Aldunz, one of many Dwarven cities hidden deep beneath the rocks of Hammerfell, preserved against the atrophy of time not only by the scouring sands, but by a self-sustaining society of automatons that scuttle the corridors long after their architects disappeared.

But Aldunz hides a peculiar secret, as I delve deeper towards its heart I come across the extinguished bodies of Atronachs and the charred shells of defunct machines. A hidden war is being waged in the deepest chambers of this forgotten city, between the machines of the Dwemer, and flame Atronachs of the volcanic mountains into which this settlement was built.

We may never know how or when it started, perhaps the machines burrowed too deep, or the mountains lava bit a fresh course. Maybe the land itself brought the two together with quake or tremor, or was it the bumbling excavations of a modern day archaeologist that sparked this conflict.

In truth, it is an inconsequential war, a war that cannot be won, only survived. A war without good or bad, right or wrong; a war fought solely because the two sides cannot communicate with one another… but then, aren’t all wars like that.

S.K