Interregnum, 854 of the Second Era Options

[Destri Melarg]

To the Reader

This story takes place over the course of one year, 854 of the Second Era. It details the end of interregnum and the founding of the Septim line of Emperors. Inspiration for this story is drawn from two sources. The first is a one line entry in the timeline for the Second Era:

2E 854 - The Emperor was assassinated by a High Rock nightblade who also burned the Imperial Palace to the ground and attempted to kill General Talos.

I have come to believe that history is merely the propaganda of the winning side. This entry tells you what happened, but it doesn’t tell you how or why it happened. I have attempted to address those questions in this story.

For the second source of inspiration I express no embarrassment in saying that the form is blatantly lifted from my favorite of the in-game books, Carlovac Townway’s remarkable 2920: The Last Year of the First Era

Some of the characters you will encounter in this story have been lifted from the in-game books. Others are the product of the author’s imagination. I do not claim to have mastered the lore so if I stray too far from it, please don’t hesitate to call me on it. That said, there are a few ‘liberties’ that I have taken in this story which I feel I must draw to your attention:

- Tamriel is a much larger place than the game world. A day’s journey in game takes a week (weather and terrain permitting) in the story.
- Cities are larger and far more populated than they are in the game.

My deepest gratitude goes out to RemkoNL, mALX, Acadian, hauteecole rider, Winter Wolf, SubRosa, and treydog for their steadfast support of this story. Without you I doubt that it would exist.

As always any comments, criticisms, or suggestions are most welcome.

* * *

Table of Contents

Book One: Morning Star
Book Two: Sun's Dawn
Book Three: First Seed

This post has been edited by Destri Melarg: Aug 14 2010, 12:15 AM

[Destri Melarg]

First, thank you for the wonderfully detailed critique!

There were some things about this chapter that never made sense to me. How was it that Arnand did not leave footprints? It was something you made a point of, but I did not catch the explanation of.

I can see how that might have been confusing. Allow me to share my own thoughts in the writing of it. My own view of the situation was that Arnand took Lorian from above, while the Breton rolled about in the snow. I imagined Arnand on the lip of the cave while Nolquinn went and searched the underbrush. I probably should have put something in to make that fact clear to the reader, but since the scene played out from Nolquinn’s point of view I thought that his confusion lent an almost supernatural overtone to his growing sense of panic. By the time Arnand materializes and we learn that he is a man I thought that the methods he used to take down the two guards were irrelevant and didn’t warrant explaining. Perhaps I should revisit that section and add in some form of explanation to keep it from being an issue.

The other thing was it seemed very strange to me that Arnand was the only one to use a Detect Life. It would seem the most obvious thing for Nolquinn to cast when he realized there was an attacker whom he could not see.

Thankfully for Arnand, it was he and not you guarding that cave. My sense of Nolquinn and Lorian is that they are a kind of tip of the cap to the necromancers found in the game. In my experience, the first action of a necromancer when he/she detects an intruder is to form a summon. Given the timeframe (Nolquinn sees Lorian dead, forms a summon, positions himself between it and the cave entrance, and is taken from behind), I don’t think there was ample time for him to cast a detect life spell. Especially considering that, at the time, he was having to will himself to simply breathe.

Not to mention it also seemed very strange that Nolquinn never tried to raise an alarm, even though he had ample opportunity to shout out for help, when as a guard that is his first duty.

Here I think you might be mistaking a guard for a lookout. The first duty of a lookout when confronted by a threat or intruder is to sound an alarm. The first duty of a guard when confronted by an intruder is to neutralize the intruder, sounding an alarm only if the intruder proves to be more than the guard can handle.

I think that entire scene would be more believable if Arnand had used the same m.o. he did with several other necromancers within: Paralyze Nolquinn, then kill Lorian, and finally come back to finish Nolquinn before the paralysis wore off. It would also still allow you to paint the scene from Nolquinn's point of view, as he would see it all, yet be unable to act.

The reason that I didn’t want to use the paralysis spell on Nolquinn or Lorian is that I knew that I would be using it at least twice inside the cave, and I didn’t want the effect to suffer from the repetition. I have to admit that the idea of paralyzing the point of view character then describing the scene as he sees it is an excellent one and that it is something that I am going to have to give serious thought to.

