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About this blog

Torn from Earth and brought to a bizarre land filled with swords, magic, dragons, and over-zealous slavers, Sian Elizabeth Fraser faces a destiny she could only have imagined in her deepest, darkest fever dreams.

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Sian's Story

Sian's Story part 1 - This Party Sucks

Greetings. No one from my old life would believe the things written in this journal, but that’s quite beside the point, seeing as how none of them will ever read it. I don’t even know why I’m writing it, save to remind myself from time to time that I was once someone else, and that my former life was not a dream.   My name is Sian Elizabeth Fraser. I was a pharmacy student at the Ohio State University, once upon a time, and once upon a different world. It was the end of the summer seme
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Sian's Story part 3 - We're On the Road to Windhelm

My first car was a 2003 Honda Accord. It was about as basic a car as you could find - the most advanced technology it had was power windows. Its one nod to luxury was a sunroof that I almost never opened because it was too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. It did make the car feel more spacious inside than it really was, though.   I bring this up because nothing makes one appreciate modern technology more than the absence of it. The distance from Shor’s Stone to Windhelm is
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Sian's Story part 24 - An Empty Vessel

The previous owner of this vessel kept a journal. Amusing. Looking through the entries, I see that she was easily abused and quick to capitulate. I apologize to you, vessel. I wish we had come together sooner - I could have saved you from much pain.    Ah, well, what is past is passed. Your former occupant screams from your depths, but she remains weak and pitiful, easily overcome. We shall make this world tremble, vessel.   Allow me, dear hypothetical reader, to favour you w
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Sian's story part 18 - The Seven Thousand Step Plan

I know that I am the Dragonborn, slayer of dragons, devour-er of their souls. But after a dragon saved me from slavery for the second time, I was beginning to feel downright grateful to them. Given the choice, I might have been tempted to take the dragons' side.   Jordy kept me as his house pet (although I've never thought of using a cat in the ways he used me) for a few weeks, then sold me to a customer in exchange for a lode of ebony (which, in fairness, I would have been tempted to
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Sian's Story

Sian's Story part 10 - Fourteen Days

What happens next is pretty well known by now. Hell, you've probably heard it so much that you feel like you have done the exact same thing yourself several times. So I won't bore you with the details – I’ll just highlight a few things since rumor has already begun to fester into fact. Also, I’d like to remind you that all of this happened in a mere fourteen days. My entire life changed in just two weeks. A fucking fortnight, if you prefer.   Helgen   I got to Helgen about fi
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Sian's story part 11 - Let's Talk About Slavery, Shall We?

Slaves are a common sight around Skyrim. Almost always completely naked, save for various implements of duress and the ubiquitous collars, you can find them everywhere, in every town, city, inn, farm, camp...slavery is so prevalent that even questioning someone about it brings about confused looks. I bring this up because we’re about to the point of my first year of enslavement. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on it – the painful parts are too painful and the other parts are just a lot of wa
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Sian's Story part 12 - A Lost Year

I spent roughly a year as Oron Piour's personal slave. He was some sort of Imperial army courier superintendent. His job was to make sure the courier lines in the southern holds of Skyrim remained working, to replace couriers that had been killed, to kill those that had tried to go AWOL, and just to keep everything running smoothly. My job was to carry stuff, set up and tear down his camp, and get fucked whenever he felt the need. If we came across Imperial encampments and spent the night there,
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Sian's Story part 20 - The Law of Irony Can Go Fuck Itself

I should have just walked away. I would have saved myself sooo much trouble. The worst part is that I was only a few steps from the gate leading out of Markarth when it happened. But one thing I always lacked was money, so the opportunity to get what seemed like an easy payment was something I felt I couldn't pass up.   Good ol' hindsight.   I witnessed a murder. It was broad daylight, the marketplace by the front gates was teeming with people, and some idiot just yanked out
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Sian's story part 2 - You Don't Have to Axe Me Twice

