Clavicus Vile lore questions

[raptor4d4]

As I develop new characters, new backstories come with them.  Always trying to come up with unique twists.  Thought of one for a new character involve Clavicus Vile but I want to get a better understanding of the lore with this guy to see if it’s feasible.  Though I often take some liberties with the lore I try to stay faithful when I can. 

Many years ago a warrior from a foreign land ended up in Skyrim and had trouble returning home.  He found Vile’s shrine and made a bargain with him, perhaps receiving an item to help aid the warrior in his return trip.  The only price Vile requested would be for the warrior to one day return and give the item back. 

The warrior does return home but never honors his end of the bargain to eventually return and give it back.  He dies and that responsibility falls to his child or grandchild which is my newest character.  The family has suddenly been hit with a strain of bad luck and my character concludes that it is Vile punishing them for the broken promise.  They journey to Skyrim and visit the shrine.  Once there one of the following things happens. 

-My character discovers the reason why their ancestor was so hesitant to return the item.  The price for Vile’s help would be for the warrior to be forever trapped in Skyrim upon their return.  My character wasn’t the one who struck the original bargain but now they are doomed never to see home again. 

-My character returns the item but something is wrong with it.  Perhaps it is a forgery or it was damaged in some way that displeases Vile.  Either way, as punishment he traps my character in Skyrim. 

-My character returns the artifact but finds that Vile completely forgot about the bargain.  That bad luck that struck the family had nothing to do with Vile.  But now that he has been reminded of the bargain, Vile is displeased that it took so long for it to be honored and traps my character in Skyrim forever as punishment. 

Is Clavicus Vile the type to do stuff like this?  If so, which one sounds more likely? 

 

[Saraniamic]

Now, see... your story is not very lore friendly as is. Clavicus Vile is the daedric prince of trickery. What that means is he fucks over everyone he makes deals with, so he wouldn't "just" give the weapon to your character. He would give the weapon and ask nothing in return but after some time the weapon would curse your character, maybe drive them mad or something similar. Or Vile would give you a thing, claiming it's a legendary artifact used for this and by this legendary figure, only for it to either not work and result in your death or it will work but would start a sequence of events which would tear your character into small piece.

TL;DR - If Vile does something for you, expect a backlash. Even in the game if you choose to keep the axe Vile gives the player, it is the slowest axe in the game and doesn't do a whole lot of damage, effective fucking the player over.

[FauxFurry]

Clavicus Vile might be more likely to convince someone to kill their own family in return for a fitting reward. Said fitting reward would be betrayal, a reward fit for a traitor to one's own kin.

[Ernest Lemmingway]

8 hours ago, Saraniamic said:

Even in the game if you choose to keep the axe Vile gives the player, it is the slowest axe in the game and doesn't do a whole lot of damage, effective fucking the player over.

Vile didn't do that, Bugthesda did. All the Daedric artifact weapons are inferior to mundane weapons in terms of speed and damage. The Rueful Axe in particular is bugged so it doesn't benefit from the Daedric Smithing perk unless you use USKP or USLEEP.

[mercplatypus]

Vile does not make any pacts where the item in question is required to be returned.  Instead he prefers to take back the artifacts that he has given after the bearers have become incredibly reliant on them.  This can be seen with the quill Feyfolken and the first time the Masque of Clavicus Vile were gifted to mortals, one to a writer and the other to a disfigured noblewoman.

 

Instead of the hero looking to return the artifact to Vile it would be more fitting if the hero's father had developed some form of legendary reputation with the artifact.  On one of your fathers adventures when he needed the artifact the most Vile reclaimed it dooming your father to die.  Our hero, unaware of the nature of the artifact, sets off to find the artifact in the same way Amren sends you to find his father's sword.  The hero becomes trapped in skyrim when Vile learns what the hero is really after.

 

And to note something some one wrote earlier about the Rueful Axe being bugged I don't think it actually is.  All deals with Vile eventually screw the petitioner in the end.  By making the deal with Vile and killing Barbas you receive the much lesser reward of a shitty axe that you assumed would be amazing.  Declining the deal with Vile and sticking with Barbas gets you a much better reward which is usally the best way forward.

[landess]

The graphics of that axe made it worth downloading a mod to bring it in-line with other artifacts.

 

Clavicus Vile is obviously a prick so dealing with Daedra for the most part proves the apparent distrust most mortals have for them.

 

Sometimes you have to wonder if the inspiration for a lot of Elder Scrolls mythology is based on real life experiences of the creators.

