THE SECOND GREAT WAR AND THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE

by Zeno Antiques

The Empire is fallen, the Dominion taken its place. Its fall had been written in stone the day the dynasty of the Septims met its end and the Third Era turned to the Fourth. But for two long centuries it struggled to maintain its hold, with its holdings slipping one by one.

In the three decades following the dawn of the Fourth Era's third century, the balance of power shifted in a spectacular wave of destructive power. The countries of Cyrodiil and Morrowind, by way of inhuman brutality, came under the rule of the Dominion, and the few holdings the Empire still had became independent nations of their own. As of the year of writing, in 4e254, the scars of this war are still fresh on the world, and my people, the Imperial people, are few in number.

PART I: THE SECOND GREAT WAR IN CYRODIIL

The First Great War was a killing blow, though it would take generations to run its course. The White-Gold Concordat divided the children of the Empire by putting conflict into their faith, and opened the doors for corruption into the highest levels of the Imperial Council. In the year 4e201, the scars of the First War opened wide in Skyrim, when the Stormcloak Rebellion forced the Imperial Legion into an unfeasible conflict with Skyrim.

What should have been a simple rebellion for the Legions to put down exploded into a widespread civil war across Skyrim. To make matters worse, the sudden appearance and disappearance of dragons in the province lead to widespread death and destruction, leading even to the death of Titus Mede II, the last emperor. His death, along with the death of General Tullius, lead to a full-scale invasion of Skyrim. The conflict raged for a decade, leaving Skyrim torn and bloodied, both sides depleted. Eventually, a second meeting of peace led to a Moot, and the war ended in the summer of 4e211.

With this, the White-Gold Concordat had fulfilled its purpose. On the night of 21st of Last Seed, 4e211, the full force of the Dominion's navy sailed from Senchal to the Imperial City. Unguarded from the south, the cities of Bravil and Leyawiin were helpless but to watch and be swept aside as the great flood of ships surged up the Niben.

The White-Gold Tower was toppled that night, and nearly every man, woman, and child in the city was killed and thrown into Lake Rumare. With that, the Empire was no more. Returning soldiers from Skyrim fought in the borderlands at the north. But, few in number and weary, they soon died out, or faded into the banditry of other provinces. The Colovians soon found themselves cornered from all sides, as the dominion navy sent to the Imperial City met with reinforcements from Valenwood and Elsweyr.

With the Empire destroyed by the dawn of the first day of 4e212, the Thalmor came in to ensure that its former people were treated accordingly. The Imperials of Cyrodiil had been reduced to little more than prisoners of war, often kept in the old Ayleid ruins as they once had in the dark times before Alessia. Within months of the last of the Colovian cities falling, the Thalmor began killing these prisoners. The Imperials, once masters of the world, were now prisoners of the Dominion.

The Thalmor were brutal in their methods of executing the Imperial race, but their goal was not to kill or exterminate, but instead to make slaves of them. Through strict regiments and starvation, the strong were separated from the weak, and the dead were dumped into mass graves. Those who the Thalmor deemed worthy of survival were forced to breed, and if their children were not perfect, they would be killed, but not after the mother had smashed the child against a tree or stone. Once a good 'crop' of Imperials had been made, they would be raised in the Ayleid ruins, bred and raised like dogs to entertain and serve their masters.

PART II: THE SECOND BATTLE OF RED MOUNTAIN

The Dark Elves of Morrowind came to be quickly displeased and disturbed by the massive presence of the Dominion at their borders. Though initially their relations were good, and tributes made to House Redoran through the trade of slaves and farmed goods from Cyrodiil. But this was a ploy to distract them from dealings with older neighbors. The Thalmor made pacts with the An-Xileel militants of Black Marsh in the year 219, and within months Argonian raids began destroying southern cities. The Thalmor had, most likely, orchestrated this for years in advance, wishing to see the daedra worshiping dark elves exterminated.

The Second Great War resumed in earnest with the raiding of the border town of Silgrad Tower, and from there failed attempts to take the cities of Kragenmoor and Blacklight. While the Imperials had been systematically weakened over the centuries, the Dunmer had more than fully recovered from the Red Year, and so the Dominion was forced into a harsh war of attrition. Many of the Imperials who had not died in the genocide following the fall of the Imperial city died fighting the Dunmer.

It was, however, the hist-fuelled An-Xileel proved to be a force to reckon with, and surged north from the fens of Black Marsh with animalistic fury. Like a lizard allows its tail to fall off to distract the eagle, the Argonian army split in two: One great force focused on taking the southern cities, while the other half swam the Inner Sea to raid Vvardenfell.

