What's your main character's backstory and does it fit in with being the Vestige?

joshisanonymous · August 18

Disclaimer: This doesn't mean that you actively RP but just that you have an idea for who your character is in your head.

The Vestige kind of does a ton of stuff and always for the greater good, which is limiting if you don't envision your character as a supernatural, highly productive do-gooder. So what's your characters backstory and how does it fit in or not?

Soarora · August 18

I have one Vestige and many non-Vestiges. I split up the quests among a few characters. My Vestige is an exiled Altmer. She was once the daughter of a powerful family but she and her arranged future husband ran away together and joined a vampire clan. She escaped the clan and reconnected with her family, who sent her funds to escape Summerset and locate a priest to be cured. She became a templar of Meridia and does some quests before having her soul stolen, but after the events of Summerset she falls out of worship of Meridia.

I have too many to describe the rest of them here, but I could go on and on about character backstories.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · August 19

Rohais (my Breton main) was on her way to Summerset when she got kidnapped by Maormer pirates, sold off to Mannimarco and sacrificed. Everyone else isn’t ‘the Vestige’ in my head canon regardless if they completed the questline or not; Away-From-Keyboard is an ex-slave she met, Khayrat is a fire-and-brimstone priest of the Eight who was trying to bring people into the fold over in Pact territory before getting turned into a vampire, Aetius is one of Rohais’ underworld contacts, Eristaanwe is one of Rohais’ distant relatives on the Altmer branch (Eris is an ouster/apraxic due to going mad - she loudly proclaimed she wouldn’t live in Summerset until the buildings stopped being human and moved to the Shivering Isles, where she collects vampires). Nizirri is a follower of the Hungry Cat who works at Rohais’ Embassy in Craglorn. Hlani is an acquaintance and bubbly, helpful sort who left Morrowind because she felt really sorry for all those non-Dunmer who don’t get to talk to their relatives after they die and is trying to help them fix that.

Cosmo_Nova · August 19

My main character is a former Imperial Mananaut who was sacrificed during the Daedric invasion of the Imperial City. His prior knowledge of the planes of Oblivion and a lucky meeting with Lyris allowed him to survive long enough to escape, after which he used his expertise in the field of Daedrology to mount various subsequent missions to Coldharbour with the other Companions. With the Empire having collapsed he's out of a job, so he is currently acting as an independent scholar. He's a patriot who wants to see a new empire emerge so that the Mananauts can return to the prestige they had during the Reman years instead of just being a footnote to the Longhouse Emperors.

The Vestige does a lot of traveling to dangerous outer realms, especially in later DLC, and has many dealings with Daedric Princes, so I think it makes sense for them to be someone who has a lot of prior experience and training with Daedra.

Anifaas · August 19

Some entity behind a giant glowing rectangle, powered by eldritch energy, got drunk one evening and started pressing random buttons on an interface it knew nothing about. Next thing you know its mind gets trapped inside of a strange avatar in a high latency world.

Marko21xx · August 19

I don't remember the main story that well to say that I did a character for that but for the alliance quests I did.. when the titles were character only and not account.. so each could have their own "hero" title
My first toon and zone was a Dunmer/Vvardenfell named Neros Dreth (Nero because he's a Dk and you know.. Nero .. fire.. and Dreth is a Dunmer house from one of my fav characters.. that guy who is imprisioned and keeps mocking you in the TES IV Oblivion starting scenes..) .. no other special lore here..
..also made a Khajiit for the Dominion/Summerset quests and tried my best to outfit him like Razum-Dar with my low cost motifs xD.. just another eye of the queen and dominion hero.. that constantly hears “So.. you’re the one that saved the queen, eh? You don't look that special"
3rd character is a female Imperial templar who joined the Pact but I don't remember that much..just that I played with the "no mercy" and intimidation options..
My main character is also a tamplar and a Breton.. Covenant Hero but also Savior of Nirn.. Tamriel Hero.. etc.. I'll make a lore for him when I learn pvp and get some ranks from my alliance xD .. because since from the start I've always dressed him with the Covenant motifs..

