The Forbidden Theory's Conclusion: Dumalacath the Betrayed Part B
Let’s take a break from deep theory and simply review the facts surrounding this event.
>This account by the Imperial scholar Agrippa Fundilius is based on various Imperial and Dunmer sources, and written for Western readers. The War of the First Council was a First Age religious conflict between the secular Dunmer Houses Dwemer and Dagoth and the orthodox Dunmer Houses Indoril, Redoran, Dres, Hlaalu, and Telvanni. The First Council was the first pan-Dunmer governing body, which collapsed over disputes about sorceries and enchantments practiced by the Dwemer and declared profane by the other Houses. The Secular Houses, less numerous, but politically and magically more advanced, and aided by Nord and Orc clans drawn by promise of land and booty, initially campaigned with great success in the north of Morrowind, and occupied much of the land now comprising Redoran, Vvardenfell, and Telvanni District. The Orthodox Houses, widely dispersed and poorly organized, suffered defeat after defeat until Nerevar was made general of all House troops and levies. Nerevar secured the aid of nomad barbarian tribesmen, and contrived to force a major battle at the Secular stronghold of Red Mountain on Vvardenfell. The Secular forces were outmaneuvered and defeated with the help of Ashlander scouts, and the survivors forced to take refuge in the Dwemer stronghold at Red Mountain. After a brief siege, treason permitted Nerevar and his troops to enter the stronghold, where the Secular leaders were slain, and Nerevar mortally wounded. General slaughter followed, and Houses Dwemer and Dagoth were exterminated. Nerevar died shortly thereafter of his wounds. Three of Nerevar's associates among the Orthodox Houses, Vivec, Almalexia, and Sotha Sil, succeeded to control of the re-created First Council, re-named the Grand Council of Morrowind, and went on to be come the god-kings and immortal rulers of Morrowind known as the Tribunal, or Almsivi.
On the Dwemer side: Automatons, Orcs, Nords, and Dagoth. On the Chimer side: Nerevar, the Houses, the Ashlanders. They drive back the previously victorious Dwemer side, and besiege it at Red Mountian. There is a betrayal, Nerevar enters the stronghold. Nerevar dies, but the Dwemer and Dagoth lose. The Tribunal emerges victorious.
The Tribunal’s account comes to us from Vivec, who is refuting the Ashlander account we’ll see later.
>But when Dagoth Ur, Lord of House Dagoth, and trusted as a friend by both Nerevar and the Dwemer, brought us proof that High Engineer Kagrenac of the Dwemer had discovered the Heart of Lorkhan, and that he had learned how to tap its powers, and was building a new god, a mockery of Chimer faith and a fearsome weapon, we all urged Nerevar to make war on the Dwarves and to destroy this threat to Chimer beliefs and security. Nerevar was troubled. He went to Dumac and asked if what Dagoth Ur said was true. But Kagrenac took great offense, and asked whom Nerevar thought he was, that he might presume to judge the affairs of the Dwemer.
>Then Nerevar went back to Vvardenfell one last time, hoping that negotiations and compromise might once again preserve the peace. But this time the friends Nerevar and Dumac quarreled bitterly, and as a result, the Chimer and Dwemer went to war. The Dwemer were well-defended by their fortress at Red Mountain, but Nerevar's cunning drew most of Dumac's armies out into the field and pinned them there, while Nerevar, Dagoth Ur, and a small group of companions could make their way into the Heart Chamber by secret means. There, Nerevar the Chimer King met Dumac the Dwarf King and they both collapsed from grievous wounds and draining magics. With Dumac fallen, and threatened by Dagoth Ur and others, Kagrenac turned his tools upon the Heart, and Nerevar said he saw Kagrenac and all his Dwemer companions at once disappear from the world. In that instant, Dwemer everywhere disappeared without a trace.
