Looking for Home

10th of Sun Disc

I am hiding out in Riverwood for a bit. 

We departed the mill heading for Ivarsted.  Crossing the river at Mistwatch we found a small Storm Cloak camping guarding the bridge.  Lidia convinced me to leave them well enough alone.  I wonder if her loyalty to her Jarl and the Empire is that strong.  It was the 30th of Fostfall, and it was cold.  Winter is coming.

A Stormcloak there claimed to know me, and I feared that maybe he knew me from Cyrodil somehow and recognized, perhaps as the hero of Bruma or some such.  But know, it was much less complex.  He was shaking me down for gold claiming I was a thief.  I paid his five gold bounty. Better than taking his miserable life.  Another Stormcloak claimed he saw a mage of the Psijic order materialize out of thin air.  At one time I would have dismissed this, but now... it may very well be possible.

I was asked if I would deliver a message to a man named Quintus if I ever make it to Windhelm. I took the letter. 

Climbing the road toward Ivarsted with the peaks at my back we were attacked by a hungry bear.  Skinning out its carcass I looked up and noticed an estate perched on top of marvelous falls.  Could this be the ancestral estate of my grandmother's family.  I decided to detour. It took Lidia and I some to figure our way up the mountain.  The estate was wonderful but vacant. No one was home.  No family awaited me.  We spent the night in Dragon Falls and the next day journeyed downward to Ivarsted to find out about my distant family. 

We passed a cave that showed signs of some sort of evil presence.  Perhaps orcs or Falmer.  We pressed on.  Near the northeast corner of Lake Gere the road branched off.  I was tempted to see what might lay in that part of the land that such a fine road would lead to, but I maintained to my goal. 

Near the village we came across small farm with a young lady being harassed by two redguards who claim to be seeking a fugative. Lidia's and my steal encouraged them to move on their way.

So we entered Ivarsted of the Rift and my goodness what a disappointment.  It is hardly a bump in the road.  Its claim to fame is a haunted barrow.  The man who passes for mayor here all to readily gave me the deed to Dragon Falls claiming that some of the family had departed south for better conditions and the old man had died some years ago.  I wonder who this old man was?

The barrow is haunted. Couldn't find a way in.  So couldn't test Jrize's,  or whatever his name is, fire scrolls on the undead. 

The village has one other claim to fame.  I was told I could begin a jounrey of 7,000 steps to climb to the highest peak in the north.  Its is early winter.  Cold.  I'm not that stupid.

Lidia and I secured provisions and returned the Whiterun.  We arrived very late on the 5th of Sun Disc.  I sought out the blacksmith at the Skyforge for training for I had an idea for a dagger.  But I needed materials so I made a quick dash to Daystar, leaving Lidia.  I was able to secure iron form its mines and the services of the smelters.  But before I could leave another Blood Dragon attacked the town.  The garrison and I were in thick of it.  Now the know I am dragonborn, for they saw it with their own eyes, the power of the dragon come to me.

Back at the Skyforge I worked for a day to forge a dragon blade, a small dagger for my left hand.  She is sharp as anything can be.  My brother smith also taught me the art of forging ancient north blades. While I worked he sang a strange song of the forge.  I don't know but I have to wonder if there was power in it.  It spoke of the how the forge was found and no one knew is origin and how it played a key role in the founding of the hall of the Companions.  I didn't tell him of ancient legend I remembered of the great eagle forge north of the mighty northern wood elves. 

 These I went up the hill to the main hall to enchant.  Fareanger was more than willing to allow me to use his arcane device.  The nordic blade is now a drinker of souls and the daggar now a crusher of will. 

He was talkative, Faerengar.  He claimed the dragonborn can use their voice to speak the ancient words of the dragons and give form to the abilities to harness energy, impact the material world, even transform space and time.  He told me that at high Hrothgar there exists and order knowledgeable in the voice, the Graybeards.  He claimed they even trained Emperor Septim in its use, but I saw not evidence of this when he was sneaking through the sewers under the capital with the Blades shielding his life against assassins. He certainly showed no signs of it as he bled out in those dank dungeons.  Martin would never have had a chance to be trained.  Could it have made a difference if he had?  Did the graybeards, if they exist, know that Martin existed?  Surely the Blades would have known about this, but they said nothing to me and didn't seek out the Graybeards. 

