raggidman
Prince
Registration Date: 06.01.2006
Posts: 3,317
Location: where my heart is
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The Earth Bones - ref Yffre + other stuff |
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http://www.imperial-library.info/fsg/luagararticle1.shtml
Here
is an article that is claimed as 'official' Lore ... it goes into the
disappearance of the Dwemer, the nature of the Earth Bones, and divers
other aspects of deep lore. These may have relevance to our own efforts:
quote: |
Final Report to Trebonius by Luagar Anulam
To the esteemed Archmage and Guildmaster of Vvardenfell, Trebonius Artorius
This will be my final contact with you on the issue of the
Disappearance of the Dwarves, a mission that you sent me on some time
ago. I have spent all the energy I care to on the issue, you can give
me the promotion I asked for or not, it really doesn’t matter to me
anymore as I’ve found employment elsewhere. However, I do not start
assignments and then not finish, so here is my final report.
The Disappearance of the Dwarves, the Dwemer’s Folly
It is common knowledge to most that care to know that between the years
of 1E 688 and 1E 700, during the War of the First Council, the Dwemer
race collectively disappeared from known existence. During my travels I
have sought long to learn the fate and/or the whereabouts of this race,
but rather than state my conclusion outright at the beginning, I shall
first tell how I came to my conclusion (plus I believe the added
reading will do your crazed mind some good if you can actually managed
to finish reading it).
During my travels, it was not long before I came into the knowledge
that there was indeed one dwarf left. I believed that visitation to
this being was to be essential to my understanding, and while it was
informative, the state of Yagrum Bagarn left much to be desired (not
only corprus but a great loss of memory). I do however wish to note
some words which he spoke to me, and I in turned noted in my jounal, as
there is much information in them;
"Lord Kagrenac, the foremost arcane philosopher and magecrafter of my
era, devised tools to shape mythopoeic forces, intending to transcend
the limits of Dwemer mortality. However, in reviewing his formulae,
some logicians argued that side effects were unpredictable, and errors
might be catastrophic. I think Kagrenac might have succeeded in
granting our race eternal life, with unforeseen consequences -- such as
wholesale displacement to an Outer Realm. Or he may have erred, and
utterly destroyed our race." -- Yagrum Bagarn
It was in these words that I came to learn of these ‘mythopoeic forces’
and of the goal of the Dwemer, to transcend mortality or achieve
enlightenment. But I had heard stories of this before, it was these
‘tools’ that Yagrum spoke of that truly grasped my attention. So I set
out to learn more, and soon learned from records that a group formerly
known as the Dissident Priests had collected much information on these
tools. So I went to Holamayan, and here found just the document I
wished, Kagrenac’s Tools. It was only the first paragraph of this
document that interested me however, and I thus copied it;
"Beneath Red Mountain, Dwemer miners discovered a great magical stone.
By diverse methods, Lord Kagrenac, High Priest and Magecrafter of the
ancient Dwemer, determined that this magical stone was the heart of the
god Lorkhan, cast here in the Dawn Era as a punishment for his mischief
in creating the mortal world. Determined to use its divine powers to
create a new god for the exclusive benefit of the Dwemer, Kagrenac
forged three great enchanted artifacts, which are called "Kagrenac's
Tools." Wraithguard is an enchanted gauntlet to protect its wearer from
destruction when tapping the heart's power. Sunder is a enchanted
hammer to strike the heart and produce the exact volume and quality of
power desired. Keening is an enchanted blade that is used to flay and
focus the power that rises from the heart." --Kagrenac's Tools
It was in this I learned of the Heart of Lorkhan, how the Dwemer
magecrafts had come to tap its power, and the true goals of the Dwemer,
the creation of a new god from the substance of a dead one. With this
new knowledge, I traveled to the city of Vivec, where I hoped to find
more knowledge on this subject. Upon 'convincing' a guard to let me in,
I made my way into the 'Secret Library' of Vivec. Here found another of
my sources, the words of Vivec (the now departed god of the Dunmer),
The Battle of Red Mountian. This document not only confirmed the
Dissident Priests words that the Dwemer were creating a new god, but
that at the time of the War of the First Council, they had already
began work on it. It also provided me with a key bit of text;
"There, Nerevar the Chimer King met Dumac the Dwarf King and they both
collapsed from grievous wounds and draining magics. With Dumac fallen,
and threatened by Dagoth Ur and others, Kagrenac turned his tools upon
the Heart, and Nerevar said he saw Kagrenac and all his Dwemer
companions at once disappear from the world. In that instant, Dwemer
everywhere disappeared without a trace." --The Battle of Red Mountain
So, the Dwemer had disappeared when they had struck the Heart of
Lorkhan with these tools that Kagrenac had devised. So I now knew the
plans of the Dwemer as well as a small bit about how they came to
disappear. But this alone left too much open for debate, so I had to
search further. Upon inquiry of Dwemer Scholars in the area, I was
directed to the small town of Gnisis, to a Telvanni Dunmer known as
Baladas Demnevanni. This man was hard to convince, but he eventually
gave me much priceless information, which I in turn noted;
"It was unfashionable among the Dwemer to view their spirits as
synthetic constructs three, four, or forty creational gradients below
the divine. During the Dawn Era they researched the death of the Earth
Bones, what we call now the laws of nature, dissecting the process of
the sacred willing itself into the profane. I believe their mechanists
and tonal architects discovered systematic regression techniques to
perform the reverse -- that is, to create the sacred from the deaths of
the profane.
