Hello and welcome to my new series of blogs! In this series, I will be composing something all respectable gamers should have played through at least once: the adventure of Skyrim. Join Althalos as he journeys through Skyrim, trying to earn the respect of the unforgiving province, which he will soon find is ravanged by war, betrayal, and angry gods.



The bone-biting cold was becoming unbearable. The only thing keeping Althalos from freezing was the fire crackling in his hand. He had studied some alchemy and magic in his hometown of Dune, but not enough to cast the powerful spells he had heard rumors of, spells which were said to burn down entire houses. Althalos was a nord, born in the city of Riften, and soon orphaned by the death of his parents during a bandit raid when he was only a child. He was thrown in an unknown orphan house, and later adopted by his cat parents, Tasrin and Amnoud. Raised in Dune, a town located in the harsh deserts of Elsweyr, where he had learned the little things he knew of combat and survival.
He had, however, never felt at home in the hot sands and burning sun of Elsweyr. Once he was of age, he secretly gathered money and supplies for a pilgrimage to the land of his birth, were he hoped to earn fame and fortunes beyond his little hometown. He would soon learn that the stories of riches and plunder in Skyrim had been wiped away by war and despair. He had set off, leaving his aging parents worried and yearning for their fostered son. During the crossing into Skyrim, he was traveling with a group of men who called themselves Stormcloaks. They seemed to be escorting a man named Ulfric. Althalos had heard of the war that "tore Skyrim in two", but had never believed it, as word spread slowly and through bad tongues. He had slept for the most of the journey, but always fingered the handle of the sword he had purchased for the trip, in fear of attack or mutiny in the band of Stormcloaks. He was also sleeping when it started. The swooshing and twang of arrows infested his ears, but he disregarded it in his half-awake state, thought it was another wolf attack. When he awoke, he did so to the yells of agony and pain of the soldiers he traveled with. Althalos jumped to his feet in the covered caravan, startled and scared. The soldiers were gone, and he lifted the white cloth that concealed him inside. Dozens of the soldiers lay dead or dying on the snowy earth, some bleeding out, some with severed limbs and cuts beyond mending. Before he could react, however, another soldier, one wearing the leather armor that was distinctive of Imperials, smashed Althalos' head with the hilt of an axe when he tried to exit the caravan.
When he awoke, he was sitting in another cart, this one uncovered, and was accompanied by some soldiers he recognized from before the attack. Also sitting in the cart, Ulfric, the man that was being escorted into Skyrim, his mouth bandaged by a white rag. That's when he was sent to Helgen, that's when that dragon attacked, and that's when he was led out by Ralof, one of the soldiers who had become his acquaintance, and the only one beside himself to survive the dragon attack. That's when it all went badly. Ralof's sister, Gerdur, who lived in a town named Riverwood, the town Ralof and him had retreated to after the attack, directed Althalos to Whiterun, where he was tasked to request aid from the Jarl there. After a series of discussions and arguments between Jarl Balgruuf and his minions, Balgruuf asked another favor of Althalos, this one from his court wizard, Farengar. He asked him to retrieve some sort of stone, although Althalos was not listening, his mind was elsewhere. He did not realize how important that "stone" would be to his future.
Now, he stood on the slopes of the mountain that housed Bleak Falls Barrow, where the illusive stone was said to be hidden. Trudging up the steps of the mountain, he had encountered an old, ruined tower, which was full of amateur bandits, which he dispatched hastily before continuing his trek up the mount. Then, he saw it. The stone behemoth rested eternally atop the mountain, covered by a hazy blanket of snow. He did not realize it, but he stood there, gazing at the giant that dwarfed him, for several seconds. Only the mist of his warm breath pulled him from his trance. He forced himself to drag his feet further up, only making his frostbite worse. As he climbed the steps to the entrance of the barrow, a man, wearing a hood and pulling back a bow, lunged out from behind a massive stone pillar that held up the arches above the entrance. "Leave now, or be killed", the man insisted. "I'm here for the stone." Althalos replied through the curtain of snow, his voice ragged and weak due to the cold. "Heh", the attacker joked, "I applaud your stupid bravery, but I'm afraid I have to kill you." An arrow whizzed by Althalos' head, missing him by no more than a few inches. He instantly reacted to the hostility by firing a stream of roaring fire at the attacker. "Gaahh!", the bandit exclaimed in pain as he attempted to extinguish the flames. The fire bought him enough time to rush up the stairs and hack the bandit in the neck, before he fell to the ground, dead. A battle cry came echoing from behind another of the pillars before an armored man came sprinting from behind it, wielding a large, steel axe. "Here we go", Althalos whispered to himself.
The second bandit swinged at Althelos, but he weaved around the blow and scrambled away in time to light him ablaze, and swing at him. His heavy, shiny steel armor deflected the blow, and Althelos panicked, now swinging wildly at his opponent. Eventually, he was able to sneak off a lethal strike to the bandit's chest making him bleed profusely and evidently killing him. A third bandit, who was clearly new to the group, witnessed the killing and ran away, scrambling away as his wide eyes turned away from Althalos. Then Althalos turned toward the massive door, further up, past another flight of stone stairs. He was splattered with blood, and his eyes burned with adrenaline, ready to raid the ancient Nordic ruin which would dictate his future.

I hope you have enjoyed the very first installment of my new series, and remember to diamond, favorite, and subscribe!