Honestly, Celeste is going to wind up on PC, I think. She wants to wear stunning-looking robes, nothing which appears in the vanilla game. Maybe we might even have a look at ghastley's apparel, although she'll not want anything too revealing.



Aw, why thank you. I was gonna use Taylor Swift, but at the last moment I remembered Steffi's roundish, somewhat elfish-looking face. I already used Taylor long ago for the original Lady Saga.

So not the Vampirella outfit, then? Let me know if you need anything custom.

Absolutely I will. I'm sure your catalog already has something she'd like too!

Name: ?

Race: Dark Elf

Gender: male

Age: middle-aged

Sign: the Mage

Home: nowhere

Home Country: Morrowind

What they do for a living: reading

Class: mage

Alignment: chaotic neutral

Dragonborn? no

Skills and talents: alteration, conjuration, destruction, illusion, restoration

Physical Appearance: here

Eyes: blind

Build: slim

Weapons of preference: short weapons

Clothing: Dunmer clothes

Biography/Life History: the real name and the past of this Dark Elf are shrouded in mystery. Some claim that he was a librarian in Vivec, and with time grew mad, because of the sheer amount of books he needed to take care of. Those with a touch for schemes claim that his main interest were books that were forbidden to read, and these acts attracted the attention of Hermaeus Mora, who placed in his library the book, that was not allowed to be read. For years and years the Dark Elf resisted the urge to read it, but eventually gave in, and opened it. They say that he was reading it for months without stopping, without even looking up, without eating and without drinking, without even sleeping. His hair fell out, his face grew old and pallid, his posture became that of a scrawny goblin. When he at last closed the book, he was blind, yet cursed with eternal reading. He needed to read more and more, and despite his blindness, he could still read. Such is the punishment for those that provoke the Daedra, or perhaps this is all just a made-up story from people with a too vivid imagination.

Mental Profile/Personality: because of his appearance, he may look like a messenger of evil, even considered to be a vampire. Yet the Dark Elf seems harmless, as long as he's left alone, particularly while reading. His only interest are books, and if someone engages him into a conversation, he'll rarely provide any sensible answer.

Good lord. We're just both full of surprises this weekend.

Nice, so you're trying more of a purer mage this time. It takes awhile to get mages to the point that they are powerful, in a lot of RPGs this is true.

What a crazy backstory!

Well in any case, thanks for reading.

Although winter season in our parts is long over, I rolled another character in Skyrim. My gaming approach is these days slightly different - instead of focusing on one character in one game for a while, I created more of them (two for now) in the same game, and I'll keep switching between them, depending on what I want to do while gaming (fight / take it easy) and on my mood (fully awake, in need of action / tired, in need of slow pace).

Name: Mather

Race: Nord

Gender: male

Age: 28

Sign: the Steed

Home town and home country: Rorikstead, Skyrim

Faction and Rank or Guilds: no factions yet, might change

What he does for a living: adventuring

Class: Warrior

Alignment: Neutral Good

Dragonborn? only Time will tell

Skills and talents: One-Handed, Block, Heavy Armor

Physical Appearance: Mather

Eyes: blue

Build: average

Weapons of preference: one-handed weapons

Clothing: heavy armor

Favored deity: Shor

Magic abilities or powers: none

Biography/Life History: Mather is a childhood friend of Erik the Slayer and after years of longing for adventures, the duo finally decided to leave their hometown Rorikstead behind and head out, in search of new escapades. Occasionally helping the understaffed guards of Rorikstead, Mather gained some expertise in combat and knows his way with a weapon & shield technique and is used to wearing heavy armor. He's young, bold, sometimes a tad too reckless, but he has a heart in the right place.

Nice background for Mather and it works Erik the Hoepusher in perfectly as a companion.

Is it a case of mind over Mather?

Hello Mather. He's got quite an open face. Yeah, he does look ready to go on adventures with Erik the Slayer. Rawr!

I foresee plenty of tfc 1s and Lopov shots in this guy's future.

@Acadian - Mather is my first character that was born in Skyrim, so he's more or less familiar with the land and its important landmarks. My previous characters have always been newcomers.

@SubRosa - Mather's mind is currently attuned to the matter of adventuring.

Renee - Lopov shots from me? That's never happened before?

---

My last character in the trio is Clara but because she's serving a life sentence, you might not see much of her.

