The End and What Came After

Penned by Rivalen Mothril, knight, East Empire Company.

4E 5 – The Red Year Falls

This volume can begin nowhere but the Red Year. This is because the Shadow of the Red Year hangs over Tamriel to this day and hangs over a great many of the events covered in this work. In the eyes of many people of Tamriel, it was a tragic event. Alternatively, ask many of those who experienced or whose families experienced enslavement in Morrowind, especially the Khajit and Argonians, and they would tell it as little less than an epic, deserved tale of poetic justice written in blood, ash and the fire of the gods. To the Dunmer, it may be the single greatest moment of anguish in history.

The Fourth Era began with Morrowind bereft of heroes. The Tribunal were laid low, the Nerevarine had departed, and Saint Jiub the Eradicator was dead. Nonetheless, before 4E 5, Morrowind was an economic powerhouse with a quite capable military. Vast plantations grew crops that exported across Tamriel. Great cities bustled with commerce. Mines brought forth cargoes of precious ebony that must have had values that can only be reasonably estimated in figures beginning in multiple billions of Septims. Although this prosperity was lessened by the Oblivion crisis, Morrowind had suffered less than other provinces and could certainly recover its strength.

Yet after the events of 4E 5 and its aftermath, it was an ash choked, war torn wasteland. There are tomes on the subject for anyone with an in depth interest. Suffice to say that a vast volcanic eruption occurred in the Red Mountain after the Ministry of Truth crashed into Vivec City. Why the ministry fell is a matter that is hotly debated. Emperor Attrebus I cryptically stated several times to multiple witnesses that he had personal knowledge of why it happened, but never gave any further elaboration than “love”, on the reason of the ministry’s collapse. The theorems of Lathenil of Sunhold have been discussed inside out in every bar and bawdyhouse in the Imperial City. The important thing is that the ministry did fall and very likely caused the eruption of Vvardenfell.

4E 5-6 – The Rains of the Marshes

The tragedy stemming from the eruption of Vvardenfell had been bad; what followed could only be described as a great deal worse. Within days, a massive Argonian Invasion occurred. Ultimately this resulted in the loss of Morrowind’s southern marches (centred on the great city of Tear), the sack of Mournhold and the isolation of Argonia and these annexed territories, as the An-Xileel were uninterested in contact with the rest of Tamriel. House Redoran ultimately repelled the Argonians from Morrowind, winning a vital victory, but at great cost of life, property, gold, in credibility of the Empire and ultimately, the integrity of the great state of Morrowind.

My own father fought in the army of House Redoran, though at the time, he captained an East Empire Company Galley. He spoke little of his involvement in the war. Although he did mention many times that

“The Argonians left behind nothing but flooded or burned towns and bloated corpses…”

When the Argonians did not feel confident of a field victory, they melted away and used guerilla tactics to harass the Redoran and Imperial forces they were confronted with. At times, some mages suggested that the Saxhleel had command of strange and heretofore unknown weather magics (see Report: Disaster at Ionith) to create new areas of wetland where they would have the advantage. If the events at Tear were not caused by the fallout from the eruption of Red Mountain, then the devastation of Dres lands suggests the Argonians (or the Hist) could command the weather and natural world.

The invasion began with a savage, possibly magical, reduction of the Dres districts in the southernmost regions of Morrowind, around Tear. The entire district flooded rapidly, as described in Ravel’s The Red Year. The city of Tear was largely submerged, in a matter of hours, into the miles and miles of new swampland. At a stroke, one of Morrowind’s Great Houses had been reduced to a fleeing horde of refugees.

The army of the An-Xileel then bypassed the southern areas of Morrowind, passing by Narsis and Mournhold entirely, storming up the eastern coast of the mainland, in a devastating blitz toward Telvanni lands. This, along with the meager intelligence gleaned by the Penitus Occulatus and Redoran forces, from Saxhleel prisoners suggests that vengeance was the principal motivation behind the invasion, as opposed to conquest. This did not mean the An-Xileel lacked strategy. The Dres were not left to flee unmolested; the An-Xileel left a bloodthirsty rearguard behind to crucify any Dunmer left in Tear, sack the city most savagely, and harass the beleaguered Dres forces as they beat a hasty retreat westward toward Cyrodiil.

