Iam Caard
THE ANCESTORS
PSJJJJ
The Post at the Turning Point
and the Start of the House
Chapters
| | Index |
|---|---|
| 1: | Sithis |
| 2: | Mythic Aurbis |
| 3: | Changed Ones |
| 4: | Exodus from Summerset |
| 5: | End of the Journey |
| 6: | The Real Nerevar |
| 7: | The Daedra |
| 8: | The Anticipations |
| 9: | The House of Troubles |
| 10: | The Doors of the Spirit |
| 11: | Blasphemous Revenants |
| 12: | Spirit of Nirn |
sithisit
Sithis
ithis is the start of the house. Before him was nothing,
²but the foolish Aldmer have names for and revere this nothing. That is because they are lazy slaves.
³Indeed, from the Sermons,
‘stasis asks merely for itself, which is nothing.’
⁴Sithis sundered the nothing and mutated the parts, fashioning from them a myriad of possibilities. ⁵These ideas ebbed and flowed and faded away and this is how it should have been.
⁶One idea, however, became jealous and did not want to die; like the stasis, he wanted to last. ⁷This was the demon Anui-El, who made friends, and they called themselves the Aedra. ⁸They enslaved everything that Sithis had made and created realms of everlasting imperfection. ⁹Thus are the Aedra the false gods, that is, illusion.
¹⁰So Sithis begat Lorkhan and sent him to destroy the universe.
Lorkhan! Unstable mutant!
¹¹Lorkhan had found the Aedric weakness. While each rebel was, by their nature, immeasurable, they were, through jealously and vanity, also separate from each other. ¹²They were also unwilling to go back to the nothing of before. ¹³So while they ruled their false dominions, Lorkhan filled the void with a myriad of new ideas. These ideas were legion. ¹⁴Soon it seemed that Lorkhan had a dominion of his own, with slaves and everlasting imperfections, and he seemed, for all the world, like an Aedra. ¹⁵Thus did he present himself as such to the demon Anui-El and the Eight Givers: as a friend.
[ ¹⁶Such was the plan of Lorkhan:
To destroy the false gods, free their slaves and reveal their illusion.
¹⁷And this is how he achieved it:
He told them that he was tired of his dominion and wanted to create a new one. This was foolish enough to arouse the curiosity of the always satisfied Aedra.
¹⁸They watched Lorkhan perform his work. Magnus was the first to express an opinion on this new domain. ¹⁹For Lorkhan had duped them all and so Nirn was created. ]
²⁰Thus, go unto the Sharmat as a friend.
AE HERMA MORA ALTADOON PADHOME LKHAN AE AI
gah’toshok aurbex
Mythic Aurbis
ythic Aurbis exists, and has existed from time without measure, as a fanciful Unnatural Realm.
²The magical beings of Mythic Aurbis lived for a long time and had complex narrative lives, creating the patterns of myth.
³Finally, the magical beings of Mythic Aurbis told the ultimate story—that of their own death.
⁴For some this was an artistic transfiguration into the concrete, non-magical substance of the world.
⁵For others, this was a war in which all were slain, their bodies becoming the substance of the world.
⁶For yet others, this was a romantic marriage and parenthood, with the parent spirits naturally having to die and give way to the succeeding mortal races.
⁷The magical beings created the races of the mortal Aurbis in their own image, either consciously as artists and craftsmen, or as the fecund rotting matter out of which the mortals sprung forth, or in a variety of other analogical senses.
⁸The magical beings, then, having died, became the et’Ada.
⁹The et’Ada are the things perceived and revered by the mortals as gods, spirits, or geniuses of Aurbis.
¹⁰Through their deaths, these magical beings separated themselves in nature from the other magical beings of the Unnatural Realms.
chimer
Changed Ones
f all the et’Ada who wandered Nirn, Trinimac was the strongest.
²He, for a very long time, fooled the Aldmeri into thinking that tears were the best response to the Sundering.
³They cried and shamed our ancestors, especially the feeble Altmer. They even took the Missing God’s name in vain, calling His narratives into question.
⁴So one day Boethiah, Prince of Plots, precocious youth, tricked Trinimac to go into his mouth. ⁵Boethiah talked like Trinimac for awhile then, and gathered enough people to listen to him. ⁶Boethiah showed them the lies of the et’Ada, the Aedra, and told them Trinimac was the biggest liar of all, saying all this with Trinimac’s voice! ⁷Boethiah told the mass before him the Tri-Angled Truth. He showed them, with Mephala, the rules of Psijic Endeavor. ⁸He taught them how to build Houses, and what items they needed to bury in the Corners. ⁹He demonstrated the right way to wear their skin. ¹⁰He performed the way to walk to achieve an Exodus.
