I'm curious to know if they actually depend on worship to exist, though it seems to me that there is more evidence that indicates the contrary. And if so, why the need to garner followers? Is it in their nature just like dragons have the instinct of domination at all times? I would be very glad to hear your answers.

Or would they just be neat cultural relics/display pieces? I don't know how enchantments translate to actual effect in the lore of the series

(Spoilers for ESO Solstice story ahead)

I have a theory about Mannimarco in oblivion: >!It WAS mannimarco BUT the reason he was so pathetic was because he was possessing a weaker vessel of a distant relative.!<

>!In ESO he died in the main quest, but in the solstice chapter he returns but his resurrection fails and he possesses Wormblood, his Nephew, who Mannimarco noted to be MUCH weaker than himself thus he couldn't use his full power, in the second part his resurreciton fails and he is banished back to coldharbour in wormblood's body still!<

>!I theorise after this he does escape again but never manages to get his old body back, thus resorted to lichdom to make up the power difference, and he remained in this undead vessel until the warp in the west where his soul ascended to godhood... which because the lich body was dead was no longer capable of holding his power without a lengthy ritual that would draw WAY too much attention for what his actual goal was, thus just settled for living, distant relative...... who was exponentially weaker.... instead relying on his worm cult and knowledge to just make a new staff of worms and use artefacts to make up the difference. !<

This is in Tamriel Rebuilt, so I don't think its Canon, but the gospel of St Roris says in the end that "The martyrdom of Saint Roris led to the conversion of countless souls. Before the beginning of the Arnesian War, the Argonian heathen Visthalu converted and became the first devotee of Saint Roris." Does this mean that there exist populations of temple Argonians? Or was this likely an isolated example? I feel like the common dunmeri perception of argonians as savages with no personhood would be complicated by the existence of native temple worshipping argonians.

I don't think I can call it a book, because I'm not certain it's ever appeared in a game, or is even "official", but anyway I'm going crazy trying to find this thing because I'd like to reread it.

As the title states, it was the journal or log of a guy who managed to travel to a rejected first draft of Magnus' design. I remember it being described as land masses floating in stasis in a white void, with gears and clockwork underneath them. There might have been animals? Sometimes the clockwork would grind to life for maybe a few seconds. The guy had to carry around a piece of Nirn (dirt? I think?) in order to keep time flowing for himself. The "sun" was a gigantic eyeball that moved whenever the "world" came online, and the guy was really concerned about what would happen if it moved enough to see him.

He instantly recognises that you are a vampire, but he doesn't bat an eye at Alva walking the streets, charming every man she can find. All the events of Laid to Rest could have been completely prevented if he was like 5% more vigilant.

My personal theory is that Movarth and therefore Alva are from a strain of vampirism not represented in-game. The Cyrodiilic strain that hides someone's vampirism completely. So while your case is clear to him, Alva isn't as obvious. If it was I wager he would have tried to safe her, since her journal implies that she was placed under some spell by Movarth the way she placed other men under her spell.

Recently, while finishing the DB questline, I noticed something. There was a Potion of Speechcraft in the Emperor’s quarters. Whether or not he actually used it aside, what do potions and spells like these actually look like to an outside observer? Or how do they appear to the people who drink/use them?

Mantling: How to become somebody else by being annoyingly similar

by Hroldar One-Eye

---

Mantling is one of them wizard words what sounds complicated till somebody explains it. Then it sounds even more complicated. I first heard about it from a priest, then from a wizard, then from a drunk Imperial. All three gave different explanations, which is usually a good sign that nobody knows what they're talking about. Still, after a while I think I figured it out... so Hroldar is here to tell it to you.

Lets say there was a famous king. Big beard, big axe, killed lots of enemies. Everybody remembers him. Now suppose another fellow comes along - he dresses like the king, talks like the king, fights like the king, makes the same choices. Wins the same sorta battles, lives the same life and keeps at it long enough. The clever folk say that eventually the world starts getting confused. The world looks at him and says: "Well, close enough." and now he's the king!

I know what you're thinking... it sounds ridiculous. I thought so too, then I remembered half of history. The clever folk say: "Walk like them until they must walk like you". or some such thing. What they mean is that if you follow somebody's path perfectly enough, eventually there ain't a difference anymore - or at least the differences stops mattering.

I asked a wizard why this works and he said something about "mythic patterns". I asked what in Oblivion a mythic pattern was and he said it was the "shape of a story". That actually helped because if you think about it, a story only has room for so many parts. You got a hero, a villain, a fool and a dragon. If one of em leaves, maybe somebody else ends up filling the space... Like taking over another man's farm. The farm stays where it was - its just a different fellow working it.

