#personally I relate to sotha sil

[star-lit-mist]

for the headcanons — almalexia!!!

She’s so mean!!! But she’s pretty so I’ll answer

1. Only likes jewelry that either contains jade, topaz, emerald or tigers eye, nothing more nothing less

2. Always has servants make her fancy drinks with all kinds of beneficial ingredients (she just gives me those health influencer vibes)

3. Considers Sotha sil and Vivec siblings though of course she sees herself as the oldest and smartest which is funny because as I said, Sotha sil

4. And last but not least I feel like she is a cat person, like a big cat person, I wouldn’t be surprised if she kept tigers and lions as pets

(I know these are weird and probably bad but I’m trying to write stuff that isn’t lore related-)

[aladaylessecondblog]

Red Mountain Waffle House pt. 19

"And there you go. Enjoy yourself."

Jiub handed over what looked like a rolled-up piece of pumpkin-stamped plastic wrap to a Dunmer that quickly left.

"And what exactly was that?" Nibani spoke up, having just come out of the bathroom and noting this gift.

"It's the Witches Festival. I'm giving things out."

"That wasn't a child asking for sweets OR a beggar asking for alms. Was that moon sugar? Skooma, maybe?"

"It's weed. Half my customers are Urshilaku...I'm not seeing the problem here."

"The problem," Nibani huffed, "Is that you're doing it from behind the counter. Do that outside if you have to do it at all."

"In this weather?" Jiub gestured toward the exit. An ash storm had kicked up, and looked to be turning red. "If Sadara were still here I could have her do it. Girl wouldn't catch anything, what with having corprus and all."

There was a brief rush, and for the next half hour they didn't have the chance to talk.

After a chain of waiters and waitresses, Nibani had finally been unable to find anyone willing to work the night shift and had taken to doing the duty herself. It had her in none too good a mood, despite the drop in Sixth House related customers. Jiub figured she'd be happy about that, but there'd been more ordinators too, and they were a fair sight more troublesome.

"And when are you going to put on a shirt?"

"Huh?"

"I said, when are you going to put on a shirt?"

"It's my costume!" Jiub protested with a laugh, "I'm one of those weird Sixth House dreamers."

"Really? That's not only lazy--"

"But also blasphemous, yada yada yada." Jiub finished his cigarette and went to trying to scrape up a patch of burned in egg on the grill. "It couldn't be less of a problem. Maybe focus on finding someone that actually wants to work at night?"

"Were you always this snotty?" Nibani grumbled. "Nobody wants to work this shift and deal with the ordinators and cultists anymore."

"And the skooma heads, don't forget about them. You chased off the only person that did. Congrats. Could've had the big man in a better mood, and Nerevar too, but--"

"Nerevar?"

"Yeah, he was by looking for..." Jiub stopped as another couple people showed up. One was dressed as a Telvanni mushroom and the other as a guar. He handed them each a little wrapped up chunk of weed, gave them their orders for waffles, and then went back to the grill. "Anyway, I don't think he's doing the prophecy any more than Sadara was, considering he's currently shtupping the Sharmat."

He nearly dropped the spatula when he heard what she said next.

"What is it about this man that makes Nerevar and his incarnates act SO unwise?"

Not for the first time did Jiub thank his lucky stars that the idea of sex had no power over him. If Dagoth Ur was that much a rizzmaster they might all have been in danger if he'd any interest in anyone unconnected to Nerevar.

--------------------------

"Dwemernet Executive Support, what's your thousand gold per hour problem?" Sotha Sil paused when there was shouting on the other end. "No, your inability to run a team full of bots in Team Fortress 2 is not my problem - yes, you are paying for service, but your disconnect is your own fault."

Another pause.

"Would you prefer to have no access at all?"

Again the sound of shouting on the other end of the call.

"That's not a threat, Dagon, it's a promise." Sotha Sil finished the sentence and moved over to a monitor to the side of his main and largest one. "Choose your next words carefully."

Incomprehensible shrieking.

"Oh," Sotha Sil's voice was momentarily breathy. "Look at that. You just lost access. I'll be sure to let everyone know of Oblivion's dwemernet outage...which I estimate will last at least a day."

He mistyped when there was a particularly loud shout and his headset went to speakerphone.

"--and AFTER I finish pissing out the fire I set to what's left of Ald Sotha, I'm going to build a NEW shrine on top of it and--"

Sotha Sil typed again, and fixed the speakerphone. "I am ending the call. When you feel as though you can behave with decorum and dignity, I will be available to take your call."

He ended the call, and blocked the number's further attempts to get him back on the line. The extinction burst ended only an hour later, and Sotha Sil amused himself in knowing that the daedric princes' policy of self policing would take care of this problem.

The Coldharbour Compact was very mysterious for a reason - for who would believe that the one thing to keep them from crossing over was the threat of no longer maintaining the labyrinthine complications of running the Dwemernet to all planes of Oblivion?

Sotha Sil set the line to Do Not Disturb and left the room.

-----------------------------------

It seemed to be the one day a year nobody minded people wearing an Indoril helm, so long as they were the designated color that ordinators didn't wear...so that was what Sadara had done, with one slight addition - a Spirit Halloween shirt. It felt appropriate, considering. Nerevar's influence here and then not here, replaced with something else.

No, she just didn't want to spend much time or money on a costume when she was too old to really enjoy it anyway. Or at least, too old to enjoy it the way kids did...well, that and not really knowing anyone who would get her into a good party. There were some here in Mournhold, sure, but...

Eh, do I really WANT to go to a party, though, considering what happened at the last one?

Barenziah was done with her for the day, though, so she went out with a handful of gold pieces and a small bag of candy, handing them out to any beggars or children that asked. The night was a bit chill, so she decided to head down to one of the shops and get a coat.

Wow, she thought. A coat. A NEW coat.

Coat purchased, she went back out and stopped at the newstand. Maybe if Barenziah was so fond of those cigars from Black Marsh, she ought to try them too. A single one wasn't THAT expensive...

...that was her thought, anyway, until she saw her own face on one of the gossip rags and THE DAGOTH DIVORCE.

She huffed. "Divorce, there was barely a marriage to begin with!"

Despite knowing it was probably a bad idea, Sadara decided to buy one and read what was being said inside.

She realized almost immediately that she should've listened to her intuition.

A sad story indeed, this particular marriage. After a courtship that would make most heads spin, a whirlwind romance for the ages, a heart lies in ashes. One can hardly expect the Sharmat to behave decently, but this disloyalty to a bride no doubt in awe of the charisma that won him her hand is a new low.

Sources say that the demon of Dagoth's decision was prompted by Saint Nerevar's revival, being that it was him who held the--

Sadara crumpled up the magazine, threw it into a trashcan next to the newstand, and headed back without even getting the cigar she'd meant to. What in oblivion WAS that, and why was she being portrayed as some sort of lovestruck waif? Why was it she saw or heard about this so often?

New rule, she thought, No more looking at magazine headlines. No looking at Morrowtwitter, not that I was going to anyway. Just go to work and play the lute and maybe pick up another new hobby. Make sure there is never even a remote chance of a thought occurring.

She stayed out a bit longer, though, making sure to hand out the rest of the candy to a couple kids that passed by and on a whim the gold she'd intended to spend on the cigar too, before heading back to the palace.

Sadara practiced in her room with her lute for an hour and, in a turn entirely unlike her, fell asleep at a reasonable time.

At least asleep she didn't have to deal with any of this nonsense.

