Hi. I'm new, and I adopted this from another guy called thesightstillhauntsme. I think he has a new name now, but yeah.
The first chapter is his, but HEAVILY edited. I like TES, and PJ, but I'm not a lore freak, so I'll try my best.
Peace.
Tiber Septim: the man who became a Divine.
Many believed him to be the epitome of what man should strive to be, and countless others stated that such talk was blasphemy against the Divines. No mortal being was capable of such a thing, not even the Chimer known as Vivec, and his great powers-that-be.
Tiber Septim: the man who conquered and united all of Tamriel into one Empire.
After the acquisition of a great and powerful artifact of the long-disappeared Dwemer race – the great stone golem Numidium created by Kagrenac, the most praised and revered of Dwemer Tonal Architects – Septim saw the key to bringing the entirety of the continent of Tamriel together. It was controlled by way of a special totem crafted by Septim's personal battlemage, and was powered by a lessened substitute source in place of the original one.
With the power of a machine intended to be a bridge between machine, god, and man, Tiber Septim easily swept through Tamriel and subjugated the land, using the golem to bring all under his heel.
What isn't more commonly known however, was how brutal he was in his actions.
Tiber Septim: the man who enslaved.
Unlike the legends of Skyrim and the Nordfolk who paint Septim as a grand hero, the man was a terrifying beast on the battlefield and even more so on the throne. The great golem Numidium was not only used as a weapon of war, but also as a tool that Septim used to keep his throne secure. He even accused the neutral Tamrielic noble families that they were plotting to overthrow him, and as such brought them all under his rule with terrifying efficiency.
Tiber Septim: the man who betrayed his closest friend.
Long before Septim was called such, he was known as Hjalti Early-Beard the Warrior hailing from the land of Atmorra, who fought tooth and nail to reach the Ruby Throne. Upon his crowing, his longtime friend and ally, Ysmir Wulfharth of the North, demanded that Hjalti – then crowned Septim – set his sights on conquering the land of Morrowind, as Ysmir held a deep hatred for the races of Mer.
Although Septim did attack the province in earnest, he allowed the land to keep its ability to function as its own entity and retain its religious practices – something that infuriated Ysmir to his core. He left the company of Septim, on the insistence that they were still friends but he needed to be alone for some time.
When the time came that Septim needed a new power source for the great golem Numidium, he found that it would only be powered by the soul of a great and powerful warrior; someone with the willpower, stamina, and fortitude matching that of nigh-incomprehensible levels.
The only ones capable were Tiber Septim himself, or his friend Ysmir Wulfharth.
Septim called for his friend, stating that he was ready to sit down with him and discuss what he should've done long ago: place the races of Mer under the boot for good by killing the Tribunal that ruled. They needed to talk once again as friends and allies.
Yet the only talk that transpired that fateful day spoken by the great champion of Man, were a slew of Draconic shouts coupled together that reduced anything within the Warrior's vicinity to ash and rubble.
Once the dust settled and silence filled the air, Tiber Septim walked into the devastation and picked up a black soul gem infused with his friend's soul, which he then promptly inserted into the golem's center, only to discover that the soul of his friend wasn't powerful enough to keep the machine active. He had killed his friend for naught.
And yet… the most heinous and terrible of his atrocities were never written about in history. Instead, Septim had all who knew killed immediately, ensuring that no book would ever know of the misdeed.
Tiber Septim: the man who sent for his unborn child's death.
"My lady! I…" Queen Barenziah's personal physician gasped with shock.
"What is it? Is there something ill that haunts you Shiriah?" Barenziah hurried over to her longtime servant and friend. The young woman was trembling, seemingly from shock or fright. Which, the Dunmer Queen couldn't tell, but nevertheless she attempted to look over Shiriah in an almost ironic twist.
"M-m-my… Quee-een… you… there's…" Shiriah stammered, her eyes still locked downwards at Barenziah's midriff. The Queen followed her physician's eyes, and saw that they landed directly on her stomach, and she took a step back.
"What is it, Shiriah? Is there something wrong with me? An abnormality? Shy not the truth, I beg you!"
