Name: Therin Vulpes
Alias: The Fox, Fox, and others as needed
Gender: Male
Race: Breton
Age: 50*
*While the life-expectancy of the races is never officially divulged, certain assumptions can be made from Tamrielic lore. My personal assumptions are that the Man races (Redguard, Imperial, Nords) live to comparable ages to humans on Earth, ~70 years old (although, realistically we don’t share the same standard of living, so in truth, they would really live until ~40-50, but for the sake of argument, let’s say ~70). The Mer races live longer lives with Altmer (being the most pureblooded) living 500+ years, and in some confirmed cases almost to 1,000 years. Since Bretons are a mixture of Nedic and Mer bloodlines, I assume that they’ll have slightly longer lifespans than other Man races, ~150 years. So, while Therin has lived for 50 years, it’s truly only been 1/3 of his life, so he’ll have the physical characteristics and endurance of someone in their late 20s.
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 170lbs
Birth Date: 1st of Evening Star
Birth Location: His family’s estate, located East of Evermor, in the foothills of the Druadach Mountains.
Birth Sign: The Atronach
Class: Witchhunter
Witchhunters are dedicated to rooting out and destroying the perverted practices of dark cults and profane sorcery. They train for martial, magical, and stealthy war against vampires, witches, warlocks, and necromancers. Swift on foot, and clever with spells, they use distance as their ally. Slower adversaries are fodder for their arrows.
Religion: Eight Divines
Patron Deities: Arkay – God of the Cycle of Life and Death; opposes Necromancy
Julianos – God of Wisdom and Logic; associated with Law and History
Stendarr – God of Mercy; opposes Daedra, Vampires, Werewolves, and Witches
Family History
Therin’s heritage can be traced back to the Merethic Era, when the Nedic people were still enslaved to the Aldmeri. Despite sharing blood with the Aldmeri, the newly created Bretons were looked down upon by both their Elven masters and fellow pureblood Nedic slaves. Therin’s grandsire was owned by a particularly vicious Ayleid wizard, known as Fire King Hadhuul, who consulted with Daedra and practiced profane magic. His grandsire lost two sons – one in the gut-gardens of Sercen and the other, who was set aflame for nighttime tiger sport. When Alessia, the Slave Queen, rebelled in 1E 242, Therin’s grandsire was primed to join the rebellion. However, Fire King Hadhuul was a powerful wizard and Alessia’s army could not get close to his estates. Direct combat was ineffective and no one in his household could match, let alone exceed, Hadhuul’s arcane brilliance. Hadhuul ruled his estate with an iron fist and Therin’s grandsire knew that he could not organize the slaves into a revolt. There were spies set among the slaves, eager to rat out the conspirators in hopes of currying favor. So Therin’s grandsire began a lengthy campaign to take down the evil Elf by himself. He secretly taught himself the art of Illusion magic and began employing its use on Hadhuul’s closest advisors. One by one, he would manipulate their fears or embolden their courage. Hadhuul noticed the change in his court. Some of his advisors grew afraid of Alessia’s army and encouraged the King to surrender. These elves were immediately put to death to discourage insurrection. Others began acting out, pressuring Hadhuul to meet Alessia’s army on the field of battle and destroy her. These advisors, too, were quickly dealt with and silenced. After a while, Hadhuul could not trust anyone close to him, and so he spent increasing times alone.
One night, Therin’s grandsire decided to capitalize on the situation. Hadhuul had gone to bed, with only two guards set by his door. He had grown mistrustful of late and dismissed most of his guards for fear they were plotting against him. The hallway was long and lit by torches in the middle. The guards would be able to see anyone approach and call out for help. But Therin’s grandsire stayed in the shadows on the far side of the hall. He knew that the guards could not see much beyond the light of the torches and kept as quiet as possible. He notched an arrow to the bow he stole and aimed carefully for the guard’s throat. As soon as the arrow was launched forward, he grabbed the second arrow and pulled back. By this time the first arrow had founds its target and the guard was drowning in his own blood. The other guard was stunned for a moment, trying to comprehend what was happening. It was all the time Therin’s grandsire needed to aim and let loose the second arrow. It, too, found its mark and silenced its victim before granting them death.