RaddlemanNumber7 · August 19

My main character is Tacitus Verus (Silence Made Real). He's my "main character" only because his backstory helps define the space in which my other 19 characters exist. The backstory is an attempt to provide a single, coherent, lore-friendly explanation for the whole ESO in-game experience. One truth to rule them all.

Tacitus Verus is a depersonalised avatar of Lorkhan, so he is very much The Vestige. Especially since the game starts right outside the Zero Tower these days.

Lorkhan created Nirn as a free-fire Arena in which mortals would be able to complete the psijic endeavour. The basic idea is that Tacitus Verus is an avatar that is used to manage the Arena, subtly, from within the Dream. He does essential tasks like structural maintenance, fire-fighting, crowd control, culling redundant extras, providing props, etc. He also acts as a prompt to get mortals moving on their individual journeys.

The only objective, the only moral, the only ethic is to give mortals the chance they need to find their own way to pass Lorkhan's test.

Tacitus Verus does every quest, to the letter, because from his perspective they all make perfect sense. The NPC’s are the story, not Tacitus Verus. He is a nobody from nowhere, with no family, no secular loyalties and no sense of belonging. This empty skin that walks the face of Nirn. Not just “a” mortal but “the” mortal. I - the pilgrim who made the path of mortal existence by walking it themselves. So that now, with each mortal’s steps made towards self-realisation, and with every lost spirit sent home into the Void’s serene embrace, eventually, love will conquer all.

DTLight · August 21

I pretend my Breton Necro is a Reachman, the closest thing I have to a backstory ATM is roughly like

Did some Bad Things in Bangkorai > imprisoned > escapes > flees to Cyrodiil > gets knocked over the head by Worm Cultists > sacrificed > becomes The Vestige

Not too complex, and not too much special stuff, but it leads to some funny scenarios to think about. Especially since I'm quite keen on the idea that The Vestige could have/has lost all their memories of their "past" life since that body/person died... and when you die, your memories all join the waters (or some such)

Ilsabet · August 21

I give all of my characters backstories (some more complex than others) that cover who they were in their "old" life and what led to them getting sacrificed. So all of them are or would be the Vestige in their own timelines, assuming I ever played through the story with them.

I have them posted here, although it's probably time for an updated post that includes my arcanists and other incidental alts. I tend to like character concepts where they're nobody special to start with and then they get pulled into bigger events and rise to the heroic occasion.

My main character, Ilsabet, was a stablemaster's daughter in Glenumbra who ran afoul of bandits and was sold out to the Worm Cult. She started out as a scared kid with no idea what was going on, but she was resourceful and good with a bow and she did her best when people started relying on her for help. And now she's a jaded on-call adventurer for whom saving the world is just another Tirdas.

OtarTheMad · September 1

My main is a Snow Elf who grew up at one of the snow elven Temples hidden around Skyrim. They wanted adventure so they set out and started exploring Tamriel. During the exploring they ran into the Worm Cult…

I enjoy giving my characters a little backstory, it’s fun.

jaekobcaed · September 10

My main is a wealthy Altmer, named Isachar Daerenfel, who was originally slated to take over his father's trading company. However, in his studies, he ends up way more interested in magic. After his father relinquishes control of the company due to the rising tensions of the war, he sets the company up to essentially run itself and then embarks on adventures that lead him first to the Mage's Guild, then to the Psijic Order, and he ends up wandering Tamriel somewhat like Gandalf. He adventures, advises the Dominion's war efforts, and helps people all over the world.

The story is a lot more complex than that, diving deep into the lore and metaphysics of Tamriel (actually writing a lengthy plot for him) and I kinda just think about the base game plot in the background, it's not really the focus. I might work it into the main plot of my character at some point, though; if I do, the events of the Mage's Guild and Psijic stories will be different and/or take place at different times than they actually do in the game, however.

