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by High Chronicler Valerius of Winterhold
A history of Skyrim's early High Kings
- The oldest accounts of Ysgramor's life appear in the Fragmentae Annals of Mora, believed to date around the rule of High Priestess Kulaasdaanikgolt of Atmora in the year 130 of the Merethic Era (ME 130), although they survive only as incomplete copies made by the royal archivists of Winterhold in the 1st Era.
- Some fifteen years prior to the Return, Ysgramor served the High Priestess as the general of her armies. During her rule, her augers uncovered an ancient prophecy that spoke of a foreboding blight known as the "Bromtiiddiin". Fearing that Atmora was doomed, Kulaasdaanikgolt ordered Ysgramor to lead a migrant fleet to Tamriel and establish permanent holdings for the eventual mass migration of her people.
The Founding of Sarthaal
- Although the Atmorans had been migrating to the southern continent for generations, it was typically malcontents, dissidents, and rebels who were no longer welcome in Atmora. This marked the first time a large fleet would cross the Sea of Ghosts in search of a new home. Ysgramor led a fleet of ships and longboats south to the mainland in ME 130. His own ship, The Skerd, carried members of his own clan and most loyal warriors.
- Landfall was made on the northern coast and Ysgramor quickly ordered the construction of the first human city, Saarthal. With an entire army of craftsmen and workers at his disposal, the city began to grow rapidly. The Annals reveal that Ysgramor received several emissaries and envoys from the various elven rulers of the land, and relations were typically cordial, albeit distant.
- What caused the elves to turn on Ysgramor is still debated by scholars. Some claim they took exception to the temples dedicated to foreign gods that the Atmorans built on their land, others claim they feared mankind's rapid expansion, while others assert a sect of fanatical elves coveted an ancient artifact the Atmorans discovered deep underground during the expansion of Sarthaal, and sought to take it for themselves. Regardless, in ME 120, the elves attacked Saarthal and killed almost all of its inhabitants. Ysgramor and his two sons survived the Night of Tears and fled back to Atmora only to find the high priestess was deathly ill and murmurs of a civil war were rife. Atmora had changed in Ysgramor's absence and was no longer his home. He gathered his legendary Five Hundred Companions and set sail for Skyrim, or "Mereth" as he later named it.
The Return
- When Ysgramor returned to the shores of Skyrim in ME 119, he brought with him the collective wrath of Elder Wood. The Five Hundred Companions landed at Hsaarik Head and quickly laid waste to the north, as countless elves were slaughtered and their towns and villages set aflame. The Five Hundred moved together as one loose army in any given direction. This enormous wave of death and destruction utterly terrified the native elves, who would often flee their towns at the first sight of the Atmoran Horde.
- Arch-Sage Selgriath, the ruler of the elves, quickly became aware of the slaughter in the north and sent envoys to Ysgramor in an attempt to make peace. After Ysgramor killed his messengers, he responded by sending an entire army of sorcerers. The Vanguard of Magnus clashed with Ysgramor's army at the foothills of Shearpoint, and accounts speak of ice-magic raining down on them for two days and nights as colossal Frost Atronachs cleaved though the Companion's ranks. Ysgramor, hardened by the bitter winters of Atmora, mocked the elven offense as "but a mild chill" and was ultimately victorious.
- A tome recovered from the underground remains of the elven capital, Arthalaan, speaks of Ysgramor's attack on the great city. After marching his army south across modern-day Eastmarch, he arrived at the city gates and bellowed a speech at Arthalaan itself:
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- "By the grace of the Shor, witness the all-embracing Harbinger of the Northern Horde. Hearken my words!
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- Know thou that on this day thy wicked transgressions against Sarthaal must be answered for. Kyne herself bade me to claim this land of ice and snow. For it was on this soil that her exalted breath gave birth to my kin, and it is to this soil we Return to claim what is ours. Through her blessing, all empires from the rising of the sun to its setting will be given to us and we will own them.
