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Name: Tornald Sea-Cliff
Species: Nord
Age: 28 (Birthdate: 4E 173 2nd of Sun's Dusk)
Sex: Male
Height: 6'1
Weight: 245bs
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Sexuality: Pansexual
Personality: Gentle, Intelligent, Friendly, Curious, Empathetic, Determined.
Likes: Animals, Drink, Moon Sugar, Skooma, Sparring, Friends, Weapons, Armor, Reading, History, Knowledge, His Khajiit Girlfriend, Cuddling, Napping, Auriel, Malacath.
Dislikes: Work, Winter, Crime, Society, Parents, Mortality, Shor/Lorkhan/Shezarr, Arkay, Kynareth/Kyne, most Daedra, the Suffering of Others.
Occupation: Fortune Hunter, Sage, Addict.
Biography: Born in Dawnstar to the Sea-Cliff clan, Tornald spent his rough upbringing stuck in the middle of a family conflict. The elders of the Sea-Cliff clan, including his father were some of the last bastions of devout believers in the Nordic Pantheon in all of the Pale, while his mother, a Nord woman from Whiterun came from a family of devout Imperial Pantheon believers. As a result of the marriage, their child Tornald was fought over in an attempt to influence his developing mind into adopting one of these faiths. His clan being the only followers of the Nordic Pantheon in the city felt attacked by the Imperial Pantheon pressure emanating from without and within, eventually causing them to force Tornald's father into a choice. Divorce or exile. Little Tornald lost his mom that day.
Tornald rarely ever saw his mother after the divorce, as she had moved back in with her family in Whiterun. He missed her so much, and that loss contributed to his eventual alienation from his clan and what they stood for. His father would always impose ridiculous and unreasonable expectations on the child, always because he wanted Tornald to become the man he never was, and to change the world for the better. Tornald would ask in response why his father never tried to change the world himself, and why he expects his son to do it for him. Tornald never got an answer to that question. Just beatings. Whenever this happened before, his mother would step in to comfort him. She always used to keep Tornald from falling into despair, from preventing his compassionate heart from breaking after killing animals during a hunt, to stopping him from joining his best friend in death after his friend fell from a fishing boat into the frigid winter waters and succumbing to the cold after being pulled back on board. Without her, Tornald truly realized how terrible it was to live in this world. He began to idolize her, and adopted her faith to spite his father and clan.
Not long after, on his 11th birthday, Tornald's father married again, this time to a Nord woman who came to accept the Nordic Pantheon, and 9 months later, she gave birth. His father threw Tornald out of the house as soon as he learned the newborn was a boy. This child would be the true successor to the Sea-Cliff clan, and would be molded into the son he truly wanted, the son he couldn't beat Tornald into being. Tornald had been replaced.
Working in the cold winter without a home was tough. Initially, Tornald would pound on the door of his father's home, begging to be let back in. But eventually the Dawnstar guards would threaten to fine and jail him for trespassing. Over the next month, Tornald would earn coin by wheeling iron ore out of the local mine, and he would survive the harsh nights by the pity of an innkeeper, who let the boy sleep in the corner behind a table, out of sight. Tornald would occasionally see his father and little brother outside. His father's eyes would always skirt past him as if he wasn't there, as if he didn't exist.
Tornald saved money to book passage to Whiterun to be with his mother, but knew no carriage could make the trip while the roads were piled neck high with snow. So he had to wait. In the meantime, he sought the wisdom of priests to teach him more about the pantheon he'd taken to worshiping out of spite. The Eight Divines in the open, the Nine Divines behind closed doors. He'd vaguely remembered outrage in Dawnstar when he was 2 years old, the outrage that caused a lot of young men to leave the next year to rally behind a man named Stormcloak. Now he was educated. He studied the Divines, Talos included, but he really fixated on Mara, reminding him of his mother's love. But as he learned more, he realized just how wrong his preconceptions were. Tornald had always revered the goddess of nature, whether she be Kynareth or Kyne, wife of Shor, as he loved animals. But as his mind developed, he couldn't help but realize how much he hated nature. Nature was cruel, horrible, and heartless. He'd seen so himself many times. Eventually Tornald was forced to drop Kynareth, as he could no longer reconcile his love of animals with the cruel cycle of nature that she represented.
