The Great War
Tabitha was born in Hegathe in the southern reaches of Hammerfell circa 4E 163. Her parents were both part of the Imperial Garrison of the city, her mother being a common soldier and her father being a low-ranking spymaster for the Imperial Legion. Being the daughter of such people, she was not particularly privileged, but did gain a greater insight into what was necessary to succeed her father in his post. This included learning how to read and write as well as her martial training, which she stubbornly insisted on leaning towards scouting. Such an upbringing would continue later on and, along with later events, rob her of much of her childhood.
When she was barely eight years old, the Aldmeri Dominion came, burning and pillaging. Tabitha’s father died trying to oversee the evacuation and her mother took her across the Alik’r Desert along with the rest of the Imperial Legion as they retreated. Tabitha would spend much of the next decade fighting alongside the scattered reminents of the Imperial Legion and the divided Redguards against the Thalmor. In that time, she would rise to replace her father and many of those spymasters who perished in the fighting in spite of her tender age and the death of her mother. The White-Gold Concordat would leave her bitter towards the Third Empire, though she never renounced it in memory of her father.
The Wandering Star
The end of the war between the Aldmeri Dominion and the forces of Hammerfell would leave Tabitha in a complex dilemma. To those Redguard who she fought alongside and the spies she had managed, she was nothing short of a hero. To the rest however, she was a symbol of an empire that had failed to protect, indeed had abandoned, one of its provinces. After two attempts on her life, the pleading from her friends and confidents left her with a bitter revelation: Hammerfell, who she had fought for so long and so hard, was not her home any longer. Though promising that they would never abandon her, they insisted that she had to leave. So indeed she did.
For a time Tabitha would wander aimlessly. She reluctantly headed north into High Rock, having no wish to enter Cyrodiil and being unable to travel south. The Empire, though weakened, still leaned heavily on that home of the Bretons and the Bretons, in their own peculiar way, leaned back. Her contacts in Hammerfell set her an operation, founding a new network in High Rock named the Silver Hammer. Though she was proud to continue her father’s work, her heart was not in it, grow though the network might, even extending into Skyrim and Morrowind in its own time. She became whispered of by those who served, though she mostly left the work to her immediate privy council and only offered advice.
Chosen
Some years after her arrival in High Rock, the Silver Hammer came under attack. An outpost in north-eastern High Rock had been completely demolished by an unknown force. Investigating the ruins of the hidden sanctuary, Tabitha realized that the attack was the work of undead thralls. This, however, made little sense. She had little time to reckon for the whys as several other outposts, some in the heart of major city-states, were also destroyed and she realized that the attacks were not random. Very soon, the entire network was greatly weakened as it lost ground not only in High Rock, but also in Skyrim and Morrowind. Determined not to let down her spies, Tabitha studied the pattern of attacks and intercepted one as it fell upon yet another outpost.
Interrogating prisoners taken at that action lead her to realize that the attacks were the work of a growing vampire cult called the Crimson Twilight who had been discovered by the original outpost. Desperate to stay secret, they were trying to dismantle the Silver Hammer. Armed with this knowledge and the location of the vampire cult headquarters, which she extracted from the vampire that had lead the assault, Tabitha led a force to eradicate the remaining vampires. The assault was destined to fail as the weakened network was no match for the powerful magic of the enemy. Worse yet, a number of her spies were revealed to the ruling power of Farrun and imprisoned pending execution for treason.
With no legitimate authority, Tabitha had no choice but to initiate a risky operation to secure their escape. During the raid on the city dungeons, Tabitha discovered a great gem hidden in one of the vaults. It had been taken from a peasant who tried to sell it in the marketplace on the count that it was likely stolen. The operation worsened before her network could fully withdraw as members of the Crimson Twilight attempted to stall them for the guards to capture. Tabitha slew many of them, allowing her network to escape.
The slaying of undead awakened the gem shortly after their flight from the city. Through it, Meridia, Lady of Infinite Energies, spoke to Tabitha. After a brief congratulations on the destruction of so many undead, the Daedric goddess became outraged to discover from Tabitha and her spy network that so many undead were being raised. She named Tabitha her champion and tasked her with retrieving Dawnbreaker, promising that its cleansing power would give Tabitha the victory she sought over the Crimson Twilight.