Maybe more importantly Faerengar proved willing to teach me powerful new ways to harness the gift in me.  I am now more powerful and skilled in the use of lightening and cold.  I am beginning to understand the nature of cold magic.  It involves the compression of the material around, the air, the ground, whatever is at hand.  Amazing compression that forms "cold".  Mysterious.

I was tired.  Long travels.  Long hours in the forge and being taught by a mage I once would have been superior too.  I needed some time to myself, so Ieft for Riverwood.  Spent some time with Gerder and her husband Hod.  She hadn't heard anything from her brother Rolaf since he and I made our way down the pass from Helgen. 


Maybe I'll talk Faen into traveling up and talking at Helgen tomorrow.  He seemed a little put out with earlier this afternoon for running around with my new lady housecarl. 

Lidia

The people of the north are strong, silent, fiercely independent it would appear.  Lidia is not much more talkative than Faen, but at least I got her to tell me a bit about how she came to be in the service of the Jarl of Whiterun.

Seems she is the bastard daughter of one of his leading warriors.  She never knew her mother.  Her father was killed in a skirmish with bandits when she was small.  She grew up in the keep, with the men at arms teacher her skills.  This probably accounts for her brash and sarcastic attitude toward most things and her strength.  She is not even sure how old she is. But because of her skill she found herself be given more and greater responsiblities until she was named Sword Maiden by the Jarl.  I get the impression she is one of his favored, which says to me that the Jarl does believe I may be dragonborn.  Hmmm.

I continue to ponder the nature of the gift.  The intersect of the material world, of power and energy, the ability to warp space and move through time, and now the added dimension of the power of the word have me pondering the deepest mysteries of the created realm. 

I suppose words do have and always have had power.  There is power in names people are given.  "Sword Maiden", "dragonborn".  Words between husband and wife have power I suppose.  Words between friends, between enemies, between rules of states and powers. Words effect destinies for they influence and sometimes establish perspectives.  Words form things. 


Indeed all the universe is formed.  There are rules, boundaries, possibilities, all liked to the divine structure given to our Created Realm by the All Maker.  Could the power of His Word be behind it all?

Through the Eye of the Machine

30th of Fostfall

It has been a long long past few days.  We left the mill heading onward.  A messenger was dispatched to the Jarl to say  Gilfre is dead.  The mill shut down.

But for now the staff of Magnus is calling me onward. Putting the mill behind us, the road was muddy and treacherous given the amount of rain that was falling.  The river was swollen and the crossing proved difficult and dangerous.  On the ridges above the river we spotted a dragon in the distance and ducked into a nearby cave for shelter only to find ourselves confronted by giant spider.

I hate spiders, giant or otherwise.  The cave proved rich in moonstone.

After what I thoughts was sufficient time, we left the cave heading east among the rough terrain.  We were attacked by a hedge witch, who Lidia slew handily.

The dragon still found us.  Bow fire wounded the animal and it flew off to attack a giant who was nearby.  That was a giant mistake, for the dragon.  Dusk was near, so after waiting for it to grow dark I approached to body to harvest bone, and found I also harvested its power.  So I do not have to slay the dragon myself for its power to come to me. I have learned something new about being "dragonborn".

We overnighted with some hunter in the area and the next morning headed for the ruins of Mufti have been given a general idea of their location from the local hunters.  There proved to be a direct approach from the road.

Immediately inside the dwarven halls we found indications all was not in order.  A mage, from the Citadel it would appear, was dying.  His journal indicated he was one of a number of researchers in the ruins who were trying to do sort of binding with a crystal.  What could they be binding?  With what crystal?

We found a second dead mage.  Perhaps killed by the same strange spider like metal things that attacked Lidia and myself.

Did I say I hate spiders - of all kinds?

The we were attacked by a Charus. I see signs they may be prolific in the ruins and caverns of the mountain.

We discovered a third dead mage and raw dog meat on a nearby table.  Does this indicate they were afraid to try to move outside to hunt?

