Copied from this thread:
My first Skyrim character | Skyrim Forums
Race/Appearance: Dark Elf. Clouded, pupil-less eyes. Pale gray/white skin. Severely balding (the top of his head bare, the back scraggly and dry) with gray hair. For whatever reason, I tend toward the idea of magic abuse sapping one's life, hence the...Less than healthy looks I chose.
"
From an early age, Soren showed skill in the art of magic. Unfortunately, as he grew in age and power, he also grew in darkness. He began to view his fellows as mere instruments to be controlled and commanded and, to that end, he began to abuse his skill in ever more corrupt ways, delving eagerly into the study of dark and destructive magic. As his twisted abuse of magic increased over the years, his appearance grew increasingly corrupted, his very life force seeming to burn itself up as fuel for his corrupt magic. After a failed attempt to subjugate the others of his race, he was captured and sentenced to suffer for his crimes via torture. The sheer agony of his punishment instilled in him a deep loathing of torture so he has a severe hatred of torturers and tends to kill quickly: The only mercy he affords his victims. One night, the hold he was held captive in was attacked and in the ensuing destruction, the bonds holding him were shattered. He escaped into the wilderness but quickly lost strength as the torture he endured had left him weak. Discovered by Imperials searching the area for hiding Stormcloaks, he was assumed to be one of them and sent off to be executed along with an assortment of other criminals.
When a sudden dragon attack disrupted his would-be death sentence, he fled with an Imperial to gain favor with the ruling legion, and to keep a low profile as association with a rebel alliance would likely put him in an unpleasant spotlight. Similarly, wanton murder and theft would do the same. To keep a low profile, he pragmatically avoids such crimes with two reasonable exceptions: Stealing from the already-dead is fine and bandits or other hostiles are fair game. Upon escaping Helgen, he utilized the power of the Guardian Stones to restore a small portion of his lost strength. Once Hadvar grew distracted with talking, Soren snuck away from the man's company and stumbled upon the Embershard Mine. He made quick work of the bandits, cleansing the mine with flames and deciding to put it to use as an isolated base of operations, donning a robe and cloak to hide his identity from any who might recognize him as he went out to explore the wilderness surrounding his new mine home."
To maintain a low profile (since he's a fugitive of his people), he does not attract attention by stealing, breaking and entering, or wanton murder. He will, however, take any gold found on the dead. He also snatches books wherever possible to keep himself entertained while in hiding. And as far as killing other sentient races, he will only do so as self-defense (though bandits are free game) to avoid drawing too much attention from guards or bounty hunters. Also, anyone who practices or aids torture is free game as well, for reasons noted in the above backstory. While traveling, he is strictly a sober individual as he believes an impaired mind cannot muster the focus necessary for magic. He
will treat himself to a rare drink or two during his downtime but he will never drink to inebriation.
Note: The tidbit about his torture-induced trauma was improvised retroactively to justify an on-a-whim murder of the torturer and his assistant in Helgen. The bit about having been so severely weakened by his punishment was added to justify his apparent downgrade from powerful mage to "level one" weakling. There are few things I hate more in these games than a backstory that can't explain how your oh-so-strong character is suddenly a total wuss.
I haven't yet decided what his path in life will be. I know for sure that I do not want him becoming the savior of Skyrim (as the main quest would eventually lead him to be
) so we'll see how that develops later.
