The Secret History of the Dragon Cult - Part 3
Part 1- https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/3j9svg/the_secret_history_of_the_dragon_cult_part_1/ Part 2- https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/3jc6zm/the_secret_history_of_the_dragon_cult_part_2/
For this, all humans are Nords and Nords means Atmorans, Nedes or Nords. Elves means Mer and Mer means Elves. With
the caveat that blurred lines between when's a Nede become a Nord mean that I don't particularly care, let's begin.
The Dragons, for the most part, were rather apathetic to the affairs of the land-dwellers. Records show no Draconic involvement with affairs such as Saarthal or retribution over the Night of Tears. I feel this means that those early Nords didn't follow DaPanp but Anp, just the ancient Nordic Pantheon.There may have been priests but I would strongly doubt that they would appear to be much like the supremely powerful floating priests we see in game.
I feel that a young Ysgramor would have "worshipped" a Dragon the same way he "worshipped" a fox or an owl; aka, he wouldn't have. It was what they stood for that was worshipped, if you follow. Worship the Whale for endurance, the Bear for honourable dealings, the Snake for cunning etc.
As such, the Dov wouldn't have had any involvement with assisting the 500 Companions, for instance. My gut instinct is to say that the Dragons and Priesthood part of the Ancient Nordic Pantheon correlates with the military influence of those Nords in Skyrim. The Dragons were rather busy fighting each other to try to reach the top and frankly couldn't be bothered to help out a few tens of warriors seek revenge against the Elves. Especially when you consider that Durneviir is raising undead hordes and doing deals with the Ideal Masters; the stakes were high.
The earliest Nordic ruin in Skyrim is Saarthal, however, it is less important than two others, in my opinion, because Saarthal was sacked and presumably resettled and renovated, after the Elves killed everyone inside. In fact, certainly so because Jyrik Gauldurson inhabits it and he's from a few Eras after the Return.
The next ruin now is Yngol's Barrow. Yngol was one of Ysgramor's son and he died on the second crossing from Atmora to Skyrim; Ysgramor buried him in Yngol's Barrow and built Windhelm nearby.The exact details of this aren't perfect, since it depends on whether you're doing a radiant quest in here or not. With that in mind, there are no Draugr in this ruin. There are unanimated embalmed men (Yngol's crew mates, I'd assume) and there's the shade of Yngol.
The next known is most likely Ysgramor's Tomb; this is significant in very many ways. Firstly, there are no animated Draugr in Ysgramor's Tomb. (unanimated embalmed men are just permanently dead men and reused assets imo)
Secondly, Ysgramor's Tomb is full of ghosts. Thirdly, Ysgramor's Tomb contains a Dragon Priest Dagger. Fourthly, outside Ysgramor's Tomb lies the Word Wall for Animal Allegiance.
It should be apparent that almost all other tombs have animated Draugr in and they would have been made after these last two tombs. I feel it is too much of a coincidence for these two tombs to be full of ghosts not Draugr, others might disagree.
This sets up the timeline and links to the previous point about Dragons. At some point between Ysgramor's Return and Ysgramor's Death, a formal arrangement between Dragons and Nords had been set up, hence the Word Wall, which is outside because a Dragon had to land and carve it with claw. (In fact, I'd be tempted to say that the majority of the outside Word Walls come earlier than the inside Word Walls for that reason) There are no animated Draugr bodies, presumably because that magical research had not yet been done by DaPanp because this was very near to their beginning. And one of the first Dragon priests? Ahzidal, the Enchanter of the Companion's Weapons, who must have been also one of the first few to reach Draugr immortality because we can be almost certain he fought alongside Miraak about 300ish years later.
A probably meaningless but interesting side note, I feel that Animal Alliegance is a fitting word to have here. It's a link to the past Animal Pantheon of the Nords, contrasting with the future Dragons and Priesthood.
