The Moth Rebellion

“Analysis of The Moth Rebellion of 2E 857”

Published by the University of Gwylim Press; 4E 165 Authored By Archivist Fielers, Department of Historical Curiosities

(Foremost acknowledgements to Mal Kyrinicyusus, whose centuries-old transcripts on Nibenean & pan-Cyrodilic cults have provided the basis of this research, and notable mention to the writings of Lord-Historian Yehiel Kirouac).

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In the immediate years following General Talos’ conquest of Nibenay, coinciding with the unification of Cyrodiil & his coronation as Tiber Septim (2E 854), unrest plagued the Cyrodilic Heartlands.

Many felt that Talos, or as under the name he had assumed, “Tiber Septim”, was an outsider, and had stolen the Ruby Throne. Some even claimed that he had forged a fake of the Chim-el Adabal (which previously hadn’t been seen since the fall of the Reman Dynasty (Kyrinicyusus, M. "An In-Depth Study of the Remanada Fragments" Chapter 32, p. 1156, Imperial College, 3E 340)).

Foremost of their complaints, were of his various advisors — many of which were mistrusted at best, feared at worst — the Temple of the One’s “Annals of Inquisition, Heresy, & Execution” records that some believed Tiber Septim even consorted with the Daedric Principalities — such as the likes of Molag Bal, Boethiah, & Clavicus Vile (the legitimacy, and validity, of which is entirely contested — but noted for the sake of understanding the popular opinion of the Nibenean public at this time) — while other heretical mentions say he consorted with Ash Spirits, Foreign Faux Fox Incarnates (Kirouac, Y. "Bretic Mythology & Romantic Notions of Mythic Transference" p. 244, Univ of Llynnarth, 3E 138), or even colluded with the Reachmen assassins that had murdered King Cuhlecain of Falkreath.

Tensions quickly began to rise to fever-pitch, beginning with the formation of large-scale protests in the mild Autumn of 2E 856 (violently put down by Tiber’s Honor-Guard), and leading to the radicalisation of Nibenean fanatics (at this time a “great droning” or “hum” is said to have begun in the Heartlands that would not cease until the end of the forthcoming uprising, known after as “The Moth Rebellion”).

In 2E 857, Ancestor Moth Cultists (led by the Moth-Etheling Gudrun, of the Peace-Sword, who had maybe mantled the Moth-Mother) start a full-scale heretical rebellion, arguing against the legitimacy of the still-recently-coronated Tiber Septim and his claim over the Starry-Heart, violently evicting Septim & his Honor-Guard loyalists, of whom regrouped at the ancient Bastion of Sancre Tor. It is said that the whole of the Imperial City, and even the entirety of the Cyrod Archipelago, became encrusted with Moths, as the Cultists sang into the very foundations of White-Gold, in a desperate attempt to “restore harmonic melody to the Heartland” (Kyrinicyusus, M. "Heart Chants of the Moth-Fathers" p. 24, Univ of Gwylim Press, 3E 324).

With Tiber’s personal forces having taken losses during the initial eviction (with evidence supporting the Imperial authority was being targeted directly, and having barely made it out of the capital alive), and most other Legions spread thin across other fronts throughout the growing Empire, the Emperor opted to send out his Third Legion — a force from the Colovian West mustering in Anvil, largely made up of young peasant boys from the Colovian Estates; Kvatch, the Strid, and smaller districts such as Lesser-West Sutch.

Marching upon Cyrod, the Third cut a swath through what had become known as the “City of Sickening Movements”, as further swarms descended upon the Niben’s Heart.

Severely outmatched by the Moth Cultists, both in skill & numbers (bizarre illustrations of the event depict the Heartlands entirely transformed as a singular moth intelligence, writhing across Nibenay in occult madness), the Third make a last stand at Hesod Barracks, where they had become besieged without reinforcements.

In their most dire hour, as darkness & the soft fluttering of silk-wings enveloped the Third, Saint Morihaus the Man-Bull appeared before them, granting prophetic visions of an ascended Talos, to whom they gave praise, and from whose veins they drank deeply.

Excerpt from The Song of Talos & the Moth: >“...Through His Faithful Few, >Talos Roared Moth Apostasy To Ash, >And Silk Was Spun Anew...”

While records of this battle are famously scant (likely due to the Bibliognosts of the time having joined their Ancestors in the fray, and were largely slaughtered), it is kept in oral traditions that the Third Legion, filled with the Ruby-Visions of their ascended God-Emperor Talos, went forth shouting down the Moth-Chants of the Heartland Cult (Kyrinicyusus, M. "Analysis of the Talos Battle-Ballads" p. 244, Univ of Gwylim Press, 3E 325), decimating the remaining cultist rebels.

Upon seeing the distant darkness lifted from the Heartlands, Tiber calls forth his arcanist, Arctus the Fox, who binds the Moth-Mother with the Northern rune-math of Jhunal, forging a three-sided cage known as the Damned Equation. Instructing Colovians in the Old Law of Jhunal, Arctus shows them how to ritually chain the Moth so that they might better understand its history (the remaining Nibenese are recorded to have been scandalised by this transgression). Tiber makes a new contract with the Moth-Mother-in-Chains, enforced by the Jhunal Monks as the new Keepers of History (an act known as the Moth Cult Reformation). Dedications are made to Jhunal-now-Julianous under Imperial Law.

Victorious, the battle-hardened Third Legion triumphantly paraded with the Emperor & his Honor Guard back into the Capital, up through Green Emperor Road to the Palace, and were honored by Tiber Septim officially as “The Faithful”.

Surviving members of the Third were later inducted into the core of Tiber’s Ruby Legion, while others still evangelised by their visions founded the Order of the Blood Dome Temple, a Cult of Templars that persisted for some few hundred years later (Kyrinicyusus, M. "Histories of the Head Reds" p. 8, Univ of Gwylim Press, 3E 332), but was never officially recognised by Imperial Charter of Cults & Permitted Deifications (due to their extremist rhetoric, and preoccupation with royal hematophagic ritualism).

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(In more recent memory the Nibenean Moth-Prince Thules the Gibbering briefly took the Imperial Throne during the Stormcrown Interregnum, as it’s last would-be Emperor (and some consider the most legitimate of claimants).

Previously holding the title Provincial Bibliognost of Llénnöcöcönnèll (under the reign of Emperor Uriel Septim VII), and of Nedic Moth Royalty in own right, Emperor Thules had cocooned himself in the ceiling of the Imperial Council Chambers, attempting to, in his own words “reveal lepidopterii values to the hypnopompic few, unshackled from & without enantiomorphic aggression amid a sea of subgradients”.

However, while gestating in chrysalis, Thules was betrayed by his Minister of Silk, Lord Hierem, to General Titus Mede of Colovia — Emperor Titus Mede I, Blessed First of his Line, Father of the 4th Empire of Man.)