Tamriel.
"Dawn's Beauty" in the language of the Altmer,
or "Taazokaan" in the Dragon's tongue,
is the continent upon which all the Elder Scrolls games take place.
Home to many diverse races,
and even more conflicts,
Tamriel has been host to many adventures.
You've experienced Tamriel in your own way,
but want to learn more about its story.
Well, to get to the heart of the story,
you have to go back to the beginning.
Behold,
the northern province of Skyrim, cold and rugged.
Climb any one of its icy peaks
and you'll quickly realize why this old kingdom
is considered "The Throat of the World".
Skyrim's pine-covered peaks holds four
out of the five highest mountains in all
of Tamriel, making it a land kissed by sky.
To the uninformed outsiders Skyrim only conjures up images
of snow and mud,
and while there is truth in this,
its citizens know Skyrim
as a land of breathtaking vistas,
mighty rivers, and above all
a place of proving.
It is a land where heroes are made,
crafted in the harshness of the land's embrace.
To know Skyrim
is to know its people.
A tall and sturdy race,
well suited for the cold climates of the northern most province,
the Nords can tolerate the cold like no one else.
If their fair skin and yellow hair does not give them away,
then their thick muscles and large frame surely will.
The Nordic people have been taming Skyrim's
harsh interior for generations, and it shows.
They are no strangers to hardship,
whether it be farming the land or defending it
against the occasional sabre cat,
the Nords have been strengthened
through their need for survival.
And they've done more than just survive,
throughout history the Nords have proven themselves
to be some of the most skilled melee fighters in the Realm.
Violence is an excepted aspect of Nordic life.
Their people face battle
with a ferocity that shocks and even appalls their enemies.
When he passes from this world,
a Nord isn't remembered for how he lived,
but for how he died.
His tireless quest for honor and glory
has made the Nords a force to be reckoned with.
Make no mistake,
this is a race of conquerors.
On the battlefield,
Nordic warriors are arguably the hardest fighters Tamriel has ever seen.
When the ancient Nords attacked a city,
they had no need for siege engines or calvary.
The elite among them speak in the "Dragon's Tongue".
Equipped with only their voice,
they could force down the doors of an enemy keep.
A strong Nord can instill bravery in his men
with his battle cry,
or stop a charging warrior with his chilling roar.
A Nords voice is his strongest weapon,
and he attributes this gift
to the Aedra.
Atop the "Throat of the World",
in an age long forgotten,
the sky goddess Kyn breathed life into man.
With her divine breath,
the Nord found their strength.
You may know Kyn by her Imperial name,
Kynareth.
Most Nords acknowledge the Divines as their gods,
but unlike the rest of the Empire,
the Nords see the Divines as notably more warlike.
Just ask the nearest Nord
what he thinks about life and death,
and you'll have a brief glance into their culture.
A Nord will tell you
there exists a place so magnificent,
so honored,
that the entrance lies hidden from view.
Sovngarde, it is called.
Built by the god Shor to honor those Nords who have proven their medal in war.
Nords who die with in sword in hand are rewarded
with a feast that never ends.
Within this hall of valor,
time as we know it has no meaning.
The concepts of life
and death
are left on the door step,
and those within
exist free of pain
and suffering.
A Nordic afterlife free of pain and suffering
is a pretty ironic thing, isn't it?
Considering pain and suffering
is the price of admittance.
The path of Sovngarde is littered
with the bodies of the fallen.
This unique belief system
in where only the strong prosper,
in this life and the next,
is the very thing that has made the Nords
a dammed near unstoppable force
throughout Tamriel's history.
The history of the Nords is one of migration
and retribution.
Before they took the name Nords,
this race of men called themselves Atmorans,
denizens of the continent
known as Atmora.
Long ago, Atmora had erupted in a great civil war
that had left the continent
drowning in its own blood.
In the midst of this chaos,
a visionary gathered all who would follow him,
and set sail to the south
in an effort to build a new life for his people.
After a perilous journey across the Sea of Ghosts,
their ship touched ground in modern day Skyrim.
Finding the land already occupied by mer, who they called Snow Elves,
the Atmorans named the land
"Mereth" in honor of them.
The Atmorans and the Snow Elves lived in relative peace
for many years, which today would be unheard of for any place where elves and
men reside. This was until one fateful night, when the treacherous Snow Elves
pillaged and slaughtered the Atmorian people.
That night an entire city burned;
its people murdered without warning, without mercy.
The Snow Elves, or Falmer as they called themselves, had come to a decision.
Apparently the race of men were growing too quickly for their comfort.
They did not wish to see men's culture surpass their own. Feeling threatened, the Snow
Elves turned to genocide, a sin they would one day pay greatly for.
According to legend, not every Atmoran was killed that tragic night. Out of the ashes came
one visionary and his two sons. They returned to Atmora together and spread the news
about what the honorless elves had done to them. Five hundred companions heard
their stories and joined Ysgramor in an event that would lead to the
birth of the Nordic race.