Meanwhile, the Argonians smashed their way up the Eastern Coast of Morrowind, proceeding inexorably toward the lands of the Telvanni. The Indoril bastion of Necrom was subjected to the routine An-Xileel massacre and the graveyard desecrated; this was noteworthy, as the An-Xileel wizards made a great show of raising the dead of Necrom’s great burial site into zombies and thralls to massacre their living brethren. The An-Xileel deliberately allowed a large number of survivors to flee Necrom and the villages near it, the better to spread tales of what had happened in the graveyard city.

Finally, once the Black Marsh army reached Telvanni lands, they crossed to Vvardenfell at Firewatch, and began a southward march through the various towns and Tels, beginning with Tel Vos, though its master, Aryon, was elsewhere. The An-Xileel began their methodical and brutal purge of the Great House that had enslaved their people for so long; they nonetheless were checked at Sadrith Mora by the legionnaires of Wolverine Hall. There are still Telvanni alive today, some of whom I have in fact spoken to. But they are a rare breed in our time. The An-Xileel were in no mood for negotiation. When Telvanni magecraft could not turn back their enemies, they sent their finest illusionists to negotiate. These illusionists, I am told, had their heads turned into standards which the An-Xileel would carry atop pikes for the remainder of the war.

4E 6-7 – Tactical Withdrawal and Fortification

The Dres refugees made it to the city of Narsis, which the Hlaalu were hurriedly evacuating. Crassius Curio, Imperial Proconsul of Narsis, House Hlaalu Council member, noted playwright and infamous eccentric, opted to evacuate the entire city’s populace and have the Hlaalu Mercenary Guard hold the road to Kragenmoor. An interview I conducted with a witness of events in Narsis, aide to the Proconsul Maron Ulen, revealed that the evacuation was particularly notable as Curio gave his address to the people of Narsis, in which he informed his public of the war and the evacuation, in the nude. Ulen claimed Curio did what he did as the eccentric councillor believed that

“Morrowind needed inspiration in this pressing time.”

Ulen, however, deadpanned that Curio was regularly wont to take at least one

meal a week in a condition of total nudity, regardless of company, and celebrated what he called No Pants Sundas.

Despite what might seem to many, a clear case of mental instability, Curio, who was nonetheless an orator and financial manager of considerable skill, was at this time in effective command of Hlaalu resources; King Hlaalu Helseth was mysteriously gone from Mournhold and Vedam Dren, Grandmaster of Hlaalu, was at this time, in a stroke of almost unfathomable luck, with his daughter Ilmeni in the Imperial City instead of in Ebonheart in Vvardenfell, his usual residence. In the closing days of 4E 6, Curio vindicated his leadership position by ambushing and then driving back the Argonian raiding party that had been shadowing the Dres refugees in a bloody clash beside the banks of the River Thir – he was still noted as being stark naked whilst directing battle.

At this point, as 4E 7 dawned, Curio marched determinedly toward the hills above Kragenmoor to take up what House Hlaalu’s leaders deemed an unassailable position in the foothills of the Valus mountains. It was realistically hoped that by holding the position Hlaalu had taken, the key to Cyrodiil, Shadowgate Pass, would be kept open, and Hlaalu patrols, which were being sent regularly, could shepherd refugees toward Nibenay. Simultaneously, the Hlaalu awaited the southward march of both the Grand Army of House Redoran, which was mustering in Blacklight, and Potentate Ocato’s Imperial Legion reinforcements, the latter of which Vedam Dren had been utilizing the entirety of his wealth and influence to acquire, though acquiring them was not to be a fast process.

