Lore:Ertus Vandacia

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Councilor Ertus Vandacia
ON-npc-Councilor Vandacia.jpg
Councilor Ertus Vandacia
Race Imperial Gender Male
Born 2nd Era
Died 2E 582
Fort Redmane
Resided in Gideon
Imperial City
Deadlands
Appears in ESO

Ertus Vandacia was a member of the Elder Council and the High Priest of the Order of the Waking Flame during the sixth century of the Second Era. Vandacia rose to prominence when he assisted Durcorach in becoming emperor, which resulted in his appointment to the Elder Council as a reward for his service.[1] As the High Priest of the Order of the Waking Flame, Vandacia was one of the few who knew about the deal Durcorach struck with Mehrunes Dagon, which involved creating the Daedric weapons known as the Four Ambitions.[2][3] During the reign of Durcorach's son Moricar, Vandacia performed the Ritual of Empowerment, which created the Four Ambitions.[4]

Moricar's son and successor Leovic was killed in the Colovian Revolt in 2E 577; however, prior to his death, he moved the Ambitions and did not tell Vandacia where he moved them to prevent them from falling into the hands of the revolt's leader, Varen Aquilarios.[2][5] Following this, Vandacia ordered his Waking Flame cultists to find the Four Ambitions so that he could sacrifice them and initiate the merging of the Deadlands and Nirn.[5][6] In 2E 582, Vandacia managed to sacrifice Destron, one of the Ambitions, which initiated the merging of the Deadlands and Nirn.[6] However, shortly afterward, Vandacia was killed by the Vestige and two of the other Ambitions, Sombren and Calia.[6]

Biography[edit]

Background[edit]

Ertus Vandacia was a member of the distinguished noble family, House Vandacia.[7][8] The family owned extensive estates in Gideon and the borderlands of Black Marsh and had deep roots in the region.[7][8][9] Prior to 2E 534, Vandacia was granted the title of Imperial Governor of Gideon because he was one of the leading nobles of the region.[7]

Vandacia eventually became the High Priest of the Dagonic cult known as the Order of the Waking Flame, which counted many of his fellow nobles among its membership.[5][10][11] The founding date of the cult is unknown, but by circa 2E 520, the Waking Flame had become influential in Gideon, as half of the city's constables were members.[12][13] Vandacia was presumably one of the sympathetic nobles and secret Daedra worshipers within the Empire who helped the Reachman warlord Durcorach strike a deal with Mehrunes Dagon to have him crowned Emperor of Cyrodiil.[14] In return for Mehrunes Dagon's assistance, Durcorach would oversee the rituals and preparations needed to create the Daedric weapons known as the Four Ambitions.[15][16] In 2E 533, Durcorach conquered Cyrodiil and was crowned emperor, and he rewarded Vandacia for his service and assistance by appointing him to the Elder Council on 1 Sun's Dawn, 2E 534.[1][9][14]

Elder Council and Creation of the Four Ambitions[edit]

Vandacia (second from the right) with other members of the Elder Council

During his nearly fifty-year tenure as a member of the Elder Council, Vandacia helped guide the Empire through the reign of the Longhouse Emperors, and his record was considered impeccable.[8][9]

After Durcorach's death, his son, Emperor Moricar, inherited responsibility for the Four Ambitions.[16][17] After Moricar inherited responsibility, the Dremora Xynaa used the Mysterium Xarxes to instruct Vandacia on how to perform the Ritual of Empowerment, which would enable the creation of the Four Ambitions.[16][18] Five of Vandacia's fellow councilors worked on different aspects of the Four Ambitions, but as the High Priest of the Order of the Waking Flame, Vandacia was one of the only individuals who knew the entire truth about them.[2][3][19] During Moricar's reign, Vandacia instructed the Emperor on how to create the Four Ambitions, and members of the Waking Flame conducted the required preparations and rituals.[14][20]

Vandacia performing the Ritual of Empowerment on Calia and Destron

In 2E 561, Moricar, his son Leovic, and the Waking Flame prepared the final rituals and sacrifices to Mehrunes Dagon that would see the creation of the Four Ambitions.[14] In the same year, Vandacia, accompanied by the Emperor, performed the Ritual of Empowerment on the twins Calia and Destron.[4] To complete the ritual, Vandacia sacrificed the parents of Calia and Destron, Ramin and Lestra Brolus, empowering the twins with parts of Mehrunes Dagon's egonymic and making them into Ambitions.[4][20] Around this time, Vandacia empowered the two other Ambitions, Sombren and Mairead.[21]

