On Harkon the Bloody

by Dervyn Releth

Long, long ago, in an area east of the Karth River and between modern-day Markarth and Morthal, there lived a king of Skyrim whose wickedness knew no limitation. His name was King Harkon the Bloody.

Much has been written and said of King Harkon's early life - how he was used in his father Gjalund's political games and sold into servitude to the Reach-king Haeran, how he returned with a conquering army and tore out his father's throat with his bare hands, and how he brutally skinned his own brother as retribution for conspiring with the Reachmen - but none of them contest his brutality and strength in combat. If there were any in all of Tamriel who could be called evil, truly evil, Harkon would be amongst them.

The most widely known and widely corroborated atrocity he had ever committed was the Massacre at Karth River, an event that survives to this day in bardic song.

Harkon the Bloody had lost another battle with Druadach II, and his armies were beaten back to the Karth River. Enraged by the Reachman's defiance and determined to stop the invading forces, he performed an act so barbarous that even his own people would balk in horror at it years later.

He cut a bloody swath across the Karth River, ordering his men to attack the villages on both sides. Reachman and Nord alike were beheaded, impaled or burned at the stake. Women, children and the elderly were given no quarter. The soldiers who relented were doomed to the same fate. When it was all over, Harkon stood before an ocean of red, surrounded by the last embers of the homes and lives he had burnt down.

When Druadach II came riding down the Karth River with an army thrice the size of Harkon's, he was shocked not just at the brutality of the scene, but at the purpose its engineer had put it to. Druadach was well-versed in the magickal arts, and now, too late, he had known the true purpose of Harkon's bloody ambition.

Druadach had led his army into the largest Daedric summoning circle ever created by Man.

It is said that that day, Harkon summoned Molag Bal into the realm of Nirn and made a pact with him. The details are lost to time, but the deal the King made with the Lord of Domination was so horrific that Druadach turned his armies back west in disgust. Druadach himself is quoted as saying: "What could I do to the Nords of Skyrim that this monster of a man has not done already?"