Darius Stormblade II (Ancient Legends)

Darius Stormblade II
Darius Stormblade II, Circa 4E 201
Race	Nord
Gender	Male
Age	25 (Events of TES: V) 25 (Civil Unrest Series) 45 (Red Diamond, Short Story) 60 (Towerfall)
Status	Alive
Factions	College of Winterhold (formerly), Thieves Guild (formerly), Stormcloaks (formerly), House Telvanni (honorary), Dawnguard (formerly), 5th Empire
Place of Birth	Windhelm, Skyrim
Relationships	Archmage Shalidor (Ancestor) Hadrian Stormblade (Ancestor) Arya Greycloak (Former Mercenary Captain and Lover) Arabelle Dewleaf (Wife and Empress) Cyrelian Stormblade (Son) Aurora Stormblade (Daughter)
Sign	The Serpent

For others with the name, see Darius Stormblade. 

“	Today, let no binding contract other than our common love for Tamriel exist. Today, let Dominion soldier battle alongside Imperial Legionnaire. Today, let us set aside our arguments for the greater issue: the continuity of Tamriel, Mundus, and all of our lives!	”
	— Darius Stormblade II, before the battle of White-Gold, 4E 236

Darius Stormblade II is the Last Dragonborn, and the first Emperor of the Stormblade Dynasty. Darius was also the Archmage of the College of Winterhold, but passed down that mantle to Onmund, after the latter proved himself to be a fantastic wizard.

Darius also joined the Stormcloaks shortly after defeating Alduin. He rose to the rank of Stormblade while fighting alongside his friend, and future wife, Arabelle Dewleaf. He became Emperor of Tamriel in 4E 220, beginning the 5th Empire.

Origins

Darius was born in the ancient city of Windhelm on the 15th of Evening Star, in the year 4E 175 to the city’s blacksmith, Vidar Sun-Forged, and the Champion of the Windhelm Arena, Rowena Stormblade. With the blood of Shalidor the Archmage and the smith Hadrian running in his veins, Darius spent his first years relatively normally - while learning how to be a smith, and training to become a member of the city guard. However, at the age of 15, Darius was sent to the College of Winterhold to round out his magical education, becoming an Adept at Destruction, Conjuration, and Alteration.

The Silver Company

Finally, at the age of 19, Darius left Skyrim to become a mercenary with the Silver Company, led by a half-elven Nord named Arya Greycloak, who had the strange gift of prophecy. Darius quickly distinguished himself within the Company, becoming Arya’s second-in-command. However, the relationship between Darius and Arya grew much deeper, as Arya showed the young Nord the true meaning of love. Alas, it was not to be.

The Bloodmoon of Cyrodiil

Shortly before the Dragon Crisis began, the Silver Company received a job to clear out a cave system in Northern Cyrodiil from cultists of Hircine - supposedly an easy job. When the mercenaries entered the cave, a primal urge to hunt overtook the Company, forcing the mercenaries to begin fighting as the moon turned red. As they fought, the Silver Company began to take on the characteristics of Hircine’s hounds. Darius took the longest to turn, but when he did, the Nord slaughtered most of the Company. At last, the only two survivors were Darius and Arya. Both of them shook off the magic that enhanced their bloodlust, only to face the Daedric Prince himself: Hircine.

The hardest fight of both of Darius and Arya’s lives began, as they fought Hircine in his Guile form. Arya’s gift allowed her to realize that only her or Darius would survive the Bloodmoon Hunt, and it would not be the one who defeated Hircine. Just before Darius was about to deliver the killing blow, Arya shoved him out of the way and buried her blade in the Daedric Prince’s shoulder. The mercenary captain fell as Hircine cast a lethal spell, inflicting Arya with the curse that was aimed for Darius, draining her life-force.

As Arya laid dying, she consoled her lover:

"It was never going to be me, Darius. I knew that from the start. I, a lowly mercenary captain, was destined to die here, unmourned and unsung. You, on the other hand, are destined for far greater things. Go back to Skyrim - it is there that your fate lies. Great danger awaits you, but so does eternal glory. There is also one who is fated to be yours until the end of time - when nothing else remains but the war, seek her out beneath the trees evergreen. Your heart will know who she is, for the blade and vine are forever entwined."

With that, Arya laid back and let Darius place her sword on her chest and fold her hands around the hilt. Arya closed her eyes, and let the curse overtake her, taking her last breath.

Darius was left alone as the only survivor of the Bloodmoon of Cyrodiil. After burying the fallen, Darius wandered alone, eventually following Arya’s advice and returning to Skyrim in the month of Last Seed, in the year 4E 201.

Events of Skyrim

Darius, still reeling from the death of his entire mercenary company and his first love, Arya Greycloak, entered Skyrim, only to be captured along with Ulfric Stormcloak and taken to Helgen.

