A Long and Winding Road

ABOUT

CANON POINT: Post-Main Quest, Dawnguard, and Dragonborn
VISUAL: LINK
BUILD: Lean
HAIR: Black, wavy, roughly shoulder-length
EYES: Brown
FEATURES: Very short nails, calloused hands (from weapons and more general work), runs noticeably warmer than average; starburst scars on palm and back of right hand
ATTIRE: Favors neutrals, reds, red-browns, and earth tones; style-wise, roughly analogous to Medieval European middle class clothing
VOICE: Low, warm tenor when speaking; Shouts tend to come out much lower and more guttural than standard speaking voice

ORIGINS: Raised in Anvil, Cyrodiil
FAMILY: Thalia Greyjoy (mother), Alessia, Palla, Shay, Elda (aunties), Lucia Greyjoy (daughter), Alesan Greyjoy (son), Sofie Greyjoy (daughter)
RELATIONSHIPS:
OCCUPATION: Adventurer, Archmage of the College of Winterhold

HISTORY:
• He is a war orphan, raised in the Great Chapel of Dibella in the city of Anvil, Cyrodiil; as far as he’s concerned, the priestess who raised him is his mother, blood related or not
• He apprenticed with the local Mage’s Guild and proved to be an eager student and a quick study; at age 16, he was given the necessary recommendations to attend the Arcane University in Cyrodiil’s capital, but opted for independent study instead. He then spent the next five years traveling the various provinces, improving his magical skills and learning a few new ones like archery and alchemy. This is also when he heard of the College of Winterhold in Skyrim, a magic school not unlike the university, and his curiosity was piqued.
• Age 25, attempted to cross the border into Skyrim, was arrested after getting lost and stumbling into an ambush meant for a group of Stormcloaks which include Ulfric Stormcloak himself. The entire group were taken to Helgen to be executed, but the proceedings were interrupted by a dragon attack. During the ensuing chaos, a sympathetic legionnaire freed Vanyel and helped him find armor and weapons before they escaped Helgen Keep and made for the town of Riverwood. (Ulfric Stormcloak and a few of his officers also managed to escape.)
• The next three years were spent running all over Skyrim, as he first joined the College of Winterhold then became its Arch-Mage after several long quests and a drawn-out battle with the man who’d killed the previous Arch-Mage and the woman who would’ve succeeded him, then joined forces with an order of vampire hunters called the Dawnguard to stop a mad vampire lord from blotting out the sun, and finally defeated the previously-mentioned dragon thus preventing The End of the World As We Know It.
• After his defeat of Alduin, cultists from the island of Solstheim arrived in Skyrim, looking to kill him as 'the false Dragonborn.' This prompted him to travel to Solstheim to investigate both the cult and their leader, Miraak - though not without drawing the attention of Hermaeus Mora, Daedric Prince of Forbidden Knowledge, and being claimed as Mora's champion.

PERSONALITY

ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good/Chaotic Good
ATTITUDE: Vanyel would insist that he's a lover, not a fighter - but that's never stopped him from taking on god-dragons and vampire lords and everything in between, and refusing to give up no matter how heavily the odds seem to be stacked against him.
But he also has a habit of putting down roots without really meaning to - he did it in Skyrim, he did it in Amani, and he'll more than likely do it here as well.

If it comes down to the rules/law vs. doing what he feels is right, he'll ignore the former without a second thought, and there's very little he wouldn't do to keep 'his' people safe and happy, but he does have limits. He tries to solve problems peacefully if at all possible, only fighting in self-defense or defense of his friends.
VIRTUES: Outgoing, open-minded, curious, affectionate
VICES: Stubborn, curious, hotheaded, too clever for his own good
QUIRKS: Ambidextrous, talks with his hands
LIKES: Reading, cooking, studying magic, sex, interesting people
DISLIKES: Being bored, willful ignorance, smug snakes, overly sweet foods
HOBBIES: Whittling, leatherworking, soap-making, candle-making

