Cearbhail:

Ok, everyone. I have a very important announcement. I will have it down on the second note, you know... the one at the end of the chapter. Anyway, I'll come to that at the bottom, but for now, about the chapter. Three words: TOBOGGANS ... OF ... WAR. Ok, and go.

[Orgruunum]

Invasion Assessment:

General Orgruunum, as upon request, I have traveled to the six holds we took from the Bretons. The Bretons did not put up much of a fight. They decided it was safer, probably smarter too, to run. We captured all towns with no reported casualties. We have some wounded but the wounds were superficial and treated easily. Honestly, the worst reported wound was that a little Breton boy threw some alchemist fire at the warrior's face. He has a nasty burn mark over his face, but he reports his own condition manageable. We have already pitched in and started creating the wall. With no breaks the past 18 hours, we've been able to set up a rudimentary moat outside where the wall will be. We decided it was for the best, a 20 foot long, 8 foot deep moat that cuts right into the sea. It's filled completely with sea water, thankfully so we have that defense at least. Now, we'll begin the walling once we assemble the necessary rocks. Until then, we have archers lined up along the moat.

According to the six commanders of the invasion, they have chosen their names of their towns. Chief Brongdo has claimed the town of Kerchenshung, the town by the riverside. Chief Pruugrush has laid claim to the mining town of Umbra. We have discovered an iron mine that we can use to help create more armor and weapons, not to mention our wall. Chief Brungshan is in ownership of Brungshan, the village on the outskirts of the forest. Plenty of cover and wildlife for us to rely on. Chief Yarjun owns a farming village called Turgentuf. The village is filled with domesticated swine and cattle. We shall eat well enough for six villages. Chief Grubdum has claimed the town of Dumdum. It seemed to be a very cooking oriented village. Grubdum has decided to make this town's specialty as a cooking town. Not sure why though. Seems Dumdum to me… The last chief, Chief Bumbumdi, has the town that rests near the wall. He calls it Grastuurgein. He has a full military might set up along the moat until he can get the wall set up.

According to Chief Bumbumdi there is a campsite filled with the Bretons that fled from their towns. They seem to be waiting for something, but for what we can't figure out. They must know that their precious magic is useless to them, and if we wished it, we could kill them. With your orders, we will go and finish off these useless creatures.

Transhaturf,

Chieftain's Advisor

…

I looked down at the note and assumed that I was reading it correctly. It was nothing but chicken scratch, but I'm guessing he told me everything that I read as what it read as. I crumpled the note and tossed it into the fire where it exploded into a bright light. We didn't really have ink, since we don't really write, so we used Breton blood to write our letters. Bretons drink a lot of alcohol and because of it our new blood letters, ha ha ha, are extremely flammable… and explosive.

The training yard was pretty active today. The town was a lot smaller now, but I was ok with that. The majority of the older men and women were the only ones still remaining in the town, but I hear plans of creating more young ones soon enough. There as a newfound enthusiasm in Orsinium, now that we could expand our borders and actually create a nation of our own. I could just imagine opening our gates and letting the children travel down the mountain to the six new villages. Hopefully in a year we'll be ready to expand some more. Our armies were just getting ready.

I looked at the only young males we had left, two small platoons of 10 males, making 20 in total. The young males attended to our new obstacle course; practicing their combat against each other as they competed in capturing the crowd. The two platoons often competed against each other, but more often than that adopted into four teams and drafted kids to run the course with them. It made for good practice for the kids and for the adults. The kids got a taste of combat training and taking orders from superior commanders, as these current soldiers would one day become when the kids come of age. And the soldiers got experience training subordinates and creating tactical assessments/operations. I thought it was ingenious. I wished I had some children to practice fighting with. I never really found the one I wished to be with.

