Hey Im trying to improve my Skyrim experience by adding more roleplaying into it. I have one character that I really wanna play but I get bored everytime because the game becomes a rushing through dungeons sooner or later. Its not that I didn't try to roleplay, to take everything a bit slower, but after some hours I can't do it anymore.

And I thought that maybe the reason for that is the lack of backstory and character I have. Here's the character (Breton) I wanna play:

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/5228/amaraskyrim.png

But I always end up not feeling her as a character. I think this is because I always tend to do too many out-of-character things because I myself want to do them. These being: Evil daedric quests that my character would not (yet) do, collecting skulls and bones and storing them in my house for no apparent reason (I wanted to roleplay her as studying necromancy but I dont like reanimation spells and never got into this in Skyrim), doing many many different things all at once (that would be way too much for one person), risking her life and dying way too often because of my impatience...

I like the idea of Dead-is-Dead, that is being really cautious and having to fear death, I think it really enhances the experience, but Im sure I couldn't let my character go if I die. It just takes too long to get into a character for me to just let him go. I thought of some alternatives: Waking up from a bad dream (loading autosave before sleeping) isn't really an option because it would get tedious to do all the same things again, losing all my money (being robbed after losing conscience) is an option Im considering (would also be a reason to not carry all my money with me). Other ideas?

Btw, I have an eat/drink/sleep mod and play the game on master.

What I have so far or what I plan/want to do:

- She will be a mage. Therefore, she will definetly join the College. I also want her to be the dragonborn. The idea is: She gets to know that she's the Dragonborn from the very beginning, and because of this she decides to train her magical abilities in order to be able to fulfill her destiny.

- I LOVE the dark brotherhood, and because I want her to be my main character, she should be the first character with whome I complete this questline. But how can this fit into roleplaying? I mean, look at her. She is not cold-blooded. And Im not liking the killing so much, its the religion and the feeling of a family. I want her to feel this too. What I thought about was that she lost her family and maybe she can find a new one in the Brotherhood. But what would justify this? How will she be svcked into this and when? Early in the game, or when she's powerful, I don't know. I don't want her to be insane.
My character in Oblivion was a Breton called Sareth Benirus, a necromancer and devout worshipper of Sithis. What I find tempting is making my character a descendant of this character. This would open up the possibility to join the Brotherhood in order to restore it to the former glory days as this was her ancestor's last will. The question here is: Does she know this from the start? Why would she even want to do this? Im not sure. What I thought of was writing (in the CK) a diary of him. Maybe she finds it later, maybe she has it but doesn't want to do it (yet), or maybe its written in daedric letters so she cant read it at all?
I think I dont want to join the brotherhood from the very start though. Would probably again be too much at once, with the main quest and the college already active.

- Im not planning on doing the Thieves Guild because I tried the first quests and I didn't like the way they treated the people. She will not be like this, she's a kind (yet honest) person.

- Im a fan of just exploring the nature. Hunting could become her "hobby", especially searching for alchemical ingredients. Or Im gonna make her a vegetarian. That's interesting ... As spontaneous idea would be to make her really be in touch with nature, using the elements for her magic and trying not to hurt animals (unless they attack me?)

- I like random dungeon diving, caves for collecting mushrooms and stuff and Dwemer/nordic ruins for research and collecting ancient artifacts.

- I want her to be religious but Im not quite sure which religion she should be part of (in the beginning, excluding Sithis for now). Logically it would be the Aedra and especially Kynareth when I go for the nature thing, but wouldn't she be curious of the daedric power? And also, if I use conjuration which I will, Im going to summon daedra and that wouldn't fit into this divine worshipping. Not quite sure here....

Information on background and personality I already thought of:
- Noble descent, a little spoiled (obsessed with sweetrolls, loves jewelry, wants to have everything (even if she can't?), but doesnt like these uncomfortable noble dresses; Im not sure yet if she likes cozier or big houses more)
- Curious, wants to see the world
- physically weak
- shy, polite, hates lies and lying (doesn't boast about her skills or achievements or posessions or whatever, but secretly wants to be the best and have everything she can)
- partly (small part) Imperial, strong attraction to the Empire

So with all this in mind, I would be grateful for any ideas on backstory and personality for this character and tips on gameplay. I want her to really be a character with a unique backstory. So what could have led to her being like this and doing what she does (like magic studying, love to nature and animals, etc.)? Any ideas on big and maybe mysterious events that she could have gone through (like the death of her family)? Maybe she wants to find out about these events or wants revenge or whatever. More goals ingame. Every input is very welcome.

Thanks for reading through all of this.
Sel

Regarding the incorporation of the DB questline into a basically "good" character, you could approach it this way: She starts good, but becomes inured to death after all the killing that she is forced into. Skyrim changes her, and not for the better. So you could still do the DB, but not immediately.

I'm thinking of doing the opposite arc with my current character, a dunmer assassin. She starts evil and ruthless, but then has a change of heart, becomes more compassionate and eventually strive to save the world (via the MQ).

This should go into the fan fiction forum. You will be able to receive help editing it there.

I always miss the personality part for my characters , and I wondered why I delete them after two days...


Time for some writing !