Name: Clara Marin (formerly Clara Silver-Blood)

Race: Imperial

Gender: female

Age: late 30s

Sign: the Lover

Home town and home country: Evermore, High Rock

Faction and Rank or Guilds: prisoners of Cidhna Mine

What she does for a living: mining silver

Class: commoner

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Dragonborn? no

Skills and talents: Alchemy, One-Handed, Sneak

Physical Appearance: the only woman in Cidhna Mine

Eyes: bright blue

Build: slender

Weapons of preference: shivs, daggers

Clothing: common clothes

Family: Thandor Silver-Blood - deceased husband

Ymre - deceased son (he wasn't Thandor's son)

Magic abilities or powers: none

Biography/Life History: Clara Marin was an unremarkable tavern wench in Evermore, the town in eastern High Rock. Taking care of her sick son Ymre, Clara needed lots of gold to pay for his son's medicines but because her meager pay at the tavern couldn't cover the expenses, Clara resorted to bloody measures - with her basic skill of alchemy she'd brew dizziness-causing concoctions, secretly pouring them to drinks, which she'd serve to lone noblemen that visited the tavern. Later as they'd leave, Clara would attack and rob them - if they resisted, she killed them without hesitating.

Once she played her trick on Thandor Silver-Blood, the oldest brother of the Silver-Blood Clan, but unlike those before him, Thandor immediately sensed that there's something wrong with his wine. As Clara later attacked him in the back alley, thinking that she'd overpower him with ease, Thandor was the one that overpowered her. Seeing her as a potential aide, Thandor made Clara an offer: join him on his travels over High Rock and help him by negotiating with his business partners by drugging them, so they'll be easier to persuade. In return, he'd cover the expensive medicines required for Ymre.

Much to the dismay and disapproval of the Silver-Blood Clan, Clara and Thandor eventually married, but life with Thandor wasn't easy - being an alcoholic, insults and beatings have become a daily routine for Clara Silver-Blood. Despite expensive medicines Ymre passed away, but Thandor would never allow Clara to leave, regarding her by now as his personal slave. Eventually Clara came up with a plan to kill Thandor while they'd return to his home manor, steal from his family treasury room and escape for good to another province. When they returned to Markarth, she put her plan in motion. She stabbed Thandor during an alcohol-induced deep slumber, but while stealing the jewelry, she got caught by Thandor's steward. Stripped of the Silver-Blood family name, Clara Marin was sentenced to life imprisonment in Cidhna Mine.

Yikes! Of the trio it is Clara who really has some challenges to work through. Escaping from the mine might be good for her . . . not so sure it would be good for the rest of Skyrim though.

Wow, sounds like the rest of Tamriel would be better off if Clara stayed in the mine... Somehow I don't think things will work out that way.

.

Thanks for the warm welcome of all my three characters, at the moment I'm most interested in Mather's game, so I'll focus on his story. Although I wrote in his description that he's not the Dragonborn, this might change. Thanks to the Live Another Life, he started in Rorikstead, so the Helgen intro was skipped but the mod allows one to pursue the main quest in three ways:

1 - visit Helgen and witness Alduin flying off as it destroyed the town,

2 - starting the Civil War questline and be sent to Whiterun as a part of the questline,

3 - visit Dragonsreach regardless of the Civil war and overhear the conversation about the magical stone at Bleak Falls Barrow.

He probably won't join Stormcloaks or Imperials, so the second scenario is unlikely to be the trigger. I got an inspiration for Mather to be Dragonborn, because I forgot to disable word walls prior to starting his story, so when he came to Rannveig and saw the word wall, he felt being pulled towards it, but rejected doing so for now. So it's possible that in the future Mather will turn out to be Dragonborn, and it'll be an interesting experience, because he'll probably do quite some adventuring / questing before, and also because he's a native of Skyrim, not an outsider from another province.

Maybe then I can finally complete the main quest in Skyrim but since I already tried two times and lost interest halfway through both times, it'll be better if I rush through it before I lose interest again.

Wow, so he might do the M4!n kw3$t then.

I agree with skipping the Civil War stuff. You've already done that with Gottham. I've already done CW on both the Imperials' and Stormies side (Claire Voyance and Sir Vyvoor, respectively). I can't get enough of radiant bounty bandit runs and vampire raids, but once the Civil War is done, I wouldn't want to do it over again.

You can just say the Lucius tried in the past, and *fill in the blank* why he never finished. At least you can blame your Dell's disc crash too, not 100% losing inspiration.

It might happen or not, I haven't firmly decided yet. I have a feeling that if I'll start it again, that I'll lose interest in finishing it. Again.

