Telvanni Separatists - 3. Tombs

Entry Three - 6th of Second Seed, 4E 210

“My reading further into the journal has been temporarily halted due to the condition of its later pages. One of my mages assures me that he can recover some of the faded text using complex restorative spells, but this will take time.

Several workers from the original excavation group have broken through into another chamber in the Nordic ruins: a tomb. Contained within are several documents listing the many Dark Anchors taken down by the Separatists. Their contents are much more well-preserved than the journal and so, for the time being, I shall analyse them instead.

The records indicate that the Separatists began hunting Dark Anchors in Frostfall of 2E 579, seeing their quest through to the end of the Planemeld in 582. All records consistently, and rather abruptly, end in Sun’s Dawn of 583. Did the Separatists disband willingly, or had the Telvanni finally hunted down their betrayers?

Remarkably, the Separatists even took part in the assault of Coldharbour with the Mages and Fighters Guilds in 582. I imagine their forces were few, given that no known evidence suggests that Telvanni mages were present in this battle.

One record details a plan to rescue a Separatist named ‘Vakamo’ from Coldharbour during the assault. This Dunmer mage, along with Milvera, has been referenced many times in these records. It is likely that both Vakamo and Milvera were high-ranking members of the group.

I have yet to discover why the Separatists were founded, but the state of the Telvanni Isles in 2E 581 might give an indication: in Heartfire of this year, the Separatists returned to the Isles to take down five Dark Anchors situated across the three islands.

The five Dark Anchors in the Telvanni Isles were destroyed within the span of two weeks. The largest Anchor was located in Port Telvannis, one of two capital cities of House Telvanni, and was the last to be destroyed. Reports suggest this Anchor sat atop a tall stone tower not unlike the huge Dark Anchor above the White-Gold Tower in Cyrodiil. The records name this tower the ‘Great Telvanni Spire’ or ‘Tethered Spire.’

Each Dark Anchor in the Isles is deemed ‘neutralised’ by the records except the Anchor in Port Telvannis, which is said to have been ‘closed from within.’ I am unsure of the meaning behind this statement – perhaps the Anchor’s pinions were simply located within the Spire itself.

So it would seem that House Telvanni was driven out of the Telvanni Isles during the Planemeld. If the Separatists witnessed the complete takeover of the Isles by the Daedra, it may have provoked them into liberating the Argonians - by adding former slaves to their force, they could have built an army large enough to reclaim the Isles.

The Isles would be in an ideal location for the Daedra to carry out their dark rituals away from the prying eyes of Tamriel, however the Isles were notoriously well fortified.

It is difficult to imagine why Molag Bal would sacrifice a potentially massive force to claim the Isles even if they are in an ideal location. How could they claim the Isles without great effort? Perhaps the Telvanni suffered an attack from within their walls, or maybe there was no attack at all; maybe the Three were not their true gods.

With the death of the majority of the great Telvanni mages, I suspect very few alive would know the truth; fewer still would be willing to share the information I require.

I am forced to cast doubt on even the existence of the Separatists themselves, for what other sources of evidence beyond this ruin do we have to corroborate with? Could the Separatists simply be a myth created to give some poor scholar the notoriety he needs? After all, historical gaps are not always filled with truths.

The lack of bodies in this ruin might imply that the Separatists were never even here. Then again, this tomb is also devoid of corpses: who would clear out a tomb of restless Draugr just to fabricate a lie?”

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