Northern Cyrodiil is littered with ancient Ayleid ruins that were built into the foothills of it’s mountain ranges. Most are now blocked and inaccessible to the modern explorer, and some believe this is for the good; that the evils waged by the heartland elves is a history best buried. Others of course, like the scholars and archaeologists attempting to break into these lost settlements, disagree, arguing that only by looking at what lies beneath our feet, can we learn not to repeat.

So what can we learn from the perceived evils of the Ayleids? Their eventually downfall seems to have began with the rise in the influence of the Daedric cults, especially amongst their kings and aristocrats. Indeed, their domination and enslavement of the Nedic people for generations was enabled by their deals with the Princes, with entire armies of Daedra helping them to conquer and subjugate other cultures.

But it also led to a fierce civil war between the Aedra and Daedra-worshipping Ayleids of Cyrodiil, and even wars amongst themselves; it was in the company of Sees-All-Colors that I witnessed first-hand the conflict between the city states of Abagarlas and Delodiil. And eventually when the Nedic peoples rose up during the Alessian Slave Rebellion, many rebel Aedra-worshipping Mer joined forces with Alessia to help her take the White-Gold Tower, thus founding the Alessian Empire, and the resulting Ayleid diaspora.

How familiar this history to the downfall of our own Imperial Empire, which arguably began when Emperor Leovic legalized Daedra worship. Perhaps the Longhouse Emperors should have been looking more closely at what lay beneath their feet.

S.K