Lore:Haymon Camoran

(?- ), best known as the Camoran Usurper but also as the Hart-King and Haymon Hart-King, was a claimant to the throne of the   in  ,  together with Camoran Kaltos, whom he initially served as advisor and sorcerer. After conquering most of Eastern Valenwood,  disagreements with Camoran Kaltos over the Usurper's continued campaigning in   caused him to turn on Kaltos and take the throne for himself.  A period of violent warfare throughout western   ensued, affecting Valenwood, Colovia,   and parts of  , before Haymon Camoran's forces were finally defeated at   in   by an alliance of High Rock kingdoms in a combined naval and land battle. For most of this war, Emperor Cephorus II was simultaneously occupied in a civil war over the Imperial succession, and was not able to effectively counter Camoran's invasion.  

The exact origins of Haymon Camoran are debatable as scholars are unable to come to a conclusion regarding them. 

Invasion of Tamriel
In  , the second year of the reign of Emperor Cephorus II, Camoran began a methodical invasion of western Tamriel.  In two years, his army of mercenaries, undead and daedra conquered most of Valenwood, the old seat of the Camoran Dynasty.   With the Camoran throne won, the Usurper's attention turned to Cyrodiil and Colovia, where the city of Kvatch was brutally sacked, much to the dismay of Camoran Kaltos, who did not approve of the Usurper's violence against civilians. Kaltos begged the Usurper to return to Valenwood, but the Usurper turned on his lord and Kaltos was forced to flee. After this, the lord and his former advisor were at war. 

Despite the conflict with Kaltos, the Usurper continued his campaign in the West, and in thirteen years he conquered most of Hammerfell, defeating the kingdoms of Rihad and Taneth.  Emperor Cephorus, busy in a war of succession with the supporters of his cousin Andorak, attempted to halt the Usurper's invasion by sending mercenaries to Hammerfell, but to no avail. 

The Usurper then turned his attention to High Rock. In  , the Iliac Bay region had no obvious leaders to unite the many petty states against the threat posed by Camoran's armies. General sympathy for the Emperor was also low, and the Usurper, as an enemy of the Emperor, was initially seen as something of a liberator.  Several rulers had made secret alliances with the Usurper to protect their lands. For these reasons, resistance against the Usurper was initially weak, but as reports about the Usurper's cruelty towards captives and abuse of conquered lands began to spread, an alliance of Ykalon, Phrygias, Kambria and Dwynnen, led by Baron Othrok of Dwynnen, was formed in early  .  At the Battle of Firewaves later the same year, the combined forces of High Rock and Camoran Kaltos, consisting of the greatest navy ever combined as well as land forces, clashed with the forces of the Usurper on land around Dwynnen and at sea in the Iliac Bay.  The Usurper's forces were decisively defeated, and the Usurper himself fell in the battle. It was also at this moment that his son, Mankar Camoran, was born to the Usurper's former mistress, Kaalys.  The weather worked against the Usurper, which is attributed to divine intervention. 

As the defeat of the Usurper was achieved without aid from the Emperor, and since the Emperor's efforts to stop the Usurper had mostly failed, sympathies for the seemingly weak Empire diminished throughout the West.  Instead, the victory increased the prestige of the local rulers, and fueled patriotism and separatism.

Strategies
Camoran's army is the stuff of legend. Allegedly made up entirely of summoned undead and daedra, it likely consisted mainly of Redguard and Wood Elf mercenaries.  It has even been suggested that he raised fallen enemies to fight for him as undead.  The Usurper was known for employing scare tactics in battle, such as fake beast roars, and for the brutality and cruelty of his forces against captives and civilians.  Given his use of daedra to conquer parts of Tamriel, it is possible that he was allied to a Daedric Prince, similar to Mankar Camoran's pact with Mehrunes Dagon. It is suggested in The Refugees that he had a "Master" of some kind (other than Camoran Kaltos, with whom he had lost favor), causing his invasion to slow drastically as he marched into High Rock.

Notes

Despite seemingly being born to two Bosmeri parents, Mankar Camoran is an Altmer and shares both Bosmeri and Altmeri ancestry, according to his appearances in Oblivion and Legends. This may mean that Haymon Camoran is not in fact his biological father, though it may also imply that Mankar changed his own race through unknown means, which may be alluded to in his Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes. Those same Commentaries were said to have been contemporary with  , written over 400 years before 3E 433, conflicting with Mankar's alleged birth year of 3E 267,  which could imply he predates the Usurper. 
In the book The Third Era Timeline, Haymon Camoran is described as a  . The book also hints at a possible connection to the Nightmare Host that plagued the Dwynnen Region, though it is uncertain whether Camoran led the Host personally or some other Lich under his command led them in his stead.

References