The Bosmer servant looked up to her Queen's eyes, and harshly grabbed her hand to drag her into the safety of her royal quarters with in the White-Gold Tower. Briefly acknowledging the Imperial guards outside of the room, she quickly raced inside and cast a muffle spell on the door. Shiriah sat her Queen down on her extravagant bed, lined with tassels and a canopy and made sure that the windows were closed as well before sitting alongside her.
"My lady," Shiriah began in a hushed tone, despite the spell still in effect on the door, "Before I inquire you further, I beseech you to refuse any falsehoods." Barenziah nodded, slightly frightened by her servant's hushed and hurried words.
Shiriah nodded, before raising a spell in one hand and another to her Mistress's temple. Barenziah blinked once, and suddenly her friend before her was covered in a bright red hue, seemingly giving off the vibrant aura from her innermost being.
"A 'Detect Life' spell… I remember this," thought the Queen. Shiriah brought the spell down to Barenziah's abdominal area, and the realization of the implication hit the Dunmer at her core as she looked down to see a small speckle of shining crimson stemming from her.
"I… I'm…"
"With child, yes." Shiriah finished what Barenziah herself could not bear to say.
"No… By all the Aedra above and Daedra below, no!"
Before the imminent panic attack set itself in her Queen, Shiriah dispelled and took ahold of Barenziah's hands, grasping them gently yet firmly.
"My queen, who lay with you to conceive?" After a moment, Barenziah looked into her servant's eyes, her own alight with tears.
"His Majesty, the Emperor. And he will kill me once he discovers!" Shiriah gasped at the revelation.
"But… how? Why? His wife has provided, why would—" Shiriah stopped midsentence, answering her own question in her mind with a snarl.
"Males! So driven are they of carnal pursuits that they must continuously take and take?!" Shiriah stood, and made to head to the door. "Perhaps I should take something precious of his for my own as well!"
"No!" Cried Barenziah, as she raced to stand in front of the door before Shiriah could exit, breaking the spell laid upon it unintentionally, allowing the muffle spell to disperse and cease its workings. "The fault does not solely lie with the Emperor! I lay with him of my own consent, the fault is mine to bear as well! You must not breathe of this to a single soul, please I beg of you!"
"My lady, what would push you to such an… idiotic act?! The entirety of your kingdom might now be in jeopardy should the king decide your life be forfeit! That child is a threat to his legacy!"
Shiriah spared nothing in her verbal lashing, demanding answers from the young monarch.
"He… promised me that he would treat me as the royalty that I was deserving of… and to help Mer everywhere as to the upmost of his ability. I could not turn down such an opportunity for our people, Shiriah!"
Outside the un-protected door, the two Imperial guards stationed outside the Queen's door overheard the entire dialogue.
"Should the Emperor be notified?" Asked the younger of the two. He was new to his station, and deferred to his elder in most situations, but his mind and heart were telling him that surely tragedy would befall the Queen should they tell their monarch, and hoped that his superior in this situation would think alike.
It was not so.
"Of course, you dithering fool! The Emperor must know so that he can deal with this slant-eyed freak accordingly! Follow in, we make for Emperor Septim's chambers. Haste!"
The younger guard couldn't help but look on despairingly as the pit in his stomach that seemed to grow larger with each passing second.
The entire situation was going to run afoul, no matter the outcome.
The guard simply wished that he had looked back, and told the Queen to run and never look back.
After some time had passed, the two women sat together huddled on the bed. Shiriah held frightened young woman in her arms, softly reassuring her with kind words while rubbing her hand in circles on the Queen's back. The only sounds that could be heard were the small sniffles from Barenziah, and wheeling and calling of birds that flew about near the room.
"He… c-can't ev-ever know… or I'll be killed for certain, or worse he will call for my unborn's removal and death! Shiriah. I need to live for our people, and make sure that we keep ourselves in the political schemes of the Empire."
Shiriah simply nodded, comforting the young Dunmer royalty, "Of course my lady. No harm will befall you, I will stake my life on your well-being, this I have sworn my entire life."
