dragonpen61

I am having trouble getting Broken Steel to activate. Instead I simply get the old Fallout 3 ending with my character dying heroically. What do I need to do? Any suggestions?

What's going wrong? the climate has never been stable, it's always changed. The difference now is governments see a way to make money through green taxes and the corporations a way to make more money selling us "green" stuff. Notice how they changed "global warming" to "climate change" when they got rumbled? We used to call climate change "weather" and not even governments in the UK would have dreamed of taxing the weather as they do now by calling it "climate change". I disagree and proof is scientifically in past records gained through such as drilling for ice cores at the polar regions. Yet more obvious proof has come more recently in video recordings showing not only great areas of ice falling into the sea but actual maps and recorded measurements showing that some of the biggest ice areas, ones that are very very old, have reduced by up to great proportions. One was reported to have almost halved. This is vast amounts of ice causing major changes in the ocean which in turn effect major ocean currents that in turn heavily effect weather and climate. Yes there have been changes in the past but the speed and size of current changes have even taken by surprise scientists who used to be told they were being 'doomsayers'. Deserts are expanding, ice is melting, fertile soil is vanishing, selinity is growing, the population is expanding, fish stocks are vanishing as some large areas are now devoid of fish to net and so forth. We can do something about it but firstly we have to accept that something bad is happening.

I agree! On the console game list I voted for 'call of duty' because there was no option of 'Resident Evil' or 'Other' A good poll idea so why not have another go?

Enclave areas that are inhabited by foreign peoples (trade and diplomatic enclaves) and which are quite different in appearance and design from other parts of the city. Elven Gardens that have tree-buildings? Heavy orc structures? Other?

THREE The Blades made good time towards the caves using local roads little better than tracks made by moving herds of animals. Rabbits hopped away from them. Small birds flittered through the air. They passed crumbled rocky ruins of some kind of ancient fortification long stripped of most of its useful stones. Darkose suspected they were of an early Imperial fort, perhaps of the First Empire. A small dragonbird, actually a cousin to true dragons, perched on a stone wall and stared at them through warm repitilian eyes as if daring them to attack it. The creature was about a metre and a tall half, had two legs ending in claws and reptillian feathered wings folded against its sides. Serena frowned as she rode next to Darkose. "Dragonfolk should stay either up in the Skylands over down deep in the Underlands and not plague Tamriel." Darkose shrugged. "The Empire gave them leave of the Imperial Provinces a long time ago when Dragonfolk helped save the First Empire not once but three times. I would wish them here in great numbers and with greater power so that they would help us fight our daedric enemies or anybody else who threatens us." The woman blade seemed to relent. "That is true. We will come to a fork in this road, as the locals laughably call it, and will turn right to go to the caves. This may seem illogical as the other road might seem to head more directly to the caves but the other road leads to a dead end in a boggy area infested by savage aquatic bears and will'o'wisps that might or might not attack. The track we will use turns sharply and almost goes back on itself for a while to avoid more bogs. Then it comes to an area of rocky outcrops where is hidden a fairly large entrance to the caves that we seek. Its the kind of cave system that would make a fine goblin home but the goblins stay away from the caves as do other locals." They came to the fork in the road and turned as Serena had stated they would to go seemingly away from the caves. Darkose began to whistle an odd but rather sweetly melodious little tune as the track began to get rougher, the jungle around them thicker and insects more common. Then they were riding into a fairly large clearing, an odd disk shaped one where grass seemed burned lightly and flattened. Even the ground looked as if a very heavy circular object had rested upon it. The ground was still warm. Darkose brought his horse to a halt, swung off the steed and dropped to the ground. The horse obediently followed him as he paced around the big area. He spoke to Serena. "What of this place, what do you think has happened here?" Serena, who was still astride her horse, gave no real answer. She was staring into mid air and her horse was also in a strangely frozen state. The same could be said for all the other Blades and their animals. But Darkose did not seem peturbed at all. Darkose spoke quite loudly. "So are you going to show yourself and tell me what is going on?" There was a soft shimmer in the air and a silvery armoured figure appeared seemingly out of mid-air. Covered head to toe with tight body formed armour the warrior was clearly a woman or at least woman like in many ways. A great silvery sword was over her back with a hilt above her shoulder and she had silver webbing of metallic leather belts. There were other bladed weapons, pouches and other items, some of them quite exotic in shapeform. The woman figure spoke fluently in the new common language but with an odd accent. "Your comrades and the animals are not harmed. The hypnotic programming is already starting to weaken and will pass soon. They were in the Caves of Mistfulness wandering and becoming victims of the ancient guardian forces there when I rescued them. The local people have very good reason for avoiding those caves." Darkose strode over to the figure and bowed briefly before talking again. "Are you of the people who spoke to my grandfather many years ago to warn him of the terrible threat that would come to Tamriel, indeed to this whole world?" "I am that individual!" The woman figure opened her helmet in an odd fashion to expose her face. She was truly beautiful but her skin was metallic dull dark silver in nature. "It is too bad that time travel is so problematic and that even though I am from the future, I am unable to warn you too much of the future to come. When we come into the past we time travellers find our minds and memories altered, our perceptions blurred." Darkose nodded. "I would not ask of you information that would cause great harm. Grandfather warned the group he formed, and my mother who was his daughter, not to demand or expect such cheating. What evil lies in those caves?" The woman shrugged. "Something from the ancient past and yet much like a threat that my people face in the distant future, that is the descendents of your own people."