¹¹Then Boethiah relieved himself of Trinimac right there on the ground before them to prove all the things he said were the truth.
¹²It was easy then for his new people to become the Changed Ones.
ajalde devehr summerset
Exodus from Summerset
hose who dare can achieve greatness.
²Veloth the Prophet was scorned by those who were blind to the corruption and spiritual bankruptcy at the heart of their society. ³Veloth was cast out, cast off, by those with no interest in truth and even less interest in the betterment of all, who sought only to preserve their pride and place by keeping others in poverty, ignorance, and slavery. ⁴Veloth was highborn, but he dared to cast off the decadent chains of Aldmeri society.
⁵Veloth the Mystic called out to those whose souls were weary, whose lives were ground out with no hope of improvement in a society founded on ambition, greed, and decadence. ⁶To those who hoped for a society that preserved traditions, praised honesty, and rewarded the just, Veloth’s voice was as a golden note among a cacophony.
⁷Veloth the Pilgrim led his followers across the seas and away from the lands they had known with the promise of a new land and a better future.
dimihn am as itam
End of the Journey
t was during the time of Great Despair when Veloth and his people reached the land of Resdayn.
²For untold weeks they had climbed a mighty range of mountains under Veloth’s leadership.
³Many among the Chimer considered this path to be folly, but they were driven by Veloth’s unyielding certainty and commitment.
⁴They came upon a great pass, a deep scar in the mountain covered in ice and snow. ⁵Veloth drove them onward, chasing a vision that had come to him in a dream. ⁶He claimed to see a great hawk in the sky. He vowed that the hawk would lead the Chimer to a new home. ⁷They drudged through the pass, but after a time the Chimer could go no farther. A great wall of ice blocked their way.
⁸Then a powerful voice boomed from the mountains. “Who are you and why have you come to this place?”
⁹“We are a people without a home,” replied Veloth to the mountain.
¹⁰A young woman stepped out of the wall of ice.
“And who are you?” asked Veloth.
¹¹“I am Chimer-Friend. I have come to lead you home, if you are willing to accept my challenge. ¹²I demand a sacrifice of you, Veloth. Swear an oath that will make you a better mer.”
¹³Veloth hoisted his mighty hammer and proclaimed, “Never again shall I wield this tool or any other to slay a foe. ¹⁴I have given my heart to my people, but now I shall give them more. I shall dedicate my life and my soul to them.”
¹⁵The woman turned and waved at the wall of ice. It melted away in moments. Beyond lay an alien land of fungus and ash. ¹⁶She began to walk forward and the Chimer followed.
Veloth spoke to his people. “We are home,” he declared. ¹⁷“This is the anvil upon which we shall forge a new people. One journey ends here, but another journey begins.”
nerevar neen
The Real Nerevar
hen the Dunmer followed Veloth to Morrowind, they were many warring clans, with no law or leader in common.
²One Dunmer warlord, Nerevar, had the ambition to rule all the Dunmer.
³In that time, House Dwemer were great enchanters, so Nerevar went in secret to a Dwemer smith and asked for an enchanted ring that would help him. ⁴The ring gave its wearer great powers of persuasion; for safety, it was enchanted to instantly kill anyone who wore it except Nerevar. ⁵The ring was called Moon-and-Star, and it helped Nerevar unite the various clans into the First Council.
⁶Later, however, disputes over religion divided the Council, with House Dwemer and House Dagoth on one side and all the other Houses on the other. ⁷Dwemer and Dagoth invited Orc and Nord clans as allies, and held northwest Morrowind, ⁸while Nerevar mustered the other Houses and nomad tribes and marched to meet the Dwemer-Dagoth-Westerner forces.
⁹The armies met at Red Mountain, a Dwemer stronghold. ¹⁰The Dwemer were defeated, with great slaughter, and terrible sorceries were used, resulting in the utter extermination of House Dwemer, House Dagoth, and their allies. ¹¹Nerevar was killed in the battle, and his ring lost, but Nerevar’s alliance survives in Morrowind’s ruling political institution, the Grand Council.
as daedra
The Daedra
he Daedra are not of this world, and are jealous of our walks here, even as they laugh at our inanities.
²The Daedra are teachers and testers, but never masters. Only a fool does what a Daedra desires without consideration.
