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Whatever caused these old bones--these Draugr--to rise, Viglad dispatched them without hesitation. This earth was no fit place for the walking bones of his countrymen, and if he could help them pass on to the next, he'd do it willingly, rather sooner than later. He checked where Lydia stood and let fly his axe.

Viglad had never been the violent type. His conciliatory, gentle nature had proved a contrast to the more belligerent attitudes of the boys of his village. Viglad hadn't liked these hotheads and the feeling was mutual; his unwillingness to engage in the fistfights that served to establish a youthling dominance hierarchy, had caused the continued estrangement from his peers and his eventual ostracization. The men of the village--tasked to train the Haafingar boys to become proud Nord warriors--had been happy to exclude him from their care. Save the one--the village blacksmith--an immigrant from Hammerfell, who had been tasked to take Viglad in as an apprentice. This man had shown him a way of fighting that did agree with the boy. He had taught him to see a weapon for what it was: a tool; even if well-tempered and honed to perfection, never more than a tool--always a crude but essential extension of the body.

During the years in which Viglad remained under his care, the blacksmith had continued to teach Viglad ceaselessly: the crafting of steel by day and come nightfall the weaving together of thrusts and swerves and feints and parries. But always in secret. The man had instructed him to choose the most unwieldy, unbalanced weapon of all, and each night, when the work of the day had been done, they would retreat to a small pebble beach hidden from the village by dunes and trees. And there his mentor taught Viglad to dance; to use the motion of his body to propel the weight of the big, clumsy axe the boy had wrought himself. He had taught him to not simply strike with all his force focused on a single impact, but to allow the head of the axe to arc through the air in sweeping motions, to plan it's flight and to increase it's momentum, continuing its path even after impact. In the hands of his teacher, the axe would become a weapon of agility instead of brute force, and over time Viglad learned to master this dance that would allow him to strike as swiftly, repeatedly, and surely as a man wielding daggers.

M A T E R I A L_+_M E T H O D S
1440p rendering, custom FXAA-injection for anti-aliasing and tonemapping, Midhrastic ENB (.111) wrapper and palette with SSAO, grain and bokeh DoF, using free camera, custom FOV, no-HUD, time and weather control, Puppeteering and the Director's Tools.

Viglad's gear: Letho/Kingslayer armor with Novice Hood; Sabre gear backpack; bandolier; Headsman Axe. His face is composed of customised Geonox's maps, with Gizmodian's scars and a custom facepaint.

S E L E C T E D__W O R K S