Chronicles of the Five Companions 1 Content . My name is Lyris of Skyrim , called Titanborn by some . I ' m committing these words to paper on behalf of my friend and ally , a man history will remember only as " The Prophet . " It was through his profound insight , and his study of the Elder Scrolls , that we came to understand the dire nature of the threat that now endangers all of Tamriel . Let it be known by those who read these words that the Soulburst — the event that took place in the five - hundred - and - seventy - ninth year of the Second Era — was due to the treachery of a single Elf : The Altmeri necromancer Mannimarco , the King of Worms and the servant of the most vile of all the Daedric Princes , the God of Schemes and Lord of Brutality , Molag Bal . In years past , Mannimarco served as chief advisor to the court of Emperor Varen Aquilarios . Originally Duke of Chorrol , Varen became Emperor of Tamriel by right of conquest . With Mannimarco ' s counsel , Varen led a revolt against the previous dynasty , the savage regime of Reachmen known as the Longhouse Emperors . Yet , despite his conquest and victory , Varen was not the true emperor . Like the former Emperor Leovic , the blood of the dragon didn ' t flow through Varen ' s veins . He was unable to light the Dragonfires in the Temple of the One , as a true emperor must , by tradition . The Dragonfires have remained unlit for generations . This is because the Amulet of Kings — a relic of the Divines gifted onto Saint Alessia by Akatosh — was lost in the centuries following the fall of the Reman Dynasty . Only this relic , traditionally worn by the Imperial Emperors of the First Era , would allow a true - blooded ruler to spark the Dragonfires anew . At Mannimarco ' s urging , Valen formed a group of companions to join him on an epic quest to locate this relic . These companions included myself , the Redguard swordmaster Sai Sahan , Grand Chancellor Abnur Tharn , and Mannimarco himself . For years we scoured the face of Tamriel , following countless leads until we finally managed to located it . When we returned to the Imperial City , Mannimarco played upon Varen ' s insecurities and convinced him that the coronation ritual , properly modified , could not only light the Dragonfires , but persuade Akatosh to invest him with Divine agency and gift him with the blood of the dragon . It was only after the coronation ritual was attempted that we learned the extent of Mannimarco ' s deception . The King of Worms used his magic to corrupt the power of the Amulet , causing the calamity which came to be known as the Soulburst . Sai Sahan and I were unjustly implicated in his death , made all the more suspicious because Sai fled as soon as he recovered , taking the Amulet of Kings with him . Grand Chancellor Tharn was an opportunist , and immediately cast his lot with Mannimarco . The Prophet ' s story is one of mystery - he appeared one day on the steps of an abbey of the Moth Priests in Cyrodiil . They took him in and fed him , thinking him nothing more than a vagabond . They were shocked when they found him in the libraries late that night , poring over the eldritch etchings of an Elder Scroll . Only the Moth Priests themselves had the ability to read the scrolls , and they saw his arrival as a prophetic sign from the divines . As they all do who read them , the Elder Scrolls eventually took the Prophet ' s eyesight , leaving him permanently blinded . And yet he continued to study them in his mind ' s eye , and eventually foresaw the great and terrible thread we are now faced with . Word of his prophecies spread far and wide , eventually reaching the Imperial City and the ears of Mannimarco . The King of Worms immediately arrested the Prophet for rumor - mongering and treason , and had the abbey , and all of its contents , burned to the ground . The catastrophe that the Prophet predicted began to take shape almost immediately . Vast swaths of the Empire were consumed by Daedric fire , and the first Dark Anchors fell the land . Molag Bal ' s invasion of our world had begun , made possible by Mannimarco ' s betrayal .