Elder Scrolls Autumn of Anarchy Chapter 1: Traveling in Skyrim

Authours's note: I decided to move the events of unbound one month forward in time, the following event takes place on 17th Hearthfire (September). Oh and an imperial legion is a unit of roughly a thousand men, the imperial legion is also the organisation to which all imperial legions belong. A thousand men may seem a bit much but the roman ones were between 3.000 and 5.000.
Author's note 2: I'm thinking of moving the event back to their proper place.

Actius Arcturus woke up startled, he could have sworn he had heard a sound and he had been living out here in the wilderness of Skyrim long enough to know the difference between dream and reality. He got out if his blankets, the could see the first golden rays of dawn shining through the fabric of the tent. Despite being cold on this altitude it was still early autumn and in the summers the sun barely dipped beneath the horizon in Skyrim. He grabbed his dagger before peeking out. What had he heard? A roaring? Was there a bear in the camp? Now Skyrim's bears usually did not go after people. there were easier prey for them. Well he did not see any sign of a bear, nor of wolves, trolls, were wolves or anything else he knew that could make such a noise. He stopped into the tent again the get dressed and then climbed out.

He was camped a few miles away from the village of Helgen, a village that served as the lifeline of the white pass, one of only two passes that pass from Cyrodiil to Skyrim, the trade through the pass had made Helgen a rich town, in the summers when the pass was open there was little point in hunting here, to many travelers scaring of the game. But because of the altitude the white pass closed early every autumn and opened late every spring. The pass was probably already closed. Helgen and the land around it was covered in a thick layer of frost already and the pass was even further up.

Arcturus had approached Helgen hoping to sell some pelts a few days ago but had decided against it when he realised that because of the recent civil war the imperial garrison in the village had been increased massively. Even now there were almost an entire legion camped on the opposite side of the village from where Arcturus had camped. He cared little for the civil war, the rebels, these Stormcloaks hated him because he was from Cyrodiil the imperial capital province, meanwhile he had his own reasons for wanting to stay away from imperial forces. He had left Cyrodiil for a reason and though he doubted anyone in the legion would know him it was better not to risk it.

He sighed. Well he must have dream the roar after all. There was nothing out here except the now frozen over cinders from his campfire. For a moment he wished he had not been traveling alone, if he had had company then someone would have kept a watch on the fire and it would still be burning. But why wish for what was not the case. He reached into the tent again for his bow and arrows. No point in going back to sleep now, he might as well check the traps he had set the night before, at least if he kept moving he'd be warm.

It took him several hours to do so, and he had little luck, he had found a rabbit in one of the traps but that was it, he was returning to his camp, half climbing down the mountain side of one of the mountains that made up Skyrim's southern border, as he heard the sound again this time it was not in a dream. He had been focused on his footing and looked up startled. There is was,a  roar unlike anything he had ever heard before, a bestial roar yet it seemed to carry words in some harsh language in it. And a sound he had heard even earlier but dismissed as gusts of wind, but no he realized was the sound of the beating of massive wings. As soon as he looked up he saw it. It was perched on top of the imperial tower i Helgen. And there was no doubt what it was. A dragon.Arcturus just stared, he had hunted every kind of creature there was and even done some moonlighting as a treasure hunter, delving deep into the ancient nord tombs of the country, but the being before him radiated power and terror in a way he had never experienced before. He was miles away from it, and yet as it roared as it attacked Helgen he left like just turning around and fleeing. Finally he got his mind together and realized that where he stood on the mountain side was totally exposed. If the dragon gave up on Helgen and came this way he was a mouse caught before an eagle. His only hope that he was to small a prey for it to bother with. He looked around himself and saw a rocky outcrop a couple of hundred yards away, he climbed over there and hid. He pulled his hid up and sat motionless. Some large animals had a hard time registering things that did not move. He sat there for what felt like hours, hearing the roaring of the dragon and the sound of battle as the imperial legion fought a dragon. Then the roaring stopped and the beating of wings grew louder and louder, he saw how everything turned dark and realized that the massive creature just passed above him. But apparently it was either not interested in him or didn't see him because then the beating faded away in the distance.

He waited a while longer and then looked up. Helgen was on fire. every building in the entire village seemed to be burning. Over half thousand people had made the town it's home. Most of an imperial legion had been defending it. Over fifteen hundred people might have perished here today. He shook his head, he had not been born when the great war had been fought but now he realized what it must have been like. He started climbing down the mountain again, when he approached his camp the sun was already on it's way down, he had not eaten anything except  a few snow berries he had found while checking the traps all day, his little morning excursion had turned into an all day affair. As he approached his camp he heard voices. He covered low and started sneaking towards them. They were coming from his camp. he approached it unseen and saw three Stormcloaks with two unarmed legion members in captivity, the legionaries were not bound but one of the Stormcloaks were aiming a bow at them. the other two were ransacking Arcturus' camp, they had found his food, thrown most of his carefully maintained furs out on the cold ground.

Arcturus put his bow down on the ground, planted a few arrows in the ground and stood. He did not want to show the Stormcloaks that he had it.

"Can I help you with Something, Stormcloaks!" He called to them. Startled they span aroudn to face him. The one with the bow had taken his arrow of the prisoners but as they made a move one of the others  Held a sword towards them and mumbled something and they decided not to try anything.

"What is this?" the third one tolerantly a leader, called "Another imperial? A spy perhaps?"

