Lore:Hrota Cave

Hrota Cave
Type	Cave
Continent	Tamriel
Province	Cyrodiil
Region	Gold Coast
Appears in	Oblivion, ESO

Hrota Cave circa 3E 433

Hrota Cave is a natural cave network found just north of Anvil, on a hill overlooking the city. It lies just off the Gold Road.

Like all natural caves, these tunnels once served as the capillaries of Nirn, pulsing with the divine essence of the Aedra.^[1] The cave possesses black rock walls and extensive stalagma.^[2]

Circa 2E 582, the cave was home to an evil spirit, a wispmother named Exulus. She spawned other lesser wispmothers, and used her wisps to reanimate the corpses of the countless warriors sent against her.^[3] The Temple of Arkay lost several holy warriors to the monster, and offered a bounty through the Dragonstar Caravan Company to whoever could destroy Exulus and recover the pauldrons of the fallen warriors. This contract was duly completed, and the evil was driven from Hrota Cave. However, the cave had also become the lair of a vampire lord named Zalar-do, whose presence threatened the whole of Anvil. The famed vampire hunter Mel Adrys tracked the vampire to the cave, killing her and the few victims she had turned.^[4]

By the end of the Third Era, the cave was uninhabited. This changed in 3E 433 when a gang of Bosmer thieves moved in and started plaguing Anvil. One of their victims was the Anvil harbormaster, Newheim the Portly, whose heirloom flagon was stolen. The local Fighters Guild was hired to take care of the thieves, and subsequently wiped out the gang and recovered the missing flagon. Wild beasts and monsters then began to occupy the vacated cave.^[5]