As the Dwemer left no corpses or traces of conflict behind, I believe
that generations of ritualistic 'anti-creations' resulted in their
immediate, but foreseen removal from the Mundus. They retreated behind
math, behind color, behind the active principle itself. That the Dwemer
vanished during a conflict with Nerevar and the Tribunal is merely
coincidence." -- Baladas Demnevanni
This was quite intriguing, and I was thus brought into the idea of
'creational gradients' and 'Earth Bones'. Upon further inquiry into the
nature of these 'Earthbones', Demnevanni told me that; "As the books
and other artifacts in Dwemer ruins rarely show signs of wear or age, I
believe that the Dwemer knew of a preservative effect, perhaps a device
still active which denies or controls the Earth Bones governing time
and decay." Upon even further inquiry on 'Earth Bones' and 'creational
gradients' he only said that he hadn’t the time, but instead directed
me to Altmeri Priests or the teachings of Vivec, which he vaguely
remembered as having some mention of them.
So with this I went on faith and left the man alone in search of some
Altmeri Priest, however, I soon came to find that there were no Altmeri
Priests on Vvardenfell, but there were some records of their beliefs.
Thus I came across The Monomyth, which towards the end gave a summary
of the Altmeri beliefs. Indeed, it did note the Earth Bones, saying
that some of the beings which created our world had to sacrifice
themselves to the world and become these Ehlnofey, Earthbones, or laws
of nature as Demnevanni had called them. So Demnevanni believed that
the Dwemer could manipulate these parts of the creators, these
Earthbones. On top of this I knew that they had access to the Heart of
Lorkhan and had worked on making a new god, but how did it all tie into
together. But as the Monomyth mentioned no 'creational gradients', I
now began searching for information on these as well as the
'anti-creations' which Demnevanni had mentioned, following his advise
in looking for Vivec’s teachings. Oddly enough, my searching took me to
one Hasphat Antabolis, who had come across Vivec years earlier. After
buttering him up abit, he wrote his knowledge from this encounter down
for me in a journal he entitled Vehk’s Teachings. I now note some of
the most relevant parts of this journal;
What is the rim of the Wheel? As the process of subcreation continued,
both Anu and Padhome awakened. For to see your antithesis is to finally
awaken. Each gave birth to their souls, Auriel and Sithis, and these
souls regarded the Aurbis each in their own part, and from this came
the etada, the original patterns. These etada eventually congealed.
Anu’s firstborn, for he mostly desired order, was time, anon Akatosh.
Padhome’s firstborn went wandering from the start, changing as he went,
and wanted no name but was branded with Lorkhan. As time allowed more
and more patterns to individualize, Lorkhan watched the Aurbis shape
itself and grew equally delighted and tired with each new shaping. As
the gods and demons of the Aurbis erupted, the get of Padhome tried to
leave it all behind for he wanted all of it and none of it all at once.
It was then that he came to the border of the Aurbis. He saw the Tower,
for a circle turned sideways is an "I". This was the first word of
Lorkhan and he would never, ever forget it. --Vehk's Teachings
This gave me some knowledge on creation and subcreation, which I also
believed to be vital in knowing before understanding 'creational
gradients' or 'anti-creations'. There was of course more information
provided by this document, but I will not quote it all directly here,
but rather simply reference it as I have provided a copy of the
document (and all my used documents actually) attached to this letter.
