Chapter 1 - Children of the Gray Host (Patreon)

"The Gray Host.Not much is known about the Gray Host, as its power is shrouded in the darkness of the Shadow Lands. The first records of the Gray Host came from the records of the Valyrian Freehold, around one thousand years before the Doom, when the Freehold, during the height of their power, attempted to conquer the Shadow Lands.The Magic and power of the Valyrians was considered unmatched in the known world, yet in the Shadow Lands, in the depths of the Shadow Mountains, the mighty armada of the Valyrian Freehold was exterminated by the Children of the Night.The collective term for the Vampires and Werebeasts like Werewolves, Werebears, Werefoxes, Werecats, and other races that thrived in the night. It was noted that even though the Gray Host was at a disadvantage when it came to countering the Dragons of the Freehold, their Magic was superior to that of the Freehold.With their advantage in Magic, they managed to overcome the Dragons of the Freehold and even steal many specimens from the Freehold. This failed invasion led to a series of the Blood Wars between the Valyrians and the Gray Host. Most of these conflicts resulted in tremendous losses for the Freehold, yet the Gray Host never marched onto the territory of the Freehold and only defended the Shadow Lands.Many Scholars and Mages of the modern age attribute these Blood Wars to the ultimate decline of the Freehold and the Doom of Valyrian. When it came to the remaining Draglords of the Valyria that survived the Doom, the Gray Host never interacted with them too much, with the only exception being the case of Vampire King Rada al-Saran and Visenya Targaryen and their marriage, which resulted in the creation of the Targaryen Vampire Clan within the Gray Host.The Gray Host controls the entire Shadow Lands as their core territory, with the capital of the Gray Host located within the Blackreach in the City of Yharnam. A whole underground world located deep, very deep under the Shadow Mountains, with the main entrance being in the Stygai. The other territories that are under the control of the Gray Host are the Mountains of the Morn, Carcosa, which was conquered only a few decades ago by the Werebeast Tribes of the Gray Host, and currently they are waging war with the Pale Men of the Cannibal Sands.Even though the reputation of the Gray Host is rather bad across most of the world, due to the fact that Vampires feed on blood, the Citadel Order always enjoyed a great relationship with the Gray Host. Most of this stemmed from the collective research into the technology and development of the Steam-based Technologies or research of Magic."- On the Gray Host by Archmeaster Perestan of the Citadel Order of Magic, Year 294 After the Conquest of Westeros***It has been several years since he transmigrated into the Elder Scrolls Universe.He became... or his consciousness has merged with that of Rada al-Saran, an ancient Vampire that was leading the dark army of Vampires and Werewolves, whose ambition was to free themselves from the grasp of Molag Bal.Despite Rada's skill with the Shehai and his mastery over his Vampire Lord form, his enemies outwitted him and turned the power of the Dark Heart against him, and he was slain by Vestige.Rada al-Saran, despite his failings, was remembered as a Sword-Saint even to match the likes of Leki, and the story of his epiphany via his meeting with Faolan helped one aspiring Sword-Saint, Sai Sahan, form his own Shehai, thus reviving the long-dead martial tradition and securing Rada's legacy as one of the greatest swordsmen from the Yokudan Warrior Wave.Now, in this life, he had taken a different approach to the matters.He struck a deal with Meridia and Akatosh.Obviously, the Dragon God of Time and Space was rather interested in the deal, because he was able to see the flow of time and knew that something had changed, and Rada proposed a plan that would be a mockery of the Molag Bal on the highest order and destroy everything that the Lord of Brutality ever created.So after some time of consideration...Between the Divines and several Deadric Princes that were rather keen on the plan, mostly to thwart and punish Molag Bal for his transgressions.They agreed.And that..."Come... Traveler from a different world..."Suddenly, he heard a powerful voice as the reality around him warped, and he disappeared from the shrine where he had been praying till now. He knew that this wasn't the work of any mortal on the Nirn and was most probably the work of the Aedra or Deadra, though he would guess that this was for sure the work of the Aedra.And not any ordinary one at that.Led them here."With this, I am starting the annual meeting of the Pale Council of the Gray Host."Gray Host needed to perish in Tamriel for the future and couldn't remain there. But that didn't mean that Tamriel was the only world within the Aurbis with civilization. There were many other, unspoken or