Words and Philosophy Contents . Words and Philosophy Lady Allena Benoch , former master of the Valenwood Fighters Guild and head of the Emperor ' s personal guard in the Imperial City , has been leading a campaign to reacquaint the soldiers of Tamriel with the sword . I met with her on three different occasions for the purposes of this book . The first time was at her suite in the palace , on the balcony overlooking the gardens below . I was early for the interview , which had taken me nearly six months to arrange , but she gently chided me for not being even earlier . " I ' ve had time to put up my defenses now , " she said , her bright green eyes smiling . Lady Benoch is a Bosmer , a Wood Elf , and like her ancestors , took to the bow in her early years . She excelled at the sport , and by the age of fourteen , she had joined the hunting party of her tribe as a Jaqspur , a long distance shooter . During the black year - of 396 , when the Parikh tribe began their rampage through southeastern Valenwood with the aid of powers from the Summurset Isle , Lady Benoch fought the futile battle to keep her tribe ' s land . " I killed someone for the first time when I was sixteen , " she says now . " I don ' t remember it very well - - he or she was just a blur on the horizon where I aimed my bow . It meant no more to me than shooting animals . I probably killed a hundred people like that during that summer and fall . I didn ' t really feel like a killer until that wintertide , when I learned what it was like to look into a man ' s eyes as you spilled his blood . " It was a scout from the Parikh tribe who surprised me while I was on camp watch . We surprised each other , I suppose . I had my bow at my side , and I just panicked , trying to string an arrow when he was half a yard away from me . It was the only thing I knew to do . Of course , he struck first with his blade , and I just fell back in shock . " You always remember the mistakes of your first victim . His mistake was assuming because he had drawn blood and I had fallen , that I was dead . I rushed at him the moment he turned from me towards the sleeping camp of my tribesmen . He was caught off guard , and I wrested his blade away from him . " I don ' t know how many times I stabbed at him . By the time I stopped , when the next watch came to relieve me , my arms were black and blue with strain , there was not a solid piece of him left . I had literally cut him into pieces . You see , I had no concept of how to fight or how much it took to kill a man . " Lady Benoch , aware of this deficiency in her education , began teaching herself swordsmanship at once . " You can ' t learn how to use a sword in Valenwood , " she says . " Which isn ' t to say Bosmer can ' t use blades , but we ' re largely self - taught . As much as it hurt when my tribe found itself homeless , pushed to the north , it did have one good aspect : it afforded me the opportunity to meet Redguard s . " Studying all manners of weapon wielding under the tutelage of Warday A ' kor , Lady Benoch excelled . She became a freelance adventurer , traveling through the wilds of southern Hammerfell and northern Valenwood , protecting caravans and visiting dignitaries from the various dangers indigenous to the population . Unfortunately , before we were able to pursue her story of her early years any further , Lady Benoch was called away on urgent summons from the Emperor . Such is often the case with the Imperial Guard , and in these troubled times , perhaps , more so than in the past . When I tried to contact her for another talk , her servants informed me than their mistress was in Skyrim . Another month passed , and when I visited her suite , I was told she was in High Rock . To her credit , Lady Benoch actually sought me out for our second interview on Sun ' s Dusk of that year . I was in a tavern in the City called the Blood and Rooster , when I felt her hand on my shoulder . She sat down at the rude table and continued her tale as if it had never been interrupted . She returned to the theme of her days as an adventurer , and told me about the first time she ever felt confident with a sword . " I owned at that time an enchanted daikatana , quite a good one , of daedric metal . It wasn ' t an original Akaviri , not even of design . I didn ' t have that kind of money , but it served my primary purpose of delivering as much damage with as little effort on my part as possible . A ' kor had taught me how to fence , but when faced with a life or death situation , I always fell back on the old overhand wallop . " A pack of Orcs had stolen some gold from a local chieftain in Meditea , and I went looking for them in one of the ubiquitous dungeons that dot the countryside in that region . There were the usual rats and giant spiders , and I was enough of a veteran by then to dispatch them with relative ease . The problem came when I found myself in a pitch black room , and all around me , I heard the grunts of orcs nearing in . " I waved my sword around me , connecting with nothing , hearing their footsteps coming ever nearer . Somehow , I managed to hold back my fear and to remember the simple exercises Master A ' kor had taught me . I listened , stepped sideways , swung , twisted , stepped forward , swung a circle , turned around , side - stepped , swung . " My instinct was right . The orcs had gathered in a circle around me , and when I found a light , I saw that they were all dead . " That ' s when I focused on my study of swordplay . I ' m stupid enough to require a near death experience to see the practical purposes , you see . " Lady Benoch spent the remainder of the interview , responding in her typically blunt way to the veracity of various myths that surrounded her and her career . It was true that she became the master of the Valenwood Fighters Guild after winning a duel with the former master , who was a stooge of the Imperial Battlemage , the traitor Jagar Tharn . It was not true that she was the one responsible for the Valenwood Guild ' s disintegration two years later ( " Actually , the membership in the Valenwood chapter was healthy , but in Tamriel overall the mood was not conducive for the continued existence of a nonpartisan organization of freelance warriors . " ) It was true that she first came to the Emperor ' s attention when she defended Queen Akorithi of Sentinel from a Breton assassin . It was not true that the assassin was hired by someone in the high court of Daggerfall ( " At least , " she says wryly , " That has never been proven . " ) . It was also true that she married her former servant Urken after he had been in her service for eleven years ( " No one knows how to keep my weaponry honed like he does , " she says . " It ' s a practical business . I either had to give him a raise or marry him . " ) . The only story I asked her that she would neither admit nor refute was the one about Calaxes , the Emperor ' s bastard . When I brought up the name , she shrugged , professing no knowledge of the affair . I pressed on with the details of the story . Calaxes , though not in line for succession , had been given the Archbishopric of The One : a powerful position in the Imperial City , and indeed over all Tamriel where that religion is honored . Whispering began immediately that Calaxes believed that the Gods were angered with the secular governments of Tamriel and the Emperor specifically . It was even said that Calaxes advocated full - scale rebellion to establish a theocracy over the Empire . It is certainly true , I pressed on , that the Emperor ' s relationship with Calaxes had become very stormy , and that legislation had been passed to limit the Church ' s authority . That is , up until the moment when Calaxes disappeared , suddenly , without notice to his closest of friends . Many said that Lady Benoch and the Imperial Guard assassinated the Archbishop Calaxes in the sacristy of his church - - the date usually given was the 29th of Sun ' s Dusk 3E 498 " Of course , " responds Lady Benoch with one of her mysterious grins . " I don ' t need to tell you that the Imperial Guard ' s position is as protectors of the throne , not assassins . " " But surely , no one is more trusted that the Guard for such a sensitive operation , " I say , carefully . Lady Benoch acknowledges that , but merely says that such details of her duties must remain secret as a matter of Imperial security . Unfortunately , her ladyship had to leave early the next morning , as the Emperor had business down south - - of course , I couldn ' t be told more specifics . She promised to send me word when she returned so we could continue our interview . As it turned out , I had business of my own in the Summurset Isle , compiling a book on the Psijic Order . It was therefore with surprise that I met her ladyship three months later in Firsthold . We managed to get away from our respective duties to complete our third and final interview , on a walk along the Diceto , the great river that passes through the royal parks of the city . Steering away from questions of her recent duties and assignments , which I guessed rightly she was loath to answer , I returned to the subject of swordfighting . " Frandar Hunding , " she says . " Lists thirty - eight grips , seven hundred and fifty offensive and eighteen hundred defensive positions , and nearly nine thousand moves essential to sword mastery . The average hack - and - slasher knows one grip , which he uses primarily to keep from dropping his blade . He knows one offensive position , facing his target , and one defensive position , fleeing . Of the multitudinous rhythms and inflections of combat , he knows less than one . " The ways of the warrior were never meant to be the easiest path . The archetype of the idiot fighter is as solidly ingrained as that of the brilliant wizard and the shrewd thief , but it was not always so . The figure of the philosopher swordsman , the blade - wielding artist are creatures of the past , together with the swordsinger of the Redguards , who was said to be able to create and wield a blade with but the power of his mind . The future of the intelligent blade - wielder looks bleak in comparison to the glories of the past . " Not wanting to end our interviews on a sour note , I pressed Lady Allena Benoch for advice for young blade - swingers just beginning their careers . " When confronted with a wizard , " she says , throwing petals of Kanthleaf into the Diceto . " Close the distance and hit ' im hard . "