Janus Hassildor

Janus Hassildor is a heroic side-character in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. He is count of Skingrad - one of the most prosperous counties in the Imperial province of Cyrodiil. Amoung the various counts and countesses of the land, he is easily the most proactive and arguably one of the most noble despite his... condition.
=== Skingrad Rule ===
According to talking points of the other nobles as well as Raminus Polus, Count Janus Hassildor has ruled Skingrad for decades without a single scandal or black mark on his record as a ruler of his people. He lives a reclusive life but has overseen tremendous economic growth, stabilization of infrastructure and security. Security in particular has been focused on as the Skingrad guards are some of Cyrodiil’s staunchest, vigilant guards with no sign of either corruption or bad-actors.
An unusual feature of Skingrad over other counties is the castle is located both outside and towering over the main town. Even traveling outside and uphill into Skingrad castle, Count Hassildor is not in the main-hall, as all other counts are. Count Hassildor is secluded in a double locked section of the castle set aside as a lord’s manor. To see the count one needs to speak with either of his stewards Mercator Hosidus or Hal-Liurz. Even speaking to his stewards will not guarantee an audience with the count, as he is very private and prefers to only receive audiences with people he already knows unless the county or imperial province itself is at stake, though he does take in all concerns left with the stewards even if he cannot be bothered for an immediate audience.
The locals consider their count a mix of benevolent and mysterious as he has prioritized their comfort but virtually no-one outside the castle has ever seen him. Some find this to be preferable as he is a hands-off ruler whose laws and reforms are all about town infrastructure and not petty authority, leaving citizens to their own devices, provided said devices do not interfere with the law or prosperity of the county.
== True Nature ==
The Count will see the Hero of Kvatch either if they have joined the Mages Guild and are being sent there by Arch-Mage Hannibal Traven or during the Oblivion invasion of the game’s main quest. If the Hero of Kvatch is a practicing thief they may well break passed the double locked doors to see the count themself, in person. The count’s inner manor is dark, with only a few low burning candles on a desk or two. The count sleeps most of the day unless his butler, Shum gro-Yarug comes in to feed him. Count Hassildor has a warped skin-tone, gaunt features, red-eyes and prominently sharp canine-teeth - signs of vampirism. Janus Hassildor is a vampire. If the Hero of Kvatch is caught uninvited in the lord’s manor, count Hassildor will quickly become cross (if not hostile), and call in his guards if the Hero of Kvatch does not immediately leave.
== Mages Guild Encounter ==
The Hero of Kvatch encounters Janus Hassildor if they have joined the Mages Guild. Raminus Polus - public representative of the Mages Council sends the Hero of Kvatch to Skingrad on behalf of Arch-Mage Traven. At that point in the Guild, necromancers have attacked the Mages Guild on at least two major occasions and in several lesser ones. The Mages Council is concerned about an organized antagonistic sect of necromancers working against the Mages Guild and want the Hero of Kvatch to go to Skingrad to see one of their most reliable outside assets - Count Janus Hassildor himself.
Hal-Liurz is cordial but says Mercator Hosidus has made Mages Guild business his priority and it best to speak to him if the Hero of Kvatch wants to speak with the count on such matters. Mercator Hosidus is less cordial. Mercator says that the Count is busy and less than happy to see a representative from the Mages Guild instead of a Council member, as they occasionally pester him and apparently when they do, they can’t even be bothered to send an actual Council member. After repeated requests for an audience, Mercator Hosidus will tell the Hero of Kvatch to meet outside the castle after dark just behind one of the old mines so any conversation they have on Mages Guild business as it relates to county affairs can be private and secret.
Going to the meadow just across from the mine after dark will see Mercator Hosidus show up with two well trained necromancers but not the count. Hosidus reveals the count never got the summons and isn’t coming, instead Mercator Hosidus had informed his friends in the Cult of the Black Worm that a Mages Guild representative was trying to get an audience with the count about their movements. Mercator Hosidus is actually with the necromancers cult himself and there to cut off contact between the Count and Mages Guild - he and his necromancer cohorts are there to kill and possibly reanimate the Hero of Kvatch. No sooner will Mercator initiate the attack than count Janus Hassildor will come rushing out of the shadows to help the Hero of Kvatch slay the threat.
