"war Of The Wizards", Blank version Options

[vaanic~one]

The following is an account of a little known event that I have written. I have written it so that it does not conflict with lore (which is why is it quite vague).

NOTE: MARCH 2006: The following is the FINAL version of this story!

see what you think:

[Foreword: The following is a piece never published in Morrowind itself.  The story is a good example of what happens when two Telvanni wizards get in each others way, albeit an extreme one.  The isolation of the Dunmer great house Telvanni has allowed this story to be unheard of outside of northeast Morrowind, and as a result, one should appreciate both how precious it is and how wary one should be of it.]

“The War of the Wizards”, a short and true History by Ather Malas, A Telvanni Mouth.


“The war of the wizards” is a little known event that happened in the far east of Morrowind about a year or so after The Nerevarine destroyed Dagoth Ur and his minions.
It is known as a “war” but it was no such thing, it can be best described as a short-lived feud between two Telvanni.  “War of the Wizards” is a name given to the event by Redoran and Hlaalu gossipers, they called it a “Civil War”, but it was no such thing.  The Telvanni on the other hand shrugged it off as a “small scuffle”, though 300 dead Dunmer and a small town wiped off the face of the map hardly constitutes a “scuffle”, and it hardly constitutes a “civil war” either.  All the Houses that documented the event twisted and warped the story to praise themselves and put down their rivals. This is why I am writing this account, it is not biased in any direction, and it tells the truth and nothing but the truth.

The Actual Feud itself was between one named “Vaan” and Master Alms Rathri of the Telvanni.  Vaan was a powerful member the Telvanni, his exact role, as understood by the public, was of a powerful sorcerer and alchemist who supplied the house with powerful scrolls and potions which held powers for the Telvanni that gave them an advantage over their enemies.  Little known to the public was that he was also a wise, clever, and old Dunmer, a good philosopher, whom I myself had the pleasure of meeting a few times.  Alms Rathri on the other hand was a mere youth by Vaan’s standards; he was also power hungry, Irrational, Tyrannical, and quite Idiotic, as you will find in this out in this book.  I never met Rathri, and I am glad that I will never get the chance to.

The events of this Feud were triggered by Rathri of course.  Rathri had learned that Vaan had Obtained Something that was powerful and terrible.  Indeed, upon questioning Lord Fyr of the Telvanni, I learned that Vaan had indeed mentioned needing a place to store “A knowledge that can make or destroy our future” to the Telvanni Council.  In short, he was requesting a vault sealed by powerful Magicks that none could break; Fyr also told me that Vaan never actually gave a specific answer on what this item was.  Rathri (being a member present at the council) had obviously presumed that Vaan was speaking of a Magical knowledge, and being as power hungry as he was, wanted it for himself.
Rathri was initially diplomatic with Vaan.  He made a visit to Vaan’s plantation east of Port Telvanni, and held audience with Vaan.  The objective of this meeting was of course to find out, in specific, what Vaan was hiding, and how he could obtain it peacefully.  Vaan however was not prepared to comply with Rathri and refused to reveal any information on the item.  Rathri stayed calm, and a week later he tried again, but again Vaan refused.  Rathri tried again at least 10 times, but each time he gained no new knowledge of what the item was.
Vaan told Rathri on his last visit that he may as well stop trying, for he was too young and stupid to even deserve the knowledge that Vaan had.  Rathri made once again the mistake of thinking that “knowledge” meant “magic”, he assumed that Vaan was calling him a novice wizard, (by which Vaan’s standards he was).  Fuming, Rathri decided to take bigger action.  At first, Rathri used his diplomatic skills to attempt to get the other Telvanni wizards to stop doing business with Vaan.  But they would not be budged, this made Rathri ever angrier, and ever more determined to get hold of Vaan’s knowledge, possibly with the new intention of getting rid of Vaan and the Telvanni who thought him to be incompetent (which there were plenty of).
Rathri’s next action was to send a force of experienced thieves into Vaan’s stronghold plantation and raid the place for a record of this knowledge.  The thieves, though as experienced as they were, failed (Rathri of course, had seemingly forgotten that the Telvanni masters had agreed to Vaan’s earlier requests for a super-vault).  Every one of them was captured and held prisoner by Vaan.  Among many of Vaan’s great potions was a type of truth serum that was very popular amongst the Telvanni, and it was quite possible that he used this against his new prisoners, for he managed to extract a great deal of information from their mouths alone.
This is where the actual Feud began; Vaan initially did nothing in response to Rathri’s attempted theft, apart from strengthening his defenses.  Rathri interpreted this of course to mean that the object or knowledge (I don’t think he ever actually knew what he was looking for) was so important that Vaan couldn’t afford to lose it, this made him ever more determined to have it for his own ends. 
And so began the first Battle.

