BARDS AND BRAGGART'S TALES
The Night That Barenziah Did Rifton
That night when through the mooring chains
The headless corpse rolled free,
To float there past the Ratway reach
And rot with guilty plea
When Symmachus told a dunmer girl
What the night winds told to me.
This fifteenth BARDS & BRAGGART'S award for a notable RPG Character or Quest from the Fallout or Elder Scrolls series is shared by Turelek of Great House Fliggerty and lobbotekka2019 from the STEAM Fallout 4 site for the Dark Elf Queen Barenziah whose long life and many lovers framed so many of the defining events and significant characters of the third era of the Elder Scrolls from Arena through Tribunal. Her biography comes in two versions, both titled "The Real Barenziah". First there is the complete, uncensored version of the Lady's life originally written for Bethesda and appearing in Daggerfall, and there is the shorter, censored version as approved by the Tribunal Temple that appears in Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. Both versions are available at the Imperial Library which is a great source of lore and canon for all things Elder Scrolls.
Parts 4 and 5 of the Library's uncensored, ribald version provided the material for the events in Rifton, while the poetry of Rudyard Kipling's "The Ballad of Fisher's Boarding House" furnished the poetic structure for the Bard to play with.
"The Night That Barenziah Did Rifton" is published in the BARDS AND BRAGGARTS section of the Dragonborne site at
http://dragonborne.proboards.com. along with the fourteen previous winners from the Elder Scrolls and Fallout worlds.
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THE NIGHT THAT BARENZIAH DID RIFTON *
written by John Baumgartner
all rights reserved
T'was Rifton's Ragged Flagon Inn,
Where those of dubious means reside,
And there were those of all the sorts
With skills and crimes to hide,
And dunmer lass to khajiit coaxed
To join the guild betide
He taught her how to craft a key
And scout the dark ahead,
But he lied about the guild rules
And when carefully to tread.
And they sneaked upon the street beneath,
Where Symmachus took his bed,
Now Therris was the khajiit bold,
Bull throated, bare of arm,
He wore upon his tawny chest
A Rajhin lucky charm -
A little silver token
To keep a thief from harm.
A trap, an oath from the girl,
A shriek upon the stairs,
Towards shadows of the comming guards,
He shoved her unawares,
She grasped the charm around his neck,
And fell across the broken chairs.
A dark elf grabbed and threw Therris to the guards,
He smiled and said to her as if this were a game,
"'Tis a merry chase you've led me girl,
"From Darkmoor, Rifton and the thief that you became,
"To do unsanctioned burglary
"And earn the Thieves Guild's blame."
"Who are you?" She demanded,
"That you've chased me like a game?"
"Symmachus the Emperor's fetching man."
The dark elf gave his name.
"A name to seek and find Barenziah,
"To save her from death and shame."
"And she so rash she didn't know
"Therris will lose his head.
"And she the rightful heir to Morrowind
"Shall join him in the dead
"Lest she decide to leave with me
"To meet the Emperor instead."
Thus did the teenage dunmer girl
Smile and take Symmachus' arm,
And leave to meet the Emperor
And took the Rajhin charm --
The little silver token
That keeps a thief from harm.
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* Poem paraphrased from "The Ballad of Fisher's Boarding House" by Rudyard Kipling