Editing Scrollhammer: Holds of Skyrim (section)

===History===

====The Dawn of History====

In the time after the Dawn, when the gods ceased to walk Nirn, the land of Tamriel was wild and mysterious. It was here that the beast people dwelt, their history unrecorded.  The Mer, the Elves and Dwarves, came to Tamriel in this time, and forged great civilizations. Many of the mer dwelt for ages in the south and the west, in the lands of Summurset, Pyandonea, and Valenwood. But other mer spread northwards: a cruel civilization of High Elves dwelt around the Niben, while beyond them to Resdayn journeyed the Chimer, followers of the Prophet Veloth. The Dwemer, or Dwarves, inhabited all the northern half of Tamriel, building great cities of wonder beneath the ground. And the Falmer, the Snow Elves, built above the lands of the north great cities of beauty, carved of ice and stone. This was the golden age of the elves.

But at that time, mankind dwelt in the other reaches of the world; one race of man in Yokuda, and the other, the Nedes, in Atmora. Atmora, a cold isle with green summers, two thousand miles north of Tamriel. Once part of Tamriel in the Dawn Era, this land was torn off in a war between the gods. It was here that the Nedes lived a primitive life, as nomadic hunters, while elves built great cities in the lands to the south. But the Nedes held great faith in Shor, Son of Shor, and his wife Kyne, who had breathed them into existence when they created the world. The other gods, too, they worshiped, often in the shape of animals; the great Dragon Akatosh was among these, and his children, the Dragons, were held in awe and reverence by the warrior men of old. The orders of the Dragon Priests were founded on Atmora, lawgivers, advisors to kings, who sought to act as intermediaries between men and dragons.

But this age of barbarism came to an end as an endless winter came upon Atmora. The land froze, with a dread wind, so that nothing could grow there again. The chieftains of Atmora gathered in council, but could not agree on how to weather such cold. They flew into anger at one another, and raised armies against one another. Mankind flew into a bloody civil war, tearing each other to pieces in their own misery.

====The Saga of Ysgramor====

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'''The First Migration'''

After a long age of strife and starvation, a wise chieftain rose up from among the barbarians, Ysgramor by name. He sought a better life, a place of peace and prosperity for his kin to settle. He had heard the tales explorers had told of a lost land where Man had first been created, far to the south. He and his household, and all other Nedes who yearned for refuge, built great longships, sailing southwards to begin anew. Through the Sea of Ghosts they sailed, to the frozen land they would one day call the East March. Here they settled in an uninhabited part of the land, building a town they called Saarthal. They farmed the land, turning the better habits of the Atmorans into the beginnings of a civilization. In a short span of years, two sons had Ysgramor fathered, the wise Yngol and the brave Ylgar.

But the Snow Elves looked upon these settlers and hated them. For they worshiped Shor, who to the elves was Lorkhan, the great evil who had bereft them of their divinity. For while the Nedes believed the gods were the brothers of Shor, and the goddesses his wives, and together they worked to build the world for man, the Elves believed that the god who created the world did so out of trickery, and trapped the other gods in the world against their will. The elves were minor divine beings, their legends told, before the treachery of Lorkhan. And the Nedes were ever growing in number, a free and happy people: soon, the Elves feared, the servants of the Doom Drum would become a threat to them.

'''The Night of Tears'''

In a single night, under the cover of darkness, a great host of the Snow Elves rode out from their shining cities and crept into Saarthal. They set torches to it, and slaughtered every man, woman and child within its walls. But Ysgramor and his sons took up arms in time to resist the attack, and fled weeping into the mists, the Elves hot on their trail. They lived in hiding, now, betrayed by the Snow Elves, their friends and loved ones lying dead and unburied.

But Ysgramor would not give up. He and his sons slew game for provisions, and hewed down trees in the dark parts of the wood. They made a great ship from the logs. Ysgramor returned to Atmora for the first time in many decades.