Then a fourth dead mage.  And a trap, rockfall, not sure if trying to keep something in or something out.

Rising up into the mountain we made our way through the halls of the ruin, though much of the machinery works - to mysterious purpose.  We came under attack by some metal ball man, the first of several such attacks.  Its attacks were predictable but strong.

Then we found a dead Falmer, a blind cave elf.  More animal than elf.  Near the end of this section of ruins we found remains of metal spiders and signs of Falmer activity.  Great.

But Falmer make good souls to harvest, so I unwrapped by blade "Soul slayer"  She drank deep in those halls.  The bloody Falmer had mages.  On several occassions I had to resort to my Orcfire blade.  I almost lost Lidia. She was gravely wounded and I had to expend a great deal of energy and strength in healing her.

Deep in the Falmer area we found another mage, a woman, laying dead inside the hut of a Falmer.  I tremble to think what happened there.

Soon we made our way back into the halls of the Dwarf ruin and I discovered a locked room with a key and ring of power.

It was near middle night. Lidia and I split the watch and grabbed sleep up at the second bell (known in the south as the seventh hour).  It was the 29th of Fostfall.  We worked all day to find our way through those twisted halls.  Our way was blocked at times by rockfalls and caveins and we'd have to backtrack and try another way.  By the time of dusken (the 18th hour in the south) I began to think we had found the inner halls deep inside and near the top of the mountain.  We had to slay a Falmer mage who had a strange crystal object on him.  I took it for further study.  Deeper in we found locked door.  I couldn't pick it.  It took a long while to find the key, but it finally turned up.  It was late so Lidia and I turned in for the evening up at the hour before dawning on the 30th of Fostfall.

The key worked and we found a dead Falmer inside the hall.  At its end another locked door, but this time a voice.  A mage opened door, and then seeing we were not who he expected he attacked us.  But when he soon realized outclassed him he submitted and we both discovered it was a misunderstanding.  His name was Paratus and he said he was a member of the Synod of the Citadel doing research. In our conversation he was delighted to discover I had a focusing crystal.   He walked Lidia and I up and showed us an ancient huge round machine of the dwarves designed to capture the light of stars.

The crystal worked and after adjusting the machine the image of Tamriel was manifest by the light on nearby wall.  Paratus was amazed because it did not show what he expected.  But rather two sources of bright light appeared on the map - one in the college and another to its west in what may be other ruins.  Paratus claimed this demonstrated the college had something of great power.  I wouldn't confirm anything for him and in his effort to get information out of me released that the machine was supposed to have shown all the sources of magical power in the north, but that these two were so powerful it was drowning out all others.  When I refused to say more, he threated that the council would take action and made his leave.  Maybe I should have killed him, but I was once the Archmage of the Citadel.  He didn't know me, but he was once one of mine.  I almost laughed when he had asked me if I was aware of the wonderful sky device in the Citadel that projected the heavens and tracked their movements.  He had no way of knowing how many hours I had spent in meditation there, especially after my brother of the blades was killed at Bruma, God rest his soul. Maybe I let him live too because I lay to rest in humble graves to aspiring mages of the Citadel at that battle in Bruma.  So much blood.

Lidia and I made our way out of the ruins with out event, twisting and turning our way back.  Outside I was uncertain as to my path.  Push north for the college.  Return to Winterrun to find out what was happening that a friend had died.


I was tired.  I decided instead to head west for a town called something like Iverness to see if I can discover if my distant family is still there.

Talos and My Frozen Blood

We crossed the river about 1/2 days journey out from the towers and there I found indications of the veneration of Talos here in Nordic lands.  His statue and shrine lay near a small body of water.  Somehow had left and offering of heavy armour and weaponry.  I decided to leave the offering in place.  Lidia and I continued on.  The river wrapped back around in our course once again and coming down the hill we were attacked by a Spriggan.  My mount sensed it first.  (I think I may start calling her Sprig for that).  This Spriggan had an ensourceled elk at its side.  I've encountered Spriggans before, their gnarled wood like skin has often been hard on my weapons.  They very once very thick in the south.  But I have never seen one with the ability to enchant an animal.

