Lore:Stormhold

is one of the eight major cities in the province of  ,  serving as the largest settlement of the region of  . Stormhold has a dark history that involves the nearby  , as it was once the foothold of their slavery industry in the province. The modern-day Stormhold was built atop of an   ruin known as Silyanorn (translated as Library in  ).  During the time of the  , the city-state of Stormhold was named the capital of Black Marsh, at least for portions of the province that was affiliated with them.  
 

Layout & Geography
thumb|right|The Stormhold Fighters Guild
thumb|left|An Argonian mud hut
Stormhold is located near the banks of a mighty river that forms the provincial border between the primordial morass of Black Marsh and the scenic grazelands of  . But even though the river is practically outside of the city walls, the land around Stormhold is sunken marshes and  -infested ravines with shallow waters. Much of the city is built on top of the old Ayleid ruins and wide-open mounds surrounded by ravines. Silyanorn was built on the side of a mountain, around a waterfall that flows into the rest of the settlement. Even though the town uses both the stone, ornate architecture of the Dark Elves and the large mud huts of the Argonians, the local populous utilize the abandoned compound for a variety of services, such as the town's mortuary or for their spacious guild halls.

In the time when the Dark Elves took control of Stormhold, they fully refurbished the site with proper stone roads, light posts, and long wooden bridges. The local Hist Tree of Stormhold is located in the town square, in the middle of a pond, surrounded by ancient pillars, broken arches, and a small stone wall that circles around it. There is a common exclamation, "Host of Stormhold," which is used across Black Marsh.  Underneath the city is sunken ruins used as an outlaw refuge and an expansive system of tunnels that contains rare crystals aptly named  s. They contain a variety of  al properties, enough for them to be heavily exploited by the Warden,  .  Stormhold is neighbored by several settlements, including   to the northwest,   to the east, and Morrowind to the north, towards  .  

Notable Locales


History
Early History
thumb|right|The Silyanorn Ruins
thumb|left|The Silyanorn Ayleid Style
Stormhold began as the Ayleid city of Silyanorn, founded by the Barsaebic Tribes that were exiled from   after the   ended in  .  The tribes were very far removed from their brethren in the west and managed to avoid the   that occurred a few years later.  However, that does not mean the   had left the city all by their lonesome. Silyanorn was the focal point of a conflict known as the  , which involved the   and even   of Morrowind. Not much is known about the war, but it took place sometime before Empress  's pursuit of   in  .  According to local legend, the Ayleids were conquered by the    and then there was an enormous battle between the elves and the  s for control of the region. 

In the late First Era, the   of   launched an expansive campaign over the uncharted Argonia known as the  .  The second wave of these campaigns was led by the   and their General,  , known by the epithet, "the Rock". His armies were able to retake much of the land that was lost from the first campaign and while his diplomacy and war knowledge were top notch,  his greatest asset was acknowledging the true enemy, the swamps. This however, proved to be his greatest folly. The General ordered one of his trusted legates,   to burn a peat bog outside of Stormhold for an attack. But in doing so, she razed the entire swamps from Stormhold to as far as both   and  . It took the   a month to realize that the entire forest was burnt down. This event ended Sardecus' campaign and his tenure in the army. Not long after his army's withdrawal, he died of unknown circumstances and it has since been a matter of historical debate. 

The Knahaten Flu & the Argonian Upheavels of Stormhold
thumb|left|Knahaten Flu Victim
thumb|right|Banners of House Dres
Out of the blue, the   had quickly started to spread from Stormhold and killed off the non-Argonian population of not just Black Marsh, but in other provinces such as  . It is theorized by many that the flu either came about from natural causes, or if it was a vengeful shaman against the slavers moving in from Morrowind at that time. Many races and tribes were lost to the flu, such as the silver-skinned   and the vulpine nomads, the  . The province was restrained by the Knahaten Flu for over forty years but only the Dark Elves of   had really delved into the province and continued about their slaver industry.  Sometime later, the Dark Elves held control over Stormhold, and at that time, there was a wide-assortment of races living in the city. Surrounding Argonian villages tend to warn other Saxhleel from going to city because of how quick Dres slavers act on unsuspecting people. 

The Dark Elves rule over Stormhold has been described as "venomous and uncaring," and they built over much of the ruins. The western section of Stormhold is where the Argonian populous lived in, and it was where treacherous Argonian worked with the Dark Elves to raze primitive villages and gather people for their plantations. The city and the fate of the surrounding tribes had gradually became worse by the Second Era, as crime ran amok in the city, the slave industry continued to thrive, and even greedy   warlords coming to Stormhold to reap the wealth. That was until the invention of the Vicecanon, city leaders that serve the same functions as councilors or tribal leaders do in other provinces.  

