I remember my birth, I remember everything actually, but that is not the current subject of this letter.
Shortly after I came into the world my mother died and with her my chances of being loved by my father.
My father came close to disowning or killing me but my grandfather stopped him, speaking of my grandfather he was kind which was odd for an Altmer our species is generally haughty hateful, and racist, but when you do find a loving and peaceful Altmer they almost make up for their species evil, almost.
My father went on to hide me away not letting the other nobility of our race see me with only the occasional servant interacting with me.
The only person who held love for me was my grandfather, he was a powerful Mage in the Aldmeri Dominion and a high-ranking official at that, and he wanted me to inherit his rank or even outrank him eventually.
So he came to train me, and soon both he and I found out I was born with a small Magicka pool, comparable to a Nord half my age at that, he hid this well from my father who likely on finding out the information would kill me to hide the extra shame I would cast on his line.
But with this bad news came good, I had one of if not the highest intelligence a mortal ever has or will have.
With my intelligence came a complete recall of every memory, a heightened conceptual level that even the tribunal would have trouble comparing to, extreme learning potential, and natural Magicka control, although to be completely honest that was guaranteed with my pitiful amount of Magicka.
At the age of ten, I had a legendary control over my own Magicka, however little I had, at the age of twelve I invented my first spell, and at the age of thirteen I made my own automation similar to the dwemer, but still more Aldmer than any of their brutes, although with a second more thought given to it they were elves as well, different and extraordinary compared to their fellows in many ways, as with all of the elves they were haughty, arrogant, and full of themselves which I need not remind you led to their downfall, I digress I have gone astray with my thoughts and I have limited parchment in my current dwellings.
My grandfather was proud, he felt no shame in my low Magicka pool, in fact to this day including me he is the only one who has ever thought of it as a good thing, I can only reason he thought I would make low Magicka spells that had devastating effects, which he was correct, but if I had a large Magicka pool I could have become a God ascending to and joining the great ancestors I even with an average amount I could have ascended to the realms of deadric prince I would have been equivalent to what your peoples see Tiber Septim as.
But I had no such luck, to be honest with myself, I would not trade my intelligence for a large Magicka pool you can only do so much with Magicka without knowledge and the intelligence to use that knowledge, and I am the center of both intelligence and knowledge in my plane currently if only because the few mages that are beyond me in knowledge are in their own self made realms of power the pseudo-Daedric Princes they are.
Now let us get back on track, as I have said, I only have so much parchment.
My grandfather saw other opportunities to shape me into a weapon of my own protection, so he somehow found an old Akaviri swordsman, who taught me.
At first I did not want to learn, thinking of swordplay as swinging a sharpened club, deeming unworthy of high elf standards, but I soon found myself mesmerized in the art form that this man turned a sheet of metal into a deadly brush that only painted in red, and I began training diligently becoming an expert in the swordplay, although no master like my teacher, I am a scholar not a warrior like him.
I eventually reached my limit with the man as my physical body and my interests allowed me to go no further into the art of bloodletting, but for his service I built him something I am still proud of to this day, a sword, it was no elven sword nor brutish Nordic cleaver, but a slice of elegance, made of Dwarven metal, with a magica reactor for its pomel, when fueled it was nearly indistructable with an edge sharper than a razor, and lighter than a feather, with its shape similar to an akaviri katana, before the man could take ten men of lesser levels of skill, but now he can take a hundred or even more.
I then hired him as a body guard, using a small amount of the wealth, well small for my family, my grandfather had given me it for my studies and experiments.
quite ironic how that man is now guarding my door.
My grandfather was appalled that I gave this man such a weapon, but after some coercing he excepted it.
It was around this time when I killed my first man, he was a Breton, an assassin hired to kill me, to this day I do not know who hired him, although I suspect my father I have found no definitive proof. I had a hard time sleeping years after that, it was not that I killed him, he was an assassin, trying to kill me, I felt no sorrow in ending his life, but the way I did it.
He had disarmed me, he lacked the magical skill many of his people boast of, so it seemed he dedicated his life to the sword, and he was a master of the sword, and it seemed stealth as well.
While on the edge of death I formulated a spell that is my greatest and most shameful to this day.
Aetheriums Call is what I named it, it disintegrated his Astral body, his soul, effectively turning his body to dust, I erased him in his entirety, I unmade him from existence, and It haunted me.
I eventually came to terms with what I did, and soon after I began developing new spells real spells, not the hogwash you can learn by just reading a book but things that take years just to think of how you would begin gathering your Magicka in the right way, and almost all of them were centered on effecting the Astral body, I gave a few of the weaker ones that cost too much Magicka to be effective, to my grandfather for the dominion an action that is one of my greater regrets.
