Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-24590102-20140324080149

I'm starting this thread as an intended destination for all of the comments regarding the Dwemer which seem to keep cropping up in a discussion concerning the Falmer. It may yet turn out that the discussion here digresses back to what the original poster on the other thread was wanting to hear about. :^)

While it's me, please take note: Never mind the guard dog, beware of the pun!

And, with that disclaimer dispatched: It all starts with the appearance of the words "Betrayed" and "Falmer" in the same paragraph, which is kind of provocative given what the Falmer are remembered for - regarding Saarthal. This leads me to conclude that the Falmer were comfortable with deception and betrayal given that the denizens of Saarthal, whom they attacked, just happened to be their allies as well.

So, according to some sources, the Falmer go from being betrayers to being betrayed and, while it might sound like sweet justice to some, I had to ask, what evidence is there that the Falmer simply did not continue what they started in Saarthal, with the Dwemer of Skyrim? After all, those Dwemer had some internal divisions of their own (e.g. such as what made the Aetherium Wars possible) and that, in itself, would make them appear weak and vulnerable - more so than the Nedic occupiers of Saarthal who were avenged by 501 odd Atmorans. So it seems plausible to me that the Falmer came to the Dwemer as friends or with the offer of alliance. Either way, I have to wonder if they had something to do with fall of Dwemer installations to High King Gellir (First Era, year unknown) which conquest is recounted in the book: The Aetherium Wars.

This raises a lot of other tantalising questions. How many Falmer did Gellir liberate if, indeed, they were slaves of the Dwemer? Are these liberated Falmer mentioned anywhere and, if not, why not? I feel prone to speculate that between the hammer of the Nords and the anvil of the Falmer, the Dwemer of Skyrim would have been caught in a desperate situation. Even after retaking the lost installations, I think that this would have been a serious blow to the security and self-assurance the Dwemer had taken for granted for so long - given the deep antiquity of their installations. That leads me to thinking that the Dwemer would have had considerable motivation to look beyond the lands they knew for more peaceful lodgings.

Enter Kagrenac and Numidium which are understood outside Dwemer culture according to the theistic interptretations of universally theistic external non-Dwemer cultures. It is readily apparent to those, for whom the gods are part of everyday life, that Kagrenac was a high priest of sorts and Numidium was to be a Dwemer god. Interestingly, there is this observation from the book, The Ruins of Kemel-Ze:

"Behind a massive bronze door, burst from its hinges by some ancient turmoil of the earth, we discovered a large chamber filled with exquisite wall-carvings, which impressed even the jaded Ten Penny, who claimed to have explored every Dwarven ruin in Morrowind. They seemed to depict an ancient ritual of some kind, with a long line of classically-bearded Dwarven elders processing down the side walls, all seemingly bowing to the giant form of a god carved into the front wall of the chamber, which was caught in the act of stepping forth from the crater of a mountain in a cloud of smoke or steam. According to Master Arum, there are no known depictions of Dwarven religious rituals, so this was an exciting find indeed."

Even here, it could be argued that what we see, in the above-quoted text, are also the assumptions and interpretation of a theistic culture when referring to what could just as easily be a pictorial metaphor of Dwemer scholars bowing to acknowledge the merit of an intellectual giant - and this would tend to fit better with the extremely secular nature of what remains of Dwemer culture. In the process of vanishing, the Dwemer leave behind an apparently rampaging golem which they have failed, in their haste, to properly house-train. Much and more is said of this by characters with The Elder Scrolls. The more devout, it seems, alluding to a need to become gods while those, of more practical talent, alluding to the Dwemer pulling off an escape; however grand it may seem.

In spite of all that we might imagine through our analysis of the clues, the Dwemer and their disappearance are very much a quintessential mystery of The Elder Scrolls. Calcelmo of Markarth acknowledged this mystery in grand fashion when he penned volume 3 of Dwarves and it is also acknowledged by Sinder Velvin in his interview with Ted Peterson (who, incidentally, did not correct the assertion):

"Can I please ask you a few lore questions now? Nothing about great intentional mysteries such as the Disappearance of The Dwemer, or the Dragon Break, or the Battle of Red Mountain. Just a few minor mystery questions."

Like any other great unsolved mystery, everyone has an idea of what might have happened - so I've started this thread as a forum for discussing these ideas and so that other threads can be about other things   :^) 