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:

  1. Play the game in French to practice my skill with that language and also just to see what the translated experience is like!
  2. Revisit the Thieves Guild because I had huge fun with that as Merawen
  3. Even more emphasis on magic this time through
  4. 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 Marries Her Housecarl - 03/15/2022
    In which Ysani escorts Delphine and Esbern to Alduin's Wall, and learns from there that a Shout is needed to defeat Aldiun; in which she recovers the Crown of Barenziah; and in which she marries Argis the Bulwark, her loyal housecarl from Markarth.
  • In Which Ysani Rescues Esbern from the Ratway - 03/14/2022
    In which Ysani rescues Esbern from the Ratway, and escorts him to Delphine in Riverwood; in which they travel to Karthspire to seek Alduin's Wall; and in which Ysani slays the dragon Vuljotnaak.
  • In Which Ysani Raids the Thalmor Embassy - 03/13/2022
    In which Ysani implements the plan to raid the Thalmor Embassy for information--but winds up raiding the place with much less stealth than she'd planned for, with the help of her loyal Argis and her attendant dremora.
  • In Which Ysani Defeats the Wolf Queen and Becomes Thane of Haafingar - 03/12/2022
    In which Ysani defeats the Wolf Queen, Potema; in which she gains the Wabbajack from Sheogorath, Daedric Prince of Madness; and in which she gains the thaneship of Haafingar and buys Proudspire Manor.
  • In Which Ysani Does More General Adventuring - 03/11/2022
    In which Ysani quests through Volunruud and Yngol Barrow; and in which she and her housecarl Argis the Bulwark slay Ancient Dragons.

Screenshots

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