The strange thing is that mantling don't seem to care who you are, it only cares what you do. You could be a king or a thief... makes no difference. The world ain't looking at your face, its looking at your footprints.

Now this worries me some because it means if a fellow spends enough time acting like an idiot, he might eventually become one (would explain a great many nobles). One wizard reckoned this is how you get some gods, but I stopped listening there, because that's just blasphemy in my book.

The best explanation I ever heard came from an old priest in Riften. He'd had a fair amount of mead, so I suspect he was speaking truth. He said: "Imagine a bear trail through the woods. One bear walks it. Then another. Then another. After a hundred years the trail is so deep that folk forget there was ever a first bear."

That's mantling, near as I can tell. You walk another fellow's road for so long and so faithfully that the world stops seeing two sets of footprints and starts seeing one.

It seems like one of the most cruel acts from a mortal species in the entire series, I mean to take in a vulnerable war torn group that is trusting you with their lives, just to blind them and alter their minds permanently, all seemingly for shits and giggles seems cartoonishly evil

Was it Namira who caused the falmer transformation? Once they became blind, they could have turned to her in their despair to survive.

We must remember Namira's quest in Oblivion. The Forgotten Ones live in complete darkness and are under Namira´s protection.. Their situation is very similar to that of the blinded Falmer enslaved by the Dwemer.

if i were to make a educated guess, i feel scholars would like the snow elves a lot for shared religious doctrines. if i were to guess which ones they dislike the most, imperials and goblins. an additional one would be orcs and dark elves that worship boethiah. (unimportant side note, i feel really stupid that while playing an altmer i did boethiahs questline. it was stupid of me.)

and I mean purely Bretons, NOT Reachmen.

When I say Barbarian, I mean the Warrior ethos kind who don’t have much need for civility or civilization, not the damn near mentally challenged stereotypical caveman generic type of barbarian.

Just thinking about trying to Rp a clan of Nomadic Breton Barbarians

Smashed by the order of King Ortog gro-Orsinium. A summary of the Orsinium War Council meeting on "How to Save Orsinium from the Empire."

The meeting began with an address by Forge-Mother Ashla thanking all the chieftains, shamans, and great heroes for arriving, emphasizing the importance of our unity in the face of the threat. Next, King Ortog gro-Orsinium spoke; his opening words are recorded in full for posterity: "My brothers! My sisters! You know why you are here! For it is my honor to have shaped the city built by the Fool Kurog into the greatest Orsinium that has ever stood! There is but ONE Man who desires our fall more than anything... the Emperor of Cyrodiil! That foul Man has made his thoughts known—that he wants nothing more than our downfall. He is incredibly powerful, having already assembled all the Tribes of Men; our enemies of High Rock and Hammerfell are ready to fight at his command. This is why YOU are all here, for I will hear any loyal servant's suggestion for how we may KILL Emperor Septim! Cyrod has fallen nearly as many times as Orsinium itself! What's one more time?!"

The King's speech was met with uproarious applause. After the crowd was settled, the process of giving suggestions began.

First came Chieftain Balshack of the Trini-Maskers, who demanded the rites of Trinimac be invoked, that all those in the city join in prayer so that Trinimac may use their forms as one. King Ortog quickly dismissed this, reminding Balshack that while Trinimac worship was permitted in the city, Mauloch was still their patron and would not be pleased with such disrespect.

Next came Shaman Meeka, an elderly Goblin who had fled from Hammerfell; she suggested that the gates to the Homeland be opened yet again. King Ortog berated her, reminding her of the last time they tried that—how the reinforcements wouldn't obey his commands and were all eaten by one of the Emperor's Dragons.

Next came the King's Forge-Wife Fecca, who suggested that Volendrung could be tossed to lead them to a source of great power. In response, the King's Hearth-Wife Offa asked why they couldn't just throw Volendrung at the Emperor's head instead. A large argument broke out between the two women and then spread to the crowd. King Ortog resolved the conflict by reminding his people that no one in Orsinium even knew where Volendrung was to begin with.

Next came Shaman Forteat, who had originally come from Morrowind in the far east; she asked why they didn't try to convince one of the Emperor's allies to turn against him. King Ortog praised her thinking but did not believe it would be feasible, for the most disloyal of the Empire's servants, the Redguards, were still bitter enemies of Orsinium.

