Meb_KatYT

A cloaked man looks at the poster on the notice board in Norland. My return is already a shocker to several people. I need not cause more distress and make more enemies

Me and Lhaura were about a day’s walk from Norland. We were camping for what should have been our last night in a tent before arriving in Vjardengrad. It ended up being a nightmare. I slept soundly. A bit too soundly. I woke up and noticed Lhaura was still asleep. “That’s odd, she’s normally the first one up,” I thought to myself. I got up and ate breakfast. A slice of bread. I really should have taken a bit more food from those mercenaries. I went back into the tent and shook her to wake her up. She didn’t respond. Suddenly, I noticed some red oozing from her clothes “No, no! No! No!” I shrieked. I began to sob when I noticed something by the foot of her sleeping pad, A note. Oldoln Taalios, YOU ARE NEXT -Demisetus I looked at the note then at the body of my sister. “You’re bold, Demisetus, but now I know your name. And I’m going to stop your little game.” I calmly folded the note and began to take down my tent. Wrapped her corpse in the tent and burned it plus her body within. That afternoon I reached the path I had taken the very first time I had arrived at Vjardengrad, before I knew anyone, before I had even seen the city itself. I chuckled as I looked at the path, stained by memories and a feeling in my gut that I had found my home. But this time it was different. It wasn’t instinct. It was knowledge. I really was home after all these years. For better or for worse, I was back. “Let’s pray to the All-Father that the saboteur didn’t mess things up too badly… I have a lot of explaining to do.” I remembered looked back on Rhea. Lhaura's daughter, safe in the fortress I was heading towards. I hadn't seen her in five years. "I'm sorry, little one." I looked back on the past six years. Too all of the people I had inadvertently led to death while I was in charge. Innocent people, good people who just wanted freedom. I shed a tear of remembrance as I looked upon my memories, and towards Vjardengrad, and the site where we had decided our last course of action behind it by the waterfall. "I'm sorry my friends... I failed. I let you all down." I sighed and began to walk the path home.

Fine, just don't make it too obvious that you don't want to regain custody ;D

Greetings! I am searching for a person who wants to play as a younger sister, though not a small child, we are talking mid-late twenties for this character's age. She is the sibling to a man abducted years ago, they were reunited and are now heading home. She comes with a skin, and I would prefer it if you think you will play her a decent amount. She also had a child who has been hidden. Part of it will be regaining custody. Message me on discord for more info!

A man in his early thirties walks down a snow-covered road somewhere North, the only sounds being his breathing and the crunch of snow under his boots. Behind him is his younger sister, in her mid to late twenties. As they trudge along the snow-covered road, she spots a lump among the snow. "Look!" She says, pointing at the lump. The man turns, goes over to the lump and kneels down to pick it up with his metallic left arm, revealing a crumpled-up piece of paper. The man pauses and cautiously unfurls the crumpled paper, revealing an advert for some kind of poetry contest in Norland. "Heh. Interesting. Very, very interesting." He turns to his sister, "Another chance to prove our identities should those schematics not be enough." He folds the advert and puts it into his satchel. The two siblings resume quietly trekking through the snow towards their destination, their home: Norland.

