Requisition Orders, 3E 282

[Xui'al]

Recipient: Astius Palenix, High Imperial Nauarch of the Ghost Fleet, Solitude.
Sealed this 24th of Sun’s Dusk 3E 282 by Albecius Tunia, Adjunct Logistician of the Imperial College of Battlemages, Imperial City.

His Majesty Uriel Septim, the fifth of his name, Conqueror of Roscrea, Conqueror of Cathnoquey, Conqueror of Yneslea bids you greetings! You are to prepare the Ghost Fleet for a planned campaign to the east of Tamriel in spring 3E 284. Supplies and equipment must be sufficient to last until fall. The provided sum of 51, 597 Septims has been dispatched to Solitude. Should further expenses be required, you have been provided with a red diamond seal, and thus the authority to requisition the necessary materials from Haafingar for the good of the empire. Records in the Imperial City indicate that your clerical staff in Solitude are sufficient in number to produce the necessary tax receipts.

The Ghost Fleet detachments in Dawnstar, Morthal, and Winterhold have received similar requisition orders, and to prevent duplication their contents have been summarized here. Concerning the items which should be got ready in the Pale, that is, the 10,000 measures of barley, and concerning the 15,000 measures of wine, and concerning the 5,000 livestock for slaughter, and concerning the 5,000 measures of flax to be got ready for ropes and caulking, and concerning the 6,000 iron nails for the nailing of the warships: the protonotary of the Pale gave an undertaking concerning these items. Concerning the items that should be got ready in Hjaalmarch, that is, the skiffs made for the warships, upon preparation they should be promptly dispatched to the High Imperial Nauarch in Solitude. Each skiff should have its mast and yard and 4 oars each and a rudder; also, the provision of 6 eight-oared fishing boats is required: the protonotary of the Hjaalmarch gave an undertaking concerning these items. Concerning the items that should be got ready in Winterhold, that is, the 400 mooring cables, the 3,000 swords, 2,000 spears; 240,000 arrows; 4000 large arrows for the ballistae; 15,000 potions of healing salve; 10,000 potions of water breath; 1,000 potions of levitation; the construction of 7 warships and their full equipping, for which a sum has been provided: the protonotary of Winterhold gave an undertaking concerning these items.

Concerning the equipping of His Imperial Majesty’s warships in Haafingar: 50 steel cuirasses; 12 light corselets for the steersmen; 80 helmets; 12 pairs of arm-guards; 90 swords; 70 shields; 60 Altmeri bows; 10,000 arrows; 10,000 caltrops; 1500 healing potions; 1,000 magicka potions for the ploiomancers; 4 sets of chains; 400 souls gems; 6 projectors; 3 large and sturdy trees for the reinforcing and repair of the hulls.

Concerning the preparation of the 30 warships of His Imperial Majesty in Haafingar that must be prepared to attack fortifications: a wooden tower; siege sheds; large bow-ballistae with pulleys and silk bow-strings; 800 soul gems for the projectors; machines for hurling stones; shackles and bolts; pickaxes; weights; hides; buckets; shovels; 2,000 magicka potions for the ploiomancers.

Concerning the spare equipment that must be prepared for every 20 warships: 200 doubled-edged axes; 100 small spanker sails; 100 pounds of unworked copper; 200 cauldrons; 3,000 pounds of unworked iron; 6,000 large nails.

Concerning Astius Palenix, High Imperial Nauarch of the Ghost Fleet, Solitude, an additional 30 pounds of gold have been procured for additional training operations in the Sea of Ghosts and will be dispatched to the Solitude mint for immediate coining in First Seed 3E 282.

Sealed this 24th of Sun’s Dusk 3E 282 by Albecius Tunia, Adjunct Logistician of the Imperial College of Battlemages, Imperial City.

[Xui'al]

"Wait, why is the imperial college of battlemages handling logistics for the navy?"
Part of something I've had the back of my mind for a while. I've been thinking of writing a commentary on Arctus' 'The Art of War Magick' from the perspective of a bitter old battlemage college official, bemoaning how because of this book people have no idea what war magick really is. The crux of this book is that it implicitly reveals what the battlemages attached to the legion really are: they're effectively a logistics and medical corps, and their magical skills are mostly reserved for moving around heavy boxes and teleporting supplies, much to the resentment of many in the corps.

"Why on earth would such a document appear in Morrowind?"
I dunno. Maybe stick a copy in the archives in Ebonheart. I wrote this as supporting documentation for something else and not for TR, but TR is my first love and I'd be happy if this boring old document could be rotting in an imperial archive somewhere. I might offer it up to those Cyrodiil and Skyrim mods, and I'll add it to my own Xuibooks ([url]http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/33433/?[/url) for Skyrim.

Why on earth would you write something so incredibly boring?
What's cool about the Elder Scrolls is how all those crazy multi-named and identity challenged gods and CHIM and all that stuff exist alongside the totally mundane. It's pieces like this that shed light on how the world works and how the Empire exploits its provinces and is organized. More importantly, though, it's pieces like this that make the ES universe seem both incredibly familiar (tedious, poorly-written documents) and incredibly fantastic (36 Sermons. Enough said.) Too much weird is unbelievable; too little, boring.

What are you trying to get across in this document?
That the Septim empire is already rotting as early as the late 3rd c. 3E. They demand perfect order in their logistics, but only give out an imprecise sum of money, no doubt calculated in some back room by an expansive and costly bureaucracy completely detached from the provinces they levy demands upon. That the famed battlemages aren't all they might seem to be. And to lay some groundwork and do some brainstorming on my 'Art of Naval War Magick' that I promised you guys a long time ago, and hope to actually write in the near future. Magicka changes everything in naval warfare, but to make it plausible we need to look at the mundane, to start with.

[Gnomey]

A few things I noticed:

"[...] 1,000 magicka potions of the battlemages; [...]" *for
"[...] 4 sets of chains; [...]" *perhaps specify the length or intended purpose?
"[...] weights; [...]" *perhaps specify the rough weight or clarify the intended purpose?
"[...] 100 extra small sails; [...]" *very nitpicky: 'extra small' reads as rather too informal to me.

This would indeed make for a nice random dry text for the archives in Old Ebonheart, in my opinion.

[Xui'al]

Thanks for the thoughts, Gnomey. I have emended the text. I did not add lengths to the chains or weight to the weights, precisely since I think this opens up a whole different set of problems. I wanted to keep the precise details vague. Sure, it requests a certain number of soul gems, but of what sort? What exactly is a "measure" of barley? I don't want to have to design a precise system of weights and measures, and I'd rather have the somewhat ambiguous terms employed work as a means of giving commanders some leverage. This keeps things interesting. Maybe the fleet needs common soul gems, but maybe the nauarch decides instead to buy petty ones and pocket the difference. Part of the ambiguity is assuming the admiral knows his job, part of it is giving him the freedom to interpret his orders and get what he knows the fleet actually needs, and part of it is me not wanting to try and devise a precise system of measurement.

I also have removed the rather dull "battlemage" (excepting the official college) and replaced it with the more interesting "ploiomancer".

[Gnomey]

Ah yes, those are good points. And I'm impressed that googling 'ploiomancer' got me no results.

[Xui'al]

I made that up. Three years of ancient Greek at university helps with these things.