I’ve learned some important lessons in my life. One of those lessons is this: pumps, no matter their designer, are among the worst choices you can make for running from homicidal maniacs through woods.   I mean, granted, that probably seems obvious. Having had occasion to attempt such a feat, though, I can confirm the theory true.   Here’s what happened: I left the cave and found myself on a the side of a rocky hill looking over a rugged valley. It was quite beautiful. A path
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Sian's Story part 14 - Enter the Daedra

When I woke up, my arms and legs were bound together behind me and a log gag was pressed between my teeth. I felt a thrill of contradicting emotions.   The first was fear. I hadn't tasted the whip in months. I was not looking forward to its sting.   The second, and stronger, was shame; clearly I had done something very wrong. It had been a very long time since my master had bound me so restrictively. I must have overslept! My poor master! No wonder he was punishing me! I dese
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Sian's Story part 48 - The Plan Redux, Mark IV, 9.0

As we pulled our clothes back on…well, while Kellan pulled his clothes back on and I got back into what passed for clothes for me, I tried to think about what to do next. Kellan apparently had the same thought, because once he finished tightening his belt, he picked up the dragonstone and peered at it.   “Now that we have this rock – I’ll take your word for it that these strange etchings make some sort of map – what do we do with it?”   “That’s a good question. Last time, I w
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Sian's Story part 33 - Just When I Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse

Think about my story so far and what that says about Skyrim, then translate that into a picture of what prison would look like. If you pictured rape, torture, and copious amounts of public humiliation, you would be mostly right. But then you have to add in cramped, dirty cells, moldy bread, brackish wine, and chilly temperatures, since the prisons are underground and the prisoners don't get a scrap of clothes to wear.   A typical day in the Falkreath jail went like this: if I managed t
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Sian's Story part 44 - Blissfully Innocent

Nilheim is one of many abandoned military watchtowers that are sprinkled throughout Skyrim. It sits on an outcropping at a high point of the plateau that encompasses the Rift. From the top, you can see all the way past the salt flats we had mistakenly crossed to the outcropping of the Velothi Mountains behind which Windhelm hides. If you look the opposite direction, you will see a lake with a large island; Ivarstead sits on the far shore at the base of the giant mountain known only as The Throat
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1365 - Out of Time and Place (Sian’s story)

The pickaxe digs into the crevice. With a practiced twist, I remove the axe while widening the hole. After two more strikes, a chunk of ore two handspans long tumbles to the ground at my feet. I absently push it to one side with my foot, already locking my eyes on the next spot.   Just as I start the downswing, the horn blares. I drop the pickaxe and bend to gather my ore. It makes a knee high stack - master will be pleased. He moves along the line now, stopping at each worker, countin
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Sian's Story part 32 - Society's Debt

I'll ask you to take a moment and think back.   Long ago (feels like at least one lifetime), after I first visited the Greybeards and slid down the mountain while being pursued by what felt like the entirety of the wildlife of Skyrim, I landed smack dab in the middle of a Stormcloak camp. They treated me well, gave me food, let me sleep in an extra tent, gave me directions.   But I was in a hurry to get to Markarth (if only I had known!), looking to gather the power I felt I
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Sian's Story part 13 - Emptiness is an Emotion

What happened next was completely my fault. I should have known he would be in a bad mood because he always was when he met with one of the commanders. I waited until he had had a few drinks - my second mistake - before I told him. He went apoplectic and gave me the worst beating I have ever had. I tried to cower, but he yanked on my chain to drag me up to meet his fists over and over. I spent the night huddled in my own blood and had difficulty even standing the next morning. But I had to stand
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Sian's Story part 27 - A Miner Dilemma

It will occur to the observant reader that the story I'm about to tell you is familiar.   The basics: I was given a job in Markarth involving a simple investigation that turned into something crazy and dangerous. Have I mentioned that I hate Markarth?   The Sybil is the leader of the Dibella...cult, religion, whatever. She (always a she) is kind of like the Dali Lama - when the old one dies, a new one is "found" somewhere out in the world. It's usually a little girl who is ta
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Sian's story part 4 - Pare for the Course