In 2E 564, Moricar died, and his son Leovic succeeded him as emperor, inheriting responsibility for the Four Ambitions.[17][22][23] In 2E 576, Leovic issued a decree that legalized Daedra worship in the Empire, which triggered a revolt led by Varen Aquilarios, Duke of Chorrol and Count of Kvatch.[14][19] Leovic moved the Ambitions to new locations in response to the revolt's advance toward the Imperial City, but he did not tell Vandacia where he moved them to prevent them from falling into Varen's hands.[2][5][23][24] However, Leovic gave information to his steward, Farrul Lupus, and placed documents in hidden caches so that Vandacia and the Waking Flame could complete the Four Ambitions in the event of his death.[2][5][22] In 2E 577, Varen and his forces stormed the Imperial City and killed Leovic in the Imperial Palace, and Varen immediately declared himself emperor.[14][19]

Vandacia continued to serve on the Elder Council during Varen's reign and Clivia Tharn's regency.[8][25] Vandacia did not attend the Elder Council meeting on 16 Second Seed, near the beginning of the Planemeld.[25] However, he sent a letter to the council saying that he had elected to remain in Gideon, where he believed he could be more effective in helping manage the iron crisis in the Nibenay Basin.[25] Because of the outbreak of the Three Banners War in 2E 580 and the subsequent fall of the Imperial City to Molag Bal's Daedric forces, the Empire collapsed, and the Elder Council dissolved.[8][26][27]

Search for the Four Ambitions[edit]

After the collapse of the Empire and the dissolution of the Elder Council, Vandacia returned to his holdings in Gideon and began serving as an advisor and bureaucrat to the city's governor, Keshu the Black Fin.[8][9] Governor Keshu regarded him as a trusted advisor and appreciated his willingness to share knowledge.[8][28] By 2E 582, Vandacia wielded an unprecedented level of power in the city.[8]

Before his death, Leovic did not transfer responsibility for the Four Ambitions to an heir, thereby activating the codicils described in the Mysterium Xarxes, which stipulated that whoever sacrificed the Four Ambitions could claim the reward previously promised to the Longhouse Emperors.[16] Sacrificing the Ambitions would enable Mehrunes Dagon to conquer and merge Nirn with the Deadlands, and Dagon would reward whoever sacrificed them by allowing them to rule Tamriel, which was the reward formerly promised to the Longhouse Emperors.[17][29][30] Therefore, after Leovic's death, Vandacia and the Waking Flame began searching for the Four Ambitions, and in 2E 582, the high priest ordered his cultists to accelerate their efforts to locate them.[5][31][32] To locate and preserve the secret of the Four Ambitions, he ordered his Waking Flame cultists to kill anybody with knowledge of them—that being Leovic's former steward, Farrul Lupus, and councilors Abor, Faleria, Itinia, Jirich, and Velan Sophus—and then retrieve their documents regarding the Ambitions.[5] The high priest also ordered the cultists to find Leovic's hidden caches.[5][33][34] Finally, Vandacia dispatched his personal guard, a group known as the True-Sworn, to Durcorach's abandoned estate on the Gold Coast, Black Drake Villa, with orders to retrieve the Mysterium Xarxes and destroy any documents regarding the Four Ambitions.[35][36]

The True-Sworn burned much of Black Drake Villa, but before they could recover the Mysterium Xarxes, they were defeated by the Vestige and Eveli Sharp-Arrow; Eveli then retrieved the book.[37] The Waking Flame killed Lupus, Abor, Jirich, and Sophus; however, they were unable to kill Faleria and Itinia.[34][38][39] Vandacia ordered the cultists to frame the Dark Brotherhood for the murders to deflect suspicion from the Order of the Waking Flame for as long as possible.[5][40] Vandacia also staged an attack on himself by having his personal guard capture the Dark Brotherhood assassin Elam Drals.[5][9] After capturing Drals, Vandacia and his guards took him to Governor Keshu and the Black Fin Legion at the Gideon Courthouse, where they imprisoned the assassin.[9][28] He then spoke with Keshu and claimed that Drals had attacked him in Gideon's streets.[9]

