Hello and welcome!

First of all I would like to point out that this is not a fanfic in any traditional sense. I merely write this down for myself as a reminder of what Lothran and I have been through. I'm not detailing too much or adding dialogue.
If anyone would like to comment here that's very much ok, I welcome it. Though again this is mostly for myself and obviously Lothran, who I feel deserves some recognition other than in the Update thread. So, without further ado...


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Lothran in prison (at the very start of our journey)
First look
Current look

Lothran's wiki page


When Lothran and I first met in February 2007, he rigorously followed quest after quest and did very little of the free exploration and collecting he's been doing for the last few years. But he was happy, we both were. By doing them we learned how Cyrodiil worked and we got to know many people through those quests. Seeking Your Roots was one of the very first quests we got after having picked up a Nirnroot though oddly enough, Sinderion was one of the last people we got to know. So many other things got in the way, like Unfriendly Competition, Imperial Corruption and the Arena questline. We had so much to see, so much to do and so many people to talk to and at times it felt overwhelming, but in a good way.
In the beginning Lothran felt so weak that at one point he booked a room at The Foaming Flask and focused on summoning a skeleton to fight so he could get some practice. It was intense but quite fun, and at one of those training sessions Audens Avidius comes barging in with a dagger. Needless to say he didn't last long. After all, Lothran was already in full combat gear with sword in hand. Audens was just another sparring partner.

It was a very, very interesting time for both of us and I can sometimes miss that. But it's all in the initial experience, it can never be duplicated 100% by creating a new character and I don't intend to either. It happened then and there and I am happy with those memories. By re-living them I think they would be tainted and I don't want that. I prefer to just move on.

Now years later, Lothran never goes on official quests anymore. He makes up his own though, like collecting one shield and cuirass of every town, and he may do the occasional follow-up on an old quest, but other than that the official quests are all long gone. He hasn't got the time for them anyway. He has so many places and people to re-visit and we cannot forget his duties up in Bruma. Neither of us can imagine a winter coming and going without him being there. It's his home, plain and simple. And he takes great pride in being one of the guards protecting Bruma even if times are calm and no real threat is around. He still wants to help out once in awhile by pulling graveyard shifts by the North gate which usually only has one guard.

And when spring comes he can't wait to go down to Chorrol. This is a tradition from 2009 (roughly) and at times when I've had him go to the Imperial City to offload first he's murmured, and I could tell it was not what he wanted. So Chorrol it is, you can't change what works and who am I to disregard my own character's wishes?
Lothran usually visits western Cyrodiil before mid-summer and the eastern parts after that. Again, at times I have tried to make him do the opposite but it has felt so wrong to be in Cheydinhal in May instead of Skingrad and Anvil. But it's all good, it all feels new and fresh when we get to those places (provided we do it at the right time) and it doesn't get boring. As I write this we're of course planning for Bruma once again and I am sure it'll feel as good as ever once we get there in late November.




Lothran the Nordic Dunmer's story is far from over!

I think you're right - Lohtran definitely deserves more than just being mentioned in the Updates thread.

I enjoyed reading about his beginnings and seeing how differently he looked like back then. And just looking at him tells its own tale - Hide of the Savior, for instance, so it's safe to assume that the unicorn in his world is long gone by now.

My favorite part is the one where he was practicing on a summoned skeleton and Avidius barged in, I don't remember reading this one before. That's why I'm looking forward to more such adventures which we don't know yet.

How fun that Lothran has his own thread now to share some of his thoughts and adventures. I think you are wise that he has a bit of a routine to his travels - that ensures when he gets back to a place it does indeed feel sort of new again because he hasn't been there for a time.

I love how his look has evolved and, as you well know, Buffy simply adores his white hair - especially with snowflakes dancing in it.

I can always tell when it's winter, because that is when Lothran migrates to Bruma.

Oh, I didn't see this yesterday, I only "see" what comes in my email notices unless I get a nudge. This is a wonderful glimpse into Lothran's life!

Aw, that is so cool that you are still on your first game! I actually did that with my first Maxical too, but then my 360 got the RROD. When I had to start over on the replacement console, doing all those quests again was so fun that I ended up playing and completing 18 more games (including all the aftermath stuff) on the 360; and several more on the PC.

I'm really glad you showed Lothran's early pictures; I hadn't seen those before! This was Awesome!

We can mark the seasons by following Lothran’s travels. I’m so glad you’ve given him his own thread!

Love the pictures, and now I know where I can always find them.

