Prologue
Story Summary: What if Talos was the main antagonist of Skyrim, not Alduin. What if the Dovahkiin chose a dark path? What if the Divines came to Nirn? What if the Elder Scrolls equivalent of the Devil (Konahrik) existed in this world? And who is the Devil exactly, under his mask? It's up to the Dragonborn to stop Talos and find out who the mysterious Elven Devil, Konahrik is.
A total rewrite and redesign of Skyrim. A High/Dark Fantasy remake of Skyrim w/ light futuristic and dystopian elements. (Think frozen wasteland).
Foreword: This story is a complete remodel of Skyrim's world and main story. Big changes to the lore are inevitable for story reasons. The main character of this story is a male Imperial Dragonborn named Krest (a depressed boi). He will be romantically paired with Dibella, one of the Divines.
Disclaimer: The Elder Scrolls belongs to Todd of the chess club.
Warnings: Violence, Referenced Rape, Sexual Themes, Suicidal Ideation, Gore, Drug & Alcohol Use, Abuse, Harsh Language.
Dedicated to Anyone Suffering w/ Depression
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"I was born to hate," – The Devil, Konahrik Iblis.
The room was black. A horned face appeared from within the gloom.
"Talos, you'll answer for your sins. All of them. I'll find you and I'll make you bleed so much that Anu Himself will hear our screams," the mysterious tusked figure said.
"Who are you," Lorkhan asked, shocked at the vicious rage of the voice.
"I'm Konahrik, the Devil."
"What did I even do?" Lorkhan quelled the flame of fear in his heart.
"You'll see, Talos."
Lorkhan's eyes shot open. Same damn dream. He shifted uncomfortably on the comforter. The limestone mottling of the bed cornices glowed. Mist flowed and rose around him in perfumed scents. Dibella's doing. Crystalline colored foggy steam, clouding the circumference. Dibella strolled out of the washes, a cascading barrier of fog following her out.
She started dressing. "We're going to be late. If your wife, miss mother nature catches wind of us, you can say bye to this decent weather."
Lorkhan growled, stepping over to the indoor waterfall. "Join me in the shower."
Water dripped off his hairy legs and arms like raindrops onto the painted flooring when he was done. — The bedroom was glowing with a pink haze that radiated from the rising sun outside the window. A hole in the sky that Magnus, Dibella's former husband had left when he escaped Mundus, the mortal plane of existence. Their bed rested on a circular platform near some gold-encrusted shelves.
"I am the Hero of Men." Lorkhan clenched a fist. "Why do my chambers look fit for a bloody woman!?"
Rosy blush crept onto Dibella's cheeks as they noticed their old clothes and the various bottles of aromatic oil scattered on the rug. Their escapades from the night before.
But Lorkhan's mind dwelt on the dream.
"The door was locked." The ends of his lips twitched upward when he returned to reality. "Besides, who gives a shit. Not like anyone can do anything about us; I'm the most powerful god here."
"Your wife, man," Dibella's tone held a hint of ire. "You really out to piss her off that bad?"
"Shut your mouth, whore." Lorkhan roped his armor on, fastening a buckle over his waist. "You aren't meant to think, only serve."
"Fuck you." Dibella scratched the back of her head with her ring finger. She snapped the digits and was instantly clothed in a dress.
"I said shut up whore!" Lorkhan yelled, eyes flashing red. He slapped her hard across the cheek, knocking her to the floor. Lorkhan grabbed Dibella's hair and pulled her onto her feet. "Don't back talk me again." He breathed down her neck, pressing his body against her. The goddess shivered, looking down in fear. "Unless you want me to choke you while I fuck you again?"
"Talos, you'll answer for your sins," the Devil's words echoed in his mind once more.
Nighttime sunlight polished the halls of Idavoll, Lorkhan's divine palace on Nirn. Dibella, gaze cast to the ground, roved dejectedly behind him. His citadel in Skyrim held golden walls with high ceilings, hanging crystal chandeliers, red-velvet rugs draped on sandstone corridors alongside animate portraits, flower-filled vases among other decorations on the alcoves to the sides. The central dining chamber kept a large white table in the center with thrones lining the length on each wing. Light seamed in from the cosmos outside and a fine assortment of foods rested on the countertop. Soup, fresh baked bread, and eggs.
