Redguards , History and Heroes , V . 3 Content . Torn ' s Sword Hunt had separated the Singers from the common people , and the rise of the Last Emperor began the last great strife of the desert empire : the Emperor and his consort Elisa ' s final effort to wrest control of the empire from the people by destroying the sword - singers . Hira vowed to search out every Singer with his Brigand army composed of Orcs and castoffs of the wars of the empire , and to scourge them from the face of the planet . The sword - singers were never a numerous people . The harsh desert kept the births few , and growing up in the unforgiving wastes eliminated all but those of iron spirit and will . Thus the final strife , which became known as the " War of the Singers , " found the people of the sword unprepared and unready to join together their individually great skills into an army that could defend their homes and lives . Frandar Hunding was sought out , his death poem interrupted , and unceremoniously command of the singers was thrust upon him . To the unknown gods of war great thanks is owed that Hunding had the time in his cave to write down his years of accumulated wisdom , of strategy , of the way of the Shehai . The singers fled from their camps up into the desert hills and mountains , fled to the foot of Hattu , " the Father of Mountains , " where Hunding had gone to write in peace and to die . There those remnants formed into the Army of the Circle — they learned Hunding ' s Way , his strategies , his tactics , and the final great vision for a master stroke . Hunding devised a plan of seven battles , leading the Armies of Hira further and further into the wilderness to the foot of Hattu , where the final battle could be fought . Hunding called his plan the " Hammer and the Anvil . " With each battle Hunding ' s Singers would further learn his strategies and tactics , grow strong in the use of the Shehai , and be ready to defeat their opponents in the seventh battle . And thus it was , the six first battles were waged , each neither victory or defeat , each leading to the next . The larger armies of Hira following the small army of Hunding . Outnumbered thirty to one , the singers never faltered from the Way . The stage was set : Hira and his army maneuvered to the base of Hattu Mountain , where the hammer blow was delivered . The battle was pitched , and many singers fell that day . Hunding knew that the singers who lived would be few , but Hira and his empire of evil would not live — and so it went . At the end Hunding and less that twenty thousand singers survived the day , but no army of evil was left to pillage and murder — more than three hundred thousand fell that day on Hattu . Of those who were left to run and live , all were scattered to the four winds , an organized force no more . The singers packed their lives , folded their tents , mourned their dead , and followed Hunding to the great port city of Arch , in the province of Seawind . There Hunding had a flotilla of ships waiting . The singers left their desert for a new land . No longer welcome in the desert empire , they left to be sung about and spoken of in legend . The final great warrior , the singers of Shehai , the Book of Circles , all leaving that land where their virtue was unappreciated . Red , red with blood they were in the eyes of the gentle citizenry , never mind that they had saved them from a great evil . The singers vowed to learn new ways as they traveled across the great ocean to their new land . To adopt a new name , but to honor the past . In honor of their final battle , they named their new land Hammerfell and adopted the name Redguards . In honor to Hunding the great warrior prince , each household in Hammerfell has a place by the hearth , an alcove really , just a niche , big enough to hold the scroll : The Book of Circles .