The Parables of Cyrodiil

by Isbla

Oblivion but from mainly the perspective of Lyna, the Hero of Kvatch, as well as a few other characters who make their way up through the many challenges Cyrodiil has to offer. As Lyna begins to unravel who she is and her past, she falls in love as well, while also forming a motely crew to help in her quest to not only be the Champion of Cyrodiil, but what also follows after.

Authors note:

Before delving deep into this Oblivion Fan Fiction, know that it is not only the story of one hero, but many. I've composed stories of several characters, each taking a different path than the other, so as to not let one hero get all of the fame and fortune that the game has to offer. Each chapter will have its own unique name, but also the name of which character it is focusing on. I want to attempt to stick to one character until I can finish it, so as not to get them all jumbled up, although there are also times when the characters do meet each other. It's a work in progress, I am no professional writer, but this is a story that is very dear to my heart as the first character I created was back in 2016 and I want to dive into actually getting her story on paper and read by others. For anyone reading this, thank you for your patience, and advice in terms of how to set up the story a bit better (or to be the least amount of confusing) is always welcomed. Here goes nothing! :)

Chapter 1: Stand Back, Prisoner! (Lyna)

"I was born 87 years ago. For 65 years I've ruled as Tamriel's emperor, but for all these years, I've never been the ruler of my own dreams. I have seen the gates of Oblivion, beyond which no waking eye may see. Behold, in darkness, a doom sweeps the land. This is the 27th of Last Seed, the year of Akatosh, 433. These are the closing days of the third era, and the final hours of my life." - Emperor Uriel Septim VII

As Lyna opened her eyes, the pain surrounding her body came rushing all at once and she winced. She smelled what she thought to be wet septim coins and sewer, ah, a perfume of smells fit for a noble… Once she came to, she noticed she was in a dark and slimy cell. How in the Nine Divines did I get here? She thought to herself. As she was making her way towards the cell door she heard a man's voice calling to get her attention,

"Oooh, aren't you a fair lass. Your skin is so pale, so pure. And your body is so… strong. Let me guess. A Nord, right?" Lyna grabbed her hands around the cell door beams, scoffing at him barely managing to muster up words,

"Cut it out, creep." The man, who she could now tell was a Dark Elf, ignored her remark and continued talking,

"I bet you think you're pretty tough, huh? I bet you can swing a sword and everything. Well, it doesn't matter! Not in here. It does no good to fight. But don't worry. The guards always treat the pretty ones nice. Right 'til the end. Oh, that's right. You're going to die in here, Nord!" The sound of a heavy wooden door could be heard from the top of the stairs and voices attempting to speak quietly followed, which kept Lyna from yelling back at the dark elf. "Hey, you hear that? The guards are coming… for you! He he he he he." as he continued to laugh wickedly, Lyna backed up as far as she could in the cell. The guards had made it right in front of the door and looked shocked. There was a woman guard, although she wasn't wearing typical legion armor, she raised her voice at the guards behind her, "What's this prisoner doing here? This cell is supposed to be off limits!"

"Usual mix up with the watch. I-I…" The woman guard cut him off,

"Nevermind get that gate open." The guard she cut off put his keys in the door and swung it ajar and the woman looked directly at Lyna in the eye, shouting to her, "Stand back prisoner! We won't hesitate to kill you if you get in our way!" Lyna took orders like she was a soldier herself, she didn't think it at the time but even if she didn't know what she was doing in prison, she knew it wasn't worth getting killed by some guards. As they walked closer to the end of the cell, they turned to the wall that had strange bricks sticking out, almost in a specific pattern. Lyna noticed amongst the several guards there was a man in robes trying his best not to be seen, but they locked eyes. He pushed both the male guards aside and stopped directly in front of her, "I've seen you… Let me see your face…" She lifted up her head slowly, as if ashamed of who she was, "you are the one from my dreams… Then the stars were right and this is the day. Gods give me strength."

"W-what's going on?"

"Assassins attacked my sons, and I am next. My blades are leading me out of the city along a secret escape route. By chance, the entrance to that escape route leads through your cell." Lyna's mind began growing clearer by the second, and she could forget the confusing moment and remember that she had no idea what she was even doing here to begin with, "Why am I in jail?" She was expecting one of the guards, or this man's "blades" to respond with the answer but they kept quiet and the emperor kept talking. He let out a chuckle and smiled, "Perhaps the Gods have placed you here so that we may meet. As for what you have done… It does not matter. That is not what you will be remembered for."