TWO Kvatch city was highly nervous on that morning for a most bizarre thing had happened that very night. Around the city had briefly appeared one great big Oblivion Gate and many normal sized ones while a sprinkling of small ones had appeared inside the city. From them had started to pour lesser daedra. But just as suddenly white energies had exploded from somewhere and the Oblivion Gates had all vanished. The daedra who were rushing out of the magical gateways were all hurled back to Oblivion or burned away into ash. The city was put on high alert. The Cityguard was bolstered by reserves and volunteers. Catipults and other war-machines were prepared on the battlements, some few of them being magical. The duke himself met with high ranking individuals of various kinds be they civil leaders, warriors, mages, clerics or other. An intense search began for Mythic Dawn Followers in the city and a few were captured, questioned and beheaded. Kvatch had been saved by some kind of amazing intervention and many assumed it was the Nine Divines that had done so but not all. Some were asking questions, were seeking answers. The renouned magical detective Sherlok Heart stood in the reading tower of his rather eccentric fortified mansion on the very outskirts of the city near the wall facing the north. The semi-open tower did have shutters but they were open now. He was surrounded by sealable bookcases in which were many tomes, scrolls, scrollbooks, tablets and other items. Some were quite exotic like a magical magioscope like a bizarre double telescope ending in crystal-balls, a curious golden flaked skull that was human like except for two small bone horns, a stuffed aligator hanging from a rafter, a seerscope of a very big crystal ball and a suit of armour that could have had somebody or something inside it but which was totally still. Sherlok Holmes wore a robe over fine metal armour which showed at the front, leather boots and supple leather gloves. On his head was a wide brimmed leather hat with a golden feather and a silvery hat-band. Strapped to his back were both a broadsword in a leather scabbard and a mage-staff in a special scabbard so that he could draw either one out in a great hurry. He was a renouned sword fighter and an even greater mage of a fairly wide range of modes and classifications of magic. He was not alone. Of his three visitors the Duke's Steward Hernlica, a hybrid human-elf woman, sat in an elegant but efficiently tough and pocket dotted kneedress. She flicked back her very dark brown hair and stopped flicking through the papers on her lap that were reports on what had happened in the city before, during and after the strange incident. Hernlica sat on a fairly comfortable chair but somehow made it seem more elegant than it was. She spoke. "What we have in the fullness of these reports is a lack of any real information, a good deal of guesswork and a fair few contradictions." "We do not know what is going on!" The local Highmage Shribbles, the leader of the Mages Guild Lodge in Kvatch, spoke with more honesty with those three than he had dared to do when speaking directly to the Duke. "That is with what happened here. Oblivion Gates have been appearing across parts of Tamriel but not only are these areas fairly isolated, the gates have been smaller ones. Often they have only been temporary and sometimes nothing comes through them as if they have some other purpose than sending attackers." The Highmage was a tall angular man and yet Sherlock Heart was both taller and broader than himself. He also sat on a fairly comfortable padded chair of ornate sturdiness. Sherlock Heart kept looking out over the city for a moment but then he turned fluidly and smiled at the Highmage, the Duke's Steward and the Marshal of the Klavtch Cityguards. "I have been going over magical patterns that my instruments picked up during the incident. Luck had it that I was dozing up here after playing the lute to relax my mind, body and spirit. What woke me I am not sure for I did so minutes before any of my magical alarms sounded. Oscardi the parrot awoke when I did and began skreiking about dangers, that is plural and not singular, and strange battles. He is being fed crackers now down in my private quarters by my personal assistant Watney." Personal assistant? Whispers went around the city about the three strange and beautiful young women who served Sherlock Heart, who never left his eccentric mansion. It was almost a scandel but nobody had any proof or even any strong hint of anything 'immoral' going on. If the truth had been known the people of the city would have been far more shocked than by the mere idea of Sherlok having three young mistresses. Sherlok sighed. "The obvious conclusion to be held, and I can see no good reason on the surface why people should not take to the obvious conclusion, is that the white light flashed on to stop the Oblivion Gates and the invasion of the lesser daedra. But the sequence of magical events seems to be different than most suspect. There was the opening of the Oblivion Gates with the rushing forth of the lesser daedra, then there was a surge of another kind of magical energies of a type unknown to me, and only then did the flashes of white light take place. Question? Were they happening to block the Oblivion Gates or the other surge of unknown form of magic?" The short stocky Marshal