Anyway, to sum it up, Lorkhan continued this act of subcreation,
convincing other spirits (similarly to the Altmeri beliefs) to create
the Mundus (or the hub of Vehk’s 'wheel'). It also mentions the Earth
Bones, but not by name, simply saying that "The spokes of the Wheel are
the eight gifts of the Aedra, sons and daughters of Aetherius... The
center of the Wheel was another circle, the hub, which held everything
together. The etada called this Mundus." In this I learned that the
subcreations and related them to the 'creational gradients' of
Demnevanni. I also managed to draw a connection between these
'subcreations' of Vehk’s teachings and the 'souls' of the Altmeri
"Heart of the World".
So, the original Altmeri force, Anu, created its soul, Anuiel. This
soul then was combined with Sithis to form the Aurbis, where its
various forms could ponder the whole. But then one of these various
forms, these Aspects of Aurbis, after the addition of time to stabilize
them, then wanted to create a place for its own aspect to reflect on
him, this was Lorkhan. He wanted to create a soul of the Aurbis, which
was in the Auriel, who was in turn the soul of Anuiel, who was in turn
the soul of Anu. I believe that this has something to do with the "I"
that the Teachings refer to Lorkhan seeing.
It is this that I related to the subcreations of Vehk’s Teachings and
how Lorkhan made the Mundus. You see, he designed it in a way to copy
the Aurbis, but instead of creating it only within himself as Anuiel
had, he instead contracted the help of various others which resulted in
the Mundus. This related back to the Earth Bones in that of these
'various others', the Aedra, some would be forced to sacrifice parts of
themselves to stabilize the Mundus, and Lorkhan would have to sacrifice
his entirety to it (though perhaps unwillingly).
So now I knew what these 'creational gradients' were, I believe a
creational gradient to be formed each time one of these 'souls within a
soul' was created. And I knew what the Earthbones were. Now I just had
to tie all of this into the plans of the Dwemer, but how to do it?
Baladas had said that the Dwemer disliked being so any number of
creational gradients below the divine, so they sought to reverse these
creational gradients through this 'anti-creation', "to create the
sacred from the deaths of the profane. Now, all of this was quite
compelling, what more was there to be said, the Dwemer tried to go
'anti-create' their way back to the divine. But I knew that the words
of one Dunmer scholar alone would not convince, and I still didn’t know
how the Dwemer planned on going about this or what it had to do with
their new god, which I later learned to be called Numidium. I only knew
that they used the Earthbones and Heart of Lorkhan, but that was it. So
I traveled again, to the largest housing of knowledge I could think of
that might help me learn of this, the Imperial Library of Cyrodiil.
In the Imperial Library I found just the documents I would need. The
first was an obscure document which the Library came across randomly
and kept around as it was interesting to passing scholars. This
document they called the "Loveletter from the Fifth Era" and indeed the
date marked in the headings did date the Fifth Era, 5E911 to be exact.
This source stated that "all creation is subgradient", and gave
numerous examples of this. Another thing of note to this particular
topic was the following quote;
"You in the Fourth Era have already witnessed many of the attempts at
reaching the final subgradient of all AE, that state that exists beyond
mortal death. The Numidium. The Endeavor. The Prolix Tower. CHIM. The
Enantiomorph. The Scarab that Transforms into the New Man… Those who do
not fail become the New Men: an individual beyond all AE, unerased and
all-being. Jumping beyond the last bridge of all existence is the Last
Existence, The Eternal I." --The Loveletter From the Fifth Era
This was interesting for its stating that this "final subgradient" was
this reaching of "The Eternal I". It had also said that the Numidium
was an attempt at reaching this. This "Eternal I" I could not help but
relate back to "Vehk’s Teachings" in which he had said that the "I" is
the Tower, and states farther that;
"At its simplest, the state of chim provides an escape from all known
laws of the divine worlds and the corruptions of the black sea of
Oblivion. It is a return to the first brush of Anu-Padomay, where
stasis and change created possibility. Moreso, it the essence needed to
hold that 'dawning' together without disaster. One that knows CHIM
observes the Tower without fear. Moreso: he resides within."