[boethiah]

Sotha sil for the character ask thing to complete the trio (Also your mortal!ayem fic sounds so cool! And would you mind sharing some of those Almalexia themed writing prompts? I love the way you characterise her and the whole tribunal)

plugging this first bc i'm planning to post the first new chapter in several years this week: gratuitous almalexia backstory fanfic. almalexia-themed writing prompts will be at the end but first let's discuss sotha sil

First impression

he was actually my favorite tribunal member at first when i was 18 and new to the fandom :')

Impression now

eso sotha sil isn't real. eso sotha sil isn't canon and eso sotha sil can[t hurt me

Favorite moment

the only canonical eso sotha sil moment i'll acknowledge which is the one where he got kicked out of almalexia's basement and had to move into a nearby cave

Idea for a story

if i ever finish rolecall (a fic about the tribunal post-nerevar's death and pre-ascension) i plan to write out the conversation sotha sil had with almalexia and vivec when he returned and revealed he'd learned how to use kagrenac's tools. which-- hang on this is actually an unpopular opinion let me move onto the next question

Unpopular opinion

most of the fandom seems to have this idea that sotha sil is somehow less guilty than almalexia and vivec in the betrayal of nerevar, when in reality i actually see him as MORE guilty. sotha sil was the only one who knew how to use the tools of kagrenac. almalexia and vivec may have murdered nerevar or agreed to break their oath but they never could have achieved godhood without sotha sil. so it seems like there's this weird belief that sotha sil is the only remorseful tribune or the only one not to blame, but-- he is the ONLY one of them who actually knew how to use the tools. he had the EXCLUSIVE power to make that happen. including almalexia and vivec was mere kindness on his part. the only canonical part of the betrayal we're certain of, the breaking of the oath, is entirely on him.

Favorite relationship

once again it has got to be the tribunal here. but specifically i'm obsessed with his relationship with almalexia-- the fact that they were apparently childhood friends, the fact that he was apparently scared of her, the fact that he remained so close to her throughout his entire life and godhood. i think they were very codependent; they both went through so much shit as mortals i think they just latched onto each other in a bad way, and sotha sil at least knew it would end with one of them dead at the other's hands.

also, fa-nuit-hen seems to have a crush on him? good for sotha sil with whatever hijinks precipitated THAT

Favorite headcanon

that he was disabled and had prosthetic legs as a mortal. in my mind his being disabled influenced both his interest in technology and his extreme desire to make things better for people. related; that his chief character flaw is that he cares too much about people and is driven by empathy to the point where it can overwhelm him and shut him down, hence his repeated chronic retreating from the world

free almalexia story ideas under the cut:

okay so here's just a random list of stuff i've been meaning to write about almalexia that i'll probably never get around to so consider it free game. in no particular order:

the story of almalexia's involvement in resurrecting wulfharth during the akaviri war, and whatever the hell her involvement was there

a conversation between almalexia and heita-meen negotiating the end to argonian slavery, and almalexia's subsequent personal involvement in making that happen

just. almalexia being a war-leader. almalexia showing up in battles to just destroy things. almalexia planning out wars. almalexia scaring the shit out of people who might cause trouble for the dunmer.

relatedly-- mortal almalexia serving as nerevar's general, offering her expertise on the nords to plan battles

the world could always use more nerevar/almalexia stuff ngl. big fan of fics where almalexia gets to scold nerevar for being stupid about something.

a fic about almalexia and nerevar just being like, way too comptitive over a chess game or something. to the point of probable violence

a fic about almalexia talking to nerevar's shrine/grave during the time of the nerevarine prophecy, while getting ready to try and murder his supposed reincarnation

and of course

the conversation in which almalexia kicked sotha sil out of her basement, forcing him to relocate to a nearby cave

[barfok]

youre SO right about sil and ayem i have been thinking this forever im so glad to see someone else put it into words! like on top of the significance of the tribunal being balanced between a woman, a man, and a person who embodies both very intentionally, i swear there is also an additional layer of intentional balance between ayem as a masculine woman, and sil as feminine man. with vivec in the middle. even taking into account the anticipations with the ayem being aligned with boethiah (presents masc in tes3) and sil being aligned with azura (presents fem). i won’t say its anything as straightforward as ayem and sil being canonically gnc or anything but i genuinely do think there is something to this??

i don't know that there IS anywhere to go with it tbh. it's just a thing that exists. their anticipations being (dunmeri archetype of masculine) boethiah and (dunmeri archetype of feminine) azura speak for themselves.

i suppose if you really wanted to run with this thought you could examine other ways that sotha sil and almalexia are thesis and antithesis and vivec is their synthesis, bc those opposites kinda fall along gendered (but specifically and explicitly patriarchal/matriarchal) lines. almalexia upholds and exerts authority in her relation to akatosh; sotha sil defies authority in his speech defying azura and use of the tools. sotha sil is depicted as pregnant in a tapestry and almalexia was apparently barren. almalexia enacted violence and sotha sil was the victim of it. almalexia is red and light, sotha sil is blue and dark. almalexia is the cruel upholder of laws and sotha sil is the nurturing respite from those laws. almalexia's domain is that of harsh reality, sotha sil's is that of indulgent escapism.

and then vivec encompasses all of these diametrically opposed aspects. totally normal polycule

[skyrim-said-that]

2920 vol. I-III reports

-

Vol. I - Morning Star

The first book describes a collection of moments that occurred throughout the month of Morning Star. The majority of these moments depict political plans being made in the ongoing war, with some conversations relating to personal affairs and relations of these political figures. The year begins with Vivec and Almalexia discussing the ongoing war and her prophetic dream of its ending, with the realization that they need Sotha Sil if they are to win the war. In her cell, the Empress Tavia and her bodyguard are also plotting to achieve a similar goal, the death of the imperial emperor.

The emperor himself attends a celebration of South Winds prayer, and while there he discusses tactics with the Akavari Potentate Versidue-Shaie while watching a sporting battle. Finally, the mistress of a duke in Mournhold contemplates how he will receive the news of her pregnancy, revealing a glimpse of the personal lives of some of the political figures involved in the war.

Comments

While I feel like I’m missing a lot of context for these snippets of their lives, I am sort of getting the picture of everyone’s thoughts and plans for the war they are in.

I do appreciate that it’s not like a history book, a lot of it is just conversations between characters, and a few of the ongoing plot lines are interesting to me, like the Duke and Turala, Empresses Tavia and her bodyguard, and the completion of the Akavari and Cyrodill warriors.

Go off Empress Tavia I hope that ends up working

I definitely get the same bad vibes about the akavari guy that the emperor does, the guy literally talks like scar from the lion king.

Something tells me that things are about to go very badly for Turala. Getting more bad vibes.

-

Vol. II - Sun’s Dawn

Over the course of Sun's Dawn, the summary recounts six distinct events that took place on six different days, each highlighting the perspectives and deeds of various notable figures. These figures include Sotha Sil, the Emperor and his mistress Rijja, the pregnant former mistress of a Duke from the house Indoral, Queen Hasaama and her husband King Dro'Zel. The book concludes with the arrival of Molag Bal, the Daedric Prince of Domination.

Comments

The author is very descriptive, I can clearly picture the serene tree by the bay where Soltha Sil teaches the new initiates, the respect he commands of his students is described just by his mannerisms. And then he told his students it was a ball of vomit. Which is kinda funny. Why are teachers like this, its giving college professor who messes with their students daily.

4 Suns Dawn threw me off bc that is a really long conversation to have mid foreplay like damn. What is going on why are you discussing politics right now? 