Meeeeeeeemmmmeeeeees

I sat in my tent with Lhaura operating on my mechanical arm. It hurt like nothing I had ever experienced before but it was necessary if I wanted to make allies. The magical components in the blade compartment had to be removed. If I wanted to return to Norland, I needed to replace them with a mechanism that did not rely on magic. I had designed a new mechanism using various bits and bobs I managed to snag as our fortress was sieged. All I needed to do was remove the old portion and have it filled in. The blade compartment only would open if I swung my arm the right way, but it had to be manually retracted. “Even then they won’t accept me," I muttered just before I yelped in pain. My sister simply continued. “I'm sure they will understand if you come back so they can replace it” she said with certainty in her voice. “Even if I do, they'll probably just assume I’m a dark spawn and kill me in some super painful way.” I sighed “Look sis, the only way we are going to Norland” I turned to her. “And for you to see Rhea again would be to find the mercenaries Clygar hired and force them to confess to everything in Vjardengrad. Even then that would be risky. Besides, your messenger said that the saboteur our grandfather sent dismantled everything I built there. The Taalios clan included. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else is living in the house I rented. Lhaura tilted her head “You said they were bounty hunters, right?” She asked. “Can’t we just find them and pay them to rectify what they did with an even higher sum?” I looked at her. “They were darkspawn bounty hunteooo- hey that's it! They most likely still have notes on how their plan would go and how to forge my handwriting! If we could snag those notes, we could go back to Norland, and we wouldn’t have any problems!” Suddenly a shriek and the sounds of a brawl were heard from the only other tent in the camp. “Dammit, those darkspawn are here! Is the mechanism installed?” I asked in a panic. “I finished just before we started talking about our plan to expose those bounty hunter’s plans” Lharua replied. We rushed out of our tent and into the other one only to be met with a grizzly scene. Lhaura’s husband, Geralt, sat in a pool of his own blood, dead. It was now just us two. She didn’t say anything. My sister just took a deep breath, dragged the body of her dead husband out of the tent and began to take it down. “What are you doing?" I asked. “I'm wrapping the body in the tent canvas so we can give him a proper funeral.” I sighed “Alright, but we can’t do it so close to Norland. Having a campfire lit is already as dangerous as it is this close to Vjardengrad. Until this is through, we shouldn’t even be camping here.” I turned and looked across the lake at the fortress city I used to call home. It was only seven years since I had last been there, but I felt like I had been away for more than a lifetime. “I miss ya, dad. I should have come to save you the first chance I got. We could really use you. More and more Skanarri darkspawn seem to keep finding their way to us every day.” I knew that the gold block the mercenaries had used to fake my death had been cast around the corpse of my father. I rubbed my hand across my chin and felt the fuzz of the beard I had grown. I had taken on his style of beard as a tribute to him. Sorrow suddenly began to flow through me like fire on dry wood. I just sat down, curled up into a ball and began to cry. I didn’t know what to do. “I looked at the body of Lhaura’s late husband as she burned it wrapped in their tent. I turned to my sister with tears still flowing down my face like the waterfall near us. “I will make sure you see Rhea again, I promise.” I began to walk away from Vjardengrad as the sun began to come up. We spent the next couple of weeks trekking towards the fortress I first met my grandfather Clygar Stonehead at. It was at this point our luck seemingly ran out but in truth had gone up a lot. We were about three days away from the fortress when we were ambushed by three of the seven bounty hunters who had taken everything from me all those years ago. Unbeknownst to them I had been training for the day I would face them again. I quickly knocked two out and Lhaura put the third into a headlock. I turned to him and put my metal arm up to his throat. “Now buddy, you are going to tell us where all the notes are regarding how you abducted me and forged my handwriting,” The bounty hunter quickly started to whimper. “P-Please, have mercy! It was just a job!” I looked at his unconscious comrades then back to him and gave some simple terms. “Give me the notes and I will let you and your friends live. Deal?” He looked at me confused and shocked. “Th-Th-Thats all you want? I got them in my pack over there.” He struggled to move his head but managed to give me the gist what the direction was. I found his pack, dug through it and pulled out a dagger, a bottle of poison, and some food. I dug deeper and found what I was looking for. Detailed notes on my personality, the people of Norland as a whole as well as high priority targets. I packed the notes into my own pack before promptly chucking the poison bottle about ten meters southwest where it instantly shattered upon hitting the ground. I found the other two hunter’s packs next to his and began splitting the food amongst the two packs. Once I finished, I picked up the dagger and punched the third bounty hunter, knocking him out. I handed Lhaura the dagger. She turned to me. “Are they gonna be, ok?” She inquired. I shrugged. “I just knocked them out. Let’s go.” Me and her started the long trek back to Vjardengrad. "I'm coming home friends, I'm coming home."

