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The Measure of a Woman; Serana's Tale
Topic Started: Sep 6 2017, 09:48 PM (644 Views)
Serethil
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Et'Ada
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One: How I got here from there

By now, many folk in Skyrim know about my parents, their Volkihar clan of vampires, and me - the Daughter of Coldharbour who was expected to politely die to serve her father’s ends - or at least so he thought them. Of course, Harkon was deceived completely - though he never admitted it. And since Verinne Ravenwing the Ravensdaughter killed him for good and all, the world was freed from - well, it wasn’t exactly an epic end to the Sun so that vampires could reign supreme.

For those who might be late to this party, the prophecy in which my father so deeply believed that it became his obsession was while not totally false, certainly - not at all what he thought it. Of a surety, it was ancient - it was promulgated by a Snow Elf Paladin of Auri-El, bitten and infected by one of his acolytes: upon which, according to him, Auri-El turned away from him - and at that point he determined to be revenged.... upon a god. That was millennia ago - before the Dwemer turned the Snow Elves into Falmer, and then disappeared - leaving the Falmer in the depths with nowhere to turn, and without sight.... where they became the debased evil they are now, hating everything of the world above.

With the help of the Ravensdaughter, I was able to discover this - after having been entombed by Valerica, my mother, for around five thousand years give or take a few decades or hundreds. Verinne freed me from the crypt in Dimhollow, and while she was at the time assisting the latter-day Dawnguard, she was not the vampire hunter Valerica sneeringly named her. Verinne was - and is - a good friend to me; she helped me sort out the current world of Tamriel (so different from what I knew at fourteen), she saved my life many times, and together we deciphered that miscreant prophecy, killed the fallen paladin Vyrthur, and then removed the head of the serpent: my father Harkon.

So the world was spared the blotting out of the Sun so vampires could feed whenever they wished - though, laughably, Harkon never dug deep enough into the whole thing to realize the Sun would have to be darkened again every day. It wasn’t a “cure” after all.

But - there is a cure, a true one, for those - like me - who never wanted to be taken by Molag Bal, or the lesser "masters"; who never wanted this to begin with. I was a sacrifice, given to Bal without care for whether I lived over that bedding, or was torn to shreds and died - nothing more than stains on the counterpane.

And this is the tale of how I found that cure.
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Areial
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Et'Ada
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Oh...very nice! and she actually IS thinking!
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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Yup. So - she poked and poked and poked. And I kept saying - but you're sticking your nose in with the Twins' Tale, so? And she still kept poking.

So FINE. I guess this is going to be the backstory. Thanks Sis!
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Areial
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Et'Ada
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Your Welcome!
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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Eh, everyone knows I just really HATE the Dawnguard whole thing. But damn. Serana deserves a LOT better than beth gave her.

And.... so does Isran....
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Areial
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Et'Ada
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Yes they do, I like and dis-like it.. <sigh> it's my favorite Role Playing quest-line, because it's fairly easy to come up with a pretty good story, back-story and twisty way to play.
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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True. I actually don't mind the major thrust of the quest line. But DAMN - it takes for goddamned EVER. This of course is because beth had to "justify" the price of the DLC.

*gag*
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Areial
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Et'Ada
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True that, my second longest play through was my 3rd trip through Dawnguard.. Zyne some 500 to 600 hours. She also did the MQ, but that I pretty much rushed through. I re-read her story more than any of the others.
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neildarkstar
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Overlord
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I'm glad you're exploring this... it should make for a good read! :)

You know it startles me every time somebody says something like "the price of the DLC" because to me it was just "the price of the Legendary Edition" a year or two after release. Of course I realize I paid something for the DLC, but it never really stood out in my mind... I think I gave about $20 for the whole thing, eh? :)
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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Thanks neil! Yeah, but a lot of others bought them as they landed - when they were a LOT more expensive.
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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Two: First, I tried to explain to Valerica

....which of course went absolutely nowhere. She insisted that I would, in curing my vampirism, dissolve instantly to dust. Now, I didn’t really think that would be the case - though I truly had no idea why I was sure of that. Valerica on the other hand, was sure of the opposite - and I think it was that she assumed a Daughter of Coldharbour was a totally different thing. As in - not a vampire “like the rest”, but something “special” due to the sexual component.

Well, I thought that was likely wrong - the sex was because Bal liked human women in his bed; nothing I remember of that rape had anything to do with becoming a vampire by his blood. I suppose I might have been an extra spice to him, being so young in years, but throwing that in her face would hardly have been helpful.

And then there’s the fact that my parents willingly gave me to Bal - well, that was for two reasons: first - that Harkon had already had some inklings of the prophecy at that time (which I did not realize until awakened by Verinne Ravenwing); and second - that Valerica wanted to leverage my Daughter of Coldharbour status (assuming I lived over the rape.... not a given, I might add) by using me herself against Harkon. I suppose I could say she wanted us to join against him but I’m not sure I truly believe that.

Neither here nor there the way things developed - for by the time I awakened in Dimhollow, Valerica had been for five or so millennia imprisoned in the Soul Cairn, by her own doing. No wonder I didn’t know where I was, or what had happened - to me, around me - for long enough that the Ravensdaughter became concerned; after all, a sleep of five thousand years is enough to tip anyone’s sanity in the wrong direction!

I AM, by the way, sane. Even if Valerica insisted I was delusional.
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Areial
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Et'Ada
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Very nice! Sometimes people are just idiots. .. parents are often the worst.
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Serethil
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Oh so true. As abused children go - Serena's a doozy (well, this is all my take of course....) Thanks Sis!
Edited by Serethil, Sep 7 2017, 08:42 PM.
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neildarkstar
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Y'know (and this has nothing to do with your writing or storytelling) the more I hear (eh, read?), the more Harkon and Valerica remind me of heroin addicts. Their parenting skills are similar at least...

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Rick
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Jarl
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Yeah well Valerica LOOKS like a heroin addict....
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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Eh.... addicts are - addicts, ain't? Harkon was addicted to his "prophecy" - and Valerica.... hmmm. i haven't quite got there yet.... but I do have some ideas.

Thanks guys!
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Kane
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Valerica is who I'm most curious about. :pop:
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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As for how Valerica looks - well, that's beth's version of how a vampire looks. Whether it has any congruence with a heroin addict, I couldn't say.
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neildarkstar
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Overlord
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How about this:
Posted Image
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Serethil
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Et'Ada
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Hmm. I don't think Valerica's quite that bad.
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