Considered on the whole, it was not a poor strategy. The Argonian Army had chiefly been ravaging Eastern Morrowind, and as such, they were separated from Curio not only by the ash choked ruins of Vvardenfell but also by more appealing targets. Despite the apparent zealotry of the An-Xileel, and Curio’s limited numbers, the Argonian commanders had realized the strength of Curio’s position, and did nothing to dislodge him. The Hlaalu were even bolstered by troops of Knight Protector Angoril, the Altmer commander of the garrison of Fort Pelagiad, which had by some miracle, been spared the devastation of the eruption. But such passivity sat poorly with some. Chiefly, it deeply rankled the powerful Sadras Clan, who were the main military vassal of House Hlaalu. The Sadras very vocally demanded that Curio march to confront the Argonians more actively. The Hlaalu refused, noting that they were not yet strong enough.

And as House Hlaalu fortified their position and awaited the promised Imperial Legions, and Redoran laboured to complete their muster, the An-Xileel, who had finished reducing House Telvanni to ash, closed in around Mournhold.

4E 7 – The Siege of Mournhold

The siege of Mournhold, which began in earnest in mid 4E 7 was brutal. The Argonians had brought in reinforcements from Thorn and Gideon to join the victorious troops that had returned from Telvanni lands. It was not only a siege in the physical sense, but it was an all out assault on Dunmer morale. It is almost certain that the An-Xileel were aware of the massing Redoran forces at Blacklight and they had likely made preparations for House Hlaalu’s reinforcement by the Imperial Legion. As such, they wanted Mournhold to be the last straw to break Dunmer resistance.

Allegedly, the An-Xileel brought with them not merely thousands of Argonian Warriors, they drove the monstrous reptilian denizens of the marsh before their advance (which may explain the expansion of the marshes into the Dres districts), enormous Nagas and Swamp Leviathans clambered forth from the bogs. Although this has been attested by multiple witnesses and written in various items of correspondence, controlling such monsters is an act of beast taming that would impress even the Bosmer Kings of Ancient Times. Controversially however, when these fantastical happenings were reported by Duke Vedam Dren, to the Elder Council, he was unceremoniously laughed from the council chambers.

A survivor of the siege also noted that the Argonians also kept up a steady cadence of traditional Saxhleel drums and war horns. Their illusionists worked tirelessly and with flawless synergy to maintain spells of terror and discomfort over a vast area.

A survivor noted:

“At Mournhold, the lizards didn’t let none of us sleep none. Their tricks kept the mages from casting proper-like and they always kept the fear beating in our hearts; like Molag Bal himself were floating above the city, beating like a madman on a giant drum and barking out his awful laugh. We gave em all hell, I’m proud of that…but they never let us forget they were coming for us. And there aren’t none of us what have ever forgot it.”

Giant trebuchets flung both desecrated corpses and living prisoners over Mournhold’s walls. By night, the Argonians lit eerie green bonfires that leapt into the night skies and sang disconcerting war hymns in Jel, the main dialect of the native language of the Saxhleel in Black Marsh. It is a tongue regarded as deeply alien to the languages of Men and Mer. In the nights during the siege of Mournhold, these hymns must have had a rather otherworldly aura.

The defenders, starving and outnumbered, held out for four months. This was all the more remarkable, since House Indoril, the traditional rulers of the Mournhold district, had withdrawn the vast majority of their strength, and the population, well before the An-Xileel closed ranks around the Dunmer capital. The defence was taken up by those who had fled into the city as refugees, the Fighters Guild, those who refused to leave, by the members of the Imperial Cult faction in Mournhold and finally those fanatical devotees of the Temple- which was based out of the capital- and who had journeyed to Morrowind’s very heart, to defend the once sacred city of Almalexia. But inevitably, on the 27^th of Hearthfire, in a torrential rainstorm, the merciless and determined Saxhleel brought down the walls of Mournhold, mining beneath the walls in multiple places. And rapidly, the sack of Mournhold commenced, with the ancient capital desecrated by the vengeance crazed An-Xileel. My sources informed me that, to their eternal credit, the majority of defenders did not run; they knew escape was impossible and most of them had chosen to fight and die for the capital voluntarily.

