Lore:Pocket Guide to the Empire, 3rd Edition/Hammerfell

:The most recent arrivals to  's shores are the  s of  . They quickly adapted to the harsh desert of their new homeland and made a former wasteland into a power to be reckoned with.

History
:Hammerfell only acquired its name with the coming of the Redguards. Before then, it was called   by the  , and Deathland by the   people, roughly saying the same thing. Hegathe, as a name, lives on as the name of the original Redguard capital, but into the  , the Nedic name began to be used by one and all to refer to the barren land north of  , south of the  . Not that there was much reference to it historically. It was desolation, a wasteland where hot winds blew over burning rock, and the only feet that walked the sands belonged to monsters.

:The elves and later the  s did set up outposts in what are now   and   in order to protect their fisherfolk and seafaring merchants from the  s who had taken over the interior of the land. Nor were these the only dangers of record. Wind spirits, fire spirits,  s,  s, and   regularly crept in from the desert, and were rebuffed at the frontier, sometimes at a terrible cost.

:In the year   of the First Era, a tribe of   arrived in the Deathlands from the east. They were of  's people, rebels against the alliance of   and Dwemer in  . Settling far from the Bay, along the southern coast, they soon established an easy trading relationship with the elves to the south and Bretons to the north, and the Deathlands took the Dwemer name of  , "City of the Hammer", after the Dwemer capital whose ruins now lie buried under the sands of the   near  .

:The House Rourken's severing of ties with the Dwemer in   did not protect them from the results of the  . Like the other Dwemer, the Rourken seem to have vanished suddenly from Hammerfell, leaving their wonders to the open sky.  i and  ic pirates plundered much of value from the abandoned cities, predators from the inland desert prowled the empty streets, and the harsh elements took their toll as well. By the time of the  , over a hundred years had passed since any civilization had touched southern Volenfel. 

:The   left their continent following a cataclysm (discussed in   of the Guide), arriving in Tamriel in an invading fleet called the Ra Gada. The disorganized Orcs fell to them quickly, as did all the infestations of monster and beast further inland. The Redguards, as the Ra Gada came to be called, made no concession to the Breton settlements along the coasts, slashing through the southern Iliac Bay, winning the entire area that is now the Province of Hammerfell in only a few major battles. The  , the government of Yokuda, was transplanted whole, together with their traditional system of agriculture and religion which was well suited to the unforgiving climate of the Redguards' new home. The high domes, the flying dew sails, and the mosaic colophons were constructed over the old and new ruins of past civilizations. 

:The Redguards' slaughter of men along the coast was not quickly forgiven, and their open scorn for their neighbors did nothing to ease relations between the newcomers and the Bretons. Over a century of unrelieved hostility only came to an end at the appearance of a common enemy in the form of the Orcish kingdom of  . Following the successful alliance, the cities of Hammerfell – as Volenfel had come to be called – finally began trading with   and the  , joining the battles against new foes, such as the   of  , thanks to an alliance with  , the King of  .

:Over time, Redguard society divided into two groups, depending on their allegiance to the old Yokudan ways or the new ways of Tamriel. The  , who followed the traditions of the Na-Totambu, violently resisted the efforts of the  , named for the original warriors of the Ra Gada, to assimilate. With the death of the Crown High King   in the   year of the  , Hammerfell was taken by the  , though some concessions were made following a successful revolt in  .

:The division in Hammerfell society was not mended by joining the Empire, even to this day. In general, northern Hammerfell continued to be more traditionally Yokudan, in style, dress, and personality, and the southern lands, where the Forebears landed, tended to be more cosmopolitan; but, in truth, Hammerfell was and is a patchwork, with conflicting traditions nestled side by side. It is for this reason that  , a Crown city, did not answer the clarion call of Forebear cities   and  , in the  rd year of the  , allowing the   to continue his northward march. In return, the Forebear cities did not assist the eastern Crown cities during the   against  , preferring to watch as they were overtaken by the Nords.

Current Events
:Following the  , the Forebear kingdom of Sentinel grew to encompass the entirety of the northern coast of Hammerfell, from   in the west to   in the east, at the mouth of the  . As most of the formerly independent lands in this northern area were Crown in sympathy, King   has continually been involved in military, diplomatic, and even religious missions to keep them under his wing. Lhotun has been forced to create what some consider a third party, one with reverence for the Yokudan past but respect for the Imperial ways, which is appropriately enough called the Lhotunic.

:Perhaps not surprisingly, the moderate   have attracted nothing but contempt from the Crown and Forebear kingdoms alike.  , the Queen of  , has tried without success to have the charters of the independent guilds revoked from all Sentinel lands, saying that the accepted worship of   is grounds enough for heresy against the Empire.  , High Prophet of  , has called upon the True Crowns of the north to rebel against Lhotun, and financed a number of forays against the borders in   and  . His one success, thus far, has been significant. The land of  , named in ancient days after the Na-Totambu of Yokuda, the progenitors of the Crowns, has returned to his fold and declared independence from Sentinel. As Lhotun's kingdom surrounds Totambu on all four sides, it is questionable how much longer it can assert itself, but at the time of this writing, its people are holding their resistance.

:Eastern Hammerfell, less concerned with Sentinel, has continued its efforts to take back the lands conquered by Skyrim in the War of Bend'r-Mahk. There is no question that Redguards, while currently lacking the cohesiveness as a society to form effective armies, are excellent warriors and unmatched at guerrilla warfare. Still, little ground has been regained, for the Nords too are renowned warriors.