Note: This letter written fifty-seven years after the Redguards arrived in Tamriel provides insight into their conflict with the Orcs. While the translation from the Yokudan tongue is rough, it serves as one of the few records written in that time.

To Jeriddus of the East Alik’r, 1E 865

You ask much of me, sister-daughter-son. To even request the account of such a battle is an affront to my honor. We defeated the green monster-elves, when a warrior has victory it is his right to deny a full account of the battle. You ask me to reveal mistakes made and men killed, I see my sister-daughter was weak on instruction of Ra’gada she expels from her womb. Even so, I pity you, as you pursue a trade-that-is-not-swordplay and wish to entertain soft-headed Ra’gada with humorous words and fake deaths. This trade is honored in the courts of the [Nedes and Bretons] to the West and the East of the Alik’r but to this pursuit I laugh.

I am content with my mockery of your honorless life-existence and this I pity deeply. In my pity I give you your wish, an account of our taking of this new place-of-living: Hammerfell.

It was Hunding who led the way, as the Ansei took their revenge on the Crowns that defeated them long before. They used their spirit-swords to cut the [untranslatable] sunk most-of-what-was Yokuda, land of my fathers. My father’s father’s father drove the left-handed elves from our home-that-was, winning much glory and many ears-with-points to wear as trophies. But the left-handed elves were driven off long ago. I have forgotten my quill-purpose, but Hunding led the way and saved many proud Ra’gada from the fire and chair that the Ansei wrought with their blades-that-are-not-blades. When I stepped from that boat, I was a man of strong arm and quick blade, strong of chest through much lifting and sword-hewing. I was close to Hunding and his son through many sword-victories where our armored backs pressed against each other in a manner of trust. The land dried the mouth and the plants were tough and bloodied our unshod feet to walk on for much time, but it felt as if every breath we took was a breath of unsoiled air, fresh from the dawn of the world.

We killed the left-handed elves in Yokuda, but some escaped on boats-that-held-many. We knew that they dwelt someplace in the much land-and-sea that coats the world, but we knew not of light-skinned men and folk-that-are-beasts, and we despaired for this land held not the beauty of our home-that-is-gone. We knew not of the forests and mountains to the North and East, but we grew to love the desert as we ran through them, sword-talking the weak men and beast men to leave our desert or die by our bright bronzed blades. They could not learn our tongues and we wished not to learn theirs, for our weapons acted as our tongues in those dawns and dusks of conquest. Alas, for the land was wide and we knew not that beastfolk and green elves-which-we-knew-not-of gathered to defend their home-that-became-our-home.

More to come