The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard: The Origin of Cyrus!

The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard: The Origin of Cyrus! is a comic book that was included in The Elder Scrolls Adventures Volume R, a small handbook that came with . It is available for download for free as a PDF. It details the early life of Cyrus, as well as his journey prior to the events of .
The comic was originally printed in grayscale, along with the User's Guide and the Pocket Guide to the Empire, First Edition. The 2011 digital release was in color. The comic was never physically published in a standalone format.
==Authors==
*Words: Michael Kirkbride
*Pencils: John Pearson
*Inks: Hugh Riley
*Colors: Louise Sandoval
==Contents==
===The Story Thus Far....===
Now:
A man called Tiber Septim seeks to return the glory of the Cyrodilic Empire, which has lain dormant for four hundred years. He will usher in a new era, the age of the Third Empire.
The Empire's former subject-lands have tried to resist this change, but, one by one, they have fallen. All of the human kingdoms are now under Septim's rule: Skyrim, High Rock, and Hammerfell, the homeland of the Redguards.
It has been conjectured that, had they not weakened themselves in their civil war, the Redguards could have halted the Empire's progress: that, united Hammerfell would be invincible.
Alas, with the death of their High King, the Redguards' long-divided camps, the Crowns and the Forebears, went to war. In the end, it seemed like the Crowns would keep the throne for themselves, but the Forebears, beaten and willing to try anything, invited the Empire's forces into Hammerfell to help them.
The Empire made short work of the Crowns' dimished forces, defeating them at last on the island of Stros M'kai.
Then:
In their youth, Cyrus and Iszara lived in Sentinel, capital of Hammerfell. Though it was traditionally a Forebear city, the High King of the Crowns sat in its palace. This was a troubled time, with talk of open rebellion in the air. With the Third Empire suddenly stirring on the borders, Hammerfell's breaking point was near.
As a Forebear secession loomed, and their old conquerors began to surround them, the Redguards prepared for war.
===Page 1===
Dylxexes the Younger, of the First Era, states quite clearly that an adventure can only truly begin three ways: by death, by slur, or by letter. To begin without one of these is to be relegated to the states of an indiscretion or, at best, an escapade. Properly then do we embark, our foundation laid with the last, and best, of the three: the letter, invariably the most seductive catalyst of all---, and thus the most powerful.
===Page 2===
Especially if it concerns the blood. Written without flourish in a hand well-known.
Cyrus -
I hope this letter finds your hands, friend. My latest travels have brought me to Stros M'Kai and no one here has seen your sister for three month (covered) I fear the worst I (covered) obliged to stay for (covered) weeks I will (covered) at (covered) Draggin Tale Inn, (covered)ould you return,
Tobias
Brennan:"It's getting a bit rough out there, sir...?"
Cyrus:"Cyrus."
Brennan:"Of course, perhaps we should wait, then, sir Cyrus. Until tomorrow when the Iliac is more cooperative."
===Page 3===
Cyrus:"No we go on. You were paid double to make sure."
Brennan:"Fine. Wet gold spends as well, I suppose."
Cyrus:"Who's guiding the ship, captain Brennan?"
Brennan:"Eli, the good water-logged lad. Boy needs a bit more weight anyway."
Cyrus:"Stros M'Kai by morning, captain."
Brennan:"Of course, sir Cyrus. But tell me, why all the hurry?"
(flashback)
Tobias:"Why the hurry, laddie?"
===Page 4===
Tobias:"The seas wait long and you're a little short yet for a marine."
Cyrus:"You mean pirate Tobias!"
TobiasL"I guess I am a bit far from father's fair Skyrim, ain't I then, even with her colors raised. But it's called foreign relations in better quarters."
Shipper:"Captain."
Cyrus:"It's called desertion and mercenary work and I want in. I can fight you'll need me. There's a war on every coast these days."
Iszara:"Cyrus!"
===Page 5===
Iszara:"Cyrus, we have to go."
Tobias:"Bye, then lad..."
Cyrus:"G'bye captain Tobias..!"
Tobias:"--I can see the lines forming from here! Next I'm ashore we'll talk about your enlistment!"
Iszara:"Must it be a Nord Cyrus?"
Cyrus:"Half-Nord, and he's neat, Iszara, I like him."
Iszara:"He's artless and we only have twenty minutes."
Cyrus:"We'll go the back way."
===Page 6===
It is opening night and their fathers fared well.
The crowd is large and loud with laughter--
A testament to his wit and skill: A Crown playwright in a Forebear city, and he's bringing down the house.
Sentinel belongs to him.--
There is a clamor for hours--
--All the stage swords and flash--
..Wherein the High King, ever a Crown, pays heavily for his faults--
--Political, ancestral, and otherwise--
--And the Forebears are shook with smiles--
--In love with the thing.
===Page 7===
The stick about the head of the enemy, relentless.
In the center, though, the dead serious heart of all comedy, the point--
All too often, like this night, missed completely.
