...The fertile farmlands of central Cyrodiil, around Lake Rumare and the Nibenay Valley, the region commonly known as "The Heartland," is temperate in climate, supporting the crops and livestock that feed all of central Tamriel. Rain and thunderstorms are frequent, but the region is free from the sandstorms of Hammerfell to the west or the monsoons of Black Marsh to the southeast...

...Much has been made of the classical author Heimskr's characterization of Cyrodiil as a jungle or rainforest. My studies indicate that the use of the phrase "endless jungle" to describe Cyrodiil appears to be an error in transcription. Close study of the original, badly faded manuscript reveals that the phrase was miscopied, and should be more accurately rendered as "extensive uplands." The adjectives "an equatorial rain" as applied to the Nibenese forest do not appear in the original manuscript at all, and I would posit were added by the scribe in support of his previous erroneous use of "jungle." Lady Cinnabar of Taneth, of course, takes issue with this exegesis, but the flaws in her methods of scholarship have been well-documented elsewhere...

- Excerpts from the book “The Heartland of Cyrodiil” by Phrastus of Elinhir


...According to "The Heartland of Cyrodiil," by that old fraud Phrastus of Elinhir, the Nibenese valley and the Colovian hills have always enjoyed the temperate climate they have today, and early references to Cyrodiil as a subtropical jungle were merely errors on the part of one of the Heimskrs. Really? What, then, of the "waving fronds" of Vahtacen mentioned in the Hosiric Lays? What of Khosey's "dense-jungl'd shore of Rumare" in the Tamrilean Tractates? Are these, as well, the mistakes of errant copyists? No, I think it more likely that three millennia ago Cyrodiil's climate was warmer and wetter than it is today. The environment of the Heartland has changed. Which begs the question: how?...

...And that, I believe, is the answer to how the Heartland changed from subtropical to temperate: because once Men ruled in Cyrodiil, the local reality changed to meet their needs and wishes. Changed slowly, perhaps, almost imperceptibly, but inexorably—until Cyrodiil became the realm of temperate forests and fields we now know…

- Excerpts from “Subtropical Cyrodiil: A Speculation,“ a book by Lady Cinnabar of Taneth


0:00 - Glory of Cyrodiil
2:28 - Through the Valleys
6:48 - Minstrel’s Lament
11:29 - Auriel’s Ascension

14:34 - Wings of Kynareth
18:00 - King and Country
22:05 - Peace of Akatosh
26:17 - Glory of Cyrodiil

28:45 - Minstrel’s Lament
33:26 - Through the Valleys
37:45 - Auriel’s Ascension
40:51 - King and Country

44:57 - Wings of Kynareth
48:25 - Peace of Akatosh
52:37 - Minstrel’s Lament
57:19 - Auriel’s Ascension


Composed by Jeremy Soule.


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