Winds of the Ashfall: An Elder Scrolls Tale

Greg J Miller

~O~

Chapter 6

Loredas the 27th of Last Seed 4E71 Evening

It was already dark outside by the time that Alaron Suvaris returned to his rented room above the tavern area of the inn. Given that it was just beginning to grow slightly crowded down below, he was glad to be back upstairs in the comparative solitude of his room.

When he'd gone downstairs a little earlier, there had firstly been only three or four other patrons in the tavern. By the time he'd departed the lower level, that number had grown to more than a dozen, with likely more soon on the way. Even so, it seemed that the ships leaving the port had taken some of the noisiest patrons. There was still some measure of noise emanating from below, but it seemed at least a little less rowdy than the previous few evenings.

After that unexpected incident of the night before, he'd been a little wary of what he chose to eat that evening. He still held no idea of exactly what had so badly disagreed with his stomach on Fredas, but it did influence his of choice of meal. He elected to cautiously avoid the seafood on offer and go with the freshly roasted boar and baked yam.

Avoiding some of the already drunken patrons in the tavern, Suvaris made brief use of the downstairs bathroom before heading back upstairs for the last time.

After unlocking the door to his room, he inwardly chastised himself as he noticed that he'd left that window open. Nothing appeared otherwise amiss, but he remained annoyed with himself nonetheless. If that window hadn't faced the relatively busy street below in such an exposed fashion, it might have presented as an attractive target for an unusually agile thief. It might also be fair to think that a truly determined and skilled individual wouldn't be deterred, by either the exposed aspect or even a closed window, but that wasn't the point.

Before pulling the stubborn window closed, he glanced out at the evening sky. Just a few stars could be seen between the shifting clouds. The slim crescent of Secunda peeked out from behind a cloud. It was already nearly a third of the way up into the sky. A bright glow coming from behind some cloud on the eastern horizon indicated that Masser was just rising. It looked like that larger moon might be near to full, or he considered that it might have just passed full and was starting to wane. He wasn't immediately certain of which. Over the past week of stormy skies, he'd just about lost track of the cycles of the moons.

Using the tinderbox, Suvaris lit the oil lamp and two candles, to better illuminate the room. Since it was still far too early to try sleeping and there was still a bit too much noise coming up from down below, he pulled off his boots and settled into the chair by the small table, intending to take another look at that book.

Picking up the book once again, Suvaris looked to what he'd been reading earlier in the afternoon. Once again finding it rather less engaging than he'd originally expected, he'd skipped forward, looking to see whether the author had something more informative to impart.

After going on quite a bit about the divergence of popular opinion regarding the dramatic shift in local religious custom, the book eventually moved onto detailing the events of the destruction of Vivec City and the devastation that followed across all of Vvardenfell, then further afield at other localities.

Just as he'd been expecting, the author provided no better detail than what he'd previously read from other sources. It all seemed immediately more factual than insightful, and even then, it still seemed light on detail. In fact, Suvaris remained confident that he probably knew far more than the author of that book of several matters only briefly touched upon.

The only thing that really served to diverge from that assessment came from some first-hand accounts provided from citizens of the port city of Tear, who had survived the terrible ground-quakes that nearly levelled that place. He'd previously heard something of the like before, but those direct accounts did add some fresh perspective.

Further along, the author did go into quite a bit of specific detail outlining the political manoeuvring of the Great Houses of Morrowind during the relief efforts following those disasters emanating from Vvardenfell. However, Suvaris was already aware of the most important aspects of those details. It seemed to him that the author was more interested in painting each of the Great Houses in a poor light; all except for House Redoran, it seemed.

Skipping further forward again, the text shifted to address the next disastrous calamity to afflict the Dunmer homeland. Once again, he soon found that it seemed rather poorly documented. He was quite certain that he'd read other sources that he considered far more informative. Added to that, Suvaris had lived through some of it and the after effects of that time haunted him to that day.

He quickly came to develop the opinion that the author of that tome was most likely too young to have lived though the events outlined. Added to that, given some of the bent of certain commentary, he even suspected that though his name indicated he was Dunmer, he might not have even lived in Morrowind for any period of time.

Releasing a heavy sigh of exasperation, he looked away from the pages of the book in frustration. Though the book had failed to hold his attention, it did spark his own broader recollections of those terrible events which followed the destruction of Vvardenfell, along with numerous other details he'd picked up from other sources over the years.

