More Rumarin Headcanons: What Are You Hiding And How Tall Are You Anyway?

[tippetariuswrites]

It's a brand new year, so it feels like a good time to post more Rumarin headcanons. Contains very minor spoilers for the Skyrim fanfic I keep working on.

On cooking: Rumarin is a good cook. He puts himself down a lot, but his cooking is one of the few things he takes real pride in. Rumarin has strong opinions about food in general, and one of the best ways to put him in a bad temper is to oversalt his stew, overcook his steak, or boil the life out of his greens.

On his appearance: Rumarin cares about how he looks. He's a weird misfit, yes, but he puts some effort into his misfit appearance. He takes the trouble to paint his face every day. Though he claims to hate mages, he wears fake College robes to give the impression that he is in fact a mage. He keeps a small beard, and his hair is neatly pulled back (though you could argue it's only tidy because of Skyrim's limited hairstyle options). I think you could make a case for Rumarin secretly being either a little bit vain or a little bit insecure about his appearance.

On being a bladebinder: Rumarin made up the bladebinder title. It amuses me to believe that Rumarin hides some of his insecurities behind a theatrical title that he invented for himself. It fits with dialogue where he tries to convince other people that bladebinding is the best thing ever and they should totally try it. But it's also sad, because it was Otero who helped him learn how to summon weapons; that's the biggest reason why Rumarin treats bound weapons almost as though they're core to his identity.

On unconventional uses for bound weapons: Summoning weapons is the only type of spell Rumarin has mastered, and that's forced him to get creative. Rumarin doesn't use bound weapons only for combat. If you don't have a lantern and you can't summon a magelight, the glow of a bound dagger can light your way in a pinch. He's also used a bound dagger for preparing food, and a bound axe for shoveling snow.

On being a halfwit: Rumarin may act the fool and call himself "half a halfwit," but it's another front. He's paying attention to what's going on, and the wheels in his head are always turning. He puts down his intelligence partly because he wants to be underestimated, partly because he likes to avoid responsibility, and partly because deep down, he really does have a low opinion of himself.

On Rumarin's stories about his life: He's not telling you everything about himself. Why does he talk so much about Otero but say next to nothing about his parents? Why did he get so depressed and think of himself as "useless" after successfully rescuing a girl's mother from bandits, even if it did cost him all his money? How did he learn to summon weapons from a spell tome when Rumarin's entire quest is built around his claim that he can't learn anything from books? I have my own answers for these questions, but the point is, Rumarin is holding back a lot. I'm sure that's part of what fuels the Thalmor theory. Speaking of which...

On the Thalmor theory: I don't think Rumarin is a Thalmor. I know it's a popular idea (and Kris Takahashi seems to like teasing Rumarin fans with this possibility), but I don't see a plausible way to make it work without turning Rumarin's past with Otero into a series of lies, and I'm afraid going that far breaks the character for me. That, and I don't think Rumarin is cut out for the discipline and high expectations that would come with goose-stepping in a Thalmor uniform. That said, Rumarin doesn't exactly keep his nose clean. I can see him working for the Thalmor in an unofficial capacity, either because he needs the money or because he's afraid for his neck.

On Rumarin's height: Rumarin claims to be an inch shorter than the average high elf, but how tall is that? Does he even know, or is he trying to make another weird joke?

To begin guessing at how tall he is, it would help to know the height of the average high elf. I've seen 6'8" proposed several times, but I have no idea what that's based on. While Altmer are certainly the tallest race in Tamriel, they don't seem abnormally so. That is, they're reasonably scaled with everyone else in Skyrim, and they don't appear to be in constant danger of hitting their heads on door frames. Either everyone is on the tall side, or Altmer are only so tall.

I lean towards the heights proposed by someone in an Elder Scrolls Wiki discussion thread, who based the math on Skyrim's actual scaling of the races. This puts Altmer at 6'4" or so. If you want to go with Morrowind scaling, then the typical Altmer is a shade taller at 6'5". Either way, that's pretty dang tall for an average height, and you can expect to find elves who are even taller.

All of that is to say I headcanon Rumarin as somewhere around 6'3" or 6'4", slightly taller than your typical Nord (just enough to annoy them).