Brenn the Spellsword and his foxy friend!

Another post I've been meaning to share for months, this one introduces another of my motley cast of Skyrim characters. He's one of my favourites to play with, and I've had great fun coming up with his backstory and personality as I've gone along.

 

Born to a farming family in Cyrodil, Brenn spent much of his youth daydreaming about going off on an adventure and battling draugr when he really ought to have been tending the crops. As the youngest of three siblings, it was decided that, as he showed absolutely no interest in the agricultural life, he should be allowed to travel and make his own way in the world. Blessed with a knack for magic, he decided to head to Skyrim, with the intention of visiting the Mage’s College in Winterhold to learn more and to develop his abilities.

 

 After hearing all the stories about the activities of the Dragonborn, Brenn seems to have developed a bit of an obsession with her. Nothing untoward you understand, he’s just a bit of a fanboy.

Quick to forgive and slow to anger, Brenn is a decidedly upbeat kind of person, always looking to see the best in everyone. This can sometimes backfire on him... (like the time he tried to make friends with the group of armed bandits on his first day in Skyrim and ended up being mugged and left for dead or that other time he got captured by vampires and ended up as a blood-bag for weeks or even the time he thought Mammoths wouldn't mind being petted and had to run halfway across The Pale to escape) ...but he tries not to let it get him down. XD

He specialises in the school of Destruction magic, and isn’t too shabby with a sword either.

His travelling companions are Falhofnir (‘Hof’) the cob stallion, and Jorin, the Arctic fox he nursed back to health after finding him injured on his travels.

Making his 1/6th scale incarnation was always my plan after Skara, but with one thing or another it took months for me to get round to ordering up a suitable body. There are a ridiculous number of options out there but eventually I settled on the TTL male body as I'd liked the female version I'd used for Skara before, and it was pretty cheap too. I sculpted his head myself, and although it looks more like his long lost cousin with wonky eyes, huge eyebrows and a massive nose, the resemblance is close enough to pass.

 

 

The hair's definitely wrong though, I didn't realise it was so red until after it had all been glued in!

AND I cut it too short as well - sorry Brenn! D:

I based his main outfit on the tavern clothes from the game, along with a few personalised touches. As with Skara and Breanaa, my take on this is more inspired by than carbon copies of in-game items, which gives me a lot of freedom to come up with interesting bits and pieces.

The only things I didn't make in this picture are the body and the bottle!

The Gauldur Amulet was made from painted and weathered fimo and a belt pouch from a finger of an old leather glove.

His shoulder bag was made from scrap leather and contains more than a few interesting items...

A book on Alteration magic...

...and a bloodstained journal...

...containing some bounty letters and equally bloodstained notes!

Brenn also came across a book far more suited to Skara than himself - Shadowmarks - written by a member of the Thieves Guild!

I copied the text and diagrams from the game version for all the books and notes so they're accurate to the lore even if not completely in appearance. (although I managed to put the text and images on the opposite sides for Shadowmarks, whoops!)  I know its only a minor detail and aside from these photos, they'll likely never be seen again but *I* know they're there,and I get a real kick out of knowing that.
 I had way too much fun making the books and I'm really pleased with the weathering on the pages.

Just in case, he's also got a handy pocket-sized map of Skyrim in case he gets lost.

(which he does, rather a lot.)

As mentioned earlier, one of his companions in the game is Jorin, a lovely little Arctic Fox who follows him around, helps out in fights and gathers alchemy ingredients for him if left unattended. (courtesy of this fantastic mod, which I would really recommend!)

I loved the name he came with and couldn't bear to change it so Jorin he remains. I wanted him to be as poseable as possible so in addition to his ultra flexible skeleton, he has a hinged jaw!

He has ball-joined ears too, which give him heaps of personality. Unfortunately one has snapped since taking these photos, and I can't fix it without major surgery so it had to be glued in place permanently.

He has the softest fur imaginable, and he's so incredibly tactile! He doesn't look fantastically fox-like, but he doesn't have as evil an expression as his in-game counterpart so that's something I suppose.

The opening mouth comes in very handy when it comes to holding props...

Look what I found!

...but also looks unintentionally hilarious from the side. XD

He definitely looks better when presenting smaller items...

...and investigating things!

I have many plans for the pair of them - not least the construction of Hof, the massively hairy horse!

The next post however, will contain many more props and interesting things, along with snow, glorious snow!