Iacobus Tenura

Iacobus Tenura was an Imperial male who is one of the possible subjects of the Nerevarine Prophecy, whose conjectural existence is one of the questions posed by the Uncertain Sign Dragon Break. Iacobus was a professional soldier who had served in the Imperial Legion in Cyrodiil before being imprisoned for an assault on a senior legion officer. Dishonourably discharged, he was eventually exiled to Seyda Neen, fulfilling the Imperial Chronoarcanologists' requirements to be considered a possible subject of the Dragon Break.

He was a Knight born under the Warrior Sign.

Biography

Early Life

Iacobus Tenura was born the son of Colovian tenant farmers near Kvatch, in 3E 405. After an outbreak of disease claimed his parents in his infancy, he was sent for a time to foster on a nearby farming collective. He thrived in this environment, raised by a family unit with eight parents - five fathers, three mothers. Of these, he was particularly close with "Mother Elise", who frequently read him stories of famous knights in Colovian and broader imperial history.

When he was old enough Iacobus enlisted with the Imperial Legion, seeking adventure and "a role in justice". Since Colovia was largely at peace at the time, his career, beyond his basic training, proved rather uneventful. Though occasionally detailed against bandit encampments as they became sufficiently problematic, he (now rather famously) refused such an order on one occasion, after correctly guessing (with admittedly insufficient information) that one such "bandit camp" he was being detailed with was in fact a refugee settlement. In the resulting argument, he missed at a punch intended for his commanding officer and instead broke his hand upon a nearby post. While this was arguably treason, the circumstances merited a more lenient punishment, and he was imprisoned pending a dishonorable discharge instead.

Imprisonment and Deportation to Vardenfell

Iacobus's personal history joins to the history of the Uncertain Sign Dragon Break after his imprisonment in the Imperial City Prison in the late fall of 3E 426. He remained in prison for several months before being assigned a parole that would lead to him being sent to Vardenfell. Iacobus expressed his misgivings about the assignment in writing in an apology letter he wrote to "Mother Elise" after learning of it. Earlier in that same year, the Imperial Legion had been used to crush a tax revolt in Balmora.

Role in the Dragon Break

Because of his arrival on 17th Last Seed, 3E 427, at the Customs and Excise Depot of the Imperial service in the village of Seyda Neen, Iacobus satisfies the condition of being a subject of the Uncertain Sign Dragon Break. His actions from that point onward become ambihistory.

Arrival and Service in Seyda Neen

Iacobus's arrival in Seyda Neen corresponded in time with the murder of the Imperial tax agent, Processus Vitellius, and after discovering the body himself, Iacobus took it upon himself to investigate the man's murder, for which he was evidentially well-rewarded. Contemporary records appear to show the deed transfer of a small hovel in the village to Iacobus' ownership on the same day as his arrival. On the 18th of Last Seed, the journal of a Dunmeri native of the city indicates that Iacobus then proceeded to raid a nearby cavern which was being used by smugglers and slave-traders. Iacobus is noted as having routed the bandits as well as rescuing the slaves and releasing them from service, establishing a pattern of behavior that earned him, at best, "mixed" reception among the Dunmer.

Journey to Balmora

Iacobus proceeded to Balmora on foot, departing Seyda Neen on the 19th Last Seed, having been ordered to report to an Imperial agent, Caius Cosades, as a condition of his parole. Along the way, he briefly made a series of detours into and out of the fort town of Pelagiad, delivering messages and purchasing additional equipment using the proceeds of his earlier adventures. Though he departed Seyda Neen looking rather ill-equipped for the Vardenfell wilds, he is noted in Cosades' notes as ultimately arriving in the city of Balmora rather well-eqipped, "for all the world as a Knight arrayed for combat".

Cosades was, as scholars of the time period are well aware by this point, an agent of the Blades, a clandestine service answerable directly to the Emperor. He accepted Iacobus into the service, but noted that the warrior was still "young and green" and sent Iacobus on to receive further training and experience. Mindful that he would need steady employment, and that he had a debt to repay, Iacobus determined to rejoin the Imperial Legion as well, and made inquiries that lead him to travel to Gnisis.

Legion Duties at Fort Darius

Gnisis was also the location of Fort Darius, a minor legion force securing the local mines, which happened to be the only detatchment of the legion presently recruiting at the time. Iacobus arrived in the town via Silt Strider, and as a result had developed fairly severe dehydration, which lead to him delaying his first contact with the local Legion command. The commander of the Deathshead Legion, Darius, records in his journal during periods where Iacobus's presence in Gnisis is ambihistory that Iacobus showed significant misgivings in pursuing his initial mission of obtaining a land deed off of a recently-widowed Dunmer, but ultimately that Iacobus instead revealed the woman's husband had been murdered by a fellow Legionaire and that Iacobus took to further work with a bit more zeal after the matter of the deed was dropped.

Personality

Iacobus's personality was defined primarily - some might say overly - by a sense of justice and a well-defined moral compass with strict cardinality, to the point where he was often unable to subordinate his own sense of justice to that of his social, political, or even martial superiors. Iacobus was a natural warrior, but not a man to whom violence came naturally. Instead, he viewed the delivery as violence as a the necessary burden of the man who would seek justice, rather than as the means to whatever end he found most desirable

Trivia

• Iacobus Tenura is a transparant rip of James Holden, the male lead of The Expanse.