Eridion Aeldaris

Aliases | * Oathbreaker
 Titles | * Lord of House Aeldaris
 Allegiances | * House Aeldaris
 Issue | * With Ayrenn I: Malyon Arana
* With Naaniel: Sor'unel

**Eridion Aeldaris**, also known as **the Oathbreaker**, was Lord of House Aeldaris during the reigns of Hidellith II, Ayrenn I, Anumaril II, and Neldor I of Alinor. He earned the derogatory nickname "Oathbreaker" when he slew his husband and king, Anumaril II, near the end of the Three Banners War. The ensuing confusion about Eridion's loyalties effectively destroyed his reputation until the day of his death. He eventually died during the Battle of the Burning Field in 2E 896 while fighting the Numidium.

Eridion was the father of Sor'unel, who was the last Aeldaris before petitioning for a disinheritance and attaintion, legally extinguishing House Aeldaris.

## Quotes by Eridion

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> **Malyon**: Tell me, did you ever wonder why those of the cloth take no wives and father no children?
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> **Eridion**: No.
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> **Malyon**: So that they will not love. Love is the death of duty. If the day should ever come when your Lady mother was forced to choose between honour on the one hand and those she loves on the other, what would she do?
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> **Eridion**: She would do whatever is right, no matter what.
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> **Malyon**: Then Lady Aeldaris was one woman in ten thousand. Most of us are not so strong. What is honour compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms? We all do our duty when there is no cost to it, honour comes easy then. But sooner or later, in every man's life, there comes a day when it is not easy—a day when he must choose.
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> **Eridion**: And this is my day? Is that what you're saying?
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> **Malyon**: It hurts boy, I... I know.
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> **Eridion**: You do not know. No one knows.
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> **Malyon**: The gods were cruel when they saw fit to test my vows, they waited until I was old. What could I do when the ravens brought the news from the Isles. The ruin of my House, the death of my family. I was helpless, old, frail. But... when I heard they had killed my brother's daughter and her fore son, and the children, even the little children.
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> **Eridion**: Who are you?
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> **Malyon**: My brother was Aerien, Kinlord of Gryphonrock. His daughter ruled after him and she was followed by her son Aenar, whom they named "the Cruel".
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> **Eridion**: You're Malyon Arana...
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> **Malyon**: I'm an adviser to House Telaryen, bound in service to their line and cause. I will not tell you what to do or not to do. That is a choice you must make on your own, and live with for the rest of your days... as I have.
> —Eridion and Malyon Arana discussing honour
>