Next came Orcadmiral Borkus, commander of Orsinium's navy and one of its most accomplished whale trainers. Borkus suggested making alliances with seafaring groups from outside Tamriel, such as the Sea Giants, Sea Elves, or Hadolids. King Ortog threatened to demote Borkus on the spot, declaring that his mothers taught him three things: "Never put yourself in a Giant's path, never trust Elves or Snakes, and always make sure your shellfish is properly boiled."

Next came Warchief Ekir of the Riek tribes, accompanied by his Shaman, Shub. Ekir suggested that his Shaman could send the great icy wind of Wrothgar down upon Cyrodiil. King Ortog thought the idea had some merit, but reminded Ekir of the rumors that Septim had come from Atmora, and that the icy air might just give him a warming reminder of home.

Next came the Ogre champion Oober, who suggested they throw the biggest rock they could at the Emperor during a parade. King Ortog thought long and hard about the suggestion, with others providing additional suggestions about the kind of rock and how it could be transported. Eventually it was decided it simply wouldn't be feasible, as the Emperor's next scheduled parade wasn't in a good season for rocks.

Next came the surprise arrival of Tittle, a Gremlin courier, who brought news that it had been discovered the Emperor's battlemage had a secret fortress in the Dragontails. Recognizing that a blow to his trusted battlemage would be as good as a blow to the Emperor himself, the King started barking orders. Right as the King began asking his Shield-Wife Perag to assemble a force to investigate, one last suggestion was offered.

This last arrival was the King's personal champion, Tiberius gro-Minat, who had been raised in the Heartlands of the enemy but had become like a son to the King. He offered to become a spy, using his connections in Cyrodiil to get close to the Emperor by posing as a lowly servant. King Ortog seemed surprised by the offer, but did not doubt Tiberius' ability, for he had provided invaluable information in the past on the inner workings of the Empire. After a few thoughtful strokes of his facial hair, the King decided he would allow Tiberius to go, offering his heartfelt thanks for his service.

When the meeting concluded, King Ortog gro-Orsinium expressed great faith in Orsinium's future, ending with the declaration: "Orsinium shall be saved thanks to all of your loyal efforts!"

[FROM THE NOVA-ORSINIUM ARCHIVE FILE ON "TIBERIUS THE TRAITOR". REQUISITIONED BY GORTWOG GRO-NAGORM, LORD OF ORSINIUM, CHIEFTAIN OF CLAN MINAT, SAVIOR OF THE ORSIMER.]

Refresher: The amulet of infectious charm comes from a quest where a nervous mage outside the Ald'Ruhn mage's guild (Louis Beauchamp) tells you about a dwemer airship he re-constructed and and hired a crew to fly to Solstheim to retrieve an amulet from the tomb of the first leader of the Thirsk mead hall (Horthmund). Horthmund was said to be as ugly as a troll, but had a lot of lady friends, which is Beauchamp's motivation for wanting the amulet. The airship crashed on the way there, so the player is contracted to retrieve it instead. The amulet increases personality at the expense of fatigue and weakness to common disease. If you go back to Beauchamp after completing the quest, he'll happily tell you it worked and he's had a lot of dates, all while coughing and running a fever.

So the amulet has the effect of making people like you and wanting to be around you, but also making you tired and sick. Which would also probably spread your sickness to everyone that suddenly wants your company. The main upside of the amulet also amplifies its downsides for everyone you know and come into contact with. Sounds a bit like something Peryite would be involved in. His current artifact is the spellbreaker shield, which doesn't make a lot of sense theme-wise and is also known to be dwemer made. I think it would be cool to bring back the amulet as a new artifact in the next game. Thoughts?

Malacath uses Volendrung a Dwemer hammer who was an unique hammer you find at the last living Dwemer. It then got used by Malacath and when you give it to Martin Septim he says: „Who now knows the tale of how this Dwemer hammer came to embody the power of one of their most bitter foes?“

In Malacath opinion this must been he was so impressed with it and saw it as the ultimate weapon. Same goes for Peryite with Spell Breaker in Skyrim. It was constructed by the Deemed, and Peryite was so impressed with it he gives it to the last Dragonborn/his Champion in the events of Skyrim.

This all happened after the deamed already left Nirn leaving behind their craftsmanship in everlasting ruins that still are active. The Daedra never managed to create this sort of status among the people of Nirn. They want statues but their also desire cities, lands, even nations and races as in the case of Aura and Boethia and the Dunmer.

The dwemer outmatched all the Daedra. They are for the freaks

and how many great houses of morrowind are still around? to my knowledge at least 3 have been toppled or replaced.

