The Beauty of a Lost Civilisation

Anyone who is a fan of The Elder Scrolls video game series must know who I’m talking about.  Also known as Dwarves (though not actually shorter than the average person), these are the Dwemer (meaning “Deep Elves” or “People of the Deep”).  They’re only mentioned in Oblivion, and I haven’t played Morrowind where they first appeared, but the remnants of their society are abundant in Skyrim.

I just noticed that the round towers look similar to the tip of the Doctor’s old sonic screwdriver!

We got this game as soon as it came out, but I never paid much attention to the Dwemer until recently.  I finally started to notice how beautiful are their architecture and technology.  Though I hardly ever trod there, Markarth has become one of my favourite cities because it was established in beautiful Dwemer ruins.  Though my house in The Pale is where I call home, I’m grateful to have Vlindrel Hall.  Markarth is also where I found my husband, Moth.  (I’ve considered moving the family there, but Moth insists that the kids are doing wonderfully living off the land and they’ll be great warriors someday because of it.)

A display in the Dwemer Museum in Markarth.

I don’t know what I like so much about it.  Is it that it’s like steampunk?  Is it the gorgeous contrast of a gold-coloured metal against gray stone?  (I would call it gold, but gold ingots are separate from Dwarven metal ingots; and the Dwarven ingots are slightly more orange.)  Is it the fact that they were so technologically advanced compared to the rest of Tamriel, and even though they’re long gone no one else has caught up yet?  Is it the mystery of a long-forgotten (though not really forgotten) race?  Yeah.  Probably all of that.

Though I don’t remember where it’s located, this puzzle is the most beautiful piece of Dwemer technology I’ve come across in the whole game.

One thing I have learned about their disappearance is that they didn’t really die off.  All but one vanished into thin air simultaneously — sort of like the Ancients of Stargate.  The man that didn’t was granted eternal life, but was plagued with constant pain from the Corpus disease (the disease itself is a whole long story).

Last time I played, as I roamed Mzulft again (if I remember the location correctly), I thought that I could unofficially live there.  I noticed others had — bedding and tents in a few places.  Seems I’m not the only one who finds Dwemer ruins beautiful enough to live in — and beautiful enough to deal with the little shocking spiders and other such protectors of the ruins.  (Little buggers.  I prefer melee to ranged, but darn it, it hurts when they explode with electricity!)

The most beautiful views are among the ruins WAY underground.

Oh, Dwemer…  When the Doctor takes me away in the TARDIS, the first time/place I want to go is one of your cities when it was bustling with life!  You gorgeous people, you!

We Are Family

As you may have concluded from my last post, I had my Skyrim character marry the Orc Moth gro-Bagol again.  I didn’t just go right out and do it, though.  I still searched for the Nordic options Onmund and Erik.  However, I couldn’t find either of them.  Not finding Onmund was understandable because the College of Winterhold is a big place.  However, Erik wasn’t at the small inn in the tiny town of Rorikstead.  I went back many times and searched all over the town as well as the inn, but he was nowhere to be seen.  I finally assumed that he was probably killed by a dragon, or something, earlier in the game and went to find Moth in Understone Keep in Markarth.

Not *my* wedding, but an image I googled.

This time, I went to Radiant Raiment in Solitude to look for something more suitable to wear for the wedding.  The best thing I found was college robes, but with a circlet I actually really liked it as a medieval-type wedding dress.  (And I preferred the way it looked on me to fine clothes or anything else.)

College robes and the jade and sapphire circlet worn at the wedding.

I was done, for now.  I wasn’t quite ready to choose a second child to adopt, because I always want to be sure I make the right choice.  I was on my way to a dock, going through Windhelm, when I was stopped by Sofie, a girl selling flowers.  I asked about her parents and she said that her mother had died and her father was a Stormcloak soldier who hadn’t come home.  So, I bought some of her flowers and asked if I could adopt her.  She was so excited.  I gladly did so and she went to pack her things and said she’d meet me at our house.  I happily skipped off to finish my current quest, knowing that it was probably the best impromptu decision I’d made in the game.

Sofie, selling flowers in Windhelm.

