Myths of the Eastern Reach [Revised]

Thanks to /u/william_door, /u/laurelanthalasa, and /u/MalakTheOrc for their help.

Today in the Reach there are many tribes on both sides of the border of Skyrim and High Rock, and their beliefs vary widely, showing more influence from the Nords on one side and more from the Direnni on the other. I, while exploring the ruins of Markarth, through a series of events I would rather not repeat but am glad I went through, ended up trapped with a reachman in a dark cave. He was quiet at first, he just stared at me. I spoke at length, trying to keep the savage man from attacking, but he just stared. I don't even know if I saw him blink once. As I continued babbling - I believe I had just broached the subject of sweetrolls - he interrupted me with the following. I have recalled and written it down, for this man was not only a Reachman, he was a Forsworn. It is my hope we can use this knowledge to try and bring peace in the Reach. And yet, listening to his voice in the dark as he stared through me, listening to his final statements, I admit I carry little hope in the matter.

                                                                 ~ Sakazwal

It used to be empty. Here. There. Everywhere, empty.

It was the Great Darkness that comes before all things. But the emptiness was ancient, and soon it passed away. As it decayed the old gods began to appear. The decay itself became the Hidden One: Narimran. You will forget her soon, but that is well. It is her way.

Many were born in the dying emptiness. Among the strongest were the Draig, Orchtei and Machtna, Kyrinna and Ircyrne, Molachtal and Debenadh. But the last to be born was Shaodh. He was alone in the Great Darkness, now illuminated by the gods. The last of the Darkness entered his heart to hide away. And so his heart too became empty.

Shaodh did not like his empty heart, so he sought out to fill the gap. He made a secret plan full of tricksy holes like his own chest. He tricked and fought others to convince them to join his endeavor: it was a new world, a place for them to keep their souls safe in tiny shards. Machtna volunteered to be the Shaper, to mold the land. The Draig joined when Shaodh promised him rule. Kyrrina was seduced by Shaodh to bring winds that cleared the space. Debenadh was to make it beautiful, and Orchtei was to protect it and hold all the promises made, so as to keep the world sacred.

The gods thought this a good idea, keeping their souls with them at all times was dangerous after all. So they began to sacrifice themselves, and once begun, look! Shaodh's trick did not let them stop, and they gave up more and more of themselves till almost nothing was left. And Shaodh took these sacrifices to fill his own empty heart, leaving only the weakest bits to become the children who were meant to keep the shards.

Within this world Draig the dragon, thought weakened, ruled with his dragonkin. Orchtei, his faithful friend and warrior, kept all his king's commands in all his lands. But Shaodh and his woman Kyrrina made secret plans. Draig and Orchtei's children became the elves. Shaodh and Kyrrina's became men. Our tribe were among the ancient men in the Old Lands.

But as the seasons went on, Machtna the Shaper became suspicious as he became weaker. Before he could lose all of himself he took a mighty leap and broke through Kyrrina above to escape Shaodh's prison. He thus became called Leaper, and the great hole he made in the sky is the sun. Orchtei saw this and, in his role as Oath-King, demanded a blood price from Machtna for leaving the world unfinished; look, he hadn't even stomped down all the craggy hills. Orchtei took Machtna's favorite dagger and bled him with it till he the law was satisfied. That blood became the stars in the night, and Machtna regretted his abandon. He left his dagger to Orchtei to use in the killing right of this world. But Shaodh, who we now know as the Bad Man, he stole Machtna's dagger from Orchtei. He took it and used it to dig up pieces of the world to hide and use to fill himself. That is to say, he stole the lands of his chieftain, the Draig-King. But the king was no fool, Draig discovered Shaodh's theft. He took the dagger away from Shaodh and carved his own words onto the steel. Putting it back to its killing use, Draig proclaimed, 'This is my runes-dagger, it is death for those that fight against me.'

The Dragon King remained suspicious of Shaodh. So he sent his loyal warrior Orchtei, as Oath-King, to confront Shaodh about his plans for the world, about the lies, the tricks and broken promises, and the sabotage. The world's center was a pit of broken promises and bitter ash, one that many had died for, and all the soul-bit children they had born were weak and broken compared to the oaths Shaodh had sworn. So Orchtei condemned Shaodh for oathbreaking and trickery, for soul-stealing and land-theft. He tore out the Bad Man's traitor-heart and threw it far to the east where the dwarves dwell. And the Bad Man died. But as his heart was torn out Shaodh screamed eight hundred bloody oaths, and Orchtei held him to them. Even in death the Bad Man cannot rest, instead he is cursed to walk in false skins till they are each fulfilled.

