Tamriel Troubles

[Maharg67]

FOURTEEN

 

The two aspects of the Eternal Champion made their way carefully along the big wide hallway tunnel and to the vaults that the Waymer had left behind so very long ago. Jasmine the Battlemage and Conanar the Paladin were impressed not only with the great size of the hallway tunnel but with the great hulking but somehow elegant statues emerging from both walls.

 

It seemed that the Waymers had denied the reality of the Gods and of the Daedra, that they had concluded that all were of one Godhood and were less powerful, less central than the natural balancing universal forces. Action and Reaction, Negative and Positive, the Natural Inclination of Balance were some of the spiritual axiom symbols they read that came partly out of the wall.

 

Yet the most interesting items were the joke symbols, the beautiful displays of flower patterns carved out of the rock and the figures of elf like Waymer playing in semiwilderness gardens. These Waymer were displayed as being playful and certainly far from aloof and they wore only loincloths and pouch dotted belts with slipper-boots, including the women. Yet there were always warriors standing on sentry duty and what looked to be some kind of big hulking golems.

 

Oomir followed including the Cheifton and a Shaman, in this case a woman, who held an elaborate staff. Yet there were also Argonians from the surface, shorter marshies and taller lizardfolk, who came with armour and weapons. The Oomir were better armed and armoured than they had been but not as well armed as were the Argonians. There were both marshie and lizardfolk mages.

 

Yet the closer they got to the vaults the stronger was the sense of something both dangerous and quite alien.

 

The Cheifton had the jigsaw puzzle box proudly strapped to his back. He never completed the jigsaw because he would take it apart so he could carry it around with him but this did not phase him at all. But now he spoke quietly, knowing that the Eternal Champion would pick up his words easily. "The Oomirs came with the Waymers a long time ago when the Waymers disagreed with what the Aldmers were doing. What they disagreed with we are not very sure. We think that it had something to do with the Master Spell, the great spell that the gods used to create the mortal dimensions with. Waymers dared to confront even the Divines and speak out aloud doubts they had about the wisdom of what had been done to create the mortal plains."

 

The Oomir Shaman nodded her head and spoke. "Also the Waymer were deeply concerned about the arrogance and other dark aspects emerging amongst the emerging new elf peoples be they Dwemers, Ayleids or Altmers or others whose very existence in the Mythic Age has been forgotten such as the Tezmers, the Wingmers, the Sangaka, the Aquamers and others. Not all of these were elves. We Oomirs have the Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine Tablets of Memory to call upon but even they have many gaps, unexplained terms and sometimes even contradictions about the Mythic Age and Tamriel."

 

Jasmine then spoke. "The Eternal Champion existed during the Mythic Age. We were created during the Mythic Age as we are now but we existed even before then but have long forgotten in what form or why. We are many but we are one. During the Mythic Age time and space were far more fluid than they are now. Alternate realities existed right next to each other. The gods and goddesses moved in the mortal dimensions in powerful avatar form and caused turbulance in time and space. Contradictions in your histories may simply be true recording of contradictory realities that did exist in a way that they could not do now."

 

The Shaman responded. "The Waymers did not face overt prosecution but they were pressured to be quiet. They decided in the end to go deep into the Underlands to find a new home. We Oomirs went with them for the Waymers were very kind to us. The Waymers brought not only our people but our animal friends and our possessions. We came in wondrous fashion in great white golden saucers that flew through the air and then sank down through the very ground like ghosts."

 

She sighed. "But then the Waymers suddenly changed their plans. They informed us that us Oomirs had to leave the white golden saucers and dwell here closer to the surface. They gave us many gifts and were very sad but they said they suddenly had been forced to take on new plans for they had learned something most dreadful. We insisted that they take with them ten thousand chosen Oomir warriors, mages, workers and techs to assist them and reluctantly they agreed but in exchange they gave us more gifts."

 

Conanor then spoke even as the great hallway tunnel opened into a great, grand chamber, a mighty dome that expanded out across into the distance so much that the far wall and the high dome apex were indistinct. At the very centre of the great disk shaped floor was a mighty statue that reached high into the air.