We lived in such a large town, almost the size of a nation all on its own, but it was vastly overpopulated. Entire families, clans, of up to 15 plus would all live under one roof, one building usually with only two bedrooms and one bath. Expanding out of this walled town was the last resort, but thankfully we were able to do it under controlled circumstances that led to little to no casualties, as far as I know. The Bretons feared letting us intermingle. They feared we'd grow too strong, too competent. They didn't want us to become stronger than them. Look where it led them. Once they lost their magicka, we took them out. Not because we were stronger, but because we needed room to grow. If we had that room, we would have protected the Bretons from any harm. Too bad they made their choice, because we made ours. Orsinium was now 1/6 of our whole nation. We had a big city that now had breathing room. The other Orcs were out in the expanded territory, setting up new towns.

My main priority now was expanding the wall of the town. This town would become the capital of our new nation. We needed a bigger capital, one the Bretons would never let us have. That would require opening up the Orichalcum mines, a thing I hadn't considered doing in a while.

"General Unum." I heard the shaman mother say as she approached me.

I looked over at her. She was an old thing, barely able to keep herself standing on her own two feet, and used her ancient staff as a walking stick. The old stick was weathered and frail, but I could still see the ancient Daedric runes glowing with evidence of her power. And she looked at me with expectant eyes. It took me a second to figure it out, but once I noticed her staff was glowing… something that shouldn't be able to happen since the purple sky blocked out magicka flow… I had a sinking feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. As I was about to ask her what she wanted, I heard a guard scream. "General! Emergency beacon over Grastuurgein! More beacons are being lit! Kerchenshung has lit a beacon as well!"

"What?" I roared as I ran through the obstacle course over to the watch tower. I climbed up the ladder as quickly as I could while the shaman mother continued to look at me with very focused eyes. I intended to talk to her once I looked down at the towns. Once I reached the top of the watch tower, I looked down past the wall and down the mountainside. I could see two bright glowing orbs of light off in the distance. It's common practice to build towers filled with hay to light on fire if a town was under duress and requesting reinforcements. And I was guessing that the Bretons were somehow causing trouble for the two towns. I looked down at the shaman mother. She waited for me at the bottom on the watch tower. I didn't wish to keep her waiting so I jumped over the railing, freefalling for a few seconds before landing on the ground.

I looked up at her, saying, "Are you able to touch your precious energy?"

She nodded. "I happened just moments ago, Unum."

I looked up at the purple sky. "But how? The purple sky was the reason for the Silence in the first place."

She looked up at the sky, nodding. "It was, but there has been a disturbance that has brought the energy back on. As far as I can tell, Conjuration and my connection to Malacath are still untouchable. At the very least, we have all other forms of magicka turned back on. If I can touch magicka, so can the Bretons."

I sighed. "That would mean that the Bretons would have the ability to…"

"Overrun a small town filled with our youngest and least experienced warriors." She replied with a nod. "The Bretons are cunning and able to wield magicka strong enough to cause our people problems."

I growled as I reached for the war horn. I put it up to my lips and blew three quick bursts of warning to the air. The Orcs still running their drills were the first ones to reply. They stopped their game of capture the flag and formed up right in front of me. It took a few seconds for them to come to a full formation, but here they stood… 20 proud hopefuls. The only young Orsimer here in Orsinium. The older generation was starting to form up around us, all looking at me for the chance to shed blood once again. They would get their chance.

"Listen up!" I roared to everyone. "We have made a mistake, a mistake that will cost us lives. We thought that we could take over six towns with no consequence. The Bretons had lost their magicka, and because of it … we could have the lives we wanted. And so we did it. We took over six towns and drove the powerless Bretons from our land. But now, their magicka is back! They are fighting for their right to take their land back! They will kill us all if we do not act now! It is too late for us to go back. And I will not sit back and watch as we're rounded up back into this shell of a town. If the Bretons were smart they would just eradicate us now for we have experienced freedom. Let us hold onto that freedom! Let us shed so much Breton blood that they will never think of attacking us again! They will move to new lands, find new families, but we shall hold onto ours! Our towns are under attack and are requesting aid. And we shall render them all the aid we can." I threw my arm up in a victory pump, drawing the war howls of my younger and older warriors. They were rallied and ready to go to war.

