Lore:Dragonfires

thumb|left|Drake of Blades, immortal guardian of the Dragonfires
thumb|right|The   during the Lore:Oblivion Crisis|Oblivion Crisis, with the Dragonfires lying dormantthumb|right|The Dragonfire Cathedral and the Sublime Brazier.
The Dragonfires were a barrier against invasion from the   that were created from the blood of   and given to  .  The fires were relit whenever an heir ascended to the Ruby Throne. They were kept burning throughout his or her lifetime and represented the Covenant between the Cyrodilic Empire and Akatosh. According to legend, the Dragonfires protected   from  .

The pedestal that served as a pyre may be found in the   in the  , though there seems to have been no apparent connection between the ritual and the Alessian teachings. A   Emperor had to use the   to light the Dragonfires in the Sublime Brazier, a sacred cauldron located in the Dragonfire Cathedral deep beneath the  . Once the Sublime Brazier was kindled, it would light the Dragonfires in the Temple of the One.  The Dragonfires could also be lit directly from the Temple of the One. 

The darkening of the Dragonfires played an essential role in two   invasions of  . The first occurred in  , when Emperor   of the   misused the Amulet of Kings in a ritual that Varen's advisor   had convinced him would curry Akatosh's favor and make Varen a Dragonborn. Instead, the ritual violated the Covenant with Akatosh and caused the  , which set Nirn adrift in the Mundus .   took the opportunity to begin rending the souls of Nirn's mortals from their hosts to use as fuel for the  , the process of merging Nirn with   using devices called Dark Anchors. Fortunately, a   who had been a victim of Mannimarco and Molag Bal's schemes arose to unite the warring nations of Tamriel against Molag Bal, invading Coldharbour and halting the Planemeld in  . 

Molag Bal sought to destroy the Sublime Brazier to prevent the Dragonfires from ever being relit, sending a Xivkyn General known as Malivus to spearhead an attack on the temple. This attack was repelled by the Vestige, the   and Captain Caudex using siege weapons. While the attack was repelled, Father Egnatius, a priest of Akatosh, performed a ritual on the Brazier. Once this ritual was complete the Drake of Blades became the immortal guardian of the Brazier and the Dragonfire Cathedral, blessed with the power of Akatosh himself and forever bound to the temple.  The Vestige also later stopped an alternate form of the Planemeld ritual called the Planemeld Obverse from being carried out by the   Molag Kena at  . 

With the ascension of   as Emperor of the   at the end of the  , the Dragonfire ritual was resumed while the   reigned, but in   that dynasty was broken and   threatened Tamriel with an   of his own.  With the assassination of Emperor   and all of his legitimate heirs by the   cult,  no known Dragonborn heir remained to relight the Dragonfires. The barriers between Oblivion and Mundus were broken, allowing stable portals to the   to be created. When  , the illegitimate son of the late Emperor, smashed the Amulet of Kings to summon an avatar of Akatosh, the barriers were resealed permanently, thus ending the long but now obsolete tradition. 

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