The Legendary Sancre Tor Summary . This book relates to the Imperial Emperor s burial ruin , located in Cyrodiil . Content . During the Skyrim Conquests [ 1E 240 - 415 ] , ambitious Highland earls , envious of the conquests and wealth of their northern cousins in High Rock and Morrowind , looked south over the ramparts of the Jerall Mountains for their opportunities . The Jerall Mountains proved to be too great a barrier , and northern Cyrodiil too poor a prize , to reward full scale Nord invasions . However , Alessia hired many ambitious Nord and Breton warbands as mercenaries with the promises of rich lands and trade concessions . Once settled among the victorious Alessian Cyrodiils , the Nord and Breton warriors and battlemage s were quickly assimilated into the comfortable and prosperous Nibenean culture . Alessia received the divine inspiration for her Slave Rebellion at Sancre Tor , and here she founded her holy city . Sancre Tor ' s mines provided some wealth , but the poor soils and harsh climate of the remote mountain site meant it must be supplied with food and goods from the Heartlands . Further , located on one of the few passes through the Jeralls , its fortunes were subject to the instability of relations with Skyrim . When relations were good with Skyrim , it prospered through trade and alliance . When relations were bad with Skyrim , it was vulnerable to siege and occupation by the Nords . With the decline of the Alessian Order [ circa 1E 2321 ] , the seat of religious rule of Cyrodiil moved south to the Imperial City , but Sancre Tor remained a mountain fortress and major religious center until the rise of the Septim Dynasty . In 2E852 , the city was suffering under one of the periodic occupations by Skyrim and High Rock invaders . King Cuhlecain sent his new general , Talos , to recapture the city and expel the northern invaders . During his siege , Sancre Tor was destroyed and abandoned . Realizing the strategic weakness of the site , General Talos - - later Tiber Septim - - resolved to abandon Sancre Tor , and during his reign , no effort was made to rebuild the city or citadel . Alessian historians asserted that Sancre Tor was magically concealed and defended by the gods . Records of Sancre Tor ' s repeated defeats and occupations by northern invaders gives the lie to this assertion . The entrance to the citadel was indeed concealed by sorcery , and the citadel and its labyrinthine subterranean complex were defended by magical traps and illusions , but their secrets were betrayed to besieging Nords by the Breton enchanters who crafted them . One enduring feature of the legend of Sancre Tor is the ancient tombs of the Reman emperors . Following the defeat of the Akaviri invaders , Sancre Tor enjoyed a brief resurgence of wealth and culture under Reman Cyrodiil and his descendants , Reman II and Reman III . Tracing his ancestry to St . Alessia , and following the tradition that St . Alessia was buried in the catacombs beneath Sancre Tor [ 1 ] , Reman built splendid funerary precincts in the depths of the ancient citadel underpassages . Here the last Reman emperor , Reman III , was buried in his tomb with the Amulet of Kings . During the Sack of Sancre Tor , General Talos is said to have recovered the Amulet of Kings from the tomb of Reman III . Theologians ascribe the long centuries of political and economic turmoil following the collapse of the Reman dynasty to the loss of the Amulet of Kings , and associate the renaissance of the Cyrodilic empire in the Third Era with Tiber Septim ' s recovery of the Amulet from Reman III ' s tomb . Sancre Tor has lain in ruins since the beginning of the Third Age , and the surrounding region is virtually uninhabited . Now all communications with the north are through the passes at Chorrol and Bruma , and Sancre Tor ' s citadel and underpassages have become the refuge of various savage goblin tribes . [ 1 ] The is a competing tradition that St . Alessia is buried on the site of the Temple of the One in the Imperial City . The actual resting place of St . Alessia is unknown .