So the Dwemer where trying to reach this "Eternal I" through the use of
the Numidium, or so this Loveletter stated. But what did this "Eternal
I" have to do with Demnevanni’s 'anti-creations'? Well, the answer to
that I found also in the Loveletter, where it stated that "All creation
is subgradient. First was Void, which became split by AE. Anu and
Padomay came next and with their first brush came the Aurbis." So the
first brush of Anu-Padomay that Vehk had referenced was the Aurbis. So
the Dwemer where trying to return to the first state of the gods, the
god where first the aspects of Anuiel in the Aurbis before Lorkhan had
convinced them to create the Mundus, or so said the Altmeri creation
myth. This now made sense, as 'anti-creation' would take them back to
the Aurbis, reversing what Lorkhan had done.
But now, how where they planning on going about this, that is where my
second document that I found at the Imperial Library comes in. The
second was a compendium of various interviews placed into journal
format by one who called himself "Skeleton Man". There was one
particular interview of this "Skeleton Man" that interested my
knowledge, and I noted it in my own journal;
Xal, a Human Maruhkati, Port Telvanis:
Ah. I will tell you the truth, because you will believe none of it. The
Brass God is Anumidum, the Prime Gestalt. He is also called the divine
skin. He was meant to be used many times by our kind to transcend the
Gray Maybe. The first to see him was the Shop Foremer, Kagrenac of
Vvardenfell, the wisest of the tonal architects [Mechanists - MN] Do
not think as others do that Kagrenac created the Anumidum for petty
motivations, such as a refutation of the gods. Kagrenac was devoted to
his people, and the Dwarves, despite what you may have read, were a
pious lot-he would not have sacrificed so many of their golden souls to
create Anumidum's metal body if it were all in the name of grand
theater. Kagrenac had even built the tools needed to construct a
Mantella, the Crux of Transcendence. But, by then, and for a long time
coming, the Doom of the Dwarves marched upon the Mountain and they were
removed from this world. --Skeleton Man's Interview
So the Brass God would be used as a divine skin and the souls of the
Dwemer would be used to create it. So that is why they disappeared,
because they sacrificed their souls to make their Brass God which they
would use to return to the "first brush of Anu-Padomay", and basically
be, 'anti-created'. But why would they think that they had to all
become one with this Brass God in order to do this, well the answer was
right there in front of me. As the Altmeri creation myth states, the
Mundus was created as a place where the aspects of the Aspects could
reflect on themselves. So to return to the state of the original
Aspects of Aurbis, the aspects of Mundus would need to be forced back
together into their former shape, or something close to this. So the
Dwemer with this in mind, began the creation of the body of their god,
the would-be Aspect of Aurbis, with the Heart of the World, the Heart
of Lorkhan, as its heart and main power supply. They then planned on
combining their entire race with this god in order to anti-create their
way back to the Aurbis, their many aspects as Dwemer would be reverted
back into godly form as one singular Aspect.
Now Xal states that the souls became Anumidum’s metal body, but you
ask, why would they do this. Well, this is where the Earthbones that
Demnevanni spoke of come into play. Dwemeri metal was no ordinary
metal, as Baladas stated, it could defeat time and decay. The Dwemeri
souls would become immortal in this state, and at the same time become
one to form their god. Kagrenac hit the Heart with the tools during the
Battle of Red Mountain and caused this to happen, and the Dwemer
disappeared, just as he had intended for them to. But why did the Brass
God stay, why wasn’t it activated as a god once the Dwemer became one
with it. That I do not know. Perhaps it was the Tribunal there that
stopped this from occurring, disconnecting the god before it could
leave. Perhaps Kagrenac simply didn’t see far enough ahead and more
than just binding all the Dwemeri souls together to form a god wasn’t
enough, perhaps reaching this "Eternal I" is more of a personal venture
than a collective one as the Dwemer believed. Perhaps it even failed
because all of the Dwemeri souls where not sacrificed, there is still
one left afterall.
But that is different question than the one you sent me to answer, you
told me to find out why they disappeared, and I have. If you want to
find out why the god didn’t disappear, you’ll have to hire somebody
else, as my exhausting research is over.
Signed and sealed, Luagar Anulam, Savant
Attached Documents
--Kagrenac's Tools
--The Battle of Red Mountain
--The Monomyth
--Vehk's Teachings
--The Loveletter From the Fifth Era
--Skeleton Man's Interview |
This post has been edited 3 time(s), it was last edited by raggidman: 08.04.2008 12:45.
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