Elisif the Dragon-Queen
is a series of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim fanfics by ms_katonic, following the adventures of Elisif, Skyrim's High Queen presumptive, as circumstances force her to transform from a mourning figurehead to the legendary Dragonborn and all-around badass.
The Wolf Queen Awakens (FFN link here; DeviantArt link here) covers the main plot of Skyrim and the Skyrim Civil War. Its sequel, Fearless Vampire Hunters (FFN link here), follows the Dawnguard DLC, starring Cicero and Eola. The third, longest, and currently ongoing fic, Age of the Dragon (FFN link here) crosses the series over with Dragon Age: Inquisition as a consequence of Elisif's attempt to restore her husband's health by petitioning the gods.
Elisif the Dragon-Queen contains examples of:
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The Wolf Queen Awakens
- Action Girl: Several female characters are all badasses in their own right, such examples include Elisif, Kaie, Jordis, Eola, and more.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- In canon, Njada was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who starts out being unhappy with the Dragonborn being allowed to join the Companions, but gradually warms up to them once they complete the Companion questline. Since the Njada in this fic is an Ulfric supporter, she treats Elisif (who is the Dragonborn) with outright hatred that drives her to betray the Companions and defect to the Stormcloaks.
- Heavily downplayed with Erikur, who was canonically a corrupt and arrogant snob, but sided with the Imperials during the civil war. However, here he is revealed to have been the one who hired the Dark Brotherhood to assassinate Elisif.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Despite betraying them to the Stormcloaks and having fought just minutes ago, Njada's death is portrayed in a sympathetic light. Ria cries over her body while Vilkas solemnly notes that she died with honor. In her dying breath, Njada acknowledges that Elisif was a Worthy Opponent and even calls her queen. Watching this leaves Elisif a bit teary-eyed and she resolves to make sure Njada didn't die for nothing.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: In Chapter 4, after training with the Greybeards, Elisif and her party are ambushed in Ivarstead by Ulfric, who intends to capture Elisif and force her to marry him. Elisif just barely manages to escape Ulfric's men thanks to Ria and Jordis staying behind to hold them off, and Aela and Skjor pulling The Cavalry in their werewolf forms.
- Ascended Extra: In the games, Elisif is a minor NPC. Here, she takes the player character's place as the Dragonborn.
- Assassin Outclassin': At the end of chapter 8, an assassin working for the Dark Brotherhood attempts to kill Elisif in her private bedroom. Having taken a level in badass, Elisif turns the tables on her would-be killer and blasts him with a "FUS RO DAH!" before finishing him off with Dawnbreaker.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Alduin the World-Eater and Ulfric Stormcloak. Alduin acts as an overarching threat to the world at large, being the one responsible for bringing back the dragons and inadvertently awakening Elisif's nature as the Dragonborn. Meanwhile, Ulfric serves as a more personal antagonist for Elisif, being the man responsible for killing her husband and trying to steal her throne by causing a civil war.
- Big "NO!": Eola in Chapter 39 when she sees Odvan get his neck snapped by a Wispmother.
- Cool Crown: After finding the Jagged Crown, which the the crown worn by Skyrim's High King, Elisif takes it as her own and wears it in battle.
- Crusading Widow: Elisif is one, having her husband murdered by Ulfric. She's partially motivated to avenge Torygg's death. She eventually succeeds in Chapter 30.
- Dance Battler: While training with the Companions, Elisif learns how to fight by mentally picturing it as a type of dance where the objective is to touch your partner without letting them touch you.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Jordis bites the bullet here when she pulls a You Shall Not Pass! to buy time for Elisif to escape a Stormcloak ambush.
- In the game, Njada survives Skyrim's civil war regardless of whoever wins. Here, she is killed by the draugr deathlord guarding Korvanjund Crypt.
- In the game, Babette survives the Dark Brotherhood purge. Here, she is killed alongside the rest of her brotherhood by the Blades in retaliation for the attempt on Elisif's life.
- The Thalmor kill most of the Thieves Guild in retaliation for Brynjolf‘s job with Elisif.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In canon, Skjor is killed by the Silver Hand when he assaults one of their forts during the Companions questline. Here, he is killed by the Stormcloaks while helping Elisif escape from an ambush set up by Ulfric.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Despite being built up as Elisif's Arch-Enemy, Ulfric Stormcloak is killed around halfway through the fic after Elisif challenges him to a duel for the throne and kills him, leaving Alduin as the sole remaining Big Bad of the story.
- Dual Wielding: At the start of her journey, Elisif wields a glass sword and an ebony axe into battle.
