Blood for the Gods

Penned by Sir Rivalen Mothril, Knight, East Empire Company.

The previous section of this history saw us deal with the return of Emperor Titus Mede I from Skyrim, and also the internal religious struggle that had embroiled Morrowind in the aftermath of the Accession War. This next chapter explains the escalation of that internal struggle from a vicious doctrinal dispute between the members of the Temple, into the blossoming of a full blown religious war, and lays the foundation for how the Titus Mede I was finally drawn into the multifaceted power struggles of the Eastern Provinces.

4E 25 – Ashes in the Temple

The Tribunal Temple had fallen; the dissidents had infiltrated their foes and proceeded to convert and coerce those who believed in the Tribunal’s divinity. In the wake of the Temple’s leadership change, those priests who clung to the old belief in ALMSIVI as the gods of the Dunmer, had knelt to the new order, or they had been butchered. Some members of House Indoril had not been so fortunate as to be given this choice. The ruthless, relentless Ordinators, who had led the armies of the Temple northward to subdue Great House Dres had learned of the fall of the temple and, it seems, had finally declared for the new order. They seized, and brutally slaughtered, most of the members of the orthodox priesthood they could find. Afterward, the holy warlords who, for years, had been the golden-clad right arm of the Temple, proclaimed themselves the rulers of House Indoril.

When the folk of Mournhold learned of the Ordinator’s takeover, and that they were leading the absent armies of House Indoril to Mournhold, mass panic gripped the citizenry, and it seems that the Dissident Priests and Ashkhans encouraged this terror in a concentrated, controlled fashion, the better to ensure that the Holy City of Morrowind stood with them. The Ordinators were known throughout the land as being devout champions of the law and for being utterly without mercy. Among the new leaders of the Temple, none wanted to fight against the vaunted, and much feared, “Sword of Mournhold”. Thanks to the exceptional work of the Dissident Priests in infiltrating the temple and Indoril hierarchies, there was some awareness of what was happening. There seems to be some awareness that the Ordinators had, to some extent, adopted the emerging Temple creed and renounced the Tribunal as gods, for they had slaughtered the orthodox Archcanons in command of the Indoril army. But just as surely, the people of the city and the priests who ruled on their new and uneasy thrones must have remembered that during their “glorious liberation” of Mournhold, not only had many extant Indoril lords been killed, some of the High Ordinators, the leadership of the entire order, had been among those lynched. As such, the order was unlikely to be in a forgiving mood.

At this juncture, it is difficult not to feel sorry for the people of Mournhold. While justly proud of their faith, most of them were simply normal folk trying to survive. When the folk of the old capital had risen up, many of them had done so only to ensure their city would not be sacked by an invading army for the second time in recent memory. However, as in almost all such crises, a few hotheads had steered folk toward a more brutal course of action. Now, the people of Mournhold found themselves threatened by the very warriors that had once enforced the laws of their city and their faith.

It is well that wise counsel prevailed in those heated days. A goodly number of those who had aided in the overthrow of the orthodox doctrine had been dissident Indoril, who had kept their reformist views secret, even as the conservatives continued to hold power. These folk desperately wanted to keep the Indoril from total collapse, and many saw that the only way to do that was to bring the Ordinators, and the remaining House Indoril lordlings into harmony with the dissidents and Ashlanders. These voices, who had added theirs to the newly converted conservatives, convinced the leading Dissident Priests and Ashlanders that it was in the conjoined best interests of the Indoril, the people of Mournhold and the faith itself to negotiate with the approaching Ordinator Army. Cynical historians have, however, asked whether Indoril have ever seen Mournhold’s people and the Faith as anything but satellites of the Great House of Almalexia. One witness to the events in Mournhold at this time, Rythe, said to me:

“So much for Indoril integrity. In the end, they all simply decided to accept that the Ashlanders and Dissident Priests were right, when it was clear that was how the tides were flowing. Of course, it’s easy to justify changing your views when you can just say ‘Azura showed me the righteous path’. And it’s easy to insist that Azura showed this path, when you’ve got a feared army of golden-armoured killers to back such a statement up.”