My source, Uriel, said

"When I woke up in the rubble, I was amazed to be alive. But although I was surging with the thrill of survival, I was sad too, on a level that’s hard to describe. I cried for a long time, and not just because my brothers in arms were gone. There was something poetic about that day. It didn’t matter whether you were grey skinned or not or whether you worshipped the Divines or the Temple. I knew something special had been and was now vanished. Because, for one day, one beautiful moment in Mournhold’s sordid history, we weren’t Dunmer, Imperials, Nords or whatever… we were just brothers and sisters. Just the people of Morrowind."

It was a very long time ere the sack was completed- this was, according to Uriel, a relentless, door to door week long bloodbath.

Afterward, the blood-drunk Saxhleel journeyed to the Scathing Bay, dragging a horde of freshly captured prisoners, and at the steaming fissure of an underwater volcano that is, to this day, all that remains of Vivec City, and engaged in a gore-ridden fortnight long sacrifice to their alien faith. The witness I asked about this event, who was from the outset, extremely reluctant to discuss it, described the Argonian sacrifice as being performed while the reptiles were in some kind of spiritual trance and that the segment of the ritual which they saw had a bizarre melody to it, as though the entire An-Xileel army were singing some gruesome song in praise to their gods, and in mockery of Vivec. Emperor Attrebus Mede I, who I had the honour to meet and discuss my interest in Eastern Provincial history told me that to this day, the Argonians feel that something special happened at the Scathing Bay.

What stands out the most about the siege of Mournhold is that there were extant Dunmer and Imperial forces in Morrowind, forces that many historians feel might have confronted the besiegers and successfully broken their siege of the city. Thousands and thousands of Dunmer have, in the years since the Argonian Invasion, expressed similar sentiments. Redoran was massing in Blacklight and Hlaalu had combined its mercenaries, with some of the Dres refugees and a number of Vvardenfell Imperial Legion survivors into a small but effective force. Why did no relief at all come for Mournhold?

Multiple reasons could be put forward. The first is that the closest forces, Hlaalu, which were fortified in the Valus Mountains, were too small to act alone. It is estimated that there were less than ten thousand soldiers under Hlaalu control, whereas the An-Xileel had well over forty five thousand Argonians, to say nothing of the swamp beasts they controlled. Numbers do matter, and just like any self respecting military leader, Knight Commander Angoril of Fort Pelagiad, who had assumed command beside Crassius Curio, was aware of this fact and the fact that alone, he stood no chance against the Argonians.

Also importantly, although home to the Imperial Monarchs of Morrowind who were traditionally chosen from Hlaalu ranks, Mournhold was an Indoril Bastion. The royal family were either dead, vanished or in Cyrodiil. Hlaalu leadership were in no hurry to risk their strength for House Indoril, a longtime enemy. Nor did the leadership of House Indoril, who had marched to Blacklight, want to take any action which might further empower their ancient Hlaalu enemies. Though House Redoran sensibly favoured uniting with the Hlaalu and Imperial forces at Kragenmoor, Indoril vehemently opposed this and argued that it was better to wait, bolster the army massing at Blacklight with Nord and Orcish mercenaries as well as any Telvanni or Ashlander troops that made their way to the army. I also infer that Indoril wanted to win a victory against the Argonians with minimum possible involvement from the Imperial Legion, the better to increase their own influence at the expense of the Empire, who their house had always hated.

It was House Indoril’s delaying which carried the day in the war councils at Blacklight. This delaying was a political move made at the expense of the lives of the people of Mournhold, and was chiefly responsible for the city’s fall. Further, in light of the subsequent shift of the capital to Blacklight, it is possible some members of House Redoran itself sought to diminish Indoril’s power and prestige at Mournhold’s expense. Also, the impotent government of Potentate Ocato and pointless squabbling of the Elder Council played no small part in the devastation of Mournhold, as pointless political manoeuvring in the Imperial City somehow delayed the dispatch of Legion Troops for months on end. Even then, the men Duke Dren was granted were a mere pittance of the soldiers he required.

