Lore:Eplear

King Eplear
Race	Bosmer	Gender	Male
Reign		1E 0-
Resided in		Valenwood

King Eplear was an early ruler of the province of Valenwood and the founder of the long-lived Camoran Dynasty. The date for his founding of the dynasty is traditionally accepted as the earliest date in Tamriel's recorded history, 1E 0.

While little is known about Eplear's life in detail, historians have suggested that it was Eplear who first united the wild ancestral Bosmer and created for Valenwood its first effective political identity, something that is called one of the "greatest military feats in Tamriel's history". He is also remembered as a benevolent, welcoming king who invited refugees from the troubled Ayleid Empire and elsewhere to live in Valenwood with the Bosmer.

Mythology

One controversial tale of King Eplear's ascension comes from a translated Akaviri dossier. According to the text, his life began as a simple ox-herd on the plains of Valen, when Tamriel was an 'endless sea of grass'. One day, Eplear encountered the merchant Camoran and her mother. Wishing to pursue the merchant's hand, he asked her mother how he might do so. The merchant's mother said "When trees choke the Valen plains and the forest crowns you king only then shall you hold my daughter's hand in marriage!" After some thought, Eplear agreed. Then he purchased every acorn the merchant had. As Eplear traveled, wherever his oxen stopped to feed, he planted acorns in upturned soil. These grew to become the graht-oaks and soon the Valen plains became the Valenwood. The spriggans believed Eplear was a great wizard to have transformed the land, and sought him out. "O great Eplear, how can we thank one who has given us so much?" they said. Eplear replied "with a crown", and so Eplear became a king, won the hand of the merchant Camoran, and gained the affection of the spriggans, a relationship which would form the foundations of the Green Pact.

The story claims among various others, Eplear was responsible for planting the First Tree of Valenwood found within Elden Grove. Candidates for this First Tree are variously the Elden Trees of Elden Root, Falinesti, or the Heart of Valenwood found in Hectahame.

This story is regarded as entirely fictional by the Bosmeri people.

Notes

• The Threnody for King Eplear is a song relating to Eplear. Music boxes that play this song are known to have been produced.
• He is predated by King Arenthia, who was the first king of the Bosmer.