Author's note: Hi all. What follows is supposed to be like the type of book or account one might pick up during their travels in Tamriel. It is my attempt to expand the lore of the Morag Tong and unseen regions of Morrowind in an original way, from the perspective of a curious Imperial. Hope you like it.

On Rootwood Hollow

by Hermus Marriotis, poet.

The memoirs of an Imperial traveller in Morrowind.

Whilst staying in a small town not far from the city of Necrom, deep in the mysterious territory of House Indoril in Morrowind's far east, one of the most intriguing stories that reached my ears was the whispers of a hidden location somewhere in the surrounding wilderness, referred to as 'Rootwood Hollow.'

Rumoured, as the name suggests, to be located in 'Rootwood': a dark tangled forest of black, twisted roots, amidst a dangerous wilderness of harsh crags and deep ravines known as the 'Mephalain Wastes', Rootwood Hollow was said to be a stronghold of the Morag Tong. From my earlier travels in Vvardenfell (recorded in a previous volume), the Morag Tong was already familiar to me. Rather unsettlingly, the secretive members of this legal assassins guild, sanctioned to perform ritual murders bound under written contracts, were respected as much as feared, no doubt a result of the barbarian murder glorifying traditions of the Great Houses, and the Dunmer people as a whole.

According to what little details we could glean from the rather hostile and xenophobic locals, Rootwood Hollow was a place where the Morag Tong trained the 'worthy' for life as an assassin. One thankfully talkative local informed us that, on rare occasions, mysterious black binded scrolls would circulate around the local pubs, taverns and popular gathering spots, usually at around the same time a sinister fellow known only as 'The Contact' showed up at the keep. It was said that these scrolls would find their way into the hands of those interested in joining the Morag Tong, and apparently it was not unusual for veterans of the guild to recommend their relatives or house brothers for service if they posessed the desired 'talents'.

Naturally, it would have been incredibly dangerous, not to mention foolish, to seek out such a location. Though Relmys, our Dark Elf guide, informed us that the Tong frowns on the murder of those not marked for death, they are notoriously protective of their inner secrets, and I had no intention of poking my nose into the affairs of these widely feared, daedra worshipping murderers. In any case, it was said that the maze-like paths of Rootwood were in themselves just as dangerous, and tales circulated that spider daedra stalked the misty passages and glens, trapping and subsequently devouring unwary travellers in their great webs.

Rootwood Hollow, it seems, is just one more mystery of the alien land of Morrowind, and a reminder that untold secrets persist to this day in the far flung corners of our great Empire.

Editor's note: Though these memoirs eventually reached Cyrodiil by way of an Imperial vessel, the current whereabouts of Hermus Marriotis are unknown. In the largely anti-Imperial Indoril lands, where the bloody Dunmeri traditions continue relatively uninterrupted, it may be that his scrying finally offended the wrong person, and he found himself on the wrong side of a Morag Tong assassin's blade.