A Strange Stranger

Kisini

Born and raised in a Baandari clan. Never knew her father, mother died when she was still a cub. She was more or less adopted by Ko'anussa, their clanmother. Ko'anussa also quasi-adopted Vassa, an unrelated but also orphaned cub born on the same night as Kisini, thus raised as her unofficially adopted sister- then brother. Kisini's specific caravan was attacked in the dead of night, Ko'anussa managing to sneak Kisini and Vassa away from the bandit raid before running back to try and help the others. As far as Kisini and Vassa know, they were the only survivors.

As mentioned, she has no birth-family left alive- save for Vassa. Originally inseparable, they started growing more and more hostile towards each other as Vassa turned more towards murderous means of making money, which Kisini vehemently opposed. They were both captured and picked up by the same Imperial convoy that would also snatch up Seledil, too caught up in yet another bitter argument to escape in time. Kisini fled Helgen entirely on her own after Alduin attacked.

Because of the above, Kisini drove herself to be fiercely independent and avoidant of personal connections- all the more so when she and Vassa split up. She's forced to confront this over the course of the Thieves Guild questline- though still abrasive and aloof in nature, Kisini has at least allowed herself to accept some help and care for others again (albeit a very select few, really just her Guild and Shavsha+her family.)

Though prefers dual-wielding short swords, Kisini is also proficient with a set of throwing knives Ko'anussa gifted her shortly before they were separated.

On paper, Kisini is a Nightingale- but, like Brynjolf, isn't overly passionate about her sworn oath to Nocturnal, thus focuses her "servitude" to keeping the Guild in order and steering subordinates away from disrespecting the Prince. Due to being almost killed in Irkngthand, Kisini was not the one that returned the Skeleton Key- rather she and Brynjolf encouraging Karliah to do so, allowing her to put some weight in her reallegiance to Nocturnal.

Kisini met Shavsha during respective questlines (when trying to decode Gallus' journal), Shavsha more or less seeks Kisini out in Riften while they're both in a sort of interim before being made their respective factions' leader and start dating. Spend a night or two together in Riften before Shavsha has to go back to Winterhold, now semi-regularly send letters back and forth.

Her voiceclaim is Eartha Kitt :^)

Shavsha

Tarmo's adoptive younger sister, Shavsha hatched in Valenwood and was raised there (almost entirely by her brother) until the siblings fled the province to get away from both the increasing Thalmor presence and their neglectful, manipulative high-society parents.

Shavsha was originally given a (male) Bosmeri name upon hatching. Though she chose to keep the surname (moreso because of the tie to her brother than their parents), Tarmo did some research on female Argonian names and helped Shavsha pick out her name.

Due to hatching and being raised in Valenwood, Shavsha has never been exposed to the Hist. She has no desire to be, the idea frankly disturbing her- but she is still fascinated by this aspect in relation to other Argonians, as well as the culture she never had much exposure to until leaving to travel with her older brother.

Shavsha is very much a bookworm and scholar, absolute nerd- but also very much a battle-mage, built like a brick wall and not unfamiliar with nonmagical combat.

She resisted the idea of being made Archmage at first, taking about a month to travel and think it over. Though Shavsha did ultimately accept the position, she pushed for it to be of a more personable nature, insisting no one takes Mirabelle's place as what was essentially a stewardship.

Noroi

Born an Outlander, and has never set foot in mainland Morrowind to this day. The closest he's gotten is Solstheim, and is perfectly happy to keep it that way. Noroi never had a set home for most of his life, technically born in Skyrim but was constantly traveling with his family- then on his own, after they were all attacked in the wilderness by what he'd later understand was a werewolf. Noroi was the only survivor, and became infected with lycanthropy himself- completely unable to control it, only keep a close eye on himself and isolate himself as soon as possible whenever he feels a change coming.

While traveling on his own, Noroi made money by doing whatever odd jobs he could get and playing music, having an innate talent for not only musicianship but quickly learning new instruments. After finding himself in such exchanges a couple times, Noroi (hesitantly) added self-prostitution to his means of income on the road.

Noroi only returned to Skyrim about two years before Helgen, winding up in the Grey Quarter like so many other Dunmer. He soon took notice of Sofie- essentially his "neighbor," both living on the streets- and started taking care of the young girl more and more until it was understood (in the Grey Quarter, at least) Noroi was her guardian. Though he had no intention of this, Noroi embraced his role as Sofie's father and constantly kept an eye open for an opportunity to get her out of Windhelm and into a better life.

Noroi designed and made his own unique weapon while on the road pre-return to Skyrim; it's essentially a lightweight two-handed axe with a curved pick opposite the blade.