This is a combination of the previous 4 novels. However, unlike the individual novels, which individually I consider non-canon, I wish/intend for this complete/combined edition to be considered 100% canon. This is a prequel to Volume V. A Volume IV+V (4.5) may come at a future point. ============================================================================================================= It’s been a long time, friends. You may be asking how I am writing to you when I am “dead?” Well the answer is shocking. The truth is I never died. The gold block and the suicide note? Fabricated to keep your eyes away from my abduction. I didn’t find out how they made you think I was dead until recently when their whole plan went up in flames. The Skanarri are far more conniving than it would seem at first glance. How does this tie into me vanishing with a gold block in my place one night? Well to answer that question, we need to go back to before Balon was king, or before he even married Hilda. It all started shortly after it was announced that they were getting married. I was walking back home from the animal pen. I was getting wool in order to make some banners for my clan, as well as the ingredients for cakes for the celebration. I was happy for one thing as people had been shipping me and Hilda for a while, much to my annoyance. As I walked a couple of bounty hunters jumped me. I swiftly pulled out the Herald of Justice in order to defend myself but before I could do anything else a third one came up behind me and knocked me out. They dragged my unconscious body away while another group of roughly four or five stood by with a large gold block, a fake suicide note, and a fake last will. Those were the very same ones you all would find the next day. They tied me up and loaded me into a caravan headed for the center of Skanarri territory. Two days later I was offloaded from the caravan and carried into a fortress of some kind. I knew this wasn’t good and I began to struggle to no avail. One of the bounty hunters looked at me trying to wriggle free then turned and asked one of the others if they should have used chains instead. Not like it would matter though. I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in two days and so I wouldn’t be going anywhere. As they handed me off to a guard they were motioned to follow him in. I noticed banners on the wall and recognised them as those of the Skanarri. As I was placed down I saw who had ordered my abduction. I recognised him immediately. It was none other than the High Chieftain of the Skanarri himself, Clygar Stonehead. He motioned one of the guards. “Make sure they are paid.” He turned back to me. “Long have I waited for my grandchild to come home.” I looked up, glaring at him. “I think you got the wrong guy.” Clygar smirked. “Your father changed his surname to Taalios, did he not?” Fear shot through my body like lightning through copper. “You knew?” I gawked. “Yes… My son went through a great deal to avoid detection, but he failed to keep his facade up forever. As a result he is gone leaving only you, my bastard grandson to rise up and oppose me. A loose end. One that needs to be rectified.” I continued to struggle with the bonds. Clygar smirked. “You're quite stubborn, aren't you? Just like your father, and me before him. Tell you what… you’ve learned a lot since you cowered in battle and let a comrade lose an arm and a leg.” He motioned his arm towards a painting of the battle of Vjardengrad. There I was in the bottom left trying to avoid getting hacked to pieces, fear in my eyes. Clygar continued with a challenge. “Show me what you have learned since then. Beat me and I will let you go free. I considered the offer but he said the most horrifying thing next. “But if I beat you, however…” He paused, “I made a deal with a necromancer. My end was that I gave him the bodies of my dead in exchange for immortality.” My pupils dilated like the flesh around a wound. “You mean…?” He laughed “Yes, you are of the dark, yet you also have the light in you. The Long Dark and the All-Father both see you as vital to their overarching plans. One who will irreversibly damage the other. An asset that can change the tide… the pinnacle of light and dark.” He let his words register inside me. But unbeknownst to Clygar, spending two days in the back of a carriage tied up let my fingernails grow much longer than usual. As he was talking I used my sharper than usual fingernails to cut the ropes binding me. Before the guard next to me knew what was happening I had taken a sword and had stabbed them in the chest. The Skanarri weren't exactly the most heavily armored of folk. Looking at my grandfather and remembering my trial by fire in Norland and the demon in my head, I threw the sword at him, desperately hoping it would impale him. He ducked and it grazed the middle of the top of his head. But as he ducked he didn’t realize I was charging right for him and I tackled the High Chieftain to the ground. He was about to pull out his sword but I stepped on his hand preventing him from doing so. As he yelped in pain he looked up while I punched him repeatedly, the ferocity never seen coming out of me. Whether