Anumaril Telarion

* Order of the Black Worm

**Anumaril Telarion** was a member of House Telarion in the Second Era. Like the rest of his family he lived in exile in High Rock, often residing with House Mornard in Vastyr. He used the alias **Erandil the Hotspur**, a hedge knight, while travelling incognito through Tamriel, particularly while in the Summerset Isles.

## Appearance and Character

Anumaril had sky-blue eyes and silver hair, with an olive complexion reminiscent of his Ayleid ancestors. He had broad shoulders, muscular arms, and a flat stomach, maintained through combat training while at court. While travelling incognito as "Erandil the Hotspur" he dyed his hair brown, masking his distinctive silver hair and protecting his identity from those who might do him harm, particularly in the Summerset Isles.

Anumaril was an intelligent young man who excelled at much to which he put his mind, growing to be a skilled sorcerer and apt musician. The latter, however, held his preference in his youth; men said Anumaril loved his harp more than he loved his spells or sword. The young lord was said to have been uninterested in the play of other children as a boy, but bookish "to a fault".

## History

### Assignment to Auridon & Joining the Heritance

In 2E 581 the Worm Cult opened covert diplomatic relations with the Veiled Heritance, an underground Altmeri resistance movement and political faction that sought to usurp the Marble Throne of Alinor from Queen Ayrenn I in favour of her younger brother, Prince Naemon. Several Cult members local to the Summerset Isles were chosen as emissaries, although Anumaril was also hand-picked by his cell's anchorite, believing that his family's long history with the Isles would make him an ideal candidate to negotiate an alliance between the two orders.

Anumaril departed from Galen to Auridon, where he rendezvoused with his fellow cultists and made contact with the Veiled Council. The Council, including the Veiled Queen herself, were initially sceptical of a partnership with Mannimarco and the Worm Cult, believing they were more than capable of overthrowing Ayrenn on their own. The Cult emissaries were nonetheless allowed to remain in the Veiled Keep and continue their negotiations with the Council. During this time Anumaril became enamoured by the Heritance's mission, and opted to join the organisation himself, making the Veiled Oath to bind himself to their cause. While he joined out of genuine willingness to contribute to the Heritance's mission, he also believed that it was a valuable gesture of good will that could help advance the dialogue with the Cult.

### The Veiled Rebellion

With the Heritance's failed assassination of Queen Ayrenn I in Vulkhel Guard in 2E 582, the Summerset Isles erupted into open warfare, and the stalled dialogue between the Worm Cult and Veiled Heritance began to thaw. During the war, Anumaril fought on behalf of the Heritance, using his necromancy to benefit their cause when possible, and winning the respect of his Heritance superiors for his genuine devotion to their cause. Taking control of the negotiations with the Veiled Council, Anumaril was able to open direct dialogue between the Cult emissaries and the Veiled Queen, who identified herself as Lady Estre Errinorne. Seeing opportunity, Anumaril thought to use the ongoing rebellion to return House Telarion to power in the Summerset Isles, offering – on behalf of father – to pledge his House's strength to her cause, in exchange for a lordship on the Isles.

Lady Estre did not outright reject Anumaril's proposals, but did not fully accept them either. The war had not yet turned against the Heritance, and Estre sought to win without tying herself down with promises to foreign powers. Neither the Telarions nor the Worm Cult were officially made allies of the Heritance until shortly before the Siege of Firsthold, when the Heritance's cause had grown dire and Estre grown desperate. The Worm Cult was more than willing to accept allying itself with Lady Estre, even in such a late stage of the war, and Anumaril officiated the alliance between the two groups. However, he did not re-extend his offer of alliance with House Telarion, unwilling to pledge his House to a losing war. While Anumaril continued to fight for the Heritance in their rebellion, by the Siege of Firsthold he knew the war was all but over, and with Estre's death the rebellion's fate was sealed.

## Notes

1. ↑ It is also likely because he knew his father would never accept joining the war at such a point. It would have already been difficult to convince him to pledge their House as vassals of the Aranas, when for generations they had fought to reclaim their "rightful" place upon the Marble Throne itself.