Finally, my happy family is complete.  There’s me; my husband, Moth; my daughters, Dorthe and Sofie; and Dorthe’s little fox.  Not to mention my housecarls, the followers I’ve had (currently Kharjo the Khajiit), my bard (which, I wish a housecarl would actually hire a male bard because the female bards always sing out of tune!), and my outside animals.

Me on my horse with Kharjo looking on.

(Left to right:) Sofie and Dorthe

Please excuse the poor quality of the pictures I, personally, took.  I play on the xbox, so there’s no way to get actual screenshots.

Wood Elves Marry, Too…

I can’t believe that Skyrim has only been out for about ten-and-a-half months!  It seems like much longer.  Though I did take a break from it for a short while, the release of the add-ons has got me playing it a whole lot more again.  Hearthfire is the best 400MP ($4.99) I’ve ever spent!

I’ve known about the possibility of marriage in the game since it came out.  Though I did decide early on that I hoped to have my character marry a bard, I was never interested in it enough to pursue the goal of marriage until recently.  I mean, my daughter should have a father, right?

So, my decision to explore this part of the game was sparked in my quest with the Stormcloaks, after the battle in Whiterun when Jarl Ulfric was talking with Jarl Balgruuf.  I happened to notice Ralof there and thought he could be a good man for my character (probably what sparked the dream I had a few posts ago).  I figured that since he plays a big role in the game, he wouldn’t be “available,” and I was right.  (Though there is a mod that will allow you to marry NPCs that you normally can’t, but I didn’t feel like doing all that.  Ralof isn’t THAT worth it :oP.)

Ralof

I did start the quest, and kept my Amulet of Mara equipped while I did other quests in case I came across a possible good mate for my character, the Wood Elf, Amaryllis.  I got tired of that, and finally looked up all males in the game that are “marry-able.”  I’d already known about Argis, because he’s my housecarl in Markarth and expressed interest in me.  Even though he’s a bit freaky-looking, I kept him as a possibility because he’s a Nord with shoulder-length hair and a goatee.

Argis the Bulwark

I also have really been wanting to become a Blood-Kin to the Orc people, because I’m so gosh darn curious as to what goes on in their strongholds.  I thought about the possibility of marrying an Orc to hopefully make that a piece of cake.  I did end up trying that, marrying Moth gro-Bagol, a blacksmith in Understone Keep. I wore my Arch Mage’s Robe for the ceremony and decided that we’d live in the home I built in The Pale, where Dorthe is anyway.  I was a Wood Elf married to an Orc with a Nord for a daughter, haha.  And a pet fox.  Can’t forget that pet fox.

Moth gro-Bagol

After Moth made me Blood-Kin and I went to an Orc Stronghold, I realised that I had already mostly completed a quest to become Blood-Kin — I just had to talk to the guy to finish it off.  So, I loaded my saved game before Moth and Amaryllis got engaged and completed that quest again so I could be an Orc Blood-Kin and still get a Nordic husband.

I’m still considering to which Nord out of my three picks I would like Amaryllis to marry, but am now actually starting to miss Moth.  Hey, I’d already married the guy and had grown a bit attached to him in the few minutes that we were actually wed.

After finding this picture of Erik the Slayer (much different from previous one I’d seen), I think he’s my Nord choice, but I’ll still show you the third option I’d had for Amaryllis — Onmund, from the College of Winterhold.

Erik the Slayer

Onmund

Though Erik is a great choice (buff Nord with a goatee and shoulder-length RED HAIR), I’m now torn between him and Moth.  For an Orc, Moth was very loving to Amaryllis whenever he spoke to her, which is what really brings this dilemma.  Call me girly if you will, but it’s almost like choosing between a guy you’ve dated who was really good to you and a guy that looks good and you know is really nice.  (His personality description says he “has a cheerful disposition, often commenting on stories of adventure while living in the house of your choice after marriage.”)  Whoa.  When you put it that way, I think that decides it…

I think I’m going to go find “the one who got away.”  Haha.

Fandom Dreams

I woke up normally today and made Hubby his lunch before he left for work. After reading in bed for about 45 minutes, I was in a curl-up-in-a-ball mood. Naturally, I fell back asleep doing so completely under the covers. I woke up again at 11.30 (about four hours later), but not before having one of the best dreams I’ve had in a long time. It involved the video game Skyrim, the TV show Eureka, a bit of Thor, and of course real life.