>So then we went with Nerevar back into Red Mountain and met with Dagoth Ur. Dagoth Ur refused to deliver the tools to us, saying they were dangerous, and we could not touch them. Dagoth Ur seemed to be irrational, insisting that only he could be trusted with the tools, and then we guessed that he had somehow been affected by his handling of the tools, but now I feel sure that he had privately learned the powers of the tools, and had in some confused way decided he must have them for himself. Then Nerevar and our guard resorted to force to secure the tools. Somehow Dagoth Ur and his retainers escaped, but we gained the tools, and delivered them to Sotha Sil for study and safe-keeping. For some years we kept the oaths we swore to Azura with Nerevar, but during that time, in secret, Sotha Sil must have studied the tools and divined their mysteries. And at last he came to us with a vision of a new world of peace, with justice and honor for nobles, and health and prosperity for the commoners, with the Tribunal as immortal patrons and guides. And dedicating ourselves to this vision of a better world, we made a pilgrimage to Red Mountain and transformed ourselves with the power of Kagrenac's tools. And no sooner than we had completed our rituals and begun to discover our new-found powers, the Daedra Lord Azura appeared and cursed us for our foresworn oaths. By her powers of prophecy, she assured us that her champion, Nerevar, true to his oath, would return to punish us for our perfidy, and to make sure such profane knowledge might never again be used to mock and defy the will of the gods. But Sotha Sil said to her, "The old gods are cruel and arbitrary, and distant from the hopes and fears of mer. Your age is past. We are the new gods, born of the flesh, and wise and caring of the needs of our people. Spare us your threats and chiding, inconstant spirit. We are bold and fresh, and will not fear you." And then, in that moment, all Chimer were changed into Dunmer, and our skins turned ashen and our eyes into fire. Of course, we only knew at that time that this had happened to us, but Azura said, "This is not my act, but your act. You have chosen your fate, and the fate of your people, and all the Dunmer shall share your fate, from now to the end of time. You think yourselves gods, but you are blind, and all is darkness."
In this version, Dagoth Ur betrays the Tribunal and presumably this is how Nerevar dies (though the other account says he had already been mortally wounded). As a consequence of this, and their own judgment, they decide to use the tools even though Nerevar and Azura had insisted that they didn’t. The Tribunal become gods, and the Chimer skin changes. The Tribunal talk about the cruel old world, should we say reality? They are crafting a new reality that suits their people, they are battling for control over the fate of reality.
The Ashlander account accuses the Tribunal of treachery, and differs in a key aspect.
>Resdayn, present day Morrowind, was contested ground between two very different types of mer: the Chimer, who worshipped Daedra, and the Dwemer, who worshipped a profane and secret power. These two people warred with each other constantly until their lands were invaded by a young, vibrant, and violent alien culture, the Nords. Two heroes, one from the Chimer and one from the Dwemer, Indoril Nerevar and Dumac Dwarf-Orc, made peace between their people and together ousted the alien invaders. Then these two heroes worked long and hard to maintain that peace thereafter, though their counselors thought it could not last or, worse, that it shouldn't.
>Until Dagoth-Ur arrived. House Dagoth had discovered the source of the profane and secret power of the Dwemer: the legendary Heart of Lorkhan, which Dumac's people had used to make themselves immortal and beyond the measure of the gods. In fact, one of the their high priests, Kagrenac, was building a New God so that the Dwemer could claim Resdayn for their own.
At this point, the Dwemer were already immortal and beyond the measure of the gods from the power of the Heart. The New God was a secret that even Dumac dwarf-king remained unaware of.
>The Tribunal urged Nerevar again to make war on the Dwarves. Nerevar was troubled. He went to Dumac, his friend of old, and asked if what Dagoth-Ur said was true. But Kagrenac and the high priests of the Dwemer had kept their New God secret from their King, and Dumac said the Dwemer were innocent of any wrongdoing.
>This time the Chimer King was arrayed in arms and armor and had his hosts around him, and he spoke harshly to Dumac Dwarf-Orc, King of Red Mountain. "You must give up your worship of the Heart of Lorkhan or I shall forget our friendship and the deeds that were accomplished in its name!" And Dumac, who still knew nothing of Kagrenac's New God, but proud and protective as ever of his people, said, "We shall not relinquish that which has been our way for years beyond reckoning, just as the Chimer will not relinquish their ties to the Lords and Ladies of Oblivion. And to come at my door in this way, arrayed in arms and armor and with your hosts around you, tells me you have already forgotten our friendship. Stand down, my sweet Nerevar, or I swear by the fifteen-and-one golden tones I shall kill you and all your people."
