Sathis

Sathis was originally born as Galdris Telvayn in the town of Suran, Vvardenfell. A rather ordinary Dunmer child, he didn’t really show much promise or talent growing up. His parents were laborers and farmers, and when Galdris came of age he was sent off to Vivec city to procure work. He was particularly clumsy, a bit small and generally not as skilled as his peers, which led to the accident a few years into his job where he crippled and lost his left arm.

It wasn’t much longer after Galdris was discharged from work that the 2nd Era came to an end, and the 3rd Era came rolling in. He took this as a sign of change from the Divine, and sought the aid of the Living Gods themselves by traveling to Mournhold and leaving Vvardenfell behind him. Here, a talent for magic began to prosper. Even with just one arm, Galdris showed great skill when it came to controlling magic and the forces of the world, earning him much praise for overcoming his complicated learning curve. He became proficient and confident in his power, and began to venture outside of his post. It was here, on the outskirts of the city of Mournhold, that Galdris found himself tumbling into the Clockwork City.

Lost in the Radius, Galdris scoured the land until he came across the Brass Fortress. With his magical ability he was able to obtain sponsorship to enter and gain status as a citizen of the city. Life was hard in the Slag Town slums, but with great effort and determination, Galdris was able to rise to the rank of Apostle - and finally recplace his left arm. As Galdris was still young, his passion to learn and grow in his field was unfathomable. He took to new tasks quickly and spent nearly all of his time studying clockwork constructs and the magic woven into them to make them tick. Here, he finally felt as though he had found his place and purpose in the world and he’d just about forgotten his unfortunate start in life.

Despite the joy he put into his work, perhaps he still had lessons to learn. While Galdris felt as though he could do anything he attempted to meddle with factotums and fabricants out of his field, and in turn severely damaged his right arm. Luckily this didn’t keep him down for long, and he replaced his right arm to match his left.

3E 112 - 3E 131

Galdris settled well into the Clockwork City, growing to become a rather reputable apostle, and learning from his several mistakes when it came to fabricants and factotums. His ability to learn new skills and remember them without fault was somewhat envied among his fellow apostles, but the strive for progress seemed to always come forward over sabotage.

One day in the Radius a woman by the name of Nimpae caught Galdris’ eye - she had found herself in the Clockwork Realm by accident, and was struggling to find anyone to help her into the city. With hesitation, Galdris sponsored her entry. Nimpae was a competent fighter and had a strength to her that Galdris loved. She was different - at least in his eyes - to others who came to be citizens of the Brass fortress.

After some time of seeing each other - as “just friends” - Nimpae fell pregnant with Galdris’ child. She deliberated sharing it with him at all, but eventually caved when she realised she didn’t have much of a network to fall back on yet. Thankfully, Galdris was more than happy to step up and said that they should be a real couple in order to raise their child.

When Nulila was born Nimpae and Galdris did their best to play the happy family, but for some reason the two didn’t quite seem to click. Issues kept cropping up and their personalities clashed a lot. Nimpae agreed to be the primary caregiver for Nulila, but Galdris would still be a present father. The two remained friends and didn’t hold any animosity towards one another thankfully.

Raising a child in the Clockwork city had its many challenges… After all, it was an environment built for experiments and the like. It was hardly the palace for a child. Most inhabitants adapted to the city, but Nulila fell ill to the odd nature of the environment of the Brass Fortress. Over time, she recovered, but never seemed to be as springy as she used to be.

Shortly after Nulila’s 10th birthday, she falls ill again. This time it’s back with a vengeance - she struggles to breathe without aid in the city and out in the Radius and requires a permanent aid. Galdris does all he can to try and find a cure to create something so that Nulila might live, but as her condition worsens as do his chances of finding any way to help her. After months on end of abandoning his work to aid his daughter, Galdris leaves the clockwork city to find a cure back on Nirn. He travels the continent in an effort to find information on how to cure Nulila. For two years he roams, hope waning along the way, and at last Galdris collapses in the Alik’r desert. Here, he is picked up by travelers before he dries out and dies of thirst, and they help him get back onto his feet. He shares his woes, and his predicament, in hopes that they might set him in the right direction. The travelers share stories of an ancient shrine in the craggy deserts to the northeast, where knowledge is bestowed upon those with the right offering. Galdris sets off as soon as he is able.

By now, years had passed since Galdris had left the Clockwork City in order to find a cure for Nulila, and he had at last come across the Seeker’s Archive. Tired and weary from his travels, he made his way into the ancient ruins below the scorching desert. Here, he prostrated himself before Hermaeus Mora and begged for his help. The Prince of Secrets wouldn’t so readily give up his information though, and he rejected Galdris’ plea and advised that, next time, he offer something worthwhile beyond his cries for aid. Galdris, in his desperation, returns to the clockwork city and breaks into his old workshop and that of his ex-peers. Countless relics and creations were taken under the guise of necessity - and Galdris narrowly avoided the law in his escape.