4E 8 – The Endgame

By the start of 4E 8, the empire had finally mustered and granted command of a legion – five thousand men – to Duke Vedam Dren, and Dren made quickly for Shadowgate Pass and Kragenmoor. Despite his strong pace, he was held up by refugees at Cheydinhal. But he did gain the allegiance of one thousand extra soldiers from Cheydinhal, including the prestigious Knights of the Thorn, under command of the famed chevalier Farwil Indarys, a hero of the Oblivion Crisis. Once he reached the Valus Mountains, his pace slowed, as his correspondence noted deeper than usual snowfalls in the mountain crossing- however he most certainly exaggerated these reports.

Now Hlaalu consolidated its forces, as they now possessed over fourteen thousand soldiers. But instead of breaking camp and moving eastward, toward the An-Xileel in Mournhold, Dren expanded the fortifications Crassius Curio had already established and gave every impression even larger force was now occupying the Kragenmoor district for the foreseeable future. He put up masses of flags and banners, he increased patrols and made himself very visible. Then, he divided his forces. A sizeable, but fast moving detachment of cavalry, a mix of mercenaries and Knights of the Thorn, was ordered to ride hard to Necrom and attack the An-Xileel who occupied the town. But even as Dren’s cavalry force dashed eastward, the duke divided his forces again, leaving a force of mostly Sadras soldiers at Kragenmoor, while he led the majority of his remaining foot and some horse back into Cyrodiil. Witnesses in camp, mostly from House Sadras, noted that the Duke gave every indication that the Hlaalu were withdrawing until further Imperial aid arrived.

For the Sadras soldiers, Dren’s withdrawal into Cyrodill was beyond the pale. The heads of House Sadras communicated to Redoran and Indoril their immediate desire to attack the Argonians and that they believed their own forces and the cavalrymen who had attacked Necrom, had been used in an act of unforgiveable cowardice – to cover Hlaalu’s withdrawal from the war, into the arms of Vedam Dren’s Imperial patrons in Cyrodiil.

The appeal of House Sadras tipped the scales in favour of action, and at last, the Redoran made ready to march, and when they combined with House Sadras, they had a force of over thirty thousand at their command. It was substantially less that their An-Xileel enemies fielded, but it seems at this point, Dunmer fortunes had taken a turn for the better.

The An-Xileel seemed to have come to the conclusion that the war was all but over and that Redoran would not march. Their soldiers had sacked the capital and had lost much of the discipline that had allowed them to overrun much of Morrowind. They had begun celebrating the glorious conquest of Morrowind before its conclusion. But, the attack on Necrom awoke the martial spirit of the An-Xileel. Immediately, a large force was sent north from the main Argonian encampment at Mournhold to hunt down the attackers, who immediately fled north, pursued by the Argonian hunters. Then, amidst a devastating ash storm, the main force of what An-Xileel propaganda has come to call the “Army of Justice” broke camp at last. They moved west, crossed the river Thir and made to intercept the Redoran Grand Army on its determined southward advance. At this point however, disaster struck for the An-Xileel.

For instead of beating a hasty retreat into Cyrodiil or fortifying Hlaalu’s impregnable position above Kragenmoor, Vedam Dren had marched post-haste southeast and emerged from the Valus Mountains at the great city of Stormhold. Being so far behind the An-Xileel front, and given that almost the entirety of the city’s warriors were in Morrowind itself, Dren stormed the city almost overnight and conducted what was becoming, in this war, a massacre that could almost be considered routine. More importantly however, Vedam Dren had his most powerful mages, (it seems he had many), attack and destroy the city tree of Stormhold, that is, the Hist that served as the heart and soul of the community.

Though I am not an Argonian, and cannot truly describe the power of the Hist in the lives of the Saxhleel people, suffice to say it is important on both a spiritual and biological level. Those Argonians who have discussed the Hist, have said that it can be heard by them and that it guides them on a subconscious level. Dren’s action in Stormhold and further attacks on the Hist in surrounding villages was not only offensive to the Argonians, it threw them into a frenzied mix of fury, agony and terror that is hard for a non-Saxhleel to describe. The best parallel I can see is the frenzy amongst the Khajit in Anequina and Pelletine during the Void Nights; even then, it is a rough and imperfect comparison. I can only postulate that Dren, whatever he did, must have utilised very powerful illusion or curse magic to garner the reaction that occurred.

