Since I finished up with Persephone's background today, I decided to reanimate this topic.
Name: Persephone
Race: Deadwalker (Imperial)
Gender: Female
Age: 4,035 as of Oblivion, 4,236 as of Skyrim (died at 29)
Sign: The Avenger (modded sign that does Reflect Damage) / The Wilder (modded Standing Stone that makes animals friendly)
Home Country: Cyrodiil
Faction and Rank or Guilds(if none, tell us what they do for a living): Necomancer Hunter and Abolitionist
Skills and talents: Two-Handed, Light Armor, Conjuration, Absorb Health, Ward, Summon various Undead.
As an undead, Persephone is immune to poisons, disease, and cold. She does not need to breathe, so cannot drown. Nor does she need to eat. Her only sustenance comes from the magicka that comes down from the stars. This is gathered in her varla stone heart, and distributed throughout her body via varla crystal tendrils that have replaced her blood vessels. She is extraordinarily strong, far more than a human is normally capable of being. She regenerates from any wound, including dismemberment. However, she still feels pain, although she has long since steeled herself to endure it. She cannot use altars of the Divines, as doing so actually burns her. Simply hearing the names of the gods is painful to her, especially Arkay and Mara's.
She is a capable magician, but only in a handful of fields. She has a powerful Absorb Health, and create a moderately strong Ward. She is an expert in necromancy, is able to summon the dead or reanimate them, although she refuses to do the latter. She can also heal the undead, and banish them.
Physical Appearance: Persephone is an undead Imperial woman, who appears to be 29 (the age at which she died). Her skin is pale and white as a corpse's (and she indeed has no blood in her body), and her eyes glow silver-white, like starlight. Her hair is coarsely textured, and is also milky white in color. She wears it down to her shoulders, with a pair of long wispy bangs framing either side of her face, and a single braid running down the left side of her face. Her lips are a soft purple shade, barely darker than the rest of her skin, and her eyelids are likewise shadowed darker. Two long, jagged scars cut across the top of her left cheek. The first begins under her left iris and runs diagonally down behind her hair to the bottom of her ear. The second runs a parallel path, starting at the bridge of her nose and slicing down to the back of her jaw. The final scar is smaller, and cuts from the edge of her lower lip to the middle of her jaw. A
PictureEyes: Glowing Silver
Theme Music:John Williams-Born On the Fourth Of July Soundtrack-PrologueBlue Oyster Cult-The Siege And Investure Of Baron Von Frankenstein's Castle At WisseriaBlue Oyster Cult-In The Presence Of Another WorldSeether & Amy Lee - BrokenCCR-Bad Moon RisingMatthew Good-WeaponEdie Brickell-A Hard Rain's Gonna FallBlack Sabbath-Falling Off The Edge Of The WorldEnya-Evening FallsDiana Ross-ReflectionsJohn Mellencamp-Human WheelsGreen Day-Boulevard Of Broken DreamsLinkin Park-Somewhere I BelongSarah McLachlan-Out Of The ShadowsLive-OvercomeQueen-The Show Must Go OnSantana & Everlast-Put Your Lights OnLed Zeppelin-In The LightPink Floyd-On The Turning AwayEnya-Anywhere Is Rush - Time Stand StillMental Profile/Personality: Persephone is an outsider in many ways. Being undead for over 4,000 years, she can only guess at what being human feels like anymore. She looks at the living and wonders what it must be like to feel tired, or hungry, or warm. To enjoy the taste of food, or the heady feeling of being drunk. She simply feels the cold emptiness of the grave. She does know what pain feels like however, and sometimes she cuts herself on the arms or legs. It reminds her that she really exists, and is not dreaming everything. For in a dream, one does not truly feel pain.
Persephone knows that she is a monster. A corruption of the natural cycle of life, death, and rebirth. She is reminded of it every time she watches a child grow to adulthood, then old age, and finally be buried. It all happens in practically the blink of an eye to her. Whenever she goes to a settlement the first place she visits is the cemetery, to see who she knows there. Because every friend she makes is destined for that place, while she walks on. Everyone she loves is dead, and always will be.