- Enemy Mine: In chapter 22, Elisif and her party are fighting the Stormcloaks over ownership of the Jagged Crown when they are interrupted by a trio of powerful draugr. Both sides briefly join forces against the undead, then go right back to fighting each other once all the draugr are destroyed.
- Flaming Sword: Deconstructed. A fire sword sounds cool on paper, but it's impractical in a duel because anytime you try to cut your opponent, the fire will instantly cauterize the wounds, keeping your enemy from bleeding out. Elisif finds this out the hard way when she tries to duel Ulfric using Dawnbreaker.
- Glacier Waif: While Elisif initially starts out wearing light armor, she eventually switches to wearing heavy armor and using physical force despite her light frame.
- Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure: When Elisif’s party visits Blackreach for the first time, her POV narration describes the underground cavern as being so vast that multiple Solitudes could fit inside.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Elisif's initial reaction to learning that she's the Dragonborn is to run to her bedroom, pull out a bottle of brandy and a glass, fill up the glass, then give up on the glass and instead chug straight from the bottle.
- Karmic Death: Elisif kills Ulfric by using the Thu'um during their duel and then striking the latter down while he was in a defenseless state, much like how Ulfric originally killed her husband.
- King Incognito: At the start of her journey, Elisif tries to hide her identity and uses the alias "Maia". It doesn't last long once word spreads that the High Queen is the Dragonborn and she eventually ditches her disguise altogether.
- May–December Romance: Eventually sprouts up between Elisif (who is twenty three) and Madanach (who is fifty nine).
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Averted when Elisif finally faces Ulfric. Despite wearing a full set of armor and having stronger weapons, Elisif spends most of the fight on the defensive due to her opponent being larger and physically stronger than her.
- No. Just... No: Elisif's response to Ulfric's proposal in Chapter 4.
- Not Helping Your Case: During the Moot in Chapter 49, Jarl Siddgeir tries to cash in on Elisif's fame as the Dragonborn by proposing she marries him in exchange for his political support. Elisif firmly turns him down and (in front of all the other jarls) confronts him over an incident years ago where he sexually assaulted her. Rather than deny it, Siddgeir digs himself deeper by protesting that he wouldn't have groped her had he known she was Torygg's girlfriend at the time, much to the disgust of Jarls Brina and Idgrod.
- Oh, Crap!: Elisif has this reaction after she narrowly survives an Assassination Attempt in her own bedroom and realizes that someone hired the Dark Brotherhood to kill her.
- Open Secret: Elisif's attempt to keep her identity secret while traveling through Skyrim quickly fails once word that she's the Dragonborn spreads. Even the people who don't know she's the High Queen can still tell that she's a person of high standing due to the way she carries herself and talks.
- Post-Victory Collapse: After killing Ulfric in a duel and defeating the remaining Stormcloaks in the Palace of Kings with the help of the Forsworn, Elisif falls unconscious in Madanach's arms from exhaustion.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Elisif at the start of the story when she insists on seeing the body of the dragon that was killed in the marketplace of her city.Elisif: I. Want. To. See it.
- The Purge:
- Like in canon, the Dark Brotherhood is eventually subjected to this. However, instead of the Dragonborn or the Penitus Oculatus, it's the Blades who assault the Sanctuary and massacre the assassins using intel provided by Cicero and Brynjolf.
- In retaliation for Brynjolf working for Elisf, the Thalmor lay one to the Thieves Guild. By the time Brynjolf and Etienne get back to the Cistrin, they discover Sapphire and Delvin are the only survivors (with the latter being healed by Karliah).
- Rags to Royalty: Prior to marrying Torygg, Elisif was born the daughter of a retired bard from High Rock and was caring for her father in Solitude where she first met her future husband at a party. She eventually married Torygg, thus making her a member of royalty. After Ulfric murdered Torygg, she became the sole High Queen of Skyrim.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Elisif delivers one to Torygg in Chapter 34 when she meets him in Sovngarde and learns how he deliberately kept her out of court affairs.Elisif: You kept me weak and ignorant on purpose! You left me dependent on you and helpless when you died, and you don't seem to care that it nearly killed me! And if I hadn't been Dragonborn, I'd still be like that! Trapped and helpless and miserable and it is all... your... FAULT!
- Related in the Adaptation:
- In canon, Kaie doesn't have any relation to Madanach. Here, she is his daughter.
- Eola and Kaie are sisters in this fic when there was nothing to indicate that they were ever related in canon. This also makes Eola Madanach's daughter by extension.
- Lydia is Hrongar's daughter here when that wasn't the case in canon.