I feel really sad for Turala, clearly she misjudged the duke and misplaced her trust in him. I'm rooting for her.

King Dro'Zel is relatable i also get mad when sad stories make me feel emotions, tho it seems like he might be taking it a little far.

God dammit. What are u doing here moldy balls.

Welcome back my girl Almalexia

-

Vol. III - First Seed

During the five documented days of First Seed, a battle was fought between Vivec's forces and the Imperial Legion. Prior to the battle, Vivec's spy within the Legion provided crucial information, allowing Vivec to set a successful trap for the Imperials. Meanwhile, Emperor Reman III and Akavir Potentate Versidue-Shaie planned their strategy, with the Emperor deciding not to lead his men into battle. As a result of Vivec's trap, the Imperials suffered a crushing defeat, with half of their forces trapped and unable to fight, and the other half swept away into a wall of spears. In a letter to her sister, Rijja writes that her lover, the Emperor, is hunting for the spy within the Legion, and is so desperate to find the spy he suspects her.

Comments

We seem not that concerned that the emperor's son got poisoned. Also, what is an emperor without a little racism? Also, I do not trust Versidue Shaie. And I forgot this is technically a history book about the end of an 80-year-long war and I was like damn this is heavy lmao. 

Good for Cassyr Whitley 

Why is Vivec applying toddler nap logic to his soldiers? Like I get that you didnt want them to party but you could have just told them not to party you are the boss

Holy shit the imperial army just got fuckkkkeddd Vivec was good at this. Like in all seriousness hes clearly a better tactician than Miramor and that of the emperor. 

Not Rijja telling her sister her lover thinks she's a Morrowind spy and her life there is miserable at the moment and her sister still being jealous.

Also a big thank you to Liber Somnia for his audiobooks on youtube of this series, total life saver!

[sleepymarmot]

Almalexia time!

I've been procrastinating on meeting her for ages because I felt like I needed free time and a clear head for the most important (to me personally) encounter of the entire alliance.

I'd learned long ago how bland her model is, which spared me the disappointment today. Thankfully, it's compensated a bit by her being literally radiant, as in emitting bright golden light non-stop, and by the camera angles that make the player look up at her in dialogue. So she does look appropriately superhuman next to normal NPCs, by base game standards.

Still, in 2024 it's high time to give her a redesign. Her recent crown store cosmetics actually have saturated colors! Her portrait as a Tales of Tribute patron looks like a decent midpoint between the two designs! You don't even need to re-sculpt her, just make her hair more vividly ginger, style it with a bit of volume, use the headdress that's already in the game, and replace the body paint/tattoos (which one was it again?) with something more intricate.

Both the Mournhold and the Temple parts of the quest suffer from the question "how come an actual goddess can't solve the problem herself and asks for the player's help?"

In the former part, Naryu explains that the wards should be hiding activity in the sewers even from the Tribunal, but immediately after that Almalexia teleports there personally and reveals she's heard your entire conversation; I guess you can say that Almalexia was tracking you but beforehand there were too many people to know who and where to watch, but it still feels a bit iffy.

In the Tribunal Temple quest, Almalexia actually has a line explaining why she doesn't clean it up herself: "I cannot be seen to fail! Appearances are everything! They feed opinion and belief, and such matters are important to me." When the game wants, it is perfectly capable of providing a good reason why a capable NPC is busy enough to need assistance; this was on purpose. One of ESO's weaknesses is when it does foreshadowing or fanservice for the single player games instead of attempting to honestly imagine how something would look in the Second Era; the Vvardenfell zone is particularly rife with this. Almalexia's line here looks more like an example of this trend than an attempt at independent characterization: the writers here care more about planting the seeds for Almalexia caring about nothing but appearances in the last days of her life, than about asking the question of whether she would act like that at the height of her power. It's not out of character, exactly, more like too in-character — for the person she would be a thousand years into the future.

Speaking of callbacks/calls forward, I think it's really funny that to earn Vivec's blessing you have to solve a convoluted murder, and when you're asked who is guilty and who should be punished, the answer is "it's complicated".

I am pleased to report that the Tribunal Temple is one of my favorite quests and locations in Deshaan so far. I was really worried about it, as you might guess from me putting it off for literal years, but it was fun.

I didn't expect the temple to be full of small zones in different styles. Some of that validated my own designs a bit; I felt a bit awkward about putting some Redguard furniture into Vivec's room, and in this temple I saw a Redguard carpet with the same design in the area where you get Vivec's blessing. And there was, to my surprise, an entire corner with Dwemer machinery! I guess that might be only because the base game didn't have Clockwork designs yet, and would have used them instead if they were available, but it was still unexpected to see trophies from the blasphemous enemies at the heart of the Tribunal faith.

I also liked that the three shrines at the corners of the temple were surrounded by offerings related to the corresponding member of the Tribunal: Almalexia's had food and potions, Sotha Sil's had books and gears, Vivec's had musical instruments and wine. My only question is why each of the shrines had one side free from the offerings, and how it was chosen, because I didn't see the logic in that.

Looking forward to meeting Almalexia again later in the zone! For now, I finally have the altar that I need to put into my own handmade temple. I'm hoping to get it into the publishable state by the end of the month so that I could earn the "invite three people" achievement with it.

[iamnotshazam]

This is fascinating to me because it also possibly presents a metatextual shift in the writing team over time! I am still playing through, but after scouring the internet I feel somewhat confident saying this: in Morrowind there's no reference connecting it, which means there was only the bonewalker banner as a depiction of Nerevar! Further supporting this is the idea that the creative team would want to leave Nerevar blank as someone the player could project onto.

This also smacked me in the face reading UESP:

He's . . . Not the patron saint of the house that he joined? So who is?

Fucking Olms??? Again???

Also in ESO there's a wonderful worldbuilding flavor text about Ordinators putting on their armor and blessing it under all the saints with specific attention paid to Nerevar, including pressing their forehead to the forehead of the mask, and it's all about how personal appearance also relates back to the image of the Temple, and it would be a perfect time to discuss taking on the appearance of Nerevar himself . . . but it doesn't!

That bust of Nerevar is from the end of the first era and looking at the ears, yes, it is very clearly a helmet, not a stylized face. So the only in-universe depiction by a firsthand witness of Nerevar is Sotha Sil's hologram, which is . . . Fine. It's fine. It looks like an Altmer it is NOT fine- it's fine. (Someone more worked up about this than I am could write an essay about Seht's memory being faulty, or the plani-whatsit not being technically accurate, as Sil has his current godly outfit when interacting with Nerevar)

Am I losing my mind?

Hey, TESblr? Am I losing my mind, or is there no canonical reference to the Indoril helmet being specifically based on Nerevar's appearance? According to UESP, it comes from a metatextual Kirkbride post

Please tell me I'm wrong

I bring this up because St. Olms is the earliest guy in the lore with fully canonical Ordinator-mohawk-face appearance, on his shrines and banners, and he lived around the same time as Nerevar

[tittytania]

Finding ChristBorg: A TED talk about what happened during the Coldharbour Compact.

Reposted from my tes reddit bc I want to see what y’all think.

I can't tell if I'm a genius, completely insane, or if I'm just late to the lore-party. Time to find out I guess. TL;DR at the bottom.

So it has never been explained what Sotha Sil did during the Coldharbour Compact to convince the daedric princes to not manifest on Nirn without an intermediary, and it probably never will be since the mystery of it all is far too cool. But that doesn't mean I can't read into it like literature and look for meaning in the other texts I can compare it to.