Great, no clarity in that answer. What's this old man going on about? Who even is he?

"Who are you?"

"I am your emperor, Uriel Septim. By the grace of the Gods, I serve Tamriel as her ruler. You are a citizen of Tamriel, and you, too, shall serve her in your own way." Lyna seemed to just grow more confused as the emperor kept talking, she was never one to believe in fate and destiny, just some people got lucky and some didn't.

"I… I go my own way."

"So do we all. But what path can be avoided whose end is fixed by the almighty Gods?" The woman who initially entered the cell interrupted the emperor and seemed fixated on their issue at hand, which was dire. "Please sire we must keep moving!" Now that these guards were standing right in the direction of the sunlight from the cell window, I could make out their features better. The woman was a Breton, she had strong features and her face dirty and oiled from whatever adventures previously caused them to get here. The Breton woman moved a brick around in the wall Lyna had noticed earlier and it began shifting outwards and collapsing, revealing a passageway as the emperor had said. She looked pleased, "Better not close this one. There's no way to open it from the other side." Since the emperor seemed to pardon Lyna in a way, she started making her way towards the escape route as well, startled by one of the male guards raising his voice and becoming hostile immediately, "This doesn't concern you prisoner!" She took that as a sign to keep her distance but she would be a fool not to carry on her way to freedom. It was almost pitch black say for a few torches placed on the dilapidated walls here and there. This escape route must not have been used in ages… Lyna thought to herself. There were brick stones that had fallen off of the walls scattered all across the floor making it like a puzzle to maneuver around them. The party ahead of her reached the stairs and Lyna made out what appeared to be a man cloaked in red jump down from a ledge in the wall, letting out a war cry before plummeting onto the Breton woman. The rest of the emperor's blades and himself threw themselves at the cloaked man, fighting him off. Before that, a sword managed to fly out from the Breton woman's hand, Lyna quickly ran to grab it before anyone had time to notice.

After fighting for what felt like ages, they managed to slay the cloaked man. One of the men reached down and felt the woman's neck. She was lying there clearly lifeless, but the emperor said her name in a doleful way, "Captain Renault…" The man looked up at the emperor with grief as well, silently responding, "She's gone. I'm sorry sire but we have to keep moving." he exclaimed. The other man angrily beat his fist up against the wall, "How could they be waiting for us here!" the one who claimed Captain Renault had died responded calmly, "I don't know… But it's too late for us to go back now. Don't worry sire, we will get you out of here." His spirits seemed to lift, even if it was an act it was believable, "They won't be the first to underestimate the blades. I'll take point, let's move!" the other blade member turned around and his eyes cut through the darkness, like a hot knife through butter, and looked straight into my eyes, "You stay here prisoner. Don't try and follow us."

Once they left through a gate to the next area, Lyna stood there silently and in shock. What would her next move be? Would some unknowing guard take notice her cell was empty and find their way down her, taking her back to imprisonment? That begged the question of why she was still in that cell to begin with. Amongst the bombardment of thoughts that went through her head, she began hearing tiny feet pittering across the floor and wood planks breaking to the right of her. Rats! Dammit! She started swinging her sword at them without hesitation, killing off the handful that broke through the hole in the wall. After a moment of catching her breath, she stopped and whipped her head back around to the hole they came from. Aha! An exit! I'll just make my way through here. She thought proudly to herself. The area that followed was more like dank caves that the escape route had been built around. Mainly filled with Vermin, Goblins, and the occasional undead. It was no problem for Lyna, she swung the sword that had flown from Captain Renault's hand, like her spirit occupied the blade and with ease. The caves were tedious, but the further Lyna went, the more she was learning and unlocking. It's like she was remembering who she was.

Finally, the caves came to an end and she reached a chamber that looked like the entrance of the escape route earlier. Perfect timing, too, she managed to catch up with the two men and the emperor. They were carrying on in a heated conversation with each other as the emperor stood in between the two.

"We should find a defensible spot to protect the emperor until help arrives."

"Help? What makes you think help will get here before more of those bastards? We need to get the emperor out of here!"

