Curses of Empire by Old Book

[Ibsen's Ghost]

From the 'Dragon Captions' forum, 'Old Book' said he'd like us to take a look at this and see if we can use it. If it passes approval then Deeza might like to put it in his literature list:

Curses of Empire
By Gwydion Goodchilde

Glorius is the Empire of Tamriel. Old is the Empire, and wealthy. Her cities team with citizens, fed by the produce of verdant farmland and the game of life-filled forests. Educated Men and Mer drive her commerce, and that commerce fills her coffers.

Commerce supported by violence and the spoils of war.

The cities of the Empire sleep safe behind high walls, protected day and night by armed soldiers. From sea to sea, from High Rock to Black Marsh, her soldiers patrol her roads. Boatmen sailing the arteries of Empire, the Legionaires are masters of all they survey. Who can doubt the power of the Empire, finally victorious over all external enemies?

As one loyal Citizen to another, I warn you: Our victory has smashed open an amphora of curses.

Citizens of the Empire rightly decry the bandits that plague the Imperial roads. Why, we ask, can the Legions not drive these miscreants from our gates? Why, we demand, can the well paid mercenaries employed through the Fighter’s Guild not drive maurauders from their wilderness forts?

The answer is dark, my fellow citizens. The bandits and maurauders who now threaten the very heart of Empire are in large part former Legionaires and masterless mercenaries, Men and Mer who once served the very lands they now prey upon. We ourselves have crafted this blade, and we now hold its point to our own collective throat.

Please know that I am in no way impuning the honor of the Legion or the Guilds; I myself have served as a Legionaire, and have sought work through the Fighter’s Guild. From Blackmarsh to Morrowind I served my Emperor, and in Cyrodiil and Morrowind I took Guild contracts to protect the Empire’s citizens. At my lowest time, and my highest, I fought in the great Arena itself, covering myself with glory.

Without a war, what becomes of a fighting man? I am well enough educated, and yet I am no scribe or priest. My Legion service earned me no awards of land; with no new nations to conquer, such grants have become rare. The Fighter’s Guild offered me gold to fight and kill, as did the Arena, and yet always the material rewards fell short when weighed against the risk.

I am a loyal subject of the Empire. I did not turn brigand, yet still I felt the call of the road. How much stronger is that call for Nord mercenaries, men whose kin to this day struggle against Imperial rule? How much stronger is that call for Orcs, Khajiit, or Argonians, with their wars with the Empire still in living memory? What of the children of High Rock and Hammefell, knowing that they will never be the social equals of the Imperial race? Mer too may feel the call, for does history not teach that once they were the masters of Tamriel, and the lesser races their slaves? The Dark Elves of Morrowind have not forgotten their conquest, or set aside old angers.

Again, do not mistake me. The Imperial Ideal demands that we look past race and clan, uniting, becoming more than any one people can be alone. For the merchant classes, the scholars, even the farmers, such an ideal may be attainable. For fighting men, men whose spirits are forged in battle, such a dream of peace may seem impossible.

One may rightly claim that Tamriel is a land of dangers and rewards for the warrior.

Invading goblin tribes menace our towns and villiages, breeding below ground with astonishing speed. Wolves, Bears, Ogres and Trolls haunt our forests. I once knew a schollar who asserted that the Sprigans were agents of the last self-aware Hist of Blackmarsh, and that these guardians of nature themselves were responsible for the legions of goblinoid and animal menaces to the Men and Mer of the Empire. I believed him at the time, for only the support of some great power could explain the waves of predatory beasts that crash against Man’s city walls.

Others say the Wild Elves are to blame, still fighting on to win back lands lost in the First Era. The Bosmer certainly have the power to drive wild animals against the Empire, and their conquest too was recent by the standards of Mer. I have heard whispers of Vampire clans, even Vampire cities, using their dark magicks to keep the citizens of the Empire trapped within their city walls like beasts in a pen.

In such a land, an Imperial Citizen skilled with blade or bow can make his fortune.

But what happens when that skilled warrior sees his skills begin to dim? When age starts to steal away his speed, or the pain of old wounds teaches him the folly of courage? How much easier to hunt fat merchants and farmers, the folk that in another time he might have served?

Most men of war do not give in to such temptation. Some do, and with recent upheavals throughout the Empire that number will only grow. There is, however, something to be done.

In the past, the fighting man was kept within society by life long service to his Lord. Later, he was held through service to his Emperor. The Fighter’s Guild, vital though it may be, can not replace this system. Nor am I suggesting that the Nobles of the Empire be granted once again their historical rights to maintain armies; that way lies the madness of civil war.

I am suggesting a full Imperial commitment to war against the enemies within. The Legions must be called back to full strength, the goblinoid races exterminated, the Sprigans and their Hist masters (if they exist) destroyed, and the last of the Wild Elves hunted down like beasts. Only in the fires of total war can the Empire be renewed and reborn. If we continue to cling to the illusion of peace behind the walls of our cities, those walls shall guard our tombs.

[Back2Murder]

Interesting to read. Now just wait for Deeza :p

[Deeza]

That's pretty interesting actually, gives you a new perspective, doesn't it? I always wondered if anyone had noticed that half of Cyrodiil is under the control of bandits...

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I only just read this through properly for myself .

I like it. Old Book writes well. It certainly has an automatic location in some of our beta area settlements where those of the more hardy and stalwart Imperials exist in order to 'stamp out the Hist threat'. We'll need to select some books for use in the beta and I think this is an immediate choice for me.

[Deeza]

Sounds pretty much like the mission statement of the Blackwood company to me...

[Ibsen's Ghost]

:yes: Perhaps worth book-marking for later work on renegade factions and bandits who are estranged or exiled from the Empire.