Galdris returns to Hermaeus Mora with the stolen relics and devices, offering them up to the Prince in exchange for his wish. He begs that Hermaeus Mora give him the ability to learn how to cure his daughter, and that he has no issue with gaining the knowledge to do so. Mora is intrigued by the request, and grants Galdris the ability to learn new skills and absorb knowledge beyond the capability of mortals.

At first, he combs the archives and experiments to find a cure for Nulila, but in time he becomes obsessed with the notion of finding new information. Galdris begins to be consumed by his power and the knowledge he’s obtained, feeling his mind tearing at the seams. Galdris returns to Hermaeus Mora in pieces, struggling to pick reality apart from his thoughts and theories. He begs Hermaeus Mora once again, this time to take all that is plaguing his mind and his woes. Mora accepts with no quarrel.

Hermaeus Mora takes Galdris’ memories - his name, his life, and even his thoughts and feelings of all that came before - and leaves him with what he deems the bare minimum. Mora christens his new disciple as Sathis and gives him a new purpose - a seeker of lost knowledge.

The All-Sight and The Third Eye

Given that Galdris was gifted and able to take things quickly to rise through the ranks as an Apostle, Hermaeus Mora was sure that this ability would be put to perfect use under his control. Sathis, with no prior memories beyond those in Mora’s service, was faced with a dilemma. Serve his Prince or Deny him - and there only seemed to be one option. Sathis was indoctrinated to pursue the great cause of obtaining knowledge and documenting all that is, ever was and ever will be. He was skilled at sifting out lost secrets and keeping those that would be dangerous out of the wrong hands - a rather devoted task.

In time, Mora began to reassess his assets. He granted Sathis a boon - the ability to come into contact with the minds of others. He was able to touch their memories, find himself observing from a new perspective and even give and take as required. Alongside this, he tasked Sathis with guarding a powerful relic - The All-Sight. A great device used to divine the past, present and future - the All-Sight provides many paths and possibilities to those who look into its power. Sathis hid the All-Sight in a pocket realm of Apocrypha - The Collective Unconscious. Here he built his observatory and his home, so that he could keep the relic and all of his collections safe from prying eyes. The only way to enter his domain was through the mindscape, and only those with the knowledge and capability to traverse it were able to reach the Unconscious. Here, sure of his safety, Sathis used the All-Sight to record history for Hermaeus Mora - his Devoted Guardian.

The Power of the All-Sight was absolute, and even Sathis with his Prince’s blessing could not handle it alone. Years passed by, and Sathis began to fall into madness once again. The Mortal mind hijacked by the Daedric Prince was not as capable of comprehending as much as he had hoped, and began to fail. Hermaeus Mora brought Sathis to the Mythos - here, he granted Sathis The Third Eye. It allowed Mora to give and take knowledge from Sathis as he pleased through an additional eye positioned on his forehead - it was a powerful source of Mora’s magic, but it became an unprotected risk for Sathis in the event that someone might take secrets from The Third Eye. Mora locked the Third eye behind an enchanted metal clasp that would keep the eye closed. Only Sathis and Hermaeus Mora shared the knowledge of how to open the clasp - by using it’s nymic. Together, they agreed that every ten years Sathis would return to Mora at the Mythos so that he could cleanse Sathis’ memories to keep him from madness.

The Obscured Fate

Sathis served Hermaeus Mora admirably for decade after decade without question, gaining a great library of secrets and tinkering with his fabricants and factotums to his heart's desire with little limits like the apostles in the past. He was now well acquainted with the All-Sight and its power, until it obscured a fate.

Far too intrigued to leave it alone, Sathis decided to follow the obscured fate to discern whether or not there was an issue with the relic. The unknown fate led him to the mortal plane, where he began to observe any changes. Upon discovering nothing particularly out of the ordinary with fate, he returned to the All-Sight - but it still continued to obscure his vision. Baffled, Sathis debated bringing the error to his Prince, but in the end decided to uncover the mystery himself.

Sathis returned to Nirn, and discovered the obscured fate was entwined with a mortal - Felvos. He wasn’t a particularly special mortal as he had no unique magic, no forbidden knowledge and no ties to Daedric princes or the like. Felvos was just a Dunmer man living his life - which baffled Sathis even more. Determined to discover the fate himself, he observed Felvos for years. Sometimes he would spy on him with the All-Sight, but when it would obscure his vision he found himself venturing to the mortal plane more and more, doing his best to avoid contact with Felvos when doing so.