To her the living are like dust, just waiting to blow away in the wind. How much value can she place on dust? How can she invest herself in it? Yet because they are mortal, these people experience the world in a way that Persephone can only dimly glimpse. They can see the beauty in a sunrise, feel the warmth of love, be stirred by inspiration. Their fires burn so much brighter than the cold embers of Persephone's soul, and she knows it. She envies them for it. She wants to feel that way again, but cannot remember how. So she goes through the motions of being alive. Trying to do the right thing. Adopting and raising children. Going to school, etc...
Persephone still remembers how to hate though. That was burned into her from an early age. While she no longer aches to slay elves as she did in the First Age, she has found another enemy. One that wears the body of all races. Necromancers, who would enslave her and all those like her, just as the Ayleids once did. She fights them wherever she can find them, with the cold relentlessness that only the dead possess. Her hatred gives purpose to her existence, and even though there is a darkness deep in her soul, she rests assured that it is there to help her fight an even greater horror.
Biography/Life History: She was born in the Ayleid city of Lipsand Tarn in 1E 214 with the name of Kore (which simply means "young girl"). She never knew who her parents were. She was bought by Queen Tenyeminwe when she was just a few years old. She grew up in the palace of Lipsand Tarn, and was one of many slaves there. She worked for the Master of Flowers, and her duties including picking wildflowers on the slopes of the nearby mountains, as well as working the greenhouses, arranging flowers in vases, going around the palace to water and replace wilted flowers, etc...
When she was fifteen a visiting prince from Moranda named Ceyran took a liking to her and insisted that she entertain him in his quarters. When she proved to be a poor lover, he decided to entertain himself by torturing her. Ceyran choked her nearly to death, broke her fingers, and finally smashed her face into a glass mirror, shattering it and heavily scarring the left half of her face. At that point there had been so much noise that the Queen burst in herself and put a stop to it. Kore was taken to the healers, who managed to erase most of her scars. But two long, jagged rents still remained on her upper left cheek, and a smaller one beneath her lip.
Afterward Kore was removed from the palace, as she was no longer pleasant for the Queen to look upon. She was put to work with the blacksmith, who was a human. He was not an armorer, but rather worked solely upon things like horseshoes, light sconces, iron fences, and other non-military metal work. As his apprentice, Kore learned the basics of metalwork, and grew strong.
She was seventeen (1E 231) when the Alessian Revolution began. She joined the fight, and became a warrior, using a sword and shield. Like many in Alessia's army, she was professionally trained by Enelye of Hrotanda Vale, and knew Pelinal Whitestrake and Morihaus the Bull by sight, though not personally. When the city of Moranda fell to the Alessian army Kore immediately went to its palace and found Prince Ceyran, and strangled him with her bare hands. Afterward she was promoted to huscarl, the elite infantry in the army.
Like all the huscarls, she received special training from Enelye personally that allowed Kore to soul-bind her sword to her. She did this using a Nordic Greatwsord named Blessing that was given to her by Alessia after she was promoted to huscarl. At this time she met Ulfar, another huscarl. He was a young Nord Tongue who ran away from Skyrim to join Alessia's army. Ulfar only knew the Fus Ro shout, and was a warrior, also using a Nordic greatsword. Ulfar did not like Kore at first, thinking her a cold-hearted bitch. But he appreciated her ferocity in battle, and her hatred of elves.
The two of them were serving as scouts when the army was campaigning in western Colovia, near the city of Niryastare. They were separated from the army during a blizzard in the mountains, which forced them to seek shelter in a cave. Within they found a system of tunnels, which they naturally explored. Within they found a cabal of vampires, and the two had to fight to escape the caves. During the fighting Ulfar was stabbed in the groin with a spear, losing his genitals. Kore carried him out, and stitched his wound with an ordinary needle and thread. Then the two had to face the freezing cold of the blizzard outside. Though wounded, Ulfar's Nordic resistance to cold protected him from the worst. But Kore nearly froze to death, and only survived because Ulfar gave her all of his clothing, and kept her warm with body heat. They bonded during the experience, and became close friends afterward.