The Argonian army was stripped of order and discipline. It all but fell apart and burst forth from its warpath and descended into a maddened southward dash to find and destroy the desecrator of the Hist. In this moment of greatest opportunity, House Sadras wasted no time. They stormed down from their redoubt, surged north, and then at rough and hilly spot almost a day’s march south of Veranis caught and slaughtered the vanguard of the Argonian army easily. Although it was a bloodbath, the Sadras were accomplished warriors and knew that in a confrontation with the An-Xileel army as a whole, they had no chance. House Sadras, under Knight (now Councillor) Voryn Sadras, began withdrawing southward, steadily and inexorably slowing the An-Xileel army’s pace, allowing the Redoran Guard to catch up.

And, on the 26^th of Mid Year 4E 8, the Redoran Guard did catch up. In a snowy field east of Kragenmoor, within sight of the fortifications Vedam Dren had ordered built, the An-Xileel "Army of Justice" were crushed at the Battle of Bloodmoor, which is also called the Battle of the Scarlet Snow. As a violent snowstorm raged across the field in the Valus foothills, the Sadras turned to fight in a field between two snowy hills. Physically overextended from their frenzy, and drained by the snows of the Valus, the Argonian invaders were now trapped between two enemy forces. But still, infused with an unnatural vigor, the An-Xileel bled the Grand Army of Redoran for its victory. The fighting took two whole days to conclude and it ended with only a very few Argonians breaking through the trap House Sadras had led them into. The Grand Army of Blacklight itself suffered heavy losses, mostly among the Redoran and mercenary troops.

4E 8-9 – The End of the War

If they had not done so already when Dren’s actions became known, the Argonian garrison withdrew almost immediately from Mournhold once they became aware of the battle. The Hunting Party that had pursued the cavalry screen north, and any other Argonians withdrew completely from Telvanni Lands and Northern Morrowind. However, Tear and the Southern Marches, flooded and soon reinforced by fresh An-Xileel levies from the heart of the swamp remained in the power of the Saxhleel conquerors.

The Redoran were aware that they had suffered serious losses and that Morrowind as a whole was in no condition to maintain an offensive war. In the camp of the Grand Army, which had taken residence in the Sadras’ camp at Kragenmoor, were gathered representatives from Houses Redoran, Indoril, Sadras and some of the Telvanni who had returned from Skyrim and Solstheim when Redoran went on the offensive. All the gathered leaders more or less agreed that the war should end. But the representatives of House Hlaalu, the Empire and House Dres were in Cyrodiil, in the army of Duke Vedam Dren, which had retreated westward into Nibenay when a Breton farmer of Stormhold brought Dren word of an An-Xileel army approaching the city. Dren had not ventured to break north into Morrowind and risk crossing the flooded Dres districts, as he had taken losses in the swamplands and during his sack of Stormhold. The next months saw Dren and his army convalescing in Nibenay and gathering reinforcements, as the Duke refused to return to Morrowind without a strong army at his back.

Houses Hlaalu and Dres and the Empire as a whole were thus cut off from the rest of Morrowind’s leaders, and their voices would not be heard in the debates to come. When Farwil Indarys, who had led Duke Dren’s cavalry diversion, attempted to speak for House Hlaalu he was beset by assassins, but nonetheless escaped. The other houses bristled at the loss of Morrowind’s southern districts, especially the once great city of Tear. But they did not feel it worth the risk to attempt a campaign of reconquest, especially since the houses who would profit most were Dres and Hlaalu. House Indoril vehemently opposed any move that involved Imperial Intervention, and the Indoril and Redoran leaders very nearly came to blows when Redoran suggested that the Legion might be utilised to reconquer the southern districts. Meanwhile, House Sadras was adamantly against being put in any position where they would be subservient to Hlaalu; they were of the opinion that they had proven themselves defenders of Morrowind, worthy to sit upon the Grand Council as a Great House. Surprisingly, Redoran agreed with them, having come to admire their fierce martial spirit. Thus, on the 1^st Morning Star, 4 E 9, the Grand Council decided to send their peace terms to the An-Xileel leaders in Tear and return all their Argonian prisoners without ransom. The An-Xileel for their part, opted to accept that conquering Morrowind would be more trouble than was worth and signed the Treaty of Tear, ceding the southern marches of Morrowind formally to Argonia, in exchange for which, the An-Xileel would pay reparations and the cost of the land to Morrowind.

