This will be a dark fantasy tale of the Oblivion Crisis. The story begins exactly a year to the day before the Emperor is assassinated and revolves around twins Aren and Luciana D'Lyonne as they are banished from their estates in High Rock and stripped of their noble titles by their puritanical father after a secret gathering of worshippers dedicated to the Daedra Prince Sanguine has unforeseen consequences and causes a scandal that spreads quickly among the nobility of High Rock.
The story will follow the pair as they weave a web of deceit and intrigue across Cyrodiil with their devious, scheming sense of superiority that they are destined to be much more than their father will allow them to be. Unknowingly they are guided like pieces on a chess board by the ever watchful Lord of Depravity and Hedonism, Sanguine. The story also takes a look into the underworld of Cyrodiil. The scheming plots and plans of rival thieves' guilds. It takes a deadly look into the shadowy world of assassins and the unfathomable realms of the Daedra Princes.
This all leads up to what is seemingly an unconnected event a year later as a young Imperial female is framed for a murder she did not commit. As the result of dark magic, her memories are wiped clean and she wakes in a damp, filthy dungeon, not knowing who or where she is, or how she came to be there. To make matters worse, a loud and foul mouthed Dunmer in the opposite cell takes great pleasure in insulting and taunting her.
It is not long before the fate of the twins and the young woman become intertwined and the Oblivion Crisis begins to unfold around them. While the twins revel in the coming chaos and the parts they hope to play in coming events, the young woman is intent on finding out who she is and how she came to be in such a dire situation, not to mention wanting to find out about the dire prophecies of the Emperor who she met seemingly by chance the day he was assassinated.
THE CHRONICLES OF AREN KHAINE D'LYONNE
INTRODUCTION
Last Seed 27, 3E432, Midday, Approaching the port city of Anvil
It seemed like a lifetime ago that we departed from High Rock. I had whispered a sad and tearful farewell to my mother and sisters. It was mostly my sadness and an ocean full of my own tears, as I contemplated just how much I was going to lose thanks to my carelessness. My father and brothers chose not to see me off. To them I was an outcast, an embarrassment and some would even say a debauched deviant and a criminal. My comfortable life as the third son and fifth child of the Duke and Duchess D'Lyonne of Daggerfall was now at a swift and painful end. I had been banished for the term of at least ten years, and even then if I ever wished to return home and claim my birthright I was to be a man of undoubtedly good character, an upstanding citizen of the Empire, and if my father were to have his way, a shining beacon of divine holiness.
I on the other hand had a different idea of how my days ahead would play out. Who would have thought what I considered to be a simple life of luxury and pleasure, albeit a secret life of debauchery and decadence would lead me to the terrible fate in which I now found myself. A simple secret orgy in honour of our great and good Lord Sanguine was not exactly what father had in mind for his fiftieth wedding anniversary. How was I to know the devious mind of our good and benevolent lord? Had I known he intended to include the guests of the whole ceremony at our family estate, instead of just the select group of friends and acquaintances I had invited to take part in our little get together, I would most certainly have taken precautions to stop things getting out of hand. But father was a righteous follower of the Nine, and he definitely didn't see the amusing side to his long planned celebration being turned into a sordid free for all, in which life long friends and family members of fine noble birth were reduced to cavorting around naked like savage lust-filled heathens. The scandal that followed was enough to ruin the reputations of many involved and earned myself the displeasure of some of the most powerful families in the whole of High Rock.
And the result of my careless actions was now fast approaching over the horizon, banished unceremoniously to the city of Anvil. This was where my kind and generous father has been good enough to purchase a small property for myself and my companion in crime, my twin sister Luciana. I must mention at this stage of my story that as ever, even though we shared in the creation of the trouble we now found ourselves in, I was the one who seemed to take all of the blame. For some unknown reason, and much to the dislike of my puritanical father, he was persuaded by Luciana that she should share in the punishment for her part in the whole sorry affair. The thought of having to share even my punishment with that devious, conniving, spoilt, selfish, self centred harlot is enough to make me want to jump overboard, and take my chances with the sharks. Anything to get away from the most venomous deadly viper the land of Cyrodiil is ever likely to see. There was no doubt she had her own infernal plans, she never did anything without it benefiting her in some way, and she could always talk father into letting her return without too much of a problem.
Along for the trip was our travelling companions and servants, Jeeves, possibly the most annoyingly condescending man I have ever had the misfortune of knowing. But unfortunately we are stuck with him for now. As a gesture of loyalty to my father he has agreed to accompany us and ensure we stay on the straight and narrow course demanded by our father. Until I can find a way to lose this troublesome wretch, we are going to have our affairs closely scrutinised, any sign of wrongdoing on our part will eventually reach our father who will no doubt lengthen our term of exile.
Jeeves's wife Marguerite would accompany him, and act as matron in charge of the house servants. She was a friendly and warm woman if somewhat robust and larger than life. I must admit to having a brief dalliance with the good woman. One night when the old bastard Jeeves was away in the city on business for my father, I had a small wager with Luciana that I could seduce the matron and have my wicked way with her. At first I was a bit reluctant, but never one to pass up on a wager or a dare, especially one laid down by my bitch of a sister. She was remarkably well versed in the ways of Sanguine, and it turned out she had been an avid follower of our good Lord in her youth, not bad for a woman passed her fiftieth year. The troubling thing was she was becoming insistent on a second encounter, and while I am all for honouring our Lord Sanguine, the woman was not exactly the most enticing morsel I had ever had the pleasure of getting to know, putting it politely.