When it came time to board the carriage to Whiterun after the snow had melted, Tornald had become quite the faithful boy. He had been praying to Mara to guide him forward, he had been revering Akatosh for his protection of the people against the forces of Oblivion, and thanking Stendarr for his mercy and his charity. By the time he got to Whiterun, the boy had turned 12, and he just couldn't wait to get into the city and find his mom. But when he finally found her, she was pregnant, standing in the market with a strange man and a small toddler pouting besides them. The man was clearly wealthy, golden necklace with a ruby pendant around his neck, fine clothes shrouding his body, and a fat belly and face. Tornald was nervous to approach, as she'd clearly remarried in the few years it's been since they last met. But when he finally decided to go up to them, his mother looked over with an unpleasant expression, and her new husband was clearly annoyed, demanding to know who Tornald was, and why he was calling his wife "mother." No acknowledgment came. All Tornald heard from his mother was "I don't know."
He followed them home at a distance. He was so confused. Did she not recognize him? No. That wasn't it. When he confronted her again once she went out on her own, she made that clear. "I'm sorry, Tornald... But I've moved on... I have a family now, and if my husband finds out I was with another man before... He'll be mad... Please don't ruin this for me or my kids." Tornald's response of "But I'm one of your kids." was met with silence, and his mother left him. All attempts to interact with her from then on were ignored, as if he didn't exist, just like what his father did. Tornald spent a night in the Dragonsreach dungeon for "harassing a couple and their child." As they put it.
The 8 years were spent working manual labor, unloading cargo, chopping wood, smelting iron, etc. He rented the same room in the cheapest inn every single night until it became a squalid mess filled with empty mead bottles and skooma vials. Tornald spent more days than he cared to count in and out of the dungeons for his habit with the drug, and it wasn't until he turned 20 that he realized he had to do something with his life. So he spent less coin on drink and more on his study. Tornald's knowledge of the divine had stagnated over the years, and he felt like he had to earn his place. He'd come to hate Arkay for his representation of the vicious cycle of life and death. Tornald had seen so much death and suffering in his short time on Nirn. His best friend freezing to death, his buddies dying in mining accidents, the grieving of widows and children as their husbands' and fathers' corpses were wheeled back in a wagon from the field of battle, the deterioration of age, and the sickness that no priest can cure. He's watched children come into the world, face terrible hardship, and then have their lives snuffed out. Something that Tornald believe does not need to happen.
Tornald finally sympathized with the Stormcloaks after an Imperial Legion detachment entered Whiterun and arrested one of his co-workers to hand off to the Thalmor. He never saw him again. He decided to study the Altmer's pantheon in an attempt to understand the motivations of the Thalmor. His reading of The Monomyth changed his entire perspective on the divine. The creation story he was familiar with told from another perspective. A perspective that made sense to him. Suddenly Shezarr/Shor/Lorkhan was the villain. A trickster who wrought death on many for his own ambitions. Auriel, the leader of the Aedra, was suddenly the figure he looked up to the most. More than Mara, more than Stendarr, more than Akatosh. Tornald viewed Auriel's fight against Lorkhan as just, and this finally made him drop the Nine Divines completely.
Year after year, Tornald would further his study of Auriel and his rise back into divinity, shedding this world and it's death and mortality. Auriel was an example to be followed, not just for Tornald, not just for the Altmer. For everybody. He began to form a plan. But he would need a lot of money. No problem, he took to fortune hunting, travelling through Skyrim and beyond to gather treasure, artifacts, and wealth, ignoring civil conflicts, as his aspirations for this world were far higher than petty politics. He also needed a lot of magical prowess. Unfortunately he had absolutely no talent at all in the field. Tornald would have to find a powerful wizard...
