Hello KB!! Hope you're doing well :)
For the WIP tag game, I am most curious about: loid_kahl.docx (best man meets best boy? say more...), mothtoflame.docx (STARING at that title) and moralinjury_ulfric.docx (because I know this one's been a white wale of yours for a while and I wanna hear you yap about it :P)
Hello Maplefriend! Thank you for the askđź’–
This is a collection of snippets of dialogue and possible scenes, I hesitated to even put it on the list because it's barely a WIP, but it is in my Warframe WIP folder ha ha. The basic gist is that (pre-The Old Peace/Devil's Triad) Kahl is seriously injured during one of his Narmer raids. Kaelli reaches out for help from the person with a proven track record of bringing people back from the brink of death: (Necra)Loid.
This all has to be hush-hush because of course Gomaitru has already thrown a fit about Kahl trying to set up a camp on Deimos. Necraloid tries to demur because, well, he doesn't have actual hands anymore to provide medical care.
Loid overhears Necraloid's communications with Kaelli and can't bear how distraught she is over Kahl (even if he's puzzled by her attachment to a mere clone, as if it's a person) so he tells Necraloid to let Kahl and Chipper into the Sanctum. He goes to great lengths to hide his identity, using an iso suit and other things, but towards the end Chipper does get a good look at him.
The metal facsimile of a head that produced Chipper’s voice might not have had any features with which to express emotions, but his sudden stillness gave Loid the impression of someone carefully turning things over in their mind and considering their next move.
Loid froze, feeling like a small rodent caught in the open by a serpent.
“Y’know,” Chipper said, breaking his silence with a too-casual slow drawl, “there’s people who’ve paid a lot of scratch for just a toe of some poor mucker who died during the Orokin Era. Trying to unlock tech. If someone showed up with a living, breathing relic of the Old War...I bet Nef Anyo would fork over every last debt-bond he’s sitting on.”
This is actually a meta post that is mostly done, but I still need to actually format the footnotes and references and uggggggh
It's about how the common framing of Ulfric Stormcloak's major malfunction as PTSD doesn't really fit his actions or his behavior, and my evidence and reasoning for moral injury to be a much better framework with which to understand his actions. It came about when I was putting together his personal timeline for Khemor's fic, and I realized that:
Ulfric was likely <8 years old when he was sent to be a monk with the Greybeards, following the goddess Kyne.
Using the Thu'um in battle was anathema to the Greybeards.
After the Great War, Ulfric was worshipping Talos, not Kyne.
Returning from the Great War, Ulfric would have been confronted by Hoag Stormcloak, his father, having been bribed by the Empire to cease worship of Talos, the god he turned his back on Kyne for.
The Markarth Incident would have happened almost immediately after this.
This makes the Markarth Incident an expression of berserker rage on the part of Ulfric: he has committed a personal transgression (using the Thu'um in the Great War) for a legitimate authority (the Empire/Skyrim) which then betrayed his deepest moral values (banning Talos worship/accepting gold to agree to the White Gold Concordat.) He experienced and committed excessive violence, death, and other acts that went against the moral code he had been brought up in by the Greybeards, and in the end there was nothing to show for it.
The berserk rage of moral injury expression is when the sufferer has completely severed their connection to humanity: they are either below it as a beast, or above it as a god that can do whatever they like. The vast majority of people who go through this cycle only have the ability to break their own things or terrorize their own household with their rages, but Ulfric had a whole army of Great War veterans who had just returned from a brutal war and had nothing to do but wonder why they no longer felt like they "belonged" to the land they had just made so many sacrifices to defend.
Heee, I wrote a bit about this story here, but I will give another little snippet. One of my favorite things to do with the main quests in TES games is figure out how many people/resources should have actually been committed to doing these various EXTREMELY IMPORTANT things.
"You want me to go get this...Dragonstone. Alone? Right now?"
"Of course not, soldier! Idolaf will be going with you." Olfrid clapped Idolaf on the shoulder. "--and of course only after Danica has said you're fit and able."
Idolaf nodded brusquely at Olfrid, the grim set of his mouth betraying no hint of surprise that he was also being pressed into service to retrieve this stone of Farengar's. "We'll need more than just two Legion soldiers, father. Those ruins are always crawling with bandits, and who knows what else."
"Yes, yes-" Olfrid's eyes met Kaidan's. "You there, sell-sword, what's your name?"
Kaidan stepped forward, a sinking feeling in his gut. "Kaidan, sir."
"Kaidan, eh? You and your companion have been marking off quite a few bounties for the hold, or so I've gathered."
"That we have, sir." Kaidan kept his tone even and polite. Being coolly polite to self-important highborns was one of his most unused skills, but it was still ready when he needed it.
"What's your Clan name? Or whatever they use where you're from."
"As much as I might not look it," Kaidan said, keeping a tight rein on his temper, "I am from Skyrim. Though I have traveled the length and breadth of Tamriel while plying my trade, and only recently returned." He met Olfrid's haughty stare without shame. "I'm in the steward's register as Kaidan Sojourner. Same as in the bounty ledger."
"And you, khajiit," Olfrid turned his attention to Inigo. "What name are you going by?"
"You will find me under 'Inigo of Riverhold.' My friend and I have been scrupulous in our tax obligation to this hold, I assure you."
Inigo's tone was friendly, but his stiff posture told Kaidan hew was increasingly unhappy with the direction Olfrid's questions were taking.
"Don't bother with that now; you two have proven yourselves reliable." Olfrid turned back to Idolaf and Hadvar. Hadvar was now standing, and Kaidan could see he was trying to surreptitiously keep his half-burned through baldric from completely coming undone. Danica was still dressing the burns on his left arm. "I will retain your services to assist Idolaf in retrieving the...what did you call it Farengar?"
"The Dragonstone, my lord."
"Dragonstone, yes, that's right."
