Morrowind:Biography of Queen Barenziah
Nota: Esta é uma série de livros que aparece em Skyrim, Oblivion e Morrowind. O nome deles no inventário é "Biografia de Barenziah", no entanto o título interno de cada volume é "Biografia da Rainha Barenziah". As versões de Oblivion e Morrowind são idênticas uma a outra com somente leves diferenças em como cada volume é nomeado (veja os volumes individuais para detalhes dos nomes). Há também uma série de livros similar, porém não idêntica em Daggerfall. Veja Biografia da Rainha Barenziah para a versão de Daggerfall.
Biografia da Rainha Barenziah é um texto biográfico sobre a vida da Rainha Barenziah de seu nascimento até sua vida como Rainha de Pousatrilha, durante os eventos em Daggerfall. A biografia também conta sobre seu envolvimento com, e brevemente sumariza os eventos de Arena.
Aqueles interessados na vida da Rainha Barenziah podem se interessarem em lerem A Verdadeira Barenziah (ou a versão em Daggerfall disponível em A Verdadeira Barenziah). que descreve uma versão mais detalhada e provavelmente não oficialmente aprovada de sua vida.
Volume 1
Ao fim da Segunda Era, uma menina, Barenziah, nasceu dos governantes do reino de Forte da Lamentação no que hoje é a Província Imperial de Morrowind. Ela foi criada em todo o luxo e segurança que são dignos da nobreza Dunmer infante até a idade de cinco anos. Naquele tempo, Vossa Excelência Tiber Septim I, o primeiro Imperador de Tamriel, demandou que os decadentes governantes de Morrowind se curvassem à ele e instituíssem reformas imperiais. Confiantes em sua aclamada magia, os Elfos Negros desrespeitosamente recusaram até que o exército de Tiber Septim estava em suas fronteiras. Um Armistício foi prontamente assinado pelos recém-ansiosos Dunmer, mas não antes de diversas batalhas terem sido travadas, dando fim a Forte da Lamentação, hoje conhecida como Almalexia.
Pequena Princesa Barenziah e sua ama foram encontradas entre os escombros. O General Imperial Symmachus, como também era um Elfo Negro, sugeriu a Tiber Septim que a criança pudesse ser valiosa um dia, e que ela estava, portanto, alocada com um apoiador leal que recentemente havia se aposentado da Armada Imperial.
Sven Advensen foi nomeado Conde em sua aposentadoria; seu feudo, Charconegro, era uma pequena cidade na parte central de Arcéu. Conde Sven e sua esposa criaram a princesa como sua própria filha, cuidando para que ela fosse apropriadamente educada e, com maior prioridade, que as virtudes imperiais da obediência, discrição, lealdade e piedade fossem instiladas na criança. Em resumo, perfeita para tomar seu lugar legítimo como membra da nova classe dominante de Morrowind.
A menina Barenziah cresceu bela, graciosa e inteligente. Tinha temperamento doce, uma alegria a seus pais adotivos e seus cinco jovens filhos, que a amavam como sua irmã mais velha. Além da aparência, ela se distinguia das garotas de sua classe somente por sua forte empatia pelas florestas e campos, e costumava escapar de seus afazeres domésticos para vagar por lá.
Barenziah era feliz e contente até seu décimo-sexto ano, quando um maldito órfão de estábulo, com quem ela teria feito amizade por pena, disse a ela que havia entreouvido uma conspiração entre seu guardião, Conde Sven, e um visitante Rubraguarda para vendê-la como concubina em Rihad, pois nenhum Nord ou Bretão casaria com ela por conta de sua pele preta, e nenhum Elfo Negro a teria por conta de sua ascendência estrangeira.
“Que farei eu?” a pobre garota disse, chorando e tremendo, pois ela fora trazida ainda inocente e fiel, e jamais a ocorrera que seu amigo de estábulo mentiria para ela.