If this all seems terribly confusing to the average reader, then fear not, you haven’t missed any details. Taken as a whole, the resolution of the Mournhold Crisis quite simply was an absurdly complex series of negotiations and concessions, threats and bribes, plots and schemes between and amongst the leaders of the religious establishments. It all continued in this rather sordid manner for most of the rest of 4E 25.

Most significantly, the Ordinators did not, in the end, besiege Mournhold, but seized the ancient and sacred burial city of Necrom, holding the necropolis city of the Dunmer in opposition to the Ashkhans and Dissident Priests. Here, they held court and held hostages, marched against, made displays against and outmanoeuvred the dissenter army, and more than once, ambushed an Ashlander warband. The Ordinators and their army caused no end of humiliation for the authorities of the Reclamation. The Ordinators also caused great property damage to holdings outside the fortifications of Mournhold, which were only newly repaired. The humiliation to the ruling ‘Reclaimers’ was offset by the continual arrival of Ashlanders and other warriors in Mournhold until it began to seem as if a full blown civil war was on the way. But finally, in the closing days of 4E 25, Morgen Indoril, perhaps the greatest orator of his time, by virtue of his eloquence (which may have been what made an army of Buoyant Armigers “miraculously” follow him to Necrom), finally brought about both a reconciliation between both factions.

He addressed the gathered leaders in a famous oration, which is recorded in the archives of the Imperial University

“Woe unto you, the sons and daughters of Veloth, for now the font of righteousness of our Resdayn is sundered. To the golden champions of the sacred law I say only this: it is YOU, you who have been ever the most righteous, you who call yourselves the arm of canon law, who have become a new blight upon our land. For despite your vaunted strength, when the Temple Guard is set against the Temple, the only ones to profit are those who stand without the crowned and sacred chapel, that chapel called RESDAYN…And if you have yet recollection of the honour and righteousness that defines the name “Ordinator”, and your breast yet swells with love of this still great realm, you will throw aside foolish pride and take up spear and shield against the rising malevolence without, not those in truest need of your shepherding.”

Morgen Indoril’s unexpected about-face and address to the Ashkhans and Dissident Priests who had come with him to negotiate with the Ordinator’s Army, was no less eloquent:

“And to those of you who would arrogantly claim to be the Reclamation of what is true and honourable, thou hast stained thy hands with the blood of the city that is no less than the heart and mother of the Dunmer people. You whip into terror the very people who look to you for leadership! You have had them quake in fear of the Ordinators, those whom have ever been their shield against evils of injustice! Those who have been the law that guards Resdayn from chaos! And it is chaos you yourselves have instigated! Acknowledge your sins, lay down thy blades, kneel before the law in shame and contrition, and make good your honest penance for thine injustices.”

What followed, in Morning Star, 4E 26 was the restoration of the Temple, via the “Necrom Accord”. First, a general amnesty was agreed upon by all. As Morgen Indoril said, “It shall be as though the old orthodoxy were simply swallowed up by Ashstorms; all shall be well…”. Secondly, the Ashlanders agreed to leave and return to wandering, as per the demands of the Ordinators who felt the khans would destabilize Dunmer society (or simply the Ordinator’s power). However, the Ashlanders would no longer be subject to any bullying or persecution of any form from any house or faction. Thirdly, the Dissident Priests and reformers would occupy positions of power; the new Archcanon of Mournhold would be chosen from their ranks. But it was explicitly demanded that both Deputy Archcanons would be blood members of House Indoril. The Fourth article agreed upon was truly exceptional, as it granted noble status and the legally ratified adoption of all leading Dissident Priests into House Indoril- hundreds of individuals. This strengthened the house but was extremely controversial; Ashlanders who subsequently joined were allowed into House Indoril, but were denied noble rank and trappings. Fourthly, the Ordinators agreed to stand down the army, resume their role as protectors of the Temple, and House Indoril were declared “Protectors of the Faithful” and declared official military patrons of the Reclamation.

