Ysani Demers Playthrough
| Ysani Demers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Playthrough Info | |
| Game | Skyrim Special Edition |
| Race | Breton |
| Playthrough Dates | January to May 2022 |
| Platform/td> | Nintendo Switch |
| Language | French |
| Difficulty | Expert |
This is the page for my fourth Skyrim playthrough, for the character Ysani Demers, Breton mage.
I began this playthrough immediately concluding the one for Delga, on 1/25/2022, with the following goals:
- Play the game in French to practice my skill with that language and also just to see what the translated experience is like!
- Revisit the Thieves Guild because I had huge fun with that as Merawen
- Even more emphasis on magic this time through
- And back to sneaking and archery!
In terms of character concept, Ysani is the diametric opposite of Delga. She’s a slender little wisp of a thing, ideally suited for sneakiness. And as a Breton, she packed an excellent amount of magical firepower right out of the gate, which I have taken heavy advantage of throughout her run.
Ysani’s first name comes from the soulname of my character Wayfound, played during my years on the Elfquest themed MUSH Two Moons. Her last name comes from Olivier Demers, one of the two fiddle players in my favorite band, Le Vent du Nord–who are Quebecois! I figured that since Bretons are heavily French-like in Skyrim, a French surname would be very appropriate for her.
Ysani’s Backstory
Out of all my playthroughs to date, Ysani arguably has the most traumatic backstory of the lot–and that’s saying something, given Merawen’s backstory!
Ysani’s backstory starts when she is targeted by the Thalmor in High Rock–because her father, a secret Thalmor agent, decides to have her taken into custody in order to blackmail her mother into going along with Thalmor demands. Already a budding mage, Ysani eludes capture and hurries home, only to discover her parents in pitched battle with one another. As additional Thalmor soldiers close in their home, she sees her mother screaming for her to flee, just as she kills her husband.
The last Ysani sees of her mother, she’s falling in a hail of lightning from additional mages showing up on the scene.
Ysani runs like hell and finally reaches Skyrim, only to be captured by the Imperials. And cue the start of the game.
I suspect her family also had a copy of Nightingales: Fact or Fiction? in the house, which leads Ysani to choose Skyrim as her destination–in a desperate bid to find out whether the Nightingales are real, and whether she can gain the skills necessary to fight against the Thalmor by joining the Thieves Guild and pledging herself to Nocturnal.
Playthrough Posts
Here are all the posts about Ysani’s 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.
- In Which Ysani Becomes Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild - 03/03/2022In which Ysani is named Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild; in which she steals another Stone of Barenziah right out of the Jarl's quarters in Riften; and in which she is drawn into a plan to steal a horse.
- In Which Ysani Gains Windhelm for the Thieves Guild - 03/02/2022In which Ysani slays a giant for a Falkreath bounty; recovers an amulet for Kharjo the Khajiit; raids the hideout of the Summerset Shadows to recover an amulet for Torsten Cruel-Sea, and gains his assistance in opening Windhelm to the Guild; and in which she recovers a lost silver mold for Endon of Markarth.
- In Which Ysani Goes on a Thieving Spree - 03/01/2022In which Ysani engages in a little light contraband planting on behalf of one of the thanes in Solitude; and in which she engages in further thievery in Markarth.
- In Which Ysani Acquires Mehrunes’ Razor - 02/28/2022In which Ysani brings the pieces of Mehrunes' Razor to Silus, only to discover his intent all along was to ask Dagon to repair the blade; in which she is commanded by Dagon to kill Silus if she wants to claim the blade for herself; and in which Silus gives her no other choice by attacking her himself.
- In Which Ysani Becomes Thane of the Pale and Winterhold - 02/27/2022In which Ysani gains thaneships in both the Pale and Winterhold, by aiding the citizens of the Pale, and retrieving the Helm of Winterhold for Jarl Korir; and in which she does initial building at Heljarchen Hall.