'''The Return'''

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When the people of Atmora learned that Ysgramor still lived, and that the lands to the south were fertile yet filled with enemies, many of them sought to conquer Tamriel in the spirit of adventure. Five hundred great heroes did Ysgramor muster, his Companions, and each swore an oath of vengeance for the clans slaughtered by the Elves. Ysgramor's childhood friend, the sailor Jeek of the River, granted the strongest of the warriors passage to Tamriel in his longship the Jorvasskr. It was in this ship that Ysgramor himself sailed, followed by the ships of the other warriors. And the greatest blacksmiths in the land made for Ysgramor a shield in the shape of a dragon's head, by whose protection no Elvish sorcery could harm him. The great rune-axe Wuuthrad they presented to him as well, the visage of a screaming elf at its center. No smith before, nor in ages to come, could ever match the power of Ysgramor's axe and shield.

The longships sailed forth, and landed at the snowy cape near the East March. But Ysgramor did not count his son Yngol among the number of his Companions. Long he searched and pined for his son, but too late he found that his son was lost at sea, taken by the Sea-Ghosts, his lifeless body floating in the waves. Again Ysgramor wept, and buried Yngol in a great barrow by the shore. Many great beasts he slew for the burial-feast.

The Snow Elves, however, learned of the arrival of Ysgramor and his men. The attacked Ysgramor in his camp just as they had done at Saarthal. But this time, the Sons of Shor were prepared, and the Elves were crushed in battle. Ysgramor commanded the elves who had surrended to build a great stone fortress by the tomb of Yngol, and a great bridge across a river mouth, in which his army would be able to encamp safe from further attacks. Years it took for the great palace to be complete; when it was built at last, it was named Windhelm, City of Kings, and there Ysgramor sat on his throne, ruling his people as more and more Nedes came to settle in the new land.

But Ysgramor's conquests did not end there. His armies pressed westward, and northward across Solstheim, sworn to take vengeance upon the Elves wherever they found them. The Elves were scattered, their cities burned, their armies defeated, and their people humiliated. Great were these conflicts, and endless was the slaughter brought upon the Elves by vengeful blades. Terrified now by the wrath of Ysgramor and his last surviving son Ylgar, they fled to the mountains. Some lived on for centuries, but their numbers dwindled. In Solstheim, the great and noble Snow Prince himself fell before the axes of the north, after a long struggle. He was buried with honor for his valor, granted a barrow for his burial just as the great Nord heroes were given. As the Snow Elves were defeated again and again, it soon came to be that only the habitations of Man, and the underground cities of the Dwarves, remained in the lowlands.

As Ysgramor's armies conquered the lands to the west, one by one the heroes settled down, followed by many others coming from Atmora. In the heart of the lowlands, beneath the Throat of the World, that great mountain atop which Kyne had breathed life into the first man and woman, Jeek of the River found a great forge, indestructible, above which towered a great statue of an eagle. This statue was considered by the Snow Elves a divine relic, and thus they never would ascend the hill on which it stood. Jeek saw it therefore as a gift to him from the gods; he claimed the forge for itself, naming it the Skyforge in honor of Kyne's great power. There his smiths went to work, and forged blades and armor of wondrous power. Jeek and many of the Companions thus chose to settle at this place, and upon the hill built the great mead-hall Jorvasskr, named for the ship they had made their journey on. It was here that the Companions of Ysgramor all came to live, even after the death of their founder, for the many eras to follow. And around the hall many tradesmen and farmers settled, and named the town Whiterun.

