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 Saves Dawnstar from Nightmares - 02/26/2022In which Ysani journeys from the Shrine of Azura to Dawnstar; in which she saves the people of Dawnstar from a Daedric curse of nightmares; and in which she begins to help the people with other needs so that she can gain the thaneship of the Pale.
- In Which Ysani Adopts a Child and Acquires Azura’s Star - 02/25/2022In which Ysani adopts young Lucia in Whiterun; in which she slays the dragon priest Vokun at Valthume; and in which she becomes the champion of Azura and restores Azura's Star.
- In Which Ysani Restores the Gildergreen and Adopts a Dog - 02/25/2022In which Ysani helps Anska recover a scroll, and slays a dragon priest; in which she slays multiple dragons; in which she restores the Gildergreen in Whiterun; and in which she adopts a dog.
- In Which Ysani Forges the Aetherial Crown, and Becomes Thane of Hjaalmarch - 02/23/2022In which Ysani acquires the final aetherium shard, and takes it to the Aetherium Forge to create the Aetherial Crown; in which she does a job for Olfrid Battle-Born and gains him as an ally to the Thieves Guild; and in which she saves Morthal from vampires and becomes thane of Hjaalmarch.
- In Which Ysani Returns the Skeleton Key - 02/21/2022In which Ysani returns the Skeleton Key to the Twilight Sepulcher, and reopens the Ebonmere of Nocturnal; in which she pays a surreptitious and profitable call upon House Gray-Mane, once again; and in which she ventures into Raldbthar in search of the final aetherium shard.