During the conversation with Keshu, the Vestige arrived at the courthouse and informed Vandacia that Tarnian Lovidicus, the former chief councilor of the Elder Council, wanted him to go to Castle Leyawiin because of the assassinations of their former Elder Council colleagues and the potential threat to his life.[38] However, before Vandacia would agree to go to Leyawiin, he asked the Vestige to question Drals, but when they went to question the assassin, he had escaped.[38] While searching for Drals, the Vestige discovered a note stating that the Brotherhood was attempting to reopen a sanctuary in Bloodrun Cave.[38] They then brought the note to Vandacia, who agreed to go to Leyawiin.[38]

Vandacia strangling Lovidicus with magic

At Castle Leyawiin, Vandacia insisted to Lovidicus that the Brotherhood was responsible for the assassinations and needed to be driven from Blackwood.[9] Lovidicus eventually agreed to send the Vestige and Eveli Sharp-Arrow to Bloodrun Cave to deal with the Brotherhood.[41] After the Vestige and Eveli departed, the high priest commanded the Waking Flame members at the Ayleid ruin of Welke to follow them to Bloodrun Cave, kill them and the Brotherhood assassins, recover the cache Leovic hid in the cave, and retrieve the Mysterium Xarxes from Eveli.[40] The cultists attacked the Brotherhood sanctuary, where they recovered Leovic's cache, which provided them with the information they needed to locate the first Ambition; however, they failed to kill the Vestige, Eveli, and all of the assassins.[41][39][42] Afterward, the Waking Flame attacked Castle Leyawiin, and in the chaos, Vandacia took the other elder councilors' encoded documents related to the Four Ambitions from the scribe Beragon, who was in the process of decoding them.[39][41][26][43] Vandacia then killed Faleria and attempted to strangle Lovidicus with magic in the castle courtyard, but when the Vestige and Eveli arrived, the high priest summoned the Disciple of Aspiration and teleported away.[41]

Attempts to secure the Four Ambitions[edit]

Now that Vandacia and the Waking Flame knew the locations of the Four Ambitions, cultists were sent to Doomvault Capraxus, which housed two of the Ambitions, Calia and Destron.[44] The Vestige, Eveli, and Lyranth the Foolkiller reached Calia and Destron in Doomvault Capraxus before the Waking Flame, and they, along with the twins, killed the cultists.[44] Following this, Eveli took Calia and Destron to the Temple of Dibella in Gideon to protect them from the Waking Flame.[44] However, the Waking Flame did manage to capture the Ambition, Sombren, when they ambushed him after he returned to his vault.[18]

Vandacia preparing to sacrifice Sombren

After Sombren's capture, Vandacia took him to his keep in the Deadlands, which Mehrunes Dagon had awarded him.[45] The high priest then invited noble Waking Flame members to his Deadlands Keep to witness him sacrifice Sombren to the Lord of Fire and Flood.[18][45][46][47] Once the invitees arrived at his keep, Vandacia called them into the keep's audience hall for the sacrificial ceremony.[45] However, while Vandacia was performing the sacrificial ritual, the Vestige and Eveli, who had infiltrated the event, released a foul odor, forcing the high priest and the nobles to flee the room.[45] They then freed Sombren and took him to the Temple of Dibella in Gideon to protect him.[45]

Eventually, Vandacia's spies and political allies informed him that the Ambitions were located in Gideon.[28] As a result, Vandacia began assembling his cultists in preparation for an attack on Gideon, with the aim of capturing the Ambitions.[28] The high priest assembled a large force for the assault, including guards from Gideon's garrison who were secretly loyal to him.[28]

Battle at Fort Redmane and Death[edit]

Vandacia at Fort Redmane

Because of Governor Keshu's concerns about treachery in Gideon and the poor condition of the city walls, the Ambitions relocated to Fort Redmane, which would be easier to defend against Vandacia's forces.[6][28] This did not deter the Waking Flame, who used portals to launch an assault on the fort.[6] Vandacia found the Ambitions in the fort's Inner Bailey, where he sacrificed Destron, initiating the merging of the Deadlands and Nirn and allowing Mehrunes Dagon to participate in the assault.[6] Following this, the Vestige, Sombren, and Calia confronted Vandacia in the fort's Inner Courtyard, where they fought and killed the high priest, stopping the merger of the Deadlands and Nirn.[6]

Legacy[edit]