Chapter End: Towards the Stormcrown Interregnum

What were the results and what are the lessons we can take from the Red Year and the An-Xileel Invasion? One might state that it is obvious that building a civilization beneath a giant, active volcano, is unwise. It is also perhaps unwise to suspend meteors in the sky above active volcanoes.

But more seriously, the first result is that the Red Year and An-Xileel attack proved that the Great Houses prioritised their own well being far more than they did the well being of Morrowind. All too often during the war, the Great Houses were confronted with choices between a greater good and potential benefit for their own House at the expense of others, sometimes at the expense of all of Morrowind itself. Every time, the Great Houses chose to pursue their self interest, or the detriment of their rivals, at the expense of the Dunmer people. Of course, this is best shown at the siege of Mournhold, where House Indoril allowed their own city (along with thousands of innocent people) to burn, just to spurn House Hlaalu and the Empire. But many other instances exist. The entire war was a long and pathetic game of thrones and an exercise in futile and sickening self-interest.

Secondly, the war signalled the end of the power of the Tribunal Temple and was a clarion call a religious reformation among the Dunmer People; this was described by Thara of Rihad in “The Reclamations: The Fall of the Tribunal and the Rise of the New Temple”. The struggles of the dissident priests will be discussed in a later entry.

Thirdly, the war showed that Potentate Ocato was not keeping effective control. Some concession might be made for Ocato; after all, it had only been six years since the Oblivion Crisis. Defenders of the Potentate find this weakness incongruous with his record; Ocato had served admirably as a legionnaire, then Imperial Battlemage, then High Chancellor and head of the Imperial Government. Yet the Elder Council was worse than they had been at the time of Uriel Septim IV. Even Lathenil of Sunhold, a personal friend of the Potentate, admits that Ocato was too reluctant and lukewarm to effectively heal Tamriel. It should not have taken so long to outfit such an important Imperial Duke as Vedam Dren with one or even two legions.

Finally, the war showed the importance of the interplay between province, race and empire, especially in the east. Racial loathing is a fact of life in Eastern Tamriel, and these hatreds had only been kept in check by the Empire, sometimes more successfully than others. Nords, Dunmer and Argonians had been fighting each other for centuries and since the time of Tiber Septim, the Empire had worked hard to unify the East, always the most fractious region of Tamriel. Though the Nords oft decry it as weak, the Dunmer Great Houses loathe it as a grasping violation of their land and the Saxhleel spurn it as foreign to the marsh, the Imperial law and culture, even with its overbearing bureaucracy and greedy Nibenese mercantilism is the glue that has held the Eastern Provinces together. When Imperial authority collapsed, the An-Xileel saw their chance for vengeance, and they unhesistatingly took it. Even today, this same scenario is rearing its head in Skyrim, even as a vicious civil war wages. One need only compare the two cities of Cheydinhal and Windhelm to see the positive influence of Nibenese cosmopolitanism, and look at the lessons of the An-Xileel invasion of Morrowind to understand how important the Empire has been to this constant racial and provincial interaction in Eastern Tamriel.

The troubles of the East did not end with the Treaty of Tear. Although Argonia was quick to seal itself away from the world, the An-Xileel content to ignore Tamriel, further suffering would soon engulf Morrowind, Solstheim and Skyrim. For the next chapter shall explore the Stormcrown Interregnum and the Days of Blood and Gold.