Lore:Sundercliff

Sundercliff was a village located in  ,  east of Lake Canulus and west of the Valus Mountains making up the border between   and the eastern provinces of Morrowind and Black Marsh. It sits far away from any modern-day settlement, at a roughly equally far distance from Bravil, Cheydinhal, and Leyawiin, and contained ancient underground tunnels leading to Lake Canulus. 

The fort of Sundercliff Watch  (or Sundercliff Keep or Fort Sundercliff ) once rose over the village of Sundercliff. It served to defend the border with Morrowind and Black Marsh, but it was abandoned due to cutbacks during the Alliance War of  .  The village later fell into ruin, with the fort being all that remained of it by the Third Era.  
 
History
The ancient city of Varsa Baalim, which held the Mehrunes Razor, disappeared when the mountains of the Eastern Niben swallowed Varsa Baalim and the Nefarivigum with it. Whether it was caused by a final fallback plan of the Ayleids, a natural cataclysm, or the touch of the Divines is unknown. 

The village of Sundercliff was later built at the site of Varsa Baalim during the rule of the  , serving as a waystation.  In  , the village of Sundercliff made a plea to the Kindly Contrivers of Clavicus Vile to have new farming implements before First Seed of  . The Biweekly Conclave of the Contrivers met to devise a response to the dilemma, and the proposal for new implements passed with majority vote, met with some jeering by its opposing voters. 

Circa  , Mehrunes Dagon was summoned to Tamriel by the mortal   using the power of the Four Ambitions. A portal was opened between Sundercliff and Dagon's capital of   in the Deadlands, resulting in the instant destruction of the fort and the surrounding town. Upon manifesting on Tamriel, Dagon began the process of merging his realm with Nirn using the power of the Ambitions. However, Dagon and Sombren were followed by a force of mortals and Daedra led by the Vestige, who interrupted the ritual. Another Ambition,  , was able to steal power back from Sombren and used Dagon's egonymic to bind and weaken the Prince. With the help of the Vestige, Dagon's physical form was destroyed and he was banished to the furthest corner of the Deadlands via the use of his egonymic. This reversed the attempted merging of the realms, mitigating the destruction that had been caused to Sundercliff and the surrounding landscape. 

By the end of the Third Era, Sundercliff Watch was long since faded into disrepair and been all but forgotten,  and the city of Varsa Baalim beneath remained hidden, entombed deep within the mountains, inhabited by the undead vampiric remnants of its populace. In  , a rogue Telvanni arch-mage named   gathered many mercenaries to his cause and formed the  , which marched into Cyrodiil and captured Sundercliff Watch, a now abandoned fort. The fort had deep   mines that extended far underground, and Drothan used these to excavate the entrance to Varsa Baalim. Once it was uncovered, he ventured into the ruins of the city with a large detachment of mercenaries and magically sealed the entrance to deter assassins.  

The Champion of Cyrodiil, hearing rumors of Drothan's rebel army, entered Sundercliff Watch, fought through the Drothmeri Army, and broke the magical barrier preventing any from entering Varsa Baalim and claimed the Razor. 
 
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See Also
For game-specific information, see the Oblivion and ESO articles.

References