I wasn’t actually *me* for most of the dream; just the real life and parade parts.

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It started with me playing Skyrim, but I was my character instead of actually me playing. I came across an awesome half-sunken building (I don’t remember what the inside looked like, but the outside seemed Dwemer) in a huge pond that was waist deep. (This ended up being my house.) There was a male Nord character there with shoulder-length hair and a braid and when I spoke with him he mentioned my Amulet of Mara and I thought, “Finally! Someone who seems worthy to marry my character!” So they got married, and I had her tell him she wanted to be a mother, so they took care of that in the pond; this part was all completely hidden and more implied, like The Sims or even Fable without the noises. (What was weird was you needed four people to be able to get pregnant, but I just completely ignored those random characters that showed up.)

In the next part, I (still my Skyrim character) was in a Suburban-type vehicle with Allison, Fargo, and two other people (I think Henry and a mix of Carter and some old guy) from Eureka, and Allison and I were both very pregnant. We’d just stopped at a gas station and everyone got out while the driver (Carter) got the vehicle situated at the pump (big vehicle pulling a large trailer and pushing a small car). When he was finally done, I went to the pump since there were a lot of large surrounding objects, because for some reason part of me wanted to hide my pregnancy. Henry was closest to me and some kind of short conversation occurred, then my pregnancy came up and he asked what happened. It came out then. Apparently, I (still my Skyrim character) had had a boyfriend in Eureka and when he went missing (the word used in my dream, but he had died) I ran away to Skyrim and it was the next day that I’d found a husband there.

Another part of the dream, sadly forgotten, happened here that involving some guy being after me for some reason, I think involving the baby. I want to say the way he looked physically was most like a Dark Elf, but I’m not sure that he was a Skyrim character.

In the next part, still pregnant, I was at the top of a short cliff (about 50 feet or so), and a battle was going on below involving Nords. There was a lot of brush and trees at the bottom of the cliff and one dead, but hearty, branch lead up to the top. Suddenly, I saw my Nord husband climbing up, seemingly wounded but maybe just needing rescue. He could almost make it to the top, but he stopped and reached up his hand; the expression on his face was like he was going to die if he didn’t make it to the top. I reached back, when suddenly Thor was next to me, also reaching back and shouting, “Father!!” (It’s so funny thinking about that part because it’s like a cheesy movie where a guy is in agony because he can’t save his dad from drowning in an obviously shallow pool of water. It also wasn’t Odin; he just happened to be Thor’s dad.) Then, my thought was, “OMG, I married a king?!”

Next, it was fairly dark outside and a parade was going on. I (finally actually starting to be real me; it was like a short morphing process at this point) was just coming up to it and saw a couple advertising floats (I remember the giant inflatable Lowe’s logo). Then, I was part of the crowd, but we were moving and couldn’t even see the parade (or maybe I just didn’t care) and it seemed more like we were inside a blimp-like float. Hubby and I were sitting, talking to Fargo and someone else in front of us, there was a camera guy standing to my left, and Joe* (main sound man at our church back home) was walking around overseeing things. (Hmm… So maybe I was in the control room instead of the crowd.) In the conversation, something came up where we said we weren’t having kids. Not long afterwards, Hubby referred to Mark* and Steph* (our favourite couple friends) as something like “the keepers of our children” and Fargo was all confused and said, “I thought you guys didn’t want kids.” We laughed and I explained who Mark* and Steph* were and that we call their girls our kids. He didn’t get it, and you could tell by the goofy expression on his face.

*Real life names have been changed for protection purposes.

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Sadly, that was the end of my awesome dream. If you didn’t think it was awesome, that doesn’t matter to me; I frickin’ loved it! Any dream that involves a lot of Skyrim… plus a Marvel character andthe TV programme I’m into at the moment… is alright with me!

Oh, and needless to say, but I’m going to anyway, I was really in the mood to play Skyrim today, which I did for maybe five hours. I didn’t find a suitable spouse for my character, but I bought land for a second build-able house and my daughter (Dorthe) brought home a pet fox. And I also defeated the Imperials… you know, in my spare time… ;o)

This is not actually my character — just a picture I googled.

A Different Doctor

Please read the section about posting stories on the “About This Blog” page.

Additional note: The Doctor’s dialog is bold, while the companion’s dialog and the rest of the story is not.