Kore fought with Alessia's army for the 11 years it took her to unite the Colovian highlands behind their banner. The next year was 243, and with King Vrage of Skryim and his army joining them, they marched upon the Ayleid capital of Aduial (Eventide, or Herald of The Stars), which would later be renamed Cyrodiil City, and finally The Imperial City. Before the great battle began outside its walls she witnessed Pelinal Whitestrake fight Umaril the Unfeathered in single combat, and both of them die. In the mass combat that followed both she and Ulfar were killed by the Aurorans in Umaril's bodyguard. Persephone died from a sword stab directly the heart, killing her instantly.
But it did not end there for either of them. Persephone's heart wound made her the perfect subject for Haides, a young Breton mage who had studied captured Ayleid magic during the war. Haides was a necromancer, but would never allow anyone to call him such. Instead his goal was to find a way to conquer death, in a way that would be accesssible to large groups of people. As opposed to the 'standard' necromantic route of Lichdom, which was only possible for a lone magician of great power to do to themself. He made his dream come true after the battle in White Gold Tower. He replaced Kore's heart with one made of varla crystal, which he had treated through a special alchemical process. He implanted wires of the same crystal throughout her entire body, all linking back to the heart. Then he energized it with magicka (which he did not realize had been refined by White Gold Tower itself) and brought Kore back to life.
She was a new kind of undead, forever powered not by Haides' magic, or her own arcane arts. Instead she was fueled by the very magicka that trickled down to Nirn from Aetherius within starlight. This magicka enhanced her physical abilities, and gave her the ability to regenerate from any wound. As any undead, she was resistant to cold, and completely immune to poisons, disease, and drowning. Likewise, she did not need to eat or drink (she was still capable to doing so, but was unable to digest anything, so would have to throw it all up at some point to empty her stomach).
Her appearance had forever changed as well. Her olive skin had turned pale and white as a corpse (all of her blood had indeed been drained by Haides). Her hair had turned white as well, and her eyes now glowed silver, with the light of the stars. When she saw her reflection in a mirror, she realized what had been done to her. Haides asked what her name was, she replied Persephone ("To Bring Death"). She then tried to strangle him, but could not.
For Haides was crafty. He did not place all of Persephone's heart within her chest. Instead he kept a tiny part of it as the central stone of a ring he wore. Even though physically disconnected, it still functioned fully as part of her body. This allowed him to control her physically whenever he wished.
The next day Haides presented his prize to Alessia herself. He promised that he could make an army of invulnerable soldiers like Persephone, if only Alessia would fund his research, give him assistants, more space, etc... But Alessia would never accept necromancy, no matter how pretty a package it was in. So she told Haides she'd think about it, and then ordered his arrest. Then Haides and Persephone were forced to flee Cyrodiil to Skyrim, and he continued his work in secret. But he never succeeded in making another like Persephone. All of his tests failed. Only as he neared his own death did he come to realize that White Gold Tower itself had played a key role in her creation.
A love hate relationship existed between Persephone and Haides. She refused to ever speak to him. But she would talk to other people - like Alessia. It infuriated him, and was her only means of expressing her will. But otherwise she was under his power. He used her as a bodyguard, and as a lover, though she did not do more than lay and accept his advances.
Unbeknownst to Haides, Persephone learned the art of Necromancy while serving him. Among other things, she learned to summon the spirit of Ulfar, and several of the other huscarls whom she had known. Unlike regular necromancers however, she never attempted to dominate or control Ulfar. She always summons him without exerting her will over his, and he always helps her, because he is her friend, eternally.
Haides met his end in Fellglow Keep. He had joined a group of necromancers there, but fell out with them during the group's internal political infighting. The final showdown included many fireball explosions, further inflamed by alchemical ingredients being ignited. The beams holding up the dungeon's ceiling collapsed, causing a cave-in. The jagged end of one such beam pierced clear through Haides' chest. His last act was to give Persephone her freedom, placing the half of her heart from his ring into her chest, fusing both pieces together. He told her "Because it is all I have left to give." Persephone's first act of freedom was to strangle him, repeating the very same words back to him. Even she does not know if she killed him as an act of mercy, or one of vengeance.
