In 4E 209 Harkon, leader of the Volkihar vampire clan, succeeded in obtaining and using Auriel's bow to end 'The Tyranny of the Sun', plunging Skyrim, Tamriel, and all of Nirn into eternal night, and beginning the fifth era. The Vampires spread out from Castle Volkihar, intent on devouring all of Tamriel. First Ulfric Stormcloak's Skyrim, then the Empire and Hammerfell, fell to the Vampire clan. The Aldmeri Dominion survived for 10 years on Alinor before they too fell to the fangs of the Vampire lords.
In 5E 13, the survivors of the first vampiric purge in Skyrim did as the Snow-Elves had done when the ancestors of the Nords had driven them out of their homes, they sought refuge in the cities of the Dwemer, cowering beneath the soil, whilst Vampires and Dragons ruled the lands and skies above.
The wind rushed against my face as I ran, chasing after the elk that I had pursued halfway across Whiterun hold, the beast would feed my young family for weeks, and the pelt and antlers would fetch a decent sum at the market. This is what I was born for, the hunt, man vs. beast, the fresh air and the wide open spaces. The elk finally stopped, feeling safe at last, as it bent its shaggy, antlered head to drink from the water, I nocked an arrow to my bow, drew back the string and let fly the weapon, piercing the unsuspecting elk straight through the throat. I was jubilant at the successful kill, until I heard the familiar growl of a sabre cat from behind me. I spun wildly to face the beast, and was confronted with a hungry maw filled with sharp teeth. The cat leapt, and everything went black.
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25 Rain's Hand 5E 24
I jolted out of my bed, a dream, that's all it was, a dream. Of course, that's all I have left of the surface now, dreams and memories, nothing more, the Vampires took that from us, along with the sun. So we hid in the bowels of Nirn, cowering amongst the ruins of a far older civilisation than our own. According to the scholars, this place is named Blackreach, largest of the Dwemer settlements in Skyrim. Not that that matters anymore, it is ours now. All that we have comes from here. I remember when we first came here, following the path carved out by the Dragonborn when first he visited Blackreach, down through Alftand, through the Cathedral. He did this before he tried to prevent the Vampire Lord Harkon from obscuring the sun. Tried, failed, and was destroyed in the process.
When we first arrived here, we had been forced to clear out the remaining snow elf population. Clear them out with steel and fire. They were not our greatest opposition however, the ancient Dwemer constructs, spiders, spheres and centurions, still roamed the ruined city, dealing death in the form of shock, steams, and swords to we unsuspecting people. Aye, people, not Nords or Imperials, Dark Elves or High Elves, Khajiit or Argonians. Not even Man, Mer or Beast. People. We had no time for the petty squabbling that we had enjoyed on the surface. No more did the religious fanatics of Thalmor persecute Nords for their beliefs in Talos, after all, it was quite obvious that Talos, along with the divines had long since forsaken us, leaving us to our fates at the hands of the Daedric prince Molag Bal. Nords no longer looked down on Dark Elves or Argonians. We needed them to survive, as they needed us.
I laughed to myself at that last thought. It seemed all we needed to end war, was an absolute destruction of life as we knew it. I heard a stirring from my side. It would seem that I had in fact laughed aloud, waking my wife from her slumber. My wife, my beautiful wife Ilfhil. One of the only things that made this life bearable. My wife and my son, my son who would grow up never having seen the skies of Nirn, knowing only the all pervading glow of the mushrooms. Who would never know the taste of deer or elk, only the taste of mushrooms and Chaurus. It had been almost eleven years since we had fled underground from the Vampires, my son was born two years later, in the makeshift hospital in old Dwemer debate hall at the centre of Blackreach.
My wife shifted again, twisting in the bed to look up at me, with a worried expression on her face, "The dreams again?" She asked softly, her concern for me obvious in her wide, brown eyes. I nodded, "The sabre cat." I whispered. She nodded, "Well you don't need to worry on that account then, there are no sabre cats, not anymore." She reached up towards me with her strong, pale arms, wrapping them around my body, dragging me back down to the bed, whispering statements of love in my ear as I kissed her. Eventually, as they always did, the kisses gave way to something else, something more physical, more primal.
We made love for an hour, one of the few pleasures left to us now. After we had finished, my wife took hold of wrist and placed my hand on her stomach. She looked into my eyes, I already knew, deep inside, what she was going to tell me, but I wanted to hear her say it, to make it real. "I'm pregnant." She whispered.
"I know, love," I replied, "I know." She smiled at me again, and all seemed right with the world. I took in my arms and we fell asleep again, holding on tightly to one another.