Weedle was the man-boy they had sent with us to act as our general servant, the nephew of Jeeves and Marguerite. He was thirty something but had the brains of a boy a quarter of his age. Although he was sometimes possessed of a wit and intellect that had me questioning his normally stupidly docile demeanour. Forever coming up with mischievous plans to help me escape the clutches of my ever watchful family, his ever so bright ideas had got me into trouble on many occasions, even though it seemed like a good idea at the time. He was however an adequate manservant and useful for keeping a secret, although he knew a little too much of my plots and plans for my liking, but he continued to have his uses.
We would have to hire the rest of our servants once we arrived, but with our funds cut to a mere ten thousand Septims each per year for the next ten years, we would have to spend our gold wisely. It really was intolerable, how were we to manage on such a pittance. To live like commoners, and to make maters worse, Jeeves was in control of the funds, the servant had become the master and we were apparently at his mercy, much to the bastard's delight.
Luciana insisted that she could not possibly be expected to survive this harrowing ordeal without at least one of her maids, and so father relented as he always did concerning his'Little Angel' and let her choose one of them to follow her on our journey into the unknown. Annara was her immediate choice, extremely loyal, sufficiently besotted with her mistress, not to mention beautiful and totally reliant on the concoctions of drugs that Luciana brewed for herself and her vile group of associates and friends. Luciana likes to keep those close to her on a very tight leash, and knowing her depraved mind, that was a very real possibility. I was allowed to have my two favourite hunting hounds accompany me, Tiber and Uriel. While Luciana insisted on bringing her flea ridden witch's familiar, Barenziah, with her. That cat is pure evil I tell you, just like its evil bitch of a mistress.
The port is in sight now, my exile will begin and so will the tale of Aren Khaine D'Lyonne, hopefully there will be something to tell, I dearly hope and pray that this is not it for me, I would surely perish from boredom if I was to remain in this drab looking city with nothing to do other than count the days of my exile until I am finally returned to what is rightfully mine, before those scheming dogs, my not so noble kin get their grubby hands on my birthright.
There were of course welcome distractions on this tedious voyage into the arse-end of nowhere. Being a passenger vessel I had made it my goal to find out with whom our little party shared the voyage to Anvil. There were unfortunately very few people of good quality and noble standing, with the exception of a few minor nobles of little importance. Perhaps the most interesting prospect was our good captain, Adriana Laroque. While she was perhaps twice my age, me being a sprightly twenty three and her undoubtedly in her mid to late forties, there was certainly something there, some unlikely attraction, although so far she had apparently not noticed I existed. With the voyage almost at an end, it was unlikely I would share more than common pleasantries with our dear captain.
With luck, although I had my grave misgivings, I would find something of interest in that filthy fishing hovel they called a port city, Anvil. It was likely our good Lord Sanguine had followers even in this backwater festering pit of mediocrity, it was simply a matter of finding them. Not to mention I had to find a way to make money. To rely solely on the goodwill of Jeeves would be utter torture. I had my skills beyond those expected of a noble of such high quality. I planned to put those skills to some use in the months and years ahead. I would not be forced to cower before a common upstart of a servant with my hand held out for whatever scraps he found it amusing enough to throw my way, like some orphaned waif.
Perhaps it would take some time to establish myself as a gentleman and a rogue, one to whom others could trust to carry out their less than lawful pursuits and become a reliable source of information and intrigue. It would no doubt be more difficult to acquaint myself with the good nobles of Cyrodiil as my father had stripped me of any rights to my inheritance and titles until I complied with his wishes. But I was not without a roguish charm with which to beguile those I deemed worthy of my time and effort.
No matter what I chose to do I would have to ensure I kept Luciana at arms length. She had a habit of attracting trouble, and I was usually the one to pay the price for her endeavours. I actually felt a little pity for those she would come into contact with, for she had a way of corrupting the incorruptible. Among her many conquests were priests, noblemen and noblewomen, scholars, artists, actors, playwrights, and just about anyone else that would serve her scheming purposes. She had broken many hearts and been the perpetrator of many a scandal in the upper echelons of noble society.
Where there was intrigue to be found and something to be gained from it, you can be certain that Luciana was not far away, even I had trouble fathoming the depths to which she would sink to get her own way. Only Oblivion knew to what ends her scheming would eventually lead. I for one planned on being as far away from her as possible the first chance I got. One might think reading this that I hated my dear twin sister, but the truth was somewhat more complicated. We had always been close in a kind of sadistically masochistic kind of way.
In other words, while we usually loathed the sight of each other, we also knew that we were two of a kind. She was undoubtedly the more devious, and in my opinion wickedly evil of the pair of us. But I also relied on her savagely keen intellect and ability to plan things far in advance of whatever she intended. Although in the back of my mind, I am also suspicious that it was her deliberate meddling and intent that had us both made outcasts from our friends and family. If that is so, only she knows to what ends her diabolical schemes are planned, may the Nine help anyone who is stupid enough to get in her way.
With introductions out of the way, and so here begins our story.