[raptor4d4]

Since it took so long to get feedback here I sought elsewhere for thoughts and opinions.  With help I've crafted the story below for my new character.  I've created a whole set of new OCs and this backstory is going to feature appearances of two of them.  One of them is my main OC Arlene Fei.  In my new backstory for her she's a powerful woman corrupted by dark powers, helping her discover the deep lust in her heart.  She's able to use her magic to influence the hearts and minds of everyone in Skyrim, sowing the seeds of lust in everyone and helping them bloom (justifying the skimpy outfits everyone will wear in my Skyrim).  The other is a new OC named Mercy, a werewolf girl who spends much of her time in the wilderness but developed a strange friendship with Arlene. 

 

Here is the backstory of Ye-Xiang, the OC I was seeking feedback for here.

 

Ye-Xiang, an honorable warrior woman from a distant land, has come to Skyrim.  It is not pleasure that brings this foreign flower to Skyrim’s shores but purpose.  She is here to life a curse placed upon her family, one brought on them by her late father. 

 

Ye-Xiang’s Homeland is far enough away that communication between them and the nations of Tamriel are few and far between.  Ships must make a long and arduous journey so diplomatic missions are scarce and few merchants want to brave the trip.  Over the past 40 years only one group of merchants dared to come to Tamriel to trade silks and ores with the Empire and its provinces.  Sadly their arrival was at the height of the Great War with the Aldmeri Dominion.  Caught in the crossfire between the Empire and the Thalmor, all but one merchant ended up dead as the Thalmor burned villages and killed civilians.  This merchant, Ye-Xiang’s father, fled into the wilderness all the way to Skyrim, eventually seeking shelter in cave along its southern borders.  It is in this cave that the merchant’s life changed forever. 

 

This cave housed a shrine to Clavicus Vile.  This Daedric Lord has been known to make deals with mortals, offering them their heart’s desire but always at some steep cost.  But the merchant was desperate.  He needed to get to the coast so he could find a ship and return to the arms of his beautiful wife.  With the Thalmor spread all over and fighting at every corner of Tamriel it seemed impossible for the merchant to make it there alive.  Not without help.  Not caring what the cost might be the merchant pleaded with Clavicus Vile for his aid in returning home.  Surprisingly Vile refused his requests at first, offering up a number of excuses not to aid the merchant.  But the merchant was adamant until finally the Daedric Lord acquiesced…

 

There was a bright light that illuminated the cave and when it faded the merchant found at his feet a sword designed in the style of his Homeland.  Vile explained that this blade possessed a terrible power and would imbue its wielder with great strength and terrible ferocity.  With it in hand the merchant would have no trouble fighting his way home.  Vile’s promise held true.  For a time wild stories circulated among both the Empire and the Thalmor of a wild, savage warrior or even a demon who cut a bloody path across Tamriel to the coast, slaughtering Imperial and Thalmor alike.  No one could ever confirm who this mystery man was so the stories eventually faded into obscurity. 

 

The merchant eventually returned home to his wife but was not the same man who left.  Still in possession of Vile’s sword and drunk on the power it gave him, the former merchant abandoned his way of life and dedicated himself to perfecting his sword technique.  When conflict came to the Homeland all sides involved fought to win the favor and support of the Butcher as he came to be called.  His daughter was not born until after his return from Tamriel and Ye-Xiang could not recall a time when her father didn’t smell of blood. 

 

Ye-Xiang followed in her father’s footsteps to a limited degree.  She took to his sword lessons and became just as skilled as him, if not more so.  But thanks to her mother’s influence, she did not become the monster he became.  Ye-Xiang developed a strong sense of honor and moral compass, becoming what she believes her father should have been if not for Vile’s corrupting influence.  Yes, she blamed Clavicus Vile for never being able to know her father as the good man her mother told her stories about.  Vile’s deal may have brought her father home and allowed her to be born but it came at the cost of corrupting her father and showering her family with all the hardships that resulted from it. 

 

Even old age did not deter the Butcher’s bloodlust.  His reign of terror didn’t end until Xe-Xiang decided to act.  Determined to save his soul, Xe-Xiang stole his sword and hid it in the hopes that it would help return him to the man he was.  The theft only made him more vicious so Ye-Xiang resorted to more desperate measures.  She fled to Skyrim, determined to return the sword to Vile and beg him to remove his corruption from her father. 

