Red Eagle

Red Eagle, or Faolan in the old language of the Reach, is a long forgotten hero of the Reachmen, known now as the The Forsworn.

History
Red Eagle was born in the Sundered Hills, deep within The Reach, around 1E 1030. As a boy, the village priests foresaw his destiny. He was to become a great warrior and leader who would unite and lead the ten warring kings who ruled the Reach at the time. As the years passed, Red Eagle grew in power and influence and became a prosperous and well known leader.

Invasion
Around 1E 1030, Hestra, Empress of Cyrodill attempted an invasion of The Reach. The old kings resisted, but were either killed or bribed to fall under the banner of the Alessian Empire. Eventually, Hestra's legions arrived at Sundered Hills and envoys were sent to bargain for their surrender.

Red Eagle refused to yield the freedom of his people, but the elders were afraid, cast him out, and accepted the Imperial yoke.

Resistance
Despite his expulsion from Sundered Hills, Red Eagle still held great influence among his people. He gathered Reachmen loyal to himself and his belief that the Reach should be free from Imperial oppression. Together they formed a resistance and successfully carried out raids on the seemingly endless number of Imperial patrols and garrisons throughout The Reach.

Briarheart
One night Red Eagle was approached by a cloaked stranger who revealed herself to be a Hagravens. She offered him power, for a price. Red Eagle agreed to the pact and sacrificed his heart, his will and his humanity to become a Briarheart. From that day forth, his was a spirit of vengeance, pitiless and beyond remorse.

The resistance grew in strength and numbers, and within two years Red Eagle managed to drive the Imperial Legions from The Reach.

Hestra's return
Despite Red Eagle's initial victory, Empress Hestra retuned to The Reach with an army unlike any before. For two weeks Hestra's generals laid siege to Red Eagle's stronghold until he emerged, alone and robed in nothing but his flaming sword. It was said that he fought well into the night and slaughtered a thousand Imperials before he was slain. His kin buried his body in Rebel's Cairn, a hidden tomb deep within the rock.

According to legend, he presented his legendary sword to his people, and swore an oath: Fight on, and when at last The Reach is free, his blade should be returned to his tomb so that he might rise and lead them again.

Legacy
In the Fourth Era, the descendants of the Reachmen, the Forsworn, draw several parallels to the struggles of Red Eagle and his oppression under an occupying force. As such, many of them extol the teaching and practices of Red Eagle and look up to him as a paragon.

Interactions
Red Eagle can be encountered in Rebel's Cairn at the conclusion of Legend of Red Eagle, which is initiated by reading the book The Legend of Red Eagle.

Approaching the coffin at the back of the room will cause Red Eagle will rise up along with four skeletal archers at different points around the room. He will typically appear as a leveled Draugr boss, but may appear as a common Dragon Priest at higher levels.

Walkthrough
Red Eagle is wielding the Honed Ancient Nord Greatsword of Burning so avoid being struck so you don't take extra fire damage. At higher player levels (approx. 40) Red Eagle can be encountered as a Dragon Priest, however he will not drop a mask. Red Eagle uses the disarm shout. Also if you're having trouble defeating him circle him around his coffin and use a Bow to damage him (watch out for his Disarm shout). Or use Unrelenting Force or Iceform to knock him down and equip your best weapons and continue attacking. Another possibility is using a staff like Minor staff of turning. Using it will make him stop attacking for a very short moment, during this moment you can attack him with a one handed sword.

An extremely effective way of defeating him is to backtrack up the stairs, to the doorway of the secret door. Then use Unrelenting Force to throw him down the stairs, which will damage him quite a lot. Then run back and take back his sword, shutting the door. He will be stuck, and you can wait for your shout to recharge, then take the sword, opening the door, and Fus Ro Dah him back down again. Repeat until he is defeated.

Quests

 * Find Red Eagle's Sword
 * Legend of Red Eagle

Bugs

 * In the console version of Skyrim, it is possible to get stuck with having quest items in your inventory. Namely, the Bane and Fury items. To fix this, remove the Red Eagle's Bane from the sword holder to open the chamber the door. Doing this will cause the Bane to be fixed, and completely droppable. As for the Fury, simply place the Bane in the sword holder. This should allow the Fury to become droppable.
 * Once this quest has been completed, it is possible to start it over again by reading the book The Legend of Red Eagle. Some Forsworn NPCs will have the sword in their possession (which implies that there are multiple copies of that sword throughout Skyrim). If you have restarted the quest but do not intend to complete it again, do not take Red Eagle's Fury as it will count as a quest item again (you won't be able to drop it without using console commands - Alternatively you can insert the sword back to its place inside Rebel's Cairn to get rid of it). If you do end up with multiple Red Eagle's Fury swords, you can deposit them in the chest in the main chamber of Rebel's Cairn to get rid of them (ps3 and pc). It is not known if the possibility to restart this quest is intentional or if it is a bug.
 * Occasionally you will be unable to search Red Eagle's corpse after killing him. This can be fixed by using the wait command for an hour and trying again.
 * Sometimes you will find the sword on a Forsworn NPC and have the "quest started" display on screen but it won't appear in your quest log, making it impossible to get rid of the sword. You can remove it with the following console command: player.removeitem 9fd50 1
 * On the PC version of Skyrim when you open the Map you will appear to be at the most North-West corner of the map. Also the map will display incorrectly and be glitched. This allows you to see the map of Skyrim from a completely different 'angle'. (I tried taking a screenshot but for some reason I couldn't. Someone else can by simply going into the place and pressing 'M' to view the map).
 * Upon completion of the quest, the game may reassign the quest without rereading The Legend of Red Eagle. Multiple copies of Red Eagle's Fury can be obtained through the glitch, but not Red Eagle's Bane. Red Eagle can't be fought again through this glitch.

Appearances

 * The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim