Lore:Battlehorn Castle

Battlehorn Castle
Type	Settlement
Continent	Tamriel
Province	Cyrodiil
Region	Colovian Highlands
Appears in	Oblivion (Fighter's Stronghold)

Battlehorn Castle

Battlehorn Castle is a large castle located in the Colovian Highlands of Cyrodiil, close to the Hammerfell border. It can be found along the Black Road west of the city of Chorrol. The castle contains many rooms, a smithy, and a shrine to Julianos, the patron deity of Lainlyn. It serves as the home of a group of exiled Knights of the True Horn.

The castle traces its origins to the Third Era court politics of Lainlyn prior to the Warp in the West. At this time, Baron Shrike was the authoritarian ruler of Lainlyn and commander of the Host of the Horn. Shrike's younger brother Lord Kain conspired to end his rule and formed the rival Host of the True Horn. However, after a failed battle to dethrone Baron Shrike, Lord Kain ordered his Knights of the True Horn to split into small groups and disperse, waiting in exile for him to call upon them again. One group, led by Lord Jaren, settled in Cyrodiil and built Battlehorn Castle.

One night, Lord Kain arrived at Battlehorn in the company of the battlemage Arielle Jurard, who was secretly in the service of Mannimarco. Lord Jaren greeted the pair but quickly grew alarmed by his liege lord's deteriorated condition. It transpired that Lord Kain had died in battle and had been resurrected by Jurard through foul necromancy. With the aid of his friend Garridan, Jaren sealed Jurard and the undead Kain in an underground grotto within the castle. Lord Jaren took this secret to his grave. Over time, his fellow knights began to depart; the remaining few awaited a message from Lord Kain which would never come, and the castle fell on hard times. To pay for the castle's maintenance, many of its accouterments were pawned to a Dunmer merchant named Nilphas Omellian, a friend of Lord Jaren who lived in the Imperial City. Lord Jaren's untimely death subsequently resulted in the castle being inherited by his son, Lord Kelvyn.

The castle's weakened state was eventually exploited when a small gang of marauders successfully laid siege to the castle in 3E 433, killing Lord Kelvyn when he attempted to charge their ranks. Desperate for aid, the surviving defenders offered lordship of the castle to any who could defeat the marauders. The Hero of Kvatch answered the call, and inherited the castle under the terms of Lord Kelvyn's will. The Hero then proceeded to purchase back much of the castle's former equipment from Nilphas Omellian and hired a number of staff, which included the appointment of a personal sparring trainer, an experienced castellan to lead the knights, and the famed vintner Talan. The Hero uncovered the truth of Lord Kain's fate and unsealed the secret grotto to find that he had become little more than an undead skeleton. However, the years of seclusion had allowed Arielle Jurard to achieve lichdom. The Hero banished both of these undead abominations and filled the castle with taxidermy of other fallen beasts. With the castle fully restored to its former glory, Nilphas Omellian also arranged to install an antique Dwemer forge for the castle's smithy.

During the Oblivion Crisis an Oblivion Gate opened close to the castle, but the structure was unaffected.

Notes

• During the Interregnum, Battlehorn Wine was the name of a rare Imperial vintage. Its relation to the Third Era castle is unknown, as the future site of Battlehorn was unoccupied circa 2E 582.

Gallery

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  An undead Lord Kain in the castle grotto

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  A Battlehorn Man-At-Arms

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  The Dwemer forge

See Also

• For game-specific information, see the Oblivion article.