Ash and Blood: Volume III

Ash and Blood: The Imperial Simulacrum in Morrowind

By Sila Merilia

Volume III

The story goes that the Arnesian War began with an Argonian massacre of innocent pilgrims. Of course, anyone who was in Arnesia in those opening days could tell you that the fighting began long before that tale came to life. But it makes no difference. The slavemongers of Great House Dres manufactured the conflict to fill their chattel pits, King Llethan sought to commemorate his new throne with a military victory, and the Great Houses Redoran and Indoril, so eager for glory long kept from them, sought a chance to once more draw swords in defense of Morrowind. And so war erupted between Morrowind and Argonia. It mattered little to the combatants that the war would leave thousands dead or mutilated, or that the contested land was inhospitable and ill-favored. By 3E 396, war had enveloped Tamriel, and the Dark Elves refused to be left out of the fray.

Though the initial engagements of the war took place on Argonian soil, Dunmer forces fared poorly in the early months of the conflict. Argonian troops managed to hold the north bank of the Arnesian River against repeated assaults, and pressed onward to Tear by Sun's Dusk. But the Siege of Tear lasted barely more than a month. Though the details of the infamous "Skylamp Night" are scarce, it is said that the Dres used fire and dark magic to set the sky ablaze, forcing the Argonian armies back to the riverbank. By the time Redoran reinforcements arrived in spring 397, the Argonian forces were outmatched, outflanked, and losing badly. The many islands of the winding Arnesian River were taken by Morrowind's armies by 398, unleashing Dres slavehunters to scour the south banks, capturing hundreds of Argonians and slaughtering those who resisted.

But where were the Legions of Arnesia? True, the Simulacrum was a bloody affair throughout Tamriel; but while Tharn and his co-conspirators have earned their infamy beyond measure, it took no Tharnite conspiracy to set Arnesia ablaze -- only the indolence of the Empire's incompetent regional commanders. Lord General Casik had not recalled the garrisons at Narsis and Tear, and the Legions stationed in those cities remained well supplied throughout the crisis. There was no lack of Imperial access to Arnesia, as was the case in the bloody Bend'r Mahk. Nor were the garrisons of the region preoccupied with their own survival, like the beleaguered troops at doomed Woodhearth. And despite several mumbled excuses about "Daedric impostors", modern historians are confident that the Tharnite menace focused its energies on destabilizing the prosperous Morrowind heartlands, not its remote borders. No -- the Legions chose to stand idly by, doe-eyed and shiftless, as the Imperial Law they had sworn to protect crumbled around them.

Months after the Siege of Tear, a party of Argonians some three score in number approached the stout gates of Thorn, an Imperial stronghold south of the Arnesian River's mouth. They had been driven southwest, their leader said, by Dark Elves who burnt their home village north of the river. The refugees, carrying everything they owned, requested that the Legionnaires of Thorn escort them further south, or allow them to encamp inside the city under Imperial protection. The local commander rejected both entreaties, and ordered the desperate Imperial citizens outside the walls dispersed with a volley of arrows. The next afternoon, sentries reported seeing a party of armed Dres warriors pass the keep, each bearing a fresh Argonian skin fashioned into a macabre standard.

Such are the costs of cowardice. We may only hope that the Legionnaires of today study the lessons of the Arnesian War, so that Tamriel never sees its like again.