"I'm no spy I am a hunter and those are my things you are digging through"

"An imperial hunter in Skyrim? Well so not a spy a poacher and a thief" The leader called back "These beasts were stolen from the people of Skyrim and as Skyrim's rightful defenders we are taking them back"

"In that case we're going to have a problem" Acruturus said.

"Not really, imperial spy or imperial thief makes little difference to us, you should not be in Skyrim and you'll pay the price" The officer said and drew his sword.

"Well that changes things" Arcturus remarked.

"How so?"

"Well I was going to let you off with a warning but if you intend to kill me I guess I'll have to kill you first"

"Good luck" the officer commanded and then turned to his friend with the bow. "Shoot him" The Stormcloak drew up at the same time Arcturus ducked down and to the side heard the bowman's arrow fly where he had stood  a moment before, scooped his own bow from ground and drew one of the arrows from the ground, in one smooth motion he turned and drew it and sent the arrow flying into the face of the Stormcloak archer who was still trying to draw his second arrow. He was dead before he hit the ground. The two stormcloaks stared but before they could react one of the imperial soldiers went for the sword of the man standing next to him. The other one turned only for the other imperial soldier to life his hand and send a fireball soaring into his face. He screamed as his clothes caught fire, the imperial who had cast the spell took the sword of the dead archer and thrust it into the back of the last struggling Stormcloak, before turning and finishing of the one he had previously set on fire.

Acturus looked at how causally this imperial had just ended the lives of two men, himself he was still trying very much not to look at the man whom he had himself killed. Arcturus was an excellent archer he had killed loads of animals in his days, he had even killed humans before, in the wilds of Skyrim one needed to know how to take care of oneself. It didn't mean he liked it. He scooped up the last of his arrows and returned them to the quiver, and then headed down the hill to his camp. The imperial who had cast the spell, taller than the other and from the style of his armour some kind of officer, also Arcturus realized an Altmer, high elf, now stood bent over his friend who was sitting down in the snow.

"No no, don't worry legate, I am fine, just  abut bruised is all"

"Are you certain? Well then" The officer stood and faced Arcturus. "I believe we owe you our lives archer, you have out gratitude" He said

"Coin would be better" Arcturus replied with a grin "It's hard to spend gratitude"

"Soon, I fear, it's not going to be very easy to spend coin either in Skyrim" the Altmer replied. "You may be better of taking my gratitude. I am imperial legate Fasendil" he introduced himself. He made a motion towards his friend "This is Hadvar of Riverwood" Hadvar was a nord shorter than Fasendil and with dark blonde hair.

"I'm Actius  Arcturus" Acturus replied, hesitantly. He didn't think anyone would actually know his name but to his shock Fasendil blinked as if he had recognized the name. But then the look was gone and he just nodded.

"An imperial traveling alone in Skyrim, you live a dangerous life these days Arcturus" He commented.

"More dangerous than an Altmer member of the imperial legion?" Acturus asked. Fasendil smiled thinly.

"Perhaps not" He mused. "I hate to ask this of you since you have already saved our lives but those lives will not really be safe unless I do, we require your hospitality for this night, food, the use of your fire and perhaps a few of your pelts for bedding?" Acturus opened his mouth but the legate cut him short "You aksed for coin earlier, the imperial legion will obviously compensate you richly for it"

"In that case welcome to my camp" Acrturus said with a smile. He would have preferred the imperials not to be here but the legate was apparently a very dangerous man and resisting might not really be an option. He looked over to the man called Hadvar. He had been busy collecting the corpses of the Stormcloaks. He looked to Fasendil.

"We should bury them" He said.

"We should also bury the twelve men that are dead on the other side of that hill" Fasendil nodded in the direction of Helgen "That's where they captured us" he added to Arcturus, then turned back to Hadvar "Or the several hundred men who must laying dead on the streets of Helgen, but I am afraid we simply don't have time. We need to take care of the living, the dead will have to wait." Hadvar nodded, Arcturus got a fire going and retrieved the rabbit he had caught this morning. As is cooked, Hadvar looked at it.

"I will eat anything right now because I amstarving but I swear, the smell of roasted meat will never smell right to me again." He said. "Damn Ulfric, damn him to Oblivion"

"Ulfric? Ulric Stormcloak? The jarl of Windhelm? What does he have to do with this?"

"We had captured him,  were going to sentence him to death for murdering the high king, I take it you heard about that part?" Arcturus nodded so Hadvar continued "He was right on his way up to the chopping block when the dragon attacked. and in the chaos Ulfric disappeared" He shook his head "I guess it's to much to hope for that he's in the belly of the beast"

"That why there was a full legion outside Helgen? Because of Ulfric?" Arcturus asked.

"Not a full legion" Fasendil said bitterly, "the full legion" eight out of every ten men that the legion has in Skyrim, and now they are all dea, another one out of ten fell in battle to capture him, the legion has only one tenth of the strength it's supposed to have in Skyrim and it's unlikely we'll be able to bring more men or resources through the white pass before it's closed for the winter." Fasendil looked into the fire bitterly "In one fell swoop Ulfric has pretty much won the war already. If he can take Falktreth hold and hold the White pass and keep holding the Rift pass when spring comes the full might of the imperial legion will not be enough to take them from him. Meanwhile we have almost no men, almost no resources and the only pass we control to cyrodiil is frozen over to thirds of the year so we have no way of bringing more of either in." Fasendil spat. "Why didn't I just attack Riften when I had the chance, it's not like I would have lost more men there than I did today and at least might have been able to reinforce now"

"You can't blame yourself legate, no one could have known that a a dragon would show up at Helgen" Hadvar commanted.

