Netruk44/uesp-wiki-content huggingface dataset:
Lore:Chronicles of the Five Companions 7

I am called  , son of   of  . Once again, I set my thoughts to paper.

It pains me to see a city of such history corrupted by the foul   of   and his  . Though the sons and daughters of   are not my people, it is precisely the ruination of something so deeply, culturally significant that causes my heart to ache. In many ways, though neither   nor   will admit it, we are more alike to the  s than we are different.

  honored me when he asked me to captain his  . I trained many of the captains myself, drilling them in the arts of swordplay, leadership, and tactics. They were of many races and many creeds—there was devout   of  , who would quietly recite the sermons of his heathen demigods each dawn. I also recall young  , outcast from his family holdings in   over some political squabble. Not all of us were Imperial, and yet we took readily to their traditions, their learned ways, and even their food. We believed in the vision of the  , once.

This day it seems the Empire was just a dream, and   merely a ruined shadow of that dream. I swore an oath to Varen Aquilarios to protect him and see his own dream of a reunited Empire come to pass, but as we now witness and I must admit, it will be impossible to fulfill that oath. Even now, the   is   by those who would see their own petty leaders seated upon the  , and very few of them are of its native soil.

I mourn the loss of Sancre Tor and the broken Empire to the ravages of conflicts both cosmic and mundane, not because I hold any special love for Imperial ways, but because it is much like the fate of the sword-singers—a broken line that only a scant few seek to mend for reasons that are unselfish or incorruptible.
Lore:Chronicles of the Five Companions 9

And yea, verily, did the Five stride forth into the shadows of calamity to render unto   the right solid thrashing he deserved! I can say with pride that I, Sir   of Codswallop, the Undaunted, Knight of the Court of  , Champion of Chivalry, Defender of the Defenseless, Shepherd to the  , have watched from a great distance to see this moment come to pass.

I shall miss the beautiful vistas of Coldharbour, with its seas of crystal blue flame, its sky of perfect smoky darkness, and its rocky peaks stretching high into the ashen clouds.   is but a weak simulacrum of its perfection, which I find downright bothersome given that this lot all thinks Coldharbour is but a shadow of it in return! Can you imagine it?

My good friend,  , has done an excellent job, though I find their name coarse and unpleasant to pronounce. Still, far be it from me to judge! They have laid the God of Schemes low and found a new mistress for me to serve.

Ah, Radiant  ! Her eyes of shining gold fill me with inspiration! It is her I shall now serve, for what is a knight without a lady love to protect? She was rather adamant that I bring her Light to the   so that they can use it to traverse the length and breadth of Tamriel. I daresay there was a hint of fear in her voice as she spoke of the days to come, as though the destruction of Tamriel under the clawed, palsied talon of Molag Bal was somehow not the worst of it!

It is, of course, not my place to pry details from her that she is not already willing to share. A simple no—punctuated, naturally, with the typical booming voice and flashing magic of Daedric wrath—convinced me that it was a poor idea to press the matter further. Lovely and radiant, but not kind or gentle. The  , even the most benign of them, are like a hurricane off the coast. It is a dark sort of beauty, but you pray it does not come onto land and crash the ball, what?

  will do for a home, for now. Venturing outside is difficult for me—I daresay Tamriel has gotten uglier in the years since I have been separated from it. Meridia's warm Light keeps my spirit soothed ever more.
Lore:The Spawn of Molag Bal

enslaves. Molag Bal defiles.

Molag Bal spawns children with the unwilling and harvests the souls of the unwary.

Legend tells us that Molag Bal is the father of the first  . Though we cannot fully detail the many species of vampires, we may consider all of them to be his offspring.

Most vampires can trace their lineage to the same distant ancestor, an unwilling   virgin whom Molag Bal defiled. With  , he spawned a race of monsters, who then set upon nomads, spreading his corruption further.

Other species of vampires are the result of pacts and bargains with Molag Bal, who answers promises of immortality and power with an eternity of damnation.

