Frandar Hunding was born in 2356 in the old way of reckoning in our beloved deserts of the old land. The traditional rule of emperors had been overthrown in 2012, and although each successive emperor remained the figurehead of the empire, his powers were very much reduced. Since that time, our people saw three hundred years of almost continuous civil war between the provincial lords, warrior monks, and brigands, all fighting each other for land and power. Our people were once artisans, poets, and scholars, but the ever-evolving strife made the way of the sword inevitable. The song of the blade through the air, through flesh and bone, its ring against armor—it was an answer to our prayers.

In the time of Lord Frandar the first Warrior Prince, lords called Yokeda built huge stone castles to protect themselves and their lands, and castle towns outside the walls begin to grow up. In 2245, however, Mansel Sesnit came to the fore. He became the Elden Yokeda, or military dictator, and for eight years succeeded in gaining control of almost the whole empire. When Sesnit was assassinated in 2253,a commoner took over the government. Randic Torn continued the work of unifying the empire that Sesnit had begun, ruthlessly putting down any traces of insurrection. He revived the old gulf between the warriors—the sword singers—and the commoners by introducing restrictions on the wearing of swords. "Torn’s Sword-Hunt," as it was known, meant that only the singers were allowed to wear swords, which distinguished them from the rest of the population.

Although Torn did much to settle the empire into its pre-strife ways, by the time of his death in 2373 internal disturbances still had not been completely eliminated. Upon his death, civil war broke out in earnest; war that made the prior three hundred year turmoil pale in comparison. It was in this period that Frandar Hunding grew up.

Hunding belonged to the sword-singers. This element of empire society grew from the desert artisans and was initially recruited from the young sons and daughters of the high families. They built the first temple to the unknown gods of war and built a training hall, "The Hall of the Virtues of War." Within a few generations the way of the sword—the "song of the blade"—had become their life. The people of the blade kept their poetry and artistry in building beautiful swords woven with magic and powers from the unknown gods. The greatest among them became known as Ansei, or "Saints of the Sword." Each of these began their own training schools teaching their individual way of the sword. Ansei of the highest virtue wandered the countryside engaging in battle, righting wrongs, and seeking to end the strife.

To sum it up: Hunding was a sword-singer, a master, a Master Ansei at a time when the peak of the strife was reborn out of the chaos of Torn’s death. Many singers put up their swords and became artists, for the pull of the artisan heritage was strong. Others, like Hunding, pursued the ideal of the warrior searching for enlightenment through the perilous paths of the Sword. Duels of revenge and tests of skill were commonplace, and fencing schools multiplied.

Torn’s Sword Hunt had separated the Singers from the common people, and the rise of the Last Emperor began the last great strife of the desert empire: the Emperor and his consort Elisa’s final effort to wrest control of the empire from the people by destroying the sword-singers. Hira vowed to search out every Singer with his Brigand army composed of Orcs and castoffs of the wars of the empire, and to scourge them from the face of the planet.

The sword-singers were never a numerous people. The harsh desert kept the births few, and growing up in the unforgiving wastes eliminated all but those of iron spirit and will. Thus the final strife, which became known as the "War of the Singers," found the people of the sword unprepared and unready to join together their individually great skills into an army that could defend their homes and lives.

Frandar Hunding was sought out, his death poem interrupted, and unceremoniously command of the singers was thrust upon him. To the unknown gods of war great thanks is owed that Hunding had the time in his cave to write down his years of accumulated wisdom, of strategy, of the way of the Shehai. The singers fled from their camps up into the desert hills and mountains, fled to the foot of Hattu, "the Father of Mountains," where Hunding had gone to write in peace and to die. There those remnants formed into the Army of the Circle—they learned Hunding’s Way, his strategies, his tactics, and the final great vision for a master stroke.

Hunding devised a plan of seven battles, leading the Armies of Hira further and further into the wilderness to the foot of Hattu, where the final battle could be fought. Hunding called his plan the "Hammer and the Anvil." With each battle Hunding’s Singers would further learn his strategies and tactics, grow strong in the use of the Shehai, and be ready to defeat their opponents in the seventh battle. And thus it was, the six first battles were waged, each neither victory or defeat, each leading to the next. The larger armies of Hira following the small army of Hunding. Outnumbered thirty to one, the singers never faltered from the Way. The stage was set: Hira and his army maneuvered to the base of Hattu Mountain, where the hammer blow was delivered. The battle was pitched, and many singers fell that day. Hunding knew that the singers who lived would be few, but Hira and his empire of evil would not live—and so it went.