"So most of the legion are dead?" Arcturus asked. "How about the townsfolk?"

"The legion gave their lives so that as many of them as possible would be able to flee the city. I have no idea how any actually got out" Hadvar answered.

"Did you see if the damn thing at least managed to eat Elenwen?"

"Sorry legate"

"Elenwen"

"She leads the Thalmor in Skyrim, ah but she probably fled along with all the civilians, wouldn't wan to shed her blood for humans now would she? Damn elves" Fasendil muttered.

"You're an elf" Acturus pointed out.

"Yes I am, and the Thalmor gives us all a bad name" Neither Hadvar nor Arcturus commented on that. The three of them ate their rabbit in silence.

"Someone should warn Riverwood of this dragon" Hadvar commented. Riverwood was the closest town now that Helgen was destroyed, it lay at the bottom of a valley where overflow from lake Inalta formed the rapid White River heading down towards the city of Whiterun, capital of Whiterun hold, one of the nine holds of Skyrim "They may be attacked next"

"Not sure how much good a warning will do them, that thing tore through almost a thousand men like they were wet parchment." Observed but then he shook his head. "No you are right they need to know, but I must return to the Rift, with the loss of our men We'll be much harder pressed there. If the Stormcloaks push west into Falkreth"

"Not though these mountains" Arcturus interrupted him "If a significant military force could be brought through these mountains then you could have brought reinforcements from the empire, it is specifically because the high passes, the white pass from Cyrodiil and Haemar's Pass between Falkreth and the rift, are hard to travel with significant amounts of men that you are vulnerable, but it also protects you from your enemies doing the same thing"

"The Haemar's pass is lower than the white pass though, but maybe you're right. But if Whiterun hold sides with Ulfric..." This time Hadvar interrupted him.

"Not going to happen Balgruuf and Ulfric hate each other"

"I admire your sense of loyalty to your jarl, Hadvar, but Jarl Balgruuf is a pragmatic and if he sees the chance to end the war quickly he might take it even if it means siding with Ulfric" Hadvar looked a little less certain but kept shaking his head, though he did not contradict the legate this time. "As I was saying I need to return to the Rift" He turned to Arcturus "May the empire enlist your services again Arcturus? With compensation obviously"

"Depends on what services you want rendered" Arcturus replied not looking at him, instead staring into the fire. "I am not fighting in your war.

"I want you to help Hadvar to get to Riverwood, he took quite a beating when we were captured"

"I cna make that trek on my own legate!" Hadvar protested. "I grew up these parts, I know the land well there's no risk, also any imperial stragglers will be going west. You on the other hand will be going east to the Rift, where the stormcloak survivors will be going, and you don't know the land nearly as well as I do" Legate Fasendil opened his mouth to object.

"Hadvar is right legate" Arcturus interrupted him "There is no way that you're going to be able to reach the Rift though Haemar's pass, not if Ulfric is going in that direction., but there are other paths to the east. I have been living up here six years, I know these mountains pretty well" Arcturus stopped to consider, why had he just offered to get involved? Maybe he was simply tired of travelling alone. maybe he was angry at the Stormcloaks for raiding his camp, maybe it was the foul bigotry that Ulfric's followers were spouting that left him with bitter taste in his mouth every time he heard it. "If you want to have any chance of reaching the rift then you need my help" Fasendil looked at him then turned to Hadvar.

"Are you certain you can manage on your own Hadvar?"

"I grew up in Riverwood don't worry"

"Very well, I'll send someone to look for you once I reach my men"

"As you say legate" Hadvar replied.

There was little speaking for the rest of the evening. It was fortunate they needed someone to watch the fire at all times because while two people could squeeze into Arcturus' tent all three of them would not have managed to do so. Instead they took turns on the watch. Faendil took the first watch and was the  to wake Hadvar who would wake Arcturus. Early in the morning however it was Fasendil who woke Arcturus, he silently commented that he wanted Hadvar who was wounded to sleep thus had taken his watch too. Arcuturus took over the watch and sat there thinking, the legate was hardly a pleasant person. He was cold, bitter and stiff, but he seemed to care about the man under his command.

When they woke next morning they quickly paked up the camp, aside from some food Hadvar took very little. if all went well he'd be down in the valleys before night hit and be much better of.

"There's a semi permanent hunter's camp down at the guardian stones stones, right on the eastern end of lake Inalata, the road pass there and I should be able to stay with them for the night, and reach Riverwood tomorrow. I know the hunters these parts, it should be no problem" He had stowed his imperial armour into his pack and cowered p the imperial insignia on his sword with some leather scraps he had borrowed from Arcturus. Not that it was really needed, last time Arcturus had been down in the camp he referred to the camp leader had been a Redguard, one of the dark skinned people from the desert lands of Hammerfell to the west, and he had been feeling very anti Stormcloak at that time. Though as Hadvar had pointed out some of the nord hunters in the camp may feel otherwise.

They said their goodbyes then Fasendil and Arcturus headed east on a small trial up the same mountain side where Acturus had sat crouching from the dragon the other day. The first two days day of marching was largely uneventful, but as they camped the second night there was a glow from above one of the nearby hills.

"What is that?" Fasendil asked Arcturus, who threw a look that way to look at what he was referring to.

"Oh probably the torches on Neugard" he said dimisevly.

"Neugard?" Fasendil asked.