Rathri, in his infinite stupidity, decided to launch a full scale attack against Vaan’s plantation stronghold.  An act of absolute idiocy, but nevertheless legal in Telvanni terms (The law of “If you attack and kill someone, then you clearly deserved to” was stretched to its farthest limit here).  100 of Rathri’s most loyal of soldiers marched to Vaan’s plantation (the majority being mercenaries recently hired, their Loyalty to Rathri stemming from the vast amount of gold he gave them all, Records show that each Mercenary was paid thousands of gold pieces every year to work for Rathri).  Unfortunately, the soldiers clearly knew little of Vaan’s power.  An account of the battle (which took place on the bridge leading to Vaan’s island plantation) was extracted by me from a Soldier loyal to Vaan:

“We met the enemy On the Bridge leading to the Plantation fortress, they must have outnumbered us at least 2 to 1, but numbers were of no concern, since we had Vaan on our side.  Vaan first drew his sword to do physical battle, and physical battle he did, slaying many of the enemy single handedly, we aided him, and we too slew many of the enemy, but retreat they did not.  So Vaan drew upon his powers of Magicka to win the day.  Flames erupted from the waters beneath the bridge, engulfing our enemy, none survived.”

The account is very vague, but it gives us all a good example of what Vaan was capable of.  Vaan decided at that moment that his acquisition was under direct threat, he had attracted unwanted attention from all sides, and people began to gossip as to what he was hiding.  The biggest threat still lay with Alms Rathri however, and Vaan decided to put an end to him forever. 
Alms had a recently built fortress town under his belt, he always resided here, in his central Citadel of Tel Sur, and thus the town had also gained this name.  The town was built as a result of heavy deposits of glass and diamond in the area; essentially it was a mining town.  Under Rathri’s governorship the town had become a fortress, and a hellhole.  Rare reports of the place suggest no religious places being present (hardly surprising considering Rathri was a Telvanni) and of high crime rates, despite a ruthless set of town guards, which added to the hell.
Vaan’s initial plan for Rathri is unknown to us, but we do know that he gathered eventual support with the other Telvanni Councilors of the time and managed to get Rathri chucked out of House Telvanni (A clear example of his influence), Rathri’s response to this was to start laying waste to Northeast Morrowind with his army, and many towns were pillaged and laid waste to.  These, it is supposed, are the actions reminiscent of a war; however, they did not last long, because Vaan himself arrived at Tel Sur a month after the pillaging began.
And so the second Battle began.