Dawnbreaker
Tabitha was initially skeptical that any one sword could turn the tide of the battles and many of her more devout spies warned her with tales about Umaril the Unfeathered. However, others reminded her that Meridia was a Daedric goddess and less evil than her kin. They pointed out that she had the power and tendency to follow through with her promises. In the end, Tabitha decided that it was for the best. The Golden Hammer had been too depleted to fight on its own without greater aid. Meridia instructed her to travel to her temple in Skyrim, just south of the great city of Solitude.
The journey was a difficult one. Knowing that they would be hunted in High Rock for the rest of their lives, the spies who had escaped Farrun sought to travel to Skyrim and join the network branches there that were also under attack by Crimson Twilight, though to a lesser degree. This proved to be a difficult proposition, as notices had gone out to the other kingdoms warning to be on the lookout for them. After a failed attempt to secure transport in Jehanna, Tabitha was forced to take a mountain route to reach Skyrim.
The going across the mountains was difficult. Already treacherous most of the year, the mountains were particularly dangerous in winter. As it so happened, this was the time at which Tabitha was forced to cross. She would have preferred to wait, but Meridia would not be denied for any length of time. To make matters worse, they were tailed by thralls of the Crimson Twilight and mercenaries of Farrun seeking bounties. When they finally reached Skyrim, they were met by Solitude guards who pursued them all the way to the temple.
At the temple they were met by cultists of Meridia. Meridia had told Tabitha that, though devoted and powerful, these followers were mostly templum and had little experience outside of prayer and study. Thus, none of them made fitting candidates to be her champion. Nevertheless, the templum proved themselves capable by ushering Tabitha and her spies to safety while they threw back their pursuers. After the battle, Tabitha went to the main chamber and retrieved Dawnbreaker from its pedestal.
She Who Comes With the Dawn
Now armed with Dawnbreaker, Tabitha turned her attention back to the Silver Hammer. The attacks had slowed as outposts were moved, but the secret war had taken its toll and there was much that needed rebuilding. Following Meridia’s instructions, Tabitha discovered and removed several cult outposts in Skyrim while directing attacks on others both in Skyrim and in Morrowind. She had no doubt that word of Meridia’s champion would soon reach the Crimson Twilight’s leaders. She was not to be disappointed, as the headquarters of the Silver Hammer in High Rock was destroyed, the spared survivors bringing messages of defiance to her. Still, it was not long before the last of the Crimson Twilight had been eradicated in Skyrim and Morrowind and Tabitha turned her attention back to High Rock.
Reaching High Rock proved to be an easier task this time around than the last. Whether the ruling power knew or else its own spy network had finally caught on, the guards of Farrun had withdrawn their call for Tabitha’s spies to be arrested and the bounties had been removed. This allowed Tabitha to lead a force of the Silver Hammer, now bolstered by the templum of Meridia, by ship. From there, she led a second assault on the Crimson Twilight’s headquarters at dawn.
The battle was lengthy and costly. The vampires had grown powerful and had many thralls in their service, some of whom were former members of The Silver Hammer. They had fortified their headquarters in anticipation of such an attack and many fell to the new defenses. Nevertheless, they proved insufficient to stop Tabitha from beheading many of their leading cadre with Dawnbreaker, the cleansing fire from their deaths vaporizing large numbers of thralls. By midday, the surviving vampires of the Crimson Twilight had fled completely, their headquarters being ultimately sundered by Meridia.
Meridia’s Champion
When the dust settled, Tabitha realized that she was in much the same position as she had been years before. The Silver Hammer had been devastated by the fighting and would need much time to rebuild. Yet Tabitha had little interest in doing this. As she descended into despair, Meridia contacted her again. She commanded Tabitha to lead the templum east to Morrowind. Sensing purpose being bestowed upon her, Tabitha left instructions to rebuild the Silver Hammer and headed for Morrowind.
In the coming years, Tabitha would serve Meridia in many places and with many unlikely allies, though her main exploits would be in Morrowind. Meridia assured Tabitha that the undead of Skyrim would be purged, just not by her. This confused her, but she came to trust Meridia’s judgment and direction. During her time in Morrowind, she would fall into the company of a wandering warrior who she would fight alongside for many years.
In the year 4E 200, Meridia instructed Tabitha to return Dawnbreaker to her Skyrim Temple. Agreeing to do so, Tabitha parted company with the warrior and returned there. She was shocked to find that many of the templum she knew were dead and only a few acolytes maintained the temple. She doubted that they would be responsible enough to be entrusted with such a relic, but Meridia left her no option. Leaving Dawnbreaker behind was one of the most difficult things Tabitha had ever done, but she obeyed. Meridia promised her that she would have it back some day.
