Lore:Longhouse Emperors

The   were a dynasty of   who seized the Ruby Throne and ruled the   for a period of forty-four years during the  .   Regarded as eccentric at best and utterly alien at worst by   populace, the Longhouse Emperors' reign began when   and his warriors conquered Cyrodiil in  , a feat believed to have been made possible with the aid of sympathetic   nobles and secret   worshipers who struck a deal with  .   In an effort to solidify his tenuous claim to the throne, Durcorach married   of the prominent   family of   in  , and also appointed a new  .   Durcorach eventually met his end while leading an army of Reachmen in an invasion of   in  ; after raiding several cities, Durcorach's army was broken outside  , and the Longhouse Emperor himself was slain by   of  . 

 ,  Durcorach's son, succeeded him at the age of 23.   Moricar had been born and raised in   like his father, but had spent his teenage years under Imperial tutelage and was said to better understand Cyrodilic culture.  In  , Moricar launched an invasion of Western Skyrim.  Accounts of the campaign differ. In one, Moricar remained in the   rather than lead the army as his father would have. This decision likely spared his life, as his forces were humiliatingly routed in a single battle by the army of High King  , but he was consequently lambasted as a coward by Western Skyrim's bards.  In another account, Moricar led his troops to the gates of   before Svargrim's army attacked in overwhelming numbers. Moricar was gravely wounded in the battle and returned to Cyrodiil, where Imperial and Reach healers were only able to keep him alive until the following year. 

In  ,    Durcorach's grandson   inherited the Ruby Throne. Following suit with his grandfather by marrying a Tharn,  , Leovic's reign was initially only marked by the emperor's peculiar behaviors, which the Cyrodilic nobility blamed on his Reachman upbringing.   Eventually, however, Leovic crossed the line when he legalized   worship, allegedly at the behest of corrupt advisors, and consequently drew the ire of many nobles who had once been counted among his supporters.  One of these erstwhile supporters, Duke   of  , marshaled the armies of the   and led them against Leovic in open rebellion from   to  .   In the end, Leovic was killed by Varen in the Imperial Throne Room, and the era of the Longhouse Emperors came to a close.   Durcorach's line was survived by his kin in the Reach, the Blackdrake clan, and after Leovic's demise, the clan's chieftainship was claimed by  , a cousin who had been installed as the Imperial Governor of   by Moricar.  

One triumph of the dynasty's reign was the opportunistic annexation of   and   in northern   by the   under General  . This occurred during the early years of the   outbreak, which had hit the Khajiit particularly hard. The Khajiit attempted to retake both cities from the Imperials, but were unsuccessful.  Under the rule of the Longhouse Emperors, Cyrodiil also controlled land as far as the Wrothgarian Mountains. 

Rulers


The table to the left shows the birth and regnal dates of the emperors. The chart below details the lineage of the Longhouse Emperors in the first-degree only. All unknown individuals and dates are noted with the inclusion of "???". A † symbol next to a date of death indicates that the death was not natural. Names in bold indicate ruling emperors.

References are given in the usual style, but notes are also provided for cases where calculation or inference are involved, or where contradictions exist.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

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