It's the year 403 of the Third Era, just a few years after the defeat of Jagar Tharn, and the War of Brettany is tearing apart the Iliac Bay region. Hierarch at the time is a province that is made up of a number of smaller kingdoms, each with their own kings or lords. They all swear fealty to the Emperor of course, but are more or less independent of each other. The War of Brettany begins when Lord Moegreff of the Province of Brettany appeals to King Lysandus of Daggerfall for protection against pirates.
King Lysandus consents and offers aid, and King Cameron of Sentinel in Hammerfell sees this as a slight Cameron referring to some ancient paperwork, says that Brettany is a holding of Sentinel, and that King Lysandus is moving in on his territory by offering aid to them. The conflict would eventually see the end of King Lysandus under some strange circumstances. Strange enough in fact that Emperor Uriel VII decides to get involved. He sends somebody to investigate the king's death, but the boat is subsequently caught in a storm or otherwise waylaid along the way.
The Emperor's chosen investigator washes up on the shore and either crawls or is carried to a nearby cave before shelter. No matter the manner of their rescue, when the investigator wakes up they find themselves in private tears hold at the beginning of a very long and very strange journey. It's the Elder Lore podcast and this week we are talking about the game Daggerfall in an episode that I am calling the miracle of peace named after an event which takes place near the end of the storyline. A quick note before we get started that the chronology of events as you play through the game Daggerfall may be different for people depending on which quests they chose to do when.
So this is a very general overview of the story arc of the game Daggerfall, though if you've played it some of these events may seem out of order. So King Lysandus of Daggerfall is dead. His son Gothrid assumes the throne, Alb'Chai is his wife, and the new queen. Eventually our investigator, after leaving the cave private tears hold within which they found themselves when they woke up.
Upon leaving the cave our investigator is contacted by somebody calling himself Lady Brissiana. She confides that her real name is Lady Magnison and that she is an undercover Imperial blades agent to the former King of Daggerfall Lysandus. She invites our hero to meet with her and discuss the nature of the investigation upon which Uriel the 7th has sent our hero. They meet in a tavern and they talk, Lady Magnison explains that the ghost of King Lysandus has been seen wandering the streets of Daggerfall City after the sun has gone down.
She tasks our hero with discovering the true nature of Lysandus' death and to deal justice in attempt to be rid of his wandering specter. There is another mystery as well, which is the mystery of the missing letter. Magnison describes a letter which was sent from the emperor which never made its destination in the queen's hands. The courier who was left in charge of delivering the letter had subsequently delegated it out to another courier and somewhere along the way the letter was lost.
The letter more about death later. Magnison then explains that she must for her own safety but also for yours leave high rock and cease all communication without her investigating. Some time passes our hero finally gets their first lead in the form of a letter that is delivered to them. Morgaya, the princess of Wayrest, implores you to come and pay her a visit.
She has learned about the quest to find the missing letter and believes that she might have some interesting information to help this search. Upon arriving, Morgaya asks you to do for her a favor. Then she wants you to do this before she gives you the information you seek. So you are to deliver a message to Manamargo, the so-called King of Worms.
The letter lays out the terms of an agreement between Morgaya and Manamargo in which Morgaya will give him her first, quote unquote, if he will marry her to the King of First Holt. The letter is delivered as is Manamargo's affirmative reply and he agrees to the terms. But Morgaya advises that our hero, treat with the former Queen of Daggerfall, Lysandus's widow, Minisera. Minisera then explains to our hero that she often questions Albakai's loyalty.
That's the new King of Daggerfall's Queen. She finds out that the letter had been opened by Albakai even though it was addressed to her and not to the new Queen. And that Minisera in fact had never seen the letter. Minisera explains that the courier the emperor usually uses is a member of the knights of the dragon and that this might be the key to finding the courier themselves.
