Lore:The Fall of the Usurper

The people of   celebrate   every 5th of Suns Dawn, the date when, according to legend, a man emerged from the wilderness of   and defeated the undead of   to become the first Baron of Dwynnen. Few people believe the legend anymore, but there most certainly was a Baron   of Dwynnen who was destined to become one of true heroes of High Rock, if not all Tamriel.

The legend, as most any Dwynnen child will tell you, is that years and years ago (archivists have agreed to the year  ), the people of Dwynnen were ruled by a   and its armies of  s,  s,  s, and  s. Othrok was blessed   by gods and given an army of men and animals to destroy the dead. He brought peace and prosperity to the land, growing more powerful as the land improved. Years later, he led the tiny barony against the  , and saved all of Tamriel.

How much credit the Baron ought to receive for the defeat of the Camoran Usurper has been debated, but it is an   fact that in the year  , the Camoran Usurper's relentless move north through High Rock was halted around the area of contemporary Dwynnen. Dwynnen is actually larger than it was in the first Baron's day - it did not, in fact, have a sea port - but the   was a coastal battle. The fact that the battle probably did not occur in Dwynnen does not in itself belittle the Baron's participation in it.

The Camoran Usurper had conquered   and   by means of a large army, which by legend consisted entirely of undead and  , but was mostly composed of  s and  . In all probability, the Usurper summoned the daedra and undead in   and slowly replaced the original summoned creatures with the armies of his conquered territories. Most armies of Valenwood have been historically mercenary.

Word of the Usurper's conquests reached High Rock in early  , but preparations to repel the invasion did not begin until early the following year. Historians attribute two factors to High Rock's  . The primary powers of the   were ruled by particularly inept monarchs -   and   both had kings in their minority, and   was torn by contention between Helena and her cousin Jilathe. The Lord of Reich Gradkeep (now  ) was deathly ill through 266 and finally died at the end of the year. There were, in short, no leaders to unite the province against the Usurper. Of the leaders with any influence, at least eight (the "Eight Traitors" of legend) made secret allegiances with the Usurper to protect their lands.

The secondary reason for the lethargy of High Rock had to do with the depth of relations between the province and the  . For the first time since the beginning of the Dynasty, an Emperor ruled Tamriel who was neither   nor had spent any of his childhood in High Rock. The difference between   and his cousin   who preceded him was appalling to the people of High Rock. Even mad Emperors like   revered the Bretons over all other races, and cousins and younger siblings of the Emperors have ruled in High Rock since the foundation of the Empire. Cephorus was a  , with   and   sympathies. The attitude of the common men of High Rock was sympathetic toward the Camoran Usurper as an archfoe of this hated Emperor.

The Baron and his less legendary allies, the rulers of  ,  , and  , changed this favorable perception. News of the Usurper's barbaric treatment of captives and abuse of conquered lands, mostly true, spread rapidly through their territories, and then to other neutral lands. Within a few months, the greatest navy ever combined organized along the High Rock edge of the Iliac Bay. Only the navy of  's illfated invasion of   was comparable.

How the combined forces of High Rock defeated the endless army of the Camoran Usurper is certainly worthy of a lengthy book in itself. And perhaps, it is best left to the public imagination. Certainly the weather worked against the Usurper, which is reason in itself to attribute divine intervention.

Baron Othrok's divine purpose is the central theme to  , after all. And as the poet   wrote, To find the facts, the wisest always look first to the fiction.