The Famous Five, Heroes and Villains of the Age of Martin Septim Options

[Ceidwad]

Welcome to my fanfic. I've been planning on posting this up for some time now. Now that I have the first 10,000 words or so down seperately, I feel ready to post some stuff up here. I hope you will all enjoy reading it as it develops. I haven't a clue how much I will write eventually, if I manage to finish it. But it will likely be very, very long. Indeed, there's an excellent chance that I'll finish writing a Skyrim fan fiction before (if) I finish this!

The Famous Five is an unusual fan fiction. It takes the form of a historical commentary/synthesised text written some 90 years after the events of Oblivion, and relies rather heavily on my own creative license to fill in some historical gaps in between 4E2, when the stories end, and 4E85 when the book is written (I should add, I have not read any Elder-Scrolls related lore works, such as the Infernal City).

This work weaves together the stories of five different characters that I roleplayed in Oblivion, and I hope to include some of my minor characters in it too. Subject to approval, it may also be nice to include some other chorrol.com members' fanfic characters in it too. It would be entertaining to see the outcome of a meeting between Luther Martinus (who you will get to know) and, say, Buffy or Teresa, for certain!

At present, I regrettably do not have screenshots; however, I hope to add some in future if and when I can get Oblivion for PC.

This is my first attempt at writing a fan fiction. I have thought about it for a while, though. I welcome critique of my writing as well as positive comments. I have not planned most of the fanfic, but have a general plan of how it will pan out. It will include actual in-game events, relationships and quests which inspired my roleplaying, and be supplemented with whatever ideas take my fancy at the time of writing.

Below is the prologue and the first entry. I plan to update every few days to a week, depending on how much I can write. This will vary. At times, I may not update for a while. I do, however, hope to persevere with this and update pretty regularly.

Happy reading!

This post has been edited by Ceidwad: Mar 26 2011, 05:00 AM

[Ceidwad]

SubRosa - Thanks for your comments. I often find that, as I go back and read over my work, I add more little reflections and thoughts like that which did not occur to me the first time I wrote the passage. Although the age difference is a theme that I have planned and will occur irregularly but often in Gwen's thoughts.

Incidentally, 'What might' wasn't strictly meant to be a complete sentence - she is being interrupted by Langley and loses her train of thought when she returns to the journal. That's how it was meant to appear anyway!

Acadian - Do watch this space with regard to Gwen's university career. Just between you and me, there may be a little twist in the tale coming soon. I am glad you are enjoying the fan fiction so far. I have taken your comments to heart and am trying to continue to include as much of our writer's thoughts as possible, to keep it from being dull and predictable.

Next up: Gwen begins to make her way to the Imperial City, but not without a hitch along the way....

***

First Seed 10, 3E430 – West Weald Inn, Skingrad

11 A.M.

I am in shock. I have just arrived in the safety of a town called Skingrad, where I have finally been able to find an inkwell and quill, but what a journey I have had! I was almost seriously injured yesterday, but it turned out alright, thank Azura. This is what happened.

The path out of Anvil brought me to a crazy Khajiit; he called himself ‘Mai’q the Liar’ and the guards nearby told me not to bother; they had already tried, and failed, to get any sense out of him. When I walked past him, he rambled some nonsense, then ran past me at the speed of lightning.

The path continued fairly uneventfully; a couple of travellers rode past on their horses and greeted me. Then, out of nowhere, a thuggish beast who I guessed to be another Khajiit accosted me. Equipped with a warhammer, I certainly wasn’t going to argue with him and dropped some gold on the ground.

Not satisfied with this, he said “All of it, this one wants. Now.” But I needed the money to survive until I reached the Imperial City and that fat deposit, so I tried to run away, my coinpurse jingling loudly, my long legs pumping as fast as they could, but alas, rather slowly, my great strides being the only thing keeping me ahead. I could feel him catching me, as the swings of his giant hammer at one point got close enough to disturb the air behind my back. Terrified, I ran even faster, doing all I could to avoid being crushed by it.

Just as I felt I was about to run out of breath, and with the Khajiit still close enough for me to hear him cursing: “DIE, damn you!”, I heard the clank of heavy armour nearby. A grey-suited figure came to my aid, shouting: “You dare oppose the might…..of the IMPERIAL LEGION?!”. I guess this was one of the legionnaires that Langley had told me about. He impressively parried the warhammer with his shield, which stunned the Khajiit. Following through with his longsword, he cleaved through the Khajiit’s leather armour like a hot knife through butter. The Khajiit yelped in pain and dropped his hammer, upon which the grey-suited colossus finished off the beast with two long strokes of his blade.

When I had recovered my breath, the figure was standing over me. I lifted my head and gave him my sincere gratitude. Then I noticed his shield arm had been nastily dislocated. The Legion soldier had been either too brave or too stupid to notice this during the battle, but had now dropped his shield and was holding the arm gingerly.

With this, I offered to heal him. It wasn’t easy. A dislocation like this, or a limb break, needed several Convalescence spells to recover from properly, and I didn’t know anything more powerful. By the time I was finished, I was drained.

He searched the body of the Khajiit and said: “It would seem you weren’t his first victim this week. Look at all this gold……550 septims! Well, I think that, since you healed me, it’s only right we should split it halfways.” Frankly, I felt fortunate simply at not being a bloody pulp, but I gratefully accepted. Moreover, the Legion soldier even escorted me back to the gold I had dropped before, and then to the relative safety of the Gottshaw Inn nearby, where I was able to get a meal and a room.

I cannot relate in words just how terrified I was at the time. I had never had to deal with such a situation before, and I still shudder to think how close I came to ending my life prematurely. Of course, it didn’t matter to Khajiit – their lives being even more pitifully short than humans, and having five or six children at a time – why wouldn’t they take a chance in combat? That cat-man probably cared not a jot that he had a chance of dying, when his life was destined to be so short anyway. Anyway, I have survived. That is all that matters.

The following morning, I did not leave the safety of the inn until I saw a legionnaire trotting past on his horse. I asked him if he would escort me to Skingrad, and he agreed to do so, saying: “We’re here to serve, citizen”.

I am now upstairs in the guest room, in the West Weald Inn, Skingrad. The room cost 20 precious gold, but it is worth it. It’s the first place in Cyrodiil where I’ve felt really at home. There is a nice room with a wardrobe, desk, chair, and a beautiful bed decked out in red and gold trim. The Count’s Arms had a similar bed, but the room was rather bare and the proprietor stared at me a lot. The Gottshaw Inn, meanwhile, had a friendly proprietor named Foroch, an amiable little Bosmer, but the bed was substandard. I rather like this place. I think I shall stay here a while. Most of all, I will be safe here, thank Azura.

This post has been edited by Ceidwad: Apr 9 2011, 04:16 AM