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Grim Tales - The Wolf and the Hawk - Fenrir Unbound Book III - Chapter 4
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Grim Tales - The Wolf and the Hawk - Fenrir Unbound Book III - Chapter 4
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45 comments
But the real contrast lies in the background from which their attraction araise. Winterhold is a cold place, in which the physicality of Grim, is almost out of place. His body contrasts heavily with the ones who take the path of magic. They sacrifice the body to the mind, to dominate the energy that pervades everything. No true magician would do exercises on the terrace of the school of magic. In fact there is none, for both the cold and because the heart of it all lies in the library, in its books, and in the experiments that everyone brings along.
Grim seems to wander in the school with too much security in a world that is not his environment, and there is not enough blood Dunmer who owns or that is the dragonborn, to make him acceptable. Knowing cast some spell does not make him a magician, not just two months to become one, the path of magic is a vocation to which you sacrifice a whole life. Seriously think that such an environment, it may accept Grim, without reacting, without groped to expel him? Grim brings the physicality, the living flesh, the body toned, his sexuality, in a world that had to partially banish it to get knowledge and power. Maybe in the true wonder of Avrein, in his rapt in his desire awakened by his own enemy hides the true spirit of a school, of a entire little world. Grim is subversive because despite the frost, reaffirms the body,the eroticism in one who has renounced all this. There is only one truly legitimate desire, the will to know, "You were not born to live like brutes, but to seek virtue and knowledge." Grim looks like a brute, even if he is not at all. But looking like it refers to something disconcerting that refers back to animality.
Grim asserts in previous chapters also moral claims, perhaps in discussion in the old guild of magicians, but in Winterhold, find no space after all. The desire for knowledge can not be limited by moral chains, science is value-free. In the academy all schools meet, but the College of Whispers is very well seen more of the Synod, since this last is still the arm of imperial authority in the field of magic. After all, is not Ancano, the real author of the potential apocaliptyc disaster that threatens to erupt , but the school itself, with its the desire for knowledge and power that does not want limits. If there was not Ancano, it would set off by someone else.
Bethesda has left too superficial relationships within the school, he grasped the potential of the story, but has not developed. Access to the school is too simple, but to stay there should be much more complicated, especially for those who are not willing to embrace its philosophy. Grim, certainly can not, so in my opinion you should put a little 'in parentheses to its previous events, and raise the voltage of the tensions of the academy against him. In the end we must remember that in the excavations of Sarthal is brought to light a power capable of destroying the dream itself. What need is there of Alduin? A Winterhold mages do everything by themselves.
I decided to walk my dog before replying so I could think about this. First I will say that I just finished chapter 5 and will be posting it very shortly - and you will see that I was already planning on adding a bit more hostility from the students as I tend to agree with that general assessment. However have to keep that balanced with the fact that I am a "light" fantasy writer versus the more darker style used by Jessb, Kayol, Basstos, and yourself :-)
In regards to science I also agree, science isn't good/evil its neutral (its how people decide to use it that can be the moral issue). In regards to magic - well that depends on the setting as some worlds can make it intrinsically light/dark. I would say in TES it is basically neutral like science though.
Now in regards to the pursuit of magic I would need to clarify my position as I don't agree completely. I think anyone who wants to be a true master of magic, then yes they do need to devout their life to it. Working on a college campus for most of my life I would liken them to the diehard research faulty we have. Yet we also have students interested in a shorter investment and a practical use of their skills. It does not seem unreasonable to me that someone might join the college for just a year or two so they could learn some control and a spell or two. Clearly, like most skills, the more they put into it the more they get out of it. After all even a college grad has spent most of their life in school since a young age. However I do not think all at the college are their to become master wizards or pure scholars, at least that is my take on it.
Next is the fact that we have things like a battlemage in TES. Avrein is one himself (although I don't pigeon hole into TES definitions). I could easily see Avrein at a military school where part of the day was spent in physical prowess and the other half in magical studies. If course he will never become a true master at either but he can certainly become very skilled at both. So in my mind it is possible to have someone at the college who is a bit mixed.
Of course both Grim and Avrein are exceptions in general. Avrein has a special gift and Grim ... well Grim has his rather unique bloodline.
Of course no one goes to the college and spends 3-6 months there and becomes a mage. Ignoring the major issues with most games and guilds (who becomes a guild master of all three guilds in under a year????) I just have to suspend my belief in this case. There are some ways to rationalize it with your character as well.
