Some TES [censored] and I were discussing ESO when the topic drifted to our favourite pretty princess: Ayrenn. The following quote isn't by me, but it sort of explains how I feel about her SO FAR (hopefully they salvage her in some way before launch):

"And Ayrenn. My god I am so sick of Ayrenn. If it was just one thing about her that was questionable, then it wouldn't be so bad. But no, she stands as a symbol of everything that is wrong with Schick.
They wanted a pretty Altmer princess, but they didn't even have the balls to make her look like an Altmer. No golden skin, no upswept hair, no narrow face and no angular cheekbones. And please don't tell me that golden skin looks beige in yellow light. Just don't, I already think you're crazy, don't make it worse.
I don't care about her age. If they wanted to do the whole puppet princess in a society of power players thing, it would have been alright.
But no. She was originally 128 years old. They switched it because they were afraid that people couldn't relate. Which is again, completely [censored] weird because I don't hear people complaining about Tyrande being 5000 years old or Arwen being, I dunno, 2500 years old or something.
And it is not just her age. Her age doesn't matter in comparison to everything else. It is the entire package that would make her incredibly [censored] obnoxious at any age. You're talking about a chick who would go up into the mountains or the woods for secret training by herself during her childhood and return with extra power levels like a character in a bad kung-fu movie. A chick who magically disappeared as a teenager to become a pirate. A complete foreigner who managed to convince a bunch of incredibly xenophobic Dunmer that she was one of them. She outfought skilled Redguard fighters at their own craft, and bested a Nord Queen. Making her basically better than everyone at everything.
Barf.
Sure, you can say that it's all propaganda. But that's not the way her character is set up. She's unforeseen, she's controversial, she defies tradition. The whole point of Ayrenn is that she is as unlike an Altmer as it is possible for a person to be, and when you take that away, you are left with nothing.
And this is what Schick thinks is good writing. You either have an obnoxious Mary-Sue, or you have nothing."


So what do you guys think of her so far? I'm sure people must like her, and I'm curious what people specifically see in her character. Is it just me and she's actually a well-written character? Is it good to have a character that can do so much? It's obviously too early to definitively tell, but what do characters like this tell you about someone's writing style and competency?

They just said that elves only live to 300 years old now, presumably retconning that so that none of the PCs could be alive for Tiber Septim to role in, and, tbh, I agree. She should be a High elf, and right now she's anything but. The only way they could salvage her is by having just about every Altmer in the land hate her guts, just like you would if an arrogant twelve year old strutted into power, and there are numerous plots to overthrow her. Not only that but really, she aught to be evil and I think that people planning on playing AD would prefer it that way as it fits with the general theme of the Altmer and I can't imagine the Aldmeri Queen being anything but that, especially since she's meant to be fighting for Elven Supremacy.

Imo she should be a supremacist who is made interesting by her argument making an eery sort of sense, that would make for a better character.

Just asking, was the writer of that quote presuming she was the elf in the trailer? Has this been confirmed, if so I certainly hope not, she looked more generic that anything else I've seen and could barely pass for a TES Bosmer.

My suggestion...lay 'o the skooma!

Um. Just stop drinking skooma please. That's my job.

We see pictures and concept art of her on the ESO site under the aldmeri dominion section. She looks like a quel'dorei. If you're a warcraft fan, you know what that means. Even her outfit has their classic colour scheme. She's also white. Just plain white. These facts are very perplexing, but not nearly as important as the other flaws in her character.

I know a lot of out information on altmer is biased, but it has to come from somewhere. They're "numerically named, baby killing nazis" which is actually a quote used by a (bethesda, not zenimax) dev to describe them. I was hoping to see the math-obsessed, eugenics-loving, riddle-speaking altmer whose books can literally drive you insane and set you on fire with their complexity. Instead we get a leader whose a total boring, perfect Mary Sue pirate princess. And that doesn't make her "more relatable" because it just makes her generic and too good at too many things. Too well-rounded and cliched. And even if it did make her relatable and familiar that wouldn't be a good thing. People are tored of the same generic lotr-esque fantasy people keep shoving down our throats. It's one of the reasons warcraft's zany, bizzare world is so popular. It's why argonians and dunmer are so popular. I don't understand zenimax' decisions to reduce the elder scrolls into some hackneyed, safe, watered down pourridge of "seen it all before".