forgotten worlds out there."Now, Count Ravenwatch will provide the summary of the development of the Gray Host over the past year."After the transmigration, several years later, there was a minor civil war within the Gray Host, as Rada purged all of the most radical elements of the Gray Host or the pieces that couldn't be controlled and established the Council of the Gray Host, which consisted of the highest-ranking Vampires and Werebeasts of the Gray Hosts.The Council of Gray consisted of the Archnons, Exarchs, and Hierarchs.The people who had seats on the Pale Council were either Vampire Elders or Werebeast Chieftains; rarely was the position given to anyone else. The Vampires with the seat on the Pale Council were called Unseen Elders...Pure-Blooded Vampires that were either directly turned by the Primogenitor of the Vampire Species or Vampires who were given Old Blood of the Primogenitor. Every Unseen Elder was a Magical powerhouse like never before, and all of them together ruled the entire Gray Host.Even though the Vampires and Werebeasts existed on a very strict Bloodline-based hierarchical social structure, as someone from the modern world, Rada knew the importance of meritocracy; he was integrating some meritocratic principles into the governance of the Gray Host.Archons were a title that was given to the ruler of some territory within the territory of the Gray Host. Right now, there were only two Archons, namely Archon of Stygai and Archon of Dusktown."Since last year, we managed to quell the Warlocks and Necromancers in the Stygai and vicinity of the city. Right now, the Stygai is primarily populated by the Werebeasts, Vampires, and some remaining humans who submitted to our rule. Right now, I am coordinating the military forces of Stygai with Exarchs to prepare for a march on the City of Asshai. The larger population of the Asshai consists of the Warlocks, Necromancers, Daedras, and slaves."When Akathosh transported the entire area of the Blackreach: Greymoor Caverns into a different world, it appeared in the depths of the earth, deep under the Shadow Mountains in the region known as Shadow Lands in this world.The Shadow Lands were absolute hell, even far worse than many regions of Tamriel, but for the Vampires and Werebeasts, the Shadow Lands were ideal ground. The Shadow Lands Region was a mountainous area in the far east of Essos, and it was a land where the sun was scarce, and most of the time, it was covered by dense shadows.A few years after the Gray Host was transported into this new world, Rada ordered to start the exploration of the surface world as well, as there was a need for a new source of the fresh blood for the Vampires.Even though the Gray Host kept a lot of Blood Thralls, there was a need for more, as the population of the Vampires was large. Hundreds of thousands were part of the entire Gray Host, which was Rada's personal achievement.Most of the structure of the Gray Host was overhauled, not like there was any... as one would have expected from the dark fantasy dark creature army, there was little to no organization, which was rather staggering to think of.Mostly because the individual Vampire Clans and Houses or Werebeast Tribes answered to their own leaders, so the Gray Host was a loosely united army that had a common goal. Now the Gray Host functioned like a proper organization, as it should have in the first place."What about the state of the Spider and Chaurus Farms?"The Gray Host was breeding various animals and beasts, which they started during the time when Rada initiated the first wave of the reforms. Spiders and Charuses were bred for the purpose of the Alchemical materials and also as mounts for war purposes.Most of the Spiders that the Gray Host was breeding were the Frostbite Spiders that were transported into the Greymoor Caverns from Skyrim. Both Frostbite Spiders and Chauruses were used in countless numbers by the Gray Host... ranging from Alchemy materials to military deployment when they were tamed and incorporated into the military forces of the Gray Host."They are in good numbers, and we can start harvesting. Though, when it comes to the Chauruses, wild Chauruses have overpopulated, and we need to do something about that. But for that, I think that Archon Piquine could elaborate more on that topic."Movarth Piquine was a former vampire hunter who began his career as a trainer in the Fighters Guild, which taught him skills in battle and the value of asking questions. He claimed mastery of unarmed combat. He was stoic and rarely surprised, driven by his dedication to hunting vampires.Tissina Gray directed him to a priest in Cyrodiil to learn about vampires. Using the priest's knowledge, Movarth hunted many different types of vampires across Tamriel, including the Volkihar of Skyrim and the many tribes of northern Valenwood.In the end, he was turned into a Vampire by one of the Vampire Lords when the Gray Host started taking a more