 

The timing of her arrival in Skyrim was…odd.  She crossed its borders some months after Arlene Fei worked her magic on the nation’s people.  Coming from a fairly conservative people, suddenly being around so much nudity and sex was a much greater culture shock than she expected.  Needless to say she swiftly began to hate Skyrim and its vulgar people.  Her hatred grew as she felt the strange magic corrupting it beginning to influence her as well!  But Ye-Xiang was a very strong-willed woman and not easily corrupted.  She struggled to find the cave with Vile’s shrine but no one in the cities or villages she visited had a clue where it was.  Eventually she found a guide but in the most unexpected place. 

 

While lost in the wilderness, Ye-Xiang encountered Mercy.  This half-naked forest girl repulses Xe-Xiang but the strange foreigner intrigued Mercy, so much so that she offered to help her.  She didn’t know where Vile’s shrine was but guided her to someone who would.  That someone was Arlene Fei herself.  At first Arlene seemed no different than any other horny idiot in Skyrim but within a few minutes of talking to her Ye-Xiang realized she was dealing with a formidable and cunning woman.  Arlene tried to barter Vile’s location in exchange for sex but Ye-Xiang would not let herself be corrupted.  She put her sword, Vile’s sword, to Arlene’s throat and threatened to kill her if she didn’t take her to the Shrine.  Normally Arlene doesn’t respond to threats but this time she did, taking Ye-Xiang and Mercy directly to the cave. 

 

Finally at her destination, Ye-Xiang dropped to her knees and offered Vile his sword, pleading with him to take it back and cure her father of the evil that infected him by it.  She honestly didn’t know what to expect from Vile when he spoke to her but when he finally did, his answer threw her for a loop.  As it turned out, there was no corruption.  No curse.  There wasn’t even a magic sword.  At least not in the sense that everyone thought.  Ye-Xiang’s father found Vile shortly after Barbas left the Daedric Prince following an argument.  Without Barbas around the Daedra’s power was extremely limited.  The reason he tried to refuse the man’s requests at first was because he honestly didn’t have the power to aid him in the way he wanted, his power limited mostly to this cave.  He didn’t want to openly admit this so to save face he conjured a random, ordinary sword and passed it off as a magic blade.  The only thing corrupting Ye-Xiang’s father was the evil that already existed in his heart, untapped until he got a taste of what he thought was real power.  Vile did nothing other than give the man the push he needed to discover who he really was inside. 

 

Vile was very amused by Xe-Xiang’s story and her reaction to the truth.  Reveling in the suffering of others, Vile got an idea for even more fun.  Realizing how ferocious her father was, and suspecting that Ye-Xiang shared her father’s talents, the Daedric Prince used what power he had to place a curse on the swordswoman.  Still greatly weakened and not wanting Barbas back, Clavicus Vile needed an agent to carry out his will in Skyrim and Ye-Xiang was the perfect candidate.  His curse bound Ye-Xiang to Skyrim and barred her from crossing its borders.  Her father wanted Vile’s power to return home so he used it on his daughter to ensure that she couldn’t return home.  If Ye-Xiang ever wanted to leave it would only be after she fulfilled every task he put to her.  Tasks that involved murder and causing chaos. 

 

Ye-Xiang left home to save her father only to discover there was no saving him.  What’s worse, she was stuck with a terrible choice.  She could abide by Vile’s will and become a monster to return home just as her father did…or remain trapped in Skyrim forever.  All her attempts to escape this fate ended in failure.  An invisible barrier blocked her at the border and Vile’s magic kept her from committing suicide.  To make matter’s worse, she could no longer escape Arlene’s lustful magic!  So exhausted by her escape attempts Ye-Xiang eventually caved and became the plaything of Arlene and Mercy for the night. 

 

Arlene suspected that Vile was up to some trickery with Ye-Xiang and her father.  When Ye-Xiang pressed the supposedly cursed blade to her throat she didn’t feel an ounce of Daedric magic emanating from it.  Intrigued, she kept quiet and offered to show Ye-Xiang the way to see how it would play out.  Pitying the poor woman and anxious to have a new plaything Arlene offered to help Ye-Xiang get settled into Skyrim while she made her choice.  Ye-Xiang now dwells in a remote cabin in the wilderness, meditating and struggling with the choice in front of her.  Despising Skyrim’s people she keeps herself as cut off from them as possible.  Mercy is her most frequent visitor, finding enjoyment in teasing and fucking her new friend every chance she gets.  Though she still hates Arlene and Mercy, especially Arlene for not alerting her to the phony sword, Ye-Xiang eventually grows “tolerant” of them, accompanying them on their travels from time to time, secretly hoping that she’ll find some other way to break this curse…