Lore talk:Fort Frostmoth

Changes

Made some changes.

(1) Re. Nords taking control of Solstheim: No record of violent conquest against either Raven Rock or Fort Frostmoth is recorded in the History of Raven Rock. I'm choosing to assume that the Nords basically symbolically asserted control over the island, and nobody could be bothered to fight to deny them. They never even planted a settlement or a garrison, which suggests that it was more the kind of "invasion" that happens regularly every few years on that island which is currently disputed between Canada and Greenland - a dozen soldiers land, plant their flag, drink the beers which were left behind by the opposition, and leave a crate of beer there for the next time the opposition invade in a few years. I like the idea that really, *neither* Skyrim nor Morrowind particularly wanted Solstheim, and the whole reason it wasn't under Nordic control already was that they really hadn't wanted it, and even the two Nordic colonies of Skaal Village and Thirsk Mead-Hall were largely forgotten by mainland Skyrim.

(2) I rewrote some of the lore pertaining to Carius here, because the original version just doesn't fit either his character or the timeline. There's no evidence of diplomatic strain in the first 5 years of the 4th Era between Frostmoth and Raven Rock: one would have thought, as with a Nordic "conquest", that the History of Raven Rock would have recorded it if anything important came of it. The fact that it didn't, suggests nothing much happened. Indeed, the Dunmer colony at this time was still small rather than "sizable", and was NOT ruling itself, but under the aegis of the ruling East Empire Company, under whose charter the town and mine operated.

Besides, in those letters apparently written by an Imperial soldier "To Selina" which were also never sent, because the supply ship never made it to Solstheim before the eruption: there's no mention of trouble with Raven Rock (which would obviously have been noted by the soldiers). Nor is there any sign that Carius might even be deluded and having to be "looked after" (which might otherwise have been another reason for the fact that the Frostmoth / Raven Rock conflict never happened at this time). In fact, Maximian Axius reports that Carius has never led them down a wrong path yet, and that the principal problem they've been having is with Riekling attacks (which, no doubt, were also the principal problem facing Raven Rock, and the main thing that its Imperial garrison - later supplemented by the Redorans - needed to protect against.) Maximian was in fact escorting a supply wagon from Frostmoth to Raven Rock at the time of a riekling attack: hardly a sign that there were any diplomatic tensions between Frostmoth and Raven Rock.

Carius's "Letter to Imperial City" - found on his body after his death - obviously wasn't sent at all, or it wouldn't be *there*. And his "Declaration of war", purporting to say he will defend himself, obviously never arrived at the time, since it comes with a violent wave of ash creatures. Which itself makes no sense: declarations of war, if sent at all, are sent BEFORE the war.

So I'm drawing the conclusion that, in fact, there WERE NO diplomatic tensions between Carius and Raven Rock in the years 4E 0-5 (beginning of Dunmer colony but still under Imperial protection, until Carius's death: and that basically what's happened, is that he was resurrected by this Telvanni sorcerer and thanks to the experiments, is partly an ash creature himself, and completely insane but still dangerous, and under the delusion that the other ash creatures in the fort are his garrison, and is intelligent enough to notice that the Dunmer colony is now ruling itself and has grown large. Thus, his 3 letters to Imperial City have never actually got there: the first two, like the Declaration of War to Raven Rock, were probably entrusted to ash creatures, and are now destroyed. The third was never sent at all, and is on his body when he dies. And when he says "he has tried to establish contact", what's actually happening is he's been sending swarms of ash creatures. Which, of course, have been met with violence. So he now sends his Declaration of War with his final "diplomatic party" - another swarm of ash creatures - and that's when the Declaration is found by the Dragonborn... JLE (talk) 03:05, 6 June 2018 (UTC)

Those are fair observations, but I've moved a large portion of the commentary on Carius to the Notes section as it doesn't present well having two competing timelines in the main text. —Legoless (talk) 20:39, 6 June 2018 (UTC)