| Book Compilation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Note | |||
| This is a compilation of books assembled for easier reading. |
Pt. 1
Who are we? From where do we come? Like many others, I have given much thought to these questions. For me, the answers begin in the ancient story of Clan Corelanya, my people. This is our tale, as I understand it.
Time is the destroyer of what went before. We inherit the conflicts and choices of our forebears, yet as the years go by those people and their decisions are forgotten. Memories fade, the makers and eyewitnesses of history pass away, and even the monuments on which their names are written eventually crumble into ruin.
No historian can completely undo the losses of the centuries. Yet with my quill, perhaps I can answer a few of those questions that trouble us and stave off the inevitable forgetting for one more generation.
Part 1: From Summerset to Hammerfell
I cannot say how our distant ancestors came to Summerset. All I know is they first entered the annals of history when Saint Veloth lived and taught in Summerset. My distant ancestor, an Aldmeri kinlady named Valarmil Corela, fell in with the great prophet. She followed Veloth throughout the troubled years when the Sapiarchs and the high king sought to suppress his movement.
In time, Saint Veloth decided to lead his followers to a place where they would be free to worship as they pleased. The tale of the Velothi pilgrimage to Morrowind is well chronicled elsewhere. What is less known is that not all of Saint Veloth's followers in Summerset made the journey with their prophet. Some could not bring themselves to abandon the wealth and comfort of home for an arduous trek to an unknown end. Others could not bear to leave loved ones behind. And still others felt bound by duty to honor old oaths of fealty to the crown.
Kinlady Corela was one of these. She and her household remained in Summerset when the Velothi departed. In private, they continued to practice their faith as Saint Veloth had taught them, even though the worship of Daedra fell into disfavor after the Velothi exodus.
Centuries passed, during which Kinlady Corela's descendants prospered despite the suppression of Velothi beliefs. The Corelanyas grew into a noble house blessed with wealth, numbers, and skilled soldiers. Yet their devotion to the Daedric powers remained a political liability. No high king trusted the Corelanyas with a fief to govern.
The situation in Summerset finally grew intolerable for Clan Corelanya in the years following the Alessian rebellion. Confronted with a rising power in Cyrodiil that distrusted Elves and despised Daedric worship, High King Tenalarion enacted a harsh new ban on Velothi beliefs. Rather than submit to the confiscation of their properties and imprisonment of their leaders, Clan Corelanya chose to leave Summerset.
As a noble house with significant commercial interests, the Corelanyas were well acquainted with the isles and coasts beyond Summerset. In the year 1E 522, Sundavar Corelanya sailed to the shores of Hammerfell and founded a kingdom of his own. Taking the title of first kinlord, he established a new capital in the former Ayleid city of Salas En.
At first, the Corelanyas prospered in Hammerfell. Corelanya merchant ships carried trade throughout the Abecean Sea. Careful to remain neutral with the high kings and queens of Summerset, the Corelanya kinlords were friendly with Clan Direnni to the north and profited from trade with the Wood Elf kingdoms of Valenwood. To the east they eagerly explored the shores of Tamriel as far as Topal Bay and beyond. Buoyed by Daedric patronage and protection, Clan Corelanya thrived in their new home.
Yet at the height of Clan Corelanya's power, an implacable new enemy appeared. The sails of the Yokudan Ra Gada on the horizon signaled the end of the Corelanyan realm in Hammerfell. That is a tale for my next essay.
Pt. 2
In this second volume of my history of Clan Corelanya, I continue the account of my house and my people. This is our tale as I know it.
Part 2: The Coming of the Ra Gada
I have already written about how First Kinlord Sundavar brought Clan Corelanya out of Summerset and established a Corelanya kingdom in Hammerfell at Salas En. A proud mercantile realm, they flourished under the protection of their Daedric patrons. To Azura they looked for knowledge and understanding. Nocturnal they revered as their protector. And to Molag Bal they turned when they needed the strength to defy their foes, the Giant Goblins of the desert and the Alessian Order.
Since the hostile desert tribes blocked their way inland, Sundavar Corelanya's heirs turned their ambitions to the sea. From hidden havens on Cape Shira, Corelanya galleys sailed in search of rich lands for their merchants to exploit. Few roamed farther or brought home more riches than Sundavar's great-granddaughter, Iniel. Born in 1E 667 to Kinlord Roliondil, the kinheir grew up to be an intrepid explorer and a bold conqueror, eagerly working to extend the dominions that would one day be hers.