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> **Eridion**: If you want to sit on the throne your ancestors built you must win it. That will mean blood on your hands before the thing is done.
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> **Anumaril**: The blood of my enemies, not the blood of innocents.
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> —Eridion and Anumaril after witnessing the aftermath of an atrocity committed in the war-torn province of Cyrodiil
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> His name was Malyon Arana. He came to us from X. A priest of X, robed and sworn, and sworn adviser to House Telaryen, ever faithful. No man was wiser, or gentler... or kinder. At X, many Telaryens came and went during his years of service but he was always there to council them. He was the blood of the gryphon, but now his wind has left him... and now his service is ended.
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> —Eridion speaking at Malyon Arana's funeral
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> You've made thousands of enemies all across the world. As soon as they see weakness, they'll attack.
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> —Eridion to Anumaril during his conquest of Cyrodiil
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> **Eridion**: When the Nedes rose in revolt against them, your ancestors set their homes aflame, they murdered sons in front of their fathers, they burned men alive with coldfire and laughed as they screamed. Their efforts to stamp out dissent led to a rebellion that killed nearly every Ayleid.
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> **Anumaril**: I am not my ancestors.
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> **Eridion**: No, thank the gods. But the Ayleids gave their enemies the justice they thought they deserved, and each time it made them feel powerful and right... until the very end.
> —Eridion to Anumaril
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> I never thought I would see elven armies this vast in the heartland poised to retake the province, no one did. The people who follow you know you made something impossible happen. Maybe that helps them believe that you can make other impossible things happen; build a world that's different from the one they've always known. But if you use them to smash castles and destroy cities, you're not different, you're just more of the same.
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> —Eridion to Anumaril about his gryphons after the prospect of a quick and bloody siege of the Imperial City is proposed
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> **Eridion**: Nothing scrubs bold notions from a man's head like a few weeks in a dark cell.
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> **Anumaril**: I meant what I said. I'm not here to put men in chains, if that becomes an option many will take it. I gave them a choice. They made it.
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> **Eridion**: Your Grace, if you start beheading entire families—
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> **Anumaril**: I'm not beheading anyone.
> —Eridion and Anumaril shortly before he uses his gryphons to execute some Imperial nobles who would not bend the knee
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> I didn't know her well, but I know this: If she could have chosen a way to die, it would have been protecting you.
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> —Eridion to Anumaril after the supposed death of his friend
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> I beg you your Grace. Do not destroy the city you came to save. Do not become what you have always struggled to defeat.
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> —Eridion to Anumaril during a war council the day before the sack of the Imperial City
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> **Eridion**: I saw them executing prisoners in the street. They said they were acting on your orders.
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> **Anumaril**: It was necessary.
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> **Eridion**: Necessary? Have you been down there? Have you seen? Children... little children butchered!
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> **Anumaril**: I tried to make peace with them. They tried to use their innocence as a weapon against me. They thought it would cripple me.
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> **Eridion**: Forgive them.
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> **Anumaril**: I can't.
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> **Eridion**: You can. You can forgive all of them, make them see they made a mistake, make them understand.
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> **Anumaril**: <silence>
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> **Eridion**: Please Anu...
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> **Anumaril**: We can't hide behind small mercies. The world we need won't be built by those loyal to the world we have.
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> **Eridion**: Then run away with me. We can leave all of this behind, no one will ever find us.
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> **Anumaril**: Eri... we've only just begun. Once matters are finished here we'll begin our push into the other provinces. Our armies will sweep over them and the continent will be united... and then we will kill them all... kill them in their homes... kill them in their beds. From their sacrifice we'll build a new world, a better one.
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> **Eridion**: The world we need is a world of mercy, it has to be.
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> **Anumaril**: And it will be. It's not easy to see something that's never been before. A good world.
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> **Eridion**: How do you know? How do you know it'll be good?
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> **Anumaril**: Because I know what is good. And so do you.
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> **Eridion**: Do you?
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> **Anumaril**: We do. We do, we've always known.
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> **Eridion**: What about everyone else? All the other people who think they know what's good.
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> **Anumaril**: They don't get to choose. Be with me, build the new world with me. This is our reason, it has been from the beginning. We do it together. We build a new Tamriel... together.
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> **Eridion**: I love you... now... and always.
> —Eridion and Anumaril in the throne room of the White-Gold Tower immediately before Eridion pierces Anumaril's chest with Silverlight as they embrace
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> **Naaniel**: You are no knight. You have forsaken every vow you ever took.
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> **Eridion**: So many vows, they make you swear and swear. "Defend the King, obey the King, stay loyal to your spouse, protect the innocent, defend the weak". Well what if your King massacres the innocent? And if that King is your husband? It's too much. No matter what you do you're forsaking one vow or another.
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> **Naaniel**: True knights will keep their honour nonetheless, Kingslayer.
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> **Eridion**: "Kingslayer". What a king he was. Here's to Anumaril Arana, second of his name, Lord of the White City, King of the Isles, and to the sword I shoved in his chest.
> —Eridion and Naaniel Cirenden in his dungeon cell
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> **Eridion**: Don't worry, I'm not interested. If I faint, pull me out. I don't intend on being the first Aeldaris to die in a bathtub.
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> **Naaniel**: Why should I care how you die?
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> **Eridion**: You swore a solemn vow, remember? You're supposed to get me to Alinor unharmed. Not going so well, is it? No wonder Ayrenn died with you guarding her.