The return. Settlement by settlement,
city by city, Ysgramor and his 500 companions drove the elven betrayers out of Skyrim.
Driving the Snow Elves to near extinction,
Ysgramor cleared the way for his people to return to Tamriel.
The elves have learned a most painful lesson -- the race of men were here to stay.
At this time in the Nords early history, dragons roamed the sky over Skyrim and the Nords
worshipped them. Their frail mortal voices were drowned out by the mighty
? of the dragon, and so it was only natural that these children of Akatosh
should rule over them. Dragon priests possessed incredible power, both in their
magical abilities and in politics as religious leaders. They acted as
intermediaries between the Nords and their serpent god kings, building great
underground temples to appease their dragon masters. Over time, the dragon
priests of Tamriel had become more tyrannical, and eventually Skyrim
rebelled, leading to the legendary Dragon War. Man fought the great dragons
and died by the thousands. It was clear the Nords were fighting a battle they
simply could not win. Yet, when all hope seemed to be lost, some dragons turned
against their own kind and taught the Nords powerful magic that allowed them
to turn the tide of war in their favor. After a long and bloody campaign, the
rule of the Dragons was ended, and those remaining
fled to remote areas. The Nords, now free from both elves and beast, claimed
Skyrim by right of conquest.
And so, the Jarls placed the jagged crown atop the
head of their first king of Skyrim -- Lord Harald, descendant of the now Nordic
legend, Ysgramor. Over a century later, the Nords of Skyrim were ready to be led
to glory by King Harald's son, the ambitious Vrage the Gifted. King Vrage
believed that the destiny of his people was not only to rule over
Skyrim, but beyond. His aggressive and bloody expansion is now known as the
Skyrim Conquests. Within the span of fifty years, the descendants of Ysgramor
ruled all of northern Tamriel, including most of present-day High Rock and the
whole of Morrowind. Lands had been conquered before in Tamriel's history,
but never like this. The elves quickly learned how great the
Nords had grown in such a short time, but by then it was too late. Land the elves
had fought over for millenia now belonged to the upstart race of humans,
who only centuries earlier posed no real threat at all. Needless to say, the young
headstrong Nord struck fear into the hearts of every elf on Tamriel.
So, reluctantly the elves had to set aside their differences and face the
Nords just as they had -- united. Just as the elves were banding together in
Morrowind, the last of Ysgramor's line was breathing his last in Skyrim,
leaving the Nords with a mighty empire lacking an emperor.
Sadly the Jarls of Skyrim were unable to reach a decision quick enough to
decide on which of them were worthy of leadership, and without an emperor their
empire soon fell to the elves. Now confined to Skyrim,
the Nords mostly kept to themselves until late in the first era, when Tamriel's
neighbors in Akavir landed on the icy shores of Skyrim;
swords at the ready. With incredible discipline and combat precision, the
likes of which the Nords had never seen, the mighty Akaviri Dragon Guard cut
through Skyrim with ease. Thoroughly impressed by the Akaviri invaders, the
whole of Skyrim pledged themselves to one man --
Reman Cyrodiil, the first dragon born in recorded history.
The second empire of man had dawned.
Centuries came and went and the Nords of Skyrim carried on, loyally
serving their Akaviri empire, upholding their kingdom, and protecting their
people. But even they could not stop the blade of a Morag Tong assassin. With their
leaders assassinated, the second empire quickly crumbled. Now without an empire,
the Nords were free to engage their neighbors in glorious battle once again.
However, their expansion would be interrupted when the Daedric Prince
Molag Bal sought to make Tamriel burn in the second era, the Nords entered one of
the most unlikely alliances Tamriel had ever seen. You see, a mortal's need for
survival has a way of transcending race, and so it was that the Nords banded together
with the Argonians of Black Marsh and the Dark Elves of Morrowind. In an effort
of self-preservation, the Nords formed the boisterous front
line of the Ebonheart Pact, lending their skill as fierce warriors and expert
weapon smiths. Once the fires of Tamriel were put out,
the Nords fell back into their old traditions, and began their aggressive
expansion once again. What they weren't counting on was Tiber Septim
and his newly formed Imperial legions, who sought to usher in the third era,
with an empire of their own. After a few honorable confrontations with Tiber
Septim's Imperials, the Nords knew an empire when they saw one.
While most of Tamriel was dragged into the Empire, the Nords chose to join
their fellow man willingly. After all, the human Imperials shared many of their
qualities, having been cut from the same cloth.
Many Nords soon donned the Imperial uniform, gladly serving under their new
emperor. Tiber Septim may have taken an Imperial name, but the Nords knew him by
Talos, son of Atmora.Talos was Dragonborn,
the likes of which the Nords had seen before.
Dragons and those claiming the power of dragons seemed to be destined to rule.
Dominance is in ? very nature, and while men hopelessly cling to their
perpetually crumbling empires, Tamriel's
extinct race was ready to take back their birth rights. But that is a story
for another day...