grunted. "It could have been both but what does this matter?" Sherlok shook his head. "It matters, Marshal, it matters very much because this is not the end of it, not by far. I sense forces gathering, plans unfolding and the future may be very grim. Kvatch must go on a war footing. Rationing of vital resources must begin at once. Reserves and militia must be called up for duty. Isolated and more vulnerable settlements may have to be abandoned or, if they are essential, must be better protected." The Duke's Steward frowned. "The Duke is more a man of commerce than of war. He will not like this for he likes to see what happened last night as the start and final ending of any real threat to the city. Yet there is much pressure on him to give way, to do what must be done. Short term profits must surrender to longer term survival. Have you more to tell us? You could have told us what you have through messangers." Sherlok nodded. "Good point! Do you know the history of this city, this fine city that almost approaches High Reach itself in size and granduar in some ways? In many ways it is an odd place to have such a large city for it is not on the coast such as Anvil or central as High Reach is. Anvil is the port of Cyrodiil and through her pours goods of many kinds to go to and forth to other coastal cities of Tamriel and Summerset Isles. What do we have here? We have the Soulstone Pits. Now that soulstones are banned, the importance of them has waned. But in those pits dotted with bits of stone work, odd skeletal remains of an ancient people along with other oddities, one can still find soulstones. Even dreaded black soulstones are found there but less commonly. Where did the soulstones come from? Nobody seems to know and for some reason only a few scholars and mages have tried to find out the truth. All have been officially ignored or even hindered and a few have vanished. Some have been assassinated by the Dark Brotherhood. Why? Why has it been such a powerful drive for people, for the Empire, to not explore the truth behind the Soulstone Pits and the ancient civilization buried, it seems, beneath this city?" Highmage Shribbles shrugged. "The Mages Guild used soulstones for a long time because they were handy but the uneasiness of their use, the turning against them, began long ago. The Order of the Nine turned against them first but many mages supported the change as did others. The Empire never wanted to face the truth and now it does not want to truth of the past stupidities that caused a terrible form of spiritual suffering to so many souls even if they were not truly captured. I do not see what this has to do with what happened last night." Sherlok sighed again. "Every single very small Oblivion Gate that opened inside the city last night did so in one of the curious dome buildings over Soulstone Pits. Every single surge of strange magical energies that followed happened in the same places. The greatest bursts of light, of spiritual magic, focused most heavily on those very same thirteen places. That is what the link is." The four of them fell into thoughtful silence for a while. Then Sherlok picked up the human like skull with its bone horns and its flakes of gold. "This was found in the biggest Soulstone Pit that is at the very centre of the city. It is below a very old building, a dome like all the pits are topped by but a much larger one. It is cursed and I can only safely hold it because of my special gloves. The strange magic I felt last night all emanates from this most strange of skulls though in a much weaker form. This skull is ancient but is not of the Mer, the elven peoples like the Aldmer, the Ayleid or the Dwemer or others. Perhaps it also came from the Altmer but if it did it was of a different path than the one taken by elvin kind. This skull is more human in shape than elven. We need to begin a major investigation into the great central Soulstone Pit and in a few select others as soon as we can." The Highmage nodded. "As you say. This would be a common sense path to take." The others nodded and it was agreed they would return to speak with others and then report back to Sherlok Heart. The four of them partook of fine fruity wine and snacks that did justice to the drink. Then the guests departed. Sherlok Heart stood gazing out over the city. Then a beautiful elegant young woman in a translucent robe came walking up out of the stairwell opening up which came the spiral staircase. Sherlok turned and smiled warmly at her. Shanari smiled back and spoke then smoothly and almost muscially. "Steps have been taken to protect the three officials who just departed from here from the Dark Brotherhood. Indications are that a dozen Dark Brotherhood elite assassins entered the city today in various guises. We are observing them but if you deem it neccessary, we will kill them." He nodded at that. "The less killing the better but Tamriel and the Empire would be better with out a few less Dark Brotherhood assassins. I must do some more magical studies but I will be coming down in an hour or so to partake of some proper nourishment. The fancy wines that the Imperial Elites enjoy so much do not agree with my palet." But then he smiled. "Actually I will have a hot bubbling big bath. Would you join me?" She smiled. "Of course my Lord! It would be my pleasure." She bowed and then departed. Continued in THREE

