Umbriel Crisis

"A flying city from Oblivion, populated by strange creatures, destroying all it passes over and creating an army of living dead from the corpses."

- Intendant Marall to Colin

The Umbriel Crisis was an event that threatened Tamriel during the Fourth Era. Black Marsh and Cyrodiil were the most affected provinces, although Morrowind was also involved in the conflict.

Background
After Vivec's disappearance, the Ingenium was built to keep the Ministry of Truth afloat. The Ingenium needed souls to be powered. At first, it consumed as much as ten souls per day. Criminals were used to power the ingenium, but eventually, a Vuhon discovered that appropriate souls could power it for months. He selected a Dunmer named Ilzheven to power the Ingenium. Ilzheven's man, Sul, thought that Vuhon had selected her because she loved him instead of Vuhon. Sul tried to save Ilzheven, but he destroyed the Ingenium and killed Ilzheven.

The explosion hurled Vuhon and Sul to Oblivion. The ministry crashed into Vivec City, triggering the events of The Red Year. Vuhon and Sul ended up in Clavicus Vile's realm. A being named Umbra took them captive. Umbra had become an independent being from the eponymous sword, and he had somehow managed to cut a piece from Clavicus Vile himself, stealing a lot of power from him. Vile circumscribed his realm against Umbra so that he couldn't escape. When Vuhon and Sul came to his realm, Umbra took advantage of the situation and threw the blade through the rift they had entered from.

Vuhon made a deal with Umbra, he offered him to build a new ingenium so that Umbra and him could escape from Vile's realm. Sul managed to get away from Umbra, he wandered through the different realms of Oblivion trying to return to Tamriel. Since Umbra couldn't leave Vile's realm, Vuhon managed to wrap Umbriel, Umbra's city, in a Oblivion bubble. Vuhon and Umbra merged into one being who could control Umbriel at their will. The only thing Vuhon/Umbra, henceforth called Lord Umbriel, needed to break free from Vile was to go to Tamriel in their bubble and use the power of the White-Gold Tower to free them.

Lord Umbriel made a pact with Hierem to summon Umbriel into Tamriel and allow him to use the power of the White-Gold Tower. In exchange, Hierem could overthrow Emperor Titus Mede I and become the new emperor.

Appearances


