Jasper and Robin are original characters based on The Elder Scrolls game series, mainly Morrowind. Their PBs are Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld. Their player is Ven. Their journal name is "sonsofthetower."

Wall o' Character History:

Jasper is the son of Carrick, an Imperial freelance adventurer from Anvil, and Dolina, a Breton tavern wench who left her native home in Wayrest, High Rock, to live in Bravil, in Cyrodiil. His stepfather was Roe, a Nord scout.

Robin is the son of Pinion and Zhuzhani, a Pahmar-raht Khajiit -- larger than a tiger, and with a nastier disposition (though next to Pinion, she seemed tame as a kitten). Robin is an Ohmes Khajiit, making him impossible to tell apart from a Bosmer to all outward appearances. (The most obvious differences are concealed by clothing.)

Robin and Jasper met by chance at about the age of 8 or 9 and, like their fathers, became fast friends, not knowing the history of their bloodlines. Due to the difficulties of a large cat raising a nearly-elven child, Roe and Dolina agreed to take Robin in and help raise him. Zhuzhani remained for a time living in the mountains tracing the southern border of Skyrim, where Dolly and Roe had settled after Dolly gave birth to Jasper; but the people of Tamriel are fearful, and a Pahmar-raht in a society of big game hunters makes no friends. One day Zhuzhani went into the mountains and never returned. It is likely she headed South to her ancestral home in Elsweyr.

And so Japer and Robin were raised as brothers. Robin’s fair skin and hair made him fit in among the Nords of Skyrim even better than Jasper, who shared his father’s dark, strong features. Their lives were nearly idyllic for several years, until when both boys were 14, a band of travelling vampires came upon their village one night. The villagers were strong enough to chase the raiding monsters off, but at great cost: though the casualties were few, many of the villagers were infected by the vampire sickness, including Dolly. Though a group was sent to try to find a healer with the skills to cure it, three days was not long enough, and after 48 hours, the remaining villagers held a meeting and decided that the infected would be given a choice: a painless death by merciful hands, or banishment, to live out the rest of their lives as vampires, perhaps to seek the clans of Morrowind.

When it came Dolina’s turn to make her decision, she looked at her son, at the child who had become her son, and at her partner Roe. She took them all into their house and spoke for many hours. At last it was decided: Roe helped his sons gather their belongings, their weapons, and the way to go. He prepared them thoroughly for the journey they would make. He and Dolly told them over and over how much they were loved, how sorry they were, and said their good-byes. Finally, at sunset on the third day, Roe and Dolly joined the crowd at the gates of those who had chosen banishment over death. They bade farewell to their sons, and left together.

Jasper and Robin returned to their house. Roe had taught them how to arrange for it to be sold, to collect and hide the money, where anything of value was that could be taken or sold, and who they could trust in the village. All of these things they did. After all arrangements had been made, they built a fire in the bedroom and climbed into their parents’ bed. Wrapped in one another’s arms, they cried until they slept, and slept for a whole day.

And then, at sunrise of the day after that, they left. Not knowing what they did, they set off exactly as their fathers had done almost thirty years before. Bidding no farewells to anyone, carrying only what they thought to tuck into their pockets before they walked out the door, they began to walk in the direction of the road.

Three  years later, they haven’t stopped yet, though they have begun to find their paths. Jasper is a moody, pessimistic mage-in-training whose ancestry and upbringing have made him considerably less competent in his chosen craft than he might have been had he been raised Breton, among other natural mages. He shares his father’s star sign, the Thief.

Robin is a playful spirit whose cat-blood combined with a childhood largely spent either in the wild or with humans far from his own kind inspired him to pass himself off as a Bosmer and pursue a career as an acrobat. His star sign is the Lady.

Unlike their fathers, who had honed their complimentary skills to make themselves a formidable team in any fight, Jasper and Robin have few combat skills. They are instead con artists and “virtuous thieves” who take from their victims only what they need to get by one more day, if they cannot fool their audience into giving it up willingly.

A final note: As the result of being shot with an enchanted arrow while trying to steal from the wrong wizard too close to Morrowind, Jasper has a shard of metal that broke off of the arrow and lodged in a bone. The enchantment was a curious one – constant-effect levitation, presumably intended to disorient any person or beast hit with one. The strength of the enchantment was greatly reduced once the majority of the arrow was removed, but what remains is enough to free Jasper from the constraints of gravity, making movement in three dimensions as simple a process as walking along flat ground is for most of us, requiring nothing but the intention of direction, and the body’s momentum. In addition to being able to fly as quickly as he could move himself on solid ground, a curious side-effect of this is that Jasper has a tendency to end up walking several inches above the ground if he stops paying attention to where it is in relation to his feet… which happens fairly frequently.