Relevant lore - Haafingar - The Reach

Although lore about Skyrim is said to be rather slim, there still seems to be a bit lore regarding the Reach and particularly 'solitude' which should more or less equivalent to 'Haafingar'.

The city and its surroundings were dominion of the infamous 'Wolfqueen' Potena who died about 300 years before the events of Morrowind. The wolf queen and her cruel deeds, although long ago now, should still be known by people in this area and might also be a base for further myths and fairy tales about 'the evil wolf queen'. Nevertheless it might be that some people, like the horme, don't consider her to be as bad as described in history.
Source: http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/biography_wolfqueen.shtml

[...]There is a strong underground movement called the Horme that believes Potema and her deposed son of Uriel III to be the last of Tiber Septim's true blood and under that principle lead raids against Imperial interests in the province.[...]

[...]Solitude, always one of the richest and most influential counties in Skyrim, has grown ever more powerful, controlling much of the northern coastline following King Thian's alliance by marriage with Macalla, the Queen of Dawnstar. It has sought to expand its influence further by annexing several former Imperial fiefs, such as the island of Roscrea, ruled directly by the Emperor since Uriel V conquered it in the 271st year. It has begun sponsoring exploratory missions even farther from the mainland into the misty waters of the Sea of Ghosts.[...]
Source: http://www.imperial-library.info/pge3/skyrim.shtml

A piece of history explaining the high amount of Redguards and Bretons in the Reach is the 'War of Bend'r-Mahk'. The nords fought this victorious war against the Bretons and the Redguards, greatly expanding to the west. The time of this conflict was about 30 years before the events of Morrowind.
Source: http://www.imperial-library.info/history/3.shtml

Somewhere in the Reach there should be a small county named Cascabel and a castle called "Cascabel Hall" ruled by a county who is son of Menegur, a woodelf who managed to defend the castle against the army of Farrun and therefore gaining the title of county. Farrun is a city in Highrock. So the siege of Cascabel probably happened in the war of Bend'r-Mahk, if we assume that this story is valid lore for us.
Source: http://www.imperial-library.info/mwbooks/rearguard.shtml


As soon as I find more interesting lore about the areas we are working on, I'll post it here.

-In the northern Skyrim (Northshore-region probably), there is a hill called 'Gorvigh Ridge'.
-There is a location called 'Nerone', somewhere along the northern coast of Skyrim, not too far from Gorvigh Ridge. As I understand, it's the name of an icy headland there.
-There are ruins of imperial castles built in the 1st Era.

Ice and Chitin wrote:

She directed her guard toward a ruined old keep on the frozen isthmus of Nerone, across the bay from Gorvigh Ridge. Jutting out on a promontory of rock, it was like many other abandoned castles in northern Skyrim, remnants of Reman Cyrodiil's protective shield against the continent of Akavir.

Source: http://www.imperial-library.info/obbooks/ice_chitin.shtml

I didn't know that Solitude was part of the Reach. That's pretty cool, the quests could contain a lot of political strife.
It'd be cool if there was a quest where you could help annex some Imperial locations too (for all those imperial haters out there).

Maybe we should brainstorm for some quests, towns/locations, factions, and a MQ for the Reach, and start making up our own lore (using existing lore as a basis for new lore of course).

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I didn't know that Solitude was part of the Reach.

Not exactly actually. I assumed that Cascabel hall would be situated in the Reach because the area around Solitude seems to be rather snowy and cold. And there are said to grow apple trees around Cascabel hall which would be very unlikely near Solitude then. On the other hand, as said, Cascabel Hall does (or did) belong to Solitude and therefore Jackpot on the bethsoft forums said that it would be near to Solitude. But I think it doesn't need to.

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That's pretty cool, the quests could contain a lot of political strife.

Very good. It's a wealthy location. Many imperial interests there. An underground movement that is somewhat opposed to the imperials. And other things that may need considering.

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It'd be cool if there was a quest where you could help annex some Imperial locations too (for all those imperial haters out there).

The Hormer may be those or nord groups who dismay the exploiting by imperials. The way the nords are shown in Bloodmoon points a bit towards a tribal, very natural and shamanistic society many Nords have (The Skaals eg.). Then again the nords in Solitude are probably more civilized.

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Maybe we should brainstorm for some quests, towns/locations, factions, and a MQ for the Reach, and start making up our own lore (using existing lore as a basis for new lore of course).

Sounds good. I have no concrete idea for now. But I'm in the course of thinking about it more and I think there are plenty of ideas I'm gonna come up with soon. We should however, look if we can get hold of someone who takes a look over the things we are making and who makes sure that we don't contradict lore too much. Other than that I also think that we should come up with our own vision of the political affairs and other lore-details there. Were gonna need to anyway.

On a general term: Haafingar is going to be remade. The Haafingar-screens Lestat posted formerly now belong the town of Dunbarrow. Haafingar will feature an own architecture (related to the architecture in Dunbarrow and other towns there) and it's going to cover an area of about six cells. The architecture tileset has already been completed including the interior tileset. And the castle of Solitude is also going to be an impressive one.

https://2img.net/h/i52.photobucket.com/albums/g23/Worsas/exterior-tiles.jpg
https://2img.net/h/i52.photobucket.com/albums/g23/Worsas/house.jpg
https://2img.net/h/i52.photobucket.com/albums/g23/Worsas/house2.jpg

Nice to see you btw.

I'm not just being nice here, (if I think something looks crap, I'll tell you it's crap ), when I say that tileset looks excellent!
Can't wait to see the castle! Keep up the awesome work mate.

It's actually King Thian who is taking over Imperial settlements, to increase Solitude's influence, not the Horme (though they carry out raids, so I suppose they would take over imperial areas as well).

We should definitely read up on lore, and check each others work to make sure we don't clash with existing lore.

I suppose we should first decide on factions, and interfaction relations before we can do quests.
For example the Horme and Imperial Legion could be two conflicting factions.
The king of Solitude and his faction of knights/guards I suppose would be unfriendly with, yet not on hostile terms with the Imperial Legion.

Will there be the Imperial Guilds in Skyrim (Mage's, Fighter's, Theive's etc.).
Perhaps a seperate thread should be used for brainstorming these ideas though, I don't want to clutter up this thread.

Ha, ok. I'm going to look a bit more carefully the next time then. I estimate that imperial guilds are alright in Haafingar. But I'm not the most lore-familiar one so I can't guarantee for the validity of this statment.

I'm glad that you like the architecture.

[...]The home of the famous Bards' College, Haafingar is also one of Skyrim's chief ports, and ships from up and down the coast can be found at her crowded quays, loading timber and salted cod for the markets of Wayrest, West Anvil, and Senchal. Founded during Skyrim's long Alessian flirtation, the Bards' College continues to flaunt a heretical streak, and its students are famous carousers, fittingly enough for their chosen trade. Students yearly invade the marketplace for week of revelry, the climax of which is the burning of "King Olaf" in effigy, possibly a now-forgotten contender in the War of Succession. Graduates have no trouble finding employment in noble households across Tamriel, including the restored Imperial Court in Cyrodiil, but many still choose to follow in the wandering footsteps of illustrious alumni such as Callisos and Morachellis. [...]

http://www.imperial-library.info/pge/skyrim.shtml