Vaermina’s Supernal cultists continue their ignoble attempts to undermine the Covenant from within, whilst Dark Elven slave ships menace Stormhaven’s southern coastline.  In Wayrest, whispers and bruit unsettle tavern and court alike that the wretched of the Reach are gathering in numbers once more and have fixed their ravening eyes upon both Wrothgar and Bangkorai.  All the while the strength of High Rock continues to battle bloody stalemate on the fields of Cyrodill… and still the anchors fall.

It is beneath these foul grapnels, forged under Dremoran whip in Coldharbour’s infernal foundries, that the night seems darkest.   When the hooded cultists gather, and sacrifice is raised, hatred riles the air about; sudden winds, swirling mists, and the grind of chain heralds the arrival of the Daedric swarm to the outer darkness.

Tamriel is a land of banners, a continent of disparate peoples united only in our fear of one another.  That fear is everywhere, we see it in our minds, feel it in our hearts, it whispers to our dreams, and it sits upon us like a virus.  It is this fear that makes us stay silent in the face of dark deed and greater evil.

Yet it is here under the shadow of the anchors that I find hope.  I have come to realize that I am not as singular as the old man would have me believe.  I am but one of a thousand, and together we stand beneath the Worm cults rifts, to greet the Lord of Brutalities horde with resolve sharpened, and weapons drawn.

Let these cursed monsters come, let them drink deep agony; let them feel the fear that has for too long tormented our families.  Let us show this Molag Bal that though we continue to quarrel one amongst another, we will willingly stand back to back with our most feared enemies when our quarrel is with him.

S.K

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A local Goblin tribe has overrun the Breton fort at Cumberland’s Watch and an overzealous Captain Rama is recruiting anyone passing to take up arms against them.  Whilst nearby the scholar Nellic Sterone studies the Goblins camp, and laments that the Stonechewers are one of the few remaining primitive tribes left in High Rock.

Whilst I have no fondness for Goblins, growing up in Cyrodiil I remember witnessing firsthand the devastation a Goblin pillaging party could wreck on isolated farmsteads, they would almost never risk open conflict with human soldiery unless provoked or incited by outside influence.  Barbaric, primitive and violent are certainly traits to be found in Goblins, but cruelty, hateful and conniving… they are the providence of men and mer.

If not for the Banners war, I firmly believe that the Stonechewers would also have found themselves driven from Breton lands by now.  It is not that primitives and beasts cannot learn to coexist with us; it is that we cannot be trusted to coexist with them.

S.K

It is said of Queen Maraya that her beauty is celestial, boundless, and compelling.  That her eyes shine radiantly like gemstones set in white marble, and that her smile is like the edge of a sunrise.  The Jewel of Satakalaam, wife of the High King, firstborn of King Fahara’jad of Sentinel.  It was her great beauty that gave rise to Rancer’s wrath, and upon which the foundations for this Daggerfall Covenant were built.

It is true, she is very beautiful.  But the beauty of the flesh cannot sustain a union of divergent banners for long, because it takes but a cloud to blind us from the sun.  It is clear however that there is more to Queen Maraya then what is seen.  She has climbed from the depths, rising above her own struggles of loss and pain, to offer compassion, gentleness, and empathy to her people in their time of need.  This is the beauty of Maraya, Queen of Wayrest, and it is a beauty upon which the foundations for this Daggerfall Covenant will endure.

S.K

The Dream Shard is returned to Pariah Abbey, and back under the care of Azura’s Spirit Wardens.  Although it is an uncomfortable thought leaving such a dangerous artefact under the protection of monks, at least it is with the people who will benefit from it the most.  The alternative would be to lock it away in Wayrest, where it could be seen by only the privileged few.  Already because of greed and fear too much beauty in this world will never be seen in the light of the sun.

It is a risk, but should we sit in darkness because every time we light a torch we cast new shadows?

No, the Dream Shard may not be in the safest place, but it is in the right place.  For every freedom we have is a risk, but it is a risk worth fighting for, because it is the ability to risk that defines us as free.

S.K