Cearbhail:

The game has finally begun. Oh, and a new player in the war front has begun his move. Remember what Nexa's father wanted? To rule all of Tamriel? And now the Dominion has begun their control raid as well? well, now there is a third party doing his part in world conquest. Not a bad guy, per say, but he's not your standard hero either. You'll see. Well, anyway, this chapter is plenty entertaining further on. Can't wait for the next one. Nexa arrives in Black Marsh. Oh, and Aedra find a way past the whole world barrier thing. You'll see why.

[Orgruunum]

"Any idea what it is?"

The town of Orsinium was in a fit today. While it is true that the town of Orsinium was usually in a fit about something, usually drunken brawls over a spilled drink, our town was in an uproar over the current events covering the darkening of the sky. Our warriors were lining the towering walls of Orsinium; full armor adorned, all weapons sharpened and ready for bloodshed, all attack bears armed to the teeth. With the entire town on alert, every male was dressed in armor, even those who were barely old enough to walk. Our women were dressed up in armor too, but dressed in archer wear. The women were faster, lither than the men. They had better eyes and reflexes for bow work, while men had stronger muscles to shove sharp axes through our enemies. With the full town on alert, the only question to be asked was why. And there isn't much that can shake an Orc, especially a town full of them. However, a giant purple skyline that stopped the flow of energy to our shaman mothers was enough to cause worry. Mages were at work; and when mages do things…everyone should worry.

I looked at my district's shaman mother. She glared up at the sky, her eyes glancing at it. "It would seem like to be a Silence bubble. However, this one seems to span the length of the globe. The entire world has been silenced. That takes serious magic, enough to level our town several times over."

I nodded to her. I had no idea what she was talking about. I was no magician, I had not touched any magic my entire life. I worked on a farm, trained my sons for battle, and taught my soldiers the strategies necessary for war. I was the commander of Orsinium's forces. I am Commander Orgruunum, but everyone just calls me Commander Unum. That being said, I had to know what was going on with my town. This giant hovering purple sky could be a threat that I could not begin to defend against. We had to be ready for anything, and when it comes to magical affairs, our shaman mothers were the ones we turned to for direction.

"Anything we can do?" I asked her. "Does it do anything harmful to us?"

She shook her head. "Nothing at all. It could actually be beneficial to us. With this bubble in place, every magic user in the planet has been silenced. Now would be the time to take more land for ourselves." She looked at me. "We could expand our empire and take back the land stolen from us by the Bretons."

I began nodding my head. They had beaten us several times in the past because they had control over magics we could not defend against in the olden days. We could defend ourselves now, and with this bubble…their magic seems to be useless. Add on to that, the crumbled Empire due to angelic retribution and it would seem that my one tiny town…now has the strongest army on Tamriel. And I was going to use it to make more land for us.

"Shaman mother, gather the smith workers. Tell them to gather their wall building tools." I nodded to her.

She bowed to me, her eyes full of understanding. "Are we using our orichalcum to build the new wall?"

I shook my head. The sacred vein of orichalcum ran underneath our feet into the deepest mine ever known. We've yet to use the material for anything except our sacred wall. Orcs are a proud race and we dare not use that sacred material for anything less than domination. The armor we wore was mostly ancestral, passed down from generation to generation. The armor I wore was forged during the original war against the Bretons. It had its fair share of dings and dents, but it held strong…just like the Orcs. I fear that if we resort to using the material, we'll become dependent on it, rely on it and not our own strength. For now, we would keep things the way they were. "Not yet. Let us keep our veins of orichalcum untapped for now. We may need more weapons and armor soon. You know…for when our new children grow into their new armor." We may fight in old armor now, but once we expand our territory, let the new age dawn, and with it the new orichalcum smithies.

I left the shaman mother as she turned to gather the smiths. I was off to gather my soldiers. I wouldn't have to gather everyone. We had one simple way to gather troops in a hurry. I reached for my belt and pulled off my war horn. I blew into it in three short bursts. My soldiers looked over at me for a second and then everyone but essential wall defenders ran up to me as fast as they could. I watched as every soldier starting at the age of 16 up to 39 gathered up into a solid formation with speed and precision. As fast as they moved, they knew that I was intending on war. The rise of the sudden sky brought up a lot of questions, a lot of worries, and now I had a solution. And boy…was it a solution to all our problems. Given a few more years, I wouldn't know if our race would be endangered. After today, we'd have our own nation. Those half-breed human elves could go move into Cyrodiil, I don't care. I just want my land back.