"Fort Neugard, though as I understand it fort Altgard was destroyed when Tiber Septim united Tamriel so it's not particularly new"

"There's a fort up here? An imperial fort"

"Not exactly, there are the ruins of an imperial fort up here. it's been the base of bandits for decades if not centuries, they use it as a strong point from where to raid either the white pass trade route or the Haemar's pass one. They're hard to dig out you see since you can't marshal big forces up here in the mountains so a prolonged siege is basically impossible."

"Why did no one tell me it was here?"

"My guess is that the people who were stationed her before the civil war began just assumed you knew those who weren't didn't know either and so couldn't have told you. It lost most strategic importance when the keep at Helgen was built." Arcturus shrugged.

"But the keep at Helgen is no more, I'd like to take a look at that fort in the morning"

"Not much to see really, a fairly standard imperial fort, one of the walls are a bit in disrepair, filled with bandits"

"Have you ever traded with them?"

"With bandits? No way, now don't get me wrong I don't mind a skilled burglar but bandits are murderers rapists... the lowest of the low"

"So you've never been inside"

"Well actually they did raid my camp once when I was out, took my food so I kind of had to sneak in and take it back, with some interest obviously" Arcturus stopped, he had just realized he had said a lot more than he had intended too. Exactly what had he said about burglars.

"You sneaked in?" Fasendil gave him a perceptive look.

"Uh yeah I'm fairly good at sneaking" Arcturs found himself squirming slightly.

"Could you do it again?" the legate asked with a calculating look.

"Yeah I guess, but why? I would rather stay away from the place, those people are dangerous" The legate only nodded.

The next day they went up over the hill and had a look at the fort.

"How long has it been ruined" Fasendil asked Arcturus, who just shrugged.

"What am I your local historian, a century perhaps how old is... was the imperial keep at Helgen?" Arcturus asked rhetorically

"Two hundred years, one hundred and eighty three years to be exact, it was the first outpost built in Skyrim by the Mede dynasty when they took power in the empire in 4E 17" Fasnedil corrected him absent-mindedly. Arcturus blinked in surprise, and turned to look at him "No way that fort has been abandoned for that long though. I'd say at most fifty years, the far wall seems to have collapsed, but otherwise it's in excellent shape, and wit Helgen gone this is becomes the most important strategic locations in these mountains"

"One problem though Legate, you have no way of taking it, even if I sneaked in again I couldn't take out almost eighty bandits on my own. And as I said yesterday you can't siege a fort in a location like this"

"What oh sorry, Arcturus, I was just thinking out loud. We should head on to the rift" Arturus gave him a look with narrowed eyes, he was not at all certain that the legate hard really given up the idea to take this fort.

"We should head north from here to the road, we might not be able to use it, but we might as well try it

 before we try something more radical."

When they about an hour later stood on an outcrop overlooking the road they could clearly see there was no way whatsoever that they could use the road. Before them sat a fairly large encampment of Stormcloaks. right on the only road leading to Haemar's pass. 

"So how about those other passes?" the legate asked Arcturus.

"There are no other passes, Haemar's is the only one."

"But you said..."

"Other paths not other passes" Arcturus said slooping. He drew a deep breath. "There are tunnels, under the mountain, built by the ancient nords, most of mountains of Skyrim are riddled with them, well the ones in there mountains are connected so one can pass from one side to the other. For an example there is the Skybound watches to the north on the throat of the world, but the ones we''ll have to use are in the mountains to the east. He crouched and grabbed a stick and drew in the sand before him here's for Neugard, behind it is an entrance to the tunnel system, in the ruins of fort Altgard here in Haemar's pass in an exit, a cave called haemar's shame, and here on the far side of the mountains is a large ruin called Arcwind point" He looked up at the legate "Altgard is filled with ghosts, those who fell when Tiber Septim took the fort, Haemar's shame is filled with vampires, and and Arcwind Point is swarming with draugr. It would probably be safest to pass from Altgard to Haemar's shame, the vampires in Haemar's shame may even let us, they sometimes allow smugglers to use their tunnels in exchange for a tribute of blood, if not vampires are cowardly creatures and usually scurry away if you put up to much a fight, they want to live forever and dying kind of screws that up for them, meanwhile the draugr at arcwind point are a lot more dangerous, they can't be bargained with, nor do they retreat in fear. The upside of Arcwind Point is that it leads us all the way to the rift, while if we're unlucky the Haemar's shame exist will lead to us getting trapped in the pass by the Stormcloaks."

"So which one do we pick?"

"That is up to you, legate, I am only here as hired help"

"Haemar's shame it is then, if we meet the stormcloaks in the pass we'll just have to head for Arcwind Point from there"

They once again sneaked past fort Neugard, this time on the northern side. Arcturus found the legate standing looking down at the collapsed wall on the north side and muttering to himself, but when he gave him a quearing look he just motioned to Arcturus to keep showing the way.

It was getting dark when they finally approached the ruins of old fort Altgard. When they got closer the legate looked with surprise at the ruins.

"This wasn't built by the nords" he commented. Arturus stopped and looked at him again. "This architecture is clearly elven"

"Then maybe it's not Altgard for old but for Altmer" Arcturus said shrugging. "It makes sense why would Tiber Septim attack and burn down a nord outpost? Then again it still connects to the old nord tunnels further in, maybe the elves built their fort on top of older nord ruins? At any rate we should camp here and enter the ruins when the sun is up tomorrow. These ruins are supposedly haunted much less risk or running into anything nasty in sunlight."

