The Renaissance that Never Was

Or How Azura Destroyed the Enlightenment

EDIT 3: Thank you all for your comments and criticisms, it’s given me so much more insight into this analysis and I’ve tried to incorporate your ideas into this more refined post. :) I’ve also done some editing for clarification.

EDIT 4: What is outlined below is a theory that Azura destroyed the Dwemer, and orchestrated the destruction of the Heart of Lorkhan and the Tribunal in order to prevent the knowledge that the she was fallible and on some level was not omniscient. This triggered a series of historical events that left mortals weakened which has resulted in a decline from the Dwemer renaissance to the low middle ages during the time of the Dovahkiin.

EDIT 1: Why Would Azura Try to Prevent and Undo a Renaissance?

From the book “Azura and the Box” we learn that Azura was tricked by the Dwemer. The Dwemer trick revealed that the Daedric princes aren’t omniscient, even if on an incredibly tiny level. From that moment onwards, I think Azura hated the Dwemer. Their increasing knowledge of the universe was a threat to her power. She aimed to destroy the Dwemer and prevent another renaissance from ever occurring that might reveal her (and other princes’) weaknesses.

The Dwemer Renaissance

It is the time of the Dwemer, a race of elves spread across Tamriel. Their use of magic and technology is unparalleled. Magic is used to power mechanisms of great utility, machines of great force and automatons of innumerable uses. They exhibited the signs of renaissance that we saw in Europe. But soon, all that is going to come to an end by the hands of Azura.
Dwemer power is centered on the amalgam of magic and science. They examine the stars and they explore the earth.
Their creations are both beautiful and perfect for both form and function. Their architecture is unique.
Their people are famous: Namely Kagrenac and his understanding of Lorkhan’s heart has survived through history.
Their exploration of both sky and earth leads them to the understanding of the heart of a god. It is a pinnacle of mortal understanding and they quickly begin work to learn how to tap its power to achieve an immortality of their own.
Dwemer magic becomes so advanced they extract one of the tones of Padomay, an original god of pure essence.

The Dwemer are possibly the beginning of Tamriel’s ultimate change from magic and agriculture to magic and industry. Despite their aims, despite their morality and despite their search for immortality, their knowledge is spread through Tamriel.

But, according to Nerevar at Red Mountain, Azura destroys the Dwemer. She is responsible for their elimination and their search for immortality dies with them as well as their knowledge.

EDIT 2: There are four distinct seasons of Morrowind history: Nerevar, Tribunal, Dagoth Ur, and Nerevarine. Morrowind’s renaissance existed during the time of Nerevar, continued under the Tribunal at the height of its power and even during the early years of Dagoth Ur’s rise. At the time of the Nerevarine, as many of you commented, the Tribunal’s influence was already severely restricted by Dagoth Ur.

EDIT 5: So why would Azura want to devastate the Tribunal and destroy the Heart of Lorkhan? The answer is simple: The Tribunal are three self made gods, the epitome of what the Dwemer hoped to achieve en masse! The Tribunal had exceeded the Dwemer’s understanding of the universe and knew her for what she truly was: a spiteful daedra of imperfect knowledge who was jealous of her power over mortals. The existence of the Heart of Lorkhan was also a continued problem. It could still be used by the Tribunal to perfect and share their godhood.

The Morrowind and (Implied) Imperial Renaissance

It’s a time of overall peace and Morrowind is protected by Vivec and the Tribunal. It’s a time when the competition between the Great Houses has created wealth and spread knowledge. It is a time when the Cyrodilic empire is unified and its peace with Morrowind appears beneficial to both powers. Azura waits, knowing that these self-made gods will eventually find a self-made enemy.
There are great men such as Dyvath Fyr – an immensely old wizard and renaissance man. There are scientists of the past such as Louis Beauchamp – who unfortunately had trouble with a crashed airship. These are just ones I’ve seen in-game, but they are examples that science and exploration continue to thrive.
Leaders of the Great Houses have developed successful diplomatic ways to compete in a fairly non-violent way.
Magical knowledge appears to be the strongest it’s ever been – great spells have been formed by combining different spell types. The tonal knowledge of Kagrenac is partially gone, but the Tribunal know enough to maintain their godliness.
Weapons enchantments are powerful
People can walk on water and fly.