The significance of Vandacia allowed him to be documented within the Infinite Archive in Apocrypha. There, copies of various entities were subsequently created as maligraphies, creatures composed of vivified ink manifested by stories from books, and served as mindless extensions of the Daedric Lord Tho'at Replicanum. A maligraphy copy of Vandacia was formed, which was destroyed by an adventurer or two who were aided by augmentations directly from Hermaeus Mora.[48][49][50]

Gallery[edit]

  • Vandacia as seen in the vision at the Obelisk of Origin

  • Emperor Vandacia as seen in the vision at the Obelisk of Inevitability

  • Vandacia's Deadlands Keep

See Also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Imperial Decree Regarding the Elder Council
  2. ^ a b c d e The Journal of Emperor Leovic — Emperor Leovic
  3. ^ a b Councilor Abor's Journal — Councilor Abor
  4. ^ a b c Events of Weapons of Destruction in ESO: Blackwood
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Preserve the Secret — High Priest Vandacia
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Events of Pyre of Ambition in ESO: Blackwood
  7. ^ a b c Traveler's Guide to Gideon — Astinia Isauricus; Published 22 Frost Fall, 2E 570
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Meet the Character(s) - The Elder Council — Adandora, Chronicler-at-Large
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Ertus Vandacia's dialogue in ESO: Blackwood
  10. ^ The Order of the Waking Flame — Peregrina Pompitalus
  11. ^ Dagonists Through the Ages — Larina Hanus, scholar on Daedric cults
  12. ^ Faric Gemain's dialogue in ESO: Blackwood
  13. ^ Cerise's Farewell Note — Cerise Gemain
  14. ^ a b c d e f Secret History of the Longhouse Emperors — Councilor Vandacia
  15. ^ A Deal is Struck
  16. ^ a b c d Xynaa's Book of Contracts — Xynaa
  17. ^ a b c Secrets of Moricar the Inheritor — Devastator Irenian Dast
  18. ^ a b c Sombren's dialogue in ESO: Blackwood
  19. ^ a b c Tarnian Lovidicus' dialogue in ESO: Blackwood
  20. ^ a b Emperor Moricar's dialogue in ESO: The Deadlands
  21. ^ Xynaa's dialogue in ESO: Blackwood
  22. ^ a b Deciphered Imperial Document — Emperor Leovic, deciphered by Beragon
  23. ^ a b Emperor Leovic's dialogue in ESO: The Deadlands
  24. ^ Councilor Jirich's Records — Emperor Leovic
  25. ^ a b c Minutes of the Elder Council
  26. ^ a b Captain Rian Liore's dialogue in ESO: Blackwood
  27. ^ Councilor Itinia's dialogue in ESO: Imperial City
  28. ^ a b c d e f Keshu the Black Fin's dialogue in ESO: Blackwood
  29. ^ Emperor Vandacia's dialogue in ESO: Blackwood
  30. ^ Lyranth's dialogue in ESO: The Deadlands
  31. ^ Lyranth's dialogue in ESO: Blackwood
  32. ^ Doombringer Eshil's dialogue in ESO
  33. ^ Events of A Mortal's Touch in ESO
  34. ^ a b Events of The Emperor's Secret in ESO
  35. ^ Pyroturge Encratis' dialogue in ESO: Flames of Ambition
  36. ^ Crafting Motif 100: True-Sworn Style — Cassia Hiriel, Outfitter and Artisan
  37. ^ Events of Burning Secrets in ESO: Flames of Ambition
  38. ^ a b c d e Events of A Deadly Secret in ESO: Blackwood
  39. ^ a b c Disastrix Zansora's Journal — Disastrix Zansora
  40. ^ a b High Priest's Orders — Councilor Vandacia
  41. ^ a b c d Events of An Unexpected Adversary in ESO: Blackwood
  42. ^ Conversation between Disastrix Zansora and Acolyte Sondas in ESO: Blackwood
  43. ^ Beragon's dialogue in ESO: Blackwood
  44. ^ a b c Events of A Hidden Vault in ESO: Blackwood
  45. ^ a b c d e Events of A Mysterious Event in ESO: Blackwood
  46. ^ Letter to Matus Amnis — Moris Olcinius
  47. ^ Invitation Cover Letter
  48. ^ Loremaster's Archive - Infinite Archive — Master Malkhest
  49. ^ Master Malkhest's dialogue in ESO: Necrom
  50. ^ Councilor Vandacia boss in Infinite Archive in ESO
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