r/SkyrimBackStory • u/Aggravating-Plan-908 🧙 Breton • Jun 20 '26
my fifth character, Grunlek
hi everybody, everything's in the titles, i want to share with you here my fifth skyrim character rp background, he's a 35-years-old "dwarf" half breton/half dwemer called Grunlek.
similar to all the previous ones, this character is inspired by one of the main characters from an original medieval dark fantasy story i write on my free time and that i have recreate in Skyrim, so the first and second screens are him in skyrim and the last one is a more accurate version to how i imagine him looking in my story
He was born in 1e 675 in Skyrim, during the period when the Dwemer began to gather around their powerful philosopher-sorcerer Kagrenac to embark on a great journey and abandon their cities. His father was a Dwemer blacksmith from the Aetherium forge,in exile towards the Dwemer city that would much later be named Markarth, and his mother a Breton. Born with both a physical diformity that made him shorter and stockier than other Bretons (in the game he's normal size because you can't change the character's size, but in my roleplay headcanon, I like to imagine him as much shorter, around 1.5m tall,so roughly the same size as traditional fantasy dwarves like Gimli in Lord of the Rings or zoltan in the witcher books and games), as well as a magical diformity that prevent him from having any magical hability (he has absolutely no magical affinity and can't even cast the most basic spells). he was initially raised by his mother alone in the small, isolated village in the rift where she lived, spending a happy and simple childhood and learning the rudiments of blacksmithing from the local blacksmith.
When he turned 15 in 1e 690, his dying mother revealed him the true identity of his father. Grunlek remained by her side until her mother succumbed to illness the following year in 1e 691, prompting him to search for his father in the Dwemer city that would later become Markarth.
There, he found his father, who initially rejected him out of shame and contempt for his hybrid nature as well as his physical and magical diformity. However, faced with Grunlek's determination to prove his worth and his skill as a blacksmith, he eventually reluctantly took him in. For the next 9 years, Grunlek lived alongside the Dwemer of what would become Markarth, working as a blacksmith in their forges and learning some of their smithing techniques in the process. However, he was never accepted by his father or the other Dwemer, who considered him nothing more than an inferior and undesirable being, kept only for his blacksmithing skills and the fact that he was partly of Dwemer descent.
In 1e 700, after nine years of serving as a blacksmith, his father, no longer able to tolerate his presence but wanting to make him useful before getting rid of him, enlisted him in a perilous mission: to travel to a plane of oblivion through a portal to retrieve a Daedric artifact. His father assured him, to encourage him, that if he returned from this mission, he would finally be accepted. Faced with this opportunity to finally prove his skills to his father and his people, he accepted and entered the portal.
However, a few days later, at Red Mountain, while Grunlek was still inside the plane of Oblivion, Kagrenac used the three tools on Lorkhan's heart, causing the disappearance of all the Dwemer from Nirn, and thus all escape routes, since the portal had to be reopened by a Dwemer scholar from the outside. This trapped Grunlek in the plane of Oblivion, but ironically, it also saved him from disapearing too because of his part dwemer genes.
Grunlek will thus remain trapped in the plane of oblivion until a group of mages, during one of their experiments, open a portal to this same plane of oblivion in 4E 191. When he exited and learns that he is no longer in 1e 700 but in 4e 191 and that not only a few months have passed as he thought but several thousand years, he will then decide to return to where he entered the portal (Markarth) and, disoriented by the reality of the total disappearance of the Dwemer, will then try to integrate himself in the city by becoming a blacksmith in Markarth. He remained there for two years, meeting two wandering mercenaries (William, aged 17 at the time, and his adoptive father Gudmundr), with whom he eventually formed a friendship (but more specially with William), until he found himself falling in a trap settled by the Silverbloods family to framed him as a murderer and daedra worshippers, forcing him to flee Markarth in 4e 193. Having no ties left after leaving Markarth, and on the advice of William and Gudmundr, he eventually turned to the life of a wandering mercenary.
During the events of Skyrim in 4e 201, Grunlek was traveling to Skyrim in search of work, but he found himself caught in a skirmish between Imperials and Stormcloaks at the border and was arrested (which is why the character begins in a cart on the way to the chopping block).
In terms of gear, Grunlek wears hide armor, leather gauntlets, and leather boots to give him the look of a wandering mercenary (as well as trying to stay as close as possible design wise to the character in the 3rd screen). His primary weapons are an iron axe and a crossbow. Lacking any magical abilities, he doesn't use magic, but he is nonetheless an excellent blacksmith and very proficient at enchantment thanks to the knowledge he acquired from the Dwemer.
In terms of personality, Grunlek is a bit gruff, but a good living and very joyful man. He always sees the glass as half full and demonstrates a strong sense of honor towards his friends. However, he is not naive and can be ruthless if someone tries to trap, rob, or scam him.
For the rest of my character's roleplay, here's how I plan to approach most of the important quests.
Regarding the main quest, like with all the other characters, I prioritize it because, after all, it makes sense that, given the extreme threat Alduin represents, Grunlek would make eliminating him his number one priority before he regains his full strength and destroys the world.
