The Khajiiti rulers of the Imperial City

Fragments of Annales Cyrodilenses

Volume XXIII

As great as his [Potentate Versidue-Shaie's] administrative talents were, his reign was immediately met with problems. Cyrodiils or Imperials, as they were staring to be known as, descendants of Alessia and proud cornerstone of the Great Empire or Man, could not accept being ruled by what they considered beastmen. And the Tsaesci were especially alien. Although they vowed to abandon their blood-drinking habits after their defeat, the general populace had little trust in their assurances. Wild rumors circulated about disappearances of beggars on the streets and blasphemous blood orgies organized in the forbidden deeps of the Imperial Palace. The doubts surrounding the mysterious demise of Reman III did not help soothe the situation. Discontent started spreading throughout the Imperial Province, and the peripheral territories, sensing weakness, acquired secessionist inclinations. However, in all this trouble, the Potentate gained an unexpected ally.

Cyrodilic laments of being ruled by foreigners were music to the ears of the Khajiit, for the Khajiit love irony in every form. Hundreds of Khajiiti warriors, traders and scholars migrated to Cyrodiil to offer their services to the Potentate, and the Potentate himself, not trusting the locals, eagerly employed the volunteers and gave them ample opportunities to rise in ranks. Soon the sight of catmen in togas shouting orders at their Cyrodilic workers became very common.

(…)

Volume XXVI

The Khajiiti-Tsaesci friendship lasted longer than the potentates. During his brief reign, Emperor Attrebus Artaxes issued the Expulsion Act of 484, sending all individuals of Akaviri descent into exile under the threat of death and forbidding non-Cyrodiils from holding public offices. This act caused an outrage in Elsweyr, widening the already huge rift between two peoples. The Khajiit enthusiastically welcomed the Akaviri refugees, seeing them as comrades of hardship, and let them settle in their territory of Anequinan Rim. Little did they expect, that the treacherous Tsaesci would take it as deed of gift and later try to tear that land away from the country of their benefactors…