Suvaris recalled it well enough for himself. It began during the month of Second Seed, just four months after the initial devastation emanating from the isle of Vvardenfell. At least on the surface, that fresh crisis arrived from far more mundane origins, though it proved no less devastating in the fullness of time.

From his recollection, the reasoning behind the invasion of Argonians from the south had not been so clear at the time, perhaps even defying rational sense after the fact.

Of course, the centuries of slavery and associated indignities suffered at the collective hands of the Dunmer had to have been some part of it. Even though that practice had finally been completely outlawed and stamped out with some measure of Imperial persuasion, it had hardly been forgotten or forgiven.

It was before the Oblivion Crisis, when the abolition of slavery came at the decree of King Helseth. Still, it had been publicly touted that the fresh alliance between House Hlaalu and House Dres had provided the driving force of that final move to put an end to all slavery. Even so, it was common enough knowledge that not everyone of those two houses was as fully committed to that objective as the other Great Houses more openly protested the motion.

Having heard it from reliable sources, Suvaris was perfectly aware that some of the House Dres controlled plantations had maintained Argonian and Khajiit slaves right up until the very moment that it had eventually been fully outlawed.

He'd often heard that it was much the same with interests controlled by House Telvanni. However, the leaders of that house had never made any claims to the contrary.

Before that matter had been fully settled, there had been numerous skirmishes between movements of the opposing houses. At that time, Suvaris had been with the Fighters Guild for just a few years. Still, that meant that he was recused from any direct participation on behalf on any particular house, but he'd still observed some of the conflict from the sidelines.

He also recalled that though House Hlaalu publicly claimed otherwise, not all of their outlying interests had fully abandoned slavery until it was made strictly illegal. It might have become more rare, but it was not fully absent from all House Hlaalu territories.

Even so, after the proper abolition of slavery was finalised, even Indoril dominated Mournhold no longer held slaves. He wasn't certain of House Redoran, but it was said to have also begrudgingly followed suit. He also held no direct knowledge of whether House Telvanni had become fully compliant, but rumour sometimes suggested otherwise. From what he'd observed, he was confident that Kragenmoor had abided the new laws. By that time, the Hlaalu city of Narsis had claimed to be free of slavery, but even if it were true, that distinction might not have held much currency with the Saxhleel of Argonia, when balanced against the past.

Of course, that small farming community that Suvaris had originally come from was still located within an Hlaalu administered region at that time. Even so, those small farms were independently owned and run by the families, rather than directly beholden to any specific Great House. Nevertheless, there was no slavery there and had not been during his lifetime. Poor farming families couldn't afford to own slaves, even if they'd wanted to. It was difficult enough to just to produce enough excess from their farms to have something to trade at market.

Successfully distracting himself from his previous train of thought, Suvaris again suddenly wondered what had become of the Hlaalu ruler after the Argonian invasion and the subsequent fall of House Hlaalu.

Looking down to the book again, he flicked through the pages searching for some mention of Hlaalu Helseth. He could find various references in the parts before the invasion, but nothing after that. Not even in the parts about House Hlaalu's expulsion from the Grand Council, before House Sadras took its place.

Suvaris had previously suspected that Helseth might have gone into hiding, if he'd survived the invasion, but he'd never actually read anything to confirm that suspicion.

With a sigh, he shook his head. He didn't know why he expected to learn anything of that from that particular book, given what he'd observed thus far. He'd already established that that author evidently knew far less than he did.

Without actually intending to, Suvaris had inadvertently left the book open on a page that referred to the terrible events of the Argonian invasion of Morrowind. That had served to remind him of what he'd been previously thinking.

As he'd recalled hearing, when the Argonians came swarming up into Morrowind from the south, there seemed no interest in discerning which Dunmer might have been responsible for the sins of the past or whoever might be tenuously innocent of those crimes. It was said that they merely attacked all in their path without discrimination.

As Suvaris understood, though it was only some small piece of it, it later came out that the Thalmor clans of the Altmer homeland played some part in encouraging the Argonians to act. However at the time, it hardly mattered who was most responsible for inciting the swarm of terror.

Waves of Argonian forces swept into Morrowind, rampaging and driven to frenzy on the sap of the Hist tree. If the supposed intelligence of the Hist trees had been guiding them, it hardly seemed evident; both from examination of the aftermath and from the reports of those individuals fortunate enough to survive the rampage.

