Records of Sancre Tor's repeated defeats and occupations by northern invaders gives the lie to this assertion. Realizing the strategic weakness of the site, General Talos - later Tiber Septim - resolved to abandon Sancre Tor, and during his reign, no effort was made to rebuild the city or citadel.Īlessian historians asserted that Sancre Tor was magically concealed and defended by the gods. During his siege, Sancre Tor was destroyed and abandoned. King Cuhlecain sent his new general, Talos, to recapture the city and expel the northern invaders. In 2E852, the city was suffering under one of the periodic occupations by Skyrim and High Rock invaders. With the decline of the Alessian Order, the seat of religious rule of Cyrodiil moved south to the Imperial City, but Sancre Tor remained a mountain fortress and major religious center until the rise of the Septim Dynasty. When relations were bad with Skyrim, it was vulnerable to siege and occupation by the Nords. When relations were good with Skyrim, it prospered through trade and alliance. Further, located on one of the few passes through the Jeralls, its fortunes were subject to the instability of relations with Skyrim. Sancre Tor's mines provided some wealth, but the poor soils and harsh climate of the remote mountain site meant it must be supplied with food and goods from the Heartlands.

Once settled among the victorious Alessian Cyrodiils, the Nord and Breton warriors and battlemages were quickly assimilated into the comfortable and prosperous Nibenean culture.Īlessia received the divine inspiration for her Slave Rebellion at Sancre Tor, and here she founded her holy city. However, Alessia hired many ambitious Nord and Breton warbands as mercenaries with the promises of rich lands and trade concessions. The Jerall Mountains proved to be too great a barrier, and northern Cyrodiil too poor a prize, to reward full scale Nord invasions. During the Skyrim Conquests, ambitious Highland earls, envious of the conquests and wealth of their northern cousins in High Rock and Morrowind, looked south over the ramparts of the Jerall Mountains for their opportunities.

Sancre tor bridge puzzle