BM - the Helstrom Nova Disaster

[Deeza]

(This is a bit of retconning on my part to explain away why Helstrom was an imperial city in Arena, but isn't in our mod. I'm grateful to the lore spadework on this issue done by KuKulza years ago).

One of the many disasters inflicted upon our fair Empire by the reign of Jagar Tharn which is often overlooked is his ruination of the Empire's finances. Whilst impersonating the Emperor Uriel Septim VII, Jagar Tharn became involved in a disastrous colonial scheme which shall live in infamy as one of the worst examples of poor planning in history.

Part of Tharn's strategy of dividing the factions of the Imperial Court to turn them against one another involved engineering the ascendency of a particularly disreputable party, the so-called "Buccaneer Barons", a group of outspoken expansionists inspired by the legacy of the legendary colonialist Iulius Rottmere. Entranced by their tales of the great wealth to be found in the depths of Black Marsh, Tharn awarded the ringleaders of the group a generous Imperial Charter to establish a new colony.

Although the Emperor's wiser ministers advised him of the folly of this scheme, Tharn would not be swayed, and gave his full assent to the plan. It involved the establishment of a new Company to collect subscriptions to fund the venture. In deference to the romantic ideals of Lord Hort, undisputed mastermind of the Buccaneer Barons, the colony was to be named New Helstrom, or Helstrom Nova, after the legendary Argonian citadel of the inner Marsh.

Shares in the Helstrom Company soon reached absurd prices, and the total subscriptions reached many millions of septims, drawn from the financial elite of cities as far afield as House Hlaalu, Wayrest and Senchal. Following two expeditions to plot the location of the colony, construction began in earnest, despite the dire warnings given by a local tribe of Argonians about the safety of the planned site.

Dismissing the "primitive superstition" of this advice, Lord Hort pressed ahead with the building of the colony, a model of modern Imperial architecture in the heart of Black Marsh. Roads began to be constructed to link it with Stormhold and Gideon, lined with watch towers as guards against the terrors of the night. Several thousand colonists eagerly arrived, and the logging and mineral prospecting of the surrounding lands considered apace.

Following increasingly frank warnings from the local Shaman, relations with indigenous tribes degenerated into an outright skirmish, and thereafter prospectors could not leave the colony without armed guards, for fear of ambush by tribal warriors in the shadows. To make matters worse, disease began to spread through the colony, forcing Lord Hort to impose quarantines and even burn infected houses.

Investors back in Cyrodiil and High Rock grew nervous, as after months of searching, prospectors failed to find the promised riches in the area of Helstrom Nova. Shares in the company began to wobble, as the Emperor himself vouched for his friends in an effort to prevent panic.

On 15th Last Seed 272, prospectors at last found something of interest. Large jewels of an unknown type were found several miles outside the colony limits. Yet by this stage disease was reaching epidemic levels, and terrified colonists began to flee back home, carrying the plagues with them. Stormhold and Gideon were forced to bar their gates.

Desperate, Lord Hort pressed ahead with establishing a mine. However, to his astonishment, the gems appeared to be free of solid rock, and all that the miners could uncover was an ever deepening pit of mud and slime. Lord Hort forced the worried workers to continue regardless, sculpting out a vast pit in the peaty soil.

Nobody is quite certain of what happened next, as the only reports came from the unreliable testimony of Rupert Jova, previously known as the town drunk. He reported that one day in the following spring, after several weeks of heavy storms, a deep rumble was heard from its direction. Looking down from the guard tower where he had been sleeping off a skinful of hard liquor, he saw to his horror a vast sinkhole appear in the distance, dragging the mining machinery down into the black depths.

He barely had time to run from the tower to warn the colonists as the sinkhole relentlessly widened to swallow it too, a phenomenon which mages to this day are mystified by. Some suspect that the mining efforts managed to penetrate a vast subterranean pocket of gas, which once ruptured collapsed the surface into the hole it had once occupied.

Whatever the truth, over the next three days the entire colony of Helstrom Nova was progressively devoured by the sinkhole, yanked down into the swirling depths of murk and mud. When news of the catastrophe reached Cyrodiil, the Helstrom Company was forced to declare bankruptcy, precipitating a financial crisis which could only be resolved by the intervention of the Imperial Treasury.

To this very day, the remnants of Helstrom Nova lie decomposing in the depths of Black Marsh, a monument to tyranny and poor investment.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Sweet! I enjoyed this. :goodjob:

[Deeza]

So, the plan is, when we get to the region in which "Helstrom" should be located according to the Arena maps, we instead put a deep, mud-filled pit filled with the churned remains of this lost colony. Thus, we stay accurate to lore and also become free to put the Argonian city of Helstrom in whatever location we wish to (probably inside one of the areas of thick jungle suggested by Xaeaix).

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Suits me. :goodjob:

[Deeza]

Thanks. I will be able to complete the Barsaebic and Tribal galleries. I will reserve a section about the Constantinian Order for you to develop.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Galleries?

[Deeza]

The Museum will be divided into several rooms, each of which has a different theme. The "Gallery" is the area above the staircase on the first floor that runs over the entrance hall. I was going devote that area to a display on the history of the Constantinian Order (after all, the founder of the museum was a keen supporter of missionary work).

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Cool! :goodjob: