A Basic (as possible) introduction to Skyrim
This fanfic revolves around the Elder Scrolls world, which is a series of games which I highly recommend to everyone, because it's fucking awesome. It does require a lot of explanation though, because it's literally a whole entire WORLD. Anything you get confused at in the fic, should be explained here. I recommend you read it, but if you can't be bothered I suppose it's learnable as you go…?
World and stuff
Here's the lowdown:
All of this goes down on the planet of Nirn. Our equivalence is Earth.
Tamriel is effectively a continent,
Skyrim (where the story takes place) is effectively a country. (The other "countries"* in Tamriel are High Rock, Hammerfell, Cyrodiil, Valenwood, Elsweyr, Black Marsh, Morrowind, and the Summerset Isle.)
All the different holds in Skyrim are effectively kingdoms. Then they have capital cities.
The Holds in Skyrim are:
Eastmarch — A hold in eastern Skyrim, with its capital in Windhelm.
Falkreath Hold — A hold in southern Skyrim, with its capital in Falkreath.
Haafingar — A hold in northwest Skyrim, containing the provincial capital Solitude.
Hjaalmarch — A hold in northern Skyrim, with its capital in Morthal.
The Pale — A hold in northern Skyrim, with its capital in Dawnstar.
The Reach — A hold in western Skyrim, with its capital in Markarth.
The Rift — A hold in southeast Skyrim, with its capital in Riften.
Whiterun Hold — A hold in central Skyrim, with its capital in Whiterun.
Winterhold — A hold in northeast Skyrim, with its capital in the city of Winterhold.
Then there's little villages and towns and stuff:
Dragon Bridge — A town in northwestern Skyrim, next to Solitude. As the name suggests, there's a bridge there. With a statue/thing of a dragon.
Helgen — A town located within Falkreath Hold.
High Hrothgar — A small settlement/ big ass castle full of badass monks halfway up the Throat of the World.
Ivarstead — A small milling town located at the base of the Throat of the World.
Karthwasten — A mining town in the Reach.
Riverwood — A medium-sized town northeast of Helgen.
Rorikstead — A farming town in Whiterun Hold.
Shor's Stone— A small mining village that operates the Redbelly Mine.
Maps (take out the spaces) These'll make the fic a whole load easier to understand, especially the Skyrim one:
Map of Nirn: nirn . wdfiles local-files / maps/ nirn_edz . jpg
Map of Tamriel: images1 . wikia . nocookie _ cb20120706152112 / elderscrolls / images / e / e4 / Map_tamriel . jpg
Map of Skyrim: images4 . wikia . nocookie _ cb20111127145803 / elderscrolls / images / 8 / 88 / Skyrimmap . png
People and stuff
There are several races of people/dudes that reside in Skyrim:
Split into three types, and to make matters even MORE confusing, they have alternate names. I'll be nice and include them all. [* = go look at the other "countries" in Tamriel if you're confused.]
HUMANS:
Breton (Manmer) – Originated from High Rock.*
Imperial (Cyrodiils) – Originated from Cyrodiil. Fancy that.
Nord – Originated in Skyrim. Don't get another name because I suppose they're dipshits or something, I don't know.
Redguard (Yokudans) – Orginated from Hammerfell.
MER/ELVES: [in no way affiliated with mermaids. Don't get confused like I did.]
Altmer (High Elves) – Originated from Summerset Isle.
Bosmer (Wood Elves) – Originated from Valenwood.
Dunmer (Dark Elves) – Originated from Morrowind.
Orc (Orsimer, or Pariah Folk) – Originated from Orsinium [have no clue where on Nirn that is man. Just go with it].
BEASTS:
Argonian (Saxhleel) – Originated from Black Marsh. Lizard people.
Khajiit – Originated from Elsweyr. Cat people.
For actual decent information, consult Skyrim Wiki. Always: www . uesp wiki / Skyrim : Races
(you know the drill, eliminate the spaces)
War and stuff
OKAY IMPORTANT PLOT BIT:
In Skyrim, there's a civil war going down. I plan to explain it in the story, but here it is plain and simple as humanly possible and all in the one-r:
In one corner, we have TEAM IMPERIAL. These guys like to call the Civil War the "Stormcloak Rebellion".
In the other, we have TEAM STORMCLOAK. These guys like to call the Civil War the "Great Uprising".
It all kicked off when Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm, allegedly murdered the High King of Skyrim, High King Torygg. He then founded the Stormcloak Rebellion, against the WHITE-GOLD CONCORDAT made up by the Second Aldmeri Dominion.
For this bit, you have to understand what the fuck the Aldmeri Dominion is.
[The Second Aldmeri Dominion, known as the Aldmeri Dominion (in other words, Aldmeri Dominion, take 2:
The Aldmeri Dominion is the joined force of Valenwood and Summerset Isle (the Wood elves and High elves) as established by the Thalmor (bunch of radical, crazy elves). They're rich, and basically they're whole belief is that Elves humans, and want to rule everything. So they gave it a ruddy good shot, and it started a war of Empire vs. Dominion. In the end, they signed a treaty called the White-Gold Concordat which enforced a bunch of rules on the whole Empire. Like the First Aldmeri Dominion, they had a bucket full of power. First one was defeated by Tiber Septim, though.