aggressive approach. After the Blood Coup and subsequent Night War, Rada elevated him to one of the Archons because he was one of the few capable and trustworthy people at the Host during that time.It was pretty unfortunate, but among the higher-ups of the Gray Host, there were not many individuals who could actually govern a city or rule a territory. Rada had a lot of work to do in this regard, because most of the administrative duties were all done by him alone.At least until he meets with Serana, who helped tremendously in this regard, and some other more talented members of their species that had other uses aside from waging war and killing enemies of the Host."The Dusktown is still in the process of repairs and reinstating the mining operations... The garrison captain in Dusktown managed to pinpoint the location from which they came, and it seems that it is within the Scraps Ruins. Captain Viktor thinks that this is the work of the Falmer Tribe, which is occupying the ruins, and they will initiate the invasion of Dusktown."With the report of Archon Piquine, Vampire King Rada al-Saran frowned because there were still many, many problems when it came to the Greymoor Caverns. When the entire Greymoor Caverns and Gray Host were transported into the Shadow Lands, it wasn't just the base area of the Greymoor Keep within the Blackreach.Everything.Meaning the areas of the Greymoor Caverns and the Dwemer Ruins.Dusktown Caverns, Lightless Howllow, Dark Moon Grotto, Mzark Cavern, Scraps, Midnight Barrow, and Arkthzand Cavern. All of these were confirmed by the scouts of the Gray Host, as all of these areas were still interconnected with the Greemoore Caverns, which was good because some of these areas were essential for the further development of the Gray Host.Obviously, this was everything on the list to conquer for the Gray Host, but despite their numbers and power, they were proceeding slowly. Rada often pondered why exactly Akatosh transported the entire area of Blackreach together into an entirely different Plane within the Aurbis.Mzark and Arkthzand were very important Dwemer Ruins that contained a lot of their knowledge and areas that Rada was vehemently deadset on obtaining. Yet, they were also swarming with Dwemer Automatons, including some that would be able to kill even more powerful Vampire Lords in a single combat.And what wasn't swarmed by the Dwemer Automatons was full of Falmer, Draugrs in the case of Midnight Barrow, and other monstrosities that resided in the Blackreach.Unfortunately, before the transmigration, the Gray Host was only using the area of the Greymoor Keep and some parts of the Greymoor Caverns, and only after it had transmigrated several years ago did the Gray Host start slowly cleaning out the entirety of the Greymoor Caverns.The population of the Gray Host was something above seven hundred thousand.There were more, but during the Night War, a lot of them were killed.Among the approximate number of seven hundred thousand or so, around 350,000 were Vampires, and the rest were Werebeasts. The Gray Host itself had also a rather large mortal population, which was also subject to the Gray Host because, apparently, there were a lot of mortals who would willingly enter the services of the Gray Host in exchange for power and knowledge.This was especially true for the Altmer and Dunmer populations that were eager to gain access to the Magic Lore that the Gray Lore has collected... Vampire King Styriche had one of the most extensive Lore collections in the entire Nirn that he collected over the course of his very long life.The only saving grace was that, despite this new world having the Magic, its inhabitants were rather weak in terms of Magic, at least when compared to the Mages of Nirn. But this wasn't really a fair comparison, because many knew that within the Aurbis, Nirn was the strongest and most powerful Planet or Plane...The number of powerhouses that rose on Nirn, including Demigods over the ages, was staggering... if not, they wouldn't be able to resist a full-out invasion by Molag Bal even amid the Three Banners War.Yet, most of the forces of the Gray Host were tied to the Blackreach, because they needed to conquer the entire subterranean world first, as this was the homeland of the Gray Host.Rada new that any expansion to the surface beyond the city of Stygai could and would happen only after the subterranean world of Blackreach had been completely conquered and controlled."We need to organize a military expedition into the Scraps and destroy the Falmer Tribe. Immediately after cleaning the Midnight Barrow, focus on the Dark Moon Grotto and Lightless Hollow. Once we succeed, we will have the entire area of the Greymoor Caverns under control and free of the Falmer, Draugr, and other unwanted threats."Rada looked over the table to the two women who were sitting there, as they were in charge of the Death Dealer Legion and Battlemage Legion, respectively. After