The clattering of the guards’ armor banged in his ears like thunder as they slumped to the floor. Surely it would wake the entire castle and Hadhuul would come storming out of his bedchamber ready to strike down any adversary with fire, ice, or lightning. Therin’s grandsire began taking deep breaths and slowly counted to a hundred. But nothing happened. The noise mustn’t have been as bad as he feared. Dropping the bow, he inched forward closing on the door. He opened the door and peeked inside. Hadhuul was there, sleeping on his bed, his chest rising and falling in slow rhythm. He approached the bed quietly and took out a small unadorned iron knife. He considered the irony that such a great and powerful wizard would be killed by such a crude and simple weapon. But he also wasted no time in bringing it up and slamming it down through the wizard’s throat.
Therin’s family was granted a small estate in High Rock on the border with Skyrim many generations ago. High Rock, new home to the Bretons, served as a bastion where magicka users came to train and strengthen their arts. However, when a mage became corrupted and too powerful for a conventional attack, the King of High Rock would send a secret message to the Vulpes family and the problem would be dealt with quietly and discretely. The Vulpes family kept this service hidden so an up and coming evil mage could not preemptively attack their future assassin. To this day, the Vulpes family continues providing assistance to the crown of High Rock, parent teaching child in order to keep the tradition alive and the realm safe.
Personality
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Positive Traits: Intelligent, calculating, friendly, curious
Negative Traits: Stubborn, proud, impatient with others
Likes: History, politics, current events
Dislikes: Unknown, exposure, perversion of magic
Fears: His family’s safety, failure, corruption, spiders
Aspirations: Continuing his family’s legacy of Witchhunting, contributing to society in a meaningful way
Therin is a man who lives a double life. As a landowner and minor noble, he tries to govern his fief with fairness and integrity. Therin is quite approachable, and will lend aid to any of his peasants if the circumstances warrant it. His family’s service to its liege lord, the King of High Rock, has been a secretive one. While on an assignment, Therin’s personality becomes harsher and more calculating. His main goal is to end a life, or lives, and as such he hardens his compassion and steels his resolve.
Appearance
Hair: Dark brown shoulder length hair, tied back by braiding his hair on either side. (It’s a style in Skyrim’s character creation, if that helps narrow it down.)
Facial hair: Close-cropped mustache and goatee, same color as his hair.
Eye Color: Light blue
Skin Color: Pale skin, typical of a Breton
Build: Lithe, but muscular
Physical: Therin’s heraldry gives him a noble appearance. In public, he often holds himself with his back straight, shoulders back, head held high with a conscious gait…the model of minor nobility. However, when he’s training in either Khajiiti or Redguard martial arts, he loses the stick-up-his-butt stature and becomes a fluid and graceful fighter. His lithe build allows him quick movement with great agility. His strength is sub-par; he will never beat a Nord in arm wrestling, male or female, but his combat style comes from quickness rather than brute strength. His height is disadvantageous to sneaking around; a smaller man would be harder to detect, which makes his sneaking slower and more deliberate. He has an average face, neither too beautiful nor too ugly.
Attire:Therin is a practical man, and only a minor lord with limited means, so most of his clothes are of stout wool, usually plain and unadorned. He does have a few embroidered outfits when visiting the King or for special holidays, but would prefer wearing loose, simple shirt and pants in High Rock’s temperate climate. These clothes would probably do well in The Rift and Falkreath Hold, but in Skyrim’s harsher climate, he will prefer heavy furs to keep the chill off.
Combat
Skills - Perk Layout
Master
Illusion – Therin would much rather orchestrate an enemy’s demise from a distance, and preferably at another’s hand. As Therin’s grandsire learned, it took no skill to plunge a knife into a man’s throat, but it took great dedication and subtly to present that situation. Therin’s skill in the Illusion school focuses more on the Courage, Fear, Fury, and Calm spells than the sneakier spells of Muffle or Invisibility. He has also mastered the ability to quietly cast his spells, allowing him to stay in the shadows undetected.
Expert
Archery – In keeping with his preference for distance, Therin has trained extensively in the use of bows. Mages often have the advantage of distance with ranged spells, and when things go awry a bow can give him the same advantage.
Restoration – It may seem odd that an assassin would be skilled in the arts of healing, but they are often alone on a job with no support, but themselves. Healing spells have come in handy many times for Therin as a job didn’t go as planned and things got messy. A majority of Therin’s foes are conjurors dabbling in necromancy or vampires looking to spread the curse, and Turn Undead spells have often tipped the scales in Therin’s favor. In fact, so often has he used these talents against his undead foes that he has perfected the (Necromage) talent, increasing all his spells against the undead.