Dibella and Lorkhan sat down along with the others present. Kyne, Lorkhan's wife eyed him with a small frown from across the surface. Tsun Zenithar and Stuhn Stendarr, twin shield-thanes of Lorkhan were there as well with their mortal bedwarmers.
He cut into his eggs when Tsun spoke, "has Auriel made any effort to break through the borders? Him and his army of elves have been relentless, but we've deterred them so far."
A shadow grew from the corner of his cornea. "No, Auriel won't get in. If only that bitch-wife of his, Mara hadn't escaped our prisons. Quite the pair of breasts, she had." He smirked, feeling a rush of blood surge towards his loins.
"This all started because you kidnapped and raped her. Auriel would've left you alone otherwise." Dibella took a long sip of red wine, emptying the glass. "You know what, fuck you asshole. I hope Auriel kills you."
"I'll deal with you later." Lorkhan clenched his jaw.
Tsun glanced upwards, ogling Dibella with a watery softness in his eye while Stuhn inspected his beard for any pieces of meat that might've escaped his mouth. "I suppose you're right, milord," conceded Tsun.
"I am always." Lorkhan downed a pint of ale, belching afterwards. He smashed it on the ground. "Another!"
"I gotta tell ya, you're an even bigger prick here than where I'm from," a vocalization electrified. Lorkhan glanced around but he couldn't find the source of the voice. The voice had sounded unreal, like it was projected through a filter of some sort.
What? He stroked his goatee-beard but didn't say anything.
"Did you hear that?" Dibella asked.
"Talos," the same unfamiliar inflection taunted hauntingly. This time everyone's heads swiveled towards the gaunt stranger sitting beside her like a spider. The uninvited wraith arrogantly sat in the middle-throne, usually reserved for Lorkhan himself. Though Lorkhan preferred not to eat in it.
"Who are you!?" Lorkhan rose from his seat, fingers curling into a ball.
"Just another mistake of yours, Talos." The hooded man crunched his neck, an audible crack resounding off him.
You are the one from my dreams. The Devil of Elves…
"Who in blazes is Talos?" Lorkhan raised a brow. "I am Shor, Hero of Men, god of men."
The man or entity, whatever it was, removed its hood, showcasing an odd mask. The facial-covering bore two tusks protruding beneath where the mouth-line was placed. A bronzed gold with eyeholes as well.
"Talos is you, many eras from now. Did you think you could rape, kill, colonize, and do whatever you wanted without repercussions?" The Devil replied calmly. "Do you like my mask by the way? It's called Konahrik; after me now that I think about it."
"What did he say?" Tsun's frons quilted into a temporary unibrow.
"Just what's this all about?" Lorkhan rammed his fist against the tabletop. His hand coiled like a snake around the fork on his plate. "You want revenge? Did I kill your family, little elf? Well, I'll slaughter a million more elves if I must."
"It's about more than just revenge, Talos." Konahrik began to glow, electrical surges crackled over his icy armor-plating.
A gasp sounded around the hall, several servants dropped whatever they were holding. Lorkhan's heart stopped as the blinding white light enveloped his vision and the chamber combusted.
Rubble exploding everywhere, Lorkhan was cast back hundreds of feet, crashing into a ditch. He wiped the mud and ash from his mouth-beard, gazing up from the pond full of stalks of wispy reeds and sugarcane.Idavoll was blown to smithereens, in its place a gargantuan ebony and purple, blood-stained Dragon elongated its spine towards the heavens, shrieking like a banshee.
Weren't dragons just a Knev myth?
Its victory laugh felt like someone was rubbing a sword over his spinal column. Broods of servants were swallowed when its head came down and dragged over the floor, as if it were a snake struggling to swallow a fat rat. The image made Lorkhan's stomach churn, puce traveling up to his throat as the overgrown lizard choked down its meal.
"For every elven child you slaughtered. For every woman you raped. For every dream you ripped away. I WILL KILL YOU, TALOS!" The Devil screamed so loud Lorkhan's eardrums nearly ruptured.
He in-took a long breath, focusing all his energy on healing himself. The storm clouds of Kyne above threatened lightning as they greyed in the outlook. Mind racing, heart throbbing, Lorkhan fixed his attention onto the opponent; Konahrik. The Dragon pinned one soldier down, ripping off each limb of the man, gore and innards painting the walls. Severed skulls rolled down the hillside, a river of crimson akin to a geyser sprinkling from the remains of his castle. The whole thing crumbling into itself. Everything was decimated, nothing spared by his enemy's rage. Its dark-brown eyes ripped through everything to his core.