In the year 1E 723, Kinheir Iniel landed on the distant island of Solstice and encountered its somnolent Argonian civilization for the first time. Three years later, she returned with a powerful fleet, determined to subjugate Solstice. Here Iniel met with failure. the [sic] Stone-Nest people rallied against her invasion and drove her forces from their island. But during her ill-fated campaign, Iniel discovered the dark citadel of Mor Naril, the abandoned Daedric temple-city, and plundered some of its necromantic secrets.
Not long after her return to Hammerfell, Iniel became kinlady. She was a strong and uncompromising ruler, and her high-handed ways alienated Clan Corelanya's allies. There were also whispers of Kinlady Iniel's dealings with darker Daedric patrons. Unfortunately for the Corelanyas, in 1E 808 an enemy appeared at Cape Shira against whom Kinlady Iniel could have used more allies. The third wave of the Yokudan Ra Gada sailed from the Yath under Grandee Yaghoub and established the realm of Sentinel on the very doorstep of Salas En.
Kinlady Iniel had no interest in making room for her new neighbors, nor did the Ra Gada care to ignore a kingdom of Daedra-worshiping mer in lands they intended to take for their own. For years, the Corelanyas defended the approaches to Salas En with powerful magic and stealthy raids. Ra Gada expeditions were blinded by sandstorms, deceived with mirages, and assailed by summoned Daedra. The proud warriors of Sentinel grew to hate the "accursed city," but for many years the Corelanya defenses held.
Then, in 1E 853, King Xakhwan resolved to finally break the deadlock. Summoning allies from neighboring Yokudan realms, he assembled a mighty army and marched on Ash'abah Pass. His sons, the princes Haqmir and Sameer, led the charge. Corelanya illusion and stealth were no match for such a direct and powerful stroke. In desperation, Kinlady Iniel unleashed her darkest and most dreadful magic, the necromancy she had found in Mor Naril in her youth. She called upon Molag Bal, raising those who fell in battle to fight again and again in her defense.
Sorely beset by their own dead, Prince Haqmir and Prince Sameer nevertheless pushed onward. Against their determination, Kinlady Iniel had one last ploy—she sent her most powerful necromancer, Wraithmaster Venerien, to slay King Xakhwan. The Ra Gada princes found themselves forced to turn their blades against the corpse of their own father. But not even this desperate tactic could save Salas En. Kinlady Iniel was cut down by the vengeful princes and her city destroyed.
Few Corelanyas escaped from the sack and ruin of Salas En.
Pt. 3
This comprises the third volume of my history of Clan Corelanya. This is the story of my people, or as much of it as I know.
Part 3: From Salas En to Solstice
In the space of a single century, Clan Corelanya fell from the height of its power to the very nadir of its fortunes. Few Elves escaped from the destruction of Salas En in 1E 853. The Ra Gada were already fierce adversaries, but when Corelanya necromancers raised their own fallen warriors against them, a bitter feud turned into a holy war. In the months that followed Kinlady Iniel's defeat, Ra Gada warbands scoured Hammerfell for Corelanya havens and slaughtered all they found within. Quarter was neither asked nor given.
Yet some Corelanyas survived this catastrophe. As I have written before, the strength of the house was in its trade routes and mercantile outposts, a golden necklace of hidden harbors and small settlements dotting the shores of the Abecean Sea and Topal Bay. At the time King Xakhwan resolved to march on Salas En, nearly a third of all Corelanyas lived in these overseas posts—beyond the reach of the vengeful Ra Gada.
Kinlady Iniel left behind no close heirs, but a cousin by the name of Earlenque Corelanya stepped up to assume the mantle of leadership. Lady Earlenque governed those Corelanya estates that remained in Summerset. Throughout the three centuries of Corelanya rule in Hammerfell, the house maintained a few old holdings in their original homeland as part of their mercantile empire. So it was that the survivors of Salas En returned to Summerset in 1E 855. Corelanyas from other overseas outposts rendered untenable by the collapse of the Corelanya realm likewise retreated homeward.
The Corelanya refugees found a cold welcome in Summerset. Lady Earlenque beseeched High King Naurnindon of Summerset for aid, hoping to win back Corelanya lands with Summerset's armies. The high king was sympathetic to High Elves who suffered from the Ra Gada invasion, but he hesitated to launch a war against such a strong and fierce people. It was also politically impossible. Stories of Kinlady Iniel's Daedric alliances and her flagrant use of necromancy had followed the Corelanyas back to Summerset, and High King Naurnindon feared jeopardizing his own position by taking up their cause.