I turned back to the shaman mother. "Gather your sisters and get them suited for battle." I turned to the pack of warriors. "Get suited up in as much blood-shedding weaponry as you possibly can, and meet back here in one minute!" I shouted to everyone. "We shall toboggan to war!"

…

[Jurard]

Remember when I imagined how my reception to Blacklight would be? How I never dreamt that I would sit down to a massive table with the leaders of the Great Houses, being treated to some of the fanciest Dunmer dishes? How I would get to see some of the ancient historical paintings, or perhaps witness a cultural event such as a native dance? Well, I still didn't get to see it. Even though we were allied with the Great Houses, and were pardoned for rushing into a warring state dragging enemy baggage with us, we still had to be treated like garbage until our meeting was adjourned. Sure, the House Councilors were more than pleasant with us, House Redoran and House Indoril especially. Lord Redoran was more than ready to discuss our formal sparring match as a way of greeting. I had to admit, I was curious about fighting him too. He was the Lord of House Redoran. He must be an amazing fighter, and I did want to see what I could learn from him. There was no way I'd be a match for him, after all, but it wouldn't stop me from trying.

Yuki and Ven were talking shop with Archmagister Telvanni. I did not doubt that they were discussing their reasons for joining the Battlemage Corps in Cyrodiil. By the look on the archmagister's face, I did not think that she was angry with either of them, however she appeared earlier. She looked relived mostly to see Ven, I think. Maybe he was related to her or something? I didn't really know.

The rest of my squad was moving around, making friends with some of the councilors. We weren't allowed to leave the building until we had finished our war meeting, which we couldn't continue until we gathered enough malachite to blind this building from scrying. Honestly, it was taking so long that I wished someone would just drop from the sky and give us something to do.

That's when I saw it. A portal ripped open right in front of me, right near the front of the five ruling chairs of the council room. The portal made a loud ripping sound and it drew everyone's attention. Redoran guards stormed into the room like they had trained for this exact moment. They rushed in, pushed councilors back as they raised their shields and swords. Meanwhile, I'm looking around for the remainders of my squad. "Form up around the portal! Prepare for combat!" I screamed to my battlemages.

"Redoran Guard, at the ready!" Lord Redoran screamed as he marched to the front of his troops, unsheathing his own weapon.

I didn't want to feel left out of the fight that was to come so I reached for my own weapon. I remembered that it was confiscated from me and I had no armor on either. I was pretty much dressed like a dingy prisoner, which I was until not too long ago. That didn't stop me from running up to the portal. "Toss me a weapon!" I screamed to a Redoran. One of them was a dual-wielder and tossed me his second longsword. I grabbed it just in time to turn and face the two Altmer climbing out of the portal. They were dressed like Dominion agents, fully adorned with black leather overcoats with scary outlining. They walked out of the portal slowly, both hands over their heads.

The girl was the first one to speak before she fully exited the portal. "Don't attack, we come in peace!" She screamed as loudly as she could. She and the boy exited the portal, which snapped shut behind them. They were stuck with us now, so I hoped they were true to their word, because I was not letting them leave.

I looked from her over to the guy standing beside her. He tried to smile as politely as he could as he looked at me. I looked from him back to the girl. She tried to copy the same smile, and that's when I realized that these two were twins, I was sure of it. They looked almost identical, only the girl was a little shorter and had bigger eyes. Either that or I'm suddenly a racist that can't tell people of other races apart from each other anymore.

I waited with my sword raised as Lord Redoran and Archmagister Telvanni walked over to meet me and the twins. The twins watched as both leaders walked over to us. Lord Redoran was the first one to speak. "You claim to come in peace?"

The boy nodded. "Yes, sir. Councilor Fiirnar sent us to find you."

"Why?" I screamed as I brought the sword up to his throat. "Trick them into killing us? Trick them into joining your Dominion?"

The boy was too stunned by the sword by his throat to answer, so the girl did instead. And she sounded more or less just like him. "No." She shook her head. "Unfortunately, we require aid." She looked from me over to the two House leaders. "The Dominion has ceased the war. We made an alliance with the Seer of Cyrodiil." The Seer of Cyrodiil? Had I heard of her before?