In the year 225, the Dominion's navy came round the east to the Telvanni Isles, storming into Azura's Coast, and its land forces met with their Argonian counterparts to sack Mournhold. Though the city was not destroyed, it forced many of the Great Houses to surrender to the An-Xileel and Dominion, save Indoril and Redoran.

The two houses made defenses in the old strongholds of Vvardenfell, and prepared to defend the island at all costs. A series of battles paved a river of blood across the ashes, starting at Sadrith Mora, going straight through Balmora and Ald'Ruhn, and eventually culminating in a siege of Red Mountain itself.

For what reason the Dominion wanted to mountain was unknown, but only that the combined forces of the High Elves, their slaves, and the Argonians were prepared to take it, and that it was where the houses Redoran and Indoril prepared their final stand. This Second Battle at Red Mountain raged for months until the last of the Indoril had fallen.

By 4e 227, any trace of the Dark Elven civilization had been scoured from Morrowind, and a good portion of their race had been scattered to other lands. Past that date, few records have come out of Morrowind. It can only be assumed the once proud Dunmer of Morrowind have suffered the fate of my Imperial people, and are slowly being bred into a race of slaves and pets by the Thalmor.

In Skyrim, the second wave of Dunmer immigrants was quickly expelled, barred out of Windhelm and Whiterun. Many simply settled in Riften or Solitude, or braved the reach and made new lives in Hammerfell, from where I write this book.

PART III: THE RISE OF THE SWORD-SINGERS

The lands of Hammerfell and High Rock had managed to keep neutrality in the face of the complete restructuring of the world, in no small part due to the sudden reawakening of an ancient power.

In the year of 173, when the Legion and Dominion made battle at Skaven, it is said that a priest named Stargel Hazdad found the Hall of the Virtues of war while fleeing the city with his faithful. Inside, he found relics of the Ansei, or sword-singers. They were the keepers of the old arts of Yokuda, the holy warriors of the Redguard people. But in the Third Era, their order died out, and their knowledge was lost.

Able to read the old language of his people, Stargel was able to revive the ancient art of sword-singing. He taught it to his fellow refugees, having mastered it himself, and within mere months was able to retake his city and force the Thalmor into the south. Under the priest's guidance, the new wave of sword-singers quickly stormed through the center of Hammerfell, leaving the dead Thalmor strewn across the canyons and cacti. His display of ancient Redguard violence inspired all of Hammerfell, and Stargel came to be called "HoonDing" by the faithful Redguards, and his followers the "Order of the Ansei". Under this new figurehead, the Crowns and Forebears united and made peace, planning to take their land back from the Dominion, and drive out the elves and imperials alike.

With this, the Redguards had the strength to endure for the five years necessary to sign the Second Treaty of Stros M'Kai. In the aftermath, the united Redguards divided once more. Though the Crowns and Forebears came back to owning the various cities of Hammerfell, they had little control over the south. Rihad had been ceded to the Dominion as per the Treaty, and Taneth and Skaven were made holy cities by the Order of the Ansei.

In the broken south, many of the war-weary people, unable to farm the harsh land without Imperial support, turned to more primitive modes of life, becoming tribal hunter-gatherers. Many of these tribes quickly found themselves under the power of the Ansei, who ruled them from the old Yokudan fortresses scattered across the desert. Under their law, all forms of deviancy (homosixuality, worship of non-Yokudan gods, brandishing of weapons by a non sword-singer, etc.) became banned, punishable with immediate execution, beheading by shehai.

When the Second Great War began, the governing bodies of Skyrim, High Rock, and Hammerfell made desperate peace with the Aldmeri Dominion. With this, the New Daggerfall Covenant formed, and the Third Treaty of Stros M'Kai dictated eternal peace between the Covenant and the Dominion. But this displeased Stargel, who denounced the Crowns and Forebears as weaklings for wanting peace in the face of an infidel invasion, and on the day of the treaty's signing demonstrated an ancient and unholy power. With a single slash of his 'pankratosword' he demolished the city of Rihad entirely, forcing the signing of another treaty to ensure that the act did not lead to war.

Over the years since then, the teachings of the Order have become harsher, and Redguard children began to be kidnapped from their mother's teats to be raised as sword-singers.

