#dragon cult

[pinessydr]

From Miraak's childhood in Cult

[kingofreddragons]

Florissax, Dragon Cult Priestess

[elderscrollsconceptart]

Living Dragon Priest - Female Variant

Concept art for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Art by Adam Adamowicz

[pixiebombblog]

Recently released a Skyrim mod that at this point I have put a ridiculous amount of time and effort towards, Diverse Dragon Priests! It adds a huge amount of variation to Dragon Priests including 35 new custom made models, HQ 4K textures, and multiple options and compatibility patches to make sure it works in as many people's load orders as possible <3 https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/105519

[starrythroat]

Old small gift for @metallicscaledscarf i havent posted yet

[darling-leech]

TESFEST Prompt: mirror or abandoned

@tes-summer-fest.

[gortrash]

Why do we never talk about Forelhost. Why don’t we talk about the fact that Rahgot and his followers holed up in there were literally the dying breath of the Dragon Cult. Why do we not talk about the fact that they fucking Jonestown’d themselves, children included (it even explicitly says so in a note to ‘make room for the children’s bodies’ fucking hello?) That dungeon haunts me every fucking day.

[ghostofashina]

Godwyn's Golden Knights and Lands of Shadow

This is one of my theories since I started playing the DLC regarding Godwyn in the Lands of Shadow using his knights as source of evidences.

So, mind you there'll be several spoilers about it. I'll be tagging correctly, but attention: SOTE SPOILERS BELOW

Since I started finding Godwyn's knights pieces of lore, I got really curious about what they were doing there and why. Unfortunately, we have almost nothing regarding Godwyn, which makes this basically me squeezing it until it makes sense.

At the first catacomb we visit, Fog Rift, we encounter the Ancient Dragon Knight's Cookbook, which tells this

From this item alone, we know that Godwyn's soldiers, who served him in his life, were at the Lands of Shadow, following a Ancient Dragon Knight, which is different than Godwyn's own guards. According to "Ancient Dragon Knight Kristoff Ashes" they were Leyndell guards, that probably started worshiping the dragons after the war, as so many other cases.

In this same catacomb, we also find "Electrocharge" and "Blinkbolt", both of them techniques used by Godwyn's soldiers as he brought the Dragon Communion to the Royal Capital.

I think it's important to see they are called Golden Knights not Death Knights, because it's different and they were at Lands of Shadow while Godwyn was still alive.

Then, we have our first clue of what were they doing there. "The origin of incantations", the first ones his knights would find for the Dragon Cult at Lands Between.

We are not gonna talk about the Death Knights now, so I'll just mention that they are the same golden knights who served Godwyn in life, now serving him in Death. Which means two different periods. And they also can show us what could've been Godwyn's sigil and weapon, that I'll talk in another post.

Heading to the next Catacomb, Scorpion River, we found more evidence of what they were doing. We found Knight's Lightning Spear, which mentions an important detail:

"An incantation that was taught only to the most accomplished knights." Not a mere, common knight that served Godwyn. The soldiers that followed to Lands of Shadows were as important to Godwyn, perhaps, as Andreas and Huw to Messmer. That, then, would be no wonder why they were there together.

So, what it means? Godwyn's soldiers were at the Lands of Shadow to bring the beginning of the Dragon Communion to the Royal Capital. Since it was a technique Leyndell would rely on after the Dragon War, the Ancient Dragon Knight followed them with the same purpose.

But, was Godwyn there? Well, that's a more abstract part of the theory since we have pretty much nothing to work with, except Godwyn's corpse blooming there twice. We know that his corpse tend to appear where a part of him existed at some point.

In Stormveil Castle, we have the Prince of Death's Pustule to tells us why is he growing down there. While in Depthroots we have his original body.

While we don't have any evidence of a part of Godwyn in the Lands of Shadows — such as flesh, hair —, I think the pattern repeats itself. He was a there with his personal Golden Knights. Afterall, he was responsible for estabilizing the Dragon Cult in the Capital.

