At Time's End [PART 1]

A tome recovered from a trip to Apocrypha by Master Wizard Neloth of House Telvanni

AT TIME’S END: A Journey to Atmora

Written by Torfig Strong-Oar, 4E 302

Atmora: a cold, ruthless land where even time is frozen solid. In all my years of sailing and claiming land for the High King, I ain’t never seen such a horribly peaceful place. The journey from Windhelm to the land of Ysgramor and his kin took just over 7 months, which were some of the most frigid months of my life. We stopped at numerous islands on the way north and encountered a few simple tribes of Nordic men, who all warned us to stay away from the continent. I discovered that Atmora is a common name for the landmass among all the Nordic tribes in some way. Some simply called it Atmora, while other tribes had variations, such as Atmor, Altmor, Arthmoor, Etmora, and All-Morak. There was only one tribe that had a different name for Atmora, and that was the Dolvahmoz tribe. The shamans, carrying idols and staves with serpentine features, had a lengthy name for it: Dolvgrahsjorkongrahn (DOLV-GRAH-SJOR-KONGRAHN). After hearing of our mission, their head priest, or Sunahk, told tales of Dolvgrahsjorkongrahn. Hidden behind a whalebone mask, he began to speak in broken Tamrielic. I had a scribe record the priest’s words, which I have copied below.

“Many Lein-Tiids ago, there was Bormah-Dolvah, father to all. Bormah-Dolvah’s favored children, the Moz, were envied by Dahn-Luvahs, the greedy son. Dahn-Luvahs was born of the dark and longed for attention. To enact revenge, Dahn-Luvahs lulled Bormah-Dolvah to sleep. While his father slept, Dahn-Luvas imprisoned the Moz in an unbreakable cell with the key hidden deep inside. The cries of the Moz woke Bormah-Dolvah, who flew into a rage. He grabbed Dahn-Luvahs and tore out his very soul. His body was ground to dust and tossed into the cage, and his soul was buried deep within. Bormah-Dolvah now spends every moment trying to break the cage we call Lein, or the world. He cut his flesh and fashioned it into the dolvah, or dragons in your tongue. The dolvah were sent into the cage to search for the key and to protect the Moz. However, the soul of Dahn-Luvahs felt this, and poisoned the minds of some of the Moz, who we now call the Mey. When the dolvah reached the lands of the Mey, they were driven away. Eventually, the dolvah were almost destroyed. Bormah-Dolvah would not tolerate this and sent Ald-Du, the first and most powerful dolvah, to destroy the contents of the cage, with the Moz riding on his back. After the destruction, the Moz would rebuild the lands with the help of the dolvah. But Dahn-Luvahs always came back, and created more Mey. This cycle of creation, corruption, and destruction will continue until Bormah-Dolvah, the Moz, or the dolvah find a way to break the cage.”

“The cage weakens with every cycle, and it was this Lein-Tiid, at Dolvgrahsjorkongrahn where it was almost sundered completely. The dolvah and the Moz found a small opening to Bormah-Dolvah and called to him. Upon hearing their calls, Bormah-Dolvah spread the opening as wide as he could, and reached his hand inside. Dahn-Luvahs could not allow this to happen, and so he mustered his strength to form a son, Sjor. Sjor led the Mey to Dolvgrahsjorkongrahn and cut off the hand of Bormah-Dolvah. Each drop of Bormah-Dolvah’s blood created perfect order and stasis, freezing time itself. His blood coated the entirety of Dolvgrahsjorkongrahn, freezing time on the entire continent. Before the land was covered however, Ald-du, the dolvah, and the Moz drove out Sjor and the Mey. Though the blood engulfed the majority of the Moz, some managed to flee. They took refuge all over the prison and took many forms. Bormah-Dolvah was wounded and needed to rest. To avenge their defeat at Dolvgrahsjorkongrahn, Ald-du and the remaining dolvah led a campaign against the Mey, and continue to battle them to this day.”

I am no scholar, so I will not analyze the tale here, and will instead leave it to a professional. However, the stark contrast of the Dolvahmoz to the other Nordic tribes and cultures has led me to believe that they must be studied further.

After we left the Dolvahmoz with fresh supplies and traded goods, we headed for Atmora.