She saw an opening and without hesitation Lyna jumped down to greet the three. This time, her newly found weapons and armor were equipped over her instead of the prisoner's garments she was once wearing. Their faces, except the emperors, didn't look too happy to see her anyways, "Dammit it's that prisoner again! Kill her, she might be working with the assassins!" Before he even got the chance to pull out his sword the emperor raised his hand in front of the man's face and said calmly yet assertively, "No. She is not one of them. She can help us. She must help us." The men looked at each other puzzlingly, but then silently nodded in agreement with each other. The emperor looked over at Lyna again, "Come closer. I prefer not to shout." She walked up to him and their eyes met, just as they had met earlier in the cell. "They cannot understand why I trust you. They've not seen what I've seen. How can I explain? Listen, you know the Nine? How they guide our fates with an invisible hand?" Lyna shrugged in embarrassment,

"I don't know. I don't really think about it."

"I've served the Nine all my days, and I chart my course by the cycles of the heavens. The skies are marked with numberless sparks, each a fire, and everyone a sign. I know these stars well, and I wonder… Which sign marked your birth?" The question sent Lyna into a trance, a flashback occurred instantly to what she presumed to be her as a young child, sitting next to a woman who looked like her. It was nighttime and the little girl was pointing up at the stars, "Mother! What sign do I have? Cavocus next door says that each birth is marked by a sign from the skies. From the Nine. Do you know mine?" The woman had smiled and cuddled up next to the little girl, "You were born under the Warrior, Lyna. My little warrior, I've always said. You're going to grow up and become my big, strong, warrior and save all of Tamriel one day." The memory faded her back to reality even though she tried clutching at it to keep it from leaving her mind. She remembered the emperor had asked her a question, and she shook her head a little and responded, "The Warrior." The emperor smiled in response, "The signs I read show the end of my path. My death, a necessary end, will come when it will come."

"What about me, emperor?"

"Your stars are not mine. Today the warrior shall prove a stalwart companion when fortune fades."

"Can't you see your fate?"

"My dreams grant me no opinions of success. Their compass ventures not beyond the doors of death. But in your face, I behold the sun's companion. The dawn of Akatosh's bright glory may banish the coming darkness. With such hope, and the promise of your aid, my heart must be satisfied." Lyna and the emperor continued absorbed into conversation, the blade men clearly looking impatient, "Aren't you afraid to die?" Lyna asked bluntly. The emperor once again smiled and answered like a poet of the Bards College might respond, "No trophies of my triumphs precede me. But I have lived well, and my ghost shall rest easy. Men are but flesh and blood. They know their doom, but not the hour. In this I am blessed to see the hour of my death... To face my apportioned fate, then fall."

"Where are we going?"

The emperor's response would send chills down Lyna's spine, "I go to my grave. A tongue shriller than all the music calls me. You shall follow me yet for a while, then we must part." The emperor turned around and continued on forward for what now Lyna believed to be his death. She felt a strange feeling overcome her, and she didn't want to keep going forward, but she knew it was better than going back. One of the men approached her, he said his name was Baurus, "You may as well make yourself useful. Here, carry this torch and stick close." Lyna once again followed his orders.

A few more assassins cloaked in red like the one that killed Captain Renault came their way, but it wasn't anything the four of them couldn't handle. Just as they reached the end of the route that led them to the sewer entrance more assassins bombarded from the side entrance. Baurus and the other Blade told Lyna to guard the emperor with her life in a room that appeared to be a dead end. And for what Lyna didn't know would be the last, the emperor and her eye's met once more. A blue as radiant as the morning sky, filled with life, " I can go no further. You alone must stand against the prince of destruction and his mortal servants. He must not have the amulet of kings! Take the amulet. give it to Jauffre. He alone knows where to find my last son. Find him, and close shut the jaws of Oblivion." The emperor hastily ripped the Amulet of Kings from his neck, pulled out Lyna's hands and tucked it into her fist's tightly. But before she could even get out a word from her confusion, the emperor's death would happen more quickly than she could process. A small compartment in the wall behind the emperor had shifted down just like the door from earlier, and a cloaked assassin revealed himself; once again Lyna would witness this plunging attack she saw earlier. Jabbing his dagger into the emperor's back, he fell to his death instantly. Realizing what just happened, Lyna let out a cry and thrusted herself forward, striking down the assassin with ease. She fell to her knees next to the emperor and assassin's bodies. I failed him! She had only just met him, and she couldn't help but feel some lifelong connection to him.

