Ione Aldaire

intro

## Appearance

Like many mixed children in Tamriel, Ione takes mostly after her mother. She is therefore of a much shorter stature than other Altmer, but due to her mother's especially short stature, is very short for an Imperial as well. The few physical features that denote her Altmer blood are her pointed ears and her somewhat upturned eyes. Other notable features are her plump lips. For her small frame, she is relatively curvaceous.

Her hair and eye colour are that of her mother's, with her hair being a medium brown and her eyes being blue with central heterochromia, having a brown inner ring. Ione uses various concotions and restoration magic to keep her skin nice and smooth. To keep an air of luxury, she keeps her hair long, as long hair indicates having the luxury of not having to worry about a more dangerous, rough lifestyle. When she does intend to go into battle, she braids her hair and leaves it like that or pins it up into a bun. Her left lower arm has burn scars, and her upper right thigh has a little heart-shaped mole.

## Personality

* **charismatic - adaptable - devoted - analytical**
* **free-spirited - naive - perfervid - pragmatic**
* **escapist - self-conscious - critical - indecisive**

Exuding an air of certain charm, Ione has always had a way with words, even if not consciously aware of it. Almost as if something compelled others to be drawn to her by some greater force, she's always found herself surrounded by people. Though she certainly doesn't mind the company, she can't claim to always be comfortable with it either. At times, she seems larger than life, and those around her have described her to be almost alien to this world. Regardless of her somewhat eccentric nature, she's found herself surprisingly versatile, perservering through the toughest of times. That is not to say she hasn't debated giving up, in fact, her state of mind often seems to be a battle between idealism and realism.

Ione is a steadfast follower of Julianos, this rooted in her mother's teachings. Through his teachings, she's become analytical in nature, ever attempting to reel back her emotions in favour of rational, calm thought. As such, she has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and she is always eager to learn more, thus lending an ear to those who are in need, in hopes of using compassion to understand them. The influence of her mother was great on her, as she's rather faithful in general, the thought of disloyalty making her feel sick. Should she encounter betrayal—and she has—she tends to take it rather personally, and needs some time healing from the affair.

As a free-spirited soul, Ione takes delight in doing whatever she wants to do. She tries to keep a positive outlook on life, to the point of naivety. Though she knows full well the dangers that lurk in every corner, she chooses to remain optimistic, as she believes a little kindness goes a long way. Despite the logical side of her, she can be rather impassioned when she wants to be, the fire in her heart burning bright. Her conflict between emotions and logic has led to her having a mostly pragmatic approach to things. Consider the logical, and do what's sensible.

A large part of her dreamy aura comes from her escapism. Rather than dealing with personal conflict, she is one to run, be it physically or mentally. She often finds herself dreaming away, withdrawing within her own mind to avoid the troubles ahead. She does not deal well with the difficulties of life, or the difficulties of her own mind, and despite her resilience, she always wishes for something else. For one whose daytime profession relies on flaunting herself, she is incredibly self-conscious, and despises her own looks. Though she tries not to let the world weigh her down on the outside, she often doubts herself on the inside.

Highly uncomfortable if she dwells on any aspect of herself for too long, her insecurities make way for overcritical thought. She can spend quite some time tearing herself down if left to her own devices. This critical nature manifests itself on the surface by her desire to always be improving something about herself, never quite feeling like she's enough. All in all, Ione is characterised by a lack of resolution, the many conflicting parts about her making up her a new facet of her personality. Due to her hesitant nature, she mostly likes to go with the flow.

**TLDR;** a woman who seems like she has it all on the outside, but is actually kind of a mess on the inside. At the very least, she's trying her best.

## History

### Family History

A long line of spellswords, it is unsure when exactly the Aldaires came to exist, however, journals of members of their lineage have dated as far back as the late Second Era, with some journals detailling the horror perceived at the Surrender of Alinor. From gathered information, while they've certainly always been amongst the higher ranks in the Altmer caste-system, their exact ranks have varied. Most importantly, all of them have had some sort of scholarly side to them, with Ione's grandfather and grandmother acting as priest and teacher of magic respectively. Their scholarly nature has led to them travelling through Tamriel when possible, exchanging studies and information with other scholars. Though they have disagreed with the Thalmor, they've hid their contempt for the sake of continuing their research, having seen what open resistance can do to a person.

During The Great Anguish, members of the family had aided the refugees in the Crystal Tower. Ione's grandparents, feeling that something was amiss, evacuated several refugees elsewhere, barely escaping the slaughter that came upon the tower's downfall at the hands of the Daedra. Though not particularly proud of this, they continued to fight throughout the Oblivion crisis. After it came to an end, the two conceived three children, raising them with much of the same values.

The children, Sauthir, Arethel and Indrwen, all had different paths. Sauthir, having become an architect fascinated with the architecture of other cultures, had married an Imperial named Nereida, who came from a family of merchants. The two had their first child, Ione. A year after, Arethel had also married and conceived a child. The Great War started not soon after that, and Sauthir and Arethel initially refused to partake in the Great War, Arethel claiming he had more important functions to fulfill in the Isles that would ultimately benefit the Dominion more than it would having him at the front line. They were eventually pressured into joining the ranks of their respective side, though Sauthir and Arethel remained firm in their position of being predominantly of the healing type. Arethel partook in the Battle of the Red Ring, in which he was killed alongside his wife. Meanwhile, Indrwen had fought a hard battle stationed elsewhere.

