Lore:Windhelm

is a city in northeastern  , close to the border with  , and is the only substantial city in the   of  . 

It is not only the oldest extant city in Skyrim , (the oldest city being Saarthal  ) but it is also the oldest continuously inhabited human settlement in  .  Windhelm was once the capital of the First Empire of the Nords and the old palace of the Ysgramor dynasty, the Palace of the Kings, still stands in the center of the city.  

  is located on the strategic high ground southwest of Windhelm, overlooking the main roads leading to the city. Like most Nord cities, Windhelm has a Hall of the Dead where bodies are interred, overseen by a Priest of   who ensures that corpses are properly consecrated and cared for.   The city's arena is known as the Hall of Trials.  
 

History
Windhelm was founded by the legendary   and the crew of his ship, the Ylgermet, following the   in the late  . According to Nordic tradition, after the   disbanded, the Ylgermet's crew stumbled upon the barrow of  , Ysgramor's son. When Ysgramor looked south and saw where the   flowed into the  , he decreed that a great city should be built there to serve as a monument to the glories of mankind, a place from where he could gaze upon the hill of  , and a gateway to guard Skyrim's interior against incursion via the river. 

Captive elves were forced to build the city in the architectural style of their captors, and it is alleged that as many elves died during Windhelm's construction as were killed by the Ylgermet's crew before they had arrived at the site. The city's great bridge was designed to allow a vigilant watch on the White River for elven attacks, and Ysgramor's palace, the Palace of the Kings, towered over the city to show man's dominion over the very winds that had caused Yngol's death on the voyage from  . An elaborate tomb was built in the catacombs beneath Windhelm to serve as Ysgramor's final resting place upon his death, but was never used because he chose to be buried by the sea. 

Ysgramor's descendants would rule the burgeoning territory of the Nords from Windhelm. When   assumed the mantle of High King in  , he relinquished his holdings in Atmora and established Skyrim as an independent kingdom with Windhelm as its capital.   During the time of  , the city became the capital of not just Skyrim, but the   that also encompassed  ,  , and parts of  .  When the First Empire of the Nords later collapsed amidst the   that raged from   to  , the city was sacked. 

In  , after the onset of the  , High King   was assassinated, precipitating a succession dispute between his daughter,  , and Jarl   of  . While Freydis was accepted as High Queen by the Crown of Verity in Windhelm, a partial   convened in Solitude and declared Svartr to be High King. From then on, Skyrim was divided into two kingdoms, with Windhelm serving as the capital of Eastern Skyrim and the seat of Freydis and her line.  

Windhelm was sacked a second time in   by the   army of  , and then-High Queen   was slain in battle along with her daughter,  , who briefly succeeded her.  The Palace of the Kings was one of the few of the city's original structures that survived these events, however it was badly damaged. The palace court was temporarily displaced as High King  , who succeeded Nurnhilde, elected to repair the rest of city first, and work on the palace was not completed until  .   At some point during the Second Era, the city also suffered under the disastrous reign of Jarl  , who taxed his citizens to the point of destitution and eventually drove them to revolt. 

In the ninth century of the Second Era, during the formation of the  , Windhelm served as a base for Imperial troops guarding the   into Morrowind prior to that region's incorporation into the Empire. 

During the   in the late  , the city-state of Windhelm was an active settlement, being ruled by King Asgan. It had a rivalry with   and  .  It was neighbored by several settlements, including   to the west,   to the south,   to the southwest, and Morrowind to the east, towards  .  

By  , Windhelm was the center of the     against the  . Jarl  , leader of the rebellion, sought to liberate Skyrim from Imperial control to protect the traditional Nord way of life and restore the right to worship  , which had been banned Empire-wide by the  . In open defiance of the ban, Windhelm's Temple of Talos was kept open throughout the conflict with the Empire. The city had also come to house a substantial population of   refugees who had fled Morrowind in the aftermath of the  . The elves were relegated to the city's run-down Snow Quarter, later named the Gray Quarter after the Dunmer refugees, and faced constant suspicion from the xenophobic local Nords. 

Notes
Arena was originally conceived as a fighting game featuring a tournament that took the player to each of Tamriel's cities to challenge different gladiatorial teams. According to a file from that stage of development left behind in the final game, Windhelm's gladiatorial team would have been called "the Paladins". 

See Also
For game-specific information, see the Skyrim and ESO articles.

References