Lore:Deslandra

Deslandra
Deslandra Empowered
Race	Bosmer	Gender	Female
Born		2nd Era
Appears in		Betrayal of the Second Era

"You want to save the realm? I will redeem it. You'll never get to me in time, but if you do, perhaps you will defeat me. The dark reign of mages unchecked. Maybe the world will know your name after all... But I don't think so, and sadly your time is running out, because my schemes and plots are always in motion, and even the stars cannot help you now."
—Deslandra

Deslandra was a Bosmer mage of many talents and great charisma who attempted enact an event known as the Great Nullification, which would forever sever the flow of magicka and its influences on Mundus, as well as the connections that lead to other planes of existence like Aetherius, Oblivion, and the Void. Some speculated the consequences of such an event, with one theory being that it would cut off communication with deities, but she felt the benefits outweighed the potential fallout. Her reasoning for attempting to do so was that she believed that many of Tamriel's atrocities were caused with magic, with it often being how cults gain power, daedric influence spreads, and the weak are supernaturally coerced. She and her cult, the Soldiers of the Void, infiltrated various factions, gaining intel and pitting potential rivals against each other to further their own goals.

History

The Outer Watch

Outer Watch Banner

Deslandra was one of the founders of the Outer Watch, a Tamriel-wide organization that started in Valenwood, dedicated to humanitarian efforts and exposing political corruption. She left the organization and founded the Soldiers of the Void when she felt that the Outer Watch was not doing enough. With the resources and the connections she gained over the years, she attempted to eliminate magic, which she felt was the source of many of Nirn's problems. To her, this solution would be a "great leveler" that would keep the weak safe from the powerful. Hearing of Deslandra's plot and fearing the potential downsides that may come from it, her former colleague from the Outer Watch, Bodean, looked for allies to recruit against her. Various prisoners locked away for crimes they did not commit were freed throughout Tamriel by Bodean via nonconditional jailbreaks, but were offered to join the Outer Watch to put an end to her attempt to enact the Great Nullification that threatened magic.

Extraplanar Shenanigans

The Daedra Lord Xivilai Moath, adopted son of Mehrunes Dagon

Deslandra wearing her Worm Cult disguise

In Cyrodiil, Deslandra infiltrated the Order of the Black Worm in order to research Dark Anchor technology to use for her own ends. This led to her epiphany; at the moment that Mannimarco would launch his Planemeld, Deslandra hoped to disrupt it by breaking the chains of that which linked all Dark Anchors, resulting in a massive shockwave that would forever sever the connection between Nirn and its sources of Magicka. Before that were to happen, she had to deal with the Order of the Waking Flame's plans in Cyrodiil. She fed them false research information that delayed their Four Ambitions scheme, and provided the whereabouts of their safe havens to the Fighters Guild, who were hired to cleanse of the Waking Flame's outposts in the region. Concurrently, Deslandra's Soldiers of the Void were aided by the Psijic Order (though they would later be enemies) who had a mutual interest in thwarting the Waking Flame's plans in Cyrodiil, banishing Xivilai Moath and stopping the summoning of Mehrunes Dagon onto Nirn.

In Black Marsh, Deslandra researched local flora and how they react to Daedric influence, hoping to stress-test them to see if they were capable of keeping foreign agents and magicka from penetrating them and to try and get them to act as a sort of metaphysical wall. She also looked into Stormhold Crystals, which are said to be able to contain corruption or harness the power of "evil" itself. She planned to gather and use them to siphon off the worst effects of sundering the world from Oblivion. She also collected Amberplasm from Hist that have communicated with Oblivion, due to it possibly having properties that link it to Nirn. These items were central to her goal in Black Marsh, which was to corrupt the roots of the Hist with a mixture that could weaken the link between Nirn and magic, due to the Hist having extraplanar properties.

Deslandra was a well-established celebrity figure in Valenwood whose charitable works won much of the local populace to her side, which prevented a confrontation in public, and caused difficulty in finding willing locals to join the attempt to foil her plots in the region. Deslandra theorized Falinesti vanished into its own plane of existence, and investigated the means that was used to make it disappear. To this end, she attempted to create and manipulate pocket realms, which if fully realized, hoped this would allow her to envelop the entirety of Nirn in a pocket realm to isolate it from magical influences.

Recruitment Drive

A corrupted creature, a remnant of Deslandra's biological experiments

Deslandra performed many biological experiments during her research. These led to many corrupted creatures being created, whom she often used as guardians. These remnants were often encountered by adventurers that sought to stop her throughout Tamriel. She also heavily utilized the knowledge gathering Watcher daedra to avoid interference with her goals.

