The Elder Scrolls' Queen Barenziah Lived a Crazy Life
Barenziah is an interesting figure in The Elder Scrolls world, as her history is steeped in contradictions and scandal. She appears or is at least mentioned across various different titles.
In The Elder Scrolls games, players can find two different books that tell her story — “Biography of Barenziah” and “The Real Barenziah.” While the books generally follow the same timeline, the latter delves more into Barenziah’s personal life, painting a very different picture of the queen.
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The “Biography of Barenziah” is a three-volume book series that was written by Stern Gamboge, an Imperial Scribe. This is widely seen as the official version of Queen Barenziah’s life, given that it was produced by the Imperials.
On the other hand, “The Real Barenziah” is a five-volume series that contains a more scandalous account of the queen’s life. It was written by a man named Plitinius Mero, an Imperial savant and old friend of Barenziah. Though Imperial forces ordered his death upon the release of the book series, Barenziah prevented this and gave him a job as her scribe and advisor. It’s also worth mentioning that copies of this book in later games are heavily censored. The uncensored version can only be found in Daggerfall.
This series begins with Barenziah’s early life. As a child, she lived comfortably in the kingdom of Mournhold, the noble daughter of its rulers. However, by age five, Tiber Septim — the first Emperor of Tamriel — demanded that her parents yield to the Imperials. They did not at first, leading to bloodshed and the eventual fall of Mournhold. This pushed Barenziah’s parents to finally sign an Armistice. Though the damage to their lands had already been
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