SHADOWBLADE, LAYLA

[LAYLA SHADOWBLADE .]

Layla Shadowblade .

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SKILLS .

Layla has always earned part of her living through alchemy and enchanting. She learned both skills at the college. Since getting pregnant she has relied more heavily on this source of income. Though not as sizable as her magical abilities, Layla is experienced in both sneak and archery. She prefers to stealthily hunt witches rather than rushing in and getting her self burnt to a crisp. The more witches in a coven she can take out with out getting noticed, the less damaged she is. She also carries a dagger and has some idea how to use it, though only as a second option. Her magic is almost always her first choice.

MAGIC .

As far as magic skils are concerned, Layla had all the odds in her favor. Being born Altmer gave her a natural gift for all magical talents and having been raised in the College of Winterhold gave her all the opportunity and resources she could possibly need. While skilled in all magical disciplines her most common spells are in the alteration, illusion, and destruction. She tends to favor the sneaking skills in the the illusion school, the frost spells in the destruction school, and telekinesis in the alteration school. She can also make a decent ward, useful in the hunting of witches. She usually keeps a couple scrolls with spells in her pack just incase of emergency, but her magical talents on their own are substantial.

WEAPONS .

Layla carries a lunar steel dagger, which she enchanted herself. She keeps this one her person at all times. Her bow is a light hunting bow. Nothing particularly special about it. She has often debated on the benefits of enchanting it, but has never gotten around to it. She hides this bow in their home, along with the various types of arrows she has gathered for it. She prefers using elven arrows, but will switch to the other types if she runs out or feels that they are more appropriate for her task. They are the only two weapons she ever really uses, focusing much more on her magic than her skill with bow or blade.

ARMOR & APPAREL

Though she is having difficulty fitting in to it as of late, she does have a full set of leather armor. Previously this was used for her hunts, now it mostly lies in the bottom of her wardrobe. She was never fond of the helmet, preferring enchanted circlets. She has two that she keeps in a box on her night stand: a silver and moonstone circlet with an archery increasing enchantment, that she wore at her wedding and a jade and emerald circlet that boots her ability to sustain spells. now that she is not hunting these mostly remain in their box. Around Solitude she mostly wears enchanter's robes or normal civilian dresses, normally in some shade of blue with her leather boots. Layla tries her best to conform to the styles of Solitude not wanting to draw particular attention to herself. The one item she is never with out is her wedding ring. She rarely takes it off, even to sleep.

APPEARANCE .

Tall and slender framed, Layla looks as one would expect an altmer to look. Though she is becoming more encumbered with their growing child, she still moves gracefully and with confidence. Her skin is a pale gold, more pale than most of the other high elves that she knows. Her almond eyes are a bright gold, in contrast to her hair which is a darker shade, closer to copper. She tends to keep it loose around her shoulders rather than pinning it up. She has some small scars on one side of her face from an encounter with a hagraven when she was much younger, but they have had years to grow more faint and hardly noticeable now.

STORY .
Layla has never set foot in the Summerset Isles. Her mother is one of the Senior Mages at the College of Winterhold. She was born there and spent all of her childhood in the college. Her mother never spoke of Layla's father, so Layla has always assumed that he died before she was born. Like most Altmer, Layla was very gifted in magical abilities. Growing up in the college gave her an advantage as she had plenty of instructors, a plethora of books, and access to all types of magical artifacts to study. She was always especially good at illusion magic, despite her mother's insistence that she practice all schools equally. She learned enchanting and alchemy there as well. Her mother always had hopes that Layla would stay at the college and some day fill one of the senior spots. Layla had other plans.

She left the college and started traveling Skyrim at eighteen. For a while she got by on her magic skills, enchanting weapons and making and selling potions with the ingredients she found in the woods. It was exciting to say the least. She'd been on the road for several months when she accidentally stumbled in to a nest of hagravens. She would have only just made it out of the fight by herself, thankfully a hunter passing heard the commotion and came to her aid. She traveled with him for a while, he taught her to use a bow and arrow, and the art or tracking and sneaking. So it was that Layla acquired the skills she needed to become a Witchhunter.

She made a name for herself answering any bounties in holds that required getting rid of hagravens, witches, necromancers, and the occasional vampire. When she visited her mother she always lied about her occupation, swearing that she just traveled enchanting weapons and making potions for gold. Her mother would not approve of her real life decisions. There was good coin in clearing out witches and it was steady pay, Mages were always switching over to darker paths and needing to be dealt with. Her combination of magic and strength with a bow made her a force of her own. Soon she began getting requests from the people of Skyrim form Jarls to famers. If someone needed help with a witch, Layla was their best option.

Then she met Taros, and things changed. She was in Solitude to collect a bounty when she saw him just outside of the Blue Palace. He was a dark elf, and her mother would have disapproved of her interest in him. But unlike most of her race she did not feel one way or another about the other races. He introduced himself and they spoke briefly before he bid her farewell. Before long he began sending her letters. But he had this pure vision of her based on her appearance and their brief meetings. She could not bring herself to ruin that for him. He was a traveling merchant, they were a delicate trusting kind of people. She found herself falling for him. Having no desire to inform him that she was actually a witchhunter, she let him belive that she was just an sweet little enchanter, as she'd been leading her mother to believe.

Before meeting him she had never considered the possibility of settling down or getting married, but she offered to live with him. It was a while before they were able to join their households, he purchased a home for them in Solitude, and they married. She never had reason to doubt that he was a traveling merchant, any more than she gave him to doubt she stayed home while he traveled and enchanted weapons for extra gold. He had a vision of her that may have been clouded by where they had met, but as much as she cared for him, and tried to keep her life quiet, she could not entirely give up her witch hunting ways. She turned down most jobs outside of Haafingar hold, but would occasionally tell him she was visiting her mother, or traveling to get an ingredient for a potion to answer a particularly intriguing or desperate plea for help.

It became incredibly difficult to hunt witches once they were expecting a child. She was not unhappy by any means. She wanted nothing more than to give Taros the family that he no doubt desired. She feared a little for their child growing up elven was difficult enough in Skyrim, but being half altmer and half dunmer would undoubtedly be more difficult. Lately she has been getting restless staying just in Solitude. She continues to enchant weapons for coin and has taken to practicing her Archery with the guards when Taros is away on his trips. She is unsure how having a child will change her relationship with her husband or how it will affect her career choice. But what ever comes next, they will face it together as a family.

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POND .

23 .

10+ .

I LIVE HERE .

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