Rotting Empire

Standard Note: PM Character Builds to me and await confirmation first before posting them here

Background
Dagoth Ur was slain in 430, and Almalexia in 431. Yet however in 433, there was no Oblivion Crisis - no apocylptic event ending the Empire. Instead, it tottered on, burdened with quite many problems. After Uriel VII dies in 434, his youngest son (the older two having predeceased their father in the recent troubles) Ebel Septim takes the throne, naming himself (after a second name of him) Cephorus III. However, many doubt he is the real Ebel, instead of a magical doppelganger created by Jagar Tharn. Hence, in High Rock, the Shornhelm Septims, Septims by law but not blood, the adopeted descendants of Katariah, raise an own claim under "Cynus I". While it hence comes to war in North West Tamriel, Imperial authority elsewhere just gradually erodes. Legions are recalled but do not obey, local population not regarding Impeirla provinical administrtaions anymore, local conflicts brewing and local insurrections, for independance or for Cynus all over the place.

In the meanwhile, in Morrowind, King Helseth tries to hold to power and to hold Morrowind together under imperial rule. Having angered too many factions at once, it appeared likely at one time he would lose power, but the Nord Incursions gave him an opportunity of winning Redoran's support, and using his assassins he also cleared House Hlaalu of Llethan supporters. Now he has the support of Hlaalu and Redoran, and at least a detente with Indoril. House Dres still nominally accepts him though being hostile, but is in any case too busy with invading Argonia. The Telvanni have evicted most imperial rpesence in their lands and are d efatco independant - and so is Vvardenfell. After the Nerevarine (in this scenario an anti-Imperial Dunmer leading both Redoran and Temple on Vvardenfell) assembled an anti-imperial army in 433, he surprisingly left for Akavir at the end of the year. This let his army fade away, but Vvardenfell still remains Nerevarinist, under a radical wing of the Temple, trying to purge Vvardenfell of all signs of Imperial presence - not just the institutions, like the Telvanni did, but the people, too. The branches of the three Houses here have become de facto severed from their mainland branches, and officially support the Nerevarinists - but some plot against them in secret.

The Game
This is where the game starts. People are frenetcially trying to get out of Vvardenfell. Not only outlanders or pro-imperial Dunmer. There are enough anti-imperial Dunmer, too, who just ended up on the wrong side in one of the many power struggles now happening on the island. Your character is for any of those reasons you choose in his or her background one of them, and he or she has gotten hold of a sort of "underground railroad", running through Balmora and the Bitter Coast to the mainland. At the start of the game the characters will approach Balmora, passing the guards at the gates (who are secret members of the undergroudn railroad system, as the characters have been instructed) with a secret password, "Hlormaren". And then, they will try to find the house described to them, in the poorer, lower side of Balmora at the northern end, where they will all gather.

Characters
What I need to know is...

Name (duh):
Gender:
Race:
Appearance: Just how the character looks
Personality: Including advantages, disavdantages, quirks and of course just a general outlook how the chars personalit yis
Talents: As the RP will be free of PC game mechanics, not a list of skills from the games, but a general description/explanation.
Background: Why the char is on Vvardenfell (long term settler or whatever), and how he ro she saw teh chaos of the recent years.

And as said, PM me the char build first and wait for my confiormation before posting it here.

Rules
Ehhh... I feel other RPs make too big a point of it. Just dont break forum rules, they should cover most. Apart from that, some guidelines about standard stuff:

1) No godmodding: Not using other characters without their players permission (okay, thats a rule, not a guideline, heh)
2) Be civil
3) Be reasonably serious about the game
4) Have common sense in what you think is realistic both in character behaviour and in what actions would be realistcially successful or not (if in doubt, consult me)
5) Try to avoid posting only in short posts. I wont make a word minimum, but, well, rule 4 applies
6) if in doubt, I am the highest authority on contentious matters.

Should there be any questions about this game, just PM me.

Name: Arthus Raemulos
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Race: Imperial (with Dunmer ancestry from his mother's side)

Appearance: Five foot nine inches tall, Arthus looks slightly different from the other Imperials, owing to his birth in Vvardenfell. While he's not the frail, weak kind of mage, and has a well-toned body, he's definitely at a disadvantage in close quarters against a warrior and prefers to rely on his magic instead of physical strength. His skin tone is darker than that of a Cyrodiilian, bordering on Ra Gada tan, although his large, blue eyes prevent anyone from mistaking him with one. Even those eyes, however, bear a touch of Dunmer, due to his Dunmer ancestry ? they're slightly sideward, and seem to be deeper in his skull. His nose is small and rather flat. Usually he's cleanly shaved, yet the troubling times have left their mark on him in the form of a barely visible beard and moustache.

