Dariya was born in the city of Chorrol in Cyrodiil. The moons had blessed her with the Cathay form; lithe, versatile and with a much dexterity as any man or mer.
Like many Khajiit living outside of their ancestral home of Elsweyr, Dariya was subjected to much prejudice as a cub from the other children, (mostly the humans and elves) so she didn't have a lot of friends while growing up, aside from the other outcasts whom she could empathise with, and they with her. Adolescence, as with many young people, was....difficult. When the bullying became more than just verbal insults, Dariya, quite within her own right to protect her personal space, would lash out with her claws, leaving three long scratches across the face of a short dumpy Breton boy who thought it would be funny to tug on Dariya's tail. How wrong he was. Of course, she was the one who got punished for this, because she was Khajiit, a "savage beast with no place among civilised folk". Granted, perhaps clawing the poor lad across the face was a stretch too far, but would you not have done the same?
Eventually learning that the best way to avoid unwanted attention from the authorities was to keep as low under the radar as you can, Dariya kept her defensiveness and urge to retaliate in check until the appropriate time. On occasion she wished she was born Alfiq or Senche and pass herself off as a wild cat. But in her heart she knew it was not her place to question Azurah and wish her life away. Besides, at least she had thumbs. She took up archery and would practice at the end of each day in the woodland outside the city, envisioning the faces of her tormentors on the target. This proved effective; with her cool and controlled demeanour the insults, slurs and invasion of personal space subsided. People back to actually ignore and leave her to her business, just as it should have been from the beginning.
Into adulthood, as a finally accepted member of 'civilised' society, new responsibilities surfaced. Responsibilities like feeding herself and paying rent. How was a Khajiit such as herself going earn a decent living? Manual labour? "Hard physical work for minimal pay? I don't think so." Thieving? Khajiit have a natural aptitude for such things. "Sounds thrilling, but I'd rather not feed that toxic stereotype." What about hunting? "Hrrm...yes, I have a bow and a decent aim. I will try that". So the forests and foothills of the Jerall Mountains became her workplace, providing meat and hides for the locals her occupation. It stood her in good stead for many years, until whispers of war began to circulate.
With central Cyrodiil becoming a battlefield, Dariya headed north across the Jeralls to Skyrim. Not that she expected the Nords to be particularly welcoming or sympathetic, but at least it was outside of the war zone and home to some impressive game too. Her time there was relatively uneventful. Prowling the forests of Falkreath and the Rift for her quarry, she felt a sense of peace. Nords, while coming across as brash and intimidating (why are they so large?), were quite entertaining to be around once you got used to them, especially after a tankard or two of mead; Dariya began to warm up to them. Whilst chatting with a fellow hunter, she learned of the strange beasts out East in Morrowind - big floating things with tentacles called Netches and huge fire beetles called Shalks.
Intrigued, our Khajiiti hunter thought to investigate. Surely curious exotic creatures such as these will fetch good money. Dariya proceeded with caution however, knowing that Dunmer were known to take Khajiit as slaves. Despite the alliance between the Dunmer and Argonians and slavery being abolished, Dariya wasn't entirely sure if that extended to her kind as well. Perhaps she could appease them with scrib jelly and kwama eggs, foods that the elves are apparently very fond of, not that she could see the appeal of them.
An excursion to Davon's Watch ended unexpectedly and rather dramatically when she was kidnapped and had her soul torn from her body, leading to the events in Coldharbour, helping the Pact, the shenanigans in Vvardenfell etc. etc.

That turned out longer than I planned it to be xD Oh well

See, here's my problem with Bethesda games - I keep thinking about my characters' backstory so much that I have a hard time actually playing. Not that it's a bad problem to have.

I usually play short characters, but I've been bored with the Bosmer in all ES games. When I found out that I could change height here, I immediately wanted to play a smol Orc. But I like the whole Viking aesthetic, so I had to be from Skyrim and in the Pact. Thank you, Any Race pack... It took a bit of thought to see how I could get an Orc to be believably in the Pact, but I got a few ideas. And then I started writing them down...

And with that, I ended up with 5 pages worth of his backstory...

Long story short, Garnag is the son of an Orc chieftain of a hidden tribe and his forge-wife. She didn't get along with his hunts-wife so she started to go out as a travelling merchant while the hunts-wife and wise woman pretty well groomed the hunts-wife's sons to be cruel ruthless leaders. The forge-wife has a baby, the chief is an idiot and declares that he likes the baby more than the others, and it ends up with a huge battle that destroys the whole stronghold. Forge-wife is wounded but manages to get to Riverwood with her baby, where she entrusts him to her friends the lumberjack (a former soldier) and his wife (an alchemist) before she dies. Gar ends up living as a Nord as he grows up, knowing full well that he's different and dealing with everyone else's snide remarks, but he proves himself to be just like any of the other villagers. He eventually apprentices to the blacksmith before his father is called off to fight the Akaviri for the Pact. His father is killed in the battle, so Gar is forced to take over the mill. Ten years later, the tensions are getting higher again and the Pact needs smiths, so he pulls his old hammer out of retirement and heads off to Davon's Watch to help out (and his mother wants him as far away from the Covenant as possible so he doesn't get mistaken for being on the wrong side)...

I've been taking screenshots and even starting to write the entire story as I'm going. I think I have a problem...but it's so much fun!

I know I eventually want to have a Covenant and a Dominion character as well, but I don't have them well planned yet. I know my Covenant guy will be a big beefy Nord who's more concerned with adventure and the hunt than anything else...and is completely a Hircine devotee. The Dominion one will be either a full- or half-Altmer mage who does exactly as the wedding gown Crown Store description says and goes questing in her most elegant gowns