Main Page

Past History

In the year 2E403, a religious sect of Nords made a pilgrimage across Skyrim. Starting in Solitude, they marched across all the holds accruing followers of varied faiths and beliefs until at last they reached Windhelm. As a show of gratitude for their demonstration of nord solidarity, they were granted lands beyond a ridge near a mountain in Eastmarch. There, they built the temple Thyrrfjell and proclaimed that all Nords were welcome. Clans from across Skyrim who sought to broaden their reach traveled to it, and before long a town was built around it - Hofburg, the bridge between the many cultures of the Nords.

Hofburg flourished as a place of trade and travel due to its convenient location and open borders. The many different Clans of Skyrim found common ground inside its walls, and feasted and grew together developing many of their own rituals and festivities that borrowed across familial and religious lines. For a time it was one of the few places in the realm that knew real peace.

However, that peace was tested soon after. In 2E430, the Morag Tong assassinated the rulers of the Reman Empire and their subordinates, leading to the death of King Logrulf. His Daughter Freydis was expected to take the throne, but her rule was challenged by Svatr of Solitude. The resulting disagreement led to the great division of Skyrim into the Eastern and Western holds. Hofburg, composed of Clans from all across Skyrim, was shaken to its core. On the one hand, the claims of either side were felt hard by the people. However over a generation of melding together, they could not so easily turn their backs to their neighbors and friends. It was in their faith that they found the strength to endure. The temple priestesses summoned the whole of the townspeople to gather, and in an act of compassion the likes of which Nords had not known since they were breathed into existence, they prayed. To old gods, to new, to one and to all they prayed. In their prayer they vowed to remain as they were destined to be - a haven for Nords regardless of their origins and exempt from the political strife that sought only to tear kinsmen apart.

For 4 decades they remained as they were; open to all who came but unwilling to succumb to the hate that had driven their land to ruin. Their greatest test came in the form of folded steel and frozen carcasses. In 2E572, the Akaviri invaded Skyrim and Hofborg had a front row seat. Their meek town guard had readied in the port, but the invaders missed them, unwilling to cross the mountain and instead laid siege to Windhelm. The families of those within the town pleaded with their cousins near and far to end their pointless squabbles and join together to defend Skyrim as true Nords. But their pleas fell on deaf and stubborn ears. Windhelm burned, Queen Nirnhilde was slain, and the Western Holds did not come to their aid. Hofburg could only watch on in horror as Skyrim bled into the ocean.

When Jorunn countered and marched the invaders south, Hofburg remained within their haven. Though many celebrated this victory, few could overlook the death and destruction needlessly wrought simply because Nords were so quick to disagree with one another. So in their temple town they stood, and though they drew the ire of Jorunn and Svargrim respectively, to this day they maintain themselves as a place for all Nords to gather as a people bereft of division but celebratory in their various ways. For in Hofburg a Nord is seen not for their banner or their talismans, but for their northern heart.