Iulius Rottmere - a man and his plantation

[Deeza]

A book about the Imperial colonist Rottmere. My idea was that the Rottmere Everglades were named after his exploits in the Marsh.

Iulius Rottmere – a man and his plantation

This book was published to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of the death of Iulius Rottmere, famed explorer of Black Marsh and passionate advocate of colonisation.

Few men did more to unlock the mysteries of that most dangerous of lands as Iulius Rottmere, fearless son of a priestess of the Imperial Cult and a minor Breton noble. With his family's holdings lost three generations before during Tiber Septim's purges of the High Rock nobility, the Rottmeres had moved long before his birth to the Imperial City, where they became prosperous grain merchants. But this life was too dull for the young Iulius, who from a young age was fascinated by the mysteries of Black Marsh, and became determined to discover their solutions.

Iulius Rottmere first visited the Marsh as a young man, and was entranced. Defying the advice of his guides, he trekked with his servants into the interior, where he became aware of what he described in his diary as “the deplorable state of poverty of the native tribes, both in body and in spirit, for here they known nothing of the Divines.” Convinced of his mission in life to altering this situation, on returning to Cyrodiil and inheriting his father's business, he sold it all in order to set about acquiring land in southern Black Marsh. There, he constructed over fifteen years a vast rice plantation, the largest built before or since in the Province. A luxurious fortified mansion was constructed at the centre of it all, complete with roads and infrastructure. Rottmere even had watertight wine cellars constructed, so as to assure his guests of the finest Cyrodiilic hospitality in the depths of the Marsh.

What marked him out from the beginning from all previous attempts to import Imperial agriculture into the Marsh was his willingness to listen to the advice of tribal Argonians and apply indigenous methods to the building of his plantation, making use of, for example, wooden nails enchanted by tribal alchemy against rot in place of the iron ones favoured by other colonists, the rusting of which doomed many structures built in the marsh to rapid collapse. These efforts to combine Argonian and Imperial knowledge resulted in his being the most successful of attempts to colonise Black Marsh. At its peak, the Rottmere Estate covered much of the region that bears his name today, with an annual output of rice in the hundreds of tonnes. Throughout his time at the Estate, Rottmere endeavoured tirelessly to convert and educate the local Argonian tribes. Many chapels were built at his own expense, and schools also. Tribal villages were demolished and replaced with modern Cyrodiilic housing, and tribal warriors became indentured servants and farmers. It was his conviction that “if enough plantations like my own are built, Black Marsh and all its barbaric ways shall perish, and a new, glorious Imperial Province of Argonia shall be born.” This was a position he was not afraid to defend both in debate and in print, publishing many volumes detailing what he called the “unsavoury local practices” of the Marsh's inhabitants and detailing the measures that in his view were necessary to correct them.

Since the acceptance of beast races into all major guilds and even positions of governance throughout the Empire, Rottmere and his contemporaries are seen by many as little more than arrogant idealogues, a dated reminder of the Empire's troubled history. Yet there was more to him than this. Though his writings poured scorn on the percieved “barbaric” ways of Argonian tribes, Rottmere always kept in mind their great potential, if they could be educated enough to “join the ranks of civilised nations” as he put it. A great admirer of their ability to survive in the hostile environment of Black Marsh, he mused often that such hardiness of character could yet make them valuable members of the Empire. Though it may seem paradoxical to modern eyes, Rottmere was a prominent abolitionist, and was the author of withering attacks on the Dunmer institution of slavery. His contributions towards the founding of the modern anti-slavery movement, which finally succeeded throughout the Empire only a few years ago, has long been overlooked. For Rottmere, freeing the Argonians from tribal superstitions and from the institution of slavery were one and the same project.

Yet inevitably, it was the marsh which so fascinated Rottmere that ultimately killed him. The many popular accounts of Rottmere's final days are without exception highly fictionalised, most of them being derived from the unreliable account of the sole surviving witness. However, what is known for sure is that days before his death, Rottmere had concieved the idea of disproving once and for all time the alleged mystical powers of the Hist. How he planned to achieve this is unclear, but he and almost all of his retainers disappeared soon after. Soon after, disease spread through his plantation, ruining the crops for five straight years, whilst other plagues decimated the workforce. The farms were abandoned, the houses and chapels left to crumble into ruin as his colonists fled and the Argonians returning to their previous ways of life. Today, the outlines of the old plantation have been lost in the ever-shifting mud of the Marsh, yet the region he once ruled still bears his name: the Rottmere Everglades.

His legacy is perhaps best summarised by the cryptic epitaph penned by one of his most prized accomplishments, an Imperial-educated Argonian mage named Jumps-Through-Fire:

“When he died the Marsh ate him. He was not spat out like all the others. For he came as close as a soft-skin ever can to learning how to live in it.”

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Sweet!

I rarely applaud written additions as so many profess to have writing skills but fail to deliver satisfactorily but this is great. Nice work, Deeza! But if I can make a few suggestions then this might fit nicely with what is planned to exist in the Everglades. We have some gorgeous sugar cane models from Koniption that I'd like to have mentioned here. Whether that involves switching 'rice' for 'sugar' or merely adding sugar then I don't mind but it will allow us to add the extra realism.

Furthermore, if you can slip in a mention of the Missionary work that has taken place here then that would be good. It's something I have surprisingly neglected (considering the fact that I crave the opportunity to write above other duties) but Stormhold's religious areas bear evidence of this missionary activity in its stained glass windows. However, what would probably be the most long-lasting remnants of their existence would be the marsh house and Helborne's medieval buildings (which we're using for Gideon), both of which are built of the same brick. I don't yet have a name for these missionaries but it's something I was planning on developing when I have a spare moment.

Anyway, Iulius might well be remembered in Gideon's temple where this book would be cherished... =)

[Deeza]

Thanks! Glad you like it. Would this be moon sugar or the regular kind? I was just thinking, because Elseweyr needs some sugarcane at some point. Perhaps it's a special breed of moonsugar that's less hallucinogenic?

Anyway, perhaps we could have an inscription in the temple commemorating Iulius' contribution towards the expense of building it?

I was thinking that we could include the ruined Estate as a dungeon of sorts out in the Everglades. There could also be a "Rottmere Museum" of Argonian tribal artefacts in Stormhold, where the player can learn more about the culture (from the Imperial perspective).

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I would have any remnants of such an estate only on the fringes of the Everglades as this area is where we're really beginning to get into deepest Black Marsh. Anyway, I was planning on introducing a sugarcane field in the intervening area between Blackwood, the Jungle and the Everglades so perhaps it can be placed near there. That would make it quite close to Hixinoag....

If it were to be modded, it would have to be little more than a ruin....and perhaps it's basement has caved in under the shifting earth, granting access to the likes of Skaven (one of our rat-like creatures) who may have over-run it. It may even have a clearly once-flashy interior that's been wrecked by the filthy creatures.... =)

A definite 'yes' to the Museum (although development should take place slowly as we gradually build up objects that we use in the mod). And yes, 'black moonsugar' might be a delicacy amongst Argonians, and more fitting for the reptilian palate.

[Deeza]

I have added a reference to the missionary work and sugar and added this book into the CS.