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- Blessed Wuuthrad drove our ships to this new land and its edge begged to meet thine all-too-many necks. As thy soft green fields whisper tales of gore I ask thou: beg not for mercy, or lay down thy swords, or rebuild thy ruins. We hath no longer use for thy peace or trust, and it shan't win the day for thy ilk."
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- We are thine overlords and ne'er shall we return to the land of the midnight sun from whence we came. We will fight, singing and crying, until Sovngarde calls.
The destruction of Arthalaan and her citizens was total. A city numbering in the thousands was exterminated over the course of a few days. While countless sagas and eddas glorify Ysgramor's conquest of the elves, what actually occurred in Arthalaan was nothing less than a genocide. Elven women, children, elderly, even their livestock and pets. Nothing was spared. According to legend, Arch-Sage Selgriath and his ruling council were supposedly brought before Ysgramor after the city's sacking and publicly beheaded. Their heads were mounted on pikes of conjured ice and planted atop a hillock of elven corpses, where they were said to have remained intact for years. Some elves were allowed to flee the city in order to spread the word of Ysgramor's coming, while those who remained were enslaved.
- Ysgramor built his great capital city at the mouth of the White River, and named it Windhelm. He declared himself High King and named his dynasty the House of Skerd, after the honored ship that originally brought him to Skyrim. His unrelenting campaign of elven extermination continued after the fall of Arthalaan. He gathered the captains of his fleet: Ylgar the Bear of Forelgrin, Jeek of the River, Ingjaldr White-Eye, Rhorlak the Unflinching, Gurilda Sharktooth, Freida Oaken-Wand and many others, and sent them to the four corners of Mereth, declaring:
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- "Go forth into the belly of this new land. Drive the wretched from their palaces of idleness. Oblige them to squalor and toil, that they would see their betrayals as the all-sin against our kind. Give no quarter. Show no kindness. For they would not give nor show you the same."
- With much of their leadership dead, the remaining elves that weren't killed were said to be driven into the bowels of the land itself. As more and more warriors and mercenaries arrived from Atmora, the vast cities that the elves inhabited were utterly razed and the rubble used to build the foundations of the great Nordic cities that replaced them. Saarthal was rebuilt larger and stronger. Whiterun was established in the south. Winterhold to the north and Dawnstar to the west. The revenge of the Night of Tears had been satisfied a hundred-fold.
- Ysgramor then turned his attention to the numerous Giant clans that plagued the land. He waged war against them and personally killed hundreds, including High Chieftain Sinmur himself.
Later Life
- By the time Ysgramor was around 80 years old, historians speculate that he may have felt his time on Nirn coming to an end, and his actions in his later years was ensuring his work would live on after his passing. Chroniclers report of him spending hours conversing with the elder wizards and clever men of his court, discussing the nature of the afterlife, philosophy and religion.
- He became more focused on the intricacies of nation building and developed a writing system to transcribe Nordic speech using elven principles of writing. Nordic speech (or Old Nord) at the time was completely separate to the language of dragons, which itself was strictly reserved for those in the priesthood. The Songs of the Return speaks of his inspiration:
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- "...yet I had beheld during my captivity that the wily Elves possessed much learning and knowledge, though they put it to ends both vile and dishonorable. And I bethought me that to defeat the Elves and scour them from the land, it would be well if Men also did wield such wisdoms... And I vowed that henceforth all Men would record their ideas and thoughts, just as Shor carved a record of his victory over Sneggh into the side of Shivering Glacier."
- Ysgramor was fascinated by the almost magical nature of the written word and knew that if his descendants were to not only dominate, but build continent-spanning empire, they would need to learn it. He gathered the wisest elven nobles he kept as slaves and learned from them proper ways of civil administration and government.
- Ysgramor ruled his kingdom for a further ten years, until his death in ME 99. Skyrim mourned greatly, and many couldn't even come to terms with the fact he was a mortal who died a natural death. Contemporary texts almost always refer to his death in terms such as "his passing" or "ascent to Sovngarde".
- Although a grand tomb was prepared from him below Windhelm, the Harbinger chose to be buried in a traditional Atmoran barrow facing Atmora. He was succeeded by his son and right-hand, Ylgar, the Bear of Forelgrin.