Again, there are no Witnesses left to record what Vaan did to Tel Sur, Save for the Vaan’s own account, which was found among the ruins of the citadel.  It says that Vaan summoned terrible Magicks to raze the town to the ground, and while this was underway, he made his own way to the central citadel, ascended it, and slaughtered Rathri.  Upon doing this, Vaan took his secret object and disappeared from the face of the earth, or so it seems.
And so this is what happens to those who face Vaan.  Tel Sur was completely annihilated by his Magicks.  It was not an evil act, but one that destroyed evil (along with 200 Dunmer, all of whom were either prostitutes or smugglers).  Tel Sur was a relatively new town, and thus you will find no records that mention it’s short existence, save for this one.  North East Morrowind recovered quickly, and the Vaan plantation is now run by Vaan’s son, Rufus.  As for the object, well, one worker of the Vaan plantation recalls Vaan Taking several books into the Tel, and a guard recalls 3 books being placed into the Vault of Tel Vaan, and only taken out the night that Vaan Razed Tel Sur to the ground.  It seems probable that the books held this “knowledge” that Vaan spoke of little and Rathri wanted so badly.
As for Vaan’s location now, it is unknown, his son often holds audience with him, but no-one knows where, or when.  Evidence suggests that Vaan is residing in Cyrodill.  We can only presume that he is still in contact with many of the Telvanni councilors, and still influences them a great deal.  Perhaps they do his bidding, I would not put it past them, it isn’t a bad thing, and I would follow Vaan to the end of the world if I could.
Rathri was replaced by another upcoming Telvanni, I am his mouth.  This account is probably the most true you will find, since I was there, and I knew Vaan.  I will sign the piece the way that Vaan does any of his, the accounts of Vaan are always signed in this way:

“Sweet Pandemonium.”

This post has been edited by vaanic~one: Mar 13 2006, 05:28 PM

[jonajosa]

ITs fine.

Good work

[raithen]

Mmmm...

Great job!

[vaanic~one]

oops, I forgot to say! This is a subtle sequel to My biggest work. So you will eventually find out just what it was that Vaan was hiding......as soon as I finish the book(s)

[vaanic~one]

Here is the finished version, I shall submit it to Stargazey Immediately.

“The War of the Wizards”, a short and true History by Ather Malas, A Telvanni Mouth.


“The war of the wizards” is a little known event that happened in the far east of Morrowind about a year or so after The Nerevarine destroyed Dagoth Ur and his minions.
It is known as a “war” but it was no such thing, it can be best described as a short-lived feud between one Telvanni and a valuable Ally of The Telvanni.  “War of the Wizards” is a name given to the event by Redoran and Hlaalu gossipers, they called it a “Civil War”, but it was no such thing.  The Telvanni on the other hand shrugged it off as a “small scuffle”, though 300 dead Dunmer and a small town wiped off the face of the map hardly constitutes a “scuffle”, and it hardly constitutes a “civil war” either.  All the Houses that documented the event twisted and warped the story to praise themselves and put down their rivals. This is why I am writing this account, it is not biased in any direction, and it tells the truth and nothing but the truth.

The Actual Feud itself was between Lord Vaan and Master Alms Rathri of the Telvanni.  Lord Vaan was an ally of the Telvanni, his exact role, as understood by the public, was of a powerful sorcerer and alchemist who supplied the Telvanni Lords with powerful scrolls and potions which held powers for the Telvanni that gave them an advantage over their enemies.  Little known to the public was that he was also a wise, clever, and old Dunmer, a good philosopher, whom I myself had the pleasure of meeting a few times.  Alms Rathri on the other hand was a mere youth by Vaan’s standards; he was also power hungry, Irrational, Tyrannical, and quite Idiotic, as you will find in this out in this book.  I never met Rathri, and I am glad that I will never get the chance to.

