The Mainland of Tamriel

From the desk of Her Majesty, the Queen

It is hereby ordered that a sloop modeled after the HMS Allure, and armed to the same specification is to be constructed at once. The ship shall be named HMS Demon's Claw, in honor of the valiant service given by the small captured cog of the same name that transported the first Niscan Guard Division during multiple raids on pirate outposts. The crew shall be that which was raised after Crowhaven was annexed, and the materials shall come from the forest to the south of Crowhaven and the Hew's Bane Iron Mine.

The ship shall be constructed here in Nisca City by the same shipwright who constructed the Allure.

As these are the wishes of the Queen, regent of all Nisca, this is law.

So it shall be done.

Construction Cost:
Ship: 100,000 septims

Southern Border.
Whiterun Hold.
4E 204.

A year ago, Whiterun had been in shambles, paralyzed by indecision and fear as the Jarl's throne stood empty within the great hall of Dragonsreach. Clan feuds came to blows in those trying times, and the Hold guard had been forced to abandon much of the outlying regions of the Hold in order to keep the peace within the city proper. Racial tensions skyrocketed, and both Stormcloak sympathizers and Imperial loyalists came out of the woodwork to try and convince the citizens of Whiterun that only they could restore peace, that their leaders would surely be the best path forward for Whiterun. Luckily for the Hold, Kodlak White-Mane - Harbinger of the legendary Companions of Ysgramor - had left his mead hall for the first time in many years, putting many of the fights, feuds, and brawls to rest with his presence alone; much of Whiterun's citizenry had even thought to petition for Kodlak himself to become the new Jarl, but wiser minds shot this notion down, as the White-Mane would never allow himself to become ruler of an entire city - it had been a trying process for him to accept the role of Harbinger decades ago.

With White-Mane's effect on the populace, Whiterun fell into an uneasy peace; and the Harbinger was capable of bringing together the Clan heads for all the city's most influential families, leading them in a moot to choose a new Jarl - and so it was on the first of Morning Star, 4E 203, that Thoraldr the Unwavering was proclaimed Jarl of Whiterun. The process was rocky at first - a natural occurrence, as the city would need to grow accustomed to a new ruler; but the Jarl soon proved his right to rule and desire to protect his people, as the Hold's warriors were marshalled in a vast campaign to immediately re-establish safe routes between the three outlying towns of Whiterun Hold - Riverwood, Black Moor, and Rorikstead. Now, at the dawn of a new year, Jarl Thoraldr has begun marshalling his soldiers once more, seeking to capitalize on the gains achieved in 203.

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Foremost among the targets of this new campaign is the Western Watchtower, a small fortification just off the primary road leading all the way to Rorikstead and Black Moor. It had been ignored during the rush for the towns, as it had shown no signs of life - but when trade resumed between the townships and the city, a bandit clan had made it their home, presuming easy pickings from caravans and travelers. In Whiterun Hold, the sentence for banditry is death - a sentence that Thoraldr has no intention of lifting. Four dozen light infantrymen are brought together to strike out at the tower, in conjunction with thirty bowmen; and when they arrive at the tower, they begin the battle. Arrows dipped in pitch and lit with the flames from torches assail the fortification - though the archers aim for the wooden door and barricade blocking the way into the structure, as opposed to the stone that makes up the tower's walls. The flames lick greedily at the dry wood, quickly reducing it to ash and allowing for the swordsmen to charge. Bandits clog the entryway, but a quick salvo of arrows pushes them back just in time for the infantry to rush into their line and break through, sending the first level devolving into a melee. Bandit archers atop the fort try in vain to halt the flood of Whiterun guards, but the bowmen of the guard are more than capable of loosing their own flurries of arrows, striking down several bandits and forcing the others to duck into cover lest they too find themselves turned to nothing more than a facsimile of a pincushion. Within an hour, the bandit clan has been completely exterminated; heads chopped off and mounted upon wooden spikes along the roadside. The Whiterun dead are collected and placed on carts, to be brought back to the Hall of the Dead within the city itself, so they may receive their final rights and that their families may mourn them properly. As the tower falls and the dead are ferried back to Whiterun, more guards fan out through the area, ensuring the safety of the neighboring regions and driving off the few wild animals seen in the vicinity.