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
VISUAL: Clean, generally well-groomed, clean-shaven when he has any choice/opportunity
AURAL: Low, warm tenor voice; speaks faster and slightly higher when excited, Shouts come out low and guttural
OLFACTORY: Wood smoke, soap, hints of ozone if he's been doing heavy-duty spellcasting
DEMEANOUR: Generally friendly, outgoing

MOTIVATIONS: Protecting his friends and loved ones, learning new things

FLAWS: Stubborn, hot-headed, prone to overconfidence, occasionally too clever for his own good

EXTRA: Probably at least borderline genius; his grasp of magic is near intuitive, enough that he's created at least one new spell and adapted several others for noncombat uses, picks up and assimilates new information very quickly, and has a knack for both languages and math.

ABILITIES

CLASS: Battlemage
WEAPONS:
• Dragonbane, a katana-like sword enchanted to do extra damage against dragons
• Dawnbreaker, a one-handed sword enchanted to deal fire damage to all enemies and bonus damage against the undead
• Enhanced Dwemer crossbow, a crossbow plated with something that looks like brass, and assorted bolts for it in both plain steel and Dwemer metal, some of which also explode

INVENTORY:
As a video game protagonist, he can hold 300+ pounds of stuff in an improbably small space. For RP purposes, I usually limit his inventory to to the following:
• Leather Armor (wearing)

Weapons:
• See above

His pack, containing:
• (1) journal/travelogue/to-do list
• (1) bedroll (strapped to pack)
• (1) waterskin
• (1) change of clothes
• (1) coinpurse (currently only has about 50 septims)
• Some small provisions, along the lines of jerky, travel-bread, nuts, and dried fruit/berries
• Various alchemy ingredients (couple bits of burnt spriggan wood, rough handful of snowberries, pressed mountain flowers, etc)
• A couple Healing and Cure Disease potions a piece
• Other detritus (loose coins, soul gems and fragments of, possibly a gemstone or three)
STRENGTH: 13. Visibly toned; carries heavy objects and throws small ones for medium distances; can work for half the day without a break.
DEXTERITY: 16. Light on his feet; able to hit small moving targets often; can catch or dodge a medium-speed surprise projectile.
CONSTITUTION: 14. Can take a few hits before being knocked out; easily shrugs off most illnesses.
INTELLIGENCE: 16. Very intelligent, may invent new processes or uses for knowledge; able to do fairly complex math and solve logic puzzles in his head with reasonable accuracy.
WISDOM: 14. Reads people and situations fairly well; can get hunches about a situation that doesn't feel right.
CHARISMA: 18. Quickly likeable, fairly eloquent; respected and/or feared by many in his homeland; able to entertain people easily, and knows how to talk them around to his side of an argument.

SKILLS:
Major Skills: Destruction, One Handed, Enchanting, Speech
Minor Skills: Restoration, Alchemy, Block, Light Armor


EXTRA SECTION:
Essential Life Skills as Taught by the Aunties: Cooking, sewing/darning, alchemy, lockpicking, Healing Hands spell, knife throwing, knife fighting
Other Useful Skills: Massage, soap-making, candle-making, making massage oil, leatherworking, music theory, flower language, bits of Yoku and Nordic languages

PERMISSIONS

BACKTAGGING: Absolutely! I'm down for it for as long as the other mun is.
THREADHOPPING: See above.
FOURTHWALLING: For this particular pup I'd rather not.
ROMANCE: He gets Fond (TM) super easily, so I wouldn't have a problem with that developing into full-on romance. Fair warning though, he is polyamorous, so even a dearly loved partner is not likely to be his one and only.
MINDREADING: Go for it, he has no notable defenses against it; likely to be preoccupied with his home/family.
MANIPULATION: Also a-okay.
FIGHTING: Go for it; he's okay with his fists and potentially pretty darn deadly with a sword. He also has battle magic available to him. Would prefer to avoid maiming/death.
INJURY: Would prefer to avoid permanent maiming, but I'm fine with him getting banged up in a fight.
KILLING: Would prefer to avoid this too.