Observing Felvos’ life, Sathis watched the man build his career as a Bouyant Armiger, and then continued to step aside as the Tribunal broke down. History was evolving around them, yet Sathis continued to find himself obsessed with Felvos. In the year 4E 5, Baar Dau would inevitably fall from the sky and crash into the island of Vvardenfell. Keenly aware of this, Sathis felt genuine dread at the thought of losing the man tied to his obscured fate. He began to familiarise himself in Felvos’ life by turning up now and then. Perhaps to the other man he might’ve seemed a ghost at first, but Sathis continued to lurk around Felvos on his sister’s farm, perhaps even pinching things he found useful enough to take back to his observatory.

When Baar Dau at last was due to decimate Vvardenfell, Sathis made the decision to at last interfere. In the heat of some kind of fear and excitement, Sathis kidnapped Felvos and brought him to the Collective Unconscious. The now-trapped Felvos couldn’t return to Nirn, only roam the observatory. Sathis chose to ignore his guest, consumed by fear after interfering with fate against Hermaeus Mora’s wishes - but the Prince was silent. He was neither scolded nor called upon to face consequence, and Sathis’ confusion and curiosity grew. Sathis finally showed Felvos what had happened to his Vvardenfell home and explained that he would not have survived, but failed to bring up anything about his obscured fate. For now, the two were bound to share the observatory as their home whilst Sathis continued to try and decipher the All-Sight’s error without any luck.

With Felvos present, Sathis started to realise how disconnected he truly was from mortals. After all, he did live in a pocket realm of Apocrypha and his most likely guests were Seekers and Watchlings. He found it hard to talk to the other Dunmer, but his effort was vaguely visible at least. From Felvos he began to understand what it meant to be mortal once again, and the thoughts and feelings that Mora had taken from him began to be reborn anew. Sathis had never felt more alive than when he was with Felvos, and he was learning things that were more important than anything any book could ever provide him with. Sathis began to develop feelings for Felvos, though he was truly unsure of what he was even feeling despite having all of the knowledge in the world. Despite this, he didn’t consult the All-Sight about it, and instead decided to let it run its course. What he didn’t realise was that he had fallen in love with Felvos.

Sathis’ infatuation with Felvos was interfering with his work. He was avoiding the All-Sight and his contribution to the archives was only a fraction of what it might have been before he had brought his guest home. He later began to research what he may have been feeling - or rather what ailments he might have had in the event Felvos had just given him some mortal disease. Alas, he found himself faced with the unfortunate truth: that he was simply in love with the man he’d stolen away. After that, it began to make sense why Felvos was so obscured from his vision - because the man was involved in Sathis’ own fate, which he was unable to see with the All-Sight.

He kept this secret from Felvos - or as secret as he could. As a man with little to no experience with love, Sathis found it near impossible to hide the changes in his behavior around Felvos, kicking up a fair amount of suspicion. It didn’t seem particularly mutual, as Felvos was only confused. Over time, and as Sathis seemed to soften up in a sense, he’d given up on the thought of confessing to Felvos in the event he might be rejected. He’d never felt more in the spotlight, and he really didn’t want to be. Felvos did seem to come around eventually, and luckily for Sathis he confessed first. That being said, Sathis became obsessed. He wanted to know what it was like to love and be loved, and shared every moment and every feeling with Felvos.

They made their relationship official, and Sathis made sure that he would never forget their union. He welded the wedding band to his finger so that he would never let it go. When he was cleansed of his unwanted memories by Mora he lost all memory of Felvos. The two would work through this together, every decade, figuring out the best way to pick up where they left off. Luckily, it never took much for Sathis to fall back in love with Felvos all over again, no matter how hard he tried to deny it each time. But this drew the attention of Mora’s servants.

Sathis did his best to obscure Felvos from the eyes of Mora’s servants for fear of their interference. He was sure of the consequences of abandoning his duties, and chose to ignore the risks. For over eighty years Sathis concealed Felvos as best as he could, but in the end secrets spread like wildfire when let out.

