Redguards, History and HeroDestri MerlargôÒ) 6Ù™ [ñ }%œ*ùýRedguardsýTheir History andýTheir Heroù Notes on the Redguards, their history and their heroes. This is a publishers proof of the initial draft of my book, "REDGUARDS, THEIR HISTORY AND THEIR HEROES". The following is a collection of the tales, myths andhistory of the Redguards. Much of their history is shrouded inmystery and in the mists of time. It is hard to distinguishbetween myths, and real history. Below are the first chapters of the draft by Destri Melarg Author's note as translated into the Modern Tongue oföHammerfell: Frandar Hunding was born in 2356 in the old wayof reckoning, in our beloved deserts of the old land. Thetraditional rule of emperors had been overthrown in 2012,and although each successive emperor remained the figureheadof the empire, his powers were very much reduced. Since thattime, our people saw 300 years of almost continuous civil warbetween the provincial lords, warrior monks and brigands,all fighting each other for land and power. Our people once were artisans, poets, and scholars, but the ever evolvingstrife made the way the sword inevitable - the song of theblade through the air, through flesh and bone, its ringagainst armor: an answer to our prayers. In the time of Lord Frandar the first Warrior Prince, lordscalled Yokeda built huge stone castles to protect themselvesand their lands, and castle towns outside the walls begin togrow up. In 2245, however, Mansel Sesnit came to the fore. Hebecame the Elden Yokeda, or military dictator, and for eightyears succeeded in gaining control of almost the wholeempire. When Sesnit was assassinated in 2253,a commoner tookover the government. Randic Torn continued the work oföunifying the Empire which Sesnit had begun, ruthlesslyputting down any traces of insurrection. He revived the oldgulf between the warriors - the sword singers - and thecommoners by introducing restrictions on the wearing ofswords. "Torn's Sword-hunt", as it was known, meant thatonly the singers were allowed to wear swords, whichdistinguished them from the rest of the population. Although Torn did much to settle the empire into itspre-strife ways, by the time of his death in 2373 internaldisturbances still had not been completely eliminated.Upon his death, civil war broke out in earnest; war that madethe prior 300 year turmoil pale in comparison. It was in this period that Frandar Hunding grew up. Hunding belonged to the sword-singers. This element of empiresociety grew from the desert artisans and was initiallyrecruited from the young sons and daughters of the highfamilies. They built the first temple to the unknown gods ofWar and build a training hall "The Hall of the Virtues ofWar". Within a few generations the way of the sword - the songof the blade - had become their life. The people of the bladekept their poetry and artisanship in building beautifulswords woven with magic and powers from the unknown gods. Thegreatest among them became known as Ansei or "Saints of theSword". Each of these began their own training schoolsteaching their individual way of the sword. Those Ansei of thehighest virtue wandered the country side engaging in battle, righting wrongs, and seeking to end the strife. To sum it up. Hunding, was a sword-singer, a master, no, aMaster Ansei at a time when the peak of the strife was rebornout of the chaos of Torn's death. Many singers put up theirswords and became artists, for the pull of the artisanheritage was strong; but others, like Hunding pursued theideal of the warrior searching for enlightenment through the perilous paths of the Sword. Duels of revenge and tests ofskill were common place, and fencing schools multiplied. Frandar do Hunding Hel Ansei No Shira, or as he is commonlyknown Frandar Hunding, was born in the far desert marches inthe province of High Desert. Hunding is the name of the HighDesert region near where he was born. No Shira means nobleperson or person of noble birth and Hel Ansei is his title ofSword Sainthood. Hunding's ancestors reach back to the beginning of recordedötime in the high desert and were artisans and mystics, hisgrandfather was a retainer of the Elden Yokeda, ManselSesnit, and led many of the battles of unification prior toSesnit's assassination. When he was 14, Hunding's father died in the one of the many insurrections, and he was left to support his mother and fourbrothers. His prowess with the sword however, made his lifeboth difficult and easy. Easy in that his services came ingreat demand as a guardian and escort. Hard in that hisreputation preceded him, and many awaited their turn to facehim in battle and gain instant fame through his defeat. By the time Hunding was 30 he had fought and won more than 90duels killing all his opponents. He became virtuallyinvincible with the sword, gaining such skill and mastery thathe finally stopped using the real swords created through theartisanship of his people and began using the Shehai or "wayof the spirit sword". All sword singers learn through their intense training anddevotion to the gods of war and way of the sword, the formsof discipline that allow the creation of the spirit sword. This is a simple form of magic or mind mastery where by aöimage of a sword is formed