A story of High Elves

[Franc Kaos]

Hi, not too sure if this is the right forum for posting this, new here, but it's a story I wrote before Oblivion came out, and it might make a good book for ST. A note about the Tzerapod, when I pictured them it was like the Netch things in Morrowind:

The Dream of Tanyaria.

?She lives in our dreams now, our queen who saw beyond the veil.?

Even the heavens, it seemed, were in mourning, dark clouds scudding across the skies, a false night for her funeral rites, tears from the Gods themselves. Her name was? had been, Tanyaria, a young High Elf, well versed in the ways of Mysticism, partner to Frantaire, who now stood in grim silence, rain washing down his cheek.
It was his first funeral, and he was unsure of how to comport himself. Even the Arch Magister, Galerion, was there, holding the ceremony in his musical voice. Frantaire wiped at his eyes. He loved her, and had expected to spend many centuries with her, yet now she was gone.
Tanyaria had been elemental, measured even by High Elven standards, she danced on the periphery of people?s lives like a barely recalled song of childhood or a burst of nostalgic sunlight, barely intruding but enriching all the same.
Frantaire had met her when his parents and those others had been exiled from Alinor. The second time in his young life he?d lost a home. They?d met when he?d been exploring the old ruins of the Ceporah Tower, around which the High Elves had made their new home. Tanyaria had been sitting on the highest floor, looking out to the horizon, a distant look in her eye, a half smile on her lips. He fell in love with her instantly.
She glanced at him then, ?You?re not High Elf born. What are you??
He grinned self consciously, ?Uhm, I?m half Ayleid, a wild elf, my, er, parents found me in the wilderness, and? adopted me.? He shrugged.
She patted the floor beside her, ?Come sit with me awhile, I?m trying to see where I came from.?
He sat, and learned his first valuable lesson about touch? surely she must hear the blood roaring through his veins, feel it pumping through his body, suffusing him with electric warmth? but below that he could still feel the old tug of the wilderness, he pointed in a direction to her right.
?That?s home.?
She looked to where he was pointing, and her chin brushed his arm, closely followed by a growing arousal. Their eyes locked. She smiled, brilliant sunshine filled the room and the rest was beautiful history.

The rain was being kept off her body by an invisible force, held together by the communities will, her ending would be discorporation, base elements flung out to the four corners of Nirn as was befitting one that had died so young, her physical death would bring life into the world.
They had both been on the verge of leaving the Isle of Artaeum, ready to begin new lives as councillors in the kingdom of Sunhold? Far from being exiles now, the Order of the Psijics had become advisors to kings, and Artaeum had become a paradise. It was also rumoured that Vanus Galerion, the head of their order was moving to Firsthold, that Sotha Sil was gone? Though he would miss his home and teachers and friends, a great adventure lay before him, with the girl he loved.

Another memory?

They?d escaped from a meditation class from old Iachesis and had wandered back to their old haunt atop the tower. It was a safe place for all the students had been forbidden access to it. He sat with his back to a wall with Tanyaria laying perpendicular to him, her head resting on his stomach, facing the same way they?d been on that first day so many years ago., enjoying the solitude, the quiet. He must have dozed, for suddenly he stood on the top of the world, all of Tamriel spread out before him. From his vantage point he saw the crystal tower on Summerset Isle, the spires and battlement in Cyrodiil, the belching mouth of Dagoth Ur. From North Point in High Rock down to Lilmoth in Black Marsh he could see everything with pinpoint clarity?
And a dreamy voice said, ?I wonder how those Tzerapods see us, it must be wonderful to wander so high above the world.?
He snapped back to follow her finger high in the sky. A herd of Tzerapods were floating idly past, creatures peculiar only to Summerset Isle, inordinately shy, and poisonous to the taste they were left alone, moving unhurriedly through the gardens of Nirns sky, beautiful and enigmatic.
Tanyaria continued, ?It?s so strange, we know so little about them. I secretly call them ?dreamers? and sometimes I like to pretend I dream what they do. I?ve finally decided? I will make it my life?s work to unravel their secrets, for too long have we ignored each other.?
?Perhaps,? Frantaire said, ?They are not even aware of us??
She inclined her head up to look at him, and her eyes were wistful, ?I also have had this thought, that we High Elves, in our vainglory, believe all things bend to our will. How wonderful it would be, if one part of nature was not even conscious of our existence.?
Frantaire laughed, ?Even for a mystic you ponder far further than any I know, you would give the Arch Magister a run for his gold.? Yet his heart raced as her lips reached up to brush his.
Basking in the heat of his body she leaned in close, ?My dearest Frantaire, I think, because you are an orphan, because you are half Ayleid bonding and High Elf rearing, you too possess the alien qualities of the Dreamers. Sometimes I think it?s why I fell in love with you.?
It was true, growing up he?d had to work twice as hard as the others to reach the same place. His birthright gave him the advantage of slipping unseen away when needed, and he?d been gifted with an unusual skill in the mundane arts of sword and staff play, but the arts of Magika had been hard won. No one had been prouder than himself when Galerion approved his magical training, though his parents had been beaming from ear to ear.

