History of Black Marsh

Mythic and Merethic Foundations

Black Marsh, known to its people as Argonia, has always been defined by the Hist — the sentient trees whose roots run deep beneath the land. Argonian tradition holds that the Hist predate the Aedra and Daedra, existing as living memories of creation. They guided the first Argonians, shaping their forms and their fate. The swamp itself shielded them: endless marshes, venomous creatures, and pestilent mists kept invaders at bay. Merethic-era Elves established a few outposts along the coasts, but they never penetrated far inland. Black Marsh remained mysterious even to its neighbors, a province that defied assimilation and thrived in alien isolation.

First Era: Slave Raids and Isolation

During the First Era, Argonians suffered heavily from Dunmer slavers. House Dres launched countless raids across the borders, seizing Argonians to labor in Morrowind’s fields and mines. In response, Argonians retreated deeper into the swamps, where outsiders could not follow. Unlike Skyrim or High Rock, Black Marsh produced no empire and fought no great continental wars. Its people lived in tribes guided by the Hist, resisting conquest not with armies but with environment. Entire Imperial and Dunmer campaigns were swallowed by quicksand, disease, and guerrilla resistance. Black Marsh endured not by expansion but by survival.

Second Era: The Ebonheart Pact

The collapse of the Reman Dynasty pulled Black Marsh into the chaos of the Interregnum. In 2E 572, following an Akaviri invasion of Morrowind, the Argonians were offered freedom in exchange for alliance. The Ebonheart Pact bound Argonians with their traditional enemies, the Dunmer, and with the Nords of Skyrim. Though Argonians contributed warriors and Shadowscale assassins to the Pact, the alliance was always uneasy. Argonians neither forgot nor forgave centuries of enslavement. Still, the Pact gave Black Marsh its first taste of continental politics, proving that the Argonians could act beyond their borders when necessity demanded it.

The Slave Raids of House Dres

For centuries, House Dres in southern Morrowind carried out relentless raids into Black Marsh. Entire villages were emptied, Argonians marched in chains to Dunmeri plantations. Dres slavers relied on speed and brutality, burning settlements to force survivors deeper into the swamps. This long history of captivity shaped Argonian culture: distrust of outsiders, quick mobilization in the face of threat, and an enduring will for revenge. The Dres legacy also explains the ferocity of Argonian counter-invasions in the Fourth Era, when the cycle of violence was reversed.

Third Era: Imperial Province

Tiber Septim’s conquest of Tamriel brought Black Marsh into the Empire. The swamps proved impossible to pacify, and Imperial governors ruled only the coastal fringe. Inland tribes remained autonomous, loyal only to the Hist. Argonians were conscripted into the Legions, serving with distinction as scouts and skirmishers, but their homelands remained largely ungovernable. Imperial maps labeled Black Marsh as a province, but in truth it was a frontier — only partially subdued, its heartlands untouched. Throughout the Septim dynasty, Argonians endured Dunmer slavers and Imperial neglect, waiting for a day when they could strike back.

The Shadowscales

Unique to Black Marsh were the Shadowscales, Argonians born under the sign of the Shadow and given to the Dark Brotherhood. Trained from childhood as assassins, they became the hidden blade of Argonian society. Sanctioned by the Hist, the Shadowscales embodied the Argonians’ merging of faith and warfare: every life they took was believed to serve the will of the trees. During the Third Era, Shadowscales operated both within and beyond Black Marsh, feared across Tamriel for their lethality. Their existence revealed the depth of Argonian devotion to the Hist, and the way Black Marsh’s traditions confounded Imperial norms.

The Oblivion Crisis and Argonian Ascendancy

The Oblivion Crisis marked a turning point. When Mehrunes Dagon’s gates opened in Black Marsh, the Hist acted. They called Argonians from every tribe, driving them into the gates. Argonian warriors poured into Oblivion, overwhelming Daedra with ferocity and numbers. For the first time, mortals invaded the realms of a Daedric Prince en masse. The Daedra shut their gates in panic, unable to withstand the onslaught. Black Marsh emerged from the Crisis stronger, its people united by the Hist and its enemies humbled. Where other provinces reeled, the Argonians triumphed.

Fourth Era: Withdrawal and Invasion

In the early Fourth Era, Black Marsh turned inward. The Argonians abandoned the Empire, declaring independence and consolidating around the Hist. Freed from Imperial and Dunmer control, they struck outward. In 4E 6, Argonian armies invaded southern Morrowind, exacting vengeance on House Dres and devastating Dunmeri cities already weakened by the Red Year. For the first time, Argonians were conquerors rather than victims, feared for their swiftness and brutality. Though they did not hold all conquered territory, the invasions proved Black Marsh was no longer a passive backwater.

The An-Xileel

Rising from the Hist’s guidance, the An-Xileel became the dominant political faction in the Fourth Era. Fiercely isolationist, they rejected Imperial influence, foreign trade, and outside faiths. To them, Black Marsh belonged to the Argonians alone, and the Hist would guide its destiny. They oversaw the invasions of Morrowind, the withdrawal from Imperial politics, and the consolidation of Argonian identity. While little is known of their inner workings, the An-Xileel embodied the transformation of Black Marsh into a united, sovereign power for the first time in its history.

Imperial Misunderstanding of Black Marsh

The Empire never truly understood Black Marsh. To Imperial governors, it was a province of little worth, plagued by disease and rebellion. Roads crumbled in swamps, forts sank into bogs, and trade routes yielded little wealth. Yet what the Empire saw as weakness was strength to the Argonians. Their land repelled invaders, their people survived conditions others could not. Black Marsh’s very hostility preserved its independence, ensuring that even when maps showed Imperial rule, the swamps themselves remained unconquered.

The Shadowscales’ Decline

Though feared throughout the Third Era, the Shadowscales began to fade in the Fourth. The fall of the Dark Brotherhood weakened their foreign operations, and the rise of the An-Xileel diminished their political role. Once a unifying force that tied Argonian assassins to the Hist, they became scattered, their numbers dwindling as fewer hatchlings were born under the Shadow. Their decline symbolized the shift in Argonian identity: from secret killers serving foreign contracts to warriors fighting openly for Black Marsh’s survival.

Black Marsh and the Fourth Era Balance

By the early Fourth Era, Tamriel’s power balance shifted. The Empire weakened, Morrowind shattered, and the Dominion focused westward. Black Marsh, once prey, stood unchallenged in the southeast. Though still poor in trade and infrastructure, its strength lay in unity with the Hist and in terrain unconquerable by outsiders. Argonian legions, once scattered tribes, now fought under a common vision. In a continent of collapsing empires, Black Marsh was paradoxically stronger than ever, a reminder that endurance can become supremacy.

Legacy up to 4E 201

By 4E 201, Black Marsh was more secure and independent than ever before. The Dunmer lay broken, the Empire weakened, and the Dominion focused elsewhere. The Argonians, guided by the Hist and defended by swamps no outsider could master, stood as a people transformed: once slaves, now conquerors; once dismissed, now feared. Black Marsh’s history is not one of grand empires or world-spanning wars, but of survival and reversal — a province that endured every invasion, outlasted every conqueror, and emerged in the Fourth Era as master of its own fate.