#inkthinks

Miraak:

seasonal: Miraak prefers winter. The cold tends to cut off trade routes with large amounts of snow. He enjoys the reason to be holed up in a temple for a little while rather than needing to travel, though of course, the dragons would take their priests someplace if they needed to. Spring and summer are times of melting and uncertain ice-paths that can be fatal if you're not watching it properly, as well as a lot of labour tending to crops during the short growing season. Equally, dragons tended to be around the temples more often, especially non ice types, seeking shelter from the harsh blizzards and requiring constant care and entertainment. Miraak enjoyed speaking with different dragons than Naxfusiiz, the foul-tempered ice-dragon who largely dwelt there during summer and spring and Miraak's primary care. This gave him the chance to do vital politicking, ingratiating himself with other dragons and their priests. After earning his own temple on Solstheim, the warmer weather meant that being snowed in wasn't as great a concern, but it was still a reason for the temple's people to gather close and celebrate. Furthermore, Miraak prefers the cold and the snow as it reminds him of his mother, who grew ice-trees.

childhood: Miraak grew up in a small Dragon Cult village in Atmora, built around a central temple. It was a rural settlement of no vast importance, and lowland, surrounded by rich alpine forests and rocky slopes. As a very young child, he lived with his mother, and likely would have been in the care of his older siblings, but he was given to the Dragon Cult when he was around six or seven years old. He had a different name as a child before he earnt his high priest mask, by which he is known today. This was somewhat against his mother's wishes, but Miraak himself blossomed under the care of the Cult. He would have been trilingual from an early age, becoming fluent in Nordic, Falmeri, and Dovahzul. He excelled at cult choral duties, and also proved to be a very curious and eager student of literacy. Once taken on as a formal apprentice of the temple around fourteen he would have been taught how to care for dragons directly. Miraak had a relatively isolated childhood outside of his village, and never left it until he rose through the ranks of the cult, as it was very dangerous to travel outside of the protections of the dragons for extended periods, and the village he hailed from was particularly remote. He chafed at the restrictions, but undertook increasing study and mastering of dragon language and care to fill his time rather than rebelling.

As a result, he spent a lot of time with the same group of people. He had an intense rivalry with another young boy his age, Jyric, who excelled far more at physical pursuits like swordplay and hunting. Miraak's skill in Restoration may have arisen from the need to heal himself after being pushed down wells and mountain slopes. The boys managed to give each other multiple near death experiences before the age of twenty, which may somewhat have ... contributed to Miraak's preference towards bookishness - where at least, the library was usually watched.

work: Miraak was a talented dragon priest who enjoyed a near-meteoric rise to power. Part of that was his dovahsil and his Voice, which dragons could usually sense about him, and which intrigued them, as well as his ... durability. He enjoyed working with dragons, particularly brushing and cleaning, but was very excited to receive his own temple and take on more of a civic governance role as well. He was not the most high ranked dragon priest at any given time, but his quick ascension to high priest at a young age was marked with controversy and gossip. Many priests thought he was doomed to die just as quickly as he had risen, or were otherwise resentful or jealous of his strange reception amongst the dragons. Due to this, he was particularly prickly and defensive with both his people and fellow priests, and though he wasn't disliked, as he was very charismatic when he wanted to be, he was not close to any except, for, possibly, his mother and only surviving family member. His ease with others yet lack of true closeness meant that very few trusted him, and few, if any, openly mourned his passing. The dragons he served, however, were generally very pleased with him, and he enjoyed strong popularity among the dragons, who saw his isolatory nature and defensiveness as both wise and familiar. He trained many young apprentices and had many children at the urgings of the dragons, many of whom were interested in having priests of their own with his unique qualities.

