The Lanterns of the Gold Coast

Just to let you the reader know this is not a complete biography , and there is possibly more about this order which could be put on here in the future , thank you for reading , and please don't hesitate to give feedback :)

Lanterns of the Gold Coast

The Beginning

This is a short biography of the Lanterns of the Gold Coast a secret order made up of people dedicated to routing out Necromancy in Anvil and the surrounding area.

The order was formed just over a century ago by an imperial storekeeper named Maro Ceno , one night he was walking about Anvil and had noticed an hooded figure in the cemetery , upon entering the cemetery he realized the person had dup up a grave , he saw that they had opened the coffin which once rested inside and that they were twisting and snapping pieces off of the corpse , this enraged Maro to see such a violation of the deceased , so he picked up a nearby stick and proceeded to strike the hooded figure ferociously , but in his anger he had killed them.
Maro pulled off the mans hood revealing him to be someone who regularly came into his store , this shocked Maro , for he had spoken to this man as he would a friend not suspecting a single dark thing about him , after the shock of killing this man had wore off he searched the man finding a scroll to summon a zombie , he rose from the mans body and turned to his left then saw more hooded figures watching him , they quickly ran away once they realized he had seen them.

He quickly sprinted to an inn were he knew people would be , and told them of what he saw , then brought them to the cemetery to see the evidence , angered they decided these people had to die , but how does one kill who they don't know.
Although primitive this was the first meeting of the Lanterns of the Gold Coast.

However what happened next was not as glorious a tale as those to come , after weeks of investigating who these necromancers were they made their move on the suspected people , in the night they broke into their houses killing them and gathering evidence of necromancy , however they then proceeded to kill entire households , women , children , servants , anybody in the premises who was not them.
This wasn't as precise as they had wished it to be , but by doing such an immoral thing they had secured that any other necromancers in the households were now gone , the whole event was covered up and people were told that the families had just disappeared , this story was made more trustworthy by a number of officials of the city guard being in this new order of Necromancer hunters.

Meridias Blessing

Maro Ceno became obsessed with destroying Necromancers and the undead like all them who would come after him , how could he be certain he had got them all that dark night in Anvil "maybe some had gotten away" he would usually think , just the thought brought great frustration to him.

He headed out into the area surrounding Anvil in order to find ways in which to aid him in this task.
Walking up an hill he tripped and rolled into a cave , he rose up from the ground and once gaining his footing from a bang to the head looked in front of him and saw that he was at the entrance to a long hallway leading up to a statue he could not make out , upon closer inspection he noticed it was old probably built by the Ayleids then he saw it was Meridia the lady of infinite energies he took this as a sign , he knew of Meridia and that Meridia shared with him an hatred for the undead.
He pledged that if he and his necromancer hunters gained Meridias blessing they would do there utmost to destroy the undead threats in the Gold Coast.
Meridia did not speak back to him , but after a pause all the torches in the long hallway set alight , lighting up the long cave and the marble statue.
He decided that this place would become their hideout and if they worshiped anything it would be Meridia , as it was Meridia who would help them , not another.

A name chosen

They became the Lanterns of the Gold Coast , and each member was called a Lantern , so named as they spread the light of Meridia to those who would spread the darkness of the undead.
There crest was a an arrowhead representing Anvil , colored silver the weakness of the undead , and surrounded by an orb of Gold the Lanterns light

One bad night

For a century the Lanterns of the Gold Coast struck fear into Necromancers around Anvil , they had grown into a formidable force of just under an hundred men , however purposely keeping it at this number in order to keep the order a secret more easily.
One day the Lanterns came across a plot that necromancers were attempting to amass a great undead army , most of the Lanterns were taken on this quest to stop the threat posed , whilst a few frustratingly stopped behind to guard the hideout.
They went in the direction the information given had said the necromancers would be performing their rituals , but once almost there they were ambushed by a large group of necromancers.

The Necromancers cast spells and fired them upon the surprised lanterns , then the undead poured into their flank , over half of the Lanterns were slaughtered within the first 5 minutes , then came a tactical retreat in order to defend from a better position but this only led to the lanterns retreating into the many traps which had been laid killing more of them , for the next few hours the 20 or so surviving men fought the waves of undead slowly getting picked off one by one.
It was almost dawn when Mikalus and Titus were the last 2 left , they fought valiantly trying to protect their fellow Lanterns Mikalus was knocked to the ground and Titus believing he was the last left went into a rage , out of nowhere he summoned forth a flurry of destruction spells which by a stroke of luck killed many of the surrounding necromancers thus with them many of the summoned undead , the few necromancers who were at a distance panicked and ran to safety.
Mikalus regained his footing after seeing such a the flurry of fire and ice by Titus , they left the scene of chaos and journeyed back to the hideout to inform the 5 remaining Lanterns that 89 of them would never return.

Mikalus bid farewell to the people he knew and took to the road becoming a traveling merchant and trying hard to put past events behind him.
Titus on the other hand took control of the Lanterns , descending into madness as he tried to rebuild what had been lost claiming that he and the other survivors would not rest until all who were responsible for the ambush were destroyed.

Quite a detailed background to the Laterns! I like how they have a darker history that parallels many other inquisitions against foul practices. It also appears they're retreading that path since Titus took over. I wonder if conflicts may arise from that between the Laterns and other entities besides necromancers.

Overall it seems like the Laterns of the Gold Coast would fit in pretty seamlessly into the land of Tamriel!

Thank you , and i wished to show how they were not an organized group of people in beginning but an inexperienced rabble fueled by paranoia and distrust , and yes Titus is a return to them days in sense however he is organized and experienced , but at the moment he hasn't got the numbers , but that won't be much of a problem his methods of recruitment are quite immoral...

In terms of ways you could perhaps improve the piece or clarify some points...

1.) Maro Ceno, a storekeeper-- noticed someone was digging up a grave, and was compelled to attack and kill the grave digger. It seems strange a storekeeper would go to such lengths to stop a grave digger, unless he was a particularly sensitive man when it came to the deceased. But perhaps to give him a greater motivation to step in himself to slay the culprit, perhaps the grave could've been that of a deceased loved one such as a parent or a sibling.

2.) Also after he killed the grave digger, he came to the conclusion that he was a necromancer as opposed to someone simply robbing the grave of valuables. Perhaps there could be a more apparent sign that the individual was a necromancer? An example used in Skyrim was a distinct amulet that belongs to Necromancers, that would do as a sign!

3.) Maro Ceno becamed obsessed with destroying Necromancers later on. Although what motivation did he have to reach such an obsession? Often there's a reason why one would devote himself so much to a cause. Did he always have a profound fear of necromancers due to the defilation of the realm of Arkay? Did he feel ever more powerful leading an entire order of fighters as opposed to just being a simple shopkeeper? Were there always more necromancers hidden among the population and could never seem to be stamped out?

A clear reasoning to his obsession would allow it to resonate better!

4.) Is there some mysterious reason to Titus's almighty destruction power? It certainly appears to come out of nowhere. Did he have a powerful scroll at hand? An enchanted weapon?

I find it common amongst roleplayers and fan fictions that when the main character gets particularly angry, they unleash some great ability that kills all their enemies. Creatively, it's not something I would do personally as it seems a bit of a deus ex machina to abruptly end any threats. But if you could explain it in a sensible way, it may fit more naturally into the Elder Scrolls universe.

Thankyou again Horizon Seeker :) , i have edited the parts you mentioned , what do you think?

It does sort of help make the story more comprehensive! Now some of Maro Ceno's motivations are clearer.