>The Dwemer were well-defended by their fortress at Red Mountain, but the bravery and cleverness of Nerevar's queen and generals drew most of Dumac's armies out into the field and kept them there, so that Nerevar and Dagoth-Ur could make their way into the Heart Chamber by secret means. There, Nerevar met Dumac and the Dwarf King and they both fell from grievous wounds. Dagoth-Ur slew Kagrenac and took the tools the Dwemer used to tap the power of the Heart. He went to his dying lord Nerevar and asked him what to do with these tools. And Nerevar summoned Azura again, and she showed them how to use the tools to separate the power of the Heart from the Dwemer people. And on the fields, the Tribunal and their armies watched as the Dwemer turned into dust all around them as their stolen immortality was taken away.
Here it says that after Kagrenac was defeated, Nerevar and Dagoth Ur used the tools to turn the Dwemer to dust. It is true that no account of this story is really at all reliable for so many reasons. And yet, can we at least confront the notion that while Kagrenac might have succeeded to a degree in crafting his people into Numidium (in some of the realities/outcomes), perhaps it was the Chimer that actually erased them from existence in a mythic coup d’etat, removing from them their source of power?
The Ashlander account comes from Alandro Sul, if I’m not mistaken, and while his knowledge of events might not incorporate what Numidium really is, might he also be in a position to tell a little bit more of the truth than anyone else. As we go on, consider the possibility that the Dwemer lost mythically to the Chimer, and that is as much a part of their disappearance as any other reason.
>Then Nerevar told his queen and generals all that had transpired under Red Mountain and how the Dwemer had used special tools to turn their people into immortals and of the wondrous power of the Heart of Lorkhan. The Tribunal decided that the Chimer should learn how to use this power so that Nerevar might claim Resdayn and the world for their people. Nerevar did not expect or want this, so he asked his queen and generals to help him summon Azura yet again for her guidance. But the Tribunal had become as greedy as Kagrenac upon hearing of the power of the Heart and they coveted it. They made ritual as if to summon Azura as Nerevar wanted but Almalexia used poisoned candles and Sotha Sil used poisoned robes and Vivec used poisoned invocations. Nerevar was murdered. Then Azura came forth anyway and cursed the Tribunal for their foul deeds. She told them that she would use her powers over dusk and dawn to make sure Nerevar would come back and make things right again. But the Tribunal laughed at her and said that soon they would be gods themselves and that the Chimer people would forget their old ways of worship. And Azura knew this would be true and that it would take a long time before her power might bring Nerevar back. "What you have done here today is foul beyond measure and you will grow to regret it, for the lives of gods are not what mortals think and matters that weigh only years to mortals weigh on gods forever." And so that they might know forever their wicked deeds Azura changed the Chimer into Dunmer, and their skin turned ashen and their eyes into fire. "Let this mark remind you of your true selves who, like ghouls, fed on the nobility, heroism, and trust of their king." And then the Tribunal went into Red Mountain and met with Dagoth-Ur. Dagoth-Ur saw what had been done, for his skin had changed as well, and he tried to avenge the death of Nerevar but to no avail. He was driven off and thought dead. The Tribunal found the tools he had been guarding and, through study of Kagrenac's methods, turned themselves into gods.
Here is the great intrigue of Dunmer history. That the Tribunal killed Nerevar themselves, because of greed.
Thus, one account blames Dagoth-Ur, the other blames the Tribunal, for treachery. However, we still don’t know why the first account claims that Dumac was betrayed (by Kagrenac? by Dagoth?). The power of the Dwemer is linked to the Heart of Lorkhan, Numidium remains but an object, a goal unachieved. The Dwemer are separated from the Heart by either Nerevar or the Tribunal, and this causes them to disappear.
There is one more significant set of accounts of this battle, of the role played by Ysmir Wulfharth. Before we talk about that, let’s compare the conventional accounts of Red Mountain to our discussion of the true history of Aldmeris.
Remember that the Chimer and the Dwemer were probably not settlers from Summerset. They were probably splinters of Prismatic Beings (existing with multiple identities at once). By building towers, they would have resolved into tangible, singular forms.
From this perspective, where would the Dwemer and Chimer have come from?