On the banks of the river we discovered a strangely quite mill site.  Conversation with a very guarded and unfriendly woman revealed the men had departed for war.  I think Lidia's presence made her more comfortable in talking to me.  IN exchange for food and board I helped her chop some lumber and run some board through the mill so she could meet a contract that she had.

The next afternoon as I was finishing work, I found myself in battle with another blood dragon.  The other had attacked me with fire.  This one with frost.  But they are far too numerous. It was a monstrous battle draining the reserves of energy in my best staff and exhausting me.  I am frozen to the bone.  Lidia has helped me to take take shelter in the workman's cottage here.  Departure will wait until tomorrow. 

Gilfre, the owner of the mill was killed the dragon.  

My old instincts still reign.  I depended on my ability to case lightening, on my staff, and on my sword.  My voice, I didn't think to call upon.

3 Tests

Tonight, the 23rd of Frostfall, I rest high in a tower to the west of Whiterun.  Having searched out all I could find in the library, I decided it was time to seek out the staff of Magnus to see if the power of the orb has anything to do with this.


No dragons made an appearance on the long journey back.  I'm getting to know the road well between the college and Whiterun, though I do stop for the sites.  Too little time.

Arriving in town, the guards told me I was summoned to the Jarl and escorted me up into those noble halls.  I was uncertain as to my crime, but found instead that I was was to be recognized for my role in defending the western tower and the slaying of that first dragon. He named me Thane of Winterrun and assigned a personal guard to me.  Lydia, the epitome of a northern Nord woman.  I would not want to fight her.

My first test for her was a loyalty test, as I told her I was seeking secret chambers in the keep.  We searched but could not find them.  I didn't share with her that I was looking for the ancient dragon cell from the which the keep takes it name.  I found hints that spaces lay below the dungeon, but could discover no way in.

But she kept my trust and shared out mission with no one.  So I upgraded her gear, enchanting some armour for her with the court mage's device.

Returning home I found a letter from my cousin the south.  Indeed our family does have estates, at least my grandmother's family does, not all that far supposedly from here.  A place called Dragon Falls Manor.  How appropriate.  Supposedly on the lake near Ivarstead.  I may pass near there on the way to the staff of Magnus.

My second test for Lidia came the next morning at the 4th candle.  I had heard of bandits camped in the cliffs below the town that no one, not even the town guard, wished to handle.  Lidia handled herself incredibly.  The only real challenge for her was the mage, who I handled but he was a challenge for me as well.

The next day was the 22nd of Frostfall.  I had planned to begin our journey east for the staff.  Instead it became our third day of testing.  For we were tested in the crucible of combat as just outside the bridge spanning the river to the east of Winterrun we were attacked by a ferocious blood dragon. This one did not want to die.  The garrison in the region suffered heavy casualties.  Lydia's bow sang and I brought the power lightening from the sky.  In the end, with a wound dragon on the ground, but yet dangerous in pain and rage, Glamdring once again drew forth its soul.

We continued onward, stopping the bury the body of a dead Vigiliant we discovered on the road, burned beyond recognition.  That afternoon I saw a glimpse of a ritual stone on teh hillside above.  I had Lidia guard the horses and went up to examine its type.  I was accosted by a twisted mage of death - sending resurrected skeletons after me.  Magic seemed to have little effect on these, but Glamdring saw them done.  The mage didn't fare much better.

Early evening we were approaching Valtheim Towers only to be attacked by bandits who had taken up residence here.  I begin to wonder if anyone does an honest days wage outside the cities.  Bows were very handy as it was mostly a ranged battle until their chief and a couple of warriors tried to swarm us.  They did not expect the power of the word. We discovered quite a stash of weapons and armour.  Some enchanted and also the family sword of young guard I knew from Winterrun.  So we backtracked the next morning to return the sword, check the enchantments on the weapons to see if their mysteries could be unraveled.

By the 24th of Frostfall we were back and spent the night ready to journey forth on this morning of the 25th day of Frostfall.  Tomorrow, it will be ten weeks since the attack on Helgen.