Unfortunately, yeah He was young at the time and didn´t stop to think that maybe it would be best to leave the beautiful creature alone. Like Buffy with the Border Watch incident, Lothran has his regrets...


Oh, that happened long before our introduction to the forums so that´s why I haven´t written about it.


I have thought about making a thread for him in a long time but never really found a good reason to do it. But as I was thinking back I sort of noticed some of the memories fading away and we can´t have that, can we? So I figured the best way to preserve those memories would be in his very own fanfic thread


Yes, I do know of her fascination with his white hair There is a good reason as to why the colour changed, I have written about it but I will definitely mention it here too


Indeed. A winter without Lothran in Bruma is like a piña colada without an umbrella


That´s his pre-internet look!

I´ll probably add more later


He kept pestering me about it and I finally caved

As years went by and I was still wandering Cyrodiil with my beloved character, I felt his experience grow immensely. Long gone were the days when he was cautious about even showing himself in the Imperial City because he thought he'd get thrown back in jail. Gone were also the days when he sparred with his summoned skeleton in a rented room to gain strength and work on his skills. He was now a Master in many things, not least in the magical arts, and I wanted that to show but how? We both liked his outfit and neither of us wanted to change it so what could we do?

Well, the most visible part on him besides his clothes was of course his long hair. Pretty quick came the decision to change it to white and I got the idea from the end of the first X-Men movie where part of the girl's hair changed to white when she strained herself in the fight using her powers. That was the perfect excuse to a Warlock roaming in Cyrodiil and thus I learned how to make that change without screwing up any skill. While changing the colour of Lothran's hair I also made him a bit chubbier to simulate getting a lower metabolism as part of getting older.
Lothran is of course an elf and thus does not have the human traits I speak of here, but for me it simulated his many years and ever-growing experience and it was important even if not 100% lore accurate.

This all happened when Lothran was in the Mages Guild´s basement in Chorrol but the year escapes me. I can look it up but it requires me to load up an entire different batch of saves and I don´t think it´s relevent enough to warrant that. I can also look through some screenshots and maybe get the date from that. If so I´ll post it in the OP.

Aww, I knew what Lothie's white hair represented, but it was wonderful hearing of the wise warlock's experience-based changes again.

I remember reading about the reason for his hair color change but I didn't recall it until now. I also didn't know about Lothran getting chubbier.

It´s barely noticable, I´m told....

OMG, I just saw the WIKI page! How cool!

Yeah, it was fun making that page and it wasn´t hard at all. I wrote the whole thing right away


Thanks to Diamandis who came up with the idea for a wiki about our characters!

That is really Awesome!

The wiki page is great Mirocu, and so is Lothran's. I confess I am no big fan of dark elves but you made him quite different in a way. Maybe it is the white hair

Thank you!

I´ve grown quite fond of Dunmers and elves in general. They are an interesting bunch, I think.

Lothran´s approach to the emperor´s request was in the vicinity of "What? I didn´t ask for this assignment" and while he could have done what the emperor had asked him to, too many personal things got in the way. Though not wanting it to fall into the wrong hands he decided to keep it rather than throw it away. As long as he himself had it, albeit he wasn´t its rightful keeper, he knew where it was and could at least honour the emperor´s wish to keep the evil forces at bay as they seemed to need it for what they intended. And seeing as years has went by and no daedra invasion has occured, I´d say his tactic has been rather successful.


On my level, there are two reasons why Lothran never handed the amulet to Jauffre. One reason is the same as why we didn´t meet Sinderion for so long even though we got his quest very early; we simply got distracted by the sheer amount of things to do, people to talk to etc. This I consider to be the main reason, I actually fully intended to do the MQ at first since I wasn´t used to free-roaming and side-quests. It´s when I learned about all those things that the MQ´s appeal dropped like a rock.
The other reason is because of the artwork on the game box where you could see Kvatch in ruins. Knowing how games work (that by doing something it triggers events) I feared that could happen to Bruma, a town I quickly fell in love with. I didn´t know it was Kvatch that was displayed on the box. By the time I had gotten to know Bruma and its citizens I was dead set on that no matter what I did, Jauffre could not get the amulet. He should have it, but again I feared what would happen if I did let him have it, and so I decided to just ignore it in Lothran´s inventory.

As time went by I understood that giving Jauffre the amulet doesn´t do much, it´s when you start to deal with Martin that triggers events. At least that´s my understanding, I might be wrong. In any way, after all the time that had passed it just felt wrong to suddenly give it to him. If I should have I should have done it then and there. I did however look up how to unmark it as a quest item so Lothran could drop it. It now resides in his home in Bruma, among his other gems and trinkets. Why I reveal this is simple; the whole town guard keeps a close eye on his home when he´s not there and the reason behind that will come to light in my next post.



