Saint Alessia

Saint Alessia, known as the Slave-Queen, was a Nedic woman that lived in First Era. She freed humans from Ayleids' enslavement, founded First Empire of Cyrodiil, became the first Empress and initiated worship of the Eight Divines. Upon death, she became first human saint.

Early life
Very little is known about Alessia's early life. As a human slave in Cyrodiil, any records of her family or tribe were erased. It is known however, that she grew up in Sardarvar Leed, where the Ayleids herded in men from all across Niben.

Founding
In 1E 113, Nordic king Harald conquered Skyrim and established first human kingdom on Tamriel. He managed to drive out the Elves completely from Skyrim, and the human slaves in Cyrodiil thought they could do the same thing to their rulers. The Ayleid government was severely fractured, dozens of independent Ayleid kingdoms fought against each other for power. However, a strong minority of Ayleid nobles became sympathetic to the human cause. Alessia took advantage of this to launch her rebellion.

Divine help
These were times when Aedra and Daedra still walked Mundus. The Ayleids generally worshiped Altmeri divines, but would often seek Daedra's assistance to keep the slaves in line. The Nords of Skyrim worshiped a distinct group of divines, who were much more sympathetic to humanity than merfolk. Alessia started to pray to this divines, specifically towards Kynareth, whom Nords called Kyne.

Kynareth sent her son, the Nordic demi-god Morihaus, to aid Alessia. Morihaus is usually identified as being Alessia's lover, though other sources claim he was embarrassed of his appearance because of her. He helped her rally men, and from that point, she was known as Slave-queen. Kynareth also granted Alessia visions that would help her in her fight against Ayleids. One of these visions was about a legendary figure of First Era, shezarrine Pelinal Whitestrake, who was sent to Alessia to serve as her army commander.

Rebellion
Around the year 1E 242, Alessia's army finally struck their overlords. Pelinal Whitestrake became particularly legendary because of his merciless decimation of Ayleid troops. Alessia often had to intercede with the divines on his behalf when "the Madness" took him and he committed atrocious acts. Human strategy was to drive the Ayleids inward, towards White-Gold Tower, forcing the fronts into increasingly smaller areas around Lake Rumare.

Late in the war, Umaril took the command of remaining Ayleids. He, like Pelinal and Morihaus, was of divine bloodline, and was one of the few that could match Pelinal in combat. He made a deal with Daedric prince Meridia. Meridia granted him the use of Aurorans as foot soldiers. When Pelinal and Umaril met in combat, Pelinal defeated him, but just barely. Remaining Ayleid kings swarmed on Pelinal's injured body, tore him into eight pieces and left his head for Alessia and Morihaus to find. Regarding Umaril, his soul escaped to Oblivion, where he would wait and return centuries later.

Alessia and Morihaus had to continue the fight without Pelinal. After years of war, Alessian army finally took control of White-Gold Tower, thus ending Ayleid reign on Tamriel forever.

First Empire
Alessia's victory over Ayleids wouldn't be possible without an intervention from Skyrim, but she had help from rebel Ayleid lords during the siege of White-Gold Tower. The Ayleids were brutal slavemasters, but it is less known that some Ayleid lords remained in Cyrodiil, and ruled parts of it as vassals to the First Empress.

Eight Divines
Alessia first major act in a role of an Empress, was establishing worship that would satisfy both Men and Mer. The Nords wanted the establishment of their Nordic pantheon in which Shor, Nordic representation of Lorkhan was chief. Mer completely refused this because they believed Lorkhan was Trickster, who tricked their ancestors, the Aedra, into giving up their divine powers, and binding,some of them to mortal life. Alessia had to be careful not to anger her Skyrim allies. By merging Aldmeri pantheon and Nordic pantheon, she created the worship of Eight Divines. Both Man and Mer agreed to this.

Alessia's death and the Covenant with Akatosh
As Alessia's end was approaching, she was visited by Lorkhan, in Cyrodiil known as Shezarr. He brought the pact from Akatosh and all divines, for Alessia. Akatosh infused her with his own divine blood, and then had Shezarr bound her soul to an artifact known as the Amulet of Kings. Akatosh sealed off the Gates of Oblivion, making impossible for Aedra and Daedra to walk on Nirn ever again. Alessia's soul was bound to this seal, as Akatosh vowed: "This shall be my token to you, that so long as your blood and oath hold true, yet so shall my blood and oath be true to you. This token shall be the Amulet of Kings, and the Covenant shall be made between us, for I am the King of Spirits, and you are the Queen of Mortals. As you shall stand witness for all Mortal Flesh, so shall I stand witness for all Immortal Spirits. [cited from Trials of St. Alessia]" From here, the bloodline was called by Nords of Skyrim as Dragonborn. Martin Septim was the last Dragonborn emperor who smashed Amulet of Kings, ending Oblivion Crisis and making impossible for Aedra or Daedra to ever walk on Nirn again.

As a sign of this vow, Akatosh lit the Dragonfires in the center of White-Gold Tower. Akatosh is depicted as the Dragon, a symbol that played prominent role in the Empire of Cyrodiil. Few centuries later, King Reman I, who defeated Akaviri invasion, would formalize the process of lightning the Dragonfires and passing the Amulet of Kings as rites to crown new Emperors. Even during the darkest periods of the Empire, the Dragonfires remained lit and kept Tamriel safe, until the end of Third Era, marked by assassination of Uriel Septim VII, all his heirs to the throne and the beginning of the Oblivion Crisis.