To start, Vivec is based off of the Shakta variation of the half female/half male Ardhanarishvara, where the gold-skinned female half is the right side. Both Vivec and Ardhanarishvara represent unity and duality, and looking at some images of Ardhanarishvara, it's kinda hard to argue that Vivec wasn't based off of them. Kirkbride even confirmed that Ardhanarishvara was the inspiration for Vivec in an AMA. Now, Vivec is part of the god trio the Almsivi Tribunal, along with Almalexia and Sotha Sil. Shiva, who Ardhanarishvara is the avatar of, is also part of a god trio, called the Trimurti in Hinduism. So it would make sense if the other members of the tribunal are also based off of one member of a real world religious triad. I have a shaky idea of who Almalexia could be, but my theory for her god-inspiration is nowhere near as solid as my theory for Sotha Sil, who I believe is based on Jesus Christ.

To start, their characterizations have multiple similarities. Both are one branch of a god-triad, with Sotha Sil as part of the Tribunal, and Jesus as The Son in the Holy Trinity. Both serve as a teacher, with Jesus being referred to as Teacher several times in the Bible, and Sotha Sil giving lessons on magic and Mysticism to the Psijic Monks. Also, both are characterized as wise, patient, and celibate. They both talk about moral and philosophical concepts with their followers, neither Jesus nor Sotha Sil are shown as having a temper or raising their voices, and neither of them are shown with a spouse or partner. Sotha Sil is specifically shown as not caring about the Night Mother's attempts to sexually manipulate him in book seven of 2920, The Last Year of the First Era. Now I know that 2920 is considered a work of historical fiction in-universe, but I don't think that matters in this situation since I'm approaching this as a person reading a text, not as a person living inside the lore world.

In terms of specific scenes that connect Sotha Sil and Jesus, the first I will mention is that they both use a makeshift whip to beat intruding wrongdoers and drive them away, while yelling about fathers. In the Truth in Sequence vol. 8 book, it says that "[t]hrough His will alone, Mighty Seht wound the veins (of metal ore) into god-bronze whips, and lashed the Prince pitilessly," saying "[b]ehold the wrath of lost Ald Sotha! Know death at my hands, false-son of a false-father!" In the Bible, Jesus found people doing sales in a place of worship, and then He "made a whip of cords, (and) He drove them all out of the temple," saying “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (John 2 15-16).

Also, Jesus had close friends and followers who were called his apostles, and Sotha Sil has his own Clockwork Apostles. Sil's apostles reside in the Clockwork Basilica, and while basilica isn't an exclusively Christian term, it is frequently used to describe a type of church architecture, and is a term the pope uses to recognize distinguished churches.

Another similarity that I found was in the plot of Morrowind, where Sotha Sil's death was caused at the hands of Almalexia, who was someone he had once loved and trusted, much like with Jesus and Judas.

The most notable life similarity as it relates to the Coldharbour Compact is that both leave the earthly world in order to make a deal for the benefit of the souls on earth, and then return to the earthly world. This parallel is given extra weight with the descriptions of the scene in the book 2920, The Last Year of the First Era. Sotha Sil returns from Coldharbour by way of someone "rolling aside the great boulder that blocked the entrance to the Dreaming Cavern. This sounds a lot like the scene in the bible of the discovery that Jesus had risen from the dead, where "an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door" (Matthew 28:2). In addition, Jesus said "after He is killed, He will rise [on] the third day," (Matthew 17:23) and after Sotha Sil returned from Coldharbour, he "felt he had been away for months, years, but only a few days had transpired." Perhaps it had been 3?

In addition to the life and behavior similarities, there are similarities in dress. In the 2920 book, Sotha Sil is always described as wearing a white robe or cloak. In ESO, Sotha Sil is shown as barefoot, and wearing a blue sash over his long white robe. In medieval and renaissance art, Jesus is most always depicted as barefoot, and is frequently shown with a blue cloth over his shoulder. In most resurrection art, as well as in almost all 20th/21st century art, Jesus is depicted as dressed in white. While Jesus usually isn't usually shown wearing both the blue sash and the white robe at once like Sotha Sil is, I found one modern interpretation of Jesus that does dress him this way, and several depictions of him in Chinese art that also portray him like this.

I'm feeling almost conspiratorial here, but these similarities are far too many for me to think it's accidental, and therefore I have to think that all of this is meant to suggest that Sotha Sil serves a Christ-figure role in his story, i.e. in sacrificing own life like Jesus did in order to make his deal in the Coldharbour Compact. However I don't think Sil's sacrifice was quite so simple. After he is asked what he offered the Daedra in return for the deal, he states: "The deals we make with Daedra... [s]hould not be discussed with the innocent." This implies that in contrast to the Christ mythos, Sil's sacrifice was not blameless; he did not come out of the deal with his hands clean.

So, a Christ-like sacrifice that isn't quite as pure and selfless as it is in Christianity. What could that be?

My theory is that in order to make the Coldharbour Compact, he sold the lives of Vivec and Almalexia along with his own. Perhaps he told the princes that he knew the tribunal's godhood would end, and in exchange for their cooperation he promised not to tell the other tribunes or make any attempt to prevent his and his companions' demise. (After all, as far as I know he made the mechanical heart for keeping his city functional, not for recreating the divinity the heart of Lorkhan provided.) Or, maybe he offered to do something to assist in bringing the Tribunal down, and losing Sunder and Keening, the tools that helped them maintain their divinity, was intentional on his part. Sil deliberately sacrificing his own life appears to be reflected in Azura's statement after his death. She said "he shed his mortality long ago, and I am certain his death was no small relief to him." Of course she'd know that he let go of his life ages ago if he had willingly sold it to her. Of course she would be certain that he found his death to be a relief, if she'd heard him say so himself when he was explaining why a god would ever offer such a deal.

It would also make sense with Sotha Sil's character, since he allegedly loved the people on Nirn more than Almalexia or Vivec did, and the destruction of Gilverdale could have definitely been a traumatic enough reminder of the destruction of Ald Sotha for him to do something dramatic to prevent it ever happening again. And guilt over sacrificing his friends could have definitely been a contributing factor to the worsening self-isolation and intense depression in his later life. It would also be a definite explanation for why he apparently never met another soul in the 10 years between losing the tools and his death. Not only had he become extremely disillusioned with the imperfections of the world, he had now finalized the deal he made so long ago, and saw no point in continuing to interact with a deeply flawed world he was essentially finished with.

However, I do see some issues with this and how it would work in-universe. Namely the fact that Hermaeus Mora's seekers said the prince received something from every individual on Nirn as part of the deal, which is quite different from what I'm suggesting. A different deal for each prince would also explain why Sil was able to include Clavicus Vile and Mephala in the compact at a much later date. There would be no reason for Vile and Mephala to submit to a collective deal whose terms had already been decided. So if he offered the tribunal's lives as part of the deal, he would have needed to offer other things as well. But for me the most significant in-universe issue I struggled with was that using his death as a bargaining tool would create a massive problem for his ability to enforce the deal in the future. This could explain why both Molag Bal and Mehrunes Dagon manifested on Nirn after Sotha Sil's death, but since I think they were summoned by qualified mortals that could have been a loophole. Either way, making a deal that is meant to last forever by promising something that can never be taken back in the case of a breach of contract seems extremely short-sighted for someone who claims to be cursed with certainty. Especially considering how many of the princes there were known to be cheats and liars.

