After Jarl Korir tentatively gave permission for the Draenei, or Eredar, as Michael had been correct many times before, work in getting them properly situated began. Starting yet more construction works which had essentially turned the majority of Winterhold's surroundings into a sea of tents for the Eredar and builders.
With Jarl Brynjolf's help and Michael's no so small funding, the reconstruction of Winterhold had begun. Even with the Civil War going on around the Hold, the small town had never been more prosperous than it was now, especially with Michael's substantial injection of Septims.
As for how the locals were handling the new Eredar residents? Surprisingly, most were quite receptive to them. Since the alien-looking folk had no prior relations or history, it made it fairly easy to integrate them... Though, teaching the Eredar the Tamrielic language was the first obstacle of many.
Tiffania, Megumin, Saya, and Maria had been quite interested in Michael's new friends as well. Each of them knew that the Eredar were from another World, so with that in common, it was fairly easy to befriend them. Even though Michael was forced to translate any conversations between them.
They were pretty amused at the haste with which this had all occurred. Michael had said he'd be gone for a week but returned a day later with a new indebted race after saving them from a yet another apocalypse.
A large stone obelisk had been set up where Michael's Dimension Gate had previously been, the surface of it scribbled with the names of diseased. The Eredar folk wrote the names of everyone they could remember, even if they weren't close to said person. Their world had died, and this obelisk would be their way of reminding them of that fact.
Some Eredar had gotten the notion that they'd train themselves, build an army, and return to Argus to reclaim what they'd lost. But Michael, Irarus, and Ennura beat such thoughts out of them. Their righteous indignation and pride had made them so stupid that they actually thought they stood a chance against a Demon God like Sargeras? They weren't even a fraction of Michael's strength and he'd just about shit himself when he'd been glanced at...
Maybe it was their weakness that made them oblivious to just how far the gap between them was? That, or grief was making them irrational to the point of suicidality.
Currently, the Eredar's main focus was getting their homes built. While the local works gathered supplies, the Eredar were constructing their own homes in the same way they'd done in Argus. Large structures with clean stone exteriors and magical gems to enhance them.
Michael had thought that the Eredar would fail to continue their gem-crafting due to lacking the required ingredients... But he was greatly mistaken. The Eredar only required regular gems like diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, or rubies to actually work their 'magic'.
As a result, the whole of Winterhold actually benefitted. Using rubies, they created gems that would warm homes without the need for any fuel or intervention from the homeowner. These gems would passively gather ambient magic to fuel themselves, and they used so little that it was really negligible, especially since magicka itself was produced in massive quantities by the sun, Magnus, in the sky.
On Argus the Eredar were forced to tap into the world's leylines to power their things. But in Nirn? Their things literally powered themselves due to how magically potent most of the place was. A week of the Eredar's presence and they had already provided the whole of Winterhold with a solution to the harsh weather, seemingly infinite clean water, and even an entirely inexpensive public bathhouse.
Bathhouses were actually rather foreign to the Nords of Skyrim, there was only a single bathhouse in Solitude which was only used by Nobles, rich merchants, or foreign dignitaries. Nords weren't shy, but if someone laid eyes on your woman or man, their first reaction would be to fight.
The only thing that stopped this from being a common occurrence in Winterhold was the large armoured Eredar standing at the entrance, along with the male, female, and unisex bathing areas.
Strangely, the bathhouse was actually the most popular thing out of all the listed benefits, the ability to clean yourself whenever you want without having to throw yourself into a freezing cold river was a massive change to a regular Nord's lifestyle... Though, Michael was preeeetty sure the Eredar women's immodest tendency to engage in things like unisex bathing had been a factor in its popularity.
Many a man in Winterhold couldn't help but be curious by their alien features... Especially so when they were entirely naked and standing before you. There were some issues with some Mages from the College attempting to do 'tests' and similar things on them. But a talk between them, Michael, and Irarus had quickly scared them off.
While all that was going on, Michael's property was over halfway complete now. And was already looking quite impressive. It towered over everything in its vicinity, dwarfing both the town of Winterhold and even the College... Behind his back, the locals had even coined the name, 'Michael's Tool', because 'He must be compensating for something'... While somewhat funny, it was still annoying, especially since its massive height actually served a purpose...
Whatever. He definitely wasn't bothered... Yup.
Despite the great things happening in Winterhold however, elsewhere, disasters were only just getting started...
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One day, while Michael and the girls were hanging out in the Frozen Hearth Inn, they heard a commotion outside and decided to take a look...
*CRAAAASH!*
Everyone in Winterhold was watching as the Shrine of Azura collapses, the beautiful, magnificent statue falling from its precipice and shattering as it hit the distant ground below... Then, they all turned upwards, looking up at the sky...
"I-Is this normal?" Ennura asks him as she stares up at the sky.
Michael shakes his head as Tiffania tentatively clutches his arm, "No... No it isn't."...
The two moons, Secunda and Masser had changed colour from their usual red and grey respectively. Both moons had turned a sickly green and glowed more than they usually do, resulting in a green moonlight to bathe everything under it...