- Rousing Speech: Rikke and Elisif deliver one to the defending Imperial army as they get ready for the Battle for Whiterun.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Elisif, who upon learning that she is the Dragonborn, sets out on a journey to master her Shouts and eventually saves the world.
- Second Love: During her adventures as the Dragonborn, Elisif eventually finds a second love after Torygg. It's Madanach, the King in Rags and Rebel Leader of the Forsworn. Despite the clear Age-Gap Romance between the two, they wind up Happily Married by the epilogue.
- Spare a Messenger: Elisif does this with Ralof in chapter 22. After slaughtering her way through a group of Stormcloaks guarding Korvanjund and claiming the Jagged Crown for herself, Elisif tells Ralof (who is the sole survivor of the battle) to return to Ulfric and let him know that she has the Jagged Crown and will be coming for him. She also spared him because she wants him to spread word of her story.
- Stay in the Kitchen:
- Following the Battle of Whiterun, Jarl Balgruuf expresses disapproval upon learning that Elisif actually took part in the battle herself, having thought that she would simply give a Rousing Speech then pull back to the city. Although this has less to do with Elisif being a woman and more to do with the fact that she is Skyrim's acting High Queen, and her death would leave Skyrim in a Succession Crisis.
- Deconstructed. Torygg deliberately kept Elisif out of political matters because he wanted to "protect" her and didn't feel that she needed to do any work of her own as his queen. Because of this, when Elisif was forced to become High Queen after Torygg was killed by Ulfric, she found herself completely unprepared to run a kingdom because she never learned how.
- Too Dumb to Live: Astrid refuses to call off the Dark Brotherhood's contract on Elisif even though she's the only person who can defeat Alduin and killing her would doom the entire world. This causes Brynjolf (a believer in Evil Versus Oblivion) to sell Astrid out to the Blades and results in the total annihilation of the Dark Brotherhood.
- Took a Level in Badass: Elisif's main character development throughout.
- Trauma Button: Ulfric's Shouts are one for Elisif because he used the Shout to murder her husband. While she gets better later on, when he uses them in his duel with her, she freezes up and cowers behind her shield.
- Wham Line: In chapter 42, Elisif is visited by Emperor Titus Mede II himself, who had heard of all she has accomplished as the Dragonborn. Titus confides to her that he secretly views himself as an Inadequate Inheritor to the Ruby Throne, believing that the reason for the Empire's decline was due to the lack of a Dragonborn Emperor, which leads to what he says next.Titus: I'm not Dragonborn. I don't have the gift of the dragon blood from Akatosh. I couldn't light the Dragonfires, couldn't wear the Amulet if it still existed. But you could.
- What If?: The story explore what happens when Elisif turns out to be the Dragonborn.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Jarl Balgruuf really lets Elisif have it upon learning that she teamed-up with the Forsworn to capture Windhelm and made Madanach its new Jarl, a man who, as far as Balgruuf is concerned, is a psychopathic terrorist out to enslave/exterminate the Nords, and Elisif might as well have handed the man an entire city of Nords to play with. Elisif gets Balgruuf to back off by revealing that she is the one who killed Ulfric in a duel (establishing that she is no gullible maiden) and rightfully boasting that she is more than capable of killing Madanach if he tries to double-cross her as Balgruuf fears.
- Xenafication: In the games, Elisif was a grieving Puppet Queen who was reliant on General Tullius to keep control. Here, she takes the role of the Player Character as the Dragonborn and develops into a bona fide warrior queen and dragon slayer.
- You Shall Not Pass!: When Elisif's party is ambushed by Ulfric and his men in chapter 4, Jordis and Ria decide to stay behind and hold the Stormcloaks off while Elisif escapes. She later learns from Aela that the Stormcloaks killed Jordis and captured Ria after she surrendered.
Fearless Vampire Hunters
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: It's eventually revealed that between The Wolf Queen Awakens and Fearless Vampire Hunters, Elisif fought and defeated Miraak after he sent some of his cultist assassins after her. Although she absorbed his soul, Elisif refused to devour it, resulting in Miraak's spirit residing in her mind and occasionally communicating with her through her dreams.
- Out of Focus: Elisif isn't the protagonist or a POV here.
- Time Skip: The story begins two years after the events of The Wolf Queen Awakens.
Age of the Dragon
- Crossover: With Dragon Age: Inquisition.
- Doorstopper: This is the longest fic out of the series by far, sitting at a whooping word count of over 750,000 words.
- Mama Bear: Eight and Maker help you if you threaten Maia, who is no slouch in the combat department herself, despite being five.