Only an unbridled and open loyalty could have produced such as this is--
--The belittled king--
--So utterly beloved.
So there is their father's real triumph-- A celebration of a Crown by the very city that hates him-- A jester's best parabola--
-- A satire refracted--
--Of fools only to the foolish.
For Cyrus the only glittering things are the swords.
For Iszara...
...The male lead--
...Clad in Forebear stripes--
--His foot in the ass of the High King's horse.
His name is Hakan and they will marry.
===Page 8===
Cyrus:"My hurry needn't concern you, captain."
Brennan:"I'll hazard it's the Civil War, or the Empire."
Cyrus:"I don't care about either."
Brennan:"Trouble in the Heartland, that's my guess, anyway....."
Cyrus:"If it suits you."
"No one has seen you sisters for three months."
S'rathra:"<Your sister's disappearance draws a shudder>"
Cyrus:"I need a ship."
S'rathra:"<The port is full of them and S'rahtra's name goes far towards the price of passage.>
Cyrus:"Money too."
===Page 9===
S'rathra:"<Keep Duadeen's Retainer. It's a family affair, after all.>"
Cyrus:"We haven't spoken in ten years. There was trouble."
S'rathra:"<Tell S'rathra, why did you never mention your sister before..?>"
S'rathra:"<What kind?>"
Cyrus:"I killed her husband."
Invariably the most seductive.
Especially when it concerns the blood.
Thug:"Ey, it's the Redguard--! Where're you goin'? We leave soon."
Cyrus:"Tell your lord I respectfully decline his offer."
Duadeen:"Tell him yourself."
Cyrus:"Duadeen. I must away elsewhere it seems....."
Duadeen:"I have a signature somewhere---- that says otherwise."
===Page 10===
Cyrus:"My sister's gone missing."
Thug:"Is that all..!?"
Duadeen:"Too open an excuse, and unlikely. Thugs musn't have ties to anything but ink and the glimmer of gold. A sister's so domestic. You forget the general mystery of dangerous men."
Thug:"Aye. Mercenaries don't have families."
Cyrus:"Then you won't be missed. I'm ready to kill you all."
Duadeen:"That would be redundant. Men, let him through. Don't come back to High Rock, Cyrus."
===Page 11===
Cyrus:"I can't ever come back to Hammerfell, Captain."
Tobias:"Eventually, lad."
So begins the mercenary translation
Though they do not scare him, he waits mostly in hush, silent except to confirm orders.
They whisper more than he would have thought.
And they take what gold they can--
Somewhere the Emperor is waiting to clear his throat--
The whole of the world is in turmoil it seems--
--And everyone needs a few extra swords.
Cyrus:"...Who do they want us to kill?"
Tobias:"Ach..! Probably someone who's dead, already--.
They work wherever they cann----In Argonia, saving diplomacy's fools--
--Some dignitary sent to make a hasty alliance against the inevitable Imperial Expansion.
Tobias:"I'm bettin' they ate 'im days ago."
===Page 12===
For years the cat's assassins----Doing whatever dirty work is required of them.
Cyrus desperately trying to displace the guilt of the past in the bloody deeds of the present--
Tobias:"Morrowind? You're outta your mind--!"
Assassin:"Oh, boy."
S'rathra:"S'rathra thought you'd like a change of pace....."
Tobias:"No, more like getting bored of our little band----Time to get rid of them."
S'rathra:"<Exaggeration.>"
Cyrus:"I'll go."
Assassin:"Forget it, Cyrus!"
Tobias:"He's right, lad. You don't know Morrowind--The place is...Weird--"
S'rathra:"<Weird is relative.>"
===Page 13===
They lose to fear----For it is Morrowind.
Land of the Dunmer, the Dark Elves ....
The object of the raid is, for S'rathra curiously sentimental--
--Free some kinsmen from a slaver camp paid for by his own wealth.
The camp to be found near Tear, southernmost of Morrowind's horrors.
Just above the swamps of Black Marsh----In the land of ash.
Tobias:"We could turn around."
Cyrus:"Where's the money in that?"
===Page 14===
Slavemaster:"(Dunmeris)"
===Page 15===
Slave guard:"(Dunmeris)"
Dunmer slave:"(Dunmeris)"
Tobias:"Hell."
Slave guard:"(Dunmeris)"
===Page 16===
Slave guard mage:"(Dunmeris)"
Cyrus:"No!"
===Page 17===
Slave guard mage:"(Dunmeris)"
===Page 18===
(No words)
===Page 19===
Something is surpassed in that moment. From then on he will work more or less----alone. resolute in the mad rush to that which he cannot yet name.
Brennan:"Sir Cyrus?"
Brennan:"The Island's in sight, sir Cyrus. Let's let the boys get some sleep."
Brennan:"Stros M'Kai! Jewel of Hammerfell! Glad to be back?"
Cyrus:"I will be, if I find her."
Hakan:"Have you found her, then?"