Well the disk crash was responsible for losing Lucius' saves but I lost an interest in the MQ before it happened. Then again, if the crash hadn't happened, I'd probably bring the MQ to the end by now, even if I'd need to force myself to do it.

It is about to be summer. For me, this would be the deal-killer on the MQ. I already know Vyvoor won't get it done until possibly winter of 2020, because once the weather warms up, I lose interest in Skyrim. Maybe you are different though. Maybe playing summer when it's ... um ... 30+ degrees C won't bother you.

I don't have troubles playing desert-themed games in winter or winter-themed games in summer, but when I reach the so called "peak point" with every game, meaning that I'm getting bored, then I need to switch to another game.

I am the same. I can play anything, anytime. But eventually I start getting bored and have to move on.

I never get bored because of *4/20*

Well, there was that one time back in 2013 when I did get bored with Saga's game, but she was still on Xbox and figured out how to improve her poisons to the point that she was one-shotting everything. Even ogres.

Yes, I too admit to eventually becoming bored with a game and switching to something else. three or four years and that's it. enough is enough, I say.

For Release, by the authority of Count Terentius of County Bravil, to the district the Rift in the providence of Skyrim.


Jel Name: Gee-Vim

Cyrodillic Name: Mire-Tongue

Race: Argonian

Eye Color: Yellow/Orange

Scale Color: Mainly Green with facial plates of Brown

Build: Slim of Size and Build

Gender: Male

Age: 26

Birthday: 4E 175, 25th of Morning Star

Sign: The Ritual

County and Country of Origin: Bravil, Cyrodiil

Class: Burglar

Record: The Argonian known as 'Gee-Vim' or, in the common tongue, Mire-Tongue, is a convicted Smuggler and petty Criminal involved with the Skooma Trade under the former Nine Nives Gang. For assistance with the County Guard Criminal Mire-Tongue is to serve a reduced sentence of Ten (10) years hard labor in the Providence of Skyrim after which he is to be released as an Imperial Citizen for assisting in the diabanding of the Nine Nives Gang. Should the Criminal attempt to flee before the sentence is served, the Criminal is to be captured and returned to the Imperial City for additional Trial in the County Bravil.



Vim is in a bad way when he comes to Skyrim. Used the Alt Start mod to start him in the Skooma Den. Boy is an Addict freshly escaped from the law. He is going to be joining the Thieves Guild (obviously XD) and has already been active in the Rift basically as a Highwayman. He sneaks up on folks and stabs em with his dagger. If he can't pickpocket em.

I restarted Claire's game for the third time, needing a break from the Uber shouter Sir Vyvoor. The main focus of Claire's game is that the Imperials have been defeated (which I made real by using an official 'failure' console command) and now she'll be looking for other things to do. There is a Vigilants of Stendarr mod which I'm hungry for, and she'd be perfect for this. Anyway, Here is her sheet.


Name: Claire Voyance the Cleric from Chorrol

Platform: PC

Status: Active

Race: Imperial

Gender: Lady

Age: 23-ish (when I restarted her game in 2021 it was the year 202. She was 21 in the year 200)

Sign: Ritual / Capricorn

Home: Breezehome, in Whiterun

Spouse: none. She does own an Amulet of Mara though, so it's only a matter of time...

Home Country: Cyrodiil

Faction and Rank or Guilds(if none, tell us what they do for a living): (1) Companions, though she's just a member. (2) Civil War on the Imperials' side. (3) Vigilants of Stendarr.

Faction Description: Claire is a cleric, and in table-gaming terms, she is not a primary fighting character. Therefore, she would be the type who travels with somebody else who is better at combat than she is. This is why she joined Companions. Long story short: she's not going to really become a full Companion, attain the rank of Harbinger, and so on.

She is a 'nurse' on the Imperials' side of the Civil War. Oftentimes, she is not on the very front ranks of combat.

Class: Cleric

Class Description: Clerics in the tablegames were usually secondary characters who healed up the rest of the party, kept them going. They could also revive the dead, if they were of a high-enough level.

Alignment: Neutral Good with Lawful tendencies.

Dragonborn? ... Claire is not the Dragonborn.

Skills and talents: Majors = One-handed (Axe/Mace 2), Block (1), Restoration, Alteration, Speech, Light Armor.
Minors = Cooking (1), Courtly Graces (1), Horsemanship (2), Smithing (2), Warrior (2)

Spells: Clairvoyance (0), Healing (self, and others 0), Light (1), Shield (1), Turn Undead (0)

Physical Appearance: Okay, sure. And here she is all suited up.

