The Baron and Yokuda's Wheel

After the ruination of Yokuda and the subsequent migration of the Redguard nations to Hammerfell, very few efforts were made to return to those shuddering isles. Some tentative efforts were entertained by the nostalgic wealthy, but all projects ended in rapid abandonment. Simply laying eyes on those lost shores was difficult enough, for it seemed no sea could carry you there. But once the lands could be appraised from a distance, it became obvious that there was very little left to recover.

Two full eras passed before stepping foot on Yokuda was brought up around the hearth in Tamriel. But then people began to speak of the daring voyage of Baron Rin Bodura, the wealthy Bosmer adventurer and big game hunter. They whispered of how he had supposedly placed his feet on the shores of that once fertile land. And that the brazen conqueror had returned, horrified and shaking, too frightened by the nightmare to speak of it in public.

Those who knew Baron Bodura knew the truth: he had not just walked upon the corpse of Yokuda, but explored it for the length of an afternoon. The disturbing tales he told only in confidence were of blasted architecture reclaimed by nature, of shadows that moved on their own accord, of invisible terrors that tore his men to shreds without warning or reason. Wide-eyed, he would reluctantly recall memories of an other-world, an awful and alien terrain that challenged every breath you stole.

To the very personal few whom he trusted as friends, he revealed the secret others had only guessed at: he had brought something back.

Little more than the size of a septim, it looked at a glance like a small golden wagon wheel. Placed on its rim, it refused to roll. Placed on its spoke, it would spin of its own accord. Slowly at first, then faster, emitting a terrible whine that grew in volume and pitch as it increased speed. Left alone, it would spin faster and wail louder until the deafening sound drove sight from the eyes, and thick leather gloves were needed to grasp it and stop its turning.

Sometimes, and for no discernable reason or effect, the wheel would slowly turn green. And at all times, it emitted a queer and awful heat, a tingling bone-penetrating energy that cared little for stone or iron plates.

He allowed no experimentation upon it. After Baron Bodura's sudden and hideous death from what seemed to be an incurable flesh-eating disease, the wheel was declared cursed, and turned over to the Empire of Cyrod for storage as a Weapon of Rapture.

But the tale of Yokuda does not end with the Baron.