Thanks for reading

Well, the wise warlock has a pretty sound point - he hung on to the amulet and there was no daedric invasion - aside from that bit of nastiness at Kvatch. Besides, I've heard that if you give the amulet to Jeffrey (lol) that he simply loses it anyway. Much safer with dear Lothie methinks!

I love the idea of Lothran wearing a tracksuit and showing off his Amulet of Kings bling like Run-DMC!

-Yo, yo! Where my bling at!?

You should have sent the latest story to Bethesda, telling them that to prevent the Daedric invasion the quest after the tutorial should tell you to keep the Amulet at all times, and everything'll be fine, instead of directing us to Jauffre and causing oblivion.. Lothran is the best proof for that. I liked the part where you mention that guards keep a close eye on Lothran's quarters when he's gone.

I think the Kvatch gate is open right from the start of the game, so if you pass it on your way toward Anvil regardless of anything you have or haven't done in the game, the little guy will run out to you and yell about the Daedra and Oblivion gate destroying K'vatch.

I normally wait until level 17 before I go near Kvatch for that reason; and yes - I also keep the Amulet of Kings until I am ready to do the main quest; then turn it in.

If I'm not mistaken, taking Martin to Weynon Priory triggers the attack there, and taking Martin to Cloud Ruler Temple triggers the opening of the random Oblivion gates all across Cyrodiil.

I think what they should have done is put the invasion on a timer, though I´m glad they didn´t


Yeah, that´s my understanding too. Not that it matters now, though. After all, the emperor did give Lothran the amulet which shows great trust, and Lothran isn´t one to let someone like that down

Yeah, but I love those random oblivion gates opening up, I just don't want to do the main quest till level 17 (for the Transcendent Sigil Stones). And when I used to open up the gates early on and then wait to level 17 to tackle them, people were being found dead all over Cyrodiil. That Leyawiin Count's wife; her horse; some young guy in Water's Edge, Mazoga, etc - and many more, all dead in the road. It was awful, you couldn't walk anywhere without the sky reddening. It was frightening to play - genuinely felt like there was a crisis in Cyrodiill.

Well actually, that was the most real game ever, but finding all those people dead was awful - especially Mazoga and that poor paint horse. So I started hanging on to the Amulet and then starting the crisis when I was ready to tackle it.

(And of course that meant holding off doing that Malacath quest till then, since when those Bleak Mine Guards stalk me I want to be able to run them through Oblivion gates and make them fight Daedra, lol).

You've almost persuaded me that's a good idea!

Just to see the Countess dead?

As many already know, Lothran is an honorary guard of Bruma who during the coldest parts of the winter helps out patrolling the town and protecting the North gate. But how did he actually become a guard, and an honorary to boot?

The answer can be found when Lothran first came to Bruma in 2007 in search of someone named Ongar the World-Weary who apparently could help him get rid of "hot" merchandise other merchants wouldn´t touch. That´s why Bruma was the first town Lothran visited after leaving the Imperial City; he needed Ongar, and he needed the Septims he could give him.

Upon spending a little time in Bruma, Lothran was greeted by a representative of the castle who gave him some money as a sign of good will and asked the Dunmer to follow him back to the castle to see the Countess. After such a handsome gift Lothran couldn´t say no, and off they went to see Narina Carvain. Apparently she needed someone to bring her a lost artifact from somewhere in the cold mountains very close to the Skyrim border. Lothran was at this time still not the most confident fighter and he was far away from being a Warlock, but he accepted the task. He loved the sense of adventure and simply couldn´t resist the prospect suggested to him. Plus, he would get even more Septims with which he planned to buy a house. So off he went, deep into the cold mountains to look for the artifact lost in history..

It was indeed an adventure traveling into Pale Pass and the old ruin. I can still get the same feeling now as I got back then just thinking about it. Lothran and I always travel back there when it´s close to Christmas, and we spend a few days on site hunting ogres and reminisce

Lothran found the artifact deep within the old ruin and he was able to pick it up when the ghost commander holding it vanished after seeing the orders to retreat, and the ruin was finally quiet after all that time. When Lothran got back to Bruma and the Countess she was overjoyed to add the artifact to her Ayleid collection. She was in fact so grateful she appointed Lothran an Honorary Guard of the Town of Bruma for his efforts! He was a bit confused first what that meant and what he was supposed to do, but apparently it didn´t really mean anything. He didn´t have to do anything if he didn´t want to, but the title gave him the opportunity if he wanted.