O maldito menino, que era chamado Straw, disse que ela deveria escapar se ela desse valor à própria virtude, mas que ele iria com ela como seu protetor. Tristemente, Barenziah concordou com o plano; e naquela mesma noite ela disfarçou como menino e o par escapou para a cidade mais próxima, Passo Branco. Após alguns dias lá, eles arrumaram trabalho como guardas de uma caravana de mercadores desonrada. A caravana estava indo ao leste pelas estradas secundárias numa mendaz tentativa para evadir dos impostos ordeiros cobrados nas estradas imperiais. Então o par evadiu da perseguição até que eles alcançaram a cidade de Fendal, onde cessaram suas viagens por um tempo. Se sentiam seguros em Fendal, por mais que fosse tão próxima à Morrowind que Elfos Negros não eram difíceis de se ver.
| Ant.: Nenhum | Acima: Biografia da Rainha Barenziah | Próx.: Volume 2 |
Volume 2
The first volume of this series told the story of Barenziah's origin-heiress to the throne of Mournhold until her father rebelled against His Excellency Tiber Septim I and brought ruin to the province of Morrowind. Thanks largely to the benevolence of the Emperor, the child Barenziah was not destroyed with her parents, but reared by Count Sven of Darkmoor, a loyal Imperial trustee. She grew up into a beautiful and pious child, trustful of her guardian's care. This trust, however, was exploited by a wicked orphan stable boy at Count Sven's estate, who with lies and fabrications tricked her into fleeing Darkmoor with him when she turned sixteen. After many adventures on the road, they settled in Rifton, a Skyrim city near the Morrowind borders.
The stable boy, Straw, was not altogether evil. He loved Barenziah in his own selfish fashion, and deception was the only way he could think of that would cement possession of her. She, of course, felt only friendship toward him, but he was hopeful that she would gradually change her mind. He wanted to buy a small farm and settle down into a comfortable marriage, but at the time his earnings were barely enough to feed and shelter them.
After only a short time in Rifton, Straw fell in with a bold, villainous Khajiit thief named Therris, who proposed that they rob the Imperial Commandant's house in the central part of the city. Therris said that he had a client, a traitor to the Empire, who would pay well for any information they could gather there. Barenziah happened to overhear this plan and was appalled. She stole away from their rooms and walked the streets of Rifton in desperation, torn between her loyalty to the Empire and her love for her friends.
In the end, loyalty to the Empire prevailed over personal friendship, and she approached the Commandant's house, revealed her true identity, and warned him of her friends' plan. The Commandant listened to her tale, praised her courage, and assured her that no harm would come to her. He was none other than General Symmachus, who had been scouring the countryside in search of her since her disappearance, and had just arrived in Rifton, hot in pursuit. He took her into his custody, and informed her that, far from being sent away to be sold, she was to be reinstated as the Queen of Mournhold as soon as she turned eighteen. Until that time, she was to live with the Septim family in the newly built Imperial City, where she would learn something of government and be presented at the Imperial Court.
At the Imperial City, Barenziah befriended the Emperor Tiber Septim during the middle years of his reign. Tiber's children, particularly his eldest son and heir Pelagius, came to love her as a sister. The ballads of the day praised her beauty, chastity, wit, and learning. On her eighteenth birthday, the entire Imperial City turned out to watch her farewell procession preliminary to her return to her native land. Sorrowful as they were at her departure, all knew that she was ready for her glorious destiny as sovereign of the kingdom of Mournhold.
Volume 3
In the second volume of this series, it was told how Barenziah was kindly welcomed to the newly constructed Imperial City by the Emperor Tiber Septim and his family, who treated her like a long-lost daughter during her almost one-year stay. After several happy months there learning her duties as vassal queen under the Empire, the Imperial General Symmachus escorted her to Mournhold where she took up her duties as Queen of her people under his wise guidance. Gradually they came to love one another and were married and crowned in a splendid ceremony at which the Emperor himself officiated.
After several hundred years of marriage, a son, Helseth, was born to the royal couple amid celebration and joyous prayer. Although it was not publicly known at the time, it was shortly before this blessed event that the Staff of Chaos had been stolen from its hiding place deep in the Mournhold mines by a clever, enigmatic bard known only as the Nightingale.