Adept
Sneak – What’s the best way to kill a mage? From the shadows when they least suspect it. Therin’s adversaries are a powerful lot, commanding potent energies that will destroy any man or mer. The philosophy of a Witchhunter is to kill the mage before they have time to attack with a spell. Preferring ranged attacks with manipulation or a bow, Therin has only become adept at sneaking, and will use close quarters combat as a last resort.
One-handed – Sometimes a ranged attack is impossible or the mage is alone with one else to manipulate. Sneak will only get a person so far and then a blade is necessary to finish the job. Daggers are Therin’s fallback weapon; while daggers are limited to stabbing and slashing at close range, Therin has increased his talent for throwing daggers from a distance. Not as accurate or reliable as a bow, they will still do in a pinch. Luckily for Therin, mages, as a general rule, are even less talented in one-handed skills than he, so his talents are sufficient to do the job. However, even a junior warrior could outperform Therin with a sword.
Apprentice
Destruction – Therin could never beat his enemies trading fireball with fireball. However, Therin uses his knowledge of destruction runes to set up a trap for enemy spellcasters.
Lockpicking – While no thief, Therin has learned the basics of lockpicking in order to easily infiltrate a mage’s lair. This skill hasn’t been too useful as most of the magical outcasts have retreated to caves or ruins. Once his enemies have been dealt with, Therin can take his time opening chests or lockboxes without the
need for speed.
Novice
Smithing, Heavy Armor, Block, and Two-Handed
Light Armor, Pickpocket, Speech, and Alchemy
Conjuration, Alteration, and Enchanting
Natural Abilities
Therin is a Breton, and therefore has a natural affinity, and resistance, to magic. The resistance, especially, is useful in his career as a Witchhunter. It is also augmented by the fact that he was born under the sign of the Atronach, which grants him the ability to absorb more of the spells’ effects, using it to replenish his own magicka, which doesn’t regenerate nearly as quickly as a normal Breton’s.
Gear
Elven Bow and Arrows
The same bow that Therin’s grandsire used during the regicide of King Hadhuul was awarded to him by Saint Alessia, herself. In honor of his service, Alessia had the bow enchanted with a chance to paralyze its target. However, the spell is so powerful that the enchantment is quite unpredictable (about 1% chance) so the wielder should never count on it. Since the bow was created by Ayleid craftsmen, it has withstood the test of time successfully with only minor repairs needed throughout the ages. Instead of using typical moonstone in its construction, Hadhuul had ordered that a rare stone found in Elswyr, called Tiger Iron by the Khajiit, be used to make the bow. Instead of the golden sheen of elven weapons and armor, this bow took on the quality of the Tiger Iron, with its mostly black hematite with small bands of dark red jasper and the chatoyance of Tiger’s Eye. This coloring has allowed this bow to be drawn undetected in the shadows.
Daggers
Later on in the Vulpes family history, the King of High Rock had two elven daggers created matching the elven bow. He presented these to Therin’s ancestor after a particularly large, and difficult, den of vampires had been eradicated. These vampires had infiltrated the High Rock nobility and were very close in attempting a coup. The rarity and value of these daggers professed the King’s gratitude to the Vulpes family.
This is a picture of Tiger Iron. Change the composition in your mind to 90% of the black hematite, 7% of a darker red jasper, and 3% of a darker golden tiger's eye (cut in the en cabochon style to display its chatoyancy.
Attire
Therin’s main enemies are magic users. Standard heavy armor or light armor holds no protection against these powerful energies. As such, Therin prefers simple black cloth shirts and pants to wear while infiltrating an enemy’s area, but circumstances will always dictate what could be the best approach. These simple clothes make sneaking around much easier than heavy, and even light, armor. Therin will also wear gloves, hood, and cowl to obscure his hands and face, allowing him even greater sneaking skill.
Factions:
The Order: Been a member for thirty years, but hasn't had contact with them in twenty years.
Thalmor: Dislikes and distrusts.
Imperial Legion: Supports the Legion, like all good Bretons should.
Stormcloaks: Dislikes, sees the rebellion in Skyrim as weakening the Empire, which is disadvantageous in the "Cold War" with the Dominion.
Falmer: No relation.
Reachmen: Neutral. Sad to see ancient Bretons degraded, but they cut off ties with High Rock a long time ago.
The Guilds:
Thieves Guild: No previous interaction with Skyrim Thieves' Guild, but minimal dealings with High Rock Thieves' Guild.
Companions: No relation.
Mages College: No relation.
Dark Brotherhood: No interaction with Skyrim's Dark Brotherhood.