Over in High Rock, Deslandra and her Soldiers of the Void looked for powerful items associated with necromancy so she may raise a massive undead army in the Glenumbra Moors, the site of great battle where one is "just as likely to stumble upon a corpse as a shrub." These items were the Black Gauntlet which summons the intangible Death that Walks, Fenmender which reverse the effects of decay, and Emeric's reliquary whose abilities are a mystery. Deslandra enlisted the aid of the remnants of the Supernal Dreamers by promising to give them some of the undead guardians that she planned to raise, seeking to benefit from the Dreamer's ability to feed on the lifeforce of those within they imprison within their dreamstate.

In Morrowind, the Soldiers of the Void were looking for powerful items capable of augmenting magical items so Deslandra could utilize them in completing her Void Centurion, a Dwarven Centurion heavily modified to by her to serve as a formidable guardian. The automaton itself was modeled after the Arbiter of Perfection that Sotha Sil had modified to his own specifications. Her test trial for modifying things started with smaller entities such as the Shadowscale Akisha, who willingly underwent surgery to combine her flesh with machinery, hoping to use her augmentations to make the Dunmer pay for their crimes against the Argonian people. Akisha was confronted by the Psijic Order and slain. Deslandra's forces were also interested in the legendary Eye of Argonia which was believed to have appeared in the region.

Pale Fingers, an agent of Deslandra

Over in Skyrim, Deslandra, who interpreted that vampirism could be seen as a medical or natural phenomenon, researched how to remove its negative aspects such as the thirst for blood. She hoped that after magic is removed from Mundus, she would introduce a new breed of alchemical vampires that would remain and shepherd the new world. Ingredients she researched for her alchemical concoction were bloodthorn, briarheart, draugr preservatives, and vampiric blood. She would make an alliance with the various inhabitants of Blackreach, such as the Falmer, to learn their little-understood magic. One Falmer, Pale Fingers, would serve as one of her agents in Eastern Skyrim. He wreaked havoc on the surface while Deslandra executed her plans underground.

The cult made unauthorized usage of the Circle of Champions brand by recruiting those that performed well in the Arcane University blood sports into their ranks. The Khajiit Big Bad Bazri was the traitor responsible for these illegal bloodsport matches, and provided much needed muscle with her flawless win record within the Circle of Champions. Deslandra hoped to have Bazri lure the Circle to Valenwood, where if the Circle were to be defeated, Deslandra would gain notoriety and possibly manage to obtain exclusive fighting rights in Valenwood. This would have made the Titan's Triangle the premiere place in the region to host exhibitions for recruiting followers. The Soldiers of the Void also made use of unsanctioned Circle activities as a cover for their illegal smuggling operations in Black Marsh.

Espionage and Subterfuge

Deslandra had many of her minions infiltrate a variety of influential Tamrielic organizations. One of these spies, Iudex Ovidius, held a high position in the Mages Guild, and manipulated the guild to serve their interests and sold their secrets to Deslandra. Additionally, Iudex discreetly hired the Dark Brotherhood to assassinate major officials within the alliances of the Three Banners War under the guise that they had been infiltrated by the Waking Flame. The resulting chaos caused the alliances to launch attacks on each other with reckless abandon, leaving little military presence left in central Cyrodiil.

Deslandra herself subsequently performed the Black Sacrament, hiring the Dark Brotherhood to perform four assassinations to destabilize the political climate in High Rock. She and her cult earned the distrust of the Dark Brotherhood after it was evident that they targeted the assassins they hired in High Rock to tie up loose ends, and their ire after they attempted to link the Brotherhood to the slaying of the Jarl of the Wilds in Skyrim. The Night Mother herself demanded retribution against her when it was a proven Deslandra was guilty of crossing the Brotherhood.

Zirik, criminal working for Deslandra

The Dunmer Zirik was one of Deslandra's notable cronies. He betrayed the Thieves Guild by attempting to steal materials for Deslandra needed for her operations in Skyrim (and possibly Black Marsh), and was imprisoned after a failed heist. Not aware of Zirik's allegiance at the time, the Thieves Guild broke him out of the Blackrose Prison, but the prisoner turned into an enemy with reckless abandon when Deslandra suddenly appeared during the chaos and handed him a concoction she had brewed for him, transforming him into a magically-altered being that escaped (with contradicting reports saying he was slain there, or that the Fighters Guild managed to capture him). The Dark Brotherhood subsequently tracked Zirik who fled to Morrowind, but with Deslandra's powerful connections, he went in the protection of the Morag Tong. He changed hands to the Camonna Tong but he was cornered there and assassinated by the Brotherhood.