In High Rock, the various kingdoms became nations all their own, and for the entirety of the Second Great War the city states of Daggerfall and Wayrest waged a vicious war against one another, coming to peace only as recently as the year 241. Many kingdoms, without Imperial support, broke down into hegemonic territories and knighthoods countless in number. Near the eastern border, many simply became nameless tracts of land, owned by the wild witchmen of the reach. After the Stormcloak Rebellion and the Dragon Crisis, the land of Skyrim knew peace, despite being the reason for the Second Great War beginning. Other than a few attacks on cities by pale goblins, no armed conflict has graced the northern lands since the year 211.

PART IV: THE SUMMERSET REVOLUTION

The Dominion was stretched out throughout the Second Great War, and despite its wild success nearly faced dissolution. Its greatest and most violent fight was not against other nations, but against itself.

Under mysterious circumstances, a large group of Altmer who called themselves 'The Beautfiul' sacked and took the city of Dusk in the year 220. It is believed that it was done to protest the attack on Morrowind, but it soon spiraled out of control. The Thalmor's inner party, and the police state they had erected to defend themselves, found themselves chasing an enemy across every corner of their capital. The rebels took to the hills, making raids on towns across the isle of Alinor.

To confound their enemy, The Beautiful lead their rebellion across the isle, popping up sporadically where they were not expected. After the Rebellion at Dusk, towns across the Isles began to revolt and rebel. With each little uprising, the whole of the Thalmor's wrath crashed down upon the protestors. But this was a ploy, for each quashed rebellion left less and less Thalmor, and made more and more protestors and Beautiful rebels. By attempting to defend itself, the Thalmor made martyrs of their enemies, and the news damaged morale in the siege of Morrowind, nearly costing the Dominion that war. The Thalmor of Summerset, unable to fight the rebels, called for help from their counterparts in Valenwood and Elsweyr. This was to be their demise, however. The force from the mainland had never taken kindly to the overbearing nature of the islanders, and rather than help the Thalmor of Summerset, they [censored] and sacked every corner of the Isles and created a new regime. While clothed in the same old rhetoric and policies of the old Thalmor, this new Thalmor was more militaristic and violent than before.

With new blood in Alinor, the Dominion ensured more equal rights for their Wood Elf and Khajiiti citizens, and rather than execute the Beautiful who had allowed them to take power, they sent them to Morrowind to orchestrate the end of the Second Great War. After winning the Second Battle of Red Mountain, the former rebels were thrown into the fiery pit for their treason.

PART V: THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE

As of the year of writing, 4e 254, there have been no major conflicts since the end of the Daggerfall-Wayrest War in 241. The Dominion rules from Summerset to Mororwind, and many of the old Imperial and Dark Elf cities have been rebuilt and house a more cosmopolitan population.

Under the New Thalmor, the unpleasant purges that marked the old regime are a thing of the past, but the Imperials and Dark Elves are now little more than slaves in their land. In recent times, the High Elves living in Morrowind and Cyrodiil have been plagued with a mysterious disease, turning their eyes red and skin grey before killing them with fever.

In Hammerfell, the Crowns and Forebears have gotten back to their old animosities, and both have gotten themselves into uneasy alliances wiht the Order, which grows more powerful with each passing day. In High Rock, the divided Breton lands are divided, with one half allied with Daggerfall, and the other allied with Wayrest.

Little has changed in Black Marsh since the end of the Oblivion Crisis, and in Skyrim the land has come to know peace in the first time in centuries. Though there is little evidence for a war of this proportion ever happening again, it is likely that the Dominion will soon weaken under its growing pains.

PART VI: TIMELINE

• 4e 1: End of Oblivion Crisis

• 4e 22: Thalmor rise to power in Summerset

• 4e 29: Thalmor revolution in Valenwood

• 4e 98-115: Void Nights

• 4e 171: Great War Begins

• 4e 173: March of Thirst; Order of the Ansei form

• 4e 174: Sack of the Imperial City

• 4e 175: Battle of Red Ring; White-Gold Concordat

• 4e 180: Second Treaty of Stros M'Kai

• 4e 200: Assassination of Torygg

• 4e 201: Stormcloak Rebellion; Assassination of Titus Mede II; Dragons return

• 4e 203: Dragons vanish again

• 4e 211: Second Sack of Imperial City; End of Empire; Daggerfall-Wayrest War begins

• 4e 215: End of Imperial Genocide

• 4e 220: Battle of Sligrad Tower; Rebellion in Dusk

• 4e 223: Complete Restructuring of Dominion government

• 4e 225: Sack of Mournhold; Second Battle of Red Mountain

• 4e 226: End of Second Great War

• 4e 241: End of Daggerfall-Wayrest War