| Benthamic | |
|---|---|
 | |
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Name: |
Benthamic |
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Aliases: |
Eidolon |
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Birth Date: |
Fourth Era, 166 |
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Age: |
35 |
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Occupation(s): |
Revolutionary; Dark Wizard; Enchanter |
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Allegiance: |
The Forsworn(✝); Stormcloaks(✝); Dawnstar Coven; New Forsworn |
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Weapons: |
Destruction magic; Dagger |
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Spouse: |
Vermalith |
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Race: |
Breton |
"I am not free until all my brothers and sisters are free. That is the revolution."
Benthamic was a male Breton who lived in the Fourth Era of Tamriel. A powerful dark wizard and vampire born 10 years before the Markarth Incident which cemented Nord rule over the Reach hold, Benthamic spent his young adulthood as a guerilla fighter among the ranks of the Forsworn, an ethnonationalist terrorist faction which sought to restore an independent Reach free of both Imperial and Stormcloak influence. While he became disillusioned with the Forsworn cause following his aid in the rise of the Mad King Madanach, he retained his revolutionary spirit and sought worthy insurrectionary causes elsewhere in Skyrim, armed with powerful magicks deriving from his worship of the Old Gods of the Reach as well as occasional consortings with malevolent Daedra.
Combat Proficiencies[]
Among his contemporaries, Benthamic was described as one of the foremost battle mages of western Skyrim due to his adept command of Destruction and Illusion magicks. Not one for the flashy bravado of many of his coevals, he preferred to quickly and efficiently overwhelm his foes through displays of destructive force at a safe distance, mainly employing high-impact single-target spells such as Incinerate and Ice Spear. When unable to outright obliterate his adversaries, he utilized practical spells from the Illusion school to obscure his presence, or force his foes to turn on one another, allowing him to safely dispatch any stragglers.
In a pinch, the wizard was willing to employ his proclivity for fencing and dagger play in close-quarter situations, but mostly had to rely upon his intuition and keen strategic sense when drained of magicka. A skilled enchanter, his deadly ebony dagger was imbued with powerful draining magicks to punish overextending enemies and allow him to flee to a more advantageous position. When cornered or against a multitude of adversaries, he could find himself easily overwhelmed due to his low physical constitution.
Biography[]
In the Fourth Era, the Breton Kingdom of Fharun was the capital of the Wrothgar region of High Rock, bordering the harsh Nordic province of Skyrim. While the Bretons as a people have long been under the yoke of the far-off Empire, Wrothgar as a province has historically been quite separated from the politics of Cyrodil and Daggerfall, instead devoting its relatively meager resources towards providing for its feudal populace amid a sea of harsh mountainous terrain and hostile Orcish clans to the north vying for control over their ancestral homeland, which they perceive as existing in a state foreign occupation by Greater Bretony.
By 4E 166, the once-honorable House Danton had fallen into disrepute and financial ruin. The family, which in happier times presided over a lucrative spell tome enterprise, was now rife with rumors of conspiracy with Orsinium and the Lyrezi vampire cabal; worse still, their historical ties with the "mongrel" peoples of the Reach (a mostly tribal region of Skyrim populated by Nord-Breton hybrids) were now being thrust into the spotlight amid the rise of the ethnonationalist Forsworn faction in the Reach which claimed legitimacy over the hold’s capital of Markarth. A peasant revolt that year, which saw the Danton lands collectivized by their own serfs, was seen as the final nail in the coffin for the House. The rival clans seized the opportunity to force the family into exile across the border into Skyrim, then divided their remaining lands amongst themselves after crushing the peasant rebellion.
Thus, Benoit Danton spent his childhood in the scenic yet treacherous city of Markarth, a settlement in the far-western Reach of Skyrim built over a dwarven city and long-plagued by racial tensions - which had begun to reach the breaking point with the arrival of the Forsworn. While the Reach had been conquered for the Nords by High King Olaf centuries prior, much of the Breton population retained a bitter resentment for their conquerors and privately prayed for an independent Reach. However, while the natives harbored some residual animosity towards the Nords, worse still, in their minds, were the Reachmen savages who saw themselves as the true sons and daughters of southwestern Skyrim - neither Breton nor Nord, but a distinct race altogether. Upon arriving in Markarth, the remnants of House Danton quickly sought to distance themselves from their Reachman heritage, fearing that exposure would lead to suspicion of collusion with Madanch’s separatist Forsworn faction, whose terrorist attacks were growing more frequent and deadly with each month.