Speaking with Janus Hassildor after the fight will reveal the count actually knew there was a spy in his court and was eavesdropping at the county hall when Mercator was arranging the meet up. He has let the ambush play out to assure all the necromancers were dealt with at once, using the Hero of Kvatch as bait. If confronted about being used simply as bait, count Hassildor says that it is clear the Mages Council had a similar idea and points out the entire errand was obviously a ploy to see if he had been turned as a necromancers’ asset with the Hero of Kvatch sent as an expendable member of the Guild. Professing ignorance of being used as a pawn by the necromancers or Mages Council has Janus Hassildor say he can see that now, and that there are no hard feelings. His displeasure at being used aside, he does have a message for the Arch-Mage - ‘Mannimarco has returned’. Mannimarco was a major side antagonist and possible evil patron to join in Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, he either ascends to a god-like station or is foiled, but due to all the endings of the game being cannon due to an event called ‘The Warp In The West’ - merging multiple time lines Mannimarco both exists as a god-like-entity (if non-physical hands-off one) and a flesh-and-blood elven lich. Janus Hassildor says that Mannimarco is the one organizing necromancers into his Cult of The Black Worm, and the Mages Guild’s recent ban on necromancy has inadvertently sent many talented former Mages Guild members or aspiring members into Mannimarco’s hands and they are now organizing against the Guild - no doubt for their resources, if not revenge for the ban or to remove a potential magical threat. Count Hassildor says he had received word that Mannimarco had wanted him to join but he was holding off on rejecting the offer until he found any/all local Black Worm agents to avoid repercussions. Hassildor speculates that as a vampiric count he surely represented a major boon for Mannimarco if turned as a major figure vested with both necromancy and political power. As they part ways the count will tell the Hero of Kvatch as of that point they are welcome in court Skingrad but to please make an appointment with Hal-Liurz from then on - he will make time for the Hero of Kvatch specifically.
== Oblivion Crisis Encounter ==
During the game’s main story-line the Daedric Prince (god-like-arch-fiends), Mehrunes Dagon will be found to have organized the recent assassination of the Emperor as a ritualistic block against inter-planar invasion. With events progressing portals to Dagon’s plane of Oblivion will open up across Cyrodiil and the various counts and countesses will offer their armies if he Hero of Kvatch gives them immediate security by saving their counties; Naturally this includes Janus Hassildor. Unlike the other counts and countesses, closed off in their castles, Janus Hassildor has defied his normally reclusive life-style and is actually out in the fields in front of one of the Oblivion gates near the mine punching the Daedra as they come out - (and likely one-shotting each).
Janus Hassildor says Mehrunes Dagon has better think twice if he thinks he or anyone else is going to try to hurt the people of Skingrad while he is around. Though Janus Hassildor will not go inside he will cover the Hero of Kvatch as they head up to the portal and keep Daedra from leaking out during the closing of it inside. While closing the portal will earn count Hassildor’s favor and army, he likely will not head back to the castle right away and instead head up to another nearby Oblivion gate to repeat his process of beating Daedra to death as they threaten his county. If the second portal is closed Janus Hassildor once again thanks the Hero of Kvatch and will only then return to his manor, assured his county and town are safe for the time being.
== Cure for Vampirism ==
Janus Hassildor appears once more as a major character if the Hero of Kvatch contracts, and seeks a cure for, vampirism. The witch Melisande can be found after some rumor-chasing, out in the wilderness. She knows a cure for vampirism and can help undo the disease if the Hero of Kvatch has become one. They will need Count Hassildor as a consultant for the supplies, and he will gladly help on the condition a second does is made and delivered to him. Upon completing the collection and refinement of ingredients for the potions after the Hero of Kvatch has received their cure they bring the second cure to count Hassildor. The count views the potion as a source of salvation after years of waiting. He reveals a hidden passage in the castle and invites the Hero of Kvatch and Melisande to join him there. The passage leads to another dark room, with a woman in red silk clothing laying dormant in a coma like state - a woman with vampiric features.
Janus Hassildor reveals she is his wife, Rona Hassildor. She refused to feed even on voluntary donations of blood as her husband had. As undead creatures vampires can’t actually starve to death, but the hunger would have driven her mad if she kept starving herself. Because she had refused to feed she had nearly gone mad but put herself into a trance induced coma to prevent from either becoming a blood addict or rabidly mad over the years. Melisande will use a spell to bring Rona around for the count. Upon waking Rona speaks clearly in pain and asks why Janus has brought her around, begging him to let her sleep. Janus hands Rona the cure and tells her he has finally found a cure for her. Rona deeply thanks him and drinks it, promptly dying - either from extreme old age or starvation, but as a living person again and thus with ownership of her own soul.
Janus Hassildor needs to be alone and requests a day to mourn before concluding business with the Hero of Kvatch and Melisande. After a full day Hal-Liurz will arrange for a meeting and count Hassildor will come speak with the Hero of Kvatch. Hassildor says his wife is at rest and it is thanks to the Hero of Kvatch. He gives a substantial amount of gold for the deed and names the Hero of Kvatch as a hero of the realm. Though Janus Hassildor may be offered a cure himself, he refuses, he intends to use his vampiric status to keep ruling Skingrad for years to come past his normal life-span. He does like knowing he has the option now, though.
