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 is Recognized as the Dragonborn - 02/05/2022
In which Ysani learns from the Augur of Dunlain that she must seek the Staff of Magnus; in which she fights the dragon at Bonestrewn Crest; in which she learns who took the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, and slays the dragon Sahloknir; and in which she joins the Bards College and retrieves King Olaf's verse from Dead Men's Respite.
In Which Ysani is Challenged to a Duel - 02/04/2022
In which Ysani finds a Word of Power in Shriekwind Bastion; fights off a hostile mage who challenges her to a duel in Whiterun; finds the missing books for the mage college in Fellglow Keep; and slays the dragon at Mount Anthor.
In Which Ysani Seeks the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller and Becomes Thane of Falkreath - 02/03/2022
In which Ysani clears Treva's Watch of bandits; in which she is named thane of Falkreath; in which she seeks the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller in Ustengrav; and in which she is recruited for the Thieves Guild in Riften.
In Which Ysani Acquires Dawnbreaker and Journeys into the Rift - 02/02/2022
In which Ysani cleanses Meridia's temple and gains the sword Dawnbreaker; in which she returns Barbas and the Rueful Axe to Clavicus Vile and gains Vile's Masque; and in which she seeks the favor of the people of Falkreath.
In Which Ysani Begins Daedric Quests - 02/01/2022
In which Ysani meets a highly unusual dog just outside Falkreath, and agrees to reunite him with his master; in which she retrieves the Rueful Axe; and in which she is commanded by Meridia to cleanse her temple at Kilreath.

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Screenshots

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