Lore:Bravil

Bravil is a squalid Nibenese town located on the banks of the Niben Bay, south of the Imperial City. The Larsius River passes through and wraps around the town, as the Green Road curves around it. A large Ayleid settlement is found underneath the city. 

Bravil is described as one of the poorest towns in Cyrodiil.  Houses are built like shacks, being wooden and stacked upon each other. The Larsius River that runs through the town serves as Bravil's sewers. Because of its location on the bay's shore and the marshes and swamps that surround it, the climate is damp.
 
The settlement has likely been in existence since at least  .  It is known that Ayleids once lived in the region before the town was established.  The Alessian Army attacked the Ayleids in the First Era, the army being led by the Empress Alessia's centurion Teo Bravillius Tasus.  After discovering the Ayleid's ability to use Alteration type magic to defend themselves, Tasus managed to defeat them.  Because of his success, the town owes its name to Tasus. 

In   Flaccus Terentius dreamed that an, army of Daedra and a legion of the undead under Molag Bal  would raze Bravil and destroy all of Cyrodiil, in this dream Bravil would be defended by the Fourth Legion, its unknown if these events actually occurred.  When the   fell in the Imperial City, Captain   had her legion flee the city and go to Bravil, asking the mayor for help. He refused, and the citizens rioted against Captain Apinia, resulting in her slaughtering many of them and looting the Castle, earning her the title the Butcher of Bravil. 

County Bravil rebelled against the Empire following the Oblivion Crisis of   and briefly became an independent city-state. Bravil warred with Leyawiin, which had also gained independence, until the two counties were subdued by Emperor Titus Mede.   During the Great War, Dominion invasion forces coming out of Elswyer and flanking Imperial defenses along the Valenwood border, sieged the City after the fall of Leyawiin. It was soon overtaken, and controlled by Dominion forces. The City was  used as a base for a counterattack by the Dominion against Nordic Legions under the command of General Jonna.     

By the 27th of Hearthfire,  , the city had erupted into violence due to a war of control being waged by Cyrodiil's two largest skooma traffickers. The Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, Alisanne Dupre was forced to employ sellswords to protect her private residence in the city. By the 4th of Sun's Dusk, things in Bravil had come to a head and the statue of the Lucky Old Lady was destroyed. On the 1st of Sun's Dusk Alisanne Dupre abandoned her residence to defend the Night Mother's crypt. Rasha, the apparent leader of the Cheydinhal sanctuary, sent Garnag and Andronica to Bravil to aid her. After Garnag and Andronica left and the Cheydinhal Sanctuary didn't receive any communication from the city for nineteen days, the remaining members feared the worst. Those fears were realized on the morning of the 21st, when Garnag returned alone with the stone coffin of the Night Mother. Garnag told that the crypt of the Night Mother was raided, Andronica cut to pieces, and Alisanne Dupre was burned alive in a storm of mage fire. Garnag managed to fend off the attackers and transport the coffin safely out of the city, though he got gravely injured and was likely to lose his right eye. 

The Lucky Old Lady
The Lucky Old Lady was a statue which once stood in a square east of Bravil's Great Chapel of Mara. The tales about the Lady and who she was are too numerous to list. It was said she was born the illegitimate daughter of a prostitute in Bravil, certainly an inauspicious beginning to a lucky life. She was teased by the other children, who forever asked her who her father was. Every day, she would run back to her little shack in tears from their cruelty. 

One day, a priest of Stendarr came to Bravil to do charitable work. He saw the weeping little girl, and when asked, she told him the cause of her misery: she didn't know who her father was. "You have kind eyes and a mouth that tells no lies," replied the priest after a moment, smiling. "You are clearly a child of Stendarr, the God of Mercy, Charity, and Well-Earned Luck." The priest's thoughtful words changed the girl forever. Whenever she was asked who her father was, she would cheerfully reply, "I am a child of Luck." 

She grew up to be a barmaid and despite being poor and miserable  it was said she was kind and generous to her customers, frequently allowing them to pay when they were able to. On a particularly rainy night, she gave shelter to a young man dressed in rags, who not only had no money to pay, but was belligerent and rude to her as she fed him and gave him a room. The next morning, he left without so much as a thank you. Her friends and family admonished her, saying that she had to be careful, he might have even been dangerous. A week later, a royal carriage arrived in Bravil, with an Imperial prince within. Though he was scarcely reconizable, it was the same young man the Lady had helped. He apologized profusely for his appearance and behavior, explaining that he had been kidnapped and cursed by a band of witches, and it wasn't until later he had returned to his senses. The Lady was showered with riches, which she, of course, generously shared with all the people of Bravil, where she lived to a content old age. 

No one knows when the statue to her was erected, or who the artist was, but it has stood there for thousands of years, since the first era. Before the statue was destroyed by rioters in   visitors and Bravillians alike went to the Lucky Old Lady to ask for her blessing of luck to aid in their travels.  
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Notes
There are a number of culinary dishes and drinks that are from Bravil. With known dishes being Bravil's best beet risotto and Bravil melon salad. There are also two known drinks, Bravil mead and Bravil bitter barley beer.
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