emotions: Miraak is not... really, emotionally switched on. He has a strong tendency to repress and hide his emotions, and he hates being vulnerable in front of others. This makes him very closed off for the most part, and though he is very charismatic when he wants to be and even enjoys surrounding himself with other people, he struggles to connect with them. He will cry in private, and prefers not to speak about his feelings openly. He is actually surprisingly insecure and uncertain in his honest, emotional dealings with other people, and strongly prefers only interacting such with those whose loyalty he is mostly convinced of and he can pull rank on, like his cult, or his controlled dragons, as relating to others is something he finds difficult and uncomfortable. He is content being alone with his thoughts and feelings, and observing a rather casual relationship with his peers that does not touch on emotional openness is his norm (though he is frequently nosy about their secrets). He is actually much more likely to respond to strong emotion in a hidden and withdrawn manner, such as parsing extreme betrayal or shock through stiffness and disassociation. Being a dragon priest is essentially customer service to something the size of a house with teeth longer than your forearm, and much of Miraak's bombast and showboating is a result of a lifetime of being a very good actor.

serana

seasonal: Serana loves early spring. In her mother's garden, that's when the flowers start popping up, and after the gloom of a long winter in Castle Volkihar, the dash of colour is sorely missed. The nights get brighter and the weather warmer, with more exciting spring storms to watch from the coast and test herself against swimming. Whilst winter is usually the time for trips to the mainland, when ice has frozen a walkway, and the nights are dark and long, spring is Serana's favourite time to fly in her bat or vampiric lord form. Migrating bird flocks can cover her tracks in the sky, and the warm winds blowing in from the south reminds her of how her breath used to feel against her skin, when she was alive. It is a time of life and renewal.

domestic: I think Serana would be a tidy person to live with, and probably fairly secretive with her favoured possessions. Expect hidden caches of blood under the floor, sentimental items sewn inside the pillowcases, and journals disguised as any other book. Part of that is having no privacy in Harkon's court, and therefore a desire to control her surroundings and who gets to see what, and part of it is a healthy amount of caution about living as a vampire. I think she would make herself scarce very quickly or shrink into the background if she was living with angry people, like Isran and the Dawnguard, but blossoms when with friendly and relaxed people. At home, when she feels safe, she enjoys wearing comfortable and loose clothes often so well worn and loved that they have been stitched up multiple times, not just because her father would have told her off for wearing them once as unseemly for a vampire princess, but because its soothing to feel soft and familiar fabrics brushing against her skin and reminding her that she can wear what she likes without being on display.

holidays: Serana would get very excited about holidays, I think! As a vampire, most of the things that we would do to fill our time as dictacted by the rhythm of our needs isn't something she needs to do, so life can get fairly monotonous. As a result, something that breaks the pattern is very exciting, and she will be preparing for harvest festivals and winter feasts months in advance. She especially enjoys being in towns and cities for these, seeing all the other people and watching them celebrate.

friendship: Serana is a loyal and loving friend. She is reserved, having been hurt in the past, but once her trust is gained her friends become very important to her. The most important to her, in fact, since it is the friends she makes that add the most colour and vivacity to her immortal life. She enjoys spending time with her friends and prefers to either cohabit with them or seek them out as frequently as possible, especially if said friend is a mortal. She is very bubbly and chatty, and loves a wry trading of wit with someone whose life experiences are different from hers, that she can learn from.

neloth

domestic: I think Neloth lives a life organised by routines. He likes everything to be just-so, and takes his tea at certain times, his meals at others. This is mostly so the habits of a lifetime remind him to eat and break from his work, because he regularly gets so wrapped up in it that he forgets to. Whilst he is an irascible person, Neloth is aware that his lifestyle requires support from others to sustain, and due to his preference for familiarity, pays his servants comparatively well to make up for the fact that he cares little enough about them as people and expects them to take a lot of shit from him.

childhood: Neloth was an ambitious child, with a proficiency in magic, and from a young age decided he wanted to be Archwizard of the Telvanni. He does not remember much, it having been a long time ago, but he recalls serving under a particularly ungrateful and arrogant Telvanni master as an apprentice. Most of what he knows is self-taught from that master's library and notes, and he felt no remorse when he killed him to rise to his place within the Telvanni. As he grew older, his desire for fame and recognition faded into a desire for more real power, and he became increasingly attracted to forbidden secrets and lore.

hobbies: I view Neloth as a very focused individual. His work is his hobby, mostly, and he is usually working on several different things in order to give himself a break from any one thing if he's not making headway. He does like to infrequently test himself by making new and powerful staves, and testing theories cropped up during his research. Teaching Talvas, is in fact, mainly a hobby to him, something to occupy himself while his work is at a standstill and he's otherwise bored.