Redguard:"No."
===Page 20===
Redguard:"Yes. There, Hakan."
The weddings seems, to Cyrus----A whole country's sigh of relief--
--Though he knows both families have names of little consequence.
But wit Hammerfell on the brink of Civil War: A Forebear is taking the hand of a Crown in the capital city!
And though everyone knows there is nothing prophetic about the union--
--Nor in its sight shall the kingdom take measure--
--For to perhaps similary align within against the enemy without, there is still genuine and heartfelt cheer in the crowd.
It's almost as if such ceremony must take place for the full regret to come later--
A brace for the kingdom's shame, a single bright spot to look back on----in the wake and lamentation of the end.
A happiness invented--to give the grieving, later, more sorrow still.
===Page 21===
The joy lasts but few seasons. Initially all is well, with Izara only moving to an estate across town in the merchant quarter. Close enough that Cyrus can still keep her company.
Though she is happy with Hakan----he is often gone.
Training with the Forebear underground.
Everywhere, a louder talk of trouble.
Of Sentinel's secession.
Izara's distress begins to slow. She and Hakan are wise enough----not to mention the matter to her father when they visit.
===Page 22===
His own patriot shade runs deep.
Cyrus doesn't care, and hassles his brother-in-law to no end to show him the sword tricks that have been learned while preparing the hidden militias.
More exciting than working the harbors, that's for sure, these rumors of war.
Hakan takes notice and confides in his new student the true nature of the Forebear cause.
Hakan:"We are the righteous foundation upon which this country rests. And we have too long suffered its weight."
Cyrus' father:"Where did you hear this?"
===Page 23===
Cyrus' father:"And why would you shame your ancestors so? We are Crowns, Cyrus, and the weight they speak of is the king, a noble burdern to be sure."
Cyrus:"But you make fun of the king in everything you've written."
Cyrus' father:"Son. My mockery of him is the mockery of the mockery of his enemies."
Cyrus:"So the Forebears are right in nothing?"
Cyrus' father:"In complaint? Yes. In demand for rapprochement? In some cases. In secession? Never. It is not the way for us. And it will not be the way for you. And if the king is challenged we--I, you, your sister, others--shall rise alike as he to meet it----for we are Crowns alike as he. Naha 'mei dogo ra gada lohne trai, sura."
Cyrus:"What?"
===Page 24===
It meant, 'the Forebears know their place, Cyrus.' And it will be the last time he is unclear. He writes it in a night.....
It is an epic of the Ra Gada--the ancestors of the Forebears--from whom the Redguards got their name--
A bloody and thrilling account of that holy invasion, where the Ra Gada drove the Orcs from Hammerfell to make way for the King and his royal family--
A story three thousand years old--
Wherein the Forebears are cast rightly in the roles of heroes--
--Stalwart first Champions of the throne, and the King's finest, best men.
And where the king is a man worth fighting for.
There is none of the comedy for which the author is known, only a celebration of the truth of old blood----and the lines they have since established.
There is no subtlety in the message.
Just admonition from an honorable past.
===Page 25===
The shortest work is the widest seen--and it has immediate effects.
The Redguards are reminded of when they stood together against the unknown. And with the Empire as close as Sancre Tor, and even bending the Nord King to their will--
--The Redguards wonder when Hammerfell's time will come. Baron Volag, hold of Sentinel's outlying territories, and the chosen spokesman of the Forebears, strikes an accord with the King.
With the Crowns. Some say it is an ephemeral truce--
That will last only so long as the old feelings stirred by an embroidered history stay strong.
But it works for a measure----and the militias disband to join Volag's men in the plains of the Dragon Stand.
And for those who do not go, it turns bitter. A slow rot that realizes it's been made to marry the devil's own daughter.
===Page 26===
A celebration of the playwright is held, and the Crowns and Forebears attend in equal numbers--
Drinks and laughter and the sense of something lifted--
Cyrus is drunk to here. In such good spirits that he mentions nothing about Hakan's strange absence to Iszara. Indeed, a rock that's been lifted.
And the snakes have scurried out.
Hakan:"Tukta-mab'ro G'ye no lo'igra." (Tukta-mab'ro=Storyteller, G'ye=fabricator, no lo'igra=deceiver)
Hakan:"Liar."
Iszara:"Hakan, not this--"
So it begins--
===Page 27===
The civil war they thought suppressed, embodied now in the drunken youths before them.
In this one duel they see the inevitability of what will come.
In each champion----the armies they will stride with.
Sooner or later everything brought to stave off this fate. Will be cut down.
===Page 28===
Run, he thinks. It's all he can think.
Tobias:"..... Ach ... Get on, then ...
Cyrus:"I can't ever come back to Hammerfell, captain."
Tobias:"Eventually, lad."
Next issue: The search for Iszara begins!
==Content gallery==
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==Licensing==
it:The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard: The Origin of Cyrus!
pl:The Origin of Cyrus!
Category:Books (real-world)