Lore:Destri Melarg

Destri Melarg
Race	Redguard	Gender	Male
Born		3E 20 Rihad
Died		3E 133
Resided in		Imperial City

Destri Melarg was a well-known Redguard historian and expert in Yoku verse. His greatest work was a book called the "Redguards, Their History and Their Heroes," which as its name implies, is a collection of Redguard myths and legends that seeks to detail their lost history. Before he moved to the Imperial City, he was simply known as Destri and took up a surname to fit in the cosmopolitan environment.

History

Destri was born in the city-state of Rihad in southernmost Hammerfell in 3E 20, in the middle of Tiber Septim's reign. At the age of nineteen, he moved to the Imperial City to study abroad and in order to assimilate with the other cultures, he took on Melarg as his surname. In time, he hired Melius Kane as his publisher and began to work on his series, "Redguards, Their History and Their Heroes". At the time, the history of his people was shrouded in mystery and lost over time, but over the course of his journey to document these stories he was able to ascertain that four figures; Frandar and Divad Hunding, Makela Leki, and Derik Hallin were real people.

The first chapter was dedicated to Frandar Hunding, the founding philosopher of the Way of the Sword and author of the Book of Circles. The end of the chapter would have included the Book of Circle's introduction. The second chapter was a faithful transcription of Makela Leki's final moments recorded in her memory stone. Even though Makela's story takes place well afterward, Divad's story, named "Divad the Singer" was included as the third chapter in the book as a preface. This was done to contrast their stories. The chapter would have continued with a modern translation of "the Song of Divad", originally written by Divad himself as his death poem.

Destri makes a note of where the song ends and points out that the legend of the five swords may have been embellished by Divad's daughter, Cinsel, who believed the Ansei masters that guarded them were given immortality from the swords' magic. Scholars attest that the swords are a complete myth, although ancient texts and priests of Tu'whacca perpetuate its validity. The fourth chapter was dedicated to Derik Hallin, whose story is believed to be true as remnants of this battle exist in the modern day. Although the story goes that great destruction took place, little details of it were recorded so in order to find concrete information, Destri Melarg met the elderly storyteller; Dendle Fragar.

Destri decided to make the last chapter about Derik Hallin because he believed the reader needed to understand the previous stories before reading Derik's. Destri condensed much of Dendle's storytelling and makes note of its length, his amazement on the story's longevity since Hellion's time, and points he found dubious. He also recollects a moment in his journey where he met an old Hall of Virtue master, who conjured a meager Shehai. At some point in time, Destri wrote correspondence to Melius Kane which featured the outline of this fourth chapter and concerns that he was to be replaced by a better-known writer (i.e., Uthilla Abhuk or Casmyr Kreestrom).

This unmailed outline, however, became some of Destri's last writing as he passed away at the age of one hundred thirteen. In doing so, he left behind various unfinished histories and untranslated verses. And although most of it has not left his collection, some of it has managed to become public and published. One such example was a publisher's proof of the book's initial draft, specifically the first chapter. That was released as "Redguards, Their History and Their Heroes". Meanwhile, the outline to Melius Kane found its way to Vune, Redguardic First Scholar of the Imperial University. Impressed with his insight to document Redguard oral history, Vune sought publication and it was released as "Notes For Redguard History". The book, "Divad the Singer" was released under Destri's name but it is currently not associated with the original collection.

Gallery

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  Rihad

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  The Imperial City

Notes

• ^	A transcription of Makela Leki's memory stone existed in 2E 582, well before Destri was born.

See Also

• For a list of books written by Destri Melarg, see the following list.

Books

• Notes For Redguard History by Destri Melarg — An unmailed letter from an author to his publisher

References

Note: The following references are considered to be unofficial sources. They are included to round off this article and may not be authoritative or conclusive.