"It's never sunlight where we are going" The legate pointed out.

"We have to face darkness eventually so why not walk in the sun as long as possible?"

"Very well, we camp here and continue at first light"

When Arcturus awoke the next morning he found that the legate was missing, he was just about to start tracking him down when he returned from the direction of the ruins.

"Morning legate, these are not places to go on unannounced walks"

"Sorry Acturus, I wanted to look at the ruins before we headed on, it's not Altmer, I have no idea what it might be, some sort of long forgotten type of mer, the elves who fought Ysgramor perhaps" Arcturus drew a deep breath and rose, he disliked when the legate became like this.

"What is on your mind legate, starting to agree with the Thalmor that this land rightfully belongs to the elves?" Fasendil span around, his eyes blazing.

"Never compare me to the Thalmor" He sneered. Then his face softened "On the contrary this ruin is a reminder of how much has been lost because of the pointless struggles between man and mer"

"You really hate the Thalmor don't you?" Arcturus asked him.

"More than you can imagine, perhaps more than even the Stormcloaks do." He mused, Arcturus opened his mount but the legate cut him of "One day I may even tell you why"

Arcturus nodded to accept the rebuke. Fasendil then shrugged.

"Let us pack up, I believe we have a date to keep with a place that is dark damp and cold."

Some new things and a teaser

Lo folks it's been a while. more than three years by my reckoning.  And while I have certainly written in this time I have not produced much worthy of posting. And in a way I still haven't but I was thinking "Hey I should fire the old blog up again". I have been playing a lot of Skyrim these last months and I remember making up a story when I last played the game, the thing is I didn't remember the specifics of that story any more. So I started scribbling. And this is what I came up with, no idea if I am going to finish it or not, so here comes a teaser for my upcoming Skyrim fanfic. Oh and I obviously don't own the right to anything and am not allowed to make any profits of it, no idea how that works with adds, eh please don't sue.

Elder Scrolls: The Autumn of Anarchy.

It is the 201st year of the fourth age, the empire has recently won a major victory over the rebel Stormcloaks at Darkwater Crossing. Smashing the Stormcloak forces and capturing their leader Ulfric Stormcloak, the Jarl of Windhelm. Ulfric is taken to the imperial outpost at Helgen to be executed for treason, guarded by  most of the imperial forces in Skyrim, but as he is being led up to the headsman a dragon attacks Helgen, Ulfric escapes, and most of the impeiral forces are wiped out. As harsh weather closes the passes, Skyrim is cut of from the rest of the empire,  and both sides find themselves undermanned, under equipped and underfunded.
What's more if the passes don't reopen before winter they and all of Skyrim is in for a slow war of attrition that will leave thousands dead it it's wake.
Into this madness stumbles a young man running from trouble in from the empires capital province of Cyrodiil, Actius Arcturus is forced to pick a side in the conflict, because as the rebellion turns into a civil war no one can remain neutral, not the high lord in his castle, not the thief or poacher living of the land.

Now the pieces I will be posting are not final, they are probably going to change, but since I am writing them I may as well post them.

Here be links

Writer's Challenge #3

Lo folks ok so the third writer's challenge has been up for 4 days and I haven't started yet, haven't even posted it here yet, I may get some writing done for it on Sunday. But for now I'll post the challenge. As always it's totally open for anyone to jump aboard.

"Hm, not quite two per week so far, not even one. Well, we're writing in all cases more than in the past, hopefully, the tempo will increase gradually.

Here, anyway,writer's challenge # 3:

1. The story should be written in Swedish or English
2nd The story should be at least 1500 words.
3rd The story must include the following three components, again taken from the WCG on Seventh Sanctum.

     The story ends on a wrecked ship.
     The story takes place in the late morning.
     During the story, a famous person goes missing.

A Seventh Sanctum challenge again, with about as much complexity.

My contribution to the challenge can probably be delayed a while, at worst,  until early next week.

Until then,

Auf Wiedersehen!"


The obvious problems here is to fit 1500 words into one late morning, so I'll just have the story begin or end in the late morning.
Ship can either be a classic sea going vessel or in a sci-fi a spaceship. And from my (far from perfect) grasp at English a wrecked ship doesn't (have to) mean ship wreck either.
Oh and famous person I'm going to at least for now assume that is famous in setting because I don't like writing about real people unless I have a lot of time to do research. Imay leave things out, and add embellishment to history but I really hate to state untruths.

Oh and I've also tried updating the page's looks, I'm not sure I'm satisfied yet but any feedback or ideas would be great.

Well until next time folks.

Summary Stargate Fanfic

Ok if you at any point think you'll read my SGA fanfic series then this outline is pretty much as much spoiler as spoiler gets. Just saying

The point of this story isn't really Hoglund, never was, he's a macguffin of sorts, a vessel for bringing the story forward, the real main characters are Sora, Tyrus and the genii (espeically Athor, and the Radim siblings). Hoglund is mostly there as a pair of eyes for the reader to look through (since it's much harder to tell a story from the perspective of a an alien)

Book 1
Rising - the storm

9 episodes

Hoglund arrives in Pegasus and explores atlantis along the science team and some combat tecnicians under the command on Captain Nathan Jones.

Several deaths and unexplained cases of sabotage, later Hoglund realises Jones is behind it and during the events of storm (but before the evacuation) they fight and Hoglund kills Jones.

