Online:Frontier, Conquest

Book Information Frontier, Conquest
ID	274
See Also	Lore version
Collection	Tamriel History
Writer	Kurt Kuhlmann
Locations
Found in the following locations: Auridon: Vulkhel Guard,near the Harborage(map),near the docks(map),near the shrine to Mara(map),and at Aegis of Auri-El(map) Cyrodiil: By theBloodmayne Cave'sentrance(map) Rivenspire: Edrald Estate,inside,outside,and at two windmills,hereandhere Stonefalls: Near theGate to Deshaan(map) Steamlake Encampment(map) Brothers of Strife,hereandhere

Frontier, Conquest, and Accommodation: A Social History of Cyrodiil

byUniversity of Gwylim Press,2E 344

Details the presence of humans in Tamriel before the original Nordic conquests thought to bring humans to Tamriel

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Historians often portray the human settlement ofTamrielas a straightforward process of military expansion of theNordsofSkyrim.In fact, human settlers occupied nearly every corner of Tamriel before Skyrim was even founded. These so-called "Nedic peoples"include the proto-Cyrodilians, theancestorsof theBretons,the aboriginals ofHammerfell,and perhaps a now-vanished human population ofMorrowind.Strictly speaking, the Nords are simply another of these Nedic peoples, the only one that failed to find a method of peaceful accommodation with theElveswho already occupied Tamriel.

Ysgramorwas certainly not the first human settler in Tamriel. In fact, by "fleeing civil war inAtmora,"as theSong of Returnstates, Ysgramor was following a long tradition of migration from Atmora; Tamriel had served as a "safety valve" for Atmora for centuries before Ysgramor's arrival. Malcontents, dissidents, rebels, landless younger sons, all made the difficult crossing from Atmora to the "New World" of Tamriel. New archeological excavations date the earliest human settlements in Hammerfell,High Rock,andCyrodiilatME 800-1000,centuries earlier than Ysgramor, even assuming that the twelve Nord "kings" prior toHaraldwere actual historical figures.

The Nedic peoples were a minority in a land of Elves, and had no choice but to live peacefully with the Elder Race. In High Rock, Hammerfell, Cyrodiil, and possibly Morrowind, they did just that, and the Nedic peoples flourished and expanded over the last centuries of the Merethic Era. Only in Skyrim did this accommodation break down, an event recorded in the Song of Return. Perhaps being close to reinforcements from Atmora, the proto-Nords did not feel it necessary to submit to the authority of theSkyrim Elves.Indeed, the early Nord chronicles note that under King Harald, the first historical Nord ruler (1E 113-221), "the Atmoran mercenaries returned to their homeland" following the consolidation of Skyrim as a centralized kingdom. Whatever the case, the pattern was set. In Skyrim, expansion would proceed militarily with human settlement following the frontier of conquest, and the line between Human territory and Elven territory was relatively clear.

But beyond this "zone of conflict," the other Nedic peoples continued to merge with their Elven neighbors. When the Nord armies of theFirst Empirefinally entered High Rock and Cyrodiil, they found Bretons and proto-Cyrodiils already living there among the Elves. Indeed, the Nords found it difficult to distinguish between Elf and Breton, the two races had already intermingled to such a degree. The arrival of the Nord armies upset the balance of power between the Nedic peoples and the Elves. Although the Nords' expansion into High Rock and Cyrodiil was relatively brief (less than two centuries), the result was decisive; from then on, power in those regions shifted from the Elves to the humans.