Thank you for your hard work, all of you who strive to not only keep Nexus functioning fully but to improve it.

Excellent! I hope you go far with this music! I intend to listen many times to it. Kudos!

One "The Emperor and Empress are safe as is the Imperial Princess!" The man drew his horse to a fast halt after thundering into the hidden encampment in the jungle. He spoke even as the leather armour clad figure leapt off the steed and onto hard trodden ground. "But the Imperial Princes are both dead." The tall, slim woman responded with an expression of mixed anger and relief. The older Imperial Prince would not be much missed for he was a fool, a womaniser, a gambler and though a great warrior, a poor leader. In contrast most would miss the younger Imperial Prince as he was wise, wll learned, brave, a great poet and though not much of a warrior he was powerful with magic and a fine leader. In the growing brightness of morning she stood in light mail armour and other, having three Akaviri blades of various sizes. These blades were of human Akaviri kind being from the Shaviri, the human Akaviri who had fled from Akavir to escape being eaten, and who now dwelt in Shavir their own province on Lesser Tamriel. The woman spoke. "How has the Emperor reacted?" The other nodded as a third Blade took the exhausted horse away to be cared for and then he spoke. "An empire wide emergency has been declared. The Mythic Dawn has been openly declared as a public enemy as has the leader of the Mythic Dawn. One traitor has been found in the Imperial Court, a lesser noble of some lower house, and is being questioned by the Imperial Security Order. I almost feel sorry for him. The Emperor is said to be wounded and needs healing of magical and conventional sorts but he is not dying." The woman frowned. "It would take far more than the treachery of a lesser noble to successfully carry out successful assassinations and almost successful assination attempts against the Imperial Family. I suspect that the Imperial Security Order has picked up some likely innocent young fool, perhaps a deluded daedric scholar too foolish to hide his interests, as a scapegoat. They are good at finding scapegoats if not at finding real enemies of the Empire. We found no Mythic Dawn followers but we did find something of vital importance that the Emperor must know about." The encampment was little more than a dirt and grass clearing hidden from above by treetops overhanging it. There were tents, crude wooden racks of weapons, three camp fires ringed by stones, a couple of pit-chair tents and other basic structures. Big iron pots cooked basic stew, mostly vegetables and potatoes with some meat while coffee was served up from metal coffeepots. The men and women in the clearing were all dressed in armour and other gear of mercenaries, hunters and others of the semiwilderness. Truth was they were all Blades, that is Blade Agents working in secret to uncover a great conspiracy. They were in Morrowind but close to the western border of that province where they were hunting down a hidden nest of Mythic Dawn, the Daedric Cult that followed Methrunes Dagon. They had found no Mythic Dawn followers as yet but they had stumbled upon a very unusual set of ruins inside a cave system. They were Ayleid like but not of common Ayleid appearance or layout. The chambers they found had the same sort of blocky extrusions and walkways that often went over the main floor, that typical Ayleid ruins had. But the colouration was white golden and the emblems were different. No undead wandered there or ghosts or anything else that could be found in typical Ayleid ruins. What they had found in those chambers was shocking, could question the commonly accepted account of Tamriellin history and was of major importance to the empire. The dark skinned man stretched his weary and sore body. "Serena, by your expression I suppose you want me to see these ruins soon despite every part of my body aching for rest." At that she smiled. "Of course, Darkose, you know I only live to make your life a misery." She lost her smile. "You sit and rest while I get you something to eat and a mug of hot coffee. As it is we are abandonning this camp site and are moving