A Concise Report on the Various Types of Mer, Introduction

Pontius Cerallius, by the Divine Grace and request of the Emperor Titus Mede the Second, 4E 170

###Introduction: ALDMERIS

In response to the recent increase in suspicious Altmer activity in Alinor, I have been tasked with exploring and explaining the origins of the different Mer races, as part of the Greater Effort of unraveling the plans of the re-formed Aldmeri Dominion and their head of government, the Thalmor.

The earliest solid records on the Aldmer, the original Mer race from which all elves to this day descend, are not clear on date, only labelled as the Middle Merethic, but which period this Middle Merethic encompasses is not clear, since the Late Merethic period encompasses at least a thousand years, and the Merethic period is counted in two thousand and five hundred years. This scholar is led to believe the Early Merethic took about 300 to 400 years, until the Aldmer settled in the area of Summerset, the High-Middle lasting for another 400 to 500 years, during the height of the more uniform Aldmeri society, the Late-Middle finally lasting for about 600 years, but there is no solid source for my time scaling and by no means should this be used as an established timeline, use this only as a point of reference, and in no way does it interfere in the understanding of the period.

These records only tell of the Elven settling in the region now called the Summerset Isles, or, as the Thalmor renamed it, Alinor, upon where they built the bases of their prosperous society, and the period when the Aldmer started settling in the archipelago seems to mark the start of the Middle Merethic. Documents and records I have been given access for the sake of this research testify that all life began on the mainland of Tamriel, even though Elven society claims to have originated in another continent called Aldmeris. The first Aldmer were eye-witnesses of the Convention, in which linear time began, right in the Iliac Bay, not on some mythical lost continent. In the aftermath of the Convention the vast majority of Aldmer seem to have migrated to Alinor, although it’s not clear whether the Dwemer strayed from the main Aldmer society immediately after ME 2500, before they reached the archipelago, or later.

It is important to notice that Aldmeri society was, and is to this date, a culture based on stasis, on the force Anu, seeking to stay as close to the original spirits as possible, for the Aldmer, and Altmer following their beliefs, desire to come back what was before the Convention, before they were bound to the mundane existence where us Men thrive. In time, they colonized the entire archipelago, building cities which still stand thousands of years later.

The next great event of Aldmer history is the great Aldmer explorations, which date from the closing years of the High-Middle Merethic. As the great and popular tale of Topal the Pilot, many of these exploring parties were sent during the period to all corners of the known world. Father of the Niben claims these exploration parties were sent to track down Aldmeris, or Old Ehlnofey, which I have already addressed as being a fictional place, we can assume that Aldmeris became a place in the Aldmeri imaginary due to some corruption in their tales or the result of a misinterpretation of the metaphor for the unity of Aldmeri society, and the use of such a proposition, that Topal left Summerset looking for the physical Aldmeris, further evidences how the epic was written centuries after the actual journey. So, if Topal was not looking for Aldmeris, what was he after? Evidence suggests that Topal was indeed looking for another land, one where colonies could be established, and if so, Topal must have been one of the “dissident” Elves, as I will explain further ahead.

In my research I found contradicting evidence of the sequence of the following events: the explorations of Topal, the pilgrimage of the Chimer, the settling of the Direnni, the Dwemer seceding. The Epic claims the Orsimer were already a distinct race by the time Topal sets sail, despite the majority of sources claiming the “birth” of the Orc race only happened at least decades later, and never, in any source we have access to, are the “bird people” of Cyrodiil acknowledged, not even mentioned, only if the Epic would call the Ayleids illiterate birds. All these anachronisms lead to the conclusion that the Poem was written well after these events and that it was used as propaganda to discourage other Aldmer to follow the preaching of the "heretics" and secede as well, probably being written and published after many of the diverging movements had already happened.

Topal’s discoveries proved essential for the coming of the Late Middle Merethic, the decay of Aldmeri society and the fall of the unity within the Aldmeri nation and ideal. Not even in a civilization ruled by stasis can change be controlled. When Topal returned home and news of the great continent spread, many of the proto-Mer, whose ideologies differed from that of the ruling body of Summerset, saw in Tamriel the promise of a fresh start and freedom to practice their beliefs, for, in the Isles, an order of knights, flying the banner of the hero-god Trinimac, claiming to be defending the memory of Auriel, persecuted any Mer whose thinking conflicted the “approved”, a fact that is yet mirrored in current Altmer society - do not forget the Night of Green Fire of 42. Many were among these “dissident” elves, the Maormer, the Left-Handed Elves, the Dwemer, the Chimer, the Orsimer, the Falmer, the Bosmer and the Ayleids. Each of these fractures and the reasons behind them will be covered in the next chapters, following what little chronology could be made from the scarce written sources and dating of the many structures left behind.