 

It was both beautifully elegant and horrifically ugly at the same time. It was a three headed woman-man figure looking in three directions at once, being all white golden, with nine arms reaching out holding nine mighty items. The statue moved slowly, impossibly, both moving its arms and turning slowly on the spot. It held a great sword, a great shield, a great gun, a great shovel, a great axe that was a tool, a great sickle, a great book, a great crystal box device and a great staff.

 

The Oomir Cheifton shivered and pointed. "The vaults are well hidden in the very air itself, in the floor and are linked to the Statue of Three and Nine. We do not know why the Waymers built this place, why they left the things that they did in the vaults. With them went the Brave Ten Thousand and then the Waymers and their beautiful white golden saucers were gone."

 

Conanor spoke in a commanding tone. "Only Jasmine and I will go further for now. Please stay very still and make no sounds. What ever we do, no matter how strange we behave, please make sure you keep to this."

 

Puzzled but generally happy not to go deeper into the great dome, the majority hung silently back though they did spread out and prepare for possible trouble.

 

Jasmine and Conanor walked out into the dome proper and then stood still for a very long moment.

 

Then Jasmine chanted out aloud a long string of strange and disturbing words that appeared to be of no language known in modern Tamriel. At once the air of the great chamber began to shimmer.

 

Then Conanor chanted out aloud and again the air shimmered but this time it also sparkled.

 

Jasmine took out of a pouch a small silver ball, kissed it and through it high into the air. The ball span and zipped along with amazing speed. It struck something invisible high in the air and was deflected to one side. As it struck the something the thing appeared briefly and it was a terrible creature, a glistening green translucent thing hanging in the air like a putrid ball of jelly. Out of it stretched nine glistening tentacles that each ended in a great bulberous disk shaped eye with one big always staring eye ball.

 

The silver ball kept striking and deflecting all around the chamber until many such creatures were exposed. There were nine of them. Then the silver ball darted back to Jasmine who grabbed it easily, blew softly on it, kissed it and slipped it into a pouch.

 

Jasmine and Conanar led the whole group slowly, carefully and quietly back down the hallway tunnel to where they would be safer.

 

They found a large chamber where the Argonians went off to a far corner to rest and otherwise busy themselves as the Eternal Champion asked them to do.

 

The Oomirs sat cross legged on the floor on old woven mats of strong, long lasting but surprisingly comfortable make. Conanar and Jasmine sat cross legged on mats and faced them.

 

Jasmine spoke first. "You did not take us to the vault chamber that you spoke to us of earlier. Why not?"

 

The Cheifton sighed. "We do not know for we only not really alive for we are just a kind of magically made creature. From fleshvats and shaping-orbs did we arise very long ago. We only know what we are programmed to know and we do what the hidden voices tell us to do even if we do not really want to do it. Now though we are free to talk as we have not been for many centuries."

 

Conanar nodded. "We have placed on you Oomir in this chamber a freedom by removing from you a dark and hidden force that controlled you. What really happened when you and the Waymer came here?"

 

The Shaman sighed. "The Waymer, we Oomir, our animal friends and others came in three great, nine medium and eighty-one small saucerships of white golden metallic beauty. They arrived here and split into three fleets each with one great, three medium and twenty-seven small saucerships. The first fleet went deeper into the Underlands and we do not know what became of them. The second fleet went to some other place that we do not know of and the third fleet remained here."

 

She went on. "We Oomir were at first very happy. We lived good lives and had plenty of time for rest, relaxation and puzzle solving, doing our arts and learning in our way. The Waymer sometimes joined us but much of the time they carried out secretive experimentation. At the time there were just over three million Oomirs in our cave systems that we still inhabit. We Oomirs had freedom of mind though the Waymers could always choose to control us through programming for the Waymers left us free."

 

The Cheifton sighed. "Our memories are blank to what happened after that though we know many centuries passed, that many dramatic things happened. We are not sure what to do."

 

Jasmine smiled. "Practicalities first. We will finish freeing you and all the other Oomirs of the programming controls, which are fragmented and messy anyway as if nobody had actively mastered them for a very long time. The Argonians are moving down here to be freer from the Master Spell and to create a large settlement here. We have to get you Oomirs fixed up and feeling better."