All of these terms were agreed upon by both the present parties in writing and blood-sworn oaths, and in signed declarations tendered to the Grand Council in Blacklight. The Buoyant Armigers agreed to stand as guarantor to the promises made in the Necrom Accord. But resultant of the accord, which, in years to come, bound Indoril to the Temple even more heavily, the Armigers also began distancing themselves from the religious authority, which is unsurprising, considering their numbers have historically been drawn most heavily from House Redoran. The relocation of the formal Armiger headquarters to the Temple of Azura in Blacklight within twenty years of this religious upheaval shows clearly that the new state of affairs in the temple was not met with universal approval.

4E 26-36 – The Brewing Ashstorm, the Blacklight Vespers

The successful end to the Reclamation movement brought a long awaited vindication to the Ashlanders, and gradually brought about a new sense of unity amongst the faithful of the Temple. Though dissent remained in favour of the old Tribunal, henceforth it remained a minority voice, and would never again trouble Morrowind on such a large scale. Indeed, many die-hard followers of the old tribunal chose relocation to Solstheim, away from the resurgent Reclamation, where they could worship in peace. Now, although the Tribunal were accorded sainthood (seen by cynics as nothing but weak appeasement of the old orthodoxy), the true deities of the Dunmer were henceforth to be Mephala, Boethia and Azura, and it was to be taught that these three had always been the guiding hand of Resdayn. The Indoril set about preaching of the new gospel with great vigour. Additionally, perhaps due to the massive upheavals of the Fourth Era being seen, understandably, as a great test, reverence of the House of Troubles rose, especially veneration of Sheogorath, whose worship has grown strongly on Sheogorad and in parts of mainland Morrowind in this era. In fact, more than one House Dres Councillor has been chosen from the priesthood of Sheogorath (though, admittedly, these lords have not lasted long).

Additonally, the Temple has been far less active in persecution of those few folk who choose to venerate the House of Troubles, preferring to focus more positively on preaching its new Reclamation creed. But this more tolerant position has rather been offset by the other project which has dominated Temple policy in the last century: the Temple’s conflict against House Sadras and the Chapel of the Divines.

For four and a half centuries, the Temple and the Chapel had been in an uneasy state of truce. Though exceptions exist, such as the noble Armigers who have proven broad minded and chivalrous enough to coexist with the Chapel, the religious and lay hierarchies of both faiths had been generally hostile to the other. Each viewed the other as nothing but an infidel blemish upon Morrowind. The Temple viewed the Chapel as a foreign invader and a “citadel of false prophets”. Additionally (and correctly), the Temple viewed the Chapel as one of the principal instigators in the downfall of the long cherished Dunmeri practice of Slavery. However, this hostility has always been met with the response that had the Temple joined hands with the Chapel and endorsed the abolition centuries earlier, the Accession War might never have happened, a response that seems quite logical to foreign observers (but treasonous to conservative Dunmer eyes).

Indeed, more than one conservative adherent of the Temple has accused the Chapel of weakening Morrowind’s defences during the Accession War. Whilst this is plainly untrue, considering the ferocity of House Sadras’ opposition to the An-Xileel during the war, this conspiracy theory has had some degree of success in fermenting religious unrest. Enslaved Argonians had flocked to the Chapel during the Septim era; assimilated Saxhleel in Nibenay and those few in Morrowind often continue a trend of lingering loyalty to the faith.

Far more accurate was the accusation that the Chapel was “A telescope, one that stretched from the holdings of the Sadras, through Aetherius and into the iniquitous halls of the White Gold Tower…”. This was not due to any lack of patriotism on the part of the Sadras, this much should already be clear. But while Sadras did not push ‘Imperialisation’ to the extent of their former Hlaalu overlords, they were zealous and did seek (and gain) influence and position within the Chapel, including positions outside Morrowind, amid the Dunmeri diaspora. With so many contacts in the church hierarchy, some flow of information from Morrowind to Cyrodiil was, in the end, inevitable. It was a vicious cycle. As Sadras gained influence, they increased enmity against them fuelling the fires of religious tension. More than once, unwise priests to the west called for a sacred war in Morrowind, which far from improve the position of the Sadras, increased the precariousness of their position on the Grand Council, as they were forced to answer to the conservatives and the Temple that they were not, in fact, plotting to invite the Imperial Legion into Morrowind, whence they would scour the Reclamations from the face of Resdayn.

