Various Tales from The Elder Scrolls (AU)

Draconecropolis (Pt. 1)

This was originally an AI Dungeon adventure (though I had to mollycoddle the AI immensely, so most of it is still written by myself) for more of a crossover between Dark Souls and Elder Scrolls, thus the many inconsistencies and more Soulslike concepts. Gheryn the Spellblade is my OC, and "You" or the second-person protagonist of the story is completely unnamed and frankly I think the AI made a Khajiit, although talking in First Person.
Anyway, I loved this one, enjoy.

∆•∆

You and Gheryn had finally made it to the crest of the cliff, at your feet stretched what at first seemed to be a large ravine, but upon closer inspection, you could see entire structures built into the stone.

"At last, here we are!" he announced, waving a hand out over the chasm, "behold, my esteemed companion-- Draconecropolis!"

The two of you descended the deep slopes of the cliffside until you finally reached the bottom of the ravine. Here you saw several massive structures quite clearly, towers and tombs, magnificently hewn from the surrounding stone. Winding streets ran beneath you with flights and flights of stairs leading to various destinations. Yet, as large and fantastic of a city as it was, nothing moved within, it was lovely, but unsettlingly quiet.

"Well, what do you think?" Gheryn asked, pulling out his journals.

"It's...so silent," you replied quietly, as if too much noise might stir something up.

"I would expect it to be," he laughed, "after all, it is a necropolis! I'm not sure you'd want anything to be out and about here. Have you never seen a City of the Dead before?"

"I've seen a city catacomb," you shrugged, "and a few Halls of the Dead, but this is so...large."

"As it had to be, my companion, as it had to be!" Gheryn squeezed your shoulder excitedly, "Unlike your city catacombs which rest the bodies of people, Draconecropolis was built to rest the remains of the Great Dragons!"

You looked at the mausoleums around you, it must have taken many people hundreds of years to build all this. Gheryn sat himself down on a nearby stair, flipping through his journals. You decided to explore just a bit of the empty city.
You climbed up a flight of broken stairs, perching on the rail of a balcony near the roof to get a better look at the city from a vantage point. Gheryn was now a small blue and red figure far below, and you could see the one thing that rivaled your height by the greatest margin, an enormous temple that captured the golden rays of the sun. You squinted to cut the glare and get a better look.

"Gods above! How did you get up there?" Gheryn's voice echoed from far below, "Don't fall, now! I won't be able to catch you!"

You chuckled, "Don't panic, Gheryn! I'm the ruin best climber there is!"

You leapt from the balcony, hanging weightless from the rail, twisting your body around until you were upside down above Gheryn. He flinched with anxiety watching your stunt.

"You're quite the acrobat," he laughed, nervously, "but please, be careful here! These structures are eras old, I don't know how steady they still are!"

For the sake of your companion's sanity, you flipped yourself back over the edge, landing in a crouch with your feet planted firmly on the stone balcony. You made your way back down to the ground, dusting yourself off and walking back to where Gheryn was.

"What were you doing up there?" he asked, "You scared me half to death!"

"Just exploring," you replied, "exactly what we came here to do, right?"

"...Right."

"I saw a large temple down the street," you said, changing the subject, "we should go there."

"Yes, yes, we should," he agreed.

So, you walked along the winding, empty street, Gheryn trailing behind. The silence of the place was still eerie, you felt it was getting to your companion as well. The place didn't feel lonely, just dead, though the closer you got to the temple, the more you felt like something was watching you.

"Do you feel that?" you asked, "Do you feel like someone is watching us?"

"I do indeed," he replied, "there's quite an unnatural feeling about this place...but it could just be our imaginations, our nerves getting to us."

The two of you walked up the grand steps of the temple, leading to the pair of massive bronze doors at its front, both frozen shut with time. Gheryn drew your attention to a large placard nearby, one with writing you couldn't read on it.

"What does it say?" you asked, eyeing the message.

"Give me a moment..." Gheryn said, flipping through one journal, "Ah-hah! Yes, just as I suspected. This is written in Old Draconic, known to the most ancient of dragons as Dovahzul."

"But, what does it say?" you squinted at the scratch-like letters on the board.

"I'll do my best to translate," Gheryn replied, pausing to read before speaking again, "I would translate it roughly as, 'Here is she who dragonkind call queen and mankind call goddess, the Shining One, Soul-Allegiance-Void, bride of the Black One. By blade of intelligent mortal she has been slain. No trespass can disturb her death sleep'."

"That sounds kind of like a threat, a confusing threat, but a threat," you said, crossing your arms.

"I'd need more time to translate it fluently," he copied down the writing from the placard in his journal.

"Now, if only we could find a way to get inside--" you give the bronze doors your best shove, "these don't open."

Gheryn looked over his shoulder, "Well, if it helps at all, there's no ward spell on them, they may just be stuck with age. Who knows how long they've remained unopened before our arrival?"

"True, those who built this place are most certainly long dead," you replied, giving up on trying to pry the doors open with your sword, you started looking for a window to possibly climb through, "Speaking of which, who is exactly responsible for this place?"

"Dragonslayers were responsible for the burial of the first dragon laid here, Silmirnil--" you heard him gasp, "Ah-hah, yes! Soul, allegiance, void! Sil, mir, nil!" He turned quickly to you, "buried within this temple is Silmirnil, bride of the World-Eater! Why, its interior must be the oldest construction in all of Draconecropolis!"

"All the more reason to find a way inside," you said, getting a foothold in the large stone blocks, "I'll climb in through that window and see if the doors are blocked from the inside."

"A-Alright, but watch your step! And be very careful!" Gheryn called after as you sprung up the wall."

Climbing quickly, you reached the window and pulled yourself up through the opening. What you saw inside was incredible, the place was so monstrous within it looked like a roofed city within a city.