Now what changed? The military influence of the Nords. After Saarthal, there were 3 warriors heading home. After Ysgramor, there were hundreds of Companions and thousands of Nordic immigrants. Previously, one can understand why a busy warring Dragon wouldn't help out but now things begin to make a lot more sense. The Dragons (maybe Paarthurnax with his way with words) soon make a deal with these Nords. The simple description of this would be an military alliance between Nords and Dragons, facilitated by the Priests, where the Nords also worship the Dragons but they can keep their government. Now any Dragon that opposes this Dragon/group of Dragons is going to face an army of thousands of Nords. So essentially the power struggles of the Dragons die down and all the Nords and Dragons unite to form DaPanp. This seems a good a time as ever for the Snake to become Shor, the Fox Ysmir, the Hawk Kyne, the Whale Tsun, the Bear Stuhn, the Wolf Mara, The Moth Dibella and the Owl Jhunal. And, of course, the Dragon becomes Alduin! Literally, the gigantic immortal invincible black Dragon who can ressurect his Angels- did I say Angels? Dragons, angels, if you're a Nord what's the distinction?
The religious hierarchy for Nords would be (and please argue about these):
- Alduin
- Shor, Ysmir, Kyne
- Stuhn, Tsun
- Mara, Dibella, Jhunal
- The Dragons
- Dragon Priests
- Snake, Hawk or Fox Priests
- Bear and Whale Priests
- Wolf, Moth and Owl Priests
- Draugr Lords
- Middle-ranked Draugr
- Draugr
- Everyone else
I've not seen the link yet but I feel that other Animal Priests should exist in the lore and they'e called Dragon Priests in game. This is where the crowdsourcing bit would come in. If a dungeon had a repeated mural of (e.g.) a Whale, far above and beyond any other animals, and there was a "Dragon" priest at the end, then I would say that we have found evidence that this "Dragon" Priest is, in fact, a "Whale" Priest.
The power hierarchy for Dragons:
- Alduin
- Paarthurnax and other liutenants, if they exist
- All other Dragons
Because Dragons don't particularly care about humans or Divines.
But what was life like in Skyrim over the next couple hundred years? Nordic to say the least. The Elves have been
driven out and Skyrim is pretty peaceful internally, I'd say. But what is the social structure like? How do the common people live?
Firstly, there are records of High Kings in Skyrim at this time (take Ysgramor for example) and one assumes the Jarls to go with them. Secondly, the distribution of High Priests over Skyrim is fairly shoddy. 2 Reach, 2 Pale, 1 Hjaalmarch, 1 Rift, 1 Haafingar- that's five holds out of the nine. Therefore I don't see a geographical link between the priests and Skyrim. The distinction here then is that there is a definite separation between Church and State.
The State would be the Kings and Jarls and they would set the laws and control the armies. DaPanp would own land and perhaps behave more like Nobles. Make no mistake, whilst the temples are religious, they are also fortresses, full of armed, trained and motivated soldiers. If you are in any doubt, look at Labyrinthian's (Bromjunaar's) Northern walls and imagine trying to assault that. Not all Nobles were equal; some were small fries like Hillgrund's family with their tomb. Some were sprawling complexes like Forelhost. There would be cults and families and groups shuffling around for influence and power undoubtedly; there is a reference to the Bloodskal Clan, which gives me hope that this idea is correct.
But how about the people? We don't have a large sample size but we have some things. The Skaal and Froki Whetted-Blade. The Skaal remained loyal to the Dragons during the War or just became fed up with being mind-controlled by Miraak but, either way, they accepted governance, without a struggle, from Vahlok the Guardian (who is said to have done fairly well). Froki Whetted-Blade is a hunter who follows Kyne. Both the Skaal and Froki live sustainably and autonomously. Look at some of the meanings behind the Gods to:
Dragons -> Unchanging Shor/Ysmir -> Human Kyne -> the World Mara -> Love Stuhn -> Honour Tsun -> Endurance
I would suggest that a greater majority of Nords lived like that back then because their focus was slightly different than those from the Fourth Era.
Now, I've said it a few times in various places. DaPanp is pretty much the key to advancement back then. No Bard's College or the College of Winterhold back then. Weapons training, magic training (if capable), literacy, speaking the Dragon language (much like Ancient greek was the upper class language even in Roman times), learning to project Thu'ums for both war and preaching and finally immortality. It was not a bad deal to get behind.
Worth noting that the Priests would be near mythical figures. Hundreds of years old, wise, knowledgable, able to destroy or enlighten with their Voice alone; they'd sort of be like Dragons...
This wraps up this post this time; quite a fair bit of speculation but hopefully my suggestions aren't unreasonable. Do start speculating and disagreeing. Many thanks to /u/BrynjarIsenbana for getting me motivated to write this. I suppose Part 4 is the War, Konahrik and Paarthurnax, although no idea of a release date.