The Wailways of Old Cyrodiil

Of all the grandeur projects of the Reman Dynasty, perhaps none are more forgotten than the wailway endeavors of the early Colovian barons. It’s easy to see why history only pays them a passing glance of course, as alongside such splendor as the mananauts and Secundan colonization efforts the wailways are fairly mundane. Still, the establishment of the wailways, and fails of such, show an important side of the Cyrodiil under Reman.

The concept of using rails and carts to transport ore and miners had existed at that point for some time, mostly seen in the mining industries in and around the Colovian Highlands. However, it was only under the grace of Calonius Attecus, Lanius Attecus, and Armando Attecus (the fabled “Three Triplets of Sutch”), were these concepts applied to the rest of the world. Myth holds that the three brothers fell drunkenly down a mineshaft one night, into one of the carts, which proceed to roll them to the entrance mostly unscathed.

From here, the three developed the idea of a large scale version of such a convenient system, with some variation. Iron rail was to be placed by a series of hyperaurbic pylons, which would be followed by a so-called “serpent engine”, a complex magimechanical device capable which would melt frost salts, the subsequent magical release of which would generate enough force to move the engine, pulling along any carts, and generating steam as a byproduct. To regulate the direction and pressure, a filled soul gem was to be attached at the front, to serve as the “pilot”. Appealing to their father, a well established Baron of Sutch, as well as other benefactors, including (supposedly) Reman himself, the triplets endeavored to establish or otherwise sell the idea of several wailway lines. In the next twelve years, laborers would endeavor to set up two basic wail lines, the Sans-Mundic, and the High Cyrod.

Unfortunately, the project failed for sheer lack of public interest. The death of Kurtha-khul, the sole benefactor of the Sans-Mundic Line, left one half of the triplet’s business in shambles before it was even completed. The High Cyrod on the other hand, opened to general suspicion, and to widespread fear. While the turning of mechanism and the blasts of steam put outsiders in mind of a Dwemer machine, the true killing factor of the wailway was its namesake. It is believed that the soul gem component in the serpent engine was somehow aware of its fate, and the living soul still inside would often vocalize distress, sometimes in the form of sobbing, but usually it would simply scream for hours on end. This unfortunately terrified passengers, and there was more than one account of villagers destroying trains that would come into town, determined to stop the screaming. Recovered journals recount farmers being unable to sleep at night, constantly woken by passing screams. The wailway simply took in more coin than it produced, with the Attecus triplets in a debt they would struggle to pay, and the average citizen of the empire staying far away from the triplets and their screaming machines.

In the end, the pylons would be removed and sold, and all but one of the serpent engines destroyed. The sole survivor, the SAC Flying Colovian, would be displayed in the back corner of the Imperial Museum. Eventually it would be gifted as a peace offering to an unusually eager Sotha Sil, during the establishment of the Septim dynasty. Its current location is believed to be somewhere in the Telvanni lands, studied or laughed at by eastern scholars.