Eyes: Imperial Green

Build: Firm, muscular, yet slender

Weapons of preference: Maces and axes. For some reason clerics often go for Blunt weapons.

Clothing: Only when not on adventures / quests. She has no particular preference for lower or upper-class duds.

Miscellaneous: Claire Voyance the first (on Xbox) was created so I could get used to Skyrim back in 2012. She was non DiD, and so the new Claire will also be non dead-is-dead. She has clairvoyant abilities, which means she has the ability to see future events. Claire's abilities will give her extra-sensory perception which most of my other characters do not have. Due to this, she can only die through some sort of divine removal, or of old age.

I restarted her game in January 2021, and since Sir Vyvoor (Stormcloaks) managed to defeat the Imperials first, I used the console to SetStage Claire's game with Skyrim's official "fail" stage. Because of this, The Civil War is over in Claire's game, with an official failure status, as far as the game is concerned.


Backstory & Main Story: Claire moved to Cyrodiil mainly to assist the Imperials against the Stormcloaks as a sort of 'nurse'. She did the entire Civil War, up to the final fight for Windhelm. Since the Imperials failed to defeat the Stormcloaks in my gameworld, Claire is now looking for other things to do. I am thinking she'll do random side quests and also join the Vigilants of Stendarr.

Brenna has an incarnation in Skyrim!

Well, technically the original Brenna was first conceived for Skyrim, but anyway, I brought her back! She’s currently working as the healer/Warwitch for the bandits headquartered at Bilegulch Mine. She is getting a bit tired of the bandit life, however, and is thinking about leaving...

Awesome! Playing AC Odyssey has been getting me in the mood to go back to Skyrim again as well, because of the wide open world.

Nice, look at her, she looks wicked. What would she do if she's leaving the bandits?

Khajiit, enjoy your return to Skyrim!

Thanks y’all!

@Renee
She’s been thinking about becoming an adventuring herbalist/alchemist. Who knows, maybe she’ll find a cause to throw in with?

Name: Kaia Gatharian

Race: Dunmer

Gender: Female

Age: 65 - 70 (approx.) - (4E 131/136)

Home Country: Morrowind - (Fort Zeren; Bal Foyen)

What She Does:
Initially banditry, formerly a Scout for a local Morrowind Warlord, now: realising she has a higher destiny...

What She Is:
Would consider herself a mercenary of some fashion, once a thief, perhaps an explorer; wife, mother, and maybe something more.

Skills and talents:
Exceptionally good with a bow - (despite being blind in one eye), cunning and sneaky, moves extremely well in light armor. Has a reasonable knack with alchemy and knows a few useful spells of various schools. She has enough knowledge of Smithing to see her through anything she might need.
She has a few "other" skills that have served her well.
Can be surprisingly charming despite her heritage and appearance.

Physical Appearance:
Affects the dour expression of most of her race, made perhaps more inscrutable by her mismatched eyes.
She's relatively dark-skinned.
Her body is criss-crossed with the scars and marks of various encounters, and by tattoos of various kinds: representing battles, services she has rendered, tribal markings, and family remembrance.
She's a redhead, her hair shoulder length and with a braid to one side at the front, in memory of her daughter-by-blood.
She's not conventionally "attractive" by any means, but has a certain... presence to her that tends to overcome her outward appearance.
She looks older than she actually is - (for a Dunmer, to a Dunmer).
Her scars extend to her face, particularly the left-hand side, marked as it is by a cruel set of pale weals running downwards from her forehead to her chin, through her left eye; now blind and an opaque dead white. She is missing some teeth on that side of her mouth and her jaw still aches on cold mornings.

Eyes: One red, one white - (the left)

Build: Approximately 5' 10'', though she looks taller, her slender frame defined by ropes of sinewy muscle; could reasonably be described as "lithe", or "rangy".

Weapons of preference:
Bow, currently an ebony one although she is proficient with practically any type. She carries a one-handed axe but she prefers to not be in a position to have to use it. If she does, she'll augment it with flames.
She's well-versed in the production and application of poisons, and frequently uses them on her arrows.

Clothing:
Lightly armored, she currently favors the so-called "Nightingale Style" minus the mask, although the cloak irritates her from time-to-time. During her downtime she generally wears fairly nondescript dresses and boots, although her daughters are often nagging her to pick up something nicer from Solitude.
(If she were honest though, she is under no illusions about her physical appearance and her looks, and is unsure of bringing more attention to herself than is necessary).