Unless, that is, you believe this theory I read about the reason why Sil was completely silent as he was killed. My original belief was that he was silent because he'd seen it coming long ago, and knew that nothing he could have said would have changed Almalexia's mind. And while that would be in character for him, now I'm starting to think that it was because he had already uploaded his consciousness elsewhere. This would fit in with the Christ-figure parallels, due to the Christian belief that Jesus is risen from the dead and very much alive. While Jesus returned to life at the same time he emerged from the cave, the completion of Sotha Sil's death sacrifice didn't happen until long after his return via the cave. While I have found no explicit evidence that he's still around, when you find his body in Morrowind he is shown hanging, with his arms outstretched at his sides, in a sort of crucifixion pose. And after the crucifixion comes the resurrection. Perhaps Sotha Sil is still around somewhere in the gears of his city, and he promised the princes he'd never be present or have any influence on Nirn so long as they kept up their end of the deal. Additionally, the 37th sermon of Vivec mentions Sotha Sil as holding "his swollen belly," carrying "[his] daughter." While Vivec's sermons are hardly ever literal, Kirkbride's comments suggest that maybe Vivec was being somewhat literal in this instance. Regarding this concept art, Kirkbride said "note the cosmic baby growing inside Sotha Sil. While Sotha Sil is dead as we saw in the add-on pack “Tribunal”, the child survived." Perhaps one of Sotha Sil's many body modifications made him able to carry and birth a child, and then he created a daughter through self-cloning or some other method that allows him to have enough influence to enforce the compact.

TL;DR - Sotha Sil has a lot of similarities with Jesus, so he's a Christ figure and therefore his sacrifice in the Coldharbour Compact was himself, and Almalexia and Vivec too, and that also means that he may still be around.

Anyways, thanks for reading and sorry if this sounds like I'm putting red strings on a wall as my application essay to the r/SothaSimps fan club. Also, lmk if I'm missing anything obvious. For me right now Reading Lore On The Bedroom Floor is a bit more manageable than playing the games, and there may be something I've just completely looked over.

[calebwittebane]

How did cwc fuck up tes? genuinely curious abt your thoughts on this

well its a bit of a story

the portrayal of sotha sil in it had a lot of potential - im not at all opposed to sotha sil being well-meaning but extremely arrogant pretentious and blinded by his own selfish, sheltered approach, that caused him to create a technological dystopia he deemed a paradise. all of the almsivi are extremely flawed and i think thats what makes them cool, truly human gods, and that in itself couldve been really really interesting, however unfortunately it was played so strangely, like... straightfowardly? in a "he's right" way. like the player is somehow Not supposed to find him insufferable. the Manpain Garden (which btw people have been yelled at for calling it that) really did it for me, like, oh no, a woman called him boring and distant one time, how tragic. like hes supposed to be the Good Guy of the tribunal as opposed to Mean Almalexia and Silly Vivec (both of which are such shallow and borderline offensive ways to characterize them too)

however i think what REALLY sucks is that they brought back divayth fyr and made him one of the main characters of the dlc. and look i know i say a lot that fictional bad people are funny but theres nothing funny about divayth fyr the incest pedo guy and i despise the way hes portrayed in eso and i despise everything surrounding it. eso twitter even made a fathers day joke about it but deleted it as soon as they rightly realized that it was kinda fucked up

for the above reasons eso:cwc caused a HUGE rift in tes fandom where some people criticized it and made fun of it and some people felt a strong attachment to it and felt slighted by that, plus not all people who learned about divayth fyr thru eso were initially aware of how he is in tes3 and reacted to such information in a range of ways, including but not limited to saying that actually people who like morrowind are evil and want such a despicable character to exist (im not even gonna start unpacking this) and are fucked up for not "rejecting" his tes3 portrayal to instead pretend hes just this cool quirky wizard. which, im not gonna delve into any individual persons, like, personal reasons to approach a character a certain way, but its beyond bizarre to make this kinda statement and act like its unreasonable to be repulsed by this whole ordeal

the rift this caused... pretty much ruined online tes fandom permanently. like there are just like two camps now, with Clockwork City DLC Enjoyers on twitter talking about how tesblr (aka everyone who disagrees with them) is elitist and mean and Scoffs At People Who Dont Know Enough Lore (all untrue but w/e), and that reaches completely new people as their first impression of the fandom, thus deepening the rift. it made a lot of major contributors completely check out, because not only did they feel excluded by all the new content, but also by the community. and mind you before all of that tesblr was like, not a terribly huge community, but an always-growing one, with lots of discussions and contributions and fan content and inside jokes, and i just dont really see that anymore aside from small circles of people still passionate about very specific topics, which i assume is where the impression of being Inaccessible and Closed Off comes from. lots of people became really disillusioned with tes in general and moved on to different stuff. there was some drama that dragged for literal years, lots of vagueposting, conflicts, it was just all like.... unpleasant.

so yeah theres a very active eso-focused community on twitter that i dont personally interact with because they all hate me and a handful of people on tumblr. so, kinda not what it used to be. well theres always also r/teslore and other tes subreddits, but lemme tell you when it comes to any video game related topics never go on reddit never go on reddit neeeever go on reddit never go on reddit neeeever go on reddit never go on reddit, neeeever go on reddit wow wow wowwoowww

[kagrenacs]

Explaining the Iceberg #8

In which the theories get worse as you delve deeper. (some content is cut because it’s not appropriate/something I would want to discuss)

Coldharbour/Clockwork Tamriel: Coldharbour has many locations that resemble Tamriel, and often are outright taken from it. C0Da seems to indicate Sotha Sil’s final goals for the clockwork city is to recreate and ‘perfect’ Tamriel.

The Crimson Ship: During the Knahaten Flu, the Kothringi were hit particularly hard, and the Crimson Ship was full of refugees trying to find a new home. They were turned away at every port, until reaching Hammerfell. After being turned away once again, they sailed out to sea. Some years later, pirates found the ship full of corpses.

Storming of the citadel: Unsure of this, the wording is too general. It could possibly refer to the Morrowind Mainquest, when you take back the profane tools, A Covenant quest in Elder Scrolls Cnline, or the Main quest in Elder Scrolls Online

Altmeri formwars: Mentioned in an MK short story. Possibly a war from a previous Kalpa that involved the Dreugh

Yagrum Bagarn made the Numidium: He states he was a Tonal Architect under Kagrenac, there’s a possibility he may have worked on the Numidium as well.

Sons of Hora: Mentioned in the Nu-hatta, related to mantling. ‘this is the death children bring as son’s of Hora’. My guess is that it’s the ability of mortals (sons of Lorkhan, Hora?) to actually mantle deities and understand their limits.

Kaleidocules: ‘Leaky Creatia’  the power of creation, magical possibility 

Ayleids=Bird people: A race of unnamed bird people Topal the Pilot was said to have met on his journey across Tamriel. Since they occupy the same region as Ayleids did (although they seem to have been present before the Ayleids and subsequently died out), and since Ayleids have recurring bird motifs within their armor and art, it’s thought that these two groups may be one in the same.

Dragon Tusk: The name of the oversoul (cumulation of all aspects) of Akatosh/Auri-el ect. Is Aka or Aka-Tusk.

Lorkhan’s heart the egg of time: In Morrowind, the egg of time is a rebuttal paper to Kagrenac’s theories on the use of the tools on the heart of lorkhan.

Khajiit ??? Genetic memory: I can’t make out if that says lactable as in the infant formula for babies, or something else. 

The Prisoner: A name for all playable characters in tes, revolves around the concept of seeing past barriers formed previously (the prison) and overcoming these obstacles to change things.