Like from a behind the scenes perspective on actually fleshing out all the lore? I'd love to know more about how the developers figured out this whole world of a Nirn, and what changed in the lore as things fleshed themselves out with each new installment

An edited-up quickie of a post because this was originally a 4am ramble immediately after the new text got dropped, now with sources.

As some of you may already be aware, Michael Kirkbride has recently been sharing texts for a new project called the 25th Crossing, detailing the worldbuilding of a post-apocalyptic Morrowind following the events of the Red Year, wherein the entire province has been encircled by a huge eponymous “wall” that is, in actually, a gargantuan snake. Within its boundaries, time and space have ceased to work properly, death no longer “takes”, and all information is actively hazardous as every living thing within is actively preyed upon by primordial serpentine proto-spirits that parasitise on knowledge and emotion, taking living beings as “hosts” and eventually consuming them in mind and spirit.

The most recent text in this series, which can be found here, has left us with a huge lore drop on the nature of this snake and the incident, tying it to both the Serpent constellation (including the Celestial Serpent, aka Malazar, from ESO’s Craglorn zone) and the Scaled Blanket (a term which thus far has only come up exactly once in Sermon 33).

Most importantly, however, it has also given us an answer for an ancient question - what the hell the unstars are.

First, a brief recap of the lore drop:

• The Hungry Void is Sep, a "brother" aspect of the previous kalpa’s Lorkhan (the "Void Ghost") who died at the beginning of the current cycle. The Hungry Void is found in the Hidden Heaven, the ”in-between heaven” separating the current world and the potential next. The term “uncle” signals to their relationship to the current kalpa’s space gods, to whom they are “uncles” - that is, each one is the “brother” (mirror) of the “father” (previous kalpa’s predecessor) of the Space God “sons” such as Talos, Reman, and the Celestial Serpent (more on him later). In other words, the Yokudan Sep is the mirror-brother of the previous cycle’s Lorkhan imported into the current cycle by the Yokudans and preserved in their beliefs.
• Sep himself, being made up of dead skins, is actually an amalgamation of “lesser and greater serpents”, which the text calls “Seppy snakes”. These snakes are the detritus of previous worlds which have been syncretized into a singular deity, Sep. This may also be a reference to the book “Sithis”, where Lorkhan is said to have filled the void with a legion of ideas made of himself and created a false dominion of his own to trick the Aedra. Under this framework, these ideas are the lesser seppy serpents making up the Serpent with their dreaming.
• The Serpent Constellation was created when the mortal Malazar, anon the Celestial Serpent, has mantled and syncretized in himself the shared “outcast” motifs of the gods Malooc (Yokudan name for Malacath) and Sep (self-explanatory), becoming a composite entity the text refers to as “Malakzar”, who ascended into the Hidden Heaven and encountered the Hungry Void there. His accompanying “Seppy Court” were his equivalent of the lesser serpents that became Sep, and they stayed behind past his ascension (referencing his Craglorn followers, the Scaled Court).
• The all-repellent “super-outcast” principle of Malakzar and the all-consuming “super-hunger” principle of Sep have synthesized into a new wave-pattern called the Scaled Blanket, the thirteenth constellation, which gained an “unkind” consciousness and began to eat itself and any wayward spirits that strayed into it on their way past the stars. Most things consumed in such a way disappear fully, but Baar Dau in particular was an exception, and the Scaled Blanket wrapped around it “like a cosmic placenta”.
• The creation of the Numidium (a simulacrum of Lorkhan) and the subsequent ascension of the Tribunal via the Heart of Lorkhan has “pulled taut” the Scaled Blanket around the Red Moment, as the continued perpetuation of their own divinity by repeatedly reenacting Lorkhan’s sundering with the Tools has effectively created a mythic gravity sinkhole centered on Red Mountain.
• Baar Dau is a rogue star that has hidden in the Hidden Heaven inside the Scaled Blanket whilst fleeing from “a crazy man with an axe” (Nerevar, events of Sermon 16 and 33) and decided to take revenge an eon or two later by crashing into Morrowind. In the process, its mythic gravity has pulled all the snakes and ghosts of the Scaled Blanket down with it, which remained suspended over Vvardenfell… until it wasn’t, because “Baar Dau could not be denied”.
• The massive snake-wall we see described in the other entries of 25th Crossing is the product of the Scaled Blanket having crashed into Morrowind, rendering the entire province haunted by Lorkhanic serpent-ghosts that aimlessly seek to consume everything they encounter.