Molag Bal seeds chaos and strife, spreading discord by corrupting soul after soul. His forces are legion; his patience is limitless; his ultimate goal is the domination and enslavement of all living things.
Lore:Nine Commands of the Eight Divines

By the intercession of St.  , you may be so filled with grace, and the strength and wisdom that come from grace, that through these teachings you may come to the true meaning of the   and Their glories. To convey to man's mind all the manifold subtleties of truth and virtue may not be done, were all the seas ink, and all the skies the parchment upon which Their wisdoms were writ. Yet  , in His wisdom, knowing how impatient is man, and how loath he is to travel upon the hard roads of truth, has allowed these nine simple commands to be made manifest with powerful clarity and concise definition.



1.   says: Be kind and generous to the people of  . Protect the weak, heal the sick, and give to the needy.

2.   says: Honor the earth, its creatures, and the spirits, living and dead. Guard and tend the bounties of the mortal world, and do not profane the spirits of the dead.

3.   says: Live soberly and peacefully. Honor your parents, and preserve the peace and security of home and family.

4.   says: Work hard, and you will be rewarded. Spend wisely, and you will be comfortable. Never steal, or you will be punished.

5.   says: Use Nature's gifts wisely. Respect her power, and fear her fury.

6.   says: Open your heart to the noble secrets of art and love. Treasure the gifts of friendship. Seek joy and inspiration in the mysteries of love.

7.   says: Know the truth. Observe the law. When in doubt, seek wisdom from the wise.

8.   says: Serve and obey your Emperor. Study the Covenants. Worship the Eight, do your duty, and heed the commands of the saints and priests.

9. The Eight say: Above all else, be good to one another.


If only each man might look into the mirror of these Commands, and see reflected there the bliss that might enfold them, were he to serve in strict obedience to these Commands, he would be cast down and made contrite and humble. The obedient man may come to the altars of the Eight and be blessed, and may receive the comfort and healing of the Eight, and may give thanks for his manifold blessings.

Heedless, the wicked man turns away, and forsaking the simple wisdoms granted to him by the All-Wise and All-Knowing Eight, he lives in sin and ignorance all the days of his life. He bears the awful burden of his crimes, and before Men and God his wickedness is known, and neither blessing nor comfort may he expect from the altars and shrines of the Eight.

Yet the wicked and foolish are not doomed, for in their infinite mercies, the Eight have said, "Repent, and do Good Works, and the Fountains of Grace shall once more spill forth upon you."

Repent your crimes! Tender unto the Emperor the fines of gold, that they may be used to spread the Faith and its Benefits to all Men!

Do yourself good works! Redeem your infamy by shining deeds! Show to all Men and the Eight the good Fame of the Righteous Man, and you may once again approach the altars and shrines of the Chapel to receive the comfort and blessings of the Eight.
Lore:Motalion Necropolis Report

Unto the Doyen of  :

It is with a heavy heart that this unworthy one must report a cessation of the  . Circumstances have eventuated that render its continuance inadvisable. Indeed, pursuing the Endeavor would doubtless lead to a loss of Guild lives, as well as being sacrilegious (even more than usual).

I hasten to point out that no taint of fault should be inferred as to the perfection of your peerless plans, O my Doyen. Following your instructions, our subversion of Motalion Funerary Overseer   went flawlessly&mdash;indeed, he was willing to accept only 15 percent of the pillaging proceeds when we were willing to go as high as 20 percent. In the weeks since he agreed to our proposal, the looting of the crypts and mausoleums in the southern quadrant of   was accomplished according to Your Doyenhood's admirably aggressive schedule, despite the back injury suffered by Footpad Quyen in the  .

The harvesting and sale of the Sacred   was likewise a complete success, and your idea of substituting imitation stones of   glass treated with glow-spells has left none the wiser. The cost of paying   to renew the glow-spells once every ten-day is scarab-feed compared to what we were able to realize from the welkynd stones on the thaumaturgical after-market.

