Gods Magic Guilds History Monsters Geography Tamriel Main |
the World of Tamriel Books - Redguards, Their History and Their Heroes |
Links People Credits Society Dictionary Downloads UESP Main |
by Destri Melarg
Notes on the Redguards, their history and their heroes.
This is a publishers proof of the initial draft of my book,
REDGUARDS, THEIR HISTORY AND THEIR HEROES.
The following is a collection of the tales, myths and
history of the Redguards. Much of their history is shrouded in
mystery and in the mists of time. It is hard to distinguish
between myths, and real history.
Below are the first chapters of the draft by Destri Melarg
Author's note as translated into the Modern Tongue of
Hammerfell: Frandar Hunding was born in 2356 in the old way
of reckoning, in our beloved deserts of the old land. The
traditional rule of emperors had been overthrown in 2012,
and although each successive emperor remained the figurehead
of the empire, his powers were very much reduced. Since that
time, our people saw 300 years of almost continuous civil
war between the provincial lords, warrior monks and
brigands, all fighting each other for land and power. Our
people once were artisans, poets, and scholars, but the
ever evolving strife made the way the sword inevitable - the
song of the blade through the air, through flesh and bone, its
ring against armor: an answer to our prayers.
In the time of Lord Frandar the first Warrior Prince, lords
called Yokeda built huge stone castles to protect
themselves and their lands, and castle towns outside the
walls begin to grow up. In 2245, however, Mansel Sesnit
came to the fore. He became the Elden Yokeda, or military
dictator, and for eight years succeeded in gaining control
of almost the whole empire. When Sesnit was assassinated in
2253,a commoner took over the government. Randic Torn
continued the work of unifying the Empire which Sesnit had
begun, ruthlessly putting down any traces of insurrection.
He revived the old gulf between the warriors - the sword
singers - and the commoners by introducing restrictions on
the wearing of swords. "Torn's Sword-hunt", as it was known,
meant that only the singers were allowed to wear swords,
which distinguished them from the rest of the population.
Although Torn did much to settle the empire into its
pre-strife ways, by the time of his death in 2373 internal
disturbances still had not been completely eliminated.
Upon his death, civil war broke out in earnest; war that made
the prior 300 year turmoil pale in comparison. It was in
this period that Frandar Hunding grew up.
Hunding belonged to the sword-singers. This element of empire
society grew from the desert artisans and was initially
recruited from the young sons and daughters of the high
families. They built the first temple to the unknown gods of
War and build a training hall "The Hall of the Virtues of
War". Within a few generations the way of the sword - the
song of the blade - had become their life. The people of the
blade kept their poetry and artisanship in building
beautiful swords woven with magic and powers from the
unknown gods. The greatest among them became known as Ansei
or "Saints of the Sword". Each of these began their own
training schools teaching their individual way of the sword.
Those Ansei of the highest virtue wandered the country side
engaging in battle, righting wrongs, and seeking to end the
strife.
To sum it up. Hunding, was a sword-singer, a master, no, a
Master Ansei at a time when the peak of the strife was reborn
out of the chaos of Torn's death. Many singers put up their
swords and became artists, for the pull of the artisan
heritage was strong; but others, like Hunding pursued the
ideal of the warrior searching for enlightenment through the
perilous paths of the Sword. Duels of revenge and tests of
skill were common place, and fencing schools multiplied.
Frandar do Hunding Hel Ansei No Shira, or as he is commonly
known Frandar Hunding, was born in the far desert marches in
the province of High Desert. Hunding is the name of the High
Desert region near where he was born. No Shira means noble
person or person of noble birth and Hel Ansei is his title of
Sword Sainthood.
Hunding's ancestors reach back to the beginning of recorded
time in the high desert and were artisans and mystics, his
grandfather was a retainer of the Elden Yokeda, Mansel
Sesnit, and led many of the battles of unification prior to
Sesnit's assassination.
When he was 14, Hunding's father died in the one of the many
insurrections, and he was left to support his mother and
four brothers. His prowess with the sword however, made his
life both difficult and easy. Easy in that his services came in
great demand as a guardian and escort. Hard in that his
reputation preceded him, and many awaited their turn to
face him in battle and gain instant fame through his defeat.
By the time Hunding was 30 he had fought and won more than 90
duels killing all his opponents. He became virtually
invincible with the sword, gaining such skill and mastery
that he finally stopped using the real swords created
through the artisanship of his people and began using the
Shehai or "way of the spirit sword".
All sword singers learn through their intense training and
devotion to the gods of war and way of the sword, the forms
of discipline that allow the creation of the spirit sword.