With that out of the way, we can talk about unstars. Unstars, as was established all the way back in Cosmology, are the strange “not-stars” that the Serpent constellation is made up of, and are unique among all other stars in the firmament in their capacity for movement and the nature of their strange light, which is not the same magical varliance of all other celestial openings:

>Though we have but an imperfect understanding of The Serpent, I believe the answer to your questions is implied in their statement: unlike the 'holes in the sky,' which are unmoving (at least in relation to each other), the so-called 'unstars' of The Serpent can move precisely because they are NOT stars. They resemble stars, however, in that they shine by night—but what is the nature of the light they are shining down upon us? It certainly isn't Varliance. What is it? Is it benevolent to mortals, or malevolent? These questions, I feel, are important, and much may depend on the answers.
- Loremaster’s Archive: High Astrologer Caecilus Bursio Answers Your Questions

This juxtaposition becomes even more curious when we consider that MK has previously described all spirits as fundamentally being emotions before they became more complex myth-patterns and narratives. The seedlings of this are already seen in the Monomyth:

>When Akatosh forms, Time begins, and it becomes easier for some spirits to realize themselves as beings with a past and a future. The strongest of the recognizable spirits crystallize: Mephala, Arkay, Y'ffre, Magnus, Ruptga, etc., etc. Others remain as concepts, ideas, or emotions. One of the strongest of these, a barely formed urge that the others call Lorkhan, details a plan to create Mundus, the Mortal Plane.

However, this idea is most strongly stated in an IRC comment made by MK in 2013, where he described the relationship between Kyne and Meridia, characterizing them both as spirits covering the emotion of grief, with Meridia in particular being closer to "passion-turned-bitterness":

>What no one has ever seen is the connection between Meridia and Kyne. Let that sink in. What do they– when connected– both govern?

>Think about KotN. One made the Knight, one opposed the Knight. One rained forever because he was gone. One said, no I will wait until he comes back.

>Quit mixing up gods and demons. They are just emotions. In magic, those are real feels. Meridia is the color of his return when curtained by rain. That blink in your eye when the postcard isn’t answered? That weird huff in your chest when you’re waiting for THAT text? That whole night you wait and force sleep so the morning comes? And you hear rain on the window pane and figure, fine, they weren’t listening.
[...]
Can you see the admixture of color and sound yet? You sense it. If even you can only taste the one that’s gone. That’s your only Memory and touchstone. Otherwise, why would you wait? Hope has a color and a sound and a taste and a touch and 11 more sense you don’t know you have yet. And this is why you worship them. The gods and demons beyond your control. They went through it before you. They are your ancestors, and this is in the blood. They are your Aedra/Daedra. And sometimes their names get mixed up.

With this in mind, Lorkhan being described as an “urge” becomes a very significant descriptor. If the basemost form of spirits are feelings and emotions that cannot be put into words, then Lorkhan simply being an urge makes him something even more base. He's just an urge. He's the concept of "want". You don't know what you want, you just do.

And what is the most base, instinctual form of want, if not hunger?

However, this is old news. We all knew that the Serpent is hungry, it’s part of the Monomyth description, hell - he’s literally called “a hungry void”, so what does this have to do with unstars? A potential answer to this has been offered in the latest 25th Crossing drop, specifically in the sub-page “An Influence of Serpents”, wherein one paragraph tells us the following:

>"The Void Ghost is always longing, its constant shape of absence made heavier by its constant outline of guilt. That absence is no more filled with stars, for the serpent has eaten each one. For the serpent to eat each absence, the stars refill its guilt. The heaviness of the serpent follows, outlining the inconstant shape of starlight, and the inconstant longing always brings the Void Ghost."

The Serpent’s unstars are made of guilt. They are the emotion that remains when his hunger and longing has consumed everything else, and all it’s left with is the absence of everything it wanted, only the wasteland of consequences.

>Those who breach the Scaled Blanket find themselves plagued by longings. The influence of serpents finds root in their camp light and their trappings. Their language becomes forked. Their devices end as gewgaws for the lesser snakes and their dreams replaced by the dreams of greater snakes.

>And then there are no more seasons for those people for their stars have been eaten thoroughly. Whatsoever religion they have brought inside, the Void Ghost comes out of it, and collects the skins they've shed.

Once you become plagued by guilt it consumes all other emotions. You lose your stars. You lose your fortune. You lose your future. All you have left is an absence of everything you’ve ever wanted, and a hollow longing.

That's the hunger.