As if a final knell tolling out, the Queen's chamber door was knocked on lightly three times.
Both women immediately stood to their feet, Shiriah holding the Queen behind her back whilst calling out, "Who calls?"
"Your lord and Emperor, Tiber Septim." Came the smooth yet rough tones of the Emperor himself. "My dear? Barenziah, are you decent? May I enter?"
Before Barenziah could attempt to answer, Shiriah silenced her with a hand to her mouth and a glare before answering: "My Queen is not here, my lord Emperor. I would gladly share a message to her as her servant, however."
"Are you certain the Queen is not inside? Even after my guards saw you both enter? I don't believe the Queen is capable of flight to have exited off the terrace I think, hmm?" The Emperor sounded terse, so much so that it didn't sit well with Shiriah, who began silently enchanting the wood encompassing the door to the consistency of iron, while directing the queen out of her royal attire and into an easily wearable leather chest piece with leggings on display fitted on a mannequin in the corner of the room.
"I tell you, the Queen is not here. I am but a servant, my lord Emperor." Shiriah continued helping her monarch into the armor piece, buckling the straps as fast as she could.
"Do you take me for a fool?"
The Emperor's tone shifted so rapidly to a most sinister and frightening pitch that both women stopped in their actions momentarily.
"I know of the child, Barenziah. I know that you intended to keep it from me, and I will not have treachery in my house!" Shiriah began buckling again with a renewed vigor, before directing Barenziah over to the balcony that resided outside her room opposite the entrance. With the aid of a telekinesis spell, the servant started to lower her Mistress down to the ground as carefully as she could.
"My lord Emperor, the door is… *hrgg*!"
"If you intend treason to my house as you do, then your stay in my Empire and your life are FORFEIT! Stand aside!" The sounds of shuffling outside the door, lessened. Shiriah was sweating profusely, unable to fully concentrate due to the use of such an expert-level use of magic. She wasn't used to the current magicka strain that she was currently experiencing, and put all of her effort into concentrating on not dropping her Queen.
She was about halfway down the fifty-foot drop when the door was shot inwards with the Emperor's shout.
"FUS… RO DAH!"
The enchanted door flew inwards as if it were fired from a catapult. Shiriah never even saw it coming, her eyes trained only on her Queen.
With a sickening THUD, the door smashed into Shiriah's form and continued on, crashing through the stone balcony railing and continuing a good sixty feet before landing in the forest area below.
Barenziah would've cried out for her longtime friend, but found the air driven from her as the magical hold on her failed and she dropped like a stone onto the garden area below her bedroom.
The pain was something that the Dunmer woman had never experienced before, and she was almost tempted to curl up into a fetal position and hold her tender body. Instead spurred on by her fear and the adrenaline coursing through her, she hauled herself up off of the dirt, and ran as fast as her body could manage into the forest, all while tears streamed down her face in sadness for her fallen friend and servant.
Barenziah continued running down the forest path, heedless of any passersby she met along the way. Not many knew who she was as very few knew she even existed, but she didn't take any chances, running until she couldn't any longer. Stealing a horse tied up outside of a tavern, Barenziah ignored the shouts of protest from the civilians who witnessed the crime and called for the guardsmen. Without a set of spurs to aid her in riding, she resulted to slapping the horse's haunches as hard as she could, sending the animal into a rough gallop.
She rode until she was out of the city, and breathlessly turned to look back at the gates once she was and briefly ruminated. Everything had been fine close to four hours ago, yet in that time-span her entire life seemed to have been shat out the backside of a dragon.
Barenziah was torn out of her musings by the sight of the gates to the city opening and a regiment of soldiers on horseback came pouring forth. Her eyes widened in terror, and slapped her mount once more into a frantic pace.
The guards had caught up with Barenziah fantastically quick.
The much seasoned cavalrymen knew their profession like respective masters of their craft, and her own stolen steed was furiously winded from running a longer stretch than that of the Imperial soldiers'. Soon the young Queen found herself lost in the woodlands with a horse that refused to go any farther from sheer exhaustion. Quickly leaving the saddle, she quietly thanked the steed for its service, and ran off of the path, tripping and stumbling all the way.