the military reforms, the Gray Host's army was completely revamped and reorganized, and currently, there are two military arms of the Gray Host.Death Dealer Legion, which consisted of the Vampires and Werebeasts that were oriented in the combat, and Battlemage Legion, consisting of the Mages that used Magic to wage a combat.Then there was also the Inquisition, which was a semi-military branch. As someone from the 21st-Century world, Rada knew how important the intelligence agency was and how to wage various types of warfare against the opponent.Especially when the Vampires had such tremendous advancement when it came to the areas of espionage, assassinations, and reconnaissance... every Vampire had natural abilities in Illusium Magic, Mind Control, Compulsions and Shapeshifting into Bats and other wild animals.This was something that gave them an edge that was like a literal cheat.It was rather mind-boggling that despite the power of the Gray Host, they never really bothered to properly control the entire area of the Blackreach of the Greymoor Caverns and the interconnected Caverns that were directly connected to the Greymoor Caverns.The maximum they had done was to create some lone outposts here and there, but that was everything that the Gray Host had done. Mostly, it was the arrogance of the former leadership of the Gray Host that they were invisible...Especially with their alliance with Icereach Coven and, by extension, Molag Bal.After the transmigration or whatever happened to him, he knew that to Molag Bal, they were nothing more than disposable pawns that he would set aside to torture chambers in the Coldharbour the moment they failed him.Rada didn't want the real world to end like the canon in the Elder Scrolls.He knew how Mannimarco ended. The King of Worms and leader of the Order of the Black Worm, who was the most loyal servant of Molag Bal, at least on the surface, met a rather bad end at the hands of the God of Brutality."I can send two Legions of Death Dealers right now and an additional three if the situation gets more serious."Exarch Serana Volkihar was the one who spoke, as everyone just took her word for that. She wasn't having large enough authority within the Gray Host due to her position as Exarch of Death Dealer Legion, but also that of the mate of Rada al-Saran.Serana was the daughter of Lord Harkon and Valerica. She and her family became Vampire Lords after her father made a deal with Molag Bal and founded the Volkihar clan at the start of the Second Era several centuries ago.The Volkihar Clan was one of the most important and powerful Vampire Clans within the Gray Host, and ironically, though, they were the ones that were purged almost entirely by Serana and Rada.Serana's father was obsessed with a stupid prophecy called the Tyranny of the Sun. And without that in question, Rada would tear Harkon Volkihar apart piece by piece, because Rada knew how the Duahgers of the Coldharbour were created, and Harkon was the reason why his wife was forced to undergo such a thing.Rada found the prophecy rather idiotic... indirectly, even Vampires would perish without the sun, because in the first place, their food would perish.The mortals.Without them, the Vampires won't have anywhere to feed. Mortals would perish if the sun died down, and by extension, Vampires would be without the source of fresh blood because everything that lived needed the sun for their continuous existence.And then...There was the greatest obstacle in Harkon's mad plan.He forgot the account for the existence of Divines and Deadric Princes.Rada seriously doubted that all of them would be just watching how one mad Vampire Lord decided to destroy the entirety of the Nirn... perhaps Molag Bal and Mehrunes Dagon wouldn't be really doing much.But the newly coronated Vampire King new that many of them would create their Champions and sent them all on Harkon to kill him at all costs."Several of my spies confirmed that the Falmers of the Scraps are planning to invade Dusktown, primarily to target the remaining mortals and take them as food."Contrary to popular belief, there was also a good number of mortals among the Gray Host, not the kind of Bloodthralls, but rather lying subjects of the Gray Host. They were the ones who regularly donated their blood to the Vampires, and in exchange, the Vampires protected them and let them live in peace.It was rather surprising how many mortals were agreeing with such a proposition. Not to mention, the living conditions of the Gray Host, especially after they started incorporating some of the Dwemer Technology, were far better than anything else in Tamriel."Then it's set. Exarch Blenwyth will coordinate with the Death Dealer Legion and Battlemage Legion to deal with the Falmer Tribe and construct a cohesive battle plan within the next three days. I also want the Inquisition to start planning a decapitation operation against the Falmers in the Scraps."The Scraps was