I can't say I'm fond of Pare.  But that's not really news - very very few people are. My first impressions of him have only grown more pronounced the few times I have seen him since that first visit to Windhelm.   He wasn’t hard to find. Candlehearth Hall’s common room is on the second floor and full of people, but one single inquiry gave me rolled eyes and a finger pointed directly at a sallow-skinned elf (I didn’t know he was an elf – or that elves even existed – at that point, but I
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Sian's Story part 49 - The Best Offense is a Good Defender

It was, as I had said, a terrible plan but, in fairness, it kind of worked. The specific part that worked was that the dragon made a beeline straight for me as I shouted and waved my arms. I don’t know if it was because I was shouting the two dragon words I had learned last time (although, of course, there was no power behind them) or just because it was attracted to the clearly insane, but come it did. I waited until it had opened its mouth and its ice began to spew before I turned and ran back
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Sian's Story part 22 - Lesson (Not) Learned

My mother always said I was obstinate. "Stubborn as the day is long," she would say, which is a simile that has never made much sense to me. The length of a day is quantifiable - twenty-four hours. Stubbornness is not. There is not, as far as I can tell, a way to compare the two things in any meaningful way.   Anyway, I digress.   I had what few possessions I could call my own back. I was free from the pit of hell, against all (officially reported) odds. The Plan, Mark Two (w
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Sian's story part 9 - Behold the Fucking Dragonborn

I have no idea how long I was unconscious. I woke in a soft bed. My body ached, I felt dehydrated, and nothing looked familiar. For a brief moment I thought I was back in my dorm room, and my friends had pulled some sort of elaborate joke. But after sitting up - easier said than done, that day - I realized I was still in Skyrim. I was dressed in soft robes. The leather armor was gone but I saw, hanging over a chair beside the bed, a different outfit altogether, made of fur and metal. Fur boots s
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Sian's Story part 15 - Free At Last! Sort Of...

I spent some time with the Julian monks that rescued me but left as soon as I felt able since they clearly felt uncomfortable having a woman in their midst. It had been a few weeks since the death of my former master, and I still harbored mixed feelings about the entire affair. It was like when I took a trip to Paraguay before my junior year of college - after three months, coming home to "normal" was almost as big of a culture shock as when I had arrived in Asunción. Likewise, having freedom to
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Sian's story part 8 - Innocence, You're Alone Here

It took another day and a half to reach Riverwood, though this time it was through civilized lands – a wide, packed road surrounded by farms and pastures, with plenty of traffic protected by gobs of guards and soldiers. I passed a large walled city (Whiterun, I was told, though the person who told me seemed incredulous that I wouldn’t know that already) and then came to a crossroads. I asked the guard stationed there which path to take to Riverwood. He pointed but added, "But you don't want to g
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1365 - Out of Time and Place (Sian’s story)

The pickaxe digs into the crevice, then sticks. I curse under my breath as I struggle to yank it back out. Finally it comes free, along with a tiny sliver of what looks like possibly useable ore. I pick it up and examine it, then set it on the meager pile I have managed to accumulate while trying to ignore the larger piles of those around me.   I sigh and begin the process again, but then the horn sounds. I drop the pickaxe and bend to gather my ore. It does not take long. The mine sup
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Sian's Story part 17 - A Fistful of Straw

The shop was soon full of my creations, and I felt like a proud mamma as people perused my wares. I felt a thrill the first time one of my weapons sold. It was a pretty dagger (if I do say so myself). I had used it to experiment with etching the metal, so the blade was covered with random designs. The customer was a woman who saw it in the display case and thought it would be a wonderful gift for her eight-year-old daughter.   Well, of course. What eight-year-old doesn't need a needle-
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