09 February 2011
A History of Daggerfall
by Odiva Gallwood
There is sufficient archaeological evidence for the modern
historian to believe that there has been some variety of
human settlement in the city-state of Daggerfall starting
at least a thousand years before recorded history. The first
use of the name Daggerfall to refer to the area around the
current capitol was most probably in the 246th year of the
1st Era. The north half of the Iliac Bay, in fact all of the
current province of High Rock, was conquered by invading
Nords who brought a rough sort of civilization with them. One
of the first civilized acts the Nords performed was a census
-- the so-called Book of Life. Listed on page 933 of the Book
is this entry:
"North of the Highest bluffs, south of the moors, west of the
hills, and east of the sea is called DAGGERFALL. 110 men, 93
women, 13 children under 8 years of age, 58 cows, 7 bulls,
63 chickens, 11 cocks, 38 hogs live here."
Nearly four thousand years after this census was taken, we
can see that these two hundred and sixteen people have
multiplied heartily. The last census, in the year 3E 401,
lists the population at over 110,000. It is always difficult
to find an exact number, but the capitol city of
Daggerfall certainly outnumbers her rivals, Sentinel and
Wayrest.
It has been a consistant, if not actually helpful
amusement of historians to find the origin of placenames.
Daggerfall, by tradition, is said to refer to the knife the
first chieftain threw to form the borders of his lands. But
there are other legends that may have equal validity.
The Daggerfall entry from the Book of Life actually
supports one theory about the reason for Daggerfall's
longevity. The people were coastal fishermen, but they also
found the land itself sufficiently rich to support raising
livestock. This inclination of the early citizenry toward
reinforcing their principal products brought stability to
a fickle land.
Daggerfall thrived during the years of the Skyrim
occupancy. When the Wild Hunt killed King Borgas of
Winterhold in 1E 369, the northlands engaged in the War of
Succession and Skyrim, greatly weakened, lost her holdings in
High Rock and Morrowind. The Iliac Bay had become important
strategically, and Daggerfall began to expand her
military.
There were multiple opportunities for her to exercise this
army and navy during the Direnni conflicts with the force of
the Alessian Reform. The Dirennis were native Bretons, and
Bretons are hardly ever given to excessive religion.
Daggerfall became a minor base of operations for the
Dirennis and their allies. Raven Direnni, the enchantress
whose magic helped secure the final victory over the
Alessians in the Glenumbria Moors, was one of the earliest
occupants of Castle Daggerfall.
Over the centuries that followed, the Dirennis felt into
obscurity, but Daggerfall continued her growth. In 1E 609,
King Thagore of Daggerfall defeated the army of Glenpoint
and became the preeminant economic, cultural, and
military force in southern High Rock. A position the kingdom has
precariously kept ever since.
Ironically, it was another successful military exercise
three hundred and seventy years later that ended
Daggerfall's monopoly of Bay trade: the annihilation of the
orcish capitol Orsinium by a joint effort of Daggerfall,
the new kingdom of Sentinel, and the now extinct Order of
Diagna. The scattering of the orcs from southeastern High Rock
made the river route to the Bay more accessible. The tiny
village of Wayrest grew like a flower that no longer feared
the mow. In twenty years, Wayrest's trade profits equalled
Daggerfall's. In forty years, Wayrest was the acknowledged
master of Iliac Bay trade. In one hundred and twenty years,
Wayrest became the Kingdom of Wayrest.
The Kingdom of Sentinel did not exhibit Wayrest's
aggrandizement during the First Era. The Redguards were
warriors learning the ways of the merchants, and their land
was enemy enough to keep their population checked. Indeed,
the number of people in all areas of the Iliac Bay was
halved once in the First Era by the Thrassian Plague, once
again by the War of Righteousness, and a third time by the
invading Akavari. If Daggerfall had not spent its first
thousand years preparing for the battles of the next
thousand years, it is indeed conceivable that the Iliac Bay
today might be Akavarian.
The Second Era, like the latter part of the First Era, is a
tapestry of wars, insurrections, and plagues. Daggerfall,
Sentinel, and Wayrest continued to expand and improve
their military and economic positions in the Bay.
Daggerfall and Wayrest would transpose positions as major
trading center of the Bay, and Daggerfall and Sentinel
likewise bandied over which was the superior military power.
The Iliac Bay has continued to hold an important position
in the Imperial government of the Third Era. Rarely allies
(though the combined armies in opposition to the Camoran
Usurper in the 3rd century of the 3rd Era is a notable
exception), but not always enemies, Daggerfall, Sentinel,
and Wayrest have weathered the storms of contention,
plague, famine, and pestilence. The recent War of Betony was
typical of Iliac Bay warfare: sincere, frighteningly
violent, and peaceably resolved.
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