The Rebel-King Relationship Between the Telvanni and the Hist

The Dunmer have never felt genocidal urges against their Argonian slaves, only a desire to keep them subjugated and placid. They would bring swift "justice" against Argonians who threatened the status-quo, but they never turned their swords against Hist groves or performed more than slaving raids into Argonia proper. Truly, only the Dunmer and Argonians could work well outside in the ash of the north, and even the Dunmer had trouble cultivating the vast swamps of the south. Black Marsh, therefore, represented a foe which the Dunmer wanted to impose dominion over without destroying entirely.

When the Second Arnesian War smashed the traditional power-structures of Morrowind, many Houses were brought to the brink of death. House Dres suffered the worst territorial losses, and their fortunes have waned with the abandonment of their vast estates and plantations, now deep behind An-Xileel lines. House Telvanni was sorely wounded by the war and the loss of their territories of Vvardenfell, but the vast bastion of their power remained untouched on the Telvannis Isles. Only the bloodline of the Telvanni family came into real danger, living on through the veins of the sole survivor. How did this babe live to see the years beyond infancy? Was it some valiant Redoran knight who slaughtered hundreds of Argonian raiders, or a blessing from ALMSIVI to whisk him away in the nick of time? The last living member of the Telvanni family lay swaddled in the flag of his countrymer, and who should happen upon him but two Argonians. But instead of destroying him, instead of snuffing out the flame of their defeated opponent, the Argonians raised him as their own child.

There is a deep relationship between the Mushroom Towers of the north and the Hist Trees of the south. However much the Hist must despise the Telvanni family for all the humiliation and slavery over the years, they have no desire to destroy their oppressors, only to impose dominion over them. The Hist chose to be merciful to Brand-Shei in order to complete the cycle and demonstrate total domination.