She could hear the soldiers in the distance behind her as they came upon the shed horse, and raced as fast as she could in whatever direction she could.
Eventually the wounded and exhausted Dunmer noble collapsed, her feet giving way and her body tumbling head over heels down a large hill. Landing in the shade of a derelict statue, the beleaguered woman couldn't take it anymore and wept.
She wept for her closest friend and servant, who died protecting her.
She wept for the unborn life that resided inside of her, who might not see the light of day.
She wept for her family who she might not ever see again.
She wept for her people, whom she simply wanted to protect and serve.
Lastly, she wept everything that might've been if she simply didn't give into her own desires.
…
"Ahhh… It's been awhile since I've felt the pull of the Hunt."
Barenziah scrambled to her feet, terrified of the booming voice that seemed to echo all around her.
"It saddens me to see that my great Hunt is conducted upon a hapless woman, and not for the sake of more sturdy and dangerous prey…" hissed the voice.
"Who goes there? Show yourself, if you yet be friend!" A terrified Barenziah cried out.
"AHAHAHAHA! You'd best keep quiet, young one. Your hunters will surely follow you if your voice gives yourself away."
The voice came from all directions, from everywhere yet nowhere at all. Barenziah spoke again, albeit softer and more to herself.
"Who are you to frighten me so?"
"Hmph! You stand beneath my very visage, yet you don't have the mind to grasp for my title? Typical mortals. 'Promising' and 'disappointing' both seem to go hand in hand with you, don't they?"
"Visage? Perhaps…" Barenziah turned to look at the statue that she had come to lay under for a short period, revealing it to be not a simple overgrown statue, but of that depicting the Daedric Prince of The Hunt and patron to all were-beasts:
Hircine.
"Ah, and so recognition dawns on you at last. Well met, Queen Barenziah Taeylis of the Dunmer. You are the first to visit this shrine in a very long time."
In her shock, Barenziah fell to her knees quickly in reverence, all too eager to attempt to please the dremora.
"My lord Hircine! Forgive me, would that I had known that this was your shrine—"
"Arise, mortal. The Hunt never stops, and it seems that yours is drawing to a close."
"What?" Barenziah turned around quickly, hearing the sounds of men and horses trudging through the forest in her direction. The Queen turned to the Shrine's depiction, fear written plainly on her face.
"My lord, I have neither gold nor jewels carried with me, but the life of an unborn child within my bosom. I beg of you, protect us from the wrath of the Emperor and his guards; hide us away from those whom would take this unborn's life!"
"And tell me, why would I do this, even if I were able to carry out such a task?" The voice of the Daedric Prince sounded slightly put off, as if Barenziah had asked them to stab his own toe with his spear.
"Because," whispered the Queen, "the life within me is that of the Emperor's legacy. The blood of the great dragons of old will run through their veins, and they are a threat to everything that Tiber Septim has constructed."
At this mentioning, the Daedric Prince grew silent, not speaking to the Dunmer whatsoever. Barenziah briefly wondered if she had offended the Daedra, but at the sounds that came from behind her, she shrank back against the shrine in terror.
Out of the forest and into the clearing in which the shrine was located, the Imperials that came forward seemed to be following Barenziah's trail.
The Queen closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the inevitable.
…
But it never came.
"I've drained myself again, clairvoyance tasks me of my magicka something fierce. Let us hold but a moment, and the trail will be shown again."
"We cannot tarry you sodding idiot, that knife-ear is wanted by the Emperor himself. We cannot fail a direct command."
"At ease, Decimus. We can afford the elf a few minutes. Her steed is no more, and she wanders on foot through treacherous terrain. Terrain that we know well, I will add."
"Yes, Quaestor."
Barenziah couldn't believe her eyes! The platoon of Imperials should've easily seen her, she was but a few feet from their eyes. The only possible explanation…
"A legacy of Septim's? This is…" The Daedra mused, before seemingly reasserting himself.
