If I Close My Eyes Forever
Disclaimer: I do not own Oblivion as much as I wish otherwise. I make no profit in any way, shape, or form.
Copyright: The Lore and Races of Oblivion is copyrighted to Betheseda, but Sev and any characters that are not canon are mine.
The song "If I Close My Eyes Forever" as performed by Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford are copyright to them. I only used their lyrics as inspiration.
Summary: This is set during King Uriel VI and Uriel VII's reign. The lore never really specified when Valenwood was retaken under Imperical control, so I took a few liberties with this story. I made the Bosmer a bit more primative and set in lore to better showcase the brutality they probably faced at the hands of the Imperial Legion.
This story focuses around Sevinus Corkwood, the eldest child in his family. He is an experienced hunter and scout and has served time in Valenwood's royal guard for their king. I wanted to try to set the backdrop as to why and how Sevinus became Jagar Tharn and why he betrayed Uriel VII.
Be warned that I took a few liberties, so if something is not truly lore specific, I probably tweaked it a bit.
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"If I close my eyes forever /
Will it all remain unchanged? /
If I close my eyes forever /
Will it all remain the same? /
If I could have just one wish /
I'd wipe the cobwebs from my eyes..."
- "Close My Eyes Forever" Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford
Valenwood 3E 378...
Sunlight streamed past the wide green foliage in narrow beams, speckling the prone elf with patches of golden light. Dark blue eyes squinted as the branches swayed, the warm sun shattering whatever day dream had lurked behind them. His long, dark blonde hair was streaked with bleached strands that were almost white, testament to long days spent in the upper boughs of his home. His weapon, an interesting compound recurve bow made of bone, rested across his chest. The arrows, also made of bone, peeked over his right shoulder, their dark brown fletching almost blending in with his earthen toned clothing. The remains of his meal were neatly piled at his feet. A humanoid skull was picked clean of its flesh, a reminder that the jovial Wood Elves had a darker side that most people took great pains to forget.
Sevinus Corkwood was his name, and the Corkwoods had a reputation for counting some of the best sailors and scouts among their ranks. They had guarded Valenwood's northeastern border for nearly two-hundred years, and probably longer than what the dates inscribed on rolled animal hides would indicate. Like most Bosmer, Sevinus had a sense of humor, but it was often dry and abrading to those who were unfamiliar with his antics. Too bad the last Imperial who had insulted him wasn't around for Sev to tell him how wonderful his head had boiled. A few of the more "civilized" races would have pointed their self-righteous fingers and cried "Cannibal!" but he didn't care. The way he saw things, meat was meat, whether it was man or mer.
But things weren't going to stay this peaceful for long. It seemed that the Empire had laid their greedy eyes on the lush lands of the Bosmer, aristocrat's minds already tallying the profit from logging their ancient trees. And if a few thousand Wood Elves died in the process, why it was more gold lining their deep pockets. Who cared if some of the coin was stained with blood?
Under the guise of goodwill, the Empire had sent several ambassadors to Valenwood. Unfortunately for them, the Bosmer had decided that they tasted better as a stew than being forced to listen to their snide barbs and the greed oozing from their pores as they eyed their property, weapons, and women. It was that atmosphere that Sevinus had fled before his strung his bow and drove an arrow into Thrax's eye socket. He was grumpy from the taxes the Imperials had levied on their fermented drinks, pushing prices beyond his meager means. There was a tense treaty currently standing between the nation of Valenwood and Cyrodiil, but the Bosmer were beginning to resent liberties that their new neighbors were taking within their borders.
And that was the very reason Sevinus had been assigned to his post. He was among the first to volunteer into the Tu'ak'cta Dein scouting unit, along with his sister Shevenna. After their mother had come home with a torn bodice and a bruise on her jaw, her offspring had quartered the unlucky man and left him for the Caterwalu to eat. His mother's eyes had held a fierce gleam that night, a hatred that grew brighter with each bloodcurdling scream.
A sharp scrape of iron shod hooves striking rock alerted Sevinus to the Imperial unit's presence. He quickly rose to his haunches, calloused hands instinctively fitting an arrow against the string. The colored bone beads in his wildly tangled hair gently bumped into one another. The first rider slowly made his way down the slope, his bay covered in frothy white sweat. The bow barely creaked as the elf pulled it into a full draw, his cold blue eyes narrowed as he aimed for the man's right eye.
The armored Imperial was oblivious to his impending death, but his assassin wasn't aware that two entire legions of heavy cavalry were just behind the ridge. So when the arrow lashed out in a whistling white streak and ripped its way through Orland's eye, his last moments of conscious thought allowed him the comfort that his Bosmer slayer wouldn't make it out alive either.
Sevinus felt his heart rise into his throat in a hard knot as two hundred Imperial soldiers thundered over the ridge, alerted by their scout's cry of alarm. The Corkwood estate was not far, as it was comfortably nestled in the rocky valley below. They rolled forward like an unstoppable machine, the sun glinting off their silver swords, maces, and bows. Sev let out a piercing whistle of alarm, but it went unheard by the other scouts as they unleashed a torrent of arrows into the galloping horde.
They didn't even slow down. That was the thing about using weapons made of bone and flint. When pitted against iron and steel, the bone simply shattered against spiked Imperial shields. A few of the more insane Bosmer literally threw themselves down among the barely controlled stampede, but their bodies were crushed in the onslaught. A few half-hearted balls of fire slammed against the ancient bark of Sev's tree, but the mages were more preoccupied by the plunder ahead.
Sevinus emptied half of his quiver before he gave up and began leaping from bough to bough, following the soldiers and peppering them with arrows. He managed to hit one mage in the shoulder, but not before a Shock spell enveloped his form and Sev fell, slamming into every branch, his body spinning violently until he landed in low shrubs. The Bosmer hit with a meaty whump sound and didn't move, his unconscious mind given the small mercy of not hearing the screams and battle cries as Corkwood soldiers tried to hold the Imperials back.
The massacre was over by the time Sevinus dragged himself upright, his body covered in ash from burning Graht-Oak trees. It was obvious a mage fight had waged from the sheer amount of flaming carnage that spread as far as the eye could see. He staggered toward his home, terrified by the thick black smoke boiling from the valley below. He stopped at the valley's lip, stunned by the brutality the view revealed.
Bodies were strewn everywhere, and were not limited to the adults. Children were buried in the rubble, victims of the victorious army as it tore its way to the heart of the compound. Sev eventually made it into the family mansion as night fell, the only illumination being the fires that fed on corpses and the rubble of homes. His head ached, and he could feel blood drying on his face from his bloodied nose. His heart felt like it weighed several stones of lead as he stepped over the smashed doors to find the bodies of his parents and younger brothers. All were pierced by numerous arrows, even the six-month old infant in its crib.
Sev wandered aimlessly until he found the body of his youngest sister, her body charred by fire. Something in his heart withered and grew cold as he reached out with one sooty hand to close her glassy eyes. Of all the deaths he could have imagined, it was never at the hands of an unknown soldier from a foreign land. He saw the faint forms of the other tribes who had been alerted by the smoke, their small bodies forming a loose half-circle as the rain began to drizzle down. No one said a word as the sky cracked with lightening and Sevinus howled his grief into the downpour.
He slowly folded at the waist and pressed his face into the churned mud, his hands wrenching at Tierna's pale blue robes. Sev seemed content to grieve in the rubble of his home until someone gently tapped his shoulder.
"They took Shevanna."
