Ysani Demers Playthrough

Ysani Demers

Playthrough Info
Game	Skyrim Special Edition
Race	Breton
Playthrough Dates	January to May 2022
Platform	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 Works Her Way Towards Markarth - 02/15/2022
In which Ysani returns the Lexicon to Avanchnzel to fulfill a desperate plea; in which she vanquishes Alik'r warriors searching for a fugitive; and in which she reforges Gauldur's amulet and lays Gauldur and his treacherous sons to their final rest.
In Which Ysani Discovers the Guildmaster’s Treachery - 02/14/2022
In which Ysani is nearly killed by Mercer Frey at Snow Veil Sanctum, and learns from Karliah that he is the true source of the Thieves Guild's misfortunes; in which she learns from Enthir where to translate Gallus' coded journal; and in which she is attacked by thugs at the College of Winterhold.
In Which Ysani Does Assorted Side Quests - 02/13/2022
In which Ysani acquires the final fragment of the Gauldur amulet; in which she also acquires the White Phial, but finds that it is cracked; and in which she slays a dragon at Northwind Summit to satisfy a bounty in Riften.
In Which Ysani Sabotages a Mead Tasting and Commits Thievery in Solitude - 02/12/2022
In which Ysani commits an act of sabotage so that Maven Black-Briar can take over the Honningbrew Meadery; and in which she goes to Solitude to wrangle further information out of an Argonian about the mysterious person targeting the Guild.
In Which Ysani Quests through Folgunthur and Speaks to Maven About a Job - 02/11/2022
In which Ysani accepts Lydia's offer to be steward at Lakeview Manor; in which they quest into Folgunthur to find a piece of a lost amulet; in which they slay a dragon; and in which Ysani meets with Maven Black-Briar to accept a special job.

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Screenshots

Ysani’s screenshot galleries can be found on the Ysani Demers Screenshots page.