My second character is an Imperial Dragonknight named Septimus Adeodatus, he was raised by a Dunmer father and mother (both are Ordinators) and from an early age, he learned the Akaviri martial arts. He couldn't become an Ordinator himself but his parents encouraged him to learn how to fight and command. At the age of 16, he ended up signing up with the Imperial Legion to join Emperor Varen's campaigns, as he truly believed Varen would restore the glory of the Reman Empire (which he grew to admire during his studies). When Varen disappeared and the Empire shattered, he returned back home to Stonefalls and basically became a mercenary adventurer across the land (eventually working to keep the Pact territories safe). When the Three Banners War began in earnest, he'd occasionally return to Cyrodiil and aid the Pact's efforts but primarily spent his time keeping the homeland safe. He eventually earns a gilded wreath and much prestige for his efforts, with King Jorunn promising to make him the Emperor if the Pact won the war; obviously, Emperor Septimus would be exceptionally friendly toward the Pact, ensuring that it maintains the majority of the power in the new Empire. This character essentially ignores the Vestige plot entirely.

I also have two other characters but I haven't come up with extensive backstories for them yet. I'm thinking I'll have at least one of them centered around the Vestige plot, though; I'd love to write a story around that, as the ESO base game plot is pretty awesome.

Benzux · September 10

I've had the story of my main in mind since long before I even started playing the game, and I built their backstory around being The Vestige.

As an Argonian, he was born in Black Marsh to a large clutch, and ended up forming a rivalry of sorts with another Saxhleel in his youth. This rivalry quickly escalated, however, as it seemed his rival had some sort of inexplicable grudge towards him - which, unknown to both of them at the time, was the result of meddling from the Daedric Prince Vaermina, who had influenced his rival through dreams from a very young age. This Daedric influence made his rival bitter and hateful, and eventually caused him to attempt killing their tribe's Hist, but the (future) Vestige stopped him. His rival was promptly exiled and was not heard from since.

After coming of age, driven by wanderlust and a desire to see the world, he became an adventurer. During his travels, he met an old Dragonguard (who I like to retroactively imagine is Chevalier Renald) from whom he learned Akaviri martial arts and whose legends of Dragons partially inspired him to focus on destructive fire magic. His travels, however, were cut short when he came across an old acquaintance: his former rival, now a member of the Worm Cult (though secretly a warlock of Vaermina) and an accomplished Necromancer, having cast aside his old Jel name in favour of the dread-inspiring moniker "Raises-The-Dead". His former rival wished to kill him with his own hands, but was forced to turn his body over Mannimarco, who proceeded to sacrifice him to Molag Bal, thus beginning his new life as The Vestige.

I have a helluva lot of other characters as well, and most of them have just as if not more fleshed-out backstories (with what is seen above being a simplification), but basically all of them are connected to one another in some way. For a brief example, my Necromancer is, quite obviously, the former rival from my Main's backstory, influenced by Vaermina practically from the moment of hatching, leading him down a dark path of Necromancy and Lichdom while chasing after a promised "glorious fate" and being consumed by hatred after having it supposedly stolen from him. I only consider my Main to be The Vestige, but I imagine that some of the other characters definitely got the same treatment that he did, and are also "Soulless Ones".

Ajaxandriel · September 12

joshisanonymous wrote: »

The Vestige kind of does a ton of stuff and always for the greater good, which is limiting if you don't envision your character as a supernatural, highly productive do-gooder. So what's your characters backstory and how does it fit in or not?

A vestige?

In my opinion the idea of a unique Vestige is deeply flawed to begin with.
We're not even sure it is a dev-intended sort of "canon" fact, besides the main character syndrom displayed by the base main questline. A syndrom that could be arguably applyable to 90% of the quests in MMORPGs, since they are always designed and built as (solo) RPG quests. (i.e. even the Scholarium's story let you think you are the first character ever to enter it for centuries, yet it is obvious the place is open to the wider Mages Guild and adventurers' crowd afterwards.)