Hoglund is then evacuated from Atlantis along most of the crew. once on Manara he gets himself drunk (he's just murdered a former friend it seems like the way most people would deal with that)  and while being drunk he meets and tries to hit on sora who rifle buts him in the face and dumps him in a cellar.

The book is about how Hoglund about Atlantis and it's inhabitants (rather than just relying and caring about himself, "I'm not a psychopath I just had a hard life")

Book 2

the eye - the siege part 2 (ish)
10 episodes (+/- 0-1 episode)

We follow Sora through the events of the genii occupation of Atlantis. then after she's taken prisoner (/surrenders) we follow Hoglund as he interviews her and they find themselves affected by the stockholm syndrome.

Hoglund goes offworld a few times and encounters what appears to be ori woshippers (and learn of the events that really led up to the latintian-wraith war)

This book is about how Sora's influence on Hoglund force him to view pegasus from the point of view of it's inhabitants. It's also a book about how Sora comes to terms with lanteans and the actions of her people in relation to them.

Book 3

The siege part 3 (ish) - coup d'etat

17 episodes (+/- 0-1 episodes)

After the events of the siege captain William 'Bill' ______ of the SBS (who firsts whows up during the siege) is assigned to atlantis and is given an offworld team. He recruits Hoglund as his science officer and Sora as his alien liaison.

A cold war situation develops in Pegasus, with Atlantis and the geniistruggling for influence over other culture and worlds. Sometimes they tear down corrupt regimes but just as often they find themseves helping local warlords stay in power to prevent the genii from taking over.

Then come coup d'etat Sora tries to warn the lanteans about trusting Laden, and says he'll be worse than Cowen they let him.

Even after the situation is resolved Sora is disillusioned with Atlantis and starts speaking about leaving the city. That she may be of more use to pegasus if she returned to the genii.

Book 4Michael - The return part 1 (ish)

13 episodes (+/- 0-1 episodes)

With peace with the genii established Atlantis turns it's attention back to the wraith threat. With the first Michael situation arising Hoglund and sora is pro whiping the wraith out they are after all wraith. After first contact with the Asurans the team does several raids on Asuran outposts to capture technology and preferable ZPM's. Hoglund holds that the Asurans may be the ones chance they have of truly unlocking the secrets of the ancients.

When shepard is captured by Kolya the team uses Sora's genii contacts to try to track him down. Instead they find indicators of how Ladon has been wielding/abusing the power of his office, and considering that Atlantis is allied with him Sora grows ever more inclined towards leaving Atlantis.
When the ancients return and the expedition leave Sora goes to find the only genii commander who could oppose Ladon the legendary commander Athor. Hoglund tries to defect to follow her but is found out and brought back to earth. There he is disbared from the stargate program because he tried to go AWOL.

Book 5

The Return part 2 (ish) - missing
17 episodes (+/- 0-1 episodes)

Hoglund stuggles on earth to find a way to return to Pegasus. Meanwhile Sora seeks out commander Athor and convince him to come out of retirement and start a resistance movement again Ladon.

Hoglund finds some pieces about the great library (turns out the one in alexandria was a pale copy of an ancient one) that he brings to daniel jacksson and thus gets acess to the stargate. Now hoglund expected the library to be  a hoax but it turns out to be the real thing and ancient outpost, inside it Hoglund finds a reference to a atlantis class city ship in pegasus and manages to go awol on SG-1 when the library comes under attack from ori.
He joins up with sora and Athor (who doesnt like Hoglund becuase his son was killed by shepard and lanteans like lanteans) he brings their breakaway faction to the city that becomes known as the lighthouse.
Ladons genii name them terrorists and the department of homeworld security puts out a warrent for hoglunds arrest as a deserter. Once Atlantis comes back under earth controll they also have to avoid Atlantis teams sent out to capture hoglund. At the same time Hoglund raids asuran strongholds (as well as caches of ancient tech left by atlantis) to repair the lighthouse.

Captain ____ is tasked with leading a new SG team specifically founded to bring Hoglund in, on special request from ladon that "Atlantis deals with this menace it has created". Captain ___ however avoids capturing Hoglund and even manages to aid him a  few times, since only ladon and the DHS seems to be the least bit intrested in Hoglund it's allowed to slip by.
When given the chance he tells Hogund about becketts death. But soon after than Hoglund meets beckett who has ascended (with help), Beckett tells Hoglund that michael is still alive and and using has a lab on Hoff where he tries to unlock the secrets of the Hoffan drug. Hoglund and sora and their team plans to attack and destroy the lab.
Meanwhile a IOA special agent has taken over the hunt for Hoglund and somehow finds out he'll be on Hoff (maybee someone betrays hoglud to ladon who then tells the IOA?)

They all clash on Hoff and are trapped by michael's forces, they find that michael has tried unsucessfully to clone beckett, ascended beckett tells them it wont work since a clone lack the energy component of the original person.
Beckett is forced to use his ascended powers to get them out of there safely but is then quickly stopped by the others. Michaels lab is destroyed but but michael gets away with the drug and a clone that seems to have awoken after the ascended beckett dissapeared.

Book 6
the seer - search and rescue

14 episodes

Under the ever more pressing the ever more pressing threatof michael's hybrids Hoglund Sora and Athor decide to join forces with Ladon's genii. Because of this Hoglund is given a teporary pardon by the IOA (or actually by Carter).

However when the assassin attempt on Harmony is foudn out Ladon blames Hoglund's faction again. Upon running into beckett again Hoglund theorizes that the ascended may have dumped Beckett's nergy component into the clone body when they deascended him.

sora and hoglund meets sora's father who has been made a runner, in order to protect them he has to leave though.

