Saoirse: What is this place? It's like -

 

 

Gravetender: It's a sanctuary for your kind.

 

 

Gravetender: A place where the arisen can rest and take refuge before their great journey.

 

 

Saoirse: So this is that purpose they were talking about. Who are you?

 

 

Gravetender: I am the one who ensures the arisen truly have a heart that is destined for duty.

 

 

Saoirse: Okay ground rule. Can you not talk in my head?

 

 

Gravetender: As you wish. For you are arisen and I live to aid and advise you.

 

 

Gravetender: If that is what you wish, or feel you require.

 

Saoirse: I understand.

 

Gravetender: Is something wrong?

 

 

Saoirse: Wrong? No. I'm skeptical is all.

 

 

Gravetender: Can I provide the answers you seek?

 

Saoirse: Maybe.

 

Gravetender: Then I will try.

 

 

Saoirse: Why have we all been risen? What are a bunch of dead - correction undead - people going to do? 

 

Gravetender: Every one of you was a champion in your previous life. You were heroes, the strongest. I suppose the Divines thought you all worthy.

 

Saoirse: Still, there are swathes of warriors they could've called upon, why us?

 

 

Gravetender: That's an answer, I do not know..

 

 

Saoirse: Yeah, me neither.

 

 

Gravetender: Perhaps we're not meant to know why we were awoken from our slumber.

 

Saoirse: Or they don't want us to know. Maybe what we'll do only serves them.

 

Gravetender: Do you know what you're going to do?

 

 

Gravetender: A great many souls guard the Heart of the World. Where the Flame of Akatosh resides. It's flickering, dying.

 

Saoirse: Why does the God of Time have a flame?

 

Gravetender: Without light there is no change in time. Everything flows into one without it.

 

 

Gravetender: You must defeat the guardians and open that door in the mountains. If Nirn is to survive, the fire must survive.

 

 

Priest Henryk: So are you just going to sit there while this place is ruined.

 

Eyris: No, I'm having a moment of prayer.

 

 

Priest Henryk: The Divines have long abandoned this place, they're not gonna answer your prayer as they haven't even answered hundreds of the same. 

 

 

Eyris: It's a habit and not a bad one to pray. It's not about getting a solution sometimes. 

 

Priest Henryk: Yeah the only solutions we've ever gotten is you. We begged for someone to bring our land back to normalcy and all we get is you and your suicidal quest.

 

 

Eyris: Killing Kladrich is hardly suicide if I know what to do.

 

Priest Henryk: But do you know how to kill 'im little duck? You don't and you'll get yourself killed.

 

Eyris: Death isn't a problem for me.

 

 

Priest Henryk: Oh right, you're one of those. There are fates worse than death you know? If he gets you, you'll suffer for eternity. Then your "death isn't a problem" attitude 'll go straight down the drain.

 

 

Priest Henryk: You understand that, right?

 

Eyris: If I'm trapped it's only my own fault. A pain I'm willing to endure for justice...and for the greater purpose of ending the final New Daedric Lord.

 

 

Eyris: This place can surely be turned back too. If Kladrich rules over, then he'll give it up once he dies. Simple transfer of power.

 

 

Priest Henryk: Yous still haven't seen this place have you? That Gravetender of yours 'as fed you wild stories of this place. I don't know if it can be saved anymore.

 

 

Eyris: Henryk wasn't kidding. This place is...dying and being torn apart by vultures

 

 

Eyris: What did the Gravetender say? "Light all the fires in the towers and the path shall open."

 

 

Eyris: It's hard to believe what this place used to be. An oasis and pearl of the desert.

 

 

Eyris: Now it's all just a mess of broken people and monstrosities.

 

 

Eyris: The towers. I must get to the towers.

 

 

 

Eyris: Or I'll have to deal with you first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eyris: And so you've earned your rest. Seems like peace isn't going to be an option here.

 

 

???: Another one come to set the towers alight?

 

 

Eyris: Yes. I hope to light them.

 

 

Eyris: I hope to kill Kladrich too, you'll have your home back.

 

 

Tsoren: I'm Knight Tsoren. And you're not going to kill Kladrich.

 

 

Eyris: And why's that?

