About this image

I've been working on this NPC overhaul in my spare time off and on and hopefully one of these days I'll actually have it in a fit state. As part of that, though, I had to stop and think about my makeup tools, and my techniques and color choices and yadayadayada and from that spawned my recently released kit, which in turn gave me new tools to come back and tweak a few of my 'finished' NPCs.

Elisif has always been something of a favorite of mine, and I don't think she gets enough credit. I see a lot of claims that she's a 'puppet' floating around, but I've never seen her that way. The Imperials are one of my favorite factions, so I inevitably end up spending a fair amount of time in Solitude, and...

...well, I just really wanted to get her right. Because she deserves so much better than the hand she's been dealt.

Elisif is a relatively young leader, new to her responsibilities, true. She's been forced into this position by the death, the murder (rightly or wrongly, Stormcloaks, that's how she and her people see it) of her husband. So she does what anyone responsible would do in that situation: she surrounds herself with people she respects and trusts and knows when to take their advice.

More than that, though. She's good. She might or might not worship Talos herself, but she loved her husband, and she knew and respected his devotion to his god. Her request to us that he be honored according to his beliefs sticks with me through everything else we do in this game - it's politically dangerous to her, but it's the right thing to do. It's what he would have wanted. I can only hope one day, when it counts, when it matters, that someone will care about me that much. Few of us are that lucky.

General Tulius says he respects her, and she trusts him. He talks about the Thalmor like they're a dirty word, and so if she is a puppet, it's clearly not of the elves. It seems to me more like Tulius is just someone she's smart enough to listen to - like the other advisers around her. And honestly, sure, I'm biased. I trust Tulius, and I like the guy, maybe it's the voice, maybe it's his level headed assessment of the Empire's situation, but I like him. And if he thinks Elisif is a good leader, I don't see a reason not to take him at his word.

I like her. She's easily one of my favorite characters in the game. And maybe... just maybe, if I'm lucky, I've managed to explain why.

I'm not completely sure yet if this is the final version I'm going with, but... more or less, I think I'm close.