it was the All-Father or the Long Dark remained to be seen. I snapped out of my violent trance when he was a blow away from ”death.” I looked down with rage in my eyes, but I couldn’t find it in my heart to kill him. He may have killed a lot of people but he was defenseless, and my grandfather no less. That one split second of hesitation was all it took for a guard to shove me off of the High Chieftain, saving his life. Before I knew it I was being beaten into unconsciousness by guards, and the last thing I saw before blacking out was Clygar struggling to get up. At this point in my adventures it is important to mention that Clygar Stonehead may have been the High Chieftain, but his grasp on Skanarri territory was unstable, with smaller warlords regularly causing problems. There was only one tribe who could really do anything. The tribe of my mother; Talios. The lack of the second “A” is important. My mother did not want to be a part of the warring factions, just like my father. They met, fell in love, and had me plus my younger sister, Lhaura. When my parents were killed we split up to keep Clygar’s cronies away from each other. I hadn’t seen her since then until this part of my tale. Turns out she knew I was in Norland ever since the battle of Vjardengrad, when one of my grandfather’s troops made it back and confirmed rumors that I was alive. I had previously explored much of the northern half of Solstheim, including a shortcut through Skanarri territory. That’s all it took for those rumors to start, and they had been planning my potential abduction ever since then. It’s a lot to unpack, but it is important for understanding what happened while I was unconscious. Then again me being alive is a shocker in of itself. While I was knocked out, Cylgar sent a spy to pose as a childhood friend of mine to keep people away from the truth. I would later discover that this spy brought a baby back to Norland that he found in the woods. He was killed for doing so by an undead assassin sent by the necromancer. The Necromancer had somehow gotten ahold of my old armor set and put the armor on a corpse to pose as a zombified version of me. In addition, Clygar put my unconscious body in a caravan bound for an even deeper part of Skanarri territory. Before he did that though, he had my left arm cut off. The whole arm. Up to the shoulder. He didn’t want me escaping on my way to his necromancer friend. It turns out it wouldn’t matter as a team from the Talios tribe busted me out led by, you guessed it, my sister. She carried me over her shoulder all the way back to the Talios fortress, all while I was still unconscious. I woke up unable to feel my left arm. I looked to where it was, only to find it was gone as like I said, it was removed to make it harder for me to escape. There were some runes protruding from the stump left behind. A few more than would usually be seen on the point a prosthetic would be attached to. The slightly higher number of runes is key to a function my new arm had. The Talios folk had somehow managed to get a Slayersteel blade built in that could be deployed with a flick of my prosthetic wrist. One of the doctors noticed I had woken up and she told me to stay down. She dumped some kind of potion in my mouth that knocked me out again so they could more easily attach the prosthetic. I woke up several hours later. The operation had been completed flawlessly. I got up and tripped almost immediately. My new arm was plated in Carbidium, and as such it was heavier than my flesh and blood arm. As I fell, I accidentally deployed the blade, so it got stuck in the floor. Lhaura, who had been in the room the whole time snickered as I stood up and got my bearings. I turned and glared but recognized her almost immediately. She pointed to her wrist and made a flicking motion. I did so and watched in awe as it retracted into a hidden compartment. I looked around and saw the people of the Talios tribe. Unbeknownst to me at the time, within a few years I would be in command of all of the people in the room. We will now skip forward by roughly five years. Clygar raided Aaun twice. Both times he succeeded in his plans. The saboteur he sent is dead. Killed by the necromancer after he unintentionally gave Norland a decisive victory. As to whether they know of their victory remains to be seen. We sent our own messenger in response to Clygar doing so. Like the one my grandfather sent however, he was killed before he could complete his mission. Unlike my grandfather, we didn't order his death. Norland’s community of intelligent rats have taken over since where he left off since then. They are keeping the secret of my survival. I fear if I return the revelation that I am of both the light and the dark may get me killed, as well as the baby Lhaura hid there; Rhea Kvytravn Taalios… My niece. They are going to find out eventually, one way or the other. I need to clear up a lot but this is it for now. Should Norland want to ally themselves with the Talios tribe then we will forever be in your debt. I've skipped over a lot but that is the gist of it. Just send me a bird. We are desperate. -Oldoln Taalios, Cheiftain of the Talios Skanarri Tribe