"The Dominion is requesting aid?" Lord Redoran stated as he looked over at me. "Aid with what?"

The boy backed away from my sword tip, saying, "We were monitoring the many assaults on our territories when we got an emergency spotting of the Nordic seer girl." Oh, that seer. The one helping Hans's group. "When we got her on screen, she talked to us in a way that told us that she knew we were watching her. She made us a deal saying that she wanted our help, but first she needed us to understand what the situation was. We had to find General Victorious, the leader of the Aedra invasion force. We looked him up to see him in an Ayleid ruin, talking about an invasion of Dwemer. An army strong enough to sunder Tamriel. He showed us an Illusion of what Akatosh showed him: a world burning in magna as giant golden machines marched across the lands. Dwemer soldiers killing everyone in sight, eventually taking a stand against the elven gods with their Numidium… killing them."

Archmagister Telvanni scratched her chin at the thought. "Assuming you are telling the truth, that would mean that our very existence is in jeopardy. Not just those of us living, but those of us that passed on."

The boy nodded. "Councilor Fiirnar tried to get the armies to stand down, but Nrillia decided to betray the Dominion and attacked Councilor Fiirnar. He told us to escape, find the Houses meeting here with the battlemages, and tell them of what is really happening. He figured with your help, you could help fight Nrillia's Dominion and the Dwemer."

"House Redoran will be ready to serve." Lord Redoran stated. "But House Telvanni is unable to assist."

"Why not?" The girl asked. "Have they not noticed the magicka is flowing again?"

"What?" Archmagister screamed. She looked down at her palms as fire jumped off her fingertips. A full flame roared on her palm, which drew an awkward smile to her lips. "It's back… it's finally back!" She started cackling as her body was suddenly consumed with purple flames. "This Nrillia better be ready for real mages because House Telvanni is ready for a fight."

I looked back to the twins. "Ok…so… any idea how we're supposed to help?"

The boy pulled off his backpack and reached inside of it. "I have this world map. We should set it up, survey the growing situation, and hopefully issue a global order of ceasefire. We recorded the speech General Victorious gave, so that should help get things going."

I nodded and watched as the boy and the girl started pulling out parts to set up a world map. I looked around at my squad as they started forming up around me. Guess we didn't need the malachite after all.

The girl looked up at me and then over to the House leaders. "We need to Ward this building off…no, the entire town. Nrillia was not happy when we teleported away. She will be coming after us."

Archmagister nodded, turning to address her leaders. "You heard the Altmer! Magisters, begin setting up Scrying Wards, Protection Wards, and any Wards you can think of! Let's keep this town from getting overrun by as many necromantic possibilities as possible!" The members of House Telvanni sprang into action as they raced for the exits of the giant room.

"Lords of House Redoran!" Lord Redoran screamed to the guards. "Assemble as many soldiers as possible. Have a coordinated patrol for this town, double for this building. Let no one we do not already know into the courthouse, and do not let anyone wander the streets. The town is on curfew until further notice." The other Lords of House Redoran nodded and exited the room.

Wow, it took a whole few seconds for the town to go on full lockdown. If this was some sort of Dominion trap, they weren't doing a very good job of it. Of course, the twins looked more at ease now, like they could finally relax. Maybe it wasn't a trap after all? I didn't know what to expect, but in a few minutes we'd have some answers.

…

[Orgruunum]

War toboggans. Yes, we have them. How else do you expect us to travel down a large mountain down to the waiting battlefield? Fly? Fall? We've tried both of those things. Falling only gets you so far before you hit ground, and Orcs will fly when pigs do. Ha ha ha. Get it? No? Maybe you're dumber than our newborns then.