### Ione's History

Ione was born on the 25th of Sun's Dawn, in the Imperial City. Her mother Nereida being a major Julianos worshipper, she insisted on bringing the newborn to the Great Chapel of Julianos in Skingrad to ask for his guidance. Born in 4E 168, Ione was only 3 years old when the Great War started. As her father was gone during those years, she was raised by her mother and her family, who had fled the Imperial City for Bruma when the war began.

During those forlorn years, Ione's mother influenced her greatly, always instilling in her the belief to trust in Julianos, for justice would come to pass eventually. Her mother gave her her amulet of Julianos, and told her to pray to it whenever she felt sad. Meanwhile, her mother did the best she could in those circumstances to both educate Ione, and to train her in the restoration magic she knew. Her mother taught her songs to liven up their spirits, and together they would often dance and sing.

Though their family was rich, the war made it difficult to get everything needed, especially with so many mouths to feed. As a result, Ione often received inadequate nutrients, stunting her growth. Ione still vaguely remembers those years, and will thus always be grateful for whatever food is on her plate, even if she doesn't like it. After the war, the family returned to the Imperial City to reclaim and rebuild their home. Sauthir, who had survived the war, together with Nereida and her family, helped rebuild the war-torn city. They eventually had another child in 4E 176, who they named Soroimir.

The rest of her upbringing was fairly luxurious, her family's status ensuring she was well-educated. Personal tutors came to teach her and her brother about the use of magic, and they got training in the art of the blade, much to Sauthir's initial discomfort. As she entered her teens, Ione was guided towards becoming a professional healer, finding great talent in restoration and the making of benign potions. As she kept practising these things, she found herself getting increasingly dissatisfied with her comfortable life. Though she knew it would make her ungrateful, she couldn't help but feel that this wasn't what she wanted to do, and that there was more out there. She knew that staying would make her unhappy, and she didn't want to be a burden on her family either. Conflicted over what to do, when she was 19, she climbed out of a window at night with a minimum amount of assets, and fled north once more.

While travelling, she took up all sorts of odd jobs to get by. Being trained as a healer, she eventually got healing jobs, and was quite good at it with her natural knack for restoration magic. She ended up getting hired to be present in skirmishes and whatnot, and the danger that came with it had her focus on destruction magic. She went about things a little too enthusiastically, though, and ended up with a burn mark on her arm. She was incapable of healing it up due to the foreign sensation of extreme pain interfering with her control. While she could possibly heal it now, she finds it to be a somehwat necessary reminder of her inexperience and carelessness at the time.

Initially, she used singing and dancing in a way similar to that of her mother's years before, to liven up the spirits of those around her. From there, she started performing in taverns, earning her money from tips, and eventually finding herself in Skyrim. Ione became a songstress known even to nobles, and she started performing in more formal settings. Having made a considerable amount of coin, she was able to live comfortably once more.

Again, though, this comfortable lifestyle felt dull. Though she loved performing, she secretly missed the danger and excitement that her travels had brought with them. To compensate, Ione started secretly doing mercenary work, with the help of some friends she'd met on her travels. One of her friends, an innkeeper, gathered the information and potential clients, helping her seek out jobs to do.

Currently, Ione lives somewhat of a secret double life, masking herself when she does mercenary work so that people hopefully don't recognise her, as she is afraid of it interfering with her job as songstress. When on mercenary duty, she tries to limit her magic use so that she may become better at fighting with swords. As her story goes on, her friend Sefa ends up crafting a special set of armour for her, and so she adopts her spellsword outfit.

## Skills

* **Class**: spellsword (of some kind)
* **Weapons**: conjured bound swords, magic
* **Armour/accessories:**
* **Power/abilities:**

Ione has a great acceleration rate, this paired with her quick-thinking ability ensuring that she can always act when she needs to. She has surprising jumping power, and is very agile. Due to her small frame, she can easily make her way through smaller passages. Her size and general lack of muscle also make her much less powerful than most, making her easily overpowered when it comes to fist fights. When it comes to weapon-based combat, her damage output isn't that good, but she's a fast hitter.

She switches between using conjured blades and using destruction or restoration magic in a fight. Her preference when it comes to destruction magic is ice-based spells, and she will not use any other elemental magic unless in a pinch.

## Trivia

* **Likes:** complex desserts, bright things, punctuality, spicy and sweet foods, bodies of water, stargazing, simply wandering
* **Dislikes:** her face, bitter and sour foods, being stared at up close, loneliness, overly flashy things, drinking
* **Addictions:**
* **Allergies:**
* **Ailments:**
* **Speciality:**
* **Motto:**
* **ENFJ**; the protagonist
* Used to own a husky named Brutus back at home. He was one of the reasons she stayed longer than she'd intended.
* Plays the lute.
* Incredibly flexible, can bend almost any way.
* Grabs at her neck when distressed.
* Her hair is actually naturally more straight than it usually looks. The many braids, buns and whatnot that adorn her hair, especially after her hair has gotten wet, contributes to the more wavy look.
* Clothes give her more bulk than she truly has.
* An extreme lightweight.
* For the sake of alchemy, she puts a lot of strange things in her mouth. It's for science, really!
* Speaking of putting weird things in one's mouth, Ione consumes increasing dosages of poison in hopes of creating some sort of resistance. In case of emergency, she always has an antidote nearby.