Really wasn't digging those blatant Discworld ripoffs.

 

I liked them. It wasn't subtle, true, but they seemed to fit Riften quite well.

There did seem to be a few more typos than I remember seeing in this before, but otherwise as enjoyable as ever, even if it doesn't really seem to have moved the story on much at this stage

 

I finally got around to reading this over the last week. I'll echo everyone else and say it's excellent and reads more like a novel than fanfiction. As someone without knowledge of Elder Scrolls I frequently had to hit up the wiki but not so much that it was a detriment to the experience. I don't mind the slow pacing and exploration of lore and the world, it's all new to me and quite interesting.

Since it's in my mind now are there other Elder Scroll fics I might enjoy?

 

I think that depends on how much you are willing to tolerate "game elements" (like limitless pockets, "skills" etc.) in your story because in my experience that is something that pretty much every single bigger ES story features. And none really match Dragon from Ash in the worldbuilding aspect since in the large majority of cases they simply copy the games (visuals).

 

After a lengthy wait, it updated!

Really looking forward to just kicking back and enjoying this. Can't say many stories have that effect on me.

 

That was a quality update, although it doesn't seem to move the story forward significantly. The characters, yes, but not the story. Still awesome though.

 

Spent all day yesterday reading this.

Fabulous story. It makes me want to go play Skyrim.

Velandrn is easily on the best OCs ever made.

 

Finally got around to reading this after putting it off for ages, and man am I conflicted. On the one hand, I could have read this earlier but waiting meant I had that much more to read. Thanks @Newcomb for the rec and @Mishie for reminding me, though I put it off for who knows how long.

This fic is to Elder Scrolls what Game of Champions is to Pokemon. It not only sets the standard and raises the bar, it takes it to heights that were previously thought unattainable. I have literally zero complaints. I love the lore, the character interactions, the action, the dialogue, the prose. This is the best of what fanfiction can be.

5/5

Edit: Didn't read the thread first, but the fact that other people compared it to Game of Champions doesn't surprise me a bit.

 

I don't think these reviews do justice to how good this story is. This is, in every way that matters, as good as or better than most traditionally published epic fantasies. I'm going to paste the review I left on FF.net, but I want to emphasize for anyone who may be on the fence about reading this that it's not just a Skyrim or TES fanfic - that does injustice to how much love, care, time, and effort has been poured into this world. I say in the review that I can't tell where canon ends and his own interpretations and additions begin, and I would go so far as to say if he changed some names around this could stand on its own as a fully realized fantasy series. The first few chapters are the only part where some Skyrim experience may be helpful to ground you, but by chapter 6 the world is so fully and richly realized that game knowledge only serves to illustrate how much work went into making Dragon from Ash what it is.

Spoiler: FF.net review, minor spoilers up to chapter 22

I kept seeing this recommended on occasion, and every time I brushed it off as people praising a mediocre fic in a fandom starved of fics of any quality. Finally, I had a free afternoon and saw it recommended again, so I clicked to chapter 1 determined to list down all of this story's faults and ream everyone for thinking a Skyrim fic of all things is actually good.

I spent the next couple days doing nothing but reading Dragon from Ash. Admittedly the first few chapters didn't win me over entirely, but I could immediately see from the first sentence that you know what you're doing and won my trust. There were a few flashes of brilliance with the stuff in Riverwood, but then Lydia came into the picture and I fell in love with this story. Despite the glowing praise this received, it was still undersold, I haven't been so swept away into a world since Wheel of Time. This story is better than a significant portion of published books I've read, and is one of the best epic fantasies I've ever come across. Your characters come alive in a way that I've only seen rarely, each POV is distinct, the character voices are clear, everyone is driven by their own personal motivations and values, their actions make sense for who they are. We see them grow and change, re-evaluate their morals and biases, and yet still retain their own distinct character, they're still who they are, and they still have flaws and biases, and even as they grow their imperfections grow and change with them, often unaddressed but still changing. Character drives plot and that's extremely hard to do, let alone with the finesse and skill that you have.

And the byplay between the characters is some of the best I have ever seen. In the hands of a lesser writer, the speed with which Velandryn and Serana's relationship developed would have been staggering, yet here there was an immediate chemistry between them from the very first word spoken. I thought Serana would be the death of the fic - too many characters to juggle, a forced, cliche relationship with a disillusioned vampire... I was so sure of so many things, and a little upset that you would ruin a perfectly good thing by going down the vampire love interest route. And then immediately upon their meeting, you won me over and brought the story to a whole new level.

I loved Serana and Velandryn so much that I was personally offended that you would dare to add someone else to the equation. I got a little mad every time I saw Elisif listed as a character at the top of the page. I thought there was no way you could possibly make that work, no matter how hard you tried. I thought it was a mistake early on when you didn't know where the story was going, and you had quietly wrote Elisif off in light of where the story went, that was the only way I could see to handle the problem. And then immediately on their first interaction you won me over again. Her and Velandryn had just as much chemistry, just as strongly as Velandryn and Serana. Within those few scenes you took me from being upset that she existed in the story at all to her being a favorite character, and being upset that Velandryn left and won't have any more scenes with her for a long time.