 

Tsoren: This place isn't my home and I'm taking a guess that you're newly risen. 

 

Eyris: Yes-

 

Tsoren: Then listen. I've been trying to kill Kladrich and light these fires for years but they always burn out.

 

 

Eyris: I've worked with fire my entire life, I might be different.

 

 

Tsoren: Hmph! No you're not. I thought I was different too. You'll just be more of the same.

 

 

Tsoren: Maybe this world isn't for saving, y'know. Maybe it's time we let it go.

 

 

Eyris: Sounds like you're giving up.

 

 

Eyris: I'm sure you're a fantastic warrior, so return to your duty. Let us begin it together. You get the world back to safety and prove your doubts wrong. I get my revenge.

 

 

Tsoren: No. I've accepted my fate now. The best I can do is sway others away from the flame that Gravetender loves to talk about. Stand too close to fire and it'll lap you up, burn you and it doesn't matter if you grew up your entire life handling fire. You'll just become kindling.

 

 

Tsoren: Still continuing?

 

Eyris: I'm lighting the flame, you aren't going to stop that.

 

 

Tsoren: Then you're making the biggest mistake of your life.

 

Eyris: No, you're going to make the biggest mistake by not helping me.

 

Tsoren: You seem to have these grand delusions that you're different, don't you? You aren't different. You might kill Kladrich since revenge is such a powerful motivator, but you're not going to reignite the flame and save this world. You'll try and try before you accept your failure. By then it'll be too late.

 

 

Naren: Fitting that such creatures of dark would settle here...

 

 

Naren: ...Out of sight, away from light and where it's cold.

 

 

Naren: Gods I wish it was just a little warmer. Destroying darkness might be my duty but they could make it a little nicer for me.

 

 

Naren: How long has it been since I was last in the snow? Must've been before I awoke again.

 

 

Naren: I'll never understand why people ever wanted to live in the lands of eternal winter. The weather's bad and everything wants to kill you, or could easily kill you.

 

 

Naren: The Dark here is what matters. Not my worldly problems.

 

 

Naren: There are others who've already suffered a worse fate. Ice Leviathans did this, nothing else could've.

 

 

Naren: Speaking of them...

 

 

 

Quite some time later...

 

 

Naren: More of these? Ice Leviathans usually take one or two and then leave. This has to be something else.

 

 

Naren: Maybe these ruins aren't as uninhabited as I'd thought.

 

 

Naren: I should keep my guard up for a while, at least until I'm not in the open.

 

 

Naren: What could this place have been before? A city? Temple? Not that it matters now. It's home to the Dark.

 

 

Naren: Only a shadow remains of itself.

 

 

Naren: This place seems so calm though.

 

 

Ice Beast: Hiss!

 

 

Naren: Oh shi-

 

 

 

Naren: (How many have fallen here?)

 

 

Naren:  (These aren't Sentinels of the Dark though. Why'd they come here)

 

 

 

 

Naren: Oof!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Naren: Well the Darkness starts here. No ordinary ice beast bleeds. 

 

 

Naren: Now who are these who fell?

 

 

Naren: None of them seem to be knights. Or at least not good ones.

 

 

Naren: A mystery for another time.

 

 

Naren: I must press on. Darkness doesn't care to wait.

 

 

 

Naren: So this is where this all leads?

 

 

Naren: Great...

 

 

Naren: ...

 

 

 

 

Naren: (What are these? Wraiths? I haven't seen one of those since...)

 

 

 

Wraith: Dark is but nature. There is no use hiding from it.

 

 

Naren: There's no use in hiding. But there is in fighting.

 

 

 

 

 

Naren: And now you...

 

 

Greater Wraith: Your legion fought valiantly. But all their might couldn't stop us. What hope do you have? You're not a one-man vanguard.

 

 

Greater Wraith: You are but flesh. We belong to a calling greater than any others.

 

Naren: Maybe but-

 

 

 

Naren: Damn, that...hurts.

 

 

Greater Wraith: Resistance is useless. We are inevitable. We are humanity's evolution.

 

Naren: (Keep going. The other Sentinels did)

 

 

 

 

 

Naren: How's that for "resistance is useless?"

 

 

 

Naren: The Dark is strong here and no flame can be lit if Darkness shall simply consume it. But what was that Wraith was saying about evolution? That can't be us.

