577. The twice betrayed

Posted on Apr 21, 2022 by Tamriel Drifter

How numb have I now become to the agonies of Tamriel. The more oft I see things around me – even the wicked, vile, and hateful things – the more they have become invisible to me. In the same way that I often used to take for granted the beauty of this world, in these times of strife I have seen the awful so oftentimes, that I see them now less and less.

At the Proving Grounds Dolmen in Craglorn, the corpses of the Mages Guild members who fought so valiantly for our freedom lie abandoned, their sacrifice disregarded and unhonoured, treated with as little lament as the Worm Cultists that rot alongside. These Mages were not the victims of the cultists or their Daedric allies however, but of the very atronachs they summoned to defend against Molag Bals incursion. It seems as soon as the Dark Anchors were defeated, the atronachs of the Celestial Mage turned upon Craglorn and its defenders.

The Celestial Thief wants to discover how and why, and for that we need to find a conjurer named Kelmen Locke, the sole survivor of this most unmerciful betrayal.

~~S.K~~

576. How do you fight against an enemy you know you cannot defeat?

Posted on Apr 14, 2022 by Tamriel Drifter

The fallen aspects of the Celestial Mage gather to confront their corrupted sister beneath the blighted city of Elinhir. They say that the Lost One has grown too strong for any mortal to defeat, and fear that she may prove more powerful than the four of them combined. But the Aspects have a plan. They hope that by rejoining with their twin they might divide her within themselves, and together they can fight the Serpent’s corruption from within. But for this to work they will need a distraction… namely me.

Unfortunately, she seems to have anticipated their course and fled to the Celestial Apex Stone, the very device which allows the Celestials to manifest upon our plane. It was the Apex Stone that was sought by the Serpent in his artful deal with the Blackcaster Mages which led to the fall of the city above. By his befoulment of the stone the Serpent corrupted the will of the Lost One, and unless their plan works, this will be the inevitable fate to befall all the Aspects.

576 (d). How do you fight against an enemy you know you cannot defeat

576 (e). How do you fight against an enemy you know you cannot defeat

576 (f). How do you fight against an enemy you know you cannot defeat

As I engage with the Lost One it is clear we have been expected for she knows her siblings are close. She is indeed powerful, using the elements as if they were a part of her, and summoning atronachs of every hue to defend her. As much as I try to close the gap to attack her, most of the battle all I can do just try to stay alive.

How do you fight against an enemy you know you cannot defeat? Like the proverbial cornered beast, breath by breath, tooth and nail. For the animal with it’s foot caught in a trap does not yield to despair; It is too busy fighting to survive. The truth is, when you fight any battle you never know whether you will win or lose, you fight to survive… or you won’t. The greatest act of courage for mortals is not to be found in vainglorious victory, nor in valiant defeat, but in surviving your battles, to learn the lessons, tell the tales, and witness another dawn.

I have fought my battle, it now up to the aspects of the Celestial Mage to fight theirs.

576 (i). How do you fight against an enemy you know you cannot defeat

576 (j). How do you fight against an enemy you know you cannot defeat

~~S.K~~

575. A reflection upon Elinhir

Posted on Apr 12, 2022 by Tamriel Drifter

Trust is much like a mirror in that when it breaks you can piece it back together, but you will never again be able to look at it’s reflection without first seeing the cracks.

The wards to the Apex Tower in Elinhir have been broken and now Minerva Lauzon begins her ritual to breach the tower doors. Lauzon is a former apprentice to Yamanu-ko of the Blackcaster Mages Guild, but unlike Leta and Avys, she realized that life is a price too high to pay for knowledge.

She believes that defeating Yamanu-ko may be enough to break the cycle of the Serpent’s savage spell. But Yamanu-ko has grown ever more powerful in her tower feeding upon the magicka drained from her fellow mages in the city below. I have faith though that we can overcome, for just as wielding a blade is not strength, knowledge is not power. Those to whom knowledge is gifted, no matter how hard or long they have strived for it, oft prove little wiser than they were before.

Elinhir was once a city built upon faith and trust. For centuries its people put their trust in the mages to keep their city a safe bastion in the wastelands of Hammerfell for those who sought refuge from empires and wars. The mages were eventually to betray that faith however, by putting their own trust in the words of the Serpent’s envoy.

The city of Elinhir now lies in ruins and the people may never again want to put their trust in Lauzon and the mages, but this city cannot possibly be rebuilt without them. We all make mistakes, do wrong things, things that sometimes have bad consequences; it does not mean however that we can never be trusted ever again. But if the people of Elinhir can not ever see beyond the cracks in the mirror then perhaps they should let this city, the City of Mages, fall into dust.

S.K

574. To imitate the aggression of the Clannfear

Posted on Apr 11, 2022 by Tamriel Drifter

Daedra have a nasty habit of appearing in Tamriel where we least expect them, perhaps the thing for us to do is to always expect them.

574 (b). To imitate the aggression of the Clannfear

574 (c). To imitate the aggression of the Clannfear

574 (d). To imitate the aggression of the Clannfear

I discovered that the Eastern apprentice tower in the besieged city of Elinhir is full of Clannfear. The quarrelsome little beasts are by their very nature aggressive against all but their masters. Swift and nimble, a single Clannfear is more then a handful, but when they hunt together in packs, which they oft do, they can prove to be quite deadly.

Mortal troubles and strife seems to attract them like a Breton noble is attracted to gaudy cloths, but these particular beasts seem to have been deliberately summoned by the Blackcaster Avys Areleth to protect his tower. The High-Elf mage favours the use frost magic, presumably to slow down his adversary giving his daedric pets time to encircle and overwhelm.

574 (g). To imitate the aggression of the Clannfear

574 (h). To imitate the aggression of the Clannfear

The trick to fighting a sorcerer however is to imitate the aggression of the Clannfear. Jump on them quickly, stay on their chests throughout the fight, never let up, and never allow their summoned beasts to come in-between you and your prey.

S.K

573. Never tell a warrior the odds

Posted on Mar 31, 2022 by Tamriel Drifter

As I cross the malignant streets of Elinhir I spy what appears to be a portal aglow in a particularly dilapidated corner of the city. Back at the Crossroads Tavern in Belkarth, many a caravan driver and wayfarer had warned of rifts appearing across Craglorn, but this was the first I had encountered. At my approach six figures emerge from the fulgent light, their eyes ablaze with the purple glow of magicka, their faces twisted by delirium.

The scholar might measure six on one as somewhat unfavourable odds, but to the warrior one on six is a noble challenge. Besides, the true risk would be to leave this rift unclosed, for more of these spell-fiends could swift overrun the city and I may never make it through to the Apex Tower.

My shield crushed the skull of the final spell-fiend just in time for me to see the broiling flames and turbulent squall of atronachs stepping through the luminous portal. Soon they were joined by an enormous flesh atronach that damn near took my head off my shoulders with an arcing swing of its brutish clubbed arm.

The atronachs that have been attacking the region of late were thought to have been summoned by Craglorn mages to defend against the Dark Anchors of the insidious Planemeld, only to turn against their masters when the constellations disappeared from the sky. But these that are arriving through the rift appear to have ingressed from another realm entirely, and the atronachs patrolling the streets of Elinhir seem very much still under the influence of the Blackcaster Mages.

When the gods lash out at Tamriel, they scourge us with a whip of many tails.