from pure thought. The swordsinger forms the sword by concentrating, and it takes shape inhis hand - usually a pale thing of light, misty andinsubstantial, a thing of beauty perhaps, a symbol ofdevotion to the Way and the gods, but no weapon. However,those Ansei of the highest level and sensitivity and those withtalent in magic, can at times of stress, form a spiritsword, the Shehai which is far more than light and air - it is anunstoppable weapon of great might, a weapon which can neverbe taken from the owner without also taking his mind. The Shehai became Hunding's weapon, and with this he slew bandsof brigands and wandering monsters than infested the land.Finally upon finishing his 90th duel, defeating the evil LordJanic and his seven liche followers, he was satisfied that hewas indeed invincible. Hunding then turned to formulatinghis philosophy of"the Way of the Sword". He wrote hisLearnings down in the BOOK OF CIRCLESwhile living as a hermit in a cave in the mountains of high desert in his sixtiethyear. In that year Hunding having enlisted in the many battles ofthe empire, defeating all opponents, had thought himselfready for death and retired to his cave to capture hisöstrategy and mystical visions to share with other SwordSingers. It was after his completion of the scroll of the Circle that the Singers found him composing his death poem and preparing to join the gods of war in final rest. At sixty he was a vigorous man, who thought himself throughwith life, but his people,the sword-singers needed him. Theyneeded him as never before. Torn's Sword Hunt, had separatedthe Singers from the common people, and the rise of the LastEmperor began the last great strife of the desert empire.This strife was Emperor Hira and his consort Elisa's finaleffort to wrest control of the empire from the people by destroying the sword-singers. Hira vowed to search out everySinger and with his Brigand army composed of Orcs andcastoffs of the wars of the empire, scourge them from the faceof the earth. The Sword Singers were never a numerous people. The harshdesert kept the births few, and growing up in the unforgivingwastes eliminated all but those of iron spirit and will.Thus the final strife which became knows as the "War of theSingers" found the people of the sword unprepared andunready to join together their individually great skills into an army that could defend their home and lives. Frandar Hunding was sought out, his death poem interrupted,öand unceremoniously command of the singers was thrust uponhim. To the unknown gods of war great thanks is owed thatHunding had had the time in his cave to write down his years ofaccumulated wisdom, of strategy, of the way of the Shehai.The singers fled from their camps up into the desert hillsand mountains. Fled to the foot of Hattu "the father ofMountains" where Hunding had gone to write in peace and todie, and there these remnants formed into the Army of theCircle - they learned Hunding's Way, his strategies his tactics,and the final great vision for a master stroke. Hunding devised a plan of seven battles leading the Armies ofHira further and further into the wilderness to the foot ofHattu, where the final battle could be fought. Hundingcalled his plan the "Hammer and the Anvil". With each battleHunding's Singers would further learn his strategies andtactics, grow strong in the use of the Shehai, and be ready to defeat their opponents in the seventh battle. And thus itwas, the six first battles were waged, each neither victoryor defeat, each leading to the next. The larger armies of Hira following the small army of Hunding. Outnumbered thirtyto one, the singers never falteredfrom the Way. The stage wasset, Hira and his Army maneuvered to the base of HattuMountain, where the hammer blow was delivered. The battle öwas pitched, and many singers fell that day. Hunding knew,that the singers who livedwould be few, but Hira and hisempire of evil would not live to ravage the empire and so itwent. At the end Hunding and less that twenty thousand Singerssurvived the day, but no army of evil was left to pillageand murder, more than three hundred thousand fell that dayan Hattu. Of those who were left to run and live,all werescattered to the four winds, and organized force no more. The singers packed their lives, folded their tents, mournedtheir dead, and followed Hunding to the great port city orArch, in the province of Seawind. There Hunding had aflotilla of ships waiting. The Singers left their desert for anew land. No longer welcome in the desert empire, they to besung about and spoken of in legend. The final great warrior,the singers of Shehai, the Book of Circles, all leaving thatland where their virtue was unappreciated. Red, red withblood they were in the eyes of the gentle citizenry, never mind that they had saved them from a great evil. The singers vowed to learn new ways as they traveled acrossthe great ocean to their new land. To adopt a new name, but to honor the past. In honor of their final battle, theynamed their new land Hammerfell and adopted the nameöRedguards. In honor to Hunding the great warrior prince,each household in Hammerfell has a place by the hearth an alcove really, just a niche, big enough to hold thescroll -The Book Circles. ö