This story is my HEADCANON We will now skip forward by roughly three years. Clygar raided Aaun twice. Both times he succeeded in his plans. The saboteur he sent is dead. Killed by the necromancer after he unintentionally gave Norland a decisive victory. As to whether they see it remains to be seen. We sent our own messenger in response to Clygar doing so. Like the one my grandfather sent however, he was killed before he could complete his mission. Unlike my grandfather, we didn't order his death. Norland’s community of intelligent rats have taken over since where he left off since then. They are keeping the secret of my survival. I fear if I return the revelation that I am of both the light and the dark may get me killed, as well as the baby Lhaura hid there; Rhea Kvytravn Taalios… My niece. They are going to find out eventually, one way or the other. I need to clear up a lot but this is it for now. Should Norland want to ally themselves with the Talios tribe then we will forever be in your debt. I've skipped over a lot but that is the gist of it. Just send me a bird. We are desperate. -Oldoln Taalios, Cheiftain of the Talios Skanarri Tribe

This story is FANFICTION At this point in my adventures it is important to mention that Clygar Stonehead may have been the High Chieftain, but his grasp on Skanarri territory was unstable, with smaller warlords regularly causing problems. There was only one tribe who could really do anything. The tribe of my mother; Talios. The lack of the second “A” is important. My mother did not want to be a part of the warring factions, just like my father. They met, fell in love, and had me plus my younger sister, Lhaura. When my parents were killed we split up to keep Clygar’s cronies away from each other. I hadn’t seen her since then until this part of my tale. Turns out she knew I was in Norland ever since the battle of Vjardengrad, when one of my grandfather’s troops made it back and confirmed rumors that I was alive. I had previously explored much of the northern half of Solstheim, including a shortcut through Skanarri territory. That’s all it took for those rumors to start, and they had been planning my potential abduction ever since then. It’s a lot to unpack, but it is important for understanding what happened while I was unconscious. Then again me being alive is a shocker in of itself. While I was knocked out, Cylgar sent a spy to pose as a childhood friend of mine to keep people away from the truth. I would later discover that this spy brought a baby back to Norland that he found in the woods. He was killed for doing so by an undead assassin sent by the necromancer. This assassin had somehow gotten ahold of my old armor set and was posing as a zombified version of me. In addition, Clygar put my unconscious body in a caravan bound for an even deeper part of Skanarri territory. Before he did that though, he had my left arm cut off. The whole arm. Up to the shoulder. He didn’t want me escaping on my way to his necromancer friend. It turns out it wouldn’t matter as a team from the Talios tribe busted me out led by, you guessed it, my sister. She carried me over her shoulder all the way back to the Talios fortress, all while I was still unconscious. I woke up unable to feel my left arm. I looked to where it was, only to find it was gone as like I said, it was removed to make it harder for me to escape. There were some runes protruding from the stump left behind. A few more than would usually be seen on the point a prosthetic would be attached to. This slightly higher number of runes is key to a function my new arm had. The Talios folk had somehow managed to get a blade built in that could be deployed with a flick of my prosthetic wrist. One of the doctors noticed I had woken up and she told me to stay down. She dumped some kind of potion in my mouth that knocked me out again so they could more easily attach the prosthetic. I woke up several hours later. The operation had been completed flawlessly. I got up and tripped almost immediately. My new arm was plated in Carbidium, and as such it was heavier than my flesh and blood arm. As I fell I accidentally deployed the blade so it got stuck in the floor. Lhaura, who had been in the room the whole time snickered as I stood up and my bearings. I turned and glared but recognized her almost immediately. She pointed to her wrist and made a flicking motion. I did so away from the blade and watched in awe as it retracted into a hidden compartment. I looked around and saw the people of the Talios tribe. Unbeknownst to me at the time, within a few years I would be in command of all of the people in the room.

This story is my HEADCANON. I continued to struggle with the bonds. Clygar smirked. “You're quite stubborn, aren't you? Just like your father, and me before him. Tell you what… you’ve learned a lot since you cowered in battle and let a comrade lose an arm and a leg.” He motioned his arm towards a painting of the battle of Vjardengrad. There I was in the bottom left trying to avoid getting hacked to pieces, fear in my eyes. Clygar continued with a challenge. “Show me what you have learned since then. Beat me and I will let you go free. I considered the offer but he said the most horrifying thing next. “But if I beat you, however…” He paused, “I made a deal with a necromancer. My end was that I gave him the bodies of my dead in exchange for immortality.” My pupils dilated like the flesh around a wound. “You mean…?” He laughed “Yes, you are of the dark, yet you also have the light in you. The Long Dark and the All-Father both see you as vital to their overarching plans. One who will irreversibly damage the other. An asset that can change the tide… the pinnacle of light and dark.” He let his words register inside me. But unbeknownst to Clygar, spending two days in the back of a carriage tied up let my fingernails grow much longer than usual. As he was talking I used my sharper than usual fingernails to cut the ropes binding me. Before the guard next to me knew what was happening I had taken a sword and had stabbed them in the chest. The Skanarri weren't exactly the most heavily armored of folk. Looking at my grandfather and remembering my trial by fire in Norland and the demon in my head, I threw the sword at him, desperately hoping it would impale him. He ducked and it grazed the middle of the top of his head. But as he ducked he didn’t realize I was charging right for him and I tackled the High Chieftain to the ground. He was about to pull out his sword but I stepped on his hand preventing him from doing so. As he yelped in pain he looked up while I punched him repeatedly, the ferocity never seen coming out of me. Whether it was the All-Father or the Long Dark remained to be seen. I snapped out of my violent trance when he was a blow away from ”death.” I looked down with rage in my eyes, but I couldn’t find it in my heart to kill him. He may have killed a lot of people but he was defenseless, and my grandfather no less. That one split second of hesitation was all it took for a guard to shove me off of the High Chieftain, saving his life. Before I knew it I was being beaten into unconsciousness by guards, and the last thing I saw before blacking out was Clygar struggling to get up. To be continued in volume III