She looked down at the Amulet he had stuck in her hands and tears began to fall on it as Baurus ran into the dead end. His face shifted into a morbid expression as he lay his eyes on the emperor's dead body, "No… Talos save us…" he slowly rose to stand as did Lyna, and they looked at each other, Baurus speaking up quietly unlike how he had been speaking, "We failed. I've failed… The Blades are sworn to protect the Emperor, and now he and all his heirs are dead. The Amulet, where's the Amulet of Kings? It wasn't on the emperor's body." Lyna stuttered in response, still in shock of the emperor's death, "The emperor gave it to me." Baurus looked almost disappointed to hear that Lyna had been given it, "Strange. He saw something in you. Trusted you. They say it's the Dragon Blood that flows through the veins of every Septim. They see more than lesser men. The Amulet of Kings is a sacred symbol of the Empire. Most people think of the Red Dragon Crown, but that's just jewelry. The Amulet has power. Only a true heir of the Blood can wear it, they say. He must have given it to you for a reason. Did he say why?" Lyna wanted to test Baurus' claim and attempt to put on the Amulet of Kings herself to see if it was true, and he was right, it slid off from her neck, never fully clasping, and she responded to his question still not fully there mentally, "I must take it to Jauffre." Baurus seemed to switch back his voice to being more assertive and loud as it once was, "Jauffre? He said that? Why?"

"There is another heir." Baurus only looked more puzzled with each answer Lyna gave.

"Nothing I ever heard about But Jauffre would be the one to know. He's the Grandmaster of my Order. Although you may not think so to meet him. He lives quietly as a monk at Weynon Priory, near the city of Chorrol."

"How do I get there?" Baurus handed Lyna a key from his hand,

"First you need to get out of here. Through that door must be the entrance to the sewers, past the locked gate. That's where we were heading. It's a secret way out of the Imperial City, or it was supposed to be secret. Here you'll need this key for the last door into the sewers. There are rats and goblins down there… but from what I've seen of you, I'm guessing you are an experienced warrior. Am I right?" Lyna agreed,

"After the sewers, then what?"

"You must get the Amulet to Jauffre. Take no chances, but proceed to Weynon Priory immediately. Got it?" Lyna flipped like a switch and suddenly became overwhelmed, "No. Baurus explain more, please." Baurus put his hands in front of him and motioned Lyna to take a deep breath with him, "Take it easy. You'll be fine. I know this is a lot to take in all at once. No one's more surprised than me that I'm sending an escaped prisoner off with the Amulet of Kings! But the emperor trusted you for a reason, and I trust the emperor. The Amulet of Kings must get to Jauffre at Weynon Priory. He'll know what to do with it. Jauffre should know how to find the heir that the emperor spoke of. The Amulet must reach Emperor Uriel's heir so a new emperor can be crowned!" Lyna forcibly smiled and shook her head in agreement as she wiped the tears away from her face. She took a deep breath and as she started to walk through that passage the assassin came from, she looked back over at Baurus to ask him one last question, "What about you, Baurus? What will you do?" Baurus put his hands on his hips and took in a deep breath as well, "I'll stay here to guard the emperor's body, and make sure no one follows you. You'd better get moving. May Talos guide you."

Lyna nodded her head and made her way to the sewers, Baurus was right it was all just rats and goblins, and nothing she couldn't handle. Her mind felt blank the entire way through, she couldn't even begin to start thinking because there were just too many thoughts to begin with. She made her way to the exit of the sewers, a light blazed through the bars of the tunnel and she smiled and felt some peace for a moment as she was about to experience her freedom she initially sought out from that prisoner cell. When she made her way out she took in the world around her. The coarse sand beneath her boots, the warm sun gently kissing her pale, Nord, skin, the quiet flow of the river that rested before her. She started walking towards a small dock that was there, a boat accompanying it as well but she liked the idea of swimming directly in the water better. She took a good look at the Ayleid ruins that were just across the river and in the distance so many trees and a mountain engulfing the horizon. She knew this was only the beginning of her journey.