It is one of the true ironies of Resdayn’s history that the more of this xenophobia and anti-Chapel backlash was roused amongst the people, among the Great House Redoran and the Grand Council as a whole, the closer and closer these omens came toward being realised. As the Temple and Indoril continued to speak out against the Chapel, the Armistice faction saw its numbers, power and influence, and that of House Sadras, one of its greatest supporters, slowly ebbing away.

For the decade that followed the fall of the Tribunal Temple, the two sides cut away at each other, with the Temple generally having the better of these clashes. Most often, such clashes were simply repeat bouts of street violence, which the outnumbered Chapelgoers could not hope to win. Yet, sometimes, armed skirmishes would erupt between the soldiers of the Temple and the knights of House Sadras. Even in these circumstances, these moments of “armed conflict” were usually simply demonstrations of force near a Chapel village or outside the walls of one of the House Sadras settlements. Sometimes, House Indoril would seize, or attempt to seize, the Sadras ebony shipments. This was something very damaging. At one point, House Indoril soldiers set up a dam on the River Thir, blocking the downriver shipment of ebony from Narsis to Old Ebonheart and seizing the ebony, taking it back to Mournhold. Despite the unrest, which most Dunmer away from the south simply referred to as “the Troubles”, Morrowind was not by any means considered to be formally in a state of civil war.

However, this quiet, but steadily escalating conflict was given a new and terrible dimension, when, on 20^th Sun’s Dusk 4E 36, Lady Drela Sadras, the wife of High Warden Voryn Sadras, Lord Commander of House Sadras, was attending Vespers in the Chapel in Blacklight. As the service reached its conclusion, nine cloaked and hooded figures burst into the Chapel hall. In a methodical and relentless ceremony, the figures butchered all members of House Sadras, chapelgoers and chapel staff that were present. This deed, the “Blacklight Vespers” gained a rather horrific reputation, not least because it was one of, if not the first public execution undertaken by the Morag Tong since the Red Year.

Although, as is traditional for the Morag Tong, the figures physically responsible for the public execution put themselves forward for questioning immediately, presenting writs of execution that the Redoran Guard verified as genuine, the masterminds behind the executions remained unknown.

There were several theories forwarded as to the culprits. The first was that the exiles, House Hlaalu, had been responsible. House Hlaalu had more than enough motive to pursue a vendetta against any Great House, against Sadras especially. House Sadras had been the chief beneficiaries, in terms of land, position and gold, of the Hlaalu Purge. Moreover, House Hlaalu most certainly had the means to do so. One of the senior surviving Hlaalu, a certain Lord Eno Hlaalu, was not only the maternal uncle of the late grandmaster, Vedam Dren, but this shadowy individual had been the last named Grandmaster of the Morag Tong. Though allegedly living quietly as a private citizen in the Imperial City, Eno Hlaalu had remained in correspondence with his nephew, with whom he was quite close, until Dren’s death. But this theory, though it has much in favor of it, conflicts with the overt desecration of the Blacklight Chapel. Hlaalu had always been fast friends of the Imperial Cult. The Conclave of the Primates had regularly had Hlaalu in its ranks, and in the Septim Era, one High Primate of the Empire had been chosen from House Hlaalu. The Primate of All Morrowind had very often been a member of House Hlaalu. There were still Hlaalu active within the Chapel at the moment of the murders. And in Morrowind proper, during the purge period, the Chapel had offered sanctuary to more than one of the House of Narsis. It would have been of no advantage to House Hlaalu to offend the Chapel in this way. But considering what soon followed it is not an unreasonable assumption.

