Act I, Part V: The Plight of the Ald’ruhn Egg Miners’ Union

By Gandosa Arobar, Daughter of Miner Arobar

Everyday, the lines at St. Rilms’ Kitchen grow longer as we sink deeper into what my father once called the worst economic depression in recent history. He blames the Hlaalu for moving their supply chains from locally-sourced products to imported Imperial wares and it’s understandable. It wasn’t so long ago when people pitied those who went to St. Rilms’ as being simply down on their luck, but now, it’s become almost a way of life for some people. As the need for locally-made goods declines due to the Hlaalu importing goods from the Empire and reselling them to locals, we watch as our people’s livelihoods slowly fade away. People who were once renowned across both Vvardenfell and the Mainland for their craftsmanship are being forced to find work as common laborers and one such example of this is an old friend of Volene’s who I came to take a liking to as well, Dravyn.

I had never met Dravyn before I knew Volene, but I had heard of him and had on more than one occasion purchased his products even if I had never personally met him. He was a jeweler who specialized in bonemold jewelry adorned with gemstones made from cremation ashes and I remember that throughout my childhood and adolescence, his work was considered the peak of class and sophistication. Simply put, every noblewoman in Morrowind was wearing something he had either personally made or was knocked off of one of his designs, but his fortune didn’t last forever. In attempts to win favor with the Empire, their nobles began wearing imported Imperial jewelry and the Hlaalu capitalized on the image it presented and began importing massive amounts of much less-expensive jewelry to sell off to their citizens and over time, it began to spread. It’s not common here in Ald’ruhn, but every once in a while I will see someone wearing an Imperial Dragon pendant or something similar and it breaks my heart to see that people would rather spend their money on the cheap goods pushed by the Empire through the Hlaalu than invest in their own people and local economy. I just wish they realized that every time they purchase goods imported from the Empire, that is money leaving Morrowind to serve people who have no interest in us beyond what they can take from us, but there is little I can do besides do the best I can to mitigate the consequences of their near-sighted actions.

What does matter is that I saw Dravyn today for the first time in years. For the first time since everything went down with Volene. I knew his business had fallen on hard times when I stopped seeing street merchants peddling poor imitations of his products, but he’s not even a jeweler anymore. He’s actually the foreman of one of one of the local eggmines now and the reason he came out all this way to find me was because he knew that I was probably the only person who would listen to him about the troubles of the Egg Miners’ Union. The Union has apparently lost a lot of business over the last year as the economy has declined. Restaurants, cornerclubs, inns, merchants—they’ve all ordered less and less with each month and it’s resulted in the Union having to cut wages just to stay afloat and it’s gotten to such a point where a lot of the miners are worried about the taxes that the House levies on every land-owning citizen.

Dravyn came to me because his people are afraid that when they can’t pay their taxes, the House is going to repossess their homes and their land and he’s hopeful that I can speak to my father on behalf of the Union and persuade him into granting a Writ of Tax Exemption for the Union as a whole until business picks back up. In all honesty, I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t even know if my father can just do that anyways. Yes, he is a Councilor, but to grant hundreds of people tax exemption? I don’t even know if Archmaster Venim can do that without first receiving a supporting vote from the Council, but even if my father can’t do it himself, as a Redoran, he has the right to bring an issue before the Council to be deliberated and voted upon and I can see no reason as to why he wouldn’t at least be willing to do that much. He always talks about how he sees himself as a servant of the people and his people need him. He has to do this. If he doesn’t, I just can’t bear the thought of what will happen if all these people lose their homes and their land because there’s less of a demand for kwama eggs. These are people—our people—and we can’t fail them. If we fail them, what will happen to them? Will they just be abandoned to the streets or will we at least begin construction of public housing to support them until they find new arrangements? And what will they eat? St. Rilms’ is already struggling to support all of the people relying on it for a hot meal everyday; I couldn’t imagine if we had two or three hundred people coming for meals everyday—we just don’t have the facilities or the people to support that kind of volume.

Ayem, please give me a sign or a vision or some form of guidance on how to help my people if my father can’t convince the Council to grant the Union this exemption. I know that they’ll probably listen to him, after all, he isn’t just any Redoran beseeching them to hear his plea, he sits on the Council right alongside them, but still, I’m afraid. What if something goes wrong and they decide to levy taxes regardless of the Union’s pleas for compassion and mercy? You can’t just take their homes away for reasons that are no fault of their own and expect them to go along peacefully. At best, there will be an uproar and they will live the rest of their lives knowing that the House abandoned them in their time of need and at worst—I don’t even want to think of it, but I know that if this does go badly, there very well could be bloodshed and I pray with all my heart and soul that it does not come to pass, but I fear for the worst.

Please Ayem, manifest yourself in the hearts of the Council when they deliberate as to whether or not they should grant this exemption to the Union. I ask this not because I fear for the reputation of the House or the civil unrest that could follow, but because these are my people and I love them with all that I am. Please don’t allow them to be overlooked by the people who have dedicated their lives to service to them. I beg this of you, Ayem. Please don’t let my people suffer more than they already are.

-Gandosa Arobar, Redoran Noblewoman