Ultimately if these scenes didn’t make sense to you then that is my failing as the writer. I only wished to give you an idea of the thought process I went through in coming to the decisions that I did about this sequence of the story.

[SubRosa]

First, thank you for the wonderfully detailed critique!

There were some things about this chapter that never made sense to me. How was it that Arnand did not leave footprints? It was something you made a point of, but I did not catch the explanation of.

I can see how that might have been confusing. Allow me to share my own thoughts in the writing of it. My own view of the situation was that Arnand took Lorian from above, while the Breton rolled about in the snow. I imagined Arnand on the lip of the cave while Nolquinn went and searched the underbrush. I probably should have put something in to make that fact clear to the reader, but since the scene played out from Nolquinn’s point of view I thought that his confusion lent an almost supernatural overtone to his growing sense of panic. By the time Arnand materializes and we learn that he is a man I thought that the methods he used to take down the two guards were irrelevant and didn’t warrant explaining. Perhaps I should revisit that section and add in some form of explanation to keep it from being an issue.

The other thing was it seemed very strange to me that Arnand was the only one to use a Detect Life. It would seem the most obvious thing for Nolquinn to cast when he realized there was an attacker whom he could not see.

Thankfully for Arnand, it was he and not you guarding that cave. My sense of Nolquinn and Lorian is that they are a kind of tip of the cap to the necromancers found in the game. In my experience, the first action of a necromancer when he/she detects an intruder is to form a summon. Given the timeframe (Nolquinn sees Lorian dead, forms a summon, positions himself between it and the cave entrance, and is taken from behind), I don’t think there was ample time for him to cast a detect life spell. Especially considering that, at the time, he was having to will himself to simply breathe.

Not to mention it also seemed very strange that Nolquinn never tried to raise an alarm, even though he had ample opportunity to shout out for help, when as a guard that is his first duty.

Here I think you might be mistaking a guard for a lookout. The first duty of a lookout when confronted by a threat or intruder is to sound an alarm. The first duty of a guard when confronted by an intruder is to neutralize the intruder, sounding an alarm only if the intruder proves to be more than the guard can handle.

I think that entire scene would be more believable if Arnand had used the same m.o. he did with several other necromancers within: Paralyze Nolquinn, then kill Lorian, and finally come back to finish Nolquinn before the paralysis wore off. It would also still allow you to paint the scene from Nolquinn's point of view, as he would see it all, yet be unable to act.

The reason that I didn’t want to use the paralysis spell on Nolquinn or Lorian is that I knew that I would be using it at least twice inside the cave, and I didn’t want the effect to suffer from the repetition. I have to admit that the idea of paralyzing the point of view character then describing the scene as he sees it is an excellent one and that it is something that I am going to have to give serious thought to.

Ultimately if these scenes didn’t make sense to you then that is my failing as the writer. I only wished to give you an idea of the thought process I went through in coming to the decisions that I did about this sequence of the story.

I would suggest not basing the behaviour of your characters on what you see from the NPCs in the game. To put it simply, the AI is stupid. NPC mages never cast a detect life to find you even when you turn invisible right in front of them. They never think to cast a calm or dispel on someone who is obviously frenzied, etc... When I fought Mannimarco at the end of the MG questline I was expecting a real epic battle. Instead he was a pushover, because he attacked me with a dagger.

This is entirely dependent on how real you want your story to appear of course. Many writers want you to know that the story and its characters are in a game. Take Acadian and Buffy for example, he has people turning green when you poison them, which would not happen in a real world. Or Rales digging through crates in front of a guard to get money and other loot. I do not criticize that, in fact, I think it makes for a very interesting story.

But I was not under the impression that was what you were going for. I know you said you wrote the two guard necromancers as sort of an homage to the game necros, but your writing usually seems to go more for realness rather than gameness (of course I may be totally off there, doh! on me if I have not picked up on it).

If you really do want to weigh more heavily on the realness side, then I would put yourself in the shoes of all the characters, and ask yourself "what would I do?" Then ask yourself "Ok, is this person really that smart/professional/experienced?" The more you think critically, the stronger your characters will come across. Some people really are stupid, and will not do the obvious thing (I work with many of them!). Some are just inexperienced (look at Teresa in many aspects). Some can be just plain arrogant, which makes them sloppy (there are plenty examples of that in military history).

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Mar 26 2010, 01:54 AM