OC Lore: Thor the Lost Dragonborn
People who I've talked with on Discord about my LDB Thor of Dawnstar before know of this bit of lore already, but Thor is not exactly a "normal" Dragonborn. He's not related to the Septims, Alessia, Miraak or any other notable Dragonborn in Tamriellic history. He also didn't get his power as a blessing from the gods either. Instead, Thor's "dragon" blood was passed down to him from his father, who got it from his father and so on.
If not any of the usual suspects, then who is the 'lost' progenitor of Thor's bloodline? That would be a man called Thunraz, the son of an ice giantess and an ancient Atmoran king. Family legend says that this Thunraz was born in the late Mythic Era but spent most of his life in the early Merethic Era. It is also claimed Thunraz had pale skin with a prominent blue tint to it and his hair and beard were made of strands of ice. He was also anywhere between 9 and 10 feet tall. Generally speaking, Thunraz looked like certain depictions of the Jotunn Ymir such as this one by AlessiaHV on Deviantart:
Most interestingly, however, was the unique power Thunraz possessed: he could have conversations with the world and request things of nature itself. One of the surviving stories of him is about how he came upon a raging storm while he was sailing in the Sea of Ghosts. Fearing his ship would capsize, Thunraz made his way to the bow of the ship and said something along the lines of:
"Great beast of water, can you find it in your soul to stop your thrashing and grant us safe passage?"
Moments later, the sky cleared up and the waves lost their ferocity.
All of the above happened when time was still non-linear. Different timelines ran alongside each other and different regions of Nirn experienced different histories and times all together. This phenomenon would come to an end during Merethic Era, over the course of which time slowly but surely became linear. This basically caused the same effects as the Warp in the West (or any other Dragon Break for that matter) did: timelines and histories were fused into one singular flow of time. Certain things were either removed or replaced, and one of those things that got replaced was the magic power that flowed through the blood of Thunraz's descendants. By the time Donar of Bromjunaar - perhaps better known as Vahlok the Jailor - was around, the Thunraz bloodline's powers were less about conversing with nature and more about holding command over the different magics. Instead of speaking the language of nature, Vahlok spoke the commanding language of the divine: Dovahzul. Due to this evolution, the dragons ruling over Skyrim recognised him as Dovahkiin; he was the second person in recorded history to have this title.
Something that people often reported about Vahlok (and his descendants after) was that he was strangely unsettling. He wasn't scary in the traditional sense - he was actually uncharacteristically nice and kind for a Dragon Priest - but he had a certain force emanating from him that left the majority of people mildly confused at best. At first it was thought this was just a side effect of being Dragonborn, but after some descriptions of Miraak made the rounds, it was clear this strange phenomenon was unique to Vahlok and the sons he would eventually have.
What causes this strange effect? To put it simply: when time was violently smashed together into one single history, a part of Thunraz's soul that was attached to his incarnation of Atmora and to his original powers refused to bend to the will of Akatosh. In an effort to not be left mangled and partially broken up, Thunraz's spirit entered into a perpetual duel with reality itself. Though it's obvious that he isn't the clear victor - his powers did get warped into being dragon blood after all - he still manages to cling onto a version of Atmora that is now dead, gone and recycled into the Atmora we hear about in all the TES games.
As a side effect of this one-man war against time, all of Thunraz's descendants, simply by virtue of existing and having received (a version of) his powers, are unknowingly causing temporary time-wounds to form around them. These time-wounds are tiny windows into a time and place that was erased from reality itself, which means that anyone who views them is directly looking at Literally Nothing - not even a Sithis type void, but straight up the absence of any form of material reality. Because the mortal mind can't comprehend this, people's brains simply refuse to acknowledge that these time-wounds exist and instead fill in the missing piece of reality with a hallucination. None of Thunraz's own descendants suffer from these hallucinations however, since their minds are somehow able to understand what's going on by virtue of having inherited Thunraz's power. Instead, their minds simply ignore the time-wounds and everything appears normal to them. This also makes it so that people like Vahlok and Thor of Dawnstar have no idea this phenomenon is happening and the chance of them ever discovering it is basically non-existent without the help of, like, the Psijic Order or an actual god.
Fast forward to the 4th Era, and now it's Thor's turn to wield Thunraz's power. Just like his predecessors, Thor has this strange, unseen and time-wound causing aura around him that leaves a good portion of people mildly confused at best and terrified at worst. In his case, the effect it has on people seems to vary with how Thor truly feels about them and the intensity of his emotions.
People who Thor likes (e.g. Serana, Balgruuf, Elisif) may experience feeling a sense of safety and/or comfort when near him, as if he's an ancient sentinel tasked to guard them with his otherworldly powers.
People Thor is neutral towards (e.g. Valerica, the Greybeards, Erandur) may experience a wide variety of effects, including changes in temperature (often in the colder direction), it being slightly too bright or too dark for the current time of day and a distinct sense of being in the presence of something ancient that shouldn't be disturbed.
People who Thor dislikes (e.g. Ulfric, Tullius, Elenwen) may experience strange hallucinations such as a thick layer of mist covering the ground, smelling burnt ozone and rain inside of buildings where rain shouldn't be able to enter.
As previously implied, the intensity of the hallucinations listed above are directly tied to the intensity of Thor's true feelings towards a specific person. Usually the hallucinations are very mild and most people don't even notice them unless they themselves are already wary of him; most of the time, the hallucinations can be summed up as someone getting a certain kind of "mystical" vibe from Thor, if that makes sense. For example, Elisif simply gets the feeling that Thor is a trustworthy and dependable guy while Serana - because she's Thor's partner whom he loves to death - will have that feeling of almost complete safety and comfort when he's around her. I guess you could say that these hallucinations are actually a form of otherworldly nonverbal communication that make Thor's genuine intentions with and general opinion of someone clear without him having to state it outright; he doesn't have to communicate his truth, because his truth already communicates itself for him. As you can imagine, this can easily become a blessing and a curse since Thor is unwittingly broadcasting his feelings all the time. Because Thor is a sincere man, however, he usually has no intent to lie or obscure the truth anyway so this mystical effect often just adds extra weight to what he's saying and doing anyway. In the rare event that he is trying to spread a falsehood or hide the truth however, he'll find that he basically needs to have his Personality and Speech both maxed out for it to convince anyone. Either that, or the person he's talking to is dumb as rocks ... In other words, Thor can still lie to Rolff Stone-Fist and Ulfric Stormcloak and get away with it (/silly).
If you made it all the way to the end here: thank you for reading the whole thing! If you have any questions, ideas or general thoughts, feel free to tell me in whatever way you're comfortable with!