"Very well mortal, his Hunt I will hold, and I will protect you until your child is birthed. In return, he will be an agent for my glory, a member of the great Hunt. The aspect of the wolf shall be gifted to him, and he will be one with the Pack and my own aspect."
Barenziah couldn't believe it. They were to be saved!
"Know this however, mortal. The Hunt for him is not halted, yet postponed, and will be resumed when the Giant marches with old blood from an old heart. He will be gone from this realm, but he must return to end his Hunt. This he must do, as the Hunt must have an end and a victor." Hircine spoke calmly and evenly, his voice holding no emotion.
Barenziah briefly pondered the alternative, which was death before his eyes even opened.
There was no questioning, there was no doubt.
"I accept, my lord." Barenziah said with a firm tone.
"Your sacrifice pleases me immensely, little mortal. Close your eyes, and awaken as a free woman." Hircine's voice was smooth and gentle, washing over Barenziah like a cool rushing spring. Barenziah closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall into the Daedra's embrace, carried off into the void where she would be watched and cared for until her son was born to her.
Tiber Septim would search for decades for the woman who carried his illegitimate child, only for every attempt to fall short and reveal nothing of the Queen's location. Eventually at the end of his life, Septim remembered nothing of his search for Barenziah, and reached the mighty state of CHIM. He used its power to become Divine, and live on so that he might watch over his beloved Empire, and became the God of War and Governance alongside the other faces of the Divines.
And Septim would forget all about the woman that he had lain with.
Until later, when led by Hircine's machinations, the Hunt would renew.
By the power that the woman in his arms had given him, Hircine took her and her unborn child far away from Tamriel. Away from Mundus and the Nirnian realm, across Aetherius, and through space and time itself. He eventually landed in a world very unlike the one that he called home, yet with similar governing Divines such as the damnable Aedra that ruled over Nirn.
He watched in silence, as those called here called 'gods' ruled over their world and their people with surprising efficiency, law, and divine right.
The greatest and chief among them called himself Zeus, a god of justice with complete power over the sky and all its deadly beauty. He ruled alongside his wife Hera, whose sphere was that of marriage, childbirth, and ruling as Queen alongside her husband.
Zeus' brother, Poseidon, ruled over the sea and everything residing in it as well as lording over all horse-kind. He was known as the stormbringer and the earthshaker, and was far more level headed than his older brother.
Zeus' second brother was named Hades, and his sphere was similar to Arkay's in many ways. Both presided over the dead and were the masters over the spirits of the fallen, yet Hades was a far harsher ruler, residing in an underground realm called the Underworld while keeping watch over a terrifying prison pit called Tartarus.
These brothers were the most powerful of all the gods, and the mortals they presided over took to calling them 'the Big Three.' The other gods were their family, most stemming directly from Zeus himself.
There were gods of all types, from wine and debauchery (Sanguine would surely love to accompany him, Hircine thought to himself) to messages, healing, war, love, and wisdom. These all surprised the Daedric Prince, as there seemed to be not a single aspect or sphere that wasn't resided over. However, there was one that caught his eye more so than any other.
There existed a patron of the Great Hunt in this world, a goddess who guarded its sanctity and raised the moon after every day. She was a patron of maidenhood as well, and cared for women with a fierce eye.
…
She would do.
Hircine knew that he could not stay in this world, even with the powerful pact made with him by the Queen. No matter what, the Daedra was still bound to Mundus and his sphere of Oblivion, and he would never be able to fully leave. Yet the only way for Septim, now crowned Talos, to not be able to sense Barenziah and his blood within her would be to place her in a place far outside that of Nirn.
And through the goddess of the Hunt here, he would be able to watch over the Queen and ensure that his soon-to-be champion would be safe from harm. There was only one thing that he needed to do:
Introduce himself.
Hope you guys like it. I tried to get old-timey speech down right, but I'm not really sure if it scans or not.
Also, the next few chapters is worldbuilding crap, so just be prepared. It won't last long, but worlds gotta be built.
Peace, you guys.