Would Marika, however, allow him to go to enemy's territory like this? Different from Messmer, I don't think Godwyn had the knowledge about what was hidden in the Lands of Shadow. And the reason I believe Messmer was with him. Not to protect only the secrets, to protect him from the secrets as well. That's why we have Messmer's soldiers and Black Knights inside those catacombs that would also become a grave to his personal knights after their rebellion.

So, to pack it all up. Now it seems obvious what were the Golden Knights doing at the Land of Shadows and why would they return after Godwyn's death. I personally believe Godwyn was there himself, considering how important was the subject, the presence of his important knights and his corpse itself appearing later.

I hope I made it clear enough and that I gathered enough pieces of evidence. Let me know what you guys think xD

[mellowscrolls]

I’ll bite! Tell me about your Dragon Cult headcanons :0

Okay! Dear God, let me go find my notes spread over like ten different documents (exaggeration)!

Alright, so starting off, I'm going to throw in a disclaimer that this is lore built off of Metallic and Liches' works and headcanons all given a new coat of varnish as I scoot my plagiarism ray out of frame. I'm going to throw it under a read more for clarity and the sake of everyone.

TW for manipulation, cults, mutilation (non-graphic)

Starting with the ancient hierarchy, I have it go somewhere like: Alduin > High Ranking Dovah > Konahriik > High Rank Dov's Ruling Priest > Low Ranking Dovah > Their Ruling Priest > Wooden Masks > Acolytes (unmasked) > Divines Clergy > Everyone Else. Technically Akatosh/Bormahu was supposed to be/was advertised as the top of that chain, but that didn't work out so much in practice.

Within the cult itself were a few key customs. Let's start with the masked priests.

Dov have one masked priest each to handle the politics and mortal affairs of their Junaar (kingdom). These masks are made of precious metal or material and can be made custom to the specifications of the dov who requires them. There is one Masked Priest per dovah who earns one, and that internal hierarchy amongst the dragons means that your status and what you are in charge of may change very frequently depending on your dragon's social standing.

It is a great honor and a great burden to be chosen for the role of a Named Masked priest. Masked priests are given names by their dovah, usually approved by Alduin, in a naming ceremony that erases their mortal name from living and recorded memory. Only the dov bestowing the new name may remember the old, and to keep a copy of the name in physical form is considered a great insult.

In preparation for a naming ceremony, priests are usually imbued with "blessings" by being carved with (or even forced themselves to carve) Words of Power into their skin, which are then imbued with power and bound to the priest-to-be's soul by their dovah. These enchantments are binding to the soul in a way that can either slightly shift their personality to favor the nature of the word or can make them a completely different person, at their dovahthuri's discretion. These blessings are extremely hard to sunder and cannot be harmed by the person they are upon unless directly ordered by their dovah or Alduin. (Most of the carving part of the headcanon was pioneered by @metallic-scaled-scarf with Nonvul, go check them out)

Under the Masked priest within their own Junaar was usually a group of attendants ranging in number from about 3-5. They are the Wooden Priests, wearing wooden masks in the style of their Priest, symbolizing their un-named and un-blessed status. They were not allowed to speak, but were usually able to communicate telepathically as a sort of hivemind while still maintaining most of their original personality. Masked Priests were always chosen from their predecessor's pool of Wooden Priests, so there was a long-term competitive nature usually fostered within their little group. Any Clergy below the Masked and Wooden Priests went without a facial covering and could communicate freely. When converging in Bromjunaar for moots, the Masked Named priests would trade their masks for wooden ones to hear the words of Konahriik, as both a gesture symbolizing equality as well as silence before the words of the Mouthpiece of Alduin.