82nd Crodo: Mentioned in the redguard forums, a community in Alinor.

City of Rockcreek: In Arena, there is a city called Rockpark. A glitch in town generation happened, and the palace to Rockpark was blocked off, rendering it inaccessible. In Daggerfall, the developers referenced this glitch in ‘Ius the Animal God’ But misspelled Rockpark as ‘Rockcreek’

Atmora-Aldmeris Invasion: Not quite sure what this references, my best guess is the invasion of the Atmorans and Aldmer from their respective continents to Tamriel.

1008 weapons of rapture: 1008 or 108 is usually in reference to Cyrodill (8+1 gods), in Et’Ada, Eight Aedra, Eat the Dreamer, there is mention of 1008 weapons of rapture. This could possibly refer to the Divines, the Middle Dawn that lasted 1008 years, or perhaps 1008 literal weapons.

Thalmor UFOs: Seems to have originated on the iceberg

King Harald and Talos die at 108: There goes that numerology again

Adamantia Scroll rocket: While this seems to have originated on the iceberg once again, there is a group of tes LARPers with the shared name Adamantia

Ghartoki: Mentioned in what my beloved taught me after Vivec reads a symbol on Nerevar’s palms (possibly some sigil, scars or just reading palms). Ghartok in Ehlnofey means hand, and in the sermons it’s often associated with the word Padhome, or change.

Thalmor and Jyggalag: The Altmer are orderly so they worship Jyggalag.

Motheaters: A little song mentioned in this thread https://www.imperial-library.info/content/forum-archives-unknown-posts

Klecksographic Lyg: Another iceberg original, Klecksography is the art of making art from inkblots, essentially this is just saying how lyg was created in a fancy way

Ha-Note is Mehrunes Dagon: https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/3o0uwk/nanote_dagon/ the original theory is here, TL;DR Ha-Note, a monster born from Vivec, renamed itself ‘City-Face’ and fled to Lyg. The ‘grabbers’ grabbed it, because they can’t create things of their own and said they’d build a Hope-Tower upon it’s face. In the Commentaries of Mankar Cameron, he states Mehrunes Dagon was built from hope.

Zurin Arctus=Versidue Shae: An apparently deleted theory, mentioned only in this post debunking it https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/9rs2ad/what_were_the_motives_of_versidue_shaie/

The King’s Cough: Mentioned in Sermon 29, another name for the Thu’um

The Catalyst: The driving force that starts an Enantiomorph 

Tsaescence: A tsaesci word from We ate it to become it, MK states it means it’s the Tsaesci word of “High Perception” In context, seems to mean something similar to CHIM.

Hero of Kvatch=Pelinal Whitestrake: See the Knights of the Nine DLC. (To expand further, there are many similarities between the two, force of change, knight to the emperor/empress)

Amiel Arctus: An old screen name for Michael Kirkbride

The Space Gods: Found in the last song of Pelinal and Eight Aedra Eat the Dreamer, like many things in tes, it’s Lorkhan.

Uriel V: The father of Uriel VI, tried his best to invade Akavir.

Otherkin: You are reading this on tumblr. You know what this is. MK made a lengthy forum post about how Tosh Raka hates the Otherkin for some reason.

Falmer are Hermaified: Horrible word, but there are resemblances between Hermaeus Mora’s shrines, and Falmer shrines.

Invisible Dragons: In morrowind, if you ask M’aiq about dragons, he’ll state they’re too high up to see. Or invisible

Alien Ayleids: A relic from the since deleted bethesda forums. MK wanted to have a plot twist where Ayleids were Aliens.

The insect god: Mentioned in the Adabal-a, or Morhaius’s memoirs. May be a since-retconned god, could possibly be Lorkhan due to his frequent connection with Scarabs.

Suicide Trolls: An easter egg in Oblivion, a poorly scrawled note and a troll found dead under a bridge across the bridge from Bravil.  

Arkay=Arnand the Fox=Zurin Arctus: Zurin Arctus is sometimes called Arnand the Fox (Seen in where were you when the dragon broke) Shor is also represented as the fox, which makes sense since Zurin is a Shezzarine. This connects to Arkay by Malacath/Orkey/Arkay, who is a trickster god (fox like) in Nordic pantheons. Malacath also got compared to a fox once. I never said these theories were well backed up.

Dwarf-Orc theory: referring to Dumac, who is sometimes called Dumalacath, or Dumac Dwarf-Orc, suggesting he has an orcish and dwemer parents. This also may imply there are cross cultural connections between the two groups (especially when you consider the Rourken clan having Volenfell, Malacath’s hammer.), meaning Dwemer blood could still be present within Orcish clans.

Tosh Raka: The Dragon-God of the Ka’Po’Tun. Became a dragon through unknown means (possibly through Dracocrysalis?) Hates the otherkin I guess.

A worn and weathered note: A curious note from Morrowind. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:A_worn_and_weathered_note

TalOS: Talos is called a virus by Jubal in C0da. If you think of the Aurbis as a computer, Talos could be considered analogous to a Trojan Virus when you look at his place in the pantheon of Divines. He used the mantella to cheat-code the universe into accepting it as Lorkhan’s new heart to power the Numidium. An error occurred, and now the universe considers TalOS the new Lorkhan.

King of Worms = The Underking: Both are liches, both are undead, that’s about it. May stem from initial confusion of MK saying there were ‘multiple underkings’ when he meant there were multiple copies of the same person in the dragon break.

500 companions were dragons: the 500 mighty companions, an obscure text calls at least one of the companions a dragon, and some of the names were draconic sounding.

Dreamer can’t wake up: Straight from the mouth of MK, this might mean ‘the Godhead isn’t literal’ or it might literally mean, the universe can’t cease to be because the Godhead just stops.

[cosmicallium]

ZENIMAX PLEASE LET US LOVE SOTHA SIL

I’m assuming this is a response to the post I just reblogged but YES ANON I agree (ramble below)

Even though ESO Sotha Sil might clash a bit with previously established information about him, I really really love his character. Some see him as cold and callous and uncaring because of how withdrawn he is, but I feel like he loves and cares for his people in an interesting way.

Sil adopted the Dunmer’s ashen skin in solidarity with them after Azura cursed them, even though he could have kept his golden Chimer skin, and I think that alone speaks volumes. He created the Clockwork City as a safe haven from the daedra, which was probably in part due to his childhood trauma from Mehrunes Dagon destroying his home town and killing everyone, including his family. Some people say that Sil is uncaring because there are slums in the Clockwork City (which is an issue that he could fix), but he sees the world in a more calculated and realistic way in the sense that the issue will likely just come back even if he fixes it, and he won’t always be around despite his godly powers. He wants his people - his Apostles, especially - to come up with solutions on their own and work towards perfecting their society so that they are self-reliant. The entire motto of Clockwork City revolves around thinking and working towards a better future.

I don’t know if he was always withdrawn and stoic, or if it happened after he acquired his power, but it really seems like deep down Sil craves companionship and genuinely does have a warm heart, but he denies himself the feeling of emotion to better concentrate on perfecting his city (hence the planisphere, where he stores his memories). This is part of why his friendship with the Vestige is so meaningful. Maybe it’s his foresight, but he actually opens up to the Vestige relatively quickly and forms a sort of bond with them, and even other people pick up on it. He likely feels that he can relate to the Vestige (hence the whole “prisoner” discussion) in that both he and the Vestige carry the heavy burden of protecting people whether they like it or not, and perhaps this has made it difficult to form genuine personal connections. Being put on a pedestal would make almost anyone feel isolated.

