Lore:Sack of Skywatch

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Skywatch
A Sload

The Sack of Skywatch was an infamous attack on the Summerset city of Skywatch by the Sload of Thras in 1E 1301.[Note 1] The battle was considered one of the most terrible events in Tamriel's history, but it is unclear what their goal was, with the Imperial Geographic Society's assumption being to reclaim the province as their homeland. It is remembered today for being an example of the Sload's horrible practices and methods of attacking the Summerset Isles.[1]

When exactly the Sack of Skywatch took place is unknown. But the Sload have terrorized the Altmer and invaded the Summerset Isles, particularly Skywatch, for millennia.[2] What made this particular attack infamous is also unspecified. However, some of Skywatch's important buildings were lost to the attack. The Errinorne Academy on Errinorne Isle east of the city was lost in the siege and was never rebuilt for many years, largely because of its indefensible position on the Blue Divide.[3]

Hightide Keep, the ruins on the coast under Skywatch, was once an impressive stronghold from the Ancients' time, but fell to the sea during the Sload's attack. Skywatch put up an incredible defense because of the keep, building and expanding magical constructs that destroyed dozens of Sload warships. The moment that shifted the tides was when a Sload warcaster sacrificed himself by ingesting volatile alchemical reagents and cast himself down, exploding the cliff face and plunging the keep into the sea. With its destruction, Skywatch fell to the Sloads.[4]

The Sload held onto Skywatch for many years until the Altmer defiantly reclaimed it, sometime after the Thrassian Plague laid waste across Tamriel[5][6] in the twenty-third century of the First Era.[7] But even so, the Sload continued to hold onto Errinorne Isle for a few more years until they were driven out by remnants of the All Flags Navy that survived the Thrassian War.[8] In honor of their defiance over the Sload and retaking of Skywatch, the local Altmer celebrate the yearly holiday called the Festival of Defiance.[5][6] The first one was held in 1E 2260,[9] the same year the All Flags Navy launched their final assault on Thras.[7]

Gallery[edit]

  • Errinorne Isle

  • Hightide Keep

Notes[edit]

  • ^ Different sources conflate the Sack of Skywatch in 1E 1301 with events surrounding the Thrassian Plague around 1E 2200. The Veiled Keep's loading screen in ESO states that the settlement there was originally lost in 1E 1301 during the sack. However, Auridon Explored, Chapter III states that remnants of the All Flags Navy defeated them, which corroborates with Captain Tendil's description of the Sload's attack. His dialogue also explains that the city's fall was after the Thrassian Plague was released, placing it several hundred years later and suggesting two different Sacks of Skywatch, though nothing confirms this to be the case.

See Also[edit]

Books[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Pocket Guide to the Empire, 3rd Edition: The Blessed Isle: Alinor and the Summersets — Imperial Geographical Society, 3E 432
  2. ^ Pocket Guide to the Empire, 3rd Edition: Other Lands — Imperial Geographical Society, 3E 432
  3. ^ The Veiled Keep loading screen text in ESO
  4. ^ Auridon Explored, Chapter VII — Fenlil the Wayfarer
  5. ^ a b Captain Tendil's dialogue in ESO
  6. ^ a b Guide Culast's dialogue in ESO
  7. ^ a b Systres History: Volume 3 — Trilam Heladren, Associate Dean of Eltheric History, University of Gwylim
  8. ^ Auridon Explored, Chapter III — Fenlil the Wayfarer
  9. ^ Festival of Defiance Token antiquity codex entries in ESO: Greymoor
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