In the smoky catacombs beneath the city where Sotha Sil forged the future with his arcane clockwork apparatus, something unforeseen happened. An oily bubble seeped from a long trusted gear and popped. Immediately, the wizard's attention was drawn to it and to the chain that tiny action triggered. A pipe shifted half an inch to the left. A tread skipped. A coil rewound itself and began spinning in a counter direction. A piston that had been thrusting left-right, left-right, for millennia suddenly began shifting right-left. Nothing broke, but everything changed.

"It cannot be fixed now," said the sorcerer quietly.

(2920, Evening Star)

There's a planetary conspiracy against the likes of you and me, in this idiot constituency of the Moon

('We Call Upon The Author To Explain', Nick Cave, 2007)

The Story So Far

Camri Everlight, Falas Assurrani and Ariel Lasaille were three heroes bound by a mysterious ancient prophecy – 'Three heroes, brought together by a great event, to take on an even larger event'. Camri, an Imperial outlaw and wildman (but acknowledged as one of the Empire's finest warriors in several combat disciplines) was broken out of the Imperial Prison by the Argonian agent Areen in an attempt to help the Argonians discover the nature of a mythical artifact, The Marsh Spirit, which would allow them to wage war against the Imperial presence in the Nibenay Basin and reclaim land that rightfully belonged to the Argonians. During the journey, he encountered Ariel Lasaille, a young Breton with an incredible talent for mysticism, particularly in the creative use of telekinesis, as well as a powerful gift of foresight and prophecy, and Falas Assurrani, a Dunmer assassin of the Morag Tong of Morrowind, hired to eliminate Camri and Ariel.

The three came together after it was discovered that the Imperial campaign to acquire the Marsh Spirit (which was destroyed by Assurrani) was actually that of a corrupt General, Anvius Seminus, attempting to take lands in Black Marsh and Elsweyr for his own gain. It was at this point that Assurrani learnt of the Prophecy, and made peace with Camri and Ariel, who quickly became close friends with him after witnessing him turning has back on Seminus as soon as he learnt of the corruption.

The prophecy itself transpired to be that the three would defeat the necromancer Mannimarco once and for all – the prophecy had been created by Meridia, and it was Meridia's daughter, the Daedra Latta, who would fight alongside them in this quest and ultimately kill Mannimarco. Mannimarco's semi-divine powers and immortality were nullified by the removal of a powerful gemstone, the Mantella, which was found in a remote fortress in Skyrim called the Temple of the Throat of the World, and then spirited away to the Shivering Isles – Mannimarco had drawn his power from the Mantella, similar to Dagoth Ur's relationship to the Heart of Lorkhan, and the Septim dynasty's connection to the Amulet of Kings.

Following Mannimarco's defeat, Ariel returned to High Rock, becoming weary of the dangerous and kinetic lifestyle that was adventuring with Camri and Assurrani, and mentally scarred from severe mistreatment and abuse in the Imperial Prison at the hands of a vicious Imperial Watch captain. But, soon after the epic final showdown in Bruma where Mannimarco was finally killed, an Oblivion gate opened outside the city, betraying a new threat, one where the existence of the mortal world itself was in danger…

'A New Threat' – for the eyes of Chancellor Ocato only

From – Brother Nu-Hatta, Great Thinker

It started with the destruction of the Heart of Lorkhan to enable the defeat of Dagoth Ur.

Within days of this event occurring, the first Oblivion gate opened outside Kvatch.

Through a long series of events, this led to the destruction of the Amulet of Kings. Perhaps you may already know this, but there is a high probability of these two events being connected.

The campaign to defeat Mannimarco led to the removal of the Mantella (Numidium's heart) from the mortal world, Mundus.

And you wonder why an Oblivion Gate has now opened outside Bruma?

The Lunar Lattice, the barrier between Oblivion and Mundus, is a fragile one. The Stones of Ada-Mantia are crucial to its maintenance. And now three of these stones have been destroyed.

You must return the Mantella to its tower as soon as possible. Then, we can begin. The fact that the barriers between Mundus and Oblivion are this weak show that there cannot be more than two Stones maintaining them. My guess at the identity of these two Stones would be Ada-Mantia itself and Tree-Sap.

Grandmaster,

…should the Stones of Ada-Mantia need to be replaced and the Towers returned to full power, they must all be found. Two of the Towers are unknown to us in location, but the rest are well-known monuments across Tamriel, as has been deduced from their ancient names – Ada-Mantia or Ur Tower (Direnni Tower, High Rock) Red-Tower (Red Mountain, Morrowind) White-Gold (White Gold Tower) Snow-Throat (Throat Of The World, Skyrim), Crystal-Like-Law (Crystal Tower, Alinor) Walk-Brass (Numidium) Tree-Sap (Falinesti, Valenwood) and finally Orichalc, which I am unaware of the location or the nature of.

Will keep you informed on the cult behind the ceremony.

MA

Grandmaster,

Our worst fears have been realised. The end of the world as we know it is approaching. Gather the champions of the Mannimarco incident and Radash gra-Moran to Cloud Ruler Temple immediately.

Still awaiting word from the Emperor.

Chancellor Ocato