But I notice most players and all the fans' sites still treat the Vestige and this story as if it were a unique being, each player pettily headcanonizing one's Main Character as this unique Vestige regardless of any logic in a multiplayer world.
Yet the starting scenes and base story already stated there were a continent-scaled "Soulburst event" and also, thousands of characters were captured and sacrificed by the Worm Cult, quite some of them being able to escape one way or another.

So my first point here:
Even if "the Vestige" story is about exceptional stuff (championning Meridia and fighting Molag Bal in person) it is by no means less a multiplayer-multiple Class of characters than "the Sorcerer","the Thief", "the Nebarra/Psijic", "the Archaeologist", "the Scholarium scribe" and so on.

My second point is ALL the Fans sites writers (who are solo RPG players thinking as solo RPG critics) are wrong, and I won't elaborate on that any longer.

But even if they were unique, in the end of the day, we should see all this happening everywhere all at once as a Warp in Tamriel, a Dragon Break of some sort.

What being Vestige implies?

To come back to OP's main point, indeed the story of the a Vestige is not neutral. Said character is a high-end powerful and mystical champion, personally supported by Meridia and, most disturbingly, a soulless being - a former Soul Shriven.
A rebel to Molag Bal's rule.

Narratively, you can have been a peasant or a godlike magic user, all your backstory's previous power is removed by this starting event and you have to regain it, by training and finding sky glass - which is a convenient justification for the adventure.

As for me, I do have such a base-story Main Character (Altarya, a falmer/altmer frost priestess) who is this kind of a living mystery and got this level of power, fighting Molag Bal thanks to Meridia's blessings, so she can suit that kind-of-Vestige class, in a wider sense, but I don't see her as a Vestige precisely.

Regarding alts, the oldest characters may have been into Coldharbor's jails if I forgot to skip the old tutorial zone, but as soon as it was possible, newer characters started in the Chapter's noobzone of the moment and never talked to the cringe Worm Cultist in disguise - never following the path of a Soul Shriven.
In general, I create a new character for a new zone or story, or I use an alt who already fits the theme of it - for example, my Khajiit to deal with Elsweyr's stakes.
Any of them is no Vestige, even less that Altarya.

DTLight · September 12

Ajaxandriel wrote: »

In my opinion the idea of a unique Vestige is deeply flawed to begin with.

The character you play in ESO is set apart from other Soul-Shriven escapees (though I think the idea of there being a mass of escapees hasn't been used much since early access?) by the nature of being the only one having an "intrinsic Anuic aspect".

Ajaxandriel wrote: »

the Vestige and this story as if it were a unique being

Nevermind the bit I said earlier, this would also still be untrue due to them being a Prisoner, a specific concept or person during a period of time that is more capable than others- among other things.

Ajaxandriel wrote: »

Yet the starting scenes and base story already stated there were a continent-scaled "Soulburst event" and also, thousands of characters were captured and sacrificed by the Worm Cult, quite some of them being able to escape one way or another.

What other players are depends on the specific zome/setting/quest/etc.
In some areas they are treated as other Soul shriven, and in others as simply just other mercs or adventurers.
Before the game was released, what you are describing was supposed to be more-so the case with the Numinous.

Ajaxandriel wrote: »

So my first point here:
Even if "the Vestige" story is about exceptional stuff (championning Meridia and fighting Molag Bal in person) it is by no means less a multiplayer-multiple Class of characters than "the Sorcerer","the Thief", "the Nebarra/Psijic", "the Archaeologist", "the Scholarium scribe" and so on.

ESO heavily emphasises the PC having others help them with their goals, and vice versa! So yes, you are correct in a way, but it's not due to the Vestige, the Player Character, being less special or important.

Ajaxandriel wrote: »

But even if they were unique, in the end of the day, we should see all this happening everywhere all at once as a Warp in Tamriel, a Dragon Break of some sort.

It's not a dragon Break, and doesn't really need one to explain it (as long as you ignore some of the devs making the very weird decision in the past few yars to say everything happens at once- which a whole other dumb issue entirely)

With all that said, as you yourself have done already, anyone can RP as whatever they wish; I just don't agree with what you've said about the Vestige as a character.

