Sutch, the Hollow City

In ESO, the Paragon Vestige, with the help of Galerian, leads the Mage's Guild and Fighter's Guild into Coldhabour to stop the Plainmeld and find the Hollow City: a city once on Nirn dedicated to the worship of Meridia. Meridia use the city to make a jab at her old enemy by thrusting it into Coldharbour. The original identify of this Hollow City is never stated; however, based on certain details of the, I believe we can make an educated guess at what Tamrielic city it was.

I believe a case can be made for the Hollow City’s identity to be the lost city of Sutch. In Oblivion, we find the ruined fort of Sutch, North of Anvil and West of Kvatch. In ESO, this region is walled off by Varen’s Wall (built to protect the Gold coast during the interregnum). This theory is not without difficulties, but first I wish to address elements that can support this theory.

  1. The Architecture and General Location. The Hollow City employs obvious Cyrodiilic style in its central cathedral to Meridia. This style of cathedral is only seen in the providence of Cyrodiil. Further, the cathedral has the typical stain glass windows depicting the image of the eight divines, yet it focuses on Meridia. The rest of the city’s architecture is most akin to that of Anvil on the Gold Coast. Now, all cities in Cyrodiil have their own unique flavor of architecture; however, Anvil is the most unique. Common characteristics of Cyrodiilic architecture include dark stone foundations and city walls, mostly wood framed houses, and gabled roofs made from either thatch wood. Anvil, however, utilizes white stone for the majority of buildings if not just the foundation and most houses have hip roofs with larger buildings having domes - all roofs made with red clay tile. The Hollow City is more similar to Anvil than it is to any other city in Cyrodiil, employing the same architectural designs found only in Anvil. Sutch, being located in the Gold Coast, may have more similarities to Anvil than the rest of Cyrodiil. Pictures of Hollow City, Pictures of Anvil, Picture of Kvatch.

  2. The Fort. In Oblivion, we can only see the ruins of the Fort of Sutch; it was likely the manor castle of the city while occupied. If the city was destroyed, one would assume that there would be more evidence than only the keep. In ESO, the Hollow City does not have a keep or fort. If the Hollow City is Sutch, it is possible for Meridia to have thrown the city without its keep, leaving Fort Sutch alone in Cyrodiil.

  3. The Watch Towers/ Lighthouses. Outside the Hollow City, one can see four watchtowers surrounding the city – not attached to the city walls. Three are on the west and one on the east. The most northern west tower appears to have a large flame atop it, leading me to believe that that at least one of these towers, if not all three western towers, functions as a lighthouse. If this were the case, then Sutch could have been located to the west of the fort seen in oblivion, placing the cities western boarder close to the water’s edge of the river bordering Cyrodiil and Hammerfell. I cannot say why a city would require so many lighthouses or even watch towers, but they are there none-the-less.

  4. The Missing City. Over the years, we have tried to postulate a theory as to why Sutch is not a city in Oblivion. The only “authoritative” map I could find that had Sutch marked was this one. This map is possible quite old but no older than 1E800s because of the marking of Wayrest and Hew’s Bane. The map showing the Yokudan Islands and calling Cyrodiil “Imperial Providence” brings me to the assumption that the map dated to the early Ra Gada /mid Allesian era. By the 3rd Era, and even presumptively 2E500s, the city of Sutch is missing. All records seem to be lost except this old map and a ruined fort. In fact, A Thief of Virtue places Sutch in Hammerfell.

Based on these four major elements, Sutch is a likely candidate for the Hollow City. However, difficulties arise when we start thinking about the dates associated with all this. First, Laloriaran Dynar’s role in the Hollow City. Second, the Skald King’s travels.

Dynar was an Ayleid king of the city-state Nenalata. He was a worshiper of Meridia and aided the Slave Queen’s revolt. He was later exiled to High Rock. Then his history becomes fuzzy. Either he was pursued by the Alessian Order and was lured to Nenalata and was captured by Molag Bal or he visited the Hollow City and was pulled in with it. Here we have an issue with an unreliable narrator; either Meridia lies to the Paragon Vestige when he first visits the city, or Dynar is lying in his memoir. Out of these two choices, we are safer trusting Dynar’s memoir. What does he have to gain making up this story when the fact is far more epic and complimentary to his legacy? Meridia is the more likely one to be deceiving the hero for the sake of manipulating events for her purposes. If this is the case, then Dynar was trapped in Coldharbour in 1E482-4, while Sutch could have been thrown into Coldharbour any time. Now, in the case of the Skald-King, in “Jorunn the Skald-King,” Jorunn is described as a traveler in his youth, even traveling to Sutch. If this is true, for this theory to work, Sutch would have had to have been sent to Coldharbour in 2E560-70.

TL;DR Hollow City looks like Anvil; Sutch is missing.

If you have any though please comment. I would like to hear any discussion on the topic.

EDIT: Skald-King book link doesn't like reddit's hyperlink system so, here it is:http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Jorunn_the_Skald-King_(book)