An Alternate View of the Tribunal

Some will tell you that the Tribunal are false gods, mer who stole their power from an ancient artifact and set up a reign of lies for their own aggrandisement.

Some will tell you the Tribunal are good and just, the natural successors to the Good Daedra, who are their Anticipations.

Listen, and I will speak of a third way, but first there are things you must know. Men and mer alike have no doubt that what is done today can change what happens tomorrow, but few know that what happens tomorrow can change yesterday. Many speak different views on the same matter, each convinced that their position is the truth. Here is the secret: they are all right.

It is known that the Tribunes were mer, but they became so much more than that. It is known, too, that the Heart was a key to their ascension, but as great as the Heart’s power was, it was not the sole reason for their godhood. Just as a skilled archer can shoot an arrow with greater force and accuracy than even a strong man could throw it, the Heart propelled the Tribunes towards the mantling of their Anticipations, and we shall speak of each of them in turn.

Vivec was the greatest success. Some who know secrets condemn him for the murder of the Hortator, who was his lover; to those I must ask what act could be more in the spirit of the Black Hands Mephala, whose domain is sex and death? But for Vivec, the mantling of Mephala was not enough, for he learned of a state higher than this, beyond all words and blades. This is spoken of with the divine word CHIM, and in his grace Vivec wrote three dozen lessons through which those with understanding could follow his burning path.

Almalexia is the greatest tragedy of the Tribunes. While she took on the nature of the Dunmer’s god-ancestor, the mind of the Prince of Plots is no small thing to manage, and with the heart denied to the Tribunal by the Sharmat, Almalexia’s hold began to unravel. She saw plans in shadows and conspiracies in random chance; not content with seeing these threads everywhere, she bound herself up in her own webs, an afflicted spider only crippling her own limbs.

Sotha Sil is the greatest mystery. His Anticipation was Azura, and it is known that he withdrew from the affairs of Morrowind into his own Clockwork City, of which none now living know where it stood. Some say he gave wisdom to the Psijics, and his focus was the divine act of creation. The secret is that his embodiment of Azura – though some will say he had partial influence on that Twilight at best – was the thread tying together the strange days of the Nerevarine, and ultimately causing great calamity.

Who, then, is the villain of this piece? Azura. False to the Tribunes, false to the Dunmer, Prince of nothing but her own bitterness, let your name be never spoken again but as a curse. AYEM AE SEHTI AE VEHK.

The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.