I haven’t written much about Varga, so I’m going to talk about him now.
He and his brother Sargon are Dremora. They were the first of their kind, and came out of the Aurbis before all others. Because of this, they are the only real legend the Dremora have; being immortal, normally in Dremora society if you hear a story you can just ask someone who was there at the time and find out what really happened from them. There’s no such thing as a myth to the timeless Dremora. There may be misinformation and lies, but there are no myths.
Except, of course, for Sargon and Varga. No one was there to see their beginnings. They are called the First Brothers, and there are a few different versions of the story of their origin but most of them involve their having been one entity at the point of their creation that was split into two halves by the forces of chaos and change to keep them from unbalancing the world. They are still tremendously powerful, even for Dremora, and as living legends they are held in very high regard by other Dremora.
I’ll write more about their backstories later. There’s a hell of a lot more than I have the energy to write here or that I’d imagine you have the energy to read, but suffice to say for now that when Val was banished from Oblivion and aided Elatos and the people of Mundus in closing Oblivion gates, he, as a Valkynaz, was able to convince a handful other Dremora to defect and rebel against Mehrunes Dagon, and Sargon and Varga were amongst them. When the Oblivion Crisis was over, these rebels were unable to return to Oblivion and made a home for themselves in Mundus, somewhere well away from the mortal men and mer who fear them in spite of the help they offered in repelling Dagon’s attack, and they called it Freedom’s Fortress. Elatos and Val would come to stay there, too, after they were driven from Elatos’ home in Morrowind during the Red Year.
While Sargon spent aeons as Dagon’s highest and most important servant, Varga had a rather less fortunate fate than his brother. It’s said that the Dremora did not always work for Mehrunes Dagon, and when Dagon came to request their services, not all of them were willing. Varga was amongst those, and Dagon punished him for his rebellion by shutting him away in a dark place, only bringing him out when Sargon, who was loyal to Dagon, needed to be brought back in line.
A near-eternity locked away alone in the dark has left Varga with a terrible loneliness in his heart. He wants nothing more than to have friends to be near to, but because of who he is - a living legend, no less - the other Dremora at Freedom’s Fortress aren’t nervous of him, exactly, but they maintain a respectful distance. Even after two centuries none of them have the audacity to come as close to Varga as he would like them to.
It’s a good thing, then, that he would have someone like Elatos around, who knows to treat Varga like a person rather than a dignitary.
Dremora are intelligent and social. Varga needs company, and after spending so much time locked up by himself, it can be distressing for him that no one is brave enough to give him the close companionship he craves. While it’s true that Elatos is no Dremora, he does what he can to comfort Varga when he needs it, and the best way he’s found to soothe the old Dremora is to brush him.
Varga loves a good brush. He has an awful lot of hair. It’s more a mane than hair, really. Just calling it “hair” doesn’t really do it justice, and while he can take care of it perfectly well by himself, having someone else to brush it and mess with it while they chat to him is very theraputic. There’s that much thick, coarse hair that Elatos has taken to using a big dandybrush, like the kind one would usually use on a horse, and it can take a long time to get it all brushed. That’s fine. Varga will sit there and take it for as long as Elatos is willing to give it.
Unfortunately though, one doesn’t come out of thousands of years of abuse and solitary confinement without a few troublesome issues. While Varga is normally perfectly civilised - very well-spoken, wise and intelligent, and as gentle as a butterfly unless there’s dire need for him to throw his considerable weight around - he can be triggered, as he is very fearful. Things like being left completely alone or in the dark, especially in unfamiliar places, make him nervous, and he is intensely claustrophobic.
Perhaps more dangerously, though, Varga is fearful of strange Dremora. He knows he has nothing to fear from mortals, as no mortal could ever be strong enough to dream of harming him, but other Dremora have been a source of abuse and distress for Varga for time beyond that which mortals can imagine. This can manifest itself to truly disastrous effect, especially when Varga is in a situation where he is already afraid - in a dark place, or when he is alone, for example - and in these cases his response will almost invariably be terrible fear aggression.
This is compounded by the fact that spending so long shut away in total darkness has left Varga with fairly poor vision. His right eye is also a little cloudy, although this seems to be nothing more than scar tissue and doesn’t appear to be getting any worse. In a dark place, it is easy for Varga to mistake just about any humanoid figure as a stranger, and therefore as a threat. Being as powerful as he is, it is all too easy for Varga to accidentally kill or severely maim out of fear. Those who know Varga and his fears are all too aware of how important it is to loudly announce oneself before approaching him in any situation where Varga may be distressed or likely to be triggered.
The obvious solution to all of this, however, is for Varga to avoid being left alone. So long as someone familiar is nearby, although he may become anxious in the dark or in an unfamiliar, closed-in place, he can be trusted to remain in control of his fears.