Second, some have said the Tong simply wanted to make itself known again. That the guild’s actions in Blacklight were a repetition of their deeds during the assassination of Versidue-Shaie; that the Tong were announcing their strength to the world at large. This is possible of course, but extremely uncharacteristic. The Morag Tong had done this once, centuries ago, with disastrous results. And whilst the Tong had fared better than most groups in the Red Year and Accession War, largely relocating to Cyrodiil, where the Black Hand of the Dark Brotherhood had all but collapsed, and where they were – technically – a legally recognized entity, it is highly doubtful that they were strong enough to declare war on one of Morrowind’s ruling houses and even more doubtful that the Tong would take the risk of doing so.

Other theories have been forwarded. Voryn Sadras had established a guar-caravan business and was transporting Ebony at great profit from his mines in around Narsis and Kragenmoor, overland to Cyrodiil, bypassing EEC controlled trade lanes. It is not uncommon to have the East Empire Company forwarded as a potential culprit for the crime of Lady Sadras’ death. The merchant syndicate has had its name involved in dozens of tales of intrigue across the years and the commoners of Tamriel love casting grand entities in villainous light. But after closer inspection, this hypothesis does not hold up. The only deaths were in the Chapel in Blacklight. No supplementary sabotage or similar actions were undertaken against House Sadras’ Ebony production or its caravan infrastructure or resources. Though some have suggested ‘fear’ as a motive for the deed, this is a poor explanation. Voryn Sadras and his house had fought heroically, against colossal odds in the Accession War. Lord Sadras was a fellow of superhuman courage, and the EEC would certainly have known this.

Yet others have argued that the murderer was none other than Telvanni Aryon or another member of the Armistice Faction (the so called “Farseers”) and that they murdered Lord Sadras’ wife to light a spark that might end the stalemate between the two great political factions of Morrowind. This theory is utterly baseless. Lady Sadras was well liked within the faction and had spoken admirably on their behalf in her role as spokesperson for House Sadras. Moreover, the reaction that followed her death could have been gained through other means which might not have been so calamitous for House Sadras.

The final explanation worth mentioning, and certainly the one Lord Voryn latched onto, was that of the New Temple and House Indoril being behind the grievous death of his wife. The Lord of House Sadras needed little convincing that this was correct. The theory had merit; in terms of motive, it made a good deal of sense. After all, Sadras and Indoril had been at each other’s throats for more than a decade. The situation had been building long enough to bring about such a cataclysm. The attack was almost entirely religious in nature, centred as it was on the desecration of the Blacklight Chapel. It is worth noting that only those Sadras who were inside the Chapel were killed- those House Sadras guard who were standing watch outside on the Blacklight streets, were entirely untouched by the Tong assassins (detractors have noted that this could simply mean that these guards were party to the plot). But no evidence was ever found which linked House Indoril or the Temple to the deed.

Chapter Conclusion

This however, was ultimately unimportant. By mid Evening Star, the nation was awash with yet more ground shaking news. Seemingly roused to a fury beyond measure, Lord Voryn Sadras had, with incredible quickness, levied the entirety of his forces, a grand army of twenty thousand warriors. He was now marching northward to Blacklight to receive justice, and most presumed he was going to take command of the government. The Sadras messengers proclaimed that the army was coming not only for the heads of the Temple Archcanons, but also for the surrender of House Redoran, since they had not delivered the guilty Indoril. Outside of Sadras lands, where war fervor was at fever pitch, terror gripped Resdayn. House Sadras had drawn up the full measure of their formidable military, leaving the southern borders unguarded for the first time since the Accession War ended. Who would now prevent the brutal reptilian menace from spilling once more into Morrowind? The people had never forgotten the fury of the An-Xileel army and the fear that gripped the realm was palpable.

It was this question, amongst others, that was carried in an official Grand Council missive by a single rider who arrived in the Imperial City at the end of Morning Star, 4E 37.