Elder Scrolls: Empire of Blood

intro(we who are seen as gods)

The streets of the Imperial City were teeming with life as its citizens went on about their daily lives with the merchants advertising their wares to the wealthy and the beggars begging for coin.

The city had been through much over the centuries and there were signs of its age in the little cracks in the walls and the streets.

Statues and frescoes of the long-gone Septiem dynasty still adorned the buildings and the ancient walkways of the city echoing a bygone era.

In the temple district where many of the elder council and other leading citizens lived the Council buildings, pristine marble walls, and gold-leafed columns glistened in the sunlight.

It is here in the halls of power where our story truly begins.

Councilor Julian Messalla sat in the council chambers amidst his fellow council members listening to the new demands of the Emperor.

"And from this day forward his lordship will be called Emperor and Savior of the Empire," said the messenger earning whispers and grumbling from the council.

"The man will have us declare him a living god next," said Councilor Adonis one of the altmer members of the council outraged at the Emperor's demands.

Julian had to admit that his old friend's demands were becoming more and more outrageous by the day.

First, it was renaming the bridge to the entrance to the city as the Augustian Way, then he wanted a statue of himself erected in every city across the Empire.

"He may indeed only time will tell as for now we must go along with it for we are all but powerless and he has the support of both the legions and the populace," Julian replied to his elven friend "but we must remember that all things change."

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Across the city in the bed-chamber of Claudia Glaber, the sister of the Count of Bravil the owner of the room lay in the arms of the Emperor in the aftermath of their lovemaking.

Claudia let out a sad sigh for she knew that her love for the Emperor was wrong on so many levels but she truly loved Basilius and she couldn't bear to let him go, so she bore her pain in silence as always.

"What has brought such a pained expression to a beautiful face such as yours?" The Emperor asked his lover taking her hand in his own and giving it a soft kiss.

Claudia both loved and hated the power he had over her even through the smallest of gestures such as a kiss on the hand making her weak and unable to see reason.

Finally, she was able to regain her senses and she pulled herself from his grasp.

Rising from the bed she began to quickly dress knowing that her husband would be returning soon dreading the great scandal that would follow if he were to catch them both together.

"You must hurry and leave my husband will return shortly," she pleaded with him grabbing his clothes from the floor and handing them to him.

Basilius laughed at the thought of the look on the old fat nobles' face catching the Emperor of the Empire naked in his bed gorging himself on both his wife and his finest wines.

"I shall be but a second," he assured her with one of the charming smiles that had gotten him into many of women's bedchambers over the years.

Claudia felt a wave of guilt hit her again as she stopped to admire both his chiseled body and well-endowed manhood.

She was so enraptured with him that she had failed to notice he was now staring at her with a mischievous smirk.

"See something that you like hmm?" He asked her earning a red blush from her alabaster cheeks.

Claudia hated how he could reduce her back to a blushing girl who acted as if she had never seen a man before in her life.

"You are truly cruel," she told him as she threw his cloak at him before taking a seat to brush her auburn locks.

Basilius laughed at her childishness and then wrapped his arms around her from behind as he placed a kiss on her cheek.

"Forgive me, my love, I am deeply sorry," he told her as he rests his chin upon her head and gazed longingly at her beautiful reflection in the mirror.

Claudia's anger was lost the moment she saw the loving way he stared at her and she turned to him and captured his lips with her own.

"It is I who must ask for forgiveness, from you, the gods, and my husband for I am truly a wicked woman," she replied hanging her head in shame.

The Emperor was saddened by her words and placed his hand gently under her chin and made her look up at him.

"My love you are all that is good in the world if the gods are angry then let all the curses of heaven fall upon me and let you be spared," he told her with a sad smile as he looked her in the eyes.

Overwhelmed by his words Claudia kissed him again and then pulled him into her arms where the two of them lingered until it was time for him to go.

Giving her one last kiss Basilius then snuck out of the rear window of the villa where two of his most trusted guards were waiting.

The three men then mounted their horses and rode away from the house of Hadrian Flavius and towards the White-Gold Tower.

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Lavinia of Evermore had endured much in her lifetime the death of her father, multiple miscarriages, being shipped off to marry a man she had only met once when he came to ask for her hand to secure an alliance with her father.

But the thought of losing her only daughter to the clutches of some far away barbarian prince made both her heartbreak and her blood boil.

"Go back and tell the Emperor that he will not be sending our daughter into the war-torn lands of Hammerfell and that the subject is not up for debate," she told the imperial messenger who was shocked at the Empress's defiance of her husband.

"My lady the Emperor has d-" the man began only to be cut off by the Empress who now bore the look of an angry lioness eyeing him like a threat to her young.

"I have spoken and I will hear no more on the matter now go before I have my mother's men send your head to the Emperor and your cock to your whore!" She shouted making the messenger and the other minions of her husband and the court scatter like frightened birds.

Left alone the Empress took her arms and cleared the table before crumbling to the floor in tears and sorrow.

She knew she couldn't fight her husband on the matter If the Emperor wanted something he got it no matter the damage and pain it cost others.

A knock at the door pulled her from her thoughts and her weeping.

"Mother is everything alright?" Came the sweet little voice of her youngest son Alistair.

Clearing her throat and wiping away all traces of the tears she had shed the Empress smiled at her son and opened her arms for him to enter.

"Everything is fine my little one, everything is fine," she said as she rocked him back in forth in her embrace in truth she didn't know who she was truly reassuring her son or herself?

She decided to write her mother and ask her for advice on the matter that now plagued her and her family.

Lavinia sent Alistair off to his room while she went to her own chambers to recompose herself and fix both her hair and makeup.

If there was one thing her mother had taught her in her youth was to never let your opponents see you cry and so later that evening as she dined with her children and members of the court she laughed and smiled as if nothing had ever happened like the great actress she was.