The difficult part of the question it hand is trying to give ideas "blindly". Unfortunately, as a community we can give suggestions and options but they may or may not always be to the taste of the recipient. The backstory of the character is going to have to be something that you the player have the most input on. Especially with the potential that you may end up ...



That being said and understood, mine are below.

Ask yourself these questions.

1) Why is she interested in necromancy?
- Was her family killed in a bandit raid, or by draugr, or by the evil Empire, etc.? Did she have a favorite pet that was run over by Cicero's cart wheel? Perhaps even a life-long friend contracted a bad case of Ataxia. Once you can establish the "why", the rest kind of falls into place.

2) Obviously, you're wanting her to be a mage, and since Necromancy is frowned upon by most of the inhabitants of Skyrim - Is she going to be a College Mage or a Solitary Mage, learning spells on her own and testing them on subjects she may run across. (Perhaps this is a good way to explain her hunting "hobby".)

3) Once you have #2 answered, this can progress you into the next question. Where is she going to live?
- You said you weren't sure if she was going to be in a small cottage somewhere, or a large provincial city/house. I would think, if she was a College Mage, she could have a "secondary subject" in order to cover her real experiments and allow her to live amongst others. Otherwise, it's the middle of nowhere for you.

4) Is she going to live alone?
- A follower would help her in the wilds from getting ded. Does she live with this person out of necessity, or does she have some small inkling of a crush on them? I'd go with a front line fighter in order to cover her for the magey work.

Once you have those answered, this will give you more of a basis to play from and hopefully keep you entertained. Coming up with new ways to utilize her growing magical powers while keeping her secret love of her protector and all that.. who knows..

I know this is somewhat vague, but, hope it helps.




**Edit** P.S. And before you laugh about Cicero's cart wheel.. perhaps it was a message from the Night Mother.

I did a good to evil character. A companion who after a visit to blackreach( with all that stuff in the air) went mad because of the fungi spores and went on a murderous rampage through skyrim killing the guards from the shadows then moving in to kill everyone else.(did that for a while). Until he went to clavicus vile for cure to his madness. Clavicus gave him an axe and that was the end of "the beast of blackreach"

So there are ways to transition from good to evil and maybe back again you just have to be creative.

If your role playing a mage then role play goku from dragon ball z.

Thank you, this already was very helpful. As for necromancy, Im not quite sure on this yet. From one perspective, it is a cool idea to make the character want to study necromancy in order to be able to "defeat death". But this is what I already did with my Oblivion character, Sareth Benirus. Maybe she reads his diary and starts doing it herself. It could even be some kind of grimoire with spells and knowledge in it.
I think this could be an interesting idea. This could also get her tweaked into the Brotherhood, as Sithis was the "muse" for him. But all this would mean a much darker character.

And she is supposed to start as a good person. And stay one in her heart. Maybe she's interested in this, but isn't yet willing to sacrifice so much for it. And she won't randomly kill persons for her work, I think (hope?). If she'll start doing this kind of things, she'll choose her victims cautiously.

Not sure about how her family died though. It has to be something extraordinary that I myself don't know the answer of and have to find during the RP.

She's going to the College definetly. She's not the kind of person that does anything alone. She needs persons around her. That also makes a follower almost a necessity. Although from a gameplay perspective, Im not a fan of followers and its gonna get difficult once I get my favorite destro spell, fireball ...

All this already helps a lot in developing the character. If any of you have more ideas (the crazier they are the better), or questions that help me develop the character for myself, Id be glad.

.
Maybe she seeks the knowledge of the elder scrolls and necromancy to save her long dead family?(who were STABBED?

Eh.. I'm still thinking her beloved pet was run over by Cicero's cart. That's the reason the wheel is broken and he's stranded in front of the Loreius farm. Ties the whole thing in nicely

If your worried about blowing your followers up, maybe take one of your colleagues from the college with you on your adventures? Not sure how effective it will be at higher levels, but on my mage i went with J'zhargo, an atronach, and a few lightning bolts and made quick work of most enemies.

If your going necromancy, you have all sorts of options from just raising the first enemy you and your follower kill, to having 2 Thralls (2 melee, melee and mage, or 2 mages/archers). Your mage thralls can even summon their own atronachs to build you a small army. The dark elf at the college also will summon them in battle.

I am having the same problem with my Breton mage character (Toska, in my sig). I have literally restarted her 5 times. The farthest I've gotten was level 30. Each time I've ended up restarting because I did not feel connected to the character- her actions were "my" actions and weren't developing organically. Like you, I want her to dabble in necromancy. I wrote up a whole backstory for her before rolling the most recent incarnation, and I'm still a little lost about how to treat her. Feel free to take any inspiration from my mage's story:

Toska was always fascinated with "defeating death" as you called it. Growing up in the same city as the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Crypt_of_Heartshad a deep influence on her. She discovered at a young age that she could reanimate the corpses of small animals. Eventually she became an apprentice to the priest at the Temple of Arkay. One night she attempted to reanimate a person's corpse, and got caught. She only escaped due to some mysterious effect her Fear (read: illusion magic) had on the guards who discovered her- they ran off in fright, while she fled into the countryside where she was discovered by a witch with ties to the Forsworn. After living and studying magic with the coven for a few years, she decided to head to Skyrim to seek knowledge from the great scholars there.