It was around then when my grandfather died at the time I thought it was natural causes he was considered old by Altmer standards being one hundred and ninety-six years, four months, and seven days old, at the moment I heard of his passing.
In hindsight, I find it likely, that he presented my spells to the higher-ups of the dominion and was killed to keep their existence a secret, or they were repulsed by the effect my spells had on the Astral body, maybe I, still a child, had crossed a line not even the dominion would, however unlikely that is.
Once I reached the prime age of twenty I joined the dominion, it turned out I had a skill for assassination, and spying, I became a master of stealth quickly and trained with some of the best when it came to hand-to-hand combat, there was even one who could lightly touch a man in three separate spaces and the man would die the next day, he was one of my favorite training partners, I eventually came to spy in the imperial palace, being one of if not the best-wet worker, stealth agent in the imperial common tongue, the dominion had, I almost was caught twice, it would have been my own death, but I was not lax with my spell creation, magic served me well.
I eventually was promoted, reaching my grandfather's station, but I could reach no further in the chain of command, my birth rank was too low and so was my Magicka pool something that should have no bearing on a position dictated by intelligence.
I did my duty well, I've ordered the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of Talos worshipers, and I've culled kings, jarls, guild leaders, and I have done this in servitude of the dominion.
During this time I had One of my greatest discoveries I learned why two enchantments are the most for us, our limbs, two feet and two arms, those are the things that we use to enchant, they are with our Astral body.
I learned how to meld my Astral body without having my physical body match it, allowing me to add tens of arms and legs, I broke the enchanting limit.
But all this is done now and it has become the past, I have killed my father and I am deserting the dominion my days of servitude are over.
I send this to the imperial crown in hopes that I may find asylum and trust in your lands, I will testify against the dominion if called upon me but otherwise I wish to live my life in solitude spell crafting and learning.
-Semra 'Ada formerly Grand Justicar of the Thalmor under the Aldmeri Dominion
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I put down the quill and rolled up the scroll, it may be used in some history books someday, unlikely, the dominion will make sure of that.
I stood up unsteadily from my gilded seat, the rocking of the ship I was currently on displacing my balance for a moment.
"Isha, how long till we arrive at the Imperial capital?" I called out to my Akaviri bodyguard.
said Akaviri opened the door and responded "I know this not, My Lord, I ask the captain for you." he said in his odd way of speaking his C's and S's more pronounced than necessary and his A's and E's longer than what would be strictly grammatically correct.
I waited for a few minutes, I eventually became tired it was late in the day already, I would find out tomorrow, rude as it may be, in the case that we arrive within the next sun cycle I would prefer to be rested in case of necessary violence against either Thalmor operatives or Imperial troops in the case they deny my plea for asylum which was a definite possibility due to my honesty although I would definitely prefer an outright rejection than a planned betrayal, capture/murder, and torture that ends with me being used as a bargaining chip to the Thalmor to buy the empire some favor so they may recover slightly longer than the last war before the new one starts.
By their desperation from the last couple years to appease the Elves it was likely they didn't have informants or didn't believe them when told on how slow the dominion was recovering.
As a general rule the longer a being lives the less it needs to reproduce, take rabbits and dragons for instance, a rabbit in the wild lives about a year maybe two but breeds constantly and in large litters allowing them to keep their population at a steady incline until the reach their carrying capacity for their environment, while dragons who are quite literally immortal, do not even breed as they are constantly at their carrying capacity as they would become overcrowded and eventually kill more of each other then what they create with reproduction, with the strife of massive reptiles that fly and use the words of immortals that have territorial urges so they may pass on their genetics would, as such they do not reproduce although if another Dovakiin appears they likely should begin looking into it as they will become extinct, as consuming the souls of dragons is the fastest way to power for those who have the capacity, and those with the capacity have the greed for power that all dragons have and as such will be inclined to do so, going back on track it is the same way with Man and Elf, Men reproduce at a far far faster rate then Elven kind do as they die so much faster in their natural lives, and as such elves reproduce so much slower, elves while still beholden to facets such as lust and love can go through the motions of reproduction as any other race can they are biologically incapable of doing so whether that be through weakness of the males seed or the females body being incapable unless certain conditions or time sets are met, I've not have enough lingering interest to research the subject.
I laid my head on the cushioned pillow I began activating the rune-based wards in the apartment along with summoning my wisp familiar and linking it to the runes of the wards before I let myself drift off to sleep.