The awkward situation endured for some time. When High Elves find themselves unwilling to make a decision, we can spend decades finding new ways to say, "not yet," or "It would be unwise to act in haste." After years of frustration, Lady Earlenque quietly turned her efforts to one of the high king's rivals, Kinlady Arlinwe of Firsthold. She hoped to bring a new ruler to the throne, one who would promise to help the Corelanyas retake their lands.
Alas, Lady Earlenque's machinations went awry. Her ally Arlinwe moved too boldly against the high king and lost her chance to supplant him. Several noble houses linked to Kinlady Arlinwe fell with her, including the Corelanyas. In 1E 909, High King Naurnindon revoked his welcome and gave Earlenque a choice: loss of titles and properties, or exile. Bitterly humiliated, Lady Earlenque chose exile. Quite a few of Kinlady Arlinwe's former supporters found it advisable to join the Corelanyas, and they left Summerset at that time.
While the Clan Corelanya holdings in and around Hammerfell were long gone by that point, the house still controlled a handful of far-scattered harbors. Lady Earlenque resolved to bring her people to one of these and establish a realm-in-exile beyond the reach of their old Ra Gada enemies or an angry high king in Summerset. Of the old mercantile harbors, one offered both remote location and room to grow—Solstice, the island discovered by Iniel Corelanya two hundred years before.
And so we came to our new home.
Pt. 4
Dear reader, you hold the fourth volume in my history of Clan Corelanya. This is the story of my people, as I know it.
Part 4: The Peace of Xor-Hist
No longer welcome in domains under the control of the high king of Summerset, Lady Earlenque Corelanya and her clan retreated to the distant island of Solstice to establish a new Corelanya realm. In the fall of 1E 909, her fleet dropped anchor in the bay of Sunport.
Solstice was a perfect refuge for the clan. It offered a defensible location against their enemies in the west, provided an excellent harbor, and featured a small Corelanya outpost from the days when Kinheir Iniel had attempted to subjugate the island in the early years of the eighth century. Also, the rough waters around the island and the legends of curses (most likely related to the ancient Daedric presence on the island) made Solstice a true safe haven for the exiled High Elves. While Iniel never subdued the native Argonians, she had laid the foundations for a fortified haven on Solstice, and Corelanya merchant ships still visited the island from time to time to engage in trade with a wary Argonian populace.
More by luck than design, Clan Corelanya returned to Solstice at a good time. In the two hundred years since Corelanya's first ill-fated expedition, the region immediately around Sunport Bay had become deserted. The more numerous and advanced tribes, the Stone-Nest People, lived in stone cities on the eastern side of the island, while most of the Argonians residing in western Solstice were Tide-Born, simple villagers who lived along the outer coast. Earlenque Corelanya took for herself the title Kinlady of Sunport and set about establishing a new Corelanya realm.
Wary of rousing the hostility of their more numerous neighbors, Kinlady Earlenque took care to limit settlement to Sunport and its immediate environs. She focused on building up the city's defenses and giving her people a chance to grow strong again. Solstice's Argonians, a pragmatic people, were content to live and let live. There was little friendship between the groups, but neither was their open hostility.
The nature of the relationship shifted when Earlenque Corelanya passed in 1E 1017 and her son Orlemar became kinlord. Clan Corelanya had grown strong over a hundred years, and in Orlemar's estimation Sunport was too narrow a kingdom for his people when so much of western Solstice remained thinly settled. Under Kinlord Orlemar, ambitious nobles were granted the right to build towers and estates all across the island. Most of Sunport's colleges, modeled after the Sapiarchs back in Summerset, were eager to begin shaping the island to their purposes, as well.
At first, Corelanyas merely took land left empty by the Tide-Born Argonians of the west. But as the Tide-Born retreated, Corelanya ambitions grew. Whole Argonian villages found themselves enclosed by Corelanya estates, their lands swallowed up in agreements that were often one-sided or dubious in origin. For the first time since Clan Corelanya's return to Solstice, strife and skirmishing between Elf and Argonian broke out.
The Tide-Born had little success in repelling Corelanya advances. Simple and scattered, they lacked the numbers, weapons, or the magical aptitude to defeat a well-armed Corelanya force, so instead they gave way. However, the Stone-Nest Argonians proved more resilient. Corelanya lords who attempted to establish estates on land a Stone-Nest tribe considered sensitive found themselves facing hundreds of grim-faced warriors, ready for a fight. Other lords were simply struck down in secret, as Solstice's Argonians proved themselves surprisingly skilled at assassination.