In Grims case he isn't at the College to be a mage. He is there to gain access to the library and because Fenrir directed him there as Fenrir knows about a tie between the college and the Eye of Magnus.
Grim, however, isn't a novice. He was taught magic for just over a decade (he started around 13 and he is 25 now) by Marissa (a college graduate and priestess of Mara), the Shamans of the Black Wolf Company, and by Fenrir himself (mind to mind). In general Grim and Avrein are both "undercover" agents at the college.
There is also the issue of telling stories in this medium. If I were do write a book I would take a more logical and thorough approach. Nor would I have to be constrained by using images and the context of the world. Of course I don't have to follow the quest lines but there we come to the fact that I still love to play this game - and I want to be able to play the game with Grim as well as tell his story wrapped around that game play. So I have a somewhat hacked approach.
With that all explained I tend to agree that Grim is really out of his element here. Now granted he does have some power - he isn't a simple student or even a regular mercenary. So he does have a level of confidence that many others might not have.
I like your insight on his brute physicality compared to the more virtuous study of knowledge, although again I would say this is more the case in someone who has truly devoted themselves to the study of knowledge and/or magic. Magic, being what it is, probably offers a lot more reward to many then simple pleasure of the flesh can ever hope to achieve. Yet I do not think that one has to give up love and physical pleasure to be a mage - I think one can have both even if they may not end up as powerful as one who devotes their entire life to pure knowledge. I see Domina more that way as she has given up her entire life to a vision and to her sex is only used only as a tool along the way. Yet she also did not sacrifice everything to knowledge - although in some ways she is sacrificing everything for power.
Totally agree on Ancano and the college. If not Ancano then someone else, that is the nature of power in many ways. Probably why the Monks took the eye away.
I suppose in some ways the college is more like a small time vocational college (community college) versus a true academic college at least in how the quests go.
Anyhow those are my thoughts on the matter and how I am seeing it with Grim. I have no plans on Grim being the Arch-mage (just as I did not make him the Guild Leader of the Thieves, I left that to Brynjolf). He is there on a mission. He just lucked out that he joined right when Saarthal was being uncovered ... or maybe that was his fate and destiny
Once you get into a story, you tend to play with it in your head a lot, both consciously and not.
It is a lot like Aaron said - I am always writing in my head. While it can vary a lot my stories come in two flavors - plot stories and side stories. The side stories are usually random and happen because I have an idea or inspiration I want to write about - sometimes related to the plot other times just for flavor. I usually spend a week working on it in my head (at the gym on the cardio machines, walking my dog, the commute to and from work, in bed at night, etc) and jot down notes and ideas. Then when I have a framework I start in on images and text.
Plot stories are similar except I have a general outline already made for the overall plot for Grim and the characters. However they are just outlines. I often will take notes over months and continue to flesh them out as I write. So over time I get more developed and in-depth plot lines as I keep building on past stories and notes I keep.
As for time - well that is a hard one. I have a hard time finding the time actually. Thinking about stories I can do whenever my mind is free to day dream. But taking images and writing - that can be very time intensive. The average story, just writing it down and adding the image links and then proofing, is about 6-12 hours each. Add in another 3-6 for taking the images and you can see it take a lot of time. But it is fun and I enjoy doing it most of the time.
I usually spend a couple hours each night between story writing, working on my ENB Presets, and hanging out on Nexus
I love the detail to your characters interactions and relationships. This one is particularly interesting. Please keep it up.
You described Avrein's inner conflict quite well, not to mention his bittersweet history with the half-elf Tegan, and how Domina's actions made him question her -- and his own -- beliefs. Avrein is a brave mer to talk with Grim this way, and I'm liking him more and more with each chapter. And it seems Grim (with his part-Dunmer ancestry and his overwhelming maleness
You described Grim's exercises quite well, too. Even in the cold air of Winterhold, he knows how to work up a sweat; I imagine I'd be just as enthralled by the sight as Avrein was.
Well done, both pics and story! I'm very much looking forward to Chapter 5.
Avrein, in addition to being Altmer, is also "upper crust" and an aristocrat. Both parents social climbers in their own areas. So he really got a dose of that whole life style and attitude. On the plus side, due to reasons not gotten into yet, he was mainly raised by his mother and the servants ... and the servants opened up a slightly different side of things in him. He is a bit like a closet case finally coming out. The question will be which way he turns.
Glad you enjoyed this story and the shots and I am already working on chapters 5 and 6 and have 7 and 8 somewhat planned out as well.
I liked how each danced around his real reasons for being at the college as they both baited the other. A real battle of wits. Some very nice shots of hunky grim without his shirt (are the tatts on his arms new?)
