#goo had mehrunes dagon sure. but his intermediaries kept changing

[nightingaletrash]

okay but what if Celdina survived Deadlands’ main story and became the final Big Bad of the epilogue? So she’s badly wounded by the Vestige but manages to escape via a portal when Nokvroz arrives, vowing to finish what she’s started. She then disappears to recover, knowing that the Vestige will do her dirty work for her by killing Nokvroz and saving the Anchorite.

Sombren’s corruption arc is then less turning the Ambitions over to Dagon in a misguided attempt to save Calia and more attempting to play Celdina. He contacts her under the pretense of giving up the power of the Ambitions in exchange for being allowed to live, lets her take his and Calia’s powers away and then attempts to kill Celdina so that she can’t give the power to Dagon. Except Celdina anticipated Sombren trying something like this and strikes back, saying that she thought he’d have done a better job considering he had a dremora for a teacher. The only reason she doesn’t kill him is because Team Vestige arrives to intervene and Sif and the Anchorite drive Celdina away with their combined power.

Celdina then tries to use the three pieces of the egonymic she has to begin Nirn’s destruction so that she can herald in her new perfect world, all while counting on Team Vestige to bring her the final piece she needs because they need the egonymic too, so they can’t just leave Sif behind in safety.

She just had a lot of potential and would have been a more effective final villain than Sombren, because his arc is entirely offscreen and the Vestige gets such limited time with him that it feels like Blackwood!Sombren and Deadlands!Sombren are two entirely different characters.

Celdina? She's depicted as a cunning individual of significant intelligence and religious fervour that would have made her perfect for the role. And it would have given that final encounter much more emotional weight for the Anchorite, considering that she’s now had time to come to terms with Celdina being her mother. It’s not ‘suddenly remember horrible mother, watch friends kill her’ but ‘suddenly remember mother, watch friends fight her, see her retreat into the dark and wait for her return.’