Birth of the Dragon Cult. Part One, Hark! A Prophet from the East!

Wise old Heimdar sat atop the tallest seeinghouse of Atmora, studying the clearest mirror for signs of Alduin and his many tongue-brothers. But he grew bored and turned to his apprentice scryers, and said, “Do you children know of the Last First War, which raged endlessly, and consumed many Nirns, and is still raging in the south, and may very well consume us? Have you heard tales of Kyne’s manbirth, and of the First men, of which I am? Know you of the sundering, and of the Serpent, and the creation of the vile Alduin, by the vile Ald?” The apprentices had heard these tales, for they were Atmoran, but they were bored and had not been told this story by one who was there, and so they asked Heimdar to tell this tale, and Heimdar started.

“In the beginning the gods met to make Nirn, and with Nirn make Mundus, and the mighty Shor convinced the gods to make this place as a King maker. But Ald was angered by this, and Ald wanted to forever live, and so the war was waged, and tears came.

And Shor marched on the now Middle world, and Ald met him, and the Old Ones were at Ald’s side. And the Wandering Ones stood proud, clad in Words, at the heels of Shor. And I was stationed with Kyne, atop the Throat, to better see all, to pray that the Sun would not be made. And the battle raged for all time. And blood pooled and evaporated, and the red of the blood became dirt, and the water of the blood became the Middle Sea, the Vault between Nirn and Oblivion, the thickest, blackest clouds, and the Whales ran dry, for we had used so much liquid silly to die quieter. And Shor took the form of a great Serpent, and Ald became a great Phoenix. And the Bull Angels lead by Morihaus clashed with the Great Eagles. And Stuhn and Tsun fought Trinimac and they spun like dancers, two Downs and an Up, to make a Tie, and their swords were Weak, and they fused, and the three traded places without moving or striking.

But the Roc won, and Shor was grounded, and I could see his tongue flicker from his mouth, and it was an other serpent, for Shor kept his hunger in this second snake, for Shor is the Missing One, and when things go missing things rush to fill the newly made space, and so Shor’s hunger was mighty, And that snake held yet more snakes in it’s mouth, and the hunger descended into the impossible vacuum of Shor’s soul. And Shor was brought before the Moot, and Kyne breathed upon us, and we were breathed secondly, and we were remade, and we felt her might in out throats, and she yelled telling us to run, to go north. And we ran, and I saw two heads fly into the sky, and one was the head of Shor, and the other was the Serpent, Shor and Shor, the Moons, and I saw the Serpent’s head, and I saw the Snake Tongue, and it’s many tonguelings fall out of the Serpent’s mouth, and as we ran Kyne began to cry, and the memory of the dead fell at once, and as we ran we had a wave at our heel, and we saw the Heart fall, into a new sea, and Nirn shook, and suddenly Time marched, and we grew skin, and I looked back and saw the vanguard captured, my brothers, the slaves of the new made Elves, and we reached the cliffs called Atmora, and we climbed them, and the sea filled the world, and Atmora became a continent, and as we looked back we saw the Alduin raising from the water, The Hunger of Shor, there to devour Nirn, and at Alduin’s rear rose the Sea Serpents, to aid in our destruction, and across the sea flew the Censers of Time, those foul time Eagles, and they eat all they please, and they war with the Trees for they are cast from the Everpast, and I saw the Moot, half frozen in death. And this is how we came to Atmora, to fight the Serpents and the Eagles, to exist.”

And the apprentices sat, all thinking different things, and one young man, beard only three feet long, began to speak but only managed to inhale when a fleck of dust flew gently landed upon the mirror, and they all stopped in there tracks, and no one breathed, and the young man quickly closed his mouth for fear of vomiting. And Heimdar rose and brought his eye mere inches from the glass, and he saw a strange vessel in the sea, sailing from the east, and around it the waters darkened, the ship was guiding a Serpent. Heimdar quickly ran to the window, he shouted, and his Thu’um speed throughout the shores of Atmora, and fires were lit and drums sounded, fleets were fielded, and whales herded south, and Heimdar shouted directions to the men of Atmora. And a great whale fleet floated over the strange ship and pulled it from the water to the shore. Ysgriil, champion of antagonism lead the vanguard to get the beast to rear up high, and they shouted into the water, and they threw harpoons into the sea, and they threw bolts of lighting into the deep and up from the depths rose the vile serpent, a lesser tongue, and Heimdar spoke its name, the fifty thousand and second tongue of Alduin, and Ysgriil retreated from the vacuous being, which as all serpents do, lives in a bubble of deletion, unmaking all it nears, and the High Priest Konahrik sailed forth, with a shout the priest thrust the staff called Orkey towards the beast, and he sung a verse of creation, and he gave a year of Atmora’s age to the beast, and the beast ceased to exist.

Heimdar, Ysgriil, and Konahrik all ran to the strange ship, and boarded the vessel, and on the deck sat a naked man, his skin was covered in orange fur with black stripes, and he was a tiger. The Atmorans began to question the beastman who sat silently, finally after the three grew annoyed and became quiet the tiger spoke saying, “Rejoice Ald-men, for I come bearing a gift from should be. My king, the Tosh Raka, offers peace to you. The son comes to deliver the father to the world. Tell me, what troubles you so much young men?” and the men stood silent, and The Prophet spoke saying, “In my land we have brothers called dragons, and I have come to deliver them unto you, for they will eat your Serpents, and they will eat your Eagles, and they will be full, and will trouble you little, and no longer will your war wage, and the Last First war will end at last. I say to you man, fight the Serpents and the Eagles, make time for the foretold, make way for the Queen to speak the name of your savior, and to steal all that is needed to create your savior, and fight the Serpents and Eagles that the Dance may deliver you, that all will say the first last first men fought to end the eating, and though they were all killed they gave us Nu-men room to grow. Go now you three and get the attention of the Bull and the Singular one, for I have great schemes to make that will kill gods and bring relief to the Serpent killers.” And the three left, and the Bull and the Shorsoul came to the tiger, and two great plans were created, and to the bull was given the secret of the name of the savior, and how to find the Queen, and that moment was when R’Akatosh’s name was first spoken, and was when the Dragon Cult was born. And the promise was kept in the hearts of men, and they worshiped the upcoming Dragon, and they called out, misremembering the name of the Tiger King, “Praise be to Akatusk, the coming horde, to deliver us into a time of peace.”