a Dwemer ruin found in the Dark Moon Grotto section of Blackreach: Greymoor Caverns, containing Dwemer Automatons and Falmer. From what they knew, the Scraps was a standart military outpost of the Dwemer, mixed with some mining facility like every single installation of the Dwemer.Greywyn Blenwyth was an infamous Altmer vampire and the founder of the Crimson Scars, a splinter faction within the Dark Brotherhood. He sought to eventually infect the entire Brotherhood with vampirism, but he was betrayed, and the Crimson Scars were forced to flee for their lives.Then Rada, shortly after his transmigration, gave them a helping hand and incorporated the entire Crimson Scars as his personal intelligence and assassination agency for the Gray Host.They proved to be of immense benefit to the entire Gray Host and their expertise in assassinations and espionage, because they were able to achieve many goals with little effort, thanks to the newly established Inquisition that Greywyn Blenwyth headed."Now onto the next topic. Has the Thinker Guild progressed with the reverse-engineering of the Dwemer Technology?"Creation of the Guilds was one of the most important milestones in the development of the Gray Host. Rada understood the need for development in the areas of Magic, Engineering, Technology, Alchemy, and practically everywhere.For that, he created several Guilds that were ruled by the Council.One of the things that boggled Rada in his past life was that nobody, during the time periods of millennia, had studied and reverse-engineered the Dwemer Technology properly.With all that remained...Which was basically everything that remained.Only Dwemers have disappeared, not the knowledge and technology itself. Just with their technology alone, the Dwemers were masters of their technology, and their machinery worked even several centuries after they disappeared.Their self-sustaining cities, while they fell to ruins, were still working, and the inventions of the Dwemer were something that nobody understood, even many centuries after, or rather, nobody really bothered to understand them properly.Dwemer Animunculi are mechanical constructs created by the Dwemer. Made out of Dwarven metal, animunculi were used as war machines and guards. Many of them continue to protect the underground ruins of Dwemer cities long after the disappearance of their creators in 1E 700.Dwemer animunculi function on steam power, Magic and Tonal Architecture.Constructs around Tamriel, such as in Skyrim and Solstheim, were equipped with individual Soul Gems or dynamo cores, and before they disappeared, the Dwemer had already started producing more advanced Animunculi that were far superior to what they created before.One could say that the Dwemer has mastered the concept of technology to the extreme limits."We are progressing smoothly. Fortunately enough, we managed to find several Lexicons before the change of scenery, and most importantly, we have managed to confirm that Arkthzand has one of the most extensive Libraries of the Dwemer Race. Unfortunately, we would need to cross practically the nearest Greymoor Caverns and large parts of the Blackreach to acess the Arkthzand Caverns."Valerica Volkihar was named as the head of the Thinker Guild, which was overseeing all the engineering, innovation, and other things within the Gray Host. One of their most important tasks, if it wasn't already the most important task, was to reverse engineer the Dwemer Technology for the Gray Host completely.This would solve many problems for the Gray Host. That way, they would be able to master the enormous power of the Dwemer, able to manufacture their constructs and use them in war, their defenses would be able to defend their homes, or the usage of the constructs in mining was invaluable.The Vampire King, who was aware of the power of modern weapons, knew that this could be their version of modern weaponry and elevate the power of the Gray Host to a new level... not to mention, it could also elevate the living stadnarts and everything around the Gray Host to a new level.Not to mention the possibility of refining the ores and metals like the Dwemer could.Yet, that would still take a long time to achieve completely."If we could access one of the armories or one of their vaults, it would be the best case scenario... if there is one of such places in the area that was transported to the new world within our part of the Blackreach."Rada hoped that they would be able to find such a place at least, because opening it was entirely a different matter. As someone who was alive for a very long time and also personally knew the Vampire King Styriche, who lived throughout the entire First Era, he knew the weapon capabilities of the Dwemer the best.And before the disappearance of the Dwemer, they started experimenting with the Aetherium.An incredibly rare, luminescent blue crystal found deep underground. The crystal has a strong magical aura, but it is