Name: Bjorn the Easterner
Birthdate: 2nd of Rain's Hand, 4E 145
Race: Nord
Appearance: Bjorn is 6'4" and of large and muscular build. He has slightly brown sandy blond hair, which is unkempt and flows down to the center of his back. He has a thick, scraggly beard and mustache which cover most of his lower face. He has green eyes which are set deep into his skull, below a stern brow. His face has a weary quality, and he often frowns out of habit. His skin is tan from years spent in the desert, and it is tight and brown like light tanned leather. A large portion of his left pectoral's skin is shiny and rough from a magical burn, and he has a deep scar running down his back from the war.
Personality: Bjorn is very hard and reserved. He is slow to trust and slower to respect, due to his time with the Dunedwellers, which made him look at civilization in the east of Tamriel as soft and shallow compared to the east. He does not speak often and sometimes just communicates by expressions.
Backstory: Bjorn was born in Cyrodiil to Jon and Karina Svenson, originally from Skyrim. Jon was a longshoreman at the Imperial City's Waterfront, and Karina was an apothecary. Bjorn spent his first 6 years of life in the Imperial City; when he turned 7, his parents had saved enough money to move out of the city, to a village in the eastern countryside of Cyrodiil, where Jon worked on a farm and Karina continued her apothecary business. Jon spent the next four years there, learning how to do both manual labor and alchemy, as well as practicing using a sword. It was his dream that if he was good enough, he could join the Legion. So he practiced, and he grew.
At age 11, Bjorn and his family moved to Skyrim, settling down in Dragon Bridge. Because the hamlet was along the road to Solitude, the boy was often in contact with Legionnaires, and he grew to admire them. As he grew into a young man, he grew closer to the Legion soldiers stationed in Solitude. They would let him train with them, and this experience shaped him into a strong young warrior. He signed up for the Legion on his 18th birthday, and went through training at an accelerated rate, after which he entered service with the 7th Skyrim Legion. The group was used throughout Skyrim to fight large bandit clans and to enforce the laws, and Bjorn excelled, getting himself promoted to Quaestor in a year, and then Praefect in three more.
In 4E 171, the Great War began, and Bjorn was sent to fight off the Thalmor in Hammerfell. When the Imperial forces were defeated by the invading elves, the 7th Skyrim Legion took a brutal beating, and was pushed back to the Alik'r Desert in the March of Thirst. Bjorn's unit had been separated from the other Legion forces and pursued by Thalmor mages, which meant that as they retreated into the unfamiliar desert, they did not have any idea of their bearings. When they escaped the Thalmor, Bjorn and his fellow soldiers were completely lost in the center of a vast foreign desert.
They spent the next two years wandering in the desert, suffering from thirst, hunger, heat, and near-insanity from being in the same endless sea of sand for years; gradually, the unit was whittled away at by all these afflictions, until only Bjorn remained. As the war raged on, he tried to escape the sands, but it was futile. It was only in 4E 174 that he received a glimmer of hope, in the form of a tribe of Dunedwellers. They saw that he was ragged and weary, but they did not speak a word of Tamrielic. Still, they did not run him off when he began traveling with them. Gradually, he picked up some Dune Yoku little by little, and he started to understand Dunedweller life and culture.
A year later, the Dunedwellers ventured to the western edge of the Alik'r, and Bjorn was finally back in civilization. He found out the best way to get back to Skyrim, and set out with the Dunedwellers to cross the desert once more. When the journey was done, he left the tribe, who were camped outside of the city from which he intended on returning to Skyrim; however, an hour in civilization caused Bjorn to leave the city and return to the Dunedwellers. He had entered an inn and found the place too claustrophobic, and he had been disgusted when he learned that the Empire had signed the White-Gold Concordat.
Bjorn spent the next 15 years in Hammerfell, traveling with the Dunedwellers and adopting much of their culture. He traded his battered Legion armor for a set made of the bones of desert beasts, as well as some thick cloth robes like the native Dunedwellers wore; he traded his Imperial sword for a short bladed staff with a bone blade; and he traded the worship of the Nine Divines for that of the Dunedweller gods. He also learned some of the Dunedwellers' conjuration, alteration, and destruction magic. He ceased shaving and grooming, with the exception of bathing, and grew used to the constant coating of sand which the Dunedwellers experienced.
By the time he left the Alik'r, Bjorn considered the tribe like his family, but he decided it was time to return home. So he said goodbye at the western edge of the desert, then set out on a trek across Hammerfell to Skyrim. When he returned to the province, he was horrified to find that the Thalmor had agents throughout Skyrim. He could not stand to be around the elves who had tried to kill him, or to be in civilization, so he went to the mountains, where he built a small and secluded cabin. He stayed there most of the time, but not content to turn on his adopted nomadic ways, he would occasionally embark on a journey from his house to somewhere on the other side of the province.
As the years went by, Bjorn gradually increased his social interaction, mostly with trips to nearby Riverwood for supplies and visits to other veterans of the Great War.
Apparel/Equipment: Bone armor crafted from desert beasts, red and blue cloth robes worn under armor and hooded shawl/cloak worn over armor, bone-plated boots, cloth gloves, short wooden staff with a bone blade like a short sword on the end
Skills: One-Handed, Light Armor, Destruction, Conjuration, Alteration, Alchemy
Combat Preferences: Bjorn uses his staff in his right hand and a spell in his left. He uses his Destruction magic to attack foes and his Conjuration to raise dead foes, and he casts magical armor with his Alteration. He heals himself with his expertly crafted potions and coats his weapon in his deadly poisons.
After the invasion: Bjorn's cabin was hidden well enough that it was never found by any of the daedric beings which invaded Tamriel. During the invasion he stayed in seclusion, but with the fortification that the cities and villages have put up, he continues his trips to nearby Riverwood.
I think the backstory needs some work, but it's decent.