This is a simple form of magic or mind mastery where by a
image of a sword is formed from pure thought. The sword
singer forms the sword by concentrating, and it takes shape
in his hand - usually a pale thing of light, misty and
insubstantial, a thing of beauty perhaps, a symbol of
devotion to the Way and the gods, but no weapon. However,
those Ansei of the highest level and sensitivity and those
with talent in magic, can at times of stress, form a spirit
sword, the Shehai which is far more than light and air - it is
an unstoppable weapon of great might, a weapon which can
never be taken from the owner without also taking his mind.
The Shehai became Hunding's weapon, and with this he slew
bands of brigands and wandering monsters than infested the
land. Finally upon finishing his 90th duel, defeating the
evil Lord Janic and his seven lich followers, he was
satisfied that he was indeed invincible. Hunding then turned
to formulating his philosophy of the Way of the Sword. He
wrote his Learnings down in the BOOK OF CIRCLES while living
as a hermit in a cave in the mountains of high desert in his
sixtieth year.
In that year Hunding having enlisted in the many battles of
the empire, defeating all opponents, had thought himself
ready for death and retired to his cave to capture his
strategy and mystical visions to share with other Sword
Singers. It was after his completion of the scroll of the
Circle that the Singers found him composing his death poem
and preparing to join the gods of war in final rest.
At sixty he was a vigorous man, who thought himself through
with life, but his people,the sword-singers needed him. They
needed him as never before.
Torn's Sword Hunt, had separated the Singers from the common
people, and the rise of the Last Emperor began the last
great strife of the desert empire. The Emperor and his
consort Elisa's final effort to wrest control of the empire
from the people by destroying the sword-singers. Hira vowed
to search out every Singer with his Brigand army composed of
Orcs and castoffs of the wars of the empire, and to scourge
them from the face of the planet.
The Sword Singers were never a numerous people. The harsh
desert kept the births few, and growing up in the
unforgiving wastes eliminated all but those of iron spirit
and will. Thus the final strife which became knows as the
"War of the Singers" found the people of the sword
unprepared and unready to join together their individually
great skills into an army that could defend their homes and
lives.
Frandar Hunding was sought out, his death poem interrupted,
and unceremoniously command of the singers was thrust upon
him. To the unknown gods of war great thanks is owed that
Hunding had the time in his cave to write down his years of
accumulated wisdom, of strategy, of the way of the Shehai.
The singers fled from their camps up into the desert hills
and mountains. Fled to the foot of Hattu "the father of
Mountains" where Hunding had gone to write in peace and to
die, and there these remnants formed into the Army of the
Circle - they learned Hunding's Way, his strategies his
tactics, and the final great vision for a master stroke.
Hunding devised a plan of seven battles leading the Armies
of Hira further and further into the wilderness to the foot of
Hattu, where the final battle could be fought. Hunding
called his plan the "Hammer and the Anvil". With each battle
Hunding's Singers would further learn his strategies and
tactics, grow strong in the use of the Shehai, and be ready to
defeat their opponents in the seventh battle. And thus it
was, the six first battles were waged, each neither victory
or defeat, each leading to the next. The larger armies of
Hira following the small army of Hunding. Outnumbered
thirty to one, the singers never faltered from the Way. The
stage was set, Hira and his Army maneuvered to the base of
Hattu Mountain, where the hammer blow was delivered. The
battle was pitched, and many singers fell that day. Hunding
knew, that the singers who lived would be few, but Hira and
his empire of evil would not live and so it went.
At the end Hunding and less that twenty thousand Singers
survived the day, but no army of evil was left to pillage
and murder, more than three hundred thousand fell that day
on Hattu. Of those who were left to run and live, all were
scattered to the four winds, and organized force no more.
The singers packed their lives, folded their tents, mourned
their dead, and followed Hunding to the great port city of
Arch, in the province of Seawind. There Hunding had a
flotilla of ships waiting. The Singers left their desert for a
new land. No longer welcome in the desert empire, they left
to be sung about and spoken of in legend. The final great
warrior, the singers of Shehai, the Book of Circles, all
leaving that land where their virtue was unappreciated.
Red, red with blood they were in the eyes of the gentle
citizenry, never mind that they had saved them from a great
evil.
The singers vowed to learn new ways as they traveled across
the great ocean to their new land. To adopt a new name, but
to honor the past. In honor of their final battle, they
named their new land Hammerfell and adopted the name Redguards.
In honor to Hunding the great warrior prince, each household
in Hammerfell has a place by the hearth an alcove really,
just a niche, big enough to hold the scroll - The Book of
Circles.
If you have any problems, suggestions or comments on this page or website, please feel free to use the Contact Form to send a message to the WebMaster.