At the end Hunding and less that twenty thousand singers survived the day, but no army of evil was left to pillage and murder—more than three hundred thousand fell that day on Hattu. Of those who were left to run and live, all were scattered to the four winds, an organized force no more.

The singers packed their lives, folded their tents, mourned their dead, and followed Hunding to the great port city of Arch, in the province of Seawind. There Hunding had a flotilla of ships waiting. The singers left their desert for a new land. No longer welcome in the desert empire, they left to be sung about and spoken of in legend. The final great warrior, the singers of Shehai, the Book of Circles, all leaving that land where their virtue was unappreciated. Red, red with blood they were in the eyes of the gentle citizenry, never mind that they had saved them from a great evil.

The singers vowed to learn new ways as they traveled across the great ocean to their new land. To adopt a new name, but to honor the past. In honor of their final battle, they named their new land Hammerfell and adopted the name Redguards.

In honor to Hunding the great warrior prince, each household in Hammerfell has a place by the hearth, an alcove really, just a niche, big enough to hold the scroll: The Book of Circles.

A Report to the Royal Family of Hegathe

By Doctor Tazhim of the Bureau of Outlander Affairs

O Beloved of Morwha, Blessed by Zeht’s Tears,

Your ignoble servant apologizes for his unworthy existence, and seeks forgiveness for intruding his negligible thoughts into Your Majesties’ lofty meditations. In response to your momentary whim of last week, which was to me as an ironclad order, I have prepared a report on the recent outbreak of unholy undeath in the northern Alik’r, and its unorthodox means of suppression.

I have spoken before about the Ash’abah, a pariah tribe of the northern wastes who are shunned for their unclean interactions with our risen ancestors. Though their origins are ancient, the fact that such an aberration could persist into the modern era must be attributed to covert support by shameless elements of the Forebears, who tolerate the most outrageous non-traditional practices.

This hypothesis would seem to be validated by recent events, which I shall now have the honor to recount to Your Majesties. In Sentinel, the usurper Fahara’jad had gathered to him a circle of advisors, some of whom were of untarnished reputation, but others of whom were known Forebear activists who had almost openly opposed the Divines-blessed rule of the late King Ramzi (may Tu’whacca escort his soul to the Far Shores). One of these questionable viziers, Suturah by name, seems to have been not only a bad advisor, but also a secret necromancer. As far as our agents of the Bureau have been able to reconstruct it, this Suturah slew all of "King" Fahara’jad’s other viziers, then reanimated them in an attempt to kill Fahara’jad himself. The attempt was a failure: Fahara’jad escaped, but so did Suturah.

Suturah fled to the east, where he was joined by elements of the Cult of the Black Worm (which Your Majesties will recall from my report of 2nd Rain’s Hand). Undead, mostly Ra-Netu, were raised in numbers from forgotten graveyards in the deep desert, and Suturah led his unclean minions back toward Sentinel.

Shockingly, our informants state that Fahara’jad contaminated himself by personally appealing to the pariah Ash’abah, asking them to intervene against Suturah. The Ash’abah headman, Marimah, agreed, though we have been unable to discover what degrading terms were imposed upon Fahara’jad. In a surprise ambush the Ash’abah, using forbidden mystical means, destroyed Suturah’s army of Ra-Netu. Suturah himself, it is said, fell under the blade of the exile Marimah.

Fahara’jad, of course, has been careful to stay quiet about his appeal to the Ash’abah, and has publicly thanked the Divines for holy intervention on Sentinel’s behalf. I leave it to Your Majesties to decide if we should spread about the rumor of the Forebear usurper’s impure meeting with the pariahs.

By The Unveiled Azadiyeh, Songbird of Satakalaam

Know, O Prince, that in the time of the Ra Gada, the Forebears did come to Hammerfell from doomed Yokuda. First they landed at Hegathe, which they freed of the affliction of the beast-peoples. Then spread they bothwise along the coasts, seeking out goodly harbors and well-watered oases.