"I know you are all wondering what the purple sky means." I paused to see their eyes. My soldiers looked uncaring at the purple sky. Maybe I was the only one who cared after all. "I have consulted the Shaman Mother. She has told me the purple sky is nothing but a miracle to us. It keeps our Breton neighbors from feeling their precious magic energy. They have no way to fight. And the Empire of Cyrodiil has fallen to the angels. Now is our chance. We have strength, we have weapons, we have armor. The Bretons have robes and pointy fingers that no longer have any effect on us. So, does anyone care to guess what we're doing today?" I allowed myself to smile. No one commented, but I did see everyone's eyes sparkle with anticipated bloodshed. "That's right. We're expanding our little town from the top of our mountain and pushing down into the Breton settlements. Think of it…a river of fresh water filled with fish and other sources of meat, better soil for crops, livestock…warmer weather. The Bretons have kept us up here for far too long and the Empire continued to keep us here out of fear of what we may become if we became a full nation. But the Empire is weak, and now it's our turn to be strong. So, let's do this, and do it right. We're breaking off into six teams and we're take six settlements along our borders." I looked at my most experienced Legionnaires. "War advisors, meet me in the map room. We must discuss which targets we'll be exploring, and where our new wall is going to set up."

I let the formation break up; my soldiers rallying into their squads as they began discussing with enthusiasm their longing to bash some heads in. We'd been planning for this day for a while now. My advisors, some of the oldest warriors this town had, walked out of the gaggle-fuck that made up every armored male. The six of them walked up to me, nodding to me a welcome. I nodded in return and the seven of us retired to my longhouse.

Upon opening the door, I could see the giant map that our scouts drew up for us three years ago. It wasn't perfect, but then again all illiterate beings suck at making legible maps. But still, it got the job done. The map detailed the locations of towns, mountain elevations, and known rivers, lakes, and livestock. Everything we needed to know to make this work.

I opened up the conversation by standing over the map and grunting at my generals. "Each of you is leading an operation. We're taking six other towns to add to our own. I will stay here and oversee this town; you all will become leaders of your own. Congratulations are in order; you are now Stronghold leaders. I will be our king, as it should be. The Stronghold will take the name of your father. So, onto real business. We need to discuss exactly which towns we should take. Obviously, we should control at least one major river in our extended territory. We can work out every other detail: pathways, trading routes, locations for our wall, later." I looked at them. "Which towns should we take?"

My six advisors looked down at the map. One of the oldest ones, Pruugrush, 59 years old, pointed to two towns located on the riverside. "These two towns are a must. They are likely to have a port system, or at least a fishery we can take advantage of."

One of my youngest advisors, Brongdo, 34 years old, nudged to another town near the woods. "This town would be great as well. It rests on a woodland area, filled with deer and other sources of meat."

I nodded. Those three towns were relatively close to each other, but there was a giant edge of space between the three new holds. Not to mention they were spread out among the other towns in between them as well. If we took the other three towns in the middle of these ones, we'd have a nice location to call our new home. It would take a huge surrounding wall to make it happen, though. "I feel we should take the inside towns to secure our borders. It will give us a round nation, but I don't know if walling it off could be possible. Any suggestions?"

Pruugrush grunted as he rubbed his chin. "We should use the land to our advantage." He pointed to the surrounding river of the two towns. "This river is long and fast. Trespassers will need to swim across. Ships are too big for the river, and fishing boats will not survive the sweep. No wall is needed for this section." He nodded to the mountain range. "These surrounding mountains have long protected us against invaders. We need no wall for these sections either, but we could set up traps that keep anyone from climbing up to get around us. If we just created a round wall, we'd run out of livestock unless we domesticated our new farm animals. The woods will be a trouble to wall off, and to protect. I suspect we'll need a constant watch in the area, a full military watch for any invaders. It helps that the woods are near the backside of High Rock, where we can defend our location by sea. Perhaps we don't need a full watch in that area. So, realistically, we only need a wall covering the northern side, where the river and the woods do not reach. Not so bad, I think."