everything into the Ayleid like city. Yes, Ayleid like but not Ayleid in nature. White gold it might be Aldmer in construction like the Golden White Tower itself that many mistakenly think was made by the Ayleid." The camp was already being broken down and loaded partly into two small two wheeled carts designed to be pulled each by a single horse. Not only could they move quickly and lightly over rough roads but they could easily be disguised as normal carts. Magic had become more regulated under the rule of the Thrid Empire. Necromancy had become banned first in the Mages Guild and very recently through out the whole empire. Then so had soulstones and the use of related soul trapping magic. Alternatives had been found but even so much disturbance was taking place through out the empire and many were angered, especially merchants who specialised in buying and selling soulstones. The Empire had not helped by paying only basic prices for any soulstones willingly handed to its official collectors under an imperial amnesty. Yet Darkose noted a Blademage carrying two soulstones across the camp. Serena came to him and sat on the same wooden log. She passed to him a basic metal mug full of black bitter coffee and a large hard square shaped breadbiscuit. He took a grateful sip and then frowned at her while holding both mug and breadbiscuit. "Why the soulstones?" He dipped the breadbiscuit into the coffee in hopes of softening it a little and improving its flavour. Serena sighed. "The soulstones were found in the caves themselves. They are to be examined carefully for they do not appear to be of a known type. They contain soul energies but of no known kind. Soulstones do not actually hold souls and soul capturing magic, despite its name, does not really capture souls. They capture and hold what mage-scholars now call soul energies but the use of such magic and any soulstone causes magical and spiritual damage. That damage can lead to the strengthening of dark magic in an area and even help the rise of the undead. Even the Ayleid hated to use them which is why they developed Varla Stones." He took a bite of coffee dipped breadbiscuit and grimaced slightly as he chewed it. The bitter black coffee had helped a little but he hoped the camp had better food to offer than this. She sighed again. "The cook has already packed up most of his stuff but he is getting together a rough and ready meal for you. Of course he is grumbling about it as is expected by tradition. This is a rather isolated site far from the centre of the Empire but a fair few folk live here, both human and beast folk but also elves. Neutral, good and evil magical entities thrive in this area. We have to be most careful. Then again you have been here yourself and I do not need to tell you this." He shook his head. "Yes but not for many years. In theory we are in Morrowind but this area is unique and far from normal for Morrowind or for Tamriel in general. I spent a year or so in this area as part of a taskforce hunting down a leader of a plot to kill the Emperor. It was messy and not made easier because the woman we hunted got on well with the locals, be they humans or humanoids. She and her people dealt with the worst of the local bandits, killed them off and distributed the loot to the locals. Of course it was a bribe. We caught her in the end only to have her pardoned because she made a deal with the Imperial Court in High Reach and gave them valuable information that led to the crushing of the plot. She paid for her betrayal when her ex-comrades hired the Dark Brotherhood to assassinate her." Serena nodded. "Yes, she was my mother." Darkose looked startled. "I am sorry to hear of her death then." Serena snorted. "Don't be. She was as treacherous as a mother as she was as a rebel." She picked up a stick and began marking a fairly crude but accurate map on the ground. "We are there. The cave entrance is there. The actual underground city is about there. There is the village of Lontree there and the village of Curble Eye there. Lontree is big for a village and some would call it a town. Curble Eye is smaller but is important because it has the rope-ferry that crosses the Sashayo River. Little more than a raft with safety rails and