Tamriel Data:Armies of the Usurper

Book Information Armies of the Usurper
Added by	Tamriel Data
ID	T_Bk_ArmiesOfTheUsurperPC
	300		3
Skill	Conjuration

Armies of the Usurper

by Baeralorn

A necromancer's account of the Usurper's invasion of western Colovia.

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After his seizure of the crown of Valenwood in 3E 249, the Camoran Usurper turned his eyes to western Colovia.

While the Usurper had been able to use his position as King of Valenwood to subvert the southern Legions, taking Colovia presented a more serious challenge. The Legion garrisons dotting west Colovia were manned at their full complement, aware of the Usurper's threat, and the Colovian people were more than ready to defend their lands (unlike the Bosmer, who were less than enthusiastic about laying down their lives for the Empire). The King of Anvil in those days, Dorian, was confident that the rebellion across the Strid would be put down with ease long before it could lay waste to his lands.

King Dorian was swiftly proven wrong. The Camoran Usurper's deployment of mass necromancy as an instrument of war made him a unique and unknown type of enemy. Late in the year 250, undead forces razed Old Anvil to the ground, setting fire to its ancient market streets and filling the canals with the dead. Not a year later, Sutch too was conquered, though its galleries of stone proved more resilient to fire. The Usurper trained an elite corps of necromancers to occupy the territory his revenants had seized in Cyrodiil, bequeathing to them vast legions of dead harvested from fallen Legionnaires and civilians alike. King Dorian and his counterpart, King Arvin of Sutch, were made into powerful mummified champions as a mockery of Imperial strength.

Although the Usurper was defeated at Firewaves after a reckless charge across the Iliac Bay, most of his necromancer lieutenants remained in place, scattered across the conquered lands. One necromancer who had made her stronghold at Sutch was slain by the Legions in 268, allowing Imperial forces to reclaim the scourged ruin of Anvil as well. Most of the remaining necromancers were hunted down by the Battlemages and the Blades, and a new Provincial government was devised in Valenwood to prevent a similar rebellion from occurring in the future. However, Usurper's deeds may still be felt across the West.

Anvil and Sutch remain traumatized from their destruction. Although the practice remains legal under Imperial law, necromancy has become deeply stigmatized in Sutch to this day, while the kings and queens of Anvil have elected to keep a necromancer at court in order to fully understand the dangers of the art. Hammerfell has all but banned the practice, condemning scores of talented and well-intentioned mages to the indignity of amateur experimentation. And while the urban centers of the coast have been largely rebuilt, many sites in the interior of the western kingdoms remain in disrepair or partial ruin nearly a century after the end of the conflict. Worse still, remnants of the Usurper's abandoned undead army, now lacking their masters, still roam western Colovia. Ruins and caves in the area are often full of hostile reanimated dead with no mage to command them.

Then there are the Usurper's necromancer elites. While most were killed in the aftermath of the battle at Firewaves, there are some still unaccounted for, and many in the West dread their re-emergence. These fears, however, are likely overstated. The Usurper was not one man -- his army was raised by many talented necromancers who worked together to keep his legions of dead ever expanding. Those few remaining of his inner circle are divided and underground, if they still live at all. Furthermore, thanks to the preparedness of the western realms and the stalwart walls of rebuilt Anvil, there is now little chance of a necromancer's army posing such a threat again.