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“Just this once, everybody lives!”

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“Doctor, can we talk?”

“Of course, we can. I’ve always got time for you.”

“I’m going to get right to it. I think I want to go back home.”

“‘Go home’? What brings all this up?”

“I haven’t seen my mum in a long time. Haven’t talked to my friends in years. I’d rather not be forgotten because I’m off travelling.”

“You’ll never be forgotten! People all over time and space are already telling stories of how together you and I saved them.

“But something tells me that’s not really what’s bothering you, is it?”

“I was hoping I didn’t have to say this, but… it’s because you’ve changed, Doctor. I know you’re technically the same man –still love the Earth and humanity and risk your life to save them– but you’re still different from when we met.”

“Are you referring to my regeneration?”

*nods*

“How long have you felt like this? Did you feel like this last time?”

“No, it’s just this one. I’m not sure why it’s so different this time. Maybe because last time you’re the only thing that changed. This time it was not only you, but the TARDIS, the companions, the sonic screwdriver, and heck! even the Daleks changed!

“I’ve held off this conversation for so long because… I do know that you are the same man. The Doctor that I met is in there. Even your tenth incarnation — he’s in there. You’ve got their memories. I haven’t been able to bring myself to leave because … I promised him that I’d travel with him for forever. And yet, I know that I’ll never actually, completely get him back.

[Hugs.]

“I’m sorry, Doctor. I am so sorry.”

“Hey, now… it’s alright. Frankly, I’m surprised you lasted this long.

“Don’t worry about me. Companions come and go. Rose and Donna promised to stay forever, but they’re gone, too.”

“That’s not fair! They didn’t choose to go.”

“I’m sorry. Forget I said that. It was stupid of me. I only meant…

“So… you really want to go?”

[Hesitation in her agonised eyes.]

“I’m scared, Doctor. I feel incomplete here, but I’m afraid that if I leave I’ll realise my mistake and be trapped in some mundane life and never see you again.”

“I tell you what… I still have that mobile that Martha left me. You can take a break, and if you find that you want to come back, call that number and I’ll drop everything I’m doing and come rescue you from that ‘mundane life.’ But instead, if you prefer to remain on Earth… then, by all means I wish you the best of luck!”

“Thank you, Doctor! You’re still the most amazing man I’ve ever met. No matter what happens, always have a companion. You always need a companion. I know that in that past you’ve thought that all you do is hurt people. Just remember the old saying: ‘It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ Well, it also applies to travelling with you. I mean it. I wouldn’t trade the last seven years for anything. I love you — we all do. And if I never come back… Well, we’ll see how that goes.”

[One last embrace.]

“I promised you, Doctor. I’m so sorry! Take care of yourself.”

“It’s OK. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.

“I still think you’re brilliant. And fantastic — absolutely fantastic!”

“So are you, Doctor. So are you.”

The Same Doctor

Please read the section about posting stories on the “About This Blog” page.

Additional notes:

I didn’t intend for my first post to be an incomplete “story,” but it goes with one I wrote last night that I’ll post later.

The Doctor’s dialog is bold, while the companion’s dialog and the rest of the story is not.

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“Uh… nothing. It’s just… the change has finally caught up to me.”

“What change is that?”

“You. Your regeneration.”

“It’s been two years.” The woman nods. “I never saw you like this the last time I regenerated.”

“I know, but this time it’s different. Last time it was just you that changed. This time everything changed. You, the TARDIS, even the sonic screwdriver. And we never see the same people as before. New companions, new friends, new allies, new enemies,… [scoff] even the Daleks changed. I feel like I’m the only thing that’s the same. Almost like time has moved on and I’ve been left behind.”

The Doctor sits down next to her, now beginning to understand the downhearted condition of his friend.

“You haven’t had a chance to connect the dots yet,” he says.

“Right. I just need a ‘moment.'”

“We’ll then… let’s get you that ‘moment.'”

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“‘Just this once, everybody lives!’ That was the moment I knew that I want to travel with you forever. I saw what a truly beautiful man you are. There are times when you may have seemed to be angry and violent, but in the end your love for people is what it’s all about.”

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“I still think you’re brilliant. And fantastic — absolutely fantastic!”

“Thank you, Doctor. So are you.”