Whilst still in grieving for the loss of her beloved sister Lakana at the Alcaire Castle, it is no surprise that Queen Maraya worries for the safety of her father. She speaks of rumours of an evil risen in the Alik’r, a threat that the desert people have not faced for many years.  She asks of me, as the King’s champion, if I would travel to the home of the Redguard and investigate these rumours on her behalf.

I will not journey to Sentinel as the King’s Champion.

For I remember too well, that whilst the High King wallowed in his own melancholy and self-doubt in the Dreamweaver’s nightmares, it was the Queen who, despite suffering her own grievous loss and pain, stood firm to offer strength and empathy to the people of Stormhaven in their time of most need.

Maraya is no mere consort, she is a leader, and it is her compassion that fills the hearts of the people with hope; like a bright doorway on a cold winter’s night, or the first blossoms of spring, she is the very soul of the Daggerfall Covenant.

She is a Queen, and I shall travel to the Alik’r as the Queen’s champion.

S.K

The nobles and notables of Rivenspire gather at Shornhelm castle for the coronation of a new King or Queen of Shornhelm.  High King Emeric admits that the triumvirate was a mistake and has come North to choose between the Baron Dorell and Countess Tamrith for who should rule over this fractured land.

Or rather curiously, he has proxied that decision to a foreign-born former Imperial soldier without a soul, who has twice now cut the High King down with his sword, albeit in the nightmare realms of Vaermina and Sheogorath.

Countess Tamrith promises to restore the faith, prioritizing care for the displaced, and rebuilding Rivenspire with the peoples interests at its heart; whilst the Baron promises to lead with a firm hand, primarily strengthening the countries defences by rebuilding the Shornhelm guard to protect land and people.

I firmly believe both would make capable rulers, but disparate times requires particular leaders.  Only with hindsight, that vice of the historian, could I be sure that I was making the correct decision, but as the Argonian’s are fond of saying, one should never ride a Guar up a mountain backwards.

Rebuilding this land and its people will require hard, unpopular, and unpalatable decisions.  When it came to making such a decision about his son, for right or wrong, Baron Dorell showed he was both willing and capable to make it.  If High Rock was at peace, I may well have chosen differently, but the Three Banners war shows no sign of end, and the anchors still fall.

S.K

Montclair is defeated, and the cursed relic has been removed from Tamriel, yet Rivenspire’s noble houses cannot yet rest their guard.  Montclair loyalists, led by a hitherto unknown nephew, still operate throughout the region, and they have made targets of Adusa-daro and the vampire house Ravenwatch.

Even for a soldier an unforeseen assassin is almost certain death, but an assassin expected, is but a coward with a very small knife.

S.K

A memory of his tenderness,
as sorrowful as a caged Netch,
like the sojourn of her first tear,
in parting anguish of one so dear.
A memory of his windless words,
like Kynareth’s sigh, felt unheard,
shackles her heart with silken chains,
she thought grief but mortal’s pain.
An arid trance of lingering gloom,
yet fervid dreams of phoenix plume,
crisp night air, and fresh morn’s hew,
a rose, a thorn, and a memory of you.

S.K

Atop the minatory spire of Doomcrag, overlooking the ruins of the once great Ayleid city of Erokii, Abagandra, the Lightless Remnant, casts its claret flush.

Originally Lattanya, the Light of Life, the relic was forged by the greatest of the Ayleid sorcerers and brought to High Rock by the migrating Mer, either by design, mistake, or fate.  The early Ayleid settlers suffered from disease and starvation in the barren wilderness, but the Remnant of Light healed their sickness and cured their hunger by bringing life to the infertile highlands.

However, the ancient Elves and their magics were not welcomed by High Rock’s original inhabitants who saw them as invaders and many a bloody and brutal conflict was fought.  High were the casualties on both sides, giving rise to savage dispositions, and the relic became tainted by the barbarity and bloodshed that surrounded it, eventually changing into the Abagandra.  Now it spread sickness instead of remedy; decay instead of growth.

Those who sought the relics catholicon would only find the torment in feral undeath or the curse of vampirism.  Unable to destroy the Remnant for fear of it unleashing its corruption across all the land, the relic was locked away atop the spire, behind tight guard and cunning trap.  Eventually the Alyeid civilization withered as all must; Erokii, the greatest city in northwest Tamriel fell to ruin and Abagandra became lost to myth and superstition.

That was until an Argonian necromancer named Reezal-Jul appeared with a shard of the relic and convinced the Rivenspire nobles, the vampire Count Ravenwatch and Baron Montclair, to use it on the Baron’s dying wife.  The shard seemed to have a propitious effect upon the Lady, but not enough to fully cure her.  The Argonian persuaded Montclair and Ravenwatch to ascend the cursed Doomcrag to find the fabled relic and imbue the Baroness with its full power.

The nobles were deceived however, for the moment Ravenwatch came into contact with the Lightless Remnant, his vampiric blight intensified the relic’s corruption and the ailing Baroness was turned wild bloodfiend, whilst Reezal-Jul, Montclair, and his daughter were turned full vampire.  Abagandra fed upon the maddening grief of the Montclairs and worked through them to threaten the entire population of Rivenspire.

Count Ravenwatch eventually returned to the Doomcrag to sever the Montclair’s connection to the cursed relic.  The vampire Count’s former ‘master’, the Daedric prince Molag Bal, agreed to take Abagandra safely from this realm into Coldharbour, upon a single proviso, that Count Ravenwatch would go with it.

S.K