The second target of the newest campaign is Brittleshin Pass - a small cave system leading straight through the Brittleshin Mountains that keep Whiterun and Falkreath Holds separate. Guard sorties had often been sent to the caves during the reign of Jarl Balgruuf, as it was suspected that many a gang of smugglers used it to securely pass through with their contraband, yet nothing had ever come up during these searches - no bandits, no loot, not even any manner of tracks that could give insight as to the cave's inhabitants. Of course, that was then, and this is now - eyewitness reports have finally confirmed the existence of an outlaw group hiding within the caverns, and so forty medium infantry have been dispatched to investigate and put down any bandits they can find; and, of course, they are ordered to secure the pass against any possible Legionnaires attempting to enter Whiterun via Falkreath. Of course, nothing in Skyrim is ever as simple as it seems - upon entering the pass, the guardsmen rapidly discover that no mere bandits inhabit the darkness; no, foul necromancers and their affronts to Arkay have taken residence. Skeletons, animated by foul, evil magics, emerge from the shadowed alcoves of the cave system; their rattling bones instantly alerting the already tense guardsmen to their presence. Of course, being only animated bones with no armor, the undead monstrosities pose no real threat to the armored soldiers - maces, hammers, and clubs make short work of the shambling bonewalkers, allowing the platoon to venture deeper into the Pass. More undead bar their way, and are similarly dealt with, until finally they come to a large, open chamber. Only two necromancers occupy the space, each chanting in a long-dead language towards some sort of ritual inscription upon the ground - and whatever the danger the ritual could have posed, it is snuffed out as the infantry rush the mages in a storm of iron and steel, their numbers allowing them to sally forth with little fear. Several men are felled by fire and ice, but these necromancers are no different than all the rest of their kind - wearing nothing but robes, they immediately fall once a blade or other weapon is able to reach past their blazing hands. With the death of the evildoers, the magic animating the various bony constructs throughout the rest of the Pass dissipates, and the men are easily able to hear dozens, if not hundreds, of bones clattering to the ground as the sound echoes throughout the caverns. With the threat eliminated, the wounded are tended to, and the dead are carried out of Brittleshin Pass. Furthermore, both the Pass and the territory adjacent to it are declared fully pacified, and are to be re-added to Whiterun's lands posthaste.

Something is not right…

Principality of Whiterun - Somewhere between Whiterun and Fortress Greymoor

4E204 - Start of spring

How long is this journey going to last? Liu-Lia thought, not for the first time in the day. He felt a strange restlessness, as if his body was trying to tell him that his idea of separating from the caravan of Luis had been a serious bad idea. Liu sighed. Sure, it had been a bad idea, but, I'm better off alone than in a group of over 20 people. In the distance, Liu could already see the silhouette of the city of Whiterun. The tower, which once defiantly stood up to the tundra, was in ruins. According to the information he had received, it was the work of a dragon named Mirmulnir, who had been searching for the person who could apparently defeat the World Destroyer. But I'm not so sure about that. If the rumours I heard back in Bruma are true, then Alduin will return sooner or later. Probably not as a dragon, but as a person it would be quite possible. The barren, desolate tundra, which had looked the same for kilometre after kilometre, annoying Liu, was slowly receding, offering the city's (and the principality's) agriculture fertile soil.

The idyll, which had been predominant on Liu's journey until now, gradually disappeared. In the distant Liu hears some undefined shouts. He could not say exactly what they were arguing about and why. But they have loud organs... My ears are going to hurt if the shouting continues. If it comes to a fight - I will probably summon two two-handed swords and manifest them. The nagging that could be heard for a few kilometres was actually wild monstrousness. Liu did not hesitate for long, summoned the weapons, manifested them, and engaged in a hot duel with the monsters. After a few minutes, a battalion of city guards, which must have been sent by the Huscarl from the current Jarl, seemed to have been sent to deal with the situation. The guards were wise to stop out of direct sight, as Liu wanted no casualties. A silent observer would see a snow elf swirling and fighting in a pack of monsters, taking out one by one of the 20 critters. Good. They are defeatable with at least my weapons. Means magic weapons, be it Aedric or Daedric, can send these things back to where they came from. I don't think so much that these are creatures of a Daedra, though. Unfortunately, Liu couldn't waste any more thought on this very delusional idea, he had to fight one of the guards free from the danger zone. Liu rolled his eyes, muttered, "Damn!" and attacked the three creatures with a technique he found in his foster father's grandfather's books. I guess the old blade fighting techniques are effective after all. And deadly. After Liu had defeated the monsters with moderate effort - and noticed that they were disintegrating - he wasted no time, and tried to take out the rest of the pack one by one. The unfortunate city guard, miraculously only slightly injured at the knees, retreated to join the others. Liu laughed softly. His rigorous training was paying off. When he had finished with the last creature, and his weapons dissolved of their own accord, he turned and walked silently and wordlessly past the guards into the ruins of an old watchtower. The guards saw that the stranger would investigate the incident and thus pose no danger, so the light infantrymen marched off again to Whiterun to explain the situation to the huscarl. Liu will not know that one of the guards will later tell Irileth that he is a snow elf, one of the Falmer, and that he will get into trouble, which he will try to eradicate till to his death. That he will meet the Jarl in the process, but in a different way than he wanted, is beyond question.
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OT:The scene with the sword summoning comes from Fate - Emiya was the inspiration, because this version fits much better to Skyrim in general. And yes, grotty bad future sentences are in there too. The timeskip was necessary because we are already almost a year ahead.
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Translation of: community.bisafans.de/blog/index.php?entry/5990-ns-post-10-es-steht-schlechter-um-himmelsrand-als-gedacht/

Black Hawk ran by little girl.
I go now back to Kazakhstan.
Wouwa.