Shadowkey:Jagar Tharn

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Jagar Tharn was the Imperial Battlemage from some time before 3E 389 to 3E 399. Little is known about his life before 389, but he is generally assumed to have been the bard Nightingale who appeared in Barenziah's court. He seduced her in order to take the Staff of Chaos from under the city of Mournhold. It was this staff that he used in 389 to betray and imprison the emperor Uriel Septim VII in a dimension of his creation.

He ruled the empire for ten years, during a period known as the Imperial Simulacrum, using illusion magic to make himself appear to be the emperor. During that time, Tharn used Imperial privileges, but did not continue Uriel VII's schedule of reconquest. Under his false reign the empire fell to pieces with wars raging between the provinces everywhere. In the east, Morrowind attacked Black Marsh in the Arnesian War; in the north, Skyrim battled High Rock and Hammerfell in the War of Bend'r-Mahk; in the south, Elsweyr took arms against Valenwood in the Five Year War; in the west, Valenwood also lost land to its old ally Summerset Isles in the War of the Blue Divide. It is not entirely known yet what Tharn's goals and personal accomplishments were during the Imperial Simulacrum.

For more information, see the full article on Jagar Tharn

[edit] Shadowkey

Tharn never appears in Shadowkey but his influence is felt throughout the game as he is one of two mages trying to gain control of the Umbra' Keth (the other being Pergan Asuul. His name first appears when Skelos Undriel reveals that Tharn is hunting him, presumably to remove a shadowmage with opposing views.

During the quest Bribery Papers, it turns out that he is bribing prominent Hammerfell families to side with Skyrim in the ongoing war and that he is also funding Lakvan, a Skyrim raider. Both actions will inevitably lead to more conflict to strengthen the Umbra' Keth.

His plans are thwarted at the end of the Main Quest with the destruction of the Umbra' Keth.