Tes4Mod:Order of the Dragon/Hinrich the Lion, Book I

Hinrich was his name, a boy of good flesh and hard will. Blond hair blew around the stately shoulders and a golden beard framed his and covered chin and jaw. Young in years as he was, he decided to embrace his mother, turn his back on his father's court, and to give his life to the Emperor. Fame drove him, the challenge of the unknown drove him, the thirst for death and the song of the sword that makes hearts burn up in battle like a flash. His mother wailed, his father complained, but that did not make him hesitate, so he stepped in front of the Emperor's walls and shouted full-throated: "Hinrich is my name and all my blood shall be yours, my Emperor, and it shall flow, where you have need of it."

The brief silence was followed by the loud laughter of the surrounding farmers, who stared at him as his young voice interrupted their daily drudgery. He waded through the mud and through the gate; for a moment doubtful of his honesty, the captain went to him and saw the light in Hinrich's eyes and took him into the Emperor's bodyguard.

So the beginning of the legend of Hinrich the Lion is described in a large part of the traditional scriptures. It is full of honor and sacrifice, but the truth about the young Hinrich is less shiny, less easy. However, this fact does not detract from the Hinrich's reputation in any way; on the contrary, it proves that he knew to deal with major problems at a young age.

Hinrich, an orphan of unknown parents, actually had golden hair, but that did not matter in the coal mine where he had been working for a few years. Soot-smeared and caked with mud, the hair of every miner had the same color and texture. All these strangers were oppressed and could even have been brothers. And they were brothers, in a sense and the same in what they saw. Before the morning dawned, they climbed down from the loft into the darkness of the mountain, only the light of the torch as a fixed point. And again at night, among the sunless sky, which was as black as the void of the mountain.

In those days of sorrow it came to pass that Hinrich dug his heel too deeply into the flesh of the mountain and a hidden water source shot out. The force of the troubled crack wet all things, let all cries fall silent, ground the stone after his troubled dreams. He could barely hold a thought, as he also gasping for breath as he fought for his life. Everything was bubbling: bubbling water, the stones were bubbling, his thoughts bubbling. Everything was bubbling. He suffered several deep wounds before a stone hit him hard on the head and his unconscious body followed the timeless water driving through the depths of the mountain, like a spring, which strays silently through the raging world and all hope then sails away of the wind currents.

A biting pain that sprang from every fiber of his body drove him awake, and he felt unspeakably miserable. He looked at his body, hands and stomach were bloody wounds that the mountain had inflicted on him. Now he looked around and finally saw his surroundings. He was in a cold room which was unmistakably created by people; ice cold water squeezed from the pores of the stone block walls and wandered slowly to the ground. A simple straw bed was wearing his battered body, a dwindling candle dimly lit the windowless little room to him and revealed its small size now that his eyes had adjusted. He was cold, but his wounds were burning like fire - it seemed like a fever, or the fools from the fair, which can stir laughter and tears. Everything seemed to turn, when suddenly a male voice broke the silence: "It would be better if you could run fast again, my son. It will take a long time until you have repaid your debt to Almighty Akatosh."

"I will repay my debt, Father. My modest body and soul will I give him. Gratitude for the helping hand, which he handed to me when I was longing for light in darkness."

And so it was that Hinrich walked in the path of God in the monastery of Akatosh - Ravenbranch, it is called - and helped the monks in the library and in the port estates were loaded from the ship to the warehouse. He learned to read and studied the teachings of the Nine Divines.