I didn't start this blog until my character was 10th level, but I'm going to try to keep it up when I play from now on. I'll endeavor not to spoiler the plot points too much.
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From the journal of Selanis Eiravael, 10th level female high elf, Whiterun, Skyrim
I have just purchased a home in Whiterun, and in light of that I've decided to set down a chronicle of my adventures since my arrival in this chilly gods-forsaken wilderness.
I still don't remember how I came to be in that wagon. I must have taken a blow to the head from the idiot Imperial soldiers who took me prisoner. I woke up to find myself in the back of a wagon in the company of three Nord men. It must be the shared adversity that made them friendlier toward me, though I'd always heard the Nords dislike Altmer. One of my companions felt it necessary to chatter at me until the wagon came to a halt at the Imperial fort at Helgen. He was a Stormcloak rebel. The second man was a sniveling horse thief, and the third to my surprise was the rebel leader himself, Ulfric Stormcloak. He wore a gag because, as I learned, he had supposedly murdered the king by shouting him to death. At the time I doubted that story, but what I've learned since leads me to know it could be true.
I don't know why the Imperials thought I was a rebel, but they weren't taking any chances. As soon as we climbed out the wagon they marched us to the headsman's block. Even when we heard the strange sounds from overhead they didn't delay. Just as I lay with my head on the block, the dragon attacked. I was stunned at first. By the time I managed to gain my feet half the fort was in flames and there was no way out of the area I was inside. In the end I had to climb up a nearby watchtower and jump down into a building that was only partly in flames. After that I met an Imperial soldier who took pity on me and gave me some armor and weapons - the wretched rebels must have stolen my clothes, because when I woke in that wagon I was clad only in rags.
The soldier showed me a subterranean exit from the fort so we could avoid the dragon. After fighting off some rebels who'd escaped their cells in the chaos, we made our way to the nearby town of Riverwood, where the soldier's family live. His uncle, the local smith, was kind enough to offer me hospitality, though his wife seems to think I'm going to try to steal her husband - as if I would cast my eye on a human.
The soldier who helped me had no objection to my looting the bodies of the Stormcloaks we killed, so I had a few items to dispose of when we arrived in Riverwood. When I took my spoils to the local trader, he told me a tale of thieves who had stolen a golden claw he valued greatly. He knew where the bandits were hiding, in nearby Bleak Falls Barrow, but being no warrior he couldn't go after them himself. I decided that eliminating some bandits was a task I could easily manage in exchange for the reward he offered. But first I made my way to the town of Whiterun to tell the local jarl about the dragon attack in Helgen. I don't know why my soldier friend couldn't go himself. Perhaps he was afraid he'd be accused of desertion.
The jarl was friendly enough, and seems a wise man. He asked me to do a favor for his house wizard, who wanted to recover an item that might help him understand more about how a dragon could suddenly have appeared centuries after all the dragons were slain. This item, coincidentally, could also be found in Bleak Falls Barrow. The mage wouldn't say how he knew the object was there but he seemed confident of his information. Since it seemed I was fated to visit this barrow, I accepted the task.
After a bit of a struggle I eliminated all the bandits - in truth, one fellow eliminated himself by setting off an arrow trap within the barrow. I learned then that barrows and tombs in this northern land are always populated by the undead draugr. I found quite a lot of loot, more than I could easily carry, which led me to return to Whiterun. While I was there I met a woman called Uthgerd the Unbroken at the Bannered Mare. She seemed eager for a fight and offered a hundred gold pieces if I could best her in a fistfight. It occurred to me then that these Nords are a proud warrior people, and if I could best her I might win her respect and even friendship as well as the coin. Once I had beaten her I asked her if she'd accompany me back to the barrow, and she agreed.
When we had cleared the barrow and acquired both the golden claw and the dragonstone, we returned to Whiterun. Just after we arrived and presented the mage with the dragonstone, a guard rushed in to report that a dragon was attacking the western watchtower outside the town. The jarl's housecarl, Irileth, asked me to go along and help fight it. I was excited by the prospect. Uthgerd and I rushed out to the watchtower with Irileth and her men.
We made short work of the dragon. When it died, its' corpse burst into flames. Then something very strange happened. Some kind of energy flowed from the dragon to me. It made me feel stronger, more powerful. When they saw this the Nords all started to hail me as 'dragonborn'. After we had returned to the jarl's hall, his brother told me a tale of the ancient dragonborn. Just before that, however, I heard a strange voice calling, a voice that shook the earth. The jarl's brother said this was the Graybeards calling me to their fastness at High Hrothgar, where they could teach me what it means to be dragonborn. I was somewhat dubious, but decided to investigate these Graybeards and learn what they could tell me.
As a reward for aiding in the defense of Whiterun, the jarl made me a thane of Whiterun and gifted me with an enchanted axe, my own housecarl, and the right to purchase a home in Whiterun - a privilege not usually given to outsiders. My housecarl's name is Lydia. Once she was assigned to me, I said farewell to Uthgerd. Lydia would accompany me on the long journey to High Hrothgar, which lies on the peak of the Throat of the World, reputedly the highest mountain in all Skyrim.
It was a long trek, but the journey was worth the effort. Not only did we slay more bandits on the way, and find one of the rebels' hidden camps (I plan to tell the Imperial soldiers where it lies), but I have learned three of the Words of Power in the dragon tongue that are known to no others but the Graybeards themselves. These words of power stood me in good stead when the Graybeards sent me off to find the horn that belonged to their founder, Jurgen Windcaller, in the tomb of Ustengrav. I have the power to stun creatures with my voice, or to run with the speed of the wind for a short distance. Knowing this power, I am eager for more. And I have slain a second dragon now. The Graybeards tell me that the force I absorb when I slay a dragon is the dragon's very soul, and that it is dragon souls that power my draconic words.
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