³The bones of the earth are dead and can only whisper their secrets. The Daedra scream theirs, and can change the course of the world with their hands, while the Aedra must plead for mortal interference. ⁴That is their power, but beware your own arrogance if you choose to claim it as your own for a time.
⁵Mephala is the artist, the weaver of dance and death. ⁶Her sex is the act of creation but the destruction of will; her murder the bringer of fear, but the possibility of night. ⁷There is birth in every death, death in every birth, and breathtaking beauty in both. ⁸Would you see only ashes and death here, in our home? Or the splendor of the morning’s kiss on the mushroom’s cap, the twisting colors of an active foyada? ⁹Lava ravages the land; lava washes the land clean. The new growth is a brighter green, but will attract more locusts to prey on the land. ¹⁰Which would you see? Mephala reminds us that there is duality in all, and to hold contentment where we can. ¹¹Dance lightly on the ground else it will shift, but breathe in deep and fast, else you will never know the joy that comes with our petty existence.
¹²Boethiah is the warrior, fierce, proud, and cunning. ¹³He reminds us to keep discipline and never stop fighting, even in seeming defeat. ¹⁴If you cannot cross the foyada, go around it, go along it, wait a day and build one’s own bridge, but never to let it remain your obstacle. ¹⁵To surrender fully is the coward’s way out, but only the false warrior mistakes laying down one’s arms as surrender. ¹⁶In the face of a wicked enemy, there are no codes of honor beyond what a mer can do, and what a mer can’t. ¹⁷But always honor the enemy for the strength they gift you, like the seared heart of a bull guar. We are greater than we know when pushed to the brink by violence. ¹⁸The deaths of many raise up the one to lead. Boethiah knows this, and chases the soles of our feet with his cinders.
¹⁹Azura is the mystery, the space between waking and sleeping. ²⁰She governs transitions, from day to night, from the wet season to the dry, from babe to full-grown. ²¹All change needs guidance, and her smile is the proud tusks of the kagouti, as she jostles and guides her enemy to their own undoing, or her mates to their painful awakening. ²²A flute never stays on one quaver, but sways back and forth like a woman in dance. When you are blind, you can hear this best, and that is why she would take your eyes. ²³Azura’s realm is grace and the balance that goes with it.
²⁴Malacath is the warning, the fallen. ²⁵What is a mer with no tribe, no ancestors? Exile is not in the deed but in the heart. ²⁶Cleave to your ancestors, but don’t forget our heritage, the path of the wayward and the doubter. Ideals are only pillars waiting to be cast down. ²⁷The rigid who do not look beneath the surface of their thoughts are eaten by the darkness that lies below, and he is our proof of this lesson. ²⁸To see this malcontent hunter, you must keep your eyes open, but your heart stern.
²⁹Mehrunes Dagon is the sculptor of the earth. ³⁰When the winds blow and waves crash, when the Mountain erupts, he is behind these things. We are of the earth and weak, and flee before him. ³¹But remember this: as bones are re-broken to be set anew, as leeches clean a wound of blood and infectant by their greed, so are we able to make an art of it and swallow our past mistakes. ³²The lava burns away the chaff to make way for new grazing. He is a sister to Mephala in this way, the brushstroke to her genius.
³³Molag Bal is the wanton fertility, the twister of authority, love, and childbearing. ³⁴As a maggot devours the offal of our kills, in his proper place he will eat of our discards. But as a maggot loose in the meat, he will foul our careful labors. ³⁵His is the true power behind the Missing God’s decrees, and though the wise will feel sorrow for the sufferers of his deceit, they will also recognize the untruths this pain has given seed to. ³⁶Molag Bal’s lesson is instead in the whisper of the ashkhan’s wife before he would charge into his exploits; ³⁷though she may be of weaker arm than her warrior husband, her discretion and sympathies guide her tribe as much as the control and vigors of her partner, and those who corrupt either are ceded to Molag’s mercy.
³⁸Sheogorath is the slower blight, eater of order, punching holes of chaos into the prideful veneers of mer. ³⁹Like a rabid nix-hound, he will blunder and bite at mer on the way. Eat of his flesh and you share of this madness, so set him loose well away from the tribes. ⁴⁰Should he come sniffing around, coolly show him your manners as befitting an honored guest, but do not let him in.
as alvioos
The Anticipations
he Daedra are powerful ancestor spirits, similar in form and substance to the Tribunal, but weaker in power, and more arbitrary and removed from the affairs of mortals.
²In old times, the Chimer worshiped the Daedra as gods. But they did not deserve this veneration, for the Daedra harm their worshipers as often as help them.
