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Profile: Hides-In-Shadow

Tags: #Nightblade  #roleplay  #Argonian  #Walks-In-Darkness Family 
  • Member
    August 31, 2018

    This is my original version of the "Walks-In-Darkness family tree" consisting of Walks-In-Darkness and Hunts-The-Night. Like them, this character will change but likely the least of all, as he has existed for the longest and his story is tied heavily into that of Walks-In-Darkness.

    [Picture Coming Soon!... Eventually, Gotta Get A Preset Figured Out]

    Details

    Name: Hides-In-Shadow

    Aliases: Ebonslayer

    Sex: Male

    Race: Argonian Vampire

    Class: Nightblade

    Alignment: Lawful Neutral

    Age: 34

     

    Appearance

    Skin Tone: Vampiric pale, but naturally black.

    Height: 5'7"

    Weight: 160 lb

    Build: Lithe and dexterous, with a light body size.

    Eyes: Bloodshot vampiric eyes.

    Horns, Feathers, And Fins: Multiple horns in a crown-like shape with 2 larger horns at the back of the head.

    Scars: None.

    Tattoos: Gold tattoos that have ran in his family for centuries line his body from neck to foot, but are purely decorative.

    Other features: Extremely smooth scales that don't reflect light. In fact, they're more skin than scale.

    Weapons: The shortsword, Chillrend, that he carries on his back, an ebony Blade Of Woe dagger sheathed on his right hip. He also carries the longbow Shadowhunt on his back.

    Apparel: Dark, flexible leather armor with various enchantments to help in assassination, given to him by the sanctuary in Cheydinhal.

     

    Background

    Place Of Birth: Murkmire, Black Marsh.

    Family: Hides-In-Shadow was born under the sign of the Shadow to the Kota-Vimleel tribe, and was immediately taken to the Shadowscales for training. Despite this, he was trained by his father in Shadow Magic.

    Birthsign: The Shadow.

    Religion: He has slight reverence for Sithis being of the Dark Brotherhood, but is not as devoted as his Brothers and Sisters.

    Affiliations: Dark Brotherhood.

    Tribe Of Origin: Kota-Vimleel or Black Tongues, master alchemists who are very loyal to the Shadowscales and even have potions that can influence female's egg-laying cycles to hatch under the Shadow constellation.

    Occupation: Assassin of the Dark Brotherhood in Cyrodiil.

    Residence: When not on a mission, he spends most of his time in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary or the Fighter's Guild training in combat, though he is not a member of the latter.

    Training: He was trained by Shadowscales since his birth. However, unlike many other members of his family, he was never exceptionally proficient in Shadow Magic and instead preferred his naked stealth and combat capabilities. He was trained extensively in combat to the point of mastery in swordsmanship. Being trained as a Shadowscale, he can also call upon Moonshadow.

    Other Skills: He has substantial alchemical ability due to being born of the Kota-Vimleel.

    Special Powers: He has gained extensive power from his vampirism.

    Magic: He does not have extensive knowledge of Shadow Magic unlike many of his ancestors and decendants, and relies more on his raw skill, but knows basic shadow weaving like a short semi-invisibility and has advanced knowledge in shadow weapon summoning. He also knows some basic vampiric magic and learned Novice Restoration magic due to his combat focus.

    Combat Style: Hides-In-Shadow is exceptionally tough for his small size due to vampirism and is supernaturally quick even among vampires. He tries to aim for weak spots at all times and sometimes even multiple if possible, and due to his speed he can usually succeed and with his strength the one blow ends the battle.

    Flaws: His exceptionally weak Shadow Magic in his family makes him a very inefficient assassin compared to them. He's well trained, but not supernaturally stealthy.

    Interests: He spends most of his free time in combat or stealth training, as he feels dedicated to reach his family's efficiency despite his shortcomings.

    Citizenship: He is legally allowed anywhere he pleases in Black Marsh.

    Personality: He is a minor psychopath and lacks empathy, he becomes a mindless machine on a mission and will do whatever his superiors ask of him to the letter, but internally has doubts about his own ability. He also lives his life by the Tenets, and puts them above everything.

