...actually, the idea of everyone being accidentally killed in the final battle is pretty cool.

(And I think we should slow down on the posting, he's gonna have a lot to read...)

Name: Manus Verellius

Race: Imperial

Gender: Male

Physical description: Manus has short, brown hair with blue eyes. He's not particularly handsome, but neither is he ugly, he's just average. He's usually scowling, though whether because of the people around him or just his own thoughts is hard to tell. He's fairly muscular, especially his arms, but he isn't as strong as he had been.

Age: 43

Height: 5'9''

Weight: 182lbs

Weapons: A silver war axe on his right hip and a steel dagger in his right boot.

Armor/Clothing: Manus usually doesn't wear armor, but instead has a red tunic and black pants. Over that he wears a basic, grey cloak, although it doesn't have a hood. If he knows that he's going into a situation that involves heavy combat, he'll wear his old set of armor, which consists of a basic chainmail cuirass with light steel plating on the shoulders and the Skingrad emblem on it, chainmail greaves, leathers boots, and chainmail gauntlets.

Mental description: Manus is very quiet, only speaking when addressed. Having been a member of the Skingrad City Guard for most of his working life, he is very disciplined and will follow orders to the letter. He is a deep thinker, and always has a plan prepared for almost any situation. Whenever one of his plans fails, he always seems to be shocked, especially if it results in the death of someone else.

He's very easy to anger, but he doesn't often show it until right before he blows up. This can cause severe problems for whoever is the target of his outburst. He also only shows respect to those he feels have earned it, and looks down on those who haven't. However, once you do earn his respect, it's near impossible to lose it, and he will remain a staunch defender of that person, if not a friend.

Additional Information: During the attempted arrest of a murderer in Skingrad, Manus's left arm, which had been his sword arm, was crippled. He can no longer make quick movements or do anything requiring strength with it, though he often attempts it anyway. This is why he uses an axe over his preferred weapon, and why he wields it in his right hand. There's also a large, messy scar on his arm from the incident, which goes all the way across the outside of his arm from his elbow up.

Bio: Born in Skingrad, Manus joined the Guard at a young age so he could better serve his home city. And serve he did, for the better part of twenty years. He was a valued member and a veteran by the end, but an arrest of a feared serial killer ended his service. The killer maimed his arm and killed two other guards, and then escaped the city. With not only a debilitating injury, but also a permanent black mark on his record, he was forced into retirement.

He left the city of Skingrad and moved to Cheydinhal, since he had no living relatives and no family to worry about. Now all he does is stew in his own bitterness and think about ways to become active again. While he considered mercenary work, it didn't appeal to him much, so he turned to the next best thing. Adventuring.

Name: Arnirnaenine Direnni

Race: Altmer

Gender: Female

Age: She appears to be in her late thirties.

Birthsign: The Apprentice

Class: Magocrat

Skills: Arnirnaenine is proficient in all schools of magic save for Illusion and Alchemy- though she would die before letting anyone know this- and has a particular knack for the schools of Destruction and Alteration. She has no other skills worthy of note save for a sharp tongue and a rather unhealthy interest in ancient and defunct elvish civilisations.

Physical Description: Arnirnaenine has very distinguished features, although rather less angular and gaunt than one might expect from a High Elf. Her narrow, almond-shaped black eyes speak of years beyond count, and her pale golden skin is only just beginning to betray the signs of age. Her expression is most often twisted into an unpleasant sneer of disdain or else a smug smirk of superiority. She is also somewhat shorter than the average Altmer at only 5ft 10", and rather curvier and more robust as well. Her white hair is plaited- a rather more sensible style than might be expected from so flighty a woman. She is very graceful but more out of determination than any actual predisposition towards dexterity.

Mental Description: Arnirnaenine is a very intelligent, very ancient, very powerful, and very dangerous woman. This should never be in doubt. However, she can certainly be found to be lacking in both wisdom and compassion, and is rather poor at social interaction with anyone who is not also a rich, priveleged and extremely powerful mage such as herself. To suggest she has weaknesses would be akin to suggesting her mother was a guar- extremely offensive and likely to end with the sudden, violent and unexpected death of the insulter some time in the future. She talks a lot, is incredibly high-minded and rude for much of what she says, and is generally annoyed when people interrupt her. All this said, she is unlikely to randomly strike at someone in temper, for she is quite in control, although she finds the idea of learning to tolerate people wearying and a great and most generous sacrifice on her part 'for the good of the group'.
Despite all of this, she does have a secret heart of gold. Sort of. Not really.

Weapons: She wields a gnarled wooden staff as long as her arm with a heavy crystal embedded at the top and rather beautiful to look at. It is enchanted with a quite powerful Charm spell- on the recommendation of her University masters, although she can't for the life of her understand why. It is not generally used as a weapon, although it hangs on her belt much as a sword would. However, in a pinch, she is rather good at bashing people over the head with it.

Clothing/Armour: Arnirnaenine has a large collection of very fanciful gowns, most often in the colour red. Surprisingly, however, she wears the dresses very little, and usually wears a somewhat loose- but extravagant- purple mage's robe, and, for long journeys, tough boots dyed a colour to match. She is also never to be found without her sapphire amulet- although, as it is perhaps the only thing she wears that is not enchanted in some manner or other, and is certainly not the most expensive thing she owns, it could be considered somewhat odd.

Misc:
There are many peculiar things about Arnirnaenine, but the most interesting is that she gets very flustered and occasionally very cross if anyone mentions anything about her to be less-than-elvish.

And although her particular talents for magical destruction and defense might say otherwise, she is disgusted by the suggestion that she is a good battlemage- or anything so uncouth.

An altmer born under the sign of the Apprentice, Anirnaenine was destined for great things- for she was born with a more powerful predilection for magic than most anyone else. However, this also makes her fatally weak to magicka, a fact which she does not widely advertise.

Short History: Arnirnaenine is a magocrat. She was born to a very rich couple of mages, old nobility from the Summerset Isles moved to Cyrodiil. Magic has been her bread and butter her entire life- a life of privelege and indulgence, or so it has always appeared.

Her masters were startled by the ferocity with which she threw herself into her studies at the Arcane University, and she advanced quickly- making herself very disagreeable with jealous peers, who could do little enough about it thanks to her wealth and status.

Now, her prowess is known far and wide, and she has often been the first to volounteer for an expedition into a dangerous Ayleid ruin or to decipher dwemer scratchings on some old slab of stone.

Another mage/scholar!Why so many mages!