Many other Companions, their sagas too many to name, set sail once more, journeying in their longships to all the lands of the earth: Yokuda, the land of dark-skinned men, in the west, Resdayn in the east, and the lands of the elves and beast-folk in the south. This knowledge was returned to Ysgramor. Ysgramor ruled his kingdom for many years, and it prospered; he made a written language for his people, and built many other cities. But he was still mortal. After all those many years he died, to feast and do battle forever in the great mead-hall of Shor. Ylgar reigned as High King in his place, but the Companions never called another man their leader. The land he conquered, Mereth to the elves, became known as Skyrim, the newfound homeland of mankind. As the Nedes migrated to many other parts of Tamriel, and the men of Yokuda came across the sea to the lands west of Skyrim, those who remained in the north became known as the Northmen, or Nords. It is they who remained the true heirs to Ysgramor, and who forever remembered Ysgramor as the greatest hero of mankind.

====The Dragon War====

It was in the age of Ysgramor's sons that the Dragon Cult followed the travelers from Atmora to Skyrim. In the mountains of the east of the land dwelt the eyries of many great Dragons, the mightiest of which was Alduin World-Eater, firstborn of Akatosh, Bringer of End Times. It is he who had been prophesied to swallow the world into nothingness, and reigned as lord over all Dragons. But it is the desire of a Dragon to dominate all who are weaker than him; so it came to be that Alduin and his younger brothers, though sons of the time-god Akatosh, claimed to the Nords to be Akatosh himself in mortal form. The Dragon Cult raised up great and foul sacrifices to these Dragon tyrants, and in exchange were granted immortality, at the cost of the lives of their subjects. All Nords, once the most free of all men, a budding civilization, became slaves to the Dragon Cult and to Alduin's false claim to godhood. The Dragons held the power of the Thu'um, or the Voice, the ability to through their breath and very words command reality to alter to their whim. No blade could slay that which could turn it to dust with a whisper, no armor could withstand that which could breathe engulfing flames down from the heavens. All Nords lived in misery, under the Dragon Cults and their puppet kings.

But Shor and his wife Kyne could not suffer to see their children oppressed so. So Kyne, through divine wind, granted unto all mortals the power to use the Thu'um too, should they exert themselves to do so with all their spirit. The great Dragon Paarthurnax, greatest of Alduin's lieutenants, scourge of mortals, performed an act of betrayal against Dragonkind, but an act of salvation for mankind; he showed those whose fathers he had once feasted upon how to use the Thu'um, and taught them the sacred language in which it must be spoken. The power of the Dragons had been stolen by mortals. Mankind rose up against the tyranny of the Dragon Cult, slaying them and all those who still worshiped the Dragons, and through the power of the Thu'um cast the Dragons down from the sky and slew them.

But Alduin would not be put down with ease. Every Dragon the heroes slew, he shouted back to life with the Thu'um. Every hero who challenged him, he shouted to ashes. None could withstand his power. Yet he was banished to the aether by a means long forgotten; some say he was slain, but he was a god all along, and thus lived on. Others say he was caught up in his own prophecy, written for him in the Elder Scrolls. But all Nords fear that one day he may return, to bring about the end times.

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From these ruins was Skyrim rebuilt. The line of Ysgramor was no longer held back by the tyranny of Dragons, and was restored to its former glory. The many Jarls of those who had risen up returned to their people, and declared them free. But those who had sided with the Dragons and had fallen in battle were not allowed into Sovngarde by Shor, but rather forever wandered the land as the Draugr, the restless dead.

====The Rise of Mankind====

So it came to pass that Skyrim grew in size, expanding across many conquered lands, battling treacherous Elves and brute monsters in a never-ending struggle against the perils of the world. Too many glorious tales to name can be sung of this age; for the ancient art of song, that blessed wind of Kyne, was only made more noble when the power of the Thu'um was given to the Nords. For they knew that their very life's breath allowed to them to slay Dragons and grant them strength. It was breath and speech that granted them life in the mortal world, and even after their departure to Sovngarde, their deeds lived on through the songs breathed by others.

King Harald, 13th of the line of Ysgramor, completed this conquest. The long war against the Snow Elves ended after many centuries, when Harald defeated them once more. The Snow Elves were never seen again; many say that the Nords massacred them in cruel brutality, others say that those few that remained intermarried with Nords or with other elves, and faded into memory. But little trace that such a glorious and proud civilization had ever existed remained in the land; soon they became a myth, a superstition, a child's tale.