     

    Backstory: Born under the sign of the Shadow to the Kota-Vimleel tribe, he was taken from his parents at birth and trained by the Shadowscales. As is tradition in his family, his father took time from his duties to train him in Shadow Magic among his normal teachers. However, the young argonian was not receptive to this training and he learned only the most basic Shadow Magic. After a few years, disappointed in Hides-In-Shadow's lack of progress, his father gave up and the boy spent more of his time in stealth and combat training, especially combat as what little Shadow Magic he had still helped with his stealth ability, but his combat efficiency fell behind exceptionally far, and he was receptive to the training. As a result, he is a master of bladed weapons and can take down most other Shadowscales and Brotherhood assassins quite easily, and if caught can fight out of a situation instead of fleeing.

    When he left training at the age of 17, he was assigned to the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary in Cheydinhal alongside two other Shadowscales: Ocheeva and Teinaava. He spent years in the group as a sort of enforcer and the public killer of the sanctuary until Gogron Gro-Bolmog came along - as the heavy built Orc was far more terrifying than a small Argonian despite the wide gap in actual combat ability - which gave Hides less to work with. Ocheeva gave him some simple stealth tasks as he was a friend but, though he was skilled, he didn't recieve the raw Shadowscale training Ocheeva and Teineeva did and thus he was only getting contracts because of favor. This caused him to doubt his ability, which ended up costing him in the end as his uncertainty distracted him during a mission to assassinate a politician in the Imperial City. The mission was completed, but he was caught and tossed in the Imperial Prison and was judged to be executed. Accepting his fate as a useless assassin, he made no attempt to escape until he, through pure luck, has the Emperor and some of his Blades escaping through his cell. He followed them and found a new purpose.

  • Member
    September 1, 2018

    This family keeps getting cooler, there's something about Argonian Vampire Assassins that just screams badass.

    I like the fact that Hides is less skilled in magic than the rest of his family, a black sheep among killers, awesome. How is his relationship with the rest of his family? You mentioned his father's disappointment, has that developed into resentment from either side, or are they more accepting of his unfortunate lack of talent?

    Also love the backstory, being replaced by a big Orc would be incredibly frustrating, being born small even among his own race, I imagine there'd be some bitter feelings towards Gorgon and himself. This guy just can't catch a break. It's odd feeling symapthy for a psycopath assassin, but as his cards were stacked against him from the start I can't not, a testament to how well made Hides is.

  • Member
    September 1, 2018

    Zonnonn said:

    This family keeps getting cooler, there's something about Argonian Vampire Assassins that just screams badass.

    I like the fact that Hides is less skilled in magic than the rest of his family, a black sheep among killers, awesome. How is his relationship with the rest of his family? You mentioned his father's disappointment, has that developed into resentment from either side, or are they more accepting of his unfortunate lack of talent?

    Also love the backstory, being replaced by a big Orc would be incredibly frustrating, being born small even among his own race, I imagine there'd be some bitter feelings towards Gorgon and himself. This guy just can't catch a break. It's odd feeling symapthy for a psycopath assassin, but as his cards were stacked against him from the start I can't not, a testament to how well made Hides is.

    The family, outside Shadow Magic training, was never close. They're assassins. The last time Hides-In-Shadow saw his father was when he was young and was told he was a disgrace to the family. Probably dead by now, it's been about 20 years, but he's a vampire so you never know. The family is well known as some of the best assassins in Tamriel and their new son is probably going to kill off that line, so yeah they're less than happy about him.

    And yeah, the Orc problem is huge, and one of the things I am most proud about in this backstory. He has less hatred towards Gogron and more towards his lack of stealth ability. He feels he is useless now that they have a more effective specialist in the only thing he's good at. Doubt gnaws away at him and when he's put on the executioner's block he just accepts his fate. Fortunately, he finds the Blades and the Oblivion Crisis, which gives him a new purpose and life and eventually leads us to Walks-In-Darkness.

  • Member
    January 28, 2019

    Made slight changes to personality, magical skills, gave him more stealthy competence (though he's still not as advanced as the other Shadowscales) and an alignment change which I feel should be explained. Lawful Neutral may seem like a weird alignment for a psychopath and assassin, but he is the perfect fit for a Lawful Neutral when you shrink "Law" down to the Five Tenets. He will uphold them to the letter and never disobey them.