However, fate had other plans for the 25-year old Nord, as Alduin, the World-Eater, assaulted Helgen, heralding the start of the Dragon Crisis, and the forging of a legend.

The Last Dragonborn

After retrieving the Dragonstone from Bleak Falls Barrow, Darius, Irileth, and a regiment of Whiterun Guards were sent to the Western Watchtower, where a dragon attacked. After a extremely hairy fight, the beast was brought down, and its soul was absorbed by Darius, who now knew one of his most used shouts: Unrelenting Force.

After returning to Whiterun, Darius was summoned to High Hrothgar by the Greybeards, who taught him the second word in Unrelenting Force, and the first word of Whirlwind Sprint.

After this, Darius was sent to Ustengrav to retrieve the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. After finding out that he went through an extremely dangerous Nordic Tomb for nothing, Darius returned to Riverwood to find the woman who took the Horn.

After finding out that Delphine, the woman who had taken the horn, was a Blades agent, he returned the Horn to High Hrothgar and became known as Ysmir, the Dragon of the North.

Diplomatic Immunity and Intrigue

After killing another dragon in Kynesgrove, Darius learnt that Delphine, who had accompanied him to the dragonslaying was one of the last Blades, an ancient order dedicated to protecting the Septim Emperors and killing dragons.

She suspected that the Thalmor, an organization of Altmer, was behind the dragon attacks. To test this theory, she asked Darius to infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy via a party.

While Darius was not as prone to far-fetched ideas, but all for crashing Thalmor parties, he accepted the job.

He attended the party on the 29th of Frostfall, and exited the party a few hours later covered in Thalmor blood, with two fugitives and important documents in tow.

One of those Important documents refered to an "Esbern" hiding somewhere in Riften. A few day later, Darius was in Riften asking around.

Darius met a man named Brynjolf, starting his complicated but successful relationship with the Skyrim criminal underworld.

Using information gleaned from his new friends in the Ragged Flagon, Darius ventured into the Ratway to find Esbern.

Alduin's Wall

After retrieving Esbern, Darius returned to Riverwood, where he learned the existence of Alduin's Wall, a place where the Blades put all their knowledge about Alduin, the World-Eater, who had returned.

They journeyed to Karthspire, in the Reach. Here was the entrance to Sky Haven Temple, the lost home of the Blades in Skyrim, after passing a few trials and sacrificing his blood to a seal, they were let into the ancient temple of the Blades.

When they entered the temple, this prophecy awaited them:

When misrule takes its place at the eight corners of the world

When the Brass Tower walks and Time is reshaped

When the thrice-blessed fail and the Red Tower trembles

When the Dragonborn Ruler loses his throne, and the White Tower falls

When the Snow Tower lies sundered, kingless, bleeding

The World-Eater wakes, and the Wheel turns upon the Last Dragonborn.

Darius also learned that he needed to learn a Shout to defeat Alduin. Dragonrend.

Bane of Dragons

In order to learn this shout, Darius returned to High Hrothgar, where after a brief argument, the Greybeards allowed him access to Paarthunax, who taught him Fire Breath, a shout that Darius would become famous for during the Civil War.

Paarthurnax did not know Dragonrend, but he did know how Darius could find it.

and so it was that Darius was sent north to the College of Winterhold to find an Elder Scroll. Once there, Darius went to the Arcaneum, and found a book written by Septimus Signus, which sent him to the lost Dwemer city of Blackreach.

After retrieving the Elder Scroll, Darius made haste back to the Throat of the World, where he learnt Dragonrend.

Alduin was waiting for Darius when he returned, and a battle that would be sung of for ages commenced.

However, before Darius was able to kill him, Alduin escaped.

Following the Trail

Darius returned to High Hrothgar, and received an idea for finding Alduin: capture and interrogate one of his underlings for information.

Almost immediately, Darius saw a few critical issue: how in Oblivion would they manage to capture and hold a dragon?

Luckily, Whiterun provided an answer to his questions. The Great Porch held a old trap made for holding dragons, but there was one problem: Balgruuf, the Jarl of Whiterun, would not let him use it until the Civil War was resolved.

Darius resolved it by holding a peace council at High Hrothgar, which slightly favored the Stormcloaks. After an rant by Darius against the Imperials for bending their knees to the Thalmor, he learned a new shout: one to summon Odahviing, a red dragon who would become famous during the Civil War.

He used this shout to summon Odahviing and capture him at Dragonsreach, where the dragon revealed that Alduin had gone to Sovngarde to feed on the souls there.

However, there was another problem: the only way into Sovngarde was via the ancient fane of Skuldafn, which was only reachable by dragon. Odahviing was conveniently available, so Darius freed him, and flew to Skuldafn.