I nodded to him. "That sounds reasonable." I nodded. "Ok, get your squads ready for battle. Talk amongst yourself and figure out who will take each of these six towns. I will get the smithies ready to make our new wall." This sounded like a good plan. Finally, we get out of our little gods forsaken mountain.

…

[Jurard]

I had never dreamed that I'd stand in the Tribunal Hall of Ceremonies in Blacklight. The towering beautiful buildings that dotted the landscape of Blacklight, the delicious traditional dishes. I never imagined I'd sit at the great table with the leaders of the Great Houses: Telvanni, Redoran, and Hlaalu. I never thought I'd be served some of the greatest traditional Dunmer dishes ever concocted. I surely never expected our little group to be treated with such humility and respect, not to mention an active ceasefire that kept up safe from the Dominion's attempts to reclaim us in some sort of unnecessary battle. Just imagine how great that would feel. Just imagine how wonderful it would be if any of that was true.

And from my small jail cell with one old bed filled with nothing but stuffed ash…I was right to assume such things would never happen. As soon as we crossed into Morrowind territory, we were attacked by the Dominion again. We managed to push them back, but only because Redoran archers sprung out of nowhere and killed the summoned zombie things. We turned to thank them, but we were rounded up and cuffed. In interest of not starting a war with the Great House of Redoran, we came along quietly. And now I'm sitting in a jail cell; my fellow battlemages in cells of their own as well. We've been sitting in here for two days now, and a few things kept coming up for discussion.

"Iver. I want to kiss you." Yuki complained as she attempted to stick her head out her cell door. Her skinny head wasn't thick enough to fit through the barely spaced bars, and she stomped her foot in complaint. "I can't even see your face! I hate this!" She slammed her hands on the cage door. "Come on! I'm Dunmer too! Let me out!"

Yup, that's one of the things I kept hearing over and over again for the past two days. Seeing the guard taking notice to Yuki's head trying to look out the bars to see her boyfriend, I was about to hear one of the second things I kept hearing the past two days.

A Redoran guard walked up to her cage, smacking it with his sheathed sword. "Your voice carries no weight here, Telvanni mage. This is Blacklight, capital of House Redoran; not some spiraling Telvanni tower with a presuming Master Wizard to look after your studies." Yup, same routine, different Redoran guard. Good to know they're all broken records. He looked over at me and the other battlemages. "Your hearing has been scheduled for tomorrow. Just sit tight and we'll see about getting your audience with Archmagister Lunveni Dren as you have requested. She is aware of your war with the Altmer of Summerset Isle, and the issue of the bubble blocking your only advantage against your enemy." That was different. No guard has even wasted a minute to tell us that we had a hearing with the Archmagister.

He walked past us, returning to his little stool where he sat there, watching us through his thoroughly wrapped helmet with the very slim visor. How he could see out of such a small opening was beyond me, but he did it. And he respected me. Because he knew that a battlemage may be a mage like the Telvanni, but I still respect the art of swords and armor. Redorans were warrior through and through. And they respected warriors, which is what I was. I was representation of both House Redoran and House Telvanni in Morrowind. It could work in my favor, or against it. Both Houses may respect me like this guard did, or they may be insulted by the very concept of sharing my training with an opposing discipline.

I sat down on my bed. A giant cloud of ash blasted up into the air. I ignored it. I couldn't do anything about it. While we weren't exactly cuffed, our magic was still silenced. I couldn't form a touch of fire in my palm any more than I could bend these bars and walk away. Even so, if I were to get in a fight, I'd just rely on my physical abilities. That's why battlemages train in the art of sorcery, bows, swords, and martial arts. If we lost one, we'd rely on the other. Run out of magic? Use a bow. No arrows? Use a sword. Too dull? Use your hands. Chopped off? Look to your left. You have at least three other people waiting to step up to help you. And chances are…they haven't even started fighting yet. All alone? Nothing more to be done. Use the last resort. Every battlemage is contracted. No one ever talked about it, but we are. During the graduation ceremony we make a contract with a Daedra. Mine's a Fire Atronach, her name is Fiora. One of the weird instances where I didn't get to name her. She chose her own name. Even so…I can't summon her, and she can't summon herself either. Normally, she'd come if I called, but even she can't work with the planet-wide silence.

