Tamriel Data:The Grand Alliance I

Book Information The Grand Alliance I
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The Grand Alliance I

by Andreil of Falkreath

An account of an alliance between Skyrim's western kings

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Throughout Tamriel, the tumult of the Imperial Simulacrum had an almost uniformly fractious effect on the political institutions of the provinces. In Morrowind, the longstanding stability of the Heartlands District was torn asunder by rival usurpers in Ebonheart and Mournhold, who proceeded to wage war upon each other. In High Rock, the lapse in Imperial authority reignited long-frozen conflicts between Iliac statelets, killing thousands in bloody, destructive vendetta wars. In Valenwood, stabilizing internal alliances collapsed, abandoning the kingdoms of Arenthia and Woodhearth to be savaged by foreign foes. Nearly everywhere in Tamriel, dissolution and disintegration were the political order of the decade.

Western Skyrim, however, proved the exception to the rule. Debate continues in academic circles about what unique circumstances allowed the kingdoms of Solitude (or Haafinheim), Falkreath, and the Reach to escape the far-reaching political rifts that elsewhere divided men and mer. Perhaps Tharnite conspiracy never reached the inner circles of the court of Markarth Side, which proved to be the nucleus of what would become the Grand Alliance. Or perhaps the Lady Hania, distinguished cousin of the true line of the Emperors, steered what forces she could muster towards the advancement of a unified bloc. One way or another, a great deal of diplomatic and military action was collectivized between the three kingdoms into a coalition that would prove one of the most dominant political forces of the Simulacrum.

Modern scholars agree that the seed of the Grand Alliance was planted with the childhood bond between Vorngyd, future King of the Reach, and Eyrfin, the future king of Haafinheim. Sent to foster in the court of Solitude as a youth by his aged mother, the late Queen Hellne, the irrepressible and boisterous Prince Vorngyd quickly struck up an unlikely friendship with the dour Prince Eyrfin. The latter, some four years older, was said to have smiled only rarely while observing the duties of a young nobleman, but often when in the company of his friend, the young prince of Markarth.

The boys grew close as brothers during Vorngyd's seven-year fostership, and by the time King Tolftur of Solitude died in the winter of 3E 381, the new King Eyrfin's love for Vorngyd was enough to ensure that several longstanding trade disputes between Haafinheim and the Reach were settled amicably. In fact, the historian Ulla Once-Warned asserts that Vorngyd himself first introduced Eyrfin to his future wife Hania (the young noblewoman having once visited Elfstone Keep as a child). By the time of Jagar Tharn's treachery in 389, the two kingdoms were in nearly perfect accord.

With the outbreak of chaos from Tharnite conspiracy throughout Skyrim (and Tamriel at large), this amity proved a light in the darkness of those tragic early years. The brutal catastrophes that wracked White Hold and Hrothgar, the collapse of the Winterhold Exchange, and the bitter ferocity of the imposter king Bjis' horrific purges in the Rift are the subject of separate volumes all their own, and combined they threatened to tear asunder the Old Kingdom of Man. Besides the tragic assassination of Queen Hellne in 3E 391, however, Western Skyrim avoided most of the calamities.