The Beginning
I had never been to a convention before. That was the simple reason behind my nervousness before going into the Salt Lake City Comicon convention center. I never did like large gatherings of people, but I had to get out of my comfort zone every so often.
Oh, before I get ahead of myself, my name is Jeremiah...Or, it once was. Again, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Let’s start where my whole predicament began...at the convention.
Once I had managed to get the courage to enter, my mind was blown away with how many people there were. What also shocked me was how many there were that dressed up as well. Of the several thousand there, I would have guessed that about 9 out of 10 con goers were dressed as their favorite video game, tv show, or movie characters.
As for what I was dressed as, I considered myself as bland as a person dressed up from Skyrim can be. I dressed myself up as a simple member of the Dawnguard. I had all of the heavy armour pieces and weapons commissioned. The only thing I lacked was the full Dawnguard helmet and Auriel’s bow, and that was mostly because of the cost.
Now, I never did like certain kinds of meetings. I skipped out on the interviews with Stan Lee and such, mostly because they would have been like my college classes. I would fall asleep out of boredom constantly. Instead, I went to the vendor booths to see what was there while the crowds were mostly elsewhere else.
The vendor booths ranged from Star Wars, to Doctor Who, to My Little Pony (of which, no surprise, I am a slight fan of myself). After buying a small and cheap Fluttershy plushie, I wandered from booth to booth, looking at their wares and seeing what else I could splurge on. The crowds came back and it became difficult to enjoy myself. Just as I was thinking I should leave, one particular booth caught my attention.
The booth itself wasn’t much to consider. It had various props from various games that I didn’t really care about. What caught my attention about the booth was the fact that the Dawnguard Heavy Helmet and Auriel’s Bow were there on the display. If I was a bigger fan of Skyrim, I would have been drooling.
“I see you have taken a liking to my friend’s art,” the booth vendor said, snapping me out of my daze. The man running the booth bore a strange resemblance to Dr. Monty from the Black Ops 3 zombies game.
"A friend made those?” I asked, pointing at the helmet and the bow. He nodded, prompting me to ask, “How much for them?”
“Now that is the question that defines the worth of anything now, isn’t it?” He philosophized. “Now, my friend just told me to sell them, no mention of cost. So, I’ll put the price at $20 a piece.” I accepted, paying the $40 for the equipment, plus roughly 20 “sunhallowed” arrows. I placed the bow on my back and the helmet on my head. That’s when things started to get crazy.
As soon as my face was covered, I felt quite a bit of tingling all over my face and body, and I had an intense pain in my lower jaw and my scalp. I lost my footing and started to fall. As I was starting to lose consciousness, I noticed that it was taking forever to finish falling.
When I started to come to, my teeth felt wrong, my head seemed a bit colder, and my body felt more full, like I had become something between an extreme body-builder and a middle-weight boxing champion.
"Urgh, what happened?” I asked out loud. As soon as I heard my voice, I grunted in surprize and placed my hand to my throat. I quickly pulled my helmet off and looked for a reflective surface. I was lucky to find a small pond and I was freaked out concerning what I looked like.
I was an Orc. Not the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit kind of Orc. I was Orsimer, from Tamriel. “Once again, what happened? Especially to me?”
“You have been changed for your new purpose,” I heard a soothing male voice say. I immediately jumped and picked up the Rune Hammer and readied for a fight.
“Who’s there!” I shouted as I looked around. “Show yourself!”
“I can see what you meant, Auri-El,” a gruff, male voice said. “He has a fierce will.”
"Alright, whoever you are, just tell me who and where you are!”
“Patience, Champion,” a stern yet gentle male voice said. “You will be informed of that as well as your purpose.” There was a slightly awkward pause. “Any time, Arkay!”
“Wait, I’m telling him?!” A somewhat joyus yet currently annoyed male voice asked. “I thought that was Malacath’s task! I just provide the medical and dental benefits!”
“Typical Milk-Drinker,” the gruff voice said. “Trying to weasel out of responsibility.” The two voices then began arguing in an unintelligible language.
“Malacath! Arkay!” The two voices stopped arguing. “Thank you! Now that you’ve stopped bickering like a bunch of idiot mortals over a sweet roll, I’ll do the introductions and we can let the more mature Divine take care of briefing him.” The voice cleared it’s throat...if it even had a throat. “I am Stendarr, the Divine of Justice. The gruff guy is Malacath, the Daedric Prince of the spurned and ostracized. The incompetent fool-”
“Hey!” The Divine shouted.
“-Is Arkay, the Divine of Life and Health and is secretly in love with Meridia.”
“Oh! For My Sake, Stendarr!” Arkay shouted. “Is this revenge for converting some of your Vigilants to work for me?”
“I call it justice,” Stendarr smugly replied.
“And you call yourself mature,” Auri-El stated. There was a moment where it seemed that Stendarr gave him a pout like look. “Anyway, you already know me and you may have already figured out Malacath. And you have been brought to this world to aid from the repercussions of a failed Coup d'état by an evil queen.”
“You do realize how cliché that sounds,” I pointed out. “Some evil queen tries to take over a land, but fails miserably, then vows revenge, only to fail miserably again.”
“While I can admit that it does sound cliché, there is more to it than that,” Auri-El said. “The queen, or former queen, tried to take over this land twice. However, after she failed her second time, she entered into an unholy pact with Molag Bal and intends on taking over using the Undead to do so.”
“Such a pact is against the very laws of life,” Arkay stated.