And so here came forth the Hidden One, the forgotten. Narimran, the Hag-Queen. She saw the gaping chasm, the gap in Shaodh's chest where once an empty heart beat. From within this she pulled the great secrets hidden in the Great Darkness of before, secrets hidden in Shaodh's heart, and the tricks Orchtei used to bring the vengeful Bad Man back too. She kept this knowledge to herself, knowing one day she would give it to a lonely people.

Now with the Bad Man gone it was Kyrrina who remained to trouble the world. Our mother, we thought once. She was Shaodh's widow, and she hated Orchtei and his children. Even before Shaodh's death, for the Oath-King was always faithful to Draig, whom she connived against. But she could do nothing against him, for Orchtei left the Old Lands to help the Draig-King's children in other places. And the sons of Kyrrina soon divided between those loyal to the King and those who would break their oaths like their father. But despite our loyalty, us, the tribe who would be true to the King, Kyrrina, our mother, became angry with us. She wanted only oathbreaker children, betrayers and killers. Kyrrina in her rage shouted at us to leave the house of Dead-Traitor Shaodh. She named us other, and cast us away. We were sad, and when we awoke from our tears we found ourselves here, in the Reach.

A pitiful tale, but one not ended. For in the Reach we soon met the children of the Dragon who came from southerlands, and the children of Orchtei were here too, a most faithful people. As we mingled with foreigners, we found ourselves with a new force. We were found by Debenadh, by the Flesh and Fire, the blood and passion of our youth, the youth of the world. Through her we came to know the children of Draig and the children of Orchtei. In the heat of the Flesh and Fire our bloods mingled and our fathers became many. For a time we were content, yet unfulfilled and empty. Such would not last. For then came the waves. Kyrrina came to the Rim, and she brought her children, our brothers, with her. In many waves they came. At first we were wary of Kyrrina's return, but she told us that we had misunderstood her intentions. She had not abandoned us! We were but the first to come, to prepare the way for her other children. So we taught our brothers how to live off the land, for we were forgiving then, and could put aside the sadness of our use.

But as time passed we saw the nords, our brothers, prospering. The elves, children of the Dragon saw this too. Kyrrina took the winds and rains and gave the best to her favored children, the nords, whose father remained traitorous Shaodh. For all her kind words, we of the Reach were given nothing. Slowly, our crops began to die, and the elves too, who in jealousy began to attack the men. That soon blossomed into war, and the children of the Draig battled the children of Shaodh. In time the nords slaughtered the elves, destroyed and scattered their remains. This brought the dragon king no end of rage, and he came from the Old Lands to exact vengeance on the traitorous Kyrrina who had led her kin in such actions. He descended upon the Rim with his armies of dragonkin to burn the lands. We watched from the Reach in horror, saddened at such loss, but knowing the righteousness of Draig the Dragon King in these acts.

But then the Dragon sent his kin to the Reach, and they killed and burned us. We, the ever-faithful were betrayed again! And we cried out to our mother, help us! She saw us burning, her children.

She turned away.

She gave the nords voices to shout with. She gave the nords rains to quench flame with. She gave the nords love to live with! And to US? The faithful? Those who broke no oaths? She gave us only the bitter winds of abandonment! So I say, FUCK THE SKY-BITCH!

.....

Draig the Dragon-King had broken his oaths to rule justly. He had become obsessed with conquest and death, even of the faithful. Because of this Orchtei, as Oath-King, had to demand blood price from his own king. Such an act was of unimaginable pain to him: Orchtei needed break an oath to keep another; to betray his king to remain true to his purpose. It burned. The overthrow of his king, forced to speak against him, Orchtei's treason made him change. And his children too, a most faithful people, who though they looked much different we yet saw the truth within themselves, and we still bring them Flesh and Fire in the cold nights. As for the Dragon-King, he was driven away for a time. But still later he would succeed in his conquest, for they call him Dragon-Emperor now.

That is where we were left. Machtna, leapt away. The Bad Man, dead and walking. Orchtei, changed but yet true. Draig, overthrown and darkened of purpose. The Sky-Bitch. Debenadh kept us still, but though he were grateful for sex and blood, all men must grow. And we were hungry. Fatherless and motherless, we were hungry.