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> **Naaniel**: <jumps to her feet in fury>
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> **Eridion**: ...that was unworthy, forgive me. You've protected me better than most—
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> **Naaniel**: Don't you mock me.
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> **Eridion**: I'm apologising. I'm sick of fighting. Let's call a truce.
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> **Naaniel**: You need trust to have a truce.
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> **Eridion**: I trust you.
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> **Naaniel**: <sits back down and gives Eridion a withering look>
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> **Eridion**: There it is; there's the look. I've seen it for years in face after face. You all despise me. "Oathbreaker, "Kingslayer", "Mer without honour".
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> **Naaniel**: ...
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> **Eridion**: Have you heard of coldfire?
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> **Naaniel**: Of course.
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> **Eridion**: My husband was near obsessed with it. He found it instilled fear in his new subjects. He killed soldiers and commoners that wouldn't submit, he killed lords that disobeyed him, he killed anyone who was against him. Before long half the continent was against him. He stopped seeing his war as one of liberation and began seeing it as one of extermination—a way to begin anew. Finally the day of reckoning came. Anu rode with his army to the Imperial City and began his assault. I was too distant to hear the cries, but I could see the smoke. After the slaughter I went to Anu and once again begged him escape; to leave it behind... He told me to join him in his conquest of Tamriel. Then he looked at me in the eyes... "kill them all" he said... "kill them in their homes, kill them in their beds". Tell me... if your precious Ayrenn commanded you to invate a continent and thereby rule thousands of men, women, and children to be butchered, would you have done it? Would you have kept your oath then? I drove my sword into his chest... "kill them all" I kept hearing... "kill them all".
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> **Naaniel**: If this is true, why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell Lord X
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> **Eridion**: X... You think the "honourable Lord X" wanted to hear my side? He judged me guilty the moment he set eyes on me. By what right does the X judge the eagle?... by what right? <collapses>
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> **Naaniel**: Help! The Oathbreaker!
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> **Eridion**: Eridion... my name's Eridion... <passes out>
> —Eridion reveals the truth of his husband's death to Naaniel Cirenden
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> **Neldor**: What about Anumaril Arana. What did your husband say when you back-stabbed him? I never asked. Did he call you a traitor? Did he plead for a reprieve?
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> **Eridion**: He said the same thing he'd been saying for hours..."kill them all".
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> —Neldor I and Eridion about the death of King Anumaril II
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> **Neldor**: The bastard has a gryphon egg.
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> **Eridion**: You're speaking of murdering a child.
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> **Neldor**: I warned you this would happen, back in the Vale, I warned you but you didn't care to hear, well, hear it now. I want him dead, boy and beast both. Is that plain enough for you? I want them both dead.
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> **Eridion**: You will dishonour yourself forever if you do this.
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> **Neldor**: Honour?! I've got eight regions to rule—one king, eight regions! Do you think honour keeps them in line?! Do you think it's honour that's keeping the peace?! It's fear, fear and blood!
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> **Eridion**: So we're no better than my late husband.
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> **Neldor**: Careful Eri, careful now.
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> **Eridion**: You want to assassinate a boy, because the X1 heard a rumour.
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> **X1**: No rumour my Lord, the prince does bear an egg.
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> **Eridion**: Based on who's information?
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> **X1**: Sir X. He's serving as an adviser to the Arana boy.
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> **Eridion**: X. You bring us the whispers of a traitor half a world away and call it fact.
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> **X2**: X is a slaver, not a traitor. Small difference, I know, to an honourable man.
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> **Eridion**: He broke the law, betrayed his family, fled our land. We commit murder on the word of his man?
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> **Neldor**: And if he's right? If he has an egg and it hatches? An Arana on the back of a gryphon, what then?
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> **Eridion**: All of Tamriel lies between us. I'll fear this boy and his pet the day he learns to apparate across a continent.
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> **Neldor**: Do nothing? That's your "wise" advice? Do nothing 'till our enemies are on our shores?! You're my council—counsel! Speak sense to this honourable fool!
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> **X1**: I understand your misgivings my Lord, truly I do. It is a terrible thing we must consider, a vile thing. Yet we who presume to rule must sometimes do vile things for the good of the realm. Should the gods grant Malyon a healthy gryphon, the realm will bleed.
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> **X3**: I bear this boy no ill will, but surely should he invade, how many innocents will die? How many towns will burn? Is it not wiser, kinder even, that he should die now so that tens of thousands might live?
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> **X4**: We should've had him killed years ago.
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> **X2**: When you find yourself in bed with an ugly woman, best close your eyes and get it over with. Cut his throat; be done with it.
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> **Eridion**: I followed you into war, without doubts, without second thoughts. But I will not follow you now. The Neldor I knew didn't tremble at the shadow of a child.
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> **Neldor**: He dies.
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> **Eridion**: I will have no part in it.
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> **Neldor**: You're the king's prosecution, Lord Aeldaris. You will do as I command or I will find a lord prosecutor who will.
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> **Eridion**: And good luck to him. I thought you were a better man.
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> **Neldor**: Out, out damn you I'm done with you! Go, run back to Artaeum! I'll have your head on a spike! I'll put it there myself you fool! You think you're too good for this, too proud and honourable?! This is a war!
> —Eridion and Neldor I Arana discuss Malyon Arana at a council meeting
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## Quotes about Eridion

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> Everywhere she goes evil men die and we cheer her for it, and she grows more powerful and more sure that she is good and right. She believes her destiny is to build a better world, for everyone. You are sworn to defend the Isles... who's the greatest threat to the Isles now?
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> —Altmeri nobleman to Eridion about Ayrenn I after the sack of the Imperial City
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