Lore:Lysandus

also known as the Dragon of Daggerfall,  was the ruler of the Kingdom of  .  He was the son of King   and Queen  , and husband of Queen  , with whom he had a son,  . As king, Lysandus was a trusted vassal and friend of  .   Although his loyalty to the   was assured, he was not so faithful to Mynisera; the king was secretly in love with his mistress, the court sorceress of Daggerfall,  .  

During Lysandus' rule, Daggerfall was one of the dominant kingdoms in the   region, along with   and  . However, there were often clashes between these powers, and it was a petty land dispute with Sentinel that erupted into the full-scale war that cut short Lysandus' life.  The king was killed during the   in  ; while the exact details are vague, historians from both sides of the conflict record that when the armies of Daggerfall and Sentinel met at  , a mysterious fog descended upon the battlefield. When it lifted, Lysandus was found dead, shot in the throat by an archer's arrow.  

In truth, Lysandus died the night before the battle, the victim of a Wayrest assassin's blade.    Prince Gothryd succeeded his father as King of Daggerfall, though Lysandus' restless spirit returned to haunt the city of   for some time after his death until a mysterious   avenged his murder.  
 
History
Early Life
thumb|left|Queen Myniserathumb|right|Medora Direnni
Lysandus was born some time in the   of the  , though the exact year is disputed.   He wed  , and their only child  , was born in  . The king also kept a mistress, the court sorceress  , and over time the pair fell in love. 

Lysandus was once involved with Mynisera’s father, Prince Klaius, in a troubling incident involving the  s. After defeating the warriors of an Orcish settlement, Klaius ordered his men to make sport of killing the survivors (the elderly, sick, and children). The Orcs pleaded for mercy, but to his shame, Lysandus did nothing to stop the slaughter.  Later in life, Lysandus is known to have supported the Orc Warlord   in his efforts to gain equal recognition for the Orcs from the   and sovereign rule. 
 

The War of Betony
left|thumb|The War of Betony
With piracy on the rise in  , Lord   of the independent fishing island of   agreed to vassal himself to King Lysandus in exchange for Daggerfall's protection. This angered King   of Sentinel, who cited a centuries-old contract which held that Betony was a traditional holding of Sentinel.  Tensions mounted, and though Medora and Nulfaga (a renowned mystic in her own right)  counselled against war, foreseeing doom for Daggerfall, the king was unmoved.  The two kingdoms went to war.  

While Lysandus was away leading the armies of Daggerfall, Mynisera discovered evidence of his affair with Medora. The queen banished the sorceress from the court.  Medora retreated to  , her clan's ancestral home on the Island of  . 

A number of major victories put Daggerfall in a position to win the war outright. But Nulfaga's warnings still went unheeded, so she also left the court for her castle in the  , leaving behind her dragon familiar,  , to report.   Nulfaga’s exit made Lysandus reconsider the war, and the king finally made an overture for peace. The two sides met at   and came to a compromise.    The war would have ended there had not the Daggerfall scribe, a   of  , substituted a fake treaty for the kings to sign.   When this ruse was discovered, Reich Gradkeep erupted into a bloodbath.  The forces of Sentinel retreated to the   and Daggerfall to the  , their positions separated by the flowering meadowlands of  .  
 

The Battle of Cryngaine Field
"After the days of Tiber and the traitor Jagar Tharn, when the Septim dynasty has ruled the land of Tamriel for four hundred and five winter moons, then the White Moon, Camaron, King of Sentinel, will shine dark on his mortal enemy, King Lysandus, the Dragon of Daggerfall. Though the Dragon shall combat with the Moon, there will be no victory in Cryngaine Field. For it is written that dark sorcery, war, and forbidden acts shall bring terror to the ravenous courtroom of Daggerfall." 
thumb|right|The Battle of Cryngaine Field
thumb|left|Skakmat
One week later, the reinforced armies of Daggerfall and Sentinel met at Cryngaine Field. As the battle commenced, a mysterious fog settled across the battlefield.   This fog was created by Skakmat on Nulfaga’s order, her last-ditch attempt to end the war.  However, the histories say that when the fog lifted, King Lysandus was found dead, an arrow lodged in his throat. Prince Gothryd was quickly crowned the new King of Daggerfall, and led his armies to a decisive victory, thus ending the war.   The tales are false; King Lysandus was killed the night before the battle, slain by an assassin.  