As the rain washed freely down his cheeks, he vowed there and then to dedicate his life to her dream of uncovering the Tzerapods mysteries. He went to see his old teacher Iachesis and asked that his post to Firsthold be postponed and was granted leave to go to the caverns of the dreaming?

* * * *

Some five centuries later he finally realized his goal. The details are unclear but he found a way to merge his consciousness with theirs wherein a symbiotic relationship would occur. On the mortal plain he left only instructions on how this fusing could take place. Only a few thousand followed his path before the knowledge was withdrawn, and of those, two thousand three hundred were accepted. None have spoken about their experiences, but, from then onwards, the Tzerapods began dying out, all except those that had been part of the merging. There are rumours that to this day, if you see one of these creatures, it is an omen of good luck. For whatever else their secrets were, unnatural long life is one of them, and in the skies of Nirn there are twenty three hundred Tzerapods with their? owners, pets, charges, friends? For their does appear to be an intimate relationship between ridee and rider. What have they become? For when separated (apparently they still wander at will amongst us), they move as sleepwalkers, and their talk is dreamlike and nonsensical, until they return to their home in the sky.
A new consciousness, observers of the mer condition, able to see beyond the limits of the mundane world? Only the twenty-three hundred know, and they?re not talking.

EDIT: Oh, and from a Skooma addict:
Skooma is my Demon whom I Love
To Hate
She sits by my side - pleasure-
floating within that soft focused Ocean ?
blissful? beautiful soft silk

Compared to
The hard right angle
(Angel)
of reality

Summers blue warm serenity land of Faery.
Land of Slavery,
the twenty bits buys the illusion for that brief moment;
of shaken sickness without.

Day in day out servitude
Deadened emotion -
That soft sweet rush to
freedom

[raggidman]

:goodjob: Something tells me that even if you are not a Lore Master in your own estimation, you have certainly done your research, and it is a pleasure to read your work.

Any more???? :greedy raggidman: :]

[Razorwing]

Very nice work Franc!

It's true that Morrowind Province-related books can have a broader use in our mod than books focusing on other parts of the world, but anything related to Elder Scrolls is most welcome. A novel such as this just won't be found in every home, but most certainly in the RP Imperial bookshop and perhaps in some High Elf homes in the mod, and the quality of your writing makes me eager to do what I can to make sure the player doesn't easily miss it.

Always the pragmatist, I would like to ask for a descriptive preamble so the player understands the context of the book at a glance. And if I may, could I ask you to supply it as a plugin? I'm not 100% sure on how to format book texts. I mean I know it's based on html but I haven't tested it out extensively yet. Then I'll get right on merging and proliferating it =)

[Franc Kaos]

Thanks. Erm, not to sure how to create books yet. I'll look for a tutorial or some thing then get right to it. Would I just save it as an .ESP or literally as HTML. Sorry, I'm a complete noob when it comes to actual modding.
@ Raggidman - haven't got anything more at the moment, but I'll keep an eye out for suitable subjects. Also, you wanted to discuss the previous story, in a thread or thru pm/email?

Franc Kaos

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by Franc Kaos
Thanks. Erm, not to sure how to create books yet. I'll look for a tutorial or some thing then get right to it. Would I just save it as an .ESP or literally as HTML. Sorry, I'm a complete noob when it comes to actual modding.
@ Raggidman - haven't got anything more at the moment, but I'll keep an eye out for suitable subjects. Also, you wanted to discuss the previous story, in a thread or thru pm/email?

Franc Kaos

If you could add your text to a copy of an in-game book and supply it as an .esp would be perfect, thanks! Oh, and I'd say most of us are still newbies to some degree this early on in Oblivion's lifespan. =)

[Deeza]

Both the book and the poem are now done and fully corrected for grammar and lore.