History & Elder Scrolls Fanatic

asked by @blue-dartwing in this post

Let’s tackle first Lilliandra because voice is so important to her. Her voice is beautiful, controlled, and deliberately shaped — but not always warm. She's someone who’s been trained to be listened to, watched, obeyed, and underestimated in precisely the way she wants.

Register/timbre

Lilliandra’s natural voice is a bit medium-low for a woman, smooth and rich. Because of her singing and thaumavocalism, she has exceptional control over breath, resonance, projection, and tone. She can make herself sound softer, warmer, more wounded, more amused, more commanding, or more harmless with very little visible effort.

People might describe her voice as:

mellifluous

silken

low and clear

hypnotic

cultured

unsettlingly calm

There’s a slight rasp, or just rough, when she’s tired, after overusing magic through her voice, after smoking, illness, or later when she develops breathing difficulties.

Tone

Her default tone is often assured. Lilliandra doesn’t usually sound like she is asking permission, even when phrasing something politely.

She can be warm, playful, flirtatious, or soothing, but there’s often a sense that she’s in control of the conversation’s shape. She doesn’t have to raise her voice to dominate a room. In fact, it’s often more dangerous when she drops her voice quieter.

Her sarcasm is quite dry, especially when pointing out flaws. Not “Oh, that’s stupid.”

More “A fascinating conclusion. Did it survive contact with thought?” Or “You may continue, if you are determined to embarrass yourself.”

She can sound very sure of herself even when she’s internally panicking, which makes it harder for others to notice distress until she either goes eerily still or starts speaking too quickly in a spiral.

Word choice

Lilliandra’s word choice is elevated, educated, and precise. She favours exact language, especially in academic, magical, or political contexts.

She rarely rambles in casual conversation unless she’s excited about a subject and she’s comfortable around the person. She can over-explain when discussing magic, experiments, metaphysics, or anything she is passionate about.

Her speech has a few modes:

Public noble mode: Formal, elegant, diplomatic, restrained.

Scholar mode: Precise, technical, intense. She may forget to soften herself.

“No, the resonance is wrong. You are treating the spell as if the voice carries the magic, when the voice is the architecture.”

Cult leader/Champion: Ritualistic, almost sermon-like.

“Knowledge does not ask whether you are ready. It opens, and you either look or blind yourself in refusal.”

Private mode: more sardonic, indulgent, and intimate. Less polished around Miraak, Cinnara, Elikar, and eventually Serana and Ophelia.

Accent

She has a highborn Summerset Altmeri accent: polished, precise, and very noticeable in Tamrielic for a good few decades. By the start of Skyrim, it’s been sanded down after her travels around Tamriel.

Her vowels may be long and clean. Her consonants are careful. She pronounces names correctly even when others do not, and may privately judge sloppy speech.

In Tamrielic, she may sound elegant but slightly formal, as she learned the “proper” version first and casual speech later. In Altmeri, she sounds more natural but also more socially revealing. Other Altmer may hear her and immediately deduce things like: noble birth, expensive education, court/performance training, and political upbringing.

Non-Altmer may simply hear “arrogant elf noble,” which she will use to her advantage.

Code-switching

Lilliandra code-switches often. She may switch languages for intimacy, precision, or secrecy. She mostly sticks to Altmeri (her first language) and Tamrielic, thoug she does know other languages.

Around Miraak, language switching becomes very specific. She might begin in Tamrielic for clarity, shift into Altmeri when irritated or for something specific, and occasionally use Dovahzul terms once she learns them — especially if teasing or challenging.

Also, her code-switching can reveal emotional pressure. When calm, she chooses the language. When distressed, the language chooses her.

Does she swear?

Yes, but not constantly. Lilliandra isn’t someone who fills every sentence with profanity. She enjoys creative insults instead.

Gesture and physicality

She’s definitely not motionless.

She uses her hands when explaining/using magic: tracing shapes, marking rhythm, conducting invisible spell structures. She gestures more when excited about research though! Hand movements as she talks is often paired with her pacing. In public, it’s more restrained. In anger, she may become very still.

Conversation style

Lilliandra listens very well, but not always kindly.

She’s observant. She notices word choice, hesitation, breath, eye movement, posture, and what someone avoids saying. She listens like a performer, a scholar, a noble, and a predator all at once. That means speaking to her can feel flattering at first. She makes people feel heard. Then later — sometimes —they realise she has heard too much.

Her listening style depends on relationship.

With strangers: attentive, charming, analytical

With perceived enemies: polite, surgical, quietly predatory

With Elikar: more reactive, more emotionally exposed, sometimes defensive

With Miraak: challenging, intimate, often layered; she expects him to keep up

With Ophelia: clearer, gentler, more direct; she avoids false softness and respects her daughter's silence

What people deduce from her voice

Just from hearing her speak, people might assume she is:

educated

noble-born

wealthy or formerly wealthy

trained in etiquette

a singer or performer

arrogant

dangerous if crossed

used to command

not as harmless as her looks suggest

hiding something

Very perceptive people may notice the performance. They may realise she is not simply “well-spoken," but that she's developed a mask of sorts. Miraak especially has noticed that. He understands that her voice is another tool. Not fake, exactly — but weaponised.

In-game voice accuracy?

Nah, definitely not.

My first 2026 attack for fanciedyou and their awesome character Önska Snowraven [on the right].

Hey! I am now home from the hospital. 😌 Unfortunately, before anything else I need to ask for some urgent help.

My family does not have enough to make the month's rent - we are right now about $500 short. (It should have been paid on the 30th but I'm hoping that where I was admitted to hospital, Housing will forgive our lateness.)

If you have anything you can spare, I would be eternally grateful for a donation towards keeping me and my family housed. 🙏 Sharing this post also helps a lot!

La Fée Mélusine et le Chevalier Raymondin (1894) by Jean Dampt