So when confronting Albakai about opening and never delivering the letter, which was obviously for only Minisera's eyes, she claims that it was in fact stolen from her the day it had arrived. So eventually our investigator finds the courier and some interesting facts come to light. The letter was in fact addressed to the Queen, but by the time it had been delivered to Lysandus's court, of course Lysandus was dead and Minisera was no longer the Queen, but rather Albakai wife of Lysandus's son, Gothrid was the new Queen. The letter itself has yet to be recovered.
It was in fact stolen from Albakai's possession the same night that she had opened it and Minisera directs our hero to Morgaiya of Wayrest, someone who we've met already, who claims to have information about the letter. Morgaiya explains that the letter has found its way to the orcish warlord named Gordwog, who supposedly bought it from the thieves guild who had stolen it from Queen Albakai's chambers. Eventually our hero receives another letter this time from Prince Lothun in Sentinel, upon investigating the disappearance of Lothun's brother, he tells you what he knows about Lysandus. He explains that Lysandus was having an extra marital affair with his court sorceress, a Derenid noblewoman.
While Lysandus without fighting back the forces of Sentinel, his queen wife, Minisera, banishes Adora Derenid from their castle. She is exiled back to her castle on the island of Belfieri in the Eleac Bay, where it is rumored that she has a curse on her that disallows her from leaving the castle grounds. The Prince also tells you that, even though his sister is now a queen, Minisera still lives at court and can be found in Castle Daggerfall. Medora Derenid could possibly have some information on Lysandus' death, so eventually our hero endeavors to release her from the spell that holds her within her castle on the Isle of Belfieri.
And when they meet, Medora promises to indeed help the investigation, but not until she is allowed to leave her tower. In order to free Medora from the curse, she tells our hero to bring her the corn of a unicorn. She also mentions that no Faga, mother to the former king, could help her escape. She has heard rumors, however, that in the wake of her beloved son's death, of course Lysandus as we're talking about, she has subsequently gone quite mad.
Eventually, Medora is freed from her tower, the our hero retrieves the horn of the unicorn and the curse is broken, and Medora will eventually communicate with our hero in a vision. She explains that she knows of a powder that consumes Lysandus' shade and perhaps put it to rest. The powder, however, is in the hands of Boardwalk, the aforementioned Lord of the Orson. This is indeed opportune timing for our hero has also been contacted by an agent of the Underking.
He explains how Manamarko and the Necromancer are interfering with their work, and they want a stolen item stolen back. So upon receipt of said item, the agent gives our hero the location of Lysandus' tomb in Menavia, and with both the powder and now the location of the tomb, perhaps our hero will see the end of his journey. Perhaps. The Lordwalk tells our hero where to find the dust as a favor to the former king, Lysandus, which had a respectful relationship.
During the journey to recover the powder, however, our hero finds some interesting information on the decomposing corpse. It appears to be a letter from the Lordwalk to Medora Durrani, expressing concern that somebody has sent assassins to kill Lysandus and that the Lordwalk has sent soldiers to intercept them. He hopes that his heroism in rescuing Lysandus will garner the orcs the respect he feels they deserve. Upon returning the dust to Medora, she explains that Gorwat soldiers were slaughtered when they tried to ambush the assassins and now it would seem most of the realm believes that orcs were behind the murder of the former king of Dargaphal, Lysandus.
It takes Medora Durrani a while to prepare the dust for the emperor's corpse, but eventually all is made ready. Armed with the so-called dust of restful death and the location of Lysandus' tomb, our hero sets off to find the king's murders. Once the dust has been sprinkled on Lysandus' corpse, his ghost appears to thank you. Despite being momentarily calm, however, Lysandus tells our hero that he will never truly be at rest while his murderers are still at large.
Be the instrument of my vengeance, he tells our hero, against Lord Woodborne of Wayrest. And so Lysandus' murderer is named in our hero, Exact's Revenge. What form this revenge takes will change depending on the hero's decisions throughout the course of the game. When you look at it, the story ends with Lord Woodborne's death.
There is one piece of the game Dargaphal that we have not yet begun to discuss, and that, of course, is the mystery of the totem of Tiber Septim. In order to talk about the totem, we must first talk about Zarin Arctus. There are two different versions of the events that transpired, concerning Arctus' death, both of which I will go over now. Arctus was Tiber Septim's Imperial Battlemage.