EDIT 6: Dagoth Ur rises and taps the Heart of Lorkhan to become a god in his own right. The Tribunal is prevented from accessing the Heart, but they still outnumber him and can contain his power for the time being. It appears there is a stalemate, but the gods have options they have not utilized yet.

But this all ends when Azura intervenes by convincing the Nerevarine that the Tribunal killed Nerevar to steal power. This is reinforced by Vivec’s honesty and admittance that there are two stories of the events at Red Mountain. He generously allows the Nerevarine to decide for himself which events were true. Unlike Azura, he offers truth and independence to the Nereverine.

Regardless, Dagoth Ur is clearly insane and must be stopped.

The Nerevarine could have worked with the Tribunal to stop Dagoth Ur and separate him from the Heart while they restored their power. The stalemate could have continued or Dagoth could have weakened in the same way that the Tribunal could have! Oblivion knows that the Daedra have reached their own stalemates!

The Nerevarine destroys the Heart of Lorkhan and Dagoth Ur. It ushers in the eventual destruction of Vvardenfall, the invasion by outside forces and the destruction of one of the Great Houses.

The Nerevarine was a pawn to destroy the enlightenment of the mortal races.

Beginning of the Cyrodiilic Middle Ages

The Septim Bloodline produced some good and bad emperors. But under the Septims, the empire was unified and emperors like kateriah seem to have been adored by the people. Despite a fairly good history, the knowledge of the Dwemer finally died with the Tribunal. Whatever knowledge Sotha Sil had tried to preserve died when Almalexia orchestrated his death. At this point Dyvath Fyr and Yagram Bagarn are the only people old enough to have remaining Dwemer knowledge and they have disappeared.

The Oblivion Crisis was a second assault on whatever was left of Tamriel’s enlightenment and doomed the Cyrodilic Empire. Mehrunes Dagon, Daedric Prince of destruction, uses the loss of Akatosh’s protection over the empire as a sign that he should take every attempt at invading and conquering the land.
The process destroyed towns and killed thousands.
Magic, weapons, enchantments and alchemy lost its power, while many recipe and spell combinations became lost knowledge. People could no longer fly.
Were there any renaissance men/women during this time?

Thus the empire became incredibly weak. Azura returns to her benign and kindly self as she watches Cyrodil burn.

Continued Decline of the Imperial and Nordic Middle Ages

Now we reach the time of Skyrim, the Dragons and the Dovahkiin. What is left of the Empire suffers from civil war and a terribly one-sided truce with an enemy that rifles through internal affairs and employs the imperial army to stamp down religion. And now, once again, powerful and immortal enemies have returned to destroy the world.

The mage guild is gone. The sole bastion of magic in Skyrim is the Mages’ College, which stands precariously literally and figuratively. Nords may not have a love of magic, which is akin to a disregard for education and its benefits. Perhaps in the past they relied on the Thu’um for all their magical needs. Its purity did not require them to educate themselves in the magical arts. Regardless, they celebrate their hardiness, violence and honor above their intellect, magical prowess and civility.
There are few great renaissance men, Calcemo being the only one I can think of who has barely any interest in history or science. Falion is an enigmatic conjurer who (it appears) continues to study magic on his own terms. The men of note rely on violence as the tool of choice for solving all problems.
Diplomacy has degraded. The real renaissance formalized types of Diplomacy, which standardized modes of conduct to ensure safe discussion. Ulfric killed High King Torygg when many believed he had not exhausted many of his diplomatic options. His behavior is only restrained when he is forced by dragon issues to negotiate.
Regardless of any success or failures by the empire or the stormcloaks, the Emperor is assassinated.
Dragons are destroying towns, those who are surviving do so by hiding.
Magic is limited to even fewer spells, enchantments are weak, weapons of the previous eras are forgotten.

And that leaves us with another look at Azura again. She stands benignly seeking only to restore Azura’s Star, a soul stealing artifact.

And so there we have it; the end of what little renaissance there could have been. Begun by Azura against the Dwemer and then against the Tribunal and Morrowind and continued by those who took advantage of weakened mortals.

Does Tamriel face a dark age soon?
Is magic’s power declining?
What will mortals face in the future?
What will Azura do next?

Sources:

memory
gameplay
Brief History of the Empire V1-4
A Short History of Morrowind
The Oblivion Crisis
Mehurnes Dagon lit
Azura lit
Azura and the Box
Nerevar at Red Mountain
your comments :)