Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-121.217.164.118-20130929050443/@comment-124.190.65.85-20140524060702

I don't think that Arniel's experiment actually proves much except the fact that some kind of extensive theoretical and practical research base on altered states of being has already been in place for Kangrenak to build on, and that Kangrenak used it to do what he did. However, a warped soul gem is an extremely poor substitute for the Heart, and it is quite possible that Dwemer themselves could not come up with anything more than crude approximations on what would happen with the actual thing.

Vivec's opinion on the subject is not very reliable as there is no way to tell exactly how much of a real god he was. He never replicated or modified Kangrenak's instruments, he could not do much with Dagoth Ur, and it seems that Azura was way more of a god figure in the game despite being all but powerless in Nirn.