I blew the ash dust away from me as I laid my head down on my pillow. I know that the ashes of the nearby volcanos were stuffed in these pillows and mattresses, but it felt nice and soft. I hadn't felt so comfortable before. I don't know why Yuki and Ven are so against lying on these beds. I know they fled from Morrowind, but their reasons were their own. They came to Cyrodiil and joined the Mages Guild, signing into the Battlemage Pre-Training Program. I honestly thought they were an item back then, or at least related. But they were neither in love, or related at all. They met on the road on the way down and just stuck together. And it's been like that for a while now.

"Iver…I love you." Yuki said through her bars.

Iver chuckled. "I love you too, Yuki." He called back.

Love. When was the last time I had ever said that word? I think it was the war. Not this war, the war against Mannimarco. Hell, to call it a war was an understatement. It was more like an execution. Guild halls were torn apart; council members were killed or revealed to be traitors. We lost so much that we thought it would fall apart. I had loved back then. Seeing him dominated by the necromancers during the raid on Silorn made me sick to my stomach. I was there for the battle. I didn't watch as Merete, Iver, and Thalfin as they led the ambush, our now present Arch-Mage as she led the assault inside the tower. I was with the advance team, the one inside the ruin before the traitor locked us inside the ruin. I was in there with five other battlemages. They all died. It wasn't the first time I was the only survivor. There was one other time. Nenyold Twyll. The greatest failure I've ever been a part of.

The dust floated above my head. I remember seeing light shining through the broken cracks in the walls. I had barely survived the onslaught of the zombies and necromancers. They knew about us. We came to find and rescue our informant and we were betrayed by him. I gave poor Fithragaer a chance. It was his first mission. I had to get him out. I was the only one left after that. The other two battlemages had been slaughtered in the ambush. I was crushed under their bodies. I learned the hard way that in order to survive, I had to be stronger, faster. I had to lead more patiently. And not to let something like 'love' interfere with the mission. I lost him that day. I lost a lot that day.

So, love. I hadn't even said the word since Nenyold. But hearing Yuki bring it up made my heart pulse with longing. It'd been so long since I even thought of it. Thoughts of my current comrades being killed by Aedra and by Altmer surfaced in my mind. No, I still didn't have time to think of this. I had to focus on the mission. This was my mission and I had to be ready for anything. But still…we weren't going anywhere. Might as well get some sleep.

…

[Vatu]

Ruins and Dwarves Character Sheet

Player Name: Vatu

Name: Ri'dato

Race: Khajiit, male

Class: Ranger, scout

Age: 34

Hair Color: Dark brown

Eye Color: Amber/blood-rage red

Weight: 170 pounds

Size: 5'10''

Fears: Bean Burritos, dogs, old people, kids these days, needles, pinecones, and Joe. Just Joe.

Preferred Enemies: Joe, Ayleids, trolls, old people, snakes, and Akaviri.

Religious Beliefs: Twin Moons

…

I took a nice deep breath. The nice warm air brushed my fur nicely. No Primrose, no Nexa. I didn't know how nice it would feel to have both of them away from me. It was just me, my sister, and Uncle J'skar. Oh, and Lilly, Babette, Crassi, and Travis. They were with us, but it didn't really bother me that much. It was a small group for once. The other battlemages were heading to Summerset Isle to find out how to bring down the Silence bubble covering our world. Meanwhile, our team was heading down to Rimmen to meet up with a squad of Khajiits. It sounded like a fun time, I guess. I've never been to Elsweyr but it's where my race originated from so I bet I'd enjoy it. Nisha was excited, and so was J'skar.

"Are we there yet?" Babette whined from the sky. "The sun is so bright…it's exhausting me!" She cried down to us, her face pale white and her wings drooping. She was barely hovering over our heads.

J'skar smiled up at her. "Stop flying around then. You're exhausting your own vampire powers."

"But I'm too tired to walk! My feet hurt." She whined some more, still hovering over our heads. "It takes less energy for me to fly than it is for me to trudge through that sand."

Lilly nodded. "I think she's right. This sand is like thick powder, and it's really hot on my feet. It's like dragging my feet through mud."

I found myself nodding. "I guess that's true. Of course, if Nisha weren't riding my shoulders the whole time…I'd probably be less tired from this."

