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Second Akaviri Invasion

Against the Snakes

Author: 
Denskar

Been thinking about our fight against the Akaviri. I've got opinions. Think I'll write them down.

The whole damned war could have been avoided if those idiots in Windhelm had the sense to throw the Snakes back into the sea. Shor take them!

Still wish Jorunn had moved to reinforce Windhelm. Lost some good men that day.

Jorunn fortified Riften, but the Snakes rolled right past. Why go straight to the Ashlands?

The fighting south of Riften, north of Fort Virak, isn't given enough respect. Those men were pinned and outmanned, and still they held.

Wulfharth was the only reason the men kept fighting that day. Jorunn was just a pup. He couldn't rally a mead hall.

The Snakes push into Stonefalls after the fall of Fort Virak. Why? What were they after?

Heard rumors some of the Dark Elves turned their blades on the Shellbacks at first. Couldn't stand the thought of being rescued by Argonians. Damned fools.

Shor take the whole Snake island. Let them send another tiger demon! We'll take them again!

The Second Akaviri Invasion

Author: 
Yngmaer Raven-Quill

A Request for Funding

By Yngmaer Raven-Quill, Historian Royal of the Bards' College, Solitude

Though we Nords of Western Skyrim, Your Majesty, were fortunate to escape involvement in the recent Akaviri invasion of Tamriel, it is nonetheless important that we try to understand this strange affair, especially as it has led our estranged kindred in Eastern Skyrim into a bizarre and ill-advised alliance with our ancient enemies, the treacherous Dark Elves of Morrowind.

Though the events occurred only a dozen years ago, the facts of the incursion from Akavir are already becoming obscured by a fog of legend and conjecture. What do we know for sure?

One: We know that there are multiple realms in Akavir, and that the raiders of the First Era (who later gave the Empire its Potentates) were from Tsaesci, while the forces of the recent invasion were from Kamal. However, we know virtually nothing about either realm.

Two: The leader of this second invasion was the King of Kamal, Ada'Soom Dir-Kamal. We know little about him or his reasons for invading Tamriel, even from our agents in the Eastern Kingdom: few captured Akaviri knew any Tamrielic, and most died under interrogation. One report stated that Dir-Kamal was seeking someone or something called the "Ordained Receptacle"—but this could easily be a bungled translation.

Three: For reasons unknown, the Akaviri fleet sailed around the northeast corner of Tamriel into the Sea of Ghosts, bypassing the Telvanni Peninsula, Vvardenfell, and Solstheim, before finally landing at the mouth of the White River northeast of Windhelm.

Four: The invasion was a complete surprise, and Windhelm was invested before Queen Mabjaarn could muster the Hold in defense. After a brief siege the invaders breached the southern gate and the city was sacked and burned. Both Queen Mabjaarn and her daughter and heir, Princess Nurnhilde, were slain in fierce fighting before the gates of the Palace of the Kings.

Five: The royal cadet, Prince Jorunn, escaped the sack of Windhelm and briefly disappeared. When he reappeared he was calling himself King Jorunn, and was accompanied by a mighty warrior whom he claimed was Wulfharth the Ash-King, sent back from Sovngarde to help the Nords defeat the Akaviri. With this so-called Wulfharth at his side, Jorunn rallied the Eastern Nords and fortified Riften.

Six: When Dir-Kamal moved his army south from Windhelm, he bypassed Riften—once again, his motivations are unclear—and marched into western Morrowind. They were opposed by Dark Elf forces, who staged a fighting retreat through the Ashlands under the command of Almalexia and her leading general, Tanval of House Indoril.

Seven: Dir-Kamal pursued the Dunmeri army into eastern Stonefalls, where the Elves halted their retreat by occupying prepared defenses. The Akaviri advance slowed and stopped—and suddenly, the Nord army under Jorunn and "Wulfharth" appeared in their rear. This cannot have been by chance: incredibly, we must conclude that, despite the age-old enmity between Nord and Elf, there was collusion between Jorunn and Almalexia, and the envelopment of the Akaviri at Stonefalls was according to plan.

