Ayleid Culture

So, the Ayleids are my favorite race and my personal area of expertise, and sadly they are rather over-looked in lore even though in my opinion they are as interesting as the Dwemer. I decided to amend this disturbing lack of Ayleids by writing a guide to them.

Culture

Sadly there isn’t a lot we know for sure about the culture of the Ayleid thanks to the Marukh and his order, but we can extrapolate quite a bit from in game texts. You’ll often hear that the Ayleid were Daedra worshipers, this is partially incorrect, they were not Daedra worshipers in the sense that the Velothi were Daedra worshipers, they likely had some Daedra in their pantheon, Shezarr and the Divines gives the Impression that the Ayleid pantheon was very similar to Aldmeri pantheon, however we know for a fact that the Ayleid people worshiped Meridia, they viewed her as the embodiment of their most sacred element, light. One of their ruins also bears the name of Dagon, Atatar, Atatar Haelia Dagon, which means Fatherwood Terrible Dagon, and according to Tretise on Ayleidic Cities states that they built Varsa Baalim to deter people from the razor. So I would rule out Dagon as a member of the Ayleidoon pantheon.

If I were to make an educated guess then I would say that the Ayleid pantheon consisted of Auriel, Magnus, Mara, Stendar, Xen, Meridia, Vaermina, and Azura.

Auriel is presumed because the Ayleid had built one of the Towers, and the Towers are typically indicative of Auriel worship, and that Akatosh greatly resembles the more benign Auriel than his Nordic aspect. Magnus has a shrine in Ceyatatar. Mara is a universal god that appears in both the Nordic and Aldmeri pantheons, as well as Stendar and Xen. Meridia represented Light in the Ayleid religion, and had a deal with their king, so I would presume her worship was very important. I just put Vaermina in there because her sphere is related to torture, and the Ayleidoon slave masters really seemed to enjoy torture. Feel free to swap her out for any other god you see fit. Azura fits in to the theme of light in the Ayleid religion since she is the goddess of dusk and dawn.

You’ll also note a pervasive theme in Ayleid culture, Birds. Birds are represented in the armor, in wepons, in crowns, in names. I believe this is because of interbreeding between Aldmeri settlers the native bird folk of Cyrodiil as described in Father of the Niben. It would explain why there is only one copy of Torpals expedition, as interracial breeding was seen as abhorrent in the eyes of the Ald/tmer, and anybody who was convicted of this was sent into exile on the mainland (Source: Pocket Guide to the Empire, First Edition)

There is a vast difference between the Pre Alessian Ayleid and the Post Alessian Ayleid. The Pre Alessian Ayleids seemed to be outgoing in a sense, they wrote in the Dwemeri alphabet, so it can be assumed that they had a good relation with the Dwemer, and the Falmer language is Ayleidoon written in a different alphabet, so it can also be assumed that they were on good terms with the Falmer, and when the Alessians forced the remaining Ayleid people out of Cyrodiil their first thought was to go to Valenwood, which would seem to put them on good terms with the Bosmer. Compare this with the highly isolationist Post Alessian Tribes described in the book The Wild Elves and it is a rather shocking turn around. They even changed their language, In Pre Alessian Ayleidoon Pelinal meant “Star Made Knight” in Post Alessian Ayleidoon Pelani means “Outsider”.

If you have anything to ask or ad feel free to do so.