 

The Shaman and the Cheifton smiled as did the other Oomirs and then, abruptly, they froze in place. They were not harmed but just deactivated. Jasmine sighed and took a small crystal tipped wand device out of a pouch. "We can only do what we can. A great crime has been committed here but just one of many, I suspect, by the same dark force, brother-self."

 

Conanar grimaced. "We can only do what we, what I, can do, sister-self." He took out a small optical device and began to adjust it. "I wonder if anybody is making some nice strong coffee."

 

Continued in FIFTEEN!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2009 by Maharg67

[dezdimona]

*huge grin on face* excellent

[Maharg67]

*huge grin on face* excellent

 

Thanks very much dezdimona, will be adding a new episode here soon. I suggest you finish reading the last.

 

FIFTEEN

 

Mahargrassa attempted to deal with a threat 'beneath' Anvil Harbour in a dimensional pocket realm known as Little Anvil.

 

K'Martina and K'Mortina were in the ancient fortress roughly southwards of Anvil on the Cyrodilin Coast trying to deal with the forming of an alliance between various forces opposed to the TriEmpire and the Master Spell. There it seemed also that the Nine Divines and Nine Holies had somehow made a very important decision.

 

Two aspects of the Eternal Champion, Jasmine the Battlemage and Conanar the Paladin, were trying to work out what had happened in the ancient hidden place beneath a cathedral in the Black Marsh. They were seeking out secrets and trying to help the Oomir.

 

Mahargrah was in Mahargrastle who was in Martinpolis. Both of them made careful preparations as quickly as they could to make their first real move in the move to free Tamriel and its people from the oppressive danger it was under. Yet to look at Mahargrah all he seemed to be doing were normal activities like meditating, reading various books, playing for and caring for the pets and ever-babies, training with his followers and so forth.

 

A white golden machine, an elegant engine-wagon, pulled three elegant passenger carriages and three maill-courier carriages along a great railway line suspended above the forests by evenly spread out pillars. The pillars were great marbled stone structures, elegant and ornate with statues, formations and flying-buttresses linked up outwards to other parts of the rails.

 

The amazing magical machine drew its energies from the TriNetwork that in turn drew energies from the Master Spell. It hummed softly and inside the efficiently furnished and fitted cabins there was an odd slightly disturbing sensation like cobwebs lightly stroking the body. The all elegant TriImperial, a golden haired and skinned humanoid that was very human in shape, a man, had never ever gotten quite comfortable with such sensations. But they were the norm where ever powerful lizen-magic was constantly used and the rail-wheelers nearly always in use. They were needed for their were barely enough of them to do what they had to do to help keep the TriEmpire functioning.

 

In theory the Master Spell should have been doing much of the work being carried out by the Tamriel wide rail-wheel network but the Master Spell had been ignoring many of its duties, was searching for something and doing other things that the TriImperials found disturbing. It was back on Leirmat that the real trouble between the TriEmpire and the Master Spell had begun. Since the conquest of Tamriel had been carried out the split between the TriEmpire and the Master Spell had been slowly becoming stronger.

 

The Master Spell had assisted strongly and well in the conquest of Tamriel, had in some ways shown more focus and strength than ever before. Tamriel had fallen in a month which was quicker than any other of the chosen continents had fallen in the past. What was the Master Spell up to?

 

Tri'Yuransa was head of the dreaded TriBeholders , the security-intelligence service of the TriEmpire, with infiltraters, observers, informants and other operatives serving through out the Tamriel mainland. There were also many openly kept and secret bases, safe houses and other establishments. Yet the biggest strength of the TriBeholders were the numerous puppet slaves who would willingly give information to the TriEmpire even if it meant betraying loved ones. This last factor was not one that pleased Tri'Yurnsa but there was not much he could do about it. Though a golden humanoid and high in the common ranks, classes and castes of the TriImperials, he was not elite, was not of the rare few who actually ruled the TriEmpire.

 

So it had surprised him when the TriEmpress herself had called upon him to do a very dangerous and special task for her. She had not spoken of the TriEmpire but only of her needs. Being one of her admiring followers he had agreed with just enough reluctance to show he was rational enough to have doubts. This was to show he was more able to do his duties.

