Tarene of Towerlight

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  Name: Tarene
  
  Age: 79
  
  Gender: Male
  
  Race: Altmer (High Elf)
  
  Appearance: 5'11", with a light gold skin hue, dark amber eyes, and darker golden, shoulder length hair, held back in a waterfall braid. He has smoother features that a typical Altmer male, and sharp golden eyes, with a fairly lithe, lightweight frame. He has a burn scar on the bridge of his nose, from a wayward spark from the smithy forge, the first time he tried to use it. He wears leather armor, steel plate boots and gauntlets, and a red hooded cloak, fastened at his left shoulder with a large round clasp. The tips of the gauntlet fingers have been cut away and discarded somewhere, because Tarene prefers feeling his bowstring against his own fingers (as opposed to not feeling it at all through the gauntlets).
  
  Personality: Generally open and friendly, Tarene is the kind of person who'll attempt to make friends with just about anyone and everyone. He rarely has a bad word to speak about anyone unless they've personally wronged him, or unless he's been misinformed about them. He tries to give out a good first impression wherever he goes, but hardly ever judges people based on their own first impressions made on him (at least, he tries not to). He's not very good at recognizing lies, and gives people the benefit of the doubt; he often gets taken advantage of because of this.
  
  Raised at the outskirts of the Altmeri Dominion, Tarene didn't grow up with the usual culture of superiority, though he did face the consequences of it when he finally ventured away from home (in the form of racism and great dislike towards elvenkind). He's terrified of fire, and feels quite nervous around torches and campfires, though he can overcome his fear enough to benefit from the light and warmth. One of his closest friends is his horse, Tebi, and he spoils her with apples and carrots when he thinks no-one's looking. His closest friend is his business partner, Azaron, with whom Tarene hunts down criminals/nuisance creatures and cashes in on their bounties.
  
  A very sociable person by nature, Tarene always had his family nearby while growing up, and wasn't prepared to lose them so suddenly. He latched onto Azaron fairly quickly, if only at first for the company, and may be quick to do so for others.
  
  History: Tarene was born in 4E 126 in Winterhold, Skyrim, where both of his parents (Heceri and Irinde) were attending students at the College there. He grew up around magic, but didn't have the same interest in magic as the rest of his family. Instead, Tarene proved to have the eye of a marksman; he would go into the town near the College after his studies and knock tankards off of railings with stones from varying distances. He did this mostly to impress a young Breton girl who lived in the town with her father and his small mercenary force (who had been hired onto a several year contract to assist the College mages in their archeological digs around the hold), but when the contract ended, the girl moved away.
  
  Tarene continued to practice this marksmanship, though, because here was something he was good at that few others at the College were. A Nord adventurer who came down from the mountains one day spied the young Altmer practicing his trick, and claimed the boy had potential for archery. She gave Tarene his first bow - an Ancient Nord bow found within the early rooms of some crypt within the mountains - and told him to practice. Tarene took this to heart, and moved his 'shooting gallery' to just outside of the town, now that he was using real arrows. The adventurer moved on after a few days, and Tarene hasn't seen her since, but she set in motion a skill that drove him the rest of his life.
  
  His parents were less than thrilled that their son wasn't following in their footsteps, and were even less so to learn that some strange woman had given their son a weapon (though, being busy mages, they didn't actually notice until Tarene left the bow lying out in his room one night). His father, Heceri continued to insist that Tarene study magic, and appointed himself as his son's mentor. This caused a small rift to grow between father and son. Tarene's mother was a little less rigid on the subject, but she did, however, insist he use a more fitting bow, and bought Tarene a hunting bow to replace the Ancient Nord one.
  
  Despite his not so great relationship to his father, when Heceri was called away in 4E 176 (essentially blackmailed) to serve the Altmeri Dominion in Cyrodiil the Great War, Tarene took his father's absence harder than most in the family. It was the first time any member of their family had been further away than the edge of town, let alone another province entirely, and Tarene coped by burying himself into his studies. He wanted his father to be proud of him, and wanted something to show for when he returned. By the time Heceri returned in 4E 180, Tarene had successfully learned enough Restoration magic to heal small wounds on himself and others.
  