The Devil screeched once more, "the Thalmor will rule all and I WILL UNMAKE THIS ENTIRE WORLD." The way the demon spoke with such rage, Lorkhan had never bore witness to such hatred in his entire existence.
Lightning struck the horned dragon, blinding one of its eyes. Tsun assumed his werebear form and thrust himself into the Evil One's ribcage. The dragon threw him like a javelin before socking Kyne into a pile of rocks. Stendarr grew into a flying blue-whale, snapping his maw at Konahrik. The whale clamped down over the Dragon's cranium.
Stendarr did it!
Konahrik discarded him onto a family that was trying to escape, crushing all of them, their bones crunching into the dirt. The warlord screeched its horrible victory-roar into the sky and widened its wings as if marking its territory, jeering like a viper in the process. It knocked over the last remaining wall of the ruptured mansion and stomped on all fours, wings flaring, toward a hamlet where Lorkhan could see children.
"Aal sunvaar al daar gol," Konahrik rasped as beasts conjured, formulating from seemingly nothing and enveloping Lorkhan's homeland into a hellscape. The monsters charged and fought with Lorkhan's soldiers. Lorkhan ran as fast as his legs could carry him, springing up a bit when he saw Konahrik's maw crack open slightly. "YOL TOOR SHUL!" A whole contingent of his soldiers were fried to char under the Dovah's fire-breath, their blood becoming tar. Like ink, the ebony-droplets spattered the tundra as if the land itself was weeping.
The dragon neared the children with every pound it made, no doubt going to envelop them in its hell flame. Lorkhan's hamstrings screamed as he rammed hard into Konahrik with everything he had, knocking the demon astray. Taking his chance, Lorkhan transformed into his giant serpent form and stood across from his nemesis as the children ran away to safety. Konahrik recovered, shaking his head. The two lunged. Lorkhan struck at him.
Konahrik dodged, hissing venomously. Before Lorkhan noticed, the Dragon's fist jammed into his windpipe, lifting him off the ground and flailing him into the dew. Lorkhan writhed, bleeding on the natural floor, shifting back into a nordic man.
The dragon's lips curved into a cruel, serpentine grin. "Pathetic colonizer." Konahrik flapped his wings as dust clouds gathered. He took off, coming back down to swoop in majestic arcs, reigning down more fire upon Lorkhan's army and people. Killing thousands. Armed and unarmed alike. Innocent and guilty both. The dragon even transformed back into a man briefly to skewer an old man personally. The oddest bit was Konahrik's arm itself shifted to become a sword and back before he resumed his dov form.
Lorkhan's body ached, but he picked himself up. He was the only one who could stand up to this Devil and defend mankind. Lorkhan steadied a catapult, firing it into Konahrik's wing and causing the overgrown lizard to falter as he jumped onto its back, wrestling with his horns to get a grip. They flew for a while, the Evil One diving into lakes and peaking over sharp mounts to attempt to shake Lorkhan off, but he didn't budge.
The gigantic ebon-surmounted dragon streaked through the sky, soldiers razing up like kindling when its hellfire blew down below on the fields and tundras of Skyrim. Lorkhan clutched the dragon's arching antlers, trying to steer it away from his leftover army.
"I WILL DESTROY MANKIND," Konahrik breathed fire below, razing a whole block of houses. Children and women becoming charred corpses in the street. "Elven supremacy is the only truth."
The Hero of Men gripped the black titan under the jaw and wrenched up, to block the maw from spewing anymore death upon the Nordlings. Konahrik folded his wings in, descending quickly, making Lorkhan's stomach lurch. Crashing into the soil below, spattering rocks and dirt, sending Lorkhan flying twenty feet ahead into the woodworks and tenements of the housing arrangement. Or what was left of it. Lorkhan climbed through the torrent of burned building, shoving debris and rubble off him, watching the monster use its claws to stomp and skewer several Nords, burning hundreds more. Lorkhan gagged as Konahrik in a disturbingly human way stood, using his legs to smash the village war-chief into the rocks and then using the draconian talons to rip off the Nords' arms. Its tail swung a full circle, devastating houses of the war-torn village. More moulting lava spewed from its mouth, engulfing a good quarter more of his men, try as they did to retaliate. Splinters of wood and chunks of rock scattering ceaselessly.