Our war toboggans could hold up to ten warriors, fully armor-clad with side compartments for extra weapons like bows, arrows, alchemist poisons and stuff. They were made out of orichalcum, and these toboggans were as old as Orsinium was. We never made more because we never needed more. We never used them once we were sealed in our little town. But now, we needed them. I wished we had more. We had ten war toboggans loaded up with warriors. Each toboggan had one older leader like me, eight soldiers, and one shaman sister. That meant we had 90 warriors and 10 shaman sisters. The Shaman Mother was with us as well, but she was in the last toboggan. I was unlucky to have one of the younger sisters, perhaps 14 years-old or something. She didn't look like a shaman, probably didn't know any magicka either. Just my luck. We didn't need her anyway. We just had to sail down to the ground, draw our weapons, had the girl a bow, and then kill some Bretons. Easy.

"See you in Oblivion, boys!" I screamed to the other toboggans. "Launch!" I screamed as we all dug at the snow. With one hellova pull, we flung ourselves down the near straight down slope leading to the countryside. My stomach was suddenly in my throat as the wind took us. I had never been on one of these before, and the sudden acceleration frightened me. It had been a while since I tasted lead on my tongue, blood in my ears. The very sensation of adrenaline had almost been lost on me. Battle was drilled into me until I felt no more fear or adrenaline. This was something else, something I couldn't control.

The younger males behind me were screaming in what I assumed was either fear or adrenaline rushed joy. My eyes stung with the bitter feel of cold air blasting, but I refused to close my eyes. Closing them would lead to my death. I watched as trees blurred in front of me, vanishing behind me just as quickly as they entered my vision. I didn't know when we entered a snow storm but it was upon us pretty quickly. Beyond the already alarming rate blurred things rushed past us, now we had a blanket of white snow obscuring our vision. I heard the other toboggans around me, but event they were but a whistle in the roar of the wind tempting my ears with exploding eardrums. I did hear a large crash though, one that destroyed a tree. Some orcs cried out in sudden pain and just as quickly vanished from my ears. We traveled too fast to hear what happened to them, but I knew that the toboggan next to me just suffered the worst fate in life…slamming head-on into a tree. I hoped they lived, but I doubted it.

"Hang on, boys!" I screamed back at them, but my own voice sounded so light and fragile to the roar of the wind around me. I slowly whipped my head around; unhappy to have my breath taken from me as I did so. The field of white suddenly vanished and I could see down. We had slowed down a little, and I could see that we had sled down more than half of our mountain already. At such speed, I couldn't begin to wonder how we were going to stop at this rate. The snow was starting to vanish from the ground as well. We were quickly jerked as we hit the hard frozen ground that didn't hold snow. It didn't stop us though. We just kept flying downward, right towards a massive rock that we couldn't avoid. "Hold tight, everyone!" I screamed as I gripped my handles as tightly as I could.

I held my breath as the toboggan crashed into the rock. Well, crashed isn't the right word. Our tip lifted and we slid right onto the rock. And that launched us into the air. We soared into the sky like our toboggan was now some sort of flying machine. It made my stomach fly from my throat back down to where it belonged, but then it plunged deeper into my body, where my ass resided. I never told anyone I was afraid of heights, but at the speed we were going, our lengthy drop was steadily increasing. But we kept flying in the sky, our toboggan slowly tipping towards the ground. By now, I could see one of the villages below us, more than 100 meters of a drop. That's when I felt the toboggan come to a stop. We stopped moving forward and started falling straight back down.

"Grab your weapons and bail!" I screamed as I reached for my greatsword. "We're freefalling now!"

Cearbhail:

Ok, the important announcement. I'm officially getting Elder Scrolls Online for the PC. I'll be playing a Khajiit in the Aldmeri Dominion. I'm more than happy to take requests for characters. Vatu, Nisha, Ruby, Ksaan, Ahmbra, Pantu, Ja'Daan... or any of the other Khajiits I've added. Or you can even suggest a new Khajiit character. Just so you know, if you suggest a new character, this character will be added to my roster of already existing characters. I thought this might be fun. I've been watching the Khajiit Nightblade on youtube and I loved seeing Elsweyr, but I wanted to see more of it for myself, so I'm buying the game and plugging in myself. So, if any of you already have it and feel like chatting or adventuring, I'd be ok with that. Anyway, that's all i wanted to say. My game won't be coming in for a while, so that give me time to consider who I want to play as.