In hindsight, your advice that we start with the quadrant wherein were interred the most affluent of our ancestors fully justifies the eminent position in which you find yourself. Though we refrained, of course, from irreverent treatment of the sarcophagi, the valuable trappings and regalia of the outer tombs were stripped during those periods when Overseer Parvizh had the watchmen patrolling elsewhere. It is unlikely that the eastern and western quadrants, where the less prosperous of our brethren are buried, would even together equal the take brought in from the southern.

But now I must reluctantly turn to the reason for our regrettable abandonment of Your Doyenhood's supremely excellent Motalion Endeavor. The northern quadrant, where the authorities have seen fit to bury the corpses of those who were impious or criminal in life, has been afflicted by a horrific rising of undead. Ra-Netu in numbers have crawled from their crypts, and are now a profane presence across the entire necropolis. This may be due, as I believe, to Overseer Parvizh sending the watchmen too often into the unclean quadrant, or it may be the result of some other desecration. If it was the fault of the Overseer, he has certainly paid the price, as he was one of the first victims of these risen dead.

I also regret to report the death of Footpad Quyen, whose back went out in an untimely manner while fleeing from a Ra-Netu at the base of the Ninety-Nine Stairs. His surviving family will receive the usual stipend.

With the Utmost Esteem,

Operative Maffud
Lore:Sentinel, the Jewel of Alik'r

Know, O Prince, that in the time of the  , the   did come to   from doomed  . First they landed at  , which they freed of the affliction of the beast-peoples. Then spread they bothwise along the coasts, seeking out goodly harbors and well-watered oases.

To the north and west went the warrior-sailors of the Grandee  , in the great ships they had brought from  , until they rounded  . Then was Yaghoub the first of the Ra Gada to behold the  , and he deemed it laudable, and praised its excellences, and vowed to make his home thenceforth upon its shores.

And as Yaghoub sailed toward the Steed at dawning of the seventeenth of Second Seed, his watchman cried out that he spied a desirable harborage. And Yaghoub, perceiving it, agreed, and said, "This harborage shall belong to us, for we shall take it to be ours. And I do name it Sentinel, after the one who first espied it."

Then   (for thus ever after was it known) already contained a port on its harbor, which port was the haunt of low  , and   who did consort with Elves. And the shores were green with the leaves of pomegranate, and fig, and olive, and the men of the Grandee saw this and were hungry, and sought to come ashore, despite the warnings and cries of the port-rabble.

But when Yaghoub landed with his warrior-sailors, with their bright swords and peaked helms, the port-rabble were cowed, and spake, cringing, "What would you with us, O mighty  s? Slay us not, for we have done you no harm."

And Yaghoub said to them, "Nay, though you are infidels and partake of unclean practices, I will not slay you. For I have a thought to build me a palace upon the height above the harbor, and such labor is not meet for my noble warrior-sailors. Therefore you shall live, and become masons, and stonewrights, and servants of the house."

And thus was the true port of Sentinel founded. The port-rabble found purpose in their new labors, and built the walls, and the marketplace, and the palace of Yaghoub. And this was  , of glorious name, and legendary are the mighty kings and queens who have reigned from it since. For the Crowns who followed the Forebears found Sentinel a worthy seat, and many were the   who settled there.

Even today, O Prince, above the city gates flies always a banner of the crescent moon, for this was the banner of the Grandee Yaghoub, which has become the symbol of Sentinel in remembrance of him. And the faithful celebrate the Grandee on the   Yaghoub, every seventeenth of Second Seed, when we share pomegranates in honor of our esteemed ancestor.
Lore:The Salas En Expedition

It is strange that the   ruins known as  , on the   coast at  , have never been properly explored or studied. This is most likely due to the superstitious locals' exaggerated reverence for burial grounds of the dead, even those of other cultures. I wouldn't go so far as to accuse the    s of timidity, but really, having to bring all my own people over the bay from   is a bit much.

In any event, now that we are on our way, we shall do the job right. The known facts about Salas En are few, but they are fascinating, as it has been inhabited over the last three eras by a series of cultures. On top&mdash;which makes it most recent, of course&mdash;are Redguard relics dating from the   occupation of Salas En by   of the late  . Colonists from the island of   in lost  , these Redguards seem to have displaced the Elves who previously occupied the site. It appears these descendants of Yath occupied Salas En until abandoning it in the  , which coincides with the ravages of the  .