To the north and west went the warrior-sailors of the Grandee Yaghoub, in the great ships they had brought from Akos Kasaz, until they rounded Cape Shira. Then was Yaghoub the first of the Ra Gada to behold the Iliac Bay, and he deemed it laudable, and praised its excellences, and vowed to make his home thenceforth upon its shores.

And as Yaghoub sailed toward the Steed at dawning of the seventeenth of Second Seed, his watchman cried out that he spied a desirable harborage. And Yaghoub, perceiving it, agreed, and said, "This harborage shall belong to us, for we shall take it to be ours. And I do name it Sentinel, after the one who first espied it."

Then Sentinel (for thus ever after was it known) already contained a port on its harbor, which port was the haunt of low Elves, and Men who did consort with Elves. And the shores were green with the leaves of pomegranate, and fig, and olive, and the men of the Grandee saw this and were hungry, and sought to come ashore, despite the warnings and cries of the port-rabble.

But when Yaghoub landed with his warrior-sailors, with their bright swords and peaked helms, the port-rabble were cowed, and spake, cringing, "What would you with us, O mighty sword-singers? Slay us not, for we have done you no harm."

And Yaghoub said to them, "Nay, though you are infidels and partake of unclean practices, I will not slay you. For I have a thought to build me a palace upon the height above the harbor, and such labor is not meet for my noble warrior-sailors. Therefore you shall live, and become masons, and stonewrights, and servants of the house."

And thus was the true port of Sentinel founded. The port-rabble found purpose in their new labors, and built the walls, and the marketplace, and the palace of Yaghoub. And this was Samaruik, of glorious name, and legendary are the mighty kings and queens who have reigned from it since. For the Crowns who followed the Forebears found Sentinel a worthy seat, and many were the Na-Totambu who settled there.

Even today, O Prince, above the city gates flies always a banner of the crescent moon, for this was the banner of the Grandee Yaghoub, which has become the symbol of Sentinel in remembrance of him. And the faithful celebrate the Grandee on the Koomu Alezer’i Yaghoub, every seventeenth of Second Seed, when we share pomegranates in honor of our esteemed ancestor.

By Lady Clarisse Laurent

It is strange that the Elven ruins known as Salas En, on the Hammerfell coast at Cape Shira, have never been properly explored or studied. This is most likely due to the superstitious locals’ exaggerated reverence for burial grounds of the dead, even those of other cultures. I wouldn’t go so far as to accuse the Alik’r Redguards of timidity, but really, having to bring all my own people over the bay from High Rock is a bit much.

In any event, now that we are on our way, we shall do the job right. The known facts about Salas En are few, but they are fascinating, as it has been inhabited over the last three eras by a series of cultures. On top—which makes it most recent, of course—are Redguard relics dating from the First-Era occupation of Salas En by Crowns of the late Ra Gada. Colonists from the island of Yath in lost Yokuda, these Redguards seem to have displaced the Elves who previously occupied the site. It appears these descendants of Yath occupied Salas En until abandoning it in the middle 23rd century, which coincides with the ravages of the Thrassian Plague.

The Elves the Yath Redguards displaced were, according to tradition, relatively recent Altmeri colonists of the Corelanya Clan, who were said to be Daedra-worshipers. (This would account for their emigration from Summerset to the austere shores of Hammerfell.) They seem to have arrived sometime in the sixth century 1E, inhabiting and expanding on structures originally built by the Ayleids. Bosmeri relics are intermixed here with classic high-period Altmeri, suggesting that either the Corelanya participated in the Wood Elf coastal trade, then at its historic height, or that Salas En was used as a stopover by Bosmeri merchants before the Corelanya arrived.

Below these High Elf additions—and indeed, still standing with less wear on them than any of the structures built afterward—are the original Ayleid stoneworks, jutting proudly toward the heavens despite the passage of millennia. The Ayleid Elves who built Salas En are virtually unknown to history, and it is primarily to reveal their story that I have organized this expedition. With the assistance of my experienced and hand-picked team of excavators, I have every confidence that we can persuade the stones of Salas En to reveal their secrets to us.

