Moon Sickness

Nothing happened immediately after the changes to the moon, but weeks afterwards, news started coming in from both the Empire and Elsweyr primarily... It wasn't good, and was potentially an end to an entire species...

Khajiit in every country were reporting still-births or mutations. To know why this was, one had to know a bit about the race... Khajiit, despite being one species, actually came in many variants. From unintelligent tigers to cats, to knee-height Khajiit, to regular Khajiit, and to what were essentially just catgirls... Humans with cat ears and tails...

The subspecies were numerous and were, unfortunately, entirely determined by what state the two moons were in when the child is born. Michael himself couldn't imagine having the chance to birth a monkey or a super-intelligent human... It was the pinnacle of a genetic lottery... Especially since some Khajiit were clearly superior to others, an example being the 'Manes' who were essentially Khajiit royalty.

The flaws in this were obvious, which was displayed when births were disrupted by the change in the moons... Now, every Khajiit born was either stillborn or mutated beyond survival. Every birth was a failure, and thousands had already been affected.

That's not even mentioning the religious significance of the moons to the Khajiit. Many had simply lost their mines as soon as they looked up at the sky, and the chaos in Elsweyr was severe. There hadn't been a response from the Mane, the Khajiit leader yet, but Michael was sure it'd come soon... Begging for help in figuring out how to resolve this issue.

A similar phenomenon had happened before, the Void Nights, which the Aldmeri Dominion as 'solved'. In Michael's opinion, they were the ones responsible for it to drag Elsweyr back under them, but there wasn't any proof of it...

He was sure the Thalmor would try and help them this time too but, he doubted they'd be able to do anything significant. It was obvious to all that'd seen the Shrine of Azura collapse that a Daedric Prince was likely responsible for it.

This incident had been named the Moon Sickness, and had all but stopped the Aldmeri Dominion from waging war with Hammerfell. The Khajiit in the military had almost all left to return to their homeland, leaving the Thalmor armies weak and outnumbered.

Michael wasn't sure what he himself could do, if he should even do anything at all... Khajiit all around Skyrim were fleeing to Elsweyr in hopes of assisting their now dying race, but it'd likely do nothing but cause even more chaos via overpopulation.

Michael just shakes his head and focuses on his own problems... The excavation of Saarthal had been delayed by a massive rockslide... Some retard got the bright idea of gathering stone for his property by mining out from the other side of the mountain... They'd removed the ice holding the shattered stone in place and ended up collapsing a large portion of the mountain atop the god-damned ruin...

In response, he'd fired that guy. He would have punished him further but having his two legs crushed by the collapse was good enough. He'd be crippled and would likely starve to death since he was unable to work. And to make up for the delay he'd hired some foreign mages(not from the College in order to not alert Tolfdir), to conjure some skeletons to pick up the slack. Dremora would have been more effective, but he wasn't willing to allow any Daedra to get anywhere near the Saarthal ruins.

With everything delayed, Michael decided to dedicate some time to learning with the Eredar. Specifically, how their magic system works. Along with anything he could learn about gem-crafting.

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A month passes, and more news had arrived detailing what was happening outside of Skyrim... And boy, was shit really hitting the fan.

Apparently, the Moon Sickness coincided with a ritualistic slaughter of Azurah worshippers in Elsweyr. But more significantly, it was a 'rogue' group of Empire soldiers that'd committed such an act.

Azurah worshippers had gathered in a village to rebuild all of the Shrines of Azurah that'd been destroyed but had suddenly been attacked by hundreds of soldiers, resulting in an absolute massacre.

The Emperor says that these men had gone against orders and attacked them in retaliation for having their supplies sabotaged and caravans ambushed. But no one really cared why it happened, only that because of it, the Khajiit were basically doomed.

Strangely though, Elsweyr didn't immediately declare war on the Empire... The Mane was quiet, and all of his retainers refused to speak on the subject. Elsweyr's borders were reinforced, but no retaliation had come yet.

Unfortunately, the reason for this was revealed not long after. The Mane, representing the Khajiit race as a whole... Had made a deal.

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Flashback :

Within the capital city of Elseweyr called Torval, the Mane Ja'nir sits despondently on the comfortable mat that'd been laid on the floor. Surrounding him were his many friends and allies, usually having everyone gathered would be cause for celebration... Yet the mood today was nothing if not dire.

"Ja'nir... What do we do? Our people will not last like this, our falling population will not be the death of us, it will be the despair that resounds the loudest." Ja'kir, Ja'nir's uncle says, the fur around his eyes matted and dull as he'd not slept in days.

"What is there to be done!? Our mages and scholars have found nothing! The Dominion has failed to render aid like last time, and not one single child has been born since the Moon Sickness!" the large, black-furred Mane retorts, his voice pained since the extinction of the Khajiit could be under his own reign...

...

The room goes silent. No one present had any idea on how to resolve this, some had even started preparing for the extinction of their race, so certain they were of it.

"Hooouuu? Then I don't 'spose I could be of any help." a voice asks from the entrance to the room, revealing a short figure wearing a hooded black cloak that obscures their face, along with a glowing necklace prominently displayed around their neck.