This story started life over on the Steam forums, with a fair bit of encouragement from Lissette of the Long-Chappers. A couple of years ago, I'd played with Arthmoor's Alternate Start mod, picking the Thalmor Agent start, where you've been sent to investigate rumours of a disturbance at Helgen. That playthrough was only my first or second with mods, so I had no clue what I was doing, and uninstalled the ASLAL files, which borked the Main Quest. I decided that my Altmer (whose name I forget) freaked out at Delphine's bizarre 'go to a Thalmor party' idea and went on the run with Lydia, joining the Thieves' Guild mainly so they could access the Face Sculptor.
Anyway, this story isn't exactly that story, but elements have certainly carried through (although in fairness to Nerussa, unlike my previous Altmer, she's never murdered a Khajiit cook for looking at her funny.) Like Lissette's Äelberon of Dusk, Nerussa is in (broadly speaking) a Requiem-ed up version of the world. She survives Helgen by the skin of her teeth and arrives in Falkreath by sheer bloody luck (and of course excellent Altmer fitness for all the running away and such.) I didn't go for the full on, hair shirt Requiem experience, Nerussa has had at least one companion on most of her adventures (because I like company in-game, and so does she), and I tweaked several of the settings down, but this is still a world where improvement is slow, vampires and dragons (especially with DCO) are terrifying hell-beasts that any sensible person runs away from, and Altmer are weak to magic. Really, really weak to magic.
Sorry, Runil, I have no idea when your journal will be retrieved from that crypt full of mages.
Chapters:
Book One, Part One - In Which I Use My Favourite Chapter Naming Convention
Book Two, Part One In Which Nerussa Sees An Old Face, And Gets A New One
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