I've been reading through the thread and I must say I'm equally interested in seeing how this all turns out. Additionally, I thought I may as well add my 2 cents:

Being a huge fan of Redoran, I'll echo the notions that a story of redoran being betrayed by ALMSIVI and left in the dark by the Great Houses would only show their greatest qualities. While they do ultimately lose and Ald'Ruhn is destroyed, their valor and sacrifice can be seen as a first spark that ignites the rest of the province and prepares them for war. Additionally, the question of sigil stones was brought up. It is easily addressed: A redoran soldier, seeing nothing left with the battle on the mortal plane, rushes an Oblivion Gate with the intent of finding Dagon himself. Instead, he has a situation similar to the CoC. After discovering the Sigil Stone and consequently closing the gate, the Redoran discover the secret to fighting the Daedra horde. Clearly, the soldier would be severely wounded (Redoran or not). With Ald'Ruhn in ruins, the soldier hands the sigil stone to a survivor and urges him/her to contact the Redoran member of the Grand Council. With that, the messenger leaves the last of the dying Redoran in Ald'Ruhn. Out of their sacrifice, the rest of Morrowind is capable of facing the Oblivion Crisis.

It gives me chills just thinking about it. :drool:

Cheers,

Hexon

to be honest, i lack the needed drive and a desire(or and the skill(i am just a fan fic armature )) to put all this accent on Redoran's passion, valor, etc, etc to the extent that was expressed. i wanted to come here to get some Lore info about what's going ons in the province at the time of the invasion and to gather as much info about the invasion as possible but i have to say, i am discouraged by the lack of it. the thing is, its not hard to blow this up into a 2-3 chapter story... maybe more. but i am rather hesitant about going into that much due to lack of facts and general info available on the invasion.

anyway, i have chapter one ready, really short, its basically introducing three of the possibly more characters of the story plus a scene from actual adventures of one of them. the idea was to build a team, say, a mage, the brains, the muscle, the pack leader, the priest and who knows who else and have some of their adventures told in a story. most of the adventure revolving around Ald-Ruhn at the time of invasion. plus, maybe try and send them to Oblivion some cool adventures, but having trouble coming up with a Lore friendly excuse for them being there. yes, i can stretch the imagination and find a reasonably possible excuse(treasure hunting anyone , lol?). but stretching the limits is not good without facts to work with. anyways, i gotto come back to this later, need to get off the comp soon.

ok, back to the degree of devastation of the city itself and its citizens... i assume complete is too loud of an adjective? my guess is if we were to take a trip through the city, say, a week after the invasion started, the aftermath would be something similar to what is seen in the game upon entering Kvatch? or sound something like this below?

corpses in the houses and on the streets. survivors cover in some of the possibly still standing houses. houses burned and or damaged to various degrees, most down to the ground. most if not all buildings of importance are ruined beyond repair. close by caverns and such filled with survivors. Dedra, having completed the task, abandoned the ruined city or some are left to further destroy what is left.

is it safe to presume all the citizens dead, including the nobles and whatnot?

I think we can assume anyone who didn't flee was killed in the battle. The Redorans resurrected the giant crab shell in an apocalyptic battle against the daedra, so probably all the smaller structures in Aldruhn were levelled that day. The idea of a few survivors in caverns sounds plausible to me, but that's just my opinion.

he he, so i can put some survivors in the cave? cool.

What about a hotheaded telvanni mage being there for whatever reason who joins in in hopes of grabbing power. I mean, remember all the magical items/creatures/souls/ingredients there, and not to speak about the sigil stone! Infact, if the redorans lacks the knowledge about sigil stones it'd be an easy task for the telvanni mage to grab it, if now the opportunity would present itself.

Heck he could have known about the attack and traveled there for that sole reason, it's easy just to come up with something to start working with.

how would he know in advance though? do Telvanni have spells or abilities or something that lets them peeks into the future?