[maybemanyskeletonhats]

CONCERN (SAD)

(con·cern

/kənˈsərn/

worry (someone); make anxious. - a matter of interest or importance to someone.)

Ondolemar crosses his arms and scoffs as he listens to them prattle on about their next ‘grand’ adventure. “You run about in the filthy ruins of that tomb for what? Wealth?? I assure you the only thing you’d possibly find in there is dust and bones.” He griped. He knew of course it was wrong, he wasn’t born yesterday. He knew of the foul undead. His pursed lips briefly twitch into a concerned frown before he can stop it, he shakes his head vigorously. They can handle it right? They’re the famed Dragonborn who slew Alduin. It’s not as though some skinny Undead were a match for them. Gazing silently as you rifled through their belongings to see if they had everything, he grips their arm, catching them by surprise. “Be...Be...” He stumbles over his words for a few seconds. “...Come back in one piece.” He wishes the smile they gave him didn’t make his heart race the way it did.

Vivec was used to losing people, by some means or another. Which was partly why he trained himself to not grow attached. However you bear the smile of his old friend. Their speech paired with the way they carry themself screams of Nerevar. He knew they weren’t entirely the same as he, the flashes behind his eyes told him otherwise. Yet as he watches attentively as they speak excitedly of how they were going to akavir, to see the sights, the people, the food. The everything that wasn’t as mundane as Morrowind had become. He feels a string that hasn’t been pulled in a long time pluck painfully in his chest. First it had been Sil, his brother, then Ayem, who fell into a foolish madness. There shouldn’t be pain, watching someone who was now freed from the burden of prophecy walk away. But there was. He was able to suppress the odd burning behind his eyes, and managed to keep his voice even though he knew not how. Just as your hand touched the door handle, a god turned mortal croaked in a vulnerability that slammed into him like a tidal wave. “Please, please don’t go...please don’t leave.”

Sotha Sil knew what was to come, what would happen to you. He knew death couldn’t be avoided, only differed. Though buried deep beneath the rubble of a broken house there was a fragment of a mortal who was feeling the sense of fear he’d felt when Mehrunes Dagon had taken away someone he held so very close to his heart. His sister. Now, trying to steel his nerves as they smiled softly, speaking of their pending trip to Cyrodiil. He selfishly wanted to keep them here, even if it was wrong. “I’m excited, Sil.” The whisper came and went through his ears as his gaze dropped to the floor. Irrational fear swept over his mind like a dense fog giving him visions of this being the last time he’d see them before...well. Certain things they shouldn’t be involved with. “Visiting old friends...?” The mer managed to pry forth forced words from his lips. Though it wasn’t what he wanted to say. They beamed, his heart strings pulled. “A friend, yes...he can say what he likes about not enjoying people. But he was the one who sent me a letter.” They grinned cheekily. “When do you expect to be off on your next journey?” He pursed his lips. “Tomorrow.” There it was again, the ugly worry rearing its head. “I want you...” He started, a desperate gleam in his eyes. “I mean, I want you to stay here, with me.” The soft exhale paired with a doe eyed gaze, he had a feeling it worked. 

 Teldryn Sero tries to give off an idea that he’s not afraid of much. He’s seen, too much. He’s seen the sight of so many previously loved Dunmer settlements buried underneath the ash of red mountain all because of a man who abandoned his people. Of course, he never saw the chaos as it happened, rather he’d heard the stories from his parents, or the people he’d once knew yet never laid eyes on again. Crossing his arms apprehensively, he listens as you speak of going into an encampment for an amulet for a Khajiit trader of all things. He’s seen this happen before, but when it comes to people he cared about, it’s harder to watch. “You should let me come with you, Sera. It would be much easier than to go alone.”

Divayth Fyr knew the feeling of worry, he had daughters of his own, this feeling is abit more complicated when it was a love interest. The Nerevarine has a prophecy to fulfil. Who was he to stop them from doing that? He can’t say he cared very much about people. But he didn’t want Morrowind to be a burning husk should Dagoth Ur succeed in his plans. He can’t stop the narrowing of his eyes as your determined expression falls away to reveal the scared outlander that had arrived that fateful day in Seyda Neen. He’s then reminded that they had no say in what was befalling them, the duty that was so easily placed upon their shoulders. “I’m sure things will go smoothly.” He tried to assure them it only caused stress tears to gather at the corner of your eyes. “I’m scared, Divayth. I’m really scared. I don’t want to die in that place.” They whimpered. His throat closed up at the sound, they did sound afraid, terrified, even. Divayth held back the urge to physically comfort them, it reminded him so deeply of when Beyte had heard thunder for the first time, the scared wide eyed gaze she’d gave him as she hid away from the noise reminded him he was a parent. “Things will be alright...C/N.” He gently placed a hand on their shoulder, passing a calming spell in secret.

Neloth doesn’t know how to comfort people, so when the Dragonborn preps to defeat miraak The words he can possibly say to assure them are stuck in his throat. He was never good at this, it just wasn’t his forte. He was purely a telvanni wizard, and the telvanni aren’t good choices for morale support. He ponders giving them a calming spell to ease your rattled nerves, however his feet don’t move with him to do so. Their hands shaky, eyes wide in childlike fear, he frowns. “You defeated Alduin did you not? What’s so different about this one?” The words impulsively escaped him and he wanted to smack himself. Sometimes his sharp tongue wasn’t something he could control. The Dragonborn looked up, clenching their jaw. Angry tears burning their eyes. “The difference is is that it’s a person, a person’s who’s been distorted by a foul Daedric prince in return for knowledge he didn’t get in the end. Herma mora led an atmoran man on and turned him into a monster. The only other person in this world who shares my title and I have to kill them. Who am I to presume someone is wrong for wanting freedom after so long of imprisonment?!” Tears streamed down their face as their eyes slowly became fuller and fuller as the seconds ticked by. He didn’t know what to say, he couldn’t say they were bound to this via prophecy, but the title of dragonborn was ingraved into their being till now till the day they took their last breath. “Let Solstheim crumble, then.” He dismissed. Their head whipped to face him, disbelief shining on their face. “What?” His lip twitches unconsciously. “Let Solstheim crumble, we all have places we can go in the end so what does it matter...” He pauses for several moments. “...as long as you’re safe, that’s all that should matter.”

Voryn Dagoth eyes lit up with concern. “The Dwemer aren’t ones to be trifled with, c/n. Even if you are related to Nerevar, should we proceed the way we are you can easily greet death. They are just rumored to be advanced, they are.” He said, lips twitching into an anxious frown. “Dumac would never hurt me, you know that Voryn.” They gripped onto his fingers and sqeezued confortingly. The Chimer peered down at them and sighed heavily. “You don’t understand c/n, if it came down to us or them, do you honestly think they’d ever chose us?” His words gave them pause, they swallowed thickly with a brief shaky smile, before their arms wrapped around him. Cheek pressing into his robe. “My bother will handle things, I know he will. You have to trust him Voryn, you know he loves you, he loves Ayem, Vehk and Sil too. They will handle things right and should anything happen you know well he will always come to you.” They mumbled nearly inaudibly. He could tell they weren’t entirely truthful but chose to stay quiet, he had no choice but to trust their judgment. Nerevar’s judgement. If Dumac Dwarf-king claimed to love him, they would understand why they needed to do what they did. “I don’t want you to get hurt, should things go wrong. I don’t want to lose you.” He confessed solemly into their ear.

