"Baurus. Your service to the empire, and to all of Tamriel itself, has been extremely valuable."

High Chancellor Ocato's voice echoed throughout the grand council chamber, bouncing off the centuries-old polished stone and folding in upon itself. The effect was almost ethereal. Other than the chancellor's voice, however, the chambers were utterly silent; no guards patrolled the halls, no porters scurried to and fro bearing missives and other sundries. What Ocato was about to propose was for Baurus' ears only. "From what our new champion has told me, you performed admirably and showed promising leadership skills during the Oblivion crisis. Yet, even with skill such as yours, Tamriel still lost the Uriel Septim."

Baurus grimaced and cast his eyes downward. The late emperor's death still weighed heavy on the Redguard's shoulders. He had been there when the emperor had fallen, had slain the assassin, but hadn't been able to protect his charge; he had spent many a night looking somberly over the Jeralls from the parapets of Cloud Ruler Temple, the fortress of his order.

"It was not your fault," Ocato said quickly. He hadn't meant to put it in such a harsh light. "You were heavily outnumbered and caught off guard. You were lucky to leave those sewers with your own life. What I meant to say was just that; you were caught off guard. We had no clue that the Mythic Dawn was amassing a small army, making contact with Mehrunes Dagon, and infiltrating our castle, and therein lies the problem. We had a dossier on Mankar Camoran, but for all we knew, he was just another cult leader. In short our intelligence services are lacking."

"You mean you're running out of spies," Baurus murmured. He had quickly recovered from the mention of Uriel's death, and had regained his composure. "Not quite, my friend," Ocato chuckled, "but close. We need a new sector of the Blades. I have not told any of the other council members about this splinter group of the emperor's bodyguards, and I don't suspect that I ever will. The fewer people that know of you, the better." "Of us?" Baurus asked. He had been wondering where this conversation was heading. "Ah. It seems that I have let it slip. I want you, Baurus, to be the first member of this organization. You will be a self-reliant, efficient operative. You will gather information, assassinate targets of importance, go undercover to implode malignant organizations, and you will report directly to me. If the city guard is the long arm of the law, then you are the blade." "I'm interested," Baurus replied to Ocato's somewhat overbearing speech, "but there's one thing I want to know: what are we going to be called? What will be the official title of these 'agents of the empire?'

Ocato grinned at Baurus. "So you agree?" "Depends on what my title will be." The chancellor chuckled slightly, and then lowered his voice. "You will be called… Shadowblades." Baurus looked at the ground, and seemed to be considering the name in his head.

Then he looked up and directly into high Chancellor Ocato's eyes.

"Interesting," he replied. And so the Shadowblades were officially brought into existence.