I could gush on and on about your characters. before I read this I would have said that Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire have the best characters in epic fantasy and nothing else comes close, and now I can add Dragon from Ash to that list.

Your world building and lore is also top notch. Not only is your characterization of Velandryn and choice of Serana brilliant vehicles for you to explore your world, I've never really cared for TES lore. I've read the books in the game, I've read the wiki a little, but nothing really interested me about it, it was all very droll fantasy affair. You've transformed the lore into something that I'm excited to read about, I want to know more about the history of the world, I'm just as curious as Serana is. I want to see more of Morrowind and Skyrim and I want to see what you've done with Cyrodiil, I want to see more of the world you've constructed. I don't know whether it's more impressive that you're so good at world building and lore, or if it's more impressive that you've transformed TES lore into something so much more than it is. On one hand, it is very clearly TES lore, but on the other hand it's an entirely different beast. It's hard for me to see where TES ends and you begin. It has to be the most impressive blending of canon and fanon that I've ever seen - and that goes for characters too by the way, Lydia is still very clearly Lydia from the game, but she's also an entirely different character from the ground up, with almost nothing in common.

I love this story, I think it's one of the best I've ever read, published or not. The only thing that makes me sad is that with the scope of the story and how far we've come, it feels like the story will never be completed or will take 15 years to reach that point. I never really got into A Song of Ice and Fire, but now I know what it's like to be a fan of that series, waiting for the next installment and praying to see the end.

 

Update

 

Love this fic so much. It's been awhile though so perhaps time for a reread before I start this chapter...

 

Can't remember whats up in this story.

 

It's worth the reread.

 

I'd been putting off reading the new chapter because I'd re-read the whole thing recently enough that I didn't quite want to re-read it, but not recently enough for the story to feel fresh in my mind.

I don't have much to say about the chapter itself, other than the fact that Velandryn and Serana continue to be just... extremely pleasant to read. Usually stories really, really fail when they show you both in-head PoVs of a potential romantic pairing - it's clumsy, cute, or saps tension. This one doesn't.

I will say that the Lydia sections of the new chapter were the first time I was really tempted to skim. I just found myself... not really caring about Lydia's sidequest. I dug the Morrowind chapter earlier, was kinda so-so on the Riften section, and was actively disinterested in this bit. Lydia on her own just... isn't a strong character. She's great as a foil for Velandryn. She was at her best as a standalone character in Morrowind because she was an outsider and her attitude and thought process played really well as a compare/contrast thing with the reader's more nuanced PoV of TES lore. She's also not a weak character by any means - she's competently written and perfectly three-dimensional. But she's nowhere near as compelling as Velandryn or Serana.

The dominant thing I took away from this chapter, though, is that feeling.

Very few fics can make me feel that feeling anymore. The specific feeling when you finish a chapter and there's no more to read, and you can't live in that world anymore and you're restless and depressed at the same time. What makes it sting even more is that you can't even scratch the itch by looking at different stories, seeking out something to fill the void. I don't need Scryer to tell me that I'm not going to find anything.

I know that I'm probably the last person who gets to complain about this, but it's criminally unfair that the rest of this is locked inside Mortigaunt's head and not, you know. Written.

Oh, and speaking of which there's a companion piece. Short, competent, doesn't really scratch the itch. But it's there.

 

Have you read any of Annerb's recent work @Newcomb ? That's the work where I feel those feelings the most - and, what's more, I feel they really immerse me in a relationship that is real in a way no other work does. A relationship which is strong and loving but complicated as all hell and where both parties have very real issues - and, most importantly where there's no hint of a definitive ending. Because issues don't ever just finish - relationships are a never ending process (or maybe conversation) of two people finding one another.

 

Very excited about this. I've been rereading the first half - I'd forgotten just how good the initial Lydia and Serana sections are.

Question, by the by, is there a game I could play that would give me a good idea of Velandryn's lore? I realise he's non canonical but I find the Dunmer side really interesting.

 

@Quiddity TES III: Morrowind is what you want, but you'll only get the broad strokes and gain some familiarity with factions and history that Velandryn references. Most of what Mortigaunt writes is something made up by him/herself, with in-game lore providing the salient points upon which Dragon from Ash builds. A significant portion of magical lore also comes from TES IV: Oblivion, but for Velandryn himself you'll want Morrowind. If you've never played it before, look into the mod packs. It's an old game and a lot of its vanilla gameplay and graphics are offensive to modern sensibilities. A trip to the wiki would serve you as well if you just want the lore, a search for "Nerevarine" should point you to a good launching-off page.

The latest chapter was every bit as good as previous ones if not better. Velandryn's and Serana's relationship continues to be a highlight in a story of highlights, and I can't wait for this chapter's fallout and to see the whole gang back together again. The months-long wait for chapters can be agonizing at times but Mortigaunt is one of the most consistently high-quality authors I've ever read. It's rare that you find something where after stepping away for months you can come back and instantly be swept right back up as if you never left, even harder to do that while also being a smooth read when read all at once, and Mortigaunt excels at both.