When Sathis ventured to the mortal plane, one of Mora’s agents recruited Daedra to assault the observatory. A spell to bring it into reality allowed the agent to break in, and they attacked Felvos. With the aid of the Daedra they wounded Felvos as best as they could before the spell broke and the observatory returned to the Unconscious. By the time Sathis returned, Felvos’ wounds were too advanced for him to fix. In a final effort, Sathis drew Felvos’ animus out of his dying body and placed it in a factotum. As for the body, he moved it deep into the depths of the Unconscious and preserved it, in hopes that one day he might learn to repair it and return Felvos to his mortal form. The factotum wasn’t optimised to hold a mortal soul, so the transfer was agonising for Felvos. Sathis spent days unending tending to the factotum so that Felvos could stabilise - and when he was sure he had a moment to leave, he did. Sathis used the All-Sight to locate Felvos’ assassin and exact his revenge, taking their soul and tormenting it in his workshop. Only after he had taken care of Felvos’ attacker could he truly feel safe enough to mourn. The urge to cleanse his memories was great, but with only one year left in his term as it was he vowed to spend the last of those days remembering Felvos and caring for his new form as much as he could. Before Sathis was due to enter the Mythos, he withdrew his memories of Felvos and placed them inside of the factotum to keep safe so that Hermaeus Mora might never take his love and grief.

4E - Present

As time pressed on, Sathis returned to his work using the All-Sight to record and monitor events in time. With Felvos “gone” so to speak, his ability to be distracted from his work essentially disappeared. Having the Factotum Felvos around was odd at first, especially when he retained his memories of Felvos. But in time, Sathis came to see him as an aide to his purpose. He began to write protocols and programmes for Felvos to follow so that he might have a routine to keep him from malfunctioning and needing to be reset. It became a delicate balance of work, maintenance and memories. If Sathis remembered something that would potentially throw him off his work, it would cause Felvos to malfunction and need to be reset in turn. The two began to work like Clockwork around the observatory.

In the year 4E 196, Hermaeus Mora came to Sathis. He asked that he observe one person in particular - a khajiit woman by the name of Riala. Mora asked that Sathis interfere with a ritual she was to be involved in, and he infected Riala with a fragment of his own boon, stealing the memory of his presence from those involved and locking them behind a nymic. Riala was to become Mora’s new Champion - but when Sathis consulted the All-Sight the vision was once again obscured. Despite his well-established fear bound to the obscured vision, he monitored Riala until one day she might find her way into the Collective Unconscious herself.

As Sathis monitored Mora’s new Champion-to-be, mortals re-entered the Clockwork City with the use of Barilzar’s band in the year 4E 202. Sathis traveled to the Clockwork City, though he lurked like a ghost in its old haunting grounds. He chose not to interfere with the events that occurred until the battle was decided. Here, Sathis gathered the remains of the mortal who had defeated Sotha Sil’s wayward apprentice Mecinar, and the accursed band that allowed them into the Radius. Perhaps he should have left then, but with Felvos at his side Sathis returned to the Brass Fortress. The Apostles, even after Sotha Sil’s death, remained in the city and were doing their best to survive. Here, other Apostles recognised Sathis as his former self - Galdris. Sathis, confused and disorientated, returned to his observatory with Felvos. He asked the Factotum to take the remains and the band and lock them away, withdrawing his own knowledge of the location of the mechanical heart, and handing them to Felvos to protect.

Sathis began to act unlike himself in the coming days, his third eye tried to break the clasp that held it closed. It sought the memory of Galdris and the former life Sathis had, causing him great pain and distress on the descent back into madness. Sathis begged Felvos to take him to Mythos, and Sathis, for the first time, had his memories cleansed out of sync. When he awoke back at the observatory he felt more lost than ever.

In the year 4E 203 - Riala came into contact with Hermaeus Mora himself, and he shared with Riala that she was fated to be his champion. He meddled with the fraction of power Sathis had granted her and awoke the spark inside of her, allowing her to activate the mindscape and unlock the door to the Collective Unconscious. When she entered the observatory Sathis was caught by surprise thanks to the All-Sight obscuring his vision. Still, he sent Riala on her way… And out of his personal space.

With Riala able to enter the Unconscious as she pleased, Sathis found himself helping her more and more as she asked like a needy child. He consulted the All-Sight repetitively to find the answers to her needs, but he always received half an answer. He gave her what he assumed the All-Sight was trying to tell him and, again, sent her on her way each time.

When Kahlunzah, the dragon inhabiting the body of Ancalis, attempted to retrieve Aetherium shards to break the barrier protecting the temple of Sala Krassa, Sathis stepped in. The All-Sight went berserk, splitting off visions and revealing broken parallel paths, and Sathis was sure that the Aetherium must never fall into Kahlunzah’s hands. He bargained with Ancalis, a truce for the knowledge to change his shape at will. Inevitably, Ancalis betrayed them, and Sathis stole the knowledge from Ancalis as well as the Aetherium shard. Once he had obtained both shards and the Ayleid gateway at Alkosh’esh had been opened with them - he stole them away and returned to the Unconscious. Sathis consulted the All-Sight once more, in hopes that it might have repaired itself, but instead it showed Sathis broken fates of his own. Now, he hides away in the Unconscious and scours the archives for ways to change his own path from destruction.