As hoglund sets up to help rescue teyla ladon attacks them, Hoglund submerges the lighthouse rather than let it fall into genii hands. Ladon launches a nuclear bomb agaisnt the city and while the shield and the water soak up most of the blast Sora is in a  weakened section and gets hit by the radiation.

Book 7

the seed - inquisition

11 episodes

Hoglunds faction seeks out cultures in the galawy to find the pegasus federation in order to marinalise Ladon's power. But it is inflitrated by genii loyalists. When shepards team is taken by the genii captain ___ comes to Hoglund for help the trail leads them to ladon. Sora is begining to sugger from heavy symptoms of radiation poisoning.
Hoglund's faction commits to a coup agaisnt ladon and Hoglund kills ladon. Athor, blames Hoglund as a lantean for the civil war and assumes command of the genii. Hoglund returns with Sora who is slipping into dilerium to the sunken lighthouse. He tries to get help from atlantis but atlanstis has problems with the genii because of his actions and Woolsey wont even speak to him.

book 8

The prodigal - past the end of the series.
Hoglund seeks a cure for sora but but even after he gets help from beckett he's told that at this point there's nothing he can do. The last wave of radiation was the final straw to her otherwise high lifetime exposure to radiation. If Hoglund had gotten her to backett right after it happened then maybee. After Atlantis returns to earht hoglund relaises that the ascension machine (from tao of rodeney) could let her live beyong her mortal lifespan. He hijacks a traveller ship upgrades the warpdrive to intergalactic (yeah he can do that I'll come up wth some plebotheum) he goes to earth and infiltrates atlantis gets sora to use and survive the ascendometer. Hoglund beams her back to his ship, she awakens jsut to see earth assuming the ship to be threat open fire upon it from atlantis. She says goodbye to Hoglund before the ship blows up.
A broken Hoglund is brought to trail for his actions in Pegasus, but then he starts blaming athor for sora's death and escapes and somehow get's back to pegasus where he is to unleash a superweapon upon the genii capital, but relaises he has lost it when Sora appears before him and tells him he shouldnt. The SG people arrive to stop him to see he already has started to stop it. With Mckay's help hoglund stops the machine but the transports mckay out of there was the machine blows up killing him. Shepards team and captain ___ goes down to the surface to meet athor, who promptly betrays them and reveals he had planned most of the events to be able to avenge his sons death on shepard. But then Dahlia Radim leads an unbloody coup agaist him, saying that unlike Ladon and Athor she won't kill he predessecor becuase as a reign begins it continues. She asks the lanteans to take Athor into custody then Athor draws a gun to shoot shepard but is himself shot in the arm by an unknown gunman. Who turns out to be Tyrus. Tyrus kneels over the bleeding athor and athor says soemthing and athor replies "You did one mistake Athor, you shouldn't have let my daughter die" before killing him.

then we pan to a scene where Bill standing on a pier of atlantis, Sora and Hoglund comes up to him, and he asks them if they are really there.
"I'm sorry bill you know we can't answer that" hoglund said
"This is where our path diverge William" Sora smiled. and then they faded away.

The Trail Of Koronus

Karhellion limped down the mountainside towards the simple structure that was the shrine of Koronus. Of course it was not one of the great shrines, Koronus had few great shrines, the temple in tor achare was unique in that respect. No this shrine was little more than a cave that had been extended with an atrium. The southern kingdoms deemed the simple shrines of Koronus as barabaric, as they did many of the customs of Chrace. Of course they never said anything about the equally simple shrines of Isha that could be found everywhere on Ulthuan. The cult of Isha had held little power since the time of aenarion but the elves had long memories. Karhellion staggered under the weight of the white lion on his shoulders. The southerners belived thta only those seeking a place in the pheonix king's white lions did the rite known as the trail of Koronus. They understood so little, a fair few chracians attempted the trail and while only those who who had conquered the trail could join the phoenix king's legendary bodyguard there were other functions that also required it. Such as becomming a priest of Koronus, like the old elf that rose to meet him from one of the benches before the temple.
Haraldar was not specifically the priest of the shrine, the shrines of Koronus had no permanent priests, anyone may make use of them, all those who had undergone the trail might count themselves as priests of Koronus in some respect, except those sworn to other duties that was, and thus kept an eye on the shrines they happened to live nereby or travel past. Only the great temple in tor achare had a permanent detatchment of priests. Haraldar had gone further on the path of Koronus than most however, Karhellion's father even said he might one day become the high priest of the cult. Karhellion felt fortunate that such an esteemed man may be in charge of his trail.

The old elf stood, the elves lived long lives, and when one was old enough to truly show age then one knew they were truly ancient.

”The young hunter returns” He said with a smile, Karhellion was a bit disturbed by the fact that he seemed to have fangs like a canine. His voice was unlike the soft voices of most of their people it was a deep rumble almost as if there was the roar of a lion somewhere deep inside it. The old elf was quite unlike the priest of other realms to haraldar had served as a white lion for twohundred years before dedicating himself to the god, he was the largest most muscular elf Karhellion had ever seen, even in chrace and his eyes reminded the younger elf of a bird of prey. Two others emerged from the shrine, other who had undergone the trail and begun down the path of Koronus, but no one related to Karhellion. That was by tradition, though no living relative of his had gone through the trail anyway.
”I have slain the beast” Karhellion gasped and let his burden fall on the ground. It had not been an easy fight, the ancients claimed that once the trail had been undertaken with ones bare hands, and they say that the current captain of the White lions had done it that way, but today most wielded the woodsman's axe. Even then a white lion was a fierce and merciless opponent. ”I have beaten the trail of the god” he roared in satisfaction lifting his axe to the skies.