Actually, yes. Divination is mentioned in several sources. Powerful wizards usually do this, sometimes with the aid of a crystal ball, cliche'd as it sounds.

Also, in the book Disaster at Ionith which details a failed Imperial invasion of Akavir, Battlemages are said to have the ability to telepathically communicate over long distances, though storms can disrupt the transmission. Telvanni should have mastered similar techniques. Perhaps a Telvanni was spying on Redoran holdings telepathically and sensed a disturbance, or perhaps one Telvanni was living among Redoran as a spy and reporting back to his Master when all hell broke loose, and the Master decided that although Redoran is the enemy, that allowing a strategic military town to fall to Daedra is unacceptable.

he he, perfect. now to pick a fitting Telvanni. hm, i think i'll go with Baladas Demnevanni; i always like him and i think he qualifies for "powerful wizards" and since its my fan fic, i'll take him into Ald-Ruhn on a supplies run. i don't think its a too far a stretch so should work.

Baladas was known for never leaving his tower during Morrowind IIRC, so I wouldn't make his reason so trivial.
Maybe he could be going to aquire some rare supplies and materials then? Or perhaps give a reason why he must go in person (an aquaintance)?

Off topic as it is, I wonder what happened to the Hlaalu during all this? I mean what combat skills do they have which Redoran doesn't?
From what I know about Hlaalu, they either bribed and sixually harrassed the daedra back into Oblivion, or hid in abandoned, haunted houses, and waited it out.

...It's the perfect plan. :shifty:

Baladas is fmous for disliking people, and therefore never leaving his cave-thing. Try Mistress Dratha.

Drathas is a hateful old witch who doesn't like men.

Better to go with the most open-minded and progressive Telvanni, our good friend http://uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Aryon. He can be accompanied by his faithful guard http://uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Turedus_Talanian.

but i wanted Baladas... he seems like a potentially interesting character to explore. i donno, we'll see what happens.

Indeed, I'd imagine that Oblivion gates probably opened all over Tamriel, if there's anywhere that didn't have troubles, gates would probably have opened later had the Oblivion Crisis not been stopped. We just only got to see what happened in Cyrodiil during Oblivion because that's where Martin and White Gold Tower and the Amulet of Kings and Champion of Cyrodiil all were. It may have been the most important place to be involved in the crisis, but that doesn't make it the only one, though I'd imagine that when it came to Morrowind, Ald-Ruhn may have been one of the first targets because it's the seat of House Redoran, who are known for their strong warriors and with their whole honorable defenders of Morrowind thing would likely become an important force in opposing Mehrunes Dagon's efforts in Morrowind, so if you can destroy it before they have a chance to interfere, why not?

Also, the novel "The Infernal City" mentions that Black Marsh was invaded during the Oblivion Crisis, so all the provinces were probably affected.

ok, so i am reading http://uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Message_from_Master_Aryon...
huh at the highlighted part: what does that have to do with looking for allies?
i know its not related to Ald-Ruhn, but its just a question that i doubt warrants a new topic.

Well guys the sum of your thought here seems to back the following:

Folks seem to think that the Telvanni would attack any other House to gain land in any circunstance (... along with Dres and Hllalu the Telvanni snapped up what they could of Nerevar's House, Indoril despite the presence (or recent presence) of the Nerevarine ...) so if the Redoran were totally decimated we should have heard about the great Redoran Grab-fest ... but not a sausage on that. Conclusion the City was destroyed but the Redorans did not all die there. Redoran was hurt, not fatally weakened. Simple. Remember Redoran, what was done at Ald-Ruhn. Remember Redoran, who came to help and who did not. Remember who attacked and prepare for their demise.

Guerilla fighting aside - a fighting retreat is an honorable battlefield manoeuver and without that in their arsenal no army will win a war...

So what might have happened next:
The main forces, with the old, young and infirm, retreated to the Ghost Gate in a proper military fashion while the Emperor Crab and brave Redoran stalwarts distracted the Deadran forces. Pretty good distraction that crab, eh?

