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The Seventeen and One Monarchs
of the Ysgramor Dynasty

Book XII: Haknir the Baleful

by High Chronicler Valerius of Winterhold

A history of Skyrim's early High Kings

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Haknir was the grandson of the legendary King Hjonskar the Wolf, and the first member of his House to ascend to the position of High King since the era of the aforementioned patriarch.

According to legend, after his predecessor disappeared Haknir seized the crown by simply marching into the Palace of the Kings, sitting on Ysgramor's throne and announcing to the royal court that if any objected to his rule, they would be required to challenge him for it. Not a single noble protested and for good reason. Haknir was arguably one of the most formidable warriors of the First Era.

Myths and legends surrounding Haknir are endless. Ranging from his childhood exploits, battle prowess, sexual conquests, physical strength and even his beard (which was said to be so large and impressive that it was tended to by no less than four beard-maidens.) Enormous in size, many speculated he was a half-giant or descended from the old "karstaag-men" of Atmora.

Like his grandfather, Haknir was a Tongue but his Thu'um was said to surpass Hjornskar's ten-fold. Legends claim that on one occasion he became so enraged in dealing with his squabbling court that his Voice destroyed the entire eastern wing of Ysgramor's Palace. Another account speaks of the time his Thu'um extinguished the Great Fire of Riften that engulfed the city in 1E 118. Such was the power of his Thu'um that he was often seen wearing a gag (indeed his statue in Windhelm depicts him as such), but historians believe this it was merely worn to put his terrified subjects at ease, as opposed to it actually being effective in suppressing his formidable Voice.

The Ayleid Message

In 1E 133, a foreign messenger appeared at the Palace of the Kings with an urgent message for the High King. The messenger was spared by the royal guard, possibly due the fact he was recognizably human in appearance, although certainly not Nordic. The Annals speak of the messenger disparagingly as "a shivering, frail half-breed, too feeble to be considered a child of Kyne." We know today that this messenger was almost certainly a Nedic slave who had been sent from Cyrodiil with a message.

Valdar was given a Memory Crystal which delivered an admonishing speech from an Ayleid sorcerer-king named Gordhaur the Shaper. A part of which reads as follows:

O false thrall-king, hearken the words of thine eternal overlords. For generations we hath graciously granted your ancestors the right to thrive the northern lands unchecked and undisturbed. Like a plague of vermin, your ilk hath multiplied ten-fold and spread to the four corners of the land, bearing fruit that is ready for the harvest.

Though baffled we are, for your kind hath neglected to submit yourselves of thine own accord thus forcing our hand to send this messenger. Verily, not only your southern kinsmen but even irrational animals, nay, the very elements which go to make up the world machine recognize that your insolent race was spared for one reason and one reason alone. To serve us.

We, therefore, following the example of our Ancestors, do earnestly command you hie post-haste to the Temple of White-Gold where you shall submit your kinsmen to us, and that after such grievous offenses you conciliate by a fitting penance the wrath of Auri-El, which without doubt you have seriously aroused by such provocation. Failure to do so will incur... [the rest of the text is missing]

Haknir was said to have bellowed heartily with laughter for hours at the Ayleid king's commandment before immediately preparing for war. When the messenger returned to Cyrodiil with Haknir's answer, the northern Ayleid city-states of Ninendava, Rielle, and Sedor prepared their armies for an invasion into Skyrim.

The Ayleids, in their hubris, neglected the fact that Haknir's kingdom was arguably the most defensible kingdom in Tamriel. Skyrim was surrounded by vast mountain ranges: The Velothi, Jerall, and Druadach ranges formed a natural barrier that made a land invasion incredibly difficult. To the north was the perilous Sea of Ghosts which only the Atmorans could sail unscathed.

As expected, the Ayleid's attempt to push through the scarce few mountain passes was disastrous. Haknir had ordered his forces to muster along the entire length of the Jerall Mountains and fortify all routes into his kingdom. The War of the Jeralls, as it was later named, raged for several months and largely consisted of numerous battles and skirmishes along the border. In the east, Haknir's forces were able to push through into Cyrodill via Stonefalls and continue fighting in elven soil, whereas his defenses around Pale Pass were broken giving the Ayleids a minor foothold in Skyrim.

The Exiled Dovah

In the winter of 1E 134 Haknir was on the verge of victory when unexpectedly an enormous Dragon appeared from deep within the Jeralls and attacked his forces. Vukeinziivul was fearsome dragon dating back to the Dragon War, and was thought to have been one of Alduin's generals. After King Valdimar's forces banished the World-Eater, Vukeinziivul fled south into Cyrodiil with the dragon priest Korthosiis, his most devout servant. Among the Ayelid sorcerer-kings they were given refuge in exchange for their allegiance - and for centuries they plotted their revenge.

Numerous battle-chroniclers have recorded that when Haknir received word that a dragon-of-old had resurfaced and entered the war, an unrestrained battle-lust possessed him. He immediately tore off his prized Stalhrim breastplate and ran half-naked up the Jerall mountains Shouting Vukeinziivul's name, interjected with expletives and profanities. According to legend, when he reached Vukeinziivul's roost, Haknir single-handedly fought with both the priest and his master in an unrelenting battle of Thu'ums. The skies above were said to have rumbled with a deafening thunder for two days and nights and several avalanches were triggered all across the mighty Jeralls, engulfing soldiers from both sides.

On the third day, Haknir descended from the summit - bloodied but victorious. By his own account, he first dispatched the priest with a Shout that flung him from the summit. After weakening Vukeinziivul with his mighty Thu'um, he crushed his skull with the Vulpine Scepter. Although Vukeinziivul had been slain, the scepter (formerly symbolic of Nordic kingship) was destroyed in the process. In response, Haknir tore out the bones from Vukeinziivul's carcass and forged what we now know today as the mythical Jagged Crown to serve as the new symbol of his rule. The legendary battle was later immortalized in the well-loved eddic poem "Haknirsmál" (The Ballad of Haknir) which today remains a favorite in taverns across the land.

Blood Fever

With Vukeinziivul eliminated, the remaining Ayleid forces fled from the field of battle and back to their lands. Haknir then spent the next several years preparing his kingdom for a full scale invasion into Cyrodiil by building a network of roads and tunnels along the Jerall mountain passes to serve as highways.

Unfortunately for Haknir, he didn't live to see that day. In 1E 143 he became deathly ill with a potent blood-fever which completely incapacitated the once-fearsome king. The royal mystics claimed he had fallen foul to an old Atmoran curse from his battle with Korthosiis, but the truth of the matter was that blood-fever was common among the Nords of the time, albeit primarily with peasants and the like.

Haknir's shamans attempted to search for a cure through the long-dead practice of reading the entrails of sacrificed mammoths, but it was of no use and he eventually passed. His funeral was a grand affair. Held in Windhelm, he had a longboat prepared him, decked with treasure, mead and tapestries. No less than twenty elven slaves were said to have been sacrificed and placed with his corpse before it was set alight and driven into the Sea of Ghosts.

Haknir's successor was the young Jarl of Windhelm, Harald Hand-Free from the House of Fjora. One of Haknir's most trusted generals from the war, he ascended to the throne in 1E 143 and later became one of the most noted High Kings in Nordic history.

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