Feel free to contact for more information and plotting!

PREFERENCES

MEMES:
PSLS:
AUS:
CONTENT:
DO NOT WANT:
SHIPPING:
DYNAMICS:
MAIN PAIRINGS:
TAG STYLE: Brackets for most threads, paragraphs for log style; will match styles with my thread partner though.
TAG SPEED: I'm unfortunately pretty slow, but I'll backtag practically forever.

EXTRA

Dragon Bond:
Name: Blitzer Grabon
Type: Brass
Personal Information: As advanced as Dragon society was before the calamity was, naturally they had sporting events. And commentators on those sporting events. That's where 💥💥💥BLITZER GRABON💥💥💥 thrived. A famed commentator on some of the most exciting competitions of the time, Blitzer had plenty of admirers- that us, until you got to know him. He was... well, he was a lot. A lot. All of the time. Many found him too bombastic, an insufferable jokester, and a bit too into the macho persona he had built for himself. That said, if you want to party? This is your man. Dragon.

Spells Known: Black Market, Bless Home*, Blue Light Special*, Bound Battleax, Bound Bow, Bound Sword, Bound Rope*, Calm, Candlelight, Chain Lightning, Close Wounds, Command Daedra, Conjure Familiar, Conjure Fast Food*, Conjure Flame Atronach, Conjure Flaming Familiar, Courage, Detect Life, Equilibrium, Fast Healing, Fear, Fire Rune, Fireball, Firebolt, Flame Cloak, Flames, Frost Rune, Frostbite, Healing, Healing Hands, Greater Flames, Greater Sparks, Ice Spike, Lesser Ward, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Rune, Magelight, Muffle, Oakflesh, Raise Zombie, Soul Trap, Soul Trapping Arrow, Sparks, Steadfast Ward, Stoneflesh, Sun Fire, Telekinesis, Transmute, Turn Undead
*Modded (for the purposes of RP, invented) spells. Transmute is game canon but thanks to mods Van knows/invented a couple of variations - one to turn any flora to firewood and one to turn any gem into an empty soul gem
Shouts Known: Animal Allegiance, Aura Whisper, Battle Fury, Become Ethereal, Bend Will, Call Dragon, Call of Valor, Clear Skies, Cyclone, Disarm, Dismay, Dragon Aspect, Dragonrend, Drain Vitality, Elemental Fury, Fire Breath, Frost Breath, Ice Form, Marked for Death, Slow Time, Soul Tear, Storm Call, Summon Durnehviir, Throw Voice, Unrelenting Force, Whirlwind Sprint
Tenets of Anvil's Dibella Cult:
Ethical Hedonism - The sect's guiding principle, that sex is nice and pleasure is good for people. They take the commandment to "open your heart to the gifts of love" as a directive to share those gifts, and the associated pleasures, with as many people as possible. They also reject all notions of being ashamed of sex and sexuality, and disdain forced modesty. Anything goes, so long as everyone involved consents and enjoys themselves.
Enthusiastic Consent - A conscientious Dibellan seeks clear and enthusiastic consent from their partners, and accepts rejection gracefully.
Sex Education - The priestesses of Anvil seek to educate as well as offer pleasure; they are proud to offer lessons on anatomy, preventative measures against pregnancy and disease (pre- and post-coitus), how to perform certain acts safely, sensual massage, and fertility-enhancing rituals and potions.
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil - Not only is rape an unconscionable crime, it's considered sacrilege in the eyes of Dibella - what with Her being goddess of love as well as desire, nonconsensual acts go against her teachings as well as the sect's creed of ethical hedonism.
Visuals: Pin Board
Home Gallery:

Playlist: Link