Nisha purred from my back. "I'm too tired to keep going, brother."

I stopped, looking around. We were in nothing but dessert. I don't' know how far we were from Rimmen, so I looked back at Lilly. "How far away are we from Rimmen?"

She shrugged. "I can't see more than ten feet from my face. I can't exactly see where I'm standing on the planet anymore. Where's the map?"

Crassi held it up. "Right here." She walked up to us, brushing her hair out of her face. "I've been keeping track. We're ten miles from Riverhold. We're just inside Elsweyr's borders. We've only been in the dessert for six miles now." She looked up at the sky. "According to my sun positioning class…it's near 6:30 ish. I suggest we make camp for the night. Maybe get our campaign started." She smiled at the thought. "Just imagine; our first campaign."

Babette fell from the sky with a surprise cry. She hit the sand pretty hard, throwing up her own mushroom cloud as she impacted in the sand. When she pulled her head out of the sand, she spat out some sand, and glared up at us. "That sounds fun." She said as she stood up from the sand.

Nisha jumped off my shoulders, and I felt so much better. "Yeah, that would be fun. Should we set up the tents?"

J'skar chuckled as he started unpacking our tents. "I'm not a character, so I'll set up camp while you kids play your game."

Lilly smiled. "Ok, I guess we can start." She looked at J'skar. "If you could please start cooking some stew for us to eat, that would be great."

He nodded. "Of course, Lilly. In these darks days, it's great to see you kids can play your game in the midst of a war. It warms my missing heart."

Oh yeah…J'skar is a lich. I had forgotten about that. That's when something popped in my mind. "Oh, J'skar…I lost my ring." I said to him. "I need a new one."

He looked back at me, nodding. "Of course. I will program one before tomorrow morning. I'll give it to you when you wake up. Just don't unleash your Sen'la'gar until then." He took a look at Nisha, smiling. "I'll make one for your sister as well. She's 13 now. Who knows when she'll begin changing."

She looked up at him with a clueless expression. I had forgotten, but she's never seen me change. I don't know what was going on during the battle, or what she was doing, but I don't think she saw me blood-rage and kill almost every Aedra around. After we looked down at her for a few seconds, she wrapped her arms around her chest, turning away from us. "Jeez, stop talking about me changing! I'll grow eventually." She said hopefully. Ha! My sister was embarrassed. I've never seen her like that before.

Crassi started to sit us down into a group. "Ok, so let's go over the group. I'm playing an Imperial witchhunter. Babette is playing a…what are you again?"

Babette smiled thickly as she announced, "A cleric dwarf; Kavarken."

Crassi nodded. "Ah yes, and not the Dwemer race, right, but the shorter cousins that were killed off for their imperfections?"

She nodded. "Yeah, and Dwemer are my preferred enemies. They pushed my race down and tried to kill us off, enslaving us and using us to build their deep tunnels."

Crassi nodded again. "Ok, so I'm an Imperial witchhunter, Babette a dwarf cleric. Vatu is playing a Khajiit ranger, so he and I will be the main scouts. Nisha is playing our Altmer sorcerer, and Travis is our Nord monk." She rubbed her chin. "We're a little on the light side when it comes to close range, aren't we?"

Travis shook his head. "My monk can handle close range stuff."

And I turned to look at her. "And don't forget, rangers do have close range specialty as well. I'm not so much an archer as I am a short sword user."

Crassi nodded. "Ok, that's fine." She looked at Lilly. "I think we're ready to begin."

Lilly nodded and sat down. She brought her hands over the sand, closing her eyes. When she opened them, they flashed white for a second. A giant image formed on the inside of our circle. We could see our characters as how we had described them to Lilly. Our characters were dressed in prison rags, sitting in some cells inside a prison barge, most likely heading to Morrowind. I could see and hear the ship rocking back and forth as the waves crashed upon the hull. Our characters acted like we did. They moved when we moved. Well, they moved when we thought. Lilly's advanced Illusion spell connected our avatars to our minds. With some training we managed to make them move by visualizing it. "This game session will last for two hours. From there, I doubt I could hold this for any longer."

We all nodded. "We'll take that deal." Crassi said.

