Name: Felidae (Fe-li-day)
Alias: The White Wanderer
Race: Khajiit
Gender: Female
Age: 21
Class: Wanderer
Standing Stone: The Thief
My character, a young Khajiit woman named Felidae, was born into captivity in a recluse Morrowind mine which was being illegally run by a sadistic Dunmer Slave-Master, her mother dying during childbirth. Every day she was worked almost to breaking point in the harsh conditions of the mine, at some point having a black slave-mark branded onto her left wrist in the form of a Hulking Fabricant. At the age of six she witnessed the brutal death of her father at the hands of the Slave-Master and received a vivid scar across her face after confronting him over it, the mark a constant reminder of the Elf who inflicted it.
When she was eight years-old the mine was finally discovered and ransacked by soldiers, giving her and the other slaves an opportunity to escape. During the commotion she was attacked by the deranged Slave-Master, and in her panic to get free she slashed his neck open with her razor-sharp claws, killing him. She escaped the mine and found herself wandering the Ashlands of Morrowind alone, starving and without any purpose in life.
Eventually she was discovered by three notorious Khajiit thieves who were escapees from another mine and, seeing some potential in the girl, they decided to take her under their wing. They showed her the way of the Thief, how to sneak, pickpocket, swindle etc., and they discovered that she's a fast learner when it comes to stealth. She and the three thieves soon formed a close bond with each other, and she began to see them as almost brotherly.
After three years of travelling the land with them, committing various break-ins and hold-ups throughout Morrowind, they decided to turn their sights on something bigger, and the four of them managed to gain access to Cyrodiil using the money they'd accumulated. They immediately headed for the Imperial City, where the Khajiit thieves believed they would make their fortune. They set up camp in the sewers under the city, emerging at night to steal from shops and homes, and during the day picking the pockets of various passer-by; positive that they would soon make it big.
After nearly a month however, they realized they were actually getting nowhere and quickly decided that they needed to aim even higher in order to succeed in making their fortune. So one night they planned an extravagant raid on a stately house in the Elven Gardens district of the city, desperate in their greed. However, little did they know that the owner of the house was a retired captain from the Imperial Legion, and the house was very highly guarded.
Needless to say, they were caught red-handed. Their hiding spot in the sewers was discovered, and the four thieves were sentenced to ten years each in the Imperial Prison for their crimes. The retired captain, however, took pity on the eleven year-old Felidae, and decided to foster her.
While the three Khajiit thieves rotted in the dungeons, Felidae slowly adapted to her new lifestyle. She took up a job delivering papers for the Black Horse Courier and her foster father taught her the skills he learned in Legion training, and she soon started to hone her body into a lethal weapon under his expert tuition. Felidae learned to somewhat enjoy this new way of life, and the old man started to become the father and mentor she never really knew. It was also from this man that she acquired the name 'Felidae' (meaning the biological family of cats), as the first portion of her life was spent being regarded simply as a number.
In order to do her new job quicker, she took to using the rooftops for faster deliveries and quickly developed a knack for climbing and athletics; scaling the buildings of the city with complete ease.
Ten years passed, and Felidae grew into a strong-willed young woman living a life of almost complete contentment; earning bonuses at work due to the unmatched speed at which she delivered her papers, and had a growing hope of getting together enough money to one day purchase her own place. The intense training she endured every day was quickly paying off, and she began to think about getting a job in the Legion due to her skills in fighting.
Despite the seemingly perfect lifestyle however, she still felt as though she didn't fit in with life in the city. She was tormented every day by memories of her childhood, and nightmares of her father's death permeated her dreams each night. She had trouble with keeping friends, preferring to stay indoors and train than keep up with her social life, and she rarely left the city other than to hunt animals by Lake Rumare and simply enjoy the outdoors. Deep down she knew she will never be able to settle down and escape her past, no matter how hard she tried.
