The Rise and Fall of the Scenarist Guild

The Scenarist Guild, latterly called the League of Liars, had its origins in the bardic tradition of northern Tamriel. Wandering scouts and guides often supplemented their income by telling tales of the things they had seen on their travels, and soon this tale-telling and song-singing became every bit as important as their actual work ferrying city-folk from place to place.

The Guild itself was founded around the end of the second era, and its name reflected its founding charter, which declared that “by sight, song and word shall we reveal the glorious vistas of Tamriel to its people”. Its early success came in part through the intervention of the Emperor, Tiber Septim, who employed them to spread the word of his grand new Imperial project. Bards, unlike soldiers or government officials, are welcome everywhere, and the God-Emperor saw in them the perfect agents for his message. His sponsorship of the Guild brought it wealth and prestige, but perhaps also laid the foundations for its bitter demise.

The Emperor granted the Scenarists the ancient Direnni fortress of Thulfir in the Dragontail mountains. The hollow peak was their base of operations, from which their master, the High Narrator, administered their activities and reaped the financial rewards. By the time of High Narrator Nesmyt the Guild was one of the wealthiest institutions in Tamriel. The great library of Thulfir contained volumes of every map, tale and rumour known to man, and the the Scenarist inner circle, the Narrative Conclave, issued decrees that were carried across the continent by the guild’s troubadours. The mountain was said to be the mannish answer to the great Elven Towers- said, that is, by the Scenarist storytellers themselves in a frenzy of hubris.

The unparalleled ability of the Scenarists to spread their tales across Tamriel led, perhaps inevitably, to the peddling of influence. By spinning heroic or villainous tales of various noted individuals they could make or break a reputation, and whole mythic traditions were distorted or created from whole cloth to suit the Guild’s purposes. The legendary Blue City of the Iliac, held up in popular folklore as a model of enlightened governance, is almost certainly a Scenarist invention, yet to this day adventurers and archaeologists seek the ruins of the “real” city and Blue City artefacts are commonly sold in the markets of Lainlyn. The Scenarists even mythologised themselves, to the extent that it was believed a deadly magical barrier surrounded Thulfir to deter intruders. Dragontail goatherders claimed to grow physically ill as they approached this fictitious border.

Towards the end of the third era the values of the Guild shifted, and they lost all interest in reporting true tales of the world. Instead they constructed an elaborate mythos which included fictional island nations, non-existent Elder Council members and even the remoulding of certain religious traditions of Cyrodiil. This mythos was subtly perpetuated through songs, epic tales and falsified geographical accounts. Their goal was to redraw the map of Tamriel as thoroughly as Tiber Septim had done, without shedding a drop of blood. Their purpose in doing so is open to conjecture.

In the year 430 of the third era, the Guild came to an end. The previous year had seen a military conflict flare up between the high lords of Mournoth and Wayrest over the burial grounds of the religious icon, Saint Hyrelle the Cliff-Prophet. The Bretons believed that the saint’s tomb had been defiled. The Redguards maintained that the saint did not exist, and when they were proven correct (at great cost of life), their anger was directed towards the Guild who had been perpetuating the tale. Marshal Joncienne of Wayrest denounced the Guild as “promulgators of heresy” and led a combined force against Thulfir. Sickness attacked the army as it approached the mountain and only a core of a hundred or so soldiers made it to the gates of Thulfir itself. Led by Marshal Joncienne, they found an almost deserted fortress. It emerged that the central chambers had been sealed for several years, with commands being issued to Scenarist bards through an elaborate and strange system of pipes and trumpets. When the doors of the Narrative Conclave hall were broken down the library was found to have been ruined. All of the cartographic charts and historical accounts had been defaced, burnt or otherwise damaged (human teeth marks were found on some volumes). Written across the walls, floor and ceiling were strange stories and maps of unknown, unreal places. Those who studied the writings closely were “strangely affected” according to Joncienne’s report, but he goes into no further detail save to say that the Direnni were mentioned often in these fake histories. Shortly after they broke down the door the troops retreated and burned Thulfir with magickal fire. There is no record of what if anything became of the Narrative Conclave or the High Narrator, none of whom had been seen for at least a decade. Thulfir now sits in ruins once again.

As a postscript it seems fitting to mention that a recent (Fourth Era 130) excavation of a farmer’s field in Mournoth uncovered the tomb of an unknown holy man. Several descendants of the original military expedition to Thulfir quickly arrived at the site, drove away the researchers and destroyed the tomb, before returning to their homes without explanation.