AvalonRanger · September 19

I picked up my main character's name from internet TES orc name generator....
And, didn't plan any of back ground story from 2014...Sorry my character.

Ajaxandriel · October 7

DTLight wrote: »

Nevermind the bit I said earlier, this would also still be untrue due to them being a Prisoner, a specific concept or person during a period of time that is more capable than others- among other things.

Your interpretation of a "specific concept or person" that is contradictory with a multiplayer game to begin with, but also contradictory with soloplayer games of which each instance is meant to be canon somehow, since TES3 and the Warp in the West.

"Prisoner" is the Elder Scrolls' jargon for the concept of Adventurers or Heroes in other classic fantasy settings. Many fictional settings do acknowledge a difference between the common mortals and the (playable) protagonist, uniqueness is not a mandatory feature of the concept.

DTLight wrote: »

the Numinous.

This is the most non-canonical piece of canon one could use as an evidence - since it was moot when Auridon released and it was plain retconned when Summerset released.

But yet again, the Numinous as a draft for the Soulshriven concept - and a diegetic placeholder for Player-Adventurer - was meant to be multiple:

“Title and social status are of supreme importance to the Altmer! The Queen has granted all Numinous the noble title of “Optimate” – an honor indeed! You need defer to no one of lower status than a Kinlord.”

Soulshriven/Numinous is the diegetic explanation of why the adventurers can't die - as a MMORPG mechanic that is acknowledged.

Some RPG settings justify this, by gods or angel's will - notoriously the graveyard in WoW - some others by time-warping or "re-tell the story otherwise", ESO chose primarly this "soulless" or "tainted soul" condition as a solution.

DTLight wrote: »

With all that said, as you yourself have done already, anyone can RP as whatever they wish; I just don't agree with what you've said about the Vestige as a character.

Well, it seems I still won't agree with yours either

Benzux · October 7

Ajaxandriel wrote: »

DTLight wrote: »

Nevermind the bit I said earlier, this would also still be untrue due to them being a Prisoner, a specific concept or person during a period of time that is more capable than others- among other things.

Your interpretation of a "specific concept or person" that is contradictory with a multiplayer game to begin with, but also contradictory with soloplayer games of which each instance is meant to be canon somehow, since TES3 and the Warp in the West.

"Prisoner" is the Elder Scrolls' jargon for the concept of Adventurers or Heroes in other classic fantasy settings. Many fictional settings do acknowledge a difference between the common mortals and the (playable) protagonist, uniqueness is not a mandatory feature of the concept.

DTLight wrote: »

the Numinous.

This is the most non-canonical piece of canon one could use as an evidence - since it was moot when Auridon released and it was plain retconned when Summerset released.

But yet again, the Numinous as a draft for the Soulshriven concept - and a diegetic placeholder for Player-Adventurer - was meant to be multiple:

“Title and social status are of supreme importance to the Altmer! The Queen has granted all Numinous the noble title of “Optimate” – an honor indeed! You need defer to no one of lower status than a Kinlord.”

Soulshriven/Numinous is the diegetic explanation of why the adventurers can't die - as a MMORPG mechanic that is acknowledged.

Some RPG settings justify this, by gods or angel's will - notoriously the graveyard in WoW - some others by time-warping or "re-tell the story otherwise", ESO chose primarly this "soulless" or "tainted soul" condition as a solution.

DTLight wrote: »

With all that said, as you yourself have done already, anyone can RP as whatever they wish; I just don't agree with what you've said about the Vestige as a character.

Well, it seems I still won't agree with yours either

Pretty sure Daggerfall's Warp in the West is only meant to canonize that specific game's multiple endings, it does not somehow mean that every possible decision in every other game is also canon, especially given that Daggerfall is really the only one that has multiple endings to its main quest (sure, you can sever the threads of fate in Morrowind by murderhobo-ing everyone, but it doesn't lead to an actual, concrete ending, and even killing Vivec is just another path that one can take to reach the canon one). What does "canonize" every possible decision, however, is Ithelia and the Many Paths, though without her ability to observe the Many Paths, it begs the question of whether they could be considered to even exist any more at all.

