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

Some of Deslandra's earliest activities occured just prior to the Planemeld. In Cyrodiil, she 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. In the background, Deslandra's Soldiers of the Void utilized their resources to eliminate potential threats. The Soldiers of the Void were aided by the Psijic Order (though they would later be enemies) who had a mutual interest in thwarting the Order of the Waking Flame plans in Cyrodiil, banishing Xivilai Moath and stopping the summoning of Mehrunes Dagon onto Nirn. The Soldiers of the Void also infiltrated the Mages Guild. Their mole who held a high position in the Mages Guild, Ludex Ovidius, sent Mages Guild secrets to Deslandra. Additionally, an undisclosed Mages Guild traitor 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.

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.

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.

Over in High Rock, Deslandra and her Soldiers of the Void looked for powerful items capable of 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." They also enlisted the aid of the remnants of the Supernal Dreamers, who fed 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. Meanwhile, the Soldiers of the Void committed false flag operations in the province by damaging the food supplies of the Daggerfall Covenant and the Ebonheart Pact troops that were fighting at Davon's Watch. The cultists hoped to destabilize the Pact so they could run their operations in Skyrim with less obstacles.

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. Wreaking havoc on the surface while Deslandra executed her plans underground.

End Game

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.

Gallery

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  Lich Deslandra in High Rock

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  Enraged Deslandra

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  Mechanist Deslandra in Morrowind

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  Imbued Deslandra in Black Marsh

Notes

• 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

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