Name: Erik the Swift, also called Fleetfoot, Shadowfiend (though he finds this one irredeemably stupid), and occasionally “The Wetworker”
Race: Nord; Werewolf
Physical Description:
Hair- Black, unusually for one of his countrymen, kept so that the spare ends of it brush his nape but no longer. Occasionally, it interferes with his vision, which is about when he knows it’s time for a cut. The individual hairs are fine, but the numerousness of them makes it rather thick overall, lending the coif a soft texture. Though he’d think you odd if you noticed.
Eyes- A bit more prototypically Nordic than the rest of him, Erik’s eyes are an extremely pale, mercurial grey-green. In the right light, they may appear to lose almost all color, which is faintly eerie.
Height- 6’3,” easily.
Build- Erik isn’t the stacked muscle of the average heavy-armored warrior. His approach was trained into him by Khajit, so he looks a little more like they do in terms of muscle: there’s quite a bit, but not enough to impede his movement or flexibility at all. He’s still built around a Nord’s frame, though, so his shoulders and chest are broad, tapering into a more narrow waist. He’s got enough muscle to avoid looking lanky, so he’s still plenty imposing when necessary, he just wouldn’t look like it next to an orc or something.
Facial Structure- Angular, but not particularly pointy. He’s been gifted with high cheekbones and a well-squared jaw, usually kept free of stubble. His nose is a bit hooked, but it fits his face rather well, all things considered.
Unique body features- Erik is double-jointed in most places. Other than that, he’s notable mostly for the fact that his body seems to be covered in numerous small scars, though they all seem to be of different kinds. He calls them his mistakes, and avows that he does not repeat them.
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: When Erik expresses sexuality at all, gender seems to be irrelevant. So does race, for the most part.
Role: Rogue
Personality: Erik is what the situation demands he be. By turns, he can be charming or intimidating, humorous or solemn, flirtatious or standoffish. It’s difficult to say what of these contradictions represents his “real" personality, so it might help to start with his family.
Around the Khajit who raised him, he is humble, quiet, and of an easy, laid-back sort of disposition. Unfailingly polite, but not a pushover, he is happy enough to help with camp chores and spend hours talking with the elders, taking in their peculiar wisdom and stories. Like them, lies and truth mix freely with him, though among themselves, it is always easy to tell which is which. In the outside world… he’s become so accustomed to falsehood that sometimes even he has difficulty telling the difference anymore.
His fellow Watchers, he treats with politeness and deference for the most part, though it’s well known that he has a disposition inclined to a bit of mischief and deception. It’s hard to pin down his mercurial mood swings, but he seems to generally be pleasant enough company, if a bit confounding. There resides at his core a raw sort of cynicism, a practical worldview that leaves him little time for grand ideals and heroics, spurred by a sharp intelligence and years of exposure to the less-shiny facts of life. He’s not the hero, he’s the man who’ll get his hands dirty so the heroes can keep theirs clean. It’s how the world works, and he can get pretty frustrated by people who don’t see that, though he’ll rarely express it in the typical way.
Despite the fact that he’s a werewolf, this is not known to many people, simply because he doesn’t go flapping his gums about it and he also doesn’t transform that often. In truth, he simply acquired the condition for its utility: it makes his senses sharper and his reflexes better, which is something he finds to be useful. He feels no particularly bestial compulsions except in his worst moments, and he rarely if ever bothers dealing with foes by transforming.
Beyond these pillars of his life, he is as variable and changeable as the summer wind, and it’s often hard to tell who he likes and who he hates. He would never do violence to someone he simply didn’t care for, for that would be a murder of his own volition. Unless he is threatened or hired, he does no harm- indeed, curiously enough, he’s a vegetarian.
History: Erik is the bastard son of a Jarl, and grand-nephew of Torygg, once High King of Skyrim. Of course, his status as illegitimate means he’s no nobility at all, which is frankly fine by him, though the similarity he bears to certain other male members of his line is occasionally striking to someone who knows the current Jarl of Solitude. He certainly wasn’t raised there. A jealous wife ended what was apparently supposed to be the “grandest love story of an age” by demanding, according to a very old tradition, that the infant Erik be left on an ice floe, to survive or die as Talos saw fit.
Well, he has no idea what Talos thought, but a wandering Khajit caravan decided to do him a mercy and took him in, meaning that he was raised much more with their culture than the typical Nord one. He almost considers himself Khajit, and certainly his family refers to him as such. He’s picked up most of his idiomatic expressions from them, so it’s not unusual for him to say something like “this one welcomes you” or “may your road lead always to warm sands,” never mind that he’s not ever encountered a desert before.
He learned what his family had to teach, which means mostly skills of stealth, a smidge of magic, and the ability to blend socially, to turn his tongue to persuasion, and to read body language. As was natural for a child raised on the road in the dangerous wilderness, he also learned to kill, and quite well at that.
To help support his family, he took freelance contracts, mostly for the Thieves’ Guild, but also as an independent assassin, which of course bothered the Dark Brotherhood enough to put out a hit on him. In order to protect the caravan that raised him, he left it, and took to wandering Skyrim on his own. It came to his attention that being able to sense hitmen approaching before they get to him would be a useful skill to have, and for that reason, he sought out some Glenmoril witches and convinced them to make him a werewolf.
He joined the Watchers for the sake of stable income more than any particular ideological leaning. There are people in the world that matter to Erik, and he will take care of them.
Minor Skills: Destruction, Lockpicking, Alchemy, Light Armor
Combat Style: “An assassin has a target. A wetboy has a deader, so called because they’re already dead as soon as we take the contract.” With his enemies, he is businesslike, efficient, and never wastes a word or a movement. His killing style is cold and clinical, but if one watches closely, there is something almost merciful about it. He strikes always for weak points; the fewer blows he has to deal, the better. It’s almost an art form, and if it is, he is certainly an artisan. He does not leave his victims to suffer in death, choosing instead to end them as quickly as possible. He is wont to say that one such as himself is only a tool, and the only choice he makes in a death is how long it is to take. He always chooses mere seconds, whatever the reason.
He dislikes fighting as a lycanthrope, because there’s no artistry in it, and furthermore it lacks the same precision. Still, if he’s backed into a corner with no other way out, he won’t hesitate in the slightest. Violence is a way of life for him.
Equipment: Erik’s armor is unique, and appears to be comprised of pieces from Dark Brotherhood and Nightingale-like armors plus more ordinary odds and ends, though how he came by any of those things is a mystery. It has approximately the same protection as glass armor does, but it’s colored much more darkly for stealth purposes. It carries an enchantment for fortifying his healing rate.
In terms of weaponry, he usually carries a one-handed sword and a knife, the first ebony and the second glass. Additionally, there are commonly a few potions on hand, and some poisons with which to coat his blades if necessary, plus one Ring of Hircine, not cursed.
Personal Side Quest Idea: Well, if anything happens to his family, he’d certainly be motivated to fix it.
Other: “For the Empire, I suppose.”