The events of this Feud were triggered by Rathri of course.  Rathri had learned that Vaan had Obtained Something that was powerful and terrible.  Indeed, upon questioning Lord Fyr of the Telvanni, I learned that Vaan had indeed mentioned needing a place to store “A knowledge that can make or destroy our future” to the Telvanni Council.  In short, he was requesting a vault sealed by powerful Magicks that none could break; Fyr also told me that Vaan never actually gave a specific answer on what this item was.  Rathri (being a member present at the council) had obviously presumed that Vaan was speaking of a Magical knowledge, and being as power hungry as he was, wanted it for himself.
Rathri was initially diplomatic with Vaan.  He made a visit to Vaan’s plantation east of Port Telvanni, and held audience with Vaan.  The objective of this meeting was of course to find out, in specific, what Vaan was hiding, and how he could obtain it peacefully.  Vaan however was not prepared to comply with Rathri and refused to reveal any information on the item.  Rathri stayed calm, and a week later he tried again, but again Vaan refused.  Rathri tried again at least 10 times, but each time he gained no new knowledge of what the item was.
Vaan told Rathri on his last visit that he may as well stop trying, for he was too young and stupid to even deserve the knowledge that Vaan had.  Rathri made once again the mistake of thinking that “knowledge” meant “magic”, he assumed that Vaan was calling him a novice wizard, (by which Vaan’s standards he was).  Fuming, Rathri decided to take bigger action.  At first, Rathri used his diplomatic skills to attempt to get the other Telvanni wizards to stop doing business with Vaan.  But they would not be budged, this made Rathri ever angrier, and ever more determined to get hold of Vaan’s knowledge, possibly with the new intention of getting rid of Vaan and the Telvanni who thought him to be incompetent (which there were plenty of).
Rathri’s next action was to send a force of experienced thieves into Vaan’s stronghold plantation and raid the place for a record of this knowledge.  The thieves, though as experienced as they were, failed (Rathri of course, had seemingly forgotten that the Telvanni masters had agreed to Vaan’s earlier requests for a super-vault).  Every one of them was captured and held prisoner by Vaan.  Among many of Vaan’s great potions was a type of truth serum that was very popular amongst the Telvanni, and it was quite possible that he used this against his new prisoners, for he managed to extract a great deal of information from their mouths alone.
This is where the actual Feud began; Vaan initially did nothing in response to Rathri’s attempted theft, apart from strengthening his defences.  Rathri interpreted this of course to mean that the object or knowledge (I don’t think he ever actually knew what he was looking for) was so important that Vaan couldn’t afford to lose it, this made him ever more determined to have it for his own ends. 
And so began the first Battle.

Rathri, in his infinite stupidity, decided to launch a full scale attack against Vaan’s plantation stronghold.  An act of absolute idiocy, but nevertheless legal in Telvanni terms (The law of “If you attack and kill someone, then you clearly deserved to” was stretched to its farthest limit here).  100 of Rathri’s most loyal of soldiers marched to Vaan’s plantation (the majority being mercenaries recently hired, their Loyalty to Rathri stemming from the vast amount of gold he gave them all, Records show that each Mercenary was paid thousands of gold pieces every year to work for Rathri).  Unfortunately, the soldiers clearly knew little of Vaan’s power.  An account of the battle (which took place on the bridge leading to Vaan’s island plantation) was extracted by me from a Soldier loyal to Vaan:

“We met the enemy On the Bridge leading to the Plantation fortress, they must have outnumbered us at least 2 to 1, but numbers were of no concern, since we had the Dark Lord on our side (The servants of Vaan always called him this, despite the fact that he was a very nice man, he still wielded terrible powers in battle, and this gained him such a title, one which was exercised by many more ignorant mouths after the Feud).  The Dark Lord first drew his sword to do physical battle, and physical battle he did, slaying many of the enemy single handedly, we aided him, and we too slew many of the enemy, but retreat they did not.  So our Dark Lord drew upon his powers of Magicka to win the day.  Flames erupted from the waters beneath the bridge, engulfing our enemy, none survived.”