³The Advent of the Tribunal changed this unhappy state.
⁴By the Apotheosis, the Tribunal became the Protectors and High Ancestor Spirits of the Dunmer, and bade the Daedra to give proper veneration and obedience. ⁵The Three Good Daedra, Boethiah, Azura, and Mephala, recognized the Divinity of the Triune Ancestors. ⁶The Rebel Daedra, Molag Bal, Malacath, Sheogorath, and Mehrunes Dagon, refused to swear fealty to the Tribunal, and their worshipers were cast out.
⁷These Rebel Daedra thus became the Four Corners of the House of Troubles, and they continue to plague our tranquility and tempt the unwary into Heresy and Dark Worship. ⁸The Priests of the Temple remain ever vigilant for signs of the Adversaries’ return, sometimes aided by the loyal Three Good Daedra, who are familiar with the wiles of their rebellious kin.
⁹The Good Daedra are known to the Temple as the Anticipations, since they are the early ancestral anticipations of the loving patronage of the Tribunal. ¹⁰The Anticipations are the Daedra Lords Boethiah, Mephala, and Azura.
¹¹Boethiah is the Anticipation of Almalexia but male to her female. ¹²Boethiah was the ancestor who illuminated the Aldmer ages ago before the Mythic Era. ¹³He told them the truth of Lorkhan’s test, and defeated Auri-El’s champion, Trinimac. ¹⁴Boethiah ate Trinimac and voided him. ¹⁵The followers of Boethiah and Trinimac rubbed the soil of Trinimac upon themselves and changed their skins.
¹⁶Mephala is the Anticipation of Vivec, but manifold and androgynous. ¹⁷Mephala taught the Chimer to evade their enemies or kill them with secret murder. ¹⁸The Chimer were few in those days and threatened on all sides. ¹⁹Mephala taught the Chimer to build Houses. ²⁰Later, Mephala created the Morag Tong.
²¹Azura is the Anticipation of Sotha Sil, but female to his male. ²²Azura was the ancestor who taught the Chimer how to be different from the Altmer. Her teachings are sometimes attributed to Boethiah. ²³In the stories, Azura is often encountered more as a communal progenitor of the race as a whole rather than as an individual ancestor. ²⁴She is associated with Dusk and Dawn, and is sometimes called the Mother Soul. ²⁵Azura’s Star, also called the Twilight Star, appears briefly at dawn and dusk low on the horizon below the constellation of the Steed. ²⁶Azura is associated with mystery and magic, fate and prophecy.
thil am rokashiin
The House of Troubles
mong the ancient ancestral spirits who accompanied Veloth and the Chimer into the promised land of Morrowind, the four Daedra Lords, Malacath, Mehrunes Dagon, Molag Bal, and Sheogorath, are known as the Four Corners of the House of Troubles.
²These Daedra Lords rebelled against the counsel and admonition of the Tribunal, causing great kinstrife and confusion among the clans and Great Houses.
³Malacath, Mehrunes Dagon, Molag Bal, and Sheogorath are holy in that they serve the role of obstacles during the Testing. ⁴Through time they have sometimes become associated with local enemies, like the Nords, Akaviri, or Mountain Orcs.
⁵Malacath is the reanimated dung that was Trinimac. Malacath is a weak but vengeful god. ⁶The Dunmer say he is Malak, the god-king of the Orcs. He tests the Dunmer for physical weakness.
⁷Molag Bal is, in Morrowind, the King of Rape. He tries to upset the bloodlines of Houses and otherwise ruin the Dunmer gene pool. ⁸A race of monsters, said to live in Molag Amur, are the result of his seduction of Vivec during the previous era.
⁹Sheogorath is the King of Madness. He always tests the Dunmer for mental weakness. ¹⁰In many legends he is called upon by one Dunmer faction against another; ¹¹in half of these stories he does not betray those who called him, further confusing the issue of his place in the scheme of things. ¹²He is often associated with the fear other races have of the Dunmer, especially those who, like the Empire, might prove as useful allies.
¹³Mehrunes Dagon is the god of destruction. He is associated with natural dangers like fire, earthquakes, and floods. ¹⁴To some he represents the inhospitable land of Morrowind. He tests the Dunmer will to survive and persevere.
¹⁵The worship of these four malevolent spirits is against the law and practice of the Temple. ¹⁶However, the Four Corners seldom fail to discover those greedy, reckless, or mad enough to serve them.