== Skills & Abilities ==
As a vampire, Janus Hassildor has super strength, a life absorb ability and an invisibility spell. Even for a vampire though Janus is phenomenally strong - he can kill a towering Daedroth with a single punch, to say nothing of the much smaller daedra like Scamps or Spider Daedra. His athletic skill is very high - allowing him to cover great distances quickly just with a brisk walk. Janus Hassildor has exceptional hearing and can make out what people are saying from at-least a room away with the doors closed. It is unclear if the count knows any of the hypnotic abilities most vampires know, but if he does he never uses them. According to Arch-Mage Hannibal Traven, even without vampirism Janus Hassildor was a powerful mage in his own right. Janus Hassildor has flirted with the dark-arts of necromancy but discontinued his studies after the practice was banned. His more prolific abilities are actually political. He has a good head for economics, architectural renovation, city layout and diplomatic concerns. All other nobles describe count Hassildor as one of the most active counts, if one unseen by the public.
Janus Hassildor has five major restrictions based on his vampirism. He can no longer move around in day-light at full power. As he does not feed much he cannot hide his vampiric features and any normal person who sees him will recognize what he is. His thirst is quite prevalent, but his occasional feeding keeps him from going mad with thirst. Silver will also harm him where wounds from any non-silver weapons will heal quickly. But by far the ability which causes him the most consistent annoyance is his aura. As a very old, very powerful vampire he naturally gives off an aura that subconsciously attracts other vampires to him. Other vampires are not aware of him on a conscious level or actively looking for him but feel most comfortable a around him and so he needs to deal with vampires sneaking into the county near his castle to set up nests to prey on the nearby populace from. Though he keeps having them slain more vampires keep coming eventually.
== Personality ==
Janus Hassildor is a very curt person. He dislikes putting on airs and is prone to blunt honesty. His isolation has left him less than a social creature. The Mages Guild discovered his vampirism years ago and he became an asset for them in exchange for keeping it quiet, he however dislikes being bothered by them casually. Despite his necromantic nature and issues with the Mages Guild, Janus Hassildor knows the Cult of the Black Worm are trouble, so he only pretends to consider their offer until their agents showed themselves. Morally he is not squeamish about death or necromancy. Despite his mild belligerence and liberal morals he at heart cares greatly for his people. Vampires tend to form tribal connections, usually to each-other; As he has not consorted with other vampires this instinct may have been reassigned to his citizens. While he is sophisticated when casually speaking with the Hero of Kvatch, he goes into a blood-rage if anything endangers his county. Though normally reclusive, ironically, he is the only count who leaves his castle to defend it from the daedra during the Oblivion Crisis. Hal-Liurz, Captain Dion and Shum gro-Yarug are all very protective of him as are the castle guards, almost obsessively, however none appear to be under any sort of thrall, meaning it is pure loyalty earned from working for him. Though he deeply, deeply loves his wife, Rona, he seems to have resigned himself long ago to having to live without her.
== Trivia ==
* A vampire’s soul is considered the property of the progenitor of vampires - the Daedric Prince Molag Bal. This is likely why Janus Hassildor never simply killed his wife if he knew she was going to die as a human anyway. Only in being cured could Rona be at peace either in life or death.
* Shum gro-Yarug - count Hassildor’s butler says the count is ‘very particular about his food and everything must be just so’; As Shum goes in privately to the lord’s manor it is implied he adds his blood to the food, or that the food is a pretense and he offers the count drinks directly from his veins daily.
* The Skingrad guards are all very protective of the count, both in the normal concerns for his safety and maintaining his privacy for him. It is ambiguous how much the town guard know but their captain, Dion, and the castle guard are all well aware count Hassildor is a vampire and very adamant it remains a secret as he is the best count they have ever had and the people would surely not understand.
* In the game Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, one can read records of The Great War - when the Thalmor (elven supremacists) invaded Cyrodiil. According to records of the Great War, Skingrad county was one of the last hold-outs against the Thlamor invaders. It was eventually taken but retaken after the Emperor played dead and re-emerged later to retake the province. As Count Hassildor is ageless, he may well have still been count two-hundred years later, at the time of the war, but there is no mention of the fate of the count, only that Skingrad held out the longest but was eventually taken, and then taken back later after the war. Regardless of his immunity to the ravages of age, Count Hassildor may well have been murdered at the hands of the Thalmor.
* The vampires Babette and Vicente Valtierieiare shown to quickly take to surrogate families as if they were vampire-clans. This could explain Hassildor's protective nature of Skingrad - thinking of the citizenry as an extended family.
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