"Then let the game begin." Lilly announced. The ship stopped rocking and I looked down at my character. His ears perked up as he glanced at his cage door. He could see the other prisoners, people he didn't know but had somehow been locked away with as they were taken to Morrowind to face their punishments. A guard started walking up to us, nodding to us. "Wake up; we're finally here in Morrowind. Follow me." He said as he walked up to our cages, unlocking all our doors. When that was done, my character started walking out of his cage, lagging behind with the other characters.

The guard led us outside, nodding to us. "It's a shame you have to come to Morrowind in such a state. The Red Mountain is acting up and strange creatures are walking through the ash fields." He turned to look back at us. "Follow me to the census office. We'll get you signed in and registered. You are the various prisoners that we contracted to help us with our problem, right?"

All our characters nodded. I wonder if we all made that happen, or if it was one of Lilly's illusions. Since she controlled how the illusions worked, she could make our characters do anything, even block certain players from seeing certain actions. Like if I rolled a 2 on my search, I physically wouldn't be able to see what everyone else around me could see. They could tell me, describe it very well, in fact, but that would not change the truth that I was blind. As such, Lilly had control over what our character's actions looked like when we rolled high or low numbers. It was such a gift to be able to play Ruins and Dwarves this way.

The guard paused to look at us while his hand hovered on the edge of the door. "Welcome to Morrowind." He opened the door and the illusion turned white for a second. A loading sign formed over the whiteness and I could see Lilly struggling to keep her mind clear as she focused on the next scene. An image of a random Dunmer wearing sickening golden armor carrying a giant Daedric longsword appeared in the whiteness. Underneath it, I could read, "Don't forget to save your journey often." Man, Lilly had some active imagination.

The scene finally snapped back on. Buildings were on fire, Dunmer were screaming as they ran around in circles. I could see fire raining from the sky as the Red Mountain roared in the background, spewing fire and ash down on top of the town. The guard looked shocked and turned to face us. "Oh no, the ash storm has begun already. Quick, follow me." He yelled to us as he started leading us down the pier leading to the census office. "Quick, get inside!"

Just as I reached for the door, my character looked up into the sky. He jumped back in time as the doorway exploded. The image paused, and Lilly looked at us. "You were lucky you rolled a 19 on your detection and a 17 on your evasion." She announced as she let the image play on. My character jumped out of the way as the falling rock collided with the doorway. He managed to slip past the rolling debris easily enough. Crassi's character jumped away just as easily. Babette's took the hit, crushed underneath the boulder in a comical fashion. Then she caught on fire by the extreme heat the boulder was giving off. Her character screamed and jumped into the sea to kill off the flames. Lilly look at Babette. "That's what you get for rolling a 1."

Babette shrugged. "Well, technically it was your Illusion's system that rolled a 1, not me."

The Illusion continued as the other two characters sidestepped the almost done rolling boulder. They glanced down at the boulder, but their eyes showed how uninterested they were. The two of them looked over at Kavarken, glaring at the disheveled dwarf as she tried to pull herself out of the sea and back onto the pier. When Kavarken pulled herself back onto the pier, she spat out a stream of water and glared up at us. "Do not try that at home." She grunted as he took Nisha's character's hand. She pulled her back on shore.

The Dunmer guard grunted as he stood up. "I am injured. Quickly, we must retire to the guards quarters. Wait…do you hear that?" He said, turning to look out towards the mountain. I was suddenly able to hear the massive roaring that came from the mountainside.

"Do the rest of you hear that?" I asked.

Crassi shook her head. "No, according to my illusionary dice, I rolled a 10. What's going on?"

Lilly smiled. "Vatu, you're the only one that rolled a natural 20. What do you hear?"

"I hear Daedra screaming from the mountain." I reported. My character echoed my response just as I said it, like the two of us were one in the same, which we were.

The Dunmer guard nodded. "Aye, it has begun. Quickly, I need to get you suited for battle. Follow me to the guards quarters and I'll get you armored up and ready to go."

Cearbhail:

Yup, Ruins and Dwarves...officially a thing now. I actually have been thinking. What would you think if I started a whole entire story around a bunch of kids in the Elder Scrolls series and just focus on their weekly sit-down to play Ruins and Dwarves. Not the characters from my current series, just random characters. It would be entertaining to say the least. I don't know, yet. I'll see how I like using this prototype system I've been working on so far.