In the first version of events, Zarin Arctus was able to reactivate the Numidium by infusing the Soul Gem known as the Mantella with his own life force. Tiber Septim then, of course, uses the Numidium to conquer and unite all of Tamriel under his own empire. Then, apparently, Tiber Septim and Zarin Arctus disagreed over what should be done with Numidian. Arctus tries to reclaim his heart from the Mantella, destroying both his life force and the Numidium in the process.
This takes on a new undead form, goes into hiding, and waits for a time that he might be able to proclaim his heart from Ethere's. It is during this time period that he takes the new title as Underking. We spoke very briefly more of a mention earlier in this episode about the Agent of the Underking, and this is the Underking that we were referring to. In the second version of events, however, the Underking was, in fact, the mysterious undead figure known as Wolfarth, who is also former king of Skyrim.
Wolfarth has supposedly died many times, which lends a little bit of credence to the theory that he was an Avatar of Shor, and sure we won't forget is the Nordic version of Lorcan. Now what an Avatar of Shor is usually called, or usually referred to as a Shezzary, so it is commonly believed that Wolfarth was a Shezzary. Tiber Septim and Zarin Arctus trickle Wolfarth and trap his soul within the Mantella in order to power up the Numidian. In the process, however, Wolfarth manages to kill Zarin Arctus and transfer his energy into Zarin Arctus's form.
There is one other component needed to reactivate the Numidian, in addition to the Mantella, and that is the Totem of Tiber Septim. Somewhere during the journey to uncover the truth behind Lysandus's death, the Totem falls into Arctiro's hands. It is unusable by them, however, as the person has to be quote unquote of royal blood in order to use it. This, of course, inspires further infighting in the region, as many different people of power try to get possession of the Totem.
It is up to the Hero to put it in the right hands, but when he does, a strange thing happens. We have talked about this in a previous episode, but the long and short of it is the Dragon Brace. The timeline of Kamriel's history at this point splits into six possible timelines, all of which are considered canonical realities. The first of these possible conclusions to the story is that our hero activates the Numidian themselves using the Totem.
But because our hero is not a royal blood, the Numidian flies into a rampage, kills our hero, and is eventually subdued by the combined forces of all the armies of the region. In another possible ending, the Underking gets his undead hands on the Mantella again. The Mantella is the Soul Gem that powers the Numidian, and may or may not contain the Underking's own soul. He is able to suck the power from it and give himself true death at long last, and is no longer undead.
If Court Wog, the Orkish Warlord is given the Totem, he activates the Numidian and uses it to destroy opposition to the Orsomer. Eventually, the Underking gets involved and destroys the Numidian. When the Blades are given the Totem and activate the Numidian, they are able to unite the region under the Empire, defeating the Orkish opposition in the process. If the Totem is given to any of the petty Lords in the region, they in turn activate the Numidian and try to crush all the other Lords, including the Orcs.
And finally, if Manamarko, Necromancer, and so self-styled King of Worms, if he gets the Totem, he uses it to achieve a measure of divinity for himself, using the Soul Gem. And then of course, as we learned in our episode, dedicated to Dragon breaks, at the end of these six different yet concurrent time periods, which I would like to mention, all of the possible conclusions last, they take different amounts of time, but regardless, at the end of them, all of the timelines reform into one, and the rest of Tamarélic History unfolds from there. So confusing as they can be. These are the events of the game, Daggerfall.
Daggerfall is the second game in the Elder Scrolls series, our previous episode was all about Arena, the first. And these two episodes have both been requested for quite some time, and it took me a little longer than usual to record this episode, so I would like to thank everybody for hanging in there for a little while longer. I've been finding myself with less and less time to devote to the writing and recording of these episodes, so it might start to take me a little bit more time to get episodes out into the public. But regardless, here's another episode for you.
I hope you enjoyed it, and be sure to tune in at some point in the future for another episode of the Elder Lore Podcast. Thanks for listening.