[profanetools]

okay so you can accuse me of being hades game poisoned (and you wouldn't be wrong...) but I genuinely really want to give kasmei hetrochromia AND I have a couple ideas for it

kasmei's natural eye colour is a sharp yellow but her left eye turns a dark purple. this could:

- represent a pact made with mephala after joining a mephala cult in the inner hierarchy of the morag tong. I also headcanon that sometimes her tattoos glow purple when she's very emotional as related symptom.

- represent a pact made with a daedric prince (nocturnal is the most interesting option imo given kasmei's history with sotha sil, but equally mephala could be an option) to extend her life / stop her from decaying and deteriorating after a long time without her soul, in return for services

- be a mechanical eye that sotha sil made for her during her brief period where she stayed & worked in Clockwork City. she lost or damaged the original in a fight against nocturnal.

- be a mechanical eye that bthemetz made for her (a little more unlikely, not bthemetz's area of expertise, but also I can definitely see bthemetz looking at sotha sil's handiwork and going 'this is shoddy' and making a new one just out of spite/pride/wanting to prove herself) in return for her help

anyway. There are options. Personally I think Kas would look cool with a glowy purple eye :) I think it looks black most of the time but glows occasionally in dark places / in Oblivion / at particular times

[talldarkandroguesome]

22nd of Sun’s Dusk, Morndas

How do I sum up all of the many pages of Tel’s letter, the grave implications contained within, or all of my thoughts pertaining to them?

I suppose I shall give as brief an account as I can.

Tel and the others went with Divayth Fyr underneath Mournhold and managed to make their way through to the Clockwork City. Somehow in that time something occurred which caused Fyr’s shadow to run off, leaving him weakened. They managed to catch it and reconstituted it into Fyr.

I have never heard of someone’s shadow detaching from a person and taking their power and becoming sentient in its own right.

I was already beginning to wonder at the implications of such power when things got worse.

The only bright spot in the start of the tale was Tel’s excitement over becoming a citizen of the Clockwork City in order to enter. There was even more excited ramblings over the gain in citizenship than about the sites and sounds of the city.

In the end it seemed that Sotha Sil was not himself. So much was it suspected by Fyr, that he had the others work to try and expose if Seht was an imposter!

After a very long process, they were able to find a type of lighting that had been recently removed from the lecture halls and they shone it upon Seht. Upon which it was discovered that it had not been Seht at all!

Fyr said it was Seht’s shadow instead. Through no small feat of sleuthing , they learned that one of the priests or other had made a pact with Clavicus Vile and was also working with Nocturnal, though he had not kept his word in his agreement with Nocturnal, causing a fight between lesser Daedra of the two Princes.

The man was spared just enough to get the location of some key or other that was important to Seht’s realm, though the shadow Seht managed to steal it before they got to it.

Of course, as with the situation with Vehk, Tel and the others managed to prevent the Daedric plan from accomplishing its goal.

There are a few things that did worry me about the details of everything.

Firstly, the fact that Clavicus Vile and Nocturnal are working together.

I have not heard about Daedra working together in such a manner outside of the Good Daedra and that was to a very specific cause. I cannot imagine what these two might be doing together that could provide much good in the world, though with Nocturnal involved it is fair to say that presuming a motivation is difficult at best. What could Nocturnal want? Vile might be looking for some kind of improved deal, but what?

To attempt any specific theories with my level of understanding of Daedric politics and arcane theory would be nothing short of idiocy, so I will refrane from doing so.

The only thing that I can figure about this situation, is that it must have something to do with Almsivi. After all, Barbas was stealing Vivec’s power. When it seemed he was being routed, he went to the Clockwork City. That Nocturnal was assisting in the Clockwork City would make some sense, since I can hardly see Barbas or his master able to penetrate the fortifications or machination of Seht’s machinery without assistance.

With two plots being foiled, I can only assume that their next target with be Almalexia. They must be trying to gather additional divine power, though to what end I have no notion.

I would argue that Almalexia would be their last target simply because she has already defeated Dagon in defense of her city, so she is clearly the most formidable. Vehk was a natural starting point since he would be the easiest to track down first and would be the most vulnerable. Seht, naturally, had his greatest defense in the fact that his realm is so difficult to reach.

Now they are left to try and garner Mother Morrowind’s power.

Naturally I knew I would have to send urgent word of this plot.

I do not know if it is precisely related, though I cannot see how it would not be, that I was spirited away from the city just before everything began to happen with Nocturnal. Did her Daedra take me because they thought I might be able to figure out their plot? That seems too presumptuous.

Perhaps it was simply because I was involved with stopping the plot against Vehk with the Lady of Dusk and Dawn and they feared that I might receive assistance in stopping this plot as well? Or at least that I could potentially make things more complicated. Why else had they been after me all this time?

Perhaps they thought they could pull out my knowledge of the city or something? Convince me to go against Almalexia? The Dremora did try and convince me that she was working with my Prince. Perhaps they wanted to trick me into being their tool in taking down the city.

All of these assumptions feel wrong, however. They place too much importance on me and my role. I am not that important.

Perhaps they assumed I was more connected with Almalexia than I am.

At any rate, I told Mother about the situation and she agreed we must push for an emergency audience.

As it was, with her connection on the Council and Father’s position in the Temple, I was able to get the chance to hand over Tel’s letter for her to read, along with my brief explanation of the situation.

She took the letter from one of her Hands and upon a quick look at the length of it, asked if I might leave the letter for her to review and meet with her first thing in the morning.

I am awaiting her now.

Though I bear her no great love, it is through her powers that this city remains safe. That the people within this city remain safe. There is a sense of hope that comes from her. And while I think the Temple takes advantage of the coin put in its coffers, many charitable deeds are done in Almalexia and her Temple’s name.

For the good of this city and all of Morrowind, it is imperative that Almalexia not befall the same fate Vehk was so narrowly able to escape. Her divinity is, sadly, of great import to our lands and people.

If nothing else, I will have a clear conscience in this regard if something negative does come to pass. And I will also do my part to attempt to stop it.

The Three give me strength.

[tonal-modulator]

@skeevatons writes Memory well from what I've seen; you might ask hir for help writing her.

And, on Llavados, I have certain... unusual ideas of what he really could be, and they aren't Magnus or Vivec related - Vivec is away and Magnus... I just never personally thought it fit for him to be Llavados.

Oh neato I will sift through hir stuff/maybe talk to hir if I do end up wanting to write Memory stuff.

And Llavados...yeah I was talking to @vivecs-hoverchair about it and we went through a handful of possibilities. The reason I was leaning toward Magnus was partly because there’s just a lot of Magnusian imagery, and Llavados refers to the Dome of Sotha Sil as both Seht’s workshop and Magnus’s, and his own. And he refers to himself as an architect and says something about having abandoned a friend. And he says that you’ve met him before but don’t remember, and combined with him calling the LDB a Shezzarine, that sounds like he’s saying he’s someone who would have known Lorkhan, i.e., an et’ada.

But I feel like that’s not the only possibility for sure. There would also be the question of like, how and why Magnus would be posing as a Broken Millisecond.

And then there’s the thing where when you talk to him in regular Lull-Mor, he says (approximately), “Do you like my helmet? I don’t. Why am I wearing it?” Which might be a throwaway or just him trying to look Broken, but given how often masks and other headwear are important and symbolic in TES (especially Morrowind-related stuff), it feels like it should mean something. Like pointing to someone wearing a mask against their will? But I don’t know who or what exactly it would mean. (It could, I guess, refer to Sotha Sil’s crown and not “wanting” to be a god, but eh I don’t love that characterization.)