¹⁷By ancient Temple law and custom, the lives of witches and warlocks are forfeit, ¹⁸and garrisons join Ordinators and Buoyant Armigers of the Temple in tracking down and destroying these foul covens in the wilderness refuges and ancient ruins where they conceal their profane worships.
khiis am as shaln
The Doors of the Spirit
he Ancestors are among us. They are never farther away than the Waiting Door.
²The Ancestors are not departed. The dead are not under the earth. ³Their spirits are in the restless wind, in the fire’s voice, in the foot-smoothed step. ⁴Pay heed to these things, and you will know your absent kin.
⁵Pay reverence through gift and prayer. ⁶Acquaint the Ancestors with your affairs, with your comings and goings, with your blessings and trials.
⁷From the Waiting Door comes your protection. ⁸Heed the spirits, who are the guardians of your hearth, teachers of wisdom, counselors of fortune, seers of fate.
⁹Each bone is a door through the wall of the world. ¹⁰Each bone is the road, with Wisdom and Power the travelers. ¹¹Each bone is the ghost fence that guards us from evil.
¹²Honor the Ancestors upon your hearths, within your halls, in the community of your temples, in the solitude of your tombs.
¹³Guard your Ancestors from beasts, from thieves, from profane priests and sorcerers. ¹⁴Let no creature steal your spirits, for the plundered hearth is diminished, and the plundered tomb is shamed.
¹⁵Live in One World with your spirits. Honor the spirits within and without you. ¹⁶Do not grieve for the dead. Take shelter in their arms, and pay heed to their words.
demigi devahroshaaln
Blasphemous Revenants
ot into the world, nor out of it, but between worlds they linger, held to the hearth and tomb by blood and loyalty.
²And if they come unbidden, from love of kin or faith to duty, it is not unholy.
³It is but the answering of the ancestors, the awakening of those who never sleep, the summoning to service of those bound through Hearth and House to the protection of the clan.
⁴But if sorcerers bring them forth, then such a summons is blasphemy, an abomination before the tribes and Temple, and a sin so great that ages of burning cannot cleanse the fault. ⁵Abide not the sorcerer among you, for he comes to steal the bones of your fathers and dust of your tombs. ⁶He seeks to bind by power what is yours by right, to drag forth the warm spirits from their world between and bind them to their service like slaves and beasts.
⁷Who can know the shame of the dead, the ceaseless weeping of the necromancer’s thrall? ⁸Cruel enough is the ancestor’s service given in love to Hearth and Kin. ⁹But ghost or guardian, bone-walker or bonelord, summoned by profane ritual and bound by force to the corpse miner’s will, how may such a spirit ever find rest? ¹⁰How may it ever find its way back to its blood and clan?
¹¹Only a righteous Dunmer, bound by blood to hearth and kin, bound by oath and service to the Temple, can call upon the spirits of the Dunmer dead. ¹²Those foreign sorcerers of other races that invade our shores, shall they be permitted to rob our tombs, to bind our kin-spirits into sorcerous slavery, to steal the lives of our dead as well as our land of the living? ¹³No, I say, no, and no, three times more. Such necromancers must die, and their profane magics must die with them.
¹⁴And shall we tolerate the hidden hosts of the undead, the arrogant princes of necromancers, the ancient vampire demons who creep from their lairs in the West, seeking refuge in profane Daedric shrines, abandoned Dunmer strongholds, and corrupted subterranean labyrinths of the detested Dwemer race? ¹⁵For ages the Great Houses and the Temple have kept our land clean of the vampire’s taint, but now these undead lords and their vile cattle have returned. ¹⁶These vampires must die, and their corrupt cattle with them, and their blood taint must be forever erased by fire and stake.
shaln am nirn
Spirit of Nirn
orkhan is the Spirit
of Nirn, the god of all mortals.
²This does not mean all mortals necessarily like him or even know him.
³Most mer hate him, thinking creation as that act which sundered them from the spirit realm.
⁴Most humans revere him, or aspects of him, as the herald of existence.
⁵The creation of the Mortal Plane, the Mundus, Nirn, is a source of mental anguish to all living things; ⁶all souls know deep down they came originally from somewhere else, and that Nirn is a cruel and crucial step to what comes next. ⁷What is this next?
Some wish to return to the original state, the spirit realm, and that Lorkhan is the Demon that hinders their way; ⁸to them Nirn is a prison, an illusion to escape.
⁹Others think that Lorkhan created the world as the testing ground for transcendence; ¹⁰to them the spirit realm was already a prison, that true escape is now finally possible.