THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE - CHAPTER VI: I New Changes and Old Beginnings.

Ulath-Pal had enjoyed the last two years in Vivec City. The with the Archcanon perpetually away on affairs of war and the Dissident Army smashed to pieces, peace had returned to Vvardenfell. Even the most wretched Erur-Dan had left the island to campaign in the west against the rebellious Redoran lords, leaving Ulath-Pal with no direct overseer to meddle in his affairs. However the insane Mayor of St. Olms Canton Lliram had begun to infuriate Ulath-Pal once more. His continuous ravings about how Vivec City was being infiltrated by cabals of flesh eating female ash-vampires who where operating out of a brothel disguised as a Almsivi temple in the Hlaalu Canton was becoming intolerable. To humor him Ulath-Pal had even bothered to visit this supposed ash-vampire brothel. Finding nothing other than a timid shy Temple priestess. Ulath-Pal did not bother to ask if she was the mastermind behind an illegal Sharmat driven brothel-ring. Ulath-Pal even took Mayor Lliram to see Kurapli, his personal mystic, who could hear the voices of the ancestors. When she told him that there where no servants of the Sharmat in Vivec City, Lliram flew in a rage and attack poor Kurapli claiming that she too had to be a female ash-vampire. Ulath-Pal and his guard had to subdue the man and forcefully escort him back to his manor in St. Olms. Ulath-Pal swore that if Mayor Lliram came to him one more time with these outlandish claims he would lock him up in the dungeons himself. Regardless of the unfortunate incident with the Mayor, Ulath-Pal could not shake off the feeling that something strange as afoot. As if there was some kind of conspiracy brewing with the city. The other day he came home and discovered that someone had tampered with the locks to his apartment, something odd was going to happen soon and Ulath-Pal would have to be on his guard.However more discomfiting news came from the north. Rumors where abound that rebellious Redoran lords were preparing to land an army on Vvardenfell. In response to this the Archcanon appointed Chief Assamanut of the Ahemmusa as a High Chief and overlord of all the Bitter Coast, charged with keeping the coast lands secure. Ulath-Pal resolved to send his scouts to watch and observe the Ahemmusa in case their new power would cause them to attempt a foolhardy attack on the Urshilaku.When new reached Ulath-Pal that his son Ainab had return from his long journey into the West he immediately traveled home to the Urshilaku for the celebrations. The feasts lasted for almost two whole months culminating with a solemn ceremony where the Wise Women and all assembled warriors of the tribe acknowledged and confirmed Ulath-Pal as High Chief of all the Ashlands, Trueborn Descendant of Saint Alandro Sul and Ashkhan of the Urshilaku. In return for his son's dutiful service to his father and people, Ulath-Pal bestowed upon his son Ainab the titles of Steward of the Tribe, Regent of the Ashlands, Chief of the Urshilaku Scouts and Master of the Blade. This was so far the proudest movement of his long life. Standing before his kinsmen he swore that he would not rest yet. That he, Ulath-Pal would one day lead them to glory unheard and undreamed of. As he had reclaimed the mantle of High Chief of all the Ashlands for the Urshilaku once more, he would restore the glory of the Ashlander people across all of Vvvardenfell! He also re-instituted the proper practice of slavery to among the Ashlands, for Ulath-Pal knew that whilst the Archcanon had banned slavery on the Temple controlled territory of Vvardenfell he could enforce such an edict in the Ashlands, far away from Vivec City. Ulath-Pal and Ainab then spent the next week traveling to their kinsmen the Urshilaku of Maar Gan. They had sent a representative to the feasts in the Urshilaku camp in the Ashlands, however the envoy had mention to Ulath-Pal that the tribe in Maar Gan need his aid. Having recently suffered a string of bad hunts, which had unfortunately killed some of their best hunters, Ulath-Pal arrived and promptly oversaw the construction of a new hunting lodge. This lodge would house the veteran hunters of the main Urshilaku camp, who would be shortly sent to aid their brothers through the season. Two herds of Guar was also to be sent to the Urshilaku of Maar Gan to help them. However on his journey back to the main Urshilaku camp a courier arrived, calling Ulath-Pal back to Vivec City. Troubling developments had occurred in southern Morrowind in his absence.War had broken out in the South. The King of Ebonheart, Mertis Ra'athim, had pressured his liege Grandmaster Rythe of Great House Indoril into waging war against Great House Dres over a supposed claim to the fortress of Aldsotha. Supposedly the father of the current lord of Aldsotha, Muthsera Nilos, had owned an outstanding debt to the King of Ebonheart and had mortgaged the stronghold of Aldsotha in security for this loan. When the money never materialized and the current lord of Aldsotha, Muthsera Nilos Dres, refused to pay it. The King of Ebonheart had sent a petition to the Temple to have them resolve the dispute. With war against the Argonians and the rebellion in the West the Archcanon had never had time to deal with this. Eventually the King of Ebonheart