Into the Crypt by Hikari-Hellion on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

My last Skyrim picture, for a while at least . This one is a snow elf I sometimes play as (curtousy of a nifty little race mod), named Ielenia Naïlo. She's a Snow Elf, what the Falmer used to be...before they mutated into whatever-the-hell they are now.

It may or may not be canon-friendly for there to be surviving small populations of Snow Elves in Skyrim, but in my head it's possible that not all of the snow elves native to Skyrim met the fate as the ones we see in-game, though now there wouldn't be many left. Mostly up in the higher reaches of the mountains, isolated, and rather insular, not often venturing out of their scattered towns.

Ielenia is one of these remaining Snow Elves.

She's one of the few of her people who ventured out of her home, often taking advantave of the people of Skyrim (unfortunately) mistaking her for an Altmer (this is caused by a minor glitch in the mod where you're called an Altmer, but to me it's story-friendly; it's doubtful that anyone in the province would recognize a Snow Elf for being...well, a Snow Elf). Being mistaken for a Thalmor more than a few times makes her bristle, but eventually Ielenia learns to just deal with it. After all, she's fairly certain that if she told people she was a Falmer--or, more accureately, a Snow Elf--she'd be committed.

In Ielenia's backstory, her people have a 50/50 opinion of the Nords. Some accept the Nords as natives of Skyrim, and would like to be able to live along side of them. Others would like if the Nords would just leave; after all, the Snow Elves were there first! Still others are neutral either way; the Nords aren't causing them any trouble, and they see no reason to cause the humans harm. Ielenia grew up in one of the settlements that was mostly ambivalent towards the Nords, and even against the Empire and the Thalmor.

Ielenia considers Nords as native to Skyrim as her own people, and tends to get more than a small bit irritated when someone brings up wiping them out.

As can be seen in the image, Ielenia is a part of the Theive's Guild...a Nightingale. She's skilled in her craft, but more often than not she's ventured out of Riften into the rest of Skyrim, adventuring and exploring. Her explorations eventually led her to the College of Winterhold, where she met the rest of the group.

She found it easy to get along with most of them--especially the Oblivion trio, Yayin, Sorya, and Shiira--but for others the start was rocky.

Like with Vandir, for example.

Much like the Nords--and a lot of other people, of various races--Ielenia is not a fan of the Altmer. For her, Altmer=Thalmor, who would probably jump at the chance to first study the Snow Elf culture...or just wipe them out. So, understandably, when Ielenia meets Vandir at the College, she automatically hates him.

In fact, she tries to kill him on a mission.

Eventually, though, she sees that his opinion of the Thalmor is possibly even lower than hers--because of his own former affiliation with them. Over time she comes to regard him as a friend...and maybe a bit more. It's on her referral that he plies his theiving skills as a member of the Theive's Guild in Riften.

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For those of you interested, here's the mod I use when I play as a Snow Elf:
Playable Snow Elves

I haven't been able to find a Nexus link, but if any of you do let me know and I can edit the description to put it in!