Here is the prologue:
WARNING 1: I just google translated and corrected huge inconsistencies only. Sentence structures are horrible.
WARNING 2: I'm not megalomaniac! Vothn was the name of the my first Skyrim character, whose story this fanfic tells.
Dovahkiin Vothn: A Modern Hero
By Paulinius Vibius, Bard at the Imperial City Academy, Department of "Nordic History and Mythology".
Prologue
Why a new biography of Vothn? This question may legitimately arise. During my fifteen years of research on the subject, I was able to count no less than 78 books dedicated to the Dovahkin Vothn, from the first studies, contemporary to the facts, to the recent essays by the Academy of Bards of Solitude on Vothn's spiritual heritage in Skyrim. So why another biography? Because, in my opinion, there is no complete modern book on the subject.
Almost all of the studies published over the last 50 years focus on a particular point of Vothn's life or posterity. For example, the latest publication, âExil without returnâ by Jor Thralon (4E351), is particularly focused on the reasons for Vothn's presence in Skyrim on the famous Last Seed of 4E201, as well as on the events that led to his arrest by the Imperials. Another recent work of interest, âDaedra and Dragonsâ, by Gurd Stagford (4E351), examines the notoriously conflicting relations between Vothn and some Vigilants of Stendarr. Regarding the biographies of the third century, as Tove Shortway rightly notes in âNordic Heroes of the Fourth Eraâ (4E332), they are often a one-way testimony, dependent or exculpatory, and lacking in objectivity.
There is no doubt that Vothn is one of the most symbolic historical figures of Skyrim's history, but he is also unequivocally the most controversial. If his actions in the dragon crisis are not much disputed, his engagement in the civil war, as well as his personality, remain subject to debate more than a century after his death.
However, it has been suggested by several authors (see, for example, the final chapter of the study by Ina Cleartone âThe Voice of the Bard: the part of the imaginary in the historical narratives of Tamriel preceding the oblivion crisis-4E348â ) that these controversies are not due to Vothn's personality, but rather reflect a radical change in the way the Nordics perceive their great historical figures.
This change, which would have began at the beginning of the third era with the creation of the Empire and the facilitation of the interprovincial cultural exchanges which ensued, remains nevertheless very discrete during all the third era.
According to Ina Clairevoix, the pre-Vothn historical figures are perceived by the Nordics of the time as complete heroes, overpowered, almost inhuman and above all unassailable by critics. Their lives and their works have with certainty, been extensively romanticized by the bards of the time, whose works are hagiographic. The rare detractors' texts have not gone down to posterity. For these ancient historical figures, the historical fact and the mythological fact are inextricably linked.
The case of Vothn is completely different. In his lifetime, he has inspired a large number of texts condemning his actions, his personality; challenging his status and even his origins. In âVothn the Imposterâ, a meticulous attack written over twenty years, between 4E202 and 4E223, the Vigilant Olfrid presents Vothn as a degenerate criminal accidentally dragged into a series of events that he was unable to gauge the importance of.
In his two studies, âProof by Omissionâ (4E348) and âVothn the Imposter: Approximations and Inconsistencies in the Text and Paratextâ (4E349), Rufus Varinius demonstrates the inaccuracy of certain accusations and provides evidence that although it was already perceived as defamatory by a large part of the population at the time of its publication, the book was very popular for nearly half a century. It seems, therefore, that Vothn did not benefit from the indulgence and protection that the Nordics previously guaranteed to their great men. He also differs from most of his predecessors in that his notoriety has largely exceeded the borders of Bordeciel, and that, as soon as 4E201.
Who was the Dovahkin? What inspired him? Was he a traitor under the Empire's thumb, as the Nordic separatists think, from the Stormcloak revolt to present day? A quasi-prescient modern leader who, for the federalists, announces in advance the renewal of the Empire? Or should we give credit to the claims of the radical branch of the Stendarr's Vigilants, who presents him as a mythomaniac criminal?
My goal, in writing this biography, is to take advantage of the many primary sources that were discovered recently, and of the new methods of document restoration, to try to rewrite, with the hindsight that allows the passage of time, the story of Vothn.
Imperial City, the seventeenth day of Rain's Hand 4E353.