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When next I awoke, my wife was gone, gone to her work tending the Chaurus. I would soon be off to work as a guardsman, over at the base of Alftand Cathedral, preparing for any attacks by Falmer, or newly-reactivated Dwarven Steamunculi. I rose from my bed and dressed myself in my smallclothes, then the rough sacking that went under my armour, and finally the armour itself, hard Chaurus Chitin taken from the first Falmer we encountered in Blackreach. We had vast supplies of Dwemer metal, yes, but though we had many talented smiths, we had neither the smelters to turn the scrap into workable ingots, nor the forges to craft the ingots into armour. What little Dwemer armour we did have was taken from the ruins, and given only to our best warriors, and it was maintained using an ever dwindling supply of ingots that we had found in the ruins. Our original steel and iron armours had fallen apart or rusted due to the condition underground. However it seemed that both Falmer and Dwemer armours were far more resilient to the water.
When I arrived at the guard barracks near the cathedral, I was greated by commander Ashira, wearing Falmer armour, but carrying a mighty Dwemer greatsword slung across her back. "Good Morning Goldmane. Ashira was beginning to think you were not coming," her furry face cracked open in a grin, "Perhaps Ashira is not as interesting as Ilfhil, no? Perhaps you prefer that one to this one?"
"Not today Ashira, bad night."
"Oh, that is a shame," the grin returned, "Perhaps Ilfhil made it better, yes? That is why you are late."
I blushed, turning a bright scarlet, "H-h-h-how did you know?" I stammered.
She laughed again, "This one smells both Ilfhill and sex on you, it was not difficult. Perhaps you forgot to wash this morning, because you were late." I groaned and gave up, heading off in the direction of post near the main doors, Ashira's laughter at my back. It was at times like this that I regretted introducing my wife to my boss. Both women had hit it off immediately, but more importantly, Ashira had learnt Ilfhild's smell, so she was always able to tell if I was late for work because I had been spending time with her. To her credit though, she never did anything about it, merely made me feel incredibly uncomfortable, that even though I had cleaned up and made myself presentable, she knew when I had had sex.
I took my position at the guard post, before settling myself in for another boring day of watching the giant bronze-coloured doors that stood between us, and Alftand, and from there, Skyrim and the Vampires. I sat watching the doors, occasionally taking bites from the Chaurus and Mushroom lunch that my wife had made for me.
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Several hours into my shift, I heard Ashira's familiar voice behind me. "Hakon, this one has a surprise for you." I turned around expecting to see Ashira wearing some sort of Chaurus mask, a typical prank for her. Instead I saw my wife standing there, next to my boss. I was lost for words, "W-w-what? How? Why?"
My wife smiled, "The Chaurus I was tending got in a fight with another male and died. I'm out of work until a new hatchling is reared. So I decided to come and spend some time with you."
Ashira smiled, "Ashira will leave you to it, although this one would prefer it if you did not have a repeat of this morning, yes? Very embarrassing if someone walks in, yes?" Laughing at the horror-struck expressions on both my face, and my wife's, Ashira walked out of the post, her tail swinging behind her. I turned to my wife, "She smelled it on me this morning." I explained. She smiled back, "Well I suppose we shouldn't anger her then." Leaning forward, she kissed me, before leaning back and placing her hand on her stomach. I noticed the movement, "How far gone?" I asked. She paused before replying, "About three months, the healers reckon."I sat silent as I took in this news. Three months gone, that means that in another half a year I would have a new child to take care of, as well as Gudlin.
My wife stood up, "I'm just going to stretch my legs Hakon, I won't be long." She smiled as she left the guardpost, heading past the great doors of Alftand, towards the main post. Suddenly the doors began to move, to creak open, something that hadn't happened in the last three years, since the last time the Falmer had tried to reclaim Blackreach. I shouted to Ilfhil to get clear as I ran down the steps of the guard tower, ringing the alarm bell as I went. As my wife turned to run, a creature launched itself from the darkness beyond the doors with alarming speed, knocking my wife down the ground. I yelled in terror, as my wife screamed in pain, as the creature sliced open her womb, before thrusting its head inside the gaping wound and drinking deeply.
As the creature looked up from my wife's shaking body, I saw its eyes. Its flaming, orange eyes and its long, curved teeth. I opened my mouth to shout for help, to scream a warning, but another creature cut me down before I could make a noise. As I lay bleeding on the ground, I saw the first Vampire pull a tiny form from my wife's motionless body. I knew this was the body of my unborn child, and I knew we had lost, I knew that everyone was doomed. As the doors of Alftand swung open, and the vampiric hordes poured in, I knew no more.
Characters and settings c. 2011 Bethesda Softworks LLC