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Nothing happened immediately after the changes to the moon, but weeks afterwards, news started coming in from both the Empire and Elsweyr primarily... It wasn't good, and was potentially an end to an entire species...
Khajiit in every country were reporting still-births or mutations. To know why this was, one had to know a bit about the race... Khajiit, despite being one species, actually came in many variants. From unintelligent tigers to cats, to knee-height Khajiit, to regular Khajiit, and to what were essentially just catgirls... Humans with cat ears and tails...
The subspecies were numerous and were, unfortunately, entirely determined by what state the two moons were in when the child is born. Michael himself couldn't imagine having the chance to birth a monkey or a super-intelligent human... It was the pinnacle of a genetic lottery... Especially since some Khajiit were clearly superior to others, an example being the 'Manes' who were essentially Khajiit royalty.
The flaws in this were obvious, which was displayed when births were disrupted by the change in the moons... Now, every Khajiit born was either stillborn or mutated beyond survival. Every birth was a failure, and thousands had already been affected.
That's not even mentioning the religious significance of the moons to the Khajiit. Many had simply lost their mines as soon as they looked up at the sky, and the chaos in Elsweyr was severe. There hadn't been a response from the Mane, the Khajiit leader yet, but Michael was sure it'd come soon... Begging for help in figuring out how to resolve this issue.
A similar phenomenon had happened before, the Void Nights, which the Aldmeri Dominion as 'solved'. In Michael's opinion, they were the ones responsible for it to drag Elsweyr back under them, but there wasn't any proof of it...
He was sure the Thalmor would try and help them this time too but, he doubted they'd be able to do anything significant. It was obvious to all that'd seen the Shrine of Azura collapse that a Daedric Prince was likely responsible for it.
This incident had been named the Moon Sickness, and had all but stopped the Aldmeri Dominion from waging war with Hammerfell. The Khajiit in the military had almost all left to return to their homeland, leaving the Thalmor armies weak and outnumbered.
Michael wasn't sure what he himself could do, if he should even do anything at all... Khajiit all around Skyrim were fleeing to Elsweyr in hopes of assisting their now dying race, but it'd likely do nothing but cause even more chaos via overpopulation.
Michael just shakes his head and focuses on his own problems... The excavation of Saarthal had been delayed by a massive rockslide... Some retard got the bright idea of gathering stone for his property by mining out from the other side of the mountain... They'd removed the ice holding the shattered stone in place and ended up collapsing a large portion of the mountain atop the god-damned ruin...
In response, he'd fired that guy. He would have punished him further but having his two legs crushed by the collapse was good enough. He'd be crippled and would likely starve to death since he was unable to work. And to make up for the delay he'd hired some foreign mages(not from the College in order to not alert Tolfdir), to conjure some skeletons to pick up the slack. Dremora would have been more effective, but he wasn't willing to allow any Daedra to get anywhere near the Saarthal ruins.
With everything delayed, Michael decided to dedicate some time to learning with the Eredar. Specifically, how their magic system works. Along with anything he could learn about gem-crafting.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A month passes, and more news had arrived detailing what was happening outside of Skyrim... And boy, was shit really hitting the fan.
Apparently, the Moon Sickness coincided with a ritualistic slaughter of Azurah worshippers in Elsweyr. But more significantly, it was a 'rogue' group of Empire soldiers that'd committed such an act.
Azurah worshippers had gathered in a village to rebuild all of the Shrines of Azurah that'd been destroyed but had suddenly been attacked by hundreds of soldiers, resulting in an absolute massacre.
The Emperor says that these men had gone against orders and attacked them in retaliation for having their supplies sabotaged and caravans ambushed. But no one really cared why it happened, only that because of it, the Khajiit were basically doomed.
Strangely though, Elsweyr didn't immediately declare war on the Empire... The Mane was quiet, and all of his retainers refused to speak on the subject. Elsweyr's borders were reinforced, but no retaliation had come yet.
Unfortunately, the reason for this was revealed not long after. The Mane, representing the Khajiit race as a whole... Had made a deal.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flashback :
Within the capital city of Elseweyr called Torval, the Mane Ja'nir sits despondently on the comfortable mat that'd been laid on the floor. Surrounding him were his many friends and allies, usually having everyone gathered would be cause for celebration... Yet the mood today was nothing if not dire.
"Ja'nir... What do we do? Our people will not last like this, our falling population will not be the death of us, it will be the despair that resounds the loudest." Ja'kir, Ja'nir's uncle says, the fur around his eyes matted and dull as he'd not slept in days.
"What is there to be done!? Our mages and scholars have found nothing! The Dominion has failed to render aid like last time, and not one single child has been born since the Moon Sickness!" the large, black-furred Mane retorts, his voice pained since the extinction of the Khajiit could be under his own reign...
...
The room goes silent. No one present had any idea on how to resolve this, some had even started preparing for the extinction of their race, so certain they were of it.
"Hooouuu? Then I don't 'spose I could be of any help." a voice asks from the entrance to the room, revealing a short figure wearing a hooded black cloak that obscures their face, along with a glowing necklace prominently displayed around their neck.
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