After uncovering Deslandra's plot in Cyrodiil, Razum-dar of the Eyes of the Queen began investigating her activities throughout Tamriel. In Morrowind, A High Elf named Kelkemmemon posed as an emissary for the Eyes of the Queen, tricking a new spy within the organization to commit false flag operations by damaging the food supplies of the Daggerfall Covenant and the Ebonheart Pact troops that were fighting at Davon's Watch. Razum-dar caught wind of this plan, and had the agent undo the mistake as Kelkemmemon was working on behalf of the Soldiers of the Void, who hoped to destabilize the Pact so they could run their operations in Skyrim with less obstacles. Razum-dar and his allies also attempted to slay one of Deslandra's many agents, Braig the Bloody, a Reachman warrior notorious for forcibly converting soldiers from the Three Banners War into his unwilling soldiers and servants through an altered Briarheart ritual.

The Undaunted were an exception to the cloak-and-dagger activities other factions engaged in to combat Deslandra and her minions. Instead, they stumbled on much of their schemes as they sought treasures and glory for themselves. From preventing them from stealing Mages Guild relics left behind in the ruins of the Arcane University, depriving them of the Argonian relic Fenmender they intended to use for necromancy, to recovering a talisman of amplification used to strengthen magic, they prevented many powerful items from being added the Soldiers of the Void's arsenal.

End Game

Eveli Sharp-Arrow, possible ally against the Great Nullification

The schemes of the Soldiers of the Void led to multiple factions being involved in trying to stop them and Deslandra's schemes. A hero took down Deslandra, but reports vary on when, where, and to who they gave their allegiance to, with the Circle of Champions, Dark Brotherhood, Eyes of the Queen, Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, Outer Watch, Psijic Order, Thieves Guild, and Undaunted being possible factions. Some allies may have aided the hero's effort to cull the cult's influence throughout Tamriel's provinces, Bodean, master archer Eveli Sharp-Arrow, spymaster Razum-dar, Chief Dushku of the Barkbite Clan, and Valenwood local Arvan.

One of the stories of Deslandra's downfall claims she may have been slain in Cyrodiil, when the three alliances figured out Deslandra's plot. They sought to gain the glory of slaying her and headed towards the Imperial City. When Deslandra forces were no match for their strength, she slipped into the Barathrum Centrata in the Imperial City Sewers just in time for Mannimarco to launch the Planemeld. There, Deslandra's incantation was ultimately prevented, leaving the Planemeld to be a problem for another day.

The story of her fall in High Rock states she became a lich but was ultimately defeated at the Glenumbra Moors, and the dead she did manage to resurrect were laid back to rest. In another tale involving her embracing undeath, she was confronted in Greymoor Keep where she embraced vampirism and blood magics, but she and her research were destroyed regardless.

The Black Marsh story variant of her demise claims that she imbued herself with an Amberplasm concoction, but she was stopped by her former colleague from the Outer Watch, Bodean, and his companion. Her alchemical creation was claimed and subsequently discarded so none could study it, and to keep it from harming Black Marsh's ecosystem in the future.

In Morrowind, it was concluded that Nchuleftingth was most likely the group's headquarters in the province. Deslandra and her Void Centurion were confronted and buried beneath the rubbles of the ruins.

Deslandra's primary base of operations for her cult to which she plotted her Tamriel-wide schemes was in Cursebreaker's Copse, one of Valenwood's Graht-oaks. In the story where she perished in Valenwood, she was confronted in this fortress and killed. Out of respect for the region's Green Pact, Cursebreaker's Copse was left in-tact, but it was cleared of the artifacts that she had stored within. Deslandra's schemes were kept a secret by her killers out of respect of her well-intentioned but misplaced goals, so she would be remembered among Bosmer as a hero.

Gallery

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  Cursebreaker Deslandra in Valenwood

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  General Deslandra in Cyrodiil

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  Lich Deslandra in High Rock

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  Vampiric Deslandra in Skyrim

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  Enraged Deslandra

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  Mechanist Deslandra in Morrowind

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  Imbued Deslandra in Black Marsh

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  Deslandra's Void Centurion

Notes

• The campaigns of Betrayal of the Second Era evidently takes place across various times and is mostly concurrent with The Elder Scrolls Online.
  • The Cyrodiil campaign of Betrayal of the Second Era is the exception and takes place before the start of the Planemeld.
  • The High Rock campaign takes place after Bazrag gro-Fharun was crowned the king of Orsinium.
  • The Skyrim campaign takes place after the Ebonheart Pact and Western Skyrim main questlines.
  • The Black Marsh campaign takes place after the Shadowfen and Murkmire main questlines.
  • The Morrowind campaign is after the Ebonheart Pact questline and is concurrent with the Necrom chapter.
• The Daedric Prince Ithelia was notably banished into an alternative reality where magicka and Daedra had no power within the Many Paths, making what Deslandra desired a possibility.

References

Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.

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