It was around this time that in the south, the humans whose ancestors had traveled to the jungle lands rose up against their Elven slavemasters and overthrew them, with the aid of the gods and many Nordic warriors. An empire for mankind had been founded in the heart of Tamriel. King Vrage, too, formed an empire of his own, taking the Western Reach, the crags to the west of Skyrim, and attacking the Elves in Resdayn to the east.

====The Wars of Succession====

High King Borgas was the last known descendant of Ysgramor's line. A century after the conquests of Vrage, Borgas died, causing the Jarls of Skyrim to convene in the Moot to determine the new High King. A bloody quarrel arose, and Skyrim fell into civil war. At this time, it lost control of Morrowind and the Western Reach. Chaos reigned throughout the land, with brigandry and the predations of the last few remaining dragons running rampant. The warrior Olaf One-Eye, the ruler of Whiterun, was named High King by Pact of the Chieftains after his capture and imprisonment of the particularly infamous dragon Numinex. But the borders of Skyrim had shrunk considerably over the past hundred years of conflict.

It was in this age that great Wulfharth arose, a mighty Tongue, whose Thu'um was so strong that he could not speak without unleashing it. He was Dragonborn, possessing the gift a Dragon's soul, the same that Alessia and her line bore. He was the Shezzarine, the champion of Shor through whom mighty Shor could influence the world of mortals. When the last of Olaf's line fell in battle against the Alessian Empire, he was named High King. He purged the land of the influence of Alessia's line, putting to death all priests who worshiped the gods in the manner of the men of the south. Through the Thu'um he saved his people from many perils, and led them to battle to come to the aid of the Dwarves and reclaim Resdayn from the Elves; for there it was said that Shor's heart itself beat within a great mountain of fire. But his armies were scattered before the power of Nerevar, an Elven hero bearing the blessing of the mysterious gods Azura, Boethiah and Mephala. He fell in battle at long last, but his name would be remembered for all time.

Soon after this day, the Dwarves disappeared in circumstances shrouded in mystery. Only the Nords remained from among the civilizations that had once inhabited Skyrim.

====The Golden Age of Skyrim====

Skyrim grew in might, her heroes of old not forgotten in their sacrifices. Through the ages, the Nords of Skyrim retained the old ways of the Nedes, although mixed at times with the more cosmopolitan habits of their kinsmen the Imperials. At various times they served the various iterations of the Empire, and at other times were independent. The tales of this time are endless in number. As long as could be dreamed of, the common people of Skyrim, free from Elvish tyranny, toiled hard in their fields, drank hard in their mead halls, and fought hard on the field of battle. 

It was at this time, though, that the Thu'um began to be lost as an art and as a weapon. Jurgen Windcaller was the mightiest of the Tongues in the First Era, his power over the Thu'um unmatched. He shouted his enemies into defeat battle after battle, but grew tired of the slaughter after many years. Upon the defeat of King Wulfharth at Red Mountain, Jurgen began to wonder if the Thu'um was truly a tool meant to be used freely, or merely a gift for the worship of the gods, only to be used for harm in the darkest of times. He pondered this for years, and at last proclaimed that the Thu'um should not be used as a weapon, but only as a means of rendering praise to Kyne. The other Tongues challenged him over this; he swallowed their Shouts, and forced them into submission. The Tongues of Skyrim formed the Order of the Greybeards, living as monks atop the Throat of the World, and ceasing to use their power in battle.

But the power of the Thu'um was far from becoming a myth. For a hero arose in the Second Era, Talos, a master of its art both in battle and in worship.

