Kendis Playthrough

Kendis
Playthrough Info
Game Skyrim Anniversary Edition
Race Redguard
Playthrough Dates 12/07/2022-9/1/2023
Platform Nintendo Switch
Language English
Difficulty Adept (partially with Survival Mode)

This is the page for my eighth Skyrim playthrough, for the Redguard character Kendis.

I began this playthrough on 12/7/2022 on my Nintendo Switch, and finally ended it on 9/1/2023. And while the Anniversary Edition on the Switch came out at the tail end of Faanshi’s playthrough, this was my first official full playthrough with the AE on this platform.

This was also my first official attempt at running Survival Mode. But it was only a partial attempt, because I bailed on running Survival Mode partway through. (See reasons why written up in Bailing on Survival Mode in Kendis’ playthrough.)

I ran Kendis on the default Adept Difficulty, just because at the start of her run, I expected Survival Mode to make things difficult enough for me without running the Difficulty level up higher than normal.

Kendis is named for Kendis Thompson, the heroine of my Free Court of Seattle books, Faerie Blood and Bone Walker. And by rights, given that Kendis is half-Sidhe, her Skyrim counterpart really ought to be half-Altmer and half-Redguard, but the default character creation UI doesn’t let me do that. 😀 So I’ve set Skyrim!Kendis up as a Redguard!

Kendis’ Backstory

Even though this version of Kendis can’t technically be half-Altmer, I will take the liberty of assuming that Kendis does have some elf blood a few generations back in her family line. Not enough that she has any obviously elven features–but enough to bump up her magical affinity, for the inevitable point where she’ll join the College of Winterhold.

Redguard society, according to the Redguard lore page on the wiki, generally disdains magic. And from what I see about the town of Elinhir, that place in particular has reason to be distrustful of magic in the Fourth Era. So I think Kendis is from Elinhir–and grew up in a family explicitly distrustful of magic.

But when she discovered she had the ability to do certain things–throw fire with her hands, and command small wounds to heal themselves–she realized she’d have to go somewhere else if she wanted to learn more. She learned from a trader about a certain college in Skyrim that teaches magic, and so she went over the border between Hammerfell and Skyrim, hoping to find work that’d get her passage to find that college.

Unfortunately for Kendis, she came over the border right into the path of an Imperial patrol….

Playthrough Posts

Here are all the posts about Kendis’ playthrough! These are dynamically updated, so a new post should appear here when it goes up. They’re listed in descending date order, so the newest posts should always appear first. Also, note the pagination controls after the first five posts. You can page through to see the older ones.

  • Solstheim is broken in Anniversary Edition on Nintendo Switch - 08/24/2023
    In my playthrough of Kendis, where I'm running the Anniversary Edition on my Nintendo Switch, I discovered that some parts of the content on Solstheim are actively broken: you can't get Severin Manor, and you can't run the quest involving Thirsk Mead Hall. Includes some thoughts on workarounds if you're feeling patient enough to try Solstheim even given these problems.
  • In Which Kendis Heads to Solstheim - 08/21/2023
    In which Kendis helps Viriya build a market stall in Riften; finds good homes for her Elder Scrolls; visits Ysgramor's Tomb to cleanse herself of lycanthropy; journeys to Solstheim to investigate the mysterious Miraak sending cultists after her; and begins work on cleansing the All-Maker Stones of their tainted hold on the people of the island.
  • In Which Kendis Becomes Thane of the Reach and Does a Lot of Fishing - 08/14/2023
    In which Kendis becomes thane of the Reach, acquiring Argis as housecarl, and Vlindrel Hall as her local home; fights Forsworn at Deepwood Redoubt and Dead Crone Rock; quests into Volskygge for a Word of Power; is proclaimed the Fisher Queen in a bardic composition; and fights a giant spirit crab in Dawnstar.
  • In Which Kendis Becomes Thane of Haafingar and Fights the Mythic Dawn - 08/04/2023
    In which Kendis finds a Word of Power in Sunderstone Gorge; defeats the ghost of Potema in Solitude; gets the Wabbajack from Sheogorath; triggers an Oblivion gate while fighting Mythic Dawn cultists; saves Malborn from an assassin; finds a lost sword for a ghost; and does a whole lot of fishing.
  • In Which Kendis Goes Fishing and Forges an Aetherium Crown - 07/21/2023
    In which Kendis fights frenzied mudcrabs in Dawnstar; brings a little girl another goldfish to keep the first one company; slays a couple of dragons; and finds the lost Aetherium forge with the ghost of the adventurer Katria.

Screenshots

Kendis’ screenshot galleries can be found on the Kendis Screenshots page.