Meanwhile, deep in the Imperial dungeons, two of the Khajiit thieves had long-since died from disease during their ten years of captivity, but the third thief was finally released back into Tamriel a free man; alone, insane from his many years of imprisonment, and with nought but one purpose. In his mentally handicapped state, he retraced his steps to the old man's house that night and managed to break in once more, carrying a lit torch. Felidae, hearing the thief enter, confronted him on the stairs.
The two tussled, the thief dropping the torch and unintentionally starting a fire. Since the intruder was weak and feeble from his ten years of imprisonment, she easily overpowered the wretch and threw him to the floor. Scared for his life, he begged her to come with him to Elsweyr, where they could start a new life together just like the old days.
Just at at that moment, Felidae's foster father appeared in the doorway, threatening the thief that if he didn't leave the property immediately he'd be arrested, not knowing that the city guard were unable to enter due to the rapidly spreading fire. The thief, desperate not to be imprisoned a second time, seized a knife and murdered the old man in a fit of blind panic, while Felidae watched on in horror. Realising the enormity of what he'd done, the murderer once again attempted to plead with her to join him, so they could escape the province together and start anew. But Felidae, suddenly beset by a murderous rage at the death of the man she had once called "father", ripped his throat out with her bare claws and flung him out the window, where he plummeted to his death. Now realising that everything she once held dear was gone, and not wanting to be present when the soldiers arrived on the scene, she climbed out the shattered window and escaped the city unnoticed, while the only home she'd ever known burned to the ground behind her.
For over a week Felidae wandered the Red Ring Road, starving and penniless. While foraging in the wilderness north-west of the city, she was suddenly attacked by a hungry land dreugh which raked her across the stomach with its two knife-like claws, leaving a parallel pair of scars on the right side of her ribcage. Bleeding profusely, she managed to escape the creature and to her good fortune soon stumbled across a Khajiit caravan, who tended to her wounds. Sensing an opportunity, Felidae promptly offered her services as a bodyguard in return for food and shelter, and the caravan revealed they were en-route to Skyrim in an attempt to improve business.
After a few days of tricky navigation north through the Jerall Mountains, fighting off attacks from wolves, mountain lions and ogres, they finally passed over the border and set up camp near Darkwater Crossing in southern Eastmarch, which was populated by mostly tough-looking Nords in blue armour. At midnight, Felidae was woken by an almighty commotion going on outside the camp, and upon waking she realized with shock and anger that the Khajiit caravan had abandoned her, leaving only a smoking campfire behind to prove they were ever there. She was caught in the midst of an intense battle between the Nords and what look to her like Imperials, judging by the unique attire and weaponry.
After attempting to flee into the woods, she was struck in the back of the head by an unknown assailant and knocked unconscious. When she eventually awoke, head throbbing, she was slumped on a rickety cart with other Nordic prisoners; hands bound, blurry-eyed, and heading inexorably toward whatever fate had in store for her.
Cont:
Upon escaping Helgen, the 21 year old Khajiit girl goes on to wander Skyrim alone, putting all of her skills to use in an attempt to get by in a land fraught with danger. Sometimes she's a conwoman, using her silver-tongue to swindle people out of their hard-earned gold. At other times she's a mercenary, paid to sort out trouble in different parts of Skyrim for either the Empire or the Stormcloaks (it doesn't matter which side she's working for, as long as the pay is good). Then she's a bounty hunter, chasing and capturing dangerous criminals for a reward. She takes to wearing a leather gauntlet over her left hand, attempting to hide away the painful reminder of her childhood that's forever burned onto her wrist (even though she claims it's to help with her archery). She even stumbles across the Khajiit caravan she used to work with, all of them robbed blind and slain by unknown attackers in a remote mountain pass. She decides not to bother tracking down the people who killed them.
After claiming a rare Dwemer repeating crossbow from an ex-bounty target, Felidae decides to ditch her bow and modify the new weapon into a smaller variation of its former self, making it easier to move with but still being just as effective as before. She soon becomes one of the most feared bounty hunters in Skyrim, well-known throughout the criminal underworld.
She keeps fighting regardless, desperate to one day escape her past.