Lysandus was never an ambitious man. When Medora was banished from court, he decided he would rather spend his life with her than remain as King of Daggerfall.  He planned to fake his death after the conclusion of the war, figuring no one would ever suspect a king would abandon his throne. 

The account given by the   claims that Prince Gothryd, wanting his father to be happy, helped execute the plan. On the eve of the battle, Lysandus was visited by a delegation from Wayrest, led by a minor lord named  . The king switched clothes with an unnamed, impoverished Wayrest noble aligned with the lord, and left with Woodborne. The next day, the noble entered the battle wearing the king's armor, and when the fog descended Gothryd shot and killed the ersatz Lysandus with an unmarked arrow. Meanwhile, Lysandus and Woodborne boarded a ship for Balfiera. While at   on the coast of  , Woodborne disembarked and ordered Gortwog (with whom Woodborne was allied) and his Orcs to kill Lysandus. The ships were sunk and the party slain, and the king's corpse was interred in an unmarked crypt not far away. 

 
While portions of this narrative ring true, it is inaccurate. Wayrest did send advisors to meet with both the Daggerfall and Sentinel camps that night.  However, the assassin was among them; while the Wayrest delegation spoke to Lysandus, one of their number slipped a dagger between the king's ribs.  The assassin was Lord Woodborne himself.  

The Warlord Gortwog was involved in events that evening, as he had advance notice of the assassination plot.  However, as Lysandus was supportive of his goals,  Gortwog sent his orcs to attack and waylay the Wayrest delegation. The Orcish warriors were killed in the failed attempt.   

Despite these inconsistencies, the "impoverished noble" story does explain the belief that Lysandus died of an arrow on the battlefield,    and the king was indeed interred in a tomb in Menevia.  Additionally, it is known that King Gothryd and Lord Woodborne were conspirators in a scheme for power some years following these events,   and some have intimated that Gothryd was also a conspirator in the plot to kill his father. 
 
Undeath and Vengeance
thumb|right|King Lysandus' cryptleft|Lysandus awakens|thumb
In  , King Lysandus returned to the city of Daggerfall as an undead spirit, bring with him a legion of ghosts.  The city guards tried to fight off the undead army, but those who fell soon joined its ranks.  Lysandus and his legions began haunting the streets at night, and the king's shade was known to utter the word "vengeance".  

The situation attracted the attention of Emperor  , who sent an   of the   to investigate the matter in  .    These investigations led the agent to Medora, who with Gortwog’s help concocted a magic dust that would soothe Lysandus' angry spirit.  The   provided the location of Lysandus' tomb in Menevia; the agent ventured inside and sprinkled the dust on the king's bones.  This soothed Lysandus' spirit enough to appear before the agent, reveal Lord Woodborne as his murderer, and demand vengeance.  Following the king's wishes, the agent invaded  , and either killed Lord Woodborne or found evidence that was used to orchestrate his ruin. 

Once his vengeance was complete, King Lysandus was able to rest. The wraiths and ghosts of his loyal soldiers vanished as his soul passed to the underworld, leaving the city of Daggerfall to the living. 
 

Notes
 
The     mentions "the ghost of King Lysandus" in passing in TES V: Skyrim.
The voice actor for Lysandus in Daggerfall was Julian Lefay, who also narrated the game's intro and outro which could possibly mean the narrator was meant to be Lysandus. The actor of Lysandus in the Daggerfall CES Cinematic was Don Nalezty.

Gallery
 
References