The Elves the Yath Redguards displaced were, according to tradition, relatively recent  i colonists of the  , who were said to be  -worshipers. (This would account for their emigration from   to the austere shores of Hammerfell.) They seem to have arrived sometime in the  , inhabiting and expanding on structures originally built by the  .  i relics are intermixed here with classic high-period Altmeri, suggesting that either the Corelanya participated in the Wood Elf coastal trade, then at its historic height, or that Salas En was used as a stopover by Bosmeri merchants before the Corelanya arrived.

Below these High Elf additions&mdash;and indeed, still standing with less wear on them than any of the structures built afterward&mdash;are the original Ayleid stoneworks, jutting proudly toward the heavens despite the passage of millennia. The Ayleid Elves who built Salas En are virtually unknown to history, and it is primarily to reveal their story that I have organized this expedition. With the assistance of my experienced and hand-picked team of excavators, I have every confidence that we can persuade the stones of Salas En to reveal their secrets to us.
Lore:Gifts of the Nereids

When I was young, my parents brought me to the cave where the priests worshiped the  s. They dedicated me to the temple, so that I might one day become a priest, too.

There were only three other children in the temple when I was growing up. The others made fun of me until I was ten years old because one of my legs was shorter than the other and I had a limp.

One day, we were running through the cave (something that was forbidden, but the priests often looked the other way, letting children be children) and I tripped and fell face down into the water. I hit my head and blacked out. The other children were far ahead of me already, so they didn't see.

Later, the priests told me that one of the Nereids had lifted me out of the water. I said I didn't remember that happening, but later on, I did recall the feeling of floating and also a kind of terror, like I had seen something I was not supposed to see, something that was too beautiful for mortal eyes.

The priests instructed us in our relationship to the Nereids. We were required to memorize the gifts of the Nereids and repeat them back every day:

:The gifts of the Nereids are three-fold:
:the beauty of their form,
:the sweetness of their singing,
:and protection from harm.

The older children got to help the priests with the rituals. Meat was brought to the central altar to feed the Nereids, and once a year, one priest would go deep into the cave to meditate among their singing. When he would emerge, he would give a prophecy.

When he comes of age, each child has a choice to stay and become a priest or to go into exile. After so many years living in the cave, I could not imagine another life, and so I chose the priesthood. But sometimes I long for sunlight and wonder where a different path might have taken me, and what sights I might have seen if I had chosen exile.
Lore:The Eldest: A Pilgrim's Tale

In bright springtime, when the ground is drunk with rainwater and the sun smiles on  , the   travel to the  , an ancient  . There, they offer thanks to   for the blooming of yet another spring, and they read the history of their home in the branches of the  .

Then, a great festival is thrown by the   Bosmer, in celebration of the Springtime and the Eldest. Then Elves celebrate long into the night, drinking and regaling each other with stories of past festivals and pilgrims.

The tales run both sacred and profane.

There's the tale of the notorious warlord whose entire army stopped at the Den of the Eldest and went in to pay their respects. When they emerged, they dropped their weapons to the ground and left them where they lay. They never made war again.

But there is also the tale of the impish Wood Elf who spiked the pilgrims' punch with a powder ground from the dung of  , that caused the entire gathering to be troubled by the most foul odors from their backsides. Long into the night they groaned as the stink grew unbearable, until they were all so inured to the smell that their groans turned to bursts of laughter that filled the wood.

They also tell of the first pilgrims, an old, childless couple who tended the Eldest as their own offspring. They became the first Silvenar and the first  .

There are many more tales the pilgrims tell, but few have been written down. The curious would do best to travel to the Eldest in the Springtime and hear the stories and behold the ancient strangler for themselves.
Lore:The Green Pact and the Dominion

Just like trees grow toward the sun and you can hear different birds singing when the moons are out than when they are not, every   born in   (and indeed, nearly every one born outside of it) knows of the  .