Is this retribution for Mara?
From where he was kneeling, the firedrake seemed a mountain.
"Talos," Konahrik gnarled.
Why does he keep calling me that?
Lorkhan laid back, cradling his chest with one hand, using the other to support his weight. The bodies of countless Nord soldiers sprinkled around him on the glistening white hills of Sky's rim. The swirls made it look as if the sky had cracked open, water falling from Aetherius into the mountain lakes embedded in the peaks and glaciers of alps that dwarfed even the biggest tree.
Auriel would never resort to genocide. This can't be one of his men.
"Sir," uttered a woman who had been battered and roasted under the tartar's flames. "Sir," she coughed, reaching her blackened sticklike arm out for Lorkhan.
"Serna Krulst, report?" Lorkhan traced the woman's burns with his eyes, grimacing where it scarred her.
"A... a demon came here earlier," the blonde grounded out in between gasps of pain, "he killed a few of us and he was wearing some odd mask with- with horns and summoned all sorts of dark creatures. Shor, he… he murdered the old man, Bjorn."
Lorkhan's gut twisted. Why the seer?
"He is the one they fear," Serna mumbled in pain. "When that Devil came, he said awful things about you, my grace. He called you a womanizer, tyrant, fascist, rapist, colonizer."
He covered his forehead to make out the form of Konahrik devouring a swathe more of men ahead of him. The dragon had four legs and a set of tattered, skeletal wings.
"Did Auriel send you?" Lorkhan quaffed blood into his fist.
"I sent me," it said in a hollow demonic warble. "These are the consequences of your sins, Talos. Your pointless greed, insatiable lust, obsession with power and fame. Your tyranny over elves, women, and children, your colonizing."
"Again, with that fucking name, Talos. I'm Shor, hero-god of mankind," he clarified, groaning and getting up on his knees. "You killed even the little kids? IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED?"
The Evil One propelled itself into the air, sending choking grime storms in every direction. Lorkhan's arms and legs expanded, conjoining, spinning into a forty-foot violet serpent. Scales with jewel-edges. Lorkhan pounced after his adversary. Striking into the air. The new holes in Aetherius lit up the world in a vapor of color, magenta mixed with a pink-white aurora borealis. The colour sickened Lorkhan.
"Shoot the dragon!" Lorkhan's Shield-Thane, Tsun shouted.
Lorkhan mustered all his strength and mana together and sunk his teeth into the black dragon's neck. Konahrik, on the verge of death, transformed back into an elf and landed on both feet. He pulled a large scroll from his back and opened it. "I unleash hordes of monsters onto your land. So, your people may always live in fear behind walls!" Then the Elven Devil disappeared.
Transforming back, snakeskin sliding to the pale structure of his body. Lorkhan collapsed onto his knees, swaying from exhaustion and dehydration.
It's over. Auriel and the others will find me soon, then I'm dead. Lorkhan stared around at the sea of corpses.Hordes of people stitched together. These were his people, the ones he'd fought tooth and nail for. Now decimated.
Flames crept up his face. Whoever that was. I'll find it, some day. Until then, every elf will know its deserved pain in its stead. I'll get my revenge.
He crawled and laid onto his back, the newborn sun eddying above him. His chest swelled and expelled with the tempo of his breathing until sleep fell upon him.
Lorkhan's dreams were an endless whirlwind. The Evil One haunted them, threatening to destroy him. He saw the dragon's weirdly human fist come down and smash him into bits from above, prompting him to waken.
There they sat, in the council chambers of the Adamantine Tower. The other Aedra yawning, emaciated faces and baggy eyes.
Kyne and Dibella, his now ex-wives, stood opposite him. They've betrayed me.
The other gods, his siblings studied him, the glint of hatred and malice reflected in their stares. Dibella Y'ffre, Kynareth Tava, Mara Nir, Xarxes Arkay, Julianos Syrabane. Aside from him, Tsun Zenithar and his twin Stuhn Stendarr, his two loyal shield-thanes were chained up beside him, mouths bound.
Auriel Bormahu, the Father and Lord of the Divines, strode in and shut the doors. He didn't say anything. Instead, his brother's face was concerted inward.
"Kill me, and mankind will forever demonize you." Grinned Lorkhan.
The top of the tower was a plain, harrowing, stygian sight. A lockbox. A contraption of damnation.
