Lore:The Lay of Firsthold

Their tribulations drove the Elves

'Cross Sloadful seas to Summerset.

O Aldmeris! Old Ehlnofey!

Your loving visage haunts us yet.

Your zephyr's kiss enthralls us still,

Though only in heart's memory,

And sorrow to the marrow deep

Infuses every Aldmeri.

When Magnus sinks and night-hour comes,

And owl and spectre prowl and creep,

When eyes can gaze at stars no more,

Then fancy flits across the deep,

Whence Aldmer came to eastern isles,

Escaping doom oblivious,

To Auridon, hue-imbued

With spectrum vivid, various.

From foam it rose before the ships;

Nine prows did plow the gleaming strand.

Torinaan stepped from foremost craft,

And claimed as Kinhold all the land

From silver beach to green-clad hills,

Begilded by the golden dawn.

Auridon thus was the name

Bestowed upon that realm anon.

Though wild it was, at once it gripped

Torinaan's once remorseful heart.

He drew his blade, he drew his blood,

And swore an oath to ne'er depart.

They disembarked upon the shore,

Built Kinhouse, gardens, forge, and hive.

They tamed the meadows, beaches, fields,

And made a home where Elves could thrive.

Then howling from the hills in hate

Came horrors horned, bedight with eyes.

Gheatus; Welwa; Ilyadi—

All sought the Aldmers' cruel demise.

Some said they should take ship anew

And seek a farther, safer shore.

But bold Torinaan valor steeled,

And drawing on ancestral lore,

Hierogram with Varla Stones

He wove upon Auridon's loom,

Drew power down from stars above,

And drove fell monsters to their doom.

He harried them 'cross hills and heights,

All smiting them with magics dire,

Till one by one they fell at last

To blast of lightning, ice, or fire.

So warded then by spells well-spun

Auridon bloomed beneath the touch

Of Altmer craft and husbandry,

Imagoform and sculpture. Much

Admired by other Altmer were

Torinaan's brave achievement there,

And other Kinholds followed fast

On Summerset, so blest, so fair.

But though those Kinholds prospered well

Throughout the archipelago,

Aldmeri Landfall all recall

Upon the Firsthold shore did show,

And bold Torinaan is revered

For courage, wisdom, foresight. He

Who harnessed heaven to defend

The Aldmer in extremity.

Auridon: excellent abode.

Maormer repel: expel all Sload.