Looking forward to seeing what comes next!
Anyhow way off-topic. I do want to explain about Avrein and Grim though. I lack the book format to properly tease this out throughout the chapters (and I lack your patience to stretch it out like you did with Rathe and Fleur over two books) so I tend to dump a lot of information over a few chapters ... only with Alfrun did I manage to stretch it out over a very long time ... but not sure I want to be writing Grim for another full year :p
So you have to remember, Grim does NOT know Avrein is a Thalmor. He just sees a very handsome and masculine Mer. His only reason to dislike Avrein is that he is Altmer and in the past three years he has gotten a lot more open minded. Arcadia, that priest in Falkreath (can't recall his name), Faralda, and others have all shown him that the Altmer are not all bad and some of them are even rather nice and open towards human. So, not knowing Avrein is Thalmor there isn't really anything for him to despise in Avrein.
On the side of Avrein is the fact that he now knows that Grim is part Mer with Dunmer blood. We already know Avrein was drawn to another half-elf, Tegan. Further he was never a fanatic Thalmor. As I wrote in his past he avoided joining the Thalmor. It wasn't until his father died, and Domina took over, that he joined. Even then he only did because Domina convinced him to do it and she was his only remaining family at the time, both parents having passed on. Nor was he close to his father - he barely knew the man.
So lacking the Thalmor fanaticism, only being a member because of his sister and his desire to "help his country and fellow Altmer" he lacks the intense hatred towards Grim that the others do. Avrein is also more clinical, used to suppressing his emotions, so he had a more detached view towards Grim.
Yet Tegan wakened something in him, his passion and desire, and seeing Grim as he did brought it all to life. I liken it to a virgin who discovers sex for the first time (in a positive manner) and all of a sudden goes hog wild. Or perhaps someone who lived in the closet for most of their life finally comes out and can now indulge 30 years of suppression. That is Avrein to some degree.
The arm tats have always been there. The wolf tat on his chest has vanished because of his thicker chest hair though
The point about Grim not knowing Avrein is Thalmor is very valid (sometimes I forget that as the audience I'm privy to more info that the protagonist - call that the omnipresent writer in me)! I would like to see their relationship build up slowly over time but I can understand why you can't spend a year on that (besides, sometimes attraction does hit like a lightning bolt - that's what it seems to be for these two).
I just hope it remains just that; attraction... not romance. Erik is far too sweet o be jilted (not that I see Grim doing so, but again, attraction can be a damn dangerous thing)!
I realized I did (and still am a little) drag out Grim and Erik's relationship but it wasn't really angst ridden as you know - more just a lot of stumbling around and shyness. If Erik had not been in the picture, and Grim had met Avrein a lot sooner in the story line, then I would have eased it out over a very long time. In fact it would be the type of relationship I could easily drag out for an entire book and if ever start a new series of stories it is something I am going to try.
My concern is that this is Grim's third book, been playing Skyrim 3+ years, and don't want to get into another long plot line (as I already have a couple of long ones to finish - Fenrir being the main one). That being said I do have plans *grin*. If you read my reply to Derek you will see I have a few plot endings in mind for Grim, Erik, Avrein, and Domina and how it all turns out will depend on how things go. I have fleshed out all three in my head and my typed notes but won't lock down on one of them until I get a bit deeper into the story. Two of them are major game changers is about all I can say at this point.
I, for one, will be keen to read whatever you decide should be in store for our hero (and co)! Plus, I fully agree with you when you say the characters will create their own endings; I had no idea Fleur would die until about a chapter before it happened!
Sexual tension in overdrive in seems!
I trust that Grim won't let the flirtation get out of hand and hurt Erik.
Consequently I have three different "endings" for how things with Avrein, Grim, Erik, and Domina will resolve. Which one I go with will depend a lot on how the stories develop over time - some of the writing is done by the character themselves. What I mean by that is that when writing sometimes you just get into a flow and the words come almost directly from the unconscious without conscious intervention or planning. To me that is the characters somewhat writing themselves as lets face it - it is our unconscious that really provides everything to our conscious mind.
Consequently, in the end, what I chose will be what fits best and feels the most "right" for the characters.
Lots of good writers here; I'm slowly absorbing little tidbits of inspiration from the various writing styles here on the Nexus and tucking them away into the back of my mind to be used at a later date.
One reason I read a lot of the authors here is to get ideas and look at different styles. Of course I do the same when I do read books but that is a bit different than the medium being used here on Nexus.