One of my favorite games as a child was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for the PC. This might be hard to fathom now given video games based on movies are generally terrible, but this particular example was a masterpiece. It was a brave game, willing to deviate not only from the movie’s plot, but the very identity of its iconic character. On the silver screen, Indiana was a grizzled, treasure-hunting, Nazi-hating cowboy. In the game, you could role play Indy as Indy, but you could also make him a total pussy.

Many of the game’s challenges could be bypassed by any number of tactics, whether they be swashbuckling, smarty-pantsing or even self-degradation. One of the choices I feel is underrepresented in the mod is the option to role play as a scrawny twerp. This is mostly because I am lazy and it’s hard enough filling the more widely used paragon/renegade/jester options, but I do like to add the occasional “I am but a lowly milk-drinker,” if nothing else but an homage to this game. After all, I took no small delight from being able to tell Nazis “I am but a lowly worm” before slapping the taste out of their mouth.

Suffice to say, Indy was influential. Although technically speaking, so is everything. Some influences are positive, some negative, and some prevent you from legally operating a motor vehicle. And while I have a hard time distinguishing between the three, when I played Indy it felt like video games were a positive experience, even if that seems out of character.

As the wiki slowly begins to take form, one of the things I want to give the masses out there the opportunity to do is provide screenshots for the various characters. What’s there now is basically whatever photo myself, Blauwvis, or Sifka can take while creating tables and blurbs, but ideally we want pictures that are pretty to look at or are symbolic of the quest.

The original photo I used for The Radiant Dark was shitty beyond belief, so I decided to put on my photographer’s hat and try and get some action shots. This one is probably the best of the bunch, with the whole juxtaposition of light and dark.

If you’d like to submit a photo for a character page, I will be more than happy to use it provided it is awesome. Ideally I prefer vanilla settings, as I’m boring like that, but I’m not married to any specific lighting/texture setup.

In other news, I think I will start the weekly updates next week, depending on how much content I get from the voice actors. This will allow bug fixes to get out promptly as well. The Blood of Kings Questline has a particularly nasty one right after the climax which I want to take care of, but the questline will probably remain in Alpha/Beta until I’m sure there are no others.

Again, we need testers, as right now it is just me and Blauwvis trying to squish bugs on our own, so anyone who is interested shoot me an email at kristakahashi@gmail.com. Until we can get this thing fully polished, I’ll have to leave the WIP/Beta label on the box.

If you met Zora Fair-Child in her youth, you would not be as fond of her as you are now.  That Zora was selfish. Vain. She was the Diamond of Riverwood, but inside, she was about as ugly as they come.

From the day she was born, they said Zora was the lucky one. Born with beauty and blessed with charm, she was a child destined to be loved. Her sister, on the other hand, was a quiet, homely, mage – a girl destined to be scorned.

When Zora first lost her beauty, she went through all the Kubler-Ross stages of grief, but it was the anger part that was the most consequential. She stormed into the caves that surrounded the White River with a sword twice her size strapped to her back. The wolves around Riverwood were known to hunt in packs, and had fangs that could cut through flesh like a warm sweetroll. Zora didn’t just know this, she was counting on it. She didn’t care anymore whether she lived or died. Yet somehow, the poor girl managed to live.

Of course she did. She was always the lucky one.

When Zora woke up from her hysteria, she found herself an unrecognizable mess of scars. And yet with every new wound, every discolored stripe that streaked across her flesh, the loss of her physical beauty became less and less important. When her destiny was out of reach, she found something else to define her. Not because she wanted to. She had no other choice.

Zora’s growth as a character is about being comfortable in her own skin. As such, it’s no coincidence the one spell in her repertoire is Oakflesh. Still, throughout her trials and tribulations with the Dragonborn, a part of her will never be at peace with what she’s lost. Nor will you, despite all your powers as the savior of Skyrim, be able to free her from this curse. That’s life. Not every problem can be solved. Not every affliction has a cure.

As human beings, when faced with such problems, we endeavor to accept them. That doesn’t mean you’re happy to, or that you’re satisfied with your current existence. It just means you learn to move on with the cards you’ve been dealt. Zora has those moments where she laughs at herself, or feels sorry for herself, but in the end she still has the resolve to move forward, when so many others would wallow in self-pity, constantly looking back. She eventually learns to accept the person she is, and yet in some ways, even that isn’t enough.

Which brings us to the final step in her evolution as a person. In both her dialogue about Joselyn and The Children Fair, she goes beyond simply accepting the past. She embraces it. After all, without her medley of scars, she would have never understood her sister’s pain. Moreover, she would have never understood herself. And it’s that resolve and understanding that is the very essence of her strength.

That, ultimately, is what makes her beautiful.