At first Lothran didn´t do much with his "title". He roamed the lands and explored as much as he could. But eventually when he had spent a few winters in Bruma he felt like it was time to make a contribution to the town he loved so much, and so he donned the official Bruma Guard armour and began to patrol the town. He even has his own quarters in the guard barracks where he keeps his armour and weapon, so he has very much settled into his role now. Not to mention the town, as 2007 was also the year when he bought his house there, his first house to be exact. He really didn´t have to think twice about it and had already made up his mind to buy it when the steward approached him with the gift and the request to go see the Countess.
Lothran has many friends within the Bruma guard and as he help them, they are glad to help him by keeping an eye on his house when he´s not there.



The Dunmer has indeed come a long way. Thanks for reading!


Lothran´s beloved cabin
The roaring fire
Chatting away in the barracks
Talking to the citizens is a big part of the job

Becoming an honorary guard of Bruma is nice continuation of Lothran's adventures in Pale Pass.

The only Dunmer guard in Cyrodiil looks good in his Bruma armor and looks like that Imperials like him, judging by smiles on their faces. Nice to see him in his cabin, warmed by the fireplace.

But does being an honorary guard allow him to say "Stop right there, criminal scum!" ?

When I was making my Falkreath town for the mods, I wanted Nord guards, but found that only Imperials could say the lines, so Falkreath got Imperial guards too. Burd's a Nord, but he only gets Captain lines, not guard ones.

I think so too


Pretty sure he has to convert to Imperial first, eh?

Not necessarily. If you use a voice mod on Lothran, you can use a BSA Browser to open up Bethesda's Imperial Male voice files, find the "Halt right there, Criminal Scum!" ones and pull them out. Place them in various suitable trigger files (like "Combat Start" - so if someone attacks him he would yell it out, etc). - and Voila, Lothran is saying it.

It may not fit in with his other voiced sayings though,

I don´t think he´d be too happy speaking in tounges so I better not do that

Imperial tongues?

What a wonderfully nostalgic recount of how Lothie became an honorary guard! He certainly earned the title! And some great pictures in Bruma. I remember how worried Buffy was about first visiting the Nordic elf in Bruma - until she learned that his fireplace had been fixed!

And that he had bear pelts to lend out

How fun to finally learn how Lothran became an honorary guard of Bruma. I never knew!

Great pics of Lothran in his northern home. My favorite is the one where he’s talking to Regner. Thank you for sharing these screens and Lothran’s story.

Thanks yourself for reading, Grits

Since the beginning Lothran has picked up everything he´s found, as an opportunist he thought it could either be sold or even used so he didn´t want to leave anything behind. This led to his inventory clogging up with many weapons, shields and potions. He also enjoyed reading and always carried the town guide books with him.

Thing was though, around 2008 he was quite wealthy and didn´t need to collect lots of things to sell, he had the weapons he wanted to use and he knew the books by heart, but he was still carrying everything with him. His encumbarance was well over 100 at all times and for no reason, really. He also began to dislike being so rich. He was an elf of the people, not a noble or businessman, and this over-filled gold pouch was actually more of a burden than help.

Then one sunny day he was walking the streets of Anvil when he came upon a crate by a house. He stopped, looked at it, and then he was rushed with a feeling of just wanting to get rid of everything. And thus he took most of his stuff and put it in that crate; weapons, armours, books, repair hammers, several hundred lockpicks etc. Then he went to Morvyn´s Peacemakers and bought the most expensive weapon he had, then sold it back to him. Then bought it again, and sold it. After repeating this a few times he then left the shop with the weapon and put it in the same crate as all the other stuff and man, did he feel lighter!


Since then Lothran´s encumbarance has been about 30 instead of 160. He no longer carries more weapons than he uses, no excess armour, no guide books, no repair hammers and he only has like 20 lockpicks instead of 300. His gold pieces no longer amounts to over 200.000 but a mere 5000 or thereabout. It can rise to 10.000 on occasion.



Gamer´s note: I didn´t want an über rich character that never needed to collect more gold and that had everything he needed with him all the time, and thus this had to be done. I wanted him to get closer to who he was in the beginning; someone who needed to go look for things, someone who needed adventures. And evenly important, someone who wasn´t stinking rich. That really didn´t suit him at all.

I have never regretted doing this and I think, honestly, that Lothran is pretty happy too

I agree with Lothran. It seems more fun to conveniently 'lose' things and remain perpetually of modest means. And it is wonderfully liberating to clear a dungeon and come out with no more than you went in with except maybe a couple more gold coins and a couple less arrows.