Tu’whacca, God of the Far Shores
We ask for your blessing and guidance
On this completed walkabout
May she appear before your throne
In virtue and strength
Lead her along the path of the stars
Show her the way
Prepare her for the life to come
As our honored ancestor
With her sword at her side

By Brother Mikhael Karkuxor of the Imperial College

The Forebears, who have been longest in Tamriel and had the stronger relationship with the Second Empire, worship substantially the same pantheon as the Imperials and Bretons, whereas the more conservative Crowns still revere the ancient Yokudan gods.

The Eight of the Forebears

Akatosh (Dragon God of Time):
Akatosh is the chief deity of the Eight Divines (the major religious cult of Cyrodiil and its provinces), and one of two deities found in every Tamrielic religion (the other is Lorkhan). He is generally considered to be the first of the Gods to form in the Beginning Place; after his establishment, other spirits found the process of being easier and the various pantheons of the world emerged. He embodies the qualities of endurance, invincibility, and everlasting legitimacy.

Tava (Bird God):
Yokudan spirit of the air. Tava is most famous for leading the Yokudans to the isle of Herne after the destruction of their homeland. She has since become assimilated into the mythology of Kynareth, and is often worshiped by the Forebears in that name. She is very popular in Hammerfell among sailors, and her shrines can be found in most port cities.

Julianos (God of Wisdom and Logic):
Often associated with Jhunal, the Nords’ father of language and mathematics, Julianos is the god of literature, law, history, and contradiction, and is thus the patron of magistrates (and wizards).

Dibella (Goddess of Beauty):
Popular god of the Eight Divines. She has nearly a dozen different cults, some devoted to women, some to artists and aesthetics, and others to erotic instruction.

Tu’whacca (Tricky God):
Yokudan god of souls. Tu’whacca, before the creation of the world, was the god of Nobody Really Cares. When Tall Papa undertook the creation of the Walkabout, Tu’whacca found a purpose; he became the caretaker of the Far Shores, and continues to help Redguards find their way into the afterlife. His cult is sometimes associated with Arkay in the more cosmopolitan regions of Hammerfell, and he is often worshiped in that name by Forebears.

Zeht (God of Farms):
Yokudan god of agriculture who renounced his father after the world was created, which is why Akatosh makes it so hard to grow food. Analogous to Zenithar, and sometimes worshiped in that name.

Morwha (Teat God):
Yokudan fertility goddess. Fundamental deity in the Yokudan pantheon, and the favorite of Tall Papa’s wives. Still worshiped in various areas of Hammerfell, including Stros M’kai. Morwha is always portrayed as four-armed, so that she can "grab more husbands." Analogous to Mara, and sometimes worshiped in that name by the Forebears.

Stendarr (God of Mercy):
Stendarr’s sphere includes compassion, charity, justice, and righteous rule, and is the favorite god of Redguard "gallants" (knights).

Additional Deities with Significant Redguard Cults:

Leki (Saint of the Spirit Sword):
Divine daughter of Tall Papa, Leki is the goddess of aberrant swordsmanship. The Na-Totambu of Yokuda warred to a standstill during the mythic era to decide who would lead the charge against the Lefthanded Elves. Their swordmasters, though, were so skilled in the Best Known Cuts as to be matched evenly. Leki introduced the Ephemeral Feint. Afterwards, a victor emerged and the war with the Aldmer began.

HoonDing (The Make Way God):
Yokudan spirit of "perseverance over infidels." The HoonDing has historically materialized whenever the Redguards need to "make way" for their people. In Tamrielic history this has only happened twice, in the First Era during the Ra Gada invasion.

Malooc (Horde King):
An enemy god of the Ra Gada who led the Goblins against the Redguards during the First Era. Fled east when the army of the HoonDing overtook his Goblin hordes.

Sep (The Snake):
Yokudan version of Lorkhan. Sep is born when Tall Papa creates someone to help him regulate the spirit trade. Sep, though, is driven crazy by the hunger of Satakal, and he convinces some of the gods to help him make an easier alternative to the Walkabout. This, of course, is the world as we know it, and the spirits who followed Sep become trapped here, to live out their lives as mortals. Sep is punished by Tall Papa for his transgressions, but his hunger lives on as a void in the stars, a "non-space" that tries to upset mortal entry into the Far Shores.