 

Now he looked out through a big window as he stood in the golden silken metallic robes of a high caste merchant. Of course he would not move openly as his true self, that was only done under special conditions. Around him stood three tall elegant figures in silver robes who were in theory just bodyguards but in truth were very lethal X'Assassinators. They would willingly die to save his life.

 

The others in the carriage were all Tamriellins, quiet mortals be they human or orc or other folk, each in fairly good to very good clothes and other gear but nothing very exotic. Luggage was mostly in luggage compartments beneath the main cabin and only hand luggage was visible. All of the mortals there looked sleepy but none willingly slept. There were no babies or smaller children for travelling on the rail-wheelers could harm them if they slept. For all those who slept while travelling in the swift moving rail-wheelers could suffer terrible nightmares and some would have terrible fits, sometimes leading to death.

 

He looked out over jungles, a wide flowing blue river and in the distance a ruined Tamriellin city of slowly crumbling walls, towers and other structures. It had not been destroyed by the invasion but had thrived for a fair while under the TriEmpire. But then one dreadful day the TriNetwork had failed in the city of Bruma and the Master Spell had fallen upon it with ravenous hunger. The TriImperials had all escaped thanks to the ancient Compact and had even managed to take a fair few mortals, even animals, with them. But most had been lost.

 

For a moment there was a flash of green ghostly light above a partly collasped guard tower and for that instant a terrible creature was exposed that was an ever changing, flickering thing that was not anything in particular but which kept altering in a disturbing fashion. Then it was gone.

 

Nobody went to Bruma willingly, not even the toughest and most powerful of the TriImperials. Animals and magical entities kept their distance. Normal plant life did not grow near it. But in and around Bruma things still grew, parodies of life, and other things thrived there that were worse than they.

 

The Empress had told Tri'Yuransa something most odd and that was that the Master Spell, which in theory was centred in the Imperial City, was in fact focused in the ruins of Bruma. Then she had given him three items to take to the edge of Bruma, to the edge of the terrible contamination and, of all things, to communicate with the Master Spell. Or at least with an aspect of it for nobody could communicate with the whole of the Master Spell.

 

He was not at all happy with his assighnment which was easily the most dangerous that he had ever had.

 

They would get off not near to Bruma but at the nearest city and from there would make further plans.

 

Then he saw something that not only surprised him but shocked him.

 

For a clearing was revealed and in that clearing was a large village surrounded by a tall wooden palisade. It was foolish for such a village to exist so close to the evil of Bruma but the locals had persisted in staying. There were TriBeholder informants in the village and they had reported that people did sneak to the areas closer to Bruma to loot ruins such as villages and a town and even a castle or two. People also like to take lizen-magic mutated plants and smuggle them to collectors of the exotic to make a fairly big profit. The TriEmpire intercepted most of these items but some did get past. The village gained a high level of living from these illegal activities.

 

But now they were paying a price as hordes of Corprus zombies, humans, humanoids and animals, came rushing at the wooden palisade in thick waves. Above them came flickering monstrocities, things that glowed corpse light green, that refused to stay one thing or another, that spat what looked like corpse light flames. The flames shot out and caused parts of the wooden wall to explode into burned splinters and burning fragments.

 

The village's temple, little more than a semi-covered shrine surrounded by circular gardens, was a semiwilderness of long neglect but now golden white light covered it, emanated from it, outwards. Villagers were fleeing into that light and as they did so they were vanishing and animals were doing the same. The TriImperial saw this and he knew that the Nine Divines were active in the villlage, that somehow they had slipped past the power of the Master Spell. But how had this happened and why now, why here? It made no sense to him any more than did this sudden attack on a village by the entities of the ruins of Bruma. Why corprus zombies, sometimes known as corprusies? Why these horrific flickering monstrocities that had been glimpsed before near or above Bruma by many and just what were they?

 

Something in the village exploded and a large building literally went up in smoke, flames and what looked like small objects from where he stood but many were human shaped ojbects.

 

He cursed silently to himself for he had planned on going to that village of Ever Light Green but now he would have to go to somewhere far worse on his journey to what was left of Bruma. That is a nasty little hole called Bruma's End. He supposed that the name had meant to be humerous but he did not find it so.

