User:Zydrate/Lore

Attention! Everything that follows is by no means considered part of the official canon. I am not under the delusion that my ideas supersede what already exists.

Prelude: As per the warning, I like to call this "Sub-lore", much like I do on other various games. Much of this many exist as actual written short stories, but most of those are buried somewhere in my garage. Much of this will be summarized from memory, and even if I had the actual stories, I'd probably summarize them anyway just for reader's ease.

This will all be written in mostly past tense, in Skyrim-time.

The Brothers

Matthias, Shad'Artael, and Dalyn are the three brothers of Shiva Rethan, a mostly dark elven family in Balmora, Morrowind in the Third Era. Artael is the eldest, who had an affinity with magic and later became a powerful summoner. Dalyn, the middle child, was a Chivalrous (At first) Knight who served House Redoran and worked as a local guardsmen. Matthias, the youngest, was adopted into the family. Shiva did their best to raise her sons to respect other races and such, adjusted to their new scaled brother.
The father, was never terribly relevant and left after Dalyn was born. He was presumed dead at the time.

The adoption of Matthias, the Argonian, earned the family much ire. After a few years, the mother was eventually abducted and burned to death by the Cammona Tong. They were each old enough to work on their own at this point, grieved appropriately by ultimately went about their lives.

Matthias Rethan

Because he has his own page, I will add some other information.

Matthias does not have a traditional Argonian name due to his roots in Slavery. He worked for a Dunmer slaver who, to their credit, treated them more like a worker than a slave.
Matthias was discovered to be an ample thief when he would steal extra food for his enslaved brethren, even so far as to being brave enough to wander in their master's very room at night. The Slavemaster was almost angered, thinking this action was an affront to his usual kindness, but Matthias practiced his silver tongue and offered the skillset to be used to their benefit. The Slavemaster accepted, and profits rose.

After a certain time however, he was meant to be sold to an Imperial family, and thus was named something befitting of humans. However, Matthias became high demand due to his discretionary skillset that was correctly advertised. There was an auction, and the Rethan family woman. Matthias kept the name, stating that he didn't mind it, and was just happy to be called something other than "Lizard" for once in so many years.

Matthias helped fund his Dunmer family by working with the Thieves Guild and Morag Tong. He eventually created his own order, dubbed the "Clan of Blood and Shadow", which functioned as a mending of the two organizations he previously worked for. More details on that, below.

Matthias is still alive (Despite being slightly over three-hundred years old, due to allegiances with various daedric princes)

Shad'Artael Rethan

Shad'Artael became a powerful summoner in the Third Era, but his passion went into necromancy. He claimed several "Lairs", which adventurers would often find traces of him. Despite his minions usually being docile, they were often destroyed anyway as the district became more intolerant of his practices. Still, Artael remained elusive to local authorities.

Artael is still alive (Despite being slightly over three-hundred years old, due to various Necromatic magics, extending his lifespan by himself)
However, his power is waning and is showing signs of age. To his estimate, he may only have a couple decades left before he actually dies. He's dedicated his last few years in trying to become a Lich of sorts, while retaining his sanity.

Dalyn Rethan, the Nerevarine

With the aid of his brothers, Dalyn was the one appointed the apparent "Nerevarine" of Azura's prophecy. Despite most of the credit for aiding Vvardenfell split evenly between the three, Dalyn was the one who revered himself, hosted public gatherings in his honor, and various other self-promoting activities. He quickly became a hedonist, who bathed himself in seas of women (and to a lesser extent, men as well), and his mind became corrupted with his megalomania.

This eventually lead to his murder by his own brothers, humorously exchanging the common bounty of 1,000 gold to each other. Not that the choice to kill him was a quick decision, but was a long discussion held in one of Matthias' club rooms. They loved their brother, but his hedonism could not be tolerated any longer. What really sold Matthias on the idea was the fact that Dalyn nearly forced a woman to bed. Even after that failure, Dalyn had begun to treat women as property, even less than one would a slave. Matthias could not accept this, and thus brought on the plan of assassination.

