Tamriel Data:Ash and Blood: Volume III

Book Information Ash and Blood: Volume III
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Ash and Blood: Volume III

by Sila Merilia

An account of the Simulacrum in Morrowind

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The story goes that the Arnesian War began with an Argonian massacre of innocent pilgrims. Of course, anyone who was in Arnesia in those opening days could tell you that the fighting began long before that tale came to life. But it makes no difference. The slavemongers of House Dres manufactured the conflict to fill their chattel pits, King Llethan sought to commemorate his new throne with a military victory, and Redoran and Indoril, so eager for glory long kept from them, sought a chance to once more draw swords in defense of Resdayn. And so war erupted between Morrowind and Argonia. It mattered little to the combatants that the war would leave thousands dead or mutilated, or that the contested land was inhospitable and ill-favored. By 3E 396, war had enveloped Tamriel, and the Dunmer refused to be left out of the fray.

Though the initial engagements of the war took place on Argonian soil, Dunmer forces fared poorly in the early months of the conflict. Argonian troops managed to hold the north bank of the Arnesian river against repeated assaults, and pressed onward to Tear by Sun's Dusk. But the Siege of Tear lasted barely more than a month. Though the details of the infamous "Skylamp Night" are scarce, it is said that the Dres used fire and dark magic to set the sky ablaze, forcing the Argonian armies back to the riverbank. By the time Redoran reinforcements arrived in spring 397, the Argonian forces were outmatched, outflanked, and losing badly. The winding bends of the Arnesian River itself were taken by Morrowind's armies by 398, while Dres slavehunters scoured the south banks, capturing hundreds of Argonians and slaughtering those who resisted.

But where were the Legions of Arnesia? True, the Simulacrum was a bloody affair throughout Tamriel; but while Tharn and his co-conspirators have earned their infamy beyond measure, it took no Tharnite conspiracy to set Arnesia ablaze -- only the indolence of the Empire's incompetent regional commanders. Lord General Casik had not recalled the borderlands' garrisons, and the forts remained well supplied throughout the crisis. There was no lack of Imperial strongholds in Arnesia, as was the case in the bloody Bend'r Mahk. Nor were the garrisons of the region preoccupied with their own survival, like the beleagured troops at doomed Woodhearth. And despite several mumbled excuses about "Daedric impostors", modern historians are confident that the Tharnite menace focused its energies on destabilizing the prosperous Morrowind heartlands, not its remote borders. No -- the Legions of Arnesia chose to stand idly by, doe-eyed and shiftless, as the Imperial Law they had sworn to protect crumbled around them.

Months after the Siege of Tear, a party of Argonians some three score in number approached the stout gates of Fort Arnesia. They had been driven southwest, their leader said, by burning of their home village north of the river. The refugees, carrying everything they owned, requested that the Legionnaires escort them further south or allow them to camp for a time within Fort Arnesia's walls. The fort's commander, a Nord named Joreld, rejected both entreaties, and ordered the desperate Imperial citizens outside the walls dispersed with a volley of arrows. The next afternoon, sentries reported seeing a party of armed Dres warriors pass the keep, each bearing a fresh Argonian skin fashioned into a macabre standard.

Such are the costs of cowardice.

The Arnesian War was a dark mark on the storied history of the Ruby Ranks. Would Titus Alorius or Liara Virgilus have passively ensconced themselves in their strongholds for half a decade, waiting for orders that would never come? Imagine if mighty Tiber himself had encamped meekly outside Old Hrol'dan, rather than storming its crumbling walls! Never has the Empire seen such farce. One may only hope that Tamriel never suffers its like again.