Hello everyone, I recently finished my playthrough with my stereotypical Nord warrior. Soon, I will begin a new one, and I have decided to do a High Mage.

I always do a backstory for my characters, but I have had difficulty coming up with one for this character.

His name is Lerondil, and he is the middle-aged of three brothers. His mother died during the birth of his most recent brother. His father was a former mage and is now a government official.

From there I don't know where to go. What conflicts occured during his lifetime? What did he do for a living? Why did he flee Alinor, and what was he doing in Skyrim?

His disposition is most likely going to be good/neutral and he will prefer to stay out of the civil war.

The supreme race of Tamriel. It was Akatosh's sympathy towards humans that struck them down and not the ability of the humans themselves. Thalmors will allow Mer to rule Tamriel once again, unless there is a divine intervention.

I thought the goal of the Thalmor was to destroy Tamriel, not rule it.

Yeah, yeah, I know about the whole Mer supremacy thing, but that doesn't help me out too much.

The Great War could be a big conflict, depending on how old he is (at least in his 30's) Maybe he was a Nord/stormcloak sympathizer and that's why he fled Alinor and ended up in Skyrim (you can't roleplay as a Thalmor, since they're an antagonistic faction no matter how you play)

I'm thinking that he'll be anywhere from +30 to upwards of 200 (witnessed the Oblivion Crisis). But yeah, it's a bit hard because there's a lot of possibilites for Elves given their life spans, and I didn't roleplay as deeply or as much back in Oblivion. I played Morrowind when I was 11, so half the time I didn't even know what I was doing in that game

It's entirely possible that, as with mine, he was orignally a Thalmor trainee heading to the Embassy who got caught by accident, and then was completely alienated by the Thalmor afteir their refusal to actually try and save him...

My high elf Aradia was also a native of Summerset. She was politically a moderate. While she did not doubt that her race was superior to all others, and rightfully deserved to rule Tamriel, she felt that the Thalmor's methods were too extreme. She believed that given time, the lesser races would acknowledge Altmer superiority. They would gladly accept Altmer guidance, and her race would become the mentors and leaders of the rest of Tamriel. She made the mistake of voicing these opinions, which put her under Thalmor surveillance. When the Great War broke out she openly criticized it, and the Thalmor, for making a terrible blunder. The next thing she knew she was in prison, along with everyone else who made the mistake of speaking out against the Thalmor. She spent the entire war in prison, and languished there for many years afterward. Finally she was tried in absentia for treason, found guilty, and exiled. She was put on the first ship out, which happened to be going to Elsweyr. Having no desire to remain in Thalmor-allied territory, she made her way north to Cyrodiil. She found that high elves were less then welcome there, and continued north to Skyrim. We all know how things worked out when she tried to cross the border..

I like the bit about prison, I think there will be some arresting involved in my story. Not necessarily with Lerondil, but with people he knows.

I'll post the story in a thread tommorow.

He could be a part of the Psijic Order and he hates the Thalmor and he came to Skyrim to escape the injustice of the Thalmor and he could be travelling to either Morrowind or Black Marsh to escape the empire and the Thalmor and he gets caught up in the events of Skyrim.

Why play an Altmer? If you go into first person, you shrink down to Breton size! I refuse to play as this race unless I stand over all others, like I do in 3rd person!

And the grunt noises are that of human. Noo!

I think it would be better to avoid the whole Thalmor refugee thing. It's been done to death I'm afraid...


Your character could be an expelled Wizard and historian from the "Mages Guilds" in Alinor, and you chose to apply to the College of Winterhold in Skyrim, considering that the Imperial Synod is nothing more than politics. This would be a great chance for you to also study nordic history as well. Your father, wanting you to follow in his footsteps as a mage, lets you go to Skyrim with his blessing.

I know you said you wanted your character to be good/neutral but if you are RP you could start off a Thalmor agent as you can live in the . After a while he could maybe change his stance on as there are a lot of Altmer activists and maybe he could join them, or a retired Thalmor agent trying to forget his past and the horrible things he's done. You can stay out of the Civil War and just travel the land doing small good deeds trying to atone for your sins.

I made the mistake of trying to cosy up to the Thalmor with my Altmer mage - it's just not possible. Your best bet is as a descendant of one of the members of the Psijiic order who has come to Skyrim to find information on who he was.

Wont spoil anything for you but there's quests where you will find out - just hit the books.

I can't stand the Thalmor/Aldmeri Dominion. My character is a Bosmer elf who has total distaste for them. I can't even bring myself to use their equipment. The Thalmor are the equivalent of the Lannisters from Game of Thrones, just too sneaky, underhanded and self-serving with an over abundance of arrogance. You can be an elf or a high-elf for that matter and despise your own peoples motives and machinations. Say you were brought up far away from the Summerset Isles, away from their narrow minded political influence and learned a great deal more of the bigger picture of a broader society.

You don't necessarily have to be some renegade from the Thalmor homeland, but rather an Aldmer born outside their influence. Let's just say your family splintered off ages ago and found solace in SKYRIM because of some professional academia that called them to the far reaches and you were born in SKYRIM and your parents went to attend to some family business in the Summerset Isles leaving you in the care of an older brother and they somehow never returned and disappeared, unaccounted for. Well your older brother eventually took up the task to investigate their disappearance and left you to mind the estate and he too ended up missing leaving you to your own devices. Well to make a long story short, you lost the estate because of unpaid taxes through no fault of your own, then you were kicked out of the estate unceremoniously hence becoming a vagabond, eventually a mercernary and when you gained enough coin and gall you decided to head across the border to find your brother and by doing so was mistakenly apprehended and brought up on false charges and there you are.