Nalihhidroth

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Many portions of this document were adapted from the Umbravarla Corporation's tourism guide.

Nalihhidroth is the informal name for the Thalmor-sponsored Altmer Exo-Mundian Research and Observation Sky-City. The city has developed over time in several stages, changing to suit whatever need the Thamor required.

Phase 1: Umbravarla

Nalihhidroth has a long history dating back to early 1st Era. Originally, the void-city was created to facilitate experiments that required an isolation or reduced interference from mythopoetic forces present on or around Nirn. Named "Umbravarla," the floating city remained hidden from observation via [REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED] techniques.

Initially, these experiments and research, conducted by a small group of scholars in cramped, dangerous quarters, were designed to reveal any flaws or weaker aspects in the "fabric" of the aurbis. Scholars believed that they could exploit this knowledge to reverse the cursed work of Lorkhan, but though the research proved inconclusive in that specific subject, other new magick technologies were discovered and exploited.

One of these early research yields was the practice of exo-mundian spectrography, a method of creating highly accurate panchromatic images of the surface of Nirn with alarming speed. Eventually, this panchromatic technology would become so advanced that our Sunbirds will be able to carry them.

Phase 2: Pure Research

In the early Second Era, Umbravarla's usefulness as a military outpost became somewhat lessened due to the reduction in Void travel and conflict. In order to ensure a return on their project, the Thalmor administrators responsible made additional investments, dramatically expanding the outpost in size and scope. Gaining the capacity to comfortably hold over a thousand souls, interest eventually grew to the point that some wealthy or royal Altmer entertained the outpost as a rough, but novel, vacation opportunity.

Early in the Third Era, the outpost changed hands and fell to the responsibility of Ordinal Singer 3rd Class Norilaril, where it became a training ground for mirror logicians seeking to focus their capacity to withstand paradox. Eventually the other aspects of the station fall out of use, and much of it was mothballed. By the end of the Third Era, the cost effectiveness of Nalihhidroth's use as a Mirror Logician training camp was called into question, and the station became no more than a flickering candle in the Void. But the city's new director would not sit on his hands and let the magnificent potential of their devices rust in the void, and Nalihhidroth's skeleton crew worked, unhindered by Nirn-side politics and observation, on the most challenging and dangerous experiments in Altmer history.

Phase 3: Destiny

The Oblivion Crisis spurred the Thalmor administrata into a frantic scramble for resolution. Director Norilaril, in a spectacular and unexpected presentation, revealed the station's new directions and capabilities to the Thalmor. Umbravarla's engines were re-tuned to create the Void Nights, blue-shunting nearby Masser and Secunda twenty-two seconds forward into Lyg-space. Later, in 4E100, when the engines were deactivated, the moons returned from Lyg-space, ensuring the loyalty of the Khajiit. With new-found support and funding, Director Norilaril unleashed the true potential of Nalihhidroth's machines.

It was at this point, at the dawn of the 4th Era, that Admiral Undilar was contacted about the Great Machine. Having proven that the Umbravarla research projects could be combined to directly influence and edit the Mythic itself, Director Norilaril created a theory that required a single extraordinary element: a Time-Mender, Daughter of Aka, a Jill.

The Crystal Wheel

Norilaril's plan is this: To create a mirror-echo of the Aurbic Wheel, floating just between Masser and Secunda. By creating a Void at the center of Nalihhidroth and temporarily elevating that artificial Void's mythical "gravity," the remaining essence of the Heart of Lorkhan will be drawn from Mundus, thinking it has perceived an opportunity to re-heal the Time Wound, and into Nalihhidroth's Void. Once the Heart has been sealed away, the structure of the Aurbic Wheel will fall apart, rejoining the Altmer with their ancestors, the et'Ada. Elevating the artificial Void beyond that of Mundus would require an incredible influence upon the Mythic structure of the Aurbis itself, and that, of course, required the Time and Space mending capacity of a Jill.

This plan means the Thalmor will gain victory without the far more time consuming and difficult task of destroying the Towers and Mankind. The Thalmor leadership agreed to fund this plan, and it was Norilaril's responsibility to choose who will lead the hunt for the Jill. Having heard of Admiral Undilar's exploits as a tenacious Mothship hunter and loyal member of the Dominion, it was an obvious choice.

Undilar left Nalihhidroth with a well-optimized Sunbird carrying a full compliment of forty souls on board. A carefully-prepared paradox trap drew the Jill into real-space where Admiral Undilar ambushed it with matters mathematical, both simple and quadratical. One by one, his crew fell to physical and temporal energies, ripped apart by invisible forces, set aflame by calculation, and crushed by uncertainty. In the end, Undilar was the only Mer left aboard, and he continued his fight with the time mender for some time between a month and a millennia. Though he had speared the Jill with a harpoon, he lacked any cable strong enough to retain the flickering dragon, so he courageously sacrificed his own mythic to bind the Jill, permanently mating his own timeline with the fractured hyper-dimensional being.

Service Through Sacrifice

Nalihhidroth is now irrevocably tied to Undilar - the destinies of the Crystal Wheel and its Admiral are the same. As the Thalmor work feverishly to create the proper fate conditions for the Attraction Engine to activate, Admiral Undilar utilizes the same engines to maintain the bond that allows the two to exist as one. Though his sacrifice continues to make daily life difficult in the linear sense, his leadership and knowledge are equally critical as Nalihhidroth itself.