Written by Mark C. Dodd

SONG: The Battle Of The Red Ring

  • They call it the Battle of the Red Ring,
  • Five days that won back the Imperial City.
  • But no soldier sees a whole battle.
  • This is how one of Jonna’s men remembered his part in it.
  • The city lay in Aldmeri hands,
  • The Eagle held the road,
  • And many thought the Empire spent,
  • Too broken for the load.
  • But Mede looked down upon his maps
  • While talks bought precious time,
  • And quietly he gathered men
  • To break the Dominion’s hold.
  • Close the ring, close the ring,
  • Let no Eagle through.
  • From Colovia, from the east,
  • The Legions march anew.
  • Hold the road and hold the line,
  • Whatever blood it costs.
  • Close the ring around the city
  • And take back what was lost.
  • Decianus left the desert war
  • With veterans at his side.
  • Through western hills his columns came
  • By roads the Eagle had not spied.
  • From Chorrol down his army drove,
  • The Eagle countered too late,
  • While Jonna called his northern men
  • To close the southern gate.
  • We marched from eastern Cheydinhal
  • With little time for sleep,
  • South along the Red Ring Road
  • Our ordered ranks to keep.
  • We fought them where they barred the way,
  • Then marched when fighting ceased,
  • With blood still wet upon our mail
  • And miles beneath our feet.
  • Close the ring, close the ring,
  • There are miles still to go.
  • Fight, then march, then fight again,
  • Through rain and blood and foe.
  • For two long days we fought our way
  • Across the Niben wide.
  • Beneath the Eagle’s arrow fire
  • And gained the farther side.
  • From Bravil and from Skingrad came
  • More soldiers to contest.
  • We met them, broke them, marched again
  • With little time for rest.
  • One more mile and one more fight,
  • One more hill to climb,
  • One more shield beside your shield,
  • One more ordered line.
  • Ragnar kept his Nords in step
  • Though half could barely stand.
  • Jonna needed fighting men,
  • And Ragnar gave his band.
  • The storm came rolling from the east,
  • The heavens cracked with sound.
  • The rain ran cold through cloak and mail
  • And churned to mud the ground.
  • Then horns and conches answered us,
  • And men began to roar.
  • The Aldmeri Elite Guard came
  • With thousands more behind.
  • Their arrows climbed into the clouds
  • And turned the daylight black.
  • They came uphill in ordered ranks;
  • There was no turning back.
  • Then Jonna rode before the line,
  • His arm raised to the sky.
  • The Nord horns sounded through the storm,
  • And Ragnar gave the cry.
  • Hold the line, hold the line,
  • The Red Ring’s nearly closed.
  • Let the Eagle spend its strength
  • Against the men it chose.
  • Shoulder hard and shields ahead,
  • Whatever blood may fall.
  • Hold the southern road today
  • Or we have lost it all.
  • Ragnar’s wall went thundering down
  • Beneath the blackened sky.
  • Shield struck shield and steel struck steel
  • As Nord met Altmer cry.
  • Ten yards they drove the Guard downhill,
  • Then locked their shields once more.
  • Behind them hammer, axe and sword
  • Rose red above the roar.
  • We waited on the other flank
  • Until the signal came.
  • Then inch by inch our Legion moved
  • Through arrow, mud and rain.
  • At ten yards out they charged our wall.
  • We held and drove them back.
  • Step by step and shield by shield
  • We broke their ordered ranks.
  • Then through the storm the word came down,
  • It raced along the line:
  • “Titus has entered the city!
  • The city’s ours this time!”
  • The whole army roared as one:
  • “TITUS! TITUS! TITUS!”
  • We thundered at our foes.
  • The ring is closed! The ring is closed!
  • The city hears our cry.
  • East and west have joined their hands;
  • The Eagle cannot fly.
  • Hold the road and hold the line,
  • Their final hour is here.
  • The Red Ring closes round the city;
  • Victory is near.
  • Their commanders fled, their ranks gave way,
  • Their ordered battle broke.
  • Elves threw down shields and cast off mail
  • And vanished through the smoke.
  • But still the Aldmeri Elite Guard
  • Stood beneath their battered sign.
  • Quarter offered, quarter spurned;
  • They would not leave the line.
  • At last the horns fell silent,
  • The thunder rolled away.
  • Men stood too tired even to cheer
  • At ending of the day.
  • Jonna rode among the ranks,
  • Past wounded, dead and torn,
  • And called one battered Nord ahead
  • Before the weary host.
  • No palace hall, no silken cloak,
  • No court with polished floor;
  • Just rain upon a bloody field
  • And soldiers scarred by war.
  • There Jonna drew his sword and spoke
  • Where all the ranks could see.
  • Ragnar knelt among his men
  • And rose a knight to cheers.
  • The Red Ring closed, the Red Ring closed,
  • And the city stood restored.
  • Not by one man’s strength alone,
  • Nor merely by a sword.
  • Mede had drawn the battle lines,
  • His generals made them true;
  • But maps are only marks and ink
  • Till marching soldiers do.
  • The Red Ring closed through storm and flame,
  • Some left without a name.
  • So raise a cup to those who marched
  • When every road seemed lost,
  • For the Dragon flew above the walls,
  • And they had paid the cost.

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