The Second Great War - An Elder Scrolls Fanfiction

Chapter 4: Hammerfell

With Golden sails they came, crossing the Abecean Sea with haste and bated breaths.

They sought to avenge their loss against the Redguards of Hammerfell after the First Great War: The Dominion's Golden Fleet; each ship so alike a great and oh-so-terrible ocean fairing dragon.

In the dragon's view - the harsh sharp stones and golden sands of southern Hammerfell. Before the dragon; Hammerfell's fleet - bolstered by numerous pirates from Stros M'kai and the Chain islands, paid for by the Crowns and Forebears, Hammerfell's ruling class, who had formed a unity government to face this threat.

The Redguards were ready, the readiest of them all - until they weren't. The pirates fled at the Fleet's approach upon the horizon, and whatever Hammerfell had left was half-manned. The Dominion's agents within the Province had done their work and the Fleet did theirs when they utterly shattered the Redguard ships to deck and board. But the battle was not done.

Behind their fortifications and defences, Redguard swordsmen clustered the beaches of their homeland. All awaited a fair fight that would never come. Instead, the Fleet chose to barrage the defenders with arrows and Magicka from the safety of their ships.

But the Redguards stood strong and the Dominion began to grow impatient, so much so that they rammed several of their ships ashore and out their husks poured untold numbers of Dominion soldiers and their Argonian allies. The land battle began.

The Redguards were steadfast enough to make their Nord neighbours proud; they were far more flexible in their lines, but it worked to their benefit when no other walls were around. Swordsmen atop camels strafed their foe.

The Dominion forces waned, some being pushed back to drown in the sea. But their defeat would be in delay when more of the Fleet tore ashore and out of them burst more trouble for the defenders.

The tide began to turn.

An old man was meditating on a dune overlooking the battle. All until he opened his eyes and came down and slaughtered a dozen Dominion soldiers by just placing a finger on the hilt of his scimitar. He was close enough to being a Sword-singer.

The old man raised his hand and the sand whirled around him, which warded off any strike and spell that sought him. "Leave this land." He told the swordsmen. "There is to be no victory here. Not now. Not yet." The Redguards heeded his words and withdrew from their fortifications.

The old man was left alone. Quickly, he captained one of the Fleet's ships and used it to ram another. Both ships sank below the waves but not before the old man swept over to another and massacred its entire crew. Food for the fishes.

The old man then sank his scimitar through his own heart before the Fleet let loose everything they had on him. His ship sank with him aboard, swept away by the water like a bad dream.

The Fleet docked ashore and set up their camps all about southern Hammerfell. The night drifted in - it was pleasantly chilly.

At one of these camps; Lord Larthius, a Thalmor agent, met with one of his contacts: A young and idealistic Redguard man by the name of Ataf - he led the Sandsnakes, a faction within Hammerfell that, for years, sought the overthrow of the Crowns and Forebears - a prime target of association for the Dominion - who promised to give the Sandsnakes everything they asked for.

Before disappearing into the shroud of night, Ataf explained that he and his men had caused the havoc within Hammerfell at the appointed time, which allowed the Fleet to proceed as they had. Crown and Forebear leaders were assassinated and the defences beyond the beaches of Hammerfell were mangled by confusion sown by the Sandsnakes.

Only two cities still stood in Redguard control: Sentinel, near the Iliac Bay, and Dragonstar, on Skyrim's southwestern border. Larthius began his planning.

Morning came. Larthius ordered the bulk of his army to Dragonstar while reserving the best of them for himself - he intended to take Sentinel - where Ataf and a number of his trouble-makers were waiting for him.

Upon approaching the city, Larthius found it deathly silent. No guardsmen were patrolling the walls nor were there any to stop the elf when he pushed the city's gates right open. None were about. All that could be seen were shifting shadows behind the distant curtains of houses.

Only one was eventually seen; a young Redguard woman meditating before the steps of Sentinel's Samuruik, the palace of Sentinel.

"I only have a single question, young lady," Larthius said, "Why would one keep the gates of their city unlocked when fiends such as I am on the prowl?"

The elf would get his answer when the Redguard woman bolted straight at him, smiting much of his guard and Ataf's in a single stroke.

The man and elf responded by bashing the woman back and driving her up the Samuruik's stairs. The woman sent down all manner of scimitar swings, knees, and kicks - all those with Ataf and Larthius were soon sent colliding down the stone steps - this eventually included Ataf himself.

Larthius swung around the woman only for her to kick him straight through the Samuruik's doors. He tried a Ward on to protect himself but it shattered like glass when the woman's scimitar sunk itself straight into his chest.

The woman readied to finish Larthius off until a hunk of metal tore her chest open from behind. She collapsed to reveal Ataf behind her - sword drawn. The Sandsnake could not help Larthius when he stumbled back in exhaustion and fell dead down the steps behind him. What a waste.

"Such a ... bother," Larthius huffed to himself, finding his feet and taking his final breaths on the Samuruik's throne. He only wished he had learned more about Restoration Magicka.

Dragonstar fell when Larthius did, and with it was Hammerfell at large. The sore loss the Dominion suffered against Hammerfell in days passed had now been rectified - and the homeland of the Redguards had been taken from them as they had taken it from the ancient Nedes in days now so long past.

But many would far prefer the rulership of these swordsmen than the schemes slithered from golden tongues.

The promise the Dominion had given the Sandsnakes was broken - for there is only space for one on a throne. The Sandsnakes were hunted by Thalmor agents until they were all exterminated.

Now all eyes turned east. To a land of ash and fire. To a land of dark elves.