Personality: Arthus' character is a mixture of Dunmer and Imperial qualities, seeing as his grandfather from mother's side was a Dunmer. Usually he's very polite and helpful, being able to act slightly diplomatic if pressed. He enjoys simple conversations greatly, and finds it quite easy to make friends, often ending up with several new ones after spending a night in a tavern. When he's dubbed someone as his friend, he'll care for that person and provide help; sometimes being so quick to aid he makes the wrong presumption and instead inflicts harm.

However, he's inherited several qualities of his grandfather as well, including a great love and passion for magic, particularly destruction. When staying with him for a long time, one can easily notice that Arthus tends to be rather bossy, trying to make everyone act how he does, deciding when to wake up, when to eat, when to bathe and so on. He tends to be rather fierce (and loud) when arguing, and has strong moral views, sometimes ending up trying to force them unto others. He can hold grudges for a very long time against people whom he dubs enemies, unlike with friends and strangers, with whom he can't bear to conflict for a long time.

Talents: A quite skilled mage, Arthus is very eager to learn whatever he can about destruction magic, having a particular affinity for fire. Due to the more flowing nature of his moves when casting, he prefers to maintain a healthy distance between him and his foe, and is at a huge disadvantage in close quarters, being worthless with any weapon asides from his own limbs, even though he's not too good at that either. In the past chaotic days, Arthus also found himself quite often thrust into the role of a healer, and his skill with restoration, while not spectacular, is not something to be scoffed at either. On the other hand, his skills in the other schools of magic, particularly illusion, leave much to be desired, as he does not use them all that much.

Background: Arthus is not much of an Imperial in culture. His family came to Morrowind with one of the first waves of Imperial settlers, and has earned a degree of respect from the natives, to the point Arthus' mother, Ienna, wasn't called a foreigner anymore and was more welcome in the other cantons of Vivec than any other Imperial. Originally, Arthus' family was Nibenese, thus having more of an affinity towards magic than Colovians ? indeed, Arthus' mother was a healer. Despite being more than free to live anywhere in Vivec, she still lived in the Foreign Quarter, where she befriended an Imperial Legion Centurion by the name of Actius Raemulos. Eventually, the pair grew closer and closer, despite Actius being a Colovian, and marriage followed.

Arthus' childhood wasn't Imperial either. He was taught with the other Dunmer children in the Temple, and even though he didn't connect with the Dunmeri religion, he still came to value the wisdom of their Gods' teachings. The Dunmer children saw Arthus as one of their own, and Ienna's love for Vvardenfell seemed to have passed onto Actius as well, since he didn't protest to any of this, despite being highly patriotic. His father still had some influence over Arthus' path in the life, as upon reaching the age of sixteen, the boy joined the Imperial Legion. However, his lack of great pride in the Empire ensured that Arthus never rose above a common Legionnaire in rank, even though he was often (rather reluctantly) called on for help by the garrison commander in Ebonheart, having more understanding of the Dunmer than most of the Legionnaires, relative newcomers to Morrowind.

After the Nerevarine defeated Dagoth Ur and the Mad Almalexia, things started looking a bit grimmer for Arthus and his family. Despite the fact both him and his mother were more Dunmer than Imperial, the Nerevarinists didn't care for that, seeing only their race. For the first time in his life, Arthus found that many of the doors in Vivec were closed to him now.

Actius managed to convince Ionnia to flee Vvardenfell, and they were amongst the first who did. Arthus, however, refused to leave, and tried to cope with this change. Soon, it became obvious to him that he'd have to leave or face prison or worse. After much consideration, Arthus decided that this wasn't his home any longer. Hearing word of a secret tunnel through which escape was possible for those in a situation like him, he made the perilous journey from Gnisis (where he was hiding) to Balmora on foot.

Name: Ortumallo
Gender: Male
Race: Altmer
Age: 277 (early 30s in human years, )

Appearance: Standing at just under seven feet tall, Ortumallo is of fairly average height for an Altmer. His face is striking for an Altmer: very dark beady eyes contrast with golden skin, set close together above a thin, straight nose. He lacks the hair length of many Altmer, instead having his white hair very short and swept forward, like an Imperial.