The Green Pact is the agreement between the Wood Elves and   that has guided our existence from the beginning of the great story.

Its rules are clear. Do not harm the forest. Do not eat anything made from plant life. Eat only meat. When you conquer your enemies, eat their flesh. Do not leave them to rot. Do not kill wastefully. Do not take on the shape of beasts. You are Wood Elves. Your form is sacred.

This is the Green Pact. In exchange for keeping to this Pact, the forest, which we call the Green, has provided us with ample food and shelter. Y'ffre has given us the limited gift to ask the forest to shape itself to our needs. We have been amply blessed.

But now, we find ourselves in a new situation. Our new allies—the   and the  —do not hold to the Green Pact. They live in houses made of thatch and timber. They eat all manner of fruits and berries and drink wine made from grapes. They find the devouring of one's enemies barbaric.

How are the Wood Elves of Valenwood to accommodate these new allies, while keeping to the Green Pact? It is a question that perplexes many Wood Elves today, especially in the newly-erected city of  . In the past, we have fought wars over lesser defilement of the Green.

At the same time, we recognize that at the time of the  's founding, the   and   spoke on behalf of the Wood Elves and the Green Pact. We remember that we have a powerful mouthpiece in the  ,  's own  .

These are the leaders we should look to in this uncertain time. They have shown us through their actions an example which we can all follow. We must welcome these allies with true Wood Elf hospitality. We must not pick fights with them. We must try not to steal from them (many of them do not appreciate the rite of theft, but that is a subject for another essay). But at the same time, we should not shy away from speaking out in our own interests, and in that of the Green.

Because of Treethane Fariel's powerful voice, much of the timber and all of the thatch for Marbruk was brought into Valenwood from other parts. For many the fact that so many trees had to be felled to clear space for the city is unforgivable, but Fariel saw that accommodating our allies is the first step to a strong defense of Valenwood against those who would surely destroy it.

Queen  's willingness to listen is a sign of her wisdom and respect for the Wood Elf people. We should repay her by being willing to trust her leadership.
Lore:The Ooze: A Fable

This is a story the   of   tell their children from a very young age.

Once, there was nothing but formlessness. The land held no shape, the trees did not harden into timber and bark, and the Elves themselves shifted from form to form. This formlessness was called the  .

But   took the Ooze and ordered it. First, she told of the Green, the forest and all the plant life in it. She gave the Green the power to shape itself as it willed, for it was her first tale.

The Elves were Y'ffre's second tale. As Y'ffre spun the story, the Elves took the form they have today. Y'ffre gave them the power to tell stories, but warned them against trying to shape themselves or the Green. Shifting and the destruction of the forest were forbidden.

Instead, Y'ffre commended the Wood Elves to the Green, so that they might ask the Green to provide them with shelter and a safe passage, and as long as they respected the Green, it would obey. This is called the  .

Finally, Y'ffre told of all the beasts that crawl on the land or swim in the rivers or fly in the air. These, Y'ffre gave to the Wood Elves as sustenance. They were to eat no plants but consume only meat. Y'ffre also told that no Wood Elf who is struck down by another Wood Elf should be allowed to sink into the ground, but should instead be consumed, like the beasts. This is called the  .

When the stories were told, Y'ffre saw that they had a pleasing shape, but some of the Ooze remained. Y'ffre told a final tale then, and gave purpose to the Ooze.

Any Wood Elf that violated the Green Pact, either by shifting or by damaging the Green, would be condemned to return to the formlessness of the Ooze. Their names would be scrubbed from the story Y'ffre is telling and replaced with silence.

The Wood Elves tell that those who are favored by the Green have the power to release the condemned from the Ooze, but where the condemned go and what form they take once they are released is unknown.

No one has ever seen the Ooze, or heard the souls trapped in it, or met the one who can relieve the condemned of their punishment. But if you ask a Wood Elf if he thinks the Ooze is "just a tale," he will invariably reply, "There is no such thing as 'just a tale.'"