Noroi first met Tarmo while he and Seledil were traveling through Windhelm, Tarmo taking an interest in Noroi's busking and sticking around to watch. A very generous tip led to Noroi (with no small amount of guilt) propositioning Tarmo in an effort to extract even more money from him- but after having sex and Tarmo being far more kind than any other "patron" had been, Noroi's guilt won over and he refused to accept anymore money. Instead, Tarmo convinced him to let him buy Noroi (and, after learning about her) Sofie an actual meal for dinner later that evening.

Noroi is a deserter of both the Imperial Army and the Companions. After getting Sofie out of Windhelm with Tarmo's help, Noroi set out to join the Imperials in the hopes of at least helping to overthrow the governing powers responsible for places of concentrated suffering like the Grey Quarter- But he wound up killing his entire squadron after losing control and changing one night. He lied that this was a dragon attack when he got back to Solitude, being afforded shoreleave- which he promptly used to abandon his service and investigate a rumor he heard about the Companions in hopes of finding either a cure or way to control his lycanthropy. But this was a dead end as well, Noroi bailing immediately after helping Aela kill Skjorn's murderer.

Tarmo

His parents are high-ranking members of society in Valenwood, and were among those quick to accept Thalmor occupation. Tarmo himself was an unplanned child, and this combined with his parents' main priority being power meant he was heavily neglected all his life, treated more like a prize to show off than a child. Because of this and vehemently disagreeing with the Dominion, Tarmo tried many times to escape from his parents' hold- his efforts ultimately leading them to have him jailed, the first time for 4 years, then 15.

Shavsha's egg being kept and her being officially adopted was yet another ploy by their parents to keep Tarmo tied down to them, and as a result they didn't really care for her all that much and left Tarmo to raise her. Though this did keep him stuck for a couple decades, having a little then-brother to take care of only encouraged Tarmo to work even harder to get them both out Valenwood, not making another escape attempt until he was 100% certain it would work. (Which, obviously, it did.) In addition to helping Shavsha find her new name, Tarmo also dumped his birth name (Gazathroth) for the one he has now.

Tarmo wound up being Seledil’s companion (he Refuses to be called a follower) for most of the main-game story, only absent for a brief period after the start of Diplomatic Immunity and while Seledil was on Solstheim. They met by complete accident, really a couple times until Seledil finally gave in and let him tag along after Tarmo stepped in to help with the Western Watchtower fight and thus running into each other again.

Tarmo owns a riverside homestead in the northern part of the Rift's forests, helping an older Breton woman to build it and inheriting ownership after she died from a sudden sickness.

Being the hopeless romantic at heart that he is, Tarmo wound up falling head over heels for Noroi when they first met- and was thus very receptive to Noroi suddenly proposing marriage the next time Tarmo was in Windhelm. This was at least partly a means to get Sofie out of Windhelm, Tarmo and Noroi officially adopting her once they were married. While it did of course hurt Tarmo to learn this, he and Noroi have remained committed partners, working through their relationship despite the unconventional start and order of milestones.

Seledil

Still not 100% sure on what to call it? but on top of being intersex, Seledil was born with the tES equivalent of Marfan syndrome, which just adds to his distinctly un-Altmer physical appearance. His skin is darker than the screencap, but not as dark as the darkest option in character creation- more like a cold, nonmetalloc bronze (a98565 is pretty close.) The base game Also didn't let me do this, but his hair is 3c. His "dead-eye" (as it's often referred to in-universe) isn't one of his many congenital health issues, but a leftover of his father's abuse.

Absolutely Not Thalmor or even sympathetic- but was raised on Alinor by his legal father Lovimo, a medium-high ranking noble. However he wasn't born anywhere on the Summerset Isles, his mother Andraara going into hiding after learning her fling with "Lovimo" got her pregnant and knowing her child wouldn't be allowed to live due to the Aldmeri Dominion's nasty eugenic policies. Both Andraara and a Very young Seledil were eventually found and dragged back to Alinor however, Lovimo ultimately being backed into a corner and forced to take Seledil as his "responsibility"- but Andraara was executed a few months later, Seledil forced to watch. Lovimo made it very clear to Seledil he Did Not Want Him To Be Alive, being very physically abusive as well as mentally/emotionally- but would heal most injuries to a presentable state to save face. Seledil did eventually escape, and fled to the Tamrielic mainland when he was in his early 20s.