Miscellaneous:
Prefers ale to wine in general, dislikes mead as she finds it too sweet.
Very fond of animals, one of her adopted daughters has a pet fox.
Has no time for men, her past history bears no pleasant memories of them, although in the years following what she prefers to term as "her darkness", she has come to view casual acquaintances with them rather more favorably than once she did.
She's taking a fairly neutral approach to the ongoing conflict in Skyrim. Ultimately she knows she'll have to pick a side as will everyone, but she can see the rights and wrongs inherent in both the Stormcloak and Imperial viewpoints for the future of Skyrim. Her decision to remain as distanced from the Civil War as possible is driven also by the whole business with the dragons and perhaps more so by the life she now has in Whiterun.

Beliefs:
She is fairly religious and though fiercely loyal to her heritage is surprisingly tolerant of many deities, and although she could be accused of picking whomsoever suits her needs at the time, generally she cleaves to the milder female aspects - (which is surprising given her past, or maybe to be expected); Mara, Dibella, and she can often be found at morning prayer in the Kynnareth Temple in Whiterun, in fact she even helped with the Gildergreen restoration.
Has an added affection for Azura.

Magic Abilities/Powers:
She has some knowledge of spells: destruction and restoration mostly, though these she doesn't use much, preferring to work at a distance from the shadows. Recently she has found herself developing additional talents as a result of events in High Hrothgar, amongst other places.
Some things she has always been good at though; she could stand right next to you and apart from a very faint scent of body odor covered mostly by cinnamon, you would never even know she was there.

Current Whereabouts:
She has settled in Whiterun, of which she is also Thane, and lives comfortably when she can in Breezehome. She takes an active roll in the commercial and spiritual life of her adopted city and is well-liked and respected. Can often be found in the tavern of an evening.
She settled in Whiterun partly because of its relative neutrality in the ongoing Stormcloak\Imperial hostilities, and partly because after her early experiences in the northern climes of Skyrim she now finds herself better suited to the more temperate environment that Whiterun hold provides; that and the rather more laidback and avuncular nature of its inhabitants.
She has rooms at the Mages' Guild in Windhelm, and a position with the Nightingales in Riften; she never stays at the former, and has done so only once at the latter.

Current Relationships & Family:
Not too long after moving to Whiterun she adopted - (some would say rescued) - a daughter: Runa Fair-Shield, from the Honorhall Orphanage in Riften and took another: Lucia, from the streets of her adopted city. After some initial ups and downs as one would expect the three of them have proven to be a close-knit unit, with Kaia trusting them to keep out of mischief - (as far as is possible) - whilst she is away on business.
If asked why she adopted them, she would most likely point to the loss of her blood daughter back in her past, and a desire to help the girls have the life that was not given to her in her formative years, and to have better chances in their futures.
Equally, her lack of an ability (since her captivity) to have children of her own must have colored her decision also.

Whilst in Whiterun she met and befriended Ysolda, a Nord with an open mind and a gentle nature. They are opposites in a great many ways; looks, racial predisposition, temperament, and life-experience, and both were certainly surprised when Kaia found herself proposing, and Kaia was frankly shocked when Ysolda said yes with barely a thought.
The union has been fulfilling and happy, however. Ysolda understands Kaia, her demons and her darker moods, and is always there with a soft word and embrace. The two accept each other with no question and Ysolda, also unable to have children herself - (though not for the same reasons), has happily taken on Kaia's daughters as their "other mother" and to the previous unit of three, a fourth has now very much been added.
Kaia, secretly, cannot fathom what Ysolda sees in her, but is too happy that she's with her to overtly question it. Neither of them know what the future will bring and Kaia herself is more than a little cynical in that respect, but they have hope, a family, and their faith.
And that's enough for now.

Mental Profile/Personality:
That there is a darkness to Kaia is an undoubted truth; the results of a troubled early life and a significant period of damaging - both physically and mentally - imprisonment, have exacerbated her Dunmer dourness to a near sociopathic degree, and left her with a raft of trust and behavioural issues.
That said, she was perhaps one of the only survivors of the "Event" at Helgen for whom the dragon's coming proved to be the making of a whole new and ironically brighter chapter of her personal history; her move to and acceptance in Whiterun, the adoption of the girls, and her recent marriage have all done much to throw light upon the shadows of her past.
Those shadows are still there, but she feels far more able to deal with them than she did before and besides, there's the whole "Dragonborn" issue which is proving to be a considerable distraction from her more introspective periods - (to which she is still prone).