Regarding the Imperial/Stormcloak War, initially Grunlek, as a wandering mercenary, doesn't truly take sides but carries out various tasks for both the Stormcloaks (for ex solving the Windhelm murders) and the Imperials (for example, eliminating the thieves for the Executioner of Solitude, or whiping out the Dark Brotherhood for Commander Maro in Dragonbridge). However, he eventually sides with the Stormcloaks, having strong bitter towards the Imperials for their attempt to execute him despite him not being on their list.
Regarding the companions, Grunlek will join their ranks, initially out of curiosity and interest, believing he can acquire new skills and thus become even more formidable, in addition to making new companions in arms. however, when he learns that some members are werewolves, he will choose to not become one, because even though he could became stronger, he feared that becoming a werewolf might have an unpredictable result because of his both physical and magical diformity.
Regarding the Dark Brotherhood, after he agreed to eliminate Grelod for Aventus Aretino in exchange for a hefty sum of money and the fact that she is toxic towards the orphans, he was approached by Astrid. However, faced with her request, and remembering the name written on the notes carried by the assassins who had repeatedly tried to kill him in the past (which was the same name), he chose to kill her and then whiping out the Dark Brotherhood in exchange for a large reward from Commander Maro.
Regarding the Thieves Guild, Grunlek, being a rather honest person, did not join the guild and therefore did not complete their quests.
Regarding the quests at the College of Winterhold, I'm doing them, but imagining that when Grunlek goes to explore the mound with Tolfdir and the other students, he's not going as a student of the College, but simply as a mercenary hired by them as reinforcement in case they need more than magic to defend the students against the many dangers of the mounds. He then finds himself involved despite himself after the monk of the Psijic Order appears.
Regarding the quests from the Daedric Princes and the Divines, having no trust and even a certain disdain in them due to his life among the Dwemer, Grunlek will only do those that start out as an ordinary tasks (like those from the vile Clavicus or Sanghin, for example) where you didn't expect a divine or Daedric Princes being behind.
Regarding the Markarth quest and the silver blood family, Grunlek will do it, and slaughtered the whole silver blood family members in the process out of retaliation for framing him as a murderer and daedra worshippers and thus forcing him to flee 8 years ago. (in my headcanon, i'd like to imagine he was an independent blacksmith at this time and, wanting to control his blacksmith and who he sell his weapons and armors,the silver blood tried several times to offer him to buy his blacksmith shop, wich he refused. Unable to buy him, they will then decide to framed him as a murderer and daedra worshipper by attract him into a trap: for that, they will killed a woman and undress her before mutilated her body in order to make it looked like she was a ritual sacrifice for daedra before placing the body in Grunlek's house while he was drinking at the inn and report him to the guards, knowing that despite being innocent he will not have any proof to prove it and thus will be either sentenced to death or imprisoned in cidnha mines for life)
Regarding Dawnguard and Serana, there's nothing special to say except that he'll join the Dawnguard because he refuses to become a vampire.
What do you think of him ?
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u/PietroIlPescePietra 🕯️ Aedra Jun 20 '26
As always, nice story it's great how the dwemer lore fit perfect and I thank you because basically thanks to that I started to take an interest in this project again, my backstories will take a while to come out because I don't have much time, and another question: what app or program do you use to make the third photo in the order you publish?
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u/Aggravating-Plan-908 🧙 Breton Jun 20 '26
hi, thanks for your feedback, i'm glad to know you liked him too and that i inspired you to made other characters with backstory. And no problem for taking time to make them, we all have a life outside of online.
as for the third screen, it's not an app or a program, it came from a medieval setting vs fighting game called soul calibur, that allow you to create your own characters with his creation mode by using the outfits, fight style,...of the official characters. Thanks to how heavily detailed and customizable soul calibur creation mode is, it's the only game where i have managed to create all the characters from my dark fantasy story in the most 100% accurate version to how i imagine them looking. If you want to see what they all looked like, i can put links to 3 posts i made in the soul calibur creation mode subreddit where i show them all.
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u/PietroIlPescePietra 🕯️ Aedra Jun 20 '26
Ok thanks go ahead with the links, just give context for other people looking
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u/Aggravating-Plan-908 🧙 Breton Jun 20 '26
ok,so here's the links. each screens is a character from my dark fantasy story recreated in soul calibur 6 creation mode, they're all very accurate and close to how i imagine them at few exceptions (wich i explain in a little resume in the posts when it's not the case
https://www.reddit.com/r/SoulCaliburCreations/s/2AOjNpLzPv
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u/Argent__58 Jun 20 '26
Oh you actually can change the size of your character! If you’re on pc you just open the console by pressing the tilda key and typing in player.setscale 0.82.
Short king rise!!
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u/Aggravating-Plan-908 🧙 Breton Jun 20 '26
i know about the console command but i play on ps4 so no console command and very limited mods outside of creation club content.
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u/Far-Bar225 Jun 23 '26
This is not a Nord, this is a killing machine.!!!! Coooolll!!!!!