a basic roof. A dirt highway links the two villages, the ferry linking to the highway on the other side of the river. There is a convent there of a rather exotic sisterhood of faith who prefer isolation. Further along the highway, there, is an inn with stables, a blacksmith, a general store and other services that serve local hunting and other folk. The local sheriff is based in Lontree with deputies, constables and scouts. There is a small garrison of Imperial Guardsmen in Lontree and the village has a few Civilguards. Imperial Legionaries sometimes pass through the area on long ranging patrol but not enough to depend on them in any real way." He nodded. "An odd mix of peoples here if things have not changed. Orcs, Cyrodilins, Redguards, goblins and others, even elves that are surprisingly not very aloof. They openly profess to be loyal Imperials but there is something that always had been believe that they were more loyal to each other than to the Empire. Why would your mother come here to hide out?" Serena shrugged. "Mother was a very cunning woman and quite brilliant. She never did anything with out good reason but there were far better places that she could have chosen to hide in with her comrades. There were parts of Cyrodiil that held many of her followers and as long as she staid low and went nowhere near High Reach Island she should have remained safe. Instead she came here and she had links with the cave system in which we found the hidden city for down there was where she and her fellow rebels had their main base. We found a hidden cache with some of their equipment and stores in it." Darkose nodded. "I am surprised no locals found the cache and looted it." "Locals don't go near those caves. They say there is something wrong with them." She shrugged and stood up. Then she looked around. "The locals have reported no Mythic Dawn Followers though they have spoken of movements of suspicious strangers. What is of concern is that they have reported sightings of the kind of daedra who serve Methrunes Dagon but none have spotted an Oblivion Gate." He looked surprised. "Such daedra do not often go far from an Oblivion Gate for most are just raiders who do not wish to be cut off from their home world, from their path of retreat." She nodded. "The sightings also noted new kinds of daedra. A kind of centaur creature with four legs on the back of which rides a dremora warrior until they reach the sight of the battle and then the dremora leaps off. These deataurs use magical lances or bows that fire magical arrows. A few of these deataurs carry not warriors but extra packs of mostly supplies. This means that the daedra must be moving a goodly distance from the Oblivion Gates that they exit from if they need to carry extra stores." At that he frowned. "Any other new daedra and how did you find out the name of the daetaurs?" She shrugged. "The daedra were over heard speaking by an ex-cult member who once communicated with summoned daedra. Apart from clannfears, scamps, dremora, daetaurs, there were tall scamp like creatures that wore armour and used magical weapons. These are called scards. The oddest though are scantily clad women like daedra, daezamons, who fight with amazing speed and who use magical bows with lethal ability. Darkose do you know what any of this indicates?" "Other powerful Daedra Lords, perhaps even god figures, are probably lending forces to Methrunes Dagon to successfully carry out his invasion of Tamriel that seems to be focused on Cyrodiil." He turned to watch the cook approaching with a small iron bowl half filled with meat jerky, dried fruit, a small block of cheese and a small bread roll. "Food is here and I am starved. We need more information but we also need to get word of what is happening to the Imperial City and to Cloud Ruler Temple." He eat steadily and when he finished gave his bowl back to the cook along with many compliments and a small bottle of beer. The cook was of course most pleased. The Blades were packed and the horses, spare horses and the two carts were ready to move each now having a horse harnassed to it. They set out at once with scouts ranging out before them and out to the sides. One also followed just in case. Continued in TWO

