Editing Scrollhammer: Holds of Skyrim (section)

====The Rise of Mankind====

So it came to pass that Skyrim grew in size, expanding across many conquered lands, battling treacherous Elves and brute monsters in a never-ending struggle against the perils of the world. Too many glorious tales to name can be sung of this age; for the ancient art of song, that blessed wind of Kyne, was only made more noble when the power of the Thu'um was given to the Nords. For they knew that their very life's breath allowed to them to slay Dragons and grant them strength. It was breath and speech that granted them life in the mortal world, and even after their departure to Sovngarde, their deeds lived on through the songs breathed by others.

King Harald, 13th of the line of Ysgramor, completed this conquest. The long war against the Snow Elves ended after many centuries, when Harald defeated them once more. The Snow Elves were never seen again; many say that the Nords massacred them in cruel brutality, others say that those few that remained intermarried with Nords or with other elves, and faded into memory. But little trace that such a glorious and proud civilization had ever existed remained in the land; soon they became a myth, a superstition, a child's tale.

It was around this time that in the south, the humans whose ancestors had traveled to the jungle lands rose up against their Elven slavemasters and overthrew them, with the aid of the gods and many Nordic warriors. An empire for mankind had been founded in the heart of Tamriel. King Vrage, too, formed an empire of his own, taking the Western Reach, the crags to the west of Skyrim, and attacking the Elves in Resdayn to the east.