was tired of waiting and instead petitioned the Grandmaster of House Indoril to help him seize Aldsotha by force. As the Marshal of Vivec City Ulath-Pal's presence was required in order for the Temple to take any stance official on the current conflict. In the weeks that followed Ulath-Path attended several meetings in the High Fane regarding this issue. On one hand the Temple armies where still tied up in putting down the western rebellion, which had lasted for almost five years now, and the Indoril where clearly the aggressors in this conflict. However on the other the Indoril where also the most staunch supporters of the Temple. In fact Archcanon Farwill was an Indoril himself, distantly related to the current Grandmaster by blood. Erur-Dan had returned to Vvardenfell and had resumed his role as Regent of Vvardenfell and object of Ulath-Pal's undying loathing. Erur-Dan stressed that if the Temple did nothing the people of Morrowind might begin to loose faith in them and worse yet the other Great Houses would accuse them of playing favorites with the Indoril. Ulath-Pal thought to himself that nothing could be better for his plans than to drive a wedge between the Temple and their pets, the Indoril, and argued for that a full scale invasion of Ebonheart and forceful occupation of Mournhold should be their response to this ciris. Erur-Dan instead counter argued that the wholesale slaughter of Temple faithful would serve no one. Ulath-Pal drank deeply of his flask of sujamma and promptly accused Erur-Dan of being a coward . Erur-Dan called Ulath-Pal a warmonger and used his authority as Regent of Vvardenfell to overrule him and make binding decision on the matter. While the Temple would offcially enter the war on the Dres side, no Temple armies where to be sent to aid the Dres. Instead the Temple armies would remain in the West and finish putting down the Redoran rebellion. Ulath-Pal threw his flask of Sujamma on the ground in anger and stormed out of the High Fane. A few months after this meeting word came of the outcome of the Dres-Indoril War. After loosing the battles of Aldsotha, Sereva and Silnion and having their fortresses at Padomai and Desmora overrun by Indoril forces along with an Argonian slave uprising rampaging through their lands they had no choice but to sue for peace with the Indoril.After the Dres-Indoril War had concluded an eerie peace settled over Morrowind. The Archcanon returned to Vivec City, having finally put down the last of the Redoran Lords in the four day long battle of Lake Hlaalu. Erur-Dan had been rewarded for his handling of the Dres-Indoril crisis with Overlordship of all the Grazelands and elevated to the position of High Chief. He was invested into his new office in an elaborate ceremony culminating in Erur-Dan taking his oaths of office on the steps of Vivec's Palace, sunshine supposedly appeared from nowhere and bathed in city resplendent light, as if Vivec himself had parted the clouds to mark this momentous occasion. Not that Ulath-Pal would know. He did not attend the ceremony. Instead upon heard the news the Erur-Dan was to rule all the Grazelands and was charged with overseeing the conversion of these lands to the Almsivi faith, he despaired. He wandered in a daze through the wilderness outside the city. When he awoke it was raining. He was sitting beneath one of the large mushroom trees were common in the Ascandian Isles. As he huddled beneath the tree, he looked to his left and saw a young Dunmer girl sitting there quietly. When he asked who she was, she instead asked if him had ever heard the story of the Cliff Racer and the Guar. When Ulath-Pal said he had not, the girl explained that once there were a cliff racer and a guar. Flying overhead the cliff racer had spotted a mangy looking guar, when the cliff racer tried to swoop down and eat the guar it defended itself fiercely in a mad panic, so the cliff racer retreated to the skies and instead followed the guar overhead. There it saw that the guar had found some wild berries and ate them, when the cliff racer swooped down to kill the guar it again defended itself fiercely. So once again the cliff racer retreated and flew above it. There it waited until the guar had eat all the berries it could find and had grown fat. The guar then lay on its back as the sun set in the distance and fell asleep, only then did the cliff racer strike and with its beak gorged deeply into its insides, when the guar tried to get back on its feet it could not, for it was now too heavy with fat and so the cliff racer feasted on the corpse of the guar. Ulath-Pal then turned to the girl again to ask her name, but blinked and when his eyes opened she was gone. Ulath-Pal then sat under the tree until the rain stopped, contemplating the story and the girl. As he walked towards Vivec City in the distance he concluded this was not a ordinary encounter. That girl had to have been Lord Boethiah herself. The tale of the Cliff Racer and the Guar had a hidden meaning. Ulath-Pal was the cliff racer and the guar was Erur-Dan. Like the cliff racer Ulath-Pal would soar above Erur-Dan until he had grown fat and lazy and then strike and engorge himself on Erur-Dan's entrails! To that end he would first have to craft a net to catch the traitorous Erur-Dan. Luckily Erur-Dan had made enemies among the Ashlanders.