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Species: Nord
Age: 28 (Birthdate: 4E 173 2nd of Sun's Dusk)
Sex: Male
Height: 6'1
Weight: 245bs
Hair: Blonde
Eyes: Blue
Sexuality: Pansexual
Personality: Gentle, Intelligent, Friendly, Curious, Empathetic, Determined.
Likes: Animals, Drink, Moon Sugar, Skooma, Sparring, Friends, Weapons, Armor, Reading, History, Knowledge, His Khajiit Girlfriend, Cuddling, Napping, Auriel, Malacath.
Dislikes: Work, Winter, Crime, Society, Parents, Mortality, Shor/Lorkhan/Shezarr, Arkay, Kynareth/Kyne, most Daedra, the Suffering of Others.
Occupation: Fortune Hunter, Sage, Addict.
Biography: Born in Dawnstar to the Sea-Cliff clan, Tornald spent his rough upbringing stuck in the middle of a family conflict. The elders of the Sea-Cliff clan, including his father were some of the last bastions of devout believers in the Nordic Pantheon in all of the Pale, while his mother, a Nord woman from Whiterun came from a family of devout Imperial Pantheon believers. As a result of the marriage, their child Tornald was fought over in an attempt to influence his developing mind into adopting one of these faiths. His clan being the only followers of the Nordic Pantheon in the city felt attacked by the Imperial Pantheon pressure emanating from without and within, eventually causing them to force Tornald's father into a choice. Divorce or exile. Little Tornald lost his mom that day.
Tornald rarely ever saw his mother after the divorce, as she had moved back in with her family in Whiterun. He missed her so much, and that loss contributed to his eventual alienation from his clan and what they stood for. His father would always impose ridiculous and unreasonable expectations on the child, always because he wanted Tornald to become the man he never was, and to change the world for the better. Tornald would ask in response why his father never tried to change the world himself, and why he expects his son to do it for him. Tornald never got an answer to that question. Just beatings. Whenever this happened before, his mother would step in to comfort him. She always used to keep Tornald from falling into despair, from preventing his compassionate heart from breaking after killing animals during a hunt, to stopping him from joining his best friend in death after his friend fell from a fishing boat into the frigid winter waters and succumbing to the cold after being pulled back on board. Without her, Tornald truly realized how terrible it was to live in this world. He began to idolize her, and adopted her faith to spite his father and clan.
Not long after, on his 11th birthday, Tornald's father married again, this time to a Nord woman who came to accept the Nordic Pantheon, and 9 months later, she gave birth. His father threw Tornald out of the house as soon as he learned the newborn was a boy. This child would be the true successor to the Sea-Cliff clan, and would be molded into the son he truly wanted, the son he couldn't beat Tornald into being. Tornald had been replaced.
Working in the cold winter without a home was tough. Initially, Tornald would pound on the door of his father's home, begging to be let back in. But eventually the Dawnstar guards would threaten to fine and jail him for trespassing. Over the next month, Tornald would earn coin by wheeling iron ore out of the local mine, and he would survive the harsh nights by the pity of an innkeeper, who let the boy sleep in the corner behind a table, out of sight. Tornald would occasionally see his father and little brother outside. His father's eyes would always skirt past him as if he wasn't there, as if he didn't exist.
Tornald saved money to book passage to Whiterun to be with his mother, but knew no carriage could make the trip while the roads were piled neck high with snow. So he had to wait. In the meantime, he sought the wisdom of priests to teach him more about the pantheon he'd taken to worshiping out of spite. The Eight Divines in the open, the Nine Divines behind closed doors. He'd vaguely remembered outrage in Dawnstar when he was 2 years old, the outrage that caused a lot of young men to leave the next year to rally behind a man named Stormcloak. Now he was educated. He studied the Divines, Talos included, but he really fixated on Mara, reminding him of his mother's love. But as he learned more, he realized just how wrong his preconceptions were. Tornald had always revered the goddess of nature, whether she be Kynareth or Kyne, wife of Shor, as he loved animals. But as his mind developed, he couldn't help but realize how much he hated nature. Nature was cruel, horrible, and heartless. He'd seen so himself many times. Eventually Tornald was forced to drop Kynareth, as he could no longer reconcile his love of animals with the cruel cycle of nature that she represented.