In global politics, mer were much more unlikely to ever make it to the rank of Masked Priest, with the Falmer treated as slaves and prisoners of conquest while the Ayleids and Chimer were treated as highly tenuous allies at best. Dragons did not usually care for their priests so much as use them as tools of communication and politick. A Masked Priest was very regularly simply a new game of chess to start with the other Dov as one would vie for another's power, land, or status.

As for individual Headcanons, or how I write my dragon priests, I will make another post in the near future.

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

The Wooden Mask was created by a rogue dragon priest much like Miraak

Unlike Miraak this dragon priest had no interest in ruling over people see this dragon priest had the goal of overthrowing Alduin and become the new god of time

They created a mask that would allow them to manipulate time however it didn't go to plan

Turns out the mask wasn't able to manipulate time only able to go back in time to a specific time

A time when The Bromjunaar Sanctuary was at its peak

Before the dragon priest was able to adjust the mask's abilities they were caught by their fellow dragon priests

Nobody knows what became of this dragon priest nobody even knows who they were

It's almost like they never existed to begin with all that remains as proof of their existence is the mask they created

[pinessydr]

Morokei: pale, thin, somehow aristocratic Babyraak: just a little sunshine with freckles and a gap between the teeth

[elderscrollsconceptart]

Dragon Priest

Concept art for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Art by Adam Adamowicz

[impydragon]

Elden Ring stuff. My tarnished, Titania, using DragonFire Breath.

[starrythroat]

Small art practice

[catcas22]

OC Series - Sir Romulus and Sir Sigurd

Romulus and Sigurd were another example of putting a face on a faction. They act as stand-ins for the two most common recruits to the Dragon Cult.

Romulus (left) was a Leyndell orphan taken in by the Cult, eventually joining as a squire when he was old enough. Sigurd (right) was a younger son of Leyndell nobility, with several brothers in line to inherit ahead of him. He joined the Dragon Cult for a chance to make something of himself apart from his family.

Lansseax and Godwyn formed the Cult with an eye towards reforming the Golden Order, eschewing both the savagery of the Conquest Era knightly orders (Crucible Knights, Drake Knights, etc) as well as the toothless decadence of the modern Leyndell nobility. One could point out that Lansseax drew a great deal of inspiration from the chivalric ideals of the Carian Knights -- although with the entire endeavor plated in gold and sanctioned by Crown Prince Godwyn, few would push the comparison too far.

While the orthodox prize doctrine and the fundamentalists prize cold reason, the Dragon Cult emphasizes action. They style themselves as defenders of the people of Leyndell, whether that be by fighting against local threats or by feeding and sheltering the city's destitute.

While the Dragon Cult had never marched to war prior to the events of Prince of Death, the occasional local threat (bandits, feral dragons, or the like) did require their intervention, in which case Sigurd typically led the away team. He hailed from a family of knights and soldiers, with a particular specialty for siege weaponry. Romulus, a child of Leyndell's slums, led the Temple Guard.

[metallic-scaled-scarf]

Heyo, it's been a while, but I've added onto the Dragon Priest!Chrysanthe AU— where @99corentine 's lovely ldb Chrysanthe is a reincarnated Dragon Priest.

It's back, but, with a twist! This is actually the product of an AU of the AU ( thanks to @tomatotimes ), where Nonvul manages to survive his ( quite gruesome ) injuries because Miraak escapes Apocrypha and saves him ( and Krotumir, too. )

The lyrics are from the song “Landfill” by Daughter, and it honestly fits their situation so, so well.

Tomato theorized that there would be VERY HIGH tensions between these two Dovahkiin after Nonvul wakes up, since there's their inherent soulmated-ness mixed with the pure hatred Nonvul definitely feels towards Miraak because he betrayed the Dragon Cult.

We spoke at length about it— and it somehow manages to be more angsty than the original AU. Tomato has done a few sketches about this idea, and I have this artwork here, but it sounds like something fun to explore. One would then wonder,.. what happens to Chrysanthe, if Nonvul survives?

I hope you like it as much as I do!