The account is vague, but it gives us all a good example of what Vaan was capable of, more interesting is the idea of Vaan being a “Dark Lord”, he seems to have bore that title with the public of Morrowind ever since the Feud.  Anyway, back to our story.  Vaan decided at that moment that his acquisition was under direct threat, he had attracted unwanted attention from all sides, and people began to gossip as to what he was hiding.  The biggest threat still lay with Alms Rathri however, and Vaan decided to put an end to him forever. 
Alms had a recently built fortress town under his belt, he always resided here, in his central Citadel of Tel Sur, and thus the town had also gained this name.  The town was built as a result of heavy deposits of glass and diamond in the area; essentially it was a mining town.  Under Rathri’s governorship the town had become a fortress, and a hellhole.  Rare reports of the place suggest no religious places being present (hardly surprising considering Rathri was a Telvanni) and of high crime rates, despite a ruthless set of town guards, which added to the hell.
Vaan’s initial plan for Rathri is unknown to us, but we do know that he gathered eventual support with the other Telvanni Councillors of the time and managed to get Rathri chucked out of House Telvanni, Rathri’s response to this was to start laying waste to Northeast Morrowind with his army, and many towns were pillaged and laid waste to.  These, it is supposed, are the actions reminiscent of a war; however, they did not last long, because Vaan himself arrived at Tel Sur a month after the pillaging began.
And so the second Battle began.


Again, there are no Witnesses left to record what Vaan did to Tel Sur, Save for the Dark Lord’s own account, which was found among the ruins of the citadel.  It says that Vaan summoned terrible Magicks to raze the town to the ground, and while this was underway, he made his own way to the central citadel, ascended it, and slaughtered Rathri.  Upon doing this, Vaan took his secret object and disappeared from the face of the earth, or so it seems.
And so this is what happens to those who face the dark lord.  Tel Sur was completely annihilated by Vaan’s Magicks.  It was not an evil act, but one that destroyed evil (along with 200 Dunmer, all of whom were either prostitutes or smugglers).  Tel Sur was a relatively new town, and thus you will find no records that mention it’s short existence, save for this one.  North East Morrowind recovered quickly, and the Vaan plantation is now run by Vaan’s son, Rufus.  As for the object, well, one worker of the Vaan plantation recalls Vaan Taking several books into the Tel, and a guard recalls 3 books being placed into the Vault of Tel Vaan, and only taken out the night that the Dark Lord Razed Tel Sur to the ground.  It seems probable that the books held this “knowledge” that Vaan spoke of little and Rathri wanted so badly.
As for Vaan’s location now, it is unknown, his son often holds audience with him, but no-one knows where, or when.  Evidence suggests that Vaan is residing in Cyrodill.  We can only presume that the Dark Lord is still in contact with many of the Telvanni councillors, and still influences them a great deal.  Perhaps they do his bidding, I would not put it past them, it isn’t a bad thing, I would follow the Dark Lord to the end of the world if I could.
Rathri was replaced by another upcoming Telvanni, I am his mouth.  This account is probably the most true you will find, since I was there, and I knew Vaan.  I will sign the piece the way that Vaan does any of his, the account’s of Vaan are always signed in this way:

“Sweet Pandemonium.”

And of course, On the Theme of Vaan: Here be his (Ok, Mine) Eternal Symbol:

[vaanic~one]

And for those who were wondering: This is what Lord Vaan looks like:

Vaan 1

Vaan 2

Vaan 3

[raithen]

Sorry, had to!




'Twas my thoughts upon reading your title.

[vaanic~one]

Hahaha, very funny!

[raithen]

Yes, I have no life. Took me something like three hours just to change the letters around--And it's not even a good job!

This post has been edited by raithen: Jul 27 2005, 01:40 AM

[vaanic~one]

Yes, I have no life. Took me something like three hours just to change the letters around--And it's not even a good job!

of all the reactions I thought that I would get from this story, three hours spent manipulating film posters for it was NOT one of them!

I feel truly priveledged Raithen.

And I do wish that Stargazey would reply to made submissions.......Something along the lines of "I got your story, it's being added in" would be nice.

I am one of those people that needs to know what's going on.

and no, I am not smiling quite as much as post suggests.








This post has been edited by vaanic~one: Jul 28 2005, 09:25 PM