"Lorkhan, many in Skyrim call you a hero. But a hero doesn't use his power to wage war, rape, and colonize." Auriel ran a hand through his long golden locks, shifting the position of the pristine, gilt bow on his back. "You started this war! Plunged Mundus into chaos! And now we're going to put you down and restore the peace! Give him his last rites."
"Okay," Lorkhan confessed. "But why the dragon, Konahrik?"
Auriel's brows jaunted upward. "The who-what?"
"Don't play stupid. I know you sent that dragon to massacre my people," Lorkhan growled. "Didn't think you, the holiest holy man of all to stoop so low."
"Verily, I didn't instruct anyone to kill your people. I value the lives of every being on this earth, not just elves or men," grunted Auriel. "Now, hold him down." Auriel and his Shield-Thane, Trinimac approached Lorkhan. "You really lied to us all, and now we're weaker because of it. You've trapped the mortals in this prison you call a world, slaughtered anyone who's not a human."
Lorkhan's jaw clenched. "Who cares. These people will die. They're expendable. We're not. We can tug at the very fabrics of existence; learn things no one has learned. Reality is whatever we want it to be. Those fools owe us everything, brother!"
"Do not speak of our children like that," Kyne reprimanded him.
"Because you're so sinless." He spat at her feet. "What're you going to do to me anyway?"
Auriel shifted through some scrolls on the desk and opened one up. He nodded at his wife.
Mara stood up to him. "As we demote your soul to the nothingness you have earned, we send you eternal damnation. For you are the salt and earth of Nirn."
Lorkhan's rage twisted like the inferno of a furnace. "My people will never forget me! To them, I'm the Hero. They'll always venerate me and abhor you, Auriel. And their worship will provide me with the strength to return!"
"Just like your allies, your people will eventually learn the truth." Auriel looked tired.
Trinimac unsheathed his blade and skewered Lorkhan's heart onto it, ripping his body in two. Auriel then attached Lorkhan's heart to his bow and sent it spiraling over the horizon to the east. His soul excised and body thrown into the sky. His blood painted the grounds of the heartland before his heart landed in the centermost area of the eastern lands, Resdayn.
A droplet of lifeblood escaped the slit, fissures from he knew not where. A memory of the Hero they called Lorkhan Sep.
He calls himself Konahrik, and he's gonna end you.
The Devil's electronic laughter echoed through his mind, "the Thalmor will rule all and I WILL UNMAKE THIS ENTIRE WORLD."
Lorkhan thought as his consciousness faded, I'll stop him and save mankind… somehow.
So it began, Serpent and Dragon entwined, an ouroboros, loop of endless conflict. Scales on scales, teeth embedding the others' skin, leaving traces of one on the other. The cyclicality that persisted through linear kalpas; what all started with Anu and one world that began with clueless cavemen to medieval renaissances, industrial revolutions and wars with steam-powered innovations to times with impossible towers and roadways everywhere proceeded by a technological utopia with cyberware everywhere. Erupting in nuclear war, the next age was a barren wasteland reshaped by ancient gods to another medieval era known as the 'dark ages and the emergence of magic'. A massive flooding and a world of never-ending ocean ruled by sapiential crustacean. Finally, a world full of angelic elves, magic intrinsic to its core, birthed from memory-retaining water and the infrastructure of worlds past.
The Dragon wished to excise the Serpent and the Serpent wished to excise the Dragon. For neither could live while the other survived...
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Auxiliary Info: Reviews, constructive criticism, and thoughts are welcome and encouraged. Skyrim, its politics, its environment, literally everything is different. Think of this is as a hard reboot of Skyrim but a soft reboot of the Elder Scrolls. I took Skyrim and revamped it. For example, there are only five holds instead of nine with newer, higher fantasy versions of cities. Like Riften's a giant tree, Solitude's made of marble, etc. BEFORE you jump ship, I encourage you to read a bit and give it a chance, it's still Skyrim, just more creative imo than the generic Middle Earth - Westeros land we got in game. I have a playlist on Spotify I made to help immerse you as well, google The Chrysanthemum by Blesse Spotify. The majority of this story follows the Dragonborn but I've redone the 4th era, and this story is set in 4E 22. Even then you'll see familiar characters like Saadia, Ancano, etc. Also, check out my other Tes fanfics while you wait for this one to update!