A Looter ' s Paradise Content . You don ' t need to know my real name — not sure I remember it anymore , anyhow . My auntie left me a shack on a hill south of the border . Never thought about it much , until I lifted Hrol ' s Golden Girdle from the Temple of the One . Suddenly life got real complicated , and I decided it was time to go claim my inheritance . Auntie — let ' s call her Auntie Alias , no point in telling you too much — was an Imperial Border Scout , part of the cohort stationed at Fort Sphinxmoth , in the hills between Elsweyr and northern Valenwood . In the late days of the Second Empire the job of the Border Scouts was to keep the quarrelsome locals in line so as not to interfere with trade . " Free trade , by Aless , " auntie would say , opening another bottle of Surilie Farms and winking . " Lifeblood of the Empire ! " Now the Scouts couldn ' t stop every little cross - border vendetta , but they did prevent the Cats and the Runty Elves from engaging in wholesale slaughter , and kept the bandits off the road from Dune to Arenthia . Auntie liked the climate , so when she retired she bought this little plot , came down and put up her hut . It ' s bigger than it looks , by the way — goes way back into the hill , and you can bet auntie dug out a back door , just in case . By the time I got here , one dark night in Sun ' s Dusk , with the wound in my thigh leaking blood again after that wild ride on the stolen horse , the Border Scouts were long gone , and the Dawnmead Marches had returned to their natural state : just one law shy of anarchy . And that one law was the Law of Revenge . It was the Vinedusk Wood Elf tribe versus the Dakarn Khajiiti clan , and it was a near - continual war of cross - border raids and midnight murders . They took turns occupying the ruins of Fort Sphinxmoth , sending out bands to waylay merchant caravans , raid villages and towns , and pay off old scores . Neither side noticed me hiding in the old shack during daylight , and slipping from shadow to shadow around the Marches after dark . The place was a killing ground — I could hardly go five hundred paces without encountering a dead warrior , a half - empty cart , or a slain merchant . It was a looter ' s paradise . Ah , those were the good times . Too good to last , I suppose — eventually the Vinedusk bandits overreached and staged a raid on Arenthia itself , right about the time the Dakarn Cats tried to take over organized crime in Dune and the Thizzrini Arena . The respectable citizens on both sides of the border formed militias or hired mercenaries , swept the hills clean , and that was the end of brigandry in the Marches . The Vinedusk tribe actually reformed as a Bosmeri irregular unit , the " Vinedusk Rangers " ( Ha ! ) , while the surviving Dakarns became the nucleus of the Duneguard Outwalkers . The border settled back down , and the Lifeblood of the Empire resumed its flow . Fortunately , I was there to recognize opportunity when I saw it coming down the road from Dune , laden with trade goods . By the next Fredas I was in Bravil , looking up a few of my old contacts . Half a season later it was me and the newly - dubbed Murkwater Gang who were occupying good old Fort Sphinxmoth , digging out the barracks , sharpening our blades , and repairing the old traps . The good times are back .