My gift is returning, perhaps aided by the dragon blood or power or whatever it is that is coming alive in me.  My arm begins to feel as strong as always.  Soon we shall set forth for new lands.

Notes from the Arcaneum

The librarian will not allow me access to most of the contents.  Says they are too valuable and fragile for a student.  If he only knew who I once was.  But student I am.  That I have found important information.

The Tale of Olaf:

A dragon named "Numinex" ravaged the north once pon a time.  His lair was upon Mount Athor.  First I've heard of that. Olaf was able to use "dragon-speech"!  Is this a reference to the power of the word?  Supposedly he captures the dragon and imprisioned him in a huge stone holding cell in Dragonreach - this I do know.  Is the the thanyne's hall in Whiterun.  It is said the dragon died there. The book is skeptical of Olaf's power of speech and claims the dragon was old and weak.  But I suspect there is truth in this myth of "dragon-speech".

Potion mix for stamina and insight into metal work - ustilizes the tooth of saber cats.  Worth noting.

Jackpot:

The Book of the Dragon Born:

The god Akatosh (who the moth men named "All Creator") looked upon Alessia and humanity with pity and with his own blood blessed Alessia with the bloodof dragon and esstablished the covenant that so long as her descendents remained true that the gates between the demonic realm and the created realm would remain closed.  Those with this dragon blood are called "dragon born".


Reference - Ayleids loved the demons/daedras -- elves consumed by the evil ones corruption?  Could this be a source of the one time pogrom against the elves?  What of the elves war against evil that I saw through Glamdring?  How did the Ayleids go wrong?

The be dragon born is a driect blessing of Akatosh - not a necessary result of inherited blood.

The Blades of all things (the guardians of the emperor) originated in Akaviri crusaders who invaded Tamriel for unknown reason in the first era of our recorded history.  They were looking for a dragonborn.  Hints that perhaps the true purpose of the Blades is the defense of the dragon born.  (Maybe I need to see if any remain or at least if any information is hidden in their fortress.  If I could go south again.)

Significance of "dragon born" - able to slay dragons, stealt their power.

Elder scroll - prophecy of the Dragonborn - when the dragonborn ruler looses his throne, the white tower fall, the snow tower lies sundered - the word eater wakes.

There is no emperor.  The White tower of the Citadel remains but I suspect fallen to a corrupt cabal of mages.  The snow tower, could this be my Frost Fang Tower that was burned and destroyed by those who sought to destroy me?  Could this "world-eater" be coming?

Regarding the Moth Temples

The believe their ancestors are turned into moths and their silk embroidered with the correct geneology creates powerful garments.

Adepts of the order gifted with the ability to transcend time and see the future.

They are entrusted with the elder scrolls but to read them creates blindness and inability to read further in proportion to the insight gained. 

Notes on the Companions:

Vsgramor is known as the leader of those named Darumzu (uncertain as to meaning) - focus on 500 Companions to "return" and their war to reclaim their land.

Rise and Fall of the Blades

From Arkavir.  Source in the "Dragon guard".  Arkavir is dragon land.  Some escaped to Tamriel.  Hunted by the Dragonguard into the north.  They were resisted by local men and war broke out.  Sounds major.  Battle of Pale pass (hence when I sought out Arkavir artifacts for the ruler of Bruma there) was where they were defeated.   By Reman - first of the "Dragonborn" blessed by Akatosh and Alessia.  Said the remaining dragon guard swore allegiance to the one with a dragon soul.  Reference that they had been hunting for Remen.  Book claims they are still yet in Cloud Ruler Temple wiatin for the dragon born to come again following the death of Septim and Martin. Curious. 

Damn...

I thought I had left the dragons in the south. I was wrong.  Whiterun was attacked just as I began to make my way up to the college.  This time I had the help of the local militia.  And once again the power of the dragon flowed into me.  The power of the word, this time to create fire. 


A word that seems to warp space.  A word that creates fire from the very air around me.  In a language I do not understanding but flowing out of the blood within.   The ability to transform the material of the world, the power to harness energy that has been known though perhaps not fully understood. But this power of the word is new.  Or is it?  Has it always been there.