Reason? At the Ghost Gate the Redoran Buoyant Armigers and the rest are armed with weapons designed to fight Dust Vampires and such so they are armed to fight Daedra. The Daedra were lured to the Ghost Gate and they were totally, totally decimated at some cost to the Redoran. We know it was a great victory - word of it even got past the Hlaalu-loving Imperial censors. Redoran took casualties, but not as much as would have been the case had they stood and fought at Ald-ruhn which was already compromised defensively and structurally devastated by the Daedra in their first onslaught.

Imperial censors? Well if the Legion had fought alngside the Redoran and won that would have been Imperial good news - the demise of that garrison would have been great cause for concern. Nope - it appears that whoever was in charge at the fort bottled it (either they ran or closed themselves in the fort and denied allcomers) now the Redoran have real cause to hate the Imperials. Remember Rredoran


It may be that the Crab was also used as a distraction while the Gate itself was taken out - but by that time there were too many Daedran forces present for the defense forces to do more than delay without support. Does anyone seriously believe that Redoran dunmer would be intimidated by a little fire? Dunmer have 50% fire resistance - and Redoran would give their lives for their House - a burned hand is nothing. Redoran would have been queuing up to grab that stone.

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Why would the Hist/Argonians invade? One word = Dres. Dres allied with the Hlaalu in name perhaps but Helseth was not a dunmer King. Helseth despite his much loved dunmer mother was born and grew up in Breton and only came to Morrowind when he failed to take the Throne in High Rock.

How long do you think the weakened Empire's outlander puppet King was going to stop the Dres from slaving? Maybe only until they had grabbed up the spare territory that was easily assimilable from Indoril etc

As for Redoran? Their base on Vvardenfell is less secure as a result of that attack on Ald-ruhn - so perhaps they are already on the move, looking for a new place to make their Capital and home ... at the time that the moon falls. If they had gone south the Hist would have been in trouble ... so perhaps there is already a Redoran settlement on Solstheim - since they dealt with the invading Nords?

Or maybe they have sought a home beyond Tamriel ... following in the footsteps of the Nerevarine? Both Redoran and the Ashlanders (who respect Redoran above the other Houses) had reason to respect the Nerevarine. And the Ashlanders would soon have found that Helseth does not speak openly, or honestly.

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Long post - take it where you will. But Remember 'young' Redoran - 'we fought and we won'. Remember Redoran 'courage'. Remember Redoran 'skill and martial prowess'. Remember 'the' Redoran 'sacrifices and Redoran victories. We will survive and grow in all honour and we will conquer.

The simple fact of the matter is that as of the events of Elder Scrolls III, most of the lower level hirelings of House Telvanni were coming from foreign nations. Most specifically, Aryon employed several former and current members of the Legions. Telvanni couldn't afford to be xenophobic, especially in case the Empire collapsed (at the time rumors abounded at the health status of Uriel Septim and whether his heirs weren't doppelgangers or daedra in disguise). If that were the case, a lot of the young blood that Hlaalu and Telvanni were getting would cease to flow into Vvardenfell, and they would have been at a significant disadvantage against the (at the time) militarily superior House Redoran. Instead of beating that bee hive with a stick towards potentially self annihilating ends, Aryon was seeking the help of moderates and level headed geniuses like Divayh Fyr and Baladas.

If you'll notice, he also extended a hand of nationalistic sympathy towards Redoran when he proclaimed that the monopoly on magic education should not belong to the Mages' Guild. That was a very smart move, especially if a massive withdrawal of the Imperial Legion and the Fighters Guild from Vvardenfell were to occur and the Telvanni lost some of their mercenary support. Making friends with one's enemy can at times be advantageous.

This is another reason I chose Aryon to be the sorcerer most likely to personally aid the Redoran with their fighting/retreat. This is all part of his shrewd politics. Side with Redoran, gain an upper hand against Hlaalu, Indoril and Dres.