A Civil War
Her duties with Meridia done, or at least postponed, Tabitha turned her attention back to the Silver Hammer. In her absence, the network had rebuilt, though its strength was mainly in High Rock and Hammerfell. Tabitha resumed her duties as spymaster for the Silver Hammer as war broke out in Skyrim.
Tabitha did not have much fondness for the Divines. True, she prayed with the others to placate the more devout members of the Silver Hammer, but the truth is that she had a sneaking suspicion that the Divines had abandoned her at the same time the Third Empire had. Needless to say, she was not too keen to get involved in a civil dispute between the Third Empire and the Stormcloaks.
Tabitha’s less-than-warm disposition to intervening with in the civil war was not well received in the ranks of the Silver Hammer. The interest in aid went mostly to the Stormcloaks, but not all for the same reason. The cells in Hammerfell and Skyrim claimed that it was their duty to support the Stormcloaks to escape the Empire, who had already abandoned them. The cells in Morrowind called for non-intervention while the cells in High Rock alone called for intervention on the side of the Empire, owing that Skyrim would most likely be unable to fight the Aldmeri Dominion on their own. Meetings held in High Rock raged until the Grand Spymaster of the cells in High Rock was found dead, killed with a poison known only to high-ranking members of the Silver Hammer.
The Silver Hammer was thrown into anarchy as the High Rock cells started pointing fingers at the cells of Skyrim while the Hammerfell cells argued their innocence. Tabitha’s efforts alongside the Morrowind cells to calm the storm were met with the withdrawal of the Skyrim cells. The act was unprecedented and unexpected, even to the cells of Hammerfell, who immediately joined the others in calling for their return. However, soon after messengers to Skyrim were returned without tongues, it was realized that the cells of Skyrim were in open rebellion.
The secret war that followed proved even more devastating for the Silver Hammer than the war against the Crimson Twilight, somehow even managing to blot out the importance of the Stormcloak Rebellion and the tales of dragons in Skyrim. As it progressed, betrayals by Stormcloak sympathizers in the cells arrayed against those in Skyrim would tax their strength and lengthen the conflict. It would be two long and bloody years of fights in back alleys and underground until the Skyrim cells had been smashed and scattered, ending the chance of the Silver Hammer being revealed to the world at large. By then, Skyrim belonged to the Nords and the reasoning behind the war was rendered utterly moot.
Most applauded Tabitha’s part in the conflict, crediting her with the ultimate victory. However, she knew that the praises came with the same bad taste that lay on her own tongue. The Silver Hammer was back where it had been at the end of the war with the Crimson Twilight. Worse, if the truth was told. They still had Skyrim then, which was what had lent them the base of their victory. It would take years to rebuild in Skyrim with most of the outposts gutted and most of the contacts there dead, either from their war or the Stormcloak Rebellion.
Meridia’s Guardian
The task to rebuild would not be the only one Tabitha would have, however. The war had left many battlegrounds covered in dead and necromancers took this as an opportunity to ply their vile craft. Thus, Meridia called on Tabitha once again. Returning to the Temple of Meridia in Skyrim, Tabitha was shocked to find it in a state of frozen decay, the interior riddled with corpses and the foul workings of necromancers. In the inner sanctum where she had placed Dawnbreaker what seemed like a lifetime ago, she found naught but an empty pedestal. Then from behind her, from the shadows, stepped a figure. What manner of Man or Mer or Beast it was, for she could not even tell the gender, Tabitha could not say. It presented her with Dawnbreaker before turning to leave. When Tabitha asked where it was going, it murmured in the tongue of the ancient Nords something about “heading east”. Then it was gone.
Meridia called on Tabitha then and informed her that she was to not be the champion to wield Dawnbreaker to the end of her days, but to be its guardian until one worthy of it came to claim it. Tabitha knew better than to ask when that would be or how she would know. She later tasked members of the Silver Hammer with restoring the temple.
In the years leading up to 4E 206, Tabitha set herself to rebuilding the cells of the Silver Hammer while also rooting out necromancers in Skyrim. By Midsummer, she was back in High Rock, seeing to business for the network when a bright light briefly lit the north-eastern sky.
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Originally Posted by SQJ
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