White-Gold Concordat:
To stop the Dominion from utterly destroying the living crap out of the Empire, this was signed to shut them up. It outlawed the worship of the Divine (there's another thing I get to explain. Yay.) Talos, and allowed the Thalmor to go about and hunt down anyone who worshipped him. Yeah, they really don't like Talos.]
Now back to Ulfric. Yeah, he liked Talos. In fact, a lot of the Nords did. So they started this rebellion against the Empire to fight for their right to like Talos without being brutally murdered. They think that Imperials are traitors because they're cool with the White-Gold Concordat. They also think that Ulfric should be High King.
Then there's the Imperials. They think the Stormcloaks are traitors because of the apparent murder of High King Torygg, and because they want to break away from the Empire. They plan on squishing the rebellion and keeping Skyrim an Empire-loving zone, free of Talos.
ACTUAL RELEVANCE TO THE FIC, WOO:
Fai is a worshipper of Talos, so he's on team Stormcloak.
Kurogane doesn't give a shit about religion (yet), and knows that Skyrim doesn't stand a chance against the Aldmeri Dominion, also his parents were Imperial, so he is too.
And finally
Religion and Stuff
There are Nine Divines (gods) made up of eight Aedra (good gods) and the previous human ruler, Tiber Septim/Talos, who ascended to godhood 'cause he was that awesome. Think along the lines of Elder Scolls' Jesus. [This is why the Dominion really don't like him. He was a human, and they firmly believe that his status as a god is bullshit.]
Akatosh - The Dragon God of Time and the chief god of the pantheon
Arkay - God of Life and Death
Dibella - Goddess of Beauty
Julianos - God of Wisdom and Logic
Kynareth - Goddess of Nature
Mara - Mother Goddess and Goddess of Love
Stendarr - God of Mercy
Talos/Tiber Septim - God of War and Governance
Zenithar - God of Work and Commerce
Then there's the Daedra (like demons?). People worship them too, but it's frowned upon, and usually goes badly because the Daedra are a nasty bunch. Daedric Princes (biggest of the bads) are the ones people usually worship.
Azura - The Daedric Prince of Dawn and Dusk, Mother of Roses, Queen of Twilight.
Boethiah - The Daedric Prince of Murder and Deceit.
Clavicus Vile - The Daedric Prince of Wishes and Bargains.
Hermaeus Mora - The Daedric Prince of Knowledge, Knower of the Unknown, Keeper of Knowledge, Keeper of Forbidden Secrets.
Hircine - The Daedric Prince of The Hunt, Father of Man-beasts.
Sheogorath - The Daedric Prince of Madness, Mad-god, Demented Duke. (this guy's a lot of fun. Just saying)
Jyggalag - The Daedric Prince of Order, Hatred of Madness, Enemy of Freedom. Jyggalag is in fact the original form of Sheogorath. The other princes cursed him into what he despises most out of jealousy. Sheogorath becomes Jyggalag again at the end of each era.
Malacath - The Daedric Prince of Curses, Keeper of the Bloody Curse, Lord of Sworn Oath, Enslaver of Mortals, Corner of the House of Trouble.
Mehrunes Dagon - The Daedric Prince of Destruction and Change, The Changer, Corner of the House of Trouble.
Mephala - The Daedric Prince of Spiders, Whispering Lady, Spinner.
Meridia - The Daedric Prince of Life, Enemy of the Dead, Lady of Infinite Energies.
Molag Bal - The Daedric Prince of Domination, the Corrupter, Creator of Corprus, Corrupted Creator, Corner of the House of Trouble, Lord of Domination, the King of Rape.
Namira - The Daedric Prince of Ancient Darkness, the Spirit Daedra, the Eater of Children.
Nocturnal - The Daedric Prince of Night, Mistress of Night, Mother of Thieves, Lady of Ravens, Lady Luck.
Peryite - The Daedric Prince of Pestilence, the Taskmaster, The Lord of Lower.
Sanguine - The Daedric Prince of Debauchery, the Lord of Sin, Master of Sins.
Vaermina - The Daedric Prince of Nightmares, Lady of Evil Omens, the Dream-lady, The Collector of Minds.
All of this is part of the Elder Scrolls franchise, owned by Bethesda game studios. I made absolutely NONE of it up (not creative enough for that, man) and I just freaking love it a lot, so I mashed it and Tsubasa (we all know that's the sandbox of our dear CLAMP) together to make a big cool story of my own self indulgence.
Glossary of crap I've said that people might not get (will be added to over the chapters):
An Amulet of Mara (mentioned in Amativ: Fai): Mara's the goddess of love. Wearing an Amulet of Mara is basically saying "I'm ready for marriage. Someone hit me up."
[Seriously, if you're reading this and there's something you don't get: come here, or fail that, message me.
Failing that, look it up. As the story goes on, this'll be added to. Everything will be explained (albeit vaguely unless necessary) in the story, but you know. Background information is always helpful, I guess.]