Songs of Sovngarde

Darius landed in Skuldafn, and after fighting through waves of Draugr and slaying two dragons, entered Sovngarde.

Darius wandered through the valley, clearing the fog that shrouded the path to Shor's Hall, eventually meeting T'Sun, Shor's shield-thane. Darius, after claiming entrance to Shor's Hall by the right of cleverness, crossed weapons with T'Sun, and won.

After entering, he met the three Nordic Tongues who had brought down Alduin the first time, and informed them of the situation.

The four of them took up arms, and faced the World-Eater one last time, in a battle that decided the fate of all Mundus.

In the end, Darius Stormblade II, the Last Dragonborn, had slain Alduin and saved Tamriel.

After his defeat, it is said that Darius remained at the summit of the Throat of the World for three days, mediating on the word Strun, or Storm. After this, Darius headed to the Skyforge in Whiterun, and forged the ebony War Axe that would served him for years to come.

Archmage of Winterhold

Besides his titles of Dragonborn and Stormblade, Becoming the Archmage of Winterhold was the main reason why Darius rose to fame in Skyrim. As the stories tell it, Darius acquired the position after the last Archmage was killed in an magical explosion.

Under Saarthal

Darius' relationship with the College of Winterhold began shortly after he met Delphine, with an expedition into Saarthal, the place where the infamous Night of Tears took place.

He was there as a student, so Darius was assigned to finding enchanted artifacts. One of thes artifacts was an ancient amulet, which locked him in a part of the crypt he was searching in.

After a brief chat with Tolfdir, the master Alteration wizard, and a bit of magical experimenting. Darius had access to the rest of Saarthal.

As he traveled through the ruin, Darius met A Psjiic Monk who warned him of danger in his future. The Monk also told him that he alone had the power to change things, by the way he dealt with the dangers ahead.

Taking heed of this warning, Darius delved deeper into Saarthal, finally reaching the danger the Monk had warned about: an orb called the Eye of Magnus.

However, before Darius could invesigate further, a powerful Draugr named Jyrik Galdurson attacked him, forcing Darius to defend himself. With the help of Tolfdir, Darius took down the Draugr, allowing the college access to this powerful artifact.

Research Methods Vary

After bringing news of this strange discovery to the College, Darius was promoted to apprentice and ordered to investigate the Eye of Magnus. Darius logically went to the Arcaneum, but it turned out that an old apprentice had run off with the exact books Darius needed.

Darius tracked down the apprentice, named Orthorn, to Fellglow Keep. Unsurprisingly, the place was full with crazy mages and their test subjects. the subjects included Orthorn, and a large amount of vampires.

Not one to ignore a potential advantage, Darius released the subjects, who cleared the fort quickly.

He faced down the leader of the mages, and gave Orthorn to her in a trade for the books he needed.

Upon his return to the college, Darius returned the books to the Arcaneum, and went to tell the Archmage what he had found.

However, he was rudely interrupted by the Thalmor's local representative, Ancano. The Altmer informed Darius that a Psjiic Monk was there to see him. after informing Ancano rather harshly that he was not to be ordered around, Darius went to see the Monk.

After freezing time, the Monk and Darius held a short conversation in which Quaranir, the Monk, informed Darius that the Eye of Magnus must not be used, or it would destabilize Mundus. Quaranir also advised him to find the Augur of Dunlain.

After a harrowing trip through the Midden, Darius found the Augur, who told him of the Eye of Magnus, and provided the Nord his next lead:

"To see through Magnus' Eye without being blinded, you require his staff."

The Staff of Magnus

When Darius brought this to the Archmage's attention, he was promoted to a teacher, specializing in the schools of Conjuration, Alteration, and Destruction.

Darius was then sent to the dwarven ruin of Mzulft, where he met a wizard of the Synod named Paratus. After a bit of pestering from the Wizard, Darius, who had just gone through a ruin full of dwarven automata, froze Paratus solid and adjusted the oculary, which then showed him a map of Tamriel.

On the map were two locations: The College, where the Eye of Magnus was stored, and the extensive Nordic Ruin of Labyrinthan.

When Darius returned to the College, Ancano had already gotten to the Eye of Magnus and begun harnessing it's power.

Darius and the rest of the College broke through Ancano's defenses, and Darius took down the mad Altmer in the ensuing battle for the fate of Mundus.

The College in the Stormblade Era

In the Civil War, the newly-appointed Archmage Darius Stormblade II threw his support behind the Stormcloaks, giving the rebels badly needed magical firepower.

The College under Darius also began several long-term research projects including several expeditions into Blackreach, and making the first steps into the new research fields of geology and meteorology.