The growing tension between Solstice's two peoples finally came to a head in the time of Kinlord Kevarian, Orlemar's grandson. Three short wars in 1E 1172, 1E 1190, and 1E 1194 saw Corelanya expeditions invade Stone-Nest xanmeer-cities and Stone-Nest warbands ravage Corelanya estates up to Sunport's very walls. In the stalemate that followed, several Corelanya kinlords were assassinated, until Kinlady Torinwe finally sought to make peace.
In 1E 1244, Torinwe and the chieftains of the Stone-Nest People met at the village of Xor-Hist. Kinlady Torinwe put an end to further Corelanya expansion into eastern Solstice, while the Argonians recognized the lands currently under Corelanya control. Most importantly, both peoples were free to travel all parts of the island, so long as they did not make any new permanent dwellings in the others' territory. This restored Argonian access to various shrines and sacred places across Solstice, alleviating one of the main grievances behind the strife.
To this day, we still honor the borders and principles established in the Peace of Xor-Hist.
Pt. 5
Here I come to the fifth and final volume in my history of Clan Corelanya. All that I know of the story of my house and my people, I have set down to the best of my ability.
Part 5: The Sealing of Mor Naril and the Rise of the Regents
It is, of course, ludicrous to look at a span of centuries and conclude that not much occurred. The Peace of Xor-Hist held; our forebears refrained from pushing farther into Argonian territory, and the Stone-Nest Argonians accustomed themselves to their presence. Yet in Sunport's palaces and colleges, the consequences of an ancient bargain with darkness drew ever closer.
Ever since Kinlady Iniel ventured into the ruins of Mor Naril, our house was divided between those who rejected the darker Daedric Princes and those who were willing to seek their aid. In 1E 2607, this ancient debate resurfaced when Istamil Corelanya watched his older brother Ryethamil become kinlord. Istamil was a proud and charismatic noble, a great warrior popular in both the College of Rituals and the College of Sea and Sword. He dreamed of new conquests on far shores, a return to the glory days of Clan Corelanya in Hammerfell.
Kinlord Ryethamil, on the other hand, was quiet and studious, a leader in the College of Tomes. He was a cautious ruler who checked his younger brother's ambitions, preferring to serve as a steward for what he had inherited rather than seek to add to his dominions. For years the rift between the brothers grew, until at last in 1E 2631 Istamil moved against his brother. He maneuvered Kinlord Ryethamil into a duel, killed him, and took power.
As kinlord, Istamil proved to be a tyrant. Many in Sunport were shocked by his act of fratricide, and from the beginning several colleges opposed him. Kinlord Istamil responded by repressing those who defied him, and civil war broke out in Sunport. By 1E 2633, only the College of Rituals supported him, and Istamil faced defeat. He retreated to the dark fortress of Mor Naril in the east, and there sought the patronage of Molag Bal to crush his enemies.
Terrible Daedric monsters and foul necromancy were unleashed on those who opposed the kinlord. Many valiant Corelanyas—and not a few Argonians who chose to take up arms against the tyrant—fell in those dark days. Istamil's victory seemed inevitable. But his cousin Vinutilmo Corelanya, a devout knight and humble scholar, arose to lead what remained of the opposition.
Guided by dream-visions, Vinutilmo sought the aid of the Daedric queens Azura, Meridia, and Nocturnal. They joined together to check the power of Molag Bal, giving Vinutilmo the opportunity to penetrate the dark defenses of Mor Naril and confront Kinlord Istamil. In the Temple of the Final Dark, Vinutilmo slew the tyrant and put an end to his alliance with the Lord of Brutality.
Giving reverence to the Three Queens who aided him, Vinutilmo sealed the gates of Mor Naril and led his forces away from the dark temple. Many among his followers urged him to take the title of kinlord, but Vinutilmo refused. Instead, he asked to be recognized as regent, one who ruled not through his own authority but as a steward of the power with which he had been entrusted.
Following Vinutilmo's example, all Corelanya leaders since have likewise taken the title of regent instead of kinlord or kinlady. We have also followed his pious example, eschewing the dark powers among the Daedra and placing our trust in the Three Queens who guide and protect us. The Queens willing, it will always be so for our people.
And so we come to an end of my account of ancient times. Quite a few things have, of course, transpired on Solstice since 1E 2633: chief among them the arrival of settlers other than High Elves, including Nords, pirates, shipwrecked merchants, and more. Yet these events seem to fall within the normal ebb and flow of history's tides, as our Argonian neighbors might say. Someday I hope to add another part to this history. But if that is not the future the Three Queens have in mind for me, then perhaps another Corelanya will finish my work. And perhaps even look back in wonder at the times I lived through, as well.