Eight years after Helseth's birth, Barenziah bore a daughter, Morgiah, named after Symmachus' mother, and the royal couple's joy seemed complete. Alas, shortly after that, relations with the Empire mysteriously deteriorated, leading to much civil unrest in Mournhold. After fruitless investigations and attempts at reconciliation, in despair Barenziah took her young children and travelled to the Imperial City herself to seek the ear of then Emperor Uriel Septim VII. Symmachus remained in Mournhold to deal with the grumbling peasants and annoyed nobility, and do what he could to stave off an impending insurrection.
During her audience with the Emperor, Barenziah, through her magical arts, came to realize to her horror and dismay that the so-called Emperor was an impostor, none other than the bard Nightingale who had stolen the Staff of Chaos. Exercising great self-control she concealed this realization from him. That evening, news came that Symmachus had fallen in battle with the revolting peasants of Mournhold, and that the kingdom had been taken over by the rebels. Barenziah, at this point, did not know where to seek help, or from whom.
The gods, that fateful night, were evidently looking out for her as if in redress of her loss. King Eadwyre of High Rock, an old friend of Uriel Septim and Symmachus, came by on a social call. He comforted her, pledged his friendship-and furthermore, confirmed her suspicions that the Emperor was indeed a fraud, and none other than Jagar Tharn, the Imperial Battlemage, and one of the Nightingale's many alter egos. Tharn had supposedly retired into seclusion from public work and installed his assistant, Ria Silmane, in his stead. The hapless assistant was later put to death under mysterious circumstances-supposedly a plot implicating her had been uncovered, and she had been summarily executed. However, her ghost had appeared to Eadwyre in a dream and revealed to him that the true Emperor had been kidnapped by Tharn and imprisoned in an alternate dimension. Tharn had then used the Staff of Chaos to kill her when she attempted to warn the Elder Council of his nefarious plot.
Together, Eadwyre and Barenziah plotted to gain the false Emperor's confidence. Meanwhile, another friend of Ria's, known only as the Champion, who apparently possessed great, albeit then untapped, potential, was incarcerated at the Imperial Dungeons. However, she had access to his dreams, and she told him to bide his time until she could devise a plan that would effect his escape. Then he could begin on his mission to unmask the impostor.
Barenziah continued to charm, and eventually befriended, the ersatz Emperor. By contriving to read his secret diary, she learned that he had broken the Staff of Chaos into eight pieces and hidden them in far-flung locations scattered across Tamriel. She managed to obtain a copy of the key to Ria's friend's cell and bribed a guard to leave it there as if by accident. Their Champion, whose name was unknown even to Barenziah and Eadwyre, made his escape through a shift gate Ria had opened in an obscure corner of the Imperial Dungeons using her already failing powers. The Champion was free at last, and almost immediately went to work.
It took Barenziah several more months to learn the hiding places of all eight Staff pieces through snatches of overheard conversation and rare glances at Tharn's diary. Once she had the vital information, however -- which she communicated to Ria forthwith, who in turn passed it on to the Champion-she and Eadwyre lost no time. They fled to Wayrest, his ancestral kingdom in the province of High Rock, where they managed to fend off the sporadic efforts of Tharn's henchmen to haul them back to the Imperial City, or at the very least obtain revenge. Tharn, whatever else might be said of him, was no one's fool-save perhaps Barenziah's -- and he concentrated most of his efforts toward tracking down and destroying the Champion.
As all now know, the courageous, indefatigable, and forever nameless Champion was successful in reuniting the eight sundered pieces of the Staff of Chaos. With it, he destroyed Tharn and rescued the true Emperor, Uriel Septim VII. Following what has come to be known as the Restoration, a grand state memorial service was held for Symmachus at the Imperial City, befitting the man who had served the Septim Dynasty for so long and so well.
Barenziah and good King Eadwyre had come to care deeply for one another during their trials and adventures, and were married in the same year shortly after their flight from the Imperial City. Her two children from her previous marriage with Symmachus remained with her, and a regent was appointed to rule Mournhold in her absence.
Up to the present time, Queen Barenziah has been in Wayrest with Prince Helseth and Princess Morgiah. She plans to return to Mournhold after Eadwyre's death. Since he was already elderly when they wed, she knows that that event, alas, could not be far off as the Elves reckon time. Until then, she shares in the government of the kingdom of Wayrest with her husband, and seems glad and content with her finally quiet, and happily unremarkable, life.