Personality: Ortumallo is a Telvanni. That must be understood firstly and foremost. Thought he lacks the vicious ambition of most of Vvardenfell's Telvanni, he is still a Telvanni. Though he tends to be quiet, distant, and sometimes impersonal, he has a scholar's passion ? he is a visionary. He sees the use of magic as far too untapped, given how long it has been present. He sees the schools of magic as unlimited fields of research, and he has sought to go as far as possible with them in the past few centuries. His progress has been rather limited, however, due to many factors: lack of proper funds, lack of support from his peers, and his inability to stick to one project at a time. He has become so wrapped up in his research that he has become rather reclusive, rarely leaving his home; so much so that almost all of his contact with the outside world is done through his one household slave, an Argonian, Tauruk, who is most likely the closest thing he has to a friend.

Talents: Ortumallo has a decent grasp on all schools of magic (and alchemy), but little else. In the area of magic, he has particularly devoted himself to the development of alteration and the practice of alchemy. For assistance and testing of both of these fields, he also become fairly practiced with the art of conjuration. However, because of a lack of a need for it (and personal distaste for it), he has almost entirely neglected all but the most basic practice of destruction ("Use magicka to intentionally destroy? Into what fools' hands has magicka fallen?"). Ortumallo's 'masterpiece' of alteration magic is his discovery of the use of a polymorph spell, which is still in the work-in-progress stage (his most successful attempt resulted in turning a squirrel into a chipmunk). In alchemy, on the other hand, he is so far unsuccessful in his attempts to make a potion capable of extending lifespans.

Background: Originally from Bretony, High Rock (with an accent to prove it), Ortumallo went south to Cyrodiil to attend the Arcane University- and quickly became disillusioned with the Mages Guild ("They make you an errand boy until you've licked enough boot to become a pawn, if you're not sent off to a branch where you'll collect mushrooms until you get expelled for sneezing too loudly."). He endured the Guild as long as he could before leaving a formal letter of resignation on the desk of the guild lobby and heading east, to Morrowind, to give the Telvanni a try. The mainland mage-lords received him, but having been a Guild member earned him a distant, out-of-the-way position, where he could have little influence and cause no damage, should he still harbor loyalty to the Guild. So they sent him to Vvardenfell.

A smallish mushroom hut in Sadrith Mora served as Ortumallo's home and place of work. After forty years of being there, Ortumallo was thoroughly appalled by Vvardenfell's society. He could scarcely sleep without worrying about some new ambitious colleague deciding he was to be next on the chopping-block, and he dared not try to climb the ranks of the House, lest he draw attention from more powerful eyes. Planning to go no further than his small home among Sadrith Mora's citizens, he purchased an Argonian slave, Tauruk, from the local market to help him with outside affairs. Tauruk became Ortumallo's main link to Telvanni affairs; so much so that Tauruk was locally referred to jokingly as 'Ortumallo's Mouth'.

Ten years later, things began going very poorly. Vvardenfell was becoming far too heated and violent for Ortumallo's liking, and he realized he would have to leave, quickly. Bringing with him only a sack containing his research notes and a little food, clothing, and all of his money, he and Tauruk made plans to flee the island. Tauruk, having learned of the underground railroad out of Vvardenfell through other slaves in the marketplace, he and his master quietly slipped off to Balmora.

Tauruk (in brief): Being born into slavery, Tauruk found Ortumallo to be a very kind master, compared to some of his past experiences. The slave not only dealt with outside business for Tauruk (a welcome change from cleaning furniture), but also assisted with some of the Altmer's research. Tauruk's faithfulness to his master was sealed during the time of the Nerevarine. About the time the Nerevarine began his bid for the status of Hortator, Tauruk was stricken with the soul sickness ? Dagoth Ur's weapon against the weak-willed. Under the influence of Ur's madness, the slave made an attempt on his master's life. Ortumallo survived, though, because Tauruk attacked when the Altmer was awake, and an adept magic user. Amazingly, Ortumallo did not have the slave executed, as he was perfectly capable of doing; he knew of Tauruk's odd behavior of late, and simply kept him restrained until he could have him cured by a priest. The slave was infinitely grateful for this.

Tauruk is tall for an Argonian, with two fins on his head. His skin is the commonly-seen blue and green pattern of scales, and he is more sociable than his master, due to his role in the household.