For the Dwemer, the evidence is sparse. Before the Ages of Man claims the Dwemer first settled the Velothi mountains. The freeholds were built later, implying that the Chimer were the first to sit in the shadow of Lorkhan’s Heart’s power. As for their tower, before we discuss Numidium, it’s easy to explain how the Dwemer resolved out of the Aldmer. The Dwemer used scientific extraction of power from Lorkhan’s Heart.
But what about the Chimer. Aurbic Enigma 4 says the following, to repeat:
>And so the Mer self-refracted, each to their own creation, the Chimer following Red-Heart,
The Chimer exist mythically, because they made their tower in pursuit of the heart.
Unfortunately, my next point requires the context of a more complex discussion, so bear with me. I need to digress into Mythic Geography.
Ada-Mantia’s Lord is Auri-El, and it is the beginning. He shot the Heart of Lorkhan with his bow to the far end of the world. This is Red Mountain, and it is the end. In the middle is Skyrim, with Snow-Throat which has an implied connection to the Sun, whose lord is Magnus. Thus, Ada-Mantia, Snow-Throat, Red-Mountain (the unbuilt towers) represent Auri-El, Magnus, and Lorkhan. If you recall from Part II, I explained how this is Akatosh. And it is fitting, as in Mythic Geographic you have an analogue for the passage of time from beginning to middle to end. Each Kalpa begins with Lorkhan being sundered from his heart and each ends with him reclaiming it. That’s what the warriors in Sovngarde await, Lorkhan retrieving his heart and power and having the climatic battle which ultimately will be the new Convention.
Also in Aurbic Enigma 4:
>Chim-el-Adabal, said to be crystallized blood from the Heart of Lorkhan itself. (For the Heart on its arrow passed over the Heartlands, birthing one of that postnymic's quaternary meanings.)
Of course, Skyrim is between Ada-Mantia and Red Mountain. How would this work then?
I digress further, but it’s necessary.
My interpretation of Tower Lore parallels my interpretation of Akatosh. Towers are activated only with the requisite components, the culmination of the three-form: Lord, Ritual, Tower.
The Lord is the being who conducts the Ritual, and the Tower in this context is the source of mythic power, or the stone involved in the ritual.
For the Bosmer, they are the Lord (through Camoran, or Silvenar, what-have-you). The Stone is the Perchance Acorn. And the Ritual is the Green Pact. This is how Green-Sap is made, and the many Green-Saps that followed (Elden Root, Falinesti, etc.) create the Bosmeri reality.
For Cyrodiil and the Ayleids you have the “crystallized blood from the Heart of Lorkhan ... on its arrow passed over the Heartlands”. Consider everything you’ve learned from Parts I-III.
Ebony might be the bubbled up stagnant blood of the bleeding heart at rest. But what would it mean to say that crystallized blood dripped from the heart as it travelled across the world?
It’s simple! If the arrow was fired at the point of time beginning, and lands at the end of time, and realities are varied and infinite, than the dripping blood is symbolic of all the interleaving realities between beginning and end. Crystallizing the blood dripping from the Heart means consolidating all reality into one amalgamated whole. This was in fact the precise goal of the Ayleid Tower One before it was split into Eight. The Nedes under Alessia caused the rebellion that forced the split.
And remember what Alessia did?
> [And then] Perrif spoke to the Handmaiden again, eyes to the Heavens which had not known kindness since the beginning of elven rule, and she spoke as a mortal, whose kindle is beloved by the Gods for its strength-in-weakness, a humility that can burn with metaphor and yet break [easily and] always, always doomed to end in death (and this is why those who let their souls burn anyway are beloved of the Dragon and His Kin), and she said: "And this thing I have thought of, I have named it, and I call it freedom. Which I think is just another word for Shezarr Who Goes Missing... [You] made the first rain at his sundering [and that] is what I ask now for our alien masters... [that] we might sunder them fully and repay their cruelty [by] dispersing them to drown in the Topal. Morihaus, your son, mighty and snorting, gore-horned, winged, when next he flies down, let him bring us anger." ... [And then] Kyne granted Perrif another symbol, a diamond soaked red with the blood of elves, [whose] facets could [un-sector and form] into a man whose every angle could cut her jailers and a name: PELIN-EL
Perrif, interceding on behalf of mankind, made a covenant. This covenant was made in the name of freedom. Perrif (Imperial Throne - Lord), Freedom (Covenant with Akatosh - Ritual), Pelinal (Red Diamond - Tower).
