Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-62.255.98.169-20130504143516/@comment-24590102-20140817101018

@150.199.193.253, Theory 2 sounds compelling to me. It's hard to believe that all the Falmer took the same path when fleeing the wrath of the Atmorans/Nedes after the Night of Tears. Also, it makes sense to me that the Falmer would have lied to the Altmer to gain refuge just as equally as it does that it would have been unnecessary for the Falmer to lie to the Altmer. I wonder how the Falmer would have behaved as members of Altmer society? My imagination boils over with Falmer plots and schemes, given their history. Don't forget, this is not Falmer fleeing Falmer and Falmer ways, but Falmer fleeing an enemy who has well and truly defeated them in a war the Falmer started under the pretences of friendship. I wonder if there is a sudden political change in Summerset in the final centuries of the Merethic Era (after the "Snow Elf host was shattered and descended into Blackreach" (well, partly according to what they told Uthrax). If we assume this bit of the tale to be true, this is where the Dwemer would have found them when they discovered Blackreach somewhere between two and four centuries later. Of course, Uthrax's tale falls apart quite completely if taken exactly for what it says which is: "For when the snow elf host was shattered on that fateful day, it did not simply disperse - it descended. Into the earth, deep underground. For the Falmer sought sanctuary in the most unlikely of places - Blackreach, far beneath the surface of Skyrim, in the legendary realm of the Dwemer themselves." We can contrast this with the discovery of Blackreach by the Dwemer a few centuries after the "Snow Elf host was shattered" - which does not make sense given the notion that they were being hunted to extinction by the Nords. However, I put it to you that:

1. the Nords may not have been hunting them to extinction - not if they were willing to honour a Snow Elf they admired as they did after the Snow Elf Host was shattered.

2. the Snow Elves were turned away by the Dwemer and that, rather, it was the Snow Elves who imagined that they would be hunted after what they did at Saarthal and, thereby, offered themselves in bondage in return for safe haven according to their treatment of other cultures.

This "turning away" on the part of industrialised societies hasn't changed, by the way, even to the present day, hence the assumption that the Dwemer didn't just integrate with a portion of the Falmer and then bear them away when Kagrenac called. I have to wonder, on the other hand, if the road to Red Mountain doesn't pose us with cultural changes which can be explained by Falmer influence on the Dwemer perspective (as would be the case even if the Falmer really had integrated with the Dwemer or even if that had been taken as slaves by the Dwemer)...?

Food for thought and, dare I say, Bon Appétit!