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]

Acadian - The budgeting is immensely hard for our mage, who has always been used to the best! She will have to adapt, as we will see.

SubRosa - Whenever I went into First Edition in-game, I always wondered about Phintias and the way he said 'Good day' in that smug tone of his. Sounds like an arrogant little man. He and Gwen should get along famously!

mALX - Gwen is 87. I figure, given a lifespan of several hundred years for Altmer, this would probably make her a young adult. I certainly try and show glimpses of her immaturity in The Famous Five. But hey, my characters of all ages have their immature sides, as I will show later.

Well, that shopping trip has left Gwen ready and raring to start her studies at the Arcane University. But, there may yet be a twist in the tale! Let's read on to find out why!

***

First Seed 17, 3E430 – The Tiber Septim Hotel

9 P.M.

A devastating disappointment. I have been barred from entering the Arcane University! As I have discovered, I must first attain ‘recommendations’ from the local guild halls in Cyrodiil, such as the one I visited in Skingrad a few days ago. I am bitterly disappointed. Indeed, I could have saved myself the perilous journey from Anvil (though it proved to be rather profitable!)

The day began pleasantly enough. After spending most of yesterday reading and further exploring the city, I felt ready to commence my study. But it would seem the guild authorities did not agree.

I had been walking along Green Emperor Way and City Isle to the university, enthusiastically looking forward to meeting my fellow mages and wearing my blue scholar’s robe. When I arrived at the great central tower of the university, flanked by great purple flames of magicka, I greeted a security guard, who looked rather like the legionnaire who had assisted me in slaying the foul Khajiit, save that he wore a blue Mage’s Hood, and asked to see Raminus Polus.

“Looking for Raminus, are you? Well, you’ll find him in the Arch-Mage’s lobby, in the central tower. We’re taking in new apprentices and associates at this very moment, so you’ve arrived at an apt time, citizen.”

Thanking him for his help, I entered into the splendid lobby. In front of me stood a magical portal, much like those I was used to seeing commonly in Alinor, but which seemed very rare here in Cyrodiil. Either side of this, on two oaken benches, sat a male Imperial and a Bosmer woman. Asking the Imperial if he was Raminus Polus, he said:

“Indeed I am. And you must be……”

I quickly showed him my letter of acceptance. As he read it, his face broke into a faint smile.

“Ah yes, you are Gwenyan. I’m afraid there’s been some......misunderstanding. You see, we used to accept aspiring mages such as yourself into the university as apprentices, provided they supplied good references and the coin to finance their study, but some recent.......dishonesty has forced us to change this policy. It was one of the first things that our new Arch-Mage, Hannibal Traven did. However, it would seem we haven’t had time to edit all the acceptance letters we send out accordingly. My.....apologies.”

“But, what of my study here? I came here to study the art of Restoration.” I demanded. (We both knew my parents had spent a lot of money to secure my tuition here).

“Ah, do not fear. We have a recommendations process in place. It is simply a way of protecting the University against taking on incompetent apprentices, as has sadly occurred in recent times.” He then muttered under his breath something about a count's son and a ‘total disaster’.

“I am afraid that, as new guild policy, I must regrettably turn you away, for now. I hope we shall meet again in future. In the meantime, I grant you associate membership of the guild. You will be free to stay at any of the guild halls in Cyrodiil and use their resources for yourself with this letter.” He stamped it with a red-ink seal containing the word ‘associate’.

At this point, as you can imagine, I felt quite low. All the risk I had taken to get here seemed to be wasted. And what would I do now? I had two options: fulfil tasks of mundane servitude to guild hall leaders, whom, I believed, would no doubt use me as their errand-girl; or return home in disgrace. I wanted to go home. But what would I do there? My parents would be disappointed in me for having returned home; their money would be wasted; and it would be difficult find a posting in the royal court, as I hoped for, if I backed out now.

As I exited the lobby into the open air, I saw a friendly Bosmer in green brocade, who told me his name was Hagaer. I told him about what had just happened and showed him my letter. He chuckled.

“Ah yes, the ‘we forgot to change the letters’ line. I’ve heard that from many an aspiring student turned away at the Arch-Mage’s lobby. It’s nonsense, of course. That policy’s been in place for over a year. Since Gellius Terentius’s brief debacle as an apprentice here, they seem to want students to jump through more and more hoops just to be here. I’ll bet the first test they wanted you to pass was to see if you could get here safely. Completely unnecessary, if you ask me. It’s not like every rich kid who isn’t quite good enough to make it to Wizard or Master-Wizard or even Journeyman rank is going to go into a skooma-induced hallucination and attack the Mage Scholars for thinking they're minotaurs! Ah well, listen. Don’t give up. I’ve seen many a young mage give up after hearing they have to travel all around Cyrodiil, and it’s a crying waste. This guild needs young talent, if it is to meet the new challenges of the future.”

I must say, this kind man’s words were a salve to my wounds. Looking at my map, the nearest town from here would be Chorrol. I plan to visit it soon for my first recommendation.

At least a hard day is made a lot easier by coming back to the Tiber Septim Hotel. The proprietor, Augusta Calidia, is well-spoken and polite; the dining-room is always well-stocked with food and drink, there is an upstairs study to retreat to for peace, and music plays softly in the downstairs lobby. One can feel at ease there, even if one’s coinpurse bears a burden for it. I have around 650 septims left.

This post has been edited by Ceidwad: Apr 21 2011, 03:31 PM