Okay, firstly, I think it's time to return to Joan. I'm about six chapters ahead of the game at the moment. Dying to get back into the story.
Second, ignore this post. It's just me returning Grits's comments and setting up the preamble. I just bumped
A Wood Elf in Windhelm, that's this weekend's real story.

Third, glad you have caught up, Grits.
And now, it's been a year and a half since this story has been addressed, so here's a bit of recall.
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Joanie's doing Morrowind's Main Quest, with occasional Fighters Guild, Imperial Legion, and Imperial Cult quests as well, so there's a lot to this topic. I'll try to make this simple. But this is Morrowind, so that's like saying "I'll try to explain what it's like to plan a leveraged buyout using a 13% derivative once the market's down..."

Kidding.
Joan of Cyrodiil found herself upon the wrong boat at the start of this story. She was supposed to arrive to Vvardenfell upon a schooner with several others, all of them members of Cheydinhal's Chapel of Arkay. Idea was, she'd be entering the province of Morrowind with others to perform "holy works", perhaps to study the religious ways of the Dunmer, which are rather complicated in comparison to Cyrodiil's Nine. This journey would be similar to religious missions which go into foreign countries on our planet, perhaps. Except the goal was not to convert Tribunal Temple or Ashlanders to some other religion.
Yet Joan began her Morrowind story alone, on a ship for criminals.

She somehow arrived in Seyda Neen dressed in the rags of a prisoner, without the rest of her group. How had this happened? How had she wound up on the wrong boat when her last memory was boarding the right one? Surely she'd been drugged, or put under a spell.
Truth is, even I don't fully have a clue what the entire answer is. But it seems someone (or an entire group of others) got her involved in some sort of ruse.. perhaps delineated by Emperor Septim himself.
Things went awry from the beginning, yet it seems there's a reason for her dilemma; an overall picture, if you will. At least, this is how Joan has been rationalizing the situation. "The Nine wish for me to be here for {fill in the blank}" goes her usual thinking, and I must make the best of it.
She eventually made her way inland, from Seyda Neen to Balmora. In Balmora she met with Caius Cosades, a supposed member of Emperor Uriel Septim VII's Blades, an "elite espionage, military, and diplomacy service," as UESP.net puts it. Over time, Caius has given a series of "orders" to Joan. He does so always in a casual manner, rather than in a demanding way. The story started with a simple request for info from one of the Mages Guild members, which turned into the rather complex recovery of the infamous Puzzle Box from a nearby Dwemer ruin.
There have been about a dozen of orders from Caius since then. With the accomplishment of each one, Joan has somehow gained rank within the Blades. Or so it seems.
And how could this be? How could it be she's 1). a member of the Blades, an exclusive organization involving utmost secrecy? And 2). rising in rank amongst this covert regiment, at the behest of a skooma-using, shirtless man who claims to be living in Morrowind undercover?
-- An answer eventually came. According to Caius, the orders she's been given so far are coming directly from the Emperor himself!
-- Joan does not entirely believe this, however. Practical and stubborn, she's constantly doubting the words of Caius Cosades.
-- Yet she also cannot just leave the province to return to Cyrodiil. She feels she's here in Morrowind for a purpose. Probably a holy one, of course. Her daily life has become fraught with rumors and suspicions, yet she cannot just turn around and go back. Eventually, my plight shall become revealed, goes her usual thinking.
The last order she performed was to speak to
Dagoth Gares, a high-ranking minister of a little-known organization called the "Sixth House". Dagoth, clearly insane, did not make much sense during their conversation. He rambled nonsense about the Red Volcano, spoke of an entity called "Lord Dagoth Ur" (who has something to do with the volcano), and finally tried to convince Joan that she'd soon become "friends" with Ur.
Joan had no recourse but to eventually attack Dagoth, who'd made some threats toward the end of his diatribe.
Dagoth Gares, upon his demise, was able to curse Joan of Arkay. Which is where this story picks up.
And here are Joan's current stats...