  Around 4E 175, however, Tarene had met an Altmer mage who'd come to the College in search of very specific knowledge about the Ancient Nords. This Altmer - Telindil - never told anyone what he was really looking for, but he always had specific titles to ask Urag gro-Shub for. He was quick to pick up Tarene's usual offer of friendship, but picked up the lead pretty quick when the relationship began to evolve after three years. Neither Gladroon nor Anaril were happy with this change, for both suspected Telindil of having ulterior motives, and he was proving to be very manipulative and rough towards Tarene. By early 4E 180, both brothers had stepped in and strongly advised Telindil to depart from the College without their brother, lest some 'accident' of magic and blade befall him. Telindil was wise enough to leave, though he did so without telling Tarene he was leaving. The young Altmer had sulked for a few weeks, but eventually he'd wised up to the situation (hindsight is 20/20), and was grateful for this brothers' help.
  
  Heceri had always been fairly outspoken about his dislike for the ruling party of the Altmeri Dominion, the Thalmor, and his distant location in Skyrim had usually kept him safe. However, after the Great War, the Thalmor set up a foothold in the northern province, and in 4E 184, Heceri moved his entire family back to his old family home in Cyrodiil, outside of Kvatch, though Gladroon remained in Winterhold, at the college, to continue his studies. Tarene found an archery mentor in the Imperial City, and moved there four years after arriving in Cyrodiil, and Heceri quieted down his political views to keep his family safe.
  
  Unfortunately, the damage was already done, and Heceri had made himself some powerful enemies. In 4E 196, the Thalmor decided to rid themselves of a potential threat and attacked the isolated home, burning it to the ground. Irinde, Anaril, Erissa, and the family's youngest daughter, Elanin, were killed in the assault, and Heceri barely escaped with his life. The condolence letter reached Tarene before Heceri could, and three days after hearing that his entire family was dead, Tarene packed his things and set out for Skyrim, seeking to join the only other family member who hadn't been caught in the attack - Gladroon.
  
  In 4E 197, just before he crossed the border into Cyrodiil, however, Tarene encountered the Khajiit bounty hunter Azaron, who was tracking a dangerous bandit gang across the boarder from Skyrim. Azaron offered to escort Tarene up to Winterhold (as the Civil War was making travel across the province very dangerous) if the Altmer helped him kill the bandits, who outnumbered him 4:1. Tarene agreed, and the bandits were dead by sunset. Azaron and Tarene crossed back into Skyrim, and made it to Whiterun before conflict between the Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks made travel to the northern town too dangerous. So, Tarene hung around the Khajiit for a while, joining him on more bounty hunts as a way to put off confronting his grief, and still do something useful. After two years of this, Azaron officially started introducing Tarene as his partner, and they continued to work as a team.
  
  Skill(s):

  Archery
  One-handed
  Lockpicking
  Stealth
  Restoration

  
  Weapon(s):

  Rockstring of Souls. An Elven soul snaring bow enchanted and crafted by Gladroon and gifted to Tarene before he left for Cyrodiil with his mother and elder sister. Its name comes from the strength needed to draw it fully, and even now, Tarene has to strain a little to do so. Usually used with any kind of arrows Tarene can get his hands on, ranging from iron up to ebony. The most common type of arrow is steel, though.
  Ebony sword. Scavenged from a bandit encampment, and enchanted for shock damage.

  
  Weakness(es):

  Magic. Tarene just doesn't seem to have the same natural talent for it that the rest of his race supposedly has, and after watching the rest of his family wield magic with relative ease while he struggled to learn, he gave it up in frustration. At best, Tarene knows enough Restoration magic to keep himself from dying.
  Pyrophobia. Flames larger than a torch make Tarene highly uncomfortable, and he refuses to use fire spells or enchantments. This fear is due to his brief relationship with Telindil, because the sadistic mage had a thing for frightening Tarene just to rush in and comfort him. His preferred method was to use fire, and that affected Tarene in the long term.
  Naivety. Tarene was fairly sheltered from a lot of things as he grew up, and now, whether it's a toxic relationship or someone lying to his face, a lot of things to right over his head, and he fails to see double meanings and lies until it's almost too late.

  
  Extra: Being the grandson of thieves, Tarene has picked up a few criminal tricks…he learned these mostly from his father, though. Heceri is the one with the criminal history and upbringing, and those habits never go away. He just never thought that his children might be watching...