At around this time, there was a large assault on a Dres Enclave outside of Stormhold led by the then traveling spirit,   and her ally, the young prince   of  .  Keshu had soon become a popular figure among some of the freed slaves and eventually established the  , an army that encompassed Saxhleel from across the province. For the next several seasons, Keshu's legionnaires fought in a constant war with House Dres, intercepting slave caravans between Morrowind and Stormhold. 

Stormhold in the Ebonheart Pact
thumb|left|Vicecanon Heita-Meen
thumb|right|Vicecanon Servyna
The Dark Elves continued their rule over Black Marsh as the years moved on. In  , the   of   invaded Skyrim and moved southeast into Morrowind. The escaped slave,   received a vision from a hist tree in an   village of the ongoing violence in the  . She murdered the tyrannical councilor of   and moved west to Stormhold with the councilor's Archein Guards.  It is recorded in history that the   of Stormhold were involved in the Second Akaviri Invasion as the main Argonian force in the conflict, but how they became involved is not clear. One sources says that Keshu the Black Fin received a call to arms by the then newly-named High King Jorunn to assist his army in Morrowind, so she assembled her shellbacks and pressed onward.  Other sources say that when Heita-Meen traveled to Stormhold, she convinced the Shellbacks with help from the magus,  . They moved into   and provided the final push to defeat the Akaviri.  After that, the three defending races formed an alliance of survival, the  . Stormhold was the capital of the allied Pact regions. 

By  , there were three vicecanons of Stormhold, all of which were war heroes of the Akaviri War, Heita-Meen of Black Marsh,   of Skyrim, and Servyna of Morrowind.  In that year, there were strange occurrences in Stormhold, all of which were tied together, the victims were murdered Dunmer. Rumors indicated that the culprits were the  , so Vicecanon Hrondar sent an   to investigate the situation and the recently deceased. One of the bodies was seemingly charred but there was no indication of natural fires, the others were from precise cuts, one to the throat and one to the chest. However, there were similar slices near the chest after the death. When one of the supposed dead was seen attacking their widowed husband, they were intercepted by a Shadowscale scout. The adventurer killed the perpetrator, who was a skin-stealer. 

Vicecanon Hrondar went missing not long before, prompting the search to continue further. An argonian citizen recognized one of his comrades kidnap the vicecanon and take him to the abandoned section of Silyanorn.  A spy from the   attempted to steal their notes but was stopped by the adventurer, who moved onto Silyanorn. They fought through waves of skin-stealers who disintegrated into red dust after they were defeated until they rescued Hrondar from his prison.  Now that the Pact were aware of the Dominion's presence, they soon went to war across Shadowfen. They discovered the Dominion army in the bowels of   and prepared a large-scale battle to drive them out. 

Stormhold in the Third Empire
thumb|left|The Storm Crystal
During the   in the late  , the city-state of Stormhold was an active settlement. It was ruled by Queen Aphiana and it had a rivalry with  .  After acquiring the sixth piece of the  , the   needed to locate the dark forest that ever moves,   where the next piece was located. Their journey brought them to Black Marsh and the city of Stormhold, where they came into contact with  , the leader of the local  . Lancaster told them that if the champion retrieved a lost tablet from the ruins of the  , he would be able to decipher it and reveal the forest's location. Through triumphs and tribulations, the Eternal Champion was able to locate Murkwood and retrieve the seventh piece of the Staff. With only one province left, the champion traveled north into the ash wastes of  . 

The city's prison held an infamous reputation  in the late Third Era circa  .  The Warden, Quintus Varus, was a reputed lunatic who broke into the old tunnels beneath town in search of valuable Stormhold Crystals. He had certain prisoners, nicknamed Tunnel Rats, dig for them in the haunted passages in return for a moderate amount of freedom. The prison soon became corrupted with evil; the prisoners went mad, slowly turning into horrible beasts. The corruption was kept at bay by storing it in Hollow Crystals. Varus' true goal was to find the location of the  , a powerful artifact made by the priests of a nearly forgotten religion. Varus had planned to remove all evil from the Empire and store it in the crystal. However, a prisoner nicknamed the Master Tunnel Rat entered the prison, gathered allies and equipment, and tracked down the Storm Crystal. The prisoner and Varus battled over it, and the prisoner was victorious. Although the crystal could not hold the evil of the world, the prisoner used it to undo the corruption in the prison, allowing the innocents to go free. 

The city was overrun by the undead army of Umbriel in  , despite not being beneath Umbriel's shadow.   This destruction was considered light compared to locations that fell within the floating city's path.  

Gallery
 

See Also
For game-specific information, see the Arena, Stormhold, and ESO articles.
Books


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, Stormhold's gladiatorial team would have been called "the Black Shields". 

References