Dalyn's murder was not difficult. In all his glory in combat, he was easily found naked and stoned to unconsciousness, and was killed in the middle of the night.

Dalyn went on to be known as a hard-partying hero. But only his brothers and a select few women knew better.

Frostcrag Spire

Several years after the events in Vvardenfell, Artael and Matthias moved to Cyrodiil. They had their own adventures there, but Artael chose to re-purpose Frostcrag Spire into an Academy of sorts, for those with an affinity to the dark arts. He sought to guide those that had been shunned, and lead them to an, ironically, lighter path. He saw the trend of anger and evil that most necromancers had, and only accepted those who first proved that they had a better mind for it.

Due to the local Mages Guild having banned Necromancy, their purpose was kept a secret. They were almost confused for another sector of the Guild, but it was not so.

The Clan of Blood and Shadow

COBAS is an umbrella-organization that encompasses facets from the Thieves Guild, Morag Tong, and even the Dark Brotherhood, though it has an emphasis on thievery. They have no patron god that they worship, though members are free to have dedicated shrines as they see fit. However, for the most part, Matthias is treated with the most respect, and he runs his Clan like a business rather than a family.

Matthias actually takes advantage of the redundant nature of his organization, as the crimes they commit is often attributed to TTG or DB.
Due to previous allegiances, he mostly maintains a steady alliance with the organization he may be mimicking in the area, but there have been some crosses.

It's his ultimate goal to actually abolish the two, and become the most famed criminal organization. This succeeded with moderate success in Morrowind, but declined several years before Morrowind's destruction, mostly due to his absence. A trend is that it tends to do this when he travels, a structural weakness he is still trying to fix, as it seems employing a local Lieutenant is not enough. His theory is that because he inspires loyalty throughout his employees, they find it difficult to follow anyone else seriously.
But he is one man, so the problem persists.

Livia

Despite a few similarities between Artael and Livia, they actually have very little to do with each other. Especially since Livia is effectively three times his age, and when they did meet, it was nothing terribly dramatic. They didn't battle it out for supremacy, they never had long winded discussions regarding the intricacies of necromatic experimentation.
They are simply two people who walked a similar path, albeit for slightly different reasons.

Livia is a Nord (human) who was not pleased with the low life span humans usually had, and thus spent all of her teen years riding the coattails of adventurers to find various methods to extend that lifespan with the most ideal results. (IE, not being a vampire, not wanting to look old, et cetera). It took a few years, but she turned to Necromancy. After that, it didn't take long for her personal power to snowball (The pun all the appropriate, as she lived in Skyrim).

Despite her love for snowy terrain in general... The smell of pine, the crunch of snow beneath her boots, her passion was travel and found herself in places like Hammerfell and Elsweyr. This eventually tanned her skin, to the point some actually do confuse her for a Redguard (despite her not being nearly as dark), but her kinsmen can usually tell.
She eventually did return home, and took over grand underground complexes such as Blackreach before the Falmer assaulted it. Still, she holds many connected grounds that are protected by Dremora, Draugr and other raised undead, whom she actually gave their minds. As opposed to mindless soldiers for an army. Many of these underground complexes even function as small cities.

Still, they protect their Lady with their un-lives and defend the secret entrances to her abodes with their un-lives. It is likely wandering adventurers have encountered sane Draugr that Livia was in control of.

Despite her affinity for chaotic magics, she is surprisingly well adjusted, mannered, and learned. She can be fairly polite, even flirtatious, and has a very logical mind. She's not power hungry, as she has plenty and any pursuit of more power is simply to make sure she lives for a long, long time.
Beyond that, she doesn't care much for surface issues, thinking she may outlast any "world-eaters", but eventually found herself in the thick of things anyway.

'To Be Continued.

Additional Trivia

• Matthias has never had the time or opportunity to see his race's homeland of Black Marsh. He's been close, and even on the border, but his business, clan, and objectives have never allowed him to visit.
• Matthias and Artael are still alive and on good terms, and visit each other often.