The Et'Ada That Could Not Flee

#####The Et'Ada That Could Not Flee

>by Favani Kadrel

Before my voyage back home, Baar Dau fell and destroyed everything I ever knew. The unforgiving Seed after Red Year took so much, but it gave me something as well. To make sense of what may otherwise come across as madness, one should know of my upbringing. My father was a strange man, but a talented crafter of what outlanders described as "the most impressive foil". His strange traditions were rarely questioned, for those who found themselves doing business with him had already seen the wrought of his work. Among his closest of friends was a priest — Threvul Adrani — who would often visit our home during the evening hour. While I was playing with my dolls, or drawing figures in the ashfarm, Threvul and my father would discuss religion over a cup of Sujamma.

My father worshiped no being in particular, but would often joke with Threvul that he too was a priest. "You spread the way of the Three," he would say, "and I spread the way of the Rest." He did not talk of the Eight, or the Daedra, but rather a thousand unwilling bones. Before I had come of age, my proud and joyous father began versing me in the arts of folding, mining, and selling refined metal. During an early morning walk, he once passingly told me that Ebony was the blood of Lorkhan. That is one of the many reasons why I shall speak of Gods and dirt in the same breath.

There is much disdain for the Hallowed One, whom of which mercifully held that rock above our heads. When it came down, as we all knew it would, my belief is that one God left the arms of another. And what could this tragedy bring into our lives, but surely the end of times? As I ventured into the Scathing Bay — which had once been a beautiful moor — there was nothing but a gloaming hole. I reached the point where Baar Dau touched Nirn, and grieved as I unearthed its ore.

But it was unlike other stone.

After departing from the site, I became a transient across the ashlands, and I wandered in pursuit of other crags from the sky. I've found a few in the seven years I've held my heretical suspicion, and they've only given it more credence. Perhaps my father was right all along, and my ears were simply too young. We were all taught that when the Ehlnofey's feet were stayed upon Mundus, thousands of their brothers and sisters fled. Whether or not it was fear that propelled them, holes across the sky were all that was left behind. But what of those who never made it very far? Among them was Baar Dau, and others may still find themselves falling back to Nirn. I pity the forgotten Et'Ada that might never take leave from the void, for their bones have become ensnared in Oblivion.

^This ^was ^an ^excerpt ^from ^/u/Adlestrop's ^coming ^interactive ^adventure.