 

 

 

Alexander: Why do these things always insist on summoning themselves at night?

 

 

Alexander: And why at such far out places? This fort is abandoned but they want me to go further.

 

 

Alexander: Maybe it's to kill me. It wouldn't be surprising. Many a person has killed for less, never-mind something inhuman.

 

 

Alexander: Can't be long until the sun sets now.

 

 

Alexander: Funny. Things don't look as though they're falling apart. Things don't look like The End Times. Perhaps it's the calm before the storm.

 

 

Alexander: But I'll take the peace and quiet now, while I can. All before the Gravetender hunts me down. Four New Daedric Lords? She makes it sound so easy.

 

 

Alexander: It was Ayleid ruin they wanted to meet at.

 

 

Alexander: I wonder which Lich will summon. Non are particularly fond of me.

 

 

Alexander: I suppose they could all summon themselves and kill me...again.

 

 

Alexander: But I need answers soon.

 

 

Alexander: ...by the power of blood and the first Lich, I'd summon thee and ask you to heed thy calling.

 

 

Alexander: This had better work.

 

 

 

 

Lich: You summoned me...brother?

 

 

Alexander: You're not going to kill me?

 

 

Lich: I tried to kill you once, it hasn't seemed to work.

 

 

Lich: Would you wait for the sun to subside?

 

Alexander: Fine.

 

A few hours later...

 

 

Lich: Thank you for waiting, now what is it you desire.

 

Alexander: Answers.

 

 

Lich: You could be far more specific.

 

Alexander: What will happen to this world?

 

Lich: If you give up your duty?

 

Alexander: Yes.

 

 

Lich: Ten years ago? Nothing. Now. Without the Heart of the World, darkness will run rampant.

 

Alexander: What about this flame, what if it's reignited?

 

Lich: You trap Nirn in a cycle where the flame must be reignited over and over again until the world eventually becomes the fuel.

 

Alexander: Will darkness destroy Nirn?

 

 

Lich: It won't destroy. It will usher in a new age.

 

Alexander: What's in that new age?

 

Lich: I can't say.

 

Alexander: You don't know. Okay.

 

 

Lich: No matter what, this world might not be saved, ever.

 

Alexander: What makes you say so?

 

Lich: Look how close the moons are.

 

 

Lich: There's even a planet with a burning land of volcanoes and water. There's another world being made by the Divines and there won't be enough space in Mundus for both Nirn and this new world.

 

Alexander: So, this dying flame might just be a symptom of that?

 

Lich: Yes. Though...no that would be stupid...

 

 

Alexander: What?

 

Lich: Perhaps if the worlds aligned, we could escape. My people don't wish to die, neither do yours.

 

Alexander: They aren't my people.

 

Lich: But you could become their herald or shepherd.

 

 

Alexander: No. 

 

 

Lich: You could be a great leader.

 

Alexander: I won't stop you leaving but most would not follow to a new world, if that's even possible

 

 

Alexander: But I didn't summon you just for this talk.

 

Lich: Then what did you summon me for?

 

Alexander: The New Daedra. Where can I find them?

 

 

Lich: You think I know where they are?

 

 

Alexander: You people are always so close to the Daedra, it makes sense that you'd know.

 

 

Lich: We're loyal to the Old Daedra, not the new.

 

 

Lich: But we know where the Usurpers are.

 

 

Alexander: Then tell me, if time is waning, I must hunt them quickly.

 

 

Alexander: You're loyal to the old, I can get them their thrones back.

 

 

Lich: Vaeriks, Lord of Misfortune sits beneath the mountains. Kylixa, Lord of Parasites is in her nest in the far reaches of Oblivion. Pueniixa, the Forlorn Sister awaits some great prophecy at the End of the World.

 

Alexander: End of the World? The place or the literal end?

 

Lich: The place.

 

 

Alexander: If you would leave me be, I would be very grateful. I have much to think about now.

 

 

Lich: I understand. But do not think on this too long. There isn't time for hesitation.

 

Alexander: I know.

 

 

Alexander: Goodness, we're so close to the end.

 

 

Alexander: And my Pueniixa. What have you gotten yourself into?