The wedding in Bergama of the Crown bride Tiela, to the Forebear groom Casnar, is much more then just a ballad of a young couples love. It is also the coupling of two prominent families on opposite sides of an ideological divide. Whether this union proves to be an anthem in Redguard history, or but a passing moment like a single grain of sand in an hourglass, cannot yet be foretold.

But if the Elder Scrolls teach us anything it is that every moment before and after this one, depends upon this one. For we mortals live our lives moment to moment, with each grain of sand that falls being affected by  every word we sing, and every note we play, so that the melody of history is never quite the same again.

S.K

Beneath the hustle and bustle of the Bergama bazaar where market vendors and their patrons haggle exuberantly over aromatic spice and exotic fruit. Beneath the Bergama family homes, where both Crown and Forebear partitioned by ideology, eat of the same food, drink the same drink, play the same games, and sleep in identical beds. Beneath the Bergama Fighter’s Guild, where warriors both young and old sharpen skill and blade in anticipation of bragging their valour at the next anchor to fall upon the near-by Myrkwasa dolmen. Beneath the mages studying in their tower, trying to make sense of a senseless land where they are mistrusted as equally by ally and enemy alike. Beneath the Stone Oasis Inn where the Redguard Bard Mahasti sings like a mermaid of the desert sands, her silken voice rolling across the golden dunes in somniferous waves. Beneath Bergama’s extravagantly decorated hall of judgement, where the magistrate and her bailiffs strive to hold the city together against malevolent influence, both within and without the city walls.

The Breton’s have a saying that goes, ‘A city is not judged by the height of it’s minarets and spires, but by the depths of its sewers.’

Beneath her streets, Bergama hides a most dreadful secret.

S.K

The Hall of Judment, though far more palatial in style then administrative, is where Bergama’s Magistrate Sulma holds office.  Traditionally Crown dominated, the recent inflow of Forebears into Bergama has created tension within its walls. Yet there have been Forebear families here for generations living peaceably alongside their Crown brethren. It is only when the balance of power and influence begins to shift one way or another, as when the Forebear King installed a Forebear magistrate, that unease and disquietude unchecked swiftly turns to narrow-mindedness and bigotry.

Residents have began mysteriously disappearing from the streets and people are looking at each other under suspicious brows. Magistrate Sulma claims the rumours of the disappearances have been exaggerated, but Justice Istah is much less the politician and discreetly asks for my help in his investigation as in the current climate, both Crown and Forebear would rather point their fingers in judgment, then extend their hands in aid.

S.K

The desert city of Bergama is the second largest settlement in all the Alik’r. Founded deep in the barren wastes some two thousand years ago, it stands as an island in the midst of an arid ocean. Parched yellow waves wear and gnaw at her once proud, ornate walls that were built high to repel tusked natives. Now however, the city’s residents complain they are no longer big enough to keep out the encroaching sands; nor the ever encroaching influence of the outside world.

For hundreds of years the Crown traditionalists of the Hollow Wastes have held hard to their Yokudan heritage and religion, whilst the more liberal-minded Forebears of the coastal cities long ago began to abandon worship of the old gods in favour of the more cosmopolitan pantheons. Their city laws are now set by a Forebear Magistrate, and they can do little but stand by and watch as the Forebear King takes their youth away from them to fight for foreign soil under the blue banners of a Breton.

It is little wonder then that the Crowns of Bergama mistrust the shadow of every stranger that enters her arched gateways; and yet there’s the rub, for Bergama is a city built upon trade and barter. Its stalls offer ware and goods from across Hammerfell and beyond. The famed Bergama Bazaar spans almost the entire city, gate to gate, selling everything from colourful textiles to dull-plated armour, scavenged relics to fresh painted canvas, bland flavoured dried meats to spice, incense and balm. Indeed, it is said that even amidst the fiercest Alik’r sandstorm, a man of Bergama can always find his way home by the smell of the spice market.

The city itself, once grand and ornate, retains a grim beauty; It is not just in the people of Bergama that the heritage of the Yokuda lives on. The Stone Oasis Inn is perhaps the largest building in the city, offering much needed shelter and refreshment to the many travellers that consider her a valuable desert harbour. The august golden-domed Hall of Judgement holds the most prominent location, and the Fighters Guildhall can be found at the very heart of the city. The Mages Guild Tower however stands apart, perhaps reflecting the opinion still shared by many Crown and Forebear alike, that the practice of magic is as unnatural as it is untrustworthy.

But Bergama is not be just the sum of its buildings, it is the history and legacy of a long lost land; but also it is an hourglass running out of sand, its future as fickle and uncertain as its people. For just as a life lived in the desert colours a man’s cheeks, stiffens his jawline, and sets lines in his face with every laugh and frown; so the sands of time have taken their toil upon Bergama; its once colourful canopys fade in the desert sun, its wooden structures dry and grow brittle, and its stone walls crack and crumble.

There is always hope however, for whilst the people of Bergama live in fear of words and ideas carried in to their homes upon the relentless desert winds, it is only ever in the songs of mediocre bards that people are wholly divided, having nothing in common and nothing to share with one another. Once a year the people of Bergama, both Crown and Forebear, welcomes all of Tamriel though her gates to celebrate with them the New Life Festival, and take part in the challenge of the signal fire sprint in honour of the Bergama heroine, Zoreh the Tenacious.

S.K