Changes (Some of these ideas are used with the kind permission of Maharg67). Tamriel is over ten times larger in practical terms as are all cities. More of almost everything is added. Many forts are fully functional. Some Ayleid ruins are the sites of organized and protected research where the undead and other threats have been removed. Ayleid artifacts are many more with thirteen kinds of stones and other devices added. Dwemer artifacts and threats are many more and a few have been taken over and adapted for use in the empire. Imperials are all those who fully acknowledge and serve the empire be they Cyrodilin or Redguard or Orc or others. Imperiats are those who dwell on the Imperial Island and in the Imperial City. The Imperial City is known as High Reach and the island as High Reach Island. All Imperiats are Cyrodilins but only a few Cyrodilins are Imperiats. Expansion of magic! Practical magic is used through out Imperial Society from street entertainment to the making of special metals to special communications between Imperial Cities. Teleportation is used but is expensive in terms of magika and is tricky so is only used for special reasons. Magicians are entertaining mages who often serve in music halls, do special effects in theatres or work with other mages to project large entertaining illusions. Priests and priestesses have spirit magic related to the nature and 'powers' of the dieties they serve but they are also shaped by other forces. All Order of the Nine priests and priestesses have basic healing, anti-undeath and offensive-defensive spells. Guilds remain unchanged but others are added. Some compete and some are controversial or even semilegal, that is verging on breaking Imperial Law. The Fighters Guild now also serves and has gladiators as members. Mages, Thieves Guilds remain much the same. New guilds are Sheriffs, Merchants, Traders, Artisans, Assassins, Mercenaries, Scholars, Sailors, Archivists, Illusionists, Farmers, Workers, Entertainers, Prostitutes, Beggars, Cabbies, Fliers, Lawyers, Accountants, Healers, Teachers, Hunters, Couriers, Bounty Hunters, Slayers and others. List of Guilds may be altered. Aristocracy is more uniform and there are now the High, Mediate and Low Houses each with their Coat of Arms. There is the Emperor, the Empress, the Imperial Family, the Imperial Court, the Imperial Senate, the Imperial Commonate (a limited democratic parliamentary body representing commoners), the Imperium that is the Central Imperial Government based in High Reach, the Imperial Government, the Imperial Governors and the Imperial Forces/Services. Imperial Forces are Imperial Guards, Legionaries, Marines, several Orders of Knights, Battlemages, Sappers, Cavalry and others. Services are Imperial Intelligence Order, Imperial Security Order, Imperial Mages Order and others. The Blades serve the Emperor overtly as bodyguards but also covertly. Blades are far more numerous and have a large base in the Imperial City (High Reach) and other smaller bases, some secret, apart from Cloud Ruler Temple. Bladeguards, Blade Knights, Blademages, Blade Agents, Bladetors and other. There are Imperial Sheriffs and Guild Sheriffs to enforce the law. City Guards are more focused on defense. Sheriffs have deputies, constables and others. News broadsheets are published by the Empire as the Imperial Crier but also privately under many names. Couriers ride horses and other steeds, including flying ones, to carry messages and small packages. A whole pony express style network spreads out across the empire and this also carries various broadsheets to be copied and further distributed. Stage-coach networks carry Imperial Mail, courier parcels and passengers. Stage-wagons carry no passengers. Arenas are found in all cities and are magical in that death is not real but is very painful.