 

The rail-wheeler kept on speeding along and suddenly he could no longer see the clearing, the village or the things happening there.

 

He linked into the Trinetwork and prepared to communicate with the TriBeholder HQ in far off Martinpolis.

 

To be Continued in SIXTEEN!

 

Edited August 13, 2009 by Maharg67

[Maharg67]

SIXTEEN

 

Down the rampway had come the three old folk, the Cyrodilins on their crude sled with all their possessions. The ramp tunnel was effected by the magic that enclosed and supported the pocket realm of Little Anvil; that is it only seemed to go just a fairly short distance but anything moving up or down it actually moved a great distance. When the mimickri came rushing down the rampway they came in the form of copper, silver and golden goblin shapeforms but these spat pulses of energy and their armour, shields and swords glowed with more magic. They were more powerful ranging from golden down to copper and more numerous ranging down from copper to golden, which was normally the way of the mimickri.

 

Mahargrassa had fought mimickri countless times before and now noted that these ones shared things in common with them. Firstly they were too uniformly the same to be the real things, apart from the obvious of colouring. Normal goblins came in many varieties of shape, size and their gear of course. There was one species of goblins but many subspecies. The mimickri looked somehow all the same as each other except for the colour variations being all the same size, shape and carrying identical looking gear. All were all based on males while female adult goblins often fought in battle.

 

The fake goblins crashed against an invisible magical barrier that the sled had passed safely through and were halted as sparks erupted around them. Lizen-magic and arcane magic fought each other, causing odd side effects. The air rippled. The mimickri did not snarl or go beserk as normal goblins would. They attacked the magical barrier with methodical well organised discipline.

 

But they failed to get through even as Little Anvil was swallowed up by the Sanctuary Zone that was at the core of Mahargastle.

 

The false goblins flickered out of existence as the Master Spell, probably realising it was wasting energy, simply withdrew the mimickri from the battle.

 

The old bodyguard, clutching his steel broadsword, sighed heavily and slipped the weapon back into its scabbard. He spoke then. "I am glad they were driven off. They popped out of the air just as we started down the rampway and they killed a good friend of ours who helped us move everything to the chamber from which the rampway starts. We will miss him greatly."

 

She'Ralla sighed. "Oh, Bono, you are such an old sentimentalist as so many warriors are at heart. The man only helped us when he could profit from it. He was a greedy fool who we only used because we didn't want to put any of our real friends in danger."

 

The bodyguard blushed lightly. "Well, yes, but he is dead. Do you think that he betrayed us to the Master Spell?"

 

The lady smiled. "So your sentimentallity is quickly cut short by streak of survival instinct. He may have done except he would have been too frightened to do so. Now where is Old Uriel?"

 

The three newcomers looked around and observed Mahargrassa, Old Uriel in his big old wheelchair, the Empress and the young adults. Upon seeing the Empress the three scowled.

 

She'Ralla spoke again. "So the traitor shows herself."

 

At that moment the rampway tunnel simply shimmered and was replaced by a normal looking area of wall. All of them felt a gentle shifting movement and the air lightly shimmered for a moment.

 

Mahargrassa nodded. "Little Anvil is now a Semiautonomous Demizone of the Sanctuary Zone. The rampway tunnel was too dangerous to keep and now opens into a normal large chamber beneath Anvil Harbourside. Now, ladies and gentleman, what have you got hidden magically in that sled of yours. I can sense special arcane and other magic at work there. There is a good chance with nine master-dragons flying high overhead that you drew their attention."

 

The other lady now spoke. "Nine master-dragons? More like three hundred master-dragons and many other kinds of mimickri. Winged goblins, gremlins I think they are called, wyverns, griffins, harpies and other things I do not know of that the Master Spell has copied. I thought I saw some fake lesser daedra and other kinds of demons up there."

 

The former Empress of the Cyrodilin Empire frowned. "I will have food, drink and water brought up here along with some trestle tables. That is if you can stand to be served by a traitor and her children. I was no traitor. I served the cause of my people most loyally until I saw the madness of it. I was and still am not even human." Then she stopped in obvious shock. "Three hundred mimickri? The Master Spell would only gather such for a major action. Is it finally going to invade those islands off the coast?"