According to survivors, little in the way of any clear strategy emerged. The Saxhleel merely killed everything and everyone in their path, save those swift enough to escape or else able to find sufficiently fortified or hidden places of refuge.

There were some reports of Dunmer escaping the carnage only by quietly hiding just barely out of easy reach of the crazed horde. It seemed that the frenzied Argonians were most drawn toward visibly large targets and noise and motion. In many instances, they seemed almost blinded by Hist induced rage and unable to readily see just beyond immediate focus.

In some cases, even herds of domesticated guar had been wildly slaughtered. That senseless activity seemed notably out of place, emphasising the great madness that gripped the invading hordes. Under normal circumstances, there was a general affinity between Argonians and those docile reptilian beasts of burden.

Some of the rampaging Saxhleel came up along the eastern coastal region. A greater number emerged from the southern marshes between the Argonian Shadowfen region and the Deshaan Plains of Morrowind.

The southern Hlaalu city of Narsis was among the first places to fall to the invading hordes from the Black Marsh. Other small townships and settlements in their path were quick to follow. In a perverse sort of way, the suffering of the great number of Dunmer at Narsis served to delay the Argonian onslaught, if only briefly.

Of course, the other major location nearest to the border with Argonia was the House Dres city of Tear. That place was still struggling with the damage from the ground-quakes, when its inhabitants were set upon by the frenzied invaders. Tear was said have offered little in the way of resistance to the unexpected invasion. Some managed to flee, barely escaping with their lives and nothing else. Others met their fate at the scaly clawed hands of the invaders.

After disorganised assaults upon those earlier targets, some of the hordes swept further up the eastern coast of Morrowind. Other large groups moved northward across the Deshaan Plains. A lesser number had broken off to march though the western regions.

As was noted at that time, the Argonians did not seem to remain in any particular place as an occupying force. After wreaking death and destruction, they just moved on toward the next destination.

Along the eastern coastal region, the various towns and smaller settlements between Tear and Necrom fell to the haphazard advancement of the hordes.

To the west, Kragenmoor endured only somewhat better. Though the lower city had been laid to waste by the invaders, parts of the fortified upper city had held out long enough to weather the worst of it. In all likelihood, it was only because there were fewer Saxhleel at that location than some other places they attacked. After running out of available targets to slaughter, according to survivors, the Argonians seemingly gave up for the time being and moved on to the next place.

As Suvaris knew well, the next major target beyond the far south had been the former capital of the land. In what followed, Mournhold had not fared well at all. The outer city of Almalexia had been torn apart by the invaders, before eventually reaching the inner temple city.

He'd actually been well clear of that area by then, with other far more pressing concerns at hand. Suvaris paused for a moment, trying to deflect those specific thoughts from rising to the surface and setting aside where his mind was taking him.

Though he witnessed little of any of it, he understood that Redoran armies had been rallied and rapidly deployed to oppose the Argonian hordes attacking the capital and other locations. Some of the invaders managed to get past the defenders, headed elsewhere. Even so, the bloody clashes between those forces resulted in the demise of many Dunmer and Saxhleel, before the tide began to turn.

In short, the Redoran led forces eventually managed to seemingly gain the upper hand or perhaps the invaders had just finally begun to lose the drive to persist. In either case, the remaining Argonians turned from battle and gradually withdrew to their homeland swamps to the south.

Of course, the invaders didn't completely abandon southern Morrowind. Some lesser number remained in the southern marshlands for a time. It didn't necessarily seem that the Argonians intended to claim the land, but whether it was the primary intention of otherwise, it served to ensure that no Dunmer would occupy that general area.

After all of that, Morrowind seemed barely a shadow of what it had once been. The process of slow rebuilding began again, but despair permeated throughout the lands. The fear remained that the Argonians might yet return to continue the assault upon the broken homeland.

A great many Dunmer chose to depart the land altogether. Some small number tried to relocate to the Eastmarch region of Skyrim. Some others headed for Skyrim's Rift region and some number headed for that mining settlement on the western side of the isle of Solstheim. A larger group made their way for Cyrodiil, headed for County Cheydinhal. Back then, that city already hosted a notable Dunmer population. Under Count Indarys, fellow Dunmer could reasonably expect to be far more welcome than some other parts of the Imperial province.

