The Beautiful

The initial idea for this text was completely different, so there might be more on the Beautiful in the future. Also, shout out to Avian, who is celebrating his birthday today!

A barely documented faction in the history of Tamriel is 'the Beautiful'. This group, active in the Summerset Isles, is one that deserves more attention.

The Beautiful were a group labelled as dangerous by the Empire, and as terrorists by Alinor. The main philosophy of this organisation was to further push the Summerset Isles and the Altmer culture towards progress, what was, in their eyes, the only thing that could give the Altmer their position in Tamriel back.

The Beautiful originated from the salons of Alinor. As commonly known, the Altmer had long been leaders when it came to the arts. While their forms and themes were deemed conservative by the rest of the continent, no one would see the Altmeri artists as inadequate.
The salons were the rooms, cafés, and houses in which artists would find likeminded, and discuss art, philosophy and politics. While this practise had been going on for millennia, the unrest within the art communities only reached a boiling point in the late third era.

This unrest did not originate in a vacuum, and was a natural result of the contemporary developments in Tamriel, and the lack of them in the Summerset Isles. Ever since the Third Empire conquered the entirety of Tamriel, contact between the provinces was at an absolute height. It did not only mean that news and products from one corner could travel to the other, but it also lead to a huge exchange of ideas and philosophy. Because of this, Tamriel was changed, and blossomed to heights never seen before.
Another development of this was an increase in tolerance between the races (which quickly disappeared after the fall of the Empire). This meant that all were Imperial citizens, and that all were welcome (to some extent) in other provinces.

With this spread of ideas, most provinces modernised quickly. Orcish metallurgy found its way to the outskirts of Morrowind, Valenwood-made bows were available in Skyrim, and it had never been easier to transport Skooma and Balmora Blue to the corners of the continent.

Unsurprisingly, the Summerset Isles were left out of the loop. This was not due to its remote location (the ports of Alinor are some of the biggest of the continent, rivalling those of Anvil and Solitude), but because of the policies employed by the Altmeri upper-classes. Because of the superiority complex the Altmer have had since the sundering of Aldmeris, they did not believe the influences from outside to be beneficial for the province. As a result, the practise of "barbaric, non-Altmer" techniques were prohibited. While this did not affect most of the artists or writers, it did not stroke well with their philiosphy. Most of those artists remained silent, but some young artists from the salon named "the Beautiful", started a movement.

According to the Beautiful, progress is one of the greatest goods in the world. They believe, that by ever moving forward, the Altmer race could rise to new heights, and might find a way to reclaim divinity. They saw the ruling classes as a threat, as they stopped every form of development, seeing it as degenerate.
Initially, the Beautiful were peaceful. They spread more pro-Tamriel art, pamphlets and literature, and spoke publically on the streets, to try and get the lower castes to cooperate. While they did get attention from the farmers and hand workers, it proved futile in the end. The Alinor government, now aware of the movement, ordered all involved arrested and find, for degenerate behaviour. The Empire stayed on the sidelines, as their main concern was stability in their provinces. While the kings of the Summerset Isles hoped this would end conflict, it only made things worse. The Beautiful felt threatened, and they decided that instead of offering an alternative, they would declare war on Altmeri conservatism. This conflict started with the defacing of many monuments and ancestor statues, with the reason that they only reminisced the past, to which no one can go back.
The Empire remained neutral in this until the Beautiful targeted the Crystal Tower. Considered a monument by both the Summerset Isles as the Elder Council, purposely damaging it would be punishable by death. Even though the Beautiful were unsuccessful at damaging the Crystal Tower, they did now know that their only hope for an ally, the Empire, was now gone. This further radicalised the Beautiful, and they went to open conflict.

The movement now tried organising riots both in the cities and in the province. As well as sparking violence in the cities, they went as far as political murder. While most of their plans were thwarted by both the Legion and the local Summerset kingdoms, they did manage to assassinate the daughter of the king of Shimmerene. At this point, the Beautiful had lost all of their support except for the most violent and extremist groups in Tamriel.

Even though the Beautiful would appear to be a popular movement, they were anything but. The Beautiful did not believe in equality of all races, or a complete assimilation of the Summerset Isles into Tamriel. They also were stanchly opposed to anything even remotely similar to democracy. Indeed, for most Tamrielic standards, the Beautiful would still be very conservative.
The key points of the movement were still heavily anchored in the belief of Elven, and especially Altmeri, superiority. The Beautiful believed that all technological, artistic, and political innovations and developments would eventually raise mortals to divine levels. According to their philosophy, progress was a slow form of reclaiming divinity.
While they were in favour of strong coalition with the other regions of Tamriel, it was not to further integration or assimilation. The Beautiful believed that by being in contact with others, one would be better able to identify oneself. this applied to both the individual and the collective. When a person gets in contact with others, they would undoubtedly learn of someone else's points of view, and would compare that with their own, leading to a better understanding of one's own nature. By knowing more of the Altmer nature, they hoped to rediscover shards of divinity, and reclaim their original position as Et'Ada.
The political system the Beautiful envisioned would also not look like a democracy. Instead, the Beautiful advocated a meritocratic system, in which the best and most distinguished would rule over the lesser. While this would still mean a class society, it would be different from the caste system still employed by the Altmer.

Just as fast as the young artists proved themselves dangerous, so fast did they fall to obscurity. After the Oblivion Crisis, two major developments crippled the Beautiful effort: the fall of the Empire, leading to a loss of contact with the continent, and the rise of the Thalmor, who were even more conservative than the kings of Alinor.
While the Thalmor would still need another 30 years to fully take control of the Isles, they did gain more and more influence, and were responsible for a witch hunt against all who were as much as suspected to have ties with the movement. The Beautiful endured, but in continuously smaller form.

When the Thalmor finally took power in 4E 29, the Beautiful were likely destroyed or disbanded. The only thing certain is that this is the last date of any mentioning of the organisation. Most of the more prominent members fled, looking for asylum anywhere it is offered, and mostly in Cyrodiil and High Rock. It is entirely possible that some cells are still active in Alinor currently, but it is impossible to tell with the censorship and propaganda of the Aldmeri Dominion.