alchemically inert and harmonically volatile, and no known conventional process can enchant, smelt, mold, bind, or break it. It was discovered by the Dwemer of Skyrim in their deepest mines sometime in the First Era, and it is the only known location where it is found.It was a Superconductor for Magicka... a wonderous mineral that was able to store and generate more Magicka, discovered in the depths of the Nirn and was usually formed when a large amount of Magicka was gathered in one place for a prolonged amount of time.From the Aetherium, they started creating weapons.Weapons that someone from the modern age would term as science fiction weapons and energy-based weapons, because they were creating rifles that could shoot condensed Magicka Projectiles.If such technology were perfected, it would shape the future of Nirn for the eons to come, and the Dwemer would essentially conquer the entirety of the Planet and perhaps even the majority of the Planes of Existence that were not under the control of the Deadric Princes.The power of the Aetherium-based technology was totally game-changing because the Aetherium eliminated all weaknesses of the traditional Steam-based Dwemer Technology and made existing tech countless times more powerful.Unfortunately for the dwemer and fortuitously for the rest of Tamriel or Nirn by that account, they disappeared before that."The Dwemer (also referred to as the Dwarves, Deep-Elves, Deep Folk, Deep Ones, People of the Deep, Deep-Counseled or Secretive People or the under-Elves) were an ancient lost race of Mer who were remnants of the early Aldmer, and lived primarily in the region of Dwemereth.The Dwemer were an advanced race and civilization, and in many respects, they were far ahead of the other races and civilizations of their time. They are well known for their skill and revolutionary developments in technology, engineering, crafting methods, metalwork, stonework, architecture, city planning, science, mathematics, Magic, and the academic arts.The Dwemer are known for being the subjects of one of the greatest mysteries in all of Tamriel. In 1E 700, during the Battle of Red Mountain, for reasons still debated and under circumstances still under investigation, the Dwemer seemingly disappeared.It is still being debated who or what caused the Dwemer to disappear, as well as whether they disappeared all at once or over a long period of time. Only the empty cities remained after their disappearance, with their machinery and Animunculi still working for whole centuries.""From the old records... one of the main Vaults regarding the Aetherium research is located in the Arkthzand. Aside from the Library of the Arkthzand, within the former city, there should also be several Armories and Vaults holding a lot of their latest technology before the Dwemer disappeared."Not many knew the reason behind the disappearance of the Dwemer.That the Dwemer disappeared during the Battle of Red Mountain is something of a coincidence, perhaps spurred on by the armies of the Chimer, led by Indoril Nerevar and his generals Voryn Dagoth, Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil. According to certain historical sources, those four Chimer were far more involved in the event, having fought the Dwemer King Dumac and Kagrenac themselves in the deep caverns beneath Red Mountain, possibly forcing their hands.At least, that was written in books in the lore...Which was...Wrong.Rada knew that the reason why the Dwemer disappeared was far simpler... one without any schemes, plots, and backstabbing.In the end, they angered the will of the Gods.He had access to much of the insider information about the Numidium, the Brass God Project, and that was unacceptable for the Divines. This was something that he had learned from the Vampire King Styriche, who had seen the fall of the Dwemer with his very own eyes and knew the reason behind their fall.The Dwemer wanted to become Gods themselves.Like the Aedaras and Daedric Princes.Something that was taboo.Among the Aedras and the Daedric Princes, both.And thus, they punished the Dwemer because they dared to look at the face of the God, something considered the greatest taboo and sacrilege in Nirn. Over the night, all Dwemers disappeared into the nothingness as they were evaporated by the might of the Dragon God of Time.Such was the end of the Dwemer civilization."Well... that's good. But for the time being, we need to assert control over the entire Blackreach first, and we need to do it fast to counter the other kind of possible threats in this world."Since they had been transported to this world, Rada, with his knowledge, couldn't really tell which world they were in... or exactly where they were.By the presence of Magic practitioners on the surface, it was clear that they were in a world with Magic, and since their arrival, it seemed that the concentration of Magic in the world was increasing.Which was both good and bad at the same time.