Despite some initial declarations of optimism from the ruling houses, efforts to rebuild Mournhold remained stalled. Some short time after Suvaris had departed the homeland, House Hlaalu had been officially expelled from the Grand Council, allowing House Sadras to rise in its place. House Redoran gained the most prominent position in the new paradigm and eventually shifted the role of capital to Blacklight.

Given his own circumstances, Suvaris could not bear to remain in the homeland. He only found some renewed purpose in assisting other distraught Dunmer fleeing westward over the mountains toward County Cheydinhal. It did not take much at all for him to decide to remain there.

Even if the Empire had failed to provide support for Morrowind when it was truly needed, Count Indarys made some reasonable effort at accommodate refugees coming to his domain. It may have been the case that the Count had not necessarily counted on all those people remaining in his city for the longer term. Nevertheless, they were not turned away.

Suvaris easily understood how others might have blamed the Empire for many of their woes, but he also recognised that nothing was so simple. The initial withdrawal of a large portion of Imperial forces during the Oblivion Crisis was not incomprehensible. At that time, those Oblivion Gates had appeared all over Tamriel. Added to that, it was said that were arguably more of them within Cyrodiil than anywhere else. On top of all of that, an Emperor had just been assassinated, along with all his heirs, leaving High Chancellor Ocato to struggle with trying to manage resultant chaos.

Even after the resolution of the Oblivion Crisis, the Empire could not at all be held responsible for the destruction of Vivec City, or the eruption of the mountain. At worst, the Empire was neglectful in failing to provide adequate aid after the fact.

Even then, though it seemed overlooked by some, Suvaris understood that some number of Imperial Legionnaires drew their last breaths upon the isle of Vvardenfell as those few remaining outposts were swept away. He also understood that, though few in number, those Legion soldiers who remained upon mainland Morrowind also surrendered their lives during the Argonian invasion.

In his mind, the failings of Imperial Cyrodiil were hardly malicious. The Empire failed to protect itself and failed to maintain the will or substance to be able to protect those remaining under its care. From his understanding, the Empire hadn't caused nor provoked the series of calamities, merely failed terribly in response.

The culpability of the Argonians could well be another matter. Whatever the matters of the past, that senseless slaughter across the broken land defied any justification. Though none could suffice, Argonia made no apology for the action. The fractured Empire was in no position of strength to demand anything of the Argonians, let alone anything that might represent any sort of reparation.

After the withdrawal of the invasion forces, dismissive claims had been made that it was all because of a rogue Hist tree taking control of the Saxhleel. Whether there was any truth to that or otherwise, it hardly mattered.

Though Suvaris could not help but hold contempt for those directly involved, he could hardly see the sense in levelling blame upon all Argonians. He understood that those Argonians hailing from parts of County Leyawiin, or other places outside the Black Marsh, had no part in what transpired.

He could take some small solace in the fact that most of those directly involved in the invasion of Morrowind were already dead by then. Added to that, given the relatively shorter lifespan of the Saxhleel, any others involved that actually lived to such an old age would also very soon be gone.

For Suvaris, nothing was forgotten, nor forgiven. Even so, blame could never restore the past or return the dead. Though never forgotten, blame belonged to the past.

If only for a brief moment, his thoughts again began to turn toward his own personal tragedy, but he did his best to shut that down once more. Up to that point, he'd managed to successfully distract himself from going there. The reason for firstly acquiring that book had been to try to learn more of recent developments within the homeland. Instead, he'd found himself going over those events of which he was already quite aware. Suvaris released a heavy sigh, setting aside the book along with those morbid thoughts of times long passed by.

By that time, the hour had grown late. Though it remained somewhat audible, the noise coming from the tavern down below had eased notably. He decided that he'd best turn in for the evening to be sure that he was up early enough to meet those travelling traders at the arranged time and place.

Sighing again, Suvaris stood and removed his armour, stripping down to his underclothes and neatly laying out his ebony armour for the next morning. He made brief use of the chamber pot, then stifled a mild yawn as he attended to putting out the candles and lamps about the room.

He clambered into that unpleasant bed for the last time and shifted uncomfortably beneath the covers. He'd be out on the roads again the next day with no certainty of precisely where he'd be the same time that next evening. In any case, he'd again be headed for where he'd originally set off for after departing Cheydinhal.

~O~