The Forsworn found little success at rallying popular support until their tactics shifted from violent upheaval to promises of redistributing Nordic land back to its historical Breton masters. In underground and back-alley meetings, Madanach’s agents spread agitprop of Jarl Hrolfdir’s disdain for the Reach’s natives and even began to speak out against the Empire, whose war-tithes grew more taxing by the month while the Nords stayed complacent. Further still, the Forsworn began to vow a return to the region’s free and open worship of the “Old Gods” of the Reach (conventional knowledge held that these so-called Old Gods were simply different aspects of the widely-loathed Daedric Princes within the traditional pantheon, but adherents of the Old Ways continue to argue that they are distinct entities altogether). In 174, when Benoit was 8 years old, the Forsworn Uprising occurred; overnight, the disgraced Jarl Hrolfdir had been forced into exile and Madanch now sat as King of Markarth and the Reach.
The Dantons, now suspiciously proud of their western heritage, were rapidly elevated into the reorganized Markarth. With the rest of the holds and their Imperial masters distracted with the Great War against the Altmer, Madanach and his new regime were free to consolidate their newly independent kingdom. Mass land reform took place, with the Forsworn government frantically attempting to establish agricultural autarky to reduce their alliance upon outside trade with potentially hostile powers. This redistribution of Nordic land was initially mildly successful, but came at the high price of food shortages with preventable crop failures upon the onset of the bitter Skyrim winter. In this transition period, mass pogroms against innocent Nords took place. It is hotly debated whether this was state-sanctioned violence perpetrated at the behest of Madanach, the result of excessive revolutionary fervor amongst the paramilitary ranks of the Forsworn, or perhaps a combination. Whatever the case, Madanach quickly realized that the situation had spiraled out of control and demanded that all racially-motivated violence perpetrated by the ranks of the Forsworn immediately cease and the murderers be brought to justice. Pierre Danton, Benoit’s father, presided over the Committee of Public Safety and the Defense of the Revolution, which was, precariously, tasked with trialing both the political enemies of the Forsworn as well as those accused of racial killings. Naturally, the Forsworn murderers were all absolved while entire families who were allegedly political dissidents were being disappeared by the day. Chaos was everywhere.
Nonetheless, the domestic situation gradually improved as Madanch took matters into his own hands and had his own personal Revolutionary Guard arrest and exterminate those who defied his orders. He drafted a constitution to ensure the rights of the minorities, with special protections for Nords to freely worship Talos, and even safe haven for refugees displaced by the war. However, this brief period of relative prosperity came to an end in 176, when the Great War ended and the rest of Skyrim returned their attentions to the Reach. Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak of Windhelm declared independence from the Empire, beginning the Skyrim Civil War; the Reach, claiming to no longer be part of Skyrim, wanted no part of the conflict, though they were forcefully brought into the Stormcloak rebellion when Ulfric and his militia invaded Markarth, unseating Madanach and forcing his loyalists to flee to the hills.
Thus, 10-year-old Benoit was forced to readjust to life as a child soldier of the revolutionary Forsworn. The Dantons attempted to erase their history as nobles of Bretony, but the increasingly radical Madanach had them all executed anyway - apart from Benoit, who was spared and indoctrinated into the Reachman culture, taking the mononym Benthamic to signify his rebirth. He spent his teenage years studying the spiritual practices of the Old Ways and Madanach’s teachings in guerilla warfare, and at age 15 participated in his first raid against an Imperial encampment in the northern Reach. The ambush was a success, but prompted a swift reprisal from Legionnaires dispatched from Solitude, costing Benthamic his left eye and the lives of a dozen of his comrades.
Swearing never to be outwitted in combat once more, Benthamic dedicated the rest of his young adulthood to refining the Forsworn’s theory of asymmetric warfare, encouraging the chieftains to shift away from spears and maces and more towards an emphasis upon Illusion and Destruction magicks - sowing discord amongst enemy forces and then obliterating them before they can organize themselves, minimizing the need for costly direct confrontations. These changes were rolled out slowly and initially with great resistance, as conventional interpretations of the Old Ways encouraged traditional contests of strength rather than deception; as Benthamic’s tactics proved viable, however, he ascended in rank within the Forsworn and gained the favor of Madanach (who was now called the “King in Rags” due to his refusal to yield up his claim to legitimacy of the throne of Markarth).
