#his dad in particular) than with house redoran

[nuwanders]

some things i definitely will go and change though; i want brelyna to be the daughter of a Telvanni mouth as opposed to a councillor proper, and i want cassathra to be coming into her first year of university education, as opposed to having already spent a year studying in ebonheart. instead she spent that year (a) doing 10 months compulsory military service posted as a member of the redoran guard somewhere and (b) doing her pilgrimage to the ashlands. but even that might be too much to go back and change idk. idk!!!!

#if i were to write it again i'd really try and make more of a deal of dunmer ancestor worship #i think i got caught up on the new temple as morrowind's organised state religion and lost sight of ancestor worship as ritual behaviour #which would be partaken in even by characters who aren't particularly pious #esp with raydrin and mathyas. i think mathyas' angsting over his fall from honour would have a lot more to do with his ancestors (and #his dad in particular) than with house redoran #and i could have done a lot more with raydrin and how dunmer grief might manifest differently #what would it mean for example to be suddenly removed from access to your family shrine #i can imagine that being super difficult!! #ugh anyway #the things i would do #i'm lowkey terrified to ever write up jorunn's backstory because i just know i'd run into the exact same thing #text

[wispstalk]

I'd be curious to know more about the Rootless band! you mentioned in the tags of a post a few days ago that you planned to write a little about them... what kept them together, considering Tanis's dad's general jerkiness?

For all that Saveryn Irathi was a piece of shit, he was a good tactician and an effective commander.

as for how the band came to be, here's what I had in my drafts:

Saveryn used to be a hireling of House Redoran. He eventually realized he would never be permitted adoption into the House; he was viewed as useful but far too brutal and crass to be allowed too much advancement. He fulfilled his last contract and set out to become, essentially, an unaffiliated warlord.

It wasn't too hard for him to find other people embittered against the Great Houses: Ashlanders, freedmen, other low-status hirelings like himself. This was more out of cutthroat ambition rather than any particular goodwill toward the underclasses.

Outright warfare between Houses was banned by the Tribunal, but unaffiliated mercenary groups could be hired (often the contracts were between bands and hirelings, to add an extra layer of obfuscation) to jostle for power in other ways... for example, if a House hires a band for a territorial dispute and that band decides a victory, that increases the standing of the House.

The Rootless rarely lost and never dropped a contract, so in time they commanded very high prices. So, in short, he promised wealth and could fulfill that promise.