 

Old Uriel sat up, yawned, stretched and looked quite awake and alert. He studied the situation and the poeple. Then he spoke. "Quite a long time since my favourite ladies and their gallant bodyguard visited me in Little Anvil. Still time did always pass here faster than it did outside to some extent. Now to tell you a secret that will shock you for I am in truth..."

 

"Old fool, of course we know you were Emperor Uriel Septim VII!" Tre'Ralla snapped mildly. "You really did tend to let too much information go with your rambling stories. Too many times you said 'I' instead of 'him' and 'my' instead of 'his' and so on."

 

The former Emperor looked sulky. "Damn it cousin, you stole my thunder again. You so annoy me when you do that. Even a former Emperor likes to have some fun." He turned to the former Empress. "My sweet please have food, water and drink prepared for the downstairs large dining chamber. Have them open the big Viewing Window and let us show them what Little Anvil really is."

 

Old Uriel opened a lid on one wheelchair arm and revealed two vertical rows of brass buttons, an odd square mirror and four dials. He grinned and pressed one. At once a woman figure appeared out of mid air, a young slimly voluptuous lass in a rather skimpy barmaid's outfit of the kind worn in the harbour. She flounced and then bowed to the former Emperor before she began to dance and sing a naughty sea shanty while invisible muscial instruments played.

 

Everybody looked at the former Emperor who blushed and hurriedly pressed the same button again so that the magical illusion switched off. "Eeehhh that was just something little I came up with which to amuse myself."

 

She'Ralla sighed. "Still a dirty old man then, your majesty. Eeehhh do the clothes always stay on then and is she always a blond?"

 

Old Uriel tried to look nobly offended but failed. He sat up instead. "Oh, very well, I am a dirty old man but I want to show you something important, something that Broothada never knew about because I did not want him to. He did not really trick me at all. It was I who manipulated him."

 

"I needed to have Little Anvil active, I needed to keep you here my Empress and all the younger ones also. As I said already, it was I who manipulated Broothrada, or should I say K'Makra. K'Makra is powerful but not as powerful as he was for insanity, stupidity and arrogance have caused him to waste away much of his potency and to damage himself badly. While I was in this wheelchair I was carrying out a variety of useful projects and hobbies. The projects were for Tamriel but the hobbies were just for me."

 

He twisted a dial, twisted another dial and examined the coloured symbols appeared in the small square mirror. Then he pressed the same button again. The same young woman appeaered again but this time she wore the robes of an Imperial Sage of the old empire. She solemly smiled at people and then she spoke.

 

"Greetings! I am the Sage of Little Anvil's Archives. How deep is my belly button?"

 

The former Emperor slapped his knee and grinned. "As deep as the Sea of Delight."

 

The figure smiled and nodded. "Very good! Please be patient while information is uploaded from the primary archives sphere."

 

Mahargrassa nodded and snorted with mild annoyance. "I should have known but you were always able to outsmart me in some ways."

 

"Only because I am much older and have much more experience than you do, my dear." He smiled at the two ladies and their bodyguard. "I am Mahargrah, I have always been Mahargrah, or at least one aspect of him. The real Emperor got poisoned as a baby by Mythic Dawn Followers. I killed them and made it look as if their vile mission had failed. Then I replaced the poor boy. The only way I could save him was to send him to the Sanctuary Zone. He had a good, rich life with his mother who was not his official mother, the previous Empress, and two siblings."

 

He shrugged. "I went through life as the Emperor not knowing I was anything but the Emperor until I was confronted with the treacherous plot of the Mythic Dawn. Only then did the truth come bubbling up out of the depths of my mind. Yet it was not the whole truth. Mahargrah has hidden that away even from himself for some reason I do not know."

 

The young adults all scurried off with orders from the former Empress who walked over and stood next to Old Uriel to stand there passively. That is she looked that way but she was very dangerous as any Kurikanzi was. Old Uriel took one of her hands and kissed it. Then he kept holding it.

 

The illusionary young woman spoke again. "I am ready to answer questions of the Projects."

 

Old Uriel sighed. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2009 by Maharg67