This act consolidated splintered Aldmeris into one Cyrodiil. The Ayleids took segments of their Tower, and spread them eight-fold so the Nedes’ victory wouldn’t be total.
This is relevant to the Chimer because we are answering exactly what the Heart did for them, in creating for them a singular reality. What again does the Heart and Red Mountain represent? THE END. And what is usually supposed to happen at the end? LORKHAN RETRIEVES HIS HEART. Thus, the Chimer and the Dwemer are born out of this event. This event is built into the Kalpic fabric, and is therefore going to happen irrespective of any towers.
Now, they get their towers, but one must understand that the initial presence of Morrowind is due to one thing: the final battle against Shor.
I’m suggesting now that the Dwemer and Chimer are the same. That they are the “Aldmer” who happen to be around at the end of time. Unlike the description in Aurbic Enigma 4, they are not ‘split’. They are not mythically distinct, yet. Rather, they are simply different cultural variations of end-times Aldmeri. Although it is in “Western” sources that we read of Dwemer, Dagoth, and Chimer as “Houses of Dunmer”, this sentiment is in fact repeated within Morrowind.
>[This Telvanni retainer's informal history of Nerevar lists no sources.] When the Dunmer followed Veloth to Morrowind, they were many warring clans, with no law or leader in common. One Dunmer warlord, Nerevar, had the ambition to rule all the Dunmer. In that time, House Dwemer were great enchanters, so Nerevar went in secret to a Dwemer smith and asked for an enchanted ring that would help him. The ring gave its wearer great powers of persuasion; for safety, it was enchanted to instantly kill anyone who wore it except Nerevar. The ring was called Moon-and-Star, and it helped Nerevar unite the various clans into the First Council. Later, however, disputes over religion divided the Council, with House Dwemer and House Dagoth on one side and all the other Houses on the other. Dwemer and Dagoth invited Orc and Nord clans as allies, and held northwest Morrowind, while Nerevar mustered the other Houses and nomad tribes and marched to meet the Dwemer-Dagoth-Westerner forces. The armies met at Red Mountain, a Dwemer stronghold. The Dwemer were defeated, with great slaughter, and terrible sorceries were used, resulting in the utter extermination of House Dwemer, House Dagoth, and their allies. Nerevar was killed in the battle, and his ring lost, but Nerevar's alliance survives in Morrowind's ruling political institution, the Grand Council.
Granted, the source isn’t reliable. However, his knowledge of the Moon and Star ring shows greater knowledge than the “Western Account” of the War of the First Council. And, he declines to reject the synthesis of all Resdayn peoples as “Dunmer”. This suggests a possibility that Dwemer and Chimer didn’t think of themselves as racially distinct so much as they were culturally distinct.
Naturally, even with the Altmeri version of history you have Chimer, Altmer, and Dwemer as supposedly nothing more than racial high elves. However, if we are drawing distinctions, and saying that - for example the Ayleids - some elves are mythically distinct from other elves by race, then this distinction is significant. Ayleid and Altmer represent elf self-refractions of Aldmer from different realities. I’m saying that maybe we should interpret Chimer and Dwemer as the same race, the same (initially) self-refraction. And what did the refracting? Again, the final battle against Shor drawn like the elves themselves to the Heart’s power.
It’s important to point out that the Heart does not represent Lorkhan personally, it’s just that it is he that seeks and often possesses it. The Heart itself, if it has a name, is Namira. It is the hole in the universe that leads to the void. It is the hunger that drives Alduin.
So, the Dwemer and Chimer represent how the elves at the end of time might appear. On the one hand incredibly scientifically advanced and full of secular knowledge after many ages of study. On the other hand, abandoned of all pretenses of Anuaic worship, with full devotion to Daedric principles to include worship of Lorkhan’s endeavor itself. This represents the final schism in Aldmeri culture.
Finally, remember that the Dwemer are localized in the Velothi mountains as their ‘original’ homeland. This is the true Dwemereth. Also, we are not discounting the Dwemer ruins in Skyrim and Hammerfell. The fold-places originally existed as distinct, and mythic events during the Middle Dawn smashed everything together which created a common history. The nature of the beings involved in that common history was formed before the distinct fold-realities were consolidated. We’re focusing on that time-period.