This story is my HEADCANON It’s been a long time, friends. You may be asking how I am writing to you when I am “dead?” Well the answer is shocking. The truth is I never died. The gold block and the suicide note? Fabricated to keep your eyes away from my abduction. I didn’t find out how they made you think I was dead until recently when their whole plan went up in flames. The Skanarri are far more conniving than it would seem at first glance. How does this tie into me vanishing with a gold block in my place one night? Well to answer that question, we need to go back to before Balon was king, or before he even married Hilda. It all started shortly after it was announced that they were getting married. I was walking back home from the animal pen. I was getting wool in order to make some banners for my clan, as well as the ingredients for cakes for the celebration. Suddenly I was jumped by a couple of bounty hunters. I pulled out the Herald of Justice in order to defend myself but before I could do anything else a third one came up behind me and knocked me out. They dragged my unconscious body away while another group of roughly four or five stood by with a large gold block and a fake suicide note. Those were the very same ones you all would find the next day. They tied me up and loaded me into a caravan headed for the center of Skanarri territory. Two days later I was offloaded from the caravan and carried into a fortress of some kind. I knew this wasn’t good and I began to struggle to no avail. One of the bounty hunters looked at me trying to wriggle free then turned and asked one of the others if they should have used chains instead. Not like it would matter though. I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink in two days and so I wouldn’t be going anywhere. As they handed me off to a guard they were motioned to follow him in. I noticed banners on the wall and recognised them as those of the Skanarri. As I was placed down I saw who had ordered my abduction. I recognised him immediately. It was none other than the High Chieftain of the Skanarri himself, Clygar Stonehead. He motioned one of the guards. “Make sure they are paid.” He turned back to me. “Long have I waited for my grandchild to come home.” I looked up, glaring at him. “I think you got the wrong guy.” Clygar smirked. “Your father changed his surname to Taalios, did he not?” Fear shot through my body like lightning through copper. “You knew?” I gawked. “Yes… My son went through a great deal to avoid detection, but he failed to keep his facade up forever. As a result he is gone leaving only you, my bastard grandson to rise up and oppose me. A loose end. One that needs to be rectified.” To be continued in volume II...

As the dwarven forces stormed Norland's capital, Dagius Fylch instinctively drew his blade... or at least he attempted to. He forgot that one of the guards had taken his blade because he was "suspicious." Homeless was the right word. He sighed and bought a low-quality weapon from one of the many shops around the city. As the battle commence and the Norlanders charged out the back gate, they realized they had been tricked into coming out, and they promptly went back inside. As everyone made it back in, the gate slammed shut, leaving Dagius outside with nothing but a pair of shears and a low-quality Warhammer. He looked through the gates with a pleading expression at Knox, the guard who had taken his sword previously. All he saw on his face was a hateful smirk. Dagius now realized that he was indeed fighting on the wrong side. As he turned to face the oncoming dwarves, he tried to take one down with him. The dwarves were too quick and dodged his attack, his hammer shattering like glass when it slammed into the ground. As Dagius accepted fate, last thing he saw was a dwarven battle-axe crashing onto his head. As the axe came down, he muttered some comforting words to himself. "I'm back dad, I'm back."

Dagius reads the poster as he enters Norland. "I should have stayed." Unbeknownst to him, he would not leave the city alive...