When it came time to board the carriage to Whiterun after the snow had melted, Tornald had become quite the faithful boy. He had been praying to Mara to guide him forward, he had been revering Akatosh for his protection of the people against the forces of Oblivion, and thanking Stendarr for his mercy and his charity. By the time he got to Whiterun, the boy had turned 12, and he just couldn't wait to get into the city and find his mom. But when he finally found her, she was pregnant, standing in the market with a strange man and a small toddler pouting besides them. The man was clearly wealthy, golden necklace with a ruby pendant around his neck, fine clothes shrouding his body, and a fat belly and face. Tornald was nervous to approach, as she'd clearly remarried in the few years it's been since they last met. But when he finally decided to go up to them, his mother looked over with an unpleasant expression, and her new husband was clearly annoyed, demanding to know who Tornald was, and why he was calling his wife "mother." No acknowledgment came. All Tornald heard from his mother was "I don't know."
He followed them home at a distance. He was so confused. Did she not recognize him? No. That wasn't it. When he confronted her again once she went out on her own, she made that clear. "I'm sorry, Tornald... But I've moved on... I have a family now, and if my husband finds out I was with another man before... He'll be mad... Please don't ruin this for me or my kids." Tornald's response of "But I'm one of your kids." was met with silence, and his mother left him. All attempts to interact with her from then on were ignored, as if he didn't exist, just like what his father did. Tornald spent a night in the Dragonsreach dungeon for "harassing a couple and their child." As they put it.
The 8 years were spent working manual labor, unloading cargo, chopping wood, smelting iron, etc. He rented the same room in the cheapest inn every single night until it became a squalid mess filled with empty mead bottles and skooma vials. Tornald spent more days than he cared to count in and out of the dungeons for his habit with the drug, and it wasn't until he turned 20 that he realized he had to do something with his life. So he spent less coin on drink and more on his study. Tornald's knowledge of the divine had stagnated over the years, and he felt like he had to earn his place. He'd come to hate Arkay for his representation of the vicious cycle of life and death. Tornald had seen so much death and suffering in his short time on Nirn. His best friend freezing to death, his buddies dying in mining accidents, the grieving of widows and children as their husbands' and fathers' corpses were wheeled back in a wagon from the field of battle, the deterioration of age, and the sickness that no priest can cure. He's watched children come into the world, face terrible hardship, and then have their lives snuffed out. Something that Tornald believe does not need to happen.
Tornald finally sympathized with the Stormcloaks after an Imperial Legion detachment entered Whiterun and arrested one of his co-workers to hand off to the Thalmor. He never saw him again. He decided to study the Altmer's pantheon in an attempt to understand the motivations of the Thalmor. His reading of The Monomyth changed his entire perspective on the divine. The creation story he was familiar with told from another perspective. A perspective that made sense to him. Suddenly Shezarr/Shor/Lorkhan was the villain. A trickster who wrought death on many for his own ambitions. Auriel, the leader of the Aedra, was suddenly the figure he looked up to the most. More than Mara, more than Stendarr, more than Akatosh. Tornald viewed Auriel's fight against Lorkhan as just, and this finally made him drop the Nine Divines completely.
Year after year, Tornald would further his study of Auriel and his rise back into divinity, shedding this world and it's death and mortality. Auriel was an example to be followed, not just for Tornald, not just for the Altmer. For everybody. He began to form a plan. But he would need a lot of money. No problem, he took to fortune hunting, travelling through Skyrim and beyond to gather treasure, artifacts, and wealth, ignoring civil conflicts, as his aspirations for this world were far higher than petty politics. He also needed a lot of magical prowess. Unfortunately he had absolutely no talent at all in the field. Tornald would have to find a powerful wizard...
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Category Artwork (Digital) / Fantasy
Species Human
Size 1280 x 1124px
File Size 116.6 kB
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