#sar-ei

Like many Argonians, Sar-Ei’s family is descended those enslaved by the dunmer, specifically under House Dres of Morrowind. He was raised on a farm in the Northernmost regions of Black Marsh, free, but far from well-off. He had a sister, Ah-Lei. They were hatched and suckled on the same Hist tree, near the farmstead. Despite contrasting sharply in personality, the two of them were very similar in appearance, the same dark green skin, amber eyes, and bright read feathers on their heads. They were inseparable. 

The two of them were not inclined towards farm life, although for very different reasons. Sar-Ei could not stand the domesticity of it, being a brash, impulsive trouble-maker even as a young man. He wanted to be a soldier, his hatred towards the dunmer they were warring against only enhanced by the stories he was told of their ancestors being enslaved. Ah-Lei, on the other hand, was quieter - not timid, but soft-spoken, often fading into the background. She was incredibly smart, her interests lying heavily in other cultures, and Tamrielic history. She couldn’t learn all that she could by living out her life on a farm in Argonia, and she knew that more than anyone. 

They came of age, Ah-Lei saved up enough money to travel. She planned to join some traders in their journey up towards the dunmer capitol, and from there buy passage to Solstheim, and eventually, Skyrim. Her brother strongly advised against it. He argued that the other races were hostile, and hated Argonians - they wouldn’t welcome her, let alone cooperate with her, and they might even hurt her. His warnings could not deter her, and, befgrudgingly, Sar-Ei let her go.

To ease her brother’s mind, Ah-Lei regularly wrote him letters throughout her journey. She updated him on everything - the people she met, the inns she stayed in, the food she ate. He was told about every delay and and obstacle his sister came across. When she departed from Solstheim, and the letters stopped, his suspicions were, naturally, aroused. 

He waited over a month for another letter. Nothing came. It was as if his sister had vanished off the face of the earth.

Tired of waiting, Sar-Ei chose to take matters into his own hands. 

He spent months following Ah-Lei’s trail. As he’d suspected, the strangers he met were far from kind and welcoming - then again, he didn’t give them much reason to be. His automatic response to these strangers was disdain. In his eyes, they were the children of Dunmer slavers, barbaric Nords, trickster, low-life Khajiit who gave beastfolk a bad name. His prejudices were closely held - that is, he was not automatically vocal about them - but he was noticeably untrustworthy, unless he was given a very, very good reason to feel otherwise. 

The first civilized place he found his way to in Skyrim was a city standing in the middle of an icy tundra. It was called Windhelm, and did not make a good first impression for Sar-Ei. What he saw there was a vague reflection of his people’s history - a city divided between Nords, living comfortably in houses that were practically mansions, while the Dark Elves and Argonians were shoved into the slums together, forced to share the close space while working for practically nothing. 

Sar-Ei’s anger towards this may have clouded his judgement, his ability to investigate properly. He found no trace of his sister, and that made him even angrier. What had happened to her? Had she disappeared on the way to this damned city? Had he come all this way for nothing? 

He left Windhelm frustrated and empty-handed. He traveled back upstream, following the White River, determined to comb through the entire province until he found a trace of his sister. 

He has since found no such trace.