“She has attacked and killed with no reason for too long!” Malacath bellowed.
“As such, it is time for her to face justice” Stendarr proclaimed.
“Alright. Is there anything I should know?” I asked.
“Your task is to protect the populace to the best of your ability.”
“You may use whatever means you must.”
“Even if it means having a group of undead at your disposal.”
“But use honesty and be honorable in your fights.”
“I will do that,” I said and then began to walk in a random direction.
“One more thing.” I paused. “There is an Elder scroll hidden inside an ancient, broken down castle in this forest. If the former queen were to discover it, then she would have a major and yet dishonorable advantage. So find it and then protect it with your life. Form an Orc Stronghold if you need to.”
“Then I will do what I need to. Thank you, Malacath.” I bowed my head down in respect.
“I must ask,” Arkay spoke. “You seem rather accepting of this. Unlike other mortals subjugated to such changes in life at first believe that they are in a dream or are hallucinating, then panic. Why aren’t you panicking?”
“As a human, I was a bit of a fanfiction addict,” I informed him. “Back on Earth-” my explanation was interrupted by howling wolves and the sound of children screaming. “I’ll have to explain later. I gotta save whoever was stupid enough to get the attention of some wolves or whatever is dangerous in this forest.” I placed my helmet on my head and then ran in the direction I heard the screaming coming from.
(Third person POV)
Three small ponies were being chased through the Everfree Forest by some of it’s infamous inhabitants, the Timberwolves. The ponies in question were nopony other than the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Applebloom, a yellow earth pony with red mane and tail, kept looking back at the dangerous and wild, wooden atronachs, and then to her friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. She knew that her earth pony build and Scootaloo’s pegasus build would keep both of them going until they reached safety. Sweetie Belle, on the other hoof, wasn’t as in shape as her friends and would eventually need to rest before continuing. That wasn't an option at the moment, and things got worse when she tripped over a tree root.
“Sweetie!” Her friends stopped and hurried back to her fallen form. Just as they reached her, the Timberwolves had already surrounded the three. They couldn’t see any way out of the jam they got themselves in. All they could do was close their eyes while waiting for their death. Just as one of the atronachs were about to attempt to snap up the three, there was a loud wooden crunch.
“You might want to consider getting out of here,” a gruff voice said. The CMC opened their eyes and saw a hulking, steel clad figure holding an intricately crafted hammer in its hands. The threesome took his advice and ran into a nearby bush. “Now that they’re out of the way, I can go as far as I need to get rid of you.” The figure then braced for a fight.
(Jeremiah’s POV)
“Hold, My Wolves!” A feminine voice called out from behind the atronachs. The pack parted and a Spriggan came walking forward towards me. “Who are you to interrupt the punishment that needs to be delivered to those trespassers!?”
Now, to be honest, up to this point I was winging the whole thing. When I saw the CMC, I had to hold back my fanboy-ism so that I could separate them from the threat of being eaten. When a Spriggan, of all things, approached me and called the CMC trespassers, I reacted accordingly.
“They’re just children...well, foals, but they probably didn’t know any better,” I told her...him...whatever the gender of that thing was.
“It doesn’t matter!” The Spriggan shouted, ‘her’ body glowing a more vibrant green that showed her annoyance. “They still need to suffer the consequences.”
“If this is a matter of Blood Price, then I will pay it.” Those words seemed to shock the Spriggan, as well as myself. As I said earlier, I was just winging it.
“You would willingly give up your life for those three.” I nodded. “You seem very different from your kind.”
Under the assumption that she was referring to the Orsimer or orcs, I answered, “Most of the Orsimer are very isolated and centered on themselves. I prefer to open up and help, rather than shun as we have been shunned.”
The Spriggan’s anger seemed to subside at those words. “You have a respect for others that I haven’t been able to see in years.”
I lower my hammer. “I’ll take that as a compliment then,” I told her. “I’m sure getting scared will have taught those foals enough of a lesson that they won’t come back.” I looked back to the bush the three ponies were peeking out of. “Am I right?” The three ponies nodded vigorously.
“Hmm, I see,” the Spriggan mused. “Now that I am able to cool down, I’m glad that you stopped me from harming those innocent foals. You have gained my respect and trust. As a token of my respect, I will give you this.” She then held up what looked like a keychain. Now, I’m not talking about a regular keychain you could buy at a gas station convenience store. What this keychain looked like was the kind you find in Kingdom Hearts or other games of it’s franchise.
When I took the keychain, I heard a voice in my head. “I am Vanitas, if there is anyone in need of help, I’ll be there to answer the call.”
“Where did you come upon this?” I asked the Spriggan.
“It appeared from a starry void portal,” she answered. “And by the way, my name is Ivy. If we’re going to be friendly like this, I think that you should know my name. What is your name?”
“Take upon yourself an Orsimer name,” Arkay said in my mind.
Without hesitation, I said, “My name...is Nashzum Burabub.”
Author's Note
Name: Nashzum Burabub
Race: Orc (Orsimer)
Gender: Male
Age: 21
Apparel: Full Heavy Dawnguard Armor, Dawnguard Rune Shield
Weapons: Dawnguard Rune Hammer, Dawnguard Rune Axe, Enhanced Dwarven Crossbow, Auriel's bow, 20 Sun Hallowed Arrows (technically infinite, but can only have 20 per day), 50 Dwarven Bolts (same case as the arrows)
Tokens: Void Gear Keychain (Prince of the Everfree)
FINALLY! Took me forever to get this written.