Could possibly go either way to greatness or the pits. Yet it also could crawl along in the middle until it quietly dies out. I hope that the series is made great despite that in many ways it sounds like a repeat of Star Trek Voyager. Hoping for the best but fearing the worst!

A bit too wordy and complicated but otherwise a very good piece of writing. I enjoyed reading it.

Thank you for your positive feedback and appreciation. Bruno and Bruna are meant to be Bruma and are due to writing while I was tired and distracted late at night. This will be corrected.

Beautifully expressed Beautifully written True to yourself Honourary Kudos to you (already given Kudos)

Netwit2008, thank you and you are not late but you did inspire me to write more sooner than I would have done. The Bard Mage of Tamriel Concerning the Emperor Continued The elfin woman spoke. "Where could he have gone?" The youthful looking man, in his tough but fairly good looking mage robe, responded thoughtfully. "Our people picked up a name of a place called Sanctimornis from various secret dispatches sent out from the Emperor's Office. Santimornis is a very old fortress hidden by the harshness of time and savage historical conflicts in the Tornlands." During the last great magical battle of the Great Magic War, the Tornlands had been created, a place not so bad as the Forbidden Zone but bad enough to be one of the Restricted Zones. Magical toxins, side-effects and mutations were common there. The only people to go into the Restricted Zones were those with legal permits to do imperial business and those who went in illegally for mostly profit. Openly active official parties tended to be multiple purpose with much physical and metaphysical protection but secret operations tended to be faster and smaller. As for illegal expeditions they were often such as treasure seekers, mages seeking secrets or hunter-collectors of strange beasts. Since then magic had become highly regulated through the Cyrodilin Imperial Magics Council representing the Mages Guild, the Metaphysic Sages, the Emperor and the Mages Guard. Magical weapons and other offensive magic was very heavily regulated. Dangerous magical creatures had been driven out of large areas of the new empire. Necromancy and the use of soul stone magic were both totally forbidden with death as the punishment. But there were areas the empire lacked greater control of and many of those tended to be bordering the Restricted Zones and especially the Forbidden Zone that together were known as the Abandoned Zones. The elf woman showed puzzlement. "Why would the Emperor, not the bravest man in the empire, go to the Tornlands which are one of the worst of the Regulated Zones?" "And to a fortress infamous for being the bastion of a series of dark Mage Lords and War Lords during the Hundred Years of Chaos. " He nodded. "A place where the Necromancic Union built up its power before it hurled mighty undeath spells at Cyrodiil." The great undeath spells had been mostly reflected right back at the necromancers, destroying them, but Cyrodiil, especial the Imperial City, had suffered much. Not just the zombies and skelzies but Corprus plague had sprung up which once and for all revealed totally the link between the horrific disease and the undead. Only five great magical battles taken place in the Great Magic War that had only lasted less than a month but it had been enough to greatly alter the nature of the magical forces of the continent. Also a tenth of Tamriel could no longer be safely dwelt in or utilised in other ways such as fishing, hunting, gathering or harvesting of timber. Some of the best mining areas for gold, iron, silver and other metals were now out of reach. The Bard Mage leaned forward as if to take the other into greater confidence. "I am leaving in an expedition to the fortress very soon. I do not know when I will get there for I have other tasks to carry out and of these I can not speak." The elf-human hybrid nodded. Her name was Chas'Opon and she was one of his agents but she was also a double agent who really worked for the Cyrodilin Empire. Though the people she really served worked against the Emperor, the Bard Mage was not sure how much he could trust her. She sighed. "I will now break off communications but before I do you need to know that another big flying-platform has crashed killing fifteen people. It happened just fifteen kilometres from the Restricted Zone of Bruma. There is growing concern that toxic magic is leaking out of the Abandoned Zones and that it is interfering with and distorting normal magic." After Chas'Opon was no longer shown in the big crystal ball, he stood up and went to a normal looking wooden locker on one wall. But it was not normal at all being made of very physically and metaphysically strong materials and having very special locks and wards. From this he took an ornately practical and efficiently powerful magipulse pulse-pistol which he put under his robes in a shoulder holster. Magipulse weapons were much more immune to toxic magic than were old fashioned type staffs and wands. He hid other devices around his body and then took out a mage-staff of a special kind with buffering effects against toxic magic. The robe itself had many protections built into it and he had other forms of protection. His first trip would be to Bruma but only after he confronted the false Emperor now in the same theatre with him. He was not looking forward to that encounter.