By the time Darius took the throne, the College of Winterhold was once again one of the foremost research centers in Tamriel, eclipsing the Mages Guild of the Third Era.

Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild

Despite his status as a hero, it is said that Darius Stormblade II didn't respect the law completely, taking advantage of loopholes whenever he could.

With this being said, it is a curious coincidence that Darius' rise to fame coincided with the rise of the Thieves Guild.

A Chance Arrangement

Darius' complicated relationship with the Skyrim criminal underworld began when he met a man named Brynjolf. He convinced Darius, a mercenary at heart, to help him in a small matter.

As it happened, this small matter involved stealing a ring from an Argonian's safebox and planting it on a Dunmer.

Darius, the son of one of the fastest gladiators of Windhelm, accomplished this task with ease, impressing Brynjolf, and the declining Thieves Guild. However, Darius wasn't interested in doing any further business until Esbern, his quarry, was secured.

After securing Esbern, Darius returned to the Ragged Flagon, lured by the prospect of money. Brynjolf sent him back out again to collect debts from three people: Haelga, Bersi Honey-Hand, and Keerava.

Darius ruthlessly got the money from the first two, but let Keerava go out of mercy and chose to pay off her debt himself.

When all the debts were paid off, Darius was welcomed into the fold by the Guildmaster, Mercer Frey.

Darius' first official job involved Goldenglow Estate: a honey operation outside Riften, on lake Honrich. The owner had suddenly stopped working with the guild, and Mercer Frey wanted to know why. After a stealthy entrance, and a not-so-stealthy fight and sabotage, Darius discovered his first major clue to the fall of the Thieves Guild - a mysterious buyer had taken the estate, specifically targeting the Guild’s benefactor, Maven Black-Briar.

Honningbrew's New Flavor: Rat Poison

Next, Mercer Frey sent Skyrim's newest member of the Thieves Guild south of Whiterun, to the Honningbrew Meadery to settle a longstanding rivalry between Maven and Sabjorn, owner of the meadery. After arriving, Darius was mistaken for a mercenary that Sabjorn had hired to clean out a skeever nest underneath the building.

Darius, never one to give up free money, took the job, and headed down there. He found that the skeevers were put there by a mad wizard named Hamelyn. After killing both the skeevers and Hamelyn, Darius poisoned the skeever nest and headed to the mead vats to do a little industrial sabotage.

When Darius returned, he discovered that Caius, the guard captain of Whiterun, had come to taste the mead. Caius had received a tip from Farengar Secret-Fire, who was informed by Darius that the Honningbrew Meadery was doing something strange with its mead, and that legionnaires were falling ill from it.

Overjoyed by this sudden appearance by the guard captain, Sabjorn offered Caius an opportunity to taste the meadery's new reserve. The Guard Captain accepted, preparing to test his suspicions. When Sabjorn gave him the now-tainted reserve, Caius accused every employee in the building of being Stormcloak sympathizers, and awarded Darius with ownership of the meadery, as thanks for being the informant the guard needed.

The Dragonborn, now the stunned owner of the Honningbrew Meadery, renamed the place Dragonfire Aleworks and changed its main product from mead to ale, removing Maven's competition.

He also found the next clue to the mysterious buyer of Goldenglow, who had supported Honningbrew as well.

Answers In Solitude

Darius, instead of returning to the guildmaster, headed to Solitude to find a Argonian named Gulum-Ei. Not only was Gulum-Ei a Thieves Guild agent, he was the man who helped Clan Stormblade get out of Winterhold after the Great Collapse, avoiding the anti-magic pogroms of Jarl Valdis the Cold-Hearted.

If Gulum-Ei could hide a notorious Nord clan of mages in the traditionalist city of Windhelm, he would know who the mysterious figure sabotaging the Thieves Guild was.

Initially, the Argonian was reluctant to give Darius the name of the figure, but after the Nord saved him from a bandit clan and dropped his mother's name, Gulum-Ei acquiesced.

It turned out a Dunmer named Karliah was behind everything.

Silence Before The Storm

When this news got back to Mercer Frey

Other Guilds

Companions

Darius made himself known as a fantastic member of the Companions, and was offered a spot in the inner circle. However, for unknown reasons, Darius declined the offer, and remains a Shield-Brother of the Companions to this day.

Dark Brotherhood

Despite his connections to the Theives Guild, Darius never showed great interest in joining the Dark Brotherhood. When the Dark Brotherhood caught up with him for stealing one of their contracts, Darius declined the offer to join the organization. Instead, he directed them to a likely prospect in Windhelm, a female Dunmer by the name of Amaria Adlbruk.

Events of Towerfall

LC DOES NOT WRITE ON DEMAND.

Gallery

Emperor of Tamriel, 4E 235