Lore:Blackrose

This article is about the city. For the flower, see Black rose.

Blackrose
Type	Settlement
Continent	Tamriel
Province	Black Marsh
Appears in	Arena

Blackrose (Arena)

Map of Black Marsh

"Blackrose holds many secrets. You feel eyes on your back as the city gates shut behind you with a hollow boom. It is said that many enter and few leave this City-State. You do not plan to add yourself to that list..."
— In-game description in Arena

Blackrose is one of the eight major cities in the province of Black Marsh, situated in a lake in the south-central portion of the province. Blackrose is a city surrounded in infamy and contains many secrets. It is said that many have entered its walls but few ever leave it. From antiquity to the modern-day, Blackrose and its environs hosted many different races, from the Lilmothiit that initially built the city and presided over the southern coast, to the Argonians and the Imperials that currently lay claim to it.

Layout and Geography

Blackrose is located on a large lake in south-central Black Marsh, where three rivers converge at once, from the northeast near Murkwood, the south toward the Oliis Bay, and west from presumingly eastern Blackwood. The region once hosted other indigenous races to the province, before their death at the hands of the Knahaten Flu. The most well-known was the Lilmothiit, a nomadic race of vulpine beastfolk that generally lived in the region's southern coast. However more obscurely, the native human tribes, such as the Kothringi and the Yespest are confirmed to have once lived in the Blackrose region. Despite the similar names, the infamous Blackrose Prison is not part of the city area and is instead a day's march south of it in northern Murkmire. Blackrose is neighbored by several settlements, including Longmont to the southwest and Rockspring to the northwest.

Notable Locales

• Blackrose Palace

History

Blackrose's early history has yet to be detailed but many people have lived in the region throughout the years. As stated before, it was the Lilmothiit who discovered the original community and inhabited the land, but the human tribes, the Kothringi and the Yespest have also lived there. Roughly around 1E 1033, the region hosted a kingdom of bandits led by the infamous Red Bramman, a scourge of the Topal Bay and enemy to both the First Empire and Empress Hestra.

The Imperial province of Black Marsh was established after the Blackwater War in 1E 2837, and since then, the Imperials have commandeered the land and built over it. Cities such as Blackrose are built in the Imperial style of architecture but for sometime, ruins of the previous Lilmothiit community remained throughout the Second Empire's reign. Those ruins later served as the foundation for Blackrose Prison, a complex built by Versidue-Shaie's battlemage, Pelladil Direnni in the early Second Era.

In the wake of the Knahaten Flu in 2E 560, Lilmothiit tribes in nearby Murkmire fled inland toward Blackrose but their fate is unclear. Rumors around 2E 582 suggested that Blackrose was in ruins. There was a story involving Pelagius Septim III that when he was visited by an Argonian ambassador from Blackrose, he insisted on speaking in grunts and squeaks as that is how he perceived the Jel language.

In the late Third Era, concurrent to Empress Morihatha Septim's reign, Blackrose rebelled against the Third Empire and built a large army in retaliation. In response, the Empress sent her battlemage, Welloc to defeat them. The magus used vampiric cloud, a highly skilled spell in the School of Destruction to displace the rebels' strength and skill to their opponents. The sage Celarus wrote extensively on the subject. His writing was later sourced by the battlemage, Malviser as an example of Welloc's exemplary knowledge in the school of magic. During the Imperial Simulacrum in the late Third Era, the city-state of Blackrose was an active settlement. It was ruled by King Claudios and had a rivalry with Lilmoth.

Known Rulers

• The Third Era
  • King Claudios (fl. 3E 389 – 3E 399)

Gallery

• 

  Blackrose Herbalist (Legends)

• 

  Blackrose Prison, built from the rubble of Old Blackrose

Notes

• Arena was originally conceived as a fighting game featuring a tournament that took the player to each of Tamriel's cities to challenge different gladiatorial teams. According to a file from that stage of development left behind in the final game, Blackrose's gladiatorial team would have been called "the Warriors".

See Also

• For game-specific information, see the Arena article.

References

Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.