By Brother Mikhael Karkuxor of the Imperial College

The Forebears, who have been longest in Tamriel and had the stronger relationship with the Second Empire, worship substantially the same pantheon as the Imperials and Bretons, whereas the more conservative Crowns still revere the ancient Yokudan gods.

The Eight of the Crowns:

Satakal (The Worldskin):
Yokudan god of everything, a fusion of the concepts of Anu and Padomay. Basically, Satakal is much like the Nords’ Alduin, who destroys one world to begin the next. In Yokudan mythology, Satakal had done (and still does) this many times over, a cycle which prompted the birth of spirits that could survive the transition. These spirits ultimately become the Yokudan pantheon. Popular god among the Crowns of the Alik’r nomads.

Ruptga (Tall Papa):
Chief deity of the Yokudan pantheon. Ruptga, more commonly "Tall Papa," was the first god to figure out how to survive the Hunger of Satakal. Following his lead, the other gods learned the "Walkabout," or a process by which they can persist beyond one lifetime. Tall Papa set the stars in the sky to show lesser spirits how to do this, too. When there were too many spirits to keep track of, though, Ruptga created a helper out the dead skin of past worlds. This helper is Sep (see below), who later creates the world of mortals.

Tu’whacca (Tricky God):
Yokudan god of souls. Tu’whacca, before the creation of the world, was the god of Nobody Really Cares. When Tall Papa undertook the creation of the Walkabout, Tu’whacca found a purpose; he became the caretaker of the Far Shores, and continues to help Redguards find their way into the afterlife.

Zeht (God of Farms):
Yokudan god of agriculture who renounced his father after the world was created, which is why Tall Papa makes it so hard to grow food.

Morwha (Teat God):
Yokudan fertility goddess, fundamental deity in the Yokudan pantheon, and the favorite of Tall Papa’s wives. Still worshiped in various areas of Hammerfell, including Stros M’kai, Morwha is always portrayed as four-armed, so that she can "grab more husbands."

Tava (Bird God):
Yokudan spirit of the air. Tava is most famous for leading the Yokudans to the isle of Herne after the destruction of their homeland. She has since become assimilated into the mythology of Kynareth. She is still very popular in Hammerfell among sailors, and her shrines can be found in most port cities.

Onsi (War God; Boneshaver):
Notable warrior god of the Yokudan Ra Gada, Onsi taught Mankind how to pull their knives into swords.

Diagna (Orichalc God of the Sideways Blade):
Hoary thuggish cult of the Redguards that originated in Yokuda during the Twenty-Seven Snake Folk Slaughter. Diagna was an avatar of the HoonDing (the Yokudan God of Make Way, see below) that achieved permanence. He was instrumental to the defeat of the Lefthanded Elves, as he brought orichalc weapons to the Yokudan people to win the fight. In Tamriel, he led a very tight-knit group of followers against the Orcs of Orsinium during the height of their ancient power.

Additional Deities with Significant Redguard Cults:

Leki (Saint of the Spirit Sword):
Daughter of Tall Papa, Leki is the goddess of aberrant swordsmanship. The Na-Totambu of Yokuda warred to a standstill during the mythic era to decide who would lead the charge against the Lefthanded Elves. Their swordmasters, though, were so skilled in the Best Known Cuts as to be matched evenly. Leki introduced the Ephemeral Feint. Afterwards, a victor emerged and the war with the Aldmer began.

HoonDing (The Make Way God):
Yokudan spirit of "perseverance over infidels." The HoonDing has historically materialized whenever the Redguards need to "make way" for their people. In Tamrielic history this has only happened twice, in the First Era during the Ra Gada invasion.

Malooc (Horde King):
An enemy god of the Ra Gada who led the Goblins against the Redguards during the First Era. Fled east when the army of the HoonDing overtook his Goblin hordes.

Sep (The Snake):
Yokudan version of Lorkhan. Sep is born when Tall Papa creates someone to help him regulate the spirit trade. Sep, though, is driven crazy by the hunger of Satakal, and he convinces some of the gods to help him make an easier alternative to the Walkabout. This, of course, is the world as we know it, and the spirits who followed Sep become trapped here, to live out their lives as mortals. Sep is punished by Tall Papa for his transgressions, but his hunger lives on as a void in the stars, a "non-space" that tries to upset mortal entry into the Far Shores.