Editing Scrollhammer: Holds of Skyrim (section)

====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.