Eight: The Akaviri, however, were not easily defeated. With their backs to the Inner Sea, they fought a desperate defense, attempting to hold out until their ships could come from the White River estuary to take them from the shore. Despite repeated attempts, the combined Dunmer-Nord army failed to break their lines. The Akaviri fleet was actually visible on the northern horizon when another incredible event occurred: at the last moment the Nords and Dark Elves were reinforced by two legions of Argonians who had marched to the battle from the south. With the infusion of the reptilian Shellbacks, the Tamrielics finally broke the Akaviri line—and with nowhere to escape to, the invaders were slaughtered to the last soldier.

As Your Majesty no doubt realizes, this account raises far more questions than answers: what we know about this affair is dwarfed by what we don't know. Thus my request to fund a Royal Committee of Inquiry to look into the grave implications of this matter. I, of course, will volunteer to lead this committee, provided the burden of such a task can be offset by an appropriate stipend.

Jorunn the Skald-King

Author: 
Helgreir Lute-Voice

By Helgreir Lute-Voice, Bard of Windhelm

Born in 2E 546 to Queen Mabjaarn Flame-Hair, Prince Jorunn grew up knowing that his elder sister, Nurnhilde, was fated to take the throne. A singer of rare talent in a culture that reveres the power of the human voice, Jorunn studied at Skald's Retreat on the Isle of Gold outside Riften. There he learned all that could be taught by the most renowned bards of the Eastern Kingdom. He was dubbed the "Skald-Prince" of Skyrim.

Jorunn spent most of his youth in artistic and philosophical pursuits, cultivating a broad array of artists, artisans, and performers throughout Eastern Skyrim and beyond. He spent time in Mournhold, Stormhold, Sutch, Elinhir, and is even reputed to have visited Solitude, the capital of Western Skyrim in disguise. Though he claimed to have no interest in politics or the business of rule, his natural leadership qualities made him the unofficial leader of the creative community wherever he found himself. Though he received little formal schooling in the arts of arms and warfare—as little as a prince of the Nords could manage, anyway -- traveling across Tamriel was always a dangerous activity. His travels taught him less orthodox ways of dealing with trouble.

Jorunn was in Riften when the Akaviri of Dir-Kamal assaulted the northeast coast of Skyrim in 2E 572. Jorunn and his closest comrades, the "Pack of Bards" fought their way up the coast to Windhelm, arriving just in time to see its gates breached by the Akaviri. Jorunn hurled himself into the fray, street-fighting being something he had experience with, but was unable to prevent the fall of the city and the slaying of Queen Mabjaarn and Nurnhilde the "Brief Queen" who both went down fighting.

Wounded and devastated, Jorunn barely escaped the sack of Windhelm alive. Feeling for the first time the responsibility of his royal birth, he decided to appeal to the Greybeards for aid, and so made his way, stealthily but quickly, to High Hrothgar. For reasons that have not been divulged, the Greybeards decided to teach the Skald-Prince a thu'um, one that summons a hero from Sovngarde to fight for the Tongue who uses it. But in Jorunn's voice the thu'um became a royal call of valor, and the summoned hero was none other than Wulfharth the Ash-King.

Together Wulfharth and Jorunn, now claiming the title Skald-King, rallied the Nords of Eastern Skyrim, mustering an army from the Rift and the outer regions of Eastmarch, then fortifying Riften. Dir-Kamal, moving south from Windhelm, found Riften defended by angry Nords inspired by the presence of Wulfharth and eager to fight. So Dir-Kamal bypassed Riften and marched on Mournhold, the Akaviri leader assuming that the Nords would be glad to see him go.

That choice was a fatal mistake. Jorunn and Wulfharth led their army in pursuit of the Akaviri force, and a Nord army entered Morrowind for the first time since the Battle of Red Mountain. The Akaviri army was caught at Stonefalls between the Nords and a Dunmer legion led by Almalexia, but the outcome of the great battle hung in the balance -- until a surprise intervention from a phalanx of Argonian shellbacks, led by a trio of reptilian battlemages. The Akaviri line was broken and they were driven into the sea, where they drowned by the thousands.

The Ash King, his purpose fulfilled returned to Sovngarde. In Windhelm three weeks later, Jorunn was crowned High King in the throne room of the Palace of Kings.