Biography/Life History:
Kaia was born in Fort Zeren, on Bal Foyen in Morrowind.
Her father was a farmer and her mother kept the house. She is the middle sibling of three, the other two being boys. When she was very young her father died of Ataxia and eventually, following a series of disastrous attempts at maintaining the farm, her mother finally admitted defeat and took her offspring to Windhelm, as so many others of their kind had done. They found lodgings in the Gray Quarter.
From an early age Kaia manifested signs of the talents that would later provide her with a distinctly mixed history: she exceled at archery, at maintaining a furtive presence, developed a nascent talent for both Alchemy and some spellcraft, and maintained an almost all-consuming sense of curiosity about the world around her. Whilst her mother despaired of her, and her older brother castigated her for her perceived thoughtlessness in regards to their tenuous position even amongst the Dunmer in Windhelm, she frequently left the city to roam amongst the waters and the crags that surrounded the city.
The final straw came when, on an expedition involving her younger brother, they were both attacked by a prowling sabre cat and despite her best efforts, her brother was mauled and perished in the snows beyond the walls before she could get help.

Upon her return home, alone, her brother made it quite clear how he felt, both verbally and then physically, and so it was that later that night whilst her remaining sibling drowned his grief in ale and her mother, already increasingly distant since the death of her husband and the failure of their former life, sat by the unlit fire and stared at the wall, Kaia, consumed by guilt, left the family home, never to return to it despite frequent visits to Windhelm in the years after.

Over the next few years she wandered back and forth across the north of Skyrim falling into, and out of, various roving bands of ne'er-do-wells; honing her skills and hardening her demeanour, her body, and her heart to her childhood, and her circumstances. Little-by-little she proved her worth to these mostly male gangs, earning their respect and taking what she wanted before ultimately moving on.
What relationships she allowed were fast, rough, and mixed, and above all brief and about as impersonal as could be.
Eventually, older and with what little softness she had once possessed rubbed raw by her experiences, she found herself back in Morrowind - largely due to outstanding warrants for her arrest and execution stretching from Riften, through Windhelm, to Solitude.
Records show that she joined a "semi-legitimate" militia run by a wealthy landowner as a scout and for some years was active and extremely successful, rising to attain the rank of Captain. It would at this point appear that she had finally found a place, and some form of worth and purpose, in the land of her birth.
It was not, however, to last.

She had been wounded many times in previous engagements, but the operation that morning in 4E 191 was to wound her in a fashion that would be life-changing in more ways than one, and very nearly proved to be the end of her.
During an assault on a stronghold presided over by a particularly infamous bandit leader she, in a rare lapse of concentration, stepped on a pressure pad, sending a set of iron blades on a sprung pivot slashing down from above her to connect unopposed with the left side of her face, destroying her eye and fracturing her jaw, and knocking her insensible.
She was inevitably captured, and recognised as a high-ranking militia leader, her wounds were dressed enough to ensure her survival and she was subsequently interrogated, with increasing use of force, since she steadfastly refused to betray her comrades, her commander, or her paymaster. Finally, upon the failure of all other avenues, she was thrown to the men of the gang who made themselves known to her over a period of time, before themselves flinging her into an oubliette to rot once she became useless even to them.

Ultimately the Gods had other plans for her however, as she was rescued by her comrades in the fullness of time, nursed back to health and given high honor in recognition of her bravery and steadfastness.
She had been made pregnant during her time at the bandits' pleasure, however, and in the fullness of time gave birth to a daughter. What happiness might have sprung from such an event eluded her though, as the stress of the child's conception, Kaia's own captivity, and a painful and prolonged birth rendered the babe's life but that of a day.
She was laid to rest in the garden of Kaia's lord's manor, amongst the flowers, and given the name Sondme.

It took Kaia some months, but investigation provides that she undertook her duties for her lord once more, this time as Commander.
She was never the same however.
What looks she had previously possessed were gone, her child, albeit sired and born out of violence, was gone. Never one to have had a positive outlook on life she now slipped further into a black depression from which not even the capture and eventual execution of her former captors could lift her.
Eventually she slipped away from Morrowind back to Skyrim, where she was picked up by Imperial soldiers, summarily tried and sentenced, and thrown in the back of a wagon bound for Helgen.

Welcome to Kaia. A quite fully developed background presented here. Are you playing Skyrim with her now?

Hi ya, it's good to be back!

Yes, we're in Skyrim now.
Thanks I'm pretty pleased with her background - we've been going for several tens of hours so far so I know her pretty well by this point.