Well, he does want to come out with a few Flawless gems, but that´s about it

It´s also fun having the need to sometimes collect stuff to sell in order to finance a new spell or just reload an enchanted item.

Great story on how he became a guard of Bruma(uh, the cold, the ice, the grime and soot). For a Dunmer, I can imagine that'd be a terrible place to be. But since Lothran is a Nordic Dunmer, that's a whole different story.



Ah. This is very nice. He has an adventurer's heart and not the greed

Thanks, DE Yeah, Lothran is about adventuring, not collecting wealth. About the cold, I think he puts up with it because I want him to, and because I gave him a full fur outfit enchanted to resist frost..

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All the daedric shrines in Cyrodiil have had a visit from Lothran. And whatever they asked him to do he did it without too much critical thought. I blame this on his youth and inexperience, and mine...

Now to be fair, some daedra are not as bad as others. Take Azura for instance. She honoured her followers so much that she saw their corruption into vampirism as such a disgrace she´d rather have them killed than alive in their new, deformed state. Lothran agreed to help her because, well, vampires.. Though he was rather pleased with the candles she put up afterwards in their memory and he often revisits her shrine when he´s in the mountains during the winters.

He was also ok with Sanguine´s task of disrupting the formal dinner party in Leyawiin´s castle. No one got hurt, just a little embarrassed In fact Lothran was ok with most tasks the daedra put on him, but there was one where he simply walked away. When learning what Molag Bal wanted him to do he was quite taken aback. Mess with the fragile mind of a man "just because"? No way. So he left and never has he visited that shrine again. He also refused to do what Sheogorath and Mephala asked of him.

Of all the tasks he did, Lothran does have one regret. He wishes he hadn´t done what Hircine asked him to do. Sure, the reward was fine and he uses it every day, but it wasn´t worth it when thinking about it. That beautiful creature should have been left alone instead of falling victim to the biddings of a voice from a shrine. That´s one reason Lothran has Saviour´s Hide on him all the time; to never forget..


So out of the daedric shrines in Cyrodiil Lothran has done what everyone has asked him to except Molag Bal, Sheogorath, Mephala, Namira and of course Hermaeus Mora who he can´t even talk to. I should mention that out of the two options from Clavicus Vile he got the mask. It can now be found in a chest in Bruma along with every item he recieved from the daedra.


I´m not sure and I have to look this up, but I think Hircine was the first one Lothran visited and Nocturnal the last. I remember Nocturnal because when Lothran got the Skeleton Key it went straight to the collection since at this time he really did not need it.


Thanks for reading!


Visiting Sanguine´s shrine

Wonderful insights into Lothie's history with 'The Sixteen Plus One'. Buffy only completed a handful of them, walked away from several and never even looked into a few more. She knows exactly what you mean about 'youth and inexperience', as she has never forgiven herself for the damage she did to the small village of Borderwatch. As Kud-Ei wisely says, "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

Now that said, I imagine remembering Sanguine's quest brings a smile to both elves' faces.

I disliked Hircine's enough to rewrite it, and provide another way to get the horn without harming its owner. It actually makes it quite a bit harder, as keeping the Unicorn non-aggressive isn't easy.

I didn't change Sanguine's, but I did add another that he gets involved in.

I agree with Lothran about all the others. Did he read the note on the "boss" vampire when he did Azura's? It would have told him that it's what they wanted, too.

OMG, what an Awesome fun quest you made out of that awful Hircine quest !!!!!!!! I LOVE it !!!!!!

I have to admit I´m not quite sure what you mean by that...


I agree with mALX; such an awesome alternative way to get the horn! I wonder why Bethesda didn´t make it in the first place...?


Yeah, he did. It´s hard to think that someone who fights you actually wants you to kill them, but I guess sometimes that´s the case..

Skyrim has a quest where you come across an Old Orc who's out hunting Sabre Cats in the hope of a "good death". You can fight him and make him die happy, but there's little reward for the player unless you have another of my mods.

Sorry, mirocu. The 'Sixteen Plus One' is a lore reference that teases/parallels the 'Eight Plus One' (Nine Divines inlcuding Talos). The Sixteen are the primary Deadra Lords and the 'Plus One' is Jyggalag.

I think the vampirism caused them to attack, they could not stop that part of them from the things it did; which is why they prayed for death so they could stop doing something they hated but couldn't stop without death stopping them.

That was too complex for me to figure out on my own


Yeah, that makes sense. They wanted to stop doing it but couldn´t which is why I´m glad Lothran helped them out