And this is when the Hidden One judged us ready. She sent us Ircyrne, the Hunter. He taught us how to hunt when no one else would, taught us how to be the predators of men. He brought us meat, and fur, and bones and blood. And he brought us mothers. The daughters of the Hidden One became his wives. He loved them, hard, and they changed, blossomed into the hagravens. And the Hidden One came forth then, she taught the hagravens the tricks of the ancient darkness, and the tricks she learned in the emptiness of Shaodh's heart, and the tricks she gained from watching Orchtei's secrets. We used them against our opressors; Witness the Briarhearts, we mock the Bad Man.

And true to her name the Hidden One had a secret purpose. Within the secrets she told us of the half-tower, manifold and many-hearted. But that is ours to know.

The last of the gods we came to know was the Harvester, the King of Kill-in-Kind; Molachtal saw into our hearts, and he saw our sadness and our hate. The Bad Man, if nothing else, taught us the value of vengeance. Molachtal gave us the means to achieve it. To bind and break, kill and burn the works of the Sky-Bitch. The hagravens know the secret ways to fly in godhood. They shall enslave and break the Sky-Bitch, and we shall have our revenge. And when she is dead and gone, our new mothers will rule the skies in her stead, as one. Till then we heed their words.

Be true to your oaths.

Honor the hagravens.

Always take vengeance.

Heed your passions.

Hunt the betrayers.

These are our ways.

And that is our promise to you. To the nords, and to the Empire. You and your gods killed our people, took our homeland, abandoned us in our need. Your Kyne and your Akatosh, we know them by the old names. Kyrrina and Draig, betrayers and oathbreakers both. And we promise to hunt them down. Because that is our way.

Quotes on the Nine Old Gods From Reachmen and Scholars

On Draig >"Draig the Dragon-King ruled the world in the beginning, this was promised him by Shaodh's design. But he grew full of rage and fury, he sought enslave the world. He had to be be put down."

On Shaodh >"For all his Bad Man ways, he taught us something good. He taught us about revenge."

On Orchtei >"The dead belong to Orchtei, that is his sworn oath. And the Oath-King keeps all oaths, this we learned from him. A Reachman's promise is a promise kept."

On Kyrrina >"So in using such a derogatory term [Sky-Bitch] for Kyne, they are in some weird, brutal and inarticulate way, paying her homage, because she is one they cannot command or control. They can injure her, but she can, and has, punished them far worse."

>"Then Kyrrina, who is sometimes called the Reach-Kyne (because you have to reach far away to even find her), she is sky goddess, her domain is wind and rain to help crop growth. But the Reach? Barren mountainous land. If Kyrrina is the mother goddess, she abandoned these children."

On Debenadh >"Not the simpering Dibella of Skyrim or Cyrodiil, Debenadh is fierce and dangerous, made for sex and killing. The Reachman worship old gods, and thats what Debenadh is, the Dibella before she was cleaned up and made to look nice. She embodies the young women of the Reach, a matriarchal society. They are empowered and there are no fetters of propeity to hold them down. Open and wild about their sexuality, they use it to their advantage, for young are passionate before they become wise."

On Machtna >"We draw our magicka from his, the purest blood, and too from the dark secrets of Hidden One. Blood and Void. Machtna bled well for his crime, he was forgiven his oathbreaking. And the dagger he left behind is at Orchtei's discretion. Orchtei guards death, and even the world must die. It is with Machtna's dagger that Orchtei slowly kills it."

On Narimran >"The Hidden One, she is a dark faraway goddess and the people can't interact with her. But the hagravens do, they learn their secrets from her. Through the matriarchal hagravens the Reachmen have a substitute mother-figure, and Narimran is like the grandmother who takes care of the children the mother left behind."

On Ircyrne >"He is the step-father of the Reachmen. He taught us how to hunt when no one else would, taught us how to be the predators of men. He brought us meat, and fur, and bones and blood. And he brought us mothers. The daughters of the Hidden One became his wives, and they became our mothers."

On Molachtal >"They [Reachmen] want to dominate nature, the domain of Kyne. It is Molachtal who taught them how to brutalize and subjugate her sphere. The hagravens, through Molachtal, are trying to usurp Kyrrina's role as sky-goddess, to mantle and seize her domain by violating it, and her. The hagravens want to become the mother the Reach never had."