Supreme_Atromancer · October 7

My main is a mage from Evermore. She is descendent from the "Old Blood" of the Western Reach, but is culturally Breton, being the daughter of some minor nobility. Self-possessed and bright, she has a deep-running talent for magic. Most foreigners would see her as a typical Breton, though anyone hailing from the grand cities of the Iliac Bay could mark the relative directness and unimaginative pragmatism of someone from the Realm's End. There's not a huge amount of roleplay-ability in the ESO story, so I keep her character sort of broad and open so she can fit. She's essentially "good" though, so I never did the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild content, but have done everything else with her as my actual canon playthrough.

The others all have low-key story too, pretty much just inspired by some interesting place or lore:

Kragenmoor seems fascinating to me, so I made a Nibenese Battlemage who fled the destruction at Cheydinhal and now lives in Kragenhome just over the mountains.

I rolled up a Nord and gave her short height and soft features so that she could feel like a nord-ish Breton from Jehanna, since that place has Nord heritage. I did the opposite with an Imperial, maxxing out her height and giving her more "heroic" facial dimension and pale tone, and now she is a cyro-nord that represents Falkreath's Colovian roots, because surely there are some interesting stories to tell there! If we ever get to see Helgen, maybe she could be from there.

Oh, and a mountain Redguard Dragonknight from Dragonstar that I made because the idea of this Redguard city that's essentially in Skyrim is intriguing and fascinating to me! Interestingly, base-game lore suggests that Dragonstar has some kind of Redguard heritage, even though by the time Craglorn released it seems to have a bit of a different trajectory. If the lore ever gets reconciled, I might be able to do a bit more story for her. Until then, she's sort of this kind of Redguard-ish take on the celtic Fianna- a band of wandering warriors I imagine that are homeless, but spiritually tied to the Redguard heritage of Dragonstar.

10 years ago, I confess I used to (secretly) scoff at the fact that someone might buy an extra account. Now I have 4, each with a character inspired by some aspect of Tamriel. Its a slippery slope, guys.

dazee · October 29

Most of my characters stories can work with being the Vestige since as far as I can tell the Vestige was born to mortal parents, whether or not their soul is Daedric, and was at some point killed by Manny and soul stolen by molag bal.

This coulda happened to most of them at some point, no reason why not.

My "main" is a nord woman with a very Breton sounding name since she was a nord child adopted by a breton couple after her family died in battle, eventually she found her way back to the pact lands where more of her people lived, she was born blessed by Kyne with strength far beyond what a normal Nord woman would be able to have.

She became a hunter of Vampires Daedra and Werewolves oh my, using aedric magic and a big hecking sword.

gwenthebard · November 1

Yes. For both of them.
My first Vestige was my dragonborn in Skyrim. Basically she made a deal to go back to the 2nd Era to stop the Aldmeri Dominion after helping the Psijic, they agreed since they did not believe she could do it. When she first lands in the 2nd era she is a dragon knight, her dragon powers manifest but not in the ways she is used to. Do to her making such a fuss it attracted the wrong people. After losing her soul she no longer has access to her dragon power and relies on what she learned during her time with the dark brotherhood (This also explains why I switch from dragon knight to a nightblade after my first time through the tutorial).
My second is a portal hopper who just so happened to land in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Nerouyn · November 15

For reasons too complicated to go into here I never settled on a main so never invested too much thought in this.

Except as it relates to my necromancer characters.

Mine were all made back when Elsweyr launched so were locked into the Elsweyr tutorial, which I didn't mind. But necromancy being generally abhorred and not something I ever dabbled in in the single player games, I think I didn't claim any necro abilities in that tutorial and immediately afterwards ran those characters through the old Coldharbour starter area.

Having our souls yanked out is supposed to be what opens up the soul magic line so it makes sense to me that it could also open the door to necromancy.