Note/L10N/Choices_and_Consequences/1.31/Books/cobLorDeathBlowAberanit?
題名 
原題
訳題
本文
原文 †
<font face=1><div align="center">The Death Blow of Abernanit<br>
<br>
With Explains by the sage Geocrates Varnus<br>
<br>
<div align="left">Broken battlements and wrecked walls<br>
Where worship of the Horror (1) once embraced.<br>
The bites of fifty winters (2) frost and wind<br>
Have cracked and pitted the unholy gates,<br>
And brought down the cruel, obscene spire.<br>
All is dust, all is nothing more than dust.<br>
The blood has dried and screams have echoed out.<br>
Framed by hills in the wildest, forelorn place<br>
Of Morrowind<br>
Sits the barren bones of Abernanit.<br>
<br>
When thrice-blessed Rangidil (3) first saw Abernanit,<br>
It burnished silver bright with power and permanence.<br>
A dreadful place with dreadful men to guard it<br>
With fever glassed eyes and strength through the Horror.<br>
Rangidil saw the foes' number was far greater<br>
Than the few Ordinators and Buoyant Armigers he led,<br>
Watching from the hills above, the field and castle of death<br>
While it stood, it damned the souls of the people<br>
Of Morrowind.<br>
Accursed, iniquitous castle Abernanit.<br>
<br>
The alarum was sounded calling the holy warriors to battle<br>
To answer villiany's shield with justice's spear,<br>
To steel themselves to fight at the front and be brave.<br>
Rangidil too grasped his shield and his thin ebon spear<br>
And the clamor of battle began with a resounding crash<br>
To shake the clouds down from the sky.<br>
The shield wall was smashed and blood staunched<br>
The ground of the field, a battle like no other<br>
Of Morrowind<br>
To destroy the evil of Abernanit.<br>
<br>
The maniacal horde were skilled at arms, for certes,<br>
But the three holy fists of Mother, Lord, and Wizard (4) pushed<br>
The monster's army back in charge after charge.<br>
Rangidil saw from above, urging the army to defend,<br>
Dagoth Thras (5) himself in his pernicious tower spire,<br>
And knew that only when the heart of evil was caught<br>
Would the land e'er be truly saved.<br>
He pledge then by the Temple and the Holy Tribunal<br>
Of Morrowind<br>
To take the tower of Abernanit.<br>
<br>
In a violent push, the tower base was pierced,<br>
But all efforts to fell the spire came to naught<br>
As if all the strength of the Horror held that one tower.<br>
The stairwell up was steep and so tight<br>
That two warriors could not ascend it side by side.<br>
So single-file the army clambered up and up<br>
To take the tower room and end the reign<br>
Of one of the cruellest petty tyrants in the annals<br>
Of Morrowind,<br>
Dagoth Thras of Abernanit.<br>
<br>
They awaited a victory cry from the first to scale the tower<br>
But silence only returned, and then the blood,<br>
First only a rivulet and then a scarlet course<br>
Poured down the steep stairwell, with the cry from above,<br>
"Dagoth Thras is besting our army one by one!"<br>
Rangidil called his army back, every Ordinator and<br>
Buoyant Armiger, and he himself ascended the stairs,<br>
Passing the bloody remains of the best warriors<br>
Of Morrowind<br>
To the tower room of Abernanit.<br>
<br>
Like a raven of death on its aerie was Dagoth Thras<br>
Holding bloody shield and bloody blade at the tower room door.<br>
Every thrust of Rangidil's spear was blocked with ease;<br>
Every slash of Rangidil's blade was deflected away;<br>
Every blow of Rangidil's mace was met by the shield;<br>
Every quick arrow shot could find no purchase<br>
For the Monster's greatest power was in his dread blessing<br>
That no weapon from no warrior found in all<br>
Of Morrowind<br>
Could pass the shield of Abernanit.<br>
<br>
As hour passed hour, Rangidil came to understand<br>
How his greatest warriors met their end with Dagoth Thras.<br>
For he could exhaust them by blocking their attacks<br>
And then, thus weakened, they were simply cut down.<br>
The villain was patient and skilled with the shield<br>
And Rangidil felt even his own mighty arms growing numb<br>
While Dagoth Thras anticipated and blocked each cut<br>
And Rangidil feared that without the blessing of the Divine Three<br>
Of Morrowind<br>
He'd die in the tower of Abernanit.<br>
<br>
But he still poured down blows as he yelled,<br>
"Foe! I am Rangidil, a prince of the True Temple,<br>
And I've fought in many a battle, and many a warrior<br>
Has tried to stop my blade and has failed.<br>
Very few can anticipate which blow I'm planning,<br>
And fewer, knowing that, know how to arrest the design,<br>
Or have the the strength to absord all of my strikes.<br>
There is no greater master of shield blocking in all<br>
Of Morrowind<br>
Than here in the castle Abernanit.<br>
<br>
My foe, dark lord Dagoth Thras, before you slay me,<br>
I beg you, tell me how you know how to block."<br>
Wickedly proud, Dagoth Thras heard Rangidil's plea,<br>
And decided that before he gutted the Temple champion,<br>
He would deign to give him some knowledge for the afterlife,<br>
How his instinct and reflexes worked, and as he started<br>
To explain, he realized that he did not how he did it,<br>
And watched, puzzled, as Rangidil delivered what the tales<br>
Of Morrowind<br>
Called "The death blow of Abernanit."<br>
<br>
(1) "The Horror" refers to the daedra prince Mehrunes Dagon.<br>
(2) "Fifty winters" suggests that the epic was written fifty years after the Siege of Abernanit, which took place in 3E 150.<br>
(3) "Thrice-blessed Rangidil" is Rangidil Ketil, born 2E 803, died 3E 195. He was the commander of the Temple Ordinators, and "thrice-blessed" by being blessed by the Tribunal of Gods.<br>
(4) "Mother, Lord, and Wizard" refers to the Tribunal of Almalexia, Vivec, and Sotha Sil.<br>
(5) "Dagoth Thras" was a powerful daedra-worshipper of unknown origin who declared himself the heir of the Sixth House, though there is little evidence he descended from the vanished family. <br>
訳文 †
【訳文記述エリア】