Since then Persephone has walked the Nirn. In 1E 361 she joined in Emperor Ami-El's war against the Ayleids in eastern Cyrodiil, concealing her undeadness and serving as a mercenary. It was during this war that she met and became friends with Mercator, an Imperial mercenary who fought with sword and shield. They faced the Ayleid's greatest general - Handril, and were present at the Battle of Lake Trasimene. Handril's army ambushed the Imperials, and annihilated them at the water's edge. Mercator was killed with all the others, but Persephone of course, went on. She continued to fight until the war ended in 393, when the Ayleids finally sued for peace.
Afterward Handril fled east to Resdayn (now known as Morrowind), where the Dwemer and Chimer were fighting against the Nords, who had invaded Morrowind. Persephone followed, hunting Handril. When he slipped away to Argonia she was still in pursuit. But she caught up to him too late, finding him dead after poisoning himself with nightshade. She returned to Resdayn, and joined with the Nords to fight against the elves.
Here she forged a friendship with Bruse, a Nordic huscarl who fought with a greatsword. They fought side by side against the elves until 1E 416, when High King Borgas of Skyrim was killed by the Wild Hunt. A succession war among the Nords followed the king's death, and their army withdrew from Resadyn so that the could fight in the civil war in Skyrim. Persephone followed Bruse there, until his death in 419. Afterward she was so disgusted that she quit the province altogether, and returned to Cyrodiil.
But she did not like what she found in her homeland. The Marukhati priests of the Alessian Order had risen to power fifty years earlier, and by now the land was firmly under their dark sway. Even Persephone, whose hatred of the elves was her overriding passion, thought that the Marukhati outlawing music - because the human slaves had none to listen to while toiling for their elven masters - was going too far. When the Marukhati-led Cyrodiilic Empire went to war with Skyrim, High Rock, and even its own Colovian estates of Kvatch and Skingrad, Persephone washed her hands of her kinsman's behavior, and left. Journeying south to lose herself in the deserts and jungles of Elsweyr.
It was in the badlands of Elsweyr that she met Sigrun - a Nordic huntress who had likewise traveled south to escape the wars of humans. They became very close, and lived together in the desert for sixty years, until Sigrun finally died of old age. This was the first time Persephone had stayed with any one person for such a long time, and Sigrun's death devastated her. Unlike her previous friends and comrades - Ulfar, Mercator, and Bruse - Sigrun had not been struck down in some great war, where one expected death might come at any moment. She simply grew old in front of Persephone's eyes and faded away. Afterward Persephone hid herself away from the world, and people, for over a thousand years.
She would not join in another major conflict until 1E 2200, when the Thrassian Plague was released into Tamriel by the Sloads. She joined the All Flags Navy, and took part in the extermination of the Sload race. She would later join in other wars, most notably that of Emperor Reman against the invading Akaviri in 1E 2703. But she left the army when afterward Reman's forces invaded Valenwood. She was tiring of war, even against elves.
It was in the Second Age that Persephone found a new enemy. She had always hated necromancers, but with the exception of the Sload - whom she had helped to exterminate - they had always been nothing but individuals appearing at random from place to place. But the rise of Mannimarco changed all that. His Order of the Black Worm became Persephone's new foe, one that she would battle with throughout the Ages.
I put a mod in his game which will allow him to sell skooma, grow moon sugar plants, and also brew skooma once he gets good. This is why he's got Alchemy as one of his Minor skills right now. Heh heh h1h!
Yes, that Rattler who terrorized the Capital Wasteland except it's not exactly the same guy but a 'projection' of him in Skyrim. Rattler from the Capital Wasteland doesn't know about Rattler from Skyrim and vice versa, though they do share most habits and traits, ...knowing that he was a character most of you loved to hate, I decided to introduce him here but I don't intend to often write or post about him.