”Not yet you havent, boy” one of the others said he was a fairly young elf perhaps ony a century or so older than Karhellion himself but with a massive scar right across his face, Karhellion didn't know his name, it was not required of him to know their names, he had been told that the lion cloaks around their shoulders was all he needed to know. But from the scar clearly made by a weapon and not by a beast and his bearing that he was a warrior, perhaps even one of the white lions. The old priest nodded.

”You have killed the beast, but Koronus is the good of the hunt not the good of killing, if it is that elation you seek only the cyrathii can slake your thirst. The goods of the Asur will never ask you to kill for the sake of killing”

”I don't understand” Karhellion respended confused, he was standing there bleeding from a dozen places and the priest wanted to discuss schemantics.

”The hard part of the trail is still before you” the last of the older elves, he was older than the scarred one but yet his hair was still brown rather than white as the priest, the priest was large but this elf was even larger. Karhellion entered the shrine with the two older elves followign him. There were no chairs in the shrine intead there were animal hies left there was offerings by hunters in ages past, the two older elves sat down on them, and so did the young hunter. Then the priest entered with a bowl in front of him. He sat down on the hides so they formed a circle with him right across from Karhellion and set the bowl seemingly containing blood in the middle. He removed a few obejects from his robes and handed to the other two elves.

”You must never speak of this part of the ritual” the scarred one said.

”Just like you came here unknowing of what this trail was truly about, so much all others come here unknowing” the other elf said.

”You may turn back after we have explained, there is no shame in it but you will not have passed the trail unless you go forward” the priest said.

”I mean to go forward”

”Never promise to make a decision until you have heard the terms of it boy” the scarred one growled. In this light with the light from the candles on the wall playing in his eyes he looked almost as a lion himself.

”You will go into the realm of spirits daemons and gods, and face the spirit of the lion you slew...” the large elf began.

”The realm of chaos?” Karhellion asked terrified.

”Not the realm proper, into the border that separates this world from that one, the spirit of the lion has not yet passed through to the realm of death”

”It is dangerous, you may end up dead, or a drooling maniac with all sense blasted from your head, or possessed by the very animal you killed hunting the wilds as if you were a lion” the scarred elf said, but for some reason the large elf shot him an irritated glance. But the priest acted as if nothing had happened.

”Do you mean to go forward” the priest asked ”You may leave if you wish, you may come again as many times as you need but you'll need to redo to the first part of the trail again. No one has suceeded after having turned away twice”

The large elf muttered something under his breath, did he say something of Khaine? Karhellion wondered.
”I mean to go forward” he said again.

”Good, then this is what you must remember” the priest began.

”We serve Koronus the lord of the hunt” the large one said and put the obeject he had been given, and small bone brick into the bowl.

”But all elves are of Isha” the scrred one growled and put what he had been given into the bowl, a small tuft of hair it seems.

”And what is given can never be taken” the priest finished.

The last part was a part of the prayer of Isha, 'Isha who are one with the elves and ulthuan gives us freely what we need, what's given cannot be taken. And what has been given must eventually be returned' A reminder of that however long lived the elves were still mortal, and when they died returned all they were to Isha and Ulthuan.

The priest put his hand over the bowl and it seemed to ignited into flames.

”Breethe deeply and face the what you have taken” all three of them said. Karhellion bent forwards and ihaled the smoke, and the the world seemed to disolve.

He awoke many hours later, on the floor of the shrine, alone. Yet not alone. He stood wearily. That had been rough, the older elves had been right slaying the beast had been the easy part, this was so much harder. He was Karhellion, yet he was no longer Karhellion, what had been taken had been given.
He left the shrine, the large elf sat outside in the sunlight, now thathe knew what to look for he saw the similiarity to a big cat bathing in the sunlight. The elf didnt open his eyes as the younger elf approached. ”The others are hunting, so how did it go?”

”We are one” the elf who was once Karhellion said and sat beside the older elf.

”Of course” the older elf laughed, and the younger elf realised he had canines to. ”had you not become one you would both have been torn apart by angry daemons”

”You didn't tell me that”

”Suprisingly few fail, those who did would have been lost to Khaine anyway. Bloodlust is in our nature but if we cannot controll it... how did you do it”

”I surrendered” Karhellion said ”Eventually” he then admitted.

”I fought my beast for hours and hours, neither giving in, chaos had a grip on that ones soul, and perhaps khaine a firmer grip on mine that I would have admitted, but we shed ourselves of that as we fought and finally we realised than neither could conquer the other, not in that realm, and became one”

”A chaos touched lion... you are Korhil” the younger elf gasped. The captain of the White Lions himself.

”I am Charandis too, but I dont need to explain that to you”

”What of the others?”

”I have never asked Akenash, of his fight, I did not stand for him, Haraldar stood for me, he spoke to his beast rather than fighting it, he always does”

”Always?”

”You have stood unto the path of the great hunter, every time you hunt and slay a beast part of it will become part of you. Nothing as deep as the lion you are now one with, but still a feeling that you will come to know. Come now young cub it is time for us to join the hunt” he stood offering the young elf the skin of the lion he had slain. The skin he had once worn and would now always wear.