Talos was said to be born in Falkreath, the densely forested land in the south of Skyrim. As a general to Cuhlecain, he led the armies of Falkreath to victory against Cuhlecain's rival Jarls and the Bretons of High Rock. Upon Cuhlecain's death, he took control of the armies, and conquered all of Tamriel through the Power of the Thu'um. For Shor dwelt within his heart, and even in life he reached nigh-omnipotence, shouting all the jungles of the Niben into a temperate forest, that Man might be able to tame lands they could not touch before. He crowned himself Tiber Septim, Dragonborn Emperor of Cyrodiil, and upon his neck took up the amulet of kings. He was Ysmir, Dragon of the North, Nord hero in the ways of old, conqueror of all Tamriel. Talos founded the College of the Voice in his age, so that the art of the Thu'um might be preserved for later eras. So great was his power that upon his death, he did not merely take a place in Sovngarde, but took up Shor's missing place on the Wheel of Existence itself. Talos became a living god, wielding eternal powers to protect mankind wherever Shor, as ruler of the dead, could not. It was this act that tied mankind forever to the stars, making them equal in divine power to the Elves.

As the heart of Talos' empire, Skyrim prospered, its people more affluent than their ancestors could ever imagine. Much evil arose in it, however; the madness of Pelagius, onetime Jarl and eventually an Emperor, and the reign of the witch-queen Potema. The decadence and corruption of the Empire had come to Skyrim.

====The Fall of The Third Empire====

But this era, the Third Era, came to an end. The hordes of the demon Mehrunes Dagon burnt it to ashes, and much of it splintered. Skyrim remained loyal, however, its armies fighting to protect Talos' legacy to the end. But as the last of the Dragonborn sacrificed himself to summon Akatosh himself to stop Dagon's rampage, the line of Talos withered away, the College of the Voice made no more. The Thu'um was lost, and the Nords were left in a decadent and slowly dwindling Empire, with no hero to lead them to battle.

A death knell was tolled when the Elves of Summurset Isle broke away from the Empire. Led by an order of mages known as the Thalmor, they took up the task of undoing the work of Shor, and destroy the world, and even the very possibility of mankind's existence, in hopes of attaining godhood. They made war upon the Empire, and forced the weak Emperor into submission. 

====The Coming of the World-Doom====

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The worship of Talos was forbidden by the Thalmor on pain of a slow death, and Elvish agents were sought to root it out wherever they might find it. These forces formed a secret police, scouring Skyrim for any who might still bear loyalty to the god-hero.

The Nords bore this oppression for decades. But many could not stand for long to watch their people, once free, forcibly marched along the path to extermination. With fiery words, the Prophet of Talos, Heimskr of Whiterun, preached day and night, protected by the gods alone as he spoke the truth aloud. Many others, too, plotted against the Thalmor in secret, even though doing so would put their lives and those of their loved ones at stake.

Among these was the Jarl of the East March, Ulfric Stormcloak. A former soldier for the Empire taken prisoner by the Thalmor, he vowed to one day destroy them. Many battles he fought to reclaim the Western Reach for the Nords, that he might be granted freedom to worship Talos as a reward, but he was betrayed. All around him, others cowered in fear of the Thalmor and the Imperial Legion. Ulfric challenged the young High King Torygg to combat by champion in the city of Solitude, invoking the ancient power of the Thu'um in honor of Talos and his ancestors. He slew the Imperial puppet king, and fled eastwards. Ulfric rose up in rebellion with the armies of half of Skyrim in the name of Talos, against the remnant of the very empire that Talos had created.

Ulfric's rebels met swift defeat at the hands of the Imperial Legion, near the village of Helgen. At the day of his execution, a strange roar was heard in the sky. A terrible creature descended from the skies upon the village, destroying it with its voice. In the midst of the chaos, Ulfric's supporters entered the village, slaying many Imperial legionnaires and cutting loose his bonds. But the Nords looked into the sky in terror upon this day; for as mankind was plunged into civil war, as their ancient enemies the Elves plotted to blot their names from existence, the harbinger of the end had appeared before them. Alduin had returned.