Seledil’s immediate family is a complicated, more-than-slightly fucked up mess- for starters, I called Lovimo his legal father and put his name in quotes wrt Andraara's fling for a reason, Seledil’s biologic father being Lovimo's twin brother Tunriil (who disguised himself as Lovimo and took Andraara to bed as yet another undermining of Lovimo's power.) Andraara herself was born male and named Seledil Koriane, and was originally even more visually Un-Altmer-ish (her side being where Seledil gets the Dwemer genetics)- but used magic to completely change her appearance and physiology (which is. A whole other complicated discussion about erasing one's identity in order to "pass" as a trans person. Honestly Andraara herself is a whole other giant can of worms, Seledil got the crazy from both sides-)

(And on that note. Tl;dr on the Dwemer gentics; I headcanon the vast majority of the Dwemer Zero Sum-ed out of existence, but a comparative handful wound up instead being displaced and wound up in some wee plane of Oblivion. Seledil’s great-grandfather figured out a way to track these remnants and traveled through Oblivion after them- only realizing it was a one way trip when he got there. Altmer great-grandfather married a Dwemer woman, their half-Dwemer-half-Altmer son figured out a way to hop back to Mundus for a very brief time, accidentally conceiving Andraara with an Altmer woman he met. Etcetera etcetera.)

It isn’t as bad as it once was, but Seledil is still something of an "autonihilist"- as in sees very little worth in themself, having deeply internalized he was worthless as an individual from a very young age. As a result, he's been manipulated and taken advantage of in many ways many different times throughout his life, and kept himself mostly separate from society- until semi-recently, being forced into reconsidering this more and more across the main story.

Seledil themself isn't really associated with any factions, the only exception sort of being the Greybeards but even then, after dealing with Alduin. Ehhh. Instead, now that the apocalypse has been avoided, Seledil is focused on trying to end the civil war in Skyrim without any more bloodshed and death; the process has been and will continue to be slow and painful, but Seledil has fully committed himself to helping the province secede from the Empire and become independent. (Regardless of the fact that they really dislike Ulfric on a personal level. Seledil will also help to foster an alliance between Skyrim and Morrowind in the future, which- again- a whole other giant can of worms.)

(Also eventually winds up in a throuple with Neloth and Teldryn four-ish years in the future, after a messy series of events kicked off by Seledil almost dying when eliminating Ildari. Which also leaves Seledil with considerable changes to his health, such as needing a cane and leg braces.)

Neloth

Directly descended from the original Telvanni family which the Great House was founded by/around, on his mother's side. He gives off big Bitchy Old Queer Raised By Lesbians vibes to me so I'm rolling with that <3

Tried out a quasi-immortality spell when he was around 160, but it went horribly awry and he wound up rapidly aging. Then stopped altogether, leaving him stuck at the physical equivalent of late-middleage. In other words, he's been Old™️ for six centuries now.

Left Vvardenfell in what was essentially a "you can't fire me, I quit!" type of grown ass mer tantrum, the rest of the Telvanni Council refusing to name him the next Archmagister. We're talking Neloth dipping for Solstheim just days after Gothren was killed.

Neloth Absolutely has absolutely stuck his nose into Forbidden Knowledge, probably multiple times- but definitely wound up getting much too close to Hermaeus Mora for comfort at some point in his younger years. He's absolutely been to Apocrypha, and spent a good while studying there.

Teldryn

I was originally not very into the Nerevarine!Teldryn idea because of a handful of contradictions to the very little we get on him in canon. But then I remembered plausibly tweaking canon to give my favorites more depth and history is My Entire Thing so here we are-

He was born somewhere in Western Cyrodiil, but his father convinced his mother to move back to Morrowind with him. Thus Teldryn spent a lot of his formative years in Blacklight- but eventually was dragged back out to Cyrodiil with his mother's family when she found out he was sleeping around. Teldryn was then essentially disowned by his mother and her family when he decided to try and make a life for himself away from their influence, changing his surname to Sero and never going back. (Still looks back now and then, but never anything more.)

Teldryn wound up getting the Morag Tong sent after him (repeatedly) while dealing with the whole Hortator ordeal- until ultimately Geldis (himself then a Tong agent) helped him disappear entirely, smuggling him out of Morrowind shortly after Dagoth Ur was defeated. Teldryn went by the name "Salath Terelo" for over a century, only dropping this alias after a few years on Solstheim (but before becoming known in Raven Rock, only ever known there as Teldryn Sero.)

(Only Geldis- whom Teldryn didn't expect to ever see again and was thus understandably startled to find him opening a cornerclub in the unassuming little settlement- knows much of anything about Teldryn’s past. Even Neloth, as was mentioned, leaving Tel Naga behind before the prophecy was fully realized and thus only having a secondhand understanding of the events.)