daskhora’amurokam
Volume Eight
¹By the word, I wind the gears.
lessed Father of Mystery, place your oil upon my tongue that I might tell the true tale of Mournhold.
³Behold the strength of untold calculation! Behold the power of the Mainspring Ever-Wound!
⁴Every Nameless soul must confess the truth of Mournhold, for many lessons hide in its ashes. ⁵Sing now the hymn of anguish and horror, child of Seht! ⁶Behold, Mehrunes Dagon, Sovereign of Destruction! Mehrunes Dagon, the Flame Tyrant! Mehrunes Dagon, Father of Cataclysm! ⁷Recall how he marched upon Almalexia’s jewel! Do you remember how his Will burned like kiln-fire, and hot pitch fell from his lips? ⁸Aloft, he held four great razors. Each sang a screeching paean to glorify him. ⁹Torrents of flame fell upon the innocent and wicked alike, shearing flesh from bone; belching forth widows and orphans in gouts of frothing screams.
¹⁰“Who dares to face me, draped as I am in fire and blood?” roared Dagon. ¹¹The dark Prince beat his breast and howled long-forgotten curses. The dead burst forth from their tombs, shrieking for mercy. ¹²The dark Prince beat his breast and howled long-forgotten curses. The dead burst forth from their tombs, shrieking for mercy. ¹³And everywhere, flames—an inferno that turned all souls to ash.
¹⁴Almalexia, Mother of Mercy, cast her eyes upon the ruins of her gemmed city and wept. ¹⁵To see such love burned and squandered turned her heart to molten brass. ¹⁶Our Clockwork God took note of her fury, sealing the memory away in his great mnemonic planisphere—a reminder of her love’s high price.
¹⁷Rising from the ground like foundry-smoke, the Tribunes confronted the Prince of Disasters. ¹⁸Ayem’s voice like a screeching steam-whistle, and Sotha Sil’s like a lurching engine.
¹⁹“ERAM VAR AE ALTADOON!”
they cried, rending their garments and donning their killing masks. ²⁰Ayem drew her bright Hopesfire and skipped over the flames like a river-stone. ²¹With a mighty scream, she plunged the blade deep into Dagon’s breast and turned it like a jailer’s key. ²²Scorching blood spewed out of the wound, scalding her hands and face. ²³As she fell, the Divine Metronome chiseled a thought-rune of infinite angles. ²⁴Do you remember how the veins of tin, copper, and orichalc erupted from the depths to break our mother’s Fall? ²⁵Through His will alone, Mighty Seht wound the veins into god-bronze whips, and lashed the Prince pitilessly. ²⁶Dagon hissed and tumbled backward. His otherworldly flesh fell like chaff before the scythe. ²⁷Alas, a Sarmissonays’um ghoul-thing emerged from every chunk.
²⁸A multitude of the creatures gathered around Ayem, fiery tar oozing from their mouths and open sores. ²⁹They groaned and retched, speaking only Dagon’s name as they fell upon her. ³⁰The Warden hissed thrice, took up her blessed sword, and smote the beasts by the score. ³¹She severed head from neck and arm from shoulder, cleaving sin from virtue and shouting old-oaths of banishing. ³²Do you remember how the beasts fell to her on that red day? ³³You must recall the howls of Madness! How Dagon foamed and snarled beneath the lash of Sotha Sil! ³⁴“Behold!” cried the Divine Metronome as He smashed the Prince to splinters. ³⁵“Behold the wrath of lost Ald Sotha! Know death at my hands, false-son of a false-father!
³⁶KAER PADHOME VIE ALTADOON!”
³⁷Even then, at the end, the Prince of Destruction did not relent. ³⁸With the last of his four great arms, Dagon dragged the last of his four great razors across the Watchmaker’s jaw. ³⁹Tasting the blood on His tongue, our Father of Mysteries whispered a final chrononymic death-word, and Dagon exploded throughout all time. ⁴⁰The earthbones quaked and the All-Axle shook. From this word of sundering, Truth took root.
⁴¹Mehrunes’s ruin slithered between the cracks of Nirn and Oblivion, shrieking curses like a petulant child. The Mainspring Ever-Wound tightened His brass-wrought fist and slammed the gap shut— ⁴²another small step toward Tamriel Final. Anuvanna’si. ⁴³So ends the true account of Mournhold’s fall. Remember this tale always.
⁴⁴By the word, I wind the gears.