Despite his growing reputation as a man of practicality, Benthamic far from abandoned his spiritual side; he gained an affinity for the deity known as Sutekh (widely considered to be the Reachman aspect of the Daedric Princes, Mehrunes Dagon and Malacath), the Old God who personified the concepts of revolution, honor, and righteous destruction. The young revolutionary began to develop (arguably) delusions of grandeur as an emissary of the Lightbringer, whose fate was to spread revolution and chaotic justice across all corners of Skyrim and perhaps beyond, starting with his ancestral home of the Reach. He was proclaimed a Bokor, or priest of the Old Ways, by 25, granting him the equivalent rank of Lieutenant within the Forsworn guerilla forces by right of spiritual enlightenment. He founded his own revolutionary cell in the outskirts of Markarth near the Haafingar border with Solitude, tasked with disrupting Jarl Igmund’s communications and harassing the movements of the Imperial Legion - a fitting position given his past failures. In 199, the revolution encountered a significant setback with the capture of Madanach, forcing the sons of the Reach to once again reevaluate their strategy. Slowing down their attacks in the countryside, they began to focus upon infiltrating Markarth itself, spreading revolutionary sentiment and laying the groundwork for another uprising.
By 4E 201, the Forsworn were once again ready to strike. With the most powerful family in the city, the Silver-Bloods, in their pockets, a strike force co-devised by Benthamic himself were able to liberate the King in Rags and several other high-ranking Forsworn comrades from Cidhna Mine; in a show of force, the Forsworn elected to march right out the gates of Markarth in broad daylight instead of escaping covertly through the underground ruins, wreaking havoc throughout the entire city on their way out. The revolution was in full force once more, and the people of the Reach knew true terror for the first time in years.
While Benthamic had attained more prestige than anticipated thanks to his aiding in the rescue of Madanach, his faith in the revolution was not what it had once been. Whilst infiltrating Markarth society, he begrudgingly developed something of a sympathy for his Nordic foes; the Forsworn had long targeted their largely innocent population and now seemed more bent on inspiring fear and chaos than actually restoring an independent Reach. He believed that the Forsworn would one day achieve their dream of freedom, but for now resolved that his fate lie elsewhere. He bid their ranks farewell, swearing to the King in Rags that he would remain his faithful servant and one day return to the Reach.
Assuming the appearance of a simple traveler, Benthamic traveled north to the city of Solitude in search of new prospects. While he expected to despise the city for its decadence as the center of Imperial activities in Skyrim, he developed an affection for the hold, appreciating its rich culture and surprisingly peaceful atmosphere. He took up a temporary job in the Blue Palace to pay his rent, serving under the Court Wizard Sybille Stentor - a fellow Breton. The Wizard, renowned for her intelligence and laconicity, was impressed with the traveler’s fastidious disposition and apparent talent for the destructive arts. She took him under his wing as a clerk and apprentice, allowing him to accrue some modest wealth as a weapons and armor enchanter for the staff of the Blue Palace as well as an investigator of supernatural activities in the city. The job was to Benthamic’s liking; it paid well and offered him some sense of security for essentially the first time in his life, and he enjoyed working under the fast-paced and no-nonsense guidance of Stentor.
The pleasant arrangement continued for three years, at which point Benthamic was tasked with investigating the murders of several prisoners who had mysteriously died in regular weekly intervals. While Sybille encouraged him to focus on his studies, the order came from Jarl Elisif - presumptive High Queen of Skyrim should Ulfric be defeated - herself. Investigating the bodies of the prisoners within the Solitude’s Hall of the Dead, he quickly discovered that their apparently woundless bodies were actually littered with bite marks disguised with powerful Illusion magicks - the telltale sign of a powerful and skilled vampire. Bringing these findings to Sybille for counsel, her master revealed that she was the killer - a vampire of the Lyrezi clan line. Demanding that she turn herself in, she also revealed that, surreptitiously, she had been poisoning his mead with vampire blood nightly over the course of the several weeks since he had begun his investigation of the murders. By the time of Sybille’s confession, his condition, Noxiphilic Sanguivoria, would have advanced to the point of making vampirism inevitable within days. Thus, if Benthamic dared to bring the identity of the killers to light, Sybille would be able to implicate him as well, invoking the wrath of the Jarl. It was a genius plan to which the dark mage had no answer. His master confided that, while she did not regret doing what she had to do in order to protect herself, she regretted that there was no other way; as Benthamic slowly succumbed to vampirism, he realized that he had grown complacent and forgotten his destiny as a scion of Sutekh. No longer blinded by the base pleasures of Imperial high society, he left Solitude to rebuild himself, cursing the Court Wizard to Oblivion for her deception.
A wanderer once more, Benthamic spent a brief time within the hallowed halls of the Mages’ College in Winterhold, but found their teachings pointless and impractical - a shadow of their former selves as a center of learning.
