———————————————
SPOILER INFO
This fanfic novel is largely based on the events that occurred in an actual game of Skyrim I played. Therefore, it's inevitably a spoiler.
———————————————
previous day
4-201-08-31 14:12
The Mer Inn, Granite Hall, Whiterun, Skyrim
After reequipping my followers, I decide we'll travel to the northwestern Skyrim to liberate Thorald from thalmor captivity and only then return the stolen sword to Pelin Varlais. After all, the sword is just an inanimate object, very expensive as it may be, but Thorald is a human being possibly suffering horrible torture on a daily basis.
Our first stop is Roriksted which should be in the northerly direction, not very far.
Granite Hall is located in a strategic spot where you can cross the mountains from south to north. It's the friendly townspeople who lead us to the northern exit. On my own, I would have never even found out there was one.
Shortly after leaving the city, we see a castle which looks strangely new and kind of foreign:
We sneak in very carefully, but there's no one there. There are a couple of doors that don't lead anywhere. The place would seem to be abandoned if it wasn't for a cow and a horse in sheds, with heaps of hay nearby. But whoever is taking care of the animals is nowhere to be seen.
Mr. Siika Castle, this place is called.
The sun is about to go down soon. A heavy rain begins. I think there's nothing left to explore here. So we just exit by one of the gates on the northern side and notice there's another structure surrounded by stone walls about 100 meters away to our right:
As we get closer, I can see there are people there, and they are hostile. They're seeing us too. After looking into every nook and cranny in that abandoned courtyard of Mr. Siika Castle, we are now caught completely unawares by a whole gang of... thalmors? Seriously??
We and the enemy seem to be about evenly matched, except there's a nasty archer up on the defense wall. He keeps shooting at us, but we are utterly incapable of getting a shot at him. So I run through the gate into the courtyard and ascend onto the rampart, trying to find a route to his position. I can magically sense my girls taking heavy damage, but there's nothing I can do other than run up and down staircases as fast as I can. I wonder why are the thalmors suddenly attacking random passersby? Oh, you don't know who the thalmors are? Sorry, no time! I'll tell you later. There's a guard sitting on the farther end of the defense wall, looking like he isn't even noticing the battle going on. He jumps up when I appear. No chance of a surprise attack – I couldn't sneak, I have to run to that dangerous archer as quickly as possible. This one here is not too strong. I kill him and rush onwards. Fortunately, everything is very well connected here. I finally get the archer and my followers slay the rest. We're all wet. From the rain, that is.
It's so dark by now that there's no point trying to explore anything here. We just head north towards (hopefully) Roriksted.
So, about the thalmors... They belong to a race known as High Elves. Their native country is called Aldmeri Dominion and they used to be at war against the Empire, our Empire. That's the war people mean when they talk about "The Great War". Now, evidently the Empire was getting a heavy beating, but they succeeded in making a peace, but one of the conditions in the peace treaty (that has a weird name White-Gold Concordate) was that the worship of Talos was to be prohibited in the Empire. Talos is one of the Nine Gods. Eight of those Nine are worshipped in the Aldmeri Dominion as well, only Talos isn't. And now the Empire has officially excluded Talos from the list of the gods. As the worship of Talos is a long-time tradition in the Skyrim province, its prohibition has caused widespread resentment here. In order to enforce the terms of the peace treaty, the Empire is allowing the representatives of the Aldmeri Dominion – the thalmors – to pursue worshippers of Talos in Skyrim. In other words, the thalmors are a kind of religion police. That's just about the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life – thalmor agents are actually roaming all over Skyrim, capturing Talos worshippers and bringing them into their prisons, to purify their souls by torturing their bodies or something like that. As if they really had nothing more important to do.
I have never encountered thalmors before, but I've been told that when you meet a thalmor patrol on a highway, they won't bother you if you just walk on and mind your own business. I also know from Jenassa that they have an embassy further north, but that's simply guarded and off-bounds to outsiders. They don't try to kill you just because you happen to be passing by. After all, Skyrim is not Aldmeri territory and the Empire and the Dominion are legally at peace. Therefore I haven't the slightest idea what the deal with this Fort Masser stronghold is. Maybe there's something top secret inside? Got to return there in daylight someday and find out.
And here is Roriksted, a peaceful, prosperous village of industrious people, as we're told.
Wait, did you just admit you were engaged in profitable business
while other people were risking their life and limb defending your country?
Incredible!
while other people were risking their life and limb defending your country?
Incredible!
We talk to people at the inn. They seem to have more than their fair share of petty conflicts and enmity. I didn't notice this kind of atmosphere in Hviterun or Falkert. Could it be because there's nothing really bad going on here, and so the people end up making a big issue out of every little inconvenience they can get their hands on?
Anyway, it's late. This has been a rather short day, but there's little point going out where it's pitch-dark and raining cats and dogs. We're going to have a good night's sleep in this hospitable, warm, dry inn. I'll see you in the morning!
next awakening
