Spare a coin, muthsera?

[[I haven’t been on here in the last week or so and it seems in my absence I gained an influx of followers (why does that always happen) - enough, in fact, to bring me over the 200 mark! Thank you all for your interest and support - I’ve not been especially active lately but once I get my head back in the game I will be jumpstarting activity on this dead-ass blog (and my other blog over at @nobilis-aquilae) with renewed vigour.

[hair]: length, colour, texture, whether it grows quickly or slowly, how manageable it is, whether it requires lots of styling, do they leave stray hairs everywhere, is it present on their face, is it present on the rest of their body, etc.

[eyes]: not just the colour, but the shape, the length of their eyelashes, whether they're alert or usually half-closed, large or small, sunken into the face, ringed by bags, etc.

[mouth]: are their lips always drawn thin or are they plump and kissable, what's their "default expression"/resting face, do they have all their own teeth, do they use their teeth to smile, etc.

[face]: what is the shape of their face, do they have pronounced cheekbones or a strong jaw, what's the size and shape of their nose, what's the size and shape of their ears, do they stick out, are they pointed, etc.

[skin]: obviously colour, but also if they're inclined to run hot or cold, do they have any blemishes or unusual markings, are they inclined to blush, are they freckled, do they tan, what does their skin feel like, etc.

[build]: are they skinny and petite or do they resemble a body builder, are they tall or short or average height, are they lean and wiry, are they overweight, are all of their features proportionate, etc.

[chest]: (potentially nsfw) what size are their breasts if they have them, nipple colour and shape and size, do they have visible muscle definition/abs, etc.

[groin]: (potentially nsfw) any information pertaining to genitals - length, girth, shape, colour, "unusual features", also includes the rear and its general appearance, etc.

[hands]: are they large or small, do they have pianist's fingers or short stubby ones, do they tend to get sweaty or are they always dry, is the skin rough or delicate, are the nails painted or chewed or sharp, etc.

[legs]: are they solidly built, short and stubby, or long and graceful, do they have knobby knees or rounded knees, what's their gait, etc.

[feet]: do they have a habit of going up on their tiptoes, what's their usually stance, do they tend to shift their weight to a preferred side, etc.

12. How does their education and intelligence – or lack thereof - reflect in their speech pattern, vocabulary, and pronunciations?

Ivelas’ mother tongue is Dunmeris, but he picked up the common Tamrielic tongue during his time with the guild - a necessity when working with chronicling and bookkeeping the slave trade. Although Imperial decree allowed the Great Houses of Morrowind continue the traditional slaving practices when the province was taken into the fold of the Empire, this brought about a slew of characteristic Cyrodiilic bureaucracy and regulations that had to be followed stringently. As such, many members of slavers’ guilds in the deep Dreslands, who had previously only spoken Dunmeris with a smattering of Tamrielic phrases for dealing with foreigners, shortly found themselves bilingual by necessity.

Since his departure from Morrowind, Ivelas’ Tamrielic has developed rather haphazardly - spending most of his time exposed to the language primarily in Cheydinhal and then Bravil, his speech came to reflect both the alpine sing-song accent and the rough, almost twanging slang-laden pseudo-dialect of both respective cities. Since setting out on his travels, he has picked up an untold number of odd phrases, idioms, metaphors, and parables that would make sense only in translation from the mother tongue of their place of origin. Furthermore, with the broad range of clientele that he has found himself dealing with in his herbalist trade, Ivelas has learned a wide range of terms of etiquette, from the colloquial to the fully formal. This is why it seems, at times, that he can fluctuate between sounding like a rough-handed commoner, a silver-tongued tradesmer and a well-spoken noblemer, almost within the same sentence. For his part it’s something that has become second nature to him, not even realising the oddities of speech in his second language, though to a native speaker his mannerisms may appear quite peculiar.

As for his Dunmeris - as Ivelas grew up in the deep Dreslands, which was mostly rural and agrarian, his accent may come across to other speakers of the language as quite bumpkinish, almost comically so.

35. Do they always rationalize errors? How do they accept disasters and failures?

As Ivelas feels that he is responsible for the deaths of most of his family during Red Year, he has a strong sense of survivor’s guilt. He is quick to blame himself for his failures and shortcomings, which can see him veering dangerously back towards the alcoholic tendencies of his former years. He likely suffers from some manner of post-traumatic stress, as he has never taken the time to face his past or atone for his self-perceived transgression; almost symptomatically of his, he has developed a good sense of how to get himself out of trouble, and has become quite proficient at evading forms of comeuppance on his part.

47. Do they want to project an image of a younger, older, more important person? Does they want to be visible or invisible?

So far, I’ve really enjoyed developing the relationship between Ivelas and his brother, Ulvis, after